The Shriek of Araby
About The Shriek of Araby
Outside a theater showing The Sheik, bill poster Ben Turpin is told to put on the Arab costume after the boss fires the man paid to sit on a horse like Valentino. Ben falls asleep on the horse. In the dream he is shanghaied onto the SS Barnacle, thrown overboard, captured, and set on a throne as sheik. He claims an artist as his wife, loses her to a bandit king, and fights his way back through a trap and a drowning. A policeman wakes him on the horse in front of the Palace Theatre.
Cast & crew
More about The Shriek of Araby
F. Richard Jones directed. Mack Sennett wrote and produced the parody of Valentino's The Sheik. Homer Scott and Robert Walters photographed it. Allen McNeil edited. United Artists released it on 5 March 1923. It runs 50 minutes. Ben Turpin plays the bill poster and the sheik. Kathryn McGuire is the heroine. Ray Grey is the prince. George Cooper is Presto the magician. Dick Sutherland plays Ali and the bandit king. The negative cost was $52,649.90.
Themes
Background
The Sheik had opened in 1921. Sennett's parody reached United Artists on 5 March 1923, with Turpin in the Valentino costume and the crossed eyes left in.
Making
Sennett spent $52,649.90 on a feature-length burlesque of one Valentino hit. Jones frames the whole desert plot as a nap on a theater horse.
Look
Homer Scott and Robert Walters photographed the theater front and the dream: the SS Barnacle, the camp, and the bandit king's pool.
Preservation
A 50-minute print survives.
Notes
- The dream starts because Ben is asleep on the advertising horse, not because he walks into the desert.
- Presto's crystal ball puts the artist's destiny "seven miles, four feet and eight inches" away.
- Ben orders the artist into the kitchen to "rattle some pots and pans," then eats ostrich eggs with her.
- A lion shows up at the fishing hole. Presto turns it into a cat, late.
- The bandit king's machine lowers the heroine toward a pool until Ben throws a knife and reverses the levers.
- Charles Stevenson plays Luke Hassan. Tiny Ward is the ship's captain. Kewpie Morgan is the policeman who does the waking.
Scenes
- The boss pulls the hired Valentino off the horse and tells Ben to wear the costume.
- Ben is thrown off the SS Barnacle and rows a canoe to the beach.
- A policeman shakes him awake on the horse outside the Palace Theatre.
Influenced by
- The Sheik (1921)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheShriekOfAraby1921BenTurpin)
