Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Death In The Afternoon, December 23, 2003
"Blood and Sand" based on the novel by Ibanez and presented by 20th Century-Fox is a masterpiece of old style Hollywood filmmaking. Director Rouben Mamoulian pulls out all the stops to present this Technicolor flushed romantic story of Juan Gallardo who is portrayed by the impossibly beautiful Tyrone Power. Juan grows from a poor boy dreaming of glory in the bullrings of Spain to the epitome of arrogance and ignorant of the cost to his soul of his fame.
The three principals of the story are, Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell as his childhood sweetheart Carmen, and Rita Hayworth as the seductive and hollow Dona Sol.
Tyrone Power presents us with a marvelous, energetic portrait of a young, brash and over confident Juan. His first close-up bursts the edges of the screen and burns in the colors of Goya. Tyrone Power was made for the movies and cinematographers Ernest Palmer and Ray Rennahan film him with as much care as they do the two female leads. Thus this overpoweringly beautiful close-up sucks the viewer into the world of Juan and one is swept away by his charm and bravado. Mr. Powers's performance is almost overshadowed at first by his physical presence but as the story progresses his talent as a film actor takes over and sustains the viewer to the end.
Linda Darnell, a great beauty of the movies and by her own admission, not much of an actress, turns in a very good performance as Juan's discarded wife Carmen. I do not agree with Miss Darnell's opinion of her talents. One only has to look at "Letter to Three Wives" to see what an accomplished screen actress she was. And here too she takes the thankless role of Carmen and makes one care about the poor girl.
Then we have Rita Hayworth who here in "Blood and Sand" sets the standard for the great-lost beauties of the silver screen. Her Dona Sol is everything we hope for in the empty shell of a femme fatale.
It is said of her, at one point in the film by a newspaper critic of bullfighting, as he points to the ring: "Gentleman, if this is death in the afternoon, then she is death in the evening." And Miss Hayworth lives up to every inch of his description in this her breakout performance.
In the garden scene where she performs the "Toro!" seduction and sings to her victim Juan, she is utterly captivating and irresistible in her Travis Banton gown and cascading titian hair. Here we see the birth of Rita Hayworth and the demise of Rita Cansino.
Also worth mentioning are Anthony Quinn as one of Juan's boyhood friends, Manola De Palma and the wonderful silent star Alla Nazemova who is heart breaking as Juan's mother.
The music by the masterful Alfred Newman sets the tone and emotion of the film. Lush and full of the sounds of Spain it is one of his best.
Darryl Zanuck believed that story was everything in film. Without a good story you had nothing to build a film on. In "Blood and Sand" the head of Fox proves his point and gives us a great movie presented in the grand style of Hollywood's golden age.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Temptation And Tragedy In The Bullring . . . . Gorgeous Feast For The Eyes . . . . A Contender For A DVD, April 9, 2006
Rouben Mamoulian's remake of the silent classic that made a star of Rudolph Valentino is a visual treat. The techincolor is rich, with all the shades of color (especially the blues and reds)glorious. And the stars don't look too shabby either! Tyrone Power makes a gorgeous Juan Gallardo, the poor boy who rises to fame in the bullring, but who is unable to resist the shallow and deadly beautiful noblewoman Dona Sol (Rita Hayworth, on loan from Columbia, about to be catapulted to stardom), despite his gentle, loving wife, Carmen (Linda Darnell, in her fourth and last teaming with Power).
He is no more than a passing fancy to Dona Sol, who has a thing for handsome matadors, and then discards them like last week's trash when she tires of them. And the crowds who gather at the ring are no less fickle. Only Carmen and his mother love him unconditionally, but he does not see that until it is too late.
Anthony Quinn is absorbing as Manola de Palma, Juan's friend, who gravitates to Dona Sol and becomes her latest boy toy, as well as the new star of the bullring. Laird Cregar, an underrated character actor with a short career, is his very reliable self as critic Natalio Curro, who pronounces Hayworth's temptress as "death in the evening". (And she is).
Other reviewers have commented on how many of the actors in this project met tragic and premature ends. It is alarming, not only the three leads, but Cregar, George Reeves (as Hayworth's rejected suitor, Pierre) and Victor Kilian, as the priest, who was found beaten to death in his apartment after strolling past Grauman's Chinese Theatre and meeting up with his assailant.
Too bad that Carmen and Dona Sol only meet once in the film, but it is entertaining to see the loyal wife and unscrupulous seductress in the same frame, and both Darnell and Hayworth were classic beauties, as well as underrated as performing artists.
One minor quibble - 20th Century Fox picked the wrong singer to dub Hayworth's vocals! "Verde luna" is a lovely song, but the uncredited Gracilla Pirraga was completely unsuited to provide a singing voice for Rita, expert lip-syncher that she was. If there ever was a way to tell if her voice was dubbed, that moment would be it! There is a waiting list at amazon for the DVD of this movie when it becomes available. A VHS copy is a good substitute for now, but DVD format (and hopefully, extras) will definitely enhance the viewing experience.
It's worth seeing for the cinematography and stars alone!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lush Colour Remake Of Classic Bull Fighting Story, June 2, 2005
While not being a fan of Bullfighting I find myself swept up in the excitment of this ultimate story about the trials and tribulations in the lives of Spain's famous Matadors. Undertaken as one of Twentieth Century Fox's biggest productions for 1941 and boasting the most breathtaking technicolour photography that you could imagine "Blood and Sand", is a visual feast for the eyes and provided Twentieth Century Fox's reigning male star Tyrone Power with another classic role which was itself a remake of an earlier version that had starred the legendary Rudolph Valentino. The film was significant in also providing a breakthrough role for Rita Hayworth who had spent the previous few years steadily climbing up the acting ladder from appearing in "B", efforts such as "Charlie Chan in Egypt", and "Blondie on a Budget". She makes a great impression here as the femme fatale who uses men and provides a dramatic illustration of what movie goers could look forward to in the coming years when she became the Queen of Columbia Studios. Her character in "Blood and Sand", makes an interesting contrast to female lead Linda Darnell's almost saintly wife and indeed you couldn't find a more beautiful production to showcase the beauty of both women beside the dashing Tyrone Power.
Based on the novel "Sangre y Arena", by Vincente Blasco Ibanez, "Blood and Sand", tells the story of tormented Matador Juan Gallardo (Tyrone power), from his childhood when he dreams of fighting the bulls in the arenas of Madrid just like his father had. As a boy he is the main worry of his religious mother Senora Augustias (Alla Nazimova), who sees him becoming just like his father who was killed by a bull in the ring. Juan leaves home to seek his fortune in Madrid and the story jumps ahead ten years to when Juan a successful matador, returns home with his group of childhood friends who include Nacional (John Carradine), and Manolo de Palma (Anthony Quinn). He becomes highly successful in the ring and marries his childhood sweetheart Carmen (Linda Darnell), who had promised to wait for him. His success in the ring brings rich bounties and he is able to buy a fine house and elaborate costumes for his performances however the cracks in Juan's existense soon begin to appear when his group of followers start to become dissatisfied for various reasons. Nacional begins to despise the sport of killing bulls and the ambitious Manolo starts to grow restless living in the shadow of Juan's success. Juan also engages in a heated and at times physically violent battle with Natalio Curro (Laird Cregar),a vicious bullfighter critic who had slammed Juan's father. Juan also attracts the dangerous attentions of Dona Sol des Muire (Rita Hayworth), a superficial beauty who goes from one man to the next when it suits her. Soon trouble appears in Juan's marriage despite Carmen's devotion to her husband and ugly rumours begin to circulate about his involvement with Dona Sol. His popularity with the crowds begins to decline as he neglects his performances in particular after Nacional is fatally gored by a bull in the arena due to Juan's carelessness. Finally discovering the truth about Juan's involvement with Dona Sol Carmen finally leaves him and as the public attention begins to focus on upcoming Manolo Juan finds himself cast aside by Dona Sol who now pursues the latest champion in the ring . With his world in pieces Juan decides to get his life in order and lets his mother know that he will quit the bull fighting after one last occasion in the ring. On the day he is reunited with the ever faithful Carmen and then puts in one of his finest performances however a happy conclusion is not to be there for Juan as when he is recieving the acclaim of the crowds he is suddenly gored by a bull and taken with fatal injuries into the rooms where he dies in Carmen's arms just as Manolo takes over in the ring to the cheers of the unfeeling crowd.
Reunited with legendary director Rouben Mamoulian with whom he had just had a triumph in a remake of another silent classic "The Mark of Zorro", Tyrone Power despite some people's belief that he was miscast here, had one of his greatest successes in "Blood and Sand". He is all appropriate swagger and arrogance as the young bull fighter with the world at his feet and later handles the emotions very well as Juan's world falls apart and he becomes the victim of the black widow type villianess Dona Sol. Indeed the studios continual view of him as their chief box office asset is reflected in every aspect of this sumptuous production from the dazzling Academy Award Winning cinematography by Ernest Palmer and Ray Rennahan, along with the beautiful and minutely authentic set decoration, rousing musical score courtesy of Alfred Newman, and stunning costumes for both the arena and romantic scenes. Good and bad is dramatically illustrated in the characters of the two female leads with Rita Hayworth's seductive man eater coming off the best in her smaller role. Linda Darnell in her third teaming in a row with Tyrone Power shows off her extraordinary beauty and sympathetic playing much as she did in "The Mark of Zorro", and she makes a great team with Tyrone Power in their touching romantic moments together. "Blood and Sand", also boasts the talents of silent screen legend Alla Nazimova who had only recently returned to films in character roles and does very well here as the world weary mother who scrubs floors and sees her destiny as seeing the men in her life rise and fall in the bull fighting ring. Rounding out the cast Anthony Quinn almost succeeds in stealing parts of the film in his performance as Juan's childhood rival who continues in his efforts as an adult to overshadow him and in the part of washed up matador Garabato, J. Carrol Naish has some wonderfully moving scenes as he views Juan's rise and fall from his own bitter experience.
Movie making from the old school of Hollywood "Blood and Sand", is really a viewing experience to savour, made just before World War Two changed the type of film Hollywood made forever. Many people may quibble that Tyrone Power doesn't for one moment convince as a Spanish Matador but it is a star part above all else and it certainly helped to cement his image as one of Hollywood's most dashing leading men of any period. For a taste of Hollywood storytelling on the most elaborate scale you can't get much better than Twentieth Century Fox's remake of the classic story "Blood and Sand".
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