Paco l'infaillible (1979)
Directed by Didier Haudepin

Comedy / Drama
aka: Paco the Infallible

Film Synopsis

Madrid, 1928.  Paco is a young man who has a profession that many would envy.  He is paid to inseminate young women who work as wet nurses for the city's wealthier families.  Being a wet nurse is one of the best paid jobs an unskilled peasant girl can hope to find in Spain at this time, but for those who take on this work they need to keep having babies of their own so that they can supply their employers' delicate offspring with milk.  This is where Paco comes in - he is always willing to supply his services as a baby maker, for a reasonable fee.  His fertility seems to be of superhuman proportions, and it isn't long before he acquires the nickname Paco the Infallible.

Naturally, Paco will have nothing to do with the hundreds of babies he has fathered over the years.  As far as he is concerned, they are nothing to do with him, just the mere by-product of a simple commercial arrangement.  The only woman Paco has any real interest in is Maria, one of his former clients who now lives with him and assists him in his work as a nurse.  She is the one woman in Madrid that Paco has not succeeded in getting pregnant, most likely because she is infertile.  One day, Paco decides to do a good turn for a friend of his, Pocapena.  A young doctor from the provinces, the latter is an occasional visitor to Madrid so that he indulge his carnal appetites without getting himself into trouble at home.

Pocapena's over-developed libido would seem to be completely insatiable.  Desperate for a new batch of female conquests the randy young doctor asks Paco to bring him into contact with any woman he knows who has need of a virile young man like him to spice up her love life.  Always willing to help a friend, Paco obliges, but he soon realises he has set himself up with a professional rival.  When it gets out that Pocapena is offering for free the exact same service that Paco demands payment for the latter's faithful clientele begin deserting him in droves.  Paco's woes are further compounded by the news that his wife Maria is finally expecting a baby - just as the national economy takes a dramatic turn for the worse...
© James Travers
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Film Credits

  • Director: Didier Haudepin
  • Script: Nadie Feuz, José María Forqué, Didier Haudepin, Andrés Laszlo (novel)
  • Cinematographer: Gilberto Azevedo
  • Music: Serge Perathoner
  • Cast: Alfredo Landa (Paco), Patrick Dewaere (Pocapena), Christine Pascal (María), Jean Bouise (Ambroise), Eduardo Calvo (Don Federico), José Lifante (Le médecin), Rafael Díaz (L'homme aux fusées), Ismael Merlo (Marqués), Juan Lombardero (Le patron taverne), Ángel Alcázar (Le neveu), Georges Rigaud (Octavio), José Riesgo (Ponte)
  • Country: France / Spain
  • Language: French
  • Support: Color
  • Runtime: 85 min
  • Aka: Paco the Infallible

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