The wealthy bachelor Archibaldo (Ernesto Alonso) has an insatiable lust for murder as a result of a childhood incident in which he witnessed his governess getting shot by a stray bullet. Conflating violent death with sexual desire, he intricately plots to kill numerous women, only to find his criminal endeavors constantly thwarted.

Adapted from the novel by Rodolfo Usigli, Luis Buñuel's THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ was nominated for seven Ariel Awards and won the Silver Ariel for Best Cinematography. The film and its thematic exploration of obsessive desire have been cited as influencing Alfred Hitchcock in his making of Vertigo, which was released three years later in 1958.

“A twisted tragicomedy on male obsession... Buñuel and co-writers Eduardo Ugarte and Rodolfo Usigli deliciously engage with the Greek myth of Pandora's box... Perhaps inevitably, THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ is the closest that Buñuel came to making a bona fide suspense thriller.” –Slant Magazine

DIRECTED BY LUIS BUÑUEL
MEXICO | 1955 | SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES