She's a Sheik (1927)

She's a Sheik borrows more than a little from the Rudolph Valentino vehicle, Son of the Sheik, but refreshingly, the Valentino character here is a woman, played by the dashing comedienne Bebe Daniels. She is Zaida, half-Spanish and half-Arab, and determined to marry a Christian man. The Arabian bandit Kada (William Powell doesn't care what she wants -- he's determined to have her as his own. Zaida, as swashbuckling as any male, goes sword-to-sword with him...and comes out ahead. She meets up with the French Captain Colton (Richard Arlen), decides he is for her, and kidnaps him to her desert camp. After spending a few days in captivity, Colton finally succumbs to Zaida's formidable charms. The film climaxes with a battle between French and Arab troops, with the French outwitting the Arabs, helped out by a pair of motion-picture showmen (played by Bill Franey and James Bradbury, Jr.). The company runs a clip of an attacking army on a large screen; this is enough to frighten the naive Arabs. Meanwhile Zaida and Colton close out She's a Sheik with the requisite clinch. A lot of people, though, would have preferred to see Daniels and Powell together at the end -- the pair had a real chemistry in the few films in which they appeared together. The good-looking Arlen just didn't have Powell's flair. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi