Directed by Fernando Ayala • 1956 • Argentina
Starring Carlos Cores, Julia Sandoval, Vassili Lambrinos

Featuring stunning, shadow-drenched cinematography and an innovative tango-jazz-classical score by the great Astor Piazzolla, this expressionistically stylized noir has been acclaimed as one of the greatest Argentine films ever made. Alfredo Gasper (Carlos Cores), a dissatisfied Buenos Aires newspaperman, partners with Paar Liudas, a clever Hungarian refugee (Vassili Lambrinos) who needs money to bring his family to Argentina. Together they create a bogus correspondence school, exploiting the hopes of would-be journalists. As their scheme succeeds beyond their wildest dreams, a mystery woman from Liudas’s past sparks Gasper’s suspicion: his charming colleague may be playing him for a sucker. Soon Gasper finds himself plotting the perfect crime—but fate has many twists in store.