{ "id": "epy7fe9sdf", "slug": "the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse", "title": "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent", "label": "Early and silent cinema", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1914-1926", "label": "Released 1914 to 1926", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1914-1926" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent", "label": "Early and silent cinema", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis) is Rex Ingram's 1921 Metro silent epic adapted from Vicente Blasco Ibanez's 1916 novel, the top-grossing film of 1921 that made Rudolph Valentino a star and entered the National Film Registry in 1995.", "snippet": "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis) is Rex Ingram's 1921 Metro silent epic adapted from Vicente Blasco Ibanez's 1916 novel, the top-grossing film of 1921 that made Rudolph Valentino a star and entered the National Film Registry in 1995.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1914-1926", "markdown": "# The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse\n\n**The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse** is a 1921 American silent epic film directed by Rex Ingram, adapted by June Mathis from [Vicente Blasco Ibáñez](https://www.edgepedia.org/vicente-blasco-ibanez)'s best-selling 1916 novel about two interconnected Argentine families on opposite sides of the First World War. Produced by Metro Pictures and released in March 1921, it became the highest-grossing film of that year, made [Rudolph Valentino](https://www.edgepedia.org/rudolph-valentino) an overnight star, and is widely regarded by film historians as a turning point in American cinematic style.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Source | Novel *Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis* by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867–1928), published 1916; English translation first published London: Constable, 1921[4](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/adaptation-action-response-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-at-the-citizens-theatre-glasgow/6AB3BD4588EBEEB59AC0A0FC20083238) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) |\n| Principal credits | Directed and produced by Rex Ingram; scenario by June Mathis; cinematography by John F. Seitz; editing by Grant Whytock; Metro Pictures Corp. (Loew's Inc.)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) |\n| Cast | Rudolph Valentino as Julio Desnoyers, Alice Terry as Marguerite Laurier, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Alan Hale, Wallace Beery, and others[5](https://www.loc.gov/item/99401237/) • [6](https://descent.silentera.com/PSFL/data/F/FourHorsemenOfTheApoca1921.html) |\n| Release | March 1921, 132 minutes; first film released after Loew's takeover of Metro[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) |\n| Box office | Highest-grossing film of 1921, topping Chaplin's *The Kid*; one of the first silent films to make $1,000,000; grossed $4 million by the end of 1925[7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5842) |\n| Preservation | Selected for the United States National Film Registry in 1995; fully restored in the early 1990s by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's Photoplay Productions with a score by Carl Davis[5](https://www.loc.gov/item/99401237/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) |\n| Remake | 1962 version directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Glenn Ford and Ingrid Thulin, updated to a World War II setting[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nArgentina, on the vast ranch of Madariaga, a shrewd, wine-guzzling cattle baron who rules his family the way he rules his herd, by appetite and force of will. His daughter has married a Frenchman, Marcelo Desnoyers, a former soldier turned gentleman, and the old man openly despises him for his softness. Madariaga's favorite is his grandson Julio, a lazy, charming boy he half disapproves of and wholly adores. When Madariaga dies the fortune is divided, and Marcelo moves his household to Paris, settling into a comfortable townhouse and the comfortable life of a man of means on the eve of 1914.\n\nJulio grows into a young man of no profession and considerable vanity. He dabbles in painting, dances at every party, and lives off his father. At an artists' gathering he meets Marguerite Laurier, the young wife of an aging, ailing man, and the two begin an affair. She is torn between love and duty; he is torn between pleasure and, as yet, nothing at all.\n\n**The tango.** At a crowded dance hall, Julio takes the floor in a tight, dark gaucho costume with a high-collared jacket and a wide hat, and dances the tango while the camera watches him the way the whole room does, close and admiring, his hips and shoulders moving with an ease no American leading man had shown on screen before. It is the moment the Latin Lover was invented, and it remains one of the most famous dance sequences in film history.[17](https://silentfilm.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1/) • [18](https://cinemontage.org/apocalypse-then/)\n\nMeanwhile the family's ties stretch across the coming war. The family's German connections and divided loyalties mean that when the guns of August sound, the war does not arrive as news from elsewhere; it lands inside one household, with relatives on both sides. Etienne, Marguerite's husband, returns from abroad and the affair must end. Julio, called to duty, is transformed almost against his will: the wastrel who lived for dancing and painting becomes a soldier, and the film makes no pretense that he was secretly noble all along. The war educates him by force.\n\nThrough it all runs a recurring vision: the four horsemen of the title, War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death, riding out over the world as the conflict spreads, Ingram cutting between ballrooms and battlefields until the two registers merge.\n\nJulio dies at the front, turning to face his death bravely, while Marguerite turns just as bravely back to her duty, her infidelity purified through suffering and sacrifice.[19](https://hisfamestilllives.home.blog/2021/02/28/synopsis-and-analysis-of-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/) By the final scene the surviving members of the divided family, including Marcelo, are left amid the ruins of the old world, reunited to contemplate human folly and embrace one another.[20](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-part-nine-sex-war-the-sweep) The film closes with its most famous image, a vast, solemn procession of the war's dead rising and marching back toward their homes, a ghostly spectacle that reframes the whole picture as elegy.\n\n### Characters\n\n**Julio Desnoyers** (Rudolph Valentino) is the grandson at the story's center, a pleasure-loving idler who inherits his grandfather's appetites without his substance, and whose affair with a married woman and later enlistment trace his passage from vanity to sacrifice.\n\n**Marguerite Laurier** (Alice Terry) is the married woman Julio loves, torn between passion and duty, played with a quiet gravity that keeps the romance grounded.\n\n**Madariaga** is the Argentine patriarch, a rough, domineering cattle baron whose death scatters the family across two continents and two warring nations.\n\n**Marcelo Desnoyers** is Julio's French father, a man of comfort whose Paris household becomes the stage on which the war destroys the old order.\n\n### Interpretations and controversies\n\nThe film's anti-German portrayal was strong enough that Germany banned it outright.[21](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/four-horsemen-apocalypse) The ending has drawn discussion as well: some read it as pure tragedy, others find hope in the wistful, loving face of the mysterious stranger who appears among the dead, an image of consolation inside the grief.[19](https://hisfamestilllives.home.blog/2021/02/28/synopsis-and-analysis-of-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/)\n\n## The novel and the adaptation\n\nVicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel follows two interconnected families during the First World War who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, moving from the Argentine plains to the battlefields of France.[7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/) The book was a bestseller, and its title invokes the biblical horsemen of Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, who appear in the film as a visionary sequence unleashing the war upon the world.[9](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2025/04/05/on-blu-ray-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/)\n\n**June Mathis drove the project.** As head of Metro's script department, Mathis read the novel, persuaded studio president Richard Rowland to buy the rights, negotiated a favorable deal with the Spanish author, and wrote the screenplay herself.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) • [10](https://silentfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2004_Festival_Book.pdf) The film historian Benjamin Hampton wrote that when Rowland handed Mathis responsibility for producing the picture, she \"developed immediately into a competent executive\" and organized a staff that planned camera work with the director before photography began.[11](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.25526799) Contemporary reviewers praised the fidelity of her adaptation; the *New York Globe* wrote in March 1921 that it had \"done an impossible thing…with incredible skill and fidelity.\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) Ibáñez approved of the adaptation, although Germany objected to the film's content.[7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/)\n\n## Production\n\nMathis recommended her frequent collaborator Rex Ingram, a First World War veteran, as director, and Metro gave her screenwriting duties and a hands-on consulting role.[7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/) Filming began in July 1920 and lasted six months. In the hills overlooking [Griffith Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/griffith-park), builders erected the family castle together with its adjoining village for $25,000, a sum equal to what some entire Metro pictures cost to make. About 12,000 people were involved in the production, including 14 cameramen, and Ingram went to great lengths to recreate the 1914 Battle of the Marne.[10](https://silentfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2004_Festival_Book.pdf) • [7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/) Editor Grant Whytock, a frequent Ingram collaborator, had to sort through half a million feet of raw footage.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921)\n\nContemporary and later sources give different production costs: a March 1921 *New York Mirror* review put the cost \"in the neighborhood of $800,000\";[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) the San Francisco Silent Film Festival essay and TCM give a total of $1 million;[10](https://silentfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2004_Festival_Book.pdf) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) and Terry Ramsaye's contemporary account, cited by MoMA, states $640,000.[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5842) By any of these figures it was one of the largest budgets in cinema at the time.[12](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2011/10/06/lumiere-2011-la-marseillaise-et-le-tango-de-rudolf-valentino_5990294_3476.html)\n\nDespite being shot entirely in Hollywood and its environs, the film carries the detail one would expect from location work in Argentina and Europe, and its pictorial compositions marked a new level of artistry in visual storytelling.[3](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf)\n\n## Casting Valentino\n\nMathis had spotted Rudolph Valentino, then a minor actor typecast as a villain because of his dark looks, in a bit part in *Eyes of Youth* (1919), and insisted against advice that he play Julio Desnoyers. Ingram had to be convinced, but Mathis was adamant and worked with him to draw a nuanced performance from the unknown actor. Alice Terry, romantically involved with Ingram and married to him in 1921, was chosen as Julio's aristocratic lover Marguerite.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) • [10](https://silentfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2004_Festival_Book.pdf) Valentino's tango dancing in an Argentine café scene registered what MoMA's account calls his remarkable poise and grace, and the *Los Angeles Times* presciently wrote that in the role he had \"assumed a place among the most dominant romantic actors of the screen.\"[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5842) • [13](https://www.rexingram.ie/about-rex/director.html)\n\n## Reception and cultural impact\n\nAt that point in Metro's history, no other picture had earned such acclaim or box office returns, and among silent films it was among the earliest to gross $1,000,000.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) The Library of Congress film essay credits it with earning $9 million in its initial run, while MoMA records a gross of $4 million by the end of 1925; both figures mark it as the top box-office success of 1921, ahead of Chaplin's *The Kid*.[3](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5842) • [7](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/)\n\nIts cultural reach went beyond receipts. The film ignited what TCM describes as an unparalleled worship of Valentino, who became cinematic history's first screen idol, and it sparked pervasive fashions for tango dancing and gaucho clothing.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) • [9](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2025/04/05/on-blu-ray-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/) It also shifted audience attention from director to star, and it set the scale for the silent epics that followed, including *The Ten Commandments* (1923), *The Big Parade* (1925), *Ben-Hur* (1926), and *[Wings](https://www.edgepedia.org/wings-1927-film)* (1927), while inspiring later filmmakers such as [David Lean](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lean) and [Michael Powell](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-powell).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf) Analysts of silent cinema consider the 1921 film pivotal for its role in establishing screenwriting practices, in developing the star system, and as a typification of the back-lit \"soft\" style of late-silent cinematography.[4](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/adaptation-action-response-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-at-the-citizens-theatre-glasgow/6AB3BD4588EBEEB59AC0A0FC20083238)\n\nThe film was also a rare commercial exception in a period when war subjects were shunned: a [University of Kentucky](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-kentucky) study notes that very few pictures with a world war background were made between 1919 and the mid-1920s, and that Metro's *Four Horsemen* succeeded largely on the strength of its appeal as a major cultural event of 1921.[14](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573554.pdf)\n\n## Later versions and restoration\n\nMetro re-released the film in 1924 as a Metro-Goldwyn Picture.[6](https://descent.silentera.com/PSFL/data/F/FourHorsemenOfTheApoca1921.html) A sound-era remake directed by [Vincente Minnelli](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincente-minnelli), starring [Glenn Ford](https://www.edgepedia.org/glenn-ford) and Ingrid Thulin, moved the story forward to the [German occupation of Paris](https://www.edgepedia.org/paris-in-world-war-ii) in 1940.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) • [15](https://silentfilm.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-2/) The novel also returned to the stage: Peter Granger-Taylor's adaptation, directed by Jon Pope, was staged at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in March 1990, the first theatrical version in sixty years.[4](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/adaptation-action-response-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-at-the-citizens-theatre-glasgow/6AB3BD4588EBEEB59AC0A0FC20083238)\n\n**Restoration.** In 1992, following a full restoration by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's Photoplay Productions, the 1921 film returned to circulation at special screenings and on Britain's Channel Four and the US's TCM, accompanied by an original score by Carl Davis.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE) The 1993 Turner Entertainment restoration, distributed with Channel Four, restored scenes deleted or thought missing since the premiere, including original tinting and a brief Prizma Color sequence from the original release.[16](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012190/alternateversions/) The film was added to the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) in 1995 as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.[5](https://www.loc.gov/item/99401237/) Randy Haberkamp, Managing Director of Preservation and Foundation Programs at the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences), writes that seeing the Brownlow-supervised restoration showed him how consequential film preservation can be.[3](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9218-THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN-OF-THE-APOCALYPSE)\n2. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88148/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921)\n3. [Randy Haberkamp, film essay for The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/four_horsemen.pdf)\n4. [Ian Craven, \"Adaptation, Action, Response: 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow,\" New Theatre Quarterly](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/adaptation-action-response-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-at-the-citizens-theatre-glasgow/6AB3BD4588EBEEB59AC0A0FC20083238)\n5. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Library of Congress catalog record](https://www.loc.gov/item/99401237/)\n6. [Silent Era: Progressive Silent Film List, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)](https://descent.silentera.com/PSFL/data/F/FourHorsemenOfTheApoca1921.html)\n7. [AFI Catalog Spotlight: June Mathis and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse](https://www.afi.com/news/afi-catalog-spotlight-june-mathis-and-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/)\n8. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1921, directed by Rex Ingram, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5842)\n9. [On Blu-ray: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Midwest Film Journal](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2025/04/05/on-blu-ray-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/)\n10. [San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2004 Festival Book, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse](https://silentfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2004_Festival_Book.pdf)\n11. [June Mathis: The Rise and Fall of a Silent Film Visionary, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.25526799)\n12. [Lumière 2011: La \"Marseillaise\" et le tango de Rudolf Valentino, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2011/10/06/lumiere-2011-la-marseillaise-et-le-tango-de-rudolf-valentino_5990294_3476.html)\n13. [Rex Ingram Archive: Director](https://www.rexingram.ie/about-rex/director.html)\n14. [University of Kentucky study of the American war film](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232573554.pdf)\n15. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-2/)\n16. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Alternate Versions, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012190/alternateversions/)\n17. [https://silentfilm.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1/](https://silentfilm.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1/)\n18. [https://cinemontage.org/apocalypse-then/](https://cinemontage.org/apocalypse-then/)\n19. [https://hisfamestilllives.home.blog/2021/02/28/synopsis-and-analysis-of-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/](https://hisfamestilllives.home.blog/2021/02/28/synopsis-and-analysis-of-the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-1921/)\n20. [https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-part-nine-sex-war-the-sweep](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-part-nine-sex-war-the-sweep)\n21. [https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/four-horsemen-apocalypse](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/four-horsemen-apocalypse)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1914 to 1926*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is Rex Ingram's 1921 Metro silent epic adapted from Vicente Blasco Ibanez's 1916 novel, the top-grossing film of 1921 that made Rudolph Valentino a star and entered the National Film Registry in 1995." }