Consider that this film was done in 1951. It had virtually no input from anyone who was on the secene or knew Valentino. Most of those more intimately involved or with personal knowledge of Valentino were from an era when one didn't tear down the idols and celebrities of the time, and they'd started dying off. And yes, they'd no doubt made it clear legal action would begin if they were named or alluded to in the movie. There's no Nazimova, Rambova, Jean Acker, Rex Ingram, Pola Negri, Velma Banky, June Mathis, Ramon Navarro, It was remade with Rudolph Nureyev et al in the 1977, but you're not really going to learn much about him from that. After all of these year, too, it's impossible to separate the studio hype and hyperbole from truth.
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moonbeam195
9 years ago
well i heard alot of whom u named was gonna sue the studios. well i guess they are all gone now.
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fcalderp
9 years ago
The Nureyev film by Ken Russell, follows the real story much more closely. But Nureyev did not look like Valentino, he looked more like the master of ceremony in "Cabaret". Anthony Dexter resembled Valentino a lot! In 1960 Dexter went to Nicaragua to dance in the Teatro Gonzalez (I was a little boy and lived across the street) with Lillian Molieri, a Nicaraguan ballet dancer who made some 20 pictures in Hollywood. She is not in the credits of "Valentino", but after watching the movie 3 times, I spotted her in the sequence reconstructing a scene from "The Sainted Devil": she's whipping Valentino. Suddenly, he takes her whip and kisses her. By the way, the tango dance by Dexter and Patricia Medina is first rate. Actually, more spectacular than the original Valentino tango-sequence. The Russell film does not contain any memorable dance sequence (that would have been to obvious for Russell).
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[email protected] (1640)
5 months ago
That film is absolutely horrible, I rewatched it just last night. This film despite being just as fictitious has more charm and better dance sequences. Also they really tried to make Dexter as Rudy was on screen, the Russell film does not have any of Valentino's raw animal magnetism nor charisma.
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