The Naked Angel (1946)

Interesting facts

The Naked Angel is a 1946 Argentine melodrama film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen and starring Olga Zubarry—in her first leading role—as well as Guillermo Battaglia, Carlos Cores and Eduardo Cuitiño. It was produced by the studio Lumiton during the classical-industrial period of Argentine cinema. Based on the novella Fräulein Else (1924) by Arthur Schnitzler, with adapted screenplay by César Tiempo, the film follows a 17-year-old girl whose father sends her to Rio de Janeiro to borrow money from a sculptor he knows in order to pay off his gambling debts, but upon her arrival the sculptor tells her he will lend it only if she poses nude for him.

Production and style

The Naked Angel was the last film of 1946 from Lumiton, one of the leading studios of the classical-industrial period of Argentine cinema. In addition to being filmed in the studio's soundstages in Munro, Greater Buenos Aires, exterior scenes were shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Director Carlos Hugo Christensen had become a pioneer of erotic cinema in Argentina with Safo, historia de una pasión (1943), one of his previous films for the studio, and The Naked Angel marked the continuation of this style, which—though modest compared to the cinema of subsequent decades—was the first to incorporate strong, sexually-charged elements.

Christensen cast actress Olga Zubarry, who was 16 years old at the time of production, in her first leading role, following her debut in a minor role in his previous film, the racy comedy Adán y la serpiente (1946). In a 2013 interview with film historians Guillermo Russo and Andrés Insaurralde, Zubarry explained that her role in The Naked Angel had been written for the young star Mirtha Legrand, who likely turned it down because the film's subje…

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