I must confess I haven't gotten heavy into Clara Kimball Young. There's no particular reason...she supposedly made excellent films and was gorgeous. The little I've seen I like, she had that naturalistic style of acting.
Of course poor Miss Young (who's career fizzled in the 20s because of a bad boyfriend/business partner) is mostly remembered strictly for being one of the first to feature Valentino. Actually he had made 16 films before working in "Eyes of Youth" and a few of those he co-starred in (The delicious "All Night" anyone? Valentino pouting in bed! AWESOME!). But "Eyes of Youth" was his break: June Mathis seen the movie (hmm hard to guess why judging by the plot and her love of mysticism) and immediately wanted Valentino for a part in her epic "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". Ya know I've thought about this recently: isn't Four Horsemen actually Birth only made by hippies? Think about it.
Valentino's part is small...hes barely in there 13 minutes or so. The plot of the film involves a woman seeing 3 possible future paths. In this one Valentino 'a cabaret parasite' is hired to frame Clara's character of adultrey by basically holding her hostage in a hotel and shouting to make it sound like she was there willingly.
In this first clip Valentino actually doesn't enter until the very end but it does mark his screen appearance. For Valentino go to 9:26 that'll put you right there.
In the above clip is mostly Valentino, ending with the court room scene. He is FANTASTIC! A lot of people try to pen his acting on someone...usually a woman. Natacha, Nazimova, even June. But its oversimplifying in my opinion. You can read the accounts of his life however you like but there are two great mysteries: why did he enter pictures, and how did he learn to act that well?
I can take a guess towards the first one. His first known picture was an extra in Jack Pickford's "My Official Wife" in 1914 which was filmed in New York. He likely did that one for the money as he was new to NY and still trying to get his financial footing since he hated being told what to do and doing mundane work. Why he kept with pictures is another mystery as he seemed to not really produce it till he was in California, which was likely to flee the Blanca thing.
But HOW he became such a good actor is a mystery. Nothing of his survives before 1918 (Married Virgin and All Night) which leaves those 4 years in question. But when he does appear hes fantastic. Natural styled acting, comedic timing, and well...he did indeed look good.
"Eyes of Youth" wasn't made too much later and though playing the heavy his acting is again amazing. Shades of his 'Sheik' come through when taking her coat and holding his hand over her mouth. Switching it up he looks completely natural in the court scene, all sober and guilty of something. Just amazing. I think its easy to see what June say back then.
1 year ago
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After Valentino's death the studio tried to replace him with Ricardo Cortez, and I find it interesting that his career seems to mirror Valentino's. Cortez started out as a romantic leading man (I have a still of him in a Betty Bronson film and he looks quite charming) and in pictures like The Swan he looks very much like Rudy, with the passion turned off. In the 1930's he started playing slick con men, and the occasional crook-with-heart-of-gold and turned out to be quite good at it. If Rudy had lived into the 30's I think he might have had a go at similar parts- I wonder if his Latin Lover image would have aged well? Do you think audiences would have accepted him as Italian? Victor Varconi had a career hitch when his Hungarian accent turned up- but studios passed it off as Spanish!
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