The Eagle
About The Eagle
Lieutenant Vladimir Dubrovsky stops a runaway coach and pulls out Mascha and her aunt. The Czarina offers to make him a general, then tries to seduce him. He refuses. She puts a price on him. A letter from home says Kyrilla Troekouroff has taken the family land. Vladimir gets there and finds his father dead. He masks himself as the Black Eagle. Learning that Kyrilla is Mascha's father, he takes the place of a French tutor in the house. He and Mascha run. The Czarina's men catch him. She lets him go under a new French name, and he and Mascha leave for Paris.
Cast & crew
More about The Eagle
Clarence Brown directed. Hans Kraly wrote it, with titles by George Marion Jr., from Pushkin's Dubrovsky. John W. Considine Jr. and Joseph M. Schenck produced it. George Barnes photographed it, with Dev Jennings on the second unit. Hal C. Kern edited it. United Artists released it in the United States on 8 November 1925. A listing gives 80 minutes. The Black Eagle is not in the novel. The mask follows Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro.
Themes
Making
Brown and Kraly added the masked outlaw, which Pushkin's Dubrovsky does not have, and sent Valentino into the house as a tutor nobody in the household had seen.
Look
George Barnes photographed the coach rescue and the Troekouroff house. Dev Jennings shot second-unit material.
Preservation
Prints survive. One copy runs 72 minutes 48 seconds.
Notes
- Rudolph Valentino plays Vladimir. Vilma Bánky plays Mascha. Louise Dresser plays the Czarina. James A. Marcus plays Kyrilla Troekouroff.
- Albert Conti and George Nichols are billed. Gary Cooper is in the company, unbilled, as a masked Cossack.
- A copy of the film runs 72 minutes 48 seconds. Wikidata also lists 82 minutes.
- United Artists distributed it. Art Finance Corporation produced it.
Scenes
- Vladimir stops the runaway coach and lifts Mascha out.
- He walks out on the Czarina after she tries to keep him.
- He enters Kyrilla's house as the French tutor.
- She gives him a French name and lets the pair leave for Paris.
Influenced by
- Alexander Pushkin's Dubrovsky
- The Mark of Zorro
Also available
- Internet Archive (the_eagle)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Eagle (1925).webm)
