Kitchen sink melodrama as told by Luis Bunuel.

In the filmography of Luis Bunuel, the celebrated Spanish surrealist director, A Woman Without Love, is an amazing leap from the youth gone wild social commentary of Los Olvidados. But within three years of that film, Bunuel was taking a shot at some kind of commercial success by taking on this straightforward adaptation of Guy De Maupassant novel's about deceit and the disintegration of a family.

The plot revolves around Rosario, a sad young woman married to an older man (a decision made for her by her parents) and with a young son whom she dotes on. By happenstance, a young man - Julio - enters their lives. He and Rosario take to each other instantly, falling instantly in love. They begin an affair, but it ends badly when Rosario refuses to leave her husband, not wishing to break up her family.

Twenty years later, Rosario has another son who is graduating from medical school. As they plan for the future, word comes that Julio has died and decided to leave all of his money to the younger son. Because of this, the truth about who the son's father really is starts to trickle out, setting off events that begin to tear the family apart.

There are underpinnings of some classic Spanish filml themes in this film - the poor girl "sold" to a rich man, the earthy, romantic Julio vs. the gruff, bourgeois Carlos - but it is hidden under this gauzy story that seems more appropriate for a Douglas Sirk film. And forced to work with someone else's script, Bunuel's direction suffers as well, carrying none of the visual flair or bold imagery that we're used to seeing.

It's a film that Bunuel himself discounted as his worst, and with no one to argue with him, the film never had a proper release here in the States until now. Even if the film isn't what we'd necessarily want to see from the famed director, we should be happy to have this DVD to have a even fuller understanding of the director's career.