Ramon Torrado

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Ramón Torrado (born April 5, 1905 in La Coruña ; † 1990 ) was a Spanish film director and screenwriter . His work coincides with the forty years of General Franco's dictatorship and is often causally associated with it.

Life

Shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War , Torrado's brother, the playwright Adolfo Torrado , introduced him to the film world when, alongside Heriberto Santaballa , he gave him the job of script editor for Pedro Puches Manolenko . The following year he adapted a comedy by his brother, El famoso Carballeira , for the screen and was a technical advisor during the shooting. Both films already contained the characteristics typical of the later director Torrado: seemingly columnar, melodramatic plot guides and stereotyped regional attributions for the characters who are not really interested in reality. The effectiveness of such substances on a wide audience who loved such substances was also already there.

With the establishment of the production company "Suevia Film", Torrados began working with the Galician Cesáreo González , the company founder, who employed him for two years as the "girl for everything" in the company's first productions, before giving him the short film Tres maletas y un lío was first entrusted with directing duties in 1942. With ¡¡Campeones !! Torrado made his debut as a film director in theaters, a film from the football milieu that starred like Ricardo Zamora , Jacinto Quincoces and Guillermo Gorostiza , which was shot quickly and was a small box-office success. When the company's lavish productions suffered financial losses and González switched to material with public appeal without great artistic ambitions, he found a reliable director for these films in Torrado until the end of the 1950s.

In 1944 , Torrado shot El rey de las finanzas, a slightly sentimental comedy (with Miguel Ligero in the leading role), which was followed by similar ones: ¡Che, que loco! (1952), Nadie lo sabra (1953), Amor sobre ruedas (1954), Un fantasma llamada amor (1956). Popular actors followed nice-looking but unsurprising courses of action, including José Iglesias , Pepe Blanco, and Carmen Morel . In addition, Torrado created his first work with Castañuela , which focused on the region of Andalusia, its types and above all its folklore and music. Such films would remain a characteristic of his work well into the 1960s. Rumbo (1949), Debla, la virgen gitana (1950), La niña y la venta (1951) and Estrella de Sierra Morena (1952) were created every year . For these works, a Catalan color film system, CinefotoColor, was used for the first time.

The regional melodrama also became a popular subject of Torrado, beginning with the Galician Mar abierto 1946, which he shot based on a model from his brother. The political situation was most likely to be seen in these films, in which the production was supposed to characterize the rural population positively and the equipment had to be less realistic than ideal. Sabela de cambados followed this film as a melodrama. In 1947 he shot Botón de ancla , a military comedy that tells the experiences of three cadets based on a short story by José Luis de Azcárraga , his greatest success to date, which was also awarded. Both critics and audiences were delighted with the film; The government under General Franco was also pleased with the everyday appearance and human features of the military protagonists. During his further career, Torrado made four more films based on stories by Azcárraga.

In the mid-1950s, Torrado made four films with folk themes for "Suevia"; four further works by 1958 conclude his contract with producer Gonzalez. All of them bring in their money and were a worthwhile investment. As an independent director, he was involved in two Karl May films made with Heinz Neubert's German production company in 1958 and the following year , Die Sklavenkarawane and Der Löwe von Babylon . This is followed by two films with religious themes and René Muñoz in the lead role, Fray Escoba and Cristo negro . Torrado proves his feeling for hip genres with the swing to action-oriented material; initially in the amalgamation of religious film and westerns , Bienvenido Padre Murray , then with three "pure" westerns.

Three films with Manolo Escobar conclude the most successful part of Torrado's career and the 1960s, before the opening of the Spanish film market and other, more permissive cinematic forms are reflected in works that have little to do with Torrado's earlier years. In addition to works that now seem anachronistic, such as Montaña rebelde (1971) or Guerreras verdes (1975), Pasión inconfesable with Agata Lys is even a sex film at the end of his filmography.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ detailed biography at Cervantes Virtual
personal data
SURNAME Torrado, Ramon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH La Coruña
DATE OF DEATH 1990