Review of The Son of the Sheik (1926) by Mloy X — 14 Jul 2013

The Shiek Ahmed Ben Hassan (Valentino): "I am not accustomed having my orders disobeyed.".

Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres): "And I am not accustomed to obeying orders.".

To be honest I didn't think this film was going to be as engaging as its more modern counterparts because it lacked a certain cinematic sophistication but I think the lack of a spoken dialogue made me pay attention more to the actors' body language and made me concentrate more on their facial expressions; plus, the written dialogue was also very clever and witty, one can't help but completely become enamored with the film. Valentino was an interesting actor, I would love to see a behind-the-scenes of this film because his "technique" was just too inappropriately comical sometimes, although it didn't deter from his overall performance. Agnes Ayres was a wonderful heroine, even though her character tries to be a "modern" woman: adventurous and outspoken, she ends up being the stereotypical damsel who predictably develops Stockholm syndrome. But for me, the most memorable performance belonged to Adolphe Menjou (who plays Dr. Raoul de St. Hubert), he acted as how you would expect a classical stage actor would, more serious and less ham-ish like Valentino's performance. Overall, this more was surprisingly entertaining but an eye-opening experience for me because in the future I wouldn't be as quick to dismiss viewing a silent film.