''Verbena Trágica'' (''Tragic Festival'', also known as ''Block Party'') is a 1939 film directed by

Charles Lamont Charles Lamont (May 5, 1895 – September 11, 1993) was a prolific filmmaker, directing over 200 titles and producing and writing many others. He directed several Abbott and Costello comedies and many Ma and Pa Kettle films. Biography A Calif ...

. The film was made in 1938 in the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

only, unusual for the time but most likely due to the film's themes of adultery and revenge. In 1996, the film was deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

and selected for the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

Plot

On the eve of Columbus Day festivities in New York, the boxer Mateo Vargas is released early from a jail term he served after he struck a police officer. He returns home for a surprise reunion with his family, but his wife Blanca faints. Mateo learns from her doctor that she is pregnant. Mateo is shocked, and knows that he cannot be the father. His trainer wants him to return to the boxing ring, but Mateo is too preoccupied with Blanca's infidelity. While he was in jail, Blanca had been seeing Claudio, the fiancé of Mateo's sister Lola. When Lola tells her suspicions to her mother, she slaps Lola. Vargas confronts Blanca about her pregnancy, but she refuses to name the father. Mateo becomes obsessed with finding his wife's lover.

References

External links

* * *''Verbena trágic''an essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 284-28

1939 films United States National Film Registry films American black-and-white films Spanish-language American films 1939 drama films Films directed by Charles Lamont American drama films 1930s Spanish-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-drama-film-stub