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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
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Overview
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Directors:
Writers:
Release Date:
2 December 1923 (Finland)
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Plot:
Madariaga is an Argentinian cattle baron with two daughters: one married a Frenchman, the other a German...
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Awards:
1 win
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User Comments:
A shame it's not better known
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Pomeroy Cannon | ... | Madariaga |
| Josef Swickard | ... | Marcelo Desnoyers |
| Bridgetta Clark | ... | Doña Luisa |
 | Rudolph Valentino | ... | Julio Desnoyers |
| Virginia Warwick | ... | Chichí |
| Alan Hale | ... | Karl von Hartrott |
| Mabel Van Buren | ... | Elena |
| Stuart Holmes | ... | Otto von Hartrott |
| John St. Polis | ... | Etienne Laurier (as John Sainpolis) |
| Alice Terry | ... | Marguerite Laurier |
| Mark Fenton | ... | Senator Lacour |
| Derek Ghent | ... | René Lacour |
| Nigel De Brulier | ... | Tchernoff (as Nigel de Brulier) |
| Bowditch M. Turner | ... | Argensola (as Brodwitch Turner) |
| Edward Connelly | ... | Lodgekeeper |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
132 min (Turner library print) (1993 alternate version) | Spain:150 min
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Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) |
USA:TV-G (TV rating)
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Fun Stuff
Trivia:
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1995.
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Quotes:
Dona Luisa:
Is it not enough to lead my son into wild ways without teaching my daughter the tango?
Madriaga: Will you have the boy grow up like those glass-eyed, carrot-topped sharks of your sister's?
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Madriaga: Will you have the boy grow up like those glass-eyed, carrot-topped sharks of your sister's?
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
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Soundtrack:
Apocalypse Theme
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Rudolph Valentino's breakthrough role as Julio is in some ways his best, and it's a shame that this film isn't better known to day--it has yet to be released on DVD. (Is its being relatively unknown due to its being set during World War One, a war that was soon to be eclipsed by an even worse conflict?)
The story begins in Argentina on the plantation of the slightly grotesque but fascinating Madrigal the Centaur who, with the cruel partiality of Tennessee Williams' Big Daddy, openly favours his half French grandchildren to his half German ones (referring to them as "glass-eyed carrot topped sharks"). A few years later we see him carousing with his grandson Julio, the latter in full gaucho regalia, in a disreputable café (the setting of the rightfully famous tango sequence and where Valentino treats his female partner with that distinctive mixture of suaveness and brutality that characterized many of his later roles). The Great War intrudes on everyone's lives and both families, even though they have made their home in the new world feel drawn to take sides. With regard to the conflict itself, the film takes a anti-war if not entirely neutral stance (the French are generally honourable whereas the Germans behave like, well, sharks).
A large part of the film is devoted to the decline in fortunes of Madrigal's French son-in-law after he returns to France with his family, but the most memorable portions of this part of the film are Julio's wooing of Marguerite, the unhappy wife of a much older man and Julio's reluctant entry into the war. Initially he continues his wastrel life in Paris as an artist of sorts, as indifferent as Rhett Butler to the war around him, but eventually he finds himself drawn into the conflict, not because he is anymore convinced that the war is for a good cause as that, with the casualties mounting up every day, he simply feels too ashamed to continue living his soft life as a lounge lizard. The ending relies heavily on Dickensian coincidence but is devastating nonetheless.
A few quibbles—the stranger who appears occasionally to share his dire forebodings is not quite as annoying as the preachy meddler in Blood and Sand but is still somewhat intrusive. (On the other hand I liked the imagery of the four horsemen which was all the more effective for being used sparingly and must have been particularly impressive on the big screen). Also, the film contains an extremely cringe-inducing example of comic relief—Julio's mother, to cheer up her son in the trenches, sends him his monkey in a miniature soldier's uniform, complete with helmet, bringing to this modern viewer's mind Precious, the gin-swilling orangutan nurse of the whacked out NBC soap opera, Passions. However, these are minor objections and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is one of the best films of the silent era.