The Sexual Politics in Sexy Rudolph Valentino’s ‘The Sheik’

Item 25 in the Paramount Presents line of remastered classics on Blu-ray is a surprise. The studio has reached far back into the vaults to celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the most seismic shocks in the history of Hollywood and world cinema: George Melford’s torrid and titillating The Sheik (1921), the film that confirmed the super-stardom of Rudolph Valentino.

To spell it out, this film is all about S-E-X. Therefore, it’s a textbook of the era’s sexual politics, illustrating what couldn’t be said or done, by whom, and what might be shown or implied.