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Young Juan Gallardo sneaks out of his room to survey the Seville nightlife and goes to a cantina, where noted bullfight critic Natalio Curro is praising Garabato, the current favorite of the ring.  When Curro disparages Juan's father, a matador who died fighting, the youngster hits him over the head with a bottle and starts a brawl.

Escaping the cantina, Juan goes to the ranch owned by Don Jose Alvarez, where he practices fighting one of the bulls.  Don Jose is impressed by the boy's courage, but his servant, Pedro Espinosa, is angry, having warned Juan before about tiring the bulls.  Juan accepts Don Jose's praise, then goes to see Pedro's daughter Carmen.  Juan tells his sweetheart that he is leaving the next day for Madrid with his friends, Manolo de Palma, Pablo Gomez, Luis Potaje and Sebastian, to learn to be a matador.  Juan promises to return to marry Carmen; the next day, takes leave of his mother, Seņora Augustias, who denounces Juan's dangerous aspirations.

Juan and his friends travel to Madrid, where they spend the next ten years training as bullfighters.  On the train returning to Seville, Sebastian, who is now known as Nacional, bemoans the fact that he and his friends are illiterate and uneducated, while Manolo jealously declares that Juan has taken most of the glory and money for himself.  After a fiesta celebrating his return, Juan is approached by Garabato, who is now destitute.  Juan hires Garabato as a servant, then finds Carmen and gives her a wedding dress.

The couple are married and, during the next two years, Juan becomes a great matador.  On the day Juan makes his first formal appearance in Seville, the audience contains a beautiful and infamous temptress, Doņa Sol de Muira, about whom Curro declares:  "If bullfighting is death in the afternoon, she is death in the evening."  The Doņa is excited by Juan's style, and he is so captivated by her that he throws her his mantera.

The next evening, Juan dines at Doņa Sol's house, and Captain Pierre Lauren, her current favorite, realizes that he has been replaced in her affections and returns her ring.  Juan spends the night with the Doņa; the next morning, when he gives Carmen a necklace and tells her that she is "the only true one in the world," he is wearing the Doņa's ring.  Soon it becomes obvious to everyone that Juan has fallen under Doņa Sol's spell as he neglects Carmen and his training.  Although Carmen defends her husband against his detractors, she leaves him after she visits the Doņa to discuss the situation and sees Juan kissing her.

Soon Juan's dissipation increases and he loses both Garabato, who goes to work for Manolo, and Don Jose, who quits as his manager.  Nacional sticks by his boyhood friend even though he says that Doņa Sol has stolen his killer instinct and, at Juan's next fight, his incompetence results in Nacional's death.

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As Juan's fortunes decline, Manolo's star rises.  One day, Juan and the Doņa see him in the cantina.  Doņa Sol, attracted by Manolo's brutish charm, dances with him, and Juan angrily throws away her ring, realizing that he has lost her.  Just before his next fight, Juan sees Carmen praying in the arena chapel.  The devoted wife tells Juan that she has never stopped loving him, and only left to wait for his sickness to pass.  Re-energized by Carmen's love, Juan promises that this will be his last fight and that the two of them will then settle down on a ranch.  Juan fights with his old fire, and the crowd shouts its approval.  He takes his eye off the bull too soon, however, and is gored.  Carmen waits in the chapel as Juan is brought in and comforts him as he dies, then tells the priest that Juan's courage will always be with her.  In the arena, the crowd has already forgotten Juan and is wildly cheering Manolo, who takes his bows near a stain of Juan's blood in the sand.

Notes
The film is based on the novel Sangre y arena by Vicente Blasco Ibáņez (Madrid, 1908).  Although a March 3, 1941 HR news item announced that a "Spanish bullring yarn" by Fortunio Bonanova, entitled La vida y milagros, was purchased by Twentieth Century-Fox "as a protective vehicle for possible follow-up with same cast if Blood and Sand proves a smash," Bonanova's novel was not produced as a film.

According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection, located at the UCLA Arts - Special Collections Library, Hedy Lamarr was considered for the part of "Doņa Sol."  A January 20, 1941 HR news item reported that after MGM refused to loan Lamarr to Twentieth Century-Fox for the role, Mona Maris was tested for it.  On January 29, 1941, HR announced that Lynn Bari, who appears in the finished film as "Encarnacion," was assigned "to the role for which the studio tried to borrow" Lamarr.  Modern sources note that Carole Landis, Jane Russell, Gene Tierney, Dorothy Lamour, and Maria Montez were also considered for the part, for which Rita Hayworth was borrowed from Columbia.  In February 1941, HR news items noted that Patricia Morison, a Paramount contract player, was being tested for "one of the top roles," and that Sigrid Gurie was also tested for the film.  Neither actress appears in the completed picture, however.  According to a November 27, 1940 HR news item, Cesar Romero was set for a role in the picture and was to receive co-star billing with Tyrone Power.  Although HR production charts include Alan Curtis in the cast, he was not in the released film.

According to studio publicity and information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, also located at UCLA, renowned bullfighter Armillita instructed Power and other cast members in bullfighting techniques, as well as serving as Power's double in some of the bullfighting sequences shot on location.  The legal records note that tailor Jose Dolores Perez made exact copies of two of Armillita's matador suits to be worn as costumes by Power.  Contemporary sources indicate that the bullfighting sequences and other background material were shot on location in Mexico City, although Power was the only cast member involved in the location shooting.

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According to an April 1941 HR news items, the trailer for the picture was to be the first Technicolor trailer produced by the studio.  On May 1, 1941, HR announced Zanuck's decision to release the film at its "present length" of 125 minutes, rather than following the original plan to cut it to 90 minutes.  The news item also stated that the picture was scheduled "for a sneak preview below the border, probably in Hermosillo, Sonora, to get the reaction of Latin Americans to the film."  According to a letter in the film's file in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, Twentieth Century-Fox intended to prepare "a special edition" of the picture for "circulation in South American countries."  The purpose of the alternate version was to "include certain bullfighting scenes, which while they would not be acceptable in the American version, will, nevertheless, be accepted in countries where bullfighting is permitted."  No other information about an alternate version of the film has been found.

Blood and Sand received an Academy Award for Best Cinematography (color) and nominations for Best Art Direction and Interior Decoration.  Blood and Sand marked the first film work of technical advisor Oscar "Budd" Boetticher, Jr., who began directing films in the mid-1940s, several of which dealt with bullfighting.

According to contemporary sources, Boetticher was in Mexico at the time of filming studying the techniques of bullfighting, which he taught to Power.  Along with dance director Geneva Sawyer, Boetticher helped to stage the "El Torero" dance between Hayworth and Anthony Quinn.  The picture also marked the return to Hollywood of actor/director Monty Banks, who is billed onscreen as William Montague.  Although Banks had appeared as an actor in several English productions during the 1930s, his last appearance in an American film had been in the 1928 picture A Perfect Gentleman.

Vicente Blasco Ibáņez' novel was dramatized by Tom Cushing in a play entitled Blood and Sand (New York, September 20, 1921).  Although Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the rights to Cushing's play, as well as to the novel, studio records indicate that no material from the play was used in the 1941 film.  Blasco Ibáņez' novel was first filmed in a five-reel, Spanish-made version, which was distributed in the United States by Cosmos-Kinema in May 1917.  In 1922, Fred Niblo directed Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi, and Lila Lee in a Paramount production of the novel.  According to studio records, Twentieth Century-Fox contemplated filming the novel again in 1957, with Sophia Loren in the role of "Doņa Sol," but did not due to difficulties in clearing the rights.  A Lux Radio Theater version of the story, starring Power and his real-life wife Annabella as "Carmen," was broadcast on October 20, 1941.

Music includes:  "El Albaicin" and "Gloria Torera" by Vicente Gomez; "Tu no te llamas," music and lyrics by Fortunio Bonanova; "Chi-Qui-Chi," music and lyrics by Vicente Gomez and Abe Tuvim; "Romance de amor," "Verde luna" and "Saeta," music and lyrics by Vicente Gomez.   An April 11, 1941 HR news item stated that Bonanova wrote two Spanish songs entitled "Spanish Gypsy Song" and "Flamenco," which were to be sung by him in the picture, but studio records credit Bonanova with contributing only one song, "Tu no te llamas," to the completed picture.  Modern sources note that Hayworth's singing voice was dubbed by Graciela Párranga.