The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ***** (1921, Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Nigel De Brulier, Alan Hale Sr, Jean Hersholt, Wallace Beery) – Classic Movie Review 3,051

UK cinema chain Odeon said it is closing five cinemas on 5 June 2023: Magdalen Street, Oxford; Rigby Road, Blackpool; Weston-super-mare; Ayr; and Banbury. Built by Frank Matcham, the 1,000-seat Oxford Odeon opened with The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on 1 January 1924. 

Director Rex Ingram’s stupendous 1921 silent classic film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stars the great screen lover Rudolph Valentino, who said that this movie provided him with his favourite role.

In Metro’s extravagant, beautiful-looking stirring version of the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1916 Spanish World War One-set anti-war romantic novel, South American gaucho Julio Desnoyers (Valentino) goes to war for France but finds himself fighting his own brother Marcelo Desnoyers (Josef Swickard). Pomeroy Cannon plays Julio Madariaga, the Argentine patriarch of a wealthy family, with two daughters, the elder married to a Frenchman and the other to a German.

The decadent early scenes in Buenos Aires, including the once famous sexy tango sequence (which wasn’t in the novel but was added by Ingram to show off Valentino’s dancing skills), are sharply contrasted with the horrific realism of the battles. And the sequence where the horsemen appear is still a chilling highlight.

It is made by Rex Ingram Productions, is released by Metro Pictures, and is written for the screen by June Mathis (making her one of the most powerful women in Hollywood). It also boasts notable work on cinematography by John F Seitz and art direction by Joseph Calder.

Alice Terry, who provides Valentino’s love interest as the lovely but unhappily married Marguerite Laurier, married director Ingram after the filming. Also in real life, Valentino tried to join the Army when World War One broke out but he was rejected because of poor vision.

Also in the cast are Nigel De Brulier as the mysterious lodger Tchernoff who explains to Julio the significance of the Four Horsemen, Alan Hale Sr as Valentino’s stern German uncle Karl von Hartrott, John St Polis as Marguerite’s affronted husband Etienne Laurier, Wallace Beery as the crude bullying German officer Lieutenant Colonel von Richthosen, Jean Hersholt as Professor von Hartrott, and Beatrice Dominguez as the tango dancer.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse runs 156 minutes (complete version), with Turner library print at 134 minutes (edited version). There is a tinted version with a music soundtrack. Carl Davis provides the score of the 1993 alternate version.

It was released on 6 March 1921 in the US and became the top-grossing film of 1921. It also had a huge cultural impact as one of the first anti-war films, inspiring a tango craze and fashion trends such as gaucho pants, and turning Valentino into a Latin lover superstar.

It was remade by Vincente Minnelli in 1962 as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But the good star cast of Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J Cobb, Paul Henreid, Yvette Mimieux, Paul Lukas and Karl Boehm is all too obviously struggling with the material.

On 15 May 2023, the UK cinema chain Odeon said it is closing five cinemas on 5 June 2023: Magdalen Street, Oxford; Rigby Road, Blackpool; Weston-super-mare; Ayr; and Banbury. The 1,000-seater Odeon in Magdalen Street, Oxford, is Grade II-listed and was built by Frank Matcham & Company. Its first showing was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on 1 January 1924. The Ayr building, which opened in 1938, is the last purpose-built art deco cinema in Scotland, with only six other examples in Britain. Odeon 116 other cinemas in the UK and Ireland.

The cast are Rudolph Valentino as Julio Desnoyers,  Alice Terry as Marguerite Laurier, Pomeroy Cannon as Madariaga, Josef Swickard as Marcelo Desnoyers, Nigel De Brulier as Tchernoff, Bridgetta Clark as Doña Luisa, Virginia Warwick as Chichí, Alan Hale Sr as Karl von Hartrott, Mabel Van Buren as Elena, Stuart Holmes as Otto von Hartrott, John St Polis as Etienne Laurier,  Mark Fenton as Senator Lacour, Derek Ghent as René Lacour, Bowditch M Turner as Argensola, Edward Connelly as Lodgekeeper, Wallace Beery as Lieutenant Colonel von Richthosen, Harry Northrup as The General, Arthur Hoyt as Lieutenant Schnitz, and Beatrice Dominguez as the tango dancer.

The film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1995 as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

It is in the public domain.

Though a DVD version was released in 2000, the film is now available for free download on the Internet Archive.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3,051

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