2013 Essays

Alice Terry

Kenaga, Heidi

Alice Terry is probably best known to silent cinema historians in relation to the men with whom she frequently worked—Rudolph Valentino, in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Conquering Power (1921); Ramon Novarro, in Scaramouche (1923) and The Arab (1924); and her husband, Rex Ingram, who directed Terry in all of these films as well as eight others. “Rex and His Queen” were one of the more celebrated director-actress teams of the 1920s, but there are indications that performing was only one dimension of Terry’s contribution to their work together. The most concrete acknowledgment of this behind-the-camera labor is found in their last film, Baroud (1932), in which she did not appear but for which she received on-screen co-directorial credit.