Rage (El mal) (1966) Mexican Film Soleil Transitional Noir

Director Gilberto Gazcón fashions an interesting Transitional Noir that feels like a Western, its part Inferno, Wages of Fear a dash of Guilty Bystander mixed with a bit of the anxiety of both Panic In The Streets and The Killer That Stalked New York.

The screenplay was jointly written by Gilberto Gazcón Teddi Sherman, Fernando Méndez, Guillermano Hernández, and Jesús Velásquez. The beautiful cinematography was by Rosalío Solano and the Soundtrack was by Gustavo César Carrión.

The film's vivid color palette plus Stella Stevens' generously flashing her legs, displays of cleavage, and up-skirt teasing while dressed in Fredrick's of Hollywood couture gives it a sleazy pulp-ish paperback cover look, it's similar in that respect to the color Noir Slightly Scarlet (1956). 

Glenn Ford as Doc Reuben

Stella Stevens as Perla

The film stars noir vet Glenn Ford (Gilda (1946), Framed (1947), The Undercover Man (1949), The Big Heat (1953), Human Desire (1954), Experiment in Terror (1962)) as Doc Reuben, Stella Stevens (Man-Trap (1961)) as Perla. 

David Reynoso as Pancho

Jose Elias Moreno as Fortunato

Dacia Gonzalez as Maria

With a great supporting cast of David Reynoso ( Presage (1974), Que viva Tepito! (1981), El último túnel (1987)) as Pancho, Armando Silvestre ( La Impostora (2014), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)) as Antonio, Jose Elias Moreno (Santa Claus (1959)) as Fortunato, Dacia Gonzalez (The Shark Hunters (1963)) as Maria, David Silva (Los Fernández de Peralvillo (1954), Campeón sin corona (1946) Espaldas mojadas (1955)) as Bus Driver  Isela Vega (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)) as a prostitute and the beautiful locations around Durango, Guanajuato, Sierra de Organos,  Sombrerete, Zacatecas, and Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico

Wages Of Fear quote

Instead of a load of nitro this truck is carrying a load of a different kind of explosive  - hookers

The above sreencaps are from a recent streamer compare them to the deteriorating caps from a DVDr of probably a VHS release below.

The Story

Doc Reuben (Ford) runs a medical clinic in a small Mexican village upgrated to boomtown. The village boom is from an influx of construction workers who are blasting a new road across the backcountry. Except for seriously practicing medicine, Doc is a bit alienated from normal human contact outside of those connected to his medical duties. He is obsessed with drinking himself to an early grave. The reason you see is, Doc blames himself for not being able to save his young wife and baby during childbirth. He drinks to forget. His main companion is his german shepherd dog.

Pancho (Reynoso) is a local who got a job on the road crew as a dynamiter. He learned his trade in the mines. Pancho and his wife Maria (Gonzalez) are going to have a baby, and Doc is happy to check Maria's progress, but tells Pancho that she will need a specialist when the time comes because she will need a caesarean section.

Pancho's friend Fortunato (Moreno) is a dozer operator on the road crew. His pet cat Princesa is acting strange. When the crew drives back to town Pancho's cat jumps out of his arms and attacks Doc's dog. The general consensus is that Princesa is acting that way because she is pregnant. 

At the end of the week the supply truck brings the load of dusty sweaty prostitutes to entertain the road crew. One of prostitutes is a blond named Perla (Stevens). Perla and the gals definittely need showers. Doc has the only one, so they all troop over and introdue themselves and make use of the facilities. Doc is trying to treat his dog's scratches from the cat-dog fight earlier when the prostitutes walk in. The Doc makes some small talk and poits them towards the showers. When they leave the Doc goes back to treating his dog. He pours some hydrogen peroxide on the dog's wounds and the dog bites him. 

The Doc pushes the dog off and treats the bite wound.

The "fiesta" is another excuse for Doc to get lit up. Perla and the girls are having a blast. During the course of the party Perla finds she is becoming very attracted to Doc. Doc is now quite drunk, he grabs a few bottles for the road and stubles . 

Doc sneaks off to the clinic with a couple of bottles of booze and Perla follows. 

Perla gets friendly, Doc gets skittish, the road engineer shows up looking for Perla. Perla wants to stay but Doc tells her to get out. She splits with the engineer to go back to the fiesta. 

Doc throws her out heads into his bedroom and and starts to hallucinate in a very graphic noir-ish sequence. 

In the morning a very hung over Doc finds Perla asleep upon his examination table, she has missed the truck.

The next day Fortunato drug into town by ropes, he is delirious and foaming at the mouth, he has rabies and there is nothing that the Doc can do for him. 

Again compare the upgrade above with the poorer DVDr quality below.

Rabies

There's nothing I can do

Perla and Doc get to know each other but Doc is still standoffish. Doc explains about the death of his wife. Ten days later the supply truck arrives and Perla leaves town.

Perla leaves

Pancho arrives in town on his donkey cart early the next evening and tells Doc that Maria is contracting, Doc tells Pancho to hurry back and he'll follow in a company jeep. On the way back to his place Pancho runs into Doc's dog, the dog is bloody and foaming at the mouth and snarling at the Donkey's legs. The dog is rabid.

The baby is coming Doc

Again a comparison the clarity of the new streamer above old blurry DVDr below.

Doc drives up sees the situation and shoots the dog. He now realizes that he was bitten ten days ago and that he is also infected. He counts the days back to when he was bitten and realizes that he has 48 hours to get treated.

That dog bit me

He tries to explain all this to Pancho, that he has to get to the nearest big city to get shots. But Pancho worried about his wife, grabs the gun and points it at Doc. Pablo threatens to kill him. Doc says OK but floors the Jeep leaving Pablo in the dust as he speeds off in the growing darkness to Noirsville.

Noirsville

Glenn Ford is compelling as the weathered Doc Reuben even though haunted by his failure to save his wife and child and drinking himself to death he can still keep his skills sharp and show compassion and kindness towards Maria. Stella Stevens at 30 is at the height of her beauty, she is the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold looking for a way out of the life. She is sexy, sassy, and sweet.

David Reynoso is great as Pancho he holds his own with Ford and displays his acting chops. The rest of the cast is very good and the landscapes around Durango are beautiful. Very entertaining, This film now has a Bluray restoration. Check it out and enjoy! Café con leche noir. Now an 8/10.