A decent enough film, but it's unlikely to blow you away. Set during WWI, a Spanish sea captain (Antonio Moreno) traveling in Italy meets and falls in love with a young German woman (Alice Terry). One problem is that he's married, and has a young son. Another is that the German woman and her older colleague (Mademoiselle Paquerette) are both spies, and convince him to help the Germany navy out in a way whose ramifications he can't fully appreciate. The film is thus about guilt and paying for the choices one makes in life, and director Rex Ingram pulls no punches. I loved the scenes on location in Naples, Pompeii (with Vesuvius smoking the background), Marseilles, and Barcelona. The scenes with U-boat attacks were tense, and the German officers suitably sinister. It's a little on the melodramatic side, and there are some rather big coincidences to help the plot get to where it's going. Even at 102 minutes, the film is belabored, and elements like the prologue could have been cut. There's something missing to truly recommend it, but on the other hand, it's well made and reasonably entertaining 92 years later.

This is a lavishly produced wartime romance and, as is typical of Ingram, quite stylishly handled (benefiting also from the fact that it was filmed in Europe, the director himself being based in France). The plot places its old-fashioned impossible and, inevitably, tragic love story against the backdrop of a nostalgic view of the sea and the simple fisher-folk who live and die in it, the bourgeoisie with their stuck-up attitude and high ideals and, naturally, an impending world-war situation; for all that, it's most interesting when dealing with the various espionage elements and especially the two submarine attacks (which must have been a novelty at the time) led by a bald-headed and aristocratic German officer, obviously inspired by Erich von Stroheim!Still, Alice Terry's poignant performance as the female spy (who has mixed emotions about her mission and who happens to be the spitting image of Amphitrite, the Sea Goddess who protects fishermen) is the core of the film; this was perhaps the best role she ever had (directed, naturally, by her husband). Antonio Moreno is less impressive as the male lead, though his disheveled appearance when forced to work for the enemy and following his son's death (for which he is partly to blame) is appropriately world-weary. The beautiful and poetic finale, then, sees the drowning Moreno (after his ship was torpedoed by the sub he helped fuel!) being picked up by Amphitrite herself. Reportedly, this was Ingram's favorite among his own films - as well as Terry herself and Moreno, too!

Ulysses (handsome Antonio Moreno) owns a boat called the Mare Nostrum. He also has an uncaring wife but a son Estaban (Mickey Brantford) whom he loves. An evil, sexy German spy Freye (Alice Terry) seduces Ulysses and convinces him to help bring supplies to a German sub. He does and the sub ends up destroying a ship that Estaban is on. Ulysses vows to kill all the people responsible.This silent film was believed lost for many years. Thankfully it's been found and beautifully restored. Basically, this is a tragedy so it's hardly a happy film but still it's extremely well-made and directed by Rex Ingram, one of the best silent film directors. There are some very amusing miniature ships and subs in some sequences, but this WAS 1926--that's probably the best they had! The acting is good too. Moreno was a very popular star in his day--sadly, he's forgotten today. He's good-looking and gives one hell of a performance--some of his reaction shots were incredibly good. Terry was obviously hired because she was married to director Ingram, but she was a good actress and she's good here. She was cast against type playing an evil woman (she usually played the good girl) and she pulls it off. Her scene in front of the firing squad is just great. And young Brantford is very good as Estaban. The only bad thing was Caragol (Hughie Mack)--an obese man who provides unfunny comic relief. And it DOES have a silly ending.Still, a great silent film. Well worth catching.

A young Spanish sea captain learns about life & death, great love & passionate hatred, while sailing the waters of MARE NOSTRUM - ‘Our Sea.'Brilliant & disturbing, this was the last important film from acclaimed silent director Rex Ingram. Produced to great effect on location in the Western Mediterranean, this was one of Metro's biggest films of the 1920's. Returning to the author who had already given him enormous success with THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE - Vicente Blasco Ibáñez - Ingram would once again produce a film of exceptional high quality. Today, it is all but forgotten...Antonio Moreno gives a vivid performance as the Captain who is used so harshly by fate. His doleful eyes linger in the imagination of the viewer long after the end of the film. Alice Terry - Mrs. Rex Ingram - is sultry & beautiful as the Austrian spy who seduces Moreno. Her firing squad scene is considered a classic of pacing & composition, and she is magnificent in it.Uni Apollon is very effective in his few minutes as an old Spanish sea dog. Madame Pâquerette, as a large, mannish German spy master is formidable. Hughie Mack, as an absolutely loyal, grossly obese Spanish servant, is especially satisfying. (This excellent character actor would die from heart disease the year after MARE NOSTRUM's release, at the age of only 42.)The unfortunate use of obvious models for some of the scenes at sea is more than mitigated by the presence of real ships & submarines in others. The filming among the ruins in Italy's Pompeii & Paestum, as well as the spy chase along the waterfront in Marseille, add tremendously to the overall ambiance of this remarkable film.The underwater sequences with Amphitrite, goddess of Mare Nostrum, are absolutely haunting.