Review 3

The Legend of Valentino(1975)

Director - Melville Shavelson
Producer - Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg
Writer - Melville Shavelson

Composer - Charles Fox
Genre - Biography/Drama
Release Year - 1975
Country - USA
Run Time - 96 minutes

Lead actors
Franco Nero as Rudolph Valentino
Suzanne Pleshette as June Mathis
Judd Hirsch as Jack Auerbach
Lesley Ann Warren as Lesley Warren
Milton Berle as Jesse L. Lasky
Yvette Mimieux as Natacha Rambova
Harold J. Stone as Sam Baldwin
Alicia Bond as Nazimova
Constance Forslund as Silent Star
Brenda Venus as Constance Carr

Legend of Valentino is a TV-short retelling of the life of legendary silent screen star Rudolph Valentino, here portrayed by Franco Nero. This TV movie was advertised as "romantic fiction," which was just as well since its only nods to the truth are the basic facts of Valentino's enormous screen fame and the national hysteria attending his early death in 1926 of peritonitis. Typical of Legend of Valentino's fabrications is the depiction of Valentino's first meeting with his future mentor, screenwriter June Mathis. In real life, Mathis discovered Valentino by watching him play a string of supporting roles; in Legend, she confronts him in her living room while he's burglarizing her house.

Plot
In this version of the silent film era superstar, Rudolph Valentino, a young and impoverished Italian immigrant, was discovered as he was robbing the house of screenwriter June Mathis, a somewhat older woman who was already a film-world insider. Having forgotten the young man, Mathis soon came to recognize his star potential and leaded him into the world of movies. Eventually, Valentino became the biggest male sex symbol of his time.

Direction
I know Melville Shavelson for his such works as The Princess and the Pirate(1944) and The Great Lover (1949). Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Shavelson was nominated twice for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay—first for 1955's The Seven Little Foys and then for 1958's Houseboat. He shared both nominations with Jack Rose. He also directed both films. Other films he wrote and directed include Beau James (1957), The Five Pennies (1959) for which he won a Screen Writers Guild Award,It Started in Naples (1960), On the Double (1961), The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Shavelson was a noted instructor at USC's Master of Professional Writing Program from 1998-2006; he taught screenwriting. Shavelson died of natural causes in 2007.

Acting
Of course, it's necessary to emphasise Franco Nero and his acting in this film. Franco Nero was a more credible Valentino, he even had a genuine Italian accent,besides he looked more Italian,he was passionate and handsome enough to pass as the world's greatest lover.

In conclusion, I'd like to tell you that I chose this film, The Legend of Valentino, because we, the members of MovieClub, I join to, discussed his films and watched them and it was interesting to get some new information about the man. Rudolph Valentino may not be a familiar name to people today, but in the 1920s, he was about as popular as it's possible to be. To say Valentino was the first Superstar and a very handsome man wouldn't be an exaggeration. But once he said: "Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams." I think it's true. As a main character of Sheikh, he was charming. While he were stealing a heroine (a beautiful romantic scene!), I'm sure every woman wishes to be her. Valentino left cinematography in 1926 when he died of peritonitis-infection, he was 31! The Great Lover was gone, and now is largely forgotten. But Valentino, despite the brevity of his stardom left an impressive filmography. He was the first of his kind, and his success paved the way for all of the other iconic male stars who would follow in his wake.