Valentino (1951)

Interesting facts

Valentino is a 1951 American biographical film of the actor Rudolph Valentino directed by Lewis Allen and starring Anthony Dexter and Eleanor Parker.

Production

Edward Small announced the project in 1938, with Jack Dunn slated for the title role. However, the project was delayed by script troubles, legal threats, World War II and difficulty casting an actor to play the lead. Small unsuccessfully tried to cast Cornel Wilde and also considered Frederik Vayder, Louis Jourdan, Helmut Dantine and John Derek. Anthony Dexter was selected from more than 2,000 actors who had auditioned.

Florence Ryan wrote a script in 1939, but it was repeatedly rewritten as many as 30 times, including drafts by Edward Chodorov, Stephen Longstreet, Sheridan Gibney, Frederick J. Jackson, Virginia Van Upp and George Oppenheimer. The final script was heavily fictionalized to avoid lawsuits from Valentino's former wives, industry associates and family.

In 1949, producer Jan Grippo announced plans to produce a rival film but eventually reached an agreement with Small, and Grippo became an associate producer on the film. There has also been another proposed project starring Victor Mature and Pola Negri.

Filming began on June 2, 1950 and took place at the Columbia Ranch and the Samuel Goldwyn Studio. George Melford, who had directed Valentino in the 1920s, has a supporting role.

The film includes recreated sequences from Valentino films such as The Sheik (1921), Blood and Sand (1922), A Sainted Devil (1924) and The Eagle (1925). Although the films depicted in Valentino are real, the directors are fictionalized. Melford directed The Sheik and Rex Ingram directed The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

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