Number 243 on IMDb's Top 250
During a formal dinner party at the home of Senor Nobile and his wife, Lucia, the servants unaccountably leave their posts until only the head butler is left. After dinner, the guests adjourn to the music room where one of the women plays a piano sonata. Later, instead of leaving, the guests remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night. By morning it is apparent that for some inexplicable reason, they are trapped in the room. Days pass, and their plight intensifies; they become quarrelsome, hostile, and hysterical. One of the guests, Russell, dies and his body is placed in a large cupboard; Beatriz and Eduardo, a young couple about to be married, lock themselves in a closet and commit suicide; a sheep is slaughtered and roasted on a fire made from floorboards; the host gives his secret supply of morphine to Leonora, whose physician, another guest, reveals to others that she is dying of cancer, but the drugs are stolen by Francisco and Juana, an incestuous brother and sister; and Ana, a practitioner of witchcraft, invokes the demons of hell while lapsing into feverish hallucinations. Eventually, Raul suggests that Nobile is responsible for their predicament and that he must be sacrificed. As Nobile offers to take his own life, Letitia sees that they are all in the same positions as when their plight began. Obeying her instructions, they retrace their conversation and movements and discover that they are free to leave the room. To celebrate their salvation, the guests attend mass at the cathedral. When the service is over, they find that they, along with the priest and the entire congregation, are once again trapped. The situation on the church provokes a riot on the streets and the military apparently take over the town...hilarity ensues, I think.
Trivia: In the church scene - the first scene of the movie to be shot - Rita Macedo appears as "Lucia de Nobile". She was not able to complete the film due to her pregnancy.
What the heck? This was truly a strange movie. All the servants feel that something is going to happen so they leave. The guests are trapped in the room, but not by a lock or anything, they just can't leave the room, no real reason is given. Likewise, everybody outside can seem to figure out how to get in to see if anybody is still alive. I guess it is a study in how close the supposedly sophisticated people are to animals given the right environment or some such nonsense. And then there is the name, The Exterminating Angel, the only religious part of the movie is the end when they go to the church, if an Angel was doing this, don't you think more would have been made about them being somehow lacking in religious fevor or something? Strange, really strange.
Up Last (Hopefully): The Man WHo Would Be King, Sean Connery and Michael Caine! Adventure in all its glory!
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