Cobra

I had some doubts when I first watching "Cobra" as I seem to recall long ago, a negative reaction to watching one of Valentino's movies. But hey, guess what, despite some odd things, I actually liked it!

Valentino plays Rodrigo, a sex obsessed man who's actually had it up to HERE with women coming on to him all the time (and vice versa!) he meets up with a antiques dealer from the US who persuades to come work for him. Believe me, I could actually predict what was going to happen a mile away.

Anyways, Valentino plunges into his work, ignoring every woman that comes his way. When his antiques partner marries a woman that was trying to woo Valentino, (which is surpising in itself, as it looked for a while that he was appearing to be an "unwritten gay character" the woman keeps trying, even trying to woo Valentino up to a hotel room. From this point, things take a laughably unpredictable turn (you don't see it coming) which leads us to the sad ending. Awww.

The acting here is good for the period, but tends to rely on, as it always does with silent dramas, with too many people looking glum, and looking off to the side. (you know what I mean). Valentino is quite good in this actually. Worth a look.

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.

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.

If this rather melodramatic piece were redone today you might get a psychological explanation for Rudolph Valentino's behavior. Quite simply put Rudy is a sex addict, title and all.

Cobra has Valentino cast as a man with a title going back many generations, but he's cash poor and he has a compulsion to bed every woman he meets. You can imagine that such behavior has left him with few friends. But he gets a lifeline from America in the form of vacationing millionaire Casson Ferguson offering him a job in New York City where he's got a certain expertise in antiques and that's Ferguson's business.

It doesn't take long for Rudy to start returning to his old ways. It means tragedy for one woman he's involved with. In the end he does an honorable thing.

The Cobra did not do all that well as the movie going public liked to see Valentino in costume dramas. There is a small flashback sequence where you see him as one of his ancestors. Maybe had the whole film been set in the 15th century it might have worked better.

As it is The Cobra is second tier Valentino.

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.