Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Son of the Sheik (1926)

Rudolph Valentino is one of a half-dozen names from the silent era that nearly everyone recognizes. The image of Valentino as a bullfighter or a desert sheik is one that readily comes to mind when the general public thinks of silent film. But why is this matinee idol, all flashing eyes and pearl-white teeth, one of the silent era’s most enduring stars? A viewing of his final film, The Son of the Sheik, will readily reveal the charisma of Rudolph Valentino, that held women captive and made men jealous.

The Son of the Sheik features a better-structured and more-pleasing story than the original 1921 film. It is more romantic and features several good action sequences. However, it is, ultimately, what it is: a Rudolph Valentino romance vehicle. The film is probably not that important, beyond the presence of Valentino, in the grand scale of the silent era, but it remains a pleasing film and rises above the usual fare of the time. Hungarian-born actress Vilma Banky does a good job as Valentino’s love interest, the street dancer Yasmin. Agnes Ayres here reprises her 1921 role. Interestingly, character actor Karl Dane has nearly as many close-ups as Valentino. Even technically, the film stands out. The split-frame cinematography that allows Rudolph Valentino to play both the sheik and his son is excellent and shows no sign of frame jitters between the two exposures.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered in high-definition from 35mm archival materials held by Box 5 (Paul Killiam collection). The source material originates from an early print with an optical soundtrack, which is why the picture is narrower than usual (cropped off the left side of the original picture). There is a normal amount of dust, speckling, emulsion scratches and scuffing left in the scan. The image quality is very-good although the cropped picture compromises the presentation.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by The Alloy Orchestra.

Supplementary material includes a filmed introduction of the film by Orson Welles (18 minutes); the documentary short film Valentino: His Life and Times (9 minutes); the short film Valentino at the Beach (aka The Sheik’s Physique) (3 minutes); an original Italian theatrical trailer of The Young Rajah (1922) with English subtitles (3 minutes); and a gallery of newspaper headlines announcing Valentino’s illness and death (14 images).

This is our recommended home video edition of the film until a better one is produced with a full-aperture picture.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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The film is presented with an orchestral music score by Carl Davis.

Supplementary material includes a video essay by critic David Cairns; a filmed introduction by Orson Welles; and an insert booklet with an essay by film historian Pamela Hutchinson.

Sight unseen, we recommend this edition for European collectors. North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region B Blu-ray Disc / Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk.

Unfortunately, we were unable to make an A-B comparison of this 2002 Image DVD edition to the 2000 Kino DVD edition (see below). However, this Image edition has utilized a very-good black & white 35mm print of the 1937 sound reissue version. (The disc’s booklet notes that a few shots from other prints have been inserted.) It is difficult to determine whether the print has been reedited and retitled, and it appears to be identical in continuity to the Paul Killiam print utilized for the Kino edition, but the transfer has been made at sound speed to accomodate its synchronization to the 1930s soundtrack. The faster transfer is not a great problem since the original footage may have been shot at a 20 FPS or higher frame rate, thus much of the movement (with a few exceptions) is close to a natural speed. The print features a broad range of greytones and very good image detail, but the print is moderately speckled, scratched and scuffed. The full-frame transfer is generously cropped, so intertitles and the tops of heads are not a problem. Our memories of the Kino edition lead us to slightly favor the qualities of this new edition.

Featured with The Son of the Sheik is the film that started it all for Valentino, The Sheik (1921). The Sheik DVD review.

Among the supplementary material is Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties (1923) is documentary produced by the young David O. Selznick during Valentino’s contract dispute with Famous Players-Lasky, and served the purpose of keeping Valentino before the moving-going public during his vaudeville tour. Valentino was a judge in a beauty contest held in New York, with 88 contestants, including future film star Eugenia Gilbert. The film is padded with a hodge podge of footage taken during the event and of the contestants afterwards, but the film served its purpose for Valentino and made Selznick a goodly sum of money at the beginning of his career as a film producer. The transfer has been made from an excellent 35mm print, with mild speckling and moderate frame jitters. The film was previously available as a supplement on laserdisc.

The Sheik’s Physique (192?) is an odd little fiction film of Valentino (complete with long, pointed sideburns) driving to the beach and, to wow female viewers, changing into a swimming suit to spend a leisurely afternoon relaxing. Having fallen asleep, Rudy awakens to discover that he is late for an undefined appointment, realizes that his car is gone, and he must hitch a ride back into town. The film, which is likely exerpted from a longer compilation reel, has little purpose other than to keep new Valentino footage on the world’s cinema screens until he formally returned to film acting. Transferred from, what appears to be, an excellent 35mm print.

[Pathe News: Rudolph Valentino Dead!] (1926) is a portion of newsreel footage of the funeral of Valentino. Includes footage from The Son of the Sheik and an incidental glimpse of Pola Negri. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print that is lightly speckled, moderately jittery and slightly damaged.

All of the films on this Image DVD feature music scores performed on synthesizers by Eric Beheim, who has written extensive notes on the scoring for the insert booklet. The disc also features an alternate music track of the 1937 reissue music and sound effects track for The Son of the Sheik.

This DVD edition of Valentino’s sheik films, produced for home video by David Shepard, encompasses a five-year span during which Rudolph Valentino rose to fame, fought studio control (almost disasterously), successfully returned to films, and ultimately died a premature death at age 31. With its wealth of Valentino films in great prints, this DVD is a great buy for both value and quality.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .