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, Valentino is a wonderfully smarmy cad, and classical music artist Marguerite Namara proves she is no actress (and no beauty) in Stolen Moments.

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 our review of A Society Sensation (1918), see our A Society Sensation on DVD home video page.

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.

For our review of The Young Rajah (1922), see our The Young Rajah on DVD home video page.

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.