Erich Von Stroheim Movies
The son of a Jewish hat manufacturer, born in Vienna, Erich Oswald Von Stroheim moved from running his father's factory to the pinnacle of the Hollywood community as a director, only to fall hard due to his extravagant approach to filmmaking and end up as a peripheral figure. Von Stroheim came to America during the first decade of the twentieth century and supported himself in various jobs before coming to Hollywood in 1914. He was a bit player in several films, and became a member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, parlaying his experience as a bit player into a job as assistant director and military advisor (he had served briefly in the Austro-Hungarian Army) -- he moved into greater prominence in 1917 with American entry into World War I, portraying villainous Prussian officers. He moved into the director's chair at Universal, where he proved a virtual one-man show at first, providing original story, deigning sets, and starring in several of his own films. He quickly showed a talent for translating sexual subject matter -- not yet taboo in Hollywood--onto the screen in ways that were both witty and ostentatious, and his films Blind Husbands, The Devil's Pass Key, and Foolish Wives, were (and remain) among the most acclaimed sophisticated films of the silent era. His autocratic manner in dealing with the studio, coupled with his painstaking attention to detail, however, resulted in production schedules of as long as a year on his movies. He left Universal for Goldwyn Films, which was merged into Metro Pictures during the production of Greed, a monumental film whose 42 reels represented a high-water mark in Von Stroheim's career, but also its effective end--the studio took over the eight hour film and recut it, shortening it to under two hours, and the final release version was condemned by critics and ignored by audiences. He found similar set-backs with The Merry Widow, and he was dismissed from MGM. He directed Queen Kelly (1928), a bizarre story of white slavery and sexual obsession, for its star/producer Gloria Swanson, which proved the effective end of his career when he was fired during production. He directed Walking Down Broadway (1932-33), which was never released and then settled into character roles. With his bald head and stern visage, Von Stroheim was still a well-known screen presence, and he specialized in complex villainous roles, most notably as the cultured commandant of the P.O.W. camp in Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937). In 1950, he made what was probably his most important screen appearance as an actor in an American movie, as Gloria Swanson's fiercely loyal servant in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950). Although repudiated by Hollywood as a filmmaker, Von Stroheim was honored throughout his life by the European filmmaking community, and in the years after his death his work as a director was rediscovered to fresh appreciation by a new generation, and in the '80s Kino International undertook a major restoration and retrospective of Von Stroheim's silent films. The cut 32 reels of Greed remain among the most speculated upon and sought after lost films in screen history. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1953
Though his services as a director were no longer required in the 1950s, Erich Von Stroheim kept busy as an actor, especially in the French film industry. Alerte au Sud (Alert in the South) top-bills Von Stroheim as a demented German general who refuses to concede that WW II is over and who continues to conduct his field-marshal tactics at a remote desert outpost. Here he clashes with young lieutenant Jean (Jean-Claude Pascal), who up until now has been the real star of the picture. Long before Von Stroheim makes his entrance, Pascal has kept busy trying to solve the murder of his best friend, bringing him in contact with all sorts of disreputable types. Also weaving in and out of the story is Giana Maria Canale as a sensuous dancer who isn't quite as dishonest or immoral as she seems. The main distinction of Alerte au Sud is that it represents Erich Von Stroheim's first appearance in color, discounting the brief Technicolor sequence in 1928's The Wedding March. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Pascal, Gianna Maria Canale, (more)
- 1932
This complex '30s film is based upon a play by Pirandello which involved a hapless amnesiac. In As You Desire Me, the legendary Greta Garbo plays a down-in-the-dumps amnesiac (she can't recall who her husband is) who ends up singing in a low-life nightclub and putting up with the advances of a cruel and crude novelist (Eric von Stroheim). She'd have remained in this miserable state were it not for the fact that she's recognized and returned to her true husband, who's a nobleman loyally in love with her. Her former suitor von Stroheim shows up trying to expose her as a fraud and regain her as his captive. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
- 1979
The Man You Loved to Hate is a perfunctory but interesting documentary of the life and work of Erich von Stroheim. Through filmclips, still pictures, newsreel vignettes and interviews with friends and intimates, the film traces the spectacular rise and precipitous fall of von Stroheim's directorial career. Enjoying unexpected success with his inaugural directorial effort Blind Husbands (1919), Von Stroheim rapidly becomes the most self-destructive, profligate filmmaker in Hollywood. Greed (1923), now considered the director's masterpiece, proves the beginning of the end for von Stroheim when the 40-reel film is taken out of his hands and radically reshaped by MGM. He enjoys a healthy comeback with the financial success of The Merry Widow, but before long his career is in the dumpster thanks to such expensive flops as The Wedding March and the never-completed Queen Kelly. Von Stroheim spends the rest of his years as a character actor in other men's films, often as not cast as a cold-hearted villain. Treated as a relic in Hollywood, Von Stroheim continues to be lauded as a genius in Europe until his death in 1957. Though assembled with only a modicum of imagination, The Man You Loved to Hate is a valuable record of one of cinema's most gifted mavericks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Because of his portrayals of villainous Prussians in pictures such as Hearts of the World and The Heart of Humanity, Erich von Stroheim was already famous as "the man you love to hate." But Stroheim had also been quite busy behind the camera over the years, as an assistant director to D.W. Griffith and art director to Douglas Fairbanks. When he approached Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios with a screenplay entitled The Pinnacle, the mogul wasted no time in agreeing to let Stroheim both star and direct. The result was the auteur's first film, renamed Blind Husbands. In it, Stroheim shows deeper facets to his officer (this time an Austrian) who, underneath the elaborate trappings, is no gentleman. American couple Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong (Sam deGrasse and Francelia Billington) arrive at a retreat in the Alps at the same time as Lieutenant Erich von Steuben (Stroheim). The Lieutenant is a reckless and dissolute soul who sets his cap for Mrs. Armstrong. Since her husband is kindly but neglectful, she is easy prey. Their flirtation is watched over carefully by the guide Sepp (Gibson Gowland), who is indebted to the good doctor, and he manages to keep the wife away from the Lieutenant on the night the four of them spend together in a lodge. The next day when von Steuben and Dr. Armstrong climb the summit, a letter from Mrs. Armstrong falls out of von Steuben's pocket and a fierce battle between the two men takes place on the peak. The doctor cuts the rope binding the two men together, and for his sins, the Lieutenant falls to a terrible death. This picture introduces themes that carried throughout Stroheim's career -- the eternal triangle shows up in most of his films in one form or another, and the climatic struggle between the two men would be repeated in the director's flawed masterpiece, Greed (which starred Gowland as McTeague). The easy decadence and the careful attention to detail would also be constants. Even though this isn't anywhere close to his best work, Blind Husbands was one of the most impressive directorial debuts of all time -- "This picture is exceptional. It marks an epoch," spouted an enthusiastic Variety critic. Stroheim was poised at the dawning edge of the '20s, at ready to give the decade some of its most deliriously debauched dramatic moments. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam de Grasse, Francelia Billington, (more)
- 1934
Often written off as just another Poverty Row effort featuring a fallen-from-grace Erich Von Stroheim, Mascot Pictures' Crimson Romance is actually a slick, entertaining little drama about broken dreams and dashed ideals. When World War I breaks out, a pair of German/American lads (Ben Lyon and Hardie Albright) return to their parents' homeland to sign up with the Kaiser's air force. Complications ensue when America enters the conflict. Lyon cannot reconcile himself with killing his own countrymen and joins the American side, while Albright remains loyal to Germany. After Albright is shot down, Lyon consoles the fallen aviator's girl friend Sari Maritza. The relationship blossoms into love, and soon Lyon and Maritza are wed. They attend the funeral of Albright, where the dead boy's mother delivers an impassioned anti-war speech. And where is Erich Von Stroheim? He's typecast as a brutal German commandant, albeit one with a mordant sense of humor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, Sara Maritza, (more)
Hugo is mad as heck, and he's not going to take it any more! Hugo is the dummy used by the Great Vorelli, a ventriloquist and hypnotist who wows London with his amazing act. Hugo can walk as well as talk, and he does other interesting things. Neglecting his statuesque mistress Magda, Vorelli pursues a pretty volunteer from the audience named Marianne; he know she is a wealthy heiress, and is after her money as well as her charms. Following a charity concert at Marianne's country estate, he mesmerizes the girl, who then falls into a baffling coma. When (in one of the movie's best sequences) a jealous Magda challenges the hypnotist over his attentions to the younger woman, Vorelli lulls her into submission, then gets rid of her, using Hugo to ensure his own alibi. Marianne's journalist boyfriend Mark investigates the mysterious murder and discovers another killing in Vorelli's past with interesting connections to the present. This underrated British horror story could be the best filmed variation on the "dummy with a soul" theme inaugurated by a brief sequence in Alberto Cavalcanti's classic 1945 anthology Dead of Night and continuing more recently with Magic (1978.) Fine photography by Gerald Gibbs, convincing performances by Bryant Halliday, Sandra Dorne and Yvonne Romain and flawless animation and editing of Hugo's scenes provide a galvanizing elaboration of the original, somewhat skeletal, concept. A rental video is hard to find, but available. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryant Halliday, William Sylvester, (more)
- 1943
Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo is the third take on Lajos Biro's theatrical tale of romance and espionage, Hotel Imperial. This time, the action is transplanted from World War I Galicia to World War II Egypt as Rommel's Afrika Corps viciously forces the British Army to retreat towards Cairo. Protagonist John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is stranded in the Sahara, the lone survivor of a British tank crew. In shock and suffering from sunstroke, Corporal Bramble deliriously staggers across the desert searching for the nearest outpost. What he finds is the Empress of Britain Hotel in the Libyan border town of Sidi Halfaya. The city has been deserted and destroyed; no one remains but the Inn's owner, Farid (Akim Tamiroff), and the French chambermaid, Mouche (Anne Baxter). To the woman's chagrin, Farid conceals the English soldier as the Germans commandeer his hotel for the lodging of General Rommel (Erich Von Stroheim). Mouche is unsympathetic toward the plight of any Englishman. She feels the British had abandoned the French Army at Dunkirk, where one of her brothers was killed and another was captured. She has remained in Sidi Halfaya only to wait for the German Army and to bargain for her sibling's freedom, not to help the British. Despite Mouche's protests, Bramble assumes the identity of the hotel's deceased waiter, Davoss, who was crushed during an air raid. Surprisingly, the disguise affords him an immediate audience with Rommel. Davoss was, in fact, a top-secret Nazi spy. This access to Rommel, the invincible Desert Fox, inspires Bramble to remain at the Empress. It becomes his mission to steal the crucial secret of the five supply depots the Germans have buried from Tobruk to Cairo -- which gave them a fighting advantage -- and possibly turn the war in Britain's favor. Meanwhile, after being rejected by the General, Mouche is desperately reduced to "entertaining" Rommel's deceitful lieutenant in order to help her brother. She and Bramble inevitably grow closer as they each struggle to save what is dear to them. When the body of the real Davoss starts to emerge from the rubble in the Empress' basement, it becomes Mouche's fate to make the ultimate decision between saving one brother and saving many. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, (more)
Actor/ writer/ director Erich Von Stroheim stars as a fraudulent count, living high on the hog in Monte Carlo. He supports himself by extorting huge sums of money from silly married ladies who are dumb enough to fall for his romantic charms. Von Stroheim's partners in crime, phony princesses Mae Busch and Maud George, live in a state of perpetual depravity with the count in a huge mansion. Their latest victim, played by an actress who insisted upon being billed as Miss DuPont, is the wife of an American financier. Von Stroheim's attempted seduction of this particular foolish wife is thwarted at every turn, and the count ultimately gets his comeuppance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, (more)
- 1917
Hero Gerald Ackland (Edward Earle) is not inclined to wait for America's entry into WWI. Long before his own country's official declaration, he heads to France to defend the Forces of Democracy against the Kaiser's hordes. While flying his airplane across enemy lines, our hero is forced to bail out, whereupon he locates a conveniently abandoned machine gun. As German bullets whizz around him, he remains at his post, mowing down the enemy with ruthless determination. Even in 1917, audiences didn't swallow the fabricated heroics of For France, so the producer felt obliged to insert a shot of the American flag at the end, just so he could claim that his film ended with a standing ovation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1931
The old bromide about joining the Foreign Legion to "forget," so often parodied by such comedians as Laurel and Hardy, was played straight in 1931's Friends and Lovers. A very young Laurence Olivier plays Lt. Nichols, who has retreated to the desert to get over his affair with Alva Sangrito (Lily Damita). Nichols is befriended by another of Alva's victims, Captain Roberts (Adolphe Menjou). Once back in England, however, the two castaway lovers find themselves rivals once more, leading to a potentially deadly payoff. Erich von Stroheim is delightful in a depraved sort of way as Lily Damita's cynical husband. Based on the novel The Sphinx Has Spoken by Maurice de Kobra, Friends and Lovers represented one of Laurence Olivier's last early-talkie Hollywood films before he returned to England to hone his acting skills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Lili Damita, (more)
- 1934
Down on his luck in 1934, Erich Von Stroheim accepted a leading role in the Chesterfield Pictures cheapie Fugitive Road, making lemonade from a lemon by offering his services as "supervisor of military detail" (according to some sources, he also contributed to the script). Set during WW I, the film concerns a menage a trois at a border outpost. The players in this romantic triangle are Prussian Captain Oswald Von Traunsee (Von Stroheim), escaped American gunman Riker (Leslie Fenton) and Russo-Hungarian refugee Sonia (Wera Engels). Flying in the face of his "Man You Love to Hate" image, Von Stroheim surprisingly ends up the hero of the piece -- but not before nearly forcing his attentions on the cringing heroine. Unlike most Chesterfield pictures, the bulk of which were photographed by M. A. Anderson, Fugitive Road was atmospherically lensed by Ted McCord. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Vera Engels, (more)
- 1915
This the second full-length film version of Henrik Ibsen's stage tragedy Ghosts (the first was a Russian production directed by Vladimir Gardin) starred Henry B. Walthall as the benighted hero Oswald. In the original play, Oswald inherits his father's syphilis: in the film, he falls heir to his dad's alcoholism and epilepsy. This alteration aside, the film builds inexorably to Ibsen's startling denouement in which Oswald discovers that Regina (Loretta Blake), the woman he loves, is actually his own half-sister. (Mary Alden), who like Walthall had previously co-starred in D.W.Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, was here cast as Mrs. Alving. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In this espionage drama, the leader of a spy ring gets a dancer involved in his schemes. The dancer is the mistress of a British officer; at the spy's urging, she cons her lover into stealing secret documents. Unfortunately, the officer bungles the job and gets caught. He goes to prison, but eventually escapes and joins up with the spy. Later his conscience begins to awaken and he exposes the ring. Of the three, he is the only survivor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viviane Romance, Yvette Lebon, (more)
Frequently cited as both one of the greatest films about war and one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion is an often witty, sometimes poignant, frequently moving examination of the futility of war. During World War I, twoFrench airmen are shot down while taking surveillance photographs in German territory: Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), a wealthy and aristocratic officer; Lt. Maréchal (Jean Gabin), a burly but intelligent working-class mechanic. The three are brought to a P.O.W. camp, where they encounter and befriend Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a prosperous Jewish banker, and the commander, Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), takes an immediate liking to de Boeldieu.They are members of the same social class and believe that the political and intellectual ideals of the Europe they once knew will soon be a thing of the past with the rise to power of the proletariat. The three Frenchmen discover that their fellow prisoners have been digging an escape tunnel, and all of them agree to help -- Maréchal and Rosenthal with enthusiasm, de Boeldieu out of a sense of duty. As he puts it, when on a golf course, one plays golf, and while in a prison camp, one tries to escape -- it's the accepted thing to do. As Von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu become friends, and the rank-and-file soldiers banter as much with the German guards as with each other, the characters seem involved less in a war than in some vast, petty game, albeit one with deadly consequences; they often talk about women and food, while never mentioning political ideology. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
- 1924
Frank Norris' powerful Zola-esque novel McTeague was first filmed in 1915. While filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim would insist that he'd been enthralled by the book since it first came out in 1902, it is more likely that he didn't make the novel's acquaintance until seeing that 1915 film. Whatever the case, Von Stroheim vowed that, if he ever had enough Hollywood clout, he'd produce the "definitive" version of McTeague. After scoring an enormous financial hit with Foolish Wives, he had just that clout, and, in 1923, he began work on what he hoped would his masterpiece.
Stripped to its bare essentials, McTeague tells the story of a brutish, but basically good-natured, miner named McTeague (played by Gibson Gowland), who finds his true calling in life by taking over the practice of a traveling dentist. Setting up shop in San Francisco, McTeague falls in love with Trina (ZaSu Pitts), the daughter of German immigrants. It happens that Trina is the girlfriend of McTeague's best pal Marcus (Jean Hersholt), who is mildly resentful, but ultimately forgiving, when McTeague and Trina are married. Always seeking out an opportunity to better herself, Trina buys a lottery ticket. When the ticket pays off and she wins a fortune, the previously even-tempered Trina undergoes a complete personality change, metamorphosing into a grasping, greedy, miserly shrew, hoarding huge sums of money while her husband must get by on his meager earnings as a dentist. Trina's sudden windfall sparks a change in both McTeague and Marcus, as well; driven to distraction by his wife's avarice, McTeague turns into a violent beast, while Marcus boils with jealousy over losing the now-prosperous Trina to McTeague. Pushed too far, McTeague ultimately murders Trina and escapes to the desert with her money. Appointed a sheriff's deputy, the envious Marcus heads out to bring McTeague in, and the two men catch up with one another in the middle of Death Valley. Their water supply gone, their packhorse dead, McTeague and Marcus begin a fight to the death. McTeague manages to shoot and kill Marcus -- only to discover that Marcus has manacled himself to McTeague. Utterly defeated, he sits benumbed on the scorching rocks, awaiting madness and a horrible death.
Filming at actual locations (the murder scene was shot at a locale where a real murder had occurred, while the sweltering Death Valley sequence was, likewise, made there), Von Stroheim remained doggedly faithful to the Norris original, shooting every page word for word. The end result ran 40 reels, or roughly 10 hours of screen time. Then came the corporate intrigues. Von Stroheim, who had begun the film through the auspices of the old Goldwyn studios, now had to contend with the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer regime. Production head Irving Thalberg argued logically that no audience would sit still for ten hours of unrelenting realism. Von Stroheim reluctantly responded by paring his film down to 20 reels, but it was still far too long and depressing for MGM's taste. The director's friend Rex Ingram weeded out two more reels, warning Von Stroheim that "If you cut out another inch, I'll never speak to you again." At this point, MGM, feeling that too much money had already been spent on the project, took McTeague away from Von Stroheim and ordered June Mathis to whittle the picture down to ten reels. It is this version, retitled Greed, that was released to the public in late 1924.
Far from the financial disaster that MGM always claimed it was (the film actually posted a small profit), Greed was still too overpowering for many observers. Critics and audiences were sharply divided, some hailing the film as a work of unbridled genius, others dismissing as "an epic of the sewer." Von Stroheim, angered that his baby had been "butchered," refused to ever see the ten-reel Greed. When viewed today, the film retains its raw dramatic power; the continuity gaps and clumsy transitional titles that once seemed so unforgivable are generally ignored by contemporary audiences. Still, Greed is not a happy, high-kickin' production. Though a rewarding experience, it remains very rough sledding for those accustomed to traditional, conservative entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Stripped to its bare essentials, McTeague tells the story of a brutish, but basically good-natured, miner named McTeague (played by Gibson Gowland), who finds his true calling in life by taking over the practice of a traveling dentist. Setting up shop in San Francisco, McTeague falls in love with Trina (ZaSu Pitts), the daughter of German immigrants. It happens that Trina is the girlfriend of McTeague's best pal Marcus (Jean Hersholt), who is mildly resentful, but ultimately forgiving, when McTeague and Trina are married. Always seeking out an opportunity to better herself, Trina buys a lottery ticket. When the ticket pays off and she wins a fortune, the previously even-tempered Trina undergoes a complete personality change, metamorphosing into a grasping, greedy, miserly shrew, hoarding huge sums of money while her husband must get by on his meager earnings as a dentist. Trina's sudden windfall sparks a change in both McTeague and Marcus, as well; driven to distraction by his wife's avarice, McTeague turns into a violent beast, while Marcus boils with jealousy over losing the now-prosperous Trina to McTeague. Pushed too far, McTeague ultimately murders Trina and escapes to the desert with her money. Appointed a sheriff's deputy, the envious Marcus heads out to bring McTeague in, and the two men catch up with one another in the middle of Death Valley. Their water supply gone, their packhorse dead, McTeague and Marcus begin a fight to the death. McTeague manages to shoot and kill Marcus -- only to discover that Marcus has manacled himself to McTeague. Utterly defeated, he sits benumbed on the scorching rocks, awaiting madness and a horrible death.
Filming at actual locations (the murder scene was shot at a locale where a real murder had occurred, while the sweltering Death Valley sequence was, likewise, made there), Von Stroheim remained doggedly faithful to the Norris original, shooting every page word for word. The end result ran 40 reels, or roughly 10 hours of screen time. Then came the corporate intrigues. Von Stroheim, who had begun the film through the auspices of the old Goldwyn studios, now had to contend with the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer regime. Production head Irving Thalberg argued logically that no audience would sit still for ten hours of unrelenting realism. Von Stroheim reluctantly responded by paring his film down to 20 reels, but it was still far too long and depressing for MGM's taste. The director's friend Rex Ingram weeded out two more reels, warning Von Stroheim that "If you cut out another inch, I'll never speak to you again." At this point, MGM, feeling that too much money had already been spent on the project, took McTeague away from Von Stroheim and ordered June Mathis to whittle the picture down to ten reels. It is this version, retitled Greed, that was released to the public in late 1924.
Far from the financial disaster that MGM always claimed it was (the film actually posted a small profit), Greed was still too overpowering for many observers. Critics and audiences were sharply divided, some hailing the film as a work of unbridled genius, others dismissing as "an epic of the sewer." Von Stroheim, angered that his baby had been "butchered," refused to ever see the ten-reel Greed. When viewed today, the film retains its raw dramatic power; the continuity gaps and clumsy transitional titles that once seemed so unforgivable are generally ignored by contemporary audiences. Still, Greed is not a happy, high-kickin' production. Though a rewarding experience, it remains very rough sledding for those accustomed to traditional, conservative entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1918
On the heels of his masterpiece, Intolerance, which dramatized the futility of war born out of prejudice, director D.W. Griffith shifted gears for this film. Intolerance had proven a financial disaster for Griffith, so he signed with producer Adolph Zukor to release his next film. He came upon the subject matter on a trip to England to promote Intolerance. The British government, desperately looking to America for help in fighting the Germans in the first World War, persuaded Griffith to make a propaganda picture. Set in France, it's the portrait of a village overrun by the Germans during the hostilities. Griffith begins the story in 1912 with a slow developing romance between The Boy, Douglas Gordon Hamilton (Robert Harron) and The Girl, Marie Stephenson (Lillian Gish). A street singer known as The Disturber (Dorothy Gish) tries to come between them, but she settles for her own romance with Monsieur Cuckoo (Robert Anderson). In the summer of 1914, The Boy and M. Cuckoo answer the call to arms, forcing the postponement of The Boy and Girl's wedding. The film's second half cuts back and forth between the battlefield and the home front (which in this case are separated by only a few miles). By the time the film was completed, the United States had already entered the war, and over the years its extreme portrayal of German soldiers has been trimmed, the first time at the request of the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. In fact, Griffith included shots of American troops helping out in the story's final battle and then marching off to return home. The version viewed for this review, running 115 minutes, included a brief prologue with footage of Griffith touring the battlefields in France, where some documentary footage was shot, though most of the film was made in Southern California, and the director meeting with British prime minister David Lloyd George. Also notable is the appearance in small parts of future filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim as a German soldier, future character actor Ben Alexander as The Boy's youngest brother, and future entertainer Noël Coward as a young villager pushing a wheelbarrow. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, (more)
- 1933
Love turns into an unhealthy obsession in this offbeat drama. Millie (Zasu Pitts) and Peggy (Boots Mallory) are two friends who leave behind the small town where they were raised to try their luck in New York City. Before long, Millie and Peggy meet Jimmy (James Dunn) and Mac (Terrance Ray); Millie is immediately attracted to Jimmy, but much to her displeasure she learns he's more interested in Peggy. Determined to have Jimmy as her own, Millie attempts to sew discord between Jimmy and Peggy by telling each of them foul lies about the other; when this fails, Millie becomes desperate and attempts to kill herself as an attention-getting device. The production history of Hello, Sister! was in many ways more interesting than the film itself. Originally titled Walking Down Broadway, the film was the first sound picture from the legendary Erich von Stroheim; hoping to mend the reputation as an egocentric spendthrift he acquired while directing epic-scale silent films, von Stroheim managed to bring in Walking Down Broadway on time and on budget. However, executives at 20th Century Fox were a bit puzzled by the film, which originally had a sub-plot suggesting a lesbian relationship between Millie and Peggy and other sexual undercurrents which were quite daring for the time. Uncertain about audience reactions to the movie, Fox brought in the less-than-distinguished Alfred Werker to re-shoot and re-edit von Stroheim's urban melodrama, and the resulting picture, entitled Hello, Sister!, was released without an on-screen directorial credit, and died a quick and little noticed death at the box office. No print of von Stroheim's original cut is known to exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Boots Mallory, (more)
- 1990
This documentary respectfully interviews a number of important American directors who have in one way or another "bucked the system." It also explores the life and work of earlier American mavericks through the tributes, reflections, and recollections of the first group. Prominent among the living directors interviewed are Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, and David Lynch. Among the directors who are discussed are Orson Welles, D.W. Griffith and Samuel Fuller. Clips from the films of these men, and interviews with important actors who have worked with them (e.g. Robert DeNiro) are another feature of this documentary, commissioned by Japanese public television corporation NHK. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, (more)
- 1940
Actress/ballerina Vera Zorina stars as a phony countess, working in cahoots with two international con artists (Erich von Stroheim and Peter Lorre). She renounces her earlier life after falling in love with one of her victims (Richard Greene), but her old crooked cronies show up to blackmail her. Zorina confesses to her husband, who forgives all. Von Stroheim and Lorre steal everything but the cameras in their brief scenes, outshining both hero and heroine with their patented rascality. I Was an Adventuress ends with a George Balanchine ballet sequence, which like all such film "highlights" goes on too long and is strictly a matter of taste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Zorina, Richard Greene, (more)
- 1917
This was only one of many films that proved that the team of silent star Douglas Fairbanks, director John Emerson, and scenarist/wit Anita Loos was unbeatable when it came to comic adventure. Teddy Rutherford (Fairbanks) goes on a bender when he discovers that his sweetie (Helen Greene) loves another man (Homer Hunt) -- and the guy is a pacifist to boot (not a virtue admired in the days of World War I)! After this binge, Teddy wakes up in jail to the ministrations of Janie (Arline Pretty), the sheriff's daughter. In due course, he is released, but he wants nothing more than to go back to the lock-up and to Janie. His attempts to break into the jail are hilarious but unsuccessful. Finally, he gets arrested again for impersonating a man who has plotted to dynamite a munitions factory. The sheriff's assistant -- Teddy's rival for Janie's affections -- tries to get rid of Teddy once and for all by instigating a lynching. But Teddy uses his impressive athletic abilities to escape the mob, leave the jail, and capture the real bomber. Erich vonStroheim was art director on this picture, but his Prussian persona caused trouble when he tried to order some explosives for one of its scenes. The Secret Service rushed to Fairbanks' studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and as a result of this incident, the star fired vonStroheim. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, (more)
- 1954
Erich von Stroheim dominates the proceedings in the French L'Envers du Paradis (Other Side of Paradise) Set in a tiny village near the Riviera, the story concerns a diverse group of has-beens and losers. Von Stroheim plays O'Hara (sic!), a sea captain who's never been to sea. The Countess (played by Denise Vernac,Von Stroheim's secretary and constant companion in real life) entertains her jaded guests by screening dirty movies. Failed writer Blaise (Jacques Sernas) is saddled with an alcoholic wife (Dora Doll). And idealistic young Violaine (Etchika Choureau) is slowly dying of tuberculosis. The lives of all these people become intertwined through a sudden -- but not unexpected -- act of violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Etchika Choureau, (more)
- 1946
Consigned to "B" pictures in Hollywood, Erich Von Stroheim fared rather better in France: his 1946 vehicle La Foire aux Chimeres (The Dream Fair) was one of the most expensive French productions of the year, and one that made back its cost many times over. Von Stroheim is appropriately cast as a disfigured engraver who takes revenge on the world by becoming a master forger. His motives aren't entirely selfish: in love with blind circus entertainer Madeline Sologne, he hopes to provide her with the necessary funds to pay for a sight-restoring operation. But Sologne is herself in love with Louis Salou, and thereby hangs a tragic tale. It's fascinating to watch Von Stroheim doing a Charlie Chaplin, albeit without the whimsy and pathos of "The Little Tramp." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Sologne, Erich Von Stroheim, (more)
