The Sheik

The Sheik
1921 - Paramount Pictures
Directed By George Melford


SYNOPSIS

Wealthy Sheik Ahmed (Rudolph Valentino) sees a beautiful white woman (Agnes Ayres) that he absolutely must have, so he kidnaps her. She rejects his advances and wants to go back home. After an escape attempt, she realizes that she's in love with Ahmed just as she gets abducted by bandits.






















MY THOUGHTS

There's no cows or milk in the desert, but there is PLENTY of cheese.

Valentino got dubbed "The Great Lover" largely from the huge success of this film. It's hard to see why. He has an entire harum of women yet kidnaps another for sex. Some runaway horses are all that keeps the Sheik from raping his new catch as she struggles to get away. Sound romantic? Add in his silly, far-from-authentic Arabic robes and you have a creep dressed up like a clown.


















The script allows silly crap like this to happen the whole time.

After how horribly the kidnapped woman's been treated, a French author visits. He's a friend of Ahmed and she reads his latest work. The author reveals that Ahmed was the inspiration for the main character. This is, of all things, what makes her fall in love Ahmed. We're supposed to believe that?
The whole story seems to be the lamest most cliched romance novel come to life... especially the extra corny ending.

The acting is your average hammy, overdone silent film style, which doesn't help the cheesy script.

So if you want something hammy or cheesy I recommend this:











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