The Sheik (1921)
Directed By: George Melford
Starring: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Adolphe Menjou
Length: 80 Min.
Honors
#80 - AFI's "100 Years...100 Passions"
A romance movie........anyway....
The Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan (Rudolph Valentino) meets a white woman, Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) and is attracted to her. So when she leaves the safety of the city by herself, he kidnaps her and takes her as his wife. She fights him at first, but over time she ends up falling in love with him.
However, she hides it. The Sheik decides to free her after his friend, Raoul St. Hubert (Adolphe Menjou) talks him into letting her go. Before that can happen, Lady Diana is kidnapped by a rival sheik. Ahmed rescues her, but is critically injured. As Diani is nursing Ahmed back to health, she learns from Hubert that the Sheik is actually European and was adopted by the former sheik. When the Sheik had recovered, Lady Diana stays with him.
The film got mixed reviews from critics. It also changed things up from the novel it was based on. For instance, in the novel Lady Diana is raped by the Sheik, but they left that out of the movie entirely.
The movie did do extremely well with the female audience, and as a result, Valentino became one of film's first sex symbol. Obviously, the film is historically important as it spawned several spoofs and launched Valentino's career. Entertainment....well, I don't like romance movies very much, and I didn't really like this one either.
Historical Rating: 6/10
Entertainment Rating: 2/10