Criminal Abortion

Aborto criminal is a Spanish film drama first released in Spain on 3rd December 1973, directed by Ignacio F. Iquino. The film stars Simón Andreu, Máximo Valverde, Patricia Reed, Jackie Lombard and María Reniu. The different stories are not presented one by one but in parallel. In one, a working-class woman (Emma Cohen) is impregnated by her boyfriend (Manuel Zarzo) and she decides to abort, at which she is helped by her womanising uncle (Carlos Otero); finally, she haemorrhages and, after she is taken to hospital, commits suicide. In another story, the wife (Patrizia Reed) of a sea captain (Francisco Piquer) is having an affair with a playboy (José Luis Pellicena); when the husband learns of this, he impulsively kills the playboy and later arranges for his pregnant wife’s abortion. A further plot concerns a middle-aged, well-off woman (Carmen de Lirio) of licentious lifestyle who neglects the upbringing of her daughter Menchu (María Renó) to the extent of allowing her to hang around with a group of delinquent youths (Pep Ballester, David Rocha et al); when the daughter becomes pregnant, she helps her secure an abortion. And then, the “exemplary” story: Loli (Jackie Lombard), a prostitute, is forced by her vicious pimp (Simón Andreu) to abort. About to do so, she finally changes her mind. She has a happy ending. Binding all this together are two sets of characters: on the one hand, the group of cops led by the melancholy Inspector Roland (Máximo Valverde) who is on hand to track the abortionists, and actually gets to have some kind of platonic love affair with Menchu (glances between the two, underlined by the Ebarme dich aria from Bach’s Matthew Passion). On the other hand, we have the stern-faced female backstreet abortionists themselves (played by Dora Santacreu and Maife Gil), who use a massage parlour as a cover for their business. Finally, everybody except the captain and his wife are rounded up, but the cops have started to investigate the death of the playboy… At the very end, an onscreen newspaper with the headline “Criminal abortion” tells us that the two abortionists have been sentenced to 128 years, their accomplices to 8 and the women who aborted to four.

• DirectorIgnacio F. Iquino
• AuthorIgnacio F. Iquino, Juliana San José de la Fuente
• CameraAntonio L. Ballesteros
• ActorsSimon Andreu, Maximo Valverde, Patricia Reed, Maria Reniu, Emma Cohen, Jackie Kombard, silvia Solar, Manolo Zarzo
• MusicJohann Sebastian Bach (arranged by Henry Soteh)
• produced byIFI Producción S.A.
• CountriesSpain
• GenreFilm
• Year1973
• Length107 min
• TopicAbortion
• LanguagesSpanish

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