COBRA (Paramount, 1925), a Ritz-Carlton presentation directed by Joseph Henabery, offers an odd or misleading title to a love triangle starring the legendary Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) in one of his final screen performances. With its opening credits super imposed over that of a cobra, one would expect this product to be set somewhere in Burma where hunters fall victim to a dangerous and largest of all venomous snakes. The cobra in this case is a symbol, categorized later in the story to be one of the female characters depicted through a close up of a bronze sculptured cobra mesmerizing a tiger. Nita Naldi assumes the role of the temptress symbolizing the cobra while Valentino, the tiger, becoming its prey, and reciting these words, "You are infamous - you are poisonous, like a cobra!" "There are times when friendship becomes the most important thing in a man's life, stronger than love, equal to any sacrifice -- even that of love itself," marks the first inter-title as the plot begins amusingly on the terrace of Cafe Del Mare as Victor Manardi (Hector V. Sarno) arrives looking for Rodrigo Torriani (Rudolph Valentino), a young Italian count who's been romancing his daughter, Rosa (Claire De Lorenz). Wanting to settle an account with him, he mistakes the visiting American, John "Jack" Dorning (Casson Ferguson), for the count. The disruption has Rodrigo entering the scene posing as an Italian interpreter, proving Dorning to be whom he is and not Torriani. Torriani then takes Jack with him to his debt-ridden palace where he tells of his life story and family history. Because his playboy lifestyle finds him with female complications, Jack helps him to forget women by inviting him to sail with him to New York where he's to become his partner at his antique shop, Dorning & Sonm which he readily accepts. Believing New York a great place to avoid female troubles, Rodrigo soon encounters Mrs. Huntington Palmer (Lillian Leighton), a dowager, who introduces him to her niece, Elise Van Zile (Nita Naldi), a fortune hunter. Learning Rodrigo to be penniless, Elise soon turns her affections towards Jack. Though Jack is loved by Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead), his loyal secretary, he marries the flirtatious vamp who, in turn, uses Rodrigo as her lover on the side. Arranging a secret rendezvous at the Van Cleve Hotel, Room 1002, Rodrigo, due to his loyalty towards Jack, rejects Elise's advances and leaves. The next day Rodrigo reads in the newspaper the startling news of the hotel burning down, claiming Elise and an unidentified man as victims. Guilt-stricken, Rodrigo is torn between telling Jack the truth about his unfaithful wife or keeping her illicit affairs a secret.Seldom revived Valentino melodrama, COBRA has turned up on cable television's Nostalgia Channel as part of its Saturday night line-up of "When Silents Were Golden." In its March 19, 1994, broadcast, COBRA consisted of a print with piano sound score composed by Bob Mizzell (Copyright 1979 by Big Eopper Music/Mizzell Films). While it was commendable for Nostalgia Television's dedication to rare and hard to find feature films from the silent screen era, the series was regrettably handicapped by frequent and long-winded commercial breaks. Other video or DVD distributors as Kino Video and/Or Grapevine Video featured different scoring and time frames (70 to 75 minutes) while Image Home Entertainment contains average orchestral score by David Shepard (1998).Not quite an important film in a sense of greatness, COBRA still owes some of its modest degree to the short-lived leading man status of Rudolph Valentino. Nita Naldi might be another reason for her title-influenced characterization. Naldi, who vamped Valentino most famously in BLOOD AND SAND (Paramount, 1922), does the same here, but not so memorably this time around. Her career as a silent screen vamp would soon come to a close before the end the decade. Cemented into his image as a great lover, COBRA offers Valentino one of his few chances to enact a portrayal true to his Italian origin as well as appearing in a product in contemporary setting as opposed to others taken from another time or place. Often categorized as a disappointing Valentino melodrama, it somehow works on a level of choice, whether accepting COBRA for what it is or simply laugh at its outdated acting style and material. Casson Ferguson (1891-1929), a name nobody knows, who, like Valentino, succumbed too early in life, dying from pneumonia four years after the release of COBRA. Ferguson's role of an American business owner who hires the Italian count to be the expert on Italian antiques is acceptable but forgettable in its final result. Gertrude Olmstead (1987-1975) gives an commendable performance as the secretary who comes to a decision which man she truly wants. Also featured in the cast are Eileen Percy (Sophie Binner, the blackmailer, "Believe it or not, she's a lady"); Henry Barrows (Henry Madison, Manager of Dorning & Son); and Rosa Rosanova playing Marie.While the COBRA title had been used a couple of times subsequently, the basis from this story were never remade, not even as the 1986 action thriller starring Sylvester Stallone. For this 1925 edition, no cobras here, just fine actors doing what they do best, rising above an average story scripted by Anthony Coldeway, adapted from the Martin Brown play, some venom by Nita Naldi, the presence of Rudolph Valentino and the films for which he appeared that have survived through the passage of time. (**)

The 1925 COBRA was among Valentino's last films--and it tends to divide the star's fans, who either rejoice at his appearance in a realistic drama or yearn for something that rivals his earlier, often outrageous seductive melodramas.The story concerns Count Rodrigo Torriani (Valentino), an impoverished Italian nobleman with a penchant for torrid affairs that lead to endless and often monetary difficulties. Largely in order to escape such difficulties, Rodrigo agrees to work for American antiques dealer Jack Dorning (Casson Ferguson)--only to find himself little better off in New York, where he wavers between office secretary Mary Drake (Gertrude Olmstead) and Jack's femme fatale wife Elise (Nita Naldi.) In a stylistic sense, COBRA shows what Valentino could do as an actor when he was not encumbered by the usual "great seducer" scripts pressed upon him--and he acquits himself very well. The supporting cast, most particularly Naldi, is also excellent. But there is no two ways about it: COBRA is so low-key that it feels excessively slow as it moves toward its none-too-surprising conclusion.The film itself is beautiful to the eye. Valentino is very close to the height of his physical appeal and Naldi is stunningly beautiful in a series of Adrian-designed gowns; the art direction by William Cameron Menzies is excellent, and the cinematography by Fischbeck and Jennings has a velvety quality that is quite fine. Even so, and with a running time of just over an hour, COBRA feels excessively languid in tone. The DVD offers a handsome transfer and good music score, but little else. Recommended--but primarily for hardcore Valentino fans.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rudy is very good, especially in the comedic parts. The story isn't much, and it would have helped if either of his leading ladies had been Vilma Banky (the less said about the desiccated-looking Gertrude Olmstead the better). But Nita Naldi's appeal is at least more apparent here than in "Blood and Sand," and her clothes, by Adrian, do a lot for her. What's more, though she's a bad girl, she's a believable one. The film should be seen for Rudy's charm, for William Cameron Menzies' very, very effective production design, and for the fact that the DVD is made from an absolutely gorgeous, velvety, pristine, 35 mm print. It looks better than any other DVD I'm aware of with Valentino. A hotel fire, which we learn about from a newspaper, should have been portrayed. It's really an obligatory scene, and the movie is rather naked without it. It might have put the picture in the hit category, had it been done well.

In "Cobra," Rudolph Valentino once again plays a lady killer, but one who is miles away from the nostril flaring bodice ripper of "The Sheik." Rodrigo Torriani, a suave Italian nobleman dressed in the latest fashions, is a far cooler sort of Casanova, one who seems more amused than stimulated by his seductions. Valentino, although often accused of overacting, modulates his delivery to suit this more detached character and for the most part plays Rodrigo is a subtle, understated manner. The film openly very strongly, with Rodrigo deftly outmaneuvering the enraged father of his latest conquest and an entertaining flashback to Rodrigo's womanizing Renaissance fore-bearer, also played by Valentino (even though the film is set in modern times, it looks like the screenwriters couldn't resist putting Valentino in a costume). The title refers to the femme fatale lead, but Rodrigo is the true cobra of this film.Unfortunately, the film falters once Rodrigo is convinced by a rich American tourist, Jack Dorning, to come work for him as an antique dealer. Aside from an amusing bit in which a screeching floozy tries to blackmail Rodrigo, most of the middle part of the film is taken up with a meant to be torrid, but unconvincing affair between Rodrigo and Elise Van Zile, played by Nita Naldi. Valentino's scenes with Naldi in "Blood and Sand" had real heat, but Naldi seems a tad matronly here, and even more seriously there is not enough interaction between Rodrigo and Elise to convince us that they find each other irresistible. When Rodrigo meets Elise for the first time (who seems more shy than seductive), he almost immediately passes her off to Jack even though he is supposedly smitten with her (as suggested by an unintentionally funny bit in an which an Art Nouveau knickknack portraying a snake suddenly morphs into Elise). The next thing we know, Jack and Elise are a married couple. However, we are meant to believe that all along there has been a smoldering attraction between Rodrigo and Elise, until finally Elise cannot stand it any longer and pleads with him to make love to her. Because we really haven't been prepared for this moment Elise simply comes across as a stalker for much of this scene.Another problem (perhaps more so for modern audiences) is Rodrigo's noble sacrifice of yet another woman to his good pal Jack, in this case his pretty but bland secretary, out of guilt for his supposed role in the death of Elise. This well meaning gesture, typical of silent films, doesn't bear much scrutiny. It doesn't take the woman's feelings into consideration at all (she loves Rodrigo, not Jack) and is at heart condescending--is Jack so incapable of finding his own women? Plus, one might cynically ask, hasn't Rodrigo learned from recent experience that such forced, one-sided relationships tend to end badly? Valentino does do a good job emoting the pain his sacrifice is causing him, though.A good role for Valentino, but otherwise a disappointing movie.