UNIVERSITY researchers have spent £120,000 and three years tracing the cinematic history of legendary Spanish gipsy Carmen.

Academics scoured the globe for interpretations of the tale to compile the first comprehensive list of Carmen films.

The newly-released study has shown that the film industry's love affair with its first ever vamp spanned more than 100 years and involved depicting her in a range of guises, from a black bisexual to a Tom and Jerry cartoon character.

Newcastle University researchers were given the £120,000 grant for the work by the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Dr Ann Davies, a researcher at the university's Centre for Research into Film and Media, said: ''Although Carmen as a subject for film has been studied before, the work that Newcastle University is undertaking means that we are the first to gather together information and critique on the phenomenon in any systematic and comprehensive way.''

The passionate Spanish gipsy has featured in genres ranging from Hollywood films to cartoons and even in pornography.

Over the past century, more than 70 films, including a Fascist version commissioned by Adolf Hitler, have covered the tale of the fictional Spanish cigarette factory worker.

Actresses ranging from Hollywood beauty Rita Hayworth to porn star Uta Levka and Beyonce Knowles, from pop band Destiny's Child, have played the part of Carmen on the big screen.

Dr Davies travelled the world in search of the films.

The tale of Carmen initially featured in the novella by French author Prosper Merimee but was made famous in 1875 by Bizet's operatic tragedy.

Dr Davies said: ''We have drawn together the most extensive and comprehensive list to date of films of the Carmen story from 1899 to the present day.

"This is proof that the Carmen story does not date, and that it is still hugely relevant to the present day," she said.