Proposed double feature

Two reccommended movies I’ve seen recently:

The cast of Portrait d’un Asssasin (France, 1949) includes Erich von Stroheim, Arletty (the freaky love-interest from Les Enfants du Paradis) and Latin bombshell Maria Montez, whose resume includes White Savage and Gypsy Wildcat. The opening could be by Camus: a motorcyclist shoots a woman he believes to be his wife because he fears his own death. The victim turns out to be a femme fatale who urges daredevils into deadly stunts, such as the impossible “double looping”. Elvis and Barbara Stanwyk remade the movie in 1964 as Roustabout.

Victimas del Pecado (Mexico, 1951) features two rival pimp/nightclub owners: one wears a zoot suit and employs Pres Prado, the King of Mambo; the other wears a white cowboy hat and has a mariachi band that follows him wherever he goes playing a mariachi train song. This may be because his club is called the La Maquina Loca, perhaps, though probably not, a reference to Witkacy’s Szalona lokomotywa. The zoot-suit pimp forces one of his girls to throw the child she had by him into the trash can. Suffering, redemption and some brilliant Afro-Cuban dancing follow.