The Hooded One
Cobra from 1925 is Rudolph Valentino's penultimate film. A melodramatic story of a friendship between two men and the women who keep distracting Count Rodrigo Torriani (Valentino), an Italian nobleman without money who by chance gets to know an American antiques dealer, Jack Dorning (Casson Ferguson). Dorning, perceiving Rodrigo's knowledge of Italian antiques (which he seems to have been selling off from his ancestral home to make ends meet), invites him to join his prestigious firm in New York. Rodrigo's chronic woman trouble inspires him to want to make a new start. He apparently doesn't realize that the New York metropolis is filled with women.
Right away he's trying to score with Dorning's secretary, Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), a young woman attracted to Dorning. After a long while she turns her sights on Rodrigo; they enjoy a lot of flirtation together, but in the background is the niece of one of Dorning's customers, Elise Van Zile (Nita Naldi). Elise and Rodrigo hang out quite a bit, dance, eat together, but she's just one of many women he's involved with--once she finds that out, she turns her attention to Rodrigo's best friend, Jack Dorning, who proceeds to fall hard for her. Due to Nita Naldi's smoldering sexiness, this is not hard to understand.
Jack and Elise marry, breaking Mary Drake's heart, temporarily, until she finally focuses on Rodrigo. Things, briefly, go well between Mary and Rodrigo, until Elise returns, mucking things up and seducing Rodrigo, almost. He nearly succumbs in a hotel room she regularly uses for her many assignations. Loyalty to his friend, Jack, persuades him to walk away, though. Elise calls someone named Jim, tells him to meet her "at the usual place," Room 1002.
The next day, Rodrigo reads a newspaper account about that hotel, how its upper floors burned, with two fatal casualties, a man and a woman. Evidently, the sex between Elise and Jim was hot.
Jack Dorning doesn't know where his wife is. Rodrigo has a hell of a time getting up the nerve to tell him. Eventually, after Jack nearly has a nervous breakdown, the truth comes out, Jack isn't miffed because he found letters written to Elise by her many lovers, including one from Rodrigo, rejecting her advances. Rodrigo takes a needed vacation, comes back to find that Mary is still sweet on him, but Jack wants to be with Mary. Rodrigo acts like the cad Mary long suspected him to be, even though he really does love Mary. Presumably, Jack and Mary will get together, while Rodrigo takes a ship somewhere, crushing a flower and dropping the petals into the sea.
I've related most of the storyline of this movie, sorry. The musical chairs motif of the lovers going from one situation to the next reflects, perhaps, a mid-1920s view of post-World War One American society. Men and women in this film are in the know about sex. Even relatively innocent Mary Drake isn't taken in by Rodrigo's aggressive advances. The two people ideal for each other are Rodrigo and Elise. We see them kiss twice in the fateful hotel room, two great-looking people making out. Nita Naldi's backless black dress makes her look like she's halfway to the bed. Her allure and amazing clothes put her in the exotic category (although she was from New York, her original name Mary Dooley). She was a perfect complement to Valentino's European ambiance. They worked together several times. The scene of Rodrigo managing to walk away from her in this film is a duplicate of a scene in Blood and Sand, from 1922, with Nita Naldi nearly seducing Valentino.
The film's title derives from a piece of kitschy sculpture in Jack Dorning's apartment. A rearing cobra holds a tiger at bay. Rodrigo tells Jack that his fascination for women is like that of the cobra's victim held in a mesmerized state by the snake's gaze. This reverses the obvious phallic symbol of the snake, making it feminine (and, I guess, aggressive, as women supposedly hold Rodrigo under their spell). The tiger as a cat, one would assume, is a pussy facing the snake, but Rodrigo identifies with the tiger, halted in its approach by the hooded cobra. A special effect follows, showing Rodrigo's imagining of the snake sculpture becoming a woman dressed in gauzy flesh-toned material, the cobra's hood forming a peak above her head and then flaring out around her body like a cape. She dances sexily, undulating, becoming a surrealistic vulva, the woman's head representing a clitoris. I'm not exaggerating or making this up.
This strange intrusion of sexual imagery into a film about love, friendship, and betrayal, demonstrates how creative and occasionally bizarre Hollywood silent cinema sometimes was. It's not a bad film, although it lacks the verve and swagger of The Sheik, plus the direction (by Joseph Henabery) is unremarkable, in contrast to the beauty and artfulness of director George Melford's work in The Sheik. Still, Valentino is always worth watching, and Nita Naldi was not just gorgeous but also a fine actress.
Vic Neptune
Cobra from 1925 is Rudolph Valentino's penultimate film. A melodramatic story of a friendship between two men and the women who keep distracting Count Rodrigo Torriani (Valentino), an Italian nobleman without money who by chance gets to know an American antiques dealer, Jack Dorning (Casson Ferguson). Dorning, perceiving Rodrigo's knowledge of Italian antiques (which he seems to have been selling off from his ancestral home to make ends meet), invites him to join his prestigious firm in New York. Rodrigo's chronic woman trouble inspires him to want to make a new start. He apparently doesn't realize that the New York metropolis is filled with women.
Right away he's trying to score with Dorning's secretary, Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), a young woman attracted to Dorning. After a long while she turns her sights on Rodrigo; they enjoy a lot of flirtation together, but in the background is the niece of one of Dorning's customers, Elise Van Zile (Nita Naldi). Elise and Rodrigo hang out quite a bit, dance, eat together, but she's just one of many women he's involved with--once she finds that out, she turns her attention to Rodrigo's best friend, Jack Dorning, who proceeds to fall hard for her. Due to Nita Naldi's smoldering sexiness, this is not hard to understand.
Jack and Elise marry, breaking Mary Drake's heart, temporarily, until she finally focuses on Rodrigo. Things, briefly, go well between Mary and Rodrigo, until Elise returns, mucking things up and seducing Rodrigo, almost. He nearly succumbs in a hotel room she regularly uses for her many assignations. Loyalty to his friend, Jack, persuades him to walk away, though. Elise calls someone named Jim, tells him to meet her "at the usual place," Room 1002.
The next day, Rodrigo reads a newspaper account about that hotel, how its upper floors burned, with two fatal casualties, a man and a woman. Evidently, the sex between Elise and Jim was hot.
Jack Dorning doesn't know where his wife is. Rodrigo has a hell of a time getting up the nerve to tell him. Eventually, after Jack nearly has a nervous breakdown, the truth comes out, Jack isn't miffed because he found letters written to Elise by her many lovers, including one from Rodrigo, rejecting her advances. Rodrigo takes a needed vacation, comes back to find that Mary is still sweet on him, but Jack wants to be with Mary. Rodrigo acts like the cad Mary long suspected him to be, even though he really does love Mary. Presumably, Jack and Mary will get together, while Rodrigo takes a ship somewhere, crushing a flower and dropping the petals into the sea.
I've related most of the storyline of this movie, sorry. The musical chairs motif of the lovers going from one situation to the next reflects, perhaps, a mid-1920s view of post-World War One American society. Men and women in this film are in the know about sex. Even relatively innocent Mary Drake isn't taken in by Rodrigo's aggressive advances. The two people ideal for each other are Rodrigo and Elise. We see them kiss twice in the fateful hotel room, two great-looking people making out. Nita Naldi's backless black dress makes her look like she's halfway to the bed. Her allure and amazing clothes put her in the exotic category (although she was from New York, her original name Mary Dooley). She was a perfect complement to Valentino's European ambiance. They worked together several times. The scene of Rodrigo managing to walk away from her in this film is a duplicate of a scene in Blood and Sand, from 1922, with Nita Naldi nearly seducing Valentino.
The film's title derives from a piece of kitschy sculpture in Jack Dorning's apartment. A rearing cobra holds a tiger at bay. Rodrigo tells Jack that his fascination for women is like that of the cobra's victim held in a mesmerized state by the snake's gaze. This reverses the obvious phallic symbol of the snake, making it feminine (and, I guess, aggressive, as women supposedly hold Rodrigo under their spell). The tiger as a cat, one would assume, is a pussy facing the snake, but Rodrigo identifies with the tiger, halted in its approach by the hooded cobra. A special effect follows, showing Rodrigo's imagining of the snake sculpture becoming a woman dressed in gauzy flesh-toned material, the cobra's hood forming a peak above her head and then flaring out around her body like a cape. She dances sexily, undulating, becoming a surrealistic vulva, the woman's head representing a clitoris. I'm not exaggerating or making this up.
This strange intrusion of sexual imagery into a film about love, friendship, and betrayal, demonstrates how creative and occasionally bizarre Hollywood silent cinema sometimes was. It's not a bad film, although it lacks the verve and swagger of The Sheik, plus the direction (by Joseph Henabery) is unremarkable, in contrast to the beauty and artfulness of director George Melford's work in The Sheik. Still, Valentino is always worth watching, and Nita Naldi was not just gorgeous but also a fine actress.
Vic Neptune
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