Rex Ingram

Rex Ingram started his film career as a set designer and painter His directorial debut was The Great Problem 1916 A true master of the medium Ingram despised the business haggling required in the Hollywood system He was also unhappy with the level of writing he found in American writers This led him to work with such foreign writers as Vicente Blasco Ibáñez which resulted in the first major role for the young Rudolph Valentino Ingram was a great friend of Erich von Stroheim who like Ingram was a great filmmaker but often went way over budget In 1924 Ingram moved to Nice France where in his own studios he directed films of his own choosing often with his thenwife Alice Terry In his later career he acted as a mentor to the young Michael Powell