The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) on Netflix
Julio, grandson of a wealthy Argentine landowner, moves to Paris when the family splits between France and Germany. There he meets Marguerite Laurier, the wife of Etienne Laurier.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on Prime
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.1/103,860 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Madariaga, a landowner in Argentina known as The Centaur, has two daughters, one married to the German Karl von Hartrott and one to the Frenchman Marcelo Desnoyers. He favors the French branch and enjoys the company of his grandson Julio, whom he takes to the bars of the Boca district in Buenos Aires. After Madariaga dies, the family divides between Germany and France. Julio settles in Paris, where he falls for Marguerite Laurier, the young wife of Etienne Laurier.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- June Mathis insisted that Rudolph Valentino play Julio in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but Metro executives were nervous about the young actor, whose distinctly Latin look was then rarely used on screen. Mathis got her way, and she and director Rex Ingram expanded Julio's role after seeing the rushes.
- The film took six months to shoot, cost $800,000 and had 72 principal players, yet Rudolph Valentino was paid only $350 a week, less than other players. He also had to supply his own costumes, which cost him thousands.
- The tango scene was written into the film even though it was not in Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel. Rudolph Valentino had worked as a taxi dancer in New York, and the dance was added to show off his skills.
- American censorship boards objected to parts of the film. The Pennsylvania board, reviewing the affair between Julio and Marguerite, required that intertitles call Marguerite the fiancée of Etienne Laurier rather than his wife.
- In their scenes together, Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry spoke French so that lip readers would be convinced. Valentino was fluent in French because his mother was French.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse made the little-known Rudolph Valentino a superstar and fixed his image as a Latin lover. It also set off a tango craze and fashion fads such as gaucho pants.
- In 1919, screenwriter June Mathis became head of the scenario department at Metro Pictures, and with that position one of the first female executives in film history.
