The print recently rediscovered in the Berlin Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv with the title In der roten Hölle corresponds to the film Carmen fra i rossi, which was made in two versions. Besides the Italian version there also exists one in Spanish, titled Frente de Madrid, made with a practically identical cast, apart from the principal character, played by Rafael Rivelles instead of Fosco Giachetti.

The outbreak of the National uprising separates Javier Navarro, a young engineer, from his fiancée Carmen. She remains in Madrid, where the Republicans are holding out against Franco’s besieging troops, while Javier joins the Nationalists surrounding the capital. During one of his missions to Madrid, Javier meets his beloved, who is working in a locale frequented by Republicans. She clandestinely transmits by radio secret information about them to the Nationalists. Back at his base, Javier hears on the radio that Carmen and her companions have been discovered by the Republicans. She dies, and Javier, distraught, leaps out of the tenches and is hit by enemy fire. Before dying, he encounters a badly injured Republican soldier, who dies a moment before him.

Compared with films concerned with the conflict following the defeat of the Republicans, which present the war as a battle between antagonistic factions in which there is no place for the defeated, this film presents some substantial differences. Neville’s proposed conclusion has been read as a premature reconciliation. In Spain the censors cut out the final scene in which the protagonist and the Republican militiaman, sharing the last hours of their lives, embrace, vainly seeking a sense to the war. Contrary to what was believed, in the copy of the Italian version found in the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv the last scene has also been suppressed.

Felix Monguilot-Benzal