Beyond the Rocks

The silent era continues to have surprises for us, such as this one, "Beyond the Rocks," a film starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino once thought lost but since rediscovered and restored.

Based on a novel by Elinor Glyn, it's a potboiler that doesn't hold up well today, but so little does at age 84. It's the story of a young woman, Theodora, the hope of her family (i.e., the one with the youth and looks to nab a rich husband) who meets a British nobleman (Valentino) when he saves her from drowning.

Then she meets her betrothed, a short, old thing. She's disappointed, but for the sake of her father, marries him. She runs into Valentino on her honeymoon and this time, he saves her from falling off a mountain during a climbing expedition. They seem Meant to Be. But both are determined to honor her marriage vows.

Valentino and Swanson are heavily made up, and both actually looked much better with a more natural appearance. In the beginning, with her hair down and less Max Factor, Swanson is lovely - petite, with amazing eyes and beautiful skin. Later on, however, she looks older than she is due to the make-up and hair-do. Her character has a great wardrobe, and Swanson wears it well.

Both actors give good performances. Valentino had a tendency to be obvious in some of his emotions - it was more the style then - but he gives a more relaxed performance in "Beyond the Rocks." Most of the movie looks beautiful with its sepia tones though there are some damaged sections. It's quite a find and a chance to see two big stars of the silent era together.

Swanson wrote of parts of the film that don't seem to exist any longer - but as one of the comments here suggests, she perhaps was mixing this up with another film. Given the plot, it would be easy to do so.

This film has long been much sought after because it is the only film in which Valentino and Swanson star together. Now that this film has been newly discovered perhaps it will receive some actual reviews on here in another year or so. Once restoration work is completed along with a newly composed score it will be shown at a film festival in Amsterdam next year. The good news is that the film is in good condition except for about 2 minutes which were damaged and will need work. This film was discovered among 2000 canisters that were given to the Filmmuseum from a collector who passed away. It took several years to realize that a complete copy of the film was in the collection.

I have to start by saying that I am probably the worst possible person to write a comment on "Beyond the Rocks", as it is the only silent movie I've seen to date. However, since not many people have yet had a chance to see this movie, I thought it my duty as a movie enthusiast to review.

In "Beyond the Rocks" a poor young woman, Theodora Fitzgerald (Gloria Swanson), briefly meets the handsome Lord Hector Bracondale (Rudolph Valentino). They like each other, but soon part ways. Some time later Theodora marries a rich man, even though she has no feelings for him whatsoever, in order to make her father and sisters happy. On her honeymoon she runs into Hector again, and they continue to meet each other socially. Soon they realise that they love each other, but Theodora is now married, which makes it impossible for them to be together.

I found the beginning of "Beyond the Rocks" a bit slow and uneventful. Things do happen, but somehow I couldn't really get 'into' the story. The reason for this is, most likely, that the love between the two main characters at that point hasn't fully developed yet, nor have their problems, and there is little to get emotionally involved with the characters about. But this 'slow' part doesn't last long, and the rest of the movie is as interesting as such a love story can possibly be.

"Beyond the Rocks" is famous for co-starring two silent movie greats, Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. I was a bit disappointed with Valentino at first. During much of the first half of the movie, he has little to do but smile and look good, neither of which requires much acting talent. Fortunately he has more emotions to convey later, and then finally gets the chance to show what he's capable of. But Swanson remains the star of this movie. Whenever she is on the screen, whatever she is doing, she's the one you're looking at. Even when Valentino acts at his best, he is very much in his own world inside the movie, while Swanson transcends the bounds, radiating off the screen and drawing you into the story.

Not long ago, only one minute of this movie was known to have survived. Then, a few years ago, a copy of the whole film was found in The Netherlands, where it was restored by the Nederlands Filmmuseum. The quality is, as far as I can judge, usually very good. There are only two moments in the film where there is a lot of damage, and it briefly becomes extremely difficult to see what's happening on the screen. The first of these moments is very short, and the shot rather uninteresting, so that it is no great loss to not be able to see it. The other is longer and happens in the middle of a considerably more important and interesting scene. It is a shame that this part of the movie didn't survive in a better condition, but one can't expect miracles, and an advancement from one minute of film to all 80 minutes whereof perhaps one minute damaged is doubtless a great one.

Dutch movie composer Henny Vrienten has made a soundtrack for "Beyond the Rocks". Unique of this soundtrack is that it not only contains music, but also sounds from the surroundings of the characters: cars driving up, footsteps on the stairs, knocks on the door, etc. The general opinion on this seems to be that it makes it easier for people to follow what's happening. I personally can see the other view - that silent movies weren't meant to have sound effects - as well, but the sound as it is didn't bother me. There is one thing, however, that I think should have been left out, and that is the sound of people talking in the background, which is sometimes used. If the actors don't talk audibly, I really don't think it's appropriate to have talking (and sometimes laughing) heard in the background, even if it only occurs in 'party' scenes, where it would be a normal sound to expect. The music is often good and fitting enough (though sometimes rather early-21st-century), except in one scene where the music played in a fancy hotel/restaurant is of the kind you would expect to hear in a saloon in a bad western. This soundtrack is not my favorite part of the film as I saw it, but it certainly isn't so bad that it ruins one's viewing experience, and naturally the movie can't be blamed for it.

All in all, this is a great movie. I hope that it will soon get distributed around the world to give everyone the opportunity to see it.

Just saw the film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles, very faithful and loving restoration. Still some bits missing. The speaker who was in charge of the restoration said there seemed to be approx four minutes still missing. In attendance were members of Swan's and Valentino's family. They spoke of their gratitude that the film was found and restored. Swanson's granddaughter quoted a passage from her grandmother's autobiography about her thoughts on the picture and that passage finished with a plea that somebody somewhere find a print of the film as she did enjoy it so and was so sad it had been lost. It really did feel in that theatre as if both stars were there watching it again. It's a rather good film, not a "great" film but well worth seeing for any fan of either star or of silent films in general. The DVD release will be "soon" and be on the Milestone label, a company that releases DVDs of a large number of silent films including nearly all of Keaton's.

This was a good day for film to have found this treasure

When the restored version of Beyond the Rocks received its American premiere earlier this week at the New York Film Festival I was fortunate enough to be in the audience. The amazing story of this film's recovery and reconstruction by the staff of Amsterdam's Nederlands Filmmuseum is told elsewhere on this page, so it's not necessary to repeat it here; for my part, ever since I first heard about this rediscovery over a year ago I've been curious about one thing only, and that's the quality of the movie itself. It's great that Beyond the Rocks has been found, but how good is it?

Well, it was certainly exciting to see the movie with an audience, and a thrill to see Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino in something "new," but frankly I don't think anyone will mistake Beyond the Rocks for a masterpiece of the silent cinema. It's like a sumptuously produced Harlequin romance, a 1922 soap opera in which the two stars model lots of great outfits while they suffer nobly in picturesque locales. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, it's actually a lot of fun on its own terms, but it's the kind of fun you get from reading a "guilty pleasure" beach book. There's nothing wrong with a beach book as long as you're not expecting Chekhov, and nothing wrong with this film as long as you're not expecting Murnau.

The screenplay was based on a novel by Elinor Glyn, an eccentric lady best known for coining the term "It" to describe sex appeal. Madame Glyn (as she preferred to be addressed) is sometimes called the Barbara Cartland of her day, but Glyn's novels were far more outlandish than most anything you'll find in today's bookstores. Her plots were just flimsy excuses to place aristocratic lovers in exotic, secluded settings fit for delivering purple-prose speeches and engaging in steamy love-making on tiger rugs. Just consider the names of some of her characters: Princess Ardacheff, Madame Zalenska, Lord Bracondale, and let's not forget Bracondale's jilted fiancée, the unfortunate Morella Winmarleigh. Considering the silly source material it's remarkable that the filmmakers who adapted Beyond the Rocks for the screen managed to convert Glyn's tale into something halfway respectable, with a touch of dignity. At the screening I attended there were occasional giggles at moments of blatant hokum in the plotting, but I wouldn't call the film absurd over all. I think it's safe to say (although I haven't read the novel) that this is a case where the movie may be considerably better than the book.

Before seeing the film I wondered how two such iconic figures as Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino would pair on screen. Having seen it, my conclusion is that although Rudy looks great and gives a nicely nuanced performance, this is Gloria's picture all the way. Her character is at the center of the story, and it's what happens to her that matters. Swanson rises to the occasion with a stylized performance that is larger than life without ever going over the top, not even in the wrap-up sequence in the dunes of the Sahara, when the story reaches its climax and emotions peak. Gloria retains her poise and, like all the best silent stars, conveys a great deal with her eyes. Swanson was often called a "clothes horse," and throughout this film she and her co-star are both given the opportunity to show off a number of terrific costumes, most notably in a couple of gratuitous historical flashbacks apparently included solely to give the stars the opportunity to display themselves in exotic finery. A friend of mine who also saw the film said that the costumes worn in Beyond the Rocks are the real stars, and I quite agree. Mind you, this isn't solely a fashion show; this movie features not one but two bold rescues of the heroine (at sea and in the Alps) and a wild desert siege by bandits on horseback, but this isn't an action flick at heart, it's a chick flick, and the real action lies in the smoldering looks exchanged by the stars.

The print of Beyond the Rocks is in remarkably good shape for the most part, but there are some rough stretches where decomposition is noticeable, and a couple of junctures where footage is obviously missing. At the festival screening I attended, unfortunately, live music was not provided. Instead we were shown a print with a score by Henny Vrienten, and while I liked some of the music I found it a little too modern-sounding at times: at one point there's a bluesy jazz theme that's more Miles Davis than Jelly Roll Morton, pleasant enough but, in my opinion, not right for a film of this vintage. It was also unfortunate that the people who prepared the soundtrack found it necessary to dub in sound effects. I have no problem with certain ambient sounds (seagulls, dogs barking in the distance, etc.) but on this track we heard doors opening and closing, documents being unfolded, and even the sound of one hand patting another. They seemed to be trying to make the film "less silent," but for me these noises were excessive and only emphasized the absence of voices.

In sum, Beyond the Rocks is an enjoyable experience and of course a fascinating one for fans of the two stars, but it's not a film I'd use to introduce a newcomer to silent movies. God knows there are better examples of silent drama, but I'm nonetheless grateful that this film has unexpectedly emerged from obscurity as a special treat for the connoisseur, a slickly-produced, unabashedly old-fashioned romance served up with all the trimmings.