Beyond the Rocks (1922)

Gloria Swanson looks lovely and young here as Theodora, an ingénue with no money who marries businessman Josiah Brown so she may help her dear father. For the era, the film is remarkably effective, the rice throwing scene as she departs, to go to Europe with her new husband. Even while black and white and digitally restored yet bruised film, the visuals are quite interesting.Rudolph Valentino as Lord Bracondale is quite attractive. It is subtle, he meets her through the Tyrolean honeymoon, the smell of narcissus on her handkerchief reminds him of.....something....Of course all is above board and nothing happens for quite some that is untoward.What is lovely about this film is the visual sense of eroticism and romance. We do not see this today. It is subtle, no screaming, psycho-drama or histrionics. It is, in a sense the way some real romance and infidelity may be played out. Theodora loves Lord Bracondale but remains faithful to elderly and infirm duffer Josiah Brown.Eventually we see Josiah financing a safari to Algeria as he chooses to do so to rid his wife of the stigma of being married to an older, less virile man. He acquires a small legion of Algerian soldiers on an archaeological mission, but there is danger and Theodora decides to follow him.There are some innovative scenes of the Algerian desert and an archaeological site which several explorers note was a "torture site for an unfaithful woman, as from the Bible". It is stark and desolate desert, evoking barren emotions, barren marriage.I found this film charming and visual. Romantic comedies today are saccharine and trite. While some of the cinematography is rudimentary it far surpasses what passes for romantic interlude today.Please watch and Gloria Swanson looks lovely. 8/10.

This is proof positive that not every silent film is great or even worthy of restoration, however good the photography may be. Nor is the musical accompaniment always appropriate, as is the case here.GLORIA SWANSON and RUDOLPH VALENTINO may have been the hot twosome of the twenties, but here they hardly get a chance to do more than exchange intense glances while Swanson coyly looks away and flutters her overmade eyelashes and purses her bow-lipped mouth. Rudy is given not too much material to work with in the way of romantic lover, but he gets hero status from the fact that first he saves her from drowning, then rescues her when she falls off the rocks.Aside from her garish and non-flattering make-up, Miss Swanson does nothing to suggest why she was such a popular silent star except for the fact that she is paraded in a series of costumes that were clearly not designed by Adrian.Valentino, on the other hand, gets to look his handsome self and even dons one white outfit that flatters his swarthy good looks. Other than watching the two of them parade around in various outfits, there is nothing in this Harlequin romance that makes much sense.Her romance with a nobleman is given a conveniently happy ending when her husband nobly allows himself to be shot in the desert so that his young wife can spend the rest of her years with Valentino.Somewhere in this hopelessly old-fashioned, banal, slow moving romance there must be a message, but I'll be darned if I can find one--except perhaps that when you're old, you should kill yourself if it will make your wife happy.As silent films go, the direction by Sam Wood is quite restrained for the time period and the photography is often artful when the film isn't having restoration problems. But this is by no means anything anyone should go out of their way to see. The story is trite, Swanson's acting is all a series of poses, and only Rudolf Valentino comes out of this smelling like a rose. At least he's natural and low-keyed and knows how to look at a woman--which must disappoint female fans who wanted to see him and Swanson steaming up the desert with passion. Not.

Finally saw this via TCM's world premiere; this is the most famous film discovery of the last few years, thought to be lost for 80 years! Very good romance film that sweeps from the English coast to the Alps and the to the African desert. Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino star as star-crossed lovers who wait years to get together.They meet when she falls from a row boat into the sea and he dives from his yacht to save her. They area attracted but she must marry a self-made millionaire to save her poor family. Later in the Alps on her honeymoon she slips from a snowy ledge and is rescued to guess who? They continue to tun into each other (because he's chasing her) until finally they all come together in the desert.A little slow but Swanson and Valentino are two of the most charismatic stars of the 20s and they are great together.Oh I didn't care much for the new musical score. It was boring New Age droning and didn't fit the era. Milestone made the same error with it's restoration of Piccadilly. Here the music drones along, except for a Scott Joplin number, with shards of sound effects.Based on a novel by Elinor Glyn, the topic of "love outside marriage" was a hot one in the early 1920s. Glyn's plots are always clichés but the real magic here is the beautiful Swanson and beautiful Valentino and how they finally get to be "beyond the rocks." Parts of the film are missing but nothing major. Some parts are distressingly deteriorated but nothing to ruin the overall film. Other parts of the film are so clear you can see grain of the fabrics.Read up on this film in Swanson's autobiography. She was friends (only) with Valentino and allowed him to be co-starred with her (she got first billing despite the new Dutch restoration that gave Valentino top billing in the closing credits) on condition she get a 3-month vacation in Europe.Later she corrected someone who said SHE had worked with HIM. HE had worked with HER (because it was her film). Wow semantics, but in the original Swanson got billing alone above the title.Swanson also talks about the famous tango she did with him--alas lost! I assume it was during the house party where they were readying a "pageant" and she's wearing a famous dress (they talked about it for a year, says Swanson) of white lace and shimmering gold beads. The lobby card I have from this film is a scene of Valentino and Swanson doing the tango. What a pity, but maybe the scene will be found.At the very end of her terrific book she says people never stopped asking her if she knew where a copy of BEYOND THE ROCKS was... or MADAME SANS-GENE or the final reel from SADIE THOMPSON. You can sense her great feeling of loss.But it's ironic that in several of her "recovered" films there are still scenes missing: the tango scene in BEYOND THE ROCKS, her Chaplin impersonation in MANHANDLED, and the final piece of SADIE THOMPSON.

Despite an earlier poster's view that the soundtrack was at times "too contemporary sounding," I would argue that the track brings this film up-to-date, without sacrificing its initial intent.The more modern track (and I'm a traditionalist in all things...) pulled me in and made me watch this film with new eyes. The "original" music used on many silents is clearly one of the things which immediately dates them and makes them seem old and, to some people, silly. With fresher music, it is easier to watch the performances and not get caught up in the sound, which obviously predominates in silents...Ron