TV was a wasteland last night as far as I am concerned. I couldn't find a thing to watch that remotely interested me.
So...I tackled the "big" movie in my DVR cache: "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". A major bomb in its day, this film was one of those ill-conceived desperation ploys that MGM took on trying to repeat the sensational success of "Ben-Hur." (An expensive remake of "Cimarron" was another one). If they had gotten William Wyler on the picture, it "might" have worked, especially if he'd been given carte blanche overall.. Of course, Vincente Minnelli did a respectable job given all with which he had to contend, including an updating of the story from WWI to WWII and the casting of the film's two leads. I have to say I rather enjoyed watching it although I confess I was doing so with an ear toward Sir Andre Previn's spectacular music score. I've heard the score a hundred times on LP, and on the expanded (complete) CD issued by Rhino. I'd always imagined greatness that was simply misunderstood. It's not there, though. That music was trying to save/rouse/inspire something nearly stillborn. All the thoughts I'd "imagined" have now shrivelled against the reality of what I saw.
Lovely leading lady Ingrid Thulin was dubbed by Angela Lansbury, but even she could not inject enough "presence/charisma/chemistry" into what we see on the screen. Glenn Ford was pretty good, but he was a bit old for the role and he and Thulin never seemed to "click" (despite all the yearning and angst we are treated to that "may" have made more sense in the original cut of the film, which was some 34 minutes longer than the one released) Suppotring cast members Charles Boyer and Lee J. Cobb and several others were superb. Karl Boehm as "Heinrich", the German cousin of Argentinean Julio (Ford) was set dressing, at best, and looked more like a chorus boy in a Nazi uniform than anything "formidable". (Boehm was a tad more effective as one of the Brothers Grimm, Laurence Harvey being the other). Yvette Mimieux was totally "lovely", as always, as Chi-Chi, the headstrong girl swept up by the youth movement arm of the French resistance. Sadly, all her dialogue seemed to be on a track that was distorted. And given the histrionics in which the the character seemed to indulge, the distortion was all that much more noticeable.
The production values are pretty darned beautiful, although the archival footage of WWII Europe is not on a par with MGM's camerawork.
The "message" of the film isn't as profound as it might have been. "The Old One" (Cobb) was central in spirit throughout. He was a man who lived life for all its delights and surprises. He valued freedom to live that life above all things. Alas, his offspring married very different "types" of people. One side was very political and embraced any repression that led to power. The other side was cavalier and gay (in the old sense), fully embracing the good life wherever they found it. That was all very well pre- and post-WWI...but by updating the film, the message had been seriously filtered as most folks had experienced WWII (pre- and post-) and had nothing in their experience with which to relate the sentiments/message being espoused. IMO, of course.
Oh, well. It was worth watching, and I know I'll watch it again. So....it can't be ALL that bad!