MONTSERRAT PROUS & KALI HANSA IN 'THE SILENCE OF THE TOMB'

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba Year: 1972 Rating: ***

Lina Romay,  Ewa Strömberg, Maria Rohm and especially VAMPYROS LESBOS icon Soledad Miranda are scream-queen movie-household names when it comes to working with Spanish horror auteur Jesús Franco...

But a personal favorite is wide-eyed brooding brunette Montserrat Prous, starring as the central vulnerable ingenue in two obscure Franco features more thriller than killer, although there are plenty of deaths here in THE SILENCE OF THE TOMB compared to their previous THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF...

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

The latter where she commits murders under a hypnotic spell, while TOMB has her character worrying about the young nephew she cares for: vulnerable son of movie star sister Glenda Allen who...

Well the plot's all in the setting, which, like American low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman, Franco would find a location and create a movie around it... herein the beach-side resort of Alicante, Spain, overlooking several lonely islands, and where the central dark manor harbors the actress and her shallow, expository-spouting entourage...

Kali Hansa and Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

That includes another Franco regular Kali Hansa, who was trying to murder Prous in ORLOFF, now seeming to help her in figuring out who of the limited characters kidnapped the child: resulting in a body-count Ten-Little-Indians-style whodunnit that sadly takes Hansa... seeming game for another femme fatale villain... out too soon...

Making the high-points each and every extreme close-up of Montserrat Prous, who Franco treats as a gorgeous portrait that he can't get enough of... ultimately creating an art-house/suspense hybrid of Agatha Christie and Ingmar Bergman... while the low-points are the male characters, too old and uninteresting for the inevitable monologue-spouting twist-reveal to matter, ironically making TOMB a one-woman ensemble.

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Kali Hansa in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Kali Hansa in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Yelena Samarina in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Kali Hansa in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Kali Hansa in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba with Alberto Dalbés

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Montserrat Prous in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba

Glenda Allen in The Silence of the Tomb/Un silencio de tumba