Blood and Sand
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| Blood and Sand | |
|---|---|
 Original Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | Fred Niblo |
| Produced by | Executive Producer: Jesse L. Lasky Producer: Fred Niblo |
| Written by | Novel: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Play: Tom Cushing Scenario: June Mathis |
| Starring | Rudolph Valentino Lila Lee Nita Naldi Rosa Rosanova Walter Long |
| Music by | Theatre supplied |
| Cinematography | Arthur Edeson Alvin Wyckoff |
| Editing by | Uncredited: Dorothy Arzner |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  August 5, 1922 |
| Running time | 80 min. |
| Language | silent |
| IMDb profile | |
Blood and Sand was a 1922 silent movie produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Fred Niblo and starring Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee and Nita Naldi. It was based on the Spanish 1909 novel Blood and Sand (Sangre y arena) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.
Juan Gallardo (Rudolph Valentino), a village boy born into poverty, grows up to become one of the greatest matadors in Spain. He marries a friend from his childhood, the beautiful and virtuous Carmen (Lila Lee), but after he achieves fame and fortune he finds himself drawn to Doña Sol (Nita Naldi), a wealthy, seductive widow. They embark on a torrid affair with rather sadomasochistic overtones, but Juan, feeling guilty over his betrayal of Carmen, tries to free himself of Doña Sol. Furious at being rejected, she exposes their affair to Carmen and Juan's mother, seemingly destroying his marriage. Growing more and more miserable and dissipated, Juan becomes reckless in the arena and is eventually killed in a bullfight but does manage to reconcile with Carmen moments before he dies.
There is also a subplot involving a local outlaw whose career is paralleled to Juan's throughout the film by the village philosopher: Juan's fatal injury in the bullring comes moments after the outlaw is shot by the police.
Blood and Sand proved very successful at the box office. It was parodied in 1922 by Stan Laurel in Mud and Sand and in 1924 by Will Rogers in the Hal Roach short film Big Moments From Little Pictures.
[edit] Remakes
Blood and Sand was remade twice: the 1941 version was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starred Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth; the 1989 Spanish remake was directed by Javier Elorrieta and starred Chris Rydell, Sharon Stone and Ana Torrent.
