The Son of the Sheik ***** (1926, Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, George Fawcett, Montagu Love, Karl Dane, Agnes Ayres) – Classic Movie Review 3052

Director George Fitzmaurice’s delightful 1926 silent classic provided Rudolph Valentino with what tragically turned out to be his final film role. Released on 5 September 1926 shortly after his death from a ruptured gastric ulcer on 23 August 1926 at just 31, it helped to ensure his lasting fame – a rare fate among silent movie stars.

Valentino is returning in the incredibly popular sequel to his 1921 early hit The Sheik as the rebellious son of his original character Sheik Ahmed Ben Assan, also Ahmed, whose mother is Diana (Agnes Ayres, also returning).

He falls for nomadic dancer Yasmin (Vilma Banky), who is promised to Ghabah (Montagu Love), a villainous Moor. Ahmed and Yasmin meet in secret, but one night her bandit father and his gang capture him, torture him, and hold him for ransom. And now Ahmed mistakenly begins to doubt whether Yasmin’s love is true, thinking she set him up to be captured. Then there’s the still vigorous and imposing middle-aged sheik (also Valentino) and what he’d about his son consorting with a dancing girl.

Fitzmaurice directs this deservedly renowned silent movie with a strong pictorial sense, a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, jolly performances and a stirring sense of storytelling.

Thanks to George Barnes’s cinematography and William Cameron Menzies’s production designs, it still looks great and provides enormous entertainment value. Its campy sense of fun and its short (68 minutes) running time help it to be easy to watch. But, above all, it is valuable for capturing the essence of Valentino.

Also in the cast are George Fawcett, Karl Dane, Bull Montana, Bynunsky Hyman, Charles Requa, William Donovan and Erwin Connelly.

It is based on the novel by Edith Maude Hull, screen adaptation by Frances Marion and Fred De Gresac, with titles by Paul Girard Smith.

Valentino was involved with Bánky in real life and picked her as his leading lady.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3052

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