BLOOD AND SAND

Having become Spain’s most popular bullfighter after a troubled youth, Juan Gallardo (Rodolfo Valentino) marries his beloved Carmen (Lila Lee). One day, however, Juan meets Doña Sol (Nita Naldi), a beautiful and perturbing widow with whom he falls in love. However, the new relationship does not last long: the difficult situation makes Juan restless, to the point that he is injured during a bullfight. Carmen insists that the man quit bullfighting, but Juan decides to enter the arena one last time to prove his worth. However, when Gallardo sees Doña Sol with another man, he allows himself to be killed by the fighting bull. The chaste (we are in the 1920s) but passionate kisses of the sensual Rudolph Valentino, around which the film was tailor-made, became legendary. The sentimental drama by director Fred Niblo (also of Italian origin) was filmed with equal success in 1941 by Ruben Manoulian, with Tyrone Power in Valentino’s place and Rita Hayworth.