Back when Arthur was young, I went to watch Kevin
Brownlow introduce this film at East Finchley’s ultimate picture palace, the Phoenix
Cinema, and he shared his coversations with one of the silent era’s most calmly
professional directors along with clips from films I just had to see.
Since then, I’ve watched them on the big screen; Flesh
and the Devil (1926), The Signal Tower (1924) and The Goose Woman
(1925). Brown never disappoints and brings out the best in his actors; a real
warmth of performance amongst the smoothly worked narratives.
Watching first time my focus was on Rudolph Valentino as
this was the first of his films I’d seen (and I still haven’t seen either The
Sheik or The Son of the Sheik…) but now I was watching as much for Louise
Dresser, who was so heart-breaking in The Goose Woman and is grand again
here playing Csarina Catherine the Great as passionate and impetuous with a
penchant for young officers and for executing those who don’t please her.
Her scenes with Valentino as the dashing Lt. Vladimir
Dubrovsky, are wry – if conflicting - with sexual role-reversal as the
predatory monarch tries to get her man tipsy, offers him a career path based on
favour and generally behaves like a man. Dubrovsky has enlisted to be a fighter
and not a lover and absents himself even though he knows this will seriously
affect his prospects both in military life and, well, just life.
Louise Dresser and Rudolph Valentino
This isn’t any man Catherine is sexually harassing
though, it’s one played by Rudolph Valentino. No other silent actor comes with
quite so much baggage as the Latin lover, the man who broke so many hearts that
people seemingly took their own lives rather than face up to life without him… Surely,
he had to take himself that seriously too? But no, what we find is a very
handsome man who can act and who has a deliciously inclusive sense of humour to
prick the bubble of heroic pomposity: think Antonio Banderas in an Aldomorvar
film: a little camp but in that masculine way only the most “secure” can carry off.
Valentino’s Dubrovsky is one of the bravest officers in
the imperial elite and arrives at a parade for the Csarina at the film’s start
full of promise. He’s a man of action and spotting a runaway carriage he leaps
onto the Csarina’s favourite horse, and she did like her horses… (“not true…” says
History) and sets off in pursuit – Brown’s cameraman fast behind – pulling level,
jumping on and pulling the horses to a halt in classic cowboy style.
The party he rescues includes a beautiful young
noblewoman, Mascha Troekouroff, played by the delectable Vilma Bánky, who has great
chemistry with Valentino and pretty much every single thing around her. She would
star with him again in Son of the Sheik, her beauty and intelligence
matching his own with a challenge that his persona needs; she’s not being swept
off her feet by anyone.
Rudolph and Vilma
Pleasantries are exchanged and there’s an instant connection
but Mascha ‘s head is not easily turned and her Aunt Aurelia (Carrie Clark Ward) is the one waving enthusiastically after Dubrovsky
as their carriage pulls away. He laughs but his quick thinking has earned him
that awkward appointment with his Czarina who is more than happy to see her
horse returned unharmed…
It’s not a good day on balance for Dubrovsky as he receives
the news that his father is seriously ill because of his estate and fortune being
stolen by the by the villainous Kyrilla Troekouroff (James A. Marcus on fine
form). Dubrovsky won’t take this lying down and soon turns himself into a Robin
Hood figure – The Black Eagle – who leads his father’s remaining loyal staff
into an escalating set of countermeasures aimed at over-throwing the usurper.
Encountering a man who has been employed to teach French
(incidentally, the language of the Tsarist court even up to the
pre-revolutionary period…) to Kyrilla’s daughter, Dubrovsky takes his place as
a means of breaking in and causing chaos. Yet, when he arrives, he sees that
his student is to be the beautiful girl he rescued in the runaway carriage.
James A. Marcus as the Fearless Kyrilla!
Thus, things go as rom-coms go with enough will-they/won’t-they
to keep you guessing as Bánky and Valentino work their humorous rapport as far
as they can without popping the dramatic bubble. Kyrilla is revealed as more bullying
buffoon than despot as the threats of imminent retribution from the Black Eagle
un-nerve him more and more: you do wonder how he ever managed to take control
of the Dubrovsky estate… still, he does have a bear chained in his wine cellar
for playing “jokes” on guests.
Brown directs with deceptive efficiency and with more
than the odd flourish. Not for nothing was he “blind-tasted” as Lubitsch by one
Hollywood insider according to Kevin Brownlow, with some innovative shots
including an amazing dolly shot along the full length of Kyrilla’s banquet
table. It’s a very well-made film with sumptious sets from the legendary William Cameron Menzies, and the restored print is in superb condition; watching it is indeed, as Mr Brownlow said at the Phoenix, “…seeing silent film
as it really was”.
Accompaniment was provided by Mr Neil Brand who had
dressed for the occasion and entered his music room in colour before sitting
down to accompany in back and white. His themes went well beyond those chromatic
limitations though and he gave us the rich romance and visceral daring the film
deserved. As festival director Alison Strauss put it in her introduction, we
were watching “together, alone” and the improvised music gives the immediacy
that binds us as viewers, sat in front of screens from Worthing to the Winter
Palace.
Who is The Black Eagle?!
The Eagle is now available on spruced up Blu-Ray from Kino and is well worth filing between Camile and The Four Horsemen of
the Apocalypse if you like your Latin Lover in alpha order or, Monsieur
Beaucaire and Cobra if you’re going by date.
The Hipp-fun carries on and you can still catch up on
most of films, intros and Q&As via the festival website and the Falkirk Community Trust YouTube channel.
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