Greed (1924)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Erich von Stroheim

Writers:

June Mathis (screen adaptation and dialogue)
Frank Norris (novel)

Release Date:

26 January 1925 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Money | Dentist | Friendship | Murder

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Zasu Pitts	...	Trina
Gibson Gowland	...	McTeague
Jean Hersholt	...	Marcus
Dale Fuller	...	Maria
Tempe Pigott	...	Mother McTeague
Sylvia Ashton	...	'Mommer' Sieppe (as Silvia Ashton)
Chester Conklin	...	'Popper' Sieppe
Joan Standing	...	Selina

Runtime:

140 min | USA:239 min (1999 restored version) | Portugal:130 min (original version) (20 fps)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

16th Street, Oakland, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The original version was 42 reels, and ran for 9 hours at 20 fps. Von Stroheim then shortened it to 24 reels (just over 5 hours - the "Director's Version"). It was then cut again, not once, but twice. The first time by Rex Ingram, who cut the film down to 18 reels, and forbade Stroheim to let anyone cut it again. The final cut was performed by MGM editing department's Joseph Farnham acting on orders from Irving Thalberg, who without having read the book ("McTeague") or the script, cut the film down to 10 reels. This final version was released with a runtime of 2-1/4 hours. No copies of the earlier versions were made, and the entirety of the 32 reels that did not make the final release version were destroyed - along with all of the outtakes - so that the silver could be extracted from the film celluloid. It is in this way, that most of the movie was lost forever.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Marcus breaks McTeague's pipe and throws a knife at him, men pull McTeague's tie off as they hold him back. The tie is back in place a moment later as McTeague rushes out of the saloon.

Quotes:

Title card: GOLD - GOLD - GOLD - GOLD. Bright and Yellow, Hard and Cold, Molten, Graven, Hammered, Rolled, Hard to Get and Light to Hold; Stolen, Borrowed, Squandered - Doled.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "MGM: When the Lion Roars" (1992)

key silent with surprising images

Erich von Stroheim made his film version of Frank Norris' novel ‘McTeague', and, as is well-known, it lasted over eight hours. The version which has survived is obviously nothing near that length, and cuts out many of the subplots from the book which had been planned and filmed.

What has survived is a broken masterpiece, starring Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, and Jean Hersholt, which is full of memorable images (not just the final sequences in the desert, but the trip out where McTeague and Trina fall awkwardly in love, and the scene where Trina rolls literally in the golden coins strewn on her bed) and makes you long for more of this film to turn up from the vaults.

There is a marvellous book available which reconstructs much of the lost material through stills, and much of this was amalgamated with the existing footage to ‘restore' the film during the late 1990s. Even in its butchered state, Greed is well worth a look.