Dark Lover:
Screening Rudolph Valentino
October 2–13, 2003
Despite a starring career that
lasted only five years, Rudolph Valentino has remained one of Hollywood’s
most intriguing icons, ever since
his death in 1926 at age thirty-one. Admired by his fans as a moody
dark-skinned lover but reviled by editorial writers for his androgynous
sexuality, Valentino exhibited “a depth of feeling, a capacity
for suffering, an artistry, and a princely bearing that belonged
to him alone,” as Emily W. Leider writes in her new biography,
Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino (Farrar,
Straus & Giroux,
2003). This retrospective features the rarely revived The
Wonderful Chance (1920), Monsieur Beaucaire (1924), and Cobra (1925), as
well as the New York premiere of Edoardo Ballerini’s Good
Night Valentino (2002; filmmaker present) and a presentation
and book
signing by Ms. Leider. All films except Good Night Valentino are silent with
piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman or Ben Model.
Organized
by Ronald S. Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Research and Collections,
Department of Film and Media. 
. 1921. USA. Directed by George Melford. Screenplay by
Monte M. Katterjohn. With Agnes Ayres, Rudolph Valentino, Adolphe
Menjou. A desert chieftain abducts a cultured, willful woman in this
archetypal and campy sexual fantasy that certified Valentino as a
pop idol. 80 min.
.
1922. USA. Directed by Fred Niblo. Screenplay by June Mathis.
With Lila Lee, Nita Naldi, Rudolph Valentino. Valentino
claimed to identify closely with the role of a bullfighter torn between
an exotic siren, a virtuous wife, and his mother. Approx. 80 min.
. 1923. USA. Directed
by F. Richard Jones. Screenplay by Mack Sennett. With Ben Turpin,
Kathryn McGuire, George Cooper.
Sennett’s notorious burlesque of The Sheik satirizes the Valentino
mystique. Approx. 46 min.
. 1920. USA. Directed
by George Archainbaud. Screenplay by Mary Murillo, Melville Hammett.
With Eugene O’Brien,
Tom Blake, Rudolph Valentino. Before his stardom, Valentino’s
foreign looks typed him as a heavy. In this film shot on location
in New York City, he plays a cigar-chomping gangster. Approx. 60
min.
. Author Emily W. Leider presents film clips charting
the actor’s career and
the cultural impact of his celebrity and sexuality. Book signing
follows. 80 min.
. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Edoardo
Ballerini. With Ballerini, John Rothman. A dramatization of Valentino’s
famed meeting with journalist H. L. Mencken only days before the
troubled actor’s death. Filmmaker present. 15 min.
. 1921.
USA. Directed by Rex Ingram. Screenplay by June Mathis. With Alice
Terry, Rudolph Valentino,
Jean Hersholt. The most prestigious film of Valentino’s career,
this antiwar spectacle of cousins fighting on opposite sides during
World War I features the actor’s legendary “tango.” Approx.
140 min.
. 1924. USA. Directed by
Sidney Olcott. Screenplay by Forrest Halsey. With Bebe Daniels,
Doris Kenyon, Rudolph Valentino.
Valentino is a nobleman masquerading as a narcissistic barber, the
controversial role that contributed to the “pink powder puff” scandal
clouding his final years. Approx. 100 min.
.
1925. USA. Directed by Joseph Henabery. Screenplay by Anthony Coldeway.
With Nita Naldi, Gertrude Olmstead, Rudolph Valentino.
This little-known comic melodrama finds Valentino struggling with
the contradictory demands of lust and friendship. Approx. 75 min.
.
1926. USA. Directed by George Fitzmaurice. Screenplay by Frances
Marion, Fred de Gresac.
With Vilma Banky, Agnes
Ayres, Rudolph Valentino. In Valentino’s final film, a tongue-in-cheek
sequel to The Sheik, he plays dual roles of father and son.
72 min.
top
|
