A Woman without Love is sort of like not even a full Telenovela but a Cliff-Notes or reel of a Telenovela (minus the narration), featuring infidelity, family secrets, biological Questioning (who *is* the father dun-dun-dun), a status-quo upturning Last Will, and emotional turmoil, but with performances that are fairly perfunctory and because of the time jump from when the Don Carlos has his heart attack to when the children are grown up doctors, we lose a lot of time that has to be later explained, especially in the (not bad) emotional climax... and then it just ends in a very pat way.
One wants to find some in between the lines commentary, if no surrealism, something that says that these bourgeois ideals of having it all now with this inheritance will mean something else than grudges and pettiness (unless if that's the point), but it's kind of going through the motions, albeit within a brisk 85 minutes. Maybe the story, which seems to be based on a lesser known De Monparsssat novel, should have stuck to one time period or the other, when Julio (the "other" man) was around more (we dont get to know him much except he isn't as rotten as her husband), or later with flashbacks, especially since the adult son Carlos takes over and is just an annoying character (funny how they don't even try to make the now middle aged/older Rosario look older as her kids age).
Buñuel can create competent drama as a director even under such low-budget quick-shoot circumstances (this despite himself calling this his "worst" movie, which belies that there is still some craft), but the movie should really be even more with the Woman of the title, Rosario, and she is given the short shrift ultimately with all these bullish and stubborn men in her lives (especially the petulant Carlos). That's the funny thing in a way, just how much despite the title it becomes a story centered on the wants and fears and grievances of men, while poor Rosario is left to sulk and look ashamed for most of it.
More like Luis Ehhnuel.