El fantasma y doña Juanita

Doña Juanita worries that her niece Rosita might give up true love for a marriage of convenience, so she decides to share a memory to steer her away. As she recounts a summertime affair, the film moves into a lively recollection of when she fell for an unlikely suitor, an accountant who worked in a traveling circus. The storytelling shifts between present-day admonitions and colorful scenes of circus life, blending light comedy with sentimental moments. Rosita listens, sometimes skeptical, sometimes amused, while Doña Juanita's past shows how passion, social expectations and small humiliations shaped her choices. The movie keeps a warm, playful tone, favoring situational humor and romantic mishaps over heavy drama, and it doesn't reveal how the lesson ends.

Released in 1945, El fantasma y doña Juanita was directed by Rafael Gil and adapted from work by José María Pemán, featuring Antonio Casal, Mary Delgado, Juan Espantaleón and Milagros Leal in key roles, produced within Spain's postwar studio system.

Box office records for the film are scarce, and it didn't register as a major commercial hit internationally; like many domestic comedies of the period it appears to have had a modest theatrical run, with no prominent revenue figures preserved.

El fantasma y doña Juanita didn't collect major international awards, and there are no widely cited Oscar or festival nominations linked to it. It remains a minor entry in Rafael Gil's body of work and in Spain's wartime cinema output, noted mainly by historians rather than awards juries or critics.

Modern user ratings are sparse, the film holding a low average score of 3.5/10 from a handful of votes, reflecting limited visibility. Critics and viewers who mention it point to themes of love versus social expectation, nostalgia for circus life, light comedy and performances from Antonio Casal and Mary Delgado.