Having just seen Beyond the Rocks tonight I had no idea this was a 'lost' film that was rediscovered and restored thanks to our good friends in the Netherlands where a copy was located. Still a chance to see Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson together is never to be passed up even if what they appear in is a cheap romantic melodrama made better by their presence.
Gloria's a titled Englishwoman in who the rest of her family two half sisters and an impoverished titled father rest their hopes on restoring the family fortune with a good marriage. Enter Robert Bolders in a part that a few years later Charles Laughton might have played. He's a self made member of the English upper middle class looking for what now would be called a trophy wife. Under pressure she marries him.
Of course then Rudolph Valentino comes along and Gloria regrets having married in haste. Rudy's enough to turn anyone's head and they keep running into each other, in the Alps, at Versailles, and back at home where Bolders is being asked to finance an archaeological dig in the Sahara. An expedition along the same lines as the Carnarvon-Carter expedition that discovered King Tut's tomb.
The whole thing ends up in Rudy's old stomping grounds the Sahara Desert. As another reviewer pointed out, if you're a devoted reader of Harlequin novels, you KNOW how it will end.
Gloria and Rudy make this film seem a whole lot better than it is. If it weren't for them it would get an even lower rating. Still for those who admire these two stars and they have deserved admirers, you might want to catch this film.
Now I'll bet the discovery and restoration of Beyond the Rocks would make an interesting movie.
Gloria's a titled Englishwoman in who the rest of her family two half sisters and an impoverished titled father rest their hopes on restoring the family fortune with a good marriage. Enter Robert Bolders in a part that a few years later Charles Laughton might have played. He's a self made member of the English upper middle class looking for what now would be called a trophy wife. Under pressure she marries him.
Of course then Rudolph Valentino comes along and Gloria regrets having married in haste. Rudy's enough to turn anyone's head and they keep running into each other, in the Alps, at Versailles, and back at home where Bolders is being asked to finance an archaeological dig in the Sahara. An expedition along the same lines as the Carnarvon-Carter expedition that discovered King Tut's tomb.
The whole thing ends up in Rudy's old stomping grounds the Sahara Desert. As another reviewer pointed out, if you're a devoted reader of Harlequin novels, you KNOW how it will end.
Gloria and Rudy make this film seem a whole lot better than it is. If it weren't for them it would get an even lower rating. Still for those who admire these two stars and they have deserved admirers, you might want to catch this film.
Now I'll bet the discovery and restoration of Beyond the Rocks would make an interesting movie.