Best movie ever!

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It amazes me, that Valentino-as-the-sheik was able to start such a fashion in the 1920s. Watching this sequel of THE SHEIK I keep seeing everything that had already been recycled in the Broadway operetta DESERT SONG - also filmed as an early talkie, shortly after SONG OF THE SHEIK. Valentino far outclasses everyone I've ever seen play "The Red Shadow" - and visually the SON OF THE SHEIK is much better than any DESERT SONG film version (even the later, color one). Considering the intense interest in 'Arab Matters' today, it's sad that no one revives DESERT SONG done Valentino-style. Because even after all those years - his 'hypnotic gaze' in the film remains hypnotic.

Sunday February 15, 1:30 & 7:00pm, The Lynwood, Bainbridge Island"Lie still, you little fool!" An Arabian prince (Rudolph Valentino) becomes infatuated with a beautiful dancing girl (Vilma Banky), traveling each night to see her, until he is beaten and robbed by the gang of thieves she lives with. Believing she is complicit in the crime, he takes her by force to his desert camp and has his revenge. When his father (also played by Valentino) takes him home to fulfill a marriage agreement, the girl is set free. Once back among the miscreants, she learns the truth.A frenzy of interest surrounded The Son of The Sheik (1926), released two weeks after the unexpected death of its star. Banky’s dancing scenes and kidnapping are exhilarating highlights. Intensely romantic in a primitive sense, Valentino’s persona cultivated a desire for sexual fulfillment in his audience, while encouraging a positive attitude toward forceful, sexual dominance. Cinema as escapist fantasy has no better example from the silent era.

This isn't a bad film, but also seems pretty familiar considering it has the same leads in this film as the original SHEIK. And, as well as this similarity, the film at times just seems like a continuation of the original--even though the story centers on the son (who, oddly enough, looks EXACTLY like the guy in the first film!).The basic plot involves "love at first sight"--a screen cliché if I've ever seen one! A nice dancer who is virtually the slave of a band of outlaws falls for the nice young son of a sheik. However, despite their ardor, he is told by one of the scummy gang that the dancer doesn't love him, but it was all part of a trap to lure the rich man to the gang. And, given that Valentino's character didn't read the script, it takes him most of the movie to determine the girl is in fact sweet and worth marrying.

This was Valentino's last film, and he is excellent in it, but it is far from being his best film (as many critics claim). Certainly "Camille", "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", "The Eagle" and "The Conquering Power" are much better films. This was designed as a rollicking and sexy adventure film, with large doses of cheap slapstick humour, and on that level succeeds admirably. That famous scene where Valentino ravishes Vilma Banky is extraordinary, and Valentino shows real talent in portraying both the son and the father (he is almost unrecognisable in the latter role). Great split screen work allows the two Valentinos to inter-relate well too.The film makes you wonder what this talented and beautiful man may have achieved had he lived. Would he have made it in talkies? It's hard to believe such charisma would ever fail.