''Hot Blood'' is a 1956 American

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

starring

Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films. Russell moved from th ...

and

Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited app ...

and directed by

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film ''Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features pr ...

Plot

Marco Torino, king of the gypsies in southern California, is terminally ill. He wants his younger brother to succeed him, but Stephano is determined to become a

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

instead. After turning a potential employer against him, Marco arranges a marriage for his brother to Annie Caldash, another gypsy. Stephano angers Annie's father Theodore and brother Xano by resisting Annie's charms and refusing to marry her, as he loves Velma. Annie comes up with a scheme. Her father wants her to be paid a rich dowry from Stephano's family, 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 whom 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.

Cast

as Annie Caldash *

as Stephano Torino *

Luther Adler Luther Adler (born Lutha Adler; May 4, 1903 – December 8, 1984) was an American actor best known for his work in theatre, but who also worked in film and television. He also directed plays on Broadway. Early life and career Adler was born on ...

as Marco Torino *

Joseph Calleia Joseph Calleia ( ; born Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, August 4, 1897 – October 31, 1975) was a Maltese-born American actor and singer on the stage and in films, radio and television. After serving in the British Transport ...

as Papa Theodore * James H. Russell as Xano *

Nina Koshetz Nina Koshetz ( uk, Ніна Павлівна Кошиць; russian: Нина Павловна Кошиц; née Poray-Koshetz ( :uk:Порай-Кошиці); 30 December 1891 – 14 May 1965) was a Russian-Ukrainian, later American opera soprano, ...

as Nita Johnny *

Helen Westcott Helen Westcott (born Myrthas Helen Hickman, January 1, 1928 – March 17, 1998) was an American stage and screen actress and former child actress. She is best known for her work in ''The Gunfighter'' (1950). Early years Westcott was the daughte ...

as Velma *

Mikhail Rasumny Mikhail Rasumny (May 13, 1884, in Odessa, Russian empire – February 17, 1956, in United States) was a Soviet and American film actor. Biography Rasumny was born in Odessa, son of the famous cantor Ephraim Zalman (Solomon) Razumny, who was chief ...

as Old Johnny * Wally Russell as Bimbo * unbilled players include Richard Deacon and

Robert Foulk Robert C. Foulk (May 5, 1908 – February 25, 1989) was an American television and film character actor who portrayed Sheriff H. Miller in the CBS series '' Lassie'' from 1958 to 1962. Early years Foulk attended the University of Pennsylva ...

, and

Ross Bagdasarian Ross S. Bagdasarian (; January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), known professionally by his stage name David Seville, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor, best known for creating the cartoon band Alvin and the Chipmun ...

and

Les Baxter Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica ...

appear uncredited as gas station attendants

Background

The film's working title was ''Tambourine''. Jean Evans was the pen name of Jean Abrams, Ray's first wife. In 1949, Ray himself wrote a treatment based on Evans' research on gypsies in New York City's Lower East Side for RKO. In 1951, Ray worked on a script called ''No Return'' with writer Walter Newman about urban gypsies. Columbia finally agreed to make the film, but insisted that the script be re-written. Ray then worked with Jesse Lasky, Jr. as his writer on a new screenplay which became ''Hot Blood''. Ray had wanted producer Gabriel Pascal to play "Marco Torino," the King of the Gypsies, but Pascal died before the film was made. According to modern sources, Ray also considered Edward G. Robinson for the role, which eventually was portrayed by Luther Adler, a veteran of the Group Theater. Modern sources also add that choreographer Matt Mattox substituted for Cornel Wilde during the dances.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hot Blood (1956 Film) 1956 films 1956 drama films American musical drama films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by Nicholas Ray Films scored by Les Baxter Films set in Los Angeles Fictional representations of Romani people 1950s English-language films 1950s American films 1950s musical drama films