The Bullfighter and the Lady Reviews

John Wayne produced and Budd Boetticher directed this semiautobiographical tale illustrating the art of bullfighting. While south of the border, American Chuck Regan (Robert Stack) falls in love with a lovely senorita, Anita de la Vega (Joy Page), and, to impress her, convinces renowned matador Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland) to make him his protege. Learning quickly, Chuck becomes too cocky and his carelessness causes Manolo's death, incurring the hatred of the locals and Anita. Chuck, however, reenters the ring and takes on a bull in Manolo's honor. Good performances, lush visuals, and a genuine appreciation of Mexican culture make THE BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY a fine film about bullfighting. Certainly no American filmmaker was more familiar with the brutal sport than Boetticher, a former college football player and boxer who traveled to Mexico in the 1930s and began a lifelong passion for bullfighting as a matador, serving as the technical advisor for Rouben Mamoulian's BLOOD AND SAND in 1941. After THE BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY, Boetticher went on to direct another bullfighting film, THE MAGNIFICENT MATADOR, in 1955. Following great success as a director of westerns he spent seven years, beginning in 1960, working on a documentary about the famous matador Carlos Arruza. The story earned the film's only Oscar nomination.