Son of the Sheik (film)
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| Son of the Sheik | |
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| Directed by | George Fitzmaurice |
| Produced by | John W. Considine, Jr./Feature Productions |
| Written by | Edith Hull (novel) Frances Marion, Fred de Gresac (scenario) |
| Starring | Rudolph Valentino Vilma Bánky Montagu Love Karl Dane George Fawcett |
| Music by | In theatre |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | September 3, 1926 (USA) |
| Running time | 68 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
| Preceded by | The Sheik |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Son of the Sheik was a 1926 silent film produced by United Artists, directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky. It was based on a romance novel by Edith Maude Hull The Sons of the Sheik, a sequel to the bestselling The Sheik. It was the last film made with Valentino.
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[edit] Plot
This film was a sequel to the 1921 movie The Sheik, also starring Valentino. Ahmed, the adult son of Sheik Ahmed (Valentino played both roles) is just as impetuous as his father once was. At the beginning of the movie he is wooing the dancing girl Yasmine (Banky), who is exploited and overworked by her renegade French father. During one of their trysts at a moonlit ruins, Ahmed is kidnapped and later tortured by Yasmine's father and his cronies who hope to receive a large ransom from Ahmed's father. Ahmed is rescued by his loyal servant Ramadan, and, having been misled into believing that Yasmine set up his capture, kidnaps her in turn and imprisons her in his tent. It is heavily implied that the female protagonist is then raped, but the exact details are left to the viewers' imagination. Ahmed's father, angered at his son's long absence from home, arrives and insists that he free Yasmine. When a remorseful Ahmed learns that Yasmine had no involvement in his kidnapping he sets off to free her from her father (who is trying to force her to marry one of his henchmen). All is forgiven, and the movie ends with Yasmine and Ahmed presumably engaged.
[edit] Reception
With more humor and action sequences than The Sheik, Son of the Sheik was better received critically and is sometimes thought to be Valentino's best film. Already doing excellent business during its big city premieres, following Valentino's unexpected death its wide release was rushed to coincide with the funeral, and it became a tremendous hit due to the associated popularity.
[edit] Trivia
Frances Marion, the screenwriter, initially wrote a parody of the story called The Son of a Bitch.
The scenes in which Ahmed is flogged and Yasmine is ravished are parodied in the Gene Wilder film The World's Greatest Lover (1977).
[edit] Preservation
In 2003, Son of the Sheik was added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress, recognising the cultural, historical and aesthetic significance of the work, as well as the risk of the original movie reel no longer being preserved.
