Rudolph Valentino

THE SON OF THE SHEIK

United Artists, 1926.  Directed by George Fitzmaurice.  Camera:  George Barnes.  With Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, Montagu Love, Karl Dane.

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Ahmed, The Son of the Sheik, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancer and the daughter of a renegade Frenchman who leads a troupe of mountebanks and thieves.  When Ahmed is captured by Yasmin's father and held for ransom, he is led to believe that she has tricked him; and when freed he abducts her, taking her to a desert camp.  He is about to force her to submit to him when his father, the sheik, barges into the tent and frees the girl.

Later, Ahmed learns that it was not she but rather her jealous admirer who betrayed him. He follows Yasmin to a dancehall, where a bitter fight with knives takes place; Ahmed emerges victorious, unscathed and with the girl in his arms.

Notes
The film is based on the novel The Sons of the Sheik, by Edith Maude Hull (Boston, 1925).  The Son of the Sheik marked the last film of Rudolph Valentino, who died on  August 23, 1926, before the film was released.  The picture is a sequel to the 1921 Famous Players-Lasky production The Sheik, which featured one of Valentino's most famous roles.

American Film Institute Catalog

Poster artwork courtesy of Frances