''A Girl Against Napoleon'' or ''The Devil Made a Woman'', also known under its Spanish title ''Carmen, la de Ronda'', is a 1959 Spanish

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Tulio Demicheli Tulio Demicheli (born August 15, 1914, Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. May 25, 1992, Madrid, Spain) was an Argentine born Spanish film director, screenwriter and film producer notable for his work during the classical era of Argentine cinema. ...

and starring

Sara Montiel María Antonia Abad Fernández Medal of Merit in Labour, MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer. She began her career in the 1940s and became the most int ...

, Jorge Mistral and Maurice Ronet.Bentley, Bernard. ''A Companion to Spanish Cinema''. Boydell & Brewer, 2008. p. 141. . It is loosely based on the story of Prosper Mérimée's

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

, with the setting changed to the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

era. Carmen is involved with the

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

s fighting against the French occupation. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Enrique Alarcón and built at CEA Studios in Madrid.

Plot

The year is 1808. A year passed since the beginning of the

and singer Carmen is in love with two men at the same time. The men are: a guerrilla named Antonio and the French sergeant José, who, during the war, end up on the opposite sides and therefore are sworn enemies to each other.

Cast

as Carmen * Jorge Mistral as Antonio * Maurice Ronet as José * Germán Cobos as Lucas *

José Marco Davó José Marco Davó (May 10, 1895 – September 27, 1974) was a Spanish film actor.Pitts p.307 Selected filmography * ''Es mi hombre'' (1934) * ''Don Quintín el amargao'' (1935) - Nicasio * ''La última falla'' (1940) * ''Whirlwind (1941 film), W ...

as Alcalde * Félix Fernández as El Dancairo *María de los Ángeles Hortelano as Micaela *Santiago Rivero as Andrés *Alfonso Rojas * Agustín González as Guerrillero *Antonio Delgado * Pilar Gómez Ferrer *Manuel Guitián as Pregonero *Teresa Gisbert *Joaquín Bergía *Víctor Bayo *Ricardo Tundidor *Antonio Cintado as Oficial francés * Amedeo Nazzari as Coronel *Ventura Oller

References

External links

* Spanish historical adventure films Films based on Carmen Films directed by Tulio Demicheli Films set in Spain Films set in 1808 Napoleonic Wars films Guerrilla warfare in film 1950s Spanish films 1950s Spanish-language films Spanish-language historical adventure films {{Historic-film-stub