It’s the case of the missing mother. When Regina de Alba (Silvia Pinal) returns from her twelve-year stay in Europe in Alberto Gout’s La sospechosa (US: The Suspect), her slimy stepfather Alejandro (Victor Parra) makes excuses for why her mother Isabel is nowhere to be found (she’s ill, she’s on vacation), but Regina suspects something far more sinister. Eventually learning that her mother was poisoned by her attending physician and that she is now the sole heir to her grandfather’s fortune, Regina takes on the urgent task of uncovering the truth, which involves confronting Dr. Raul Lavalle (Miguel Torruco) in his prison cell, seducing a male nurse named Ramon (Raúl Ramírez), being chased down the street, strangled, and shot at, and stealing evidence from a corpse. Gout creates deeply noir atmospherics outside at night, every dark corner seemingly a new threat on Regina’s life, while the nightclub settings (note the enormous donkey for a door at El Burro) offer a temporary respite from danger, even tempting Regina to break into song on the dance floor.