'' Trapped in Tangiers'' ( it, Agguato a Tangeri, es, Un hombre en la red) is a 1957

spy film The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films) ...

directed by

Riccardo Freda Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror film, horror, ''giallo'' and spy films. Freda began directing ''I Vampiri'' in 1956. The f ...

and starring

Edmund Purdom Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom (19 December 19241 January 2009) was an English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then in America on Broadway and in Hollywood, and event ...

Plot

Cast

as John Milwood *

Geneviève Page Geneviève Page (born Geneviève Bonjean, 13 December 1927) is a French actress with a film career spanning fifty years and also numerous English-speaking film productions. She is the daughter of French art collector Jacques Paul Bonjean (1899– ...

as Mary *

Gino Cervi Luigi Cervi (3 May 1901 – 3 January 1974), better known as Gino Cervi (), was an Italian actor. He was best known for portraying Peppone in a series of comedies based on the character ''Don Camillo'' (1952-1965), and police detective Jules M ...

as Henry Bovelasco *

Amparo Rivelles María Amparo Rivelles Ladrón de Guevara MML (11 February 1925 – 7 November 2013), better known as Amparo Rivelles, was a Spanish actress. She was the daughter of actor Rafael Rivelles and actress María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara, and the ...

as Lola *

Antonio Molino Rojo Antonio Molino Rojo (14 September 1926 – 2 November 2011) was a Spanish film actor who appeared primarily in Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s and 1970s. Biography He made nearly 90 appearances in film between 1955 and 1988 but is probably mos ...

as Perez *

José Guardiola José Guardiola Díaz de Rada, (22 October 1930 – 9 April 2012) was a Spanish singer of popular music who sang in Spanish and Catalan. Guardiola was born in Barcelona. He performed and recorded mostly Spanish versions of foreign songs and re ...

as Pistolero *

Félix Dafauce Félix Dafauce (13 November 1896 – 5 October 1990) was a Spanish film actor. He appeared in 120 films between 1925 and 1987. He was born and died in Madrid, Spain. Selected filmography * ''When the Angels Sleep'' (1947) * ''Dawn of Ame ...

as Inspector Mathias * Luis Peña as González

Production

Freda dismissed the film later in his life, describing the film as devoid of interest and a troubled production which he blamed on producer Antonio Cervi. Freda and his crew arrived in

Tangiers Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capit ...

for location scouting, and found that the agency that was supposed to pay for their accommodations. Freda and his crew eventually left for

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, and after about a month of no headway being made in the production, the Spanish co-production company asked Freda if the whole film could be shot in 18 days. Freda said he could and finished the film in sixteen days. The film was entirely shot in Spain. The film was the debut of Spanish film director

Jorge Grau Jorge Grau (born Jorge Grau Solá, 27 October 1930 – 26 December 2018) was a Spanish director, scriptwriter, playwright and painter. His 1965 film '' Acteón'' was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1973, he directed ...

. Grau recalled that he was hired as a second assistant director as he spoke fluent Italian but described his job as just "chatting with the director." Grau recalled that the crew was split into two later into production with half shooting in Tangiers led by the first assistant director, and the other half which included Freda and Grau. Grau stated that Freda left for one day as his lover called him from Madrid threatening to end their relationship if he did not come to visit, which led to Grau to complete shooting. The scenes Grau filmed he described as very small, such as a car arriving at the port of Malaga and the foot pressing on an accelerator.

Release

''Trapped in Tangiers'' was released on 8 November 1957. It was distributed in Italy by Euro International Film where it grossed 168,500,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

domestically. The film was released as ''Trapped in Tangiers'' in the United States where it was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox in 1960. This version was dubbed and shortened to 77 minutes.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* 1950s spy drama films Italian spy drama films Spanish spy drama films Films directed by Riccardo Freda Films set in Morocco 1950s Italian films 1950s Spanish films {{1950s-Spain-film-stub