The Exquisite Cadaver
A publisher receives severed body parts and a blackmail letter.
The Exquisite Cadaver, also known as Las Crueles, is a 1969 Spanish film noir psychological thriller directed by Vicente Aranda. Based on Gonzalo Suárez's short story Bailando Para Parker, it follows a publisher who receives severed body parts in the mail two years after his mistress's suicide, with a blackmail letter from her former lesbian lover seeking vengeance.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Vicente Aranda
- Producer
- Sidney Pink
- Stanley Abrams
- Carlos Durán
- Screenplay
- Vicente Aranda; Antonio Rabinad
- Based on
- The short story Bailando para Parker by Gonzalo Suárez
- Starring
- Capucine
- Carlos Estrada
- Judy Matheson
- Teresa Gimpera
- Music
- Marco Rossi
- Cinematography
- Juan Amorós
- Editing
- Maricel Bautista; Bautista Treig
Facts from the source article.
Plot
A girl deliberately lays her head on railroad tracks as a train approaches. Two years later, Carlos, a well-to-do publisher of pulp horror novels, receives an anonymous yellow package containing a severed human hand, which he buries in a park. The next yellow package, left unopened on a bench, awaits him at home; it contains a torn-up dress and a photograph of a girl. His wife reads him a telegram asking if he would like a forearm. Carlos feebly lies to his wife about the contents. Suspicious, his wife follows him and spots a mysterious woman in black also following him. Carlos enters the woman's car without a word. She drives him to her remote home and feeds him lysergic acid on red blotting paper. He stumbles down a corridor toward a woman's voice lamenting lost love, only to find a tape recorder and a woman's body curled up in a refrigerator. He awakens at home, his body jaundiced yellow. His wife says she received a call from Parker, the mysterious woman, and fetched him; she believes neither his explanation nor Parker's. Carlos tells his wife that two years earlier he met the young woman, Esther. In flashback, Esther flirts with him in a coffee shop; they become lovers. By the sea, she says, "I'd die so that my love for you will last." The wife confesses she hired a detective who saved Esther from the train track. Through collective memories, the romance's corrosion is recounted.
Production
For his third project, Vicente Aranda took a commercial approach, mixing fantastic and erotic overtones. The film was long in the making; Aranda suffered an accident during shooting, forcing him to work lying on a stretcher, and later had a legal battle with the producers, taking years to recover ownership. He then founded his own production company. Aranda bought the film rights to Gonzalo Suárez's book Trece veces Trece, which included the short story Bailando Para Parker. Aranda and Suárez had fallen out over Fata Morgana, a previous project, due to Suárez's dislike of the resulting film. There were at least five different scripts, and the film's ending differs from the source: Bailando Para Parker ends in a trial not in The Exquisite Cadaver. Aranda found inspiration in the letters of Mariana Alcoforado, including the theme "To die for love." Production took off when American producers offered to co-produce and sell the film in advance to the American market.
Title
The Exquisite Cadaver was the original title, but producers rejected it as having little commercial appeal. Aranda proposed Las Crueles, which fitted the plot, and that title was used on release. Years later, when the film was broadcast on television, Aranda provided a video transfer bearing the original title, which was also used on VHS; since then the film has been better known by its original title. Exquisite corpse is a surrealist game where a group creates a poem or drawing without knowing each other's contributions.
Reception
The Exquisite Cadaver was one of four films made at the end of the 1960s based on stories by Gonzalo Suárez. Of these four, it was the only one that found an audience. Variety declared it "starts off with brisk intrigue but degenerates into talky, unconvincing and far-fetched meller, with more twists than a pretzel."
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in The Exquisite Cadaver?
The Exquisite Cadaver stars Capucine, Carlos Estrada, Judy Matheson and Teresa Gimpera.
Who composed the music for The Exquisite Cadaver?
The music for The Exquisite Cadaver was composed by Marco Rossi.
Who wrote The Exquisite Cadaver?
The Exquisite Cadaver was written by Vicente Aranda and Antonio Rabinad.
How long is The Exquisite Cadaver?
The Exquisite Cadaver has a running time of 108 minutes.
More in Spanish Horror Films
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced