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Rudolph Valentino's first independent production, Cobra, was released less than a year prior to the actor's untimely death at age 31. It is an unusual and contradictory showcase for the actor who is remembered more than any other as the icon of irresistible sexuality in Hollywood silent film.

Beleaguered by women in his native land, a promiscuous Italian Count, Rodrigo Torriani (Valentino) escapes to New York to work for an elegant antiques dealer specializing in Italian objets d'art. The ambitious young man cannot suppress the Don Giovanni within himself and he is soon embroiled in a new series of romantic entanglements with secretaries, husband hunters and extortionists. But when his best friend's new wife captures suave Torriani in her cobra-like gaze, he reforms just in time to avoid disgrace and even death-by-fire.

Cobra truly represents the visual richness of silent cinema at its peak. At the center of it all is Valentino, charming and photogenically resplendent. Even with his stunning looks, Valentino's appeal as the Great Lover, enacted according to conventions of the 1920s, is often difficult for modern audiences to fathom. By contrast, his far more restrained performance in Cobra makes this film more accessible today than the great hits upon which the star's reputation was built.

A NOTE ON THIS EDITION: This edition of Cobra is digitally mastered at the visually correct speed of 22 frames per second from a full aperture mint-condition 35mm master positive printed from the original camera negative, thus preserving intact all of the photographic beauty which is one of this film's most attractive qualities. The musical setting is compiled by Rodney Sauer and Susan Hall from period arrangements and is recorded in digital stereo by the Mont Alto Theater Orchestra.

Joan the Woman (Cardinal Film Corporation, 1916) was Cecil B. DeMille's first great spectacle. In keeping with theatrical tradition, DeMille sought a more formal and stylized mode of acting from stars Geraldine Farrar and Wallace Reid - a technique he continued in his late historical films. Wilfred Buckland's art direction is outstanding, and DeMille's social comments are subtle but biting. The film also features a dramatic hand-colored climax utilizing the Handschiegl stencil-color process.

The film became a prototype for DeMille's later spectacles. His handling of the large battle scenes (with the aid of seventeen cameras and a small army of assistant directors, including William deMille, George Melford and Donald Crisp) was exceptional - equal to D.W. Griffith's work in The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. The real strength of the picture, however, is found in the director's provocatively compelling images:

• At Joan's trial by torture, officials the Church are clad in white hooded robes with black holes for eyes. DeMille frames his shot so that the top of Cauchon's mitre is out of frame, and he looks like a black-clad grand dragon of the invisible empire surrounded by Klansmen and hiding behind a crucifix rather than a bishop of the Church.
• The empty town square. An executioner drives a single horse cart piled with kindling to lay around the stake where Joan will meet her death. A lone dog is the only living thing, barking a futile protest.
• As Joan is led to the stake, the Bishop Cauchon seizes her ornate crucifix, and as the flames surround her, Eric Trent hands Joan a handmade cross of simple twigs that she carries to her death.

Ultimately, in an effort to get more performances per day, the picture was drastically cut very early in the run. This video release offers DeMille's director's cut and the original hand-colored climax. William Furst's original 1916 score is performed by Christian Elliott at the J. Ross Reed Wurlitzer, Sexson Auditorium, Pasadena, California.