The Eagle

Clarence Brown was better than most of his contemporaries at handling the kernel of human interest at the heart of large-scale action dramas; his direction here serves Valentino unusually well, bringing equal intensity to the romantic intrigue and the set-piece thrills. This was Valentino's penultimate film (made a year before his death), and is probably the best surviving key to an understanding of the death-cult that swept the world in 1926. Bonus: William Cameron Menzies' sets are astounding.