La Fièvre Monte à El Pao on AllMovie

The French-Mexican Fever Mounts at El Pao is better known by its alternate title Republic of Sin. This Luis Bunuel-directed head-on collision between elegance and decadence stars Gerard Philipe as a dying diplomat from a South American dictatorship. His deterioration is paralleled with the moral malaise all about him. Ironically, this was Philipe's last film; he died in Paris of a heart attack while the picture was still in production. The original Spanish title of Fever Mounts at El Pao was Los Ambiciosos.