To the best of my knowledge, the last big commercial showing of The Sheik was in the mid-thirties, when it was shown at the Carlton in London with a full orchestra. Unlike Son of the Sheik, which was delightfully tongue-in-cheek, the original took itself very seriously, and lacked the stylish design that William Cameron Menzies brought to the sequel. It was based on the 1919 novel that had become something of a cause celebre at the time, and while both less exotic and erotic than one might expect, it was a huge success. It introduced a whole series of imitations (and imitators of Valentino) and brought the word "sheik" into common usage in American slang. What a real stylist like Tourneur could have done with this property makes one's mouth water. However, in its echoes of post-Victorian exotica in literature, and in its concessions to twenties morality, The Sheik is an interesting reflection of its time. The desert sands of Utah stand in well for Arabia, and dear old Walter Long has the time of his life as the villain, with such robust titles (referring to the captured heroine and his own mistress) as "Bring forth the white gazelle and guard closely the jealous one!" William K. Everson