Beyond the Rocks (1922)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

Elinor Glyn (novel)
Jack Cunningham (scenario)

Release Date:

7 May 1922 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young woman marries an older millionaire and then falls in love with a handsome nobleman on her honeymoon.

Plot Keywords:

Millionaire | Alps | Wedding | Paris | London

Cast

Rudolph Valentino	...	Lord Hector Bracondale
Gloria Swanson	...	Theodora Fitzgerald
Edythe Chapman	...	Lady Bracondale
Alec B. Francis	...	Captain Fitzgerald
Robert Bolder	...	Josiah Brown
Gertrude Astor	...	Morella Winmarleigh
June Elvidge	...	Lady Anna Anningford
Mabel Van Buren	...	Mrs. Jane McBride
Helen Dunbar	...	Lady Ada Fitzgerald
Raymond Brathwayt	...	Sir Patrick Fitzgerald
Frank Butler	...	Lord Wensleydon (as F. R. Butler)

Runtime:

80 min (2005 alternate version) | Spain:76 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Spain:T | Netherlands:AL

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

Lost for most of the 20th century, a copy of this film was discovered in April 2003 in Haarlem (The Netherlands) in a private collection. It was restored by the Nederlands Film Museum and the Hagheflim Conservation and was screened in 2005, complete with English dialogue screens in place of the original Dutch, at the Cannes film festival. It made its television debut on May 21, 2006, on Turner Classic Movies as part of a nine-film tribute to Rudolph Valentino.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Husein Ben Ali and his men are being chased away by the soldiers, a crew member steps in front of the camera during the wide shot of the scene.

Quotes:

Theodora Fitzgerald: [to Lord Bracondale, after he has saved her life twice] Fate seems to send you to me when I most need you, Lord Bracondale.

Swanson and Valentino Together Again

Finally saw this via TCM's world premiere; this is the most famous film discovery of the last few years, thought to be lost for 80 years! Very good romance film that sweeps from the English coast to the Alps and the to the African desert. Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino star as star-crossed lovers who wait years to get together.

They meet when she falls from a row boat into the sea and he dives from his yacht to save her. They area attracted but she must marry a self-made millionaire to save her poor family. Later in the Alps on her honeymoon she slips from a snowy ledge and is rescued to guess who? They continue to tun into each other (because he's chasing her) until finally they all come together in the desert.

A little slow but Swanson and Valentino are two of the most charismatic stars of the 20s and they are great together.

Oh I didn't care much for the new musical score. It was boring New Age droning and didn't fit the era. Milestone made the same error with it's restoration of Piccadilly. Here the music drones along, except for a Scott Joplin number, with shards of sound effects.

Based on a novel by Elinor Glyn, the topic of "love outside marriage" was a hot one in the early 1920s. Glyn's plots are always clichés but the real magic here is the beautiful Swanson and beautiful Valentino and how they finally get to be "beyond the rocks." Parts of the film are missing but nothing major. Some parts are distressingly deteriorated but nothing to ruin the overall film. Other parts of the film are so clear you can see grain of the fabrics.

Read up on this film in Swanson's autobiography. She was friends (only) with Valentino and allowed him to be co-starred with her (she got first billing despite the new Dutch restoration that gave Valentino top billing in the closing credits) on condition she get a 3-month vacation in Europe.

Later she corrected someone who said SHE had worked with HIM. HE had worked with HER (because it was her film). Wow semantics, but in the original Swanson got billing alone above the title.

Swanson also talks about the famous tango she did with him--alas lost! I assume it was during the house party where they were readying a "pageant" and she's wearing a famous dress (they talked about it for a year, says Swanson) of white lace and shimmering gold beads. The lobby card I have from this film is a scene of Valentino and Swanson doing the tango. What a pity, but maybe the scene will be found.

At the very end of her terrific book she says people never stopped asking her if she knew where a copy of BEYOND THE ROCKS was... or MADAME SANS-GENE or the final reel from SADIE THOMPSON. You can sense her great feeling of loss.

But it's ironic that in several of her "recovered" films there are still scenes missing: the tango scene in BEYOND THE ROCKS, her Chaplin impersonation in MANHANDLED, and the final piece of SADIE THOMPSON.