The Young Rajah
About The Young Rajah
Joshua Judd tells his adopted son Amos that his father was an Indian maharajah overthrown by Ali Khan. At Harvard, Amos beats Austin Slade Jr. for a place in the boat. Slade dies in a fight at a party, and Amos is cleared. Amhad Beg, prime minister to Ali Khan, takes notice. Molly Cabot turns Amos down for not being of her set, then breaks with Horace Bennett after Amos is hurt. Men working for Beg kidnap him. The mystic Narada helps him back to India. Ali Khan is overthrown and kills himself. Amos becomes Maharajah of Dharmagar. His last vision is his wedding to Molly.
Cast & crew
More about The Young Rajah
Phil Rosen directed. June Mathis wrote the adaptation of John Ames Mitchell's novel Amos Judd and of Alethea Luce's play version. James Van Trees photographed. Famous Players-Lasky produced it and Paramount released it on 12 November 1922. Original length eight reels, 7,705 feet. Wikipedia lists 54 minutes. Valentino's last finished film before his 1923 strike against the studio. Jon Mirsalis is credited with music on the restored version, not a 1922 score.
Themes
Making
Paramount finished the picture, then Valentino walked out on the studio in 1923. The 2006 reconstruction fills gaps with photographs and written titles rather than missing footage.
Look
James Van Trees photographed the original eight-reel version.
Preservation
Long treated as lost. TCM's 2006 reconstruction uses surviving fragments, stills, and new intertitles, including titles translated from a Spanish print. Roughly the first two-thirds remains missing. A file of the reconstruction is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Rudolph Valentino plays Amos Judd. Wanda Hawley plays Molly Cabot. Charles Ogle plays Joshua Judd. Fanny Midgley plays Sarah Judd.
- Bertram Grassby plays Ali Khan. J. Farrell MacDonald plays Amhad Beg. Josef Swickard plays Narada. Pat Moore plays Amos as a child.
- Also cast: Robert Ober, Jack Giddings, Edward Jobson, George Periolat, George Field, William Boyd, Spottiswoode Aitken, and Julanne Johnston as a dancing girl.
- Natacha Rambova designed the costumes. Before release Valentino married her while his divorce from his first wife was not final. He was jailed on a bigamy charge. The studio did not post bail.
- Treated as lost for most of the century. In 2005 TCM paid to assemble what survived. The result, aired in May 2006, uses poor clips, stills, and new titles. Some titles were translated from a Spanish edition. About the first two-thirds is still missing and is carried by stills. A circulating file runs about 51 minutes 41 seconds.
- A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- Joshua tells Amos his father was a maharajah overthrown by Ali Khan.
- The last vision is Amos's wedding to Molly after he takes Dharmagar.
Influenced by
- John Ames Mitchell's novel Amos Judd and Alethea Luce's play of the same name
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Young Rajah (1922).webm)
