Blood and Sand (1941)

Blood and Sand (1941)

It’s not a step-too-far from his bullfighter character here to Stan Carlisle for leading man Tyronne Power, and it’s easy to see if one role appealed to him why the other one would as well.

On the surface this could be seen as a natural progression from Powers’ swashbuckling roles (matadors use swords, don't they?) but Nightmare Alley (1947) was also only a scant few years away.

The movie tells the story of bullfighting wunderkind, son of a famous bullfighter himself and his rise from sneaking into a neighboring bullring after braining a critic with a wine bottle for daring say an unkind word about his (now dead) father, to his rise to great bull fighting heights and to his inevitable, meteoric fall.

There is not nearly as much bullfighting as one would expect, (for that one might go to Mexican or Spanish cinema, two countries where the tradition actually exists,) and the romance presented seems to be there merely to set up the inevitable tragedy, (really, who can ignore the fact that they read femme fatale Rita Hayworth's name in the credits and immediately see she's not the main love interest?)

With Linda Darnell, Anthony Quinn, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar, J. Carrol Naish, John Carradine and George Reeves.