Hot Blood

Released Jul 20, 1956

1h 25m

Comedy

Drama

List

86%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

43%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A Gypsy king (Luther Adler) tricks his brother (Cornel Wilde) in Los Angeles into marrying a Roma bride (Jane Russell) that he bought.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Definitely one of the more intriguing and neglected of Ray's second-degree efforts.

Jan 11, 2008

Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

An oddity, then, but one distinguished by Ray's characteristic refusal to patronise or glamorise his characters.

Aug 16, 2007

Full Review

Jean-Luc Godard

Cahiers du Cinéma

Hot Blood, in short, is a semi-successful film to the extent that Ray was semi-uninterested in it. A success almost in spite of its director, I should add; or better, brought off by Nicholas Ray's innate sense of cinema.

May 25, 2021

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

If not Nicholas Ray's greatest movie, then surely the rapturous culmination of his palpable desire to do a musical

Feb 12, 2010

Full Review

TV Guide

Ray milks the comedy element for all it's worth, and the musical numbers are staged surprisingly well by a director mainly known for his gritty dramas.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 11, 2008

Full Review

Film4 Staff

Film4

All the lively song-and-dance routines and steamy shots of a scantily clad Russell can't make up for the crass dialogue and boring melodramatics.

Aug 18, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

Nicholas Ray's followup to Rebel Without A Cause is this curious effort about an arranged marriage and Gypsy culture. Jane Russell's as the scheming bride and Luther Adler as the Gypsy king shine. But, the plot is tissue thin and the dance sequences are oddly filmed. The camera is distant as if to hide the fact that stand-ins were doing the real dancing. Director Ray is said to have delegated the editing of the film.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Nicholas Ray's gypsy drama is a campy delight and Jane Russell and Cornel Wilde are the perfectly campy stars.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Silly and overblown. Jane is fiery but not believable as a gypsy for a second.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Crap. The first dud I've seen from Ray, and it's pretty much without any merit whatsoever. Although it's only 80-odd minutes, it's painfully lethargic, and although it offers the promise of perhaps getting a glimpse into gypsy lifestyle and culture... we don't really get it. Apart from some dancing and singing and whipping. I was particularly disappointed with Ray's use of CinemaScope, which is about as bland and lifeless as you can get, with a few exceptions.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

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Nicholas Ray

Director

Jane Russell

Annie Caldash

Cornel Wilde

Stephano Torino

Luther Adler

Marco Torino

Joseph Calleia

Papa Theodore

Mikhail Rasumny

Old Johnny

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Synopsis

A Gypsy king (Luther Adler) tricks his brother (Cornel Wilde) in Los Angeles into marrying a Roma bride (Jane Russell) that he bought.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 20, 1956, Original
Release Date (DVD): Apr 13, 2011
Runtime: 1h 25m