Blood and Sand (1922)

Vicente Ibáñez wrote the book, Tom Cushing the play - so it was only a matter of time before this came to a big screen - and Fred Niblo and a really rather dead-behind-they eyes Rudolph Valentino went to work. They recreate a tale that follows the rags to riches toreador ("Juan") from Seville, who marries his childhood sweetheart "Carmen" (Lila Lee) but is soon infatuated with the stunning, wealthy, electric "Doña Sol" (Nita Naldi) and his world comes crashing about his ears thanks to his behaviour, and to his somewhat hypocritical, and puritanical, fellow citizens. There's something of the "success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan" about the fickleness of his celebrity and fame; his love and his lusts - for women and success in the bullring - and he is woefully ill equipped to deal with the consequences of his dalliance. To that point, the plot runs a bit to rather dreary moralising which rather detracts from any fun side of what should have been an enjoyable, if imperfect, look at historic Spanish culture, and though certainly beautiful to watch on occasion, it lacks substance - depth; the performances - charisma. There are some lovely scenes with Valentino and the temptress Naldi, displaying an almost raunchy sensitivity and intimacy expertly exploited by Niblo, but these are few and far between and do little to raise the overall quality of this rather lengthy, but really pretty cold story.