DUEL OF BLOOD AND SAND (1963) is clearly a reworking of Akira Kurosawa's THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), except that it involves only one samurai, a swaggering, charismatic figure named Yajuro Inaba, played by samurai star Ryutaro Otomo, the closest actor I've yet seen to a Japanese John Wayne. (Interestingly, Otomo's film career was about as long as Wayne's film career, both just shy of 50 years.) On the run after breaking with his corrupt clan, Yajuro rides off into the countryside and enters a remote town of farmers and woodcutters (described in the subtitles as "lumberjacks"), only to find a woman being assaulted by a bandit while the men cower behind closed doors. Yajuro kills the bandit but is then spurned by the town which now fears retribution by the dead man's gang, which essentially controls the town. Only a lone prostitute (Satomi Oka) offers aid and comfort to him. Eventually, he forcefully persuades the farmers to stand up for themselves and defend their town and their women. Complicating matters is the looming presence of four expert swordsmen, one of whom is Yajuro's best friend, sent by the clan to kill him. Can Yajuro postpone their showdown with him and recruit them to help out against the coming bandit attack?
Shot in black-and-white, the film is beautifully photographed, fast-paced, expertly directed and well-acted. It's two hours shorter than SEVEN SAMURAI since it has six fewer characters to introduce. THE SEVEN SAMURAI is a masterpiece, of course, but when you want a simpler, less demanding version and can spare only 90 minutes, this may be the easier choice. Director Sadatsugu Matsuda directed tons of movies like this in the 1950s and '60s, including VANQUISHED FOES, PORT OF HONOR, ROAD OF CHIVALRY, TANGE SAZEN AND THE PRINCESS, and CRIMSON BAT, THE BLIND SWORDSWOMAN, two of which (PORT and ROAD) I've reviewed here already. Every one I've seen so far is a winner.
