Kailansorac
Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
emuir-1
Made three years after the end of WW1, the one thing which stood out for me in this film was the blatant unapologetic racism. When Lady Diana thought that the man who kidnapped and carried her off to his desert tent was an Arab, she was ashamed and humiliated to be seen with him, despite his constant references to his life and education in Paris, but when it was revealed he was the orphaned child of an English mother and Spanish father and had been adopted by the old sheik after his parents had been found dying in the desert, then it was acceptable to fall in love and marry him. In one scene his writer friend from Paris admonished him for the embarrassment and humiliation he had inflicted upon a white woman by flaunting her in front of a man of her own race. That aside, this was quite fun to watch and the settings of old Algiers and the luxurious desert tent were excellent. I particularly liked the stylish title cards. Perhaps it was the cameras they were working with in 1921, but I did feel they could have used more close ups rather than the long shots. When they made the sequel in 1925, the difference was noticeable, lots of close ups and different angles. One scene in the desert appeared to be missing. Diana was rescued from the bandits without us ever seeing how or why, but considering the volatility of the old nitrate films and that many we see today are remnants found in obscure collections and pieced together bit by bit, that can be forgiven.
JohnHowardReid
Rudolph Valentino (Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan), Agnes Ayres (Lady Diana Mayo), Adolphe Menjou (Raoul de St Hubert), Lucien Littlefield (Gaston, the servant), Walter Long (Omair, the bandit), Frank Butler (Sir Aubrey Mayo), George Waggner (Yousaef), Patsy Ruth Miller (Zilahl, a slave girl), Charles Brinley (Mustapha Ali), Sally Blane, Loretta Young, Polly Ann Young (Arab children), Natacha Rambova (extra). Director: GEORGE MELFORD. Screenplay: Monte M. Katterjohn. Based on the 1919 novel by Edith M. Hull. Photography: William Marshall. Stunts: Buddy Roosevelt. Producer: George Melford. Executive producer: Jesse L. Lasky. Copyright 25 October 1921 by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. A Paramount Picture. U.S. release: 30 October 1921. New York opening simultaneously at the Rivoli and the Rialto: 5 November 1921. 86 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A young, handsome Arab sheik abducts an English noblewoman.NOTES: A sequel, The Son of the Sheik, was released by United Artists in 1926. Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino reprized their roles (Valentino also played the son).COMMENT: Admittedly, this is not one of Rudolph's best performances (he's forced to smile or leer just a bit too much in the first half of the action), but the film is great. Unlike that plodding director, Fred Niblo, George Melford is a real artist. Every shot is beautifully composed and framed. (When George Cukor framed a few of his shots in the 1954 A Star Is Born, he was hailed as a genius of the cinema, yet Melford does it almost all the time). And although The Sheik was not color-tinted, it boasts some of the most attractive black-and-white photography ever shown on a theater screen. Production values (sets, costumes, extras and locations) are absolutely out of this world. Melford has dipped into Jesse Lasky's purse with wonderful abandon. The story holds the attention too. And there are solid performances from Adolphe Menjou, Lucien Littlefield and Walter Long. In fact, the only thing wrong with the movie is Agnes Ayres. Her acting is a bit on the hammy side, and her figure seems somewhat too chunky to attract the interest of an impatient playboy. However, I guess you can't have everything.
bkoganbing
One classic film not likely to be remade is Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik. The anti-feminist message of the story would not be looked at with favor by today's audience. Of course when talkies came around it was because no one could have played The Sheik with as much charisma as Valentino so recently departed.Agnes Ayres is a rich British feminist type who has come to North Africa for a little desert solitude. She meets Valentino in town and he takes one look at her and he sees another trophy for the harem. He kidnaps here and at first she resists, but soon enough who could resist Valentino as millions of women across the country agreed.To make this film acceptable to that all important southern market Valentino is a captive Caucasian who was raised by the sheik who did the kidnapping and who made him is heir. That miscegenation issue just wouldn't play well in Alabama.Rudy was one remarkable sheik. He has a French valet in Lucien Littlefield and his best friend is French novelist Adolph Menjou who has some similar views on life and love.As for his charisma, I don't think the cinema ever saw anything like the worship his fans had for Valentino. It comes through even with the attitudes that have radically changed for today.If there was one role that forever gave Valentino his image it was that of The Sheik. Watch this and see why.
mukava991
Surprisingly, the best acting in this exotic melodrama comes from Agnes Ayres and Adolphe Menjou as the sheik's victim/lover and old friend, respectively. Valentino, although he had proved his abilities in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and other films, indulges in too much eye popping and grimacing to convey lust for Ayres. Fortunately, these displays are toned down as the film unspools. As a story it's unoriginal, somewhat tedious and entirely predictable: devil-may-care British girl adventuring in the Sahara catches the eye of a local chieftain who kidnaps her, kisses her a couple of times, holds her prisoner until she yields to his desire – all in the most chaste fashion. The overheated and verbose novel on which the film is based is far racier than what is on screen. Yet still this film caused quite a stir back in the early twenties. It is sumptuously mounted with a large cast, well shot scenes of horsemanship and astoundingly realistic looking "desert" locations which were actually filmed on the beaches of Long Island! The photography and intertitle design are beautiful. But whether Valentino overacts or hits the mark, he is always worth watching.
