Main Cast: Uni Apollon, Alice Terry, Antonio Moreno, Kada-Abd-el-Kader, Alex Nova, Hughie Mack
Release Year: 1926
Country: US
Run Time: 10rl minutes
Plot
Having struck box-office gold with his adaptation of the mystical Vincent Blasco-Ibanez novel The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, producer-director Rex Ingram adapted another Ibanez best-seller, Mare Nostrum, as a vehicle for his hauntingly beautiful actress wife Alice Terry. Set during WWI, the film casts Terry as Freya Talberg, a German secret agent. Though she seems to have ice water in her veins (there's even a hint that she prefers the company of women over men), Freya loses her heart to a Spanish sea captain, Ulysses Ferragut (Antonio Moreno). As a result, she is captured and sentenced to be executed, going to her death with a poise and dignity befitting a Joan of Arc. The firing-squad sequence is the film's piece de resistance, brilliantly photographed from the heroine's point of view by ace cinematographer John F. Seitz. Perhaps because virtually all the major characters die at the end, the film was a financial flop, even though its anti-war sentiments were perfectly attuned to the mid-1920s. For many years one of the most highly sought-after "lost" films, Mare Nostrum was restored to a reasonable approximation of its original tinted and toned glory in the late 1970s and has been shown several times over the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
To escape the confining Metro back lot and get as far away as possible from producer Louis B. Mayer, whom he reportedly despised, director Rex Ingram brought his wife, Alice Terry, along with leading man Antonio Moreno and comic relief character Hughie Mack to Europe for Mare Nostrum, the director's second Vicente Blasco Ibanez screen adaptation following the phenomenally successful The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1921. Thus, it is the real Pompeii and Paestum we see here, and not studio mock-ups, making Mare Nostrum something of an eye-opener. (The popular "forbidden room" in Pompeii's Lupanares Street with its erotic murals has a "ladies may not enter" label in Moreno's guidebook.) Avoiding Hollywood constraints, Mare Nostrum doesn't look like any other American silent film, with the possible exception of Lillian Gish's The White Sister, filmed in Italy a few years earlier. The ending, which leaves no one left standing, may have been faithful to Ibanez, but it was certainly against everything the newly founded MGM stood for, winning Ingram no favors with Mayer. Unhappily, Ibanez's romantic story, cameraman John F. Seitz's always interesting visuals, the realistic mise-en-scéne, and the fine acting of the European supporting cast depend entirely on the believability of Terry, who, although conventionally pretty and a fine actress when given the right material, is little more than a junior league Mata Hari as the Austrian seductress. One cannot help but wonder how Mare Nostrum, considered a failure when first released, would have been received had Ingram cast MGM's newest import, Greta Garbo, in the all-important role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Mme. Kithnou - Dona Cinta; Michael Brantford - Esteban; Rosita Ramirez - Pepita; Frederick Mariotti - Toni; Mme. Paquerette - Dr. Fedelmann; Fernand Mailly - Count Kaledine; Andre von Engleman - Submarine Commander
Credit
Ben Carre - Art Director, Michael Powell - First Assistant Director, Rex Ingram - Director, Grant Whytock - Editor, John F. Seitz - Cinematographer, Rex Ingram - Producer, Willis Goldbeck - Screenwriter, Vicente Blasco Ibanez - Screenwriter, Vicente Blasco Ibanez - Book Author
The young Michael Powell worked as an apprenticegrip on the film, having been introduced by set-designer Harry Lachman. The part of The Triton was played by the French strongmanApollon (Louis Uni), reputedly one of the strongest men in history. Unusually, for an American film, it was shot in Europe. The international cast included Ingram and Terry's adopted son, Kada-Abd-el-Kader, whom they later disowned.[1] After they disowned him he decided that he would shove his head in the washingmachine
Long thought lost, the film has recently been re-discovered and restored.
Cultural impact
Featuring some fine silent acting and primitive special effects, this early spy film was enormously popular in its time.
Plot summary
The Spanish captain of the eponymous fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea during World War I falls in love with a German spy.
