Greed (1924)

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Movie
German title Greed
(alternative title greed for money )
Original title Greed
Greed 1924 poster.jpg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1924
length 140 minutes / 239 minutes
Rod
Director Erich von Stroheim
script Joseph Farnham ( inter-title author ),
June Mathis ,
Erich von Stroheim based on the novel McTeague by Frank Norris
production Louis B. Mayer ,
Irving Thalberg
music Robert Israel
camera William H. Daniels ,
Ben F. Reynolds ,
Ernest B. Schoedsack
cut Rex Ingram ,
June Mathis ,
Grant Whytock ,
Erich von Stroheim
occupation

Gier (Original title: Greed ) is a silent film by Erich von Stroheim , which gained importance despite the destruction of the original version by the producers and censors. In 1991 he was inducted into the National Film Registry .

action

McTeague, a rather simple man, works in a mine. One day, at the request of his mother, he follows a fake dentist on a wandering tour and learns his trade more poorly than right.

A few years later he runs his own practice in San Francisco . There he meets Trina, the fiancée of his friend Marcus, when he brings her to him for treatment. As Trina lies numb on the treatment chair, McTeague is seized by a previously unknown, violent desire for the woman. It is only with great effort that he can control himself to attack her. On an outing, McTeague confesses to his friend that he is in love with his fiancée. Grandeur Marcus "leaves" it to him and begins a relationship with Selina, a cousin of Trina.

Although Trina is not particularly fond of the coarse McTeague, they begin to meet regularly and Trina's family agrees with the relationship. Engagement is celebrated. On the same evening it is announced that Trina has won $ 5,000 on one ticket. Marcus is seized with violent envy and he is convinced that he is entitled to part of the money. One day there was an open argument in the pub when Marcus, drunk, threw a knife at McTeague and unsuccessfully claimed part of Trina's lottery winnings.

McTeague and Trina get married and initially lead a fairly harmonious life. Marcus takes revenge on McTeague by reporting him to the authorities for practicing as a dentist without a license. As a result, McTeague is no longer allowed to practice his “profession”. The couple could still lead a carefree life thanks to Trina's $ 5,000 - a huge amount at the time. Trina, who was already extremely stingy before, strictly refuses to touch her money. Instead, she sends McTeague looking for work in the pouring rain. McTeague doesn't even get any change for the tram. Trina's greed takes on pathological features. She spent hours cleaning her coins when McTeague is out. The couple sinks deeper and deeper into misery. The good-natured McTeague endures all of this until he starts drinking. Under the influence of alcohol, he brutally abuses his wife and bites her fingers to extort money from her. McTeague finally leaves his wife completely neglected.

In order not to have to touch her savings, Trina works as a cleaning lady in a kindergarten. McTeague shows up on a Christmas Eve and demands the $ 5,000. When Trina refuses, he murders her, takes the money and flees. McTeague is now being wanted. Marcus joins a search party and eventually finds McTeague in the desert of Death Valley . In the fight for the money, McTeague kills Marcus, but is chained to him by handcuffs that he had previously put on him. McTeague faces its end in the deadly heat.

background

Erich von Stroheim was obsessed with the American naturalist Frank Norris' novel McTeague and planned to film the story page by page. But that was not enough for Stroheim: In order to characterize McTeague even more clearly, Stroheim also shot a detailed prologue , which is not in the novel.

In this film - as in Stroheim's other works - his subjects were not decadent seducers and royalty, but the American underdogs and petty bourgeoisie. Stroheim's idiosyncratic methods during the shooting did not differ from those of his other films: every minute detail of the novel should also be seen in the film. The film was shot on location in San Francisco and Death Valley . For the prologue, which lasted over an hour in the original version, Stroheim rented a disused mine and shot the scenes showing McTeague as a buddy in the tunnels for weeks.

Stroheim shot some scenes countless times until he achieved the desired effect. The lead actor Gibson Gowland had to be pelted with real knives by a professional knife thrower that Stroheim had hired to make a scene look real. The final scenes in Death Valley were also shot there - at times 50 degrees in the shade. One employee died from the heat. All those involved were physically exhausted at the end of the shooting. The furnishings of the poor apartments were personally collected by Stroheim in junk shops. Bells had to work - even though it was a silent movie ; the cheap beer - during prohibition - had to be real.

The result was a film that consisted of 42 film rolls, which corresponds to a running time of 8 to 10 hours. Stroheim wanted to bring it out in two parts. The producers rejected this plan. In their eyes, this wasn't an entertainment film for the whole family. Broken people could be seen here in their abysses.

The original version was shown only once at a private screening. The MGM studio demanded significant cuts before the theatrical release. The film was shortened in several intermediate steps to a length of about 10 roles, which corresponds to a length of about 145 minutes, among others by the then famous director Rex Ingram . Almost all of the first two hours of the long version were cut out, which meant that several characters and entire storylines disappeared from the film.

Among other things, the following subplots and scenes have been removed or severely shortened:

  • The detailed prologue in which McTeague's everyday life and family circumstances are shown before his time at the dentist
  • McTeague's years of apprenticeship with the wrong dentist
  • Marcus' work in a dog clinic
  • The two old people who live wall to wall in the same house as McTeague and who find each other after long, shy approaches
  • The story of the rag collector Zerkov, who murdered the cleaning lady Maria because of an imaginary pot of gold and then committed suicide
  • McTeague and Marcus 'picnic with Trina's family, during which McTeague breaks Marcus' arm in a competition.
  • The McTeagues moving to increasingly poor dwellings and auctioning their property
  • McTeagues work as a movers
  • McTeague, who digs gold with a friend while on the run and finds a gold vein
  • A cameo Stroheim as balloon salesman

The cut material was probably destroyed during a clean-up at MGM's film depot. The film cans were labeled with the working title McTeague . Nobody noticed that this was the full version of Greed .

Even so, there are still rumors about film collectors who supposedly own a complete version of the film. Only still photos of the lost scenes are preserved. In 1999 the film historian Rick Schmidlin created a 243-minute version with the help of the still photos and Stroheim's script, which gives at least a rough impression of the whole. In this version, Erich von Stroheim is quoted at the beginning of the film with the statement: Even if I had three weeks to speak, I couldn't even begin to describe the pain that the mutilation of my work caused me.

Greed was a box office failure in the US and was vehemently rejected by most critics. The film also provoked strong reactions in Germany . In Berlin , for example, indignant viewers had their entrance fee refunded and the film was removed from the program after a few days.

Today, greed regularly appears at the top of the best lists in film history. The original version of the film is often referred to as "the holy grail of film history".

literature

  • Herman G. Weinberg: The Complete Greed of Erich von Stroheim. Arno Press, New York NY 1972, ISBN 0-405-03925-5 .
  • Norbert Grob : Greed for money. In: Thomas Koebner with the assistance of Kerstin-Luise Neumann (Hrsg.): Film classics. Descriptions and Comments. 1913-1946 vol. 1. Reclam, Stuttgart 1995 [1. Ed.], ISBN 3-15-009416-X , pp. 103-107.

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