The Erich von Stroheim Movies Ranked
Perhaps best known today for playing a character bearing many of his own traits in SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), Erich von Stroheim has achieved in some circles a renown associated with one who had more to offer but was cut off too soon. But upon reaching Hollywood as a stuntman in 1914 through to his final roles just before his death in 1957, von Stroheim worked quite steadily…at least as an actor. His not exactly prolific period (in the grand scheme of his life and the pace of such things at the time) of directing nine films across the 14 years of 1919 to 1933 yielded some of the greatest films of the silent era…and at least one of all time.
Von Stroheim was known as a perfectionist, going over schedule and budget and infuriating studio executives to no end. He claimed Austrian nobility; the details of his origins changed throughout his life, acting as an alternative to his real upbringing as a middle class Jew from Vienna. As with the whole construction and other casting choices of SUNSET BOULEVARD (he had directed Gloria Swanson, as just one example), von Stroheim’s semi-exaggerated persona in that film paid tribute to and critically assessed the very nature of Hollywood, that old dream machine and its fantastical fabrications, in front of and behind the camera. Von Stroheim is one of the kookiest characters in Hollywood history and he funneled that into a mad genius for at least one incredible production, utilizing it for “mere” greatness besides. Ranked here are seven of his nine films (which also discounts movies he had an uncredited and minority hand in directing); THE DEVIL’S PASS KEY (1920) and THE HONEYMOON (1929) are lost.
#7 — HELLO, SISTER! (1933)
HELLO, SISTER! is the hardest entry on this list to strictly call an “Erich von Stroheim picture.” The movie came after the biggest gap in productions for von Stroheim. His previous released movie was THE HONEYMOON in 1929 (now lost), while the famously turbulent production of QUEEN KELLY was ended that same year without an American release; the Swanson-starrer would be shown in Europe with an alternate ending in 1932. HELLO, SISTER! was also von Stroheim’s first talkie. And it was to be his last directorial credit…even if the movie was released with no listed director. HELLO, SISTER!, as it began production with von Stroheim in 1932, was called WALKING DOWN BROADWAY. Although he subverted the Fox executives’ expectations by staying on schedule and budget, the product he turned in was allegedly far too neurotic and dark for a script that was meant to result in a lighthearted romantic comedy of the streets. Directors Raoul Walsh and Alfred L. Werker were brought into reshoot and add scenes that changed the very tone of von Stroheim’s edit, making the climactic apartment fire the result of a goofy drunk stashing dynamite instead of the attempted suicide of (GREED star) ZaSu Pitts’ character. That is just the most extreme of changes. Even still, it has been estimated by a number of historians that most of HELLO, SISTER! was indeed shot by von Stroheim, making it technically more his film than not. But those disruptions to his intent are clear, making the movie a thematic mess. The chemistry between James Dunn and Boots Mallory is ingratiating, however, while James Wong Howe’s cinematography is understated yet at times remarkably beautiful. HELLO, SISTER! is not the romantic blaze of glory it could have been for von Stroheim, but even as his greatest disappointment and in spite of studio meddling, it scratches a certain Pre-Code itch.
#6 — BLIND HUSBANDS (1919)
With the exception of HELLO, SISTER! and GREED (and what an exception in the latter case), von Stroheim’s films are centered on aristocracy and the foolishness present within its ranks. Perhaps his perspective as a faux-noble himself gave him the insight needed to effectively skewer and depict that class of people with such stylistic aplomb. In any event, von Stroheim’s first movie as director came after a wartime period of often stereotypical roles, starting as an extra in D.W. Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and assistant director on INTOLERANCE (1916) and transitioning into villainous German characters in films such as Griffith’s own HEARTS OF THE WORLD (1918). Von Stroheim is quoted as saying that he saw himself as Griffith’s successor, and in some ways, he was. His reckoning with the language of film was unique for the time and that was recognized upon the release of BLIND HUSBANDS. Working with Universal, von Stroheim immediately established his reputation as a perfectionist filmmaker, churning through film to get the performances he wanted. He also starred in the film, leveraging the image he had established as his German military villains into sexual sophistication…and predation. BLIND HUSBANDS follows von Stroheim’s Austrian lieutenant as he attempts to seduce an American doctor’s wife, and the director tells this story with an eye and fluidity that foretold the refinement silent film would experience later in the 1920s. Although BLIND HUSBANDS is an impressive debut and film in its own right for its time and beyond, it speaks to von Stroheim’s greatness to come that it remains one of his least essential works.
#5 — FOOLISH WIVES (1922)
Von Stroheim came to FOOLISH WIVES flush with success from BLIND HUSBANDS and THE DEVIL’S PASS KEY (as mentioned, now lost). In fact, he was so flush that Universal allowed him to make what was up to that point the most expensive film yet made. The studio had already leaned into promoting von Stroheim’s previous movies with a prestige angle, and they upped the ante by billing FOOLISH WIVES as the first million dollar Hollywood movie. Indeed, the film, which revisited the themes of BLIND HUSBANDS (you can see how it connects in title alone), does look sumptuous. Von Stroheim commanded extravagant custom-built sets, location shooting, and his usual run-through of film reel after film reel. In this case, though, the amount of film wasn’t totally redundant for the sake of the best performance; von Stroheim planned a final cut somewhere between six and ten hours long, to be screened across multiple showings. That was a bridge too far for Universal, however, and his editing rights were taken away from him, resulting in a nearly two hour edit that has now been restored to nearly two-and-a-half hours. As with many of von Stroheim’s films, you have to wonder what could have been, even as you are faced with an incredible work in what is supposed to be a compromised form. But you never know; sometimes artists’ extravagant instincts can be their own worst enemy. In any event, FOOLISH WIVES turned out to be a great film. Von Stroheim’s fake count (ring a bell?) is a serial gold-digger. The meeting of European sophistication and American honesty is once again exemplified by von Stroheim’s attempted seduction of an American envoy’s wife. As with BLIND HUSBANDS, this ultimately leads to his character’s violent demise. Although there was a stronger push for “decent” stories in the early 1920s for a variety of reasons, one has to wonder if these endings were necessitated by social pressure on the studios or if von Stroheim was intentionally demonstrating the persistence of American genuineness over European fakeness. That’s my takeaway of FOOLISH WIVES’ authorial intent, anyways, and von Stroheim imparted that message with a well-acted, often wonderfully shot film that still takes a back seat to the director’s future refinement.
#4 — THE WEDDING MARCH (1928)
Once again, the story behind a von Stroheim film is full of trials and tribulations. And by this time, the money wasn’t backing up his eccentricities and extravagances. THE WEDDING MARCH is essentially the first part of an entire film von Stroheim conceived of and cooked up, with Josef von Sternberg being brought in by distributor Paramount to re-edit the other von’s cut of about four hours into two releases. The second was THE HONEYMOON, released in 1929, which is now lost. Even though further parts of its story are missing, THE WEDDING MARCH stands remarkably on its own. Its ending plays as its own sort of quiet tragedy, while THE HONEYMOON apparently ended things much more violently. Von Stroheim plays a more sympathetic character here than in his earliest films, while his usual attention to accuracy and rich sets once again make the movie look like a million bucks. Released at a time when silent movies were on the precipice of extinction, the film was a box office disappointment and, paired with a few other significant flops and developments in von Stroheim’s career, would contribute to his not being trusted with the director’s chair again. Nevertheless, THE WEDDING MARCH is a lush drama with a full emotional experience to offer, even if, once again, it’s not exactly what von Stroheim intended.
#3 — QUEEN KELLY (1929)
By the late 1920s, Gloria Swanson had become a creative force behind her movies in a way that had not been facilitated by a woman at such a large scale since perhaps the days of Mabel Normand. Swanson’s controversial film SADIE THOMPSON (1928) was a big hit (and it’s very good), and she next turned to von Stroheim and a story conceived by him for another powerful drama. Considering the personalities at play, once again brilliantly recontextualized in SUNSET BOULEVARD, it may have been expected that QUEEN KELLY would not have been pulled off without a hitch. The sordid sophistication von Stroheim was known for was central to the film’s earlier portion, where Swanson’s character, a convent student, becomes embroiled in a scandalous relationship with a prince. In von Stroheim’s original idea, this disgraced woman then moves to Africa, where sophistication is dispensed with and she becomes an embittered and cynical “ruler” of a brothel. Swanson took issue with this dark turn, due to the changed nature of her character, and after von Stroheim was fired in 1929 and the silent film was never ultimately released in America, she enlisted Richard Boleslawski to direct and Gregg Toland to shoot a new sound ending in which her character commits suicide. I suppose that was considered more admirable. In any event, von Stroheim’s idea was the better one, and through a Kino reconstruction, one can experience its rough idea with photos and subtitles, and yes, the “Swanson ending” as well. QUEEN KELLY was released with this ending in Europe in 1932, but to acknowledge the superior version that was ultimately never theatrically screened, I consider the film a production of 1929. This also indicates the refinement silent film had achieved by that time, which was dashed away in favor of stodgy and stage bound talkies (which of course would become more fluid in essentially short order). I feel like a broken record, but von Stroheim’s capabilities are so impressive in that his messes behind the scenes were still able to mostly result in what feel like meticulously crafted and beautifully orchestrated films. QUEEN KELLY is one of the best examples of that, with its release “failures” existing on one side of a disparity, the film’s high quality and ultimately moving, darkly gleaming quality standing on the other.
#2 — THE MERRY WIDOW (1925)
Not as famous as Ernst Lubitsch’s 1934 adaptation of the classic operetta and not as renowned within von Stroheim’s own filmography, THE MERRY WIDOW is nevertheless nearly the greatest distillation of the director’s powers. Not as dark as his other aristocratic pictures but still risquè in its innuendo and cynically funny, von Stroheim’s follow up to GREED is intensely different. THE MERRY WIDOW is more conventional for its time and more stagey (fitting considering its source material), but there’s no doubt that its stars, especially Mae Murray and John Gilbert, command the screen. MGM’s dislike of the final product ended von Stroheim’s association with the studio, but not before he was able to squeeze his two very best movies out of them. THE MERRY WIDOW’s contemporary success wasn’t as electrifying as his earlier features, but there’s no doubt that to this day, it’s nearly his most lasting contribution to cinema.
#1 — GREED (1924)
But as good as his other best movies are, von Stroheim made “just” one that could be considered one of the greatest of all time. GREED is almost unlike anything else the director made; almost, because although his avant-garde-like approach to shooting, subject matter, and class of people depicted don’t match his self-vaunted aristocracy, the film’s ambition is similar to von Stroheim’s previous efforts…only better. Von Stroheim’s adaptation of the novel MCTEAGUE (1899) is an American epic, as insightful and powerful an example of the genre you can get, and of course from someone born elsewhere. Most of GREED was shot on location and it shows. The film has a texture unlike most anything seen before; von Stroheim’s usual approach of expensive sets was fine for luxurious rooms, but it just wouldn’t have worked for this movie’s seedy settings. He and cinematographers Ben F. Reynolds and William H. Daniels build to an unforgettably tragic and visually immortal ending with a blend of cinematographic techniques that, while done before, had not been applied at such scale, in a Hollywood film especially. Star Gibson Gowland gives a naturalistic performance unrivaled by anyone at the time, and indeed, by himself later in his career. ZaSu Pitts occupies a similar space. The cast, combined with the location shooting and deep focus, provide a sense of authenticity to and investment in GREED’s proceedings. Perhaps the film’s most famous element is its length. Von Stroheim made the film with Goldwyn, which merged with Metro and Mayer in 1924 to form MGM. There, Irving Thalberg, von Stroheim’s onetime Universal boss (and firer) would not stand for the director’s neary eight hour original cut. Only 12 people are reported to have seen this fittingly epic edit until it was shortened to just two and a half hours. What a blow that must have been to von Stroheim, who indeed saw the film as his magnum opus. I hope he would have been glad to know, then, that a 1999 reconstruction restored GREED to a nearly four hour length, of course not the scope of the full vision, but a work supplemented by still photos, other existing footage, and subtitles that even more effectively communicated the movie’s ambitious scale. The full cut of GREED is one of the holy grail lost films. I admittedly despair that it will never be found, but I am heartened that, in the most spectacular way, von Stroheim’s compromised vision is nevertheless more electrifying than most anything made during his time and now. GREED is a must-see film for anyone professing to love cinema and it’s clearly von Stroheim’s masterpiece.
