I was actually quite disappointed with this film. It has all the ingredients, all right, but somehow it just doesn't rise! Agnes Ayres is the feisty, determined "Lady Diana Mayo", a non-nonsense British aristocrat who visits Algeria where she meets the eponymous "Sheik Ahmed". She isn't much bothered about him, either way, but he falls hook, line and sinker and secrets her away to his oasis home. She rejects his, to be fair, rather kindly and indulgent advances and wants no truck with his desert ways and traditions (and, in her mind, the humiliation of being his chattel, however well intentioned he may have been). In the best traditions of an Hollywood love story, though, you can guess how their relationship eventually pans out - and when the bandit "Omair" (Walter Long) does some kidnapping of his own, the scene is set for an action-packed (albeit brief) denouement. It is definitely a film that, now in it's centenary year, has a beauty to it. The cinematography is almost perfect and the impact of the photography - especially of Valentino, who does way more flirting with the audience than Ayres does - is spellbinding. The flaw? Well, the story really does plod along. The sands of the desert took as long to form as the plot; and after a while beautiful people and horses need a purpose - and, in my view, it's all too late in coming. It took over $3m at the box office, a phenomenal sum for 1921, and that is partly testament to the star and the topic, but I wonder how many other people it disappointed at the time, too...
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
John Hueston, a wealthy newspaper publisher, plans to publish an exposé of a criminal gang but is silenced by a bullet. Pat Doran, rich sportsman, is consoling Hueston's daughter at her home when members of the gang break into the house in an effort to put their hands on the incriminating evidence accumulated by Florence's father. Pat chases the crooks off and follows them to their hideout; they capture him, and he is imprisoned on a deserted island. Pat escapes, rounds up the gang, and wins Florence's love.
In this partially lost silent film, a man working as a motion picture extra in Hollywood westerns impresses a visiting sheikh with his boxing skills and is engaged to go to Arabia, where he becomes involved in warring and falls in love with a beautiful princess.
A man is framed for the murder of his uncle, a bank president, and sentenced to hang. His sister and a mail clerk who's helping her discover information that may clear him, but they have to get to the governor in time to present their new evidence and get a stay of execution.
God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist.
A student comes up with various schemes to avoid paying a tailor the money he owes him. Considered to be a lost film.
A young couple jump into the sea as part of a suicide pact. The man is rescued and subsequently discovers that his lover is also alive and working in a dance hall. Considered to be a lost film.
Joe Ryan, a veteran train engineer, is demoted to a flagman position after a disastrous crash- one caused by his cowardly and opportunistic partner. Though Ryan's failing eyesight is named as the cause of the crash, he's undeterred as he designs an automatic braking invention.
A young woman who lives with her uncle begins to dream about a monster that lurks in the shadows of the night.
An entire city has lost its voice. Mr. TV, the owner of the city's only television channel, is carrying out a sinister plan to control all of the city's inhabitants.
An Englishman, Lord Wheatley, purchases an island over which reigns the supremely beautiful Phroso, thus disposessing her of her land. Revolted, the islanders, supported by an adventurer who desires Phroso, rise against the new master. The English are saved by the British governor, also under the spell of gorgeous Phroso. The latter, for her part, is not wholly insensitive to Lord Wheatley's distinction. The imbroglio still worsens with the meddling of a dark horse : the neighboring sultan.