The Sheik is a 1921 American silent romantic drama film starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres, and featuring Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the bestselling romance novel of the same name by Edith Maude Hull. Sheik Ahmed desperately desires fiesty British socialite Diana, so he abducts her off to his luxurious desert tent-palace. The freespirited Diana recoils from his passionate embraces and yearns to be released. Only after being kidnapped by desert bandits does Diana realize hwo much she has grown to love Ahmed, who comes to her rescue in the nick of time.