# The Hands in the Trap
**The Hands in the Trap** is the English title of *La mano en la trampa* (Spanish for "The Hand in the Trap"), a 1961 black-and-white drama directed by the Argentine filmmaker Leopoldo Torre Nilsson and made as a co-production of Argentina and Spain[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-mano-en-la-trampa/). The film stars Elsa Daniel, Francisco Rabal, Leonardo Favio, and María Rosa Gallo, and it won the International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI) at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, where it screened in competition[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-mano-en-la-trampa/). It is the final part of the trilogy of family dramas, begun with *La casa del ángel* (1957) and *La caída* (1959), that made Torre Nilsson and his wife, the novelist and screenwriter [Beatriz Guido](https://www.edgepedia.org/beatriz-guido), internationally known names[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2011/argentinian-cinema/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *La mano en la trampa*; released in English as The Hand in the Trap[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/) |
| Director and writers | Leopoldo Torre Nilsson; screenplay by Beatriz Guido, Ricardo Luna, Ricardo Muñoz Suay, and Torre Nilsson, based on Guido's novel of the same name[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa) |
| Principal cast | Elsa Daniel (Laura), Francisco Rabal (Cristóbal Achával), Leonardo Favio (Miguel), María Rosa Gallo (Inés)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/) |
| Production | Argentina–Spain co-production; Producciones Ángel and UNINCI of Madrid; black and white, mono sound[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/) |
| Release | World premiere 1 May 1961; Argentine release 8 June 1961[5](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8376709/) • [4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa) |
| Runtime | Reported as 89, 90, or 91 minutes depending on the source[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/) |
| Award | International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI), Cannes 1961[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-mano-en-la-trampa/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Laura (Elsa Daniel) finishes the school year at a convent boarding school and returns to the old family mansion in a town near Buenos Aires, where her mother and aunt embroider dresses for wealthy families and live shut in among rituals and silences[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa). The Lavigne family are aristocrats in decline, descendants of the founders of the town[6](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-193320/). In the highest room of the house lives someone no one names, a relative the family hides out of shame[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa).
Driven by curiosity, Laura begins to spy, and with the help of Miguel (Leonardo Favio), a young man who courts her, she sets out to discover who inhabits the sealed upper floor[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa). She finds that her aunt, supposedly married abroad, lives there voluntarily to escape the dishonor caused by the breaking of her engagement[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Main_dans_le_pi%C3%A8ge/6209). Shaken by the secret and by the family's pettiness, Laura arranges a confrontation with the aunt's former fiancé, the playboy Cristóbal Achával (Francisco Rabal), and is herself caught in the trap[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Main_dans_le_pi%C3%A8ge/6209) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/).
## Style and themes
The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA) describes the film as built from the elements of classic horror tales: rumors of a deformed being kept in seclusion, a spectral presence expressed in noises, long white robes, and ethereal curtains, and a flashback that explains the family's original "curse"[8](https://malba.org.ar/en/la-mano-en-la-trampa/). In this narrative logic Laura is the figure who defies prohibitions, finds the ghost, and discovers what afflicts it; unlike the tradition, however, the outcome is not liberating but catastrophic[8](https://malba.org.ar/en/la-mano-en-la-trampa/).
The French encyclopedia Larousse places the film's interest less in mystery or suspense than in its portrait of the ambiguous, sclerotic world of the Argentine provincial haute bourgeoisie, the territory of Beatriz Guido's fiction, in a universe where the real blends with the dream; contemporary critics compared its imagery to that of [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel) and [Michelangelo Antonioni](https://www.edgepedia.org/michelangelo-antonioni)[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Main_dans_le_pi%C3%A8ge/6209). Themes from Torre Nilsson and Guido's earlier films reappear here in their most concentrated form, and the director considered it his most complete film[8](https://malba.org.ar/en/la-mano-en-la-trampa/).
## Place in Torre Nilsson's career
Torre Nilsson (1924–1978), son of the director Leopoldo Torres Ríos, was the central figure in the transition from the old Buenos Aires studio system to auteur cinema in Argentina, working from scripts written with his wife Beatriz Guido (1922–1988)[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2011/argentinian-cinema/). The trilogy *La casa del ángel* (1957), *La caída* (1959), and *La mano en la trampa* (1961) placed the pair among the ten most important living filmmakers in the judgment of English-speaking critics, and Elsa Daniel, Torre Nilsson's frequent lead actress, had made a strong impression at Cannes in 1959 with *La caída*[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2011/argentinian-cinema/).
At Cannes in 1961 the film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) without winning it, but it took the International Critics' Prize awarded by FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-mano-en-la-trampa/) • [6](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-193320/). The film opened in Argentina on 8 June 1961 and in Madrid on 17 June 1963[4](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa). It has since been regarded as a classic of Argentine cinema and one of the most important works of its director's filmography[9](https://www.casamerica.es/cine/la-mano-en-la-trampa).
## References
1. [La mano en la trampa, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-mano-en-la-trampa/)
2. [Argentinian Cinema, Festival de Cannes (2011)](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2011/argentinian-cinema/)
3. [The Hand in the Trap (1961), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055138/)
4. [La mano en la trampa (1961), cinenacional.com](https://cinenacional.com/pelicula/la-mano-en-la-trampa)
5. [The Hand in the Trap (1961), Kinoafisha](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8376709/)
6. [La mano en la trampa (1961), SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-193320/)
7. [La Main dans le piège, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Main_dans_le_pi%C3%A8ge/6209)
8. [La mano en la trampa, MALBA](https://malba.org.ar/en/la-mano-en-la-trampa/)
9. [La mano en la trampa, Casa de América](https://www.casamerica.es/cine/la-mano-en-la-trampa)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license