BLOOD AND SAND (1922) starring Rudolph Valentino with original score performed by Rob Kovacs, piano

Rudolph Valentino’s career was on the rise when he was cast as the lead in this adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibañez’s novel Blood and Sand. A critical and commercial success, Blood and Sand became one of the highest-grossing movies of 1922. (Just four years later, Valentino would be dead of a perforated ulcer, shocking the film community.) Valentino plays Juan Gallardo, a celebrated bullfighter torn between his love for Carmen, his childhood sweetheart (Lila Lee), and the seductive Doña Sol (Nita Naldi). Valentino and Naldi give some of the most memorable performances of their respective careers.