Hot Blood: Nicholas Ray

Watching Nicholas Ray's Hot Blood, I found myself oddly distracted by the film's gender politics. While I do pride myself on my academic acumen as a film scholar, I almost never go into a film with the intention of dissecting how it addresses factors like gender or race. I prefer to leave that kind of analysis for repeated viewings. But Hot Blood just bothered me. The film is about a California gypsy who is tricked into marrying a woman he doesn't love. After running away with a lover, he discovers that he loves his gypsy heritage so much that he can't stay separated from it. So he returns, becomes King of the Gypsies (apparently that's a thing), and reunites with his wife. The wife is Annie Caldash, played by the magnificent Jane Russell. But time and again we are reminded that her ultimate goal in life is to be a proper wife. Of course, we are told that Annie wants to be the perfect wife just to spite her reluctant husband. But the film floods the audience with gypsy folk tales, songs, and proverbs about how gypsy women must be obedient, faithful, and submissive to their husbands (who are allowed to sleep around however they so choose). So this makes me think: is Annie supposed to be a strong female protagonist because she uses her cultural background as a method for revenge? See, in many of Ray's films, his characters are members of outsider groups like immigrants, soldiers, rodeo riders, outlaws, and poachers. Their association with the outsider group demonstrates how they reject standard cultural norms. But in Hot Blood, we are almost always in the world of gypsies. The gypsy lifestyle is portrayed not as a fringe culture, but as the default one (scenes where the male protagonist is not hired for work because of his background seem forced and don't mesh well with the rest of the film). Therefore Annie Caldash's behavior seems reactionary instead of revolutionary. In this sense, Hot Blood doesn't feel like a Nicholas Ray film. It doesn't help that the film is rather tedious and uninspired. Now, let me be frank for a moment: Hot Blood is a gorgeous film. The cinematography is rich with vibrant reds, a trait that Ray would use again several years later in Party Girl (1958). But the film seems hollow and surprisingly misogynistic.

5/10