Filmed in 1941, "Blood and Sand" is a colorful yarn about the downfall of an arrogant young bullfighter, Juan Gallardo. Tyrone Power essays the character and rubs most people the wrong way with his cocksure attitude and stupendous vanity. His ambitions are inflamed by the writings of an equally vainglorious bullfighting critic portrayed by Laird Cregar. The movie is clever at foreshadowing Power's inevitable fate by showing us (and him) a once-famous bullfighter (J. Carrol Naish) who becomes penniless because he let fame go to his head. The film goes one step further by providing a contemporary rival, portrayed by Anthony Quinn, who usurps Power's crown as top dog and will likely follow down the same tragic path. All the melodrama is captured in glorious Technicolor.
The film itself is a bit of a bore. It is slow-moving and spends the first 25 minutes showing us the main characters as kids while establishing Juan as an ambitious jerk. The majority of the remaining running time concerns Gallardo marrying his childhood sweetheart (Linda Darnell), having an affair with Rita Hayworth, and alienating everyone around him with his insufferable behavior. There is surprisingly little footage devoted to actual bullfighting and the bulk of the action is contained in a sexually charged dance sequence between Quinn and Hayworth.
As Gallardo, Tyrone Power is fairly solid although his character is just plain unlikable from the start. He does an impressive job playing up the faults in Gallardo's character but the scenes of him playing nice with his wife and mother ring hollow. Linda Darnell is appropriately saintly as his suffering wife while Rita Hayworth annihilates the scenery as the amoral temptress. She has minimal dialogue and spends the majority of her screen time in a perpetual smile bearing her perfectly white teeth like some sort of predatory animal. She's so obvious that one wonders how the men don't see her for what she truly is.
Miss Hayworth has competition for the top scenery chewing honor. Laird Cregar sinks his choppers into the role of the bombastic critic Curro; constantly referring to himself in the third person as he proclaims the current flavor-of-the-month bullfighter the greatest thing since the discovery of enchiladas. He is quite entertaining. J. Carrol Naish, on the other hand, seems way too theatrical and anyone familiar with his work knows exactly what I mean. Naish was a solid performer but his tendency to go over the cliff with his characterizations, while appreciated in his grade B thrillers, is out of place here.
The rest on the cast does a splendid job. John Carradine and Anthony Quinn, no strangers to gobbling up sets and fellow actors, perform with wonderful restraint here. Quinn really doesn't have much screen time but he is stellar at conveying a festering hatred of Gallardo and delights at usurping Gallardo's mistress and champion bullfighting title. The dance sequence with Miss Hayworth is probably the highlight of the picture. Carradine gives a wonderful performance as Gallardo's only true friend who sticks by his chum until his untimely end. It is pretty amazing to witness how Carradine managed to excel in A-List productions like this one and still find himself mired in Grade C films like "Voodoo Man." Also worth noting is a mustachioed George Reeves in a brief role as Miss Hayworth's first inamorato who gets tossed aside for Gallardo.
"Blood and Sand" is definitely a movie worth watching for lovers of classic cinema despite its occasional sluggishness. The cast is grand, the Technicolor photography is lush, and the film features a star-making performance by Rita Hayworth.
The film itself is a bit of a bore. It is slow-moving and spends the first 25 minutes showing us the main characters as kids while establishing Juan as an ambitious jerk. The majority of the remaining running time concerns Gallardo marrying his childhood sweetheart (Linda Darnell), having an affair with Rita Hayworth, and alienating everyone around him with his insufferable behavior. There is surprisingly little footage devoted to actual bullfighting and the bulk of the action is contained in a sexually charged dance sequence between Quinn and Hayworth.
As Gallardo, Tyrone Power is fairly solid although his character is just plain unlikable from the start. He does an impressive job playing up the faults in Gallardo's character but the scenes of him playing nice with his wife and mother ring hollow. Linda Darnell is appropriately saintly as his suffering wife while Rita Hayworth annihilates the scenery as the amoral temptress. She has minimal dialogue and spends the majority of her screen time in a perpetual smile bearing her perfectly white teeth like some sort of predatory animal. She's so obvious that one wonders how the men don't see her for what she truly is.
Miss Hayworth has competition for the top scenery chewing honor. Laird Cregar sinks his choppers into the role of the bombastic critic Curro; constantly referring to himself in the third person as he proclaims the current flavor-of-the-month bullfighter the greatest thing since the discovery of enchiladas. He is quite entertaining. J. Carrol Naish, on the other hand, seems way too theatrical and anyone familiar with his work knows exactly what I mean. Naish was a solid performer but his tendency to go over the cliff with his characterizations, while appreciated in his grade B thrillers, is out of place here.
The rest on the cast does a splendid job. John Carradine and Anthony Quinn, no strangers to gobbling up sets and fellow actors, perform with wonderful restraint here. Quinn really doesn't have much screen time but he is stellar at conveying a festering hatred of Gallardo and delights at usurping Gallardo's mistress and champion bullfighting title. The dance sequence with Miss Hayworth is probably the highlight of the picture. Carradine gives a wonderful performance as Gallardo's only true friend who sticks by his chum until his untimely end. It is pretty amazing to witness how Carradine managed to excel in A-List productions like this one and still find himself mired in Grade C films like "Voodoo Man." Also worth noting is a mustachioed George Reeves in a brief role as Miss Hayworth's first inamorato who gets tossed aside for Gallardo.
"Blood and Sand" is definitely a movie worth watching for lovers of classic cinema despite its occasional sluggishness. The cast is grand, the Technicolor photography is lush, and the film features a star-making performance by Rita Hayworth.