If you are the kind of person who likes watching people argue in big, echoey rooms, you should probably give
El proceso de Mary Dugan a look. It is a bit of a relic, but it has this weird, frantic energy that kept me from checking my phone for at least the first hour.
People who hate 'stagey' movies will absolutely despise this. It is basically just one big room and a lot of very
intense facial expressions.
I think it is worth watching today just to see how Hollywood used to make movies specifically for Spanish-speaking audiences by using the same sets but a whole different cast. It feels like a weird alternate reality version of a movie you might have already seen.
Mary Dugan is played by María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara, and she spends about 80% of the movie looking like she is about to have a total breakdown. Which makes sense, I guess, since she is being accused of murdering her sugar daddy.
Then her brother Jimmy shows up, and he is a lawyer who didn't even know his sister was living this 'wild' life in the city. The way he reacts to her 'secret' is so dramatic it almost becomes a comedy, but you can tell the movie wants you to take it
very seriously.
José Crespo plays the brother, and he has this habit of leaning really far over the tables when he talks to the witnesses. I was worried he was going to fall over a couple of times.
There is this one witness, a maid I think, who has an accent that is so thick I could barely understand her, and the prosecutor just keeps badgering her. It felt a bit mean, honestly.
The sound in this movie is... something else. You can hear every single time someone moves a piece of paper on a desk, and it sounds like a landslide because the microphones back then were so sensitive and clunky.
I noticed the judge looks bored out of his mind in the background of some shots. He is just sitting there, probably thinking about what he is going to have for dinner while these people scream about murder.
It reminded me a bit of the vibe in
The Squaw Man, just in terms of that stiff, early-30s style where everyone stands in a semi-circle so the mic can catch them.
Things that made me squint at the screen:
- The way the shadows on the wall are sometimes bigger than the actual actors.
- A very strange moment where a character talks to a mannequin that is supposed to be the dead body.
- The fact that Mary's hat stays perfectly in place even when she is sobbing.
- The prosecutor's mustache. It is very thin and very distracting.
There is a scene where they bring out the physical evidence, and the way they handle the 'murder weapon' is so casual. They just sort of wave it around like it is a letter opener, not a piece of evidence in a capital murder case.
I have seen other stuff from this era, like
Chantage, which feels a bit more like a 'movie,' whereas this really feels like you are sitting in the third row of a play. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to be in the mood for it.
I did like the way the trial keeps taking these sharp turns. Just when you think Mary is totally guilty, someone says something crazy and the whole room gasps.
The crowd in the courtroom is the the best part. They all react in unison, like they are watching a tennis match, turning their heads back and forth every time a lawyer yells.
It’s much more lively than something like
Giuditta e Oloferne, which feels like it belongs to a completely different century even though it isn't that much older.
One thing that bothered me was how the brother treats Mary. He is defending her, sure, but he also acts like he is her dad, and it gets a bit
exhausting after the third or fourth lecture about her life choices.
The movie gets noticeably better once the actual trial gets heated. The middle part drags a bit when they are just reading depositions and boring legal stuff.
I wonder if the actors were tired when they filmed this. Sometimes they look like they are just waiting for the director to yell 'cut' so they can go sit down.
If you have seen
Die Drei um Edith, you know how these European-style dramas can sometimes feel a bit cold, but this Spanish version has a lot of heat to it. Maybe too much heat.
I found myself staring at the background extras a lot. One guy in the back row has these massive eyebrows that seem to have a life of their own.
It is definitely a better watch than
L'enfant de l'amour if you want something with a bit of a 'hook.'
The ending is pretty abrupt. It is like they realized they were running out of film and just decided to wrap everything up in five minutes with a big confession.
I wasn't totally convinced by the confession, either. It felt like the person just gave up because the movie was almost over.
Anyway, it is a weird little slice of history. It isn't a masterpiece, and it definitely feels its age, but it has a personality that most modern legal shows are missing.
Just don't expect any car chases or anything. It is just people in a room, talking and
talking and talking until someone goes to jail.
