Beyond the Rocks (1922)

[jserraglio]

Starring Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson (I am big. It's the pictures that got small). A hundred-year-old ‘lost’ film that was found and restored only in this century.

The narrative is centered on a mercenary marriage and explores the possibility of adulterous love, but the values of a century ago seem quaint, more Victorian than modern — in this tale, Lady Chatterley definitely does NOT take a lover to replace her impotent husband.

The movie is skillfully shot, though—directed by Sam Wood who had recently worked for DeMille and went on to have an illustrious career — A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Pride of the Yankees, For Whom the Bell Tolls and uncredited work directing parts of Gone with the Wind after Victor Fleming fell ill.