Gran Casino (En el Viejo Tampico)
Luis Buñuel
Three men escape from prison and find work in an independent oil company. The boss, José Enrique, is constantly under pressure from Fabio, the owner of a casino. He does everything he can to buy the small oil business, and even goes as far as ordering José's murder. But soon, the dead man's sister comes to take over the business...
With : Libertad Lamarque, Jorge Negrete, Mercedes Barba, Agustín Isunza, Julio Villareal, José Baviera, Alberto Bedoya
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Mauricio Magdaleno, Edmund Baeg, Javier Mateos, d'après le roman "El Rugido del paraíso", de Michel Weber
Image : Jack Draper
Sound : Javier Mateos
Music : Manuel Esperón
Editing : Luis Buñuel, Gloria Schoemann
Decors : Raúl Serrano
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Mauricio Magdaleno, Edmund Baeg, Javier Mateos, d'après le roman "El Rugido del paraíso", de Michel Weber
Image : Jack Draper
Sound : Javier Mateos
Music : Manuel Esperón
Editing : Luis Buñuel, Gloria Schoemann
Decors : Raúl Serrano
Production : Films Anahuac, Oscar Dancigers
Gran Casino, or how the small try to fight the big. The backdrop to the film tells of the commercial manoeuvring of the oil industry, but the real story is one of the love between two characters linked by a common cause. Despite its commercial ambition, Buñuel does not fall into melodramatic facility. The film keeps a certain discretion about the love relationship and shows an element of eccentricity facetiously sliding towards musical comedy: the lone singer is suddenly accompanied by chorus, and the sound of the guitar is suddenly carried along by an imaginary orchestration. "The stars were two singers, so songs had to be included. Filming songs seemed rather boring to me, so I tried to add details that amused me, so that it wouldn't be a realistic film, to highlight the lack of logic and break the monotony" (Luis Buñuel).