The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks (film)

The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks
The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks
	Film poster
Directed by	Edgar Neville
Written by	Emilio Carrere (novel)
Produced by	Germán López Prieto ; España Films
Starring	Antonio Casal; Isabel de Pomés
Cinematography	Henri Barreyre (as Enrique Barreyre) ; Andrés Pérez Cubero
Edited by	Sara Ontañón
Music by	José Ruiz de Azagra
Distributed by	España Films
Release date	23 November 1944;
Running time	85 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks (Spanish:La Torre de los Siete Jorobados) is a 1944 Spanish mystery film directed by Edgar Neville.^[1] It is based on a novel of the same title by Emilio Carrere.

In the film, a young man wins a small fortune through gambling according to the advice of an archaeologist's ghost. While investigating the archaeologist's supposed suicide, the man and his friend discover a Jewish underground city beneath Habsburg Madrid.

Plot

Basilio is a superstitious young man who courts the singer La Bella Medusa. Looking for money to invite her and her mother, he gambles. He wins a small fortune following the advice of Robinsón de Mantua. He is revealed to be the ghost of an archeologist dead after an apparent suicide. Basilio is attracted to Inés, who happens to be the niece of Professor Mantua. She refuses the verdict of suicide and asks for his help.

Basilio is helped by his friend, a police agent. They discover a passage from Mantua's home into an underground city under Habsburg Madrid, founded by Jews escaping their 1492 expulsion and now inhabited by money-forging hunchbacks led by Dr. Sabatino. The hunchbacks hold Inés and an archeologist friend of Mantua and try to force Basilio into staying. Basilio manages to escape and returns with the police to find Inés at her home, who barely remembers what happened. The police chief wants to arrest Basilio, but Inés intercedes. Meanwhile, Sabatino has blown down the tunnels.

Themes

The film features antisemitic tropes as core element of the plot, namely the appearance of a subterranean city dwelled by nefarious hunchbacks, founded by Jews back in 1492.^[2] The idea that the hunchbacks are the descendants of the Jews is not explicit, though.^[3]

Cast

Antonio Casal as Basilio Beltrán
Isabel de Pomés as Inés
Guillermo Marín as Doctor Sabatino
Félix de Pomés as Don Robinson de Mantua
Julia Lajos as Madre de la 'Bella Medusa'
Julia Pachelo as Braulia
Manolita Morán as La 'Bella Medusa'
Antonio Riquelme as Don Zacarías
José Franco as Espectro de Napoleón
Manuel Miranda
Emilio Barta
Antonio L. Estrada
Luis Ballester
Luis Latorre
Rosario Royo
Julián García
Francisco Zabala
Natalia Daina
Carmen García
José Arias
Antonio Zaballos

References

^ Mira p.225
^ España, Rafael de (1991). "Antisemitismo en el cine español". Filmhistoria Online. 1 (2). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona: 89–102. ISSN 2014-668X.
^ García Ureña, Guillermo (2016). "Negativo de ciudad: La torre de los siete jorobados (Edgar Neville, 1944)" (PDF). FILMHISTORIA Online. 26 (2): 34. ISSN 2014-668X. Retrieved 21 April 2022.

Bibliography

Mira, Alberto. The A to Z of Spanish Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.

External links

The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks at IMDb

[1] Mira p.225

[2] España, Rafael de (1991). "Antisemitismo en el cine español". Filmhistoria Online. 1 (2). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona: 89–102. ISSN 2014-668X.

[García_Ureña-3] García Ureña, Guillermo (2016). "Negativo de ciudad: La torre de los siete jorobados (Edgar Neville, 1944)" (PDF). FILMHISTORIA Online. 26 (2): 34. ISSN 2014-668X. Retrieved 21 April 2022.

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