The Brave One (1956 film)


The Brave One is a 1956 drama film directed by Irving Rapper and starring Michel Ray, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., and Elsa Cárdenas. It tells the story of a Mexican boy who tries to save his beloved bull Gitano from a deadly duel against a champion matador.
The Brave One was the last film to win the Academy Award for Best Story before the award was discontinued, and was nominated for two other Academy Awards: Best Film Editing and Best Sound Recording, but was not a box office or critical success.
The story credit was originally given to Robert Rich, a pseudonym used by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, who had been jailed for eleven months starting in 1950, then blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was actually the name of the nephew of the film's producer Frank King. Initially Rich claimed authorship of the screenplay, though his uncles denied the claim. The Academy Award was reissued in Trumbo's name in 1975.
According to Ted Newsom's 1991 documentary, Hollywood Dinosaurs, the film is based on "El Toro Estrella", "about a boy, a bull, and a dinosaur", upon which the films "The Beast from Hollow Mountain" and The Valley of Gwangi are based. It details the screenwriting controversy but notes that The Brave One does not include the dinosaur.

Cast

The King Brothers later sued RKO for mismanaging the distribution and sale of the film, claiming $6 million in damages.

Home video

A restored version was announced to be released in 2016 on Blu-ray.

Comic book adaptation