While THE EAGLE and THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE might be superior on an artistic level, if you want to get a glimpse of Valentino's appeal for 1920s moviegoers, there is no better vehicle than THE SON OF THE SHEIK. He never looked more handsome and virile, he never had a better leading lady than Vilma Banky, and he never had a director so attuned to his sense of exotic adventure than George Fitzmaurice.
The film is a sequel to the so-bad-it's-good THE SHEIK, the film most linked to Valentino then and now. While THE SHEIK had some good photography and a fun sense of camp, it isn't terribly titillating or exciting-- certainly not the way the sequel continues to be.
Self-aware of its pulpy nature. the sequel strikes one as rather modern in its approach to the hokum (with the exception of the Orientalist stereotypes, naturally), prefiguring Indiana Jones at times. There's a great deal of swashbuckling and moonlight kisses, as well as some slapstick comic relief that shockingly does not feel out of place. The whole thing feels like a combination of pulp adventure, romance novel, and fairy tale.
Fans loved Valentino best when there was an element of sexual menace in his characterizations. You definitely get that here during the infamous ravishment scene, a strikingly photographed and edited sequence that captures the dark, dangerous eroticism that was catnip to the Valentino fanbase. And judging by my perusal of silent film fan forums (not to mention my own reaction to the scene when I first saw the movie as a teenager), the scene still works that same spell on a good number of movie mavens. Not PC to be sure, but it does represent a sadomasochistic fantasy rather than the reality of sexual violence, so one might want to attend to the sequence with that in mind.
At any rate, this movie is a lot of fun and as another reviewer on here mentioned, there's something for everyone. It moves at a good clip, looks great, features fine performances (Valentino's double performance as the older sheik is wonderful character work and it convinces me he could have had a future as a character actor in talkies had he lived and outgrown the lover image), and has an exciting finale. If Valentino had to die young, then he couldn't have gotten a better cinematic swan song than this.
The film is a sequel to the so-bad-it's-good THE SHEIK, the film most linked to Valentino then and now. While THE SHEIK had some good photography and a fun sense of camp, it isn't terribly titillating or exciting-- certainly not the way the sequel continues to be.
Self-aware of its pulpy nature. the sequel strikes one as rather modern in its approach to the hokum (with the exception of the Orientalist stereotypes, naturally), prefiguring Indiana Jones at times. There's a great deal of swashbuckling and moonlight kisses, as well as some slapstick comic relief that shockingly does not feel out of place. The whole thing feels like a combination of pulp adventure, romance novel, and fairy tale.
Fans loved Valentino best when there was an element of sexual menace in his characterizations. You definitely get that here during the infamous ravishment scene, a strikingly photographed and edited sequence that captures the dark, dangerous eroticism that was catnip to the Valentino fanbase. And judging by my perusal of silent film fan forums (not to mention my own reaction to the scene when I first saw the movie as a teenager), the scene still works that same spell on a good number of movie mavens. Not PC to be sure, but it does represent a sadomasochistic fantasy rather than the reality of sexual violence, so one might want to attend to the sequence with that in mind.
At any rate, this movie is a lot of fun and as another reviewer on here mentioned, there's something for everyone. It moves at a good clip, looks great, features fine performances (Valentino's double performance as the older sheik is wonderful character work and it convinces me he could have had a future as a character actor in talkies had he lived and outgrown the lover image), and has an exciting finale. If Valentino had to die young, then he couldn't have gotten a better cinematic swan song than this.