Valentino Manning Up

Rudy Sets Sail in Moran Of The Lady Letty (1922)

Rudolph Valentino learning two-fist ways as a pampered youth shanghaied aboard Walter Long's scurvy ketch. This was Rudy's first after The Sheik. Uncertainty as to spelling of his name pervaded ads of the time, though the heaven knows he'd changed it enough times himself. Paramount's notion was to man up RV and get him well off perfumed desert sands. To that they'd succeed, as Rudy transitions well from idler to hard-bitten. Here was a player who deserved better than programmers Paramount gave him. They were exploitative as well, failing to back their boy when he got in a marital jam (as in wed to two at once). Moran's lead lady was Dorothy Dalton; in fact, the title refers to her, not Valentino. Maybe Para cast DD so femmes could reasonably say, If she can have him, then surely I could ... that's how un-glam Dalton looked, although she gets more appealing as the pic wears on. Rudy was too exotic to ever play All-American. Had he lived, I can see him as precode dweller after Ricardo Cortez fashion (or better put, Cortez following after Valentino example), and later, doing character work along lines of Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno, both being effective in that capacity for many years. Moran Of The Lady Letty has been nicely transferred by Flicker Alley as part of their Rudolph Valentino DVD Collection.