Fernand Mailly Movies

Having struck box-office gold with his adaptation of the mystical Vincent Blasco-Ibanez novel The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, producer-director Rex Ingram adapted another Ibanez best-seller, Mare Nostrum, as a vehicle for his hauntingly beautiful actress wife Alice Terry. Set during WWI, the film casts Terry as Freya Talberg, a German secret agent. Though she seems to have ice water in her veins (there's even a hint that she prefers the company of women over men), Freya loses her heart to a Spanish sea captain, Ulysses Ferragut (Antonio Moreno). As a result, she is captured and sentenced to be executed, going to her death with a poise and dignity befitting a Joan of Arc. The firing-squad sequence is the film's piece de resistance, brilliantly photographed from the heroine's point of view by ace cinematographer John F. Seitz. Perhaps because virtually all the major characters die at the end, the film was a financial flop, even though its anti-war sentiments were perfectly attuned to the mid-1920s. For many years one of the most highly sought-after "lost" films, Mare Nostrum was restored to a reasonable approximation of its original tinted and toned glory in the late 1970s and has been shown several times over the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally released in 1924 as Le Miracle des Loups, this French costume adventures finally made it to the States in 1930. Set during the 15th century, the film boils down to an "Uncle Tom's Cabin" chase across a frozen lake. The pursuers are a battalion comprised of the enemies of France: the pursue-ee is the patriotic heroine. The "miracle" comes to pass when the girl manages to negotiate her way through a pack of hungry wolves without suffering a single injury -- a scene that plays far more convincingly than it reads. Highly praised by the intelligentsia in France, Miracle of the Wolves was treated derisively by American critics. This assessment was grossly unfair: One of the most spectacular French productions of its era, the film was also brilliantly edited, anticipating the breathless cross-cutting of Abel Gance's Napoleon." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This film brings part of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, to the silent screen. Gerard (stage actor Lewis Waller) and his lady love, the Countess de Rocquelaure (Madge Titheradge), have been employed by Emperor Napoleon (A.E. George) to steal some valuable papers from Tallyrand. But the ruler of Paris is a tricky character, and the pair undergo a number of sticky situations before completing their mission. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide