ccthemovieman-1 Robert Stack with blonde hair? Could that really be "Elliot Ness?" Well, it was the early '50s, before Stack made a name for himself with the TV hit, "The Untouchables. For those looking back at this film for the first time, as I did in the 1990s, this was a weird sight.Blonde or not, the main question which might answer if you will enjoy this film is, "Does bullfighting interest you?" If it does, you'll like this; if it doesn't, you're going to be bored.II saw the two-hour "restored" version and it looked nicely-photographed in black-and-white and very detailed about the sport of bullfighting. There were a number of scenes where I started to get bored, to be honest, and I hard time sticking with it but I have no interest in bullfighting, either. It leaves me cold. If I had interest, well, I would have a totally different outlook on the film.Kudos to Stack for doing - at least in some spots - his own bullfighting. That was impressive and shows me the man had guts. The skeet-shooting scene also was real as he was a pretty good marksman.The romantic scenes, as expected, were so-so as "Chuck Regan" (Stack) pursues his bullfighting coach's daughter, "Anita de la Vega" (Joy Page)If you love bullfighting, this film would be a "must-have" because it goes into the "sport" in some detail and even mixes in some live footage (in the long version). I would suggest the longer version, anyway, because that's the way the filmmaker intended the audience to see his work. Given a choice, always see the longer version and then make up your own mind whether it should have been cut or not.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) The Bullfighter and the Lady is a great film that is forgotten. One of the reasons I think is the name of the film, which makes you think of a Walt Disney cartoon. In the fifties you would hear about John Ford or Hitchcock or Hawks being great directors but no one would mention Budd Boetticher and as time is the greatest critic, we can now appreciate how good he was. This is a semi- autobiographical film since Budd was a bullfighter before becoming involved in movies. His first job in Hollywood was as technical adviser for the bullfighting scenes in "Blood and Sand". Robert Stack is an American who becomes friendly with a great matador Gilbert Roland. Stack teaches Roland how to shoot birds and Roland teaches him to bullfight. Stack also falls in love with a woman from Roland's group (Joy Page). Katy Jurado is Roland's wife. As the story flows we see great scenes of bullfighting. Even though I have seen a couple of bullfights in Mexico, I learned much more from seeing this film. The Bullfighter and the Lady should be a model for any film about a dangerous sport. As the film was produced by John Wayne, John Ford (Wayne's great friend) cut about 30 minutes. He told Budd that the reason for this was that the studio would not release the film if it would be any longer. Budd forgave him, but he had the great pleasure of seeing his film restored to the original version before he died. That is how it is shown nowadays

momslikepork3 I enjoyed this film at a screening in LA a few years ago. I went because I had just been to a number of bullfights after first reading Hemingway's Death In The Afternoon--the ultimate primer on the sport. Stack was great with more subtlety then I expected. The bulls were magnificent, specially picked for their size at a time when the breeders were trying to size them down. It was said the film brought "real" (i.e. large, brave bulls) back to Mexico for a while. They wanted the size because of the wide shots, and those boys were BIG. Stack was a champion skeet shooter too, and in one of the stranger scenes in the film, he is shown in shooting form blowin 'em away. Wierd to work such an obscure sport into the movie.

uclub3 I recently caught the 124 restored version of "Bullfighter and the Lady," and thought it was excellent. I believe the 87 minute version left out much of the actual bullfighting scenes which is a real tragedy. The bullfighting scenes are shockingly real--almost documentary-like and add quite a bit of texture and reality to the movie. Boetticher was a bullfighter and his knowledge and love of the sport shows through.I was also quite impressed with the cast, including Robert Stack who, I must admit, I never had really thought was much of an actor. Gilbert Roland, as Stack's mentor, is tremendous as is Joy Page and, especially, the wonderful Katy Jurado.There is an interesting use of sound also. Boetticher effectively uses thunder as an ominous counterpoint during two key scenes in the movie.Highly recommended in the 124 minute, restored version.