I’ve always been an opportunist Perhaps, in the history of cinema, there was no actor who was idolized as Rudolf Valentino. He became the first Hollywood sex symbol, a sweet dream for millions of viewers who went to movies with him as a date. They tore his ties and hats for souvenirs and made him run away from the premiere on the rooftops. He didn’t say a word to them from the screen.
The whole life of the inimitable Valentino seemed to be a fairy tale imbued with the aroma of the East and passion. And if so, the Lewis Allen film became a fairy tale built around a fairy tale. During his lifetime, there were so many legends around him that it was difficult to know where it all ended and the real Rudy began. The screen made him a gallant prince, an irresistible lover, passionate and tender, and this film seems to idealize him even more. He cultivates all those fantasies that were associated with the name Valentino. Allen just forgets about Valentino's three wives and instead comes up with a new story, with one Joan Carlisle. He is made a noble lover, a knight of his lady, whom he will love for the rest of his short and bright life. And the whole story is no longer like a biography, but a novel that seems so true because it is half-truth.
I must give credit - the film comes to life the most famous films of Valentino. The tango from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which made him a star, seems to be coming back to life. Now in color, but we see the same Rudy, who blinds and conquers. Slightly changing the details and names, “Sheikh” appears, in which real passion boils on both sides of the camera. And it seems that Rudy himself is standing in flying burnus. This illusion does not leave the viewer the whole film because of the fantastic similarity of Anthony Dexter and Valentino. George Melford, who once staged the legendary Sheikh, appears in this film. He was said to have been struck by looking into Dexter's eyes, which were so similar to Rudy's dark eyes. And let Dexter remain the actor of one role - Allen found his Valentino. The same grace in the dance, the same languid look, the same story of the successful Italian who conquered the whole world.
Yes, this is not a biography of pure water, but Valentino fans are looking for and find this film, which again and again resurrects this fairy tale, which became the life of Valentino. Resuscitates Rudy himself with such a supernatural resemblance that it is even frightening.