Of course this is Valentino at his most handsome, as the rugged Arabian Sheik, the son of the character he played in the 1921 film. Mind you he also plays the father this time round. Also returning from the original film was Agnes Ayres, but this time she played Valentino`s mother, not the girl he loved - who, this time, was played by Vilma Banky.
Reportedly Valentino liked her very much, and they had also co-starred in The Eagle, released the year prior. In 1927 she married fellow film star Rod LaRocque. And she went on to make several films with Ronald Colman.
The book that suggested our film was again written by E. M. Hull, and it was published in 1925, however there is a slight change as the book is called "The Sons of the Sheik", and the film only has one son. Perhaps it would have been too confusing to have two sons, especially if both sons and the father were to be played by Valentino, as an early report suggests!
He had completed the film but never got to see it released - that happened a fortnight after he died.
This set first appears in our British Trade Index part 3, as
Brand issue, about 1927. Post Cards. 136 x 90. Brown gravures. Back inscribed “One of these beautiful reproductions of Rudolph Valentino`s Love Scenes is contained in every Butywave Shampoo Packet. 32 Scenes in all…”
At the time this book was issued (1986) they were able to write “About ten seen”. The set does have a bit of an identification problem for some of the cards on "The Son of the Sheik" do look very similar to each other, but fear not, I have a list! Just have to find it on the disc, and then will add it in.
One sad thing is that this set does not appear in the modern version of the British Trade Index, not sure why, but it may have something to do with the fact that it is a postcard set.