Dolores Del Rio and director Raoul Walsh took on Prosper Mérimée with this sumptuous silent film produced by William Fox and originally tinted lavender. Del Rio was, of course, the gypsy cigar factory worker caught between two men: the bullfighter Escamillo (Victor McLaglen) and the soldier Don José (Don Alvarado). Following in the footsteps of Geraldine Farrar, Theda Bara, and Pola Negri, Del Rio was "apt to make these Carmens of the past appear relatively conservative," according to the New York Times.