The Loves of Carmen [DVD] [1948]

"She's bad all the way through. She lies as easily as other people drink water. She's a liar, a thief and a cheat. Has no more manners than my Great Aunt's cat. She's really awful. And I'd sell my soul to hear her say just once she loves me."

1948's The Loves of Carmen may dispense with Bizet, but this lavish `straight' adaptation of the classic tale of destructive love from the days when Technicolor was still glorious does reunite Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford with their Gilda director Charles Vidor to good effect. The passion may not burn as hot or as deep as in Prosper Merimee's novel or Bizet's opera but it's fairly grand entertainment with all the production values that only the studio system at its height could provide even if idealistic young Spanish officer Ford's brooding over his ruined life and amoral gypsy temptress Carmen's fickle affections does threaten to get on your nerves in the last third. Hayworth wasn't yet a good enough actress to make the most of the part, but she certainly scores in the allure department.

Columbia's Region 1 NTSC DVD boasts a magnificent color transfer with the original theatrical trailer included.

When "Prosper Merimee" wrote Carmen ,she was exploring the darker side of feminie behaviour in the guise of a tempestuous 'gypsy woman' that she aptly and delightfully named as Carmen and than set it in the sweltering Andulacian city of Seville in a time of political turmoil at turn of century .

The character is just as amoral and fickle as the Spanish mainstream Establishment, who persecute and simultaneously exploit the downtrodden Gypsy people for ulterior motives,but otherwise shun them to the outfringes of the society itself.

Rita is totally worthy of playing 'Carmen' as the tawny temptress who has a roving eye and a temper to match and a spirited sensual charm that can allure any man .

As the camera sweeps over the city walls of Seville while Glenn ford as the dashing but rather perfidious Army captain from Navarra,enters the Andulacian army fort ,and sets eyse on the irreristible Carmen ,there is an immense chemistry that immediately sets the screen aflame as the two virtually sizzle in their fatal attraction for each other.

Yet King Vidor is a director to reckon as he immediately starts dropping trivial hints of the doomed unforbidden love between an outcast and a genteel officer ,the 'ominous card games' and superstitious signs emerge as various metaphors and set an intriguing lurid atmosphere which is scintillating and yet extremely foreboding as the forbidden love blossoms.

The inevitable happens as Rita and Ford elope consumed with an insatiable lust and Ford himself becomes a 'wanted criminal'as an army deserter and a murderer , finally he discovers Carmen is married to another gypsy bandit ,and the doomed story evolves into a convoluted riddle in the mountains of Sierra Nevada .

Rita hayworth has got the abundant natural beauty to play the fickle beauty ,but she also has the dancing and singing talent to embellish this epic with three "exotic song dances" ,with dazzling costumes and opulent settings ,and as she progresses from Seville to Cordoba to the arms of the dashing matador 'Lucas' ,we are aware she is a woman on the brink of self destruction ,out of both desperation and the racial bigotry, she has endured all her life almost in self-defense .

The social prejudice and hatred she suffers and then divulges and endows upon others in turn is a 'therapeutic exorcism' and carmen becomes an icon for the deprived and exploited 'gypsy race' in her tragic travails .

The mesmerizing 'Technicolor photography' amongst the craggy mountains with gunfights and knife duels ,the elegance of the 'bullfighter elite' ,the ravishing 'Flamenco culture' portrayed with great Castanet dancing ,only add to the emotional and dramatic impact and the visual dimensions of the elusive characters, in the mystic panoramas of the Andulacian landscapes .

"Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco" composes a Flamenco soundtrack which virtually is pitch perfect from every dynamic dramatic trivia to the great song dances where Rita shimmers within a black sequinned Ball gown dress as the ultimate femme fatale as she tempts her male fans with an alluringly exquisite dance,using a 'metaphorical fan' as an accessory to flame the crackling atmosphere into a furnace of sexual desire .

This of course is an under-rated classic where Ford as the ubiquitous man from Navarra is the perfect stalemate for carmen and compulsively obsessed with her form and aura ,whle he has given a rather low key but extremely strong portayal of the man who will cross any boundary to possess her ,and 'King Vidor' gives them all a restrained yet flamboyant stage to indulge in their lunacy as carmen is nothing but an insane yet enormously exotic creature who seems to consume both herself and all around her in an intensely passionate doom, which is the hallmark of this extremely well made drama .

I am glad Hollywood shot this as a drama without the music from 'Bizet's operatic version' as this is a valid cinema classic with Glenn ford and Rita hayworth who dominate the movie from the first sequence to the fInale and their inensity fills every frame with a brauvaura that is difficult to define except as movie magic which is a miracle to create in any era .

This is ninteenth century Andulacia where the sexual chemistry burns like the midday sun between charismatic ford and rita, both give virtuoso performances as doomed lovers and the amourous amorality is not presented with correctional views ,strangely surprising for a movie from 1948.

The stunning production values and some great castanet singing dancing provide dazzling viewing but the virtues are the great character development and the execution of the fascinating plot ,thanks to the under-rated but deft skills of VIDOR.

Rita is bewitching but Ford is better as the the stoical ,laconic envious and obsessed lover who will destroy rather then be deceived and this might be the reason it is uneven as it becomes more Don Jose then Carmen ,but nevertheless it remains a must-see.

I am totally disappointed with this DVD. I cannot play it because we are in the wrong REGION. I have tried in two parts of the country with no luck. The message I get from my Video Cassette/DVD Recorder which is multi functional is "Please check the Regional code on this disc". The only clue on the DVD is that"This package is authorised for sale in the USA and their territories"!