Early on in Mario Soffici’s La secta del trébol (US: The Clover Sect), we see a movie theater marquis promoting a showing of Fritz Lang’s classic 1944 noir, The Woman in the Window, a film whose famous twist ending hints at the dreaminess and dualism that we’re about to encounter. It turns out Soffici’s film presents a layered consciousness in protagonist Robert Espinoza (Pedro López Lagar), a writer whose desperation to sleep is interrupted by a spontaneous police interrogation related to a recent murder; the rest of the film comprises Espinoza’s recounting of his questionable story in flashbacks. Sometimes inexplicably miscategorized as a comedy, The Clover Sect‘s script by prolific Argentine screenwriter Tulio Demicheli stretches believability on multiple occasions, but the mystery and intrigue keep viewers fully engaged despite the relatively short 75-minute running time. Amelia Vargas plays enigmatic love interest Tamara, a nightclub singer who appears to serve as Espinoza’s accomplice and foil at the same time. The police, led by commissioner Rojas (Alberto Terrones), offer occasionally lighthearted detours which add to the psychological uncertainty (their barging into Espinoza’s apartment with spotlights to set up an instant film noir interrogation setting comes across as near parody). The film’s highlight is arguably Gori Muñoz’ production design, his baroque sets including a dangerous concert hall, a Chinese gang headquarters, an abandoned stone mansion, and, most notably, the shadowy apartment building of the opening sequence in which the first murder takes place amidst iron tracery, Wellesian camera angles, and the rumbles of a thunderstorm.