Escrivá, Vicente

(1913-1999)

   One of the more prolific film-makers of the Franco period, Vicente Escrivá, a Valencian, was a well-known novelist and scriptwriter who took part in a prestigious series of earnest films with the most established directors of the early Franco period, including Pequeñeces (Small Matters, Juan de Orduña, 1950), Agustina de Aragón (Juan de Orduña, 1950), Balarrasa (José Antonio Nieves Conde, 1951), La guerra de Dios (God's War, Rafael Gil, 1953), El beso de Judas (Judas' Kiss, Rafael Gil, 1954), and La otra vida del capitán Contreras (Captain Contreras' Other Life, Rafael Gil, 1955). In many of his films, there is a bold anti-Communist discourse, perfectly in tune with the regime: with Rafael Gil, he was one of the more strongly ideological filmmakers of the period.

   Escrivá became a director in the 1960s with El hombre de la isla (The Man of the Island, 1961) and Dulcinea (1963), which is regarded as his best film, an interesting variation on the Don Quixote story starring Millie Perkins. El golfo (Ladies Man, 1969) was among the most popular Raphael pop musicals. By the end of the decade, he became an important force in the transformation of comedia desarrollista into spicier, more erotic landismo, as evidenced in titles like Aunque la hormona se vista de seda (Even If Hormones Are Dressed Up in Silk, 1971), about an apothecary who suspects he might be homosexual, and Lo verde empieza en los Pirineos (Smut Starts Beyond the Pyrenees, 1973), regarded as something of a summit in the genre, about a group of repressed Spanish males who cross over the Pyrenees to watch nudies and gape at attractive French women.

   After the Transition, Escrivá became an icon of ideologically reactionary filmmaking and made a series of comedies for popular audiences, often with undertones of nostalgia for the good old years under Francisco Franco. He worked closely with Fernando Vizcaíno Casas, one of the most articulate defenders of Francoism, and with directors of the old period like Rafael Gil or Pedro Lazaga. His films of the period include an adaptation of Francisco Delicado's Golden Age novel La lozana andaluza (The Lusty Woman from Andalusia, 1976), which exploited its erotic elements, and Niñas . . . al salón (Girls . . . Come Down to the Parlor, 1977). El Virgo de Visanteta (Visanteta's Virginity, 1979), a film spoken in Valencian, based on an old sainete with erotic touches added, quickly became one of the great hits of the 1970s. He followed this with a sequel, Visanteta estate queta (Visanteta, Be Quiet, 1979), but never again achieved his previous successes.

   Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema by Alberto Mira