After an opening sequence highlighting the oppressive bustling and “agitated nerves” of the streets of Buenos Aires, Hugo Fregonese’s Apenas un delincuente (US: Hardly a Criminal) soon settles into a prison setting where the grinding gears are all in the head. Jorge Salcedo stars as José Moran, a self-centered bank employee from humble origins and tired of the grind who devises a ploy to earn a fortune after his law student girlfriend Laura (Linda Lorena) mentions that the maximum sentence for embezzlement is six years in prison: José will steal a half million pesos from his bank (a nerve-racking sequence), hide the loot in a ship’s carcass (but claim he lost it on the roulette wheel), and take his sentence, emerging six years later to enjoy his fortune. The plan goes off without a hitch until José reveals the location of the money to his brother Carlos (Tito Alonso) and becomes paranoiac that Carlos has fled with it to live the high life meant for José. Escape attempts, double crosses, and murder ensue. Fregonese’s flawless compositions abound in the prison: note the symmetrical stances of prisoners in their stripes, the night watchman on the bridge, the eve-of-the-escape praying in the chapel with the Last Supper art behind them.