| Mare Nostrum | |
|---|---|
_poster_1.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Rex Ingram |
| Written by | Willis Goldbeck |
| Based on | Mare Nostrum byVicente Blasco Ibáñez |
| Produced by | Rex Ingram |
| Starring | Antonio Moreno Alice Terry |
| Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
| Edited by | Grant Whytock |
| Music by | William Axt |
| Distributed by | MGM |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (Englishintertitles) |
Mare Nostrum is a 1926 Americansilentwardrama film directed byRex Ingram. It was the first production made by Ingram while in voluntary exile[1] and stars Ingram's wife,Alice Terry. The film is set duringWorld War I, and follows a Spanish merchant sailor who becomes involved with a German spy. It is based on the novel of the same name byVicente Blasco Ibáñez. Long thought lost, the film was re-discovered in 1994.[2]
As a young boy growing up in a Spanish family with a long and very distinguished maritime tradition, Ulysses Ferragut is regaled with tales of the sea by his retired uncle, the "Triton" (Apollon), and is particularly fascinated by his claim to have once seen the sea goddessAmphitrite. Though his lawyer father, Don Esteban, wants him to follow in his footsteps, Ulysses becomes a sailor.
When he is a grown man (Antonio Moreno), Ulysses uses his life savings to purchase theMare Nostrum, a fast, modern freighter, and prospers. However, he finally gives in to his wife, Doña Cinta, for the sake of their son Esteban, and agrees to sell his ship. With the outbreak ofWorld War I, however, the enormous profits to be made from the sudden demand for shipping ends this plan.
On a stop in Italy, Ulysses visits the ruins ofPompeii, and meets Freya Talberg (Alice Terry) and the learned Doctor Fedelmann. He soon falls in love with Freya (who looks exactly like his uncle's painting of Amphitrite). Though she later informs him that she is anAustrian spy (as is Fedelmann), Spain is neutral and his ardor is undiminished. He agrees to transport Count Kaledine to a secret rendezvous in the Mediterranean. TheU-boatU-35 surfaces, takes on fuel from Ulysses' ship, and departs with Kaledine.
Meanwhile, young Esteban leaves home without permission to find his father. After a week waiting for Ulysses at his lodgings, Esteban goes back to Barcelona aboard theCalifornian, a British passenger ship. However, the boy is killed when theCalifornian is sunk by theU-35. Ulysses learns of his son's fate from a survivor, and realizes to his grief his role in the tragedy. He vows to avenge his boy.
Upon hearing of the death, Freya sends Ulysses a letter denouncing the barbarity of the act; it is intercepted by Doctor Fedelmann. That, along with Freya's admission she has fallen in love with Ulysses, convinces Fedelmann that her subordinate can no longer be trusted. She sends Freya toMarseille, intending to betray her to the French. Freya suspects as much, and begs Ulysses to take her to safety aboard his ship. Ulysses is torn, but a vision of his son shaking his head makes him refuse. Freya is later captured, convicted, and shot by afiring squad at dawn.
As he is leaving Freya's apartment, Ulysses encounters Count Kaledine. After a brief struggle, he chases Kaledine through the streets, gathering a mob. Kaledine is caught and taken into custody.
Ulysses then employs theMare Nostrum in the service of the Allies, arming her with adeck gun, replacing his crew with French military sailors, and transporting munitions toSalonica. Only longtime family friend and sea cook Caragol refuses to leave him. On the voyage, they are intercepted by theU-35. With theMare Nostrum torpedoed and doomed, Ulysses mans the abandoneddeck gun and sinks theU-35. As Ulysses descends into the ocean depths, Amphitrite rises to embrace and kiss him.
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"Between Europe and Africa stretching from Gibraltar to the Syrian Coast, lies the Mediterranean, land-locked and tideless, known to theancients asMare Nostrum—'Our Sea'...Upon its bosom mankind spread the first sail, from its depths the sea gods were born."—Opening titles forMare Nostrum (1926).[3]
Rex Ingram's reputation as an outstanding Hollywood director[4] rested on the enormous success of his 1921The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a film adaption of Spanish novelistVicente Blasco Ibáñez’s work that had, according toKevin Brownlow “made a star ofValentino, savedMetro Pictures from bankruptcy, and earned the director the undying gratitude of the head of Metro,Marcus Loew.”[5] Ingram was determined to adapt another Ibáñez novel, his 1918Mare Nostrum, “an epic tale of World War I espionage and naval battles.” The title was taken from theLatin term used by ancient Romans for theMediterranean Sea.[6]
Ingram purchased the formerGaumont studio located inNice, France, financed by M-G-M preliminary to makingMare Nostrum. The facility required extensive upgrades, and regional technical services support was inadequate.[7]Film archivist Kevin Brownlow writes:
“The glass roofs of the [Gaumont] studio created a furnace in the daytime, while at night, when a lot of the filming took place, arctic temperatures were recorded...French laboratories were found to be unsatisfactory. The London laboratories were too far away. Equipment set up in the studios developed defects and much negative was found to be unusable and necessitated many retakes. Eventually, technicians had to be brought in from Hollywood for this work.”[8]
The film adaptation required location shooting in France, Italy and Spain, obliging Ingram to allot the sequences shot in Barcelona to his cinematographerJohn F. Seitz.Mare Nostrum took 15 months to complete.[9]
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A highly regarded sequence inMare Nostrum depicts spy Freya Talberg's execution by German authorities for treason. Film archivist Kevin Brownlow describes it as “perhaps the finest sequence Ingram ever shot.”[10] Film historian Charles Higham describes Ingram's cinematic handling of her demise:
"Many sequences are admirably realized, but none as admirably as Freya’s (Alice Terry) downfall and ruin. Caught up by her own side, she is imprisoned and shot:Amphitrite is mortal after all. No one who saw it could forget the execution at Vincennes, her arrival by limousine, dressed in fashionable clothes (‘I shall die in my uniform’), her lofty bravery quenched by the actual sight of the rifles, her single horrifying glimpse of the coffin waiting to carry her away...Ingram never again equaled this sequence.”[11]
From the over one million feet of film Ingram shot, his editing produced a four-hour rough cut. The studio made further cuts, including scenes deemed anti-German by that country's embassy.Mare Nostrum, with a running time of just under two-hours premiered at New York'sCriterion Theatre on 15 February 1926.[12][13][14]
“Rex Ingram, a major talent who specialized in big films, was more a painter than a movie director, with little sense of pace and rhythm, [possessing] at best a superb pictorial flair. His finest work wasMare Nostrum (1926).”—Film historianCharles Higham inThe Art of the American Film: 1900-1971. (1973).[15]
Mare Nostrum opened to encouraging critical reviews, though bothMotion Picture Magazine andVariety reported that audience response at its premier was unimpressive.[16]Ingram insisted on retaining the original title from Ibáñez's novel, which some critics and audiences found perplexing (mare is Latin for “sea”, in English, a “female horse”).[17]
Movie-goers of Spanish and Italian descent flocked to the Mediterranean-themed picture at New York'sCapitol Theatre, grossing M-G-M almost $20,000 in the first two weeks of its release.[18]
Post-World War I nationalism in Europe polarized the reaction toMare Nostrum, which depicts a German U-boat destruction of a Spanish merchant ship. The film was praised in France and banned in Germany. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer issued amea culpa to placate their European markets.[19][20]
Ingram positioned the notable love scene between Alice Terry and Antonio Moreno in front of a large aquarium tank featuring a largeoctopus, eliciting audience “annoyance” atMare Nostrum’s New York premier. DirectorOrson Welles admired it, adapting the imagery for the seduction scene from hisThe Lady from Shanghai (1947).[21]
The youngMichael Powell worked as anapprentice grip on the film, having been introduced by set designerHarry Lachman. He later credited Ingram'sMare Nostrum with influencing his own directorial efforts, among themBlack Narcissus (1947) andThe Red Shoes (1948).[22]
Asecond film version ofMare Nostrum, this one asound film, was made in Spanish in 1948. It starredFernando Rey andMaría Félix, and was directed byRafael Gil, who, the year before, had directed the first full-length Spanish film version of the 1869Don Quixote ballet, based on theearly 17th century novel byMiguel de Cervantes.
