Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino stars as Juan Gallardo, a Seville matador who rises from poverty to national fame only to be undone by his infatuation with a wealthy aristocrat, Doña Sol. Fred Niblo directed this Paramount adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel, with June Mathis writing the scenario that helped cement Valentino's screen persona as the brooding, doomed lover. Lila Lee plays the wife he betrays and Nita Naldi, in her breakout role, the temptress. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

Alla Nazimova produces and stars as Marguerite Gautier, the doomed Parisian courtesan, opposite Rudolph Valentino's Armand Duval in this stylized silent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas fils' La Dame aux Camélias. Directed by Ray C. Smallwood from June Mathis's scenario, the film transplants the story to 1920s Paris and surrounds it with lavish Art Deco sets by Natacha Rambova, whom Valentino would marry. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

Rudolph Valentino plays an Italian count and big-game hunter who moves to New York to work for a friend's antiques firm and is drawn into an affair with his employer's wife, a predatory socialite played by Nita Naldi. The title refers to the cobra that mesmerizes its prey, a metaphor the film lays on heavily. Valentino is in his element as the charming, doomed lover, and Nita Naldi's vamp persona is given full rein. The film was one of Valentino's last releases before his death in 1926, and it is a late showcase for the star persona that made him a phenomenon. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A loose adaptation of Pushkin's novel Dubrovsky, with Valentino as a Cossack lieutenant who catches the eye of Catherine the Great, rejects her, and goes on the run. When a corrupt nobleman seizes his father's lands and kills the old man, Vladimir dons a black mask and becomes the Black Eagle, a Robin Hood figure, then infiltrates the nobleman's household as a French tutor and falls for his daughter. Clarence Brown directs with a light, fleet touch, and George Barnes's cinematography includes a celebrated extended tracking shot across a banquet table. Vilma Banky is the love interest and Louise Dresser a memorably imperious Czarina. Valentino, in his first United Artists picture, gets to swashbuckle in the Fairbanks mode and romance in his own, and the balance suits him. Published in 1925, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Adventure · Silent

A 1921 American silent epic war film directed by Rex Ingram, based on the 1916 Spanish novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, adapted by June Mathis. The film follows the Desnoyers family: wealthy Argentine landowner Madariaga has a German son-in-law and a French one, and when he dies, the family splits — the French branch settling in Paris, the German in Berlin. Julio Desnoyers (Rudolph Valentino), Madariaga's favorite grandson, becomes a playboy in Paris, famous for his tango, and takes up with the married Marguerite Laurier (Alice Terry). When World War I erupts, the family finds itself on opposing sides, and Julio must choose between his hedonistic lifestyle and his duty. The film made Valentino an overnight superstar and was one of the highest-grossing silent films of all time, earning over $4 million worldwide. Its famous tango scene became iconic.

Drama · War · Romance

Based on E.M. Hull's bestselling 1919 novel, The Sheik made Rudolph Valentino a star almost overnight. Agnes Ayres plays Lady Diana Mayo, a headstrong Englishwoman who insists on traveling alone into the Algerian desert, only to be abducted by Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, a desert chief who falls in love with his captive. The film is a silent romantic adventure of the desert-romance school, all tents and horses and yearning close-ups, and it struck a nerve with 1921 audiences that few films before or since have matched. Valentino's dark, smoldering presence became a cultural phenomenon. The portrayal has not aged well in every respect, but the film's place in cinema history is secure as the picture that defined a new kind of leading man. It was published in 1921 and is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Adventure · Silent

Valentino's final film, released two weeks after his death from peritonitis at thirty-one. He plays a double role: the aging Sheik Ahmed and his hot-blooded son, who falls for Yasmin, a dancing girl, and is tricked by a band of outlaws into believing she betrayed him. The younger Ahmed abducts her in revenge, and the story plays out as a compressed echo of the first film, sharper and a little harder. Vilma Banky is a strong match for Valentino, and the desert photography has a clean, harsh beauty. The film was selected for the National Film Registry in 2003. Long held under copyright by the Copyright Term Extension Act, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022, and is now freely watchable.

Romance · Adventure · Silent