Foolish Wives
| Foolish Wives | |
|---|---|
Lobby card
|
|
| Directed by | Erich von Stroheim |
| Produced by |
Irving Thalberg Carl Laemmle |
| Written by | Erich von Stroheim |
| Starring | Erich von Stroheim Miss DuPont Maude George |
| Music by | Sigmund Romberg |
| Cinematography |
William H. Daniels Ben F. Reynolds |
| Edited by | Arthur Ripley |
|
Production
company |
Jewel Productions
|
| Distributed by | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
384 minutes (original cut) 117 minutes (original release) 142 minutes (restored) |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
| Budget | $1,100,000 |
Foolish Wives is a 1922 American silent drama film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures under their Super-Jewel banner and written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. Although uncredited, Irving Thalberg, aged 22, was in charge of production. Thalberg would later become one of the most famous studio heads of all time. The drama features von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont, Maude George, and others.
When released in 1922, the film was the most expensive film made at that time, and billed by Universal Studios as the "first million-dollar movie" to come out of Hollywood. Originally, von Stroheim intended the film to run anywhere between 6 and 10 hours, and be shown over two evenings, but Universal executives opposed this idea. The studio bosses cut the film drastically before the release date.
In 2008, Foolish Wives was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The silent drama tells the story of a man who names himself Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin (von Stroheim) in order to seduce rich women and extort money from them.
He has set up shop in Monte Carlo and his partners in crime (and possible lovers) are his cousins: "Princess" Vera Petchnikoff (Busch) and "Her Highness" Olga Petchnikoff (George).
Count Karamzin begins his latest scam on the unworldly wife of an American envoy, Helen Hughes (DuPont), even though her husband is nearby. He attempts to charm her, planning to eventually fleece her of her money. She is easily impressed by his faux-aristocratic glamor, to the chagrin of her dull but sincere husband. Karamzin also has his eye on two other women, Maruschka (Fuller), a maid at the hotel, and Marietta (Polo) the mentally disabled daughter of one of his criminal associates (Gravina), seeing them both as easy sexual prey.
In the climax of the film Maruschka, the maid he has seduced and abandoned, goes mad and sets fire to a building in which Karamzin and Mrs Hughes are trapped. Karamzin jumps to save himself, leaving Mrs Hughes in danger. She is saved, and is looked after by her devoted husband. Karamzin's public display of selfish cowardice ensures he is shunned by the high society he craves to be accepted by. Humiliated, he tries to restore his pride by seducing Marietta, the mentally disabled girl. Her father kills him, dumping his body in a sewer. Karamzin's "cousins" are arrested for being imposters and con-artists.
...
Wikipedia