Rudolph Valentino was the movies’ first great male sex symbol. His hooded eyes sent out a sulfurous stare. His roguish Italian face, domesticated with a dimple, promised epiphany and orgasm. He could be brutal or gentle, to women who would take it both ways. A superb athlete who popularized the tango in America, he was a man’s man and a ladies’ man. In this silent film, a sequel to his 1921 hit, he plays a Moroccan prince, fightin’ and ridin’ with the Arabs, lovin’ and hurtin’ pretty Vilma Banky. It was his last picture. His death, at 31, cued hysterical mob scenes. You’ll find his legacy in dreamboat actors from Tyrone Power to Johnny Depp, and in Sheik condoms, which for decades bore Valentino’s silhouette on the package. Make the acquaintance of this Latin Lover on DVD; 80 years later, he’s still to swoon for.
Industrialist Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has worked hard all his life. Now he wants the romantic youth he never had. He sells the business and sets on a world tour with his wife, Fran (Ruth Chatterton), who turns out to be more susceptible to sexual fantasies than he. Then he finds a escape valve in a beguiling divorcee (Mary Astor). Will he take it? Will he realize, in the movie’s most famous line, that “Love has got to stop some place short of suicide”? This adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel, directed by William Wyler, shows Hollywood at its most mature, least judgmental — a movie that touches the heart without ever losing its head.
