I only just watched 'Son of the Sheik' on dvd last night and was amazed at the textures of cinematography and the natural un-histrionic flow of the performances. While it may not be very profound or innovative, it never set out to be, and it is a far better flick than I expected, very rounded and organic and effortless. Vilma Banky is lovely and appropriately lowkey, and Valentino is every bit as exciting to watch as his celebrity maintained. Ahmed is NOT a character performance, Oscar material or anything, but Valentino instills this cardboard figure with the warmth of life, a quickening of the pulse, all very controlled and tasteful and humanly affecting rather than superhumanly virile. Of course he looks gorgeous, but so does the film itself. Some of the slapstick may seem dated by now, but then what about 'American Pie'.

If anyone has heard about Valentino and wants to see what all the fuss was about, The Son of the Sheik is an excellent way to do so. Here he is five years past the overacting he exhibited in parts of the earlier installment. To top it off, he plays dual roles: the son and the father. And he does both admirably. The shots of the two characters in the same frame - touching each other, no less - are flawlessly executed. Generally, this is standard melodrama culminating in physical battles between the good guys and the bad guys and a final chase. Along the way we get a lot of exotic set pieces, lavishly furnished desert tents, horses racing across the dunes, smoky cafes in which dancing girls wriggle for tossed coins and a grand palace with spacious rooms and shiny floors. The intimate scenes between Valentino and the beauteous Vilma Banky are more sensuous than those of the previous film. Clips from these scenes will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen Valentino references in documentaries. Agnes Ayres reprises her role from The Sheik as Diana Mayo, now the wife of the older sheik and mother of his son, and she appears to have aged 20 years but is no less attractive. For Valentino, Banky and Ayres alone this is a treat.