One of the best films i have seen

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Actually this movie wasn't enough understood by audiences and also have a low ratings from IMDb's reviewers,there some weak points to discuss as the age of Julio around forty years old,that's a problem really,but the main message is about peace,still...the four horseman are the Ghosts of the war bringing suffering,looses,and pain...breaking families whose are the key reason the entire production,another good point is about french's pride,when Julio saw a lot of young french women surrounded of German officers he realize that make something to do and accept to struggles against the invaders,more when your father beg for Chi Chi's life is quite touching...and finally the final clash between two cousins on a long frozen friendship due they are in opposites sides shown how world gone wild!!! Resume: First watch: 1980 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8

In the early 60's, this movie seemed old-fashioned. The new wave of just about everything had arrived and it seemed an attempt by MGM to recapture past glories. However, 50 years later, it is no longer associated with the movies of its time that made it seem so out of touch. After a shaky start, this movie gains momentum and delivers a powerful second half.The story starts just before World War 2. The patriarch of an Argentine family, Julio Madariaga - The Old One - played by Lee J Cobb, holds court over his extended family. His two daughters have married Europeans: a Frenchman played by Charles Boyer, and a German played by Paul Lukas.The story focuses on the grandchildren, who, although born in Argentina, form allegiances with their fathers' homelands. World War 2 is played out in microcosm within the family. The German side become confirmed Nazis, while the French connection supports the Resistance.One hurdle the film struggles to overcome is Cobb's over-the-top performance as The Old One.The movie opens as The Old One demonstrates his love of life. He performs a number of frenetic, boot-stomping gaucho dances in between taking chin-dribbling slurps of wine from a gourd - he also yells a lot. Lee J Cobb was a great actor with gravitas to spare, but he blew this one, and threw the movie off balance from the start. However, just as the crew of a ship in danger of capsizing can often save the situation by jettisoning excess cargo, twenty minutes into the film, The Old One throws a tantrum, staggers out into the rain and collapses face down in the "rich, dark soil of Argentina", exiting the movie.Glenn Ford plays Julio Desnoyers, the favourite grandson of The Old One. Ford was cast against type, he was such a solid screen presence that he seems awkward in the earlier scenes as the feckless, politically neutral playboy, but he eventually gives the film a degree of substance as his character gains a conscience and takes a stance.This must have been just about the last hurrah for actors such as Charles Boyer and Paul Lukas. Paul Hendreid as Etienne Laurier virtually revisits his role as Victor Laszlo from "Casablanca".The film features two striking actresses, one older and one younger. Beautiful and enigmatic Swedish actress, Ingrid Thulin who played Marguerite Laurier, apparently had her voice dubbed by Angela Lansbury. If so, she did it with an accent that sounded very much like Ingrid Thulin. Chi-Chi, Julio's passionate and altruistic younger sister, was played by Yvette Mimieux, who had imprinted herself on a generation of young males when she played the nymph-like Weena in "The Time Machine". Despite being somewhat studio-bound, the film opens out with effective location scenes in Paris. One thing I remember reading at the time was that Parisians were taken aback with the recreation of the Germans marching past the Arc de Triomphe - the war had been over for 17 years, but memories were still raw.Although the film is based on a novel and a silent film, the story in both those cases involved World War 1. Some critics compare this film unfavourably with the silent version, but surely there aren't many who could sit through it these days? The 1962 version is far more enjoyable.The movie boasts a powerful score by Andre Previn with a gorgeous love theme. The film also has an unexpected ending. All things considered, this is a movie well worth at least one viewing.

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.

Vincente Minnelli had it right, he wanted Alain Delon for the role of French/Argentine Julio Desnoyers and he would have been perfect in the part. However MGM insisted on an American, but why Glenn Ford. Back in the late forties he was laughable in the part of Don Jose in The Loves of Carmen with Rita Hayworth. Did anyone at MGM screen that before signing him up for this expensive remake of the silent classic The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse?Whatever else Glenn Ford was and I'm a big fan, he just doesn't cut it as the second Rudolph Valentino. So besides a miscast leading man, they had their troubles with the leading lady as well. Ingrid Thulin was trying to break into the international market as fellow Swedes Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman had done before her. Her Swedish accent was way too thick and supposedly she was indecipherable in her scenes. That familiar voice you hear coming from her mouth is that of Angela Lansbury who was dubbed over Thulin's voice. Poor Ingrid still remained a star in Sweden, but never did get any international acclaim.The rest of the cast is made of various continental types playing French and Germans. The plot of Vincente Blasco Ibanez's original novel is updated from World War I to World War II and changes are made to accommodate the different geopolitical situation in the two wars. Best performance in the film is that of Paul Henreid who plays Thulin's husband who while he's off to war and a POW camp, she's fooling around in Paris with Ford.Now you can believe she'd have found Valentino irresistible, but not Glenn Ford.