Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Radio review – Lux – “Blood and Sand” (1941) **

Tyrone Power had one of his biggest hits remaking the Rudolph Valentino classic – even though he’s very American he’s still got enough dash and charisma to pull off the part of a Spanish bullfighter. The story must have been stock, even then – Power is an ambitious bullfighter, who marries a Good Girl but gets attracted and distracted by a rich temptress, learns his lesson in time to die. The film version had costumes, colour photography, bullfighting, and a cast including Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth – none of which we have here. We do have Power plus his future wife Annabella playing his love interest and it works on a hokey melodramatic level.

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