1921 Directed by George Melford
Sheik Ahmed desperately desires feisty British socialite Diana, so he abducts her and carries her off to his luxurious tent-palace in the desert. The free-spirited Diana recoils from his passionate embraces and yearns to be released. Later, allowed to go into the desert, she escapes and makes her way across the sands...
El caíd, Der Scheich, Ο Σεΐχης, Le cheik, Lo Sceicco, 족장, Szejk, O sheik, O Sheik, 沙漠情酋
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1921 Marathon - Film #38
Beauty and the googly-eyed, Latin Lover Beast
So in the 1984 film, ’Hard to Hold’, rock star Rick Springfield plays a pop idol who is used to having his way with women. Then he meets an uppity female in a car accident; who has never heard of him and doesn't swoon at his attention. He then spends the rest of the movie trying to win her affections.
And that’s exactly what this film is like….
… except there’s also a bunch of sexism, racism, rape attempts and a massive case of Stockholm syndrome that’s somehow topped off by an absurd cultural revelation that’s supposed to make everything all right.
”I thoroughly disapprove of this young madcap's wild scheme!”
I haven't seen such an obnoxious/racist/misogynistic/boring/poorly written/mediocre film in a long-ass time. I'm sorry for myself and everyone else that sat through this slow-paced movie and didn't have the chance to fall asleep in the first act.
Rudolph Valentino is the Arab prince who kidnaps an English woman in this romance adventure that cemented much of his legend.
Directed by George Melford, the silent production also stars Adolphe Menjou, another great presence from the early years of Hollywood cinema. There is no question, though, as to who is here the great lover, even if by today's standards Valentino's acting comes across rather laughable. On the other hand, Agnes Ayres plays his leading lady with more aplomb and in a more natural manner. It would be safe to say that her free-spirited girl, eventually tamed by the man she so despises, is the single best performance in the film, which, based on the novel by Edith Maude Hull,…
Proof the Hollywood blockbuster has not necessarily improved one iota in the past one hundred years. The 50 SHADES OF GREY of its day.
Women had only been able to vote for a year when The Sheik was released, and you can tell.
Valentino’s screen persona seems obscene ninety-eight years later: the leering eyes, the lascivious smile. The teeth and hard white of his eyes are brightly lit. The basis of the ‘romantic’ plot has him kidnap a young, virginal aristocrat, take her to his desert encampment where he tries to seduce her. The threat of rape is ever present, but true feelings win out and she manages to tame him into marriage. This starkly appalling scenario represents a key Hollywood fantasy, where the audience can titillate itself with imagined danger and sexual transgression and go home safe and morally sound once the lights go up. Not only does true love prevail, but Sheik Ahmed is not even really an Arab, so the whole miscegenation theme is also a tease. It’s Hollywood’s ability to have its cake and eat it as well.
I bet Netflix execs are all patting themselves on the back for successfully neglecting about 100 years of cinema, because now they don't even have to consider if they'll performatively remove overtly problematic films from the platform or not. This is the type of emphatically dull movie that's worth watching as a critical examination of its myriad of issues, specially how racism, misogyny and social-Darwinism are woven into a (still surviving) mold of classic romantic Hollywood narratives.
Decided to see what all the fuss is about regarding Rudolph Valentino, silent cinema's 'great lover' as coined by Hollywood moguls and you can easily see why he would've become one of the movies' first sex symbols based purely off his physical appearance here.
The Sheik is more commendable for its historical significance than anything else—what would've been popular entertainment back then is now flagrant exoticism, romanticism of slavery and offensive cultural appropriation, though condemning a century old film from an enlightened modern perspective is conceited to say the least and the film in fact toned down some of the more controversial elements from the source novel. Valentino appeared in only several films before his untimely death aged 31, something…
This is the film you need to see if you want to understand the whole hullabaloo around Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), who was the silent screen's 'great lover'.
The story is proposterous and the acting errs on the side of hammy at times, but Rudy is a great screen presence and he is well supported by Agnes Ayres (who appeared with him again in the sequel, 'Son of the Sheik', in 1926).
Edith Maude Hull wrote the novel on which this is based, however some of the more controversial elements were excised from the film adaptation to make the story more palatable. Even in this toned down form it was a huge success in its day and propelled Valentino into the big time and a brief, but stellar, career before his early death.
