The Conquering Power (USA, 1921)

This film was made a short time after huge Rudolph Valentino’s hit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (USA, 1921) and it was the second and last collaboration of Valentino and Rex Ingram, the latter would subsequently direct Ramon Novarro’s films.  The Conquering Power (USA, 1921) was based on the novel Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac. The plot is about the conquering power of love, and all barriers it is capable to overcome, plus the maturity of a man from boyhood to adulthood due to adversities of life. It is also portrayed how the effects of greed can be harmful to a person.

Valentino plays the role of Charles Grandet, a French playboy who lived a careless life and all worldly pleasures to the full, as it can be seen by his lavish birthday party in the beginning of the film, which was interrupted by the earlier return of Victor Grandet, his father, from a trip. Upon his return, Victor had a serious conversation with Charles about his brother, Père Grandet, who he had not seen for around twenty five years and recommended Charles to be on friendly terms with him. Victor seemed to be rather distressed and it is hinted that he had serious financial problems.

Victor had committed suicide a short time afterwards and after his death, Charles ended up living with his uncle. Père Grandet, despite of being rich himself, he was a miserly, who treated both the poorer people from his province and his own family with an iron fist. At the house of his uncle Charles met and fell in love with his cousin, Eugenie Grandet. Eugenie was a virtuous, beautiful and sweet girl, quite in demand by the suitors of her village. 

Charles brought to his uncle’s house a letter by Victor, who claimed that he had lost his fortune due to stock market speculation and he hoped that Père would be a father for his son. The tone if this letter suggested that Victor would die soon, which actually happened and this tragic event left Charles penniless. 

While love flourished between both cousins, Père received a letter stating that Victor’s debts had been reduced and it meant that Charles has not lost all his money, after all. To avoid that Charles recovered his money and that his love for Eugenie took root, Père decided to send Charles away for the Martinique. However, before Charles’ departure, Père made him sign a document renouncing to all his inheritance, something that Charles found strange as his father had left no estate. Despite that suspicious signal, Charles did not realize that Père could have been behind any scam to take advantage of him.

While Charles was away he wrote to Eugenie regularly, telling her about his life in Martinique, that he was prospering there, etc. Nevertheless, his letters never came to her because Père  was hiding everything and it made Eugenie think that Charles had forgotten about her. On the other hand, Père had written Charles claiming that he had arranged a marriage for Eugenie and therefore it would be advisable he did not keep any further correspondence with her. The claim was a lie and there was no marriage, but Charles could not possibly know. But both Charles and Eugenie never forgot each other.

One day Père asked Eugenie to see her gold because he wanted to invest it, but she could not give it to him because Eugenie had lent it to Charles previously, so he could have some money to restart his life. When Père realized Eugenie had given her gold to Charles, he locked her in her bedroom and it was when the worst ordeal of Eugenie began. However, the news of Eugenie’s imprisonment in her room became the topic of the village and the villagers have also noticed how maddened Père was. 

Some scenes later it is revealed to the audience that Eugenie was not actually Père’s daughter and that  Eugenie actually had the right of demanding a division of his fortune if only she knew the truth. 

Speaking of the truth, Eugenie eventually found out Charles’ letters to her hidden in her own house, none of them had ever been given to her. She also found the letter that stated that Victor’s debts were reduced and that Charles was not penniless, after all. The same letter that had never been disclosed to Charles, who left to Martinica thinking his father had not left any estate. 

Père found out that Eugenie found the letters. She runs away and he gets locked in his cellar, totally maddened by his own greed and evilness. This is one of the most famous scenes of the film, beautifully played and acted by actor Ralph Lewis (who played the role of Père in a convincing and skillful way) and the favorite scene of many people. Right afterwards Père passed away, leaving Eugenie a very rich woman and it was suggested to her to look for a husband. She announces her engagement, but shortly after is reunited with Charles.

My personal favorite part of the film is the end, when after some years Charles returned from France, now a very rich man and they both met each other again in the same place where they used to gather together in the past, this time older and with different appearances. However, the love and joy in seeing each other was still the same. Their facial expressions of happiness were something very touching to see, as they show that love was the real conquering power, even beyond the action of gold and time. Charles did not come to the village before thinking that Eugenie was married, but she was actually still single and it was when they were finally reunited.

Cobra (USA,1925)

I have always personally believed that, despite occasional typecasting and overacting in some films, Italian actor Rudolph Valentino’s acting skills did shine bright in his more romantically-oriented films. Unfortunately his acting ended up overshadowed by his heartthrob reputation and the tragic consequences of his death, with only 31 years old in 1926. 

Valentino plays the impoverished Italian nobleman, Count Rodrigo Torriani, a philanderer who was often in the company of beautiful women. In the beginning of the film he befriended an American tourist (Jack Dorning) and, as he had shown a deep understanding of antiquities during their talks, Dorning invited Torriani to work with him in New York, as an antiques export. The proposal was gladly accepted. 

A short time after arriving in New York, Torriani realized that he would not really get rid of his weakness for beautiful women. He fell genuinely and purely in love with Dorning's secretary Mary Drake, but she did not return his interest, which was an irony because it was the first time Torriani has ever loved a woman. 

On the other hand, he has also met Elise, a gold digger, who was looking for a rich husband. Elise was immediately interested in Torriani, thinking he was rich, but Torriani had no interest in her whatsoeverf. When Torriani told her that all the money actually belonged to Dorning, she directed her attention to him even though she had never forgotten Torriani. Having realized that Dorning was interested in Elise, Torriani encouraged him to have a relationship with her, which quickly happened. 

Dorning fell madly in love for Elise and they soon got married. However, after around one year of marriage -although Dorning was still in love and happy – it became clear that Elise was being unfaithful to her husband. To make things worse, Elise started to make advancements to Torriani again, to the point of forcing herself to him in his office. Torriani, in consideration for his friend, resisted her seduction as much as he could but, when she invited him to go to a hotel with her, he ended up accepting her proposal. But, as soon as they arrived at the hotel, Torriani felt guilty of betraying his friend and left the hotel immediately before anything more intimate happened between them both. 

It turned out to be a wise decision because the hotel caught fire that same night, killing both Elise and one of her other lovers (who she called to stay with her in the hotel after Torriani left). The bodies of both people were so severely burned that it was not possible to identify them. After having learned of his wife’s disappearance, Dorning was heartbroken. For a while he could not know where his wife was or if she would ever return. He fell into depression and Torriani took care of him, unable to return what happened at that night at the hotel. He did not dare to make his friend suffer by knowing which kind of woman Elise was.

After a while, while browsing through Elise’s papers, Dorning found letters of some of her lovers to her and he also found out that she was in the habit of frequenting that hotel that caught fire and she was probably one of people who passed away. He also found out a letter of Torriani to Elise, refusing her love. Dorning was proud of his friends loyalty, but it was the moment when Torriani confessed everything that happened that night between him and Elise and that it was him who had taken Elise to the hotel the night she died and that he felt too guilty to remain in the United States and that he would return to Italy. Dorning answered saying it was better if they both forgot what happened and that Torriani could return to Italy to rest, but he asked his friend to return after a while and keep on working with him. 

Torriani indeed returned and it seemed that everything would run smoothly, but it was not what happened. Mary Drake seemed to be finally interested in Torriani, but he was still feeling too guilty about Elise’s death and could not immediately return her interest due to his grief. After a while, he heard that both Mary Drake and Dorning were dating and that Dorning was very happy with her. He talked to Dorning and he confirmed to Torriani to be deeply in love with Mary Drake. 

After having heard of it, Torriani decided to renounce to the only woman he has ever truly loved. He lied to her claiming he was still the same womanizer of always and, feeling guilty and determined not to be on the way of his friend’s happiness for a second time, Torriani left the United States and returned to Italy, this time definitively. 

One year later Valentino passed tragically away and his funeral has caused an unprecedented commotion. His successful career lasted only around five years (from 1921 to 1926). His fate in talkies is only a matter of speculation, as all his films were made during the silent era. Nevertheless, I do believe that if he got to totally avoid typecasting in ethnically-stereotyped films and devoted himself to romantic dramas, it would have solidified his career and make him being more seriously taken by some critics. But unfortunately there was no time for it.

Foolish Wives (USA,1922)

Director Eric von Stroheim, despite making long and extravagant films – often having as scenery lands far away – he could also provide fluid, light-hearted plots with touches of humor. He was a competent director, who particularly excelled in fairy tale -like plots with touches of comedy, as in this film.

Stroheim could often have problems with the studios due to overbudgeting and excessively long films and it was not different here. The original printing lasted around eight hours and it was cut by the studio to a more conventional format and it shrank even more throughout the years. Despite having made a name for himself as a skilled director, his multiple clashes with studios made him as of early 1930ies end up being an actor in other people’s films. He did have some noteworthy roles, such as, for instance in Sunset Boulevard (USA, 1950) though. 

In a mansion by the sea in Monte Carlo (according to the first intertitle: “The Villa Amorosa – secluded yet within easy reach of Monte Carlo -leased for the season by three members of the Russian aristocracy”) it lives a man who socially identifies himself as His Excellency Captain Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin -but who is merely a poor scoundrel  who seduced and manipulated women in order to obtain financial advantages from them – (a role played by Stroheim himself) is a member of former Russian nobility who is in the habit of seducing rich women in order to obtain financial advantages. He has the assistance of his two “cousins”; "Princess" Vera Petchnikoff and "Her Highness" Olga Petchnikof (both of them partners in crime and possibly his lovers too).

The three of them have an lavish and idle lifestyle, which even included caviar as breakfast, as it can be seen in a scene in the beginning of the film. Stroheim has reportedly requested the studio to purchase real caviar for the sake of realism on camera. Indeed, the breakfast scene – with a table full of sophisticated food in a huge mansion and with a maid to serve them -gives the audiences a good idea of the level of luxury of the “family”. 

Then the group receive the visit of Cesare Ventucci, who supply the group with counterfeit bills which would be passed in the Cassino. Ventucci has a daughter with special necessities called Marietta who he raised by himself after his wife passed away and it becomes clear to the audience that Count Karamzin was developing an interest for the girl.

Being a compulsive womanizer, the count also made advances (and even marriage promises) to Maruschka, the maid. This part of the film ends up irreversibly impacting the film later on.

One day the count heard about the arrival on board of the U.S. Cruiser “Salem” of the Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States and his wife, called Helen Hughes. She was a naïve woman, younger than her husband (she was 21 years old, while he was 41 years old). Although Mr. Hughes realized that the count was flirting with his wife and was never away for too long, the count got to easily enchant her with his charm and extroverted personality. Furthermore, the friendship with those distinguished foreigners would give the group more social legitimacy and nobody would suspect that they never belonged to the Russian nobility after all. 

And this association with the fake nobility members would end up involving Mr. Hughes in some rather embarrassing situations. For instance: 

A. The Count was in the habit of going out with Helen Hughes together with his “cousins”. One day, they went to the countryside and the Count walked alone with Mrs. Hughes while one of his cousins was on the table waiting for their return. However, it suddenly started to rain torrentially and the Count and Mrs. Hughes ended up being stranded in a more isolated place, just the two of them, leaving the “cousin” behind. 

This “cousin” called Mr. Hughes and told him that his wife was safe with them at the Hotel des Reves and, due to the heavy rain, she would not be able to return home that night. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hughes was fainted in a scary-looking house being taken care of by the Count and an older woman. The count told Mrs. Hughes that her foot needed rest and that the rain prevented them from returning home that night. 

B. Once the Count told Mrs. Hughes that he urgently needed money, as he had a life or death matter to solve and asked her to meet him in a building at night.  Maruschka, seeing that the Count was did not really care about her and that his marriage promise was not true, ended up setting the building on fire. Both the Count and Mrs. Hughes are trapped and the firefighters were called. The Count jumped in order to save himself, leaving Mrs. Hughes behind. She eventually got to jump too and was looked after by her husband, who saw the Count’s letter asking money for his wife and realized she was being the victim of a scam. 

The Count ended up being rejected by the local high society due to the ensuing scandal and he subsequently tried to seduce Marietta, but her father sees it and ends up murdering the Count and throwing his body on the sewage. His “cousins” were arrested afterwards and the Hughes couple continued with their marriage without further problems.