Hot Blood ** (1956, Jane Russell, Cornel Wilde, Luther Adler, Joseph Calleia) – Classic Movie Review 7924

Made in lurid Technicolor and wholly unsuitable widescreen, director Nicholas Ray’s 1955 Hot Blood is totally camp, kitsch, trashy and, quite honestly, just plain bad. But it is nevertheless quite a lot of fun to watch if you are in the mood. It is quite a good bad movie. Jane Russell, Cornel Wilde, Luther Adler, and Joseph Calleia star.

In this daft, brightly coloured saga, scripted by Jesse Lasky Jr from a story by Jean Evans, marriage is planned for Los Angeles gypsy Stephano Torino (Cornel Wilde) and tempestuous young gypsy woman from Chicago Annie Caldesh (Jane Russell).

[Spoiler Alert] Despite it being an arranged marriage, and Stephano is tricked into it by his gypsy king brother Marco, while Annie intends to scarper when Marco pays her father $2,000, eventually Jane does go Wilde for Cornel. Annie decides she wants to marry him after all but Steve runs off for several months. Of course, they finally find that opposites attract.

As Hot Blood is made by the great Nicholas Ray, you expect something much, much better, some signs of real quality, but this must count as an off-day. Russell and Wilde give appealing, attractive performances, especially considering the circumstances, which strain their appeal. Among the amusingly extravagant support performances, Luther Adler plays Wilde’s brother, Marco, and Joseph Calleia is Russell’s father, Papa Theodore. 

Jane Russell’s real-life brothers Wally Russell and James H Russell play Bimbo and Xano.

Sadly the magnificent Jane Russell was coming to the end of her reign as movie queen, with just The Revolt of Mamie Stover and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown to follow, though she reappeared in the Sixties in Johnny Reno and Waco.

Also in the cast are Helen Westcott, Mikhail Rasumny, Nina Koshetz, Les Baxter, Peter Brocco, Ross Bagdasarian, Richard Deacon, Nick Dennis, Robert Foulk, Ethan Laidlaw, Joe Lanza, Joe Merritt, Faye Nuell, Manuel Paris, John Raven, and Joan H Reynolds.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7924

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