A sort of Latin American twist on Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) with a little bit of Gaslight (1944) thrown in for good measure, Hugo de Carril’s Más allá del olvido (US: Beyond Oblivion) is a semi-Gothic noir blanketed with a heavy layer of melodrama. After the sudden death of his beautiful wife Blanca (Laura Hidalgo), the disconsolate Fernando de Arellana (played by the director himself) attempts to drown his pain first in alcohol addiction (“a very stupid and dirty death”) and then by escaping his mansion and household staff to travel the world. Months later, in a seedy cabaret in an unspecified city, he encounters a woman named Mónica (also Hidalgo) with a striking resemblance to Blanca performing on stage as part of a knife throwing act; after her initial attempt to swindle him, and despite the jealousy of her shady, knife-wielding partner Luis (Eduardo Rudy), whom we soon learn is also a murderer, Mónica ultimately agrees to marry Fernando and return with him to his estate. Unbeknownst to the new couple, Luis follows close behind. It’s soon clear that Fernando wants to turn the low-class Mónica into his glamorous, dead wife (he dims the gaslights throughout the house so he’ll see her less clearly), which, of course, will only lead to all sorts of tragedy, including Mónica’s emotional collapse. De Carril knows how to create dramatic compositions that take advantage of opulent surroundings, often emphasizing what is absent rather than what’s present; savor the scene when Mónica is allowed in the dead wife’s bedroom where her dress still lies on her bed and the dent of her head is still visible in the pillow. Gloria Ferrandiz lovingly plays housekeeper Sabina whose horror at the sight of Mónica gradually gives way to kindness.