Beyond the Rocks

Dir. Sam Wood. 1922, 80 mins. 35mm. With Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Edythe Chapman. Cast as would-be lovers in a gloriously doomed romantic affair, Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino star together for the only time, in this recently rediscovered gem. Swanson plays a habitual clotheshorse, showcasing glamorous gowns, while Valentino cuts a picture of elegance in a wardrobe designed by his then-lover Natacha Rambova. Among the film’s sartorial highlights are its resplendent eighteenth-century sequences in the style of Wood’s mentor Cecil B. DeMille. Secret desires of the heart play out among a lavish atmosphere of excess and erotic permissiveness, conjuring the gallants and marquises of the past in their ‘stately games of love’.