Cobra

In Italy, handsome nobleman Rudolph Valentino (as Rodrigo "Rod" Torriani) has difficulty managing creditors and lovesick female admirers. While avoiding a creditor and daughter, Mr. Valentino comes to the assistance of wrongly accused American antique dealer Casson Ferguson (as Jack Dorning), who has been mistaken for Valentino. The men become fast friends, and Mr. Ferguson brings Valentino to live and work with him in America. Valentino wants to curb his promiscuity, and Ferguson promises to help...

In New York, most women find Valentino irresistible. He is immediately attracted to Ferguson's secretary Gertrude Olmstead (as Mary Drake), though she is secretly in love with her boss. Valentino is startled to discover New York City is full of desirable and available women. He soon returns to his promiscuous ways. Out on the town, Valentino meets alluring gold-digger Nita Naldi (as Elise Van Zile). She pursues Ferguson for money and Valentino for sex. A hotel room is the meeting place for Naldi and several men. This threatens the friendship between Valentino and Ferguson. It may also mean tragedy...

"Cobra" (referring to the predatory characters played by both Valentino and Ms. Naldi) was another production which increased the control Valentino had over his films. At the time, many considered it a disappointment, thinking the star and companion Natacha Rambova had lost touch. The story centered around men's friendship instead of passionate romance, and Valentino kept his clothes on. But, it was nicely produced, Naldi added her usual spark, and Valentino got his desired chance to emote during the closing minutes.

This film was produced instead of "The Hooded Falcon", and completed before "The Eagle" (1925).

***** Cobra (11/30/25) Joseph Henabery ~ Rudolph Valentino, Casson Ferguson, Gertrude Olmstead, Nita Naldi

The 1925 COBRA was among Valentino's last films--and it tends to divide the star's fans, who either rejoice at his appearance in a realistic drama or yearn for something that rivals his earlier, often outrageous seductive melodramas.

The story concerns Count Rodrigo Torriani (Valentino), an impoverished Italian nobleman with a penchant for torrid affairs that lead to endless and often monetary difficulties. Largely in order to escape such difficulties, Rodrigo agrees to work for American antiques dealer Jack Dorning (Casson Ferguson)--only to find himself little better off in New York, where he wavers between office secretary Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead) and Jack's femme fatale wife Elise (Nita Naldi.) In a stylistic sense, COBRA shows what Valentino could do as an actor when he was not encumbered by the usual "great seducer" scripts pressed upon him--and he acquits himself very well. The supporting cast, most particularly Naldi, is also excellent. But there is no two ways about it: COBRA is so low-key that it feels excessively slow as it moves toward its none-too-surprising conclusion.

The film itself is beautiful to the eye. Valentino is very close to the height of his physical appeal and Naldi is stunningly beautiful in a series of Adrian-designed gowns; the art direction by William Cameron Menzies is excellent, and the cinematography by Fischbeck and Jennings has a velvety quality that is quite fine. Even so, and with a running time of just over an hour, COBRA feels excessively languid in tone. The DVD offers a handsome transfer and good music score, but little else. Recommended--but primarily for hardcore Valentino fans.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

As is true with silent films generally, there's a strong attention to visual presentation in 'Cobra.' Filming locations, set decoration, and costume design are fetching. For lack of sound and verbal dialogue, actors employ exaggerated facial expression and body language to convey emotion and communication, and to carry the film generally. I don't find the performances here especially remarkable, yet the cast ably realizes their parts with gratifying nuance. This particularly goes for stars Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi, both bearing just enough force of personality to liven the feature.

That small extra measure of vigor seems necessary. The narrative as it is written feels whole, yet in a feature of only 70 minutes, there's a fair deal of largely superfluous exposition in the first 20 minutes. Otherwise, too, 'Cobra' takes a while to go anywhere. Elements are introduced into the story to illustrate the character of the primary roles, yet these scenes almost distract from the plot more than add to it. What we get is a core dressed up with unneeded excess, and as a result the film as a whole feels underwhelming.

'Cobra' is hardly outright bad; I don't dislike it. But Anthony Coldeway's screenplay would have benefitted from more attention to the chief characters and the dynamics between them. This would also have bolstered the presence of Valentino and Naldi. Beyond that, it's worth pointing out the stereotypical disparity between how characters coded as male and female are treated when both demonstrate like patterns of behavior. Somehow the tale always ends more favorably for one than the other, and only one guess is needed as to which.

For all its imperfections, this is enjoyable. Still, in both Valentino's list of credits specifically, and throughout the era of silent films generally, other pictures were made that were definitely more solid and consistent. There's sufficient merit to 'Cobra' that it's a worthy view if you come across it, just keeping in mind that it's not the cream of the crop.

While Valentino is good and the parts where he satirizes his public image as a great lover are priceless, it isn't hard to see why Cobra (1925) flopped at the box office when it was first released. The story is creaky (even by 1925 standards) and the one-dimensional characters are not interesting. As a result, you find yourself uninvolved in all of their troubles and heartache. The production is stage-bound. The direction is unimaginative. Sometimes the film feels like a product of the mid-1910s rather than one made at the height of the Roaring Twenties.

Only Valentino or Nita Naldi completion-ists will be interested in this mediocre film.

Rudy is very good, especially in the comedic parts. The story isn't much, and it would have helped if either of his leading ladies had been Vilma Banky (the less said about the desiccated-looking Gertrude Olmstead the better). But Nita Naldi's appeal is at least more apparent here than in "Blood and Sand," and her clothes, by Adrian, do a lot for her. What's more, though she's a bad girl, she's a believable one. The film should be seen for Rudy's charm, for William Cameron Menzies' very, very effective production design, and for the fact that the DVD is made from an absolutely gorgeous, velvety, pristine, 35 mm print. It looks better than any other DVD I'm aware of with Valentino. A hotel fire, which we learn about from a newspaper, should have been portrayed. It's really an obligatory scene, and the movie is rather naked without it. It might have put the picture in the hit category, had it been done well.