The Eagle (1925)

Louise Dresser is super as Catherine the Great who takes a bit of a shine to the handsome "Lieut. Dubrovsky" (Rudolph Valentino); but he doesn't fancy that idea very much and as thy say -"hell hath no fury...''' so before long she has issued a warrant for his arrest and he is on the run. He heads back to his family property only to find that that has been appropriated by the wicked "Kyrilla" (James Marcus) so our hero dons a black mask and in his best "Zorro Hood" style, becomes "The Black Eagle" and sets about righting these wrongs. Of course, there's some love interest - he falls for the beautiful "Mascha" (Vilma Bánky) who just happens to be the daughter of his nemesis - so he soon finds that he has some tough choices to make. Certainly, the plot is an hybrid of a few other stories, but every culture has their own variation on these upstanding, freedom fighters and Valentino cuts a dashing figure as this Russian one. The imagery is cracking, with plenty of action scenes and the romance smoulders along nicely before the, admittedly, pretty predictable ending. It's probably my favourite outing for this star - less posing and flouncing around, more acting and engagement with the plot and the audience - with even a little fun thrown in, too. Great stuff!