by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Financed in the U.S. and filmed in Spain, Day of Fear was one of the first films to be directed at a bilingual audience. Essentially an American gangster melodrama with a Latino accent, the film stars Fernando Rey as a Madrid mobster who forms an uneasy alliance with a young doctor (Ruben Rojo) and a nurse (Elena Barrios). The doctor needs the mobster's aid in stemming a deadly epidemic, which rages unchecked because of the crooked activities of a dishonest medico (Rolf Wanka). His sense of humanity aroused, the gangster strong-arms his associates into releasing the rare drugs necessary to stem the epidemic. Day of Fear comes to a particularly exciting climax at a deserted amusement park.
characteristics
- Mob
- Nurse
- Redemption
- Yakuza
- Medicine
- Medication
- Doctor
- Epidemic
- Gang