Don Quixote or
Don Quixote de la Mancha (orig. Spanish title
Don Quijote de la Mancha) is the first
sound film version in Spanish of
the great classic novel by
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It was directed and adapted by
Rafael Gil and released in 1947. A huge undertaking for Spanish cinema in its day, it was the longest film version of the novel up to that time (two hours and twelve minutes, plus an intermission), and very likely the most faithful, reverently following the book in its dialogue and order of episodes, unlike
G.W. Pabst's
1933 version and the later Russian film version, which scrambled up the order of the adventures as many film versions do. Characters such as Cardenio, Dorotea, and Don Fernando, which are usually omitted because their respective subplots have little to do with the main body of the novel, were kept in this film.