Emma Penella

Acting

Emma Penella

Born 1930-03-02 · Madrid, Spain

Manuela Ruiz Penella known as Emma Penella (Madrid, March 2, 1931 - Ibidem, August 27, 2007) was a Spanish film, theater and television actress. Daughter of the politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso and Magdalena Penella Silva, granddaughter of the composer Manuel Penella Moreno, great-granddaughter of the also musician Manuel Penella Raga, sister of the also actresses Elisa Montés (1934) and Terele Pávez (1939-2017). She married film producer Emiliano Piedra with whom she had three daughters: Emma, Lola and Emiliana. She was also the aunt of the actress Emma Ozores (daughter of her sister Elisa Montés and the actor Antonio Ozores). Actress of marked personality and prestige since the 1950s, she triumphed in cinema thanks to films such as Luis García Berlanga's El verdugo (The Executioner) and maintained intense theatrical activity. She renewed her popularity in her later years participating in the television series Aquí no hay quien viva (2003-2006) and La que se avecina (2007).

Acting credits

Pídele cuentas al rey poster
5.6

Fidel, an Asturian miner, after the closure of the mine where he works, decides to walk to Madrid with his family, to ask the king why the Constitution is not met, specifically the article that points out that all the Spanish citizens have the right to have a decent work. Will the king receive him?

Pídele cuentas al rey

2000

Our Father poster
5.0

The story of a Spanish Cardinal who is told he only has one more year to live. He decides to return to his hometown, after an absence of 30 years, to sort out his affairs.

Our Father

1985

El crimen de Don Benito poster
4.4

July 18, 1902. A woman and her daughter are brutally murdered in the Extremaduran town of Don Benito. Everybody knows the depraved town boss was responsible, but nobody dares to declare against him.

El crimen de Don Benito

1991

The Executioner poster
7.6

An undertaker gets married to an old executioner's daughter and, although he doesn't like it, must continue the profession of his father-in-law after his retirement.

The Executioner

1963

Red Fish poster
7.1

Ivón, a chorus girl, Hugo, a failed writer, and Carlos, Hugo's young son, arrive at a seaside hotel on a stormy night.

Red Fish

1955

Fedra, the Devil's Daughter poster
7.0

Estrella, a wild young woman, is lusted after by every man and therefore hated by the female community.

Fedra, the Devil's Daughter

1956

Bulgarian Lovers poster
5.6

Graying Spaniard Daniel has a healthy budget for indulging in the finer things in life. Daniel's favorite luxury is playing sponsor to younger men amid the lights and sights of Madrid's gay club scene. After Daniel shares a night with handsome Bulgarian emigre Kyril, he finds himself consumed with an insatiable lust for the charismatic foreigner. But, as their relationship takes shape, Daniel's latest conquest reveals his own manipulative tendencies.

Bulgarian Lovers

2003

The Tobacconist of Vallecas poster
6.3

Leandro, an unemployed mason and his friend, Tocho, attempt to rob a tobacconist in the Vallecas district of Madrid, but Mrs. Justa, the tobacconist, impedes it alerting the neighbors who notify police. Inside the shop, the confrontation between the two friends and their 'hostages', the tobacconist and her niece Angeles, is relaxing, and a budding sympathy arises between them.

The Tobacconist of Vallecas

1987

El amor brujo poster
7.0

In a Gypsy village, the fathers of Candela and José promise their children to each other. Years later, the unfaithful José marries Candela but while defending his lover Lucía in a brawl, he is stabbed to death. Carmelo, who secretly loves Candela since he was a boy, is arrested while helping José and unfairly sent to prison. Four years later he is released and declares his love for Candela. However, the woman is cursed by a bewitched love and every night she goes to the place where José died to dance with his ghost.

El amor brujo

1986

The Shadow Battalion poster
5.8

Dreams, hopes and passions of the inhabitants of a populous and humble tenement in Madrid. Among them, an inventor who invents always what is already invented, a composer, a hostess, a locksmith, a delivery of a pastry ...

The Shadow Battalion

1957

Viento de cólera poster
4.3

Two soldiers accompanied by two women enter the Baztán valley on horseback. They are deserters from the army of the Indies who are fleeing to Italy. They arrive to claim the inheritance of one of them, León de Balanza, Captain in Peru and soldier without fortune. They are looking for old Balanzategui who works the land of his ancestors. The old man's refusal to distribute the farmland's land causes a serious conflict.

Viento de cólera

1988

The Search poster
6.0

Manuel Jacques Perrin is a young man from the country who tries to make it in Madrid in this somber melodrama. He struggles to survive in the unforgiving city where only the strongest will prosper. Manuel defends himself and kills a murderous thief in a fight then quietly waits for the police to reach the scene of the crime.

The Search

1966

Scano Boa poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Scano Boa

1961

First Surrender poster
3.8

Giallo about a man plotting to kill his wife for her money.

First Surrender

1971

The Eyes Leave a Trace poster
6.3

Martin, a frustrated lawyer who sells perfumes, is reunited with Robert, an old, bright fellow student, and falls in love with his wife. One night Robert enlists the help of Martin, because he believes he has killed a man who was about her lover. Martin sees an opportunity ...

The Eyes Leave a Trace

1952

Condemned to Hang poster
6.1

Andalusia, Spain, 19th century. The roads are infested with bandits who sow panic among travelers. Although most of them are ruthless killers, Lucero is a true champion of the disinherited.

Condemned to Hang

1953

Golden Goddess of Rio Beni poster
8.8

An aviator of a commercial line disappears in the Brazilian jungle. Two friends organize an expedition to find him. As if there were not enough dangers in the Amazon, three members of the expedition have another goal: to steal a golden goddess.

Golden Goddess of Rio Beni

1964

La hora incógnita poster
4.9

A devastating atomic device is about to fall on a small town, which is evacuated. Only thirteen inhabitants remain, gathered in a church.

La hora incógnita

1963

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Doblones de a ocho

1990

The Regent's Wife poster
4.8

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Clarín, which narrates the difficulties of Ana Ozores to adapt to the sordidness of life in Vetusta, a provincial city of northern Spain inspired in Oviedo. The young Ana, married to a retired regent, lives oppressed by the provincial hypocrisy and the mystical fears of an absorbing religion. Sexually dissatisfied, beset by constant erotic dreams, she reveals in her confessional her intimate torments, and her confessor begins to feel a morbid passion for her. At the same time, Álvaro Mesía, a Don Juan, intends to seduce Ana.

The Regent's Wife

1974

Truhanes de honor poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Truhanes de honor

1952

Alegre juventud poster
8.0

Luis, Julio, Miguel and Carlos are four young men who, moved by a strong religious vocation, have left behind family, friends, work and a love of youth to enter a seminary and start a life consecrated to God.

Alegre juventud

1963

Un marido de ida y vuelta poster
4.6

Adaptation of the eponymous play of Jardiel Poncela. A husband dominated by his overbearing wife dies victim of a heart attack the day she forces him to shave his beloved beard to go to a costume ball dressed as a bullfighter. Its spectrum then begins to walk around the house and the most unexpected cause tangles. When she finally decides to settle definitely get materialize and get his wife, who has meanwhile become a being sweet and understanding.

Un marido de ida y vuelta

1957

Doña Francisquita poster
7.2

Francisquita secretly loves Fernando, but he is in love with the beautiful and fickle Aurora.

Doña Francisquita

1952