''Don Quixote'' or ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'' (orig. Spanish title ''Don Quijote de la Mancha'') is the first

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

version in Spanish of the great classic novel by

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best know ...

. It was directed and adapted by

Rafael Gil Rafael Gil (22 May 1913 – 10 July 1986) was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. His film ''La guerra de Dios'' (1953) won the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1953 and also won best film and best director at the San Sebastián ...

and released in 1947. A huge undertaking for Spanish cinema in its day, it was the longest film version of the novel up to that time (two hours and twelve minutes, plus an intermission), and very likely the most faithful, reverently following the book in its dialogue and order of episodes, unlike

G.W. Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

's 1933 version and the later Russian film version, which scrambled up the order of the adventures as many film versions do. Characters such as

Cardenio ''The History of Cardenio'', often referred to as simply ''Cardenio'', is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. The play is attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stati ...

, Dorotea, and Don Fernando, which are usually omitted because their respective subplots have little to do with the main body of the novel, were kept in this film. The film, which starred

Rafael Rivelles Rafael Félix Rivelles Guillén (23 December 1898 — 3 December 1971) was a Spanish actor born in El Cabanyal, El Cabañal (El Cabanyal), a small town in the province of Province of Valencia, Valencia, Spain. Son of play actor José Rivelles and ...

as Don Quixote and Juan Calvo as Sancho Panza, featured a young Fernando Rey as Sanson Carrasco and popular Spanish actress

Sara Montiel María Antonia Abad Fernández MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer, who also held Mexican citizenship since 1951. She began her career in the 1940s an ...

as Antonia, Quixote's niece. The music for the film was composed by

Ernesto Halffter Ernesto Halffter Escriche (16 January 19055 July 1989) was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter and part of the ''Grupo de los Ocho'' ( en, Group of Eight), which formed a sub-set of the ''Generation of '27'' ...

, and the movie was shot on location in

La Mancha La Mancha () is a natural and historical region located in the Spanish provinces of Albacete, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, and Toledo. La Mancha is an arid but fertile plateau (610 m or 2000 ft) that stretches from the mountains of Toledo to th ...

and other Spanish regions. It did not fare as well in the United States, where it opened in 1949, as it had in Spain. In its American runs, it was whittled down to a more customary length of 107 minutes.

Plot

The film is one of the most reliable versions of the work of Cervantes, and as in it, it narrates the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a gentleman from La Mancha who, after reading chivalric books over and over again, believes himself to be a gentleman. That is why he begins a trip to order to find a path full of adventures. Disobeying his local priest and barber, he begins his journey, naming Sancho Panza as his squire. Alonso decides to take the name of Don Quixote de la Mancha for his exploits, however along the way he wanders several times, mistaking mills for giants and flocks of sheep for armies about to engage in a fight. After freeing some prisoners almost by accident, he decides to stay exiled in the mountains to pay for his actions, but then between Sancho Panza, the priest and the barber, they manage to bring him back home in a wooden cell. His misadventures will be collected in a book that will soon spread throughout Spain, because of that many will already know his name, but not because of his fame, but because of the madness that lives in the mind of Don Quixote de la Mancha who believes he is a gentleman walking in an age where they no longer exist. Encouraged by the bachelor Sansón Carrasco, he will make a second outing in which many people, recognizing him, will begin to make fun of him and play with his madness. Sansón Carrasco will try to make him return home by disguising himself as a knight to defeat him in a duel, however he will lose and will try again some time later, succeeding in his mission and getting Don Quixote, dejected by defeat, to return home to spend a year without undertaking any feat. The physical and mental pain will take Don Quixote to his last days, dying in the end sheltered by his friends and his family.

References

External links

Bibliography

* Mira, Alberto. ''Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema''. Scarecrow Press, 2010. {{Rafael Gil 1947 films 1940s historical films Films based on Don Quixote Spanish historical films Films set in the 1600s Films directed by Rafael Gil Cifesa films Films scored by Ernesto Halffter Spanish black-and-white films 1940s Spanish films