Bullfighter and the Lady (1951)

Budd Boetticher is best known for his superb westerns but there is one thing that obsessed him above all else - bullfighting. He had spent time in Mexico and had in fact become a torero, a bullfighter. He made three movies about bullfighting, the first being Bullfighter and the Lady (1951). There are some interesting thematic similarities between this movie and a couple of the westerns he made with Randolph Scott.

The first thing that needs to be said is that if you have serious objections to bullfighting and you cannot put those feelings to one side for the duration of the film then you may be best advised not to watch this movie. You don’t have to approve of bullfighting to appreciate this movie but you do at least need to be able to accept that it is a movie about people to whom bullfighting is almost a sacred ritual.

Johnny Regan (Robert Stack) is on an extended holiday in Mexico with his friends Barney and Lisbeth Flood (John Hubbard and Virginia Grey). Johnny wants to meet the famous matador Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland). He does meet him, in a restaurant. Johnny is pushy about it but Manolo behaves with great courtesy.

 
An unlikely friendship develops between the two men. Johnny, a champion skeet shooter, offers to teach Manolo. In return he asks a favour. He wants Manolo to teach him to be a bullfighter.

Johnny’s motivations are a little obscure. Partly he wants to impress Anita (Joy Page). Partly it is perhaps a desire to show off. There is however a bit more to it than that. Johnny admires Manolo, and not just for his prowess in the bullring. Manolo is the kind of man Johnny would like to be. Perhaps if he learns bullfighting he will acquire the qualities he admires in Manolo.

The quality that Manolo has is called stature in Mexico.

Johnny is quick to learn the technical skills of bullfighting but it will take him a much longer time to learn that bullfighting is about much more than technical skills and physical courage. Bullfighting is something almost religious. The torero has to have respect - respect for the art and the ritual of bullfighting, respect for the courage of the bull and respect for the dangers involve. There is no arrogance in Manolo’s supreme self-confidence. There is however a lot of hubris in Johnny’s growing self-confidence.

The budding romance between Johnny and Anita, the other major theme of the movie, encounters major obstacles.

The major theme of the movie is made explicit early on in the discussion of that Mexican concept of stature, a concept that includes physical courage, but while physical courage is necessary it is only one aspect of stature. Stature also requires moral courage - knowing what the right course of action is and taking that action. It also includes grace and good manners and it includes a self-confidence without arrogance. And it includes honour.

It is clear at their first meeting that Manolo has stature and Johnny does not. Manolo has self-control and effortless self-confidence and he always knows how to behave correctly and honourably. Johnny by contrast is pushy and gauche and his pushiness betrays a lack of true self-confidence. And Johnny clearly has some awareness that Manolo has qualities that he would like to have. Johnny sees Manolo as an ideal to which to aspire.

There’s an interesting parallel to this among the female characters. Chelo has stature. Anita does not quite have it, although she’s much closer to achieving it than Johnny. She makes mistakes and leaps to conclusions and judges people too harshly. It’s noticeable that Manolo and Chelo do not judge people harshly. One of the other toreros, Pepe, made a mistake which cost his own brother his life but Manolo does not judge him for it. Both Johnny and Anita need to acquire stature.

Boetticher’s original cut of the movie ran for 124 minutes. John Wayne, who was the producer, insisted that it could not be released unless that running time was trimmed considerable. An agreement was reached that John Ford would recut the movie. Ford’s version, the version eventually released, ran for just 87 minutes. The movie became more of an action/adventure/romance with most of Boetticher’s painstaking philosophical investigation of bullfighting being left on the cutting room floor.

Robert Stack gives what may be the performance of his career. He brings out the nuances in Johnny’s character. Johnny’s motivations are complex and it’s likely that Johny himself does not fully understand them. Johnny isn’t a likeable character but he’s very human and he never entirely loses our sympathy.

There’s a crucial scene in which Johnny meets an American writer named Jamison who has been writing a book on bullfighting. Jamison intended that the book would answer the question - why do men take the risks involved in bullfighting? He has never been able to complete the book because he has never been able to find the answer to that question. It’s a question that the movie itself raises. It’s perhaps reasonable to assume that Boetticher was also trying to analyse his own obsession with bullfighting.

Gilbert Roland is absolutely superb as Manolo. The whole cast is good.

Bullfighter and the Lady is not just a great movie about bullfighting. It’s a movie about Johnny’s painful journey of self-discovery and it’s a movie that explored the cultural significance of bullfighting. Bullfighting is not a sport. It’s a central component of an entire culture and the movie succeeds in giving the viewer at least a glimmering of understanding of a totally different set of cultural values. It’s a movie that tries to work on multiple levels and it works on all those levels. Very highly recommended.

Indicator’s Blu-Ray has perhaps too many extras - it’s a bit bewildering. You just don’t know to start. It also includes the hacked to pieces original theatrical cut.