aka Hardly a Criminal
starring Jorge Salcedo, Sebastián Chiola, Tito Alfonso
directed by Hugo Fregonese
88 minutes
in Spanish with English subtitles
José Morán (Jorge Salcedo) embezzles half a million from his employer. He is quickly caught, while gambling. He doesn't make any effort to evade the police. He has hidden most of the money and refuses to reveal where it is.
José is convicted and sent to prison for six years. He takes the whole experience very lightly. He expects that he will serve his term, get out, recover the money, and be rich. He makes the mistake of telling some of his fellow prisoners about his plan.
Rosatto (Sebastián Chiola), who is six years into a 20 years sentence, organizes a prison break with a lot of help from some friends outside of prison. He makes sure that José is among the prisoners who escape with him. He wants José's money.
José tries to play tough. Rosatto and his men torture him and in the end José breaks and leads Rosatto and the others to the money. The police have by then figured out that Carlos (Tito Alfonso), José's brother, knows more than he previously admitted to. Carlos reluctantly leads the police to the money. The police and the escaped convicts arrive at the money at more or less the same time. A gun battle breaks out.
Thoughts
I saw this movie as part of the Noir City DC 2024 film festival. It was the front half of a double feature. The back half was Plunder Road (1957). Both are heist films.
This is the second film directed by Hugo Fregonese that I have seen in the past five days. This is the third film from Argentina that I have seen in the past two days.
This movie did not hook me. The plot was a little too straight forward and the characters weren't deep enough to catch my interest. I think that there was potential here but I was not very moved or intrigued by this movie.
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