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Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Having just seen Beyond the Rocks tonight I had no idea this was a 'lost' film that was rediscovered and restored thanks to our good friends in the Netherlands where a copy was located. Still a chance to see Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson together is never to be passed up even if what they appear in is a cheap romantic melodrama made better by their presence.Gloria's a titled Englishwoman in who the rest of her family two half sisters and an impoverished titled father rest their hopes on restoring the family fortune with a good marriage. Enter Robert Bolders in a part that a few years later Charles Laughton might have played. He's a self made member of the English upper middle class looking for what now would be called a trophy wife. Under pressure she marries him.Of course then Rudolph Valentino comes along and Gloria regrets having married in haste. Rudy's enough to turn anyone's head and they keep running into each other, in the Alps, at Versailles, and back at home where Bolders is being asked to finance an archaeological dig in the Sahara. An expedition along the same lines as the Carnarvon-Carter expedition that discovered King Tut's tomb.The whole thing ends up in Rudy's old stomping grounds the Sahara Desert. As another reviewer pointed out, if you're a devoted reader of Harlequin novels, you KNOW how it will end.Gloria and Rudy make this film seem a whole lot better than it is. If it weren't for them it would get an even lower rating. Still for those who admire these two stars and they have deserved admirers, you might want to catch this film.Now I'll bet the discovery and restoration of Beyond the Rocks would make an interesting movie.

This is a very competently made silent film--with excellent direction, top stars and a decent script. And, overall it's a good film as well, but nothing exceptional one way or the other. For fans of silents, it's a great film to see. For those who are uninitiated or are afraid of silent films (a common problem), this isn't the best film to see, as there are more memorable and timeless movies out there for you to discover. Plus, both Ms. Swanson and Mr. Valentino appeared in better (as well as worse) films--it's sort of a middle of the road film for them both, though it's the only occasion where they appeared together in a film.Also, and no one is to blame for this, but the version recently discovered in the Netherlands is not in pristine condition. While generally good, there are some small sections where the film has degraded so much further restoration just isn't possible.

The silent era continues to have surprises for us, such as this one, "Beyond the Rocks," a film starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino once thought lost but since rediscovered and restored. Based on a novel by Elinor Glyn, it's a potboiler that doesn't hold up well today, but so little does at age 84. It's the story of a young woman, Theodora, the hope of her family (i.e., the one with the youth and looks to nab a rich husband) who meets a British nobleman (Valentino) when he saves her from drowning. Then she meets her betrothed, a short, old thing. She's disappointed, but for the sake of her father, marries him. She runs into Valentino on her honeymoon and this time, he saves her from falling off a mountain during a climbing expedition. They seem Meant to Be. But both are determined to honor her marriage vows.Valentino and Swanson are heavily made up, and both actually looked much better with a more natural appearance. In the beginning, with her hair down and less Max Factor, Swanson is lovely - petite, with amazing eyes and beautiful skin. Later on, however, she looks older than she is due to the make-up and hair-do. Her character has a great wardrobe, and Swanson wears it well. Both actors give good performances. Valentino had a tendency to be obvious in some of his emotions - it was more the style then - but he gives a more relaxed performance in "Beyond the Rocks." Most of the movie looks beautiful with its sepia tones though there are some damaged sections. It's quite a find and a chance to see two big stars of the silent era together. Swanson wrote of parts of the film that don't seem to exist any longer - but as one of the comments here suggests, she perhaps was mixing this up with another film. Given the plot, it would be easy to do so.

Despite an earlier poster's view that the soundtrack was at times "too contemporary sounding," I would argue that the track brings this film up-to-date, without sacrificing its initial intent.The more modern track (and I'm a traditionalist in all things...) pulled me in and made me watch this film with new eyes. The "original" music used on many silents is clearly one of the things which immediately dates them and makes them seem old and, to some people, silly. With fresher music, it is easier to watch the performances and not get caught up in the sound, which obviously predominates in silents...Ron