The Sheik / The Son of the Sheik (Special Edition)
by David O. Selznick, George Fitzmaurice, George Melford
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DVD details
Actor: George Fawcett, Karl Dane, Montagu Love, Rudolph Valentino, Vilma B?nkyDirector: David O. Selznick, George Fitzmaurice, George Melford
Writer: Edith Maude Hull
Writer: Frances Marion
Writer: Fred De Gresac
Writer: George Marion Jr.
Writer: Monte M. Katterjohn
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Silent, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 155 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-06-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Sheik / The Son of the Sheik (Special Edition)
DVD Review: Still The World's Greatest Lover: A study in unbridled, animal desire
Summary: 5 Stars
Why was Valentino the ultimate movie star?? Here is the answer to this query, you can see it in all his films, but particularly here: Charisma and sexual energy are combined in this movie in an unforgettable performance.
Valentino prances into the casino like a tiger in the hunt. His first look at Lady Mayo would have torn the skin off a she-bear! That look of his was loaded with amunition: sexual desire, passion, allure, and a quite a bit of uncontrolled testosterone. No wonder he was such a legend. Who has all of that in one body? He did. The scenes of passion are much more important for what they leave up to the imagination. Now we are too literal, but back then in the world of silent cinema one look, one touch could detonate an explosion. If you watch closely, the way his beautiful large hands hold her is pure poetry and the concentration that he lavishes on her with a gaze fixed in obsession, would make any woman believe she was the center of his world instantly. Now what sets this movie off from the others is the locale, and the mythology of exoticism: The tents in the desert are stocked with luxurious rugs and cushions, an incense burner is never too far away, and horses run wildly in the sands every other minute as a metaphor of unbridled animal instinct.
Valentino is fully clothed in Arab exotica, yet there are moments when he stands in attitude that you can swear you can see him naked in your mind's eye, so intense is the animal magnetism he projects. We don't see the rape scene, yet we KNOW it happened, this is the master stroke of the director: Everyone can fancy their own and hence keep on thinking and dreaming about this scenario of lust and desire in innumerable different ways. The reason he drove women insane back then was that he looked like he wanted to do it right then and there, and that was something that culturally, was brand new in America. In this movie, the fact that he is a 'savage' Arab is 90% of the appeal. Eventhough it is explained that he has been educated, he still looks too dark, and too ethnic when next to the demure Lady Mayo that looks like her stock got that white from eating a particular kind of tea biscuit for several generations. Her gesturing is equally repressed, at times ackward when contrasted with his feline grace, the Arab Sheik is a lion of freedom by comparison.
We understand why Lady Mayo soon enough starts writing in the sand "I love you Ahmed". Here is a gamble for someone of her station and 'purity of blood' to land a wild beast of uncertain heritage, and taste from the very source of sensuality, and tame it through love. There is a scene where he finds out by accident that she cares about him, and his look of satisfaction, then love, transform the torrid attraction into a romance. That was the subtext, the 'hidden thought' that produced the blockbuster, and apparently truckloads of crazed English and American women that traveled to Arabia after the movie was released, hoping to be ensnared or at least raped by a similar savage chief. The cultural mentality of the time ascertained that the darker skinned humans were more enslaved by their passions and lusts than the other races. It also had created an elaborate mythology of their sexual prowess as well as the shape and size of their equipment in this area. This movie opened the door into the possibilities of an interacial horizon, with all the images of wildness that these creatures could muster in more civilized brains.
Here is the legendary Latin Lover in the flesh, the very incarnation of the legend come alive in a better way than it could now, because the very silence of the media put aside any other way of communication (or language barrier) and enhanced the visual so much more. A historical movie, a fascinating adventure into sociological and cultural perspectives that have not changed all that much today, as this area of the world continues to cast a spell of mystery, wildness and danger in American audiences of today, but above all, a love story of passion and ecstasy that has endured.
DVD Review: Must See Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
I have an old tape of "The Son of the Sheik" but never seen "The Sheik" so had to have it. Rudolph Valentino is marvellous - what a pity he died so young.DVD Review: Now I understand the swooning
Summary: 5 Stars
I love to watch both The Sheik and The Son of the Sheik one after the other. It's amazing what five years (the time between the making of the original and the sequel) did for Rudolph Valentino's acting. In my opinion, he was one of the finest actors of the time. While he starts out a little over the top in The Sheik he quickly improves. Perhaps part of the melodrama was due to the director, who's to say? Either way both movies are thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly action packed. They're well acted with only mild melodrama. And of course Rudolph Valentino's presence doesn't hurt anything.
When it comes to Valentino himself I prefer The Eagle to the Sheik movies but they still rank second on my list. He was actually quite good at humor and I'm glad that The Son of the Sheik capitalized on that. He obviously had fun playing his own father and it's great to watch. It's too bad he wasn't able to make more movies. I'm sure they would have been just as great.
If you're interested in silent movies (or movies in general) I highly recommend both Sheik movies. After all they're over 80 years old. They're a part of film history.
DVD Review: Rudy is My Valentine - O
Summary: 5 Stars
Another review by PD's daughter.
I was given this movie from one of moms friends (which I am sooo very happy that I got it!!) but even before that I was mightily curious as to what created such an insane craze and obsession in the 1920's. Now I know. His name was Rudolph Valentino.
I had read "The Sheik" (well the condensed version by Barbara Cartland, but it followed the original story never the less) a few months ago and was really captured by this ruthless Spanish-Brit mix desert sheik. The Sheik Ahmed was cruel, and seemingly heartless (brutal really, but I guess it would be called animal brutality, if you know what I mean..), stating "an Arab takes what he wants" What the Sheik really wanted was Diana, the spoiled yet beautiful aristocratic brit whose room he had snuck into and switched her bullets for blanks and later kidnapped on the desert dunes. Well the Sheik got Diana and wanted to "break her" to his will. And he did so quite violently (as could be seen in Valentino's face, which, ohmygod, he had done so effectively, but I'll talk about Rudy later..)
The one part I really enjoyed was when The Sheik releazed how cruel he was really acting and Rudy's face changed from twisted lust to a look of compassion (it was such a magical part and my mother said "rewind that part!" and so we watched it again)
The Sheik pivoted Valentino's career into the "he'll never be forgotten for ever" mode and really made the 1920's. All the ladies became shebas and the guys sheiks...and everyone from the farm girls to flappers were in love with Rudy.
Now there are 2 movies on this DVD and the second is my FAVORITE!! The Son of the Sheik, where Valentino was the son Ahmed and the father from the original picture, was a far better backdrop for Valentino's acting skills. The special effects were amazing (for that time peroid I mean, today I'd laugh and point and say ha! you must be joking!) in the sense of how the two Valentino's were juxtaposed together (like the part where he has his arm on his other self... creepy cool), it must of cost a fortune to do. In this picture the younger Ahmed falls passionately (passionately I say because he was very .... well I felt it to be very romantic even for today's standards and back then I'm not sure how the older mama's would have acted to his fevered kisses) with a beautiful dancer of a circus troope. The young Ahmed is captured by the jealous "bad guy" of the troope and is whipped (I really didn't see that coming!) and tied to bars (it was horrible and I was very upset at this point) and then the guy lays a horrendous lie at his already bound feet and WELL I can't tell you that because it is the major conflict of the movie (but it's good and I was upset even more).
The DVD has special features. One includes the "Valentino Beauty Pageant" which was creepy but very fasinating for historical reasons. One was a silly skit Valentino did (which made no sense what so ever buuut I did get to see him run around in his bathing suit :Ogasp!) and the last is a short film of the publics reaction to his death (to think there was a report of mass suicides afterwards!)
The one thing I really liked about the DVD was the choice of the soundtrack you wanted to use. It gave you the option of a new sythisized version or the original music they would have used in the theaters (which I personally prefer better). It really adds to the "Sheik" experience.
Overall (finally!) I really LOVED this DVD collection and LOVE Valentino. Why you may ask?? He's in incredible actor!! His expressions are amazing and very naturally changable... he can smoothly transition expressions in a scene that it puts the topgal to shame and makes her almost invisable. But (of course) Rudolph Valentino was extremely attractive and wonderfully handsome (see Son of the Sheik where there is a part where his headgear is stripped off and his shirt is opened ohmy!)
Valentino was certianly bad for his time and my favorite photograph of all time is by him.... where (in the son of the sheik) he is wearing all black with his hood over his head and a cigarette in between his ringed fingers... glaring...
Valentino screams HOTTNESS!!!
DVD Review: This famous film was largely a tease, an art at which Valentino was particularly proficient...
Summary: 4 Stars
For reasons difficult for mere man to diagnose, the sheik represented the ultimate in masculine appeal... Call it the mystery of the burning sands, the magic lure of the tropics, the titillating uncertainty of the unfamiliar, the reputed animal magnetism of the Arab aristocrat--these are mere words which leave the cult of this particular sheik unexplained...
Give Valentino a burnoose, a bejeweled dagger and fancy belt, a pair of riding boots, a luxurious tent with intimations of a harem in the background and a well-cushioned couch in the foreground, and he became irresistible... To be borne in his arm on a white Arabian stallion, struggling virtuously but not too violently, was apparently the goal of nearly every woman's ambition...
Much of the action of "The Sheik" consisted of a menacing Valentino staring at a pleading Agnes Ayres while they warily circled each other in preparation for the clinch that was a long time coming...
Description of The Sheik / The Son of the Sheik (Special Edition)
The great silent screen lover Rudolph Valentino is captured in his most famous role in this special double feature. Women fainted in the aisles when "The Sheik" (1921, 86 min.) was released, as Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) is carried into the desert by an Arab chieftain (Valentino) who takes one look at her and wants her, right then and there. Nobody had seen anything like Valentino's natural sex appeal on the screen before, and the sequel "The Son of the Sheik" (1926, 69 min.) was designed to revive Valentino's flagging career. In the sequel, Young Ahmed (Valentino) falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl (Vilma Banky), but he is captured and tortured by bandits. Believing Yasmin to be responsible, he escapes and plans his own form of revenge, although true love, of course, finally prevails. In New York for the premiere of "The Son of the Sheik," Valentino collapsed and died eight days later at the age of 31. The public hysteria surrounding his funeral is documented in the original Pathe newsreel which rounds out this extraordinary DVD.If you have the slightest interest in the phenomenon called Rudolph Valentino, this terrific disc is absolutely the place to start. The screen's great male sex god of the 1920s had a mammoth success with The Sheik, a slice of desert romance both exciting and completely absurd. Valentino plays a dashing "sheik of Araby" who rather forcefully romances an adventure-minded English lady (Agnes Ayres); if the story creaks with Victorian storytelling conventions, it also works. Five years later Valentino returned to the sands with his final film, The Son of the Sheik, playing both his original role and the sheik's impetuous boy. More madness here, and a wild saber duel on horseback at night reminds us they don't make movies like this any more. Valentino's faux-exotic allure may seem curious to modern viewers, but squint hard and you can imagine the frenzy caused by the sultry eyes and rapacious grin. --Robert Horton
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