Lost Valentino film found

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A copy of Rudolph Valentino's silent film "Beyond the Rocks" has been found in the Netherlands. Valentino was an Italian-born movie idol who died in 1926 at the age of 30. He was a star in silent movies during the 1920s. Two of Valentino's most famous films are "The Sheik" and "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," both made in 1921. According to the Amsterdam Film Museum, "Beyond the Rocks" is the only known existing print of the 1922 classic. It was the 24th of Valentino's 32 films and no negatives or prints were known to exist until now. Film museum historian Jan van den Brink, said despite some minimal wear and tear the film is in mint condition. \n"(The film) is basically complete and basically undamaged," Jan van den Brink said. \n"Beyond the Rocks," directed by Sam Wood, was the only film in which Valentino starred opposite another silent era legend, Gloria Swanson.\nVan den Brink said the film was found in the estate of a film collector from the city of Haarlem, a city in the west of Amsterdam near the North Sea. The collection came into the museum's possession four years ago. Van den Brink said it was difficult to find all of the film,= because of previous precautions taken by the original owner. \n"Because (the collector) was worried they would be stolen, he took the different reels and hid them in different warehouses," Van den Brink said. "We literally had to root through 2,000 canisters to find out what exactly was in them."\nThe melodrama is about a woman forced to marry an older man. The woman then falls in love with Valentino's character, Lord Bracondale, on her honeymoon. In the end, the husband dies and the young lovers are united.\nScenes from the film shown on Dutch television had Valentino swimming to rescue a drowning Swanson. Around two minutes of the film are partially damaged at the edges, but the images shown on Dutch TV were in good condition. The 81-minute film is being restored and will be shown for the first time in 2005. The narrative text of the print is in Dutch.