When he was a child, Archibaldo believed he had killed his governess with the magic powers of a music box. As an adult, the mild-mannered Archibaldo still believes he can literally slay the women--in fact, he confesses to several murders. “Although each of his films contains its share of surrealistic humor, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz is one of Buñuel's few films which could properly be described as a comedy...much of (which) revolves around the repeated frustration of (Archibaldo's) lethal intentions.... (A)n exaggerated happy ending...only makes Buñuel's pessimism the more obvious....” --Chicago Art Institute.
“...One can perceive better than in any of his other films how (Buñuel) manages to inject madness into realism, and how a piece of frothy entertainment can be shot through and through with black humor. He does not indulge in any cunning aesthetic devices or spectacular dream sequences, but pads unobtrusively up to his subject in order to be able to sink his teeth into it more devastatingly.” --Freddy Buache