THE SHEIK

The film, adapted from the novel by Edith Maude Hull, tells the story of Diana Mayo, a proud and enterprising English heiress, who travels through the Sahara Desert. In Biskra, disguised as an Arab, she ventures into a gambling house where she meets Ahmed, a young sheik who kidnaps her. She refuses him and manages to flee. In the desert, she almost falls into the hands of Omair, a marauder, but is saved by Ahmed who had followed her. When Diana returns to Biskra, Omair kidnaps her. When Ahmed learns of this, he gathers his men and reaches the marauder’s camp, just in time to rescue Diana who was about to commit suicide rather than submit to her captor. After a furious hand-to-hand fight, Omair is killed. Ahmed, seriously wounded, is treated by Diana who has fallen in love with him. But Ahmed pushes her away and, once he has recovered, returns to his family in the desert. Diana will be joining him… The resounding success of the film, which was followed five years later by The Son of the Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino at the height of his fame, led the Italian-American actor to receive ten thousand marriage proposals, making him a legend.