The Abandoned (1945 film)
| Las Abandonadas | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Emilio Fernández |
| Written by | Emilio Fernández Mauricio Magdaleno |
| Produced by | Felipe Subervielle |
| Starring | Dolores del Río Pedro Armendáriz Víctor Juco Paco Fuentes Fanny Schiller Maruja Grifell |
| Cinematography | Gabriel Figueroa |
| Edited by | Gloria Schoemann |
| Music by | Manuel Esperón |
| Distributed by | Films Mundiales |
Release date | 1945 |
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | México |
| Language | Spanish |
Las Abandonadas (The Abandoned) is a Mexican film of 1945, directed by Emilio Fernández, starring Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz.
Plot
Margarita (Dolores del Rio) is a young woman abandoned by her fiance. She is forced to perform various jobs to raise her son, in a tumultuos Mexico of the 1920s.
Comments
Since its inception, the film was a rough film project. The uncertainty with which Fernandez had begun his relationship with the movie studios Films Mundiales had become a somewhat overconfident, judging by his increasingly frequent involvement in drafting the scripts of his films.
While Fernandez mixed stories that he had seen on the screen with events of the Mexican Revolution, came the unexpected illness of the producer, Agustrín J. Fink. A cloud of pessimism clouded preparations for the shooting, the budget and over one million pesos, much of it invested in very expensive clothes that a famous Hollywood designer (Roger) drew up for the showcasing of Dolores del Rio. Finally, efforts to save the life of Fink were useless and the producer died three weeks before the start shooting.
In November 1944, Las abandonadas was ready for release when the ban came exhibition. The then head of the Film Censor Department, under the Ministry of the Interior of México, said he had suggested to Fernandez and Films Mundiales put a caption indicating that the plot was happening "In the turbulent Mexico of 1914." The incident was resolved through the intervention of journalists and film critics, who noted the incongruity of prohibiting the showing of a film whose script had been reviewed and authorized by the same censorious authorities. Finally, in March 1945-and favored by the scandal Las abandonadas was released to great acclaim.[1]
This film ranks 93 in the list of the 100 best films of Mexican cinema, in the opinion of 25 film critics and specialists in Mexico.[2]