Main Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Ron Randell, Victor Jory, Luther Adler, Arnold Moss
Release Year: 1948
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Perhaps it's just as well that Columbia elected to film Prosper Merimee's Carmen without Georges Bizet's music: after all, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford weren't exactly Leontyne Price and Robert Merrill. The Loves of Carmen is a reasonably faithful rehash of Merimee's story of the tempestuous gypsy cigarette-factory worker Carmen (Hayworth) and the devastating effect she has on the men in her life. Assigned to arrest Carmen after a street brawl, handsome military officer Don Jose (Ford) falls in love with her instead, renouncing his virginal sweetheart and falling in with Carmen's smuggler cronies. So smitten is Don Jose that he doesn't realize until it's too late that the amoral Carmen is foredoomed to destroy herself and her lovers. Highlights include a knife duel between Don Jose and Carmen's common-law husband Garcia (Victor Jory) and the fatal final confrontation stemming from Carmen's flirtation with bullfighter Lucas (John Baragrey). Dazzling Technicolor photography is the principal asset of this entertaining but uneven star vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
If you're going to make a non-operatic version of a famous opera, you need to have both an excellent reason for doing so and a new take on the material. The Loves of Carmen has the reason -- Rita Hayworth's unearthly beauty and incredible sex appeal -- but it falls down on the second score. Helen Deutsch's screenplay merely retells the opera's (and book's) story, which is exceedingly melodramatic, yet she doesn't offer new insights or provide structural and motivational elements that can fill in the gaps left by the removal of Bizet's evocative music. Her dialogue is sluggish and trite, and much of the film is quite dated -- especially a reference to Glenn Ford having joined "the Gay Police." With no new conception to the story, what in the opera that does come across as tragic, romantic, and enticingly lurid also seems disjointed, forced, and sometimes silly. A miscast Ford doesn't help; a more than capable actor, he's out of his element here and cannot supply the self-destructive obsession that the role demands. Fortunately, the film does have Hayworth, one of the screen's few genuine "love goddesses," and a fine actress to boot. She can't overcome some of the dialogue, but she's so bewitching that most viewers will ignore the stilted words coming out of her mouth. In her dialogue scenes, she can't quite convey the evil fire that burns within Carmen, but when she's given the opportunity to dance, she fills the screen with the vitality and venom that mark her character. William Snyder's glorious cinematography catches her in all her stunning beauty, and the combination of Hayworth and Snyder are enough to overcome -- just barely -- many of the film's flaws. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Joseph Buloff - Remendado; Margaret Wycherly - Old Gypsy Crone; Bernard Nedell - Pablo; John Baragrey - Lucas; Philip Van Zandt - Sergeant; Trevor Bardette - Footman; Wally Cassell - Dragoon; Peter Cusanelli - Man in Crown; Tony Dante - Groom; Claire Du Brey - Woman in Window; Paul Fierro; Kate Lawson - Woman Relative; Paul Marion - Sergeant of Dragoons; Victor McLaglen; Eula Morgan - Woman in Crowns; Inez Palange; Veronika Pataky - Bride; Leona Roberts - Ancient Gypsy Woman; Cosmo Sardo; Rosa Turich - Bride's Mother; Peter Virgo - Soldier; Lulu Mae Bohrman; Vernon Cansino; Jerry DeCastro; Alfred Paix; John Verros - Man
Credit
Stephen Goosson - Art Director, Cary O'Dell - Art Director, Eduardo Cansino - Choreography, Robert Sidney - Choreography, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Charles Vidor - Director, Charles Nelson - Editor, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Clay Campbell - Makeup, William Snyder - Cinematographer, Charles Vidor - Producer, William Kiernan - Set Designer, Wilbur Menefee - Set Designer, Helen Deutsch - Screenwriter, Prosper Merimée - Short Story Author
Following the plot of the opera, "Carmen," this story follows the wild gypsy's adventures as a siren and bandit. Carmen (Rita Hayworth) lures an innocent soldier (Glenn Ford) to his ruin, getting him expelled from the army. He then turns to banditry, killing Carmen's husband (Victor Jory) and others. All this makes for an unhappy ending with the innocent repenting his sins and dying for them
This was the first film chosen and co-produced by Hayworth's production company, the Beckworth Corporation, which gave her approval over her material and a percentage of the film's profits. As co-producer, Hayworth hired her father, the dancer Eduardo Cansino, to help choreograph the traditional Spanish dances. Also, her uncle José Cansino can be seen as her dance partner in one scene, and her brother Vernon Cansino has a bit part as a soldier.
