Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

Rudolph Valentino stars in this Rex Ingram production from the novel by Vicente Blasco-Ibáñez. Alice Terry costars (as would be expected in an Ingram film), and a host of recognized actors support including Josef Swickard, Brinsley Shaw, Alan Hale, Mabel Van Buren, Nigel de Brulier, John Sainpolis, Mark Fenton, Stuart Holmes, Jean Hersholt, Kathleen Key, Wallace Beery, Curt Rehfeld, Harry S. Northrup, Claire De Lorez and Bull Montana.

This budget DVD edition of The Four Horsemen has been mastered from a VHS videotape copy of a slightly windowboxed video transfer from a moderately contrasty 16mm reduction print, yielding a reluctantly watchable disc. What image detail was left in the reduction print is worsened by substandard digital video mastering. Freeze-frames from every point in the disc are full of compression artifacts that won’t escape the critical eye.

This disc also includes a documentary on Valentino, and a 1923 audio recording of The Kashmiri Song by Rudolph Valentino.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
DELTA ENTERTAINMENT has discontinued business and this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. There is a moderate amount of speckling and dust, with the occasional emusion chiping and other print flaws. Image detail is a bit softer than would be desired.

The film is accompanied by an improvised music score performed on an upright piano by Keith Taylor.

Over the years, this company has released DVD-R editions under a number of company names, with the same catalog number and UPC number, including Nostalgia Family Video, Hollywood’s Attic (as originally reviewed), RetroFlix, and (as of 2015) Reel Vault. The edition is not bad but there is still hope that a better-looking home video edition will be produced by a national company.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Sight unseen, this is not a recommended home video edition of the film but there is room for an improved home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by a music score performed by Blaine Gale.

Over the years, this company has released DVD-R editions under a number of company names, with the same catalog number and UPC number, including Nostalgia Family Video (as originally noted), Hollywood’s Attic, and (as of 2015) Reel Vault. Apparently, the edition was rereleased under the Hollywood’s Attic moniker with a new music score by Keith Taylor (as noted above).

NOSTALGIA FAMILY VIDEO has discontinued business and this DVD-R edition is . . .

Other silent era REX INGRAM films available on home video.