June 22, 2008
Silent Sunday: The Delicious Little Devil (1919)
This rather unfunny comedy is available on DVD because of a certain fifth-billed actor who hadn't yet settled on a moniker yet; his birth name was too ungainly (Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla), so here he's billed as Rudolpho De Valintine, but later he'd settle on Rudolph Valentino.
Unfortunately, absent the exotic locales and the heavy makeup, he lacks that androgynous sex appeal that made him so famous, and since the main attraction here is the rather unsexy and mostly unfunny Mae Murray, there's really not much reason to watch this aside from curiosity about what Valentino was like before he was Valentino.
Previous Silent Sundays:
June 15: I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918)
June 8: The Kiss of Mary Pickford (1927)
June 1: Hot Water (1924)
May 25: La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)
May 18: After Death (1915)
I caught this film a couple of years ago on TCM during some Valentino tribute and I completely agree that it's a dud. It's such a shame that such lousy silent films like "The Delicious Little Devil" are still around when so many supposed masterpieces are completely lost and will probably never be unearthed.
Posted by: Dame James Henry at June 23, 2008 12:28 PM