The Sheik - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Sheik



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Paramount and Sony are both pulling deep into their catalog titles the last year or so (thanks Covid) and I was actually shocked when I saw The Sheik being added to the list of new 4K remasters for the Paramount Presents lineup of films that Paramount has been regularly pumping out. I mean, it’s not like I’m shocked and horrified that we’re seeing the film, but rather that we’re seeing it at ALL on Blu-ray. The movie (like most movies of the 1900-1930s) has long since had the original negatives lost to time, decay and misplacement, so these sort of films just aren’t commonly rescued and put out onto hi-def media.

The Sheik was the film that pushed Rudolph Valentino into his super stardom, rocketing him from obscure actor into a household named during the 1920s. But looking back on it from a 100 years in the future I will have to admit that it needs to viewed through a historical lens. Today’s culture would look on in shock as the film’s Stockholm Syndrome inspired romance looks creepy, almost rapey in nature, but was seen as a historical romance back in the day. It was an adaptation of the novel by Edith Maude Hull, and was meant to showcase a “war of wills” between the classic strong willed woman, and the man who couldn’t be refused. At the time it garnered HUGE successes in the box office, and ushered in a new era of film making.

The plot itself is pretty simplistic, as was the plot of most 1920s silent films. Rudolph Valentino is Ben Hassan, an Arab Sheik playboy who becomes fascinated with a modern era Englishwoman named Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) and kidnaps her to make her his new love. What unfolds is a typical war of the wills with the strong willed Diana falling prey to the charismatic Sheik’s charm and playboyish nature, while the Sheik runs up against the first woman in his life that doesn’t just fall for him like everyone else.

As I said, there’s a sort of creepiness to the film due to our modern era take on male/female dynamics, and at times makes you cringe. However, it must be stated that the male power dynamics of the 1920s was MASSIVELY different than today, and it makes for a fascinating character study. Especially when you start focusing on the actual acting and the visual cues that actors of the time period had to display in order to get the audience to understand emotional shifts. There’s a sort of comical “over display” of emotion with Rudolph Valentino that gives him a sort of psychotic look. A method of acting back then meant to convey the over amorous nature of his character when no words are able to spoken.

The movie itself isn’t great, but it is a fascinating piece of history, looking back at a LITERAL 100 year gap in cinema history. Modern day audiences aren’t going to be going into this expecting a popcorn movie, but cinema buffs are really going to get the most out of this flick in my humble opinion. Especially with the slower pace and odd camera work of ancient filming techniques.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

According to Paramount (and I quote)

“The Sheik’s” restoration employed modern technology so viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent film. Since original negatives for silent films rarely exist, Paramount searched the world for the best elements and used a print and an intermediate element called a fine grain. One source of the film yielded better results for image quality, another for intertitles. One of the elements was "stretch-printed" and had to be adjusted digitally during the restoration process. In the silent era there was no standard frame rate, so stretch printing was done to show silent films at 24 frames per second. In addition, tints and tones were digitally applied, guided by an original continuity script from the Paramount archive. The result is the best picture quality 'The Sheik' has had since it was originally shown in theaters 100 years ago.

As you can guess, that means we may never have a true scan of the original negative and there will definitely be some inconsistencies and print damage based upon the various sources that Paramount was able to salvage for this new master. From all looks they did the best they could, be visuals change from scene to scene and old style film stock just never looked that good to begin with. The 4K master does look solid compared to what I was expecting, and ironically looks better than some of the film stock from the 1970s and 1980s that have fallen into disrepair. Card stock titles show the worse for wear with obvious tearing and print damage, but sometimes the image will show pink or yellow hues that look rather garish. Black and white shots with a more neutral gray and black tone do look better, but overall this is an effort in restoration that will never be like a modern film. For what was done here, and the expectations I went in with, it’s a fine looking transfer from an obviously troubled source compilation.







Audio:

I was actually rather surprised at the audio track for The Sheik. I mean, it’s only a 2.0 track with some music in the background, but it seems to have been restored rather nicely. There’s no major scratches, hisses or raspiness to the track like I would expect. The musical number is fairly simplistic on a 2.0 track, but it’s very clean, very clear, and outside few minor volume fluctuations, is impressive for a 100 year old audio track. There’s not a whole lot of expansion to the front sound stage and is very center focused, but the lack of age artifacts is a pleasant surprise









Extras:

• Desert Heat: 100 Years with The Sheik

Final Score: ​

The Sheik probably won’t hold up to modern scrutiny like others like the old Universal horror films, or even films only 5 or 6 years it’s junior. But the movie is a fascinating looking into what we considered movies 100 years ago when film making was just beginning to become the cultural phenomenon that it turned into. Paramount did a great job rescuing the film from being lost to history with this 4K remaster (take from various sources as mentioned in the video section). Recommended for film fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ruth Miller
Directed by: George Melford
Written by: Edith Maude Hull (Novel), Monte M. Katterjohn (screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Music: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Subtitles: French
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR
Runtime: 66 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 2nd 2021

Recommendation: Recommended