#rex ingram

[fibula-rasa]

The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Director: Rex Ingram

Cinematographer: John F. Seitz

Performer: Alice Terry

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Rex Ingram (The Thief of Baghdad, Cabin in the Sky)—he's got like this dynamo energy. charisma off the charts

Glenn Ford (Gilda, The Big Heat)—no propaganda submitted

This is round 1 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[propaganda photos submitted under the cut.]

[citizenscreen]

Eddie Anderson, Lena Horne, and Rex Ingram behind the scenes publicity photo for Minnelli’s CABIN IN THE SKY (1943).

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Rex Ingram as Jean Christophe in Haiti, by William DuBois, as a tempestuous liberated slave who led the people of Haiti in revolt and defied Napoleon Bonaparte.

The play opened at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, March 2, 1938 and transferred to Daly's Theater on West 63rd St. on July 11. It ran until Sept. 24 (168 performances). It has been described as a "melodramatic recounting of the 1802 uprising, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, that Orson Welles used as a basis for his now-famous Voodoo Macbeth, but Haiti depicts the actual events that transpired to give the Haitians back their country and rule."

It was a production by the Federal Theater Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Times's critic Brooks Atkinson called Ingram's performance "gusty" and noted, "Mr. Ingram has been a good actor for a long time. It is not very often, however, that he finds a heroic part like that of Christophe, the leader of a cause. Massive inside a gaudy uniform, active as a pole-vaulter, and gleaming with sincerity, Mr. Ingram gives a rattling good performance." He also noted, "What with one thing and another, there is enough history in Haiti to make it socially respectable."

Photo: Associated Press

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Ramon Novarro and Barbara La Marr in Trifling Women (1922) by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 361. Barbara La Marr and Ramon Novarro in Trifling Women (Rex Ingram, 1922). Collection: Marlene Pilaete. On 28 January, EFSP presents a new post by La Collectionneuse on the 'Girl Who Is Too Beautiful', Barbara La Marr.

[chernobog13]

Abu the thief bargains with the mighty djinn in the 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad.

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[celebratetheclassics]

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

The Magician

After directing some of Hollywood’s greatest silent films and making stars of his wife, Alice Terry, Rudolph Valentino and Ramon Novarro, Rex Ingram (not to be confused with the wonderful actor) relocated to France in search of greater freedom. That concept of freedom was relative. His European films feature images and subjects that would have been untenable at his home studio, MGM, but they still reflect the tastes of the viewing public. His once-lost film THE MAGICIAN (1926, TCM, YouTube) is filled with transgressive imagery and a villain (Paul Wegener) who queers both domesticity and the world of science, but it’s classic Hollywood horror queerness, a destructive force that must be defeated in the name of traditional values.

Terry is a sculptress working on a large statue of a faun, a flirtation with the world outside normal society.  When it collapses on her, she’s left paralyzed. Her savior is a handsome doctor (Ivan Petrovich), and the two fall in love. But she also attracts the attention of occultist Oliver Haddo (Wegener), who uses his hypnotic powers to steal her from Petrovich. Ingram’s script, adapted from a W. Somerset Maugham novel loosely based on Aleister Crowley’s public image, tips us off to Wegener’s goal early. To complete an ancient spell for the creation of life, he needs the heart’s blood of a maiden, so his marriage to Terry is in name only. It’s a queer variation on the role of matrimony in creating new life and, as such, an assault on conventional morality.

Ingram directs all this quite seriously, which was rare for a silent film dealing with horror. He allows Wegener, the star and sometime director of several German expressionistic horror films to dominate his scenes, All he has to do is swell his chest and open his eyes as wide as possible to make you believe he can hold Terry in his thrall. Working with John F. Seitz, Ingram also creates striking imagery. There’s a terrific fantasy scene in which Wegener makes Terry visualize a bacchanal with near naked fauns and nymphs, some epic crowd scenes and vistas of Paris and Monte Carlo in the 1920s and striking compositions as Wegener exercises his control over Terry. There’s also some eft comic relief supplied by Gladys Hamer, who plays Terry’s roommate, and a man who loses his hat, played by Michael Powell, who was an assistant director on the film and later credited Ingram’s influence on his own work. Ingram also uses acting styles to reinforce his meanings. Petrovich and Terry are remarkably natural (and pretty darned beautiful) in contrast to Wegener’s more old-school silent-film posturing. THE MAGICIAN was a major influence on Universal’s 1930s horror films. It also features a rare on-screen appearance by Firmin Gemier, a French actor who worked with both Andre Antoine and Aurelien Lugne-Poe and created the role of Pere Ubu.

[ambylotl]

After watching the latest LazerPig video, I felt inspired to draw something I don't normally draw. Lt Rex Ingram was honestly the biggest gigachad in history, with balls so massive they warped the fabric of space and time. As a 19 year old, Rex had been in command of M3A3 Stuart light tanks. With just another Stuart and some armored cars, Rex and his crew patrolled one of the streets leading into Villers-Bocage, just after the British had heard reports of German generals fleeing the town. Rex had no warning that a Tiger tank would come barreling down the street directly towards the underprepared British forces. His tank was not a radio command tank, so instead he and his crew decided to sacrifice themselves in order to warn their comrades. As the other Stuart led the retreat of the smaller scout cars, Rex's Stuart engaged the Tiger alone, turning sideways to block its path. Unfortunately, Rex's lightly armored tank would not survive the hit from the Tiger's main cannon, and Rex would die trying to save his driver. The sound of Rex's tank exploding alerted the British that were in the city and prevented a complete loss of the Sharpshooters in the battle of Villers-Bocage. He was buried initially in Villers-Bocage by a local family, but at the request of his own family, his grave was moved to the Bayeux War Cemetery.

[fibula-rasa]

The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Director: Rex Ingram

Cinematographer: John F. Seitz

Performer: Barbara La Marr

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, Rebecca, Pride and Prejudice)—no propaganda submitted

Rex Ingram (The Thief of Baghdad, Cabin in the Sky)—he's got like this dynamo energy. charisma off the charts

This is round 2 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

[citizenscreen]

Rex Ingram would have celebrated a birthday today #botd

[sixbucks]

[cursemewithyourkiss]

From the moment I first saw you in the cathedral I have loved you with my whole heart and soul.

Lewis Stone as Rudolf Rassendyll and Alice Terry as Princess Flavia in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922) dir. Rex Ingram

[tavoit]

Glenn?

Or Rudolph?

Both starred in movie adaptations of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, written by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

The 1921 version was directed by Rex Ingram and the 1962 version by Vincent Minnelli, who knew how to shoot his was around a fireplace

Who did it better?