Manuel Santos Carvalho

João Ratão is one of many young Portuguese soldiers fighting in Flandres, France, during World War I. Back home, he now needs to fight for the love Vitória, to whom he sent love letters from France... written by a fellow soldier. João Ratão is illiterate.

Jorge, a successful engineer and employee of a ministry and Luísa, a romantic and dreamy girl, star as the typical bourgeois couple of the Lisbon society of the 19th century.

In Madragoa, Zé Luís, a man of the people devoted to his work, is in love with Clara, the daughter of Santana das Carnes, his godfather and protector, who intends to marry her to D. Eusébio with the intention of financing his business. When Santana discovers the romance, he fires Zé Luís and forces him to break it off, convincing him that he owes his marriage to Margarida, a young woman of the same upbringing. Zé Luís finds employment at the docks, Margarida dies of illness, Santana goes bankrupt... Zé Luís supports him with initiative and money from his father, who has meanwhile returned from Africa, and ends up marrying Clara.

Mr. Silva has a dream: to live in the countryside and become a farmer. And one day it happens. He inherits a farm from an old aunt. But not everything will be roses, as Mr. Silva soon finds out...

Geninha and Óscar are a couple who loves music. He's a good songwriter, she sings well. Despite this, their parents hate each other and do not seem willing to allow their marriage, nor the creation of a local radio for them.

Gracinda is a young laundress who works with Uncle Jacinto, but life hasn't been going well for them. Therefore, she decides to go to the city to convince Chico, her cousin with whom she has fallen in love, to return to the village to help on the business...

Popular in the riverside area of Porto, Micas raised her daughter, Madalena, at the cost of sacrifice, as her father emigrated to Brazil. With a happy voice, Madalena works on unloading the coal, seeing her loves thwarted by her humble condition. Barata, another typical figure who makes a living from expedients, helps Madalena's father - meanwhile returned, to "register" her - in a kidnapping plan capable of facilitating her reconciliation with Micas, who is reluctant... Things get complicated, but happiness ends up triumphing.

Vasco is a medical student in Lisbon, supported by his rich aunts, whom he had falsely told he had already graduated. In fact, he devotes himself to a bohemian life, preferring the popular fairs and pretty women, especially Alice, a seamstress from the Castelinhos quarter, which rather upsets her ambitious father, tailor Caetano, who is familiar with Vasco's debts. After failing yet another final exam, he is surprised by his aunts' announcement that they will visit him in Lisbon to see his practice.

Alberto has a vocation to sing, but at home run counter to their ambition. The father, owner of a shoe shop either, the force, that he work in the shop. / Alberto tem vocação para cantar, mas em casa contrariam a sua ambição. O pai, dono de uma sapataria quer, à força, que ele trabalhe na loja.

André (Curado Ribeiro), is a son of a wealthy family who meets a girl called Luisinha (Milu). Luisinha lives at a small pension house with Rita (Maria Olguim) and Januário (João Silva), who are as parents to her, and with mr. Simplício Costa (António Silva), better known as Costa do Castelo, a lazy but highly talented guitar player who together with (Hermínia Silva) reaches success.

Adriana, an orphan who has been raised in a well off family, becomes pregnant after being seduced by a man. Outraged, Mr. Bento kicks her our of home. What he doesn't realize is that her seducer is his own son, Raul, a brilliant law student.

A peaceful head of the family wins the lottery, changing the family's life.

The film deals with the story of smugglers operating in the border areas of northern Portugal. A group of smugglers who escaped police installed in a village to have a quiet life, but facing hard times have to go back to smuggling.

Part of the medium-length films for TV Lisboa Sociedade Anónima, O Banqueiro Anarquista is a fine example of what a fabulous script (by Pessoa), exuberant set design, attentive camera work, and an actor (Santos Manuel) at his most daring and accomplished can achieve. The result is a cynically entertaining film, markedly representative of the First Republic, where for almost an hour the viewer is delighted (and unsettled, of course) by the fallacies of a script to which Santos Manuel gives the weight of a body and a voice, that is, he brings it to life. The Anarchist Banker is a brilliant satire on political discourse, of unfailing intelligence and ferocity.