Beyond The Rocks

"That, after all, was supposed to be the great virtue of pictures - that they would last forever." Gloria Swanson naively wrote in her 1980 autobiography. But she had to admit that there was no remaining copy of her 1922 film Beyond The Rocks, in which she starred with legendary Rudolph Valentino (or Rodolph as he was called then).


Two stars of such magnitude at the time just did not appear together in a film because their contracts usually prevented it. And indeed, Gloria Swanson had such a clause in hers. Although she was thrilled at the idea of playing opposite the latin lover, she affected to do producer Jesse Lasky a favor, in exchange of which she was offered a paid vacation in France. This was her occasion to escape the very roles that she played in Beyond The Rocks.

In the Kevin Brownlow documentary "Hollywood", Swanson refers to her roles of the time:
"Every picture I made, the train got longer, and the hairdo got more complicated until I got so fed up, I started screaming: I don't want to be a clotheshorse". So she went to France for more artistic parts like Zaza.

Beyond The Rocks is clearly a good example of what she meant. She wore over a million dollars worth of jewelry and very elaborate costumes.

Even as it was made, censorship forced the director to shoot two versions of the love scenes. One for the USA, in which kisses were not supposed to last more than 3 yards of film, and another for the foreign market with no limitation.

In 2000, Joop van Liempd, a Dutch collector of old films died, leaving behind 2000 cans of films, mostly unlabeled. It took another three years for all seven reels of Beyond The Rocks to be discovered among them.

It would seem that seven minutes are still missing, probably owing to poor storage conditions. In fact some scenes show very heavy signs of film decay. But van Liempd's print is obviously the European, uncensored version.

What about the film itself? Sam Wood offers a competent, if rather unimaginative, direction of a phoned-in love triangle story by Elinor Glyn. And yet, the film is still captivating, thanks to the efforts the two stars.

If you wish to make your own opinion, the film is available on DVD .


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That's all for today folks!