vincentlynch-moonoi To begin with, for those who say they can't see Glenn Ford as an Argentinian, I suggest they read up on the ethnography of Argentina. Second, although it's natural to make comparisons, I am looking at this film as a solitary work of art...not as something to compare to a silent film or to a book. I let this film stand on its own.A major criticism of this film is Glenn Ford's age (46) at the time of filming. First, stars then and now often don't play characters of their real age. But beyond that, were there no rich Argentinian men who were 46 at the time of World War II? Is it impossible to show the horror of the Four Horsemen if Glenn Ford is 46 (Conquest, War, Famine, and Death)? It depended on the country and particular time period, but soldiers in their 40s were not uncommon in World War II. You are free to like or dislike this film, but this criticism in the world of cinema is not entirely valid.I was pleased that when I read the entry in Wikipedia about this film that it noted that the film has "gained some positive critical reappraisal in recent years". And well it should. This was a fairly big budget film with excellent production values. It delineates the destruction of an entire family as a result of war. Frankly, there are few war films that have accomplished that with such class.The cast is excellent. I usually find Glenn Ford an asset to almost any film, and this is one of his better performances as one of the sons of Argentina who gets caught up in a world at war. Ingrid Thulin's performance as the wife of a member of the French resistance...and lover to Glenn Ford's character...was superb; wish she had done more American films in her career. Charles Boyer was excellent as one of the old fathers; to be honest, I had forgotten that he was still appearing in films well into the 1970s...he aged well as an actor. Lee J. Cobb...well, perhaps an exaggerated performance that, although key to the story line, only extended into the first few minutes of the film. Paul Lukas was, as usual, excellent as the other old father who loses all his children to the war...he paid the price of being a Nazi officer. Yvette Mimieux had little screen time, but it was nice seeing her in a film where she wasn't playing a mentally defective person. Paul Henreid played a member of the Resistance here, and I can't honestly say he played it well. His best days as an actor were behind him.I highly recommend this film to the serious film-watcher.

nomoons11 This is a pretty obvious stinker. Not long into this you realize why the stars signed up for this one. They probably got payed well.Where to start. Can you imagine Glenn Ford playing the role of a college age student just flitting about Argentina and Europe during the start of WWII? By this time he was 45 years old. Dying his and darkening his skin a bit couldn't convince me. His acting was so wooden in this I believe I could get more out of staring at a Cigar Store Indian.I won't even get into Ingrid Thulin. Let's just say she musta owed someone to star in this. For me the only actor worth mentioning is Charles Boyer. For the little part he had he did OK. He usually does.For me the whole reason, or most of the reason, for this negative review is the first 15 minutes and the acting by the grandfather character. For around 15 minutes or so we get a speech from this patriarch of the family and when he spewed this drivel out, all I could imagine was if he were wearing a Shakespeare costume and the sets were different, it would just be like a Shakespearean play. This long and winding oratory sounded like it came straight outta Macbeth or Othello or whatever. It had no place in this film. He overacted his small part and I knew then I was in for a dud...and it was.This screenplay was just plain bad. I mean some of the dialog just didn't work. I think what made it worse was the acting. To say it was bad would be an understatement (listen for some really bad audio dubs to...it's a laugh).Simply put, this film was obviously in trouble in pre-production...screenplay wise...so they got a few big stars and tried to make it work...It didn't.

bkoganbing Vincente Minnelli had it right, he wanted Alain Delon for the role of French/Argentine Julio Desnoyers and he would have been perfect in the part. However MGM insisted on an American, but why Glenn Ford. Back in the late forties he was laughable in the part of Don Jose in The Loves of Carmen with Rita Hayworth. Did anyone at MGM screen that before signing him up for this expensive remake of the silent classic The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse?Whatever else Glenn Ford was and I'm a big fan, he just doesn't cut it as the second Rudolph Valentino. So besides a miscast leading man, they had their troubles with the leading lady as well. Ingrid Thulin was trying to break into the international market as fellow Swedes Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman had done before her. Her Swedish accent was way too thick and supposedly she was indecipherable in her scenes. That familiar voice you hear coming from her mouth is that of Angela Lansbury who was dubbed over Thulin's voice. Poor Ingrid still remained a star in Sweden, but never did get any international acclaim.The rest of the cast is made of various continental types playing French and Germans. The plot of Vincente Blasco Ibanez's original novel is updated from World War I to World War II and changes are made to accommodate the different geopolitical situation in the two wars. Best performance in the film is that of Paul Henreid who plays Thulin's husband who while he's off to war and a POW camp, she's fooling around in Paris with Ford.Now you can believe she'd have found Valentino irresistible, but not Glenn Ford.

kinolieber This film has many fine qualities, some oddball aspects, and some things of interest because of how they relate to other work by the creative artists. For example, Minnelli returns to Paris location shooting as he did in 'American in Paris' and 'Gigi', but this time to re-create wartime Paris and what it was like to be part of the Resistance, as well as what life was like among the privileged Parisian collaborators who lived the good life under Nazi rule. In spite of MGM glamour and production values that must have cost a fortune, Minnelli and his screenwriters often succeed in portraying the anguish of that time, the moral crisis of privileged neutrals, and the courage of those who resisted. Credit must go to a splendid cast of Hollywood veterans and some talented newcomers. Paul Henreid shows up playing, what else?, a resistance hero. Ingrid Thulin's Swedish accent must have been too much for MGM's money men - they had her dialogue dubbed by Angela Lansbury, and pretty effectively too. One of the greatest pleasures of the film is Andre Previn's score. If you like your movie music big, complex, intrusive, and romantic, you'll agree that this score is one of the great overlooked gems of Hollywood soundtracks.What's bad about the movie? Glenn Ford for starters, not too believable as an Argentinian playboy. But that may just be a matter of taste.