Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
The Sheik is a 1921 American silent film directed by George Melford, based on the novel by Edith Maude Hull, starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Adolphe Menjou, and Walter Long. It was written by Monte M. Katterjohn, produced by Jesse Louis Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures, with cinematography by Paul Ivano and William Marshall and a score by Irving Berlin. Filmed in California and Arizona, with a narrative location of Algeria, it was shot in black-and-white at an aspect ratio of 4:3.
A romance and drama film, it ran 86 minutes, was rated Passed, and received 1 win. It is now in the public domain and is held by the Internet Archive.
Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, Internet Archive, IMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Based on
- The Sheik
- Director
- George Melford
- Screenwriter
- Edith Maude Hull
- Cast member
- Patsy Ruth Miller
- Composer
- Irving Berlin
- Producer
- Jesse Louis Lasky
- Production company
- Paramount Pictures
- Cinematographer
- William Marshall
- Narrative location
- Algeria
- Filming location
- Arizona
- Duration
- 80
- FilmAffinity ID
- 488429
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- The Sheik poster 2.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- Commons category
- The Sheik (film)
- publication date
- 1921-11-20
- title
- The Sheik
- distributed by
- Paramount Pictures
- after a work by
- Edith Maude Hull
- aspect ratio (W:H)
- 4:3
- color
- black-and-white
- copyright status
- public domain
- different from
- sheikh
- capital cost
- 200000
- box office
- 1500000
- review score
- 79%
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
~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.