Bullfighter and the Lady
The scenes of Robert Stack showing Gilbert Roland how to skeet shoot parallel true life. In college Stack was not interested in team sports, so he took up skeet shooting. In 1935 he came in second in the National Skeet Shooting Championship held in Cleveland, and in 1936 his five-man team broke the standing record at the National Skeet Championships held in St. Louis. In 1937, he was the U.S. 20-gauge champion skeet marksman and held the record for more than 350 consecutive hits. He also served as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy for more than three years during World War II and, among other decorations, was awarded the "Expert Rifle" and "Expert Pistol" ribbons.,Cut to 87 minutes after premiere; recently restored to original 124-minutes length.,Featured in The 67th Annual Academy Awards (1995),Esta Noche (Tonight)
Music by Victor Young
Lyrics by Jack Elliott
Spanish lyrics by Aaron González,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.,