Dramatic musical directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Russell and Wilde as a gypsy couple whose marriage was prearranged by their relatives. Gypsy girl, who lives by decamping with marriage settlements from wealthy men, meets her match in the handsome younger brother of a gypsy king.

If HOT BLOOD is remembered at all today, it is for its ludicrous advertising blurb "Jane Russell shakes her tambourines and drives Cornel Wilde!" Set in the gypsy community of contemporary Los Angeles, the film stars Wilde as aspiring dancer Stephen Torino, who is tricked by his brother Marco Luther Adler into an arranged marriage with tempestuous Annie Caldash Jane Russell. Annie is willing to give the union a go, but Torino wants none of it. Several risque complications and lively musical numbers later, Torino changes his mind. Nicholas Ray imbues HOT BLOOD with the same erotic/neurotic energy he brought to such earlier cult favorites as JOHNNY GUITAR and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, but the magic just isn't there this time.