According to popular myth, when
Rudolph Valentino died on 23 August 1926,
Hollywood producers began searching for another face or image that might capture some iota of that unique screen presence radiated by "The Great Lover". However, Mosjoukine was signed by Universal before Valentino's death, as the 14 August 1926 edition of
Motion Picture News mentions Mosjoukine's role in
Michel Strogoff as Universal had just announced that they were bringing the film to the American market. Universal's Laemmle was mentioned as having signed Mosjoukine to come to America that fall. A few of the French productions which starred Mosjoukine were seen in large
U.S. cities, where multitudes of cinemas regularly presented European films, but he was a generally unfamiliar persona to the large majority of American audiences.
Universal's
Carl Laemmle, who had employed Valentino as a supporting actor in two 1919–1920 films, found out that Mosjoukine was frequently described by the European press as the Russian Valentino. However, as it turned out,
Surrender, filmed in the summer of 1927, did not trust Mosjukine to carry the storyline. He was only the film's co-star, with the top billing and the central role going to
Mary Philbin, a popular leading lady of the period who, eighteen months earlier, had the showy role of Christine, the focus of
Lon Chaney's obsession and love in
The Phantom of the Opera. The recent Russian Revolution was a popular film subject of the time, with the 1926
John Barrymore-
Camilla Horn teaming in
The Tempest and the
Emil Jannings vehicle
The Last Command, released three months after
Surrender, being two examples of the genre. Since Laemmle's new star was a genuine survivor of the Revolution, it seemed only natural that the story would be set in that milieu. Symptomatic of Mosjoukine's co-star status, he does not even appear in the first fifteen minutes of the film, which are occupied with the depiction of life in an
Eastern European
Jewish settlement on the eve of
World War I. Eventually, at the centerpiece of the plot Mary Philbin, as the virginal daughter of the village rabbi, is confronted with the startling choice of willingly "surrendering" her maidenhood to Mosjoukine's aristocratic leader of the
Cossack detachment sent to wipe out her village, or refusing and seeing him carry out his assignment. While this type of personality fitted into Valentino's past
Son of the Sheik characterization of a dominant, forceful lover who initially takes women against their will, until they melt under the radiance of his sheer animal magnetism, it ran against Mosjoukine's European
Casanova image as a fatalistically irresistible
paramour to whom women flock and "surrender" without any hint of force or threat, but simply because of their inability to resist. This basic misunderstanding of the dissimilarity between Valentino and Mosjoukine combined with journeyman direction by
Edward Sloman and Mary Philbin's unresponsiveness and lack of chemistry with her leading man, consigned the film to a tepid reception by the critics and the public. Although moderately profitable, it was not the money-making hit that Laemmle expected. Mosjoukine received some good notices, but a number of critics doubted his suitability for American audiences. An even more ominous note, however, was sounded at the film's
Broadway premiere on 10 October 1927. Another film, playing across the street, had its premiere four days earlier, on 6 October.
The Jazz Singer was attracting much bigger audiences than
Surrender and, as it was ushering in voice-on-film, would soon sound the death knell for Mosjoukine's career as a silent film star, as his heavy Russian accent eventually dealt a crippling blow to his hopes of continuing in
talkies. ==Return to Europe==