The Sheik is a 1921 American silent romantic drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky, directed by George Melford, starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres, and featuring Adolphe Menjou.

In the North Africa town of Biskra, headstrong Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) refuses a marriage proposal because she believes it would be the end of her independence.

When Diana goes to the local casino, she is informed it has been appropriated for the evening by an important sheik, and that none but Arabs may enter.

Annoyed at being told what she cannot do, and her curiosity piqued, Diana borrows an Arab dancer's costume and sneaks in.

Afterward, Mustapha Ali (Charles Brinley) informs the Sheik she is the woman he has been hired to guide tomorrow.

She is unused to such treatment, but the Sheik tells her she will learn and demands she dress like a woman (she is wearing trousers) for dinner.

The Sheik considers forcing himself upon her, but decides against it and calls for a serving girl, Zilah (Ruth Miller).

After a week, the Sheik is delighted by the news that his close friend from his days in Paris, where he was educated, is coming for a visit.

When she is introduced to writer and doctor Raoul St. Hubert (Adolphe Menjou), Diana's spirit is nearly broken.

Diana is allowed to go into the desert under the watchful eye of the Sheik's French valet Gaston (Lucien Littlefield).

Making her way across the sands, she spots a caravan, unaware that it belongs to the bandit Omair (Walter Long).

[3][4] George Melford said, "We have handled the frank scenes in 'The Sheik' so delicately that I think the censors will be the only disappointed reviewers.

Emily W. Leider, author of Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, argues that the desert exterior scenes were filmed in Oxnard, California, and the Guadalupe Dunes of Santa Barbara County.

[6] However, one 1983 newspaper article featured in the Suffolk County News contends that exteriors scenes were shot at the "Walking Dunes" in Montauk, New York and at the Kaufman Astoria Studios.

[9]: 168–71 James Kirkwood, Sr. was George Melford's original choice for the starring role of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan.

In its first week of release, it set attendance records at two of New York's major theaters, the Rialto and the Rivoli.

[16] The Sheik helped to solidify Valentino's image as one of the first male sex symbols of the screen and made him an international star.

[22] The film along with The Thief of Bagdad (1924) was adapted into a broadway by Dardanella which was performed on October 12, 1928, in Surabaya, and starred Indonesian actor Tan Tjeng Bok which later earned him the nickname "Douglas Fairbanks of Java".