The Married Virgin

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Valentino
Review: "The Married Virgin" is one of the oldest surviving Rudolph Valentino films. As a movie, it isn't that great. As a glimpse at an early milestone in Valentino's career, it's quite interesting.

The story is, for all intents and purposes, little more than an old-time melodrama. The actors play "types" more than fully devloped characters: there's the virtuous young woman, her lionhearted suitor, the dastardly villain, the evil stepmother, and so on. Everyone's actions are quite predictable.

The plot is quite simple: a society matron carries on a steamy affair with a sexy, conniving count (Valentino). They conspire to extort cash from the matron's husband by revealing his involvement in a crime. The husband negotiates a 'settlement' with them: a hefty sum of hush money, and his daughter's hand in marriage. It's the daughter (Vera Sisson, the title character)'s task to extricate herself from the conspiracy and find true happiness elsewhere.

The film's charm comes, in large part, from a laudable performance by Valentino. Although this was one of his first pictures, he successfully avoided the overacting and hyperbolic gestures employed by certain of his co-stars. His Count Roberto is suave, cool, confident and diabolical, and easily steals the picture.

Also included on this tape are two extra features: Valentino's scenes from the 1919 film "The Eyes of Youth" (he played a small role as a "cabaret parasite") and a Pathe newsreel of his 1926 funeral.

It all makes for an entertaining and interesting package...if you are a Valentino fan you'll love this one. However, if you are looking to watch a movie that shows Valentino's talent and has a good story, I would recommend one of his later films.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Valentino
Review: "The Married Virgin" is one of the oldest surviving Rudolph Valentino films. As a movie, it isn't that great. As a glimpse at an early milestone in Valentino's career, it's quite interesting.

The story is, for all intents and purposes, little more than an old-time melodrama. The actors play "types" more than fully devloped characters: there's the virtuous young woman, her lionhearted suitor, the dastardly villain, the evil stepmother, and so on. Everyone's actions are quite predictable.

The plot is quite simple: a society matron carries on a steamy affair with a sexy, conniving count (Valentino). They conspire to extort cash from the matron's husband by revealing his involvement in a crime. The husband negotiates a 'settlement' with them: a hefty sum of hush money, and his daughter's hand in marriage. It's the daughter (Vera Sisson, the title character)'s task to extricate herself from the conspiracy and find true happiness elsewhere.

The film's charm comes, in large part, from a laudable performance by Valentino. Although this was one of his first pictures, he successfully avoided the overacting and hyperbolic gestures employed by certain of his co-stars. His Count Roberto is suave, cool, confident and diabolical, and easily steals the picture.

Also included on this tape are two extra features: Valentino's scenes from the 1919 film "The Eyes of Youth" (he played a small role as a "cabaret parasite") and a Pathe newsreel of his 1926 funeral.

It all makes for an entertaining and interesting package...if you are a Valentino fan you'll love this one. However, if you are looking to watch a movie that shows Valentino's talent and has a good story, I would recommend one of his later films.

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-paced drama to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Review: After reading the other reviews about a melodrama and poor or unbelievable plot, I was pleasantly surprised to find this film much better than I had expected. I found the pace to be quite fast and you have to stay on your toes to keep up with each new development, and the plot seemed interesting, intricate and well-thought-out to me. Needless to say, Valentino's role is a highlight, but together with the unfolding of the story and other characters the whole film is quite enjoyable and even suspenseful as you wonder what will happen next and how it will end. As a movie in its own right, apart from Valentino, it stands as a quality drama, and despite some poor picture quality at times, it is still enjoyable and entertaining to watch.

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-paced drama to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Review: After reading the other reviews about a melodrama and poor or unbelievable plot, I was pleasantly surprised to find this film much better than I had expected. I found the pace to be quite fast and you have to stay on your toes to keep up with each new development, and the plot seemed interesting, intricate and well-thought-out to me. Needless to say, Valentino's role is a highlight, but together with the unfolding of the story and other characters the whole film is quite enjoyable and even suspenseful as you wonder what will happen next and how it will end. As a movie in its own right, apart from Valentino, it stands as a quality drama, and despite some poor picture quality at times, it is still enjoyable and entertaining to watch.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: I strongly disagree with the only other (lengthy) review that speaks very disparagingly of this incredibly good movie. This is the best silent I've ever seen and not just because of Valentino, albeit he is just great in it. The stepmother is superb and the two of them make an illicit love duo the like of which one has seldom seen in the movies, even to this date. When they sit clandestinely and grandly in the garden of her husband's estate, scheming away, it is just hilarious. Again, the stepmother is as good as anybody has ever been in this role, and is also a hell of alot better looking than the daughter.

I also disagree that the film characters aren't fleshed out. They are totally, and in a very economical fashion. They are not at all stock characters. Even the lawyer boyfriend rises above his secondary role and also isn't too cloyingly good.

Finally, the scenery and cinematography of this film are outstanding, featuring the old El Coronado hotel in San Diego, and swimming scenes. And of course, the car scene where the old 1918 roadster goes barrelling into the canyon has to be one of the first such car crash scenes and it's a hell of alot more realistic than most.

So if you want to see what all the fuss was about Valentino, and watch a wonderful period silent film, this is the film for you.

Therefore, I wish and hope that someone remakes this film. The somewhat unbelievable plot not withstanding.

Rating:
Summary: Admire the star, deplore the plot
Review: This is not a top-notch silent film, this is a melodrama. When I think of melodrama I think of unbelievable characters and unbelievable plots. In this film we have a witness to murder who waits ten years and then cracks a safe to steal the murder weapon, a lawyer who is employed to uncover corruption but doesn't find any, and a gigolo who marries a girl as part of an attempt at blackmail! I can't trace all the plot holes - it gives me a headache trying to unravel it all. Valentino is smooth and casual in his portrayal of a gigolo, very effective. The overall impression I have of this movie is this: it's a production-line melodrama where the plot doesn't matter much, just give the audience some plush interiors to look at and some dramatic moments, and rake in the money.

Rating:
Summary: Admire the star, deplore the plot
Review: This is not a top-notch silent film, this is a melodrama. When I think of melodrama I think of unbelievable characters and unbelievable plots. In this film we have a witness to murder who waits ten years and then cracks a safe to steal the murder weapon, a lawyer who is employed to uncover corruption but doesn't find any, and a gigolo who marries a girl as part of an attempt at blackmail! I can't trace all the plot holes - it gives me a headache trying to unravel it all. Valentino is smooth and casual in his portrayal of a gigolo, very effective. The overall impression I have of this movie is this: it's a production-line melodrama where the plot doesn't matter much, just give the audience some plush interiors to look at and some dramatic moments, and rake in the money.