La loba y la Paloma

"What the hell" is a phrase you will likely find yourself uttering frequently during this film. Donald Pleasence and "little person" Michael Dunn (The Mutations, Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks) are the only non-Spanish participants in this film as far as I can tell. At least theirs are the only voices that do not seem dubbed into English.

This is not a film for the average viewer. A normal person is likely (and advised) to turn this film off in the first 5 minutes. But those who like very strange and frequently inept movies could get some laughs out of this one.

There is so much nonsensical crap in this movie that I'm not even going to try to recount it here - it wouldn't be funny anyway, for the sheer idiocy of it you must see it.

This is not a contender for one of the worst films ever (anything by Ray Dennis Steckler would probably beat this one for that title) but it IS bad. And more than just bad, it is weird. The tone shifts regularly and chaotically from being mean spirited to (an attempt at being) tender. And the characters (particularly Michael Dunn) say and do things that make you wonder what the makers of this were thinking.

In short, not the worst film I've seen nor the weirdest. But it is a unique combination of the two.

Donald Pleasance stars as a man who is searching for a hidden treasure. After he gets out of prison for murdering the man who hid it, he heads to the house where he knows it is and confronts the man's mentally unstable daughter who knows the location. In the process he uses her extended family to help in his plight. This is one odd film. It actually reminded me a lot of the Italian film SEWER RATS, which came out the same year. The performances here are all good, especially from Pleasance and Michael Dunn, a midget who had appeared with Pleasance in the THE FREAKMAKER the previous year. Carmen Sevilla, star of THE GLASS CEILING, provides the hotness as an unsatisfied wife who comes onto Pleasance (she must be really feeling unsatisfied!). The end revelation is okay, but you can see it coming from a mile off thanks to Gonzalo Suárez's direction. If you are going to reveal the mystery location of the item currently being sought, don't show it 7,000 times during the course of the film. We get it!

A young girl, Muriel Catala, witnesses the murder of her father Acebo, Jose Jaspe , by Zayas, Donald Pleasence. The beautiful teen is unsettling and mute, her silence dates from the day who she saw her daddy to be slashed and killed. She is interned into a insanity institution, while Zayas is imprisoned at a state jail .Then, she is released from a sanatory and returns home, where meets his relatives, 4 villains, the bomb-shell Carmen Sevilla , the baddie Aldo Sambrell, the handicapped astute dwarf Michael Dunn, the ruthless Donald Pleasence who seek to wrest the secret place of a golden sculpture discovered by his dad and Zayas.

This is a peculiar thriller with nasty roles , brief character studio, violence and a little of topless female nudity. Furthermore , director Gonzalo Suarez adds some surrealist and fantastic elements, as usual . It contains thrilling scenes , eerie set-pieces, and the important cast is pretty good. The plot is plain and simple, a bunch of mean people attempt to find out the location of a prehistoric gold statue and all of them face each other to locate it until an unexpected denouement .Donald Pleasence provides a nice acting as the ambitious ex-con looking for the location the valuable statuette. The known actress Carmen Sevilla is gorgeous , sexy and explosive. The ordinary villain actors, Michael Dunn and Aldo Sambrell are awesome playing the bad guys. Muriel Catala delivers a mediocre acting as the young woman who just relased from a mental institution returns home and takes on a new set of horrors.

Evocative cinematography from Santiago Crespo, and Carlos Suarez, director's brother, shot on marvelous location in Celoriu, Miembro, Llanes, Tazones, Villaviciosa, Gijon, Asturias . Enjoyable musical score by the British Malcolm Lockyer, including an attractive and catching leitmotif. This is a Spanish, British coproduction , being well financed by prestigious producer Andres Vicente Gomez and uncredited Harry Alan Towers. The motion picture, She-wolf and the Dove, was professionally directed by Gonzalo Suarez, though it has some flaws and gaps .Suarez is a good craftsman who has directed and written nice but strange flicks, such as :Fata Morgana, Las Crueles, Ditirambo, Morbo, Al diablo con amor, La Regenta, Beatriz, Parranda, Reina Zanahoria, Epilogo, Mi nombre es sombra, El detective y la muerte . His best one was Remando al viento and Don Juan de los Infiernos.Rating :acceptable and passable.