The Sheik **** (1921, Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Long, George Waggner, Ruth Miller) – Classic Movie Review 3050

Producer-director George Melford’s rousing 1921 vehicle for great silent-movie star Rudolph Valentino provides one of his finest, superstar-making showcases. The Sheik cemented his reputation as the greatest screen lover of them all. Even now, it is still possible to succumb to his charms and get swept up in The Sheik’s wildly romantic story of ‘tempestuous love between a madcap English beauty and a bronzed Arab chief’.

Forgotten star Agnes Ayres co-stars as a handsome, adventurous, modern-thinking titled Englishwoman called Lady Diana Mayo, who goes off to the Saharan desert for a frolic. But she soon she gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself abducted by the charming Arab Sheik, Ahmed Ben Hassan (Valentino), and taken to his home in the desert. Ahmed says: ‘When an Arab sees a woman he wants, he takes her.’

[Spoiler alert] But she escapes a fate far worse than death only to be captured by Arab bandits and brought to the lip-smackingly villainous bandit Omair (Walter Long. However, Lady Diana  is finally rescued by the Sheik, who is terribly wounded trying to save her.

Based on the then daring novel by Edith Maude Hull, with screen adaptation by Monte M Katterjohn, this kitsch and swirlingly romantic silent movie turned the dashing Valentino into the sex god idol of the Roaring Twenties. Maybe surprisingly, it survives as still extremely enjoyable vintage entertainment.

Loretta Young, aged eight, appears as an Arab child. Also in the cast are Adolphe Menjou as Dr Raoul de St Hubert, Lucien Littlefield, George Waggner, Ruth Miller, Frank Butler, Charles Brinley, Sally Blaine and Polly Ann Young.

Valentino went on to Blood and Sand in 1922 and returned for the sequel, The Son of the Sheik, his final film in 1926.

In 1937, Ramon Novarro, as Ahmed Ben Nesib, sent up his great silent-movie star rival Valentino and particularly his The Sheik persona for the 1921 film of that name that established his legend in The Sheik Steps Out, a very mild, 30s contemporary comedy about a desert chief’s city adventures.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-son-of-the-sheik-1926-rudolph-valentino-vilma-banky-george-fawcett-montagu-love-karl-dane-agnes-ayres-classic-movie-review-3052/

http://derekwinnert.com/blood-and-sand-1922-rudolph-valentino-nita-naldi-lila-lee-rosa-rosanova/

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3050

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com