This over-heated tale stars tempestuous Rosita Quintana in a morality play of mythic proportions. Supposedly an up-dating of Chekov, SUSANA is actually a remake of a creaky 1929 early Hollywood talkie, THE SQUALL, that had a howler of a performance from Myrna Loy as a fiery gypsy. Bunuel's film purports to tell a Spanish legend as old as time: God in his Heavens with infinite mercy allows Satan one night each year to roam free and do as he will but, like Cinderella, it's over by dawn and those who succumb to the temptations the Devil weaves will pay the price for their own sins because it isn't Lucifer's fault. He is what he is. In 1951, the devil is a woman and, as only Latin film can do, the melodramatic opening thunderstorm sequence (complete with bars, rats, and spiders), sets the film's tone with nary a let-up. Susana breaks out of a prison/psych-ward/reform school through prayer and gets unleashed upon the countryside in much the same way Ann-Margret does in KITTEN WITH A WHIP (another re-make of the Catholic legend?). How she brings a mighty family down to her level is most hypnotic, but you won't mind one bit when Satan's day in the sun is done.
J. Hoberman in "The Village Voice":
"This Mexican pot-boiler is basically a one-joke travesty of "Civilization and Its Discontents" in which a wanton seductress escapes reform school one rainy night to send the libidinal economy of a nearby hacienda into triple-digit inflation."
Highly recommended!
J. Hoberman in "The Village Voice":
"This Mexican pot-boiler is basically a one-joke travesty of "Civilization and Its Discontents" in which a wanton seductress escapes reform school one rainy night to send the libidinal economy of a nearby hacienda into triple-digit inflation."
Highly recommended!