Cobra *** (1925, Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi, Casson Ferguson, Gertrude Olmstead) – Classic Movie Review 10,203

Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi.

The magnificent Rudolph Valentino stars in director Joseph Henabery’s 1925 silent classic drama Cobra as a down-at-heel Italian marquis, Count Rodrigo Torriani, who decides to ‘collect’ women (the cobras of the title), who fascinate him, finding love and scandal when he travels to New York City at the invitation of his friend Jack Dorning (Casson Ferguson) to work as an antiques expert.

Count Rodrigo at last falls for Dorning’s secretary Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), but is finally netted by vamp of the year Elise Van Zile (Nita Naldi), Dorning’s wife.

Rambova and Valentino in 1923.

The role fits Valentino like a glove. Is this autobiographical? No, it is not. It is the screen adaptation of the play Cobra by Martin Brown, which opened at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway on 22 April 1924 and ran for 63 performances, with a cast headed by Judith Anderson and Louis Calhern.

This untidily constructed and presented silent movie is perhaps not one of the splendidly smouldering one’s very best, but it is packed with extraordinary camp value, especially when Valentino dances with his real-life wife Natacha Rambova.

The film survives and is released on VHS and DVD.

Also in the cast are Casson Ferguson, Gertrude Olmstead, Hector V Sarno, Claire de Lorez, Eileen Percy, Lillian Langdon, Henry Barrows, Rosa Rosanova and Natacha Rambova.

Rambova and Valentino in 1925.

Rambova and Valentino had a two-year marriage from 1923 to 1925. It has been claimed that Rambova was bisexual or gay and that she never consummated her marriage with Valentino, leading to the couple’s union being described as a lavender marriage.

Arguments and soaring production costs afflicted production. Paramount Pictures, unhappy with the final film, delayed releasing it until Valentino appeared in a stronger movie. It was released on November 30 1925, a few weeks after Valentino’s comeback film The Eagle (1925).

Cobra is directed by Joseph Henabery, runs 70 minutes, is made by Ritz-Carlton Films, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Anthony Coldeway, based on the play Cobra by Martin Brown, is shot in black and white by J Devereaux Jennings and Harry Fischbeck, is produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L Lasky, and is designed by William Cameron Menzies.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,203

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