Known as «Los ambiciosos» in México, the co-producing country where director Luis Buñueñ relocated to, lived and died, as well as in most Latin American territories, this was made in 1959, the year Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, so while anyone can believe the plot and location refers to him and his homeland, they do not. Yes, the island of Ojeda is a Caribbean country ruled by a dictator (Andrés Soler at his meanest - he does receive credit in the Mexican version),but its banana-based economy (no sugar, tobacco or rum, as in Cuba) and the absence of a guerrilla movement, makes it "NowhereLand" with Gérard Philipe (in his last role) as a handsome idealist who falls for the wrong woman (María Félix looking very beautiful). In any case we will never know if Buñuel or in that case novelist Henri Castillou were able to see the future. A good political melodrama.

With Easter coming up,I decided to start searching round for a rare title from auteur film maker Luis Buñuel,that I could give to a friend as a holiday present.As I began searching for a Buñuel title,I decided to finally take a look at an actress which I had seen a fellow IMDber mention in a number of posts,called María Félix.

Checking Félix's credits,I was happily caught by surprise,when I discovered that she had made a movie with Buñuel!,which led to me getting ready to climb up the mountains of El Pao.

View on the film:

Filming his adaptation of Henri Castillou's novel in France,co- writer/(along with Luis Alcoriza/ Charles Dorat & Louis Sapin)director Luis Buñuel and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa bake the film in a scorching hot South American heat,with Buñuel using superb long tracking shots to show the tension in the fictional country starting to bubble over.

Using the assassination as a starting pistol, Buñuel makes white the main colour for the title,with each of the would-be leaders wearing crisp white suits,which Buñuel subtly darkens/soils,as they get pulled closer to the murky political world of the country.

Toning down the famous surreal aspects in Buñuel's work,the writers take an extremely sharp political strike with the film,as the residences hopes of change are shown to be pushed aside,as the people in power are shown to be so self-focused,that they keep allowing their citizens to end up in the same shackles that they were in before.

Along with the effect that the killing has on the residence,the writers also brilliantly show a decaying Film Noir world of the country's political leaders,as each of their ideas fade away,to be replaced by a ruthless thrust for holding on to power in any way possible.

Giving the title a shot of Film Noir,the alluring María Félix gives a fantastic femme fatale performance as Inés Rojas,with Félix peeling Rojas playfulness layer by layer,to reveal a dame who is determined to walk over any man who gets in the way of Rojas grip on power.

Tragically dying from cancer during the making of the title, (which led to parts of the movie having to be re-written,and a body double also being used) Gérard Philipe gives an excellent final performance as Ramón Vázquez,thanks to Philipe showing a wide-eye sense of excitement in Vázquez hopes of changing the political climate in the country,which gradually gets shadowed by feeling of betrayal & fear,as Vázquez finds fever continuing to mount in El Pao.

In the fictitious island of Ojeda, people lives a dictatorship and the island is a penal colony of forced labor with ordinary and political prisoners together. When the Governor Mariano Vargas (Miguel Ángel Ferriz) is murdered by a sniper, his idealistic secretary Ramón Vázquez (Gérard Philipe) is assigned director of security and in charge of the prison. Vázquez is in love with the widow Inés Rojas (Maria Felix) and they have a love affair. But when the new governor Alejandro Gual Miguel (Jean Servais) arrives in the island, he wants Inés to be his lover. Further he forces the killer to sign a false confession telling that Vázquez is the responsible for the attempt against the previous governor and blackmails Inés. But Inés is a female fatale that knows the political games and manipulations.

"La fièvre monte à El Pao" is a political melodrama by Buñuel based on politics instead of his famous surrealism. The theme politics was adopted by Costa-Gravas years later and Glauber Rocha probably wrote his "Terra em Transe" inspired in this movie. Inés Rojas is a femme fatale but the plot is not a film-noir, only the story of an idealistic man that joins politics in a dictatorship and finds how difficult is keep his ideals. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Ambiciosos" ("The Ambitious")