The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Rex Ingram, Metro, 1921, from Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. An Argentine family splits when the war starts: one branch in France, one in Germany. Rudolph Valentino is Julio Desnoyers, who dances a tango in a Buenos Aires café before he is sent to the front. June Mathis wrote the script and insisted on Valentino. The Four Horsemen ride in a vision sequence; the trenches are large for 1921. It was the year’s biggest grosser and the picture that made Valentino a name you could sell without the title.