René Cardona
Directing
Biography
René Cardona (October 8, 1905 – April 25, 1988) was a Mexican director, actor, producer, screenwriter, and film editor, who was prominent during part of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. René Cardona was born in Havana, Cuba, on October 8, 1905, and began medical school in Cuba, but due to the political problems of the island, he and his family moved to New York City in 1926, where he continued his studies. Economic circumstances experienced by his family caused him to leave his studies. He befriended famous actor Rodolfo Valentino and obtained work as an extra in several films, until 1929 when he produced, wrote, directed and starred in the first Spanish-language film made in Hollywood, Sombras habaneras (Havana Shadows). He also had the opportunity to work in various positions in the film industry such as second assistant, technical advisor and first assistant director, and learned film and lighting technique. In 1932, he moved to Mexico, where he debuted as an actor and met Julieta Zacarías, sister of the director Miguel Zacarías, and soon after married her. His wife's support would be central to his career in Mexican cinema, in films Mano a mano (1932) directed by Ramón Peón and Sobre las olas (1932) directed by Zacarías. At this early stage as an actor, Cardona participated in three key Mexican films Marihuana (1936), El baúl macabro (1936) and Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936), which officially inaugurate the golden age of Mexican cinema and made stars of its protagonists: Esther Fernández, Tito Guízar, and Cardona.
Known For
When a wandering mercenary named Hogan rescues a nun called Sister Sara from the unwanted attentions of a band of rogues on the Mexican plains, he has no idea what he has let himself in for. Their chance encounter results in the blowing up of a train and a French garrison, as well as igniting a spark between them that survives a shocking discovery.
Two Mules for Sister Sara
An airplane goes down in the ocean during a storm and a few survivors find refuge on a small tour boat. Swept out to sea, these people slowly starve to death in the hot sun with barely any food or clean water. With no place to turn, the boat survivors resort to cannibalism to stay alive...that is ..until the rescue planes come to pick them up and the man eating sharks decide its time to eat as well.
Cyclone
A young boy born extraordinarily small must rescue his older brothers from a wicked ogre.
Tom Thumb
When a mad scientist begins kidnapping wrestlers and extracting their spinal fluid to create a race of Gill Men, two cops call in Batwoman to investigate. But when her mission leaves the scientist horrifically scarred, he seeks revenge.
The Bat Woman
Hall Bartlett directs the rural drama The Children of Sanchez, based on the tome The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family written by Oscar Lewis in the '60s. Anthony Quinn stars as the widowed Jesus Sanchez, a poor farmer struggling to provide for his family in Mexico City. Also starring Lupita Ferrer as Consuelo and Stathis Giallelis as Roberto. This is the last film in the 50-year career of international star Dolores del Rio, who plays the Grandma. Jazz-pop performer Chuck Mangione was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Grammy award for his original musical score.
The Children of Sanchez
El vampire y el sexy (or Santo in the Treasure of Dracula in its censored version) is a 1968 Mexican film starring El Santo and directed by René Cardona. The Vampire and Sex was filmed as the adult version of Santo in the Treasure of Dracula. While the censored family version was distributed in 1969, the uncensored version was not shown to the public until 2011 when it was discovered.
The Vampire and Sex
A Uruguayan rugby team crashes in the Andes Mountains and has to survive the extremely cold temperatures and rough climate. As some of the people die, the survivors are forced to make a terrible decision between starvation and cannibalism.
Survive!
Pitch, the mean-spirited devil, is trying to ruin Christmas. Santa Claus teams up with Merlin the Magician and the children of the world in order to save the day!
Santa Claus
Idealistic young teacher takes a post in a small, backwoods town and dedicates her life to schooling the village's children.
La maestra inolvidable
When Santo accompanies a troupe of archaeologists in the search for Aztec artifacts, they find the Mummy of an Aztec who leaves a warning to those who tamper with his resting place. The adventurers ignore the warning, and before long, the Mummy starts bumping them off one-by-one with his bow & arrow.
Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy
Based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of a man who is unjustly imprisoned alongside an old man, who before dying reveals the location of a buried treasure. When the man manages to escape from his miserable cell, he changes his identity, becoming the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, an identity he uses to take revenge on those who betrayed him and sent him to prison.
El conde de Montecristo
An outlaw and a scorned husband both team up to track down and kill the man that wronged them. Along the way, the two men meet a hired gun that loves money just as much as he loves the company of women, so the two men decide to hire him in order to help them on their mission. However, things become complicated when the man they all seek to kill has risen to become a wealthy sheriff with a small army of gunmen at his disposal.
Guns and Guts
The love between María Ángela and Fernando is impossible because there's an ancient history of hate between their families. His father killed hers, and other family members have killed each other for years. When María Ángela's grandfather finds she's in love with Fernando, he frames the young man and forces her to marry Manuel. Maria Ángela finds that Manuel doesn't love her and together plan her escape with Fernando. But things go wrong and the lovers find their destiny in The Spirit's Canyon.
The Rock of Souls
A magician suspected of having killed a colleague is arrested by the police, but his assistant helps him escape.
The Headless Woman
Peasant woman leads a regiment during the final days of the Mexican Revolution. Also, romantic entanglements.
Juana Gallo
Directed by René Cardona, and written by René Cardona Jr., «El Pequeño Robin Hood» is a 1975 Adventure/Comedy/Drama/Family film . René Cardona III and Patricia Aspíllaga are starring, alongside René Cardona, Arturo Cobo, Jorge Russek and Alfredo Wally Barrón.
El pequeño Robin Hood
A mad scientist terrorizes a city by kidnapping young women with his ape-man Gomar and then using them as subjects in sadistic brain transplant experiments. A female wrestler whose sister was one of the victims swears vengeance against the Mad Doctor.
Doctor of Doom
The silver masked Santo tries to stop a gang of counterfeiters who conspire to ruin the economy.
Operation 67
In 1661 Mexico, the Baron Vitelius of Astara is sentenced to be burned alive by the Holy Inquisition of Mexico for witchcraft, necromancy, and other crimes. As he dies, the Baron swears vengeance against the descendants of the Inquisitors. 300 years later, a comet that was passing overhead on the night of the Baron's execution returns to earth, bringing with it the Baron in the form of a horrible, brain-eating monster that terrorizes the Inquisitor's descendants
The Brainiac
Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi are tag-team Luchadoras, helping a scientist on a quest to discover an ancient Aztec treasure, but the fiendish Prince Fugiyata wants to get there first. Both are in for a surprise, as the treasure is guarded by Xochitl, the Aztec Mummy Sorcerer, who can turn into a bat at will.