The film stars Carlos Cores as a journalist with an inferiority complex who partners with a Hungarian immigrant, played by Vassili Lambrinos, in a fraudulent get-rich-quick scheme that leads to crime and tragedy.

The film's cinematographer, Ricardo Younis, had not (as was widely rumored) studied under Gregg Toland, who shot Citizen Kane.

American Cinematographer magazine named Los tallos amargos one of the “50 Best Photographed Films of All-Time”.

[1] Of note is a surreal dream sequence that merges noir photography with elements of German expressionism.

Los tallos amargos won Silver Condor awards for Best Picture and Best Director in 1957 but was considered lost until it turned up in a private collection in 2014.