Mare Nostrum is a 1926 American silent war drama film directed by Rex Ingram. It was the first production made by Ingram while in voluntary exileMiller, 2004 TCM: “Ingram was disgusted with Hollywood....[and] fled [to Europe] in 1924...in Nice, France... he bought his own studio in Nice, the Victorine...” to film Mare Nostrum.Brownlow, 2018: Ingram “so loathed Louis B. Mayer that he refused to allow his name on his pictures... still under contract [to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios], Ingram emigrated in 1924 to the south of France...using M-G-M money” to make films. and stars Ingram's wife, Alice Terry. The film is set during World 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 by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Long thought lost, the film was re-discovered in 1994.
Plot
As a young boy growing up in a Spanish family with a long, seafaring history, Ulysses Ferragut tells tales of the sea; Stories written by his retired uncle, the "Triton". He is particularly fascinated by his claim to have once seen the sea goddess Amphitrite. Though his father, Don Esteban, wants him to follow in his footsteps, Ulysses becomes a sailor.
When he is a grown man, Ulysses uses his life savings to purchase the Mare 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 of World 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 of Pompeii, and meets Freya Talberg 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 an Austrian 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. The U-boat U-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 the Californian, a British passenger ship. However, the boy is killed when the Californian is sunk by the U-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 to Marseille, 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 a firing 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 the Mare Nostrum in the service of the Allies, arming her with a deck gun, replacing his crew with French military sailors, and transporting munitions to Salonica. Only longtime family friend and sea cook Caragol refuses to leave him. On the voyage, they are intercepted by the U-35. With the Mare Nostrum torpedoed and doomed, Ulysses mans the abandoned deck gun and sinks the U-35. As Ulysses descends into the ocean depths, Amphitrite rises to embrace and kiss him.
Cast
Production
Rex Ingram's reputation as an outstanding Hollywood directorMiller, 2004 TCM: “...because with hits like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923) he was considered one of Hollywood's top directors.” rested on the enormous success of his 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a film adaption of Spanish novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez ’s work that had, according to Kevin Brownlow “made a star of Valentino, saved Metro Pictures from bankruptcy, and earned the director the undying gratitude of the head of Metro, Marcus Loew.”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “...Rex Ingram had his biggest success with 1921's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel...”Miller, 2004 TCM: “He had scored one of his biggest successes with his adaptation of Spanish novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1921.” Ingram was determined to adapt another Ibáñez novel, his 1918 Mare Nostrum, “an epic tale of World War I espionage and naval battles.” The title was taken from the Latin term used by ancient Romans for the Mediterranean Sea.Miller, 2004 TCM: “...Ibanez's favorite novel, Mare Nostrum, an epic tale of World War I espionage and naval battles, seemed a natural choice for Ingram.”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “...Mare Nostrum, a retelling of the Mata Hari story set during the U-boat campaign” in World War I.
Ingram purchased the former Gaumont studio located in Nice, France, financed by M-G-M preliminary to making Mare Nostrum. The facility required extensive upgrades, and regional technical services support was inadequate.Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: Ingram “took over a rundown former Gaumont studio [in southern France]...Using MGM money, Ingram re-equipped it.”Miller, 2004 TCM: “For Mare Nostrum, he bought his own studio in Nice [France], the Victorine. Although it required extensive modernization, he got around that by including the costs within the budget paid by MGM...” Film archivist Kevin Brownlow writes:
The film adaptation required location shooting in France, Italy and Spain, obliging Ingram to allot the sequences shot in Barcelona to his cinematographer John F. Seitz. Mare Nostrum took 15 months to complete.Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “Shot in picturesque locations such as Barcelona, Naples, Paestum, Marseilles, and Pompeii, Mare Nostrum took fifteen months to make.”Miller, 2004 TCM: “Everything about Mare Nostrum was big. It was shot in three countries -- France, Italy and Spain -- on such a massive scale that Ingram couldn't even direct the Spanish sequences himself. He handed them instead to cinematographer John F. Seitz. It took so long to make the film ...15 months...”
A highly regarded sequence in Mare 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.”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “Perhaps the finest sequence Ingram ever shot was the execution of Freya. For the sake of atmosphere, he hired the same bugle band that had attended the execution of Mata Hari. The 24th Battalion de Chasseurs Alpins, “the Blue Devils,” also appeared in the sequence, photographed at Vincennes, near the Pathé factory, where such executions had so frequently been carried out.” Film historian Charles Higham describes Ingram's cinematic handling of her demise:
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's Criterion Theatre on 15 February 1926.Miller, 2004 TCM: “In addition, Ingram shot much more film than he could have used -- over one million feet. After much editing, MGM came up with a version running just under two hours for its New York premiere...”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “Editor Grant Whytock estimated that the rough cut of the film reached twenty-three thousand feet [and] ‘ended up with two hours of film.’” And: “It is safe to assume that many important scenes were eliminated on orders from MGM's front office, including some anti-German scenes after complaints from the German Embassy. An abbreviated version of 115 minutes had its premiere at the Criterion Theatre, New York, on February 15, 1926...”Soares, p. 131, p. 137 (note).Susan Delson, Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2006, , p. 72.
Critical and popular response
Mare Nostrum opened to encouraging critical reviews, though both Motion Picture Magazine and Variety reported that audience response at its premier was unimpressive.Miller, 2004 TCM: “Even shortened, however, it was a critical triumph...”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “The initial reviews and public response were encouraging. But according to Motion Picture magazine, it was a cold premiere. A flop.” And: “Variety considered it ‘draggy’ and reported that the depiction of the enemy drew snickers on the first night. ‘Besides which,’ Variety continued, ‘it's a gruesome tale without a solid laugh during the entire telling.’” 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”).Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “The title didn't help: Ingram had fought as hard to retain the original Latin as he had to keep the tragic ending. He had even been reluctant to add the subtitle ‘Our Sea’...(Broadway wags called it ‘Horse Liniment’).”
Movie-goers of Spanish and Italian descent flocked to the Mediterranean-themed picture at New York's Capitol Theatre, grossing M-G-M almost $20,000 in the first two weeks of its release.Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “...the picture did good business in New York for a while thanks to the Italian and Spanish population, smashing records at the Capitol, grossing $118,249 in two weeks.”
Post-World War I nationalism in Europe polarized the reaction to Mare 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 a mea culpa to placate their European markets.Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “In August came the French premiere, attended by the prime minister, infuriating the Germans who banned the film...MGM, facing a boycott from Central Europe, gave a formal promise to refrain from the production of pictures ‘tending to provoke international animosity.’ .The studio began making films portraying the Germans in a more favorable light...” And:"Mare Nostrum gradually slumped at the box office..."Harry Waldman, Beyond Hollywood's Grasp: American Filmmakers Abroad, 1914-1945, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow, 1994, , p. 37.
Influence Ingram positioned the notable love scene between Alice Terry and Antonio Moreno in front of a large aquarium tank featuring a large octopus, eliciting audience “annoyance” at Mare Nostrum’s New York premier. Director Orson Welles admired it, adapting the imagery for the seduction scene from his The Lady from Shanghai (1947).Miller, 2004 TCM: “Although hard to find for years, it would have a huge influence on other filmmakers. Orson Welles drew on one sequence, a love scene between Terry and Moreno played in front of the octopus tank in an aquarium. In The Lady From Shanghai (1947), Rita Hayworth seduces Welles while in front of a tank in which one fish preys on another.”Brownlow, 2018 SFSFF: “the symbolic love scene with an octopus in a tank [was completed with] one take...(it influenced Orson Welles to try something similar in Lady from Shanghai.)” And: “The aquarium love scenes were the most annoying [premier audiences] had witnessed...”