While Valentino is good and the parts where he satirizes his public image as a great lover are priceless, it isn't hard to see why Cobra (1925) flopped at the box office when it was first released. The story is creaky (even by 1925 standards) and the one-dimensional characters are not interesting. As a result, you find yourself uninvolved in all of their troubles and heartache. The production is stage-bound. The direction is unimaginative. Sometimes the film feels like a product of the mid-1910s rather than one made at the height of the Roaring Twenties.
Only Valentino or Nita Naldi completion-ists will be interested in this mediocre film.
Only Valentino or Nita Naldi completion-ists will be interested in this mediocre film.