An Argentinian film noir from 1952. A boy has just poisoned the patriarch of a family w/an investigator assured of his guilt (he catches the boy trying to dispose of the incriminating potable). We then flashback as to how we got here as we meet a popular crime novelist enjoying a day out sailing w/his doting son. It's his birthday & instead of being a joyous occasion it turns tragic when he dies due to a fatal hit & run. Despondent, the novelist, played by Narciso Inbanez Menta, drowns his sorrows in booze & wayward travel but when his car gets stuck on the road near a farm, the caretaker takes him in for the night & relates to him (as he notices hanging movie star pics on a wall) about her prized autographed photo from an actress who was in the area briefly when she & her companion were stuck in the area due to a fender bender. Menta is sure this is his man (since their accident & his son's death took place at the same time). Inveigling his way w/his notoriety into the actress's orbit, his investigation leads to her man, the same poisoned fellow from the film's onset & after discovering his masochistic, arrogant nature, Menta sets out on a road to revenge (he details his conclusions & actions in a comprehensive diary) where he gets his goal but not in the way he expected. Other than the ill fitting opening (putting an unnecessarily weird time signature on a story which doesn't need it), the film ranks as an excellent contender to American counterparts w/a French version & a British mini-series made afterwards confirming the sweep of such a well told tale. The English translation of the title is "The Beast Must Die."
Review of The Beast Must Die
