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
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
Blending historical fact and adventure fiction, Emiliano Zapata's (fictional) right-hand man takes leadership of his regiment after he's killed.
Lucio Vazquez
A young boy born extraordinarily small must rescue his older brothers from a wicked ogre.
Tom Thumb
A craftsman who sculpts religious figures goes deaf.
El sordo
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
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
Masked hero El enmascarado de oro faces a criminal that turns invisible.
Neutron Traps the Invisible Killers
In the port of Havana, two biracial children, Mateo (Ricardo Román) and Caridad (Ninón Sevilla) grow up together. She is the daughter of a white man who died in a shipwreck and of a black laundress of African origin. Over the years, Mateo falls for Caridad, but she doesn't love him back because she has fallen for a Mexican captain, Martin (Pedro Armendáriz), who she happened to meet at the port. The captain also fell in love with Caridad and proposes that they live together and she accepts. Caridad works in a cabaret in the port and the owner, Guevara (René Cardona), feels an attraction for the girl, and in a moment of jealousy, tries to kill Martin. Martin falls into financial trouble and has to mortgage his boat to Guevara. When Martin returns to Veracruz, Mexico, Guevara feels that he's the new owner of Caridad.
Mulata
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
Two clumsy and absent-minded spies (Capulina and Chespirito) are hired to save the world from a nuclear attack.
Operación carambola
Santo and Mantequilla Nápoles team up to end the curse of La Llorona by getting ahold of a special medallion. Unfortunately, La Llorona escapes in the process.
The Vengeance of the Crying Woman
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
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!
Peasant woman leads a regiment during the final days of the Mexican Revolution. Also, romantic entanglements.
Juana Gallo
Soledad, a maid born in Argentina, works at a Mexican farm. The son of her employer will deceive her, pretending to marry her and leaving her pregnant. When she finds out that she has been tricked, she runs away from the farm. During her flight she meets a group of artists that'll change her life.
Soledad
At the end of an unhappy romance, a Mexico City cabdriver decides he's fed up with big-city classism and hypocrisy, and goes home to his ranch. Soon, a group of city-folk are stranded on his property and dependent on him for help and sustenance.
El Hijo Del Pueblo
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
A woman travels to her past life with the help of Santo's past life regression machine
Santo in the Treasure of Dracula
Young gunslinger gets his hero on. #2 in a series ("El Puma.")