THE NOVELS OF JOSÉ MALLORQUÍ

Days before the death of Ennio Morricone (the remote relationship will be seen), I have been able to see in Movistar Plus El Coyote (1955), a very curious Spanish-Mexican film directed by Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent (1921-2012), the filmmaker Spanish that preluded the phenomenon of "spaghetti-western" . This film, like The Justice of the Coyote -from the same year and by the same director-, represents a high point of Spanish literature and popular cinema. Undoubtedly inspired by the character of El Zorro -created in 1919 by the American novelist Johnston McCulley- , the Barcelona writer José Mallorquí (1913-1972) put into circulationThe Coyote in a first fictional installment published by Editorial Molino in 1943. The success was slow in coming, but later it was overwhelming. Mallorquí changed editor -Molino did not want to continue- and, starting in 1944 and La Vuelta del Coyote , he published in Ediciones Clíper, over ten years, some 200 short novels and at a price on the Californian justice. The same publishing house launched a comic strip with comics written by Mallorquí and illustrated by its cover artist Francisco Batet , which reached 189 numbers. Two sticker albums were also published, radio serials were made and, of course, the films arrived, the two mentioned and three more, the last one directed in 1998 by Mario Camus ( La Vuelta del Coyote ). For five decades, and until 2004, as many publishers have republished the novels of El Coyote , honored with an extensive exhibition four years ago at the Casa del Lector in Matadero.

AN ANONYMOUS MASKED HERO

As the films of Romero Marchent, in black and white and with scripts by Jesús Franco , faithfully collect , Don César de Echagüe, son of a wealthy Hispanic owner, returns to California from Cuba -in the mid-19th century- at the request of his father, who trusts him to put a stop to the excesses and misappropriations of a perfidious general of the Yankee army. But don César, to the disappointment of his father and his girlfriend, Leonor, was shown as a cunning and frivolous pusillanimous. One day a lone, masked horseman appears on the scene, all dressed in black, a wide-brimmed conical hat and holstered pistols, standing up to the US military and inflaming troubled locals. Leonor is deprived of the exploits of the anonymous hero, nicknamed El Coyote, who is none other than the young Don César. Romero Marchent's film has a good style, accomplished atmospheres and scenes of action and battles that seem typical of a medium Hollywood production of the time. Romero Marchent told Vicente Vergara - in the book Cine español, cine de subgéneros (1974) - that, come on, he had shot El Coyote and La Justicia del Coyote at the same time and in just eight weeks.

THE CASE OF "SPAGHETTI-WESTERN"

Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, brother of Rafael (director of " westerns ") and Carlos Romero Marchent (actor), wanted to make other types of films in the beginning, such as the wonderful neorealist comedy Fulano y Mengano (1959), but was unsuccessful, In view of which, and with his own production companies (he had three), he devoted himself to making Western films - a dozen, at least - and, later, promoted, produced and directed, from 1976, episodes of the television series Curro Jiménez . The amazing historical fact is that, between 1964 and 1974, more than 220 " spaghetti-westerns " were shot in Almería and in Madrid enclaves , at a rate of more than 20 per year, so-called for being frequently co-productions with Italy. And the first Spanish director to shoot a " western " was Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, of whom Javier Maqua wrote in the Dictionary of Spanish Cinema (1998): "Without a doubt, he is one of the most unjustly forgotten figures in Spanish cinema." More than 20 years later, it is no longer so forgotten.

BEFORE SERGIO LEONE

Also on Movistar Plus, you can see now two of his first films from the West, The Taste of Vengeance (1963) and Before Death Comes (1964), shot (without stars) immediately before Sergio Leone landed in Spain to make For a Fistful of Dollars (1964) and the other two films in his " Dollar Trilogy " with Clint Eastwood and Ennio Morricone's soundtracks (hence the musician's initial opportunistic quote). But those two Romero Marchent films are not " spaghetti-westerns ", they are Western films conceived and shot in Spain in the American way and with (apparently) a good production. They are solvent films, with a classic cut, fluid narrative and scripts that cluster various plots and that, on account of hatred, revenge and greed, raise moral questions. Neither do they have the theatrical, statuary, or choreographic solemnity of Leone's films, nor their handling of time and space with super-elaborate framing, nor the violence or cynicism of the Leonian antiheroes . Nor do they seek epic and lyrical sublimation with sheet music " made in Morricone ". Nor do they have the "dirty line " of future " spaghetti-westerns ", nor their excess blood, nor their tone on the verge (or within) of parody. The taste of revenge and Before the night comes are, in addition -the second, above all-, two separate dramas.

WITH ARTISANAL DIGNITY

Today it is curious, at least, to remember that those two films were produced by Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent with his producer, yes, Centauro Films, in association with the Italian Alberto Grimaldi, who at that time began to produce and which later would produce no less than some of the most important films by Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci and even one by Martin Scorsese . Nothing to see, of course, but how strange is everything. How unpredictable are the life events and artistic trajectories of some creators. I am not a bit of a supporter of making exalted and light postmodern reviews of genres (and subgenres) and filmmakers previously despised and now excessively exalted. But the truth is that both El Coyote and The Taste of Vengeance and Before Death comes are the result of professional expertise and artisan dignity that most of them did not want to see in their day and that, of course, some have claimed for Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent long before me. It happens, I already say, that now we can see them together in Movistar Plus, along with many samples of the genuine and soulless " spaghetti " that Quentin Tarantino likes so much .

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