El Bruto (Mexico, 1953) 81 min B&W DIR: Luis Buñuel. PROD: Gabriel Castro, Óscar Dancigers, Sergio Kogan. SCR: Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel. MUSIC: Raúl Lavista. DOP: Agustín Jiménez. CAST: Pedro Armendáriz, Katy Jurado, Rosa Arenas, Andrés Soler. (Producciones Isla S.A.)
El Bruto is a studio film featuring a poor district which is obviously a set. This melodrama is perhaps the most interesting of these Luis Buñuel potboilers, if because the story keeps shifting. Astonishingly, Buñuel admitted not caring for the film. This effort features Pedro Armendariz (previously seen by American audiences in a few John Ford films) as a butcher who is hired by a ruthless landowner (Andrés Soler) to thwart any opposition to his eviction notice. Katy Jurado (best known to American audiences for her role in High Noon) plays the landlord’s wife, who becomes the butcher’s mistress! Meanwhile, EL Bruto becomes attracted to the fragile daughter of a man whom he killed in a riot. Grave consequences ensue for everyone involved. El Bruto was once available on VHS via Castle Hill’s Cinematheque Collection, and has recently been released to DVD and Blu-ray by VCI Entertainment, which I will review (and likely update this post) soon.