THE LEGEND OF VALENTINO
US, 1975, 100 minutes, Colour.
Franco Nero, Suzanne Pleshette, Judd Hirsch, Lesley Ann Warren, Milton Berle, Yvette Mimieux, Harold J. Stone.
Directed by Melville Shavelson.
The Legend of Valentino was written for television. There had been one film about Valentino in the 1950s, a somewhat whitewashed exotic version with Anthony Dexter. In 1976 Ken Russell was to release his version of Valentino, a much more flamboyant-like portrait of Valentino in the Ken Russell vein. Rudolf Nureyev portrayed Valentino for Ken Russell.
The casting this time is more conventional, with Franco Nero, an Italian himself, appearing as Valentino. While the film focuses on his career in Hollywood, the adulation of the fans, it also focuses on his relationship with his agent, writer June Mathis (played by Suzanne Pleshette). Mathis was very devoted to Valentino even though he tended to neglect her. The other significant presence in his life and career was Natacha Rambova, Nazimova, here portrayed by Yvette Mimieux.
The film was written and directed by Melville Shavelson, a long-time Hollywood writer and sometime director. In his early career he had written a number of vehicles for Bob Hope including Where There’s Life, Sorrowful Jones, The Great Lover, The Seven Little Foys and Beau James. He also wrote some vehicles for Danny Kaye including Wonder Man, The Kid From Brooklyn, The Five Pennies. He generally wrote light comedies but attempted a film about the establishment of the state of Israel, Cast a Giant Shadow, with Kirk Douglas and John Wayne. He wrote up the experience of making this film as How To Make A Jewish Movie.
1. The qualities of this film as a telemovie? Its style, audience expectations and interests?
2. The evocation of the twenties and Hollywood? The fact that half a century had elapsed since Valentino’s films and popularity?
3. The film as an example of movie history, albeit legend, within a framework of social history? Insight into the twenties, the people of the twenties and the movie industry?
4. The film's presentation of Valentino himself? His status as an actor, movie actor, sex symbol? America's first male sex symbol? For whom was he this symbol? The responsive women and middle-aged women?
5. The success of Franco Nero in the role? Did he have Valentino's magic and impact? As an ordinary person, ambitions, star status, his performance in the films?
6. The importance of the framework of the film: June and her telling of the story? Her initial encounter with Valentino? Her response to him, getting him a job in films, being left by him, being reunited with him at the end?
7. The nature of Valentino's career: Italian origins and memory of his family, the implications of his having to rob, the nature of the tests, his experience of gratitude, his plans for films, his marriage and its immediate failure on the honeymoon? The effect on him?
8. Did the film examine his character much at all? How sympathetically portrayed? With what understanding?
9. The influence of June? An a character and an a writer? Her love for Valentino and his lack of response? His disregarding her, the pathos of his final recognition?
10. The influence of Natasha? What kind of woman was she, her ambitions in Hollywood, her skills? Her arranging the marriage, her power over Valentino, using his money?
11. The contribution to the film of the agents, the studio people?
12. The atmosphere of superficiality about Hollywood, self-centredness and selfishness?
13. The irony of the silent films being presented for fifty years later? The qualities of silent films? Their genres, unreality and romance? The sequences of the film previews, the feminine response? (The irony of the arranged reception for the first film and the fact that it was unnecessary?)
14. The significance of his final speech, a speech before dying?
15. The impact of the film as regards truth, legend? What in the value of this kind of film?
