The Eagle (1925) review

There's a lot going on with Russian Lieutenant Dubrovsky (Rudolph Valentino), and it all happens in a very short period of time: he rejects the Czarina's advances so she wants him dead,  he transforms into a kind of Robin Hood ("The Black Eagle") to right the wrongs and then sets out to kill a tyrant named Kyrilla (James A. Marcus) but doesn't ... and instead falls in love with Kyrilla's daughter Mascha (Vilma Bánky).  It's less campy than some of the other Valentino films I've seen - there isn't a lot of mugging from him - and it runs on surplus energy, making it an entertaining bauble: it certainly doesn't hurt that some of the source material (they took liberties) is from Alexander Pushkin, one of the great poets.  Mr. Latin Lover really did live a tragic life: he passed away a year after this was released (at the too-young age of 31) and people that knew him said he was very unhappy ... his only consolation prize was screen immortality.