''Hardly a Criminal'' ( es, Apenas un delincuente) is a 1949 Argentine

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

directed by

Hugo Fregonese Hugo Geronimo Fregonese (April 8, 1908 in Mendoza – January 11, 1987 in Tigre) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter who worked both in Hollywood and his home country.''Cine Nacional''Hugo Fregonese filmography Cinenacional.com ...

. It was written by Raimundo Calcagno and Israel Chas de Cruz. The film started the director's Hollywood film directing career. It was re-released in theatres a few times during the 21st century. In a survey of the 100 greatest films of Argentine cinema carried out by the

Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken is a museum of cinema of Argentina located in Buenos Aires. It was established on 1971 and holds a collection of 65,000 reels of film. History The Cinema Museum of the City of Buenos Aires was created on O ...

in 2000, the film reached the 10th position. In a new version of the survey organized in 2022 by the specialized magazines ''La vida útil'', ''Taipei'' and ''La tierra quema'', presented at the

Mar del Plata International Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...

, the film reached the 27th position.

Plot

After losing his money to gambling, José Moran decides to

embezzle Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

a large amount of money from the company that employs him. Moran thinks that he will only be locked up in prison for six years once his employer discovers the embezzlement. He plans to use the money after his term is finished. Six years later, the place where he hid the money is now gone which leads to both the police and criminals trying to find it.

Cast

Production

It was mostly filmed on streets in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. James Mason decided to act in Fregonese's 1950 film ''

One Way Street ''One Way Street'' is a 1950 American film noir crime film directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring James Mason, Märta Torén and Dan Duryea. The crime film takes place mainly in Mexico. Plot Dr. Frank Matson, a physician, steals $200,000 from t ...

'', when it had the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

''Death on a Side Street'', once he watched ''Hardly a Criminal''.

Release

The film's producers hoped that it would be successful in the United States with English subtitles. After the film's 1949 showing at the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, the director and his wife

Faith Domergue Faith Marie Domergue (; June 16, 1924 or 1925 – April 4, 1999) was an American film and television actress. Discovered at age sixteen by media and aircraft mogul Howard Hughes, she was signed to a contract with Hughes' RKO Radio Pictur ...

held a party for multiple guests. In 2014, the film and ''One Way Street'' was released at the Noir City: Hollywood, 16th Annual Festival of Film Noir program at the

Grauman's Egyptian Theatre Grauman's Egyptian Theatre is a historic movie theater located at 6706 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace and is noted as having been the site of the first-ever Hollywood ...

. It was a part of the Death is My Dance Partner: Film Noir in Postwar Argentina program, which had six features that were filmed within the time of Peronism (1949–1956), at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in 2016. It was released with

35 mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width o ...

and a new English dubbing by the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the ar ...

's Film Noir Foundation Collection. In 2020, the film was a selection at the 18th Annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival.

Reception

Critics from Buenos Aires in 1949 said that it was Argentina's "outstanding film of the year". The film started the director's Hollywood film directing career. The

American Cinematheque The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms. The Cinematheque was created in 1981 as ...

said that the film is "the best Argentine noir of the 1940s" and that it "is an audacious blending of ''Naked City'' and ''Brute Force''". Nicolas Rapold of ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...

'' wrote, "While lacking the snap of American counterparts, its laying bare of masculine pride and familial shame was hard to shake."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardly A Criminal 1949 films 1940s Spanish-language films Argentine black-and-white films 1949 crime drama films Films with screenplays by Tulio Demicheli Argentine crime drama films Films shot in Buenos Aires Films directed by Hugo Fregonese