Hot Blood

Plot synopsis:
Marco Torino (Luther Adler), king of the gypsies in southern California, is terminally ill. He wants his younger brother to succeed him, but Stephano (Cornel Wilde) is determined to become a dancer instead.
After turning a potential employer against him, Marco arranges a marriage for his brother to Annie Caldash (Jane Russell), a sexy gypsy. Stephano angers her father Theodore (Joseph Calleia) and brother Xano (James H. Russell) by resisting Annie's charms and refusing to marry her. He is in love with a blonde named Velma (Helen Westcott).
Annie comes up with a scheme. Her father wants her to be paid a rich dowry from Stephano's, then run off before the marriage. Stephano's brother is trying to raise money for a trip to "the promised land." She persuades Stephano to stage a phony wedding at which she will faint during the ceremony, whereupon they will split the dowry and teach their greedy relatives a lesson. But it is Stephano she ends up fooling, by going through with the marriage.
An angry Stephano leaves with Velma, finding work in cheap dance clubs. He begins to miss Annie. He returns to the gypsy camp to find Marco and her together, surprisingly happy. Mistakenly believing they are now together and pulling a swindle, Stephano objects, but Marco explains that he is merely enjoying the last precious days of his life. Stephano agrees to become the new gypsy king, with Annie his queen.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Tangled up in red. After a hat trick ,after three films ,two of which are absolute classics "Rebel without a cause" and "Johnny Guitar" and another one which was largely and unfairly ignored ,the poetic western "run for cover",all that Nicholas Ray would do would be necessarily a disappointment .I must confess "Hot Blood" failed to excite me.There 's one of Ray 's permanent features :the old character ,feeling that his days are numbered ,who is in search of someone younger to take over from him:that was the subject of his wonderful "lusty men" or of "run for cover" .The problem is that it's very difficult to believe these people are gypsies:the music does not sound "gyspsy" at all,being closer to musicals ,but no tune is particularly memorable.A gypsy called... Annie? The scene when Russell read her rival's cards could have been very funny,had her lines been a bit more subtle.Cornel Wilde and Jane Russell are attractive actors but there's no real chemistry between them.Cause he's been forced to get married against his will (the scene when Wilde realizes he's been had is the best),Stephano refuses to consummate the wedding but the girl is not prepared to accept it.But he does not know his brother suffers from TB.The colors are gaudy ,with red as the predominant color.But it's a far cry from "Johnny Guitar" filmed in "Trucolor" (sic)."Hot blood" is a faux pas in Ray's brilliant career: its follow-up ,"Bigger than life" showed the director at the top of his game again.. Will Cornel accept his destiny?. What should have been an interesting film had they played it more dramatically turns into an also ran in Hot Blood. Some how it just doesn't quite gel on the screen. Neither do Cornel Wilde and Jane Russell gel either.The real star here is Luther Adler who is Wilde's older brother and King of the local gypsy tribe in Los Angeles. But undisclosed health reasons are forcing an abdication on the king. He wants very much to move his younger brother Cornel Wilde into the throne.But Wilde isn't having any, he's having too much of a good time as a part time dance instructor and full time hell-raiser. What Adler decides is he needs a good woman.Enter Jane Russell who Wilde buys as a gypsy bride from her father Joseph Calleia. Would you believe that someone would have to be tricked into marrying Jane Russell? Sad, but true and Wilde is the unlucky patsy who's the mark in one of the great gypsy con games. I think Nicholas Ray might have succeeded with this film had it been treated more dramatically. A few numbers for Jane Russell never hurt in films like His Kind Of Woman, but there was too much emphasis here. And doubles were obviously used in the dancing for Wilde and Russell.This had the potential to be a lot better, but fans of the two stars will enjoy. And Luther Adler is just great in his part.. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.. Everybody's looking for the Big Bajour, but what they end up finding is love, sweet love. In this laughable movie about American gypsies, Jane Russell is an independent gypsy, working from town to town to sign contracts to marry a gypsy prince, swipe the dowry & skip town. But when she does that with gypsy prince Cornel Wilde's heir apparent brother (Luther Adler), she plays the bajour (swindle) on Wilde himself, having decided that he will be better as a husband than as a victim. Having gone along with the scam since he had no love lost for his brother, Wilde is furious over this trapped marriage and vows not to honor his vows. Russell vows to get him come hell or high water, and being the hot-blooded gypsy girl she is, gives him a wedding night he won't soon forget, the kind that usually ends up with some interior decorator making a heck of a commission.Russell and Wilde make one heck of a couple, but it is clear that they are about a decade too old for their parts. Adler is perfectly cast as the older brother and easily wins the acting honors. This is a strange assignment for director Nicholas Ray, being a semi-musical with little plot beyond some catfights, a few flaccid songs and a wedding night whip number that creates a lot of heat for the well paired leads. The massively red color photography is eye-catching, but the entire gypsy atmosphere seems truly forced. The only thing missing is Maria Ouspenskaya giving her werewolf lesson and the view of Dracula's castle in the background.