"The world's greatest director."

" ... the power to visualize the written word in picture form."

Rex Ingram

He was a prince of Hollywood, whose own life story reads like one of the romantic adventures he brought to the big screen. The son of an Irish minister, born in 1893, Rex Ingram immigrated to America in 1911 and attended Yale School of the Fine Arts. A friendship with the son of Thomas Edison led to his first film job and Ingram found himself in California a few years later. The simple, straightforward but remarkable visual realism of Ingram eventually placed him on an equal footing with the likes of Griffith and DeMille. He was hailed as "the world’s greatest director" by no less than Erich von Stroheim. Among his twenty-seven films, all the early work produced at Universal beginning in 1916 on which he built his reputation is considered lost. Only eight later films are known to survive.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) was a turning point in Ingram’s career. Alice Terry and Rudolph Valentino became stars and the film’s tremendous success elevated Metro Pictures to a dominant position when MGM formed three years later. The Conquering Power (1921) again teamed Terry with Valentino, but the Italian’s ego had grown with his popularity and he was replaced by Ramon Novarro for The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). On a weekend break in the shooting schedule, Ingram and Terry drove to Pasadena, were married on Saturday, spent the day watching movies on Sunday and were back to work on the set Monday morning. They remained together throughout their careers and in life until Ingram’s death in 1950.
With the forming of MGM in 1924, Ingram began to resent his eroding creative control and increasing interference from the newly developing studio system. Denied the opportunity to direct Ben-Hur (1925), after years spent encouraging Metro to produce the film, left him bitter and alienated. Along with his actors and production crew he left Hollywood and purchased Victorine Studios on the French Riveria, where Ingram created his best and final work. He produced a single sound film Baroud (1932), disliked the experience, and retired at the age of thirty-nine.
Terry returned to their home in California while Ingram wandered the North African desert for two years, before joining her. He wrote two novels, The Legion Advances (1934), and Mars in the House of Death (1939), indulged in painting and sculpture, was approached by the studios countless times with offers, but never worked in films again.

Highly regarded by his peers, von Stroheim entrusted Ingram with the first substantial edit of Greed (1924) cutting the film from a monsterous length of 42 reels down to 18. Once established as a major director, his touch was golden. He elevated the status of every collaborator and attracted the finest talent. Cinematographer John Seitz literally developed a film processing technique with Ingram that became a standard for the vivid, richly toned and detailed look of all their films. The motion picture achieved its greatest success as an expression of visual narrative in the late nineteen twenties, due in no small part to the work of Rex Ingram.

"Art is as important as the scope and power of its message."

On the small screen …

Available at Scarecrow Video,
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921)
The Conquering Power (1921)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)
Scaramouche (1924), and
The Magician (1926)
(VHS except Horsemen on DVD-R)

From Amazon.com on VHS,
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921), and
The Conquering Power (1921)

At the Seattle Public Library on VHS,
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921), and
Mare Nostrum (1926)

Coming attractions... The Prisoner of Zenda(1922)