Sunday, October 14, 2012

THE FIFTIES # 100: CESAR RAMIREZ AND GLORIA ROMERO IN FRANCISCO V. COCHING'S "PALASIG" (1952)

 
"Palasig"
Sampaguita Pictures
Release Date April 15-24, 1952/ Life
Serialized in Liwayway Magazine
Story Francisco V. Coching
Direction Artemio B. Tecson
Cast Cesar Ramirez, Gloria Romero, Aruray, Tony Cayado, Totoy Torrente, Pedro Faustino, Dolores Crescini
Synopsis: A sultan, on a pleasure trip, came to Manila where he meets a pretty girl whom he falls in love. They become engaged and they are making preparation for marriage when the Sultan is called by an urgent business to sail abroad. The girl who is left behind, thinking that he would not come back and fearing that she would be the object of sneers in the social group to which she belongs, marries another before the child she carries in her womb would begin to show.

After a time, however, the Sultan comes back, makes discreet inquiries and finds out what happened to his former sweetheart. Believing that the child is really his, he orders his aide, Dampilan, to kidnap the child which Dampilan does while the parents are away from home. The Sultan comes back to his sultanate, but keeps the presence of the child a secret to his people, until one day he decides to let them know about it. The revelation is not welcome by his people, especially by Datu Balawis, his brother, who is now deprived of his succession right to the Sultanate by virtue of the presence of the child-heir who is named Palasig (Cesar Ramirez). Balawis plots to kill Palasig, but the child is ably defended by Dampilan, a loyal follower of the Sultan. But in one of his attempts to overthrow the Sultan, the latter is killed. Through the intervention of Dampilan, however, the child assumes the throne of his father.

The mother, in the meantime, thinking that her child was dead, adopts another and names her Florinda (Gloria Romero). Palasig all the while grows up into manhood and gives up the idea of seeing again his mother, inasmuch as she has not done anything to rescue him. He trains himself to be fit to honor his father’s throne. After some years, Florinda and her adopted Father, while on a trip to the south, fall prey to a group of Moro sea raiders. Florinda falls a captive to Datu Balawis group. When Palasig meets Florinda, he frees her and this leads to a feud between the two until Balawis is killed. It is clear that Palasig is in love with Florinda, and when he announces that he would marry her, the Sultan’s people repudiate his choice because the bride he has chosen is a Christian. Led by the council of panditas or Moro priests, even Dampilan, his loyal friend turns against Palasig. What happens henceforth is anybody’s guess.
(Source: Literary Song-Movie Magazine)

 


Cesar Ramirez and Gloria Romero in "Palasig" (1952)

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