Blood and Sand

20th Century-Fox chief Darryl Zanuck had a success with The Mark of Zorro (1940), putting Tyrone Power behind the mask worn by Douglas Fairbanks in the silent version. For a follow up, why not another remake of a silent classic? This time Power would don a matador costume to take on the role made famous by Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand (1922). The 1941 Blood and Sand would not only have sound but color as well and to get the very best look, Zanuck hired Rouben Mamoulian, the director of the first three-strip Technicolor movie Becky Sharp (1935). Mamoulian had not had a chance to work with color since and was anxious to use this opportunity to push color photography to a new level. Each sequence in the movie would be modeled after the look of a great painter; the bullring scenes in the manner of Goya, the matador's dressing room after Titian, etc. If the set did not feature the right colors, Mamoulian kept a paint-filled spray can nearby for touch-ups. As Mamoulian recalled about a hospital scene, "I thought if El Greco had painted it, it wouldn't look white, it would look green and gray, so I sprayed all the sheets and painted shadows on the walls. It looked absolutely appalling to the eye, and it really shook me because I thought I'd really ruined the set, but it came out beautifully." For his efforts Blood and Sand took the 1942 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography. Color also had an effect on casting and accidentally created a new star. Zanuck wanted to cast Carole Landis, star of the prehistoric adventure movie One Million B.C. (1940), as Dona Sol, the temptress that leads the matador astray. Mamoulian, however, was insisting that Dona Sol's hair be red to represent her lustfulness. Landis, fearing a dye job would ruin her reputation as a blonde bombshell, refused the part and, after the testing of many actresses, the part went to 22-year old Rita Hayworth. Best known then for a supporting role in The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Hayworth got the role for her dancing skills, an important detail as a sexy tango was a central part of the film. She seemed shy off screen, but on screen in this new vamp role, her sexuality made her electrifying. As choreographer Hermes Pan recalled, "At the time I thought it would be Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell's movie, because he was the star and Linda was under contract to Fox, but when Rita came on she was just dynamite. You couldn't believe the excitement when we saw the rushes." For her partner in the tango, Hayworth was paired with a fellow character actor rising to stardom, Anthony Quinn, who before this had primarily played small roles as thugs and criminals. In his autobiography, One Man Tango, the actor recalled that "Blood and Sand was a breakthrough mostly in that it released me from the dark-skinned gangster characters that had become my routine...As the rival matador, I was left to wait in the wings for the bulk of the picture, and my first and best chance to show what I could do came in a memorable dance scene with Rita Hayworth. I had always been able to maneuver around a dance floor, and Miss Hayworth was a facile partner. She rode my hip like it was an extension of her own body. Together we moved like lovers - which, in fact, we were, by the time we wrapped the picture." While shooting scenes in Mexico City, Mamoulian made another discovery, a young American training to be a matador, and brought him into the production both to choreograph an authentic tango and to teach Power how to convincingly battle a bull in an arena. The young man, Budd Boetticher, would later direct several Randolph Scott Westerns which are considered superior examples of the genre (Seven Men From Now (1956), Comanche Station, 1960). Boetticher said, "I showed Tyrone Power how to do the capework but he never actually got near a bull! He wanted to but the studio wouldn't let him. They said he was too valuable a property." Unlike all these newcomers on their way up, one member of the cast was on her way out. Alla Nazimova, who had starred opposite Valentino in a version of Camille (1921), played one of her last roles in the small part of the matador's peasant mother. Blood and Sand went on to become one of 20th Century-Fox's biggest hits of 1941 but Mamoulian later got a recognition he did not expect. "I had never been to Spain and although we actually did some filming in Mexico City, I was never really sure I had captured a true Spanish authenticity until I actually went to Spain many years later. I was most pleased to discover it looked exactly the way the Spanish masters had painted it and that it was as I had imagined it would be. People in Spain who had seen and loved the film did not believe I had never visited the country before making the film." Director: Rouben Mamoulian Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck Screenplay: Jo Swerling based on the novel Sangre y arena by Vicente Blasco Ibanez Cinematography: Ernest Palmer, Ray Rennahan Art Direction: Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright Music: Alfred Newman Editing: Robert Bischoff Cast: Tyrone Power (Juan Gallardo), Linda Darnell (Carmen Espinosa), Rita Hayworth (Dona Sol), Nazimova (Senora Augustias Gallardo), Anthony Quinn (Manola de Palma), J. Carrol Naish (Garabato). C-125m. by Brian Cady

It's hard to overstate just how big a star Tyrone Power was in the 1940s. He was the epitome of Hollywood glamour, impossibly handsome, the kind of movie star women wanted to be with and men wanted to be. Finally the subject of a long overdue box set of DVDs, some of Power's most colorful films are now available for rediscovery. Blood and Sand (1941) is perhaps the best of the lot, a remake of the 1922 silent feature and the tale of a Spanish bullfighter's rise and fall both in and out of the ring. The glamour quotient of this movie can also be seen in its supporting cast. Stunning Linda Darnell plays Power's wife, while Rita Hayworth plays the sultry vixen who seduces him away. (Hayworth may have been the only actress in Hollywood - certainly the only one at Fox - who could have made a character believably stray from Linda Darnell...) Cast aside, Blood and Sand is memorable for its color, pageantry, lavish sets (especially Hayworth's home), sensual music, and so forth. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, Blood and Sand drew special fame for its use of color. Mamoulian had directed the first three-strip Technicolor feature, Becky Sharp (1935), and with this film he pushed the known limits of how color could be used expressively, framing and lighting scenes to imitate the look of paintings by Old Masters like Goya and El Greco. "I consider that color on the screen must be used as an emotion," he later said. "If you use it directly as the emotional expression of what you're trying to do in the scene, it takes care of its own aesthetics." In other words, Mamoulian was much more concerned with emotional impact than with naturalism or "realism." This extended to all sorts of decisions he made on this film, much to the consternation of his young technical adviser, Budd Boetticher, who had learned to bullfight while in Mexico. Later a famous director in his own right, Boetticher landed this job after demonstrating various bullfighting passes in Darryl Zanuck's office. "In fifteen minutes I had Mr. Zanuck trying to make passes with the cape, and later playing the part of the bull for my own demonstrations," Boetticher later recalled. "Suddenly every girl in the world was about to become jealous of me, because my first job was to teach Tyrone Power how to look and move like a bullfighter." Things were not so smooth on the set. Mamoulian, Boetticher recounted, had a little bell attached to the armrest of his director's chair. If he rang it once, the assistant director was to come running. If he rang twice, Boetticher was being summoned, and he had to stand at attention directly in front of Mamoulian, not off to the side. Boetticher would give his advice, be it about a bullfight pass or a costume or the order in which officials entered the ring, and Mamoulian would disregard them all. "He was the cruelest no-good son of a bitch in the whole world," Boetticher said. "If we had been making a baseball picture, I would probably have suggested that, following a well-hit ball, the runner should race to first base instead of third." (Years later, Boetticher and Mamoulian became good friends.) Regardless, Mamoulian was smart enough to know that making his audience feel a certain emotion was more important than showing them 100% accuracy. Boetticher also helped choreograph the paso doble dance between Rita Hayworth and Anthony Quinn, one of the most memorable scenes in the picture. It's a dance in which the man dances the part of a matador while the lady, her arms outspread, plays the part of the bull. The scene, among others here, did a lot to cement Hayworth in the public consciousness as a major new star. Power exudes tremendous magnetism in this movie. Though he is doubled in the bullfighting sequences by Fermin "Armillita" Espinosa, one of the greatest Mexican bullfighters of the era, he seems believable as a bullfighter because he plays the arrogance, the cockiness, so well. "The cow hasn't been born yet, that can give birth to the bull that can hurt me!" he declares. He is also excellent in many touching and tender scenes, like the one where he greets his mother (Alla Nazimova) for the first time in ten years as he steps off a train. (Admittedly, it helps that she plays the scene so well). Also memorable is the wordless sequence as he reunites with Linda Darnell and a band serenades her, in a bit of staging which echoes their previous farewell scene as children. The strong supporting cast includes Laird Cregar as an overbearing newspaper critic, the afore-mentioned Anthony Quinn as a rival bullfighter, Alla Nazimova (superb as Power's mother), John Carradine, Lynn Bari, J. Carroll Naish, Ann E. Todd (great as a 10-year-old version of Linda Darnell) and an almost unrecognizable George Reeves as Hayworth's boyfriend - until she gets a look at Tyrone Power, that is. Fittingly for a movie that won an Oscar for color cinematography, the DVD has a commentary by Richard Crudo, who was president of the American Society of Cinematographers guild from 2003-2006. His spiel is entirely about the history of the craft and its technique on this picture, but it's accessible, articulate and quite interesting. He gets at least one fact wrong, however. He says that Ray Rennahan, one of the two cameramen on Blood and Sand, never shot a black-and-white movie in his life. That seemed pretty amazing to this viewer, and while a check on IMDB revealed that virtually all of his features were indeed in some form of color, here's one that wasn't: Terror in a Texas Town(1958). Blood and Sand is available by itself and as part of Fox Home Entertainment's Tyrone Power Collection, which also includes Son of Fury (1942), Captain From Castile (1947), Prince of Foxes (1949) and The Black Rose (1950). The collection abounds in commentaries, stills, trailers, short documentaries, newsreels, isolated score tracks, lobby card reproductions and a small booklet. The films vary in quality but altogether give a very entertaining sense of this swashbuckling star, making this a collection well worth seeing. For more information about Blood and Sand, visit Fox Home Entertainment. To order Blood and Sand, go to TCM Shopping. by Jeremy Arnold

Fox will make a lot of matinee fans happy with Tyrone Power: The Swashbuckler Box Set, a collection of five of Power's most exciting pictures. The list includes one bona fide classic, an underappreciated epic and two more ambitious period swashbucklers. Fans tend to love Tyrone Power and the most notable 'swashbuckler' Errol Flynn for different reasons. Superstar Flynn is almost too dynamic for his movies, many of which are simply extravagant vehicles for his outsized talents. Tyrone Power is less of a superman figure and his characters are often subordinated to strong stories, which makes sense considering that many of them were personally produced by Darryl Zanuck. But even when Power's pictures fall short of perfection, they tend to be both intelligent and distinctive. The set includes Captain from Castile, a superb epic ripe for rediscovery. 1941's Blood and Sandis a bullfighting film, not a swashbuckler per se. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez' novel is something of a Spanish national epic with its story of the rise and precipitous fall of Juan Gallardo, a famous matador. It has everything: an ambitious poor boy who wants to win back his father's good name; a faithful wife (Linda Darnell), a faithless lover (Rita Hayworth) and a worn old mother (Nazimova) who foresees that her son will meet the same cruel fate as his father. Blood and Sandis an old story exceedingly well written for the screen by Jo Swerling. Juan seeks fame and honor but never learns to read or write. His faithful retainers (John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Pedro de Cordoba) eventually desert him as he becomes more arrogant and irresponsible. As the debts mount, freeloading relatives like Juan's sister Encarnacíon (Lynn Bari) attack his good name. It's even lonelier at the top thanks to the pompous, predatory critic Natalio Curio (Laird Cregar). Curio feeds off the young matador's fame and then pretends that Juan's success is his doing. It's a rather accurate picture of the dishonest critic. Tyrone Power shows in Blood and Sandthat he can handle serious dramatic roles. Linda Darnell is fresh from The Mark of Zorro and Rita Hayworth is perfect as the Spanish temptress Doña Sol des Muire. She's quite a sight when dancing with Anthony Quinn, who plays a competitor in the bullring. But Ray Rennahan's artful Technicolor cinematography probably distracted viewers from the performances. Director Rouben Mamoulian was always a pioneer in technical matters, and Blood and Sandis a showcase of interesting effects in the 3-strip process. Carmen's white wedding dress contrasts strongly with Doña Sol's alluring gowns. Mamoulian has Hayworth open a dark wrap, exposing a bright dress that lights up the screen like a matador's cape -- a trick used later by Vicente Minnelli in The Band Wagon. Under the Technicolor lights, Power's ornate matador outfits also take on magical hues. [Spoiler] Blood and Sandretains Ibáñez' fixation on bullfighting as Fate, with the measure of a man determined by how he faces the possibility of death in the afternoon. Mamoulian stages two impressive scenes in the arena but leaves Juan's final confrontation mostly off-screen. By that time Juan has lost all of his friends, even John Carradine's Nacional, a socialist forever swearing to quit the corrupt blood sport. The old matador played by J. Carroll Naish curses not the bulls, but the bloodlust of the crowd that gathers for the ritual slaughter. Fox's Blood and Sand has received a lucky break from the gods of video restoration. The clear image closely approximates the look of original Technicolor prints, with contrast ranging from inky blacks to the bright gleam in Rita Hayworth's eyes. Perhaps this Oscar winner for Cinematography received special treatment when labs were converting Tech films to normal Eastmancolor. The soundtrack features Alfred Newman's standard score and some great flamenco music. I presume that Ms. Hayworth's singing voice is dubbed, but she sounds very good. Besides a photo gallery the main extra on Blood and Sand is a commentary by a director of photography, Richard Crudo. He devotes his track to camera-related issues, talks a bit about the Technicolor process and tends to drift onto tangential topics. The way to really learn about Technicolor on DVD is still Turner's fine documentary Glorious Technicolor, included on the special edition disc of The Adventures of Robin Hood. Blood and Sandis considered a textbook film when studying what Technicolor can and cannot do. Made right at the outbreak of WW2, Son of Fury, the Story of Benjamin Blake is a fine example of Power as the archtype conceived by Darryl Zanuck: a disinherited nobleman fighting to regain his good name and fortune. The surprise is that Philip Dunne's good writing and John Cromwell's assured direction make this formula seem fresh once again. Young Benjamin Blake (Master Roddy McDowall as a child) is the unrecognized son of the Blake family. Unscrupulous uncle Sir Arthur (George Sanders) takes Ben on as a bonded stable boy to ensure that he can never claim his noble title. As an adult, Benjamin woos Sir Arthur's daughter Isabel (Frances Farmer) and is accused of assault by his uncle, a hanging offense. With the help of a bar girl (Elsa Lanchester) Benjamin escapes to the South Seas, jumps ship with another bitter convict (John Carradine) and lives happily among the Polynesians, harvesting pearls and romancing an island girl that he names Eve (Gene Tierney). Benjamin returns to London with a fortune in pearls and engages lawyer Bartholomew Pratt (Dudley Digges) to recover his title and clear up his legal problem, so he can marry Isabel. Blake is instead arrested; when asked, Pratt disavows any knowledge of him. The unpretentious Son of Fury is another undeservedly ignored gem. Unlike most swashbuckling heroes, Blake is not invincible. He loses several fistfights and is clubbed for talking back to the Captain of a sailing ship, who goes right on calmly giving instructions to his crew. Blake consistently puts his trust in others, a policy that pays off only 50% of the time. Darryl Zanuck assembles a quality cast. Elsa Lanchester's good time girl is overjoyed at being treated like a lady by Blake's thoughtful gentleman. John Carradine is a terrific hardened criminal who finds peace and happiness in a South Seas paradise. As Carradine frequently plays villains, Son of Fury seems like a personal reprieve -- it's a joy to see him smile. The high-profile barrister Dudley Digges gets two entire scenes almost to himself. Harry Davenport is Blake's maternal grandfather, who is thrown into prison when Benjamin flees the country. George Sanders must have loved playing S.O.B.'s, because his dastardly aristocrat is a real stinker. The marvelous Frances Farmer (Come and Get It) dresses up the first part of the picture with her wonderful smile and ambiguous affection for Blake. Also making sparks with Power is Gene Tierney as a Hollywood Polynesian complete with the full Max Factor treatment. She's a vision, and a major impetus for Blake to find a higher value than simply taking his uncle's place in the House of Lords. Son of Fury generates a good feeling about its characters and ends with a romantic reunion on the beach that leaves us feeling exhilarated. When Powers kissed 'em, they apparently stayed kissed. Son of Fury is in fine shape, giving us John Cromwell's classy masked ball and the studio-bound Polynesian beaches in their original B&W glory. The Alfred Newman score has been isolated, the kind of extra that studios can give us any time, with thanks. The new featurette is an overview of the middle section of Tyrone Power's career, and is the best of the group of short subjects on these discs. Still & advertising galleries and a trailer are included as well. 1948's Captain from Castile is this collection's real dazzler. I wouldn't be surprised if the handlers and agents of Hollywood's top ten male stars see this disc in the next few weeks and propose a remake as a perfect vehicle for their clients. Castile makes Power the central character in nothing less than the Conquest of Mexico and paints a refreshingly non- PC view of La Conquista. Driven from his home by The Inquisition, Pedro de Vargas (Power) heads for Santo Domingo with rogue friends Lee J. Cobb and Jean Peters (in her first movie). There he hooks up with the near-piratical gold-hungry expedition of Hernán Cortez. This is probably the best role ever played by Cesar Romero; his Cortez hijacks the expedition from its lawful leaders and by charisma alone aims straight for Moctezuma's fabled City of Gold. Aztec interpreter Doñ Marina gives Cortez a linguistic advantage over Montezuma's advance guards and ambassadors, enabling him to bluff, bribe and smile his way toward the capitol. Curiously, the expected armed conflicts take place mostly off screen while we concentrate on Pedro's romance with Catana, the Jean Peters character. In what looks like some compromised restructuring, Pedro is gravely wounded in two redundant incidents, while we never see the battles with Moctezuma's armies. This is perhaps the only film to capture the full spirit of the Spanish conquest. The Conquistadores may be ruthless opportunists but they also have the sheer guts to risk all in a wild quest. Life is short and death can come from almost anything, even a bellyache. Why not go for the big prizes of honor and riches as well as the blessings of God and country? Cortez laughs as he burns his own ships, forcing his men to trust in his grandiose promises of glory. One man's personality motivates an entire army. The film provides a complex look at class differences and the role of Spain's corrupt Inquisitors. The handling of the Inquisition raises parallels with the American blacklist, but Captain from Castile is a couple of years too soon to have been inspired by the happenings at HUAC. Some viewers may also be surprised that the show does not portray the Aztecs as innocent victims. Cortez successfully conquered a nation that could easily have annihilated him, had it not been intimidated by his horses and his utter self-confidence. The film benefits from terrific Mexican location work that evokes both Spain and the New World. The costumes and sets are superb; all that is lacking for the modern viewer are elaborate battle scenes. The ending will surprise some, as the story reaches its climax just as the wonders of victory lie before the conquerors, in a vision of a city floating on a lake. A real volcano is seen erupting behind many grand shots of marching armies -- no mattes, no fakery. Finally, Alfred Newman's score is one of the best Hollywood ever turned out. A weird theme accompanies the Jean Peters character, a choice that's difficult to understand. The exultant Spanish march cue makes one want to jump in the saddle and cabalgar alongside Power and Romero; in 1954 the USC marching band adopted it as the school's official tune. John Sutton is the hissable villain, Antonio Moreno is Pablo's noble father and Barbara Lawrence (Kronos) is Luisa, a high-toned Castilian girlfriend. When Pablo is sought by the inquisition, Luisa's reaction is to fret that she might be implicated should her handkerchief be found on him. Other notable faces include Alan Mowbray, Thomas Gomez, Marc Lawrence, Jay Silverheels, Chris-Pin Martin and Estela Inda as Doña Marina, Cortez's interpreter and paramour. Captain from Castile's very good transfer almost captures the original's Technicolor luster. It has no real flaws but the colors in some scenes are on the weak side. A chatty commentary combines critic Rudy Behlmer and music expert Jon Burlingame with moderator Nick Redman; they discuss all of the actors as well as the film's status as one of the biggest productions of its day. The entire Alfred Newman score is provided on its own track, synchronized with cue IDs and conductor comments intact. Audio tracks in French and Spanish are provided but the Spanish track sampled appeared to make use of a different music score. An interview featurette gathers Patricia Neal, Colleen Gray, Terry Moore and Jayne Meadows to comment about their co-star, but soon bogs down in repetitious talk of how handsome and nice Power was. A B&W trailer and still & art galleries finish the package. Prince of Foxes is yet another intelligent costume drama, one almost too intelligent for American audiences of the time. Power begins the show as Andrea Orsini, an unscrupulous opportunist doing dirty jobs for Cesare Borgia (Orson Welles, in fine form and perhaps at a decent weight for the last time). As an emissary, Orsini paves the way for Borgia to annex a neighboring petty kingdom, using flattery and well-timed bribes. Then Cesare dispatches Andrea to murder Count Verano (Felix Aylmer), woo his wife Camila (Wanda Hendrix, yet another interesting romantic foil for Power) and take their city fortress Cittá del Monte. Orsini is instead redeemed by Camila's fidelity to her husband, and changes sides to defy Borgia's mercenary armies. His only ally is Mario Belli (Everett Sloane), an assassin with the unmistakable face of a complete knave. The big twist is that Andrea is actually a complete imposter; his mother is a poor peasant named Costanza (Katina Paxinou). Orsini's conversion to the side of goodness is well motivated. His defenders at Cittá del Monte can hold out against Borgia's armies only for so long, leaving him with the bitter choice is to flee or die defending a woman he's never possessed. The utter ruthlessness of Welles' Borgia is a major delight; when Cesare and Belli chortle over each other's craven villainy, we can't help but be moved. Everett Sloane gets what may be 1949's most sadistic scene: at a fancy dinner, the assassin Belii offers to gouge a man's eyes out with his thumbs, and Camila is forced to watch. Contributing heavily to director Henry King's success are the authentic locations in Italy. When we see a castle on a hill in this movie, it's the real deal. Most of the castle interiors also look authentic, enhancing the film's special atmosphere. The majority of the supporting characters are Italians but familiar Italian-American Eduardo Ciannelii has a nice bit, along with Mexican looker Ariadna Welter, later of The Brainiac and The Devil's Hand, which starred Tyrone Powers' second wife, Linda Christian. As many viewers have said, if Prince of Foxeswere in color, it would probably be considered a classic. The print of Prince of Foxes is in great shape, showing off Leon Shamroy's fine B&W cinematography. Alfred Newman's music score is isolated on a second audio track. Besides the expected trailer and photo galleries, the disc offers a Movietone newsreel of Tyrone Power and Linda Christian's Italian wedding ceremony, which took place right after the completion of filming. The newest picture in the package is 1950's The Black Rose from Thomas B. Costain, the author of The Silver Chalice. This costume picture ranges from England to China during the Crusades and was photographed in Technicolor by the great Jack Cardiff. Power is fine as Walter of Gurnie, a de-classed Saxon who prefers to seek his fortune in the Orient rather than serve a Norman king. Henry Hathaway directs, well enough to surmount some odd script transitions. The rousing story engages a lively cast. James Robertson Justice is a man of letters, Finlay Currie is Walter's gruff grandfather and a young Laurence Harvey is Walter's mean-spirited half-brother. Michael Rennie is the fair-minded King Edward; this may be the role that landed Rennie the career-altering part of Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still. But the film's brightest supporting performance is by Jack Hawkins as Tristram Griffin, a longbow-wielding sidekick who earns equal status with Power in all but the romance department. On the way to the Far East the adventurers meet a wild mix of character actors. From The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are Alfonso Bedoya as a caravan boss and Robert "Bobby" Blake as a servant boy. Peter Sellers reportedly dubbed a rather weird voice for Bedoya. The presence of these two actors makes us think that The Black Rose's Persian and Chinese desert vistas may have been filmed in Southern California. Herbert Lom is the caravan's owner; but his angles may have been filmed in England separate from the surrounding material. The film manages a charming love story. The pixie-ish Cécile Aubrey, fresh from H.G. Clouzot's Manon is Maryam, a half-Persian half-English waif being shipped by Caravan as a concubine for the Kubla Khan. Maryam masquerades as a second helper boy. She slowly wins Walter over to her girlish dream -- of marrying a handsome English knight and returning with him to England. It's all handled charmingly. Meanwhile, Walter and Tris have to contend with an imposing Persian general, Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. Orson Welles plays this barbarian with his usual bombast and hauteur and befriends the two adventurers. Welles is already much heavier than in his previous year's Prince of Foxes. When Tristram shows his skill his longbow "Sarah", Walter decides not to tell the archer that if he misses, Bayan will have his head bashed in. The two friends break up in Cathay after becoming disillusioned by Bayan's war strategy: the general orders his troops to murder thousands of Chinese. Walter and Tris are then captured by the Dowager Empress and locked in a lavish pavilion; she believes that they're magic bird-gods sent from heaven to cast a spell of peace blocking Bayan's onslaught. When the war continues, the future doesn't look good for our heroes and Maryam. But Tris still has his longbow and Walter has been learning about the Chinese secret weapon called gunpowder. The Black Rose is a fine movie but the disc looks drab compared to old Technicolor prints that sported the magical color contrasts of other films by cameraman Jack Cardiff, like Black Narcissus. It's nobody's fault, unless one expects Fox to commit a multi-million dollar restoration to a film with few commercial prospects. On small monitors the image will look fine, but on a projection TV the show is muddy and colors aren't as attractive as they might be. The film's many matte shots also fare poorly; the entire trip from Arabia to the Great Wall of China seems to be accomplished in front of a painter's canvas, with a little smoke thrown in. Luckily, the close-ups of Power and Cécile Aubrey look fine, and in this adventure the characters carry the story. The Black Rose has a featurette called Tyrone Power: Family Reunion that gathers relatives like Tyrone Power IV, Taryn Power and Linda Christian on a sofa to discuss the actor's career. It's slow going once we've figured out who's who. An interactive pressbook is rather complicated to access; a still gallery and trailer are also present. The Tyrone Power: Swashbuckler Box Set celebrates an enormously popular star never afforded much industry respect for his superior acting. Fox has transferred the films as carefully as possible, with only The Black Rose verging on inadequate in the image department. Each slim-cased disc contains an envelope with little collectable postcard - sized stills. The slipcover is a bit on the flimsy side but displays great artwork, as do the individual discs. For more information about Tyrone Power: Swashbuckler Box Set, visit Fox Home Entertainment. To order Tyrone Power: Swashbuckler Box Set, go to TCM Shopping. by Glenn Erickson