El Crack (1981 film)

El Crack English The Crack is a 1981 Spanish film drama cowritten and directed by Jos Luis Garci, starring Alfredo Landa. Jos Luis Garci won the Oscar to Best Foreign picture the next year with his next film Volver a Empezar Begin The Beguine, the first Oscar won by Spanish cinema. The plot was inspired by the novels written by Dashiell Hammett, to whom the film is dedicated. It is a detective film and basically a Spanish film noir.

One day, Francisco Medina, a widower and mysterious man, comes to Germans office and asks him to find his daughter, Isabel, who wasyears old when she ran away two years ago. The only reference he can provide is a former boyfriend she had, Nico, who now works as a radio DJ. Germn comes in contact with him and learns that she became pregnant of him Nico says he told her that it was fine for him and they could have the baby, but her father opposed and forced her to have an abortion in a London clinic. Just after she recovered from the abortion she run away from home and Nico lost her trail, until half a year later he got word she was in Madrid working in Las Gatitas, a highend nightclub, as an escort a barelylegal cover for prostitution.Indirectly it is shown that, in the best cinemanoir line, Germn is a coldblooded, hardboiled man, disenchanted of a lonely life and tired of his dirty work and the violent underworld surrounding it, but nevertheless in his spare time, Germn has a blossoming relationship with Carmen, a nurse he met when he was in hospital some time ago. Carmen has a fouryearold daughter, Maite, born from a former relation with a married doctor. Carmen has not overcome completely the end of that relation, but reveals to Germn she likes being with him, but she still needs some time and patience from him. The detective is so fond of the little girl Maite, he often takes her to or from school and plays with her, and evidently his only moments of real happiness are while being with Carmen and Maite. ........

Source: Wikipedia