The Magnificent Matador [The Brave and the Beautiful] ** (1955, Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Quinn, Manuel Rojas, Richard Denning, Thomas Gomez, Lola Albright) – Classic Movie Review 11,235

Director Budd Boetticher’s 1955 romantic drama The Magnificent Matador [The Brave and the Beautiful] stars Anthony Quinn as Luís Santos, the star bullfighter coming to the end of his career and putting a young lad (Manuel Rojas) into the ring when a bad omen makes him go AWOL from Mexico City when he should be at the bullfight.

Love comes to the ageing matador in the shape of pretty rich American woman Karen Harrison (Maureen O’Hara), who falls for the moody matador, naturally upsetting her boyfriend Mark Russell (Richard Denning). Unsurprisingly, Quinn gets his bottle back and the true identity of the lad is revealed.

These tepid toreador adventures plus hefty doses of fluffy romantic nonsense hardly add up to a good movie. It is shot in Mexico and only the Mexican scenery (beautifully filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor by Lucien Ballard) is first rate here, though there is some dubious interest aroused in the bullfighting atmosphere – much more at least than in either the plot or screenplay based on a story by Boetticher or the acting. Even Quinn seems oddly subdued. You expect better from cult director Boetticher, who cannot seem to do much with it.

Raoul Kraushaar’s score is also on the plus side.

Also in the cast are Manuel Rojas, Richard Denning, Thomas Gomez, Lola Albright, William Brooks Ching, Eduardo Noriega, Lorraine Chanel, Anthony Caruso, and Joaquin Rodriguez.

O’Hara recalled the Mexican crowd booed in a scene where a bull was not actually killed.

The screenplay is by Charles Lang.

It runs an insubstantial 94 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,235

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