"Had the Spanish cinema been able to enjoy something like a 'normal' development in the Forties, there is little doubt that playwright Enrique Jardiel Poncela would have been a major figure within it. Boulevard comedies that powerfully anticipate 'theater of the absurd,' his works form an interesting parallel to the dark comedies (Él, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz) of Buñuel's Mexican period. In Rafael Gil's adaptation of his Eloisa..., a student returns from abroad to his spooky family castle, complete with suspicious servants and hints of congenital madness. When a murder is discovered, he arouses not only the interest of the police, but also a young woman fascinated by the possibility of his homicidal past. The tone swings from Edgar Allan Poe to slapstick comedy, yet the sense of characters trying to make sense of an increasingly senseless situation is never lost." -Richard Peña