Prudencia Grifell
Birth : 1879-12-27, Lugo, Galicia, Spain
Death : 1970-06-07
History
Prudencia Grifell (December 27, 1879 – June 7, 1970), born Prudencia Grifell Masipon, was a prolific actress of the Golden Era of the Cinema of Mexico.
Grifell was born to Spanish stage actors and started her acting career herself at the age of ten in theater in Venezuela and touring Spain and Latin America. By the 1900s she had become very popular and moved to Mexico to continue her career in stage, after the Spanish Civil War she decided not to go back to that country but instead to relocate in Mexico permanently after 1940.
Three years later, already at the age of 61, she appeared in her first film Internado para señoritas ("Girls Boarding School") with the stars Mapy Cortés, Emilio Tuero and Katy Jurado. Just as Sara García, her co-star as the Vivanco sisters in two films, she mostly played feisty but lovable granny roles.
Doña Rosa
A family gathers to celebrate Mother's Day, that day a woman discuss many problems about her woman condition; husband, children and grandchildren will hear she tired and overwhelmed silenced by submission and obedience. Analysis of the family and gender roles.
Unmarried opera singer has a baby, and her friends convince her to pass it off as the grandchild of a wealthy old lady.
Señora Martínez
It's about a country doctor that comes to the city while a clinic is built in his home town... he rubs off his care and compassion on others at the hospital with his humor and wit.
Red Riding Hood's Grandmother
Villagers think the Big Bad Wolf has returned to his fierce, wild-animal ways. Also gypsies.
Federico's Mother
The story of Nora, a poor but ambitious young woman, who uses her beauty to seduce a rich and married lawyer.
Bush-league actor allows two adorable grannies to believe he's their long-lost grandson. Then: complications!
Doña Teresa Vivanco y de la Vega
After being arrested the two adorable grannies spend some time in jail and then stand trial for the robberies they've committed.
Dueña de burdel
Post-revolucionary Mexico. War secretary Ignacio Jimenez is chosen as the candidate for presidency, but he isn't so sure about it, because he knows that his boss and current president, El Caudillo, has chosen a second one.
A young woman believes her fiance has died, and she enters a convent.
Abuelita
The classic story of the Red Riding Hood spiced up by a couple of funny characters like the dog Duke, companion to the girl in her adventures, and the stinky Skunk, henchman to the Wolf.
Teresa Vivanco
Two women of lesser descent are dedicated to stealing to support their brother's daughter.
Fretful granny is upset when her granddaughter isn't home by 9 PM on Saturday night, so she teams up with a gangster to tour Mexico City nightclubs looking for her.
Marita, a charming little girl, lives in the country with her grandmother. Her best friend is a modest servant, Anselmo, who almost everyday takes the girl to visit the church known as "Guadalupe's Basilica", an important cathedral in Mexico City, where she discovers Virgin Guadalupe and the legend about her apparitions in that place. Marita doesn't behave properly in school, and her teacher always has a punishment for the girl. She doesn't like school, and she doesn't want to return to school anymore. Besides, Marita's worried about her animals, like a cow who doesn't produce milk. The girl asks many miracles of Virgin Guadalupe, one of them is to not have to go to school. During a visit to the Basilica, Marita hears the Virgin's voice, and this could be the beginning of a responsible life for the girl, like to study and to be a good child.
Dizzy society matron plucks a hobo out of the gutter to rehabilitate him.
A man facing bankruptcy and ruin rehearses a couple of scenarios relating to suicide, until his family convinces him he's worth more alive than dead.
Heaven Can Wait scenario; a young woman dies forty years ahead of schedule because her guardian angel made a mistake... so the divine powers that be put her back on earth in a new body.
Abuela
After moving from Guadalajara to Mexico City, a young woman gets embroiled in a series of puzzling mistaken-identity misadventures.
Nubile young woman seems to be quite free with her affections... but she has a deep, dark secret. Deep. Dark.
Doña Constancia
Abuelita
The boy Pepito, is looking for work to help his grandmother, who is not receiving her pension. He wants to be a magician's assistant, and thus begin his problems because a crime happens and a monster appears.
Young widow with kindergarten-age daughter butts heads with her mother-in-law.
Between-engagements troupers at a theatrical boarding-house con a rich acquaintance into financing a show.
Angelina
The English-language title of this Mexican musical was The Third Word. Singer Pedro Infante stars as a pampered young man who is sheltered by his doting aunts. Deciding that their darling boy needs an education, the ladies hire pretty schoolteacher Marga Lopez. Upon discovering that her pupil is 28 years old, Marga is momentarily nonplused, but then settles into her duties. Inevitably, romance blossoms between Pedro and Marga, much to the aunts' dismay.
Mischievous little girl pulls a variety of pranks for the purpose of preventing her parents from divorcing.
Juana
Wicked girl uses nude modeling as a way to seduce a wealthy painter into marriage, while still trying to keep an artschool stud piece on the side.
Sra. Llopis
Ghosts and premonitions; a married woman discovers the true love of her life while being plagued with supernatural phenomena relating to her imminent murder. It's a comedy.
Gangster's daughter learns about her dad's illegalist lifestyle.
Señora Encinas
A murderer turns himself to the police, but claims amnesia and insists he's unable to tell them anything about his crime.
Small-town elects a female mayor. She suppresses all the time-honored masculine pastimes, and the men rebel.
An implausible accident causes a street prostitute to become close friends with an aristocratic old lady.
This Mexican melodrama may have been released above the border as After the Storm. The principal characters are a pair of twin lighthouse keepers. They try their best to live together with their wives under the same roof, but the delicate balance is shattered when one of the brothers falls in love with his sister-in-law. When one twin is lost during a storm, the other assumes his identity, with the expected romantic complications. If Despues de la Termenta sounds familiar, it is because the screenplay was inspired by the 1946 Bette Davis vehicle A Stolen Life.
Romance between a flamenco singer performing in Mexico and a gov't soldier during the Mexican Revolution.
Fictionalized version of the life of songwriter Maria Grever.
Twin sisters butt heads over a feller. One goes into a convent, the other becomes a professional thiefstress.
Sra. Olea, madre de Manuel
Los dineros del diablo (The Devil's Money) is a Mexican drama film directed by Alejandro Galindo. It was released in 1953 and starring Amalia Aguilar and Roberto Cañedo.
Governess falls in love with the uncle of the children she's teaching. Then complications.
Srita. Benavides
Women connected with a female-run employment agency and a women-only boarding house bond together in mutual support.
Mexican feature film
Four brothers try to manage their careers and love-lives under the close supervision of a domineering mother.
Bumbling detective solves a murder on board a train.
Ten or twelve years ago, a young man wrecked his car and his wife was killed in the accident. Today, his wealthy mother-in-law is still full of hatred and bitterness toward him, and she prefers not to acknowledge her granddaughter. Will love and tenderness find their way into the crusty old bitch's heart?
Orphan girl under the protection of a benefactor begins to suspect that her mother had an affair with him and that he's her father.
The old folks back home in Spain have arranged a marriage for their niece living in Mexico. To side-step their demands, she pretends to be already married, with a male acquaintance who agrees to pose as her husband while her relatives are visiting.
Doña Remedios, mamá de Anita
Ruined alcoholic doctor escapes a tropical plague and begins a new life back in civilization, taking over the identity of a dead man.
Wealthy libertine tries to seduce another man's mistress by threatening to send him to jail if she doesn't put out. Blowback from his sleazy behavior affects five other people; everybody suffers. Enormously.
Decent, hard-working young woman gradually finds her way toward love and happiness. With occasional spasms of Afro-Cuban dancing.
Newly-married woman discovers that her husband's a virgin and not the notorious Don Juan that she'd heard rumors about, and their marriage almost collapses because he's faithful and monogamous and good.
Personal dramas among the residents of an apartment house.
Doña Rosa
A single mother discovers her daughter getting ready to elope with an unworthy boyfriend, so she sits the girl down and tells her the whole entire story of her own very unhappy marriage.
Calixta Gutiérrez de Alfaro
The life of the musician Juventino Rosas, who despite his talent lived an existence of misfortune and poverty.
Frivolous woman falls in reallytruly love for the first time, but her past catches up with her and her fiancé kicks her to the curb. Then joining a convent and amnesia and stuff.
Family rescues a woman from the river nearby where their daughter committed suicide years before. Unresolved mysteries. And meanwhile, there's a mysterious woman in black who shows up at the hacienda just before somebody dies.
Doña Francisca
Homeless girl placed in a court-appointed foster home under the care of a social worker.
Madre de Mercedes
A young woman, a thief and a lawyer find themselves in the same hotel room without planning it. Mercedes, the thief, has a brother who, by mistake, kidnaps the lawyer Alberto, which will cause a mess.
Roberto's mother
Soledad, a maid born in Argentina, works at a Mexican farm. The son of her employer will deceive her, pretending to marry her and leaving her pregnant. When she finds out that she has been tricked, she runs away from the farm. During her flight she meets a group of artists that'll change her life.
María
Mexican movie
Man commits suicide over his wife's infidelity. His father spends the rest of his life trying to figure out which of son's two children is illegitimate.
Three boys and three girls in the 1890s.
1940s-style teen comedy set in a private school for girls.
