Customer Reviews

Biography - Rudolph Valentino [VHS]

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This is a great biography of one of the most talented and handsome men Hollywood has ever known. His name?...Rudolph Valentino. This edition of A&E's Biography series takes an in depth look at the life of Rudy from his birth in Italy to his arrival in the U.S. and traces his career, from his early days as a dancer in New York to the movie roles in Hollywood that made him a star. It also takes a look at his love life, the women he married and what they were like. If you're a Rudolph Valentino fan or would like to know more about him, this is the documentary to purchase. A&E does a great job of presenting his life on this film. You'll also get to hear commentary from respected Hollywood historians as well as look at scenes from some of Rudy's films and see lots of photos of him. After seeing this documentary of Rudy, it's almost impossible to not become a fan. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Up until now, Rudolph Valentino has been little more than a name and a face for me; I knew he was a sex symbol of the silent movie era who died at a young age, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. As I watched this A&E Biography presentation, though, I quickly became fascinated with this most unusual of men - and amazed by how much his story said about early Hollywood. Hordes of women would have run Elvis over just to get a peek at this man. During his short life, he basically transformed the very nature of motion pictures (literally destroying the Victorian era in Hollywood, according to one film historian), paved the way for the Clarke Gables of the acting world, and in a sense living the quintessential American dream as an immigrant who quickly rose from nothing to the very top of a very big heap. You would think life would have been a bed of roses for this man, but it was not, for a variety of reasons.

Rudolph Valentino is a shortened, Americanized version of what has to be the longest name I've ever seen in my life. The Great Lover immigrated to the US from Italy, arriving in New York as a penniless youth who could not speak a word of English. One of his first jobs involved picking insects off of rose petals in Central Park, but Valentino learned how to dance and entertain the ladies, and that dancing skill soon led him across the country to California, where he got his start in movies playing scoundrels. Eventually, just when he was about to give up on Hollywood, he landed the lead role in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, catapulting himself to stardom. The Sheik raised his popularity to unprecedented heights - but it did not make him rich. The remainder of his career would be a struggle between his overly artistic, domineering second wife and the movie studios, the end result of which accounted for as many flops as successes. Still, his popularity (particularly with women) never truly waned, leaving untold thousands of fans shattered by his untimely death in 1926.

It would be impossible for anyone to live up to Valentino's acclaim as the Great Lover, but his love life was remarkably turbulent. His first wife turned him away on their wedding night, realizing she should never have married him because she was actually a lesbian. That didn't stop her from suing him after he took up with designer Natacha Rambova, and Valentino actually ended up in jail overnight on a bigamy charge after marrying Natacha in Mexico less than a year after his divorce from Jean Acker was formalized. For a second time, the Great Lover had to plead non-consummation in order to avoid further legal trouble. He obviously loved Natacha dearly, however, allowing her to almost run his movie career into the ground with her increasingly insistent demands for more money and more control over his films. A year away from films altogether followed by a string of artistic flops might have robbed him of his legacy, but he made the fateful decision to sign with United Artists in 1925 - the result of this new, high-paying union were two of his most successful films, The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik, and the effective end of his marriage to Natacha. Valentino wouldn't even live to see the premiere of his last film, collapsing from appendicitis and a ruptured ulcer and then dying a week later on August 23, 1926. In death, as in life, he was controversial and headline material. In an audacious act of callousness, his studio started a rumor that he was poisoned by a jealous husband.

I've barely touched on some of the aspects of Valentino's extraordinary life covered in this most impressive documentary. He was really the first Hollywood superstar to ever live as well as the first such superstar to die, and the story of his film career offers one a most illuminating viewpoint on the less than noble operations of Hollywood's first major studios. It is a most telling story on both counts, easily making Valentino one of the most fascinating and significant figures of the twentieth century.

Although he should be in the same generation as my great grandfather, his classic beauty is timeless. I have heard of Valentino, but only as a designer brand name and I thought Rudy was the original creator of Valentino. Um...he is much older than that. I was originally laughing when I saw Valentino in the sheik when he was trying to do his "I am an evil seducer" look. This was supposed to be the greatest lover of all time? And then I saw him in the son of the sheik, and somehow his acting has gotten better and he is more comfortable in his skin. When he looked sad and contrite, boy did it melt my heart. Ladies, if this man lived in current day, he would have gotten anything he wanted as he did in the 20s causing mass histeria with the ladies. I think he is the most handsome man ever. This is what romance is all about - seduction, passion, and then love. And if you think silent movies will not appeal to you because there is no sound/speech - all I have to say is somethings need no words for...

For true lovers of classic stars, this is a great glimpse into the life of Rudy. He was the best, and I haven't seen any that could compare to him yet.