Pedro Maso

Those who knew him well say that he was a man as honest as the characters in his films (the surveyor father in The Big Family , for example). Pedro Masó Paulet was born in the capital of Spain, on January 26, 1927, into a family of Catalan origin. His passion for cinema was born when he was very young, and he collaborated playing a small role in House of Cards. “I received 27 pesetas and 50 cents for that job,” recalled Masó. He ended up working as a bellboy, at the age of 14, at the Chamartín studios. “He brought water, coffee and cigarettes to everyone who worked there,” he recounted regularly, as he prided himself on having started in the movie industry at the bottom. Little by little, he rose through the ranks until he became a production assistant on El escándalo, a film byJose Luis Saenz de Heredia . After becoming head of production, he made his debut as a screenwriter in the drama Como la Tierra . Shortly after, he wrote the comedy Manolo, urban guard , together with Manolo J. Salvia , one of the great successes of Spanish cinema, with an unforgettable interpretation of the always secondary Manolo Morán .

Masó always knew how to hit the target. She wrote Las chicas de la Cruz Roja , which was a box office success, as well as Valentine’s Day , an ensemble film that even had a sequel, titled Vuelve San Valentín . The public also responded massively to his two best works by far, the hilarious comedy Robbery at three –in which some workers who are basically good people plan a robbery at their own bank branch– and the endearing The Big Family –also produced by him and directed by Fernando Palacios– with which he brought tears to the audience when little Chencho was lost in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. “Have you seen a child alone, as well as lost?” Asked the unrepeatable Pepe Isbert who received a huge reprimand for returning without the boy. It had two film sequels – La familia y uno más and la deteriorated La familia, gracias bien – and much later Masó himself brought together a large part of the original cast in La Familia… 30 years later , a boring television special.

In Masó’s filmography as screenwriter-director, Tres de la Cruz Roja stands out , a title that very well reflected the typical Spanish ‘picaresque’, through the adventures of three soccer fans who become Red Cross volunteers in order to pass free to parties It had great works by Tony Leblanc and José Luis López Vázquez , who were also in one of the best films to come out of Masó’s pen, El astronauta , a Hispanic parody of science fiction cinema. He also wrote Operation Plus Ultra , Sister Citroen , The midshipmen , Tourism is a great invention orThe city is not for me , the most representative comedy by Paco Martínez Soria . He debuted as a director with Las Ibéricas FC and although his films as a director are very minor ( Las adolescentes , La miel , Experiencia prematrimonial ), he was very successful as a television director with the series Anillos de oro , Segunda enseñanza and Brigada central . His last work was Robbery at three… thirty , a deteriorated remake of the famous film, in which he worked as producer and screenwriter.