Customer Reviews

Beyond the Rocks

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There has been a lot of excitement and anticipation about the release of this 1922 silent film which was believed lost, and Milestone has done a marvellous job of meeting our high expectations by presenting a second film and various fascinating bonus features on this DVD. "Beyond the Rocks" not only features the only pairing of two legendary silent screen stars, Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, but the story itself was written by another big name of the 1920s, namely Elinor Glyn, who also wrote the story for "It" - another famous silent film starring Clara Bow. Putting all these big names and talents together, it's no surprise that "Beyond the Rocks" was a much sought-after silent film for decades, hence the fuss over its unexpected discovery in the Netherlands in 2003. As one might expect from an Elinor Glyn story and the established screen roles of Valentino and Swanson, "Beyond the Rocks" is a nice, old-fashioned love story with style and sophistication. Swanson and Valentino play the lovers, but she is married to an older, wealthy man chosen by her family and she feels a duty to honour this `bargain'. Although the end may be predictable, the steps leading to it are not so clear, and there are a few little twists as the film reaches its climax, making it a good and entertaining story even apart from the star appeal of Valentino and Swanson. Needless to say, both exude their usual on-screen charms and sweep the audience away on their romantic adventure; starting from a quaint English village, to the Alps, Versailles and finally the Sahara Desert. There are only two segments lasting a few seconds where the film has irreparable damage; otherwise the picture quality is beautiful, and watching some of the bonus features which document the discovery and restoration work of this film, we can be thankful that it has come to us in this near-perfect condition.

I was also very pleased with the second film on this DVD, namely "The Delicious Little Devil" from 1919 in which Valentino stars opposite Mae Murray; another popular star of the silent era. While Valentino plays the usual appealing role of the lover, it is Mae Murray, in my opinion, who steals the show in this surprisingly entertaining film with her vibrant, energetic and expressive manner. The musical accompaniment chosen for each film is of a very high standard, and among the special bonus features, perhaps the most fascinating is an extensive recording of Gloria Swanson talking about her life; it plays instead of music to "Beyond the Rocks". All these things together make this Milestone release well worth the long wait for both silent film enthusiasts and anyone just curious to see these two screen legends together.

Considering the huge percentage of silent films that are lost forever due to neglect and decomposition in the years since sound revolutionised movie making practices it is a miracle when some long lost and long coveted title from the silent era is discovered seemingly rising like a pheonix from the ashes in near pristine condition. Paramount's 1924 melodrama "Beyond the Rocks", has always been a much sought after film title and was believed to be long lost except for one surviving fragment of film a few minutes long. Despite having been officially "lost", for almost 80 years "Beyond the Rocks", has always stirred the imagination of silent film enthusiasts not so much for its dramatic qualities but because of its historic only teaming on screen of film legends Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. When this film was rediscovered by accident in Holland a few years back there was universal celebrations throughout the film world due to the films miraculous survival after all these years. Thanks to a very careful restoration process it is now a total joy and priviledge to be able to enjoy this memorable film on DVD which until recently would have been thought of as an impossible dream. The discovery of "Beyond the Rocks", is of course also significant for film buffs in that it literally brings back to life another part of the extraordinary body of work of screen legends Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino and allows audiences for the first time in nearly 80 years to witness their legendary talents together for the only time on screen.

After much fanfare in Europe and an arthouse release in America, BEYOND THE ROCKS has finally arrived on DVD. Had it featured no-name or forgotten silent era stars it wouldn't have made much noise and would have disappeared very quickly but with Valentino and Swanson on board you can clearly see the difference that a pair of Hollywood legends makes. Valentino in particular shows what a delicate and refined actor he could be when called on to do so. He does wonders with a character who is not given that much to do. Swanson gives it her best shot but her role differs little from her previous Cecil B. DeMille pictures and director Sam Wood doesn't have the DeMille touch with actresses. The film is good but not great but it's nice to have around especially in this restoration from the Netherlands Film Museum. There are a few rough spots and the tints are sometimes a little too intense but the overall result is very impressive. You get your choice of new background scores too. The 1919 Mae Murray vehicle THE DELICIOUS LITTLE DEVIL which is also included doesn't do much for Valentino but it shows Murray off to good advantage especially in some very revealing costumes that are quite racy for the time. The real reason to buy this disc is Gloria Swanson's 1955 recording about her life in the movies. Absolutely fascinating with sharp, witty and astute observations from someone who was actually there. Lots of other extras too.

By now, anybody reading this review is aware of this legendary "Lost" film's miraculous recovery in the Netherlands, and Milestone deserves a great deal of credit for BEYOND THE ROCKS's dvd release thus placing it back in circulation after an 80-year absence. But, alas, the execution ultimately defeats the best intentions of the film museum and the archivists in two crucial areas.

First, the film is shown at the wrong speed - it's projected too slowly thus ruining the pacing and making all the actors look as though they are animated by stop-motion photography (think of the jerky way the dinosaurs moved in 1933's KING KONG and you'll know what I mean). During the silent film era there was no one "correct" film speed and many cinematographers preferred to handcrank their cameras and each had his own favorite speed, somewhere between 20 and 24 frames per second. On top of that, theater projectionists were often provided with cue sheets to vary the projector speed depending on the scene. For example, action scenes were speeded up and romantic scenes were slowed down. When "talkies" came in by the late 1920s, a uniform mechanized speed was required due to the need to synchronize the sound with the picture, thus 24 fps became the industry standard and it still is today.

BEYOND THE ROCKS would probably play too fast at sound speed, 24 fps, but fortunately today modern electronics can be used to run a silent film at whatever speed seems to lend itself to natural movement. Why ROCKS is run too slowly is a mystery to me and really hurts the film's impact.

The second problem is the atonal, modernistic, anachronistic, anti-historical, and just plain lousy music score that accompanies the film. Much of it sounds funereal, and one scene where the tempo finally becomes upbeat, at a swanky Parisian restaurant, the music is inappropriately Scott Joplin's ragtime. I don't mind using "modern" music if the mood fits the action but that's not the case here.

I hate to criticize without providing some constructive comments so if you're wondering how ROCKS should have been run, and how the music should have sounded, you only have to look at the dvd's bonus material and watch the bonus feature, A DELICIOUS LITTLE DEVIL, to find out. Why is DEVIL run at the proper speed giving the actors natural movements, and given a wonderfully compatible music accompaniment (even lilting I might say) while ROCKS is seriously mishandled in these same areas?

So it's great to be able to enjoy BEYOND THE ROCKS at all (too bad Miss Swanson - whom I met once - didn't live to see it) but I suspect that a second edition needs to be issued at some point in the future with the right speed and with a sympathetic score. But there are so many great bonus items (including DEVIL) on the current disc that Milestone seems to atone for the main feature's technical shortcomings (for which I suspect it is innocent) by giving us more than our money's worth. Bravo Milestone!

This film was featured at last year's silent film festival here at the Castro Theater in San Francisco following its discovery in 2002 in a Dutch film archive. What a treat! The restoration has been painstaking and beautifully done, and the new orchestral score is a work of art all by itself.

Paramount rarely paired its biggest stars, figuring each of them could tentpole a major feature all by themselves, and so usually a star like Valentino or Swanson would play opposite an up and comer, often of markedly inferior star status. Here is the glorious exception and yes, each of them brings out the very best in the other, though due to a curious trick of plot construction a third actor, Robert Bolder, gets to play the most affecting scenes. Theodora FitzGerald, a lovely, poor English lass, has lost her heart to the nobleman who rescues her from drowning one afternoon--he is Lord Hector Bracondale, who at first seems to go away and never think of her again, while she pines for him. Her two hectoring sisters urge her to marry a fat older man of the lower classes who has gone all nouveau riche and become a multi-millionaire, one of the richest principals in England. The two sisters say she owes it to her father--and the subtitles tell us that for Theodora, love of her father "is her religion." Swanson plays Theodora not so much as an English girl but as any girl who finds herself drawn to a man she must not have--Lord Hector, played by Valentino. No, he doesn't seem especially English either, but his exquisite dancer's bearing and his suave, kind manners give him a radiant, fresh beauty that tingles with hers. Swanson is absolutely gorgeous in the part, though she's saddled with heavy makeup like Alice Cooper, and a series of haute couture costumes that sometimes make her tiny figure look a bit on the waddling side--so unfair, when she probably weighed about, what, eighty-five pounds?

When Hector and Theodora are together the sparks fairly jump from the screen, and during some reels the ruined film stock looks as though the scenes are literally burning up from frame to frame--I suppose restoration can only go so far. Valentino's performance here is ungodly. I thought he was a figure of fun, the male vamp, but BEYOND THE ROCKS reveals a skilled actor who will remind you forcibly of someone like Gary Cooper. Odd that Sam Wood, the great US director who made BEYOND THE ROCKS, later worked with Cooper repeatedly (CASANOVA BROWN, PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, SARATOGA TRUNK) as though reinforcing his patent on this type, the quiet charmer with the steadfast heart and matching courage.

Josiah Brown, the vulgar millionaire whom Swanson marries, repels us at first with his louche displays of crassness, but the picture becomes ever so much more interesting when he develops into a three dimensional character as he finds out his wife has fallen for another man.

The lovers go to Versailles and fancy themselves in flashback as playing lovers of the era of Marie Antoinette. Has Sofia Coppola seen this picture? There are also flashbacks to ancient Egypt, just to add to the sense of madness about this movie. It's as though passion weren't enough--you have to have time travel, too.

As Josiah Brown decides to go on a Sahara expedition, the makeup people really do a number on him. He's fat anyhow, and in his desert costume he really looks exactly like the late Leigh Bowery, the Australian performance artist who starred in WIGSTOCK and posed for Lucian Freud. His balding scalp glows in the sun, the mascara on his hooded eyelids runs, his obese stomach shakes with remorse. It's like Divine playing Camille, and yet, somehow it all works and the movie will have you dissolved into its own recipe for melancholy. It seems that love always hurts, and to their astonishment, Swanson and Valentino must learn from the one they thought least likely to show them honest emotion.

PS, I love the one intertitle: "Ann not only calls on the Browns, she carries them off to Beachleigh, her country place, for Whitsuntide." Whitsuntide? Talk about ultra-British! It could be a new holiday for anglophile Madonna!

It isn't everyday that a silent movie with two wildly popular stars is found. What is even more exciting is that the movie is actually good, and that its DVD release is excellent.

Beyond the Rocks is a moody melodrama about a poor girl named Theodora (Gloria Swanson) who marries for money and position but truly loves another man (Rudolph Valentino). The two eventually reunite and carry on a love affair that seems destined for trouble. The story is trite and typical of writer Elinor Glyn, but the actors carry it well and there are enough exciting locations and small incidents to captivate an audience. The soundtrack is not perfect, and since the one with many sound effects annoyed many people, there is an option to see the film without them. However, the music provides a distinctive mood for the film. It is almost haunting, an appropriate score for a movie that has basically come back from the dead. The picture quality is rather good apart from a few sections which do not detract from the movie. Unfortunately, there is some footage missing including a pageant scene, which one can only imagine was quite steamy. Overall, though, we can watch Beyond the Rocks in delight not only for its existence but also for its quality.

The extra features include a segment about the discovery of the film and a bit about the man who owned it. We get to see film preservationists at work and hear about a real-life eccentric collector. There is also a still gallery, some Valentino film trailers, and a second feature film. A Delicious Little Devil stars Mae Murray as an innocent girl out of work who gets a job in a nightclub impersonating a high-class woman involved in a scandal overseas. Valentino stars as her love interest; he is quite handsome despite all of his makeup. Murray toggles between Pickford-esque innocence to an overdone vamp like Nazimova. The quality of the print is not great. There are many scratches and sometimes the picture is washed out. However, as an additional film, this condition is more acceptable.

In her autobiography, Swanson begged the public to check their closets and attics for copies of her lost films including this one. It is too bad she did not live to see such a discovery, but nonetheless her wish was fulfilled. Let us hope that the publicity garnered by the event will inspire others to check their attics as well.

It's always such a great day when a lost movie of the Silent Era is found. In Gloria Swanson's autobiography she stated that one day she hoped this movie would be found for people to enjoy. A dream now comes true. Gloria's Wedding dress is so beautiful in the wedding scene. Such a beautiful film. True Gloria Swanson and Valentino fans will love this film.

Valentino and Swanson are tremendous in "Beyond the Rocks", but the real gem on this disk is "The Delicious Little Devil" with Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino. One of the most delightful films I have ever had the pleasure of watching. This is her film, and its her personality and charm that makes it so enjoyable. Its sad to think that after being one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars she died completely forgotten in 1965.
A highly recommended and enjoyable disk....

Valentino is really a legend, I think I haven't seen
another actor with that carisma that he had. He was
very handsome!

I had been really excited about the discovery and the release on DVD of Beyond The Rocks and I'm happy to say it was worth the wait for me. I enjoyed the entire film from start to finish and thought it was very well done. Valentino and Swanson had excellent chemistry together which made the film that much more enjoyable. Sadly, the only complaint I have is the music score. I wasn't pleased as I didn't think it was done very well. I highly recommend this film to all Valentino fans and silent film fans like myself.