Incomplete prints of films are rarely available on home video, so the occasion of the release of this DVD set is cause for celebration of the opportunity to view what is, at least, cohesive representations of these films that have been hard to locate or thought lost forever.

The keystone of the collection are the four early Rudolph Valentino features, three of them incomplete, A Society Sensation (1918), Stolen Moments (1920), The Young Rajah (1922), and Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), with a delicious lacing of supplemental Valentino material, including three silent-era films, A Trip to Paramountown (1922), an episode of Screen Snapshots (1921) and the readily-accessible Character Studies (1923), and two sound films, the Cinecolor travelogue Round About Hollywood (1931) and the retrospective tribute Rudolph Valentino (1941), plus film clips of Valentino including a few seconds of color-toned 35mm footage from Stolen Moments, documentary material on Valentino and the Lady in Black legacy, still photograph and promotional materials galleries, audio segments, including contemporary recordings of three songs about Valentino’s passing (including one composed by Valentino’s first wife, actress Jean Acker), a guided Valentino tour through Hollywood, and far more.

Of note, Carmel Myers turns in a charmingly unaffected performance in A Society Sensation and, for her brief screen time in the abbreviated version, ZaSu Pitts is brilliantly meek as Mary, with her subtlely-rendered mannerisms that turn to comedy when she faints. Classical music artist Marguerite Namara proves she is no actress (and no beauty) in Stolen Moments. Valentino is, himself, a wonderfully smarmy cad in Stolen Moments, and reminiscent of the dashing Sheik in The Young Rajah.

The title of this two-disc sets the tone for this insightful and meticulously-assembled retrospective of Valentino’s early films, some nearly lost forever, his star power and the legacy of the cult of Valentino. — Carl Bennett

The release of this two-disc collection of Rudolph Valentino material is both a happy and sad occasion. Sad, for the unhappy survival condition and incomplete state of surviving prints of these films; happy, for the opportunity to view them in any state whatsoever.

For A Society Sensation (1918) the film is presented in an excellent windowboxed video transfer from the surviving abbreviated 1924 two-reel rerelease version in a 35mm print, which is very-good but, in places, worn. The print shows a moderate amount of frame jitters, sections of pronounced and persistent filmbase scratches, dust, faint early decomposition, speckling and light emulsion damage that can be distracting for the viewer. The film is accompanied by a pipe organ score performed by Bob Mitchell.

Stolen Moments (1920) is presented from a very-good surviving 16mm reduction print of an edited three-reel version, rereleased in 1922. The video transfer does excellent work of holding the good to very-good but softly-detailed image and graytone range of the, what is assumed to be, vintage 16mm print. The print is lightly scratched, speckled and dusty, with some rough editing splices and sprocket damage to the image area late in the film, but quite watchable. The presentation is accompanied by a piano score performed by Jon C. Mirsalis.

A presentation representation of The Young Rajah (1922) has been assembled for video using Paramount’s original editing continuity from a fair to good but incomplete (missing the first-third of the film) and well-worn Spanish-language 16mm reduction print, additional footage from two promotional trailers, still frames from production stills, and newly-created photographic inserts (letters reset in English, etc.). The video transfer has been speed-adjusted for a natural-speed playback, which produces a subtly jerky movement. There is visual evidence that sections of the original source print utilized for the 16mm reduction print was lost to chemical decomposition. The reduction print is contrasty and soft in image detail, and well-marked with scratches, dust and other flaws, and while this is the roughest-quality print utilized for the disc, of the incomplete films represented, it is the most complete.

The DVD’s high video bit rate ensures that, despite how rough the source prints are, the disc will render the best-possible image, even on high-definition television monitors. We highly recommend this disc set.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

About Rudolph Valentino:
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino (1982)
Rudolph Valentino: The Great Lover (2006)