Poster from TMDB
Film · TMDB
6.0Sheik 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...
Cast
- Rudolph Valentino as Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan
- Agnes Ayres as Lady Diana Mayo
- Ruth Miller as Zilah - A Marriage Market Prospect
- George Waggner as Yousaef - Tribal Chieftain (as George Waggener)
- Frank Butler as Sir Aubrey Mayo
- Charles Brinley as Mustapha Ali - Diana's Guide (as Charles Brindley)
Themes
- silent film
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
6.2/10
3,751 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
79%
- Year
- 1921
- Runtime
- 86 min
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- Passed
- Awards
- 1 win
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- George Melford
- Written by
- Monte M. Katterjohn (adaptation)
- Based on
- The Sheik , by Edith Maude Hull
- Produced by
- Fred Quimby
- Starring
- Rudolph Valentino , Agnes Ayres
- Cinematography
- William Marshall
- Music by
- Irving Berlin (1970s reissue), Ben Model (2017 Kino Lorber reissue)
- Production company
- Famous Players–Lasky
- Distributed by
- Paramount Pictures
- Release date
- November 20, 1921 ( 1921-11-20 ) ( US )
- Running time
- 80 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- Silent ( English intertitles)
- Budget
- under $200,000
- Box office
- $1.5 million (US/Canada)
via Wikipedia infobox
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Sheik is a 1921 American silent romantic drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky, directed by George Melford, starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres, and featuring Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the bestselling 1919 romance novel of the same name by Edith Maude Hull and was adapted for the screen by Monte M. Katterjohn. The film was a box-office hit and helped propel Valentino to stardom.
In the 1926 sequel The Son of the Sheik, Valentino played both the Sheik and his son, while Ayres reprised her role. A third film in the series, She's a Sheik, was produced in 1927 by Paramount and starred Bebe Daniels in a comedic role reversal of the original film.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Sheik” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.