As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, "La Colmena" is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco's regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.
Catherine Hubscher, who washes the shirts of young Napoleon and other soldiers fighting the Revolution, falls in love with Sergeant Lefebvre. Circumstances bring Lefebvre a noble title and even more -- Napoleon decides to make him the local ruler over a large territorial fiefdom. But trouble brews when Madame Sans-Gene, now elevated to the nobility along with her man -- cannot keep her frank observations under control.
Two penniless Italian buskers want to go to the USA but get on the wrong ship and end up in South America in a concentration camp where they are rescued by American parachutists from. Afterwards they become big shots in the States but their dream comes to an end : they are sent to fight in Vietnam
Cayetana, her boyfriend Paco and Venancio, her foster brother, commit small thefts and, from time to time, spend a few days in jail. Until they meet with Federico, a thief who has traveled abroad and convince them that using European methods success is guaranteed. Paco then decides to act scientifically and seizes a hospital surgical equipment. When they want to realize, poor Venancio is forced to give an injection to a dentistry patient and, even worse, Paco has to pull out a tooth. And all that, before entering the operating room
Four Spanish women of very different origins and motivations work in Paris as handmaids.
Enrique is a thirty-year-old lawyer who is married to Ana. Apparently he is a normal man who has only one obsession: the commercials. He feels a real passion for the erotic world of the ads either in billboards, trash cans, public transport, magazines or television. The continuous publicity bombardment ends up leading him towards a neurosis that changes his personality.
Juana and Francisca are serving at the Stevens house, an American couple. Both of them have a boyfriend, one is an egg-carrier and the other is a transporter with his own motorcycle. And both with a totally totalitarian and macho concept regarding male-female relations. The girls also have two American suitors assigned to the American Base of Torrejón, friends of their masters. Thus, without almost pretending, the two girls will find themselves in the midst of the jealous Spaniards and the beefy Yankees.
The frog test confirms Julita is pregnant. This is usually a great news. In this case, no. She is a victim of premarital sex, and he, Paco, a mechanic who, according to some theories of French biologist, explained by a podiatrist friend, will not be liable. Don Ramiro, the father of Julia, is a liberal-minded man, but when his daughter tells him that she will have a son who will not parent, seeking the solution of fatherhood in his gun regulation.
Miguel is a young Spanish naval engineer in love with an American student of History of Art. When she becomes pregnant, she decides that the easiest solution to her situation is to marry her civilly. However, in Spain in the 1970s, prior to the passage of the Divorce Law, the only way to do so is to apostatize the Catholic Church. For Miguel, a believing devotee, taking this step involves a deep inner conflict.
Julio and Timoteo operate a private detective agency that specializes in cases relating to partners who cheat on their spouses.
KGB authorities abduct two criminals (Franco and Ciccio) who look exactly like missing spacemen and pretend they are the returning cosmonauts. They launch them in a rocket, so that they can land in public view, leading the populace to believe it was the original space craft that has returned. The two criminals look so much like the astronauts, they even fool the wives of the astronauts. Later however, the original spacecraft returns to Earth undamaged, and the plan goes all to pieces. In the end, Franco and Ciccio stay in Russia and the real astronauts relocate to Italy.
Two guys live without working quite well using thousands of tricks and fakes. But they soon change their attitudes when love arrives at their hearts.
Juan does not have a cent but lives beautifully. His nights of revelry and cabaret are famous in the night city environments. As heir to his old and very rich uncle Don Patricio, lives subsidized by creditors on account of his future inheritance. But John keeps a terrible secret: he has long been disinherited. When a telegram arrives announcing the death of the uncle, Juan returns to the family home in the Costa Brava. There he meets Anna, a wonderful woman who is the current heir to the family fortune.
Doña Pura, don Benito and don Augusto are three venerable old people who usually coincide each month in the queues of the mutuality windows to collect their pension, an opportunity they take advantage of to talk about life. When they learn that the old don Felipe, an acquaintance, is very sick and is alone and without money for a decent funeral, they decide to ask for a loan to help him, but, as they do not grant it, they decide to rob the savings bank. To do this, they will plan everything thoroughly and manufacture a homemade explosive.
Serving the customers of a department store, the salesgirls in their blue uniform go out of their way to serve them. But in their young minds, one idea surpasses all: the hunt for a husband. Ana is in love with Juan, who seems to be very well in his condition of single. Olga has aspirations of the highest level, as her boyfriend must own a great car. Pilar aims to win a radio contest. And there is also Álvaro, the lawyer whose only cause capable of defending, and even with a resounding failure, is the freedom of the bachelor.
A Spanish insurance company is absorbed by a multinational, so that, in order to modernize, its employees are obliged to carry out some training courses to adapt to the new situation and the new objectives. Given the relevance of what is at stake, the wives of these men will also be involved at work.
