El Crack is a 1981

1981 in film

-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....

 Spanish film written and directed by José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci is a producer, critic, TV presenter, writer, screenwriter and film director in Spanish cinema. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Begin the Beguine...

, starring Alfredo Landa

Alfredo Landa

Alfredo Landa Areitio is a Spanish actor.- Biography :He was born in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain. He finished his pre-university studies in San Sebastián. He then began university studies on Law, where he began to work with university school groups...

. The plot was inspired by the works by Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...

, to whom the film is dedicated. It evokes the film noirs made in Hollywood in the 1930s.

Plot

Germán Areta, a 43-year-old private detective, spent 12 years at the FBI and now has an office working as a private detective devoting himself to solving cases. One day, Francisco Medina, a mysterious man comes to German's office and gives the commission of finding his daughter, Isabel, a 17 years old girl, of which he does not know her whereabouts. The only reference is a boyfriend who took the girl and now works in radio. Germán comes in contact with him and learns that she became pregnant and the father forced her to have an abortion in London, then lost her trail.

In his spare time, Germán goes out with Carmen, a nurse who has a four year old daughter, Maite, born from a relationship with a married man. The detective has been fond of the little girl, he takes her to school and plays with her. They begin to pressure the detective through various channels to stop investigating the case of Medina's daughter disappearance.

Someone of high finance areas are involved in the girl's missing case, and as a warning to the detective, a bomb in a car kills Maite. This leaves Areta heartbroken, but more determine than ever to find the truth of what ever happened to Isabel. Germán speaks to one of the men paid by the financier, about Medina's case. The girl died at the hands of financial sadist.

Areta moves to New York in pursue of the responsible for the deaths of Maite and Isabel. At his return to Madrid, Germán rekindles his relationship with Carmen.

Cast

• Alfredo Landa
  Alfredo Landa
  Alfredo Landa Areitio is a Spanish actor.- Biography :He was born in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain. He finished his pre-university studies in San Sebastián. He then began university studies on Law, where he began to work with university school groups...
  
  - German Areta
• Maria Casanova - Carmen
• Manuel Tejada - "Guapo"
• Jose Bodalo - Don Ricardo
• Miguel Angel Rellan - Cardenas
• Arturo Fernandez - Don Gregorio