The Sheik (1921) - Paramount Presents Bluray Review
Rudolph Valentino's 1921 starring vehicle The Sheik has been released on bluray by Paramount under their banner Paramount Presents. This release was originally scheduled to hit the street right about the time of the 100th anniversary of the original release date of the film. It was delayed and hit my mailbox on November 2nd. The pre-release was heralded by much ballyhoo. I have some issues with Paramount's claims.
'The Sheik' restoration employed modern technology so viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent film. Since original negatives for silent films rarely exist, Paramount searched the world for the best elements and used a print and an intermediate element called a fine grain. One source of the film yielded better results for image quality, another for intertitles. One of the elements was "stretch-printed" and had to be adjusted digitally during the restoration process. In the silent era there was no standard frame rate, so stretch printing was done to show silent films at 24 frames per second. In addition, tints and tones were digitally applied, guided by an original continuity script from the Paramount archive. The result is the best picture quality 'The Sheik' has had since it was originally shown in theaters 100 years ago.In a word, hogwash. If you have purchased the now out of print KINO edition, you will recognize the print in the Paramount Presents bluray as being exactly the same down to the tinting and blurry title cards. It is disingenuous of Paramount to claim this is a new restoration that they searched far and wide across the globe for. (I am willing to be proven wrong on this if there is documented evidence). In my opinion based on viewing both releases, it is simply not true. To also claim that this is the best picture quality since 1921 is also hogwash. It has been decades since I saw the original Paramount VHS release (featuring the same musical score). It is my recollection that the VHS had a couple of scenes missing from this bluray. This new release is lazy with little or no restoration on the image itself, scratch removal is non-existent and it appears nothing really was done to improve the print. The packaging is attractive, and I certainly appreciate this landmark film in Valentino's career made available once again. The extra on the disc is a short look at The Sheik, the source novel, the film and Valentino himself called Desert Heat: 100 Years with The Sheik. The short is presented and narrated by Professor Leslie Midkiff DeBauche. A general nice intro for people unfamiliar with the novel, the film and/or Valentino. If you're like me, you'll find this is not that great of a dive into the novel, film or Rudolph Valentino. I found it disappointing, ymmv. Trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, if you are interested in seeing this landmark film this is the only bluray in print out there. That said, if you already own the KINO edition, you do not need to double dip as I have.
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| Image Edition |
Other releases on DVD were the Image Entertainment release with both the original and sequel featuring scores by Eric Beheim and the Café Mauré Orchestra as well as the original movietone score for the 1938 reissue of The Son of the Sheik. This disc had nice extras including Rudolph Valentino and His 88 Beauties, The Sheik's Physique and a Pathe Newsreel footage of Valentino's New York Funeral. Long OOP, it was re-released by Flicker Alley in their MOD (Manufactured on Demand) series. I do not have the MOD disc and cannot comment if it contains the same extras as the Image release. I suspect it does. BTW, I cannot recommend more highly the Eureka release of The Son of the Sheik. It is the most crystal clear, gorgeous print of the film I have ever seen. Eureka is Region 2 on the bluray, but includes an all-region dvd if you are in the US. If you have a multi=region bluray player, do not hesitate on this one.
THE SON OF THE SHEIK (Masters of Cinema) New & Exclusive HD Trailer from Eureka Entertainment on Vimeo.
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| Flicker Alley MOD |
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| KINO edition OOP |
Since Paramount has ended the licensing agreement with KINO, once wonders if any other films will be released in their Paramount Presents series. Mike Gebert of Nitrateville Radio has a wonderful interview with Andrea Kalas, Senior Vice President of Asset Management for Paramount on what Paramount is doing these days. If Paramount is listening, I vote for a release of one of Pola Negri's best Barbed Wire and the delightful Woman of the World. You can listen to the above-mentioned podcast via Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts or down below on Soundcloud:
Just to plug Nitrateville Radio, do give them a subscribe and like, Mike has interviewed some great people (myself included, I won't comment on whether or not I am great). He's an interesting conversationalist and his guests have been fabulous across the board.
The Sheik has never been one of my favorite Valentino films for several reasons. He gives a performance here that is rarely subtle and sometimes laughable. The dueling eyebrow action between Agnes Ayres and Valentino is a joy to behold. There is a lot of camp in the first half of the film. It settles down a bit in the middle. Once Valentino transforms from a sadistic villain to a more mellowed Chieftan, you can see he is much more relaxed and natural. He was always graceful to watch on screen and is so here in his desert robes. The book was 1000% more racist and rapey than the film ever could have been. So the "meat" of the book is very watered down. Still the film is considered not PC 100 years on as it identifies Arab people as backwards children with guns. Not to mention the aristocrats who summer in the desert who think themselves better than the local peoples.
People often blame George Melford the director for the campiness and overacting. I would say Valentino, Monte Katterjohn's scenario and Melford all can take an equal share of blame. Valentino is not the more refined actor he was in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse under the tutelage of June Mathis and Rex Ingram (and would later be under Clarence Brown and George Fitzmaurice). Melford was perhaps not a great director; that said, in the swashbuckling sleeper Moran of the Lady Letty Valentino is much, much better and so is Melford's direction. I have maintained that Valentino was a good actor, he also rose and fell to the level of scenarios and the guiding hand behind the camera. Blood and Sand is another example.
The rest of the cast do their best with what they are given. Adolphe Menjou playing the sympathetic Doctor/Author with a weary gaze. The Sheik two years before his breakout role in A Woman of Paris where he played a socialite rogue (typecasting him for the remainder of the 1920s). Menjou missed a second chance playing with Valentino when the projected The Spanish Cavalier became The Spanish Dancer after he went on strike. One does wonder if Valentino and Pola Negri might have ended up in the film together had he not split and lost 2 years of his career. Agnes Ayres really mugs in the stills shot for the film (as does Valentino). She juts her chin out to emphasize her displeasure and haughty disregard in the film. She is much more a sensitive performer than stills would suggest. Walter Long is, as always, a good villain as the bandit Omair. He lounges in a generally creepy manner, which is all the part requires. Paramount did take the cast and crew out on location (near Oxnard) to simulate the desert locales. It's kitschy and more opulent in settings than Paramount was known for in a non-DeMille epic. The exoticism of Valentino's tent is fun and it is positively crammed with stuff. I think those torches inside the main tent are a very serious fire hazard. If you must have The Sheik on bluray, this is the set to get as it is the only game in town now. As I said above, the extra is all that is extra on the disc and not much of an extra, ymmv.
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| Oscar Smith gives Valentino and Ayres a shine of the Paramount Lot. |
I cannot resist adding Fritzi Kramer's witty review of the film itself from eight years ago.
The Sheik (1921) A Silent Movie Review from Fritzi Kramer on Vimeo.
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