I must admit that I would never had watched this film if I had not thought that I was actually tuning in for a rare airing of the obscure 1935 Buster Keaton feature of the same name. However, when life gives you cattle, it's best to cook up a steak, and in actual fact An Old Spanish Custom is an interesting if all too brief documentary examination of Mexican bullfighting. There's some impressive slow motion footage from the matador's arena, a brief snippet of bullfighting trainees, and some silly narration by a man called Salph de Alberich, who doesn't have any other IMDb credits but may or may not have appeared in a 1969 Serbo-Croatian TV movie entitled Laka Lova (thanks, Google!). All in all, it's more fun than driving past the Coalinga stockyards.
3 Reviews
It's still the only game in town...in Spain...
Doylenf26 May 2009
Bullfighting is Spain's favorite sport, and the subject of AN OLD Spanish CUSTOM, a short subject from 1932.
Unfortunately, it's narrated by a man with a heavy Spanish accent and many of his remarks are hard to understand. However, you can get the general idea by what is happening on screen.
He shows us scenes of boys training to be bullfighters from an early age (one youngster is 3 1/2), taught how to use the cape effectively and all the passes that they need to elude a frisky bull. We see bulls being raised in the countryside and then led to the bullring where the selections are already taking place as to which matadors are to fight the designated bulls by tossing names into a hat.
Summing up: Of moderate interest. If you're interested in this sport, be advised to see BLOOD AND SAND, the Fox movie in Technicolor with Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth that has a lot of behind-the-scenes flavor for a story about Spain's favorite custom.
Unfortunately, it's narrated by a man with a heavy Spanish accent and many of his remarks are hard to understand. However, you can get the general idea by what is happening on screen.
He shows us scenes of boys training to be bullfighters from an early age (one youngster is 3 1/2), taught how to use the cape effectively and all the passes that they need to elude a frisky bull. We see bulls being raised in the countryside and then led to the bullring where the selections are already taking place as to which matadors are to fight the designated bulls by tossing names into a hat.
Summing up: Of moderate interest. If you're interested in this sport, be advised to see BLOOD AND SAND, the Fox movie in Technicolor with Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth that has a lot of behind-the-scenes flavor for a story about Spain's favorite custom.
Decent Doc
Michael_Elliott30 May 2009
Old Spanish Custom, An (1932)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
No, this isn't the Buster Keaton film of the same name. This here is a documentary short from MGM that goes over everything you'd want to know about bullfighting, or at least I'm sure that's what the producers wanted. In the film we learn about what the bull does the day of the fight and we also get to see plenty of action inside the ring. This is an interesting film for a few reasons with one being that MGM let a couple of their Spanish directors make the film. It's also interesting to note that MGM didn't use any of their normal shorts narrators and instead went with a Spanish one who I'm sure people had never heard of. Those two things are certainly out of the norm but in the end there's not enough here to make this a complete winner. I did enjoy the bullfighting scenes but in all honesty I really don't know anything more about the sport after watching this.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
No, this isn't the Buster Keaton film of the same name. This here is a documentary short from MGM that goes over everything you'd want to know about bullfighting, or at least I'm sure that's what the producers wanted. In the film we learn about what the bull does the day of the fight and we also get to see plenty of action inside the ring. This is an interesting film for a few reasons with one being that MGM let a couple of their Spanish directors make the film. It's also interesting to note that MGM didn't use any of their normal shorts narrators and instead went with a Spanish one who I'm sure people had never heard of. Those two things are certainly out of the norm but in the end there's not enough here to make this a complete winner. I did enjoy the bullfighting scenes but in all honesty I really don't know anything more about the sport after watching this.
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