As a follow-up to A sangre fría  (1959), director Juan Bosch once again casts Arturo Fernandez to star in Regresa un desconocido (US: A Stranger Returns), a late Spanish noir that follows businessman Juan Valdés (Fernandez) through an expedition of tragedy, prison, and revenge.  Having accused another player of cheating at cards, Valdés gets in a fight with the man, killing him by accident. When the leader of the group, the ambiguous Ignacio (George Rigaud), offers to cover up the homicide for a price, Valdés embezzles from his company, but is soon found out, convicted, and thrown in prison for three years. Having learned that he was scammed into taking the fall for a murder, he hunts down the gang members, including syndicate head Mario (Rafael Navarro), to take revenge. Part of the series of Barcelona-based noirs during the late 50’s and early 60’s, the film is packed with noir elements, both narratively and visually, backroom poker games under ceiling lamps, corpse disposal over a ledge at night, characters prowling the back alleys of Chinatown and on a strangely quiet beach, a violent shootout unfolding through the steam geysers in a factory basement. Cinematographer Larraya experiments with twisting angles in key scenes, the camera at times in the ceiling or on the floor, often rotating during action shots like a kaleidoscope. José Solá’s eclectic score shifts from groovy jazz to high strings, nightclub numbers to awkwardly incorporated harps.