Join the Film Noir Foundation on Wednesday, December 18, 7:30pm at San Francisco's Castro Theatre for the annual Noir City Xmas. It will be a special evening of yule cruelty with a presentation of the dark Mexican holiday classic, La Otra (1946). The entire schedule for NOIR CITY INTERNATIONAL II, a program of noir from around the globe coming January 24-February 2, 2020, will also be revealed that night. Both events will be hosted by Eddie Muller, the Film Noir Foundation’s founder and president, as well as the host of TCM’s Noir Alley.
Dolores del Rio, one of the most beautiful actresses of all time, stars in the noir-laden thriller La Otra as identical twins: Maria, a manicurist who lives in near-poverty, and her sister Magdalena, who married the wealthy man Maria once loved. When the estranged sisters reunite at the funeral of Magdalena's husband, Maria can't help but imagine how different life would be if she could only trade places with her sister. Uh-oh. Take a guess where this is headed. Co-starring Jose Baviera, Agustin Irusta, and Victor Junco, with extraordinary cinematography by the great Alex Phillips. Del Rio enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s before she returned to her native Mexico in the 1940s to claim her place as one of the nation's most renowned stars. La Otra is the first feature made under her own production banner, Mercurio. The film was also the initial collaboration between director Roberto Gavaldon and writer-activist Jose Revueltas, who would make eleven more films together becoming arguably the preeminent filmmaking team in Mexico.