Carmen Backdrop Blur
Carmen Poster

Carmen

Hot-blooded gypsy Carmen attempts to seduce Don Jose, a lawman sent to thwart a gang of illegal smugglers in Spain. Carmen's plan backfires when Don Jose's passion for the gypsy girl escalates into a jealous rage as she spurns him for her bullfighter beau, Escamillo, with tragic results.

Top Cast

  • Geraldine Farrar

    Geraldine Farrar

    Carmen

  • Wallace Reid

    Wallace Reid

    Don Jose

  • Pedro de Cordoba

    Pedro de Cordoba

    Escamillo

  • Horace B. Carpenter

    Horace B. Carpenter

    Pastia

  • William Elmer

    William Elmer

    Morales

  • Jeanie Macpherson

    Jeanie Macpherson

    Gypsy Girl

  • Anita King

    Anita King

    Gypsy Girl

  • Milton Brown

    Milton Brown

    Garcia

  • Raymond Hatton

    Raymond Hatton

    Spectator at Bullfight (Uncredited)

Overview

Hot-blooded gypsy Carmen attempts to seduce Don Jose, a lawman sent to thwart a gang of illegal smugglers in Spain. Carmen's plan backfires when Don Jose's passion for the gypsy girl escalates into a jealous rage as she spurns him for her bullfighter beau, Escamillo, with tragic results.

Rating

6.1 / 10
25 Reviews
0 Popular

1 Reviews

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    7 Jun 6, 2022

    If anyone is ever looking for an introduction to opera - then they could do much, much worse than this abridged version of Bizet's "Carmen". Telling the story of the anonymous temptress (Geraldine Farrar) who helps her smuggling friends by seducing the erstwhile incorruptible "Don José" (Wallace Reid) so they can continue to ply their trade. Soon, the poor captain is ensnared in her trap and when he kills his brother to help her, finds himself in the soup, so to speak. Whilst the detail of the story is largely lost here, the gist remains and the performances from the truly world class soprano Farrar and from Reid do their job fine. The design of the production is also quite effective: it hasn't the static look of so many of these early stage-to-screen adaptations - especially around the torero scenes - and, of course, it has the wonderful score to underpin it. The inter-titles are sparing - we get most of the plot from their expressions and the music, and that largely works well too. It is a bit clunky at times, the big crowd scenes are a bit confusing but the cat-fight is quite fun and it offers enough of a soupçon of the original, quite visceral, story to make it well worth watching.

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