Cobra

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.

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

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.

COBRA (Paramount, 1925), a Ritz-Carlton presentation directed by Joseph Henabery, offers an odd or misleading title to a love triangle starring the legendary Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) in one of his final screen performances. With its opening credits super imposed over that of a cobra, one would expect this product to be set somewhere in Burma where hunters fall victim to a dangerous and largest of all venomous snakes. The cobra in this case is a symbol, categorized later in the story to be one of the female characters depicted through a close up of a bronze sculptured cobra mesmerizing a tiger. Nita Naldi assumes the role of the temptress symbolizing the cobra while Valentino, the tiger, becoming its prey, and reciting these words, "You are infamous - you are poisonous, like a cobra!"

"There are times when friendship becomes the most important thing in a man's life, stronger than love, equal to any sacrifice -- even that of love itself," marks the first inter-title as the plot begins amusingly on the terrace of Cafe Del Mare as Victor Manardi (Hector V. Sarno) arrives looking for Rodrigo Torriani (Rudolph Valentino), a young Italian count who's been romancing his daughter, Rosa (Claire De Lorenz). Wanting to settle an account with him, he mistakes the visiting American, John "Jack" Dorning (Casson Ferguson), for the count. The disruption has Rodrigo entering the scene posing as an Italian interpreter, proving Dorning to be whom he is and not Torriani. Torriani then takes Jack with him to his debt-ridden palace where he tells of his life story and family history. Because his playboy lifestyle finds him with female complications, Jack helps him to forget women by inviting him to sail with him to New York where he's to become his partner at his antique shop, Dorning & Sonm which he readily accepts. Believing New York a great place to avoid female troubles, Rodrigo soon encounters Mrs. Huntington Palmer (Lillian Leighton), a dowager, who introduces him to her niece, Elise Van Zile (Nita Naldi), a fortune hunter. Learning Rodrigo to be penniless, Elise soon turns her affections towards Jack. Though Jack is loved by Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), his loyal secretary, he marries the flirtatious vamp who, in turn, uses Rodrigo as her lover on the side. Arranging a secret rendezvous at the Van Cleve Hotel, Room 1002, Rodrigo, due to his loyalty towards Jack, rejects Elise's advances and leaves. The next day Rodrigo reads in the newspaper the startling news of the hotel burning down, claiming Elise and an unidentified man as victims. Guilt-stricken, Rodrigo is torn between telling Jack the truth about his unfaithful wife or keeping her illicit affairs a secret.

Seldom revived Valentino melodrama, COBRA has turned up on cable television's Nostalgia Channel as part of its Saturday night line-up of "When Silents Were Golden." In its March 19, 1994, broadcast, COBRA consisted of a print with piano sound score composed by Bob Mizzell (Copyright 1979 by Big Eopper Music/Mizzell Films). While it was commendable for Nostalgia Television's dedication to rare and hard to find feature films from the silent screen era, the series was regrettably handicapped by frequent and long-winded commercial breaks. Other video or DVD distributors as Kino Video and/Or Grapevine Video featured different scoring and time frames (70 to 75 minutes) while Image Home Entertainment contains average orchestral score by David Shepard (1998).

Not quite an important film in a sense of greatness, COBRA still owes some of its modest degree to the short-lived leading man status of Rudolph Valentino. Nita Naldi might be another reason for her title-influenced characterization. Naldi, who vamped Valentino most famously in BLOOD AND SAND (Paramount, 1922), does the same here, but not so memorably this time around. Her career as a silent screen vamp would soon come to a close before the end the decade. Cemented into his image as a great lover, COBRA offers Valentino one of his few chances to enact a portrayal true to his Italian origin as well as appearing in a product in contemporary setting as opposed to others taken from another time or place. Often categorized as a disappointing Valentino melodrama, it somehow works on a level of choice, whether accepting COBRA for what it is or simply laugh at its outdated acting style and material. Casson Ferguson (1891-1929), a name nobody knows, who, like Valentino, succumbed too early in life, dying from pneumonia four years after the release of COBRA. Ferguson's role of an American business owner who hires the Italian count to be the expert on Italian antiques is acceptable but forgettable in its final result. Gertrude Olmstead (1987-1975) gives an commendable performance as the secretary who comes to a decision which man she truly wants. Also featured in the cast are Eileen Percy (Sophie Binner, the blackmailer, "Believe it or not, she's a lady"); Henry Barrows (Henry Madison, Manager of Dorning & Son); and Rosa Rosanova playing Marie.

While the COBRA title had been used a couple of times subsequently, the basis from this story were never remade, not even as the 1986 action thriller starring Sylvester Stallone. For this 1925 edition, no cobras here, just fine actors doing what they do best, rising above an average story scripted by Anthony Coldeway, adapted from the Martin Brown play, some venom by Nita Naldi, the presence of Rudolph Valentino and the films for which he appeared that have survived through the passage of time. (**)