John Alton

John Alton

Birth : 1901-10-05, Sopron, Austria-Hungary

Death : 1996-06-02

History

​John Alton A.S.C. (October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996), born Johann Altmann, in Sopron/Ödenburg, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, was an American cinematographer. Alton won an Academy Award for the cinematography of An American in Paris (1951), becoming the first Hungarian-born person to do so. He photographed some of the most famous film noirs of the classic period. He started out in Los Angeles as a lab technician in the 1920s, later becoming a cameraman within four years. He moved to France with Ernst Lubitsch to film backgrounds for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and ended up staying for one year heading the camera department of Paramount Pictures's Joinville Studios. In 1932 he moved to Argentina where he shot many Spanish-language films and designed the country's first sound film studio for Lumiton and Argentina Sono Film. He returned to Hollywood in the late 1930s, with two dozen film credits, and became one of the most sought after cinematographers in American cinema. Alton was known for unconventional camera angles—especially low camera shots. His style is most notable in the film noirs: He Walked by Night, The Big Combo, The Amazing Mr. X, T-Men, and Raw Deal. Alton also photographed many color movies including Slightly Scarlet (a color film noir).

Profile

John Alton

Movies

'S Wonderful: Creating An American in Paris
Self (archival footage)
This recently produced behind-the-scenes documentary digs into Gershwin's original work, the genesis of the cinematic adaptation, casting, the shoot, and the eventual reception of the film.
Mystery Street: Murder at Harvard
Presents testimony from Patricia King Hanson and Richard Schickel and archival input from cinematographer John Alton.
Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light
Self
Film Noir burrows into the mind; it's disorienting, intriguing and enthralling. Noir brings us into a gritty underworld of lush morbidity, providing intimate peeks at its tough, scheming dames, mischievous misfits and flawed men - all caught in the wicked web of a twisted fate.
Glorious Technicolor
Self - Cinematographer (archive footage)
The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.
Dark and Deadly: Fifty Years of Film Noir
Self
One of the first film noir documentaries, made for British Channel Four, and including interviews with Paul Schrader, Robert Wise, John Dahl, Bryan Singer, Edward Dmytryk, Dennis Hopper, John Alton.
Birdman of Alcatraz
Director of Photography
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
Elmer Gantry
Director of Photography
When hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Both the show and their relationship are threatened, however, when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she has a score to settle with the charismatic performer.
12 to the Moon
Director of Photography
A group of twelve international scientists are the first to land on the moon. In their exploration of the surface, they run into all kinds of trouble, including threatening messages from alien life forms residing on the moon. Just a short nine years before the historic moon landing, this film's understanding of the science of space exploration is fantastically simplistic, but this well-made science fiction film holds interest with a strong cast and intriguingly strange events, photographed with great style by John Alton. Ken Clark, Michi Kobi, Tom Conway, John Wengraf, and Robert Montgomery Jr. portray the intrepid scientists.
Lonelyhearts
Director of Photography
Burdened by a family secret, Adam White lands a job as a newspaper advice columnist. Little does he realize that it's all part of a nasty desire by cynical editor William Shrike to crush the souls of his underlings. Adam feels his readers' pain, and eventually, he takes an assignment to meet with Faye Doyle, who is exasperated by her crippled husband. When Faye tries to seduce Adam, he must choose between his job and his girl.
The Brothers Karamazov
Director of Photography
Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Director of Photography
An Okinawan translator introduces U.S. occupation forces to the joys of local life.
Designing Woman
Director of Photography
A sportswriter who marries a fashion designer discovers that their mutual interests are few, although each has an intriguing past which makes the other jealous.
Tea and Sympathy
Director of Photography
Tom Lee is more interested in the arts than in sports, something that sits uneasily with both his father and his classmates. Tom's school housemaster Bill Reynolds even gives him a hard time for his "effeminate" interests. However, Bill's wife Laura sympathizes with Tom and tries to help him with her own overtures.
The Catered Affair
Director of Photography
At breakfast, Jane announces that she and Ralph are getting married the next week. All Jane and Ralph want is a small wedding with the immediate family and no reception. This is because Jane's parents are poor and Jane and Ralph can borrow a car for their honeymoon. However, at dinner that night all Ralph's parents talk about are the big weddings they gave their daughters and everything escalates. All of a sudden, it is a big wedding breakfast with hundreds of guests. The problem is that for 12 years, Tom has been saving money to buy his own cab and license, but now that he can, all of his money is going towards a wedding neither he, or Jane or Ralph really want.
Slightly Scarlet
Director of Photography
Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.
Tennessee's Partner
Director of Photography
A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...
Pearl of the South Pacific
Director of Photography
Two beachcombers with a yacht join woman-with-a-past Rita on a quest for black pearls on a secret island. Arrived, they find another white man has made himself high priest; but George, the latter's handome son, is fair game for Rita, who lands in the guise of a missionary! The inevitable conflict over the pearls brings violence and corruption to the quiet island.
Escape to Burma
Director of Photography
A fugitive in British Burma hides on a tea plantation, thanks to a mutual attraction with owner Gwen Moore.
The Big Combo
Director of Photography
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.
The Steel Cage
Director of Photography
Drama set in San Quentin prison.
Cattle Queen of Montana
Director of Photography
Sierra Nevada Jones must fight a villainous rancher to regain the land that is rightfully hers.
Passion
Director of Photography
In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.
Silver Lode
Director of Photography
Dan Ballard, a respected citizen in the western town of Silver Lode, has his wedding interrupted by four men led by Ned McCarty, an old acquaintance who, as a US Marshal, arrests Ballard for the murder of his brother and the theft of $20,000. Ballard seeks to stall McCarty while tracking down evidence that will prove his innocence.
Witness to Murder
Director of Photography
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.
Duffy of San Quentin
Director of Photography
San Quentin's new warden crusades for reform and for a framed inmate who loves a nurse.
Take the High Ground!
Director of Photography
Sgt. Thorne Ryan, who once fought bravely in Korea, now serves as a hard-nosed drill instructor to new Army recruits at Fort Bliss, Texas. But is he really the man he is often described as? His fellow instructor, and friend helps him to face the ghosts of his past experiences in Korea. One night in a bar across the border in Juarez, Mexico, Sgt. Ryan meets a lady who begins to turn his life around. Will this be enough to help him deal with the past? Or will he continue to be so hard on his troops?
I, the Jury
Director of Photography
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in his first film adventure. Originally screened in 3D.
Count the Hours!
Director of Photography
A lawyer defends a migrant worker in a sensational murder trial.
Battle Circus
Cinematography
A young Army nurse, Lt Ruth McGara, newly assigned to the 66th MASH during the Korean War, attracts the sexual attention of the unit's commander Dr. (MAJ) Jed Webbe. Webbe, who has a drinking problem, at first wants a "no strings" relationship. McGara is warned by the other nurses of Webbe's womanizing ways. Despite these initial handicaps, their love flourishes against a background of war, enemy attacks, death and injury. The relationship deepens and uplifts both characters.
Apache War Smoke
Director of Photography
An outlaw murders several Apaches and flees to a stagecoach way station with the tribe in hot pursuit. A stagecoach and its passengers have just pulled into the station, as has the stationmaster's father, a former bandit named Peso, and they all find themselves besieged by the Apaches, who want them to turn over the killer to them or they'll take the station and kill everybody. The problem is that the people in the station aren't sure just who among therm is the actual killer.
Washington Story
Director of Photography
A reporter (Patricia Neal) suspects the "nice guy" image of a respected Congressman (Van Johnson) is all a facade and sets out to uncover the truth.
Talk About a Stranger
Director of Photography
Small-town gossips rage over the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
An American in Paris
Director of Photography
Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.
The People Against O'Hara
Director of Photography
A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.
Father's Little Dividend
Director of Photography
In this sequel to Father of the Bride, newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are going to have a baby, leaving her father having to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be a granddad.
Grounds for Marriage
Director of Photography
Opera singer Ina Massine tries to win back former husband Dr. Lincoln I. Bartlett.
Devil's Doorway
Director of Photography
A Native American Civil War hero returns home to fight for his people.
Mystery Street
Director of Photography
When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.
Father of the Bride
Director of Photography
Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Captain China
Director of Photography
The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy. Accused of deliberately scuttling his ship during a typhoon, Captain China hopes to clear himself by signing on as a common seaman on a vessel captain by his former first mate Brendensen. There's no love lost between the two men, and their mutual animosity is intensified when both fall in love with beautiful passenger.
Border Incident
Director of Photography
The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor migrant.
Reign of Terror
Director of Photography
The French Revolution, 1794. The Marquis de Lafayette asks Charles D'Aubigny to infiltrate the Jacobin Party to overthrow Maximilian Robespierre, who, after gaining supreme power and establishing a reign of terror ruled by death, now intends to become the dictator of France.
Red Stallion In The Rockies
Director of Photography
Horse story with Dynamite, The Red Stallion...
The Crooked Way
Director of Photography
A war veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles from a San Francisco veterans hospital hoping to learn who he is and discovers his criminal past.
He Walked by Night
Director of Photography
This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.
The Scar
Director of Photography
Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller assumes a new identity—with unfortunate results.
The Amazing Mr. X
Director of Photography
On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf...then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind...
Canon City
Director of Photography
Prisoners battle each other -- and the police -- when they escape the Colorado State Penitentiary.
Raw Deal
Director of Photography
A revenge-seeking gangster is sent to prison after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. After seducing a beautiful young woman, he uses her to help him carry out his plot for vengeance, leading him to the crazy pyromaniac who set him up.
T-Men
Director of Photography
Two U.S. Treasury ("T-men") agents go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.
Bury Me Dead
Director of Photography
A woman watches her own funeral, then sets out with her lawyer to learn who was in the casket.
Driftwood
Director of Photography
An orphan helps a doctor fight an epidemic in a small western town, in one of Allan Dwan’s closely observed studies in Americana.
The Pretender
Director of Photography
Story of an investment agent who embezzles a large sum from an estate, hoping to cover his crime by marrying the estate's heiress. The girl is already engaged, so he arranges to have the fiance killed. A mix up involving the society section of the newspaper places him in the sights of his own hired gun.
Wyoming
Director of Photography
Small ranchers battle against a land baron trying to take their spreads.
The Trespasser
Director of Photography
Stevie Carson, a newspaper reporter, and Danny Butler, the "morgue" manager on the same newspaper, set out to track down the killer of a colleague, a book-reviewer who was involved with a group of rare book forgers and whose sister has been convinced her editor-fiance, Bill Monroe, killed him.
Hit Parade of 1947
Cinematography
Four young performers form an act and get a job in a nightclub. Before long, one of them gets the idea that the act is all about him, and his changes to the act, to reflect his own ego, causes the quartet to get fired. Later, all make good in other areas of show business...stage, radio and motion pictures.
Affairs of Geraldine
Director of Photography
When the wealthy Mrs. Cooper passes away, she divides her estate between her sons, Henry and Wayne, and her only daughter, the tomboyish Geraldine.
The Magnificent Rogue
Director of Photography
A serviceman returns home at the end of WWII to discover his wife has become the head of her own very successful advertising agency. Comedy.
One Exciting Week
Director of Photography
The citizens of the small town of Midburg are thrilled when one of their native sons, Dan Flannery, becomes a war hero while serving in the Merchant Marines. But before arriving he is stricken with amnesia and falls in with a gang of crooks...
The Madonna's Secret
Director of Photography
This drama is an updated version of Ulmer's 1944 film Bluebeard. It is set in New York and follows the exploits of an eccentric Parisian painter who has come to New York to escape a controversy surrounding his work. The trouble stems when the model he has used in all his work is found floating dead in the Seine.
A Guy Could Change
Director of Photography
A playboy is reformed by his daughter and fiancee.
Song of Mexico
Director of Photography
Actress Carol Adams retires from the theater when she becomes engaged to businessman Gregory Davis, but is increasingly frustrated by Greg's unwavering devotion to his business. Tired of being ignored, Carol leaves her engagement ring with Greg's secretary, Sarah Anderson, and flies to Mexico City to repair her broken heart and visit her friends, Anita and Arturo Martinez. On the plane, Carol meets Ramon Carranza, a handsome singer and movie star who is wildly popular in Mexico.
Girls of the Big House
Director of Photography
A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town woman framed by a man whom she met in a nightclub in the big city. She is not welcomed by the inmates and immediately the prisoners are divided.
Love, Honor and Goodbye
Director of Photography
A lawyer's wife walks out on him, then poses as a French nurse to spy on him.
Lake Placid Serenade
Director of Photography
On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslav Haschek, of Vera Hascheck, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonished the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill, and she is acclaimed a marvel-on-ice.
Storm Over Lisbon
Director of Photography
A nightclub star helps trap an enemy agent on the trail of an American newsman.
Atlantic City
Director of Photography
In 1915, Atlantic City is a sleepy seaside resort, but Brad Taylor, son of a small hotel and vaudeville house proprietor, has big plans: he thinks it can be "the playground of the world." Brad's wheeling and dealing proves remarkably successful in attracting big enterprises and big shows, but brings him little success in personal relationships. Full of nostalgic songs and acts, some with the original artists. Reissued in 1950 as "Atlantic City Honeymoon".
The Lady and the Monster
Director of Photography
A millionaire's brain is preserved after his death by a scientist and his two assistants, only to create a telepathic monster.
The Sultan's Daughter
Director of Photography
A sultan's lovely daughter finds herself courted by a handsome American.
Johnny Doughboy
Director of Photography
As sixteen year old Ann Winters begins a relationship with an older actor to further her career, lookalike fan Penelope Ryan is recruited by a group of former child stars to perform in a USO show.
Ice Capades Revue
Director of Photography
Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.
Moonlight Masquerade
Director of Photography
Two business partners, John Bennett, Sr. and Robert Forrester, are starting to get nervous when the birthday of Victoria, Forrester's daughter, approaches. A long time ago the two men made an arrangement that they would sign over one third of their company to their oldest children when they turned twenty-one, with the condition they married each other within thirty days....
The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine
Director of Photography
A New York radio personality travels to the small town of Fernville to oversee a contest to identify retired safecracker Jimmy Valentine, believed to be living there under an assumed name. The close-knit town of upstanding citizens is understandably upset by this venture, all the moreso when some of its citizens begin to be murdered. The radio personality and the local newspaper's young daughter collaborate on solving the murders while revealing Valentine, who has become one of the suspects.
Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case
Director of Photography
Like the first entry, this one is played mostly for laughs, with Radio's Mister District Attorney. James Ellison replacing Dennis O'Keefe as feckless assistant DA P. Cadwallader Jones. The publisher of a tony fashion magazine is murdered, requiring Jones to sift through a colorful array of suspects. He is helped (?) along by snoopy girl reporter Terry Parker (Virginia Gilmore), who by default is the brightest character in the picture.
Devil Pays Off
Director of Photography
A former Navy man attempts to redeem his honor by exposing a shipping tycoon's dealings with the enemy.
Forced Landing
Director of Photography
On faraway Mosaque, an American pilot finds that he is in a desperate struggle with a military officer intent on sabotaging a local fort.
Melody for Three
Director of Photography
Dr. Christian takes an interest in a young boy, a violin prodigy, whose mother is a divorced music teacher. His interest isn't just in the boy's music career--he believes it would be best for the boy to have his parents back together, and sets out to do just that.
Power Dive
Director of Photography
The story concentrated on a group of test pilots, busily experimenting with a revolutionary all-plastic airplane. Ace flyboy Brad Farrell (Richard Arlen) is determined to prove the practicality of the new aircraft, designed by Professor Blake (Thomas Ross), father of Brad's sweetheart Carol (Jean Parker). Back on solid ground, Brad must vie for Carol's attentions with his own brother, engineer Doug Farrell (Don Castle).
Remedy for Riches
Director of Photography
A small town doctor suspects the stranger in town is promoting an oil swindle. The fourth entry in the "Dr. Christian" series of six films.
Dr. Christian Meets the Women
Director of Photography
A conman arrives in town trying to sell his miracle methods of weight loss to the ladies. It's left to the good Dr. Christian to expose this fake and save a fragile young girl's life.
Three Faces West
Director of Photography
Viennese surgeon Dr. Braun and his daughter Leni come to a small town in North Dakota as refugees from Hitler. When the winds of the Dust Bowl threaten the town, John Phillips leads the townsfolk in moving to greener pastures in Oregon. He falls for Leni, but she is betrothed to the man who helped her and her father escape from the Third Reich. She must decide between the two men.
The Courageous Dr. Christian
Director of Photography
A doctor fights an epidemic that breaks out in the poor section of town and tries to get the rest of the town to help out.
Caminito de Gloria
Director of Photography
A young woman travels with her uncle to the city, there she works with a singer who she will have to replace. Later, she goes blind.
Doce mujeres
Cinematography
Puerta cerrada
Director of Photography
Nina Miranda leaves jail after spending 20 years imprisoned for a murder that she insists she did not commit and recalls the time of her youth.
Puerta cerrada
Director
Nina Miranda leaves jail after spending 20 years imprisoned for a murder that she insists she did not commit and recalls the time of her youth.
El matrero
Cinematography
A gaucho unjustly accused of murder becomes a dangerous nomad.
El último encuentro
Cinematography
Madreselva
Director of Photography
A film star enjoys a romance with the daughter of a puppeteer, but his criminal past threatens to ruin it.
La vida bohemia
Director of Photography
Based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger, and the Giacomo Puccini opera. The young, tubercular seamstress, Mimi, falls in love with the impoverished playwright, Rodolfo, but poverty takes its toll on their relationship. When Mimi meets a wealthy suitor, Viscount Paul, to ask him for financial help, Rodolfo dumps her.
El pobre Pérez
Director of Photography
Juan Pérez is a waiter in a luxurious place where the bachelor party of a man who is going to get married for convenience is done. When a dancer and singer with whom he was entangled, chases him, he uses Perez to get rid of her.
Palermo
Cinematography
Cadetes de San Martín
Cinematography
A rural businessman is robbed by a corrupt partner and his cadet son and good student aspires to run the business.
¡Goal!
Director of Photography
Amalia
Cinematography
The romance between Amalia Sáenz de Olabarrieta –a widow living in Buenos Aires– and the young Unitarian Eduardo Belgrano. Based on the novel by José Mármol.
Loco lindo
Director of Photography
A warehouse employee travels to Buenos Aires with the purpose of rescuing the young woman he is in love with from a gang of criminals.
Compañeros
Cinematography
The exploits of two recently arrived immigrants in Argentina.
Tararira (la bohemia de hoy)
Cinematography
A musical film with a performance by the group that was very fashionable at the time, El Cuarteto Aguilar. It was produced in 1936 but was never released.
Crimen a las 3
Cinematography
A famous singer in love with a woman takes the blame for a crime to save her.
Escala en la ciudad
Director of Photography
The story follows Jaime Lara, a passenger whose ship makes a stop in Buenos Aires for one day. Lara elopes, leaving his wife on board, and walks around the city at night, coming to meet a beautiful yet frivolous hooker, Isa.
El hijo de papá
Cinematography
Film directed and scripted by John Dalton at the beginning of his stay in Argentina. Alton decided to make an independent project under the name of Alton Films, and summoned Luis Sandrini to star it. The result was catastrophic and all copies of the film were destroyed, therefore it is considered to be totally lost.
El hijo de papá
Writer
Film directed and scripted by John Dalton at the beginning of his stay in Argentina. Alton decided to make an independent project under the name of Alton Films, and summoned Luis Sandrini to star it. The result was catastrophic and all copies of the film were destroyed, therefore it is considered to be totally lost.
El hijo de papá
Director
Film directed and scripted by John Dalton at the beginning of his stay in Argentina. Alton decided to make an independent project under the name of Alton Films, and summoned Luis Sandrini to star it. The result was catastrophic and all copies of the film were destroyed, therefore it is considered to be totally lost.
Los Tres Berretines
Cinematography
The members of a Buenos Aires family have three hobbies — "berretines" in Buenos Aires slang — that keep them apart of their duties. Because of that, the family business is going down, and the only one who is concerned is the father, who hopes for his fourth son, an architect, to save the situation.