. Buñuelian black humor informs the social satire of this first masterpiece by Marco Ferreri (La Grande Bouffe). An elderly widower, Don Anselmo (played by the renowned Spanish actor José Isbert) is the powerless patriarch of his family. At loose ends in the large family apartment, he covets a motorized wheelchair as the key to his freedom. With this, he can buzz around town with his disabled pal Don Lucas (whose own wheelchair is a custom job), join in the wheelchair races, and become part of the fraternity of the disabled. When his family, citing his good health, refuses to indulge the request, our hero takes drastic steps: killing the kids off with rat poison, he inherits the family money and can purchase the wheelchair of his dreams. Playing on the very prevalent lack of interest in the disabled and their needs, El Conchecito is also a mordant satire on the bourgeoisie. "The pleasures here lie in the vividness of the characters...The family members, grumpy Don Lucas, the bossy servant, the avuncular wheelchair salesman...they're all real people in real places. And by the end, the chuckles of recognition have built up to cheers for Anselmo's desperate defiance" (New York Times).