The Son of the Sheik (1926)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

George Fitzmaurice

Writers:

Edith Maude Hull (novel)
Frances Marion (adaptation) ...
(more)

Release Date:

5 September 1926 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

A Sequel to "The Sheik"

Plot:

Men and women, fathers and children. Ahmed, son of Diana and Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, falls in love with Yasmin...

Plot Keywords:

Sheik | Ruins | Ransom | Dancer | Fight

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Rudolph Valentino	...	Ahmed, the Sheik's Son / Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan
Vilma Bánky	...	Yasmin, André's Daughter (as Vilma Banky)
George Fawcett	...	André Romez
Montagu Love	...	Ghabah (as Montague Love)
Karl Dane	...	Ramadan
Bull Montana	...	Ali - a Mountebank
Bynunsky Hyman	...	Pincher - a Mountebank (as Binunsky Hyman)
Agnes Ayres	...	Diana - Wife of the Sheik
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Erwin Connelly	...	The Zouve (uncredited)
William Donovan	...	S'rir (uncredited)
Charles Requa	...	Pierre - Ahmed's Friend (uncredited)

Directed by
George Fitzmaurice		(as Geo. Fitzmaurice)

Writing credits
Edith Maude Hull		(novel "The Sons of the Sheik") (as E.M. Hull)
Frances Marion		(adaptation) &
Fred De Gresac		(adaptation) (as Fred de Gresac)
George Marion Jr.		(titles)
Paul Girard Smith		uncredited

Produced by
George Fitzmaurice	....	producer
John W. Considine Jr.	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Artur Guttmann		(1937) (as Arthur H. Gutman)
Jack Ward		(1969)

Cinematography by
George Barnes		(photographed by)

Set Decoration by
William Cameron Menzies		(settings)

Art Department
Irving W. Sindler	....	props (uncredited)

Stunts
George Fiske	....	stunt double: Rudolph Valentino (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Nealson Smith	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Editorial Department
James C. Bradford	....	synchronization: 1937 re-release
Will Dalzell	....	synchronization (1969 alternate version)

Music Department
Artur Guttmann	....	orchestrator: 1937 re-release (as Arthur H. Gutman)

Other crew
James C. Bradford	....	arranger: 1937 re-release
Samuel Goldwyn	....	Agnes Ayres appears courtesy of
Emil C. Jensen	....	presenter (1937 re-release)

Production Companies

• Feature Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1926) (USA) (theatrical)
• Art Cinema Associates (1937) (USA) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• Dominant Pictures Corporation (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Critics' Choice Video (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• Grapevine Video (2000) (USA) (VHS) (re-issue)
• Kino Video (2000) (USA) (VHS) (re-issue)
• Stokey Video (2000) (USA) (video) (re-issue)
• Divisa Home Video (2003) (Spain) (DVD) (re-issue)
• Kino Video (2003) (USA) (DVD) (re-issue)
• Image Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Punto Zero (2007) (Italy) (DVD)

Runtime:

68 min (1969 alternate version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Approved (1937 re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Buttercup Dunes, Imperial County, California, USA

Company:

Feature Productions

Trivia:

Rudolph Valentino personally picked Vilma Bánky as his leading lady for this film, which would be his last.

Quotes:

Title card: The night was young at Cafe Maure. Not a knife had been thrown - so far.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Affair of the Pink Pearl (#1.1)" (1983)

Soundtrack:

That Night in Araby

Valentino's swan song

It is sadly appropriate that in his final movie Valentino plays a stronger and more nuanced version of his signature character: Sheik Ahmed, the impassioned lover who is initially impetuous, self centred and brutal, but who gradually matures into an admirable man. In this case, the male lead is actually the son of the original sheik, but Valentino also plays, just as engagingly, the father who is now middle aged, wiser (this is essentially the adviser role Adolphe Menjou had in the original movie) but still commanding and able to wield a sword.

As wasn't the case with "The Sheik," the script acknowledges the luridness of its material in a tongue-in-cheek manner (one memorable title card reads "The night was young at the Café Maure. Not a knife had been thrown—so far") while not mocking it to the point at the movie would lapse into parody and lose its pulpy charms. For example, in one of the most famous scenes the sheik tries to put his rebellious son in his place by bending an iron bar; the son replies by straightening it out. This is deliberate camp that nonetheless clearly establishes the strength of character and body of both men. The film also departs from the original in the frank comic relief it provides in the form of a nasty but amusing little mountebank who seems to get on the good and bad characters' nerves in equal measure.

For those expecting titillation, the film does not disappoint. Valentino and the leading lady Vilma Banky, were involved in real life and it shows in the spooning scenes. The film also has plenty of the rougher, even perverse sexuality that in one form or another is present in nearly all of Valentino's films (even "The Eagle," the closest to a family picture Valentino ever made, has that brief scene with the hero flourishing a whip before the frightened female lead). Here we have Ahmed's rape of Yasmine which is far racier than the merely hinted at ravishment of Lady Diana in "The Sheik," and a striking (and homoerotic) sequence in which Valentino, tied up, his tailored white shirt torn to shreds, is subject to a prolonged whipping by a gang of thieves, the most sadistic of whom addresses him as "My young lion."

To me, this is the quintessential Valentino film and the one to show people who are curious about this actor's enduring mystique.