The Eagle

Clarence Brown's 1925 film adapts Pushkin's story Dubrovsky and is among Rudolph Valentino's last works. Vladimir, a lieutenant in the Russian army, catches the interest of the Czarina Catherine; when he refuses her and flees, an order goes out for him dead or alive. At the same time he learns that a landowner has seized his father's estate and that his father is dead. He puts on a black mask, takes to banditry as the Black Eagle, and enters his enemy's household disguised as a French tutor to take his revenge, where he falls for the man's daughter. The film balances adventure, comedy and romance, and Brown's camera moves, above all a shot travelling the length of a banquet table, are extremely ambitious for the period. Who it's for: viewers who love silent film and classic adventure romance. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a realistic historical account; the film stays entirely inside romantic invention.