I read a biography of the director Nicholas Ray a few years back, fascinating man, I'd like to see all his movies. However, some are rather hard to come by, especially from his European period; complicated copyright situations. 'Hot Blood' is not one of those, it's very much a studio film, too much so. Ray envisioned location shooting to add authenticity to his semi musical tale of contemporary gypsies. 'Hot Blood' is all studio sets and backlots.
Luther Adler is Marco Torino, a 'Gypsy King' in what I suspect is suppose to be contemporary Los Angeles, or maybe New York. As a King Marco is a kind of semi official leader of local Gypsies, part Bishop part community organizer. Kind of like a ward boss. He helps his people with jobs, intercedes on their behalf with local authorities and welcomes new commers. Marco hasn't told anyone but he has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and wants to see his responsibility sherking younger brother Stephano (Cornel Wilde, who I'm pretty close to neutral on as an actor, though he sure was in alot of things) married and ready to take over as the new Gypsy King.
As part of this agenda Stephano is tricked into marrying Annie (Jane Russell, more sex symbol then actress this is probably one of her better performances), a transplant from Chicago who Marco has "purchased" from her father to be his brothers bride. Principly the movie is 85 minutes of dancing, misunderstandings, scheming and deception; because its a non PC Gypsy movie. It ends figuratively if not in fact with a wedding and all is set right again, so sort of Shakespeareian, or a middling contemporary imitation there of. There's nice dancing, the color really pops, Adler has a rather charming screen presence, the two romantic leads hover either side of being adequate. I think this would make a good background movie, it looks nice but dosen't demand alot of sustained attention. **
No comments:
Post a Comment