Vintage original 8x10 in. US single-weight glossy photograph from the classic silent film drama/romance, THE SHEIK, released in 1921 by Paramount Pictures and directed by George Melford. Rudolph Valentino receives second billing (beneath Agnes Ayres) as a charming Arabian sheik who becomes infatuated with an adventuress, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to him home in the Saharan Desert.

The image features an interior medium shot inside of a desert tent as Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) holds the hand of an injured and unconscious Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan (Rudolph Valentino) as she melodramatically holds a hand to he breast while gazing upwards. Hassan's friend, Dr. Raoul de St. Hubert (Adolphe Menjou), wearily sits and waits patiently during his friend's recovery process. Printed on single-weight stock with a glossy finish for the film's original 1921 US theatrical release, it is in very good+ condition with a small v-shaped chip on the top border; light signs of wear on each corner; a 0.75 in. diagonal tear on the bottom border that just barely touches the background area; and a 1.5 in. wide circular area of paper loss on the verso where the top of Valentino's head and the pillow are which does not affect the image quality on the front. The image quality is razor-sharp with fine detail and beautiful rich contrast.

The Sheik is the film that catapulted Rudolph Valentino to silent film super-stardom and also coined an expression to refer to a man who was popular with the ladies (as numerous silent films referred to male characters as a "sheik." There was even a silent film starring Bebe Daniels entitled She's a Sheik).