Locos por el Oro (Venevision)

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for Spanish comedies – Spanish as in Spain, that is. Their very particular use of the language is unique and funny, even if a joke is not involved. The situation increases exponentially if the movie is a comedy and the name Francisco Franco — the Generalísimo — is thrown into the mix. “Locos por el oro,” which is also known as “El Oro de Moscú,” is a case in point.  It is one hilarious film, spiked with the typical Spanish touch.

The film starts on a dark, rainy night near Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War, when some troops were transporting some gold to Russia, as payment for some weapons.  Chaos takes over, and we don’t really know what’s going on, or what happened. From there, we are taken to the Madrid of the present days, when one of the survivors of that episode – a dying patient — gives a watch to Iñigo (Santiago Segura), a nurse at a hospital. He tells Iñigo that the gold never reached Russia and gives him clues on how to find it, the watch being one of them. Iñigo goes to the newspaper to sell them his “exclusive,” but meets Papeles (Jesus Bonilla, who also directed) on the way, and tells him about his plans. Papeles stops him, and decides that they should not share such information, and that they could find the gold by themselves.  Iñigo reluctantly accepts, and off they go to what they believe is going to be an easy task.  They are, of course, in for a surprise.

“Locos por el Oro” has been described elsewhere as the Spanish “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” which has some validity to it. The reason for this is, perhaps, the cameo appearances and secondary roles by many famous Spanish actors that Iñigo and Papeles find along the way, such as Concha Velasco, Antonio Resines, Jorge Sanz, El Gran Wyoming, and many, many more – the who’s who in contemporary Spanish cinema. The DVD also includes a making-of featurette, interviews with the cast, and more. (Spain, 2003, color, 100 min. plus additional material)