Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film)

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a 1962 American drama film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Karl Boehm and Paul Henreid. It is loosely based on the 1916 novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, which had been filmed in 1921 with Rudolph Valentino. Unlike the first film, this was a critical and commercial disaster, which contributed greatly to the financial problems of MGM.

For the 1921 film version, see The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film).
The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown
Directed byVincente Minnelli
Produced byJulian Blaustein
associate
Olallo Rubio Jr.
Written byJohn Gay
Robert Ardrey
StarringGlenn Ford
Paul Henreid
Ingrid Thulin
Charles Boyer
Lee J. Cobb
Music byAndré Previn
CinematographyMilton R. Krasner
Edited byBen Lewis
Adrienne Fazan
Production
company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Moctezuma Films
Olallo Rubio
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • February 7, 1962 (1962-02-07) (Washington, D.C.)
Running time
153 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7,174,000[1]
Box office$9,183,673[1]

Plot

In 1936, Madariaga is the 80-year-old patriarch of a cattle ranch in Argentina. His two grandsons are Julio, whose father Marcelo is French, and Heinrich, whose father Karl is German. When Heinrich returns home from studying in Germany to reveal he has become a Nazi, Madariaga slaps him and predicts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death) will soon devastate the earth; he runs outside into a storm with visions of the four horsemen and then dies in Julio's arms.

In 1938 Julio goes to Paris with his family and befriends Marcelo's anti-Nazi friend Etienne Laurier. Julio falls in love with Laurier's wife, Marguerite, and becomes her lover after war breaks out and Laurier is sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. He takes advantage of his status as a neutral to live a pleasant life with Marguerite in German-occupied Paris where his cousin Heinrich is an important official in the SS. When Marguerite becomes the object of German General von Kleig's lust, Julio defies him, incurring his personal enmity. Julio's younger sister Chi Chi becomes active in the French resistance, making Julio uncomfortable about his own neutrality. Laurier is released from prison an apparently broken man and Marguerite leaves Julio to care for him. When Julio discovers that Laurier is an important figure in the resistance, he joins it as well.

Eventually both Chi Chi and Laurier are tortured and murdered by the Gestapo, and Laurier reveals to von Kleig that Julio is working for the resistance and on an important mission: guiding Allied bombers to destroy a Nazi headquarters in Normandy. Heinrich, realising Julio is probably a French agent, captures him just as the bombs are falling on them, killing both.

The final scene – the most important scene in the film – is missing from several versions shown. In it, the grandchildren's parents are listening helplessly on the telephone as the deaths happen. The final words are from one set of parents to another: "Our children have killed each other." In other prints, the film ends with the four horsemen riding on to create future havoc for other generations.

Cast

Production

Development

The silent film rights to the original story had been purchased by Metro in 1918 for $190,000. There had been discussions by MGM about remaking the film before the American copyright expired in 1946.[2]

The following year MGM producer Sam Marx announced the studio might remake the film as a vehicle for Ricardo Montalbán, and if they did, the story would be updated to World War II.[3]

Early in 1958 MGM set about clarifying the copyright situation. They had recently authorized a remake of Ben-Hur, which looked like it was going to be a phenomenal success, and were looking for other old MGM properties to remake. They obtained the necessary rights and announced they would make the movie in June 1958.[2] Julian Blaustein was assigned as producer.[4]

Scripting

Blaustein announced the story would be updated from World War I to World War II:

The driving force of the book is of love among men instead of hatred. I don't think it can be said often enough that such love is indispensable for all of us if we are to have any future. If a motion picture can dramatize such a theme entertainingly then the motion picture may make a small contribution to peace in the world. It certainly impresses me as being worth the try... The Paris of the occupation, the births of the resistance movements have never been thoroughly explored on the screen to my mind. I'm not interested in trying to recreate the shooting war. That's almost too difficult to realistically do on the screen today. What I want to put on screen is the atmosphere, so that when you sit in the theatre you will feel the hope and frustration of people struggling against invasion and may realize no man is an island.[5]

Robert Ardrey wrote the initial script. The movie was, along with a remake of Cimarron, going to be one of MGM's big films for 1960.[6][7][8]

MGM allocated a budget of $4 million and Vincente Minnelli to direct. Minnelli said he had doubts about relocating the time period and wanted it set back in World War I, but the studio was insistent.[9] Filming was pushed back due to the actors strike in 1960.

Minnelli later claimed he was "drafted" into making the movie, and was rushed into production before he was ready because MGM had a start date.[10] However he did manage to get head of production Sol Siegel to arrange for the script to be rewritten in order to reflect the German Occupation of Paris. Because Robert Ardrey was busy, MGM hired John Gay to do rewrites of an outline prepared by Minnelli, which showed the weaknesses as he saw them.

"Gay proved to be an enormous help", wrote Minnelli later. "The script – with the dreadful World War II setting – took shape. But I never justified the updating in my mind."[11]

Pre-production commenced in Paris. Minnelli wrote he flew back to the US and tried to talk the studio into changing the time period once again but they refused. "I began to believe I was the victim of a studio set up", he wrote.[11]

Casting

Early contenders for the male lead – the part originally played by Rudolph Valentino – were MGM contractee George Hamilton, and Maximilian Schell.[12]

Vincente Minnelli said he wanted Alain Delon for the starring role and met with the young actor in Rome, but the producers did not feel he was sufficiently well known at the time.[11] In June 1960 it was announced that Glenn Ford, who had a long relationship with MGM and had recently signed a new contract with the studio, would play the lead role.[13]

Minnelli later reflected "There I was, stuck with a story I didn't want to do, with a leading actor who lacked the brashness and impulsiveness I associated with his part. I wanted new challenges but I didn't think they'd be that challenging."[11]

However he did say that the rest of the cast "was as brilliant as it was international."[14] Yvette Mimieux was cast in the ingenue part with Charles Boyer and Claude Dauphin in support, and Ava Gardner in the female lead, the part played by Alice Terry in the 1921 film.[15] Eventually Gardner dropped out and Ingrid Thulin, best known for Wild Strawberries, stepped in.[16] The studio wanted Horst Buchholz to play the young German son but he was unable to do it due to his commitment to make Fanny (1961), so Karl Boehm instead was hired.[14]

Ford was paired with an older actress, Ingrid Thulin, making both main roles much older than the book and 1921 film characters, giving more credibility to their relationship than a May–December romance would have. Although Thulin spoke English well, she was dubbed by Angela Lansbury.

Shooting

Minnelli later wrote that as he was unhappy with the story he decided to make the film at least as "stunning visually as I could make it. The flaws in the story might be overlooked. Some of my previous pictures hadn't held much hope in the beginning, but they'd been saved because I'd had some leeway in the writing. But I didn't have this freedom on Four Horsemen. It would be interesting to see what could be accomplished."[11]

Minnelli decided to make the Four Horsemen an integral part of the story, which would be designed by Tony Duquette as a set of andirons riding the sky, parallel to the main action. He used red as "a dominating color, culminating in a red gel over the newsreels, which would be shown in a documentary way to point up the devastation of the war and the insensitivity of the principal actors in taking scant notice of it."[14]

Filming started in Paris on 17 October.[17]

It proved difficult, in part due to riots due to the situation in Algeria and because of local reluctance to recreate scenes from the Occupation. It was decided to film the bulk of the movie in Hollywood instead.[18]

One of the more famous scenes of the 1921 movie involved Rudolph Valentino dancing the tango. However the scene was not in the novel, and it was decided not to have a similar scene in the remake.[19]

Ingrid Thulin later reflected on filming:

It was an interesting experience. I could not conform to their standards of beauty. I tried... After the first few rushes it was obvious that it [the film] would turn out badly. Yet they went right on. Perhaps they couldn't convince themselves that all that money would end in disaster. I really did want to be as beautiful as they wanted. It was terribly difficult. Then I worked very hard to dub the dialogue but they kept changing lines to things I couldn't pronounce. So they had to dub in another voice.[20]

MGM were impressed by the performance of Boehm and signed him to a contract, putting him in such films as Come Fly with Me and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Post production

The movie spent a considerable amount of time in post production, causing its budget to increase further. This, combined with the massive cost over-runs of Lady L (which had been postponed) and the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, as well as the massive failures of Cimarron, King of Kings, Mutiny on the Bounty, and this film, led to the resignation of Sol C. Siegel, MGM's head of production,.[21]

Reception

The film had its world premiere on February 7, 1962 at Loew's Capitol Theatre in Washington D.C.[22][23]

Box office

The film grossed $26,000 in its first week in Washington D.C.[24] MGM had become aware by April that the film would not recoup its cost and started writing off the losses.[25] Ultimately the movie earned $1,600,000 in theatrical rentals in the U.S. and Canada and $2,500,000 overseas. When costs of prints and advertising were added, the studio recorded a loss of $5,853,000.[1]

Critical

It was compared very unfavorably to the famous 1921 version, which propelled Rudolph Valentino to superstardom. Ford, with many films behind him, was not the unknown that Valentino was when he appeared in the 1921 film.[26][27] Ford, 46 years old, also had the disadvantage of trying to reprise a role that Valentino had played when he was 26. Critics also considered Ford severely miscast as a Latin lover who, in their minds, should have been played by someone much younger.

The Los Angeles Times wrote the filmmakers "have pulled it off. The new "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" restores the pleasure there can be in seeing a good story well told on the screen."[28]

Minnelli said the movie received better reviews in Europe and it influenced the look of The Damned, The Conformist and The Garden of the Finzi Continis.[29]

Soundtrack

André Previn composed the soundtrack score, which Alan and Marilyn Bergman later adapted and wrote lyrics to. The resulting song, "More in Love with You", was recorded by Barbra Streisand for The Movie Album (2003).

Comic book adaption

Bibliography
  • Minnelli, Vincent & Harold Acre, I Remember It Well; Samuel French, 1975.

References
  1. "The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study{{inconsistent citations}} Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. THOMAS M. PRYOR (June 18, 1958). "M-G-M TO REMAKE A SILENT CLASSIC: Lists 'The Four Horsemen' as '59 'Super' Venture -- 'Passport,' Novel, Bought". New York Times. p. 40.
  3. THOMAS F. BRADY (June 16, 1947). "U-I TO FILM NOVEL OF CIRCUS CAREER: More Than $200,000 Reported as Price for 'Gus the Great,' Forthcoming Duncan Book". New York Times. p. 25.
  4. THOMAS M. PRYOR (July 11, 1958). "BRANDO COMPANY PLANS FIVE FILMS: Pennebaker, Inc., Will Start 2 Productions in August -- Preminger Signs Writer". New York Times. p. 15.
  5. THOMAS M PRYOR HOLLYWOOD. (July 27, 1958). "HOLLYWOOD SCENE: Jerry Wald Presents His Treasurer's Report -- Blaustein's 'Horsemen'". New York Times. p. X5.
  6. Scheuer, Philip K. (9 Apr 1959). "New Impetus Lent Activity at MGM: Siegel Cites Impressive List of Stories, Stars, New Faces". Los Angeles Times. p. B9.
  7. MURRAY SCHUMACH HOLLYWOOD. (Dec 20, 1959). "HOLLYWOOD VISTA: Extensive Production Slate Planned For 1960–1961 by Metro's Chiefs". New York Times. p. X7.
  8. RICHARD NASON (Oct 10, 1959). "COAST FILM FETE GAINING STATURE: San Francisco Event Draws Top Movies From Abroad -- Logan Makes Plans". New York Times. p. 12.
  9. Minnelli p 337
  10. Minnelli p 339
  11. Minnelli p 340
  12. "M-G-M TO REMAKE 'FOUR HORSEMEN': 4-Million Production to Begin Filming in France in Fall -- Actor, 20, May Get Lead". New York Times. Mar 3, 1960. p. 24.
  13. "Peale Film Bights Bought Special to The New York Times". New York Times. June 9, 1960. p. 28.
  14. "Minnelli p 341".
  15. Louella Parsons (Aug 10, 1960). "Ava Practically Set In 'Four Horsemen'". The Washington Post, Times Herald. p. B10.
  16. "Of Local Origin". New York Times. Sep 13, 1960. p. 40.
  17. Scheuer, Philip K. (Feb 19, 1961). "HORSEMEN,' 'BOUNTY STARS GLITTER IN MGM HEAVEN". Los Angeles Times. p. l3.
  18. MURRAY SCHUMACH (Dec 20, 1960). "WAR FILM HALTED BY PARIS REALITY: 'Four Horsemen' Back in U.S. When Student Riots End Plans for Mock Ones". New York Times. p. 44.
  19. MURRAY SCHUMACH (Jan 1, 1961). "HOLLYWOOD TWIST: New Time, War, People in the Remake Of 'Four Horsemen of Apocalypse'". New York Times. p. X5.
  20. EUGENE ARCHER (Feb 16, 1964). "INTONATIONS FROM A 'SILENT' SWEDE: SWEDEN'S INGRID THULIN REFLECTS". New York Times. p. X7.
  21. MURRAY SCHUMACH (Jan 5, 1962). "SOL SIEGEL TO QUIT AS M-G-M OFFICIAL: Production Chief Will Return to Independent Producing No Successor Named 'Mutiny' Exceeded Budget Of Local Origin". New York Times. p. 35.
  22. "'FOUR HORSEMEN' HAS PARIS PREMIERE". Los Angeles Times. Feb 9, 1962. p. C11.
  23. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the American Film Institute Catalog
  24. "D.C. Sloppy But Not Biz; 'Sergeants' Wham $22,000, 'Horsemen' Big 26G". Variety. February 14, 1962. p. 8.
  25. "DECLINE IN PROFIT SHOWN BY M-G-M: Quarter Earnings at 15c a Share, Against $1.78 in Like '6l Period GEORGIA-PACIFIC A.V. ROE CANADA COMPANIES ISSUE EARNING FIGURES OTHER COMPANY REPORTS". The New York Times. Apr 16, 1962. p. 56.
  26. "DVD Savant Review: The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  27. Crowther, Bosley (1962-03-10). "Movie Review – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Screen: '4 Horsemen of Apocalypse':New Version of Work by Blasco Ibanez Remake of 1921 Movie at the Loew's State". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  28. Scheuer, Philip K. (Feb 18, 1962). "'4 Horsemen of Apocalypse' Ride Again". Los Angeles Times. p. A3.
  29. Minnelli p 345
  30. "Dell Four Color #1250". Grand Comics Database.
  31. Dell Four Color #1250 at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
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