# The Eagle (1925 film)
**The Eagle** is a 1925 American silent adventure film directed by [Clarence Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/clarence-brown), starring [Rudolph Valentino](https://www.edgepedia.org/rudolph-valentino) as a Russian lieutenant who becomes a masked outlaw after spurning the czarina and losing his family's estate. It was loosely adapted from Aleksandr Pushkin's posthumously published novel *Dubrovsky* and released by [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) on 8 November 1925.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) • [2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 8 November 1925, New York opening; distributed by United Artists; copyright 16 November 1925 (LP22011)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) |
| Source | Scenario by Hanns Kräly from Pushkin's novel *Dubrovsky*[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html) |
| Cast | Rudolph Valentino (Vladimir Dubrovsky), Vilma Bánky (Mascha Troekouroff), Louise Dresser (Catherine II), James Marcus (Kyrilla Troekouroff)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) |
| Physical format | Silent, black-and-white, seven reels of 6,756 feet, about 70 minutes, 35mm 1.33:1[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html) |
| Budget | $400,000, reported by *Variety* on 20 July 1925[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) |
| Survival | Prints exist (Cohen Media Group 35mm positive; Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum 16mm reduction); public domain in the United States[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html) |
| Reception | 83% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (6 reviews); a modest commercial return on release[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Lieutenant Vladimir Dubrovsky, a young Cossack officer, rescues a runaway carriage carrying Mascha Troekouroff and attracts the attention of Czarina Catherine II (Louise Dresser). When he politely declines her invitation to her bedroom, she puts a price on his head.[5](https://thegoodsreviews.com/the-eagle-1925/) Fleeing home, he finds his father ruined by the cruel landowner Kyrilla Troekouroff (James Marcus), who has seized the family property. Dubrovsky dons a black mask and becomes the outlaw "the Black Eagle," defending the Russian people from Troekouroff while infiltrating his household disguised as a French tutor, Marcel Le Blanc. He falls in love with Troekouroff's daughter, the same Mascha from the opening carriage scene.[5](https://thegoodsreviews.com/the-eagle-1925/) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle)
## Production
The picture was announced in May 1925 as Valentino's first starring vehicle for United Artists, under the working title *The Untamed*, with principal photography set to begin on 8 June 1925 at the United Studios in Hollywood. The title changed twice during production, to *The Black Eagle* and then *The Lone Eagle*, the changes being deemed necessary because another United Artists feature carried the same name; the release title settled as *The Eagle*. The scheduled 27 September 1925 release date would have required completion and editing within six weeks, but the release was delayed until 8 November 1925.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE)
**On-set injury.** According to *Variety* (16 September 1925), Valentino was trampled and kicked in the face by a runaway horse during production, sustaining injuries to his ankle and wrist. No delays resulted, and filming resumed the next day.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) He was also caught speeding during the shoot.[6](https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/media/4745/the-eagle.pdf)
The crew included cinematographers George Barnes and Dev Jennings, art director William Cameron Menzies (recently of *The Thief of Bagdad*), editor Hal C. Kern, costume designer Adrian, and title writer George Marion Jr. Hanns Kräly, a longtime scenarist for [Ernst Lubitsch](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernst-lubitsch), received credit for the final script, and Valentino reportedly employed three unnamed writers to get "just the right story."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/) The Silent Era film list credits a large supporting cast, including Spottiswoode Aitken as Dubrovsky's father and a young [Gary Cooper](https://www.edgepedia.org/gary-cooper) as a masked cossack.[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html)
## Valentino's comeback and context
By 1925 Valentino needed a hit. None of his recent films had matched the commercial success of *The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse* (1921) and *The Sheik* (1921), and *Monsieur Beaucaire* (1924) had been criticized for casting him as a primping dandy. His stardom, devotedly followed by many female fans, had also drawn xenophobic and homophobic abuse in sections of the press, contributing to a hiatus in his screen appearances until 1924. *The Eagle* was designed to present a new Valentino, a "Slavic Lover" and all-round action hero rather than the stereotypical Arab of *The Sheik*.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/73910/the-eagle-rudolph-valentino-is-the-eagle) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/)
Under his new United Artists contract, Valentino's wife [Natacha Rambova](https://www.edgepedia.org/natacha-rambova) was banned from the set, an intervention that contributed to the couple's subsequent separation and divorce. Critics and audiences responded well to Valentino's more active, masculine persona, and the film was hailed as his comeback vehicle; it also displayed his gift for comedy.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/73910/the-eagle-rudolph-valentino-is-the-eagle) Vilma Bánky, in her first American film, played Mascha and appeared with Valentino again in his last film, *The Son of the Sheik* (1926).[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/73910/the-eagle-rudolph-valentino-is-the-eagle)
Despite the favorable response, the film earned a modest return and did not prove the elixir Valentino wanted. He remained a target of press abuse, and weeks before his death in August 1926 the *Chicago Tribune* published its notorious piece asking why no one had "quietly drowned Rudolph Guglielmo, alias Valentino, years ago." Brown, who went on to direct Garbo and Crawford and films such as *The Yearling* and *Intruder in the Dust*, always regretted never working with Valentino a second time.[4](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/)
## Style and reception
Reviewers have noted that the film borrows its outlaw silhouette and swashbuckling image from [Douglas Fairbanks](https://www.edgepedia.org/douglas-fairbanks)'s *[The Mark of Zorro](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-mark-of-zorro)* (1920) and *Robin Hood* (1922), released only months after Fairbanks's own Zorro sequel *Don Q, Son of Zorro* (1925).[8](https://embed.letterboxd.com/cineanalyst/film/the-eagle-1925/) • [9](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/eagle/) In practice it is lighter on action than its marketing suggests, blending melodrama, romance, and tongue-in-cheek comedy in alternating shifts.[5](https://thegoodsreviews.com/the-eagle-1925/) • [9](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/eagle/)
**Direction and craft.** Brown's direction is marked by deep-focus compositions that pack narrative information into single frames and by patient close-ups on the leads. The film's most famous filmmaking moment is a tracking shot that glides the entire length of Kyrilla's banquet table, course after course, foregrounding the landowner's decadence; in 1925, before fluid camera movement was normalized in Hollywood, it pointed toward the direction of late silent cinema.[5](https://thegoodsreviews.com/the-eagle-1925/) The early runaway-stagecoach sequence has also been singled out.[6](https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/media/4745/the-eagle.pdf)
Mordaunt Hall of *The New York Times* called it "a satisfying picture in which Mr. Brown introduces some interesting touches," and Robert E. Sherwood in *LIFE* wrote that the film was strengthened by Vilma Bánky's presence and by the fact that it never takes itself seriously.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle) Later assessments have been more mixed: Dennis Schwartz gave it a C+, finding it difficult to see from this movie what made Valentino so popular, while a 2023 review called it "not a career peak" for Brown but "good fun."[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 83% Tomatometer from six reviews and a 70% Popcornmeter audience score from more than 1,000 ratings; on IMDb it rates 6.6/10 from about 2,600 votes.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle) • [10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015772/)
## Preservation
The film is extant. Prints are held by the Cohen Media Group (Raymond Rohauer collection) as a 35mm positive and by the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum as 16mm reduction positives, with further copies in private collections, and the film is in the American public domain. It was screened at the 2006 Kansas Silent Film Festival in Topeka and at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's A Day of Silents 2023 with live accompaniment.[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/)
## References
1. [The Eagle (1925), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8799-THE-EAGLE)
2. [The Eagle (1925), Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/Eagle1925.html)
3. [The Eagle, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eagle)
4. [The Eagle, essay by Gwenda Young, San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/the-eagle/)
5. [The Eagle (1925), review by Dan Stalcup, The Goods: Film Reviews](https://thegoodsreviews.com/the-eagle-1925/)
6. [The Eagle program notes, Hippodrome Cinema](https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/media/4745/the-eagle.pdf)
7. [The Eagle: Rudolph Valentino Is The Eagle, TCM article](https://www.tcm.com/articles/73910/the-eagle-rudolph-valentino-is-the-eagle)
8. [The Eagle (1925), review by Cineanalyst, Letterboxd](https://embed.letterboxd.com/cineanalyst/film/the-eagle-1925/)
9. [EAGLE, THE, review by Dennis Schwartz](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/eagle/)
10. [The Eagle (1925), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015772/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1914 to 1926*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license