The tragedy of revenge takes hold in La Bestia Debe Morir (The Beast Must Die), the Argentinian adaptation of a pulpy crime drama. With strong performances, The Beast Must Die feels longer than it actually is but is still worth exploring.
Jorge Rattery (Guillermo Battaglia) has been poisoned at his lavish home. Whodunnit? Is it his abused wife Violeta (Josefa Goldar)? What about his young stepson, Ronnie Hershey (Humberto Balado)? Perhaps his sister-in-law, the glamorous actress Linda Lawson (Laura Hidalgo)? There are suspects to throw around, much to the consternation of investigator Nigel Strangeways (Ernesto Bianco).
A surprise suspect has emerged: crime novelist Felix Lane (Narciso Ibanez Menta). While he was not there at the time of Rattery's murder, Rattery's lawyers have in their possession a diary where he set out his murderous plan. Those plans, however, are the culmination to target a wicked man who is connected to Felix, who uses that pen name rather than his actual name of Frank Carter.
We now learn in a long flashback how things came about. Carter, a widower, is happily raising his son Martie (Eduardo Moyano) while his career as a detective writer is flourishing. On Frank's birthday, Martie goes to buy his father some cigarettes. Tragically, a reckless driver killed Martie, leaving Frank thoroughly devastated. Slowly emerging from his grief, Frank soon seeks out his son's killer.
A chance encounter with an old woman leads him to Martie's killer. The woman recounts how, some three months earlier, her favorite film star suddenly appeared at her door. Like Felix, this woman and her traveling companion had car trouble. She was not about to lose the opportunity to have her favorite actress autograph her picture. That actress? Linda Lawson. Soon, Felix pieces together what happened.
Rattery is abusive towards everyone, caring only for himself and not above flaunting his mistress in front of his wife and her husband. Linda, at the time of the accident, pleaded with Jorge Rattery to return to the scene of the accident, but Jorge did not care. Using his cache as a mystery novelist, he soon woos the unaware Linda to get to Rattery. Felix, however, learns of how abusive and monstrous Rattery is. However, would he follow through on his murderous intentions or will someone else beat him to it? Twists and turns abound until we return to where we started. Here, we find that death is both the end and not the end for those affected.
As La Bestia Debe Morir is an Argentine film, the very English names did not feel jarring. Many Europeans went to Argentina, so a Jorge Ratterty, Linda Lawson or Felix Lane would not be so out of place. I do wonder though why they opted to keep other names, particularly the small role of Nigel Strangeways.
As a side note, I do admit to giggling when we learn that Ronnie's last name is Hershey.
I was surprised to find that La Bestia Debe Morir runs around an hour and a half. That is because the film felt far longer. I put this down to director Roman Vinoly Barreto (who cowrote the screenplay with the film's star Menta). They opted to start with the murder, go a little into the investigation, then go into a long flashback sequence that told us how we got to this moment.
That, overall, worked well. However, the film still felt as if it took a long time to get back. I think it has to do with early scenes of the crime investigation as well as some of the flashback scenes establishing the father-son dynamic. I think some of that could have been at least trimmed to get things going.
There are, however, many aspects of La Bestia Debe Morir that are quite good. Director Barreto has some wonderful montages and fades that impress. There is the montage of the shell-shocked Frank/Felix listening to the various reports on his son's death. His increasing rage at his son's killer, coupled with his powerlessness about it, make for an impressive scene.
The actual killing of Martie is also well-shot. With Silvio Vernazza's music playing, we see Martie's shocked face, the car coming closer, and then a quick shot of the ocean crashing onto the shore. It is perhaps not subtle, but very effective. Another effective moment is when Frank returns to Martie's room. With no music, the camera moves around it, giving us Frank's POV, almost as if he wants to absorb every bit of what is left of his son.
La Bestia Debe Morir has some excellent performances. Menta gives a quiet grace and sadness as Felix. He is quite restrained in the role, even when confronting the gleefully villainous Jorge. There is something to be said about how clever both Menta and the adaptation of the Nicholas Blake novel (the pen name of Cecil Day-Lewis) are. After Jorge maliciously joins in to mock Linda's pet name for Felix (The Cat, as in Felix the Cat), Felix makes his contempt clear. Felix quips that it must not be hard for Jorge to be called "Rat" for "Rattery" (the Spanish for rat is "rata", so the pun still works).
Battaglia relishes the evil of Rattery, abusing everyone around him either verbally or physically. What makes him a good villain is that he knows he is evil. A great villain genuinely thinks that he is a good but misunderstood guy. Battaglia played Jorge as someone fully aware that people think him evil, but he does not care. Hidalgo may have come across as a bit over-the-top as Linda Lawson. She did, however, also display a genuinely caring woman caught in a terrible situation.
While her part was small, Milagros de la Vega as Madame Ratterty, Jorge's mother, elicits hate. Her scene where she tries to bully poor Ronnie into admitting his mother murdered her son then cooly demanding Felix help her up impresses one with how much of a bitch Mrs. Rattery is.
La Bestia Debe Morir is a moral tale. It shows how revenge can ultimately kill and hurt more people than intended. It has a sad ending, one that shows the tragedy of one man's wicked ways. A well-made film, La Bestia Debe Morir is worth looking over.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Views are always welcome, but I would ask that no vulgarity be used. Any posts that contain foul language or are bigoted in any way will not be posted.
Thank you.