Juan de Orduna

Born in the capital of Spain on December 27, 1900, into an aristocratic family, Juan de Orduña y Fernández-Shaw wanted to be an actor from a very young age, when his father installed a small theater in the garden of his house that he had stories to their relatives at impromptu functions. He studied high school at the traditional San Isidro Institute, and although he began Civil Engineering – his father’s career – he soon abandoned it to study Law.

But he only thought of being an actor, so he finally decided to take to the stage and managed to be accepted in the company of Emilio Thuiller, one of the greats of the time. He goes from high school to being the leading man and having his own company. Although at that time he thought that cinema –even in the silent era– was second-rate entertainment, finally in 1924 he agreed to take part in La revoltosa and La chavala , both by Florián Rey , and also in La casa de la Troya , where Rey He worked as an actor. Both became great friends and the man from Madrid ended up following in the footsteps of the Aragonese as an actor recycled into a director.

Orduña’s great success as a silent actor was Boy , by Benito Perojo, which had international repercussions. He saw her in France Jean Renoir who was about to recruit Orduña for his famous Nana de él (1926) , but he had to give up because he was called up for compulsory military service. Upon returning to civilian life, he debuted as a director with Una aventura de cine , with a script by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez . Pompeyo Pimpollo was also the linotypist who wanted to be a movie star in El misterio de la Puerta del Sol , by Francisco Elías from Huelva., the first Spanish sound film. He did not quite feel comfortable as an actor with the advent of sound, so little by little he abandoned that facet, although in 1935 he took part in the emblematic Nobleza baturra , by Florián Rey (which he would cover much later as a director).

After the hiatus of the Civil War, Orduña lavished himself less and less as an actor, and directed Because I Saw You Cry , a drama about a young woman raped and, above all, the military drama about male camaraderie . To me the legion! , his first great success as a director, with great work by Alfredo Mayo , who was becoming the great star of Spanish cinema in the 1940s. “Where I find myself most is directing,” said Orduña.

Mayo would put himself in his hands again in the inconsequential but charming romantic comedy Deliciously foolish , along with one of the most popular actresses in the postwar period, Amparo Rivelles . She returned to have a great acceptance, as well as the also carefree Ella, él y sus millions De él. He came out of his foray into religious cinema with Misión blanca , with Fernando Fernán Gómez , about missionaries in Guinea.

Curiously, Orduña does not allow himself great technical fanfare, his plans are nothing more than academic and correct, but nevertheless he connects like no other Spanish filmmaker of the time with the tastes of the public. Orduña was especially lucky with theatrical adaptations, such as Un drama nuevo , based on the work by Manuel Tamayo y Baus , and La Lola se va a los puertos (1947), based on the text by the brothers Antonio Machado and Manuel Machado.

But Orduña will be remembered above all for his historical productions with a relatively large budget (huge compared to the average for Spanish cinema). His greatest ‘bombshell’ and possibly his best title is the famous Locura de amor , also based on another text by Tamayo and Baus, which exalted Aurora Bautista as Juana la Loca. He repeated with this actress –and also with Jorge Mistral and Sara Montiel– in Pequeñeces , a drama in the times of Amadeo de Saboya that constitutes one of the highlights of his filmography, and one that has best withstood the test of time. And since she continued to make money at the box office, she again turned to Bautista to be the protagonist ofAgustina de Aragón (1950) , with an impressive start with the heroine defending Zaragoza with a cannon.

The historical falsehoods of Christopher Columbus , with Fredrich March as Columbus, caused Cifesa to launch Alba de América , with which Orduña was not able to satisfy everyone either, since some association protested because in their opinion it dwarfed Fernando the Catholic. When he finished editing, he suffered a spectacular traffic accident that left him hospitalized for three months, during which he had time to think that he wanted to make a cinema that was as humane as possible.

Orduña was a prolific author. He had time to adapt Vicente Blasco Ibáñez , in Cañas y barro (1954) , and Pío Baroja , in Zalacaín the adventurer . He returned to religious themes with the adaptation of the work by Carlos Arniches El padre Pitillo , and with his interesting Teresa de Jesús (1961) , a biography of the charismatic saint of Ávila in which he recovers Aurora Bautista. He also put a lot of effort into filming a new version of Nobleza Baturra (1965) , which does not reach the level of the one he filmed as an actor.

When she found out that her great friend Sara Montiel, who had just filmed Veracruz and Yuma in Hollywood , was on vacation in Spain, she took the opportunity to ask her to star in El último cuplé under her command . It had such an enormous impact that her protagonist no longer returned to American cinema, but instead stayed in her country to shoot similar films.

He finished his career shooting 13 adaptations of classic zarzuelas for TVE, the comedy at the service of Lina Morgan La tonta del bote , and You have made me lose my judgment , bland Spanish to the greatest glory of Manolo Escobar . He passed away on February 3, 1974, after suffering a myocardial infarction. Numerous film personalities, such as actresses Aurora Bautista and Sara Montiel, bid him their last farewell at his burial in the Almudena cemetery in Madrid. “Silence, today there is no filming,” headlined the newspaper Abc.