López Rubio, José

b. 1903, Motril; d. 1996, Madrid

   Writer and filmmaker

   Playwright, film director, and television writer, whose active career spanned more than five decades, López Rubio grew up in Granada, where he attended performances of touring companies with his parents, who were devotees of the theatre. His first important literary achievement was a collection of short stories, Cuentos inverosímiles (Improbable Tales), in 1924; his only novel, Roque Six, was published in 1928. After initial successes in 1929 and 1930 with two plays written with Eduardo Ugarte, he worked in Hollywood for five years, first as adapter of several early talking pictures for Spanish versions at MGM and then as a leading screen-writer for Fox's Spanish division. López Rubio became a close associate of Charles Chaplin and attended the gatherings of celebrities at Chaplin's home. He returned to Spain after the Civil War and directed six fulllength films, including an adaptation of Benavente's tragedy La malquerida (The Passion Flower) (1940). Resuming playwriting in 1949, he became a master of serio-comic theatre with Celos del aire (In August We Play the Pyrenees) (1950), La venda en los ojos (The Blindfold) (1954), and La otra orilla (The Other Shore) (1954); he also translated more than twenty foreign plays and musicals for the Spanish stage; his last play, La puerta del ángel (The Way of the Angel), was performed in 1985. Many of his nineteen plays are highly selfreflective in the manner of Evreinov and Pirandello and reflect the humoristic techniques of the so-called "Other Generation of 1927", a group of young playwrights who shared common interests and Madrid's literary gatherings in the 1920s, especially those of the brilliant but eccentric Ramon Gómez de la Serna. Several of his comedies were written as vehicles for the prominent stage and film comedienne Conchita Montes. Although some critics have dismissed his comedies as escapist entertainment, revivals of his plays in the post-Franco period have been met with critical respect, and the rebellion of his female protagonists against social norms reveals far more social commentary than was originally attributed to these subtle and sophisticated plays. A notable atypical drama is Las manos son inocentes (Our Hands are Innocent) (1958), a stark study of moral decay and guilt resulting from economic deprivation. López Rubio's first series of television plays, Al filo de to imposible (At the Edge of the Impossible) (1968–9), received the National Prize for Television in 1971. These short scripts offered the familiar serious comedy of his works for the stage as well as a darker humour and irony. A second series, Mujeres insólitas (Exceptional Women) (1976), utilizes an innovative distancing technique to question the legends surrounding some thirteen famous women from Cleopatra to Lola Montes. A stage manager called Pepe appears in each episode and assumes various roles as the protagonist steps in and out of the action to comment on the interpretations others have made of her life. In 1986 the veteran writer was elected a member of the Royal Academy.

   See also: film and cinema; television

   Further reading

   - Holt, M.P. (1980) José López Rubio, Boston, MA: Twayne (a concise study of the writer's life and career, with analyses and plot descriptions of his plays).

   MARION PETER HOLT