A classic

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it has a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Above all, it was pretty neat to see for the first time a movie starring Rudolf Valentino who was basically the Tom Cruise of the Silent era. Concerning the movie itself, well, it was entertaining enough but, to be honest, I thought it was too random for my taste though. Indeed, it all started with a rather dashing action scene but then, it became some kind of romantic-comedy during which the main character was dodging the sexual advances of the Czarina. However, it didn’t last long ever, as the Czarina pretty much disappeared from the movie and the rest was about Valentino’s character trying to avenge his father. But even this revenge thing completely disappeared at the end when he ended up with the girl of his dreams. Eventually, the most interesting aspect about this story was the fact that the main character was plotting to kill a man while falling in love with his daughter. Unfortunately, the tone was much too light to really dig deeper into these conflicting feelings. Anyway, as you can see, it was all pretty messy but the whole thing did look good and Valentino was definitely quite charismatic. Indeed, he approached the lead character not as a super strong macho archetype (in spite of the impressive opening scene) but more as a subtle sensual being. As a result, he was often considered by the male audience back in those days as being too effeminate but the female audience, in the other hand, was completely fascinated by him. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10