The Rake's Progress!
Well, okay, actually it is my progress and, my, is it progressing!
Yesterday, though rainy and cold, was still a great day. It was all about Rudolph Valentino, whom I absolutely adore. I worked a little on chapter 2 of the Valentino book, Twilight of the Immortal, my long-awaited paen to both Valentino and gays/lesbians/bisexuals of the Silent Film era.
I re-watched Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), which is a very interesting movie. Not only is Rudy incredibly good-looking in the film (I realize that's subjective, but it's one of the few non-costume, non-period films he made as a leading man so you get to see him spend some serious film time looking sort of modern & normal), it's also got some serious lesbian overtones. And a constant threat of rape and white slavery, to boot. (One girl, who was already sold into white slavery, gets a chance to get some money by selling the dress she's wearing to a Chinaman, and then rather than escaping with the money, she uses it to buy opium and stay sexually enslaved to her brutal captors...) By the end of the film, our leading man has converted --or shall we say "won the heart of"? -- a real tomboy who asserts throughout the film that she "wasn't made for boys," "can't love boys," and that she "should have been born a boy." Rudy "wins" her by first being very understanding about her "not being able to love boys," by assuring her that they can just be good mates instead. Then he rescues her from a rape attempt and so she falls in love with him and allows him to kiss her, etc.
It's an interesting role since Valentino became an instant legend by playing The Sheik in 1921, where he is essentially a rapist whose victim falls hopelessly in love with him after her night of degrading torment in his enormous tent in the desert. Women all over the country went wild for him after that and, I guess, wanted to be raped by him (in an enormous tent in the desert).
Moran is additionally fascinating when you take into account that Valentino married not one, but two dykes in his short life, one of whom he was very much in love with. Or entranced by. Or enchanted with. Who knows now what really happened back then but that second wife sure was a beautiful bitch on wheels who had him seriously under her thumb... (and just fyi, she considered The Sheik to be a piece of cheap, disgusting pornography that degraded women and that was utterly beneath him, but oh well, on he went to legendary superstardom regardless).
Hey! I digress!
After Moran of the Lady Letty, I started to re-watch Beyond the Rocks (1922), starring Valentino and the wonderful Gloria Swanson wearing more make-up than you can possibly imagine, but then I fell asleep.
Several years ago, when I first began researching the Valentino book, I was visiting my best friend/cosmic twin, Peitor Angell, in Los Angeles and got to spend some time in Valentino's old house and wander around what was left of Valentino's estate (it had a lot more land back when he owned it in the 1920s). I was sitting alone in the living room when Peitor came in with a photo to show me. It was of Gloria Swanson sitting in the same living room back in, like 1950. She'd rented the house while she was filming Sunset Boulevard.
Needless to say, I wish I could have stayed there forever but life goes on...
Meanwhile, life is going on today so I'd better get crackin' around here, gang. And hey! Thanks for visiting! Have a super sunny Monday, wherever you are. See ya!
Yesterday, though rainy and cold, was still a great day. It was all about Rudolph Valentino, whom I absolutely adore. I worked a little on chapter 2 of the Valentino book, Twilight of the Immortal, my long-awaited paen to both Valentino and gays/lesbians/bisexuals of the Silent Film era.
I re-watched Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), which is a very interesting movie. Not only is Rudy incredibly good-looking in the film (I realize that's subjective, but it's one of the few non-costume, non-period films he made as a leading man so you get to see him spend some serious film time looking sort of modern & normal), it's also got some serious lesbian overtones. And a constant threat of rape and white slavery, to boot. (One girl, who was already sold into white slavery, gets a chance to get some money by selling the dress she's wearing to a Chinaman, and then rather than escaping with the money, she uses it to buy opium and stay sexually enslaved to her brutal captors...) By the end of the film, our leading man has converted --or shall we say "won the heart of"? -- a real tomboy who asserts throughout the film that she "wasn't made for boys," "can't love boys," and that she "should have been born a boy." Rudy "wins" her by first being very understanding about her "not being able to love boys," by assuring her that they can just be good mates instead. Then he rescues her from a rape attempt and so she falls in love with him and allows him to kiss her, etc.
It's an interesting role since Valentino became an instant legend by playing The Sheik in 1921, where he is essentially a rapist whose victim falls hopelessly in love with him after her night of degrading torment in his enormous tent in the desert. Women all over the country went wild for him after that and, I guess, wanted to be raped by him (in an enormous tent in the desert).
Moran is additionally fascinating when you take into account that Valentino married not one, but two dykes in his short life, one of whom he was very much in love with. Or entranced by. Or enchanted with. Who knows now what really happened back then but that second wife sure was a beautiful bitch on wheels who had him seriously under her thumb... (and just fyi, she considered The Sheik to be a piece of cheap, disgusting pornography that degraded women and that was utterly beneath him, but oh well, on he went to legendary superstardom regardless).
Hey! I digress!
After Moran of the Lady Letty, I started to re-watch Beyond the Rocks (1922), starring Valentino and the wonderful Gloria Swanson wearing more make-up than you can possibly imagine, but then I fell asleep.
Several years ago, when I first began researching the Valentino book, I was visiting my best friend/cosmic twin, Peitor Angell, in Los Angeles and got to spend some time in Valentino's old house and wander around what was left of Valentino's estate (it had a lot more land back when he owned it in the 1920s). I was sitting alone in the living room when Peitor came in with a photo to show me. It was of Gloria Swanson sitting in the same living room back in, like 1950. She'd rented the house while she was filming Sunset Boulevard.
Needless to say, I wish I could have stayed there forever but life goes on...
Meanwhile, life is going on today so I'd better get crackin' around here, gang. And hey! Thanks for visiting! Have a super sunny Monday, wherever you are. See ya!
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