Alice Frances Taaffe (July 24, 1899 – December 22, 1987), known professionally as Alice Terry, was an American film actress and director. She began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1933.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022. 11:00.
Alice Terry - Actress.
Profile :
Born Alice Frances Taaffe July 24, 1899, Vincennes, Indiana, U.S.
Died December 22, 1987 (aged 87), Burbank, California, U.S.
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Occupation Actress
Years active 1916–1933
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Spouse(s)
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Rex Ingram - (m. 1921; died 1950)
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Introducrion :
Alice Frances Taaffe (July 24, 1899 – December 22, 1987), known professionally as Alice Terry, was an American film actress and director. She began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1933. While Terry's trademark look was her blonde hair, she was actually a brunette, and put on her first blonde wig in Hearts Are Trumps (1920) to look different from Francelia Billington, the other actress in the film. Terry played several different characters in the 1916 anti-war film Civilization, co-directed by Thomas H. Ince and Reginald Barker. Alice wore the blonde wig again in her most acclaimed role as "Marguerite" in film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), and kept the wig for any future roles. In 1925 her husband Rex Ingram co-directed Ben-Hur, filming parts of it in Italy. The two decided to move to the French Riviera, where they set up a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy for MGM and others. In 1933, Terry made her last film appearance in Baroud, which she also co-directed with her husband.
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Early years :
Terry was born Alice Frances Taaffe in Vincennes, Indiana, on July 24, 1899. In the early 1910s she and her family moved to southern California.
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Career :
Terry made her film debut in 1916 in Not My Sister, opposite Bessie Barriscale and William Desmond Taylor.
Terry started in films as an extra during her mid-teens, working at Thomas Ince Studio. She worked for Triangle Film Corporation from 1916 to 1919. For two years she worked in cutting rooms at Famous-Players-Lasky. This work helped her later when she worked with her husband.
Terry was married to Rex Ingram, a prominent director. One of her biggest problems in her career was being the leading lady in movies directed by her husband. Her roles in films directed by her husband left her passive and unmemorable. Ingram also hired male stars who further outshone her in The Conquering Power (1921), The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and other films. One fan magazine writer described Terry as "pliant clay" or easily manipulated on screen.
This 1922 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.
In 1924 and 1925 the marriage between Terry and Ingram was in jeopardy, and in that time period she worked under other directors. During this time period Terry worked on five movies, but her roles particularly in Any Woman (1925) and Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925), both by Paramount Pictures, proved that she was a legitimate star away from her husband. When they got back together, Terry took on a more behind-the-scenes role.
Terry's work at Famous-Players-Lasky helped her in ways that were not known to the public. Ingram often became too moody to work while directing movies so Terry took over. She was a competent film editor and learned how to direct from a master. When Ingram went to produce his last film, and only talkie, Baroud (1933), Terry helped so much that she was named co-director and she directed all the scenes Ingram appeared in. Baroud highlighted Alice's ability as an all-around filmmaker but she never took that further.
Terry worked with Ramón Novarro, a popular a film star from Mexico who drew in audiences as a "Latin lover", and became known as a sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino. Many have said that Novarro outdid Terry in many films such as The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), The Arab (1924) and others; but this didn't hinder their friendship.
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Personal life :
On November 5, 1921, Terry married Ingram during production of The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), which he directed and in which she appeared as Princess Flavia. They sneaked away over one weekend, were married in Pasadena, and returned to work promptly the following Monday.
In 1923 Terry and Ingram decided to move to the French Riviera. They formed a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy for MGM and others.
Terry with her husband, Rex Ingram. Photoplay, March 1922.
During the making of The Arab (1924) in Tunisia, they met a street child named Kada-Abd-el-Kader, whom they adopted upon learning that he was an orphan. Allegedly, he misrepresented his age to make himself seem younger to his adoptive parents.
Terry was known for being open minded and acted as a cover for Ramón Novarro's sexuality. In the 1930s she went with Novarro, Barry Norton, and other homosexual actors to Hollywood nightspots to act as a cover, which received backlash in the magazine The Hollywood Reporter.
When Ingram decided to return to Los Angeles he asked Terry to find a home by a river. One night when Terry was drinking with friends she instructed the cab to pull over so she could throw up. When Terry was done, she looked up and saw a property in Studio City on the Los Angeles River and decided that this was the place where her new home with Rex would be.
Once Terry and Ingram moved back to the United States they started having problems with their adopted son, Kada-Abd-el-Kader. He "began associating with fast women and fast cars throughout the San Fernando Valley." Terry and Ingram sent him back to Morocco "to finish school." Kada-Abd-el-Kader never went back to school, but he later became a tourist guide in Morocco and Algiers. El-Kader would always tell tourists that he was the adopted son of Ingram and Terry.
Terry and Ingram retired in the 1930s and took up painting. When Ingram died in 1950, Terry invited four of his mistresses to his funeral. When she was asked how she could invite four of his mistresses to the post-funeral party said: "Who cares, I'm the only one that can call herself Mrs. Rex Ingram."
After Ingram's death Terry's sister Edna moved into the property on Kelsey Street and controlled Alice's life. Alice had a lover, Gerald Fielding, who wanted to move in with her, but Edna forbade it. It is speculated that Edna was jealous of Alice, Edna started as an extra as movies just like her sister, but then married a financial advisor and she stopped acting altogether.
Terry was still active in the 1970s. She loved hosting Sunday afternoon parties and going out to dinner in extravagant, floor length mink coats. She was proud of her appearance and wanted to make sure all other women were envious.
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Death :
On December 22, 1987, Terry died from Alzheimer's in a Burbank, California, hospital. Her grave is located in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Alice Terry has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6626 Hollywood Boulevard.
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Filmography :
Terry in Picture-Play, May 1921
Year Title Role Notes
1916
Not My Sister Ruth Tyler Credited as Alice Taafe Lost film
Civilization Extra (Various, from a peasant to a German Soldier) Uncredited
A Corner in Colleens Daisy Credited as Alice Taafe Lost film
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1917
Wild Winship's Widow Marjory Howe Credited as Alice Taafe Lost film
Strictly Business Lost film
The Bottom of the Well Anita Thomas
Alimony Extra Uncredited Lost film
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1918
The Clarion Call Lost film
A Bachelor's Children Penelope Winthrop Lost film
Old Wives for New Saleslady Credited as Alice Taafe Lost film
The Song and the Sergeant Lost film
Sisters of the Golden Circle Mrs. Pinkey McGuire Lost film
The Brief Debut of Tildy Tildy Lost film
Love Watches Charlotte Bernier Lost film
The Trimmed Lamp Lost film
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1919
Thin Ice Jocelyn Miller
The Love Burglar Elsie Strong Credited as Alice Taafe Lost film
The Valley of the Giants Mrs. Cardigan Credited as Alice Taafe
Alternative title: In the Valley of the Giants
The Day She Paid Credited as Alice Taafe
Alternative title: Oats and the Woman
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1920
Shore Acres Extra Uncredited Lost film
The Devil's Pass Key Extra Uncredited Lost film
Hearts Are Trumps Dora Woodberry
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1921
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Marguerite Laurier
The Conquering Power Eugenie Grandet Alternative title: Eugenie Grandet
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1922
Turn To The Right Elsie Tillinger
The Prisoner of Zenda Princess Flavia
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1923
Where the Pavement Ends Matilda Spener Lost film
Scaramouche Aline de Kercadiou, Quintin's Niece
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1924
The Arab Mary Hilbert
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1925
The Great Divide Ruth Jordan
Sackcloth and Scarlet Joan Freeman Lost film
Confessions of a Queen Frederika/The Queen Incomplete
Any Woman Ellen Linden Lost film
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1926
Mare Nostrum Freya Talberg Alternative title: Our Sea
The Magician Margaret Dauncey
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1927
Lovers Felicia Lost film
The Garden of Allah Domini Enfilden Incomplete
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1928 The Three Passions Lady Victoria Burlington
1932 Baroud Co-director Alternative title: Love in Morocco
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Rex Ingram: Ireland's forgotten Hollywood blockbuster film director : Feb 18th 2018.
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A special screening of his most famous film will take place as part of this year’s St Patrick’s Festival.
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Film director Rex Ingram with his wife , actress Alice Terry, as they go for a drive through Hyde Park, London.Film director Rex Ingram with his wife , actress Alice Terry, as they go for a drive through Hyde Park, London.
Image: PA Archive/PA Images
IF YOU’RE NOT a student of film or a movie buff, chances are you haven’t heard of Rex Ingram.
The Irish director was huge in early Hollywood – so big that he has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and that he can count Martin Scorsese among his fans. Yet here in Ireland, he’s almost a forgotten name.
But in honour of this year’s St Patrick’s Festival, his work is being brought to a new audience. The festival is set to screen his 1921 silent film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at St Patrick’s Cathedral, with a live score written by Matthew Nolan and Barry Adamson.
From Rathmines to Hollywood
Rex Ingram was born Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock on Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, but due to having a clergyman for a father he spent years living in Kinitty, Co Offaly. At the age of 18, he moved to the USA. It was there that he began working in the film industry and made his mark in Hollywood.
MOVIE STILL - THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYSE (1921)A till from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Trinity College Dublin lecturer Dr Ruth Barton has literally written the book on Ingram, called Rex Ingram: Visionary Director of the Silent Screen.
“One of the reasons for writing the book is he is the most successful Irish film director we’ve ever had probably and yet no one has ever heard of him,” Barton told TheJournal.ie. “He didn’t make any Irish films, but his film The Four Horsemen was a blockbuster by today’s terms – it made millions of dollars and that was in the 1920s. It was not his only blockbuster, and he was considered to be one of the best directors in Hollywood during the 1920s. He made these fantastically successful films.”
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was based on the Spanish novel of the same name by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and adapted for the screen by one of Hollywood’s first female screenwriters, June Mathis. The film starred Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Bridgetta Clark, Rudolph Valentino, Wallace Beery, and Alice Terry.
His other films included swashbucklers, and big historical epics. “And he was just ginormous – and yet somehow he’s gotten completely forgotten about,” said Barton.
One of these reasons is because he worked during the silent era. But the second, and perhaps most important, is that his films are very hard to get hold of and to screen. When Barton was launching her book, she had to buy a laser disc copy of a film of his, and get a laser disc player so that it could be played.
“If the films are not being screened, people don’t know about them,” she said.
But the other thing she believes is that he made “arty films”. “In the 1920s there was perhaps less of a distinction between art cinema and commercial cinema,” said Barton. “He made commercial films that were arty.”
This meant they weren’t necessarily all fast-moving, but some of them “have kept the pace of time”, she said.
“He always thought the general public would go see artistic films and there shouldn’t be a difference. I find that quite interesting.”
Sometimes films pop up and it goes to prove that people will go see art films and you don’t have to be arty. They will go see Guillermo Del Toro’s film The Shape of Water, for example. That is part of Ingram’s visionary quality – that film was an artform.
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Rex IngramRex Ingram
Why did Ingram go to the US? “He moved because he failed to get a place at Trinity, which was [seen as] a disgrace,” said Barton. “He failed to get in, and his mother had died [when he was 15] and he felt very bereft and lost at her death as he was very close to her. He emigrated for various reasons.”
‘He was a complete control freak’
He left Ireland in 1911, and moved to Long Island in 1913. It was there that he saw the film A Tale of Two Cities, which made Ingram fall in love with cinema. He began working in a medial job with the Edison company, and even starred in a few films.
“He started mucking around in the early cinema industry and he was there really at the very beginning of film,” said Barton.
But when he eventually became a director himself, he fit well into the stereotypical mould. “He was a complete control freak and kept falling out with people. He wanted films to look exactly as he wanted them to be,” said Barton.
The film that made his name was The Four Horsemen – and it also made Rudolph Valentino’s name. “This gave him his name and then he made a series of films – another one with Valentino and a few others. He was really discontented in Hollywood and it was beginning to become much more controlled in terms of what you could do,” said Barton.
“He moved to Nice in France and set up a studio there. He was really able to do what he wanted in Nice. He made a succession of films there.”
From silent to talkies
But as Hollywood moved into the era of the ‘talkies’, Ingram’s career suffered. “When sound came in 1928 he didn’t transition well to sound or to colour. He didn’t like it. He didn’t or couldn’t keep up with the changes in the film industry,” said Barton.
He had taken to travelling to North Africa from Nice, and then converted to Islam to go travelling. “He dressed up as an Arab, speaking Arabic, and went travelling around with tribes and sheiks and had an incredible life.”
But due to illness, he returned to Hollywood, where he died in his 50s.
Did Ireland have interest in what he was up to in Hollywood? “For sure,” said Barton. “For my book I was doing research reading copies of the Irish Times, and there was a huge interest in him. The film Four Horsemen played here with full orchestral accompaniment. There was a lot of coverage of him and how successful he had been.”
“We had somebody who was super successful and we’ve failed to celebrate him,” added Barton. “I was in touch with his family and they’d love to have him a bit more recognised.”
But unless you can see his films, it’s hard to stoke that interest.
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Rudolph Valentino & Alice Terry
There are plans afoot for a documentary on Ingram, said Barton, which would help to increase the interest in him. One of his biggest fans is Martin Scorsese, whose editor Thelma Schoonmaker’s former husband Michael Powell (of Powell and Pressburger) did his apprenticeship with Ingram in Nice.
‘We’re bringing him home’
Karen Walshe, who’s artistic director of the St Patrick’s Festival, explained why they decided to bring this Rex Ingram film to a new audience.
She said that Matthew Nolan, who co-created the score, was the brainchild behind the Ingram show, which was borne from his passion for silent film.
“The theme of the festival this year is ‘home’ so we are going to look at all the different perspectives on home,” she explained. “We’re looking at home from a close-up narrative of Ireland today around the city – stories from homelessness to how to get a mortgage.”
“What I wanted to do under the banner of home was to bring [Ingram] home.”
“It was so difficult to get screening rights for the film,” she added. The cost was much more than it usually is for film screenings.
Meanwhile, Nolan said that it was “quite the responsibility” to score the film. “Our ambition here is to create music and even a sound world that is more restrained, understated, yet consistently echoes the core themes of the movie as well as Ingram’s highly refined visual sensibility,” he said.
“There is a painterly quality and stillness in the cinematography here as well as a melancholic ambience that continually grounds our writing process.”
What makes this particularly exciting is having someone of Barry Adamson’s calibre on board. His experience working with the likes of David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Derek Jarman as well as Nick Cave will bring something quite unique to the project.
Special attention has also been given to the screening of the film, with the festival working with a company that supplies a special screen suitable for this type of film, which itself will be placed up high to avoid people not being able to see properly.
“Everybody will see the film really clear, at perfect height and surround sound in the cathedral,” said Walshe.
As part of the festival, the entire event will also be performed in Manchester the next day.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921): Screening & Live Score Performance, directed by Rex Ingram with live musical accompaniment by Matthew Nolan, Barry Adamson (UK), Seán Mac Erlaine, Adrian Crowley, and Kevin Murphy: Thursday 15 March, tickets €24.00, at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
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Film still
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