Calle Mayor (1956) Main Street

Director: Juan Antonio Bardem (as J.A. Bardem)
Writers: Carlos Arniches (play) (as D. Carlos Arniches), Juan Antonio Bardem (as J.A. Bardem)
Stars: Betsy Blair, José Suárez, Yves Massard

A couple of friends decide to have a good time and play a trick on an unmarried woman. Therefore one of them has to pretend to fall in love with her.

"Calle mayor" is a title that could be translated to something as "Main Street". This is a superb film made in postwar Spain, and the title refers to the social hypocrisy in a little town of interior and most conservative Spain.
There, people knows absolutely all about his neighbors, so, this is the story of a small group of single men between 25- 35 years old which live a life terribly boring.
They frequent billiard and a more or less hidden bordello, but his monotonous life drive them to provoke a tragedy. There's in that city a single woman not very attractive, so they made a betting: one of them has to play a bitter joke in courting this innocent woman no yet very young, promising to marry with her but at last, the joke consists in abandon her cruelly. This feminine personage is played by the USA actress Betsy Blair.
The joke begins, but the man in charge of these sentimental deceit is progressively victim of strong remorse when he knows better her victim, as he truly doesn't love her, so he's near to suicide in a tragic ending. This movie contains in full a criticism to delayed and false moral of Spain of Franco and hardly could pass the extreme censure from these times.

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