Les quatre cavaliers de l'apocalypse

I just caught this on TCM and it's the first time I've seen it since my teens. Either my maturity has given me a better appreciation for it or it has gotten better over the years, now that we're bombarded with so much garbage. I've carefully read all the comments here, and there's a common thread. Most take exception to the casting of Glenn Ford and classify the film as one of Minnelli's lesser efforts. It's not that I'm Glenn Ford's greatest fan, but I think he gives one of his finest performances here and is one of the movie's strengths. One doesn't have to be 21 to be a playboy; what he portrays, quite convincingly, is a mature dilletante. Minnelli's direction is typical of his late melodrama period that started with The Bad and the Beautiful. His style is jittery, baroque, and light years away from his airy musicals. The Four Horseman ranks right up there with some of his best later work, like Home From the Hill, Some Came Running, and The Cobweb. He has a particular flair for car scenes which started with his first Gothic, Undercurrent, in 1946. He gets one of the finest performances I've ever seen out of that limited actor, Charles Boyer. His scene with the gifted Paul Lukas where they mourn the deaths of their children is powerful and touching beyond words. The great disappointment, as everyone has noted, is the legendary dubbing of Ingrid Thulin by Angela Lansbury. What I find most peculiar is that I think Lansbury did not loop ALL of Thulin's dialogue, some lines sound like the voice of Thulin that I remember from The Damned and Return from the Ashes. The obvious question is: Why did M-G-M hire her if there was a problem with the voice? Didn't they test her before contract signing? In any case, the dubbing is unfortunate; her looks and performance are exquisite. My recommendation: SEE THIS GOOD, OLD FASHIONED, REALLY BIG MOVIE. P.S. Check out the magnificent, huge Andre Previn score.

A film that's always been held in a great deal of affection here in Spain (and not just because it's a Blasco Ibañez story, nor because hearing it dubbed into Spanish relieves us of Angela Lansbury). As far as I'm concerned, and pace the other reviewers, Glenn Ford's utterly convincing portrayal of Julio is by far the best thing about it. So what if he's a bit long in the tooth? a great many real-life playboys are, and his maturity makes the romantic dilemmas posed by the plot all the more poignant. From start to finish he's seriously, dangerously likeable, which he certainly needs to be in order to win the love of a beautiful, intelligent and patriotic Frenchwoman over her heroic Resistance husband. The romance actually convinces, against the odds, and saves a movie that might otherwise easily have been a ghastly flop.

After all, what else is there? Andre Previn's music is impressively dramatic but there is a worrying lack of restraint in the score, both in the overblown intro and the pretty but intrusive "love theme" cue, complete with solo violin, which insists on being heard every time the hero and heroine so much as glance at one another. The "four horsemen" vision manages to stay just this side of Monty Python (with the aid of swirling clouds), but doesn't save the opening scenes of the film from lurching full-pelt into overplayed melodrama (the death of the patriarch Madariaga: one too many thunderclaps for a start), and doesn't tie in too well with what was eventually left in from Blasco Ibañez's tale (pestilence? famine? where?). The plot is 100% predictable, and the rest of the acting is competent without being memorable.

I must admit, though, I was impressed by the very Minnelli-esque sequence which took Ford's eyes staring at a scene of dancing and frivolity between Nazi officers and collaborationist women, superimposing the two and mixing in newsreel-style war footage; likewise, Henreid's heartstopping portrayal, in one scene, of a man almost broken by torture, emerging from a Gestapo jail; and the finely judged acceleration at the end towards the story's predictable but satisfying climax. Not a film I will want to make a habit of seeing, but would certainly stand a second and maybe even a third viewing.

Remake from classic silent (1921) set in WWI and directed by Fred Niblo with Rodolfo Valentino , Alan Hale , Alice Terry that is still deemed the best . This one , updated to WWII deals with an Argentinian family man patriarch named Julio Madariaga (Lee J. Cobb) who reunites his diverse members as French (Charles Boyer and his sons Glenn Ford and Yvette Mimieux) as well as German (Paul Lukas , Karl Boehn) but with the Nazi outbreak the events get worse . Some years later , in Paris the various components of the grievous family cross their destinations with tragic results . Meanwhile , in the city of lovers , the day the clocks stopped turning and the world stood still , the protagonist (Glenn Ford) falls in love with the resistance leader's (Paul Henreid) wife (Ingrid Thulin , allegedly dubbed by Angela Lansbury)

This dramatic film is packed with an excellent cast , thrills , suspense , emotion , betrayal , a loving triangle and historical events . Complex anti-WWII story about cousins and uncles who fight on opposite sides . It depicts the tormentous period during painful Nazi invasion in Paris , including Resistance activities , Gestapo cruelties , and other sorrowful happenings . It is accompanied by a rousing and sensitive musical score by composer Andre Previn . Based on a novel by the Spanish Vicente Blasco Ibañez whose books have been adapted several times as ¨Blood and sand¨ , ¨The temptress¨ , ¨Cañas y Barro¨ and ¨Mare Nostrum¨ , among others . Glimmer cinematography by Milton Krasner , he is one of the few cameramen for whom Technicolor seems to have been invented , it includes colorist imaginary that still staggers as when appear the four riders , Pest , Hunger , War , Death . The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John the Evangelist . Although some interpretations differ, the four riders are commonly seen as symbolizing Conquest, War, Famine and Death, respectively. The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the four horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment.

The motion picture is lavishly produced by Julian Blaustein and well directed by Vincente Minelli . Vincente was an expert on musicals , being hired by MGM for many years . After working on numerous Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland vehicles , usually directed by Busby Berkeley , Arthur Freed gave him his first directorial assignment on ¨Cabin in the sky¨ (1943), a risky screen project with an all-black cast . This was followed by the ambitious period piece , the classic ¨Meet me in St. Louis¨ (1944) whose star Judy Garland he married in 1945 . Many of his films included in every one of his movies features a dream sequence such as ¨Four horsemen of Apocalypse¨ . Employing first-class MGM technicians , including Erich Von Stroheim , Minnelli continued directing musicals as ¨The band wagon¨ (1953) , ¨Kismet¨, ¨The pirate¨ , ¨ An American in Paris¨ , ¨Brigadoon¨ as well as melodramas as ¨Some came running¨ (1958) , ¨Madame Bovary¨, ¨The sandpiper¨ and urban comedies like ¨Designing woman¨ (1957), occasionally even working on two films simultaneously . In his last average film titled ¨Nina¨ worked with his daughter Liza Minnelli . Rating ¨Four horsemen of Apocalypse ¨ : Better than average , it's a good story though sometimes falls plain , well worth watching .

Vincente Minnelli's updating of Vicente Blasco Ibanez's novel is an absorbing melodrama which, as another viewer has noted, must have been watched by Visconti before he made his film The Damned a few years later.

The film begins with the Desnoyers family gathering for dinner following the return of Heinrich (Karl Boehm) from a spell in Germany where, to the disgust of grandfather Julio, he has been indoctrinated into the ideology of the Nazi party. The grandfather is played by Lee J. Cobb and it's a blessing that the old boy pegs it during dinner because Cobb not only chews the scenery but the sets and props as well. Despite this, the lines are clearly drawn between the two sides of the family: Heinrich and his father Karl (Paul Lukas) on one side, Julio No' 2 (Glenn Ford) and little sister Chi Chi (Yvette Mimieux) on the other.

Julio is a playboy with no interest in the war; he prowls swish parties for available women, sidling between arguments of the impending war as he closes in on his prey. Sadly, Ford, usually a likable enough leading man, doesn't possess the necessary predatory swagger to pull of the role. In fact, he is so badly miscast that he seems to be adrift throughout the film, as if trying to figure out how he was ever chosen for the role (Minnelli wanted Alain Delon, apparently, and we can only imagine what an altogether different interpretation he would have given to the part).

The predicament in which the Desnoyer family find themselves is wholly absorbing as the war slowly tears its members apart. Most imaginable sea-changes in personal opinions are explored during the course of the story, from the discovery of a hidden integrity on Julio's part, to disillusion on the part of Karl, the WW1 veteran who allows himself to be swept up in the triumphalism of the Nazi's rise only to find his son becoming irrevocably morally corrupted by the same experiences.

The movie never won any awards, which is probably how it should be, but it provides an intelligent and literary exploration of a fascinating subject that makes it easy to watch despite its bloated running time.

This film has many fine qualities, some oddball aspects, and some things of interest because of how they relate to other work by the creative artists. For example, Minnelli returns to Paris location shooting as he did in 'American in Paris' and 'Gigi', but this time to re-create wartime Paris and what it was like to be part of the Resistance, as well as what life was like among the privileged Parisian collaborators who lived the good life under Nazi rule. In spite of MGM glamour and production values that must have cost a fortune, Minnelli and his screenwriters often succeed in portraying the anguish of that time, the moral crisis of privileged neutrals, and the courage of those who resisted. Credit must go to a splendid cast of Hollywood veterans and some talented newcomers. Paul Henreid shows up playing, what else?, a resistance hero. Ingrid Thulin's Swedish accent must have been too much for MGM's money men - they had her dialogue dubbed by Angela Lansbury, and pretty effectively too. One of the greatest pleasures of the film is Andre Previn's score. If you like your movie music big, complex, intrusive, and romantic, you'll agree that this score is one of the great overlooked gems of Hollywood soundtracks.

What's bad about the movie? Glenn Ford for starters, not too believable as an Argentinian playboy. But that may just be a matter of taste.