In the decade between 1945 and 1955, 34 color films were made in Spain. More than half of them were shot and processed using a domestic color process called Cinefotocolor, conceived by Catalan engineer and industrialist Daniel Aragonés. It was one of several somewhat artisanal processes that attempted to break through in the post-war European film market (alongside those such as Dufaycolor, Gevacolor and Ferraniacolor), taking advantage of Germany’s wartime defeat – an outcome that undermined the prewar dominance of Agfacolor as the alternative to the costly American three-strip Technicolor. Aragonés’s initiative is best understood within the context of the forced self-sufficiency of the Spanish economy, a result of the country’s almost complete political isolation during the long, post-war, autocratic rule of General Franco.

During the early 1950s, the “españoladas” – those films produced under Franco’s dictatorship that forcedly promoted certain idealised and stereotypical Spanish characters and themes – played an important role in the debate on the exportability of Spanish cinema. If Carmen Sevilla was the muse of Gevacolor, Paquita Rico (Rumbo, 1949) and Lola Flores (La niña de la venta, 1951) became the two emerging international stars of Cinefotocolor. The best example of this folklorism, not without its own curious contradictions, was Debla, la virgen gitana (1951), which provided its star Paquita Rico with a personal triumph at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.

As more directors and officials became aware of Italian Realism setting trends in European cinema, Debla’s success offered Daniel Aragonés the opportunity to market his Cinefotocolor process in France (where it was known as Realcolor) and to bet on a super US co-production. Muchachas de Bagdad / Babes in Bagdad (1951) was shot in Barcelona in a double-language version with an international cast. Its commercial failure was due not so much to the industrial approach it used, but rather to a governmental restructuring of the Spanish–American Cinematographic Agreement.

In total, 21 films were made using Cinefotocolor, and they illustrate both the aesthetics and the politics of the late 1940s Spain. Among the first were Emisora Films’ avant-garde En un rincón de España (1948) along with some hesitant attempts in collaboration with Catalonian producer Daniel Mangrané. Later, came two great successes: Duende y misterio del flamenco (1952), a visual encyclopedia of flamenco singing, and Doña Francisquita (1952), one of the best on-screen representations of the Zarzuela operatic tradition. Next came some experiments with the booming Catalan catholic nationalism, such as the animated feature Érase una vez… (1951). Then new ventures by Daniel Aragonés into, for example, the 3-D trend with El lago de los cisnes (1953). And finally, two B/W films with sequences in Cinefotocolor (Todo es posible en Granada, 1954 and Tres eran tres, 1954).

In 1990, at the Filmoteca Española, during a colloquium that followed the screening of a restored Cinefotocolor feature, the economic failure of Aragonés’ process was blamed on the release and rapid rise to dominance of Eastmancolor, ignoring the diplomatic, industrial and domestic political issues that existed in Spain between 1948 and 1953. Thus, the evolution of the Cinefotocolor process is essentially a metaphor of Spain’s isolation at the time and its dependence on US help – from the “red terror” refugees who find warm shelter in En un rincón de España (1948) to the fantastic journey from the Alhambra to New York’s Central Park in Todo es posible en Granada (1954), a ballet starring the dancer Antonio.

With the completion of a trilogy of films, consisting of two features in B/W and a last one, Tres eran tres (1954), in Cinefotocolor, Daniel Aragonés put an end to the process he had placed all his hopes on, and which for several years gave the (perhaps faded and blurry) illusion of innovation within the Spanish film industry.