Back home

The Sheik

60 votes

Sheik Ahmed desperately desires feisty British socialite Diana, so he abducts her and carries her off to his luxurious tent-palace in the desert. The free-spirited Diana recoils from his passionate embraces and yearns to be released. Later, allowed to go into the desert, she escapes and makes her way across the sands...

Status: Released

Released Date: 1921-11-20

Runtime: 86 mins

Director: George Melford

Writer: Monte M. Katterjohn

Spoken language: No Language

Genres: Adventure, Drama, Romance

Original title: The Sheik

Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan

Rudolph Valentino

Lady Diana Mayo

Agnes Ayres

Zilah - A Marriage Market Prospect

Ruth Miller

Yousaef - Tribal Chieftain (as George Waggener)

George Waggner

Sir Aubrey Mayo

Frank Butler

Mustapha Ali - Diana's Guide (as Charles Brindley)

Charles Brinley

Gaston - French Valet

Lucien Littlefield

Dr. Raoul de St. Hubert

Adolphe Menjou

Omair - the Bandit

Walter Long

Arab Child (uncredited)

Sally Blane

Suitor (uncredited)

Earl Gordon Bostwick

Violinist (uncredited)

Rafael Negrete

Arab Dancer (uncredited)

Natacha Rambova

Arab Child (uncredited)

Loretta Young

The Sheik Collection

The Sheik

1921-11-20

Sheik Ahmed desperately desires feisty British socialite Diana, so he abducts her and carries her of

3.1

The Son of the Sheik

1926-09-05

Ahmed, son of Diana and Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl who fronts

Reviews

Geronimo1967

I was actually quite disappointed with this film. It has all the ingredients, all right, but somehow it just doesn't rise! Agnes Ayres is the feisty, determined "Lady Diana Mayo", a non-nonsense British aristocrat who visits Algeria where she meets the eponymous "Sheik Ahmed". She isn't much bothered about him, either way, but he falls hook, line and sinker and secrets her away to his oasis home. She rejects his, to be fair, rather kindly and indulgent advances and wants no truck with his desert ways and traditions (and, in her mind, the humiliation of being his chattel, however well intentioned he may have been). In the best traditions of an Hollywood love story, though, you can guess how their relationship eventually pans out - and when the bandit "Omair" (Walter Long) does some kidnapping of his own, the scene is set for an action-packed (albeit brief) denouement. It is definitely a film that, now in it's centenary year, has a beauty to it. The cinematography is almost perfect and the impact of the photography - especially of Valentino, who does way more flirting with the audience than Ayres does - is spellbinding. The flaw? Well, the story really does plod along. The sands of the desert took as long to form as the plot; and after a while beautiful people and horses need a purpose - and, in my view, it's all too late in coming. It took over $3m at the box office, a phenomenal sum for 1921, and that is partly testament to the star and the topic, but I wonder how many other people it disappointed at the time, too...

2022-06-06

Recommendations

Faust

1926-10-13

God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war ov

3.5

Predicamented: The Plant

2022-12-16

A young woman has only one friend: a plant. That is, until tragedy strikes. (Promo Short for Predica

3.8

Battleship Potemkin

1925-12-24

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing s

3.5

Nanook of the North

1922-06-11

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northe

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1920-02-27

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recentl

Marraines de France

1916-09-08

In times of World War I, a group of boisterous young ladies occurs to them that they could help the

Shin Yotsuya Kaidan

1914-03-15

Yotsuya Kaidan (Jitsoroku Oiwa)

1918-08-31

Love in Quarantine

1910-11-17

A quarrelling couple are forced to quarantine together after the household maid becomes ill of an in

3.1

Esther

1910-05-02

Jephté's Daughter

1910-07-15

Catching The Bus

2021-05-01

A woman's daily routine going to a bus stop.

Reno: A City Symphony Film

2021-02-28

Two friends travel around the city of Reno, Nevada, and go skating at a nearby parking garage.

2.5

The Damnation of Cain

1911-09-13

"What hast thou done? Listen, the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground." Two

The Flower of Doom

1917-04-15

The Flower of Doom is a 1917 silent drama film written and directed by Rex Ingram and starring Wedgw

Two Daughters of Eve

1912-09-19

Calumny is one of the most despicable crimes against our neighbor, and while the wife in this story

In the Aisles of the Wild

1912-10-14

A widower and his two daughters live in the wilds of the north woods. They form the acquaintance of

Gold and Glitter

1912-11-11

As the husband leaves for the lumber regions, his wife gives him a memory message to be opened after

A Cry for Help

1912-12-23

Knocked down by an automobile, the intoxicated tramp is taken to the doctor's house, received and tr

A Misunderstood Boy

1913-04-19

Everything he did seemed to be misconstrued, except by the little lady he loved. The town roisters m