Los blues de la calle Pop (1983)

In Mondoñedo, Ohio, a young woman named Mary Ocky approaches the celebrated private detective Felipe Malboro and asks him to find her boyfriend, Macho Jim, who has been missing for three months. If the investigation succeeds, she promises him a double reward: in cash and in kind. The investigation takes Felipe Malboro to Shit City, a town at the mercy of a gang of punk criminals, controlled by a wealthy couple: the aging fixer Saul Winston and his young wife, Butterfly. Malboro is immediately attacked by several members of the gang, particularly by an eccentric flamenco dancer nicknamed “the Impassive Carter,” but with the help of Sam Chesterfield, a piano-bar pianist, he nevertheless manages to discover that Macho Jim is Butterfly’s lover and, like her, is entangled in the Winston family’s shady business dealings. Butterfly first tries to bribe him, offering him $5,000. But then, captivated by the detective’s charm, she becomes his lover. Events take a turn for the worse. Sam Chesterfield is beaten to death for helping the detective. To avenge him, Malboro coldly shoots “the Impassive Carter” after forcing him to dance flamenco. Butterfly, in turn, slits the unfaithful Macho Jim’s throat, but is herself shot dead by one of the punk women, one of the womanizer’s lovers. As for Saul Winston, he tries to escape in his private plane, but it crashes to the ground just after takeoff. Malboro returns to the hotel, where his client, Mary Ocky, is waiting for him. She reveals that she sent him to Shit City solely to take revenge on Butterfly, the woman Macho Jim had left her for some time earlier. As promised, Mary pays the detective in cash and gets ready to make love with him, when Macho Jim’s usual punk lover arrives and shoots her dead too. Malboro pursues the killer and finally finds her lying naked and smiling on a bed. How can he resist her invitation? The handcuffs can wait…