Le jeune rajah

I caught this picture on TCM's Silent Sundays an May, 2006. The last forty minutes of a nitrate print were discovered and using stills and trailers, Paramount did a very commendable job giving the viewer the as much of the full experience as they could. Valentino gives an excellent performance and looks enough like an Indian in his turban to pass for their prince. The climax occur rather quickly but how the picture concludes is definitely on the clever side. But what is most interesting about this picture in the incorporation of prejudice and equality into the romance between Valentino's and Hawley's characters. Being only 18, prejudice and equality are different to me than they are to my parents, but I couldn't help but be amazed at how the film tackled the issue and rapped it up in an engrossing, almost epic motion picture experience.

Rudoplh Valentino is my all time favorite silent film star. This is my second time watching "The Young Rajah," and I liked it more the second time around. Although some parts of the film are missing, I did get a lot out of it. The message was clear-judge a person for who they are, and what is in their heart regardless of skin color. Valentino was a talented actor and dancer. He was just as beautiful inside as he was outside, and it came across the screen if only for a brief moment. He will never be forgotten. It was back in the 1970s when I first heard of him. I was completely taken aback by his talent and mystique, and I was quite young at the time. It is always a thrill to watch one of his films. "The Young Rajah" only showed his versatility in films. Who knows what more he was capable of doing had he lived a longer life?

Young Rajah, The (1922)

** (out of 4)

Rudolph Valantino drama, which was considered lost for many decades. When a print finally showed it in was in very bad shape with nearly 2/3rds of the film too bad to show so they took the decent footage and added photos to it to try and get back as much as they could. The film tells the story of a young man (Valantino) who was brought over from India as a small child who, when learning his background, goes back to India to fight for his crown. The film doesn't make too much since due to all the footage being missing but apparently this film wasn't that good in its complete form so I'm not sure how much better it would have been complete. Valantino actually does a good job in the few remaining footage of film and the costume design and sets are appear to be top-notch as well. Charles Ogle, the man who played the monster in Edison's 1910 version of Frankenstein, has a role here as well.

I unfortunately missed the introduction (if there was one) to "The Young Rajah" on Turner Classic Movies, but the film was pieced together - the entire beginning is lost, told with dialogue cards, story cards, and stills. Eventually there is a clip of badly preserved film, more stills, and then finally "The Young Rajah" is completed using the actual film. The entire presentation only runs about an hour.

The silent era was the great equalizer - only in silents could an Italian with a thick accent play an Indian living on an American farm under the name of Amos Judd. As a young boy, the heir to the throne of India is brought to the farm of his father's friend, where he grows up, goes to Harvard, and falls in love. He has the gift of foretelling the future - which is where the frustration comes in for this viewer - but I digress. As his wedding day draws near, he is asked to return to India, where a usurper has taken over the throne and chaos reigns.

Valentino was very much of his time. He was an Italian working in silent films, and there's every chance he would not have survived sound or, as tastes changed, kept his leading man status. While Ramon Novarro enjoyed a career in talkies and television in character roles, we don't know if this would have happened to Valentino or would have been acceptable to him. Yet appearance-wise, he's ahead of his time, too. When one views him with today's eyes, he looks like one of the current Italian models with his slicked back hair, handsome face, and knack for looking elegant in suits. No man around him comes even close in appearance.

People must have had better vision in the '20s - the film contains many notes various characters received, and despite them being clear, I couldn't read them from where I was sitting. At the end of the movie, the film is almost completely deteriorated during the young rajah's vision - so I can only guess at what happens. A real pity, but what a credit to the people who worked to preserve what was left. A movie of great interest for those fascinated by film history.

A badly deteriorated print with Spanish titles was discovered in Europe recently - however only the last three reels totaling about 35 minutes had survived. The first fifteen to twenty minutes represent a collage of studio stills, bits of a trailer, modern photographic inserts and bridge material from June Mathis' continuity script to replace the first two or three reels that have disintegrated. Nitrate damage is evident in the remaining footage as well as some fading and streaking. The missing sequences include a fantastic Art Deco costume ball (designed by Natacha Rambova) and a rowing team boat race showing off Valentino's physique in tight fitting trunks and nothing else.

Valentino, whose subtlety and intelligence are evident in every picture he made, plays Amos Judd (born Sirdir Singh), the mysterious adopted son turned Harvard man. Amos' ancestors included Arjuna, the hero of the Bhagavad Ghita whose forehead was touched by the God Krishna and he and his offspring have been given powers of prophecy. This turns out to be a blessing and a curse for Amos Judd as his past comes after him and threatens his love for Molly Cabot, an American girl played by blonde and lovely Wanda Hawley. Fortunately, her father seems to be a Unitarian judge with remarkably liberal attitudes, so their union is not out of the question.

The film deals head on with issues of racism with remarkably enlightened and forward-thinking attitudes for that period. The issue of interracial relationships is explored in a very sympathetic light. The attitude expressed is that a man should be judged by the quality of his thought and not his religion or the color of his skin. Amos Judd, himself the product of an interracial marriage between an Italian woman and an Indian Rajah, is shown as being a student of all religions who believes that there are many roads to one God.

The film is intriguing for its stunning design, magnetic star and free-thinking philosophy. Evidently the film was not a great success, came out just at the time Valentino was arrested for bigamy and preceded a period of conflict with the star and Paramount studios. Valentino didn't like this film but I found it rather enticing and one can only hope that somewhere there is another print in better condition.