Blood and Sand

I just watched the 1941 Tyrone Powers remake of this film and enjoyed it very much, and reflected on American's fascination with the corrida during a couple critical time periods. It was the perfect time to watch this Rudolph Valentino (1922) version which is also a retelling of the book by Vincente Balasco Ibanez. This is the first Valentino film that I have seen and having watched many other silent films, I can see why Valentino was such a heartthrob. He really captures your attention and unlike other stars of the era was not overly campy to get his emotions across. The general story is still the same, poor boy aspires to be a toreador, marries girl next door, then as he achieves fame and good fortune is noticed and subsequently seduced by fickle wealthy woman...who doesn't truly care for him and moves on to her next shiny plaything, leaving our toreador Juan to pick up the pieces. Both films end the same way...even with the concept that the bull isn't the beast but the crowd of the corrida is the never satisfied beast. I will say the 1941 film version seemed to glorify or romanticize the bullfighting much more than the 1922 version that just kind of showed it as is. I really enjoyed this Valentino take. In fact, I think I preferred it to Tyrone Power's film. That may be an unpopular view, but there was so much packed in to the 1922 version that made it feel like you were getting a real look into the past. More emphasis was put on the story...and less on romanticizing bullfighting as a sport. So many great details gave authenticity to the scenes...like when they are in a pub it is just thick with smoke as the crowd is smoking and drinking while the Gypsies perform flamenco. In Dona Sol's seduction pad behind the action their is a small pillar with incense smoke rising above the action...have you ever thought about how smelly those homes were with no indoor plumbing, lack of bathing, etc...yep, people with money burned incense to mask the bad smells. And the mantillas! The veils, the hairstyles...someone tried to do a nice job with giving it the look and feel of Seville. I liked the bandit character in this version with a parallel rising from poverty with bravery story. My only complaint is the half naked house servant in Dona Sol's employ...that seemed out of place and like something you would only see in a Hollywood theatrical production. I have read some reviews complaining of the overt seduction...but I preferred that, it gave me more sympathy for Juan who seemed to really love Carmen. In the Tyrone version...as a woman I had a lot less sympathy for Juan as it seemed like it was all instigated from him, "pretty girl must have". As a woman, I like to think men have more willpower...but maybe they don't. (Please don't burst my bubble.) If you are a silent film fan, I think this is a must see. If you are interested in bullfighting...I think this is a worthy watch and if you are interested in the 1920's you should definitely watch this. Highly recommend.

source: Blood and Sand

It's difficult to evaluate a silent film from the standpoint of present day because you never know what elements besides restoration have been added to enhance the original. In my case, the version of "Blood and Sand" I watched was the 109 minute Kino print with an updated score provided by Rodney Sauer and Susan Hall, and performed by the Mont Alto Picture Orchestra. Most of the picture was in black and white, but when I decided to take specific note, it was the outdoor scenes in B&W while indoor scenes were rendered in a brown sepia tone. There was a segment also done in a more reddish sepia flavor midway through the picture that wasn't repeated. This was my first look at the famed Valentino. I'd always heard his name mentioned while growing up but never got to see any of his work until today. First impression was that he was the George Clooney of his era, very handsome and a good choice as a matinee idol. His character in the film however came across as cocky, arrogant and brash, and to top it off, he was a womanizer who fell in love with two ladies, his wife Carmen (Lila Lee), and a seductive temptress named Doña Sol (Nita Naldi). The story traces the progress of Juan Gallardo (Valentino) from an apprentice bull fighter of sorts, up to a skilled and eventually famous matador after some two years of triumph in the bull ring. There's a coterie of support personnel around Juan who track his progress along with him, who show a degree of disfavor when he becomes involved with Doña Sol. One of the things that struck me while watching was the fact that for a film made in 1922, there appeared to be fairly liberal use of even earlier stock footage for such things as crowd scenes and some of the bullfight sequences. Who would have thought? I also wasn't quite prepared for something the present day Me Too Movement would find particularly outrageous. In the latter part of the story, as Doña Sol seduces Juan and the Cleopatra ring changes hands, she passionately intones "Some day you will beat me with those strong hands. I should like to know what it feels like". Yikes, no wonder Juan wound up calling her a 'Serpent From Hell'! As far as silent films go, I didn't find this one to be particularly exceptional aside from the unusual backdrop of Spanish bullfighting. When I enter this title in a list of silent movies I've seen and rank it in IMDb ranking order, it comes out at #23 out of 32 movies (as I write this). For me, the bonus was seeing Rudolph Valentino for the first time, while the Kino compilation I saw offered a Will Rogers parody of "Blood and Sand" in which Rogers takes on the Valentino role and successfully 'wins' his fight against the bull. As the camera pulls away, a handful of attendants are shown, visibly restraining the bull with a set of ropes. Done as a silent also, Rogers gets to mention via title card that "Yes, these bull fight scenes are always more or less dangerous".

Problems! Where to start? Well, I suppose the first thing is the condition of the print. I am reviewing the Alpha print. It is in just watchable condition. The music score? I don't remember, even though it is just on 24 hours ago that I ran the Alpha DVD. After about 20 minutes, I turned the DVD off because the pace was funereal. I decided to turn the movie back on and try watching it at twice the recommended speed. To my surprise, this experiment was extremely successful. I emphasize the words "surprise" and "successful". There was still plenty of time to read all the captions with no straining or effort on my part at all -- and as you might expect, as the movie was based on the famous novel, there were far more captions than scenes! There was plenty of time to read the captions and some of the scenes -- and by no means all the scenes themselves -- did now run just a little too fast. But that was far more comfortable than the Alpha DVD's funereal pacing. I thought that Valentino gave a rather glum performance. The ladies, particularly Nita Naldi, were more pleasingly animated. Fred Niblo's direction was competent but nothing special. And Fred did nothing to disguise obvious inserts of old stock footage, particularly in the bull-ring scenes. It's also true that a better print (and music score!) would definitely give the movie a higher overall rating!

My print runs under just under an hour which is obviously inferior to the regular 80-minute version or the longer Kino print, so I'll focus on the presenting of the tale instead of commenting on aspects of characterisation, cinematography, etc. There is nothing extraordinarily unique about the plot or the intrigue itself - it even resembles the classic Greek Tragedies to some extent: poor kid makes good, becomes national hero, earns himself a true family but then the true test of his character comes when temptations are served to him on a platter. I do approve though of the WAY the story is told. There are instances of foreshadowing (I'll give no details to avoid spoilers) and a parallel subplot serving to muddle the clear distinctions between villain and hero we are so used to seeing in regular blockbuster fare. At the same time, enough tension is maintained to keep the viewer interested unto the end. It is no mere plot-driven movie either - director Fred Niblo leaves the viewer with enough food for thought to reflect on the nature of society, and man's penchant for self-destruction through cruelty and lust. I am no connoisseur of silent movies such as this one but I thought the actors and actresses were very capable and the three main actors (Valentino, Naldi and Lee) certainly do not lack the required screen presence to make human dramas like this work. It is perhaps debatable whether Blood And Sand represents the finest of Niblo's and Valentino's careers but it can be taken for granted that they must have been very proud of their efforts here.

A vehicle for Rudolph Valentino, who is magnetic enough almost to make up for the banal plot and the confused characterization. As the son of a cobbler turned famous bullfighter, Valentino swaggers, poses, moves gracefully, tosses his head, dresses in foreign costumes, and lowers his head so he can look smoulderingly out of those big, dark eyes. But he also recoils from the dancing girl who tries to kiss him after they've been dancing a fiery dance with castanets and everything, with a quivering look of disgust, lip curled, flared nostrils, the works. He is swoony over his wife, and then over the bad woman, whose house is strangely oriental—Moorish, I suppose. He is confident in public at one moment and a shy rube at another, and a lot of the time with the bad woman he seems to have been, well, unmanned, dominated by her will (symbolized by a serpent ring she gives him). Of course things do not go well, and his friend and alter-ego the bandit is shot at the arena and Juan is gored. Probably Valentino fans were not looking for a coherent story line—just a lot of great images of his face and form. It might as well be a fumetto. The film-makers preface the story with a fake disclaimer about the cruelty of bull-fighting, which they touch on every once in a while with the fulminations of an old priest or philosopher who rails with unspanish heat about the curse of the cruel sport. It's fake because the film itself loves the ritual and costume and excitement, and Valentino looks great in the Toreador suit.

Most people picture Rudolph Valentino from his earlier roles in "Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse" or "The Sheik". In this movie, Valentino plays a Matador in Spain and the story traces his rise and fall. Yes, he certainly was handsome and you see traces of his definate appeal here. For me, though, the movie was stolen by "the other woman", Dona Sol. She tarts her role up real well and plays it very broad, almost shockingly brazen for it's time. The scene where she tells Valentino that she longs to fell him beat her will make us wince, then she bites his hand while while in a semi-embrace in order to raise his passions. All stuff that seems pretty extreme for the typical innocent silent movie woman roles. The ending will be no surprise, it is telegraphed and alluded to many times during the movie. It's not Rudy at his absolute best, but I can recommend it.

When it comes to Blood and Sand (1922), I like Valentino's sensual, sensitive performance as the ill-fated matador and Nita Naldi is fun, if a little over-the-top, as his evil mistress, but this film is too preachy, undercutting the tragedy of the story. I also feel there's a misogynistic undercurrent, where women are sorted in the ingénue/vamp dichotomy (Nita Naldi is the wicked woman who enjoys sex and lures Valentino away from Lila Lee, his innocent and sexually modest wife) and men are expected to have "a good love and a bad love." Still, the production values are nice and this is one of Valentino's better performances, a step up from his kitschy Wile E. Coyote histrionics in The Sheik (1921). And yet still, I'd rather watch The Sheik over this, as it's a lot more fun. Blood and Sand is a drag.

Impoverished shoemaker's son Rudolph Valentino (as Juan Gallardo) wants to be a bullfighter, much to his widowed mother's dismay. Still, toreador Valentino excels in the dangerous sport; and, later, he is wealthy and famous throughout Spain. Along the way, he marries virtuous childhood sweetheart Lila Lee (as Carmen). For Valentino, temptation accompanies fame, as he falls under the spell of wicked temptress Nita Naldi (as Doña Sol), a slightly sadomasochistic bullfighting groupie. Can Valentino love two women at the same time? Valentino performs well as an innocent ragamuffin who achieves great fame; of course, this parallels the idolization of the film's star. Moreover, the Idol proves just as attractive being seduced (herein, by Ms. Naldi) as he was the seducer (in the recent "Sheik"). Fred Niblo's "Blood and Sand" is a classic; however, the story, and disjointed bullfighting footage, do bog things down. Great things happen, after about a quarter hour, when Valentino steps into Naldi's lair. In a neat bit of acting business, Valentino wipes a sweaty hand before greeting his seductress; then, he and Naldi's servant exchange weird looks as Valentino gets his cigarette lighted. After some crosscutting to innocent Ms. Lee, Naldi's harp-playing gets her man. Writer June Mathis adapts well, for her star; but, the Ibáñez story should have more streamlined. Combining, or further developing, the characters played by Charles Belcher (Don Joselito) and Walter Long (Plumitas) might have helped. Mr. Belcher's character is most interesting; he collects torture devices, and choruses the film's thesis: "Happiness and prosperity built on cruelty and bloodshed cannot survive." ******* Blood and Sand (8/5/22) Fred Niblo ~ Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee, Nita Naldi, Charles Belcher

Why is this movie one of my favorite silent movies? For a start, it was one of Rudolph Valentino's best performances! I consider his other best performances to be in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and "The Eagle", although, of the movies in which I have seen him, he never gave a bad performance-some were just better than others! As the doomed bullfighter, he is perfect! Then there were the two leading ladies, both very good in their roles-Lila Lee, as the suffering wife, and Nita Naldi, as the seductress. Finally, there was Walter Long, memorable as a bandit friend of the bullfighter. I don't know if sound affected his career, but, in the silent movies in which I have seen him, he was very good! The only flaw in this movie was a ridiculous seduction scene, but, if one can overlook it, this movie will prove to be a very worthwhile movie!