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The Sheik / The Son of the Sheik (Special Edition)Rating:
Release Date: 25 June, 2002 Retail Price: $24.99 OUR Price: $22.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (5 total) |
The Sheik / The Son of the Sheik (Special Edition) Reviews
Rudy shines!
If you'd like to see the film that brought Rudolph Valentino to super stardom, this is the DVD to purchase. You'll get to enjoy 2 films, "The Sheik" (1921) and Rudy's last film "The Son of the Sheik" (1926). As well as 3 film shorts. My only complaint was about "The Sheik". I am a devoted fan of the VHS version in which the film was in Black and White and featured a synthesizer music score by Roger Bellon. The version contained on this disc has a different music score and while it is in keeping with the time period and theme, I miss the evocative and atmospheric music score of the VHS version. This version of "The Sheik" also has color tints for various settings (i.e. night, outdoors etc.) but almost of the color is in sepia which I find irritating. I may be in the minority in that school of thought but I'd rather have no color (black & white) then those sepia colors which make everything look brown and lifeless. Those are my only complaints.
Interestingly the VHS version of "Son of the Sheik" was filmed with those sepia color tints but on this disc it's in black and white which is an improvement. I just wish "The Sheik" was left in its black & white coloring, but what can you do? I also wish the DVD gave buyers the option of choosing to watch it with the old VHS score or the revised one, that way we'd at least have a choice.
Just to give you a brief synopsis of each film. "The Sheik" is about a British woman (Agnes Ayres) kidnapped by desert chieftain Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan (Rudolph Valentino) to be his love interest. "Son of the Sheik" has Rudy playing both roles of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan and his wild son. The latter falls for a poor dancing girl (Vilma Banky) and complications soon arise. This is a terrific DVD to purchase and a great way to see what the legend of Rudolph Valentino was all about.
"For once your kisses are free."
If you've heard about the charisma of silent star Rudolf Valentino and wondered what all the fuss is about, then this wonderfully packaged DVD is for you. The DVD presents two films "The Sheik" (1921) and "The Son of the Sheik" (1926) and naturally, Valentino stars in them both. In "The Sheik" directed by George Melford, Valentino plays the role of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, a French-educated desert dweller. The incorrigible, willful heiress Lady Diana (Agnes Ayres) runs amok in an Arab town. The Sheik comes to town to gamble in the Arab-only casino, his eyes lock on Diana, and the die is cast. Diana sneaks into the casino disguised as a dancing girl, but all those veils don't fool the Sheik, and he unmasks her. When the Sheik learns that Diana is taking a tour in the desert, he decides to kidnap her and take her to his sumptuous tent with the intention of making her his bride. Diana doesn't take kindly to the kidnapping thing, and this makes for a bumpy romance....
"The Son of the Sheik" directed by George Fitzmaurice was made just 5 years later, and it's the better of the two films. Valentino plays two roles--young Ahmed and his father the Sheik (the hero of the first film who's now middle aged). Ahmed falls in love with Yasmin (Vilma Banky), a dancing girl whose father is a thief and a bandit. Yasmin's father has promised her to another member of the gang, and this spurned lover sabotages Yasmin's budding romance by capturing and torturing Ahmed. Ahmed, believing that Yasmin betrayed him seeks revenge--and of course this means carrying her off in the desert and throwing her in yet another sumptuous tent.
Image Entertainment's juxtaposition of the two films allows the viewer to see the progress of Valentino as an actor. In the first film, his facial expressions are limited to gleeful grins, but in "The Son of the Sheik" he's mastered a range of expressions--from cold disdain, to passion and distress. In "The Sheik" there's an attempt at colorization. The daytime scenes are gold tinted. The dawn scene has a pink tinge--while the night scenes have a blue-black cast. "The Son of the Sheik" is much more fluid, much more exciting, and full of stunts--swordplay, fighting, and leaping on beautiful horses that race across the desert sands. "The Son of the Sheik" also displays Valentino stripped and tortured by the evil bandits, and the filmmaker is confident enough to include elements of comic relief found in the relationships between the thieves. The thieves' lair--the Cafe--is stuffed full of smoking dancing girls with "hips full of abandon", and they drive the customers mad with desire. But even with the humour, "The Son of the Sheik" is a much darker film for it contains a controversial implied rape scene.
Extras include three short clips of film. The first clip "Rudolf Valentino and His 88 American Beauties" is about 12 minutes long and shows Valentino judging a beauty contest. The second 3-minute clip is "The Sheik's Physique." It's a teaser of sorts and shows Valentino undressing to change into a bathing suit before he lounges on the beach falling asleep. The third clip (about three minutes long) is newsreel of Valentino's funeral in August 1926.
There's an irony in the fact that "The Son of the Sheik" 'ages' Valentino almost beyond recognition by giving him a double role as both the hero and the hero's father. Sadly, Valentino's early death negated aging--he died at the age of 31 from complications of appendicitis just days after "The Son of the Sheik" premiered--displacedhuman
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