Film Noir: The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (15)

Wealthy Mexican, Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ernesto Alonso) is a would-be serial killer.

With a strange and powerful obsession stemming from his childhood during the Mexican Revolution, the affluent bachelor and suave ceramist Archibaldo oscillates effortlessly between fantasy and reality, obsessed in making the perfect crime. But will he succeed? Written and directed by Luis Buñuel who interlaces this noir with his own sense of humour, this is a story both vicious and hilarious, about the impossibility of fulfilling one’s fantasies and desires, which, in this case, are all about murder.

“Though it’s 22 years late in arriving, [The Criminal Life…] is the only new movie in town about which I can say that it mustn’t be missed.”
Vincent Candy, New York Times (1977)