User reviews

ANTHONY DEXTER, thanks to make-up artists and costuming, makes a believable stand-in as Rudolf Valentino, the silent screen's biggest male heartthrob, but creative license had to be taken with the screenplay because many of the participants in Valentino's life threatened to sue. The result is a rather lifeless bio smacking of Hollywood artifice.

This standard treatment of the Valentino story is interesting mainly because it gives a pretty accurate look at a period during the 1920s when silent films were the rage. It also provides some nice eye candy in the form of ELEANOR PARKER and PATRICIA MEDINA, both easy on the eyes and capable enough actresses to bring some life to a rather dull screenplay.

All of it has been photographed in luscious Technicolor under Lewis Allen's direction. He gets the most out of the dance sequences and it's here that Dexter's Valentino really comes to life. Otherwise, it's a pretty one-note performance throughout. Director Allen lets DONA DRAKE do her usual job of strenuously over-acting the role of a hot blooded Spanish dancer who is too aware of Valentino's roving eye. There are times when Dexter's Valentino resembles George Raft rather than the silent superstar.

RICHARD CARLSON and OTTO KRUGER do nicely as director and producer, and other parts are well played. I have no idea how much of the script is strictly fiction but it seems to capture the essence of the Valentino story, showing his early reputation as a gigolo and his eventual climb to stardom through a series of well mounted adventure romances.

Eleanor Parker gives the story class with her performance as Joan Carlisle, a co-star Valentino is continually getting a brush-off from, and eventually marrying Richard Carlson's character. The on again/off again romantic relationship between Parker and Dexter is at the heart of the story. How much of it is strictly fiction, I don't know.

His illness and subsequent death comprise the last scenes, but the dramatics involving disclosure of his affair with Carlisle seems like a creation of the scriptwriter. The mysterious lady in black who brings a rose to his gravesite every year is mentioned and gives a touch of mystery to those final scenes.

Nice attempt at a bio, but it's an uneven, surface profile of the star and never gets one deeply involved in his story.

First, let me say that I had a very hard time finding a copy of this movie. I found the cast very good and Anthony Dexter as Valentino gives a sensitive and respectful performance portraying the much loved silent screen star. Eleanor Parker is lovely as Valentino's true love, and Patricia Medina is beautiful in a supporting role. Richard Carlson is also very effective in his role as the director in love with the star, (Eleanor Parker). For me, the highlight of the movie is the dancing, which is beautifully interpreted. Although loosely based on the life of Rudolph Valentino, I still found the movie entertaining and would recommend it to any Valentino fan or anyone who loves a good romantic movie.

I have only seen this film on the late show, and that many years ago, when there was still a late show! In common with some of the other posters, I should so much like to see "Valentino" again, and wonder why it has not been put on tape. I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Having been a fervent fan of Valentino since I was 13 years old, I have no illusions about this film. It is largely fictitious, but that really doesn't matter. It has the feeling of its time, and Anthony Dexter looks so much like Valentino it is almost scary. It is amazing how much of this film I remember, even though it has been so long since I last saw it. The tango sequence is unforgettable, and worth watching the whole film for that alone. My next favorite scene is that between RV and "Lila." She is just finishing her lunch, and she offers Rudi her dessert. "You take the cake," she says. "I'm pounds overweight!" (She exaggerates.) Amused, he gives her a long, lingering gaze and says, "Where?" Somewhat uncomfortable, she replies, "Oh--places!" He says, "It doesn't show!" She replies, thoroughly under the influence of Valentino's famous "bedroom gaze," "Keep looking at me like that and it'll MELT off!" A must-see for Valentino fans, fictitious or not!

I loved Anthony Dexter's portrayal of Valentino, he especially looked like him and that's why he was chosen over 400 other auditioners for the part. But, the story wasn't told even close to what his real life was about. Also, in real life, he spoke with a Franco/Italian accent as he was fluent in both French and Italian languages, this was not portrayed in the film. He died in a delirium speaking French, which also was not dramatized in the film. I guess they thought since no one had ever heard Valentino speak in a film since he was never in a "talkie", they felt they could get away with it. Also, the costumes for the ladies, they should have taken a page out of "Singing In the Rain" although that didn't come out until 1952. They didn't use any 1920's fashions! Maybe a couple of hats. What a waste! Eleanor Parker's wardrobe was decidedly 40's/50's which for me ruined the aura of the film. Don't forget Valentino was the King of the 1920's film age which was decadent to say the least. Other than that, the film was entertaining.

In my reappraisal process of my first movies like Valentino watched in my childhood whom never had another change to see it again afterwards, over the alleged bio of first Latin lover in cinema that after his sudden death becomes a legend, reading his official biography that didn't match with movie, thus totally inaccurate about main facts as the picture suggested.

Valentino (Anthony Dexter) travels heading to America from Naples as dancer of a troupe that intents to make a American tour, his explosive temper on the ship he breaks up his early agreement with his opposite girl dancer, on the long travel he meets the mysterious woman Joan Carlisle (Eleanor Parker) arriving at New York already unemployed, sleeping at Central Park as homeless, soon Valentino finds a work as dishwater and after as gigolo dancer, randomly he stumbles with Joan again escorted with a famous Hollywood director Bill King (Richard Carlson) who envisages him as a perfect look for a small role at his movie, aftermaths Valentine try hard, nonetheless didn't have great occasions to display his natural skills as true star, always knocking at wrong doors.

Then out the blue the producer Mark Towers are casting to his upcoming picture The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse looking for Julio's seamless character, turns out that Bill King already tried offered to Mark Towers Valentino, however the Boss tuns down due would rather a famous name to the role, in stroke of genius Valentino enters in his birthday party lurking as troupe players and astounds Mark with dazzling dancing performance, gaining the role by this bold maneuver and becomes an instant star after the picture released, meanwhile meets occasionally with Joan in the shadows and followed by a hard disagreements each other, therefore Joan announces her forthcoming marriage with Bill.

Then came up an ungrateful fate where both are casting to high stakes on The Sheik as romantic pair at desert adventure, the fatal kiss on the set rises rumors about a feasible affair between the leading roles behind the scenes, worst Valentino is becoming ill for unknown disease needs further exams to find out what's gonna do, until there his doctor requires him an upmost resting, whom he didn't due the press is about to catch Valentino and Joan in dire straits from their hidden affair, his death now is displayed as a sort of overdone self-sacrifice outcome, purely fictitious, in other hand Anthony Dexter has a stunning resemblance with Valentino given a upper acting over this early Latin lover.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1977 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.5.

At the dawn of the "Roaring Twenties", Anthony Dexter (as Rudolph "Rudy" Valentino) sails to American from Italy. Also making the trip is Eleanor Parker (as Joan Leslie), who is quite taken with the Italian dancer. Sparks fly, and they fall in love -- but, each has a secret: Mr. Dexter works for main squeeze Dona Drake (as Maria Torres); and, Ms. Parker, a silent film actress, is traveling incognito. When she discovers the Dexter-Parker romance, Ms. Torres fires Dexter; penniless, he gets a series of odd jobs in New York. Film director Richard Carlson (as William "Bill" King) discovers Dexter doing a "Valentino"-type tango in a dance club, naturally. Parker has re-entered the picture, but as director Carlson's main squeeze; still, sparks fly. Dexter becomes silent film idol "Rudolph Valentino".

Dexter makes an impression; but, in hindsight, this film might have limited his potential. He resembles Valentino in some camera angles. Parker is pretty; she had a very distinguished career as a 1950s actress. Carlson moved on to a distinguished TV career. This "Valentino" story is mainly the "love triangle" formed by Dexter, Parker, and Carlson. The "love triangles" formed in Valentino's real life would have made a much more interesting movie!

**** Valentino (1951) Lewis Allen ~ Anthony Dexter, Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson

During the 1930s-50s (and even so to a lesser extent to this day), Hollywood made a lot of biopics which played VERY fast and loose with the facts. Sometimes a person's life was changed to make it sound more dramatic or tragic (such as "The Buster Keaton Story"). Sometimes a person's life was scrubbed clean to hide important aspects of their lives (such as Cole Porter's homosexuality in "Night and Day"). And, sometimes a person's life story is changed in order to avoid lawsuits or a need to pay people for the use of their names...such as here, with "Valentino". The bottom line is that in nearly ALL the biopics of the era, the truth is apparently unimportant. So, as you watch the movie, understand it only bears a passing resemblance to the celebrated actor's life!

The actor they chose to play Valentino is a somewhat odd choice. The relatively unknown actor Anthony Dexter was chosen. He looks a bit like Valentino but with a pudgier face and not a single trace of Valentino's Italian accent.

The most interesting aspect of Valentino's life, his relationships with women, is pretty much all fiction. His marriages are left unmentioned as well as his famous relationships with famous actresses. And, the strong possibility of his bisexuality is missing, which isn't surprising since it was 1951.

The bottom line is that the film is mostly hooey. You'd be better off reading a good biography about the man or seeing some of his movies.

This motion picture was an unsuccessful film, lost in a quagmire of fiction and caricature. Dexter who portrayed the Great Lover made a great performance including a dance of a fine Argentine tango. The naked truth is the story had everything of a good movie but strange facts happened before the shooting. The real past Madam Valentino, Natacha Rambova threatened legal action against Columbia Pictures if they attempted to portray her in the picture. Valentino's siblings Alberto and Maria did successfully sue for this unauthorized biography. So did Rex Ingram's wife, the actress Alice Terry, for the movie's portrayal of her having had an affair with Rudy both before and after her marriage to her director-husband. Final Conclusion: Columbia has changed the script and lost a masterpiece. In truth the film has been done too early when the principals personages were still alive. Nevertheless the movie released has charm due to Valentino myth and to unforgettable Dexter performance. Applauses from an old Valentino and Dexter fan. Adalberto P. Rodrigues

Since I've never seen a Rudolph Valentino movie, I wasn't the target audience to really appreciate the 1951 biopic. However, it was Eleanor Parker's time as Star of the Week, so I wanted to rent it. Anthony Dexter looked remarkably like the famous Latin Lover, so it was really fun to see him come to life. There were also several impressive ballroom dance scenes so audiences could see another reason why an unknown actor was found and cast in the title role. If you've seen Valentino's movies, you'll love the recreations of his silent movies like The Shiek and The Four Horsemen and the Apocolypse.

Given the constraints of the Hays Code, it was pretty surprising how much the movie got away with. According to this movie, Rudy's background stems from being a gigolo stationed at a nightclub, when he's discovered by a silent movie director, played by Richard Carlson. The term gigolo is used repeatedly, and it's made very clear what it means. After finding out he was merely working during their date, Eleanor insults him by offering him money like he's accustomed to. Anthony retaliates by grabbing her and kissing her. "That was so you'd know what it felt like to be kissed like that by a gigolo, and for free!"

I love Richard Carlson; he's such a cutie! I've never seen him in Technicolor, and he doesn't disappoint. Eleanor certainly has a tough decision on her hands, since Anthony is such a sexy guy who knows how to handle women. I don't know why this movie was a box office flop. Sure, the women have 1950s hairstyles instead of 1920s 'dos, but it's an interesting story about a beloved silent icon with a near lookalike. What's not to like?

... that is so bad it's entertaining.

This is a much higher class production than anything Ed Wood was ever able to do. But it has -- for me -- an effect like that created by "Plan 9 from Outer Space." I have noted that many comments are favorable; so please: This is just my opinion.

To start with, it seems to be almost totally devoid of truth. There was a precedent for biopics that glossed over unfortunate traits such as their subjects' sexuality or nasty temperament. But I can't imagine what the point in making something so bizarrely unrealistic was.

The cast is good on paper. Eleanor Parker is a favorite of mine. Richard Carlson was a good actor at the time. And Lewis Allen had directed some excellent movies.

But little if any attempt has been made to make this look realistic. Ms. Parker sports a hairstyle like Liz Taylor's and Marilyn Monroe's: She doesn't look remotely like a silent movie star.

Patricia Medina does, most of anyone. She's good too.

The gentleman who was chosen to play the title role looks to me more like George Raft than Rudolf Valentino.

Apart from verisimilitude, the writing is truly awful. It is one cliché on top of another. It's predictable. It's like a soap opera.

The fact that a major studio made it, using good talent at all levels, makes for an entertaining disaster. The biographies of Jean Harlow that came out several years later were much trashier. They were also less fun.

Filmed in 1951 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the actor's death, "Valentino" is part fact and part fiction. Photographed in glorious Technicolor, the true charm of the film is the uncanny resemblance of actor Anthony Dexter to the silent screen legend.

Although some characters are fictionalized and some were real with name changes, the film moves along nicely, especially when the title character does some tango dancing under the direction of Lewis Allen. Young people will not enjoy this film, unless they are into older movies.

But for older viewers, watch this film if you can. I don't believe it's on VHS or DVD, but hopefully, it will be one day.

If someone had set out to make the worst movie they could about the great silent screen star Rudolph Valentino, this would have been it. There is nothing true here except that the lead actor, Anthony Dexter, does bear a strong facial and bodily resemblance to the title character and at least this scenario does illustrate for us that he did come from Italy and he did become a star and he did die young. But all of the details within this simple framework are blatantly, ridiculously false, transforming this fascinating figure into a vinyl cutout. He doesn't even speak English with an accent! As other have pointed out, the clothes and hairstyles are totally wrong, especially Eleanor Parker's 50's do. What were these filmmakers thinking? They were probably thinking that they could make a quick buck off public ignorance of the details of the man's life on the 25th anniversary of his untimely death. When this film was released the general public had largely forgotten silent films, even though they were only a quarter of a century in the past. SUNSET BLVD, released the year before VALENTINO, makes the point that Gloria Swanson's character was considered ancient history by the youths of the early fifties. So perhaps the majority of 1951 moviegoers were truly ignorant of the facts and swallowed this drivel.

There have been at least three motion picture treatments of Valentino's life and all of them have been dreadful. At least Ken Russell's 1977 attempt with Rudolf Nureyev and the TV movie included characters who actually existed in Valentino's life.

If you are curious about Valentino, watch the handful of his silent films that have been preserved and you will see a smoldering and magnetic screen presence who understood instinctively how to perform for the camera, leaving most other actors of his era in the dust. One can only shake one's head wondering what heights he would have reached if he had not died so tragically young. This piece of brain-dead trash (which doesn't even succeed as camp) is an insult to his legacy and his memory, reducing a tumultuous creative life to a dishonest and hackneyed "love story."

In retrospect it would have been impossible to do a real life story of Rudolph Valentino only 25 years after his demise. Too many interested parties were still alive at that point, including a couple of former spouses. It would have been well to wait however than to have inflicted this film on the public.

Other than the names of his films, I can't think of too much that was at all true here. Any resemblance between this film and the real story of Valentino is purely coincidental.

The film was to have launched the career of Anthony Dexter, but Mr. Dexter went slowly down into obscurity after this film failed to launch him as a new Hollywood hunk.

The story we get here is how Italian immigrant Valentino rose from tango dancer, to dishwasher, to gigolo, to movie star. Along the way he used his considerable charms on several women such as Eleanor Parker, Patricia Medina, and Dona Drake. Richard Carlson and Otto Kruger play director and producer sponsors of Valentino respectively. Joseph Calleia is always good and may have the best performance in the film as Valentino's friend and confidante.

Valentino's story would have to wait another fifty years in a film that starred Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nuryev. See that one, as opposed to this film.

Okay, it's crap. But entertaining crap. What is hard to understand is why there is no roaring 20s feel. This is a movie, regardless the possibilities for opulence, that should have been made in black and white.

Dexter is really good. He makes the character romantic, sexy, touching, kind, all of those things we have heard about him. Calleia. Was as classy as ever. Parker, always lovely, always good, has a role that doesn't use her talent.

The story is just that, a story, it doesn't feel like a biography.

The best representation of Valentino's life than has been presented to date. It's a shame that there hasn't been more biographys done on this great actor who was also a gentleman and a good friend to all who were fortunate enough to know him personally. At the time this film was produced it was considered an inferior film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. After seeing the film, I continued to be fascinated with Valentino.

I had owned a copy of this one, given by a friend (since it features beloved Maltese character actor Joseph Calleia as a dish-washer who, being a paisan, is eventually appointed as Rudolph Valentino's personal secretary!), but it was messed-up, playing the movie out of order and, when it finally got started, stopping around the half-hour mark!; knowing I would have to watch it as a companion piece to its 1977 namesake movie by the late Ken Russell, I managed to obtain a workable copy in time!

Wartime Hollywood seems to have been stricken with nostalgia for its past entertainment industry (if anything, it made for a sure-fire morale booster), so that we had a rush of biopics (mostly but not all of popular songwriters) and this one about the legendary but short-lived Latin lover continued in this vein. Unsurprisingly, it also upheld the tradition of white-washing its subject so thoroughly that little of the real facts in his life end up on the screen! One beggars the question, "Why bother then?" but, let us not forget that censorship was still in full force at the time and, consequently, the unsavory aspects of these luminaries' lives were largely kept under wraps especially since, like I said, Hollywood was eager to celebrate its history not expose it!

Columbia returned often to this format – making two of the more durable examples, the Chopin biopic A SONG TO REMEMBER (1945; which I will be checking out presently, since its director Charles Vidor would make another about Liszt, and Russell would too!) and THE JOLSON STORY (1946) though they also turned out the occasional dud, notably THE EDDIE CANTOR STORY (1953) and, coincidentally, the film under review. In comparison to the other two Valentino biopics I watched (the other being the 1975 made-for-TV one starring Franco Nero), this one plays the greatest havoc with the star's life and career – mind you, it needs to be excused because Valentino's ex-wife Natacha Rambova was still alive at the time (but not in the 1970s) and, since she had always been accused of being domineering and an altogether negative influence on Valentino, she probably objected to being demonized in the film (after all, Al Jolson's wife Ruby Keeler had done likewise for his biopic but, in its case, even the man himself was still around!) but, then, there is no Rex Ingram either, or Alla Nazimova, or Jesse L. Lasky – hell, even MGM has been renamed "Metropolitan", presumably in order to avoid a lawsuit!

For this reason, scriptwriter George Bruce (who usually adapted or concocted swashbucklers for independent producer Edward Small, also engaged here – but, then, Valentino had done his fair share of actioners, so it was all in good faith!) stuck to the rumor that a black-clad woman was seen putting flowers on Valentino's grave for years afterwards on the anniversary of his death (by the way, this was made a quarter of a century after the star's passing). However, the way things play out in this version, one would think that Valentino had only one producer (played by Otto Kruger), one director (Richard Carlson), one leading lady (Eleanor Parker, who married her taskmaster even if she really loved her co-star) and one substitute for the latter (Patricia Medina, whom he even eloped with, in order to save face, when the consummation of his great romance would have jeopardized everybody's career)!

Again, movies are inexplicably (and irritatingly) switched around so that THE SHEIK, made the same year as the original 1921 version of THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (which had turned him into a star to begin with), comes much later – it is true that Valentino's last film was a sequel to it but, then, so much is made of the famous rape scene (which, apart from the legendary tango in HORSEMEN, is virtually what the Valentino myth is all about) that the two films cannot possibly be confused (at least, though, this version does incorporate the filming of some of his lesser vehicles rather than concentrate solely on the more recognizable titles)! For the record all three film versions of Valentino's life depict these iconic moments – but the way Valentino is shown crashing a party here dressed in gaucho garb so as to secure for himself the starring role certainly takes the cake! Unfortunately, the events in Valentino's life were turned here into exactly the type of melodrama he would have been likely to star in, especially with the overbearing presence of Lloyd Gough as a scoop-seeking reporter!

Incidentally, the film also cheats with respect to how films were shot during the Silent era: it is a well-known fact that, if proficient lip-readers were to be asked to determine what was really being spoken on any given set, they would end up with a litany of foul language…but here we get real dialogue, and terminally banal at that (though it is just as bad to hear Valentino utter the occasional witticism when in the later biopics he would have been more prone to slip agitatedly into Italian)! If anything, Anthony Dexter (albeit wooden) bears the closest resemblance to the real star and, needless to say, his slick-haired gigolo antics are depicted as every other man's envy rather than suggesting effeminacy. Dexter's intended star career (this was his official debut) was run into the ground almost instantly with a clutch of lowbrow costumers (though I own and would love to watch Phil Karlson's THE BRIGAND {1952}, in which Dexter played dual roles) and he also appeared as Christopher Columbus in Irwin Allen's notoriously misguided all-star charade THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957)!

I was just 15 when I first viewed this magnificant film, I found out later it was Anthony Dexter's first. No one could have picked a better leading man, he looked the part. I know movie make up can do a lot ,but this was him as if Rudy were alive. I myself would like to see it once more before I pass on. I have wrote to AMC ,no luck, and it is not on a tape! A very first rate film if you can get to see it you will not be disappointed. A good evening film for all the family. Emery J.Bittmann

Instead of a decent biopic which could have delved into the background and mystique of Rudolph Valentino, we get over 100 minutes of Anthony Dexter pretty much trying to bag Eleanor Parker.

Now Dexter was certainly a good choice for Valentino, because of his facial and physical resemblance. And we all know his subsequent career reached the stratosphere, with classics like "Fire Maidens of Outer Space," "12 To the Moon," and "The Phantom Planet" (these last two films oddly enough featuring silent screen legend Francis X. Bushman).

Along with Parker, support (if you can call it that) is provided by Richard Carlson as a fictitious director, Otto Kruger as a fictitious producer, Patricia Medina as a fictitious actress/dancer, and Joseph Calleia as a fictitious paisano named Luigi Verducci.

If you like dancing, Dexter does the tango with Parker, Medina, and an old bag. If you don't like dancing, you'll probably still like the almost-four-minute tango sequence with Dexter and Medina, as Dexter stages an "audition" at Kruger's home. Highlights include Dexter cracking a whip and flipping his cigarette onto Kruger's floor, prompting Kruger to yell "Who has been putting out their coals on my floor?" No, wait, Eddie Murphy said that in some other film.

We get a little montage of Dexter doing Valentino from films like "The Eagle" and "The Sheik." Incredibly, the death scene from "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" is not even how it is played in the Valentino film. How is it possible to screw this up?

With about 30 minutes to go, Dexter finally gets a pain in his stomach. The audience probably had gas long before that.

"I believe that my success is based on the fact that I have never appeared twice with the same leading lady!" Anthony Dexter is really poor in this largely fictitious biopic of screen legend Rudolph Valentino. Lewis Allen's lacklustre and wordy depiction of the latter stage lives and loves of this most iconic of actors is actually quite boring at times. He woos the fictional "Joan Carlisle" (Eleanor Parker) and most of the film follows their turbulent relationship's ups and downs with only their mutual respect and fondness for director, and her husband, "Bill King" (Richard Carlson), drawing them together without sparks - a scenario only made worse after they made one hugely successful film together. Come to think on it, Carlsen is maybe the only thing in this that comes away with any sense of credibility. It is very stage bound in presentation, and the melodrama isn't really helped by quite an intrusive score from Heinz Roemheld who seriously overdoes the violins at times. A man of his standing, with a reputation for being as ruthless as he was a Lothario, really did deserve better than this slushy mess that ends as it runs - disappointingly. Pity.

I saw this movie when I was 13 years old and have never forgotten it or its theme music, "The Valentino Tango". Anthony Dexter is uncanny in his resemblance to Rudolph Valentino and is mesmerizing in this role. Although most of the movie is fictional, it is a fascinating look at the silent film era. The costumes and Eleanor Parker are beautiful and it is worth seeing just for the magnificent tango scenes. When Dexter dances as Julio with Patricia Medina, any ladies heart will beat a little faster! I have been able to obtain a VHS copy of it recently and I watch it at least once a week. I still love it. There are a lot of people who remember this movie and Anthony Dexter and it's very unfortunate that no one is interested in showing it on TV or preserving it. It really is a part of our movie history because it was the only picture in which Anthony Dexter starred and successfully portrayed a silent film legend. It is thoroughly enjoyable!

I saw this film when I was 17 years old and fell in love with Valentino AKA Anthoney Dexter. Eleanor Parker was beautiful with such sad eyes. The Tango Dances were very well done, and the re-made scenes from the old movies like The Sheik were fun to watch. Patricia Medina was a love and very funny. She was the master of low key subtle humor IE the comment about Valentino's Gaze melting the pounds off. Anthony Dexter had Rudy's gaze down pat. I've seen some of the original Valentino movies. If they can still be preserved; why oh why can't the 1951 film be put on video or DVD? I once had it on Beta, wish I'd kept it. Further,any movie with Otto Kruger has class. DL