The film that launched the career of Valentino, put the wobbly Metro Pictures (pre Goldwyn-Mayer) on terra firma, introduced a new star in Alice Terry, and made Rex Ingram's reputation as a prestige director, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was an all-around triumph. Cinematography by John Seitz and the painterly, atmospheric visual sensibilities of Ingram (whose The Magician we present on June 21) make it still spectacular viewing. "Without detracting a whit from von Stroheim's insistence on the authenticating detail," critic Arthur Knight has written, "Ingram's technique was basically the same-but with a greater flair for the romantic sweep of a scene." The film is an adaptation of the Ibáñez novel about members of a French-German-Argentine family fighting on opposite sides during the First World War. But it is less memorable as a war film than as a forum for the romantic sentiments of the popular author, embodied in Valentino's Latin moodiness (and in particular in a stunning tango sequence)-and perhaps for homefront sentiments of vengeance, as well.