The mistake that many film fans can make is to think they have seen everything. Nobody actually means that literally, but I can guarantee that you have heard those words, “seen them all”, while talking to someone who has asked you to recommend some movies to them, whether they were looking for films from a specific genre or just anything on Netflix. Many people may feel they have seen every film noir, but they most probably haven’t. They may have seen all of the top-tier film noirs, but there are many other gems to discover. The lesser titles can provide a lot of fun, and there’s a large world cinema pool to explore. Which brings me to The Kneeling Goddess AKA La diosa arrodillada, my first foray into some classic Mexican noir.
Arturo de Córdova plays Antonio, a man who is slowly and surely bewitched by the beautiful Raquel (María Félix), an artist’s model. Initially aiming to divorce his wife, Elena (Rosario Granados), Antonio ensures that Raquel will stay in his mind when he buys a statue that she modeled for, The Kneeling Goddess. Being driven mad by his conflicted feelings, Antonio plans some foul play, but will he get rid of Raquel or Elena? And will everything go to plan?
There are about four or five names here in the writing department, including Edmundo Báez, Alfredo B. Crevenna, Tito Davison, José Revueltas, Ladislas Fodor, and director Roberto Gavaldón, but there’s no obvious impact on the quality of the final product. The plotting and dialogue are both what you would expect, with the film basically having the most fun when adding more problems for the struggling Antonio to bear on his thin shoulders.
Gavaldón keeps everything enjoyably clear throughout, both visually and in terms of who may be privy to secrets that others don’t know about, with the exception of one key sequence, a set-piece that is revisited during a deliciously tense and dark finale. This may not have people literally living in the shadows, but they certainly do feel as if a lot of light is blocked out by some looking misdeeds from their past.
Córdova is good enough in his role, even as he has to, at one point, show a swift descent into drunken depression. Granados, given the smallest of the three main roles, is very effective in eliciting sympathy for her innocent character. Everything revolves around the character of Raquel though, and Félix is perfectly cast. She’s alluring one moment, distant and calculating the next, and starts to look like a deadly spider somehow becoming stuck in her own web at times. Whether Raquel has planned a long con or has just made herself as potentially vulnerable as Antonio is a question that makes the middle section of the movie more interesting than it otherwise would be.
Some may roll their eyes at my naïveté, but I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns that this took in the second half. I didn’t expect things to play out as they did, although it was easy to see where it would end up as the final scenes began to play out. It’s a film full of melodrama, barely-restrained lust, and excellent, if obvious, mise-en-scéne showing the mindsets of the characters, and I had a great time with it. It may be my first classic Mexican noir, but it won’t be my last.
8/10
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