WSM is excited to feature The Eagle (1925) on the big screen. Sparkling with action and romance, The Eagle proved to be the comeback movie for its inimitable star Rudolph Valentino. Directed by Clarence Brown, the movie was adapted from the 1841 novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin.  Valentino's co-stars are Vilma Banky and Louise Dresser.  An uncredited Gary Cooper plays a masked Cossack in the film.  The plot centers on a lieutenant (Valentino) in the Russian army who catches the eye of the Czarina Catherine II. When he rebuffs her advances and flees, she puts out a warrant for his arrest -- dead or alive. Plot twists cause the lieutenant to don a mask and become an outlaw -- the Black Eagle.  The Black Eagle character does not exist in Pushkin's novel, but it was introduced into the film, apparently inspired by Douglas Fairbanks' performance as Zorro in The Mask of Zorro which WSM showed last year at Silent Movie Under the Stars. Clips from The Eagle appear in the music video for Queen and David Bowie's song Under Pressure.

Rudolph Valentino was born Rodolfo Guglielmi on May 6, 1895. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1913 and worked as a gardener dishwasher in NYC before being hired by the popular club Maxim's as a dancer. Determined to make it in the movie industry, he left NYC for Los Angeles and catapulted to stardom as the "Great Lover" of the 1920s in movies such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Sheik (1921). Sadly, shortly after the premiere of The Son of the Sheik in 1926,  the 31-year-old Valentino died suddenly from peritonitis after he suffered a ruptured ulcer. His death caused worldwide hysteria, several suicides, and riots at his lying in state, which attracted a crowd that stretched for 11 blocks. Reportedly, more than 80,000 fans attended his funeral.

Thank you to the event's Presenting Sponsor M&T Bank for their continuing support.

Saturday, August 23 at 8pm/sundown
Upper Robert Treman State Park
105 Enfield Falls Rd. Ithaca, NY
This event is FREE and open to all.