THE EAGLE

The other night I sat down after a long and fruitless day to watch a film a friend lent me: The Eagle, one of the most celebrated films of Rudolph Valentino’s career. If you don’t know Valentino do some research or check your film fandom at the door.

More of a Star than an actor Valentino become the world’s first true film Idol during the silent era, a sensation at the Box Office and the original ‘Latin Lover’ to women the world over.

Directed by Clarence Brown

Screenplay by Hans Kraly and George Marion, Jr; from the novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin

Starring: Rudolph Valentino; Vilma Banky; Louise Dresser; James A. Marcus

The Eagle (1922), one of his biggest sensations, saw Valentino as Lieutenant Dubrovsky, a Russian soldier under the command of Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great).
Dubrovsky quickly gains the favor of the Czarina – who wishes to show him her affections and help his career, asking him “Do you desire to be a General?” – for inexplicable reasons he rejects her attentions. In spite, she signs his Death Warrant.


Returning home Dubrovsky finds a dying father, and learns that his family fortune and lands were stolen by a man named Kyrilla. Dubrovsky swears vengeance – and along with men of the local populace – becomes a masked bandit calling himself The Black Eagle.

The film is average at best, and anyone expecting a Douglas Fairbanks like epic swashbuckler will be sorely disappointed.

The Black Eagle is all over the place. It has no real direction and never real evokes any sort of emotion or sense of urgency that it needs.

The acting is standard for the period, slightly theatrical and overdone. Vilma Banky (Catherine II) delivers the best performance of the film, while Valentino simply gives what would become his trademark style – flash over substance to showcase a larger than life presence and a penchant for winning the heart of the ladies.

Surprisingly, for an early era silent film, The Eagle is highly familiar and derivative. It is based upon the novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin, but has little to do with it. No masked bandit story appears in the novel. In fact The Eagle has more in common with Zorro and Robin Hood, then it does a period novel.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
An average film at best, and nothing more than a Star Vehicle for Valentino.

RATING: 5