I can remember my mother talking about this movie - how much Anthony Dexter looked like the real Valentino. She said it was a big selling point with the movie, how he had been plucked from obscurity etc, and mum had been old enough to be a fan when the real Rudy was dazzling movie goers in "Son of the Sheik". Made to co-incide with the 25th anniversary of Valentino's death but, like the same vintage "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing" (which took a sanitized look at the Nesbit/White/Thaw murder scandal), I think also it was a combination of too many chief players being alive and well in the early 50s (hence all the name changes) plus fans not wanting the memory of their idols besmirched, that had producers opting for a safe "by the numbers" retelling of the Valentino legend. I was surprised to see Lewis Allen as the director, he is more noted for ghostly noirs such as "The Uninvited" and "The Unseen".
It starts fictitiously enough, Rudy is part of a dance group coming to America "at the dawn of the roaring 20s" (in reality it was 1913 and he had been a poor immigrant drifting from job to job but his love of dance saw him after many years replacing Clifton Webb on tour). Rudy also picks up pocket money moonlighting as a gigolo on the boat (yet another myth) but when he is hauled over the coals for it by his fiery dance partner (Dona Drake in a thankless part) he quits to go it alone in New York. After losing a dishwashing job, he and his buddy (you've just got to see Joseph Calliea as his good buddy) get a job in a very high class restaurant and Rudy is soon back to his "romancing" ways - teaching older women to tango!!! When he is reacquainted with Joan Carlisle (Eleanor Parker), a New York based film actress, her director Powers (Richard Carlson) sees a lot of star potential in his smouldering looks and manner (I suspect Carlisle and Powers were based on Alice Terry and Rex Ingram).
He gets his start but decides to plunge in at the deep end by going to Hollywood where he fights tooth and nail to secure the part of Julio in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocaylpse", including an impromptu tango to the delight of the producer - whatever happened to his break through part in Clara Kimball Young's "Eyes of Youth"? Everything is completely out of sequence - script after script is shown in a montage, "The Young Rajah", "Monsieur Beaucaire", "The Eagle" and then he is given the role of "The Sheik"!!! "The Sheik" was made in 1921 where as "The Eagle" was one of the last films released before his death!!! No mention was made of "Son of the Sheik" probably his greatest success and the film responsible for the hysteria and adulation caused by his death!!
The producer (Otto Kruger) has the brilliant idea to star Rudy with Joan - two big stars in one picture (Agnes Ayres was the original female star). But by now Joan has married Powers and Rudy is determined not to make another movie with her - "I make it a point not to star with an actress more than once" (that would have been news to both Vilma Banky and Alice Terry).
Eleanor Parker looked her usual beautiful self but the blonde wig made her look older than she was. This movie made Valentino's life look pretty boring but the real Rudy had a lot going on in his life at that time - he married Jean Acker who soon flew back to her lesbian lover, he then married the domineering Natasha Rambova and got caught up in her determination to present him as a classy and artistic actor. After bombing at the box office he spent years in a professional wilderness and it was "Son of the Sheik" that put him back at the top, unfortunately too late. Which shows that the real Rudy was a genuinely nice guy but easily manipulated not the shallow, selfish person portrayed in this rather soulless movie.
Beautiful Patricia Medina played Lila Reyes (could it have been a play on the name Lila Lee, his co-star from "Blood and Sand"), a good friend who always has a shoulder for Rudy to cry on. Could she have been the mysterious "Lady in Black"??? The end of the movie poses this question. Valentino has a stronger than ever fan base today and a film could be made telling the real truth about his life and still be a box office success.
It starts fictitiously enough, Rudy is part of a dance group coming to America "at the dawn of the roaring 20s" (in reality it was 1913 and he had been a poor immigrant drifting from job to job but his love of dance saw him after many years replacing Clifton Webb on tour). Rudy also picks up pocket money moonlighting as a gigolo on the boat (yet another myth) but when he is hauled over the coals for it by his fiery dance partner (Dona Drake in a thankless part) he quits to go it alone in New York. After losing a dishwashing job, he and his buddy (you've just got to see Joseph Calliea as his good buddy) get a job in a very high class restaurant and Rudy is soon back to his "romancing" ways - teaching older women to tango!!! When he is reacquainted with Joan Carlisle (Eleanor Parker), a New York based film actress, her director Powers (Richard Carlson) sees a lot of star potential in his smouldering looks and manner (I suspect Carlisle and Powers were based on Alice Terry and Rex Ingram).
He gets his start but decides to plunge in at the deep end by going to Hollywood where he fights tooth and nail to secure the part of Julio in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocaylpse", including an impromptu tango to the delight of the producer - whatever happened to his break through part in Clara Kimball Young's "Eyes of Youth"? Everything is completely out of sequence - script after script is shown in a montage, "The Young Rajah", "Monsieur Beaucaire", "The Eagle" and then he is given the role of "The Sheik"!!! "The Sheik" was made in 1921 where as "The Eagle" was one of the last films released before his death!!! No mention was made of "Son of the Sheik" probably his greatest success and the film responsible for the hysteria and adulation caused by his death!!
The producer (Otto Kruger) has the brilliant idea to star Rudy with Joan - two big stars in one picture (Agnes Ayres was the original female star). But by now Joan has married Powers and Rudy is determined not to make another movie with her - "I make it a point not to star with an actress more than once" (that would have been news to both Vilma Banky and Alice Terry).
Eleanor Parker looked her usual beautiful self but the blonde wig made her look older than she was. This movie made Valentino's life look pretty boring but the real Rudy had a lot going on in his life at that time - he married Jean Acker who soon flew back to her lesbian lover, he then married the domineering Natasha Rambova and got caught up in her determination to present him as a classy and artistic actor. After bombing at the box office he spent years in a professional wilderness and it was "Son of the Sheik" that put him back at the top, unfortunately too late. Which shows that the real Rudy was a genuinely nice guy but easily manipulated not the shallow, selfish person portrayed in this rather soulless movie.
Beautiful Patricia Medina played Lila Reyes (could it have been a play on the name Lila Lee, his co-star from "Blood and Sand"), a good friend who always has a shoulder for Rudy to cry on. Could she have been the mysterious "Lady in Black"??? The end of the movie poses this question. Valentino has a stronger than ever fan base today and a film could be made telling the real truth about his life and still be a box office success.