Morane le marin

A fast paced seafaring tale featuring Rudolph Valentino as Ramon Laredo, a bored socialite who finds his manhood and a sense of purpose only after being shanghaied. Initially he is such a coddled dude that he drinks something called a "Mild Manhattan", but soon after being forced to serve as a deckhand he transforms into an extremely capable sailor( looking quite contemporary in jeans and a dark pullover) and earns the respect of the rugged crewmen who once dismissed him as a "soft thing." Eventually his path crosses with that of Letty Moran (Dorothy Dalton), a tomboyish captain's daughter. The two actually met briefly before, on land, where she was as almost as contemptuous of the city slicker in his yachting outfit as the crewmen once were. However, although she is initially as tough as Ramon is effete, the situation reverses itself once Ramon rescues her from her father's ship whose hold has caught fire. Although Ramon is impressed by her strength of body and purpose, Letty, in tandem with Ramon's growing masculinity, becomes more and more womanly as the film progresses, allowing herself to be assisted out of boats (perhaps not so much because she's suddenly helpless as that she's glad someone is finally recognizing her as female) and becoming clothes conscious enough to replace her trousers with a dress, albeit a rather plain and no-nonsense one. (In contrast, Ramon indifferently allows his swanky white bell bottoms to become muddier and muddier.) These character changes culminate when Ramon saves Letty from his nemesis Captain Kitchell, played by Walter Long (who costarred in The Sheik and once again plays a character with unsavoury designs on Rudy's woman).

Entertaining, but in retrospect a bit depressing in that the ridicule Ramon undergoes as a ballroom dancing, tea sipping dandy mirrors all too closely the vicious powder puff slurs the real life Valentino tried to refute practically until the end of his short life.

It's hard to know whether Dorothy Dalton was always a dud or if she simply hasn't worn well, but her appeal these days is not readily apparent. Since that's true of a number of ladies who once made multitudes salivate in the silents, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Her acting's okay. Despite her top billing, it's absolutely Rudy's picture, and he's very good in it. He never looked better, and it's a nice, varied, physical part. Despite his exotic looks, and the fact that he's given a Latin background, this is still a nice-boy part. Wallace Reid could have played it.

As with so many silents, one of the main draws is the realness and thereness of the exteriors. No need to record sound, so they go on location to San Francisco, they shoot on water, and I wouldn't take anything for the scene in front of a small movie house, where you get a feel of what it was like to walk in. TCM showed it in an absolutely marvelous, digitally restored print.

Rudolph Valentino's name would not for long be beneath another player's as it is in Moran Of The Lady Letty. Dorothy Dalton is first billed in this film which casts Rudy as a young playboy who gets Shanghaied aboard a modern day pirate ship skippered by Walter Long.

He's quite the pampered one Rudy is, but some experience with this crew and their evil skipper is enough to toughen anyone up. Later on sound successors to the Valentino image like Robert Taylor and Tyrone Power both of whom did sound remakes of Valentino roles were also deliberately given action material like this to broaden their appeal.

Even without sound Valentino's charisma comes through over 90 years after this film was released. Walter Long who played many a brutish, thuggish villainous role is at his best doing his thing in this film.

Moran Of The Lady Letty is a good introduction to the films of and the legend that was Rudolph Valentino.

I welcome any opportunity to see Valentino, and "Moran of the Lady Letty" from 1922 is Valentino in action, aimed at getting the men interested in him as well as women.

Based on a play, the story concerns a wealthy young playboy, Ramon, with no purpose in life who is shanghaied and put into service on a ship of smugglers. Life on the sea and working turns out to be a good and enjoyable thing for Ramon. One day, the crew sees a boat that has suffered a coal fire and looks empty, so the men climb aboard to steal what they can. They find one crew member alive, who turns out to be a woman, Moran Letty (Dorothy Dalton), the daughter of the burned ship's captain. Ramon protects her from the evil captain (Charles Brinley) and falls in love with her.

Differences in class were the major topic of stories, plays, etc. in the '20s into the early '30s. This is no exception. Seen today, the facial expressions are big and obvious, and the dialogue cards are open to a different interpretation nowadays - Letty has no use for men, doesn't like them, and wished she had been born a man! Dorothy Dalton is exotic-looking and good as Letty, and Valentino is very handsome and effective as Ramon. The film is loaded with stereotypes, including the likable character Chopstick Charlie, played by Japanese actor George Kuwa.

This is all to be expected in an 88-year-old film. We only have a fraction of silent films available when you look at what has been made versus what has been lost. It's not the greatest Valentino film, but don't pass this up if you have a chance to see it.

On the sailing vessel the Lady Letty, we meet Moran (Dorothy Dalton), a Norwegian tomboy, reared as a seaman, who wears pants and works the ship right alongside the men. In San Francisco on Nob Hill lives rich and handsome Ramon (Valentino), idol of the débutantes, who spends his time throwing house parties and sailing on yachts. One day he's late for one of his yacht parties and gets himself shanghaied by a ship full of sea-outlaws. Forced to become Second Mate on a voyage headed towards Mexico, Ramon seems to take a shine to being shipboard and changes rapidly from dandy to able-bodied seaman, and before you know it he's happily swabbing the decks and looking gorgeous in white sleeveless t-shirt. Meanwhile, sailing in the same waters is the Lady Letty which suddenly catches on fire, and the outlaws go aboard to loot it, coming back with nothing but rum and a "loco sailor" - actually Moran dressed as a boy, brought over by Ramon who tries to keep her hidden away from the evil Captain. Now Ramon seems to develop a crush on Moran, but this may not work out for him - see, she wishes she were born a boy!

This film is packed with lots of shipboard action, fights, etc. - a bit too much for my taste actually. There is also a plot element that seems a little odd to me and that is the fact that Ramon seems so happy being on the ship with bad men who kidnapped him and are committing crimes. I am also not sure I like the match between Valentino and the woman, I kind of like them better as just "mates". The mainly sepia-tinted print shown on TCM looked okay, a tiny bit washed-out here and there but pretty good as a whole, and featured an excellent music score that matched the action well. For me, Valentino is the main reason to see this - he looks stunningly handsome in all of his scenes - sigh! I like Dorothy Dalton too, well cast in her tomboy part. Worth seeing for the beauty of Valentino alone.