Possibly the best film noir that can be found in Spanish cinema. Garci gets a film that is profoundly authentic, but that also manages to be a lucid homage to the American detective genre. Apart from the good performance of Alfredo Landa in a different kind of character, the film has a melancholic tone, supported by a grayish but beautiful vision of Madrid. It is undoubtedly one of the best films of José Luis Garci.