Main Cast: Charles Farrell, Greta Nissen, Mae Busch, Vadim Uraneff, Tyler Brooke
Release Year: 1928
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
Director Howard Hawks never attempted another Valentinoesque melodrama like Fazil. Beautiful Fabienne (Greta Nissen) is wooed and won by Arab sheik Fazil (Charles Farrell, who is a bit on the thin side for this role). He takes her off to his fabulous palace, where he holds her a virtual prisoner, refusing to let her see anyone else. Fabienne can't get over past loves -- nor can they get over her, as evidenced by their elaborate attempt to rescue her. Only when Fazil is mortally wounded by her rescuers does Fabienne realizes she's truly in love with him. She takes poison and dies by his side. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Fazil was, for many years, considered a "lost" (or, at least, missing) film, but its re-discovery has attracted surprisingly little attention. Howard Hawks' silent films have virtually dropped out of the consciousness of most cineastes, forget the general public. In a sense, this was inevitable, as his technique in the sound era -- and his unique approach to pacing and dialogue -- proved so striking that they overwhelmed whatever work had come before. So distinctive was his work with dialogue, that it was inconceivable to his fans across the decades that followed -- in a way that was never true for the fans (or films) of Chaplin, Lubitsch, or Lang -- that anything Hawks had done in the silent era could possibly be relevant. Fazil (1928) came near the end of the director's silent period, and even though it is the kind of Rudolph Valentino-type desert melodrama that Valentino himself ended up parodying, it has all of the virtues of the late silents: sophisticated camera movement and editing, and a story that, within the limits of its genre, was told in a reasonably inventive way. It was issued with a fully synchronized music score (which is also intact), similar to what was done with the 1926 Don Juan starring John Barrymore, and the movie understandably places a strong emphasis on the music, arranged by S.L. Rothafel and directed by Erno Rapee, which gets credited after the cast and director. Allowing for the stylistic limitations of the movie, Hawks' work is effective if not groundbreaking in any serious or profound way; he gets very good performances out of his two leads and never lets things slow down long enough so that anyone will think too hard about the plot. Coupled with an abundance of romance and melodrama, and some fine performances by the two leads, the movie is a diverting update of an old formula. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
