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Customer Reviews of The Eagle

Great Movie, So-So DVD
This is my favorite Valentino movie. It allows him to use his natural talent as a comedian while still fulfilling what his audience expected of his as "the great lover".
Valentino plays Vladimir, a young Cossack officer who spurns the advances of Catherine the Great. (An amusing reversal especially when viewed along with the Sheik movies) Unfortunately, Vladimir's father wirtes to him begging him to get the Czarina's help. He has been swindled by a friend and is dying. Vladimir can do nothing but go home and watch his father die a broken man. He vows vengeance against Karilla, who betrayed his father, and becomes a sort of Russian Zorro called the Black Eagle.
Another unfortunate twist, Karilla has a daughter and since she is played by the lovely Vilma Banky you can guess what happens. Vladimir is smitten and is now stuck between loyalty to his father and band of followers and his love for her. Banky guesses who Vladimir really is right away (in spite of his disguises) and tries to get him to spare her father. Of course, Vladimir will have none of it and it looks like trouble until Vladimir is caught by the soldiers of the revengeful Catherine.
What happens next? Watch and see!

Valentino handles his swashbuckler duties with an airy charm. (A shame he never played the Scarlet Pimpernel!) His scenes with Louise Dresser's Catherine are particularly good. She is trying to charm him, he is trying to find a polite way out. Dresser thoroughly deserved her Oscar nod and it's too bad that Valentino was not given one as well. The rest of the supporting cast is also very good, Vilma Banky plays her usual role, the nice girl with a temper, and has an obvious chemistry with Valentino.

That said, this DVD, while ok, is not the greatest. The print quality is so-so and points. Bit of dust and lint got in the way of the transfer and can be distracting. The score is pipe organ. There are no extras besides scene selection. All in all, not an improvement on the VHS releases but you may as well buy it if you have an all DVD collection.

Check out this movie to watch the Valentino legend yourself but don't expect too much from the DVD.

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One of Rudy's Best Now On DVD.
THE EAGLE was something of a comeback picture for Valentino. His popularity sagged after the disastrous MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE in which he played a foppish aristocat who was a little too foppish for 1920's audiences. This story of a Russian Robin Hood taken from Pushkin was just what he needed to regain his lost fan base. It also gave him the opportunity to let his natural comic flair come forth and really be himself much like Douglas Fairbanks or later Errol Flynn. Rudy took no chances with this film. He got a top flight director in Clarence Brown who would later become Garbo's favorite. He got William Cameron Menzies to design the sets and a wonderful performance from Louise Dresser as Czarina Catherine the Great. Their scene together at the beginning is a delight to watch even on repeated viewings. Vilma Banky makes a great heroine and would work with Valentino again. This movie rather than THE SHIEK or BLOOD AND SAND is the ideal introduction to Valentino. This DVD version is virtually the same as the old VHS version although the picture is marginally better and so 4 stars instead of 5. While it's great to have the Killiam Collection coming out on DVD, I just wish that some new restoration work had been done on this film. The other two (BELOVED ROGUE & TUMBLEWEEDS) are in better shape although they could use some work as well. Still these are superior to the old VHS copies and are likely to be the best we'll have for awhile. Lee Erwin's old organ score is a good one but it could have been sonically enhanced.

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Could We Have The Old Version, Please?
If you don't have a copy of Valentino's most engaging silent, "The Eagle", in your collection, you should certainly have this, but you should know that it is far - very far - from the best version that has been available. This edition is sourced from the Killiam Collection, and is evidently from a 16mm reduction print that saw long use and little care. Contrast and detail are poor, to say the least. There is a sad, tired musical accompaniment that is best turned off, frankly.

What's awful about all this is that this same company, Image Entertainment, once offered a far superior version. Its 1989 laserdisc edition was based on a clean 35mm print from the Rohauer Collection that had excellent contrast and detail. The score was a magnificently well-suited one by Carl Davis; it went so well with the film that once you've had a viewing with Davis's compositions, seeing "The Eagle" with any other score is unthinkable.

"The Eagle" is indispensable to a collection of silents, but this edition is not a patch on what Image itself has offered in the past. It is to be hoped that the company can clear whatever obstacles are keeping it from offering a DVD release of what was one of the best silent-film offerings on laserdisc.

Two stars out of five- I'm docking two for the ghastly print, two for the wretched score that takes the place of Davis's work, and adding one back to be charitable, because this movie is one of Valentino's best, and you should have it, even in a version as shabby as this.