''Mare Nostrum'' (English: ''Our Sea'') is a 1948 Italian-Spanish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed 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 starring

María Félix María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and ...

, Fernando Rey and Guillermo Marín.Bentley p.105 The title refers to a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrase for the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. A Spanish sailor becomes mixed up with a mysterious foreign spy at the time of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (, 29 January 1867 – 28 January 1928) was a journalist, politician and bestselling Spanish novelist in various genres whose most widespread and lasting fame in the English-speaking world is from Hollywood films that were ...

which had previously been turned into a 1926 American silent film.

Plot

German spies, using Freya (María Félix) as bait, convince neutral Spaniard Ulysses Ferragut to navigate a ship to put

naval mines A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any v ...

around British ports in the Mediterranean, telling him they would never fire on passenger ships. But one mine destroys the ship his son, Esteban, was on, killing him and many others. Searching for revenge, Ulises changes his mind and becomes a friend of the allies. When U.S. troops take over

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Ulises chases the boss of the German spies, who is executed later. Freya begs for her life, but Ulises cannot forgive her, and she is executed too. Finally Ulises dies when his ship is bombed by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

Cast

as Freya * Fernando Rey as Ulises / Capitán Ferragut * Guillermo Marín as Von Kramer / Conde Gavelin * José Nieto as Kurt *

Juan Espantaleón Juan Espantaleón (1885–1966) was a Spanish film actor.González p.248 Selected filmography * '' Currito of the Cross'' (1926) * '' Nobleza baturra'' (1935) * '' Huella de luz'' (1943) * '' Eloisa Is Under an Almond Tree'' (1943) * '' The Nail' ...

as Tío Caragón * Porfiria Sanchíz as Doctora Fedelman *

Eduardo Fajardo Eduardo Martínez Fajardo (14 August 1924 – 4 July 2019) was a Spanish film actor born in Meis (Pontevedra), Spain. He appeared in 183 films, 75 plays and made 2,000 television appearances between 1947 and 2002. Biography He was born in ...

as Capitán *

Ángel de Andrés Ángel de Andrés Miquel was a Spanish theatre actor and director. Background In 1938, after the Spanish Civil War broke out, the young Andrés worked as an amateur street actor and then as a "galán cómico" in the Salvador Videgain theatre ...

as Toni *

Rafael Romero Marchent Rafael Romero Marchent (3 May 1926 – 13 February 2020) was a Spanish director, screenwriter and actor. Life and career Born in Madrid, the son of the author Joaquín Romero Marchent Gómez de Avellaneda, he started his career as an actor, mai ...

as Esteban *

Nerio Bernardi Nerio Bernardi (23 July 1899 – 12 January 1971) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in nearly 200 films between 1918 and 1970. He was born in Bologna, Italy and died in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''Nero'' (1922) * '' The Shep ...

as Enrico De Paoli * Osvaldo Genazzani as John *

Arturo Marín Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer * Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1959), Mexican footballer * Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt (b. 1982), B ...

as Jefe tribunal militar * Félix Fernandez as Recepcionista hotel * José Franco as Maitre *

José Prada José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

as Miembro tribunal *

Manuel Aguilera Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * M ...

as Telegrafista *

Santiago Rivero Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

as Capitán *

Antonio Vilar Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

* Teresa Arcos *

Francisco Bernal Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

References

Bibliography

* Bentley, Bernard. ''A Companion to Spanish Cinema''. Boydell & Brewer 2008.

External links

* 1948 films 1940s spy drama films Spanish spy drama films Italian spy drama films 1940s Spanish-language films Films directed by Rafael Gil Films based on Spanish novels Films based on works by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Films set in the Mediterranean Sea Seafaring films World War I spy films Suevia Films films Films scored by Juan Quintero Muñoz Films produced by Cesáreo González Italian black-and-white films Spanish black-and-white films 1948 drama films 1940s Spanish films 1940s Italian films {{1940s-Spain-film-stub