GREED

Ninety-nine years ago, a silent film titled Greed was released in U.S. cinemas. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim. When von Stroheim originally filmed his movie, he shot approximately 85 hours of footage before he would start editing. He originally whittled the footage to be approximately 9 hours long. Only a handful of executives and film critics would be privileged to see this version. As von Stroheim worked to condense the final product, the studio behind the funding of the film took control of the footage. They handed the editing off to one of their employees, Joseph Farnham, who was a titles editor. Farnham cut the movie to approximately 2 hours and most of the excised film was destroyed. Von Stroheim disowned the final version and felt his masterpiece had been butchered. The version that was released was a financial flop and critically panned. Jump forward almost a century and the movie is now widely regarded as one of the best, most important, and influential films ever made. My intrigue with this dichotomy made it clear that Greed needed to make it to my must-see list of films for 2023.

Van Stroheim used numerous innovative filming techniques that would not become popular or mainstream for years to come. He controlled the meticulous use of lighting and shadows. Events in the background are often played for enhanced mood (as the two central characters are being married, if you look out the window behind them, there is a funeral procession taking place!). At one point when these same two are being set up by another character, filming is cut away to a cat getting ready to pounce on a birdcage! Brilliant foreshadowing! All of the filming took place in San Francisco and in Death Valley. Many consider this to be the very first movie to be filmed entirely on location. Van Stroheim also utilized a technique called the Handschiegl Color Process. This was a process where individual frames of film were hand-tinted. As a result, throughout the movie whenever gold is featured in a scene, it appears brightly gold-colored against the rest of the black-and-white imagery.

In 1999, Turner Entertainment took on the task of recreating a version of the movie that would come as close to van Stroheim’s vision as possible. There was a new score created and missing footage would be filled in using over 650 still photographs that were thankfully preserved. With a run time of four hours, it follows von Stroheim’s original outlines. Kudos to film historian Rick Schmidlin and editor Glenn Morgan for their final product. It was this version that I watched, and it was a remarkable experience. It kept me glued to the screen from the opening comments right through to the satisfying surprise twist that occurs just minutes before the film comes to its conclusion.

The movie easily could have been titled “Greed, Stinginess, Envy and Pettiness”. Wealth can change people who obtain it, and drive those craving it to show off their worst qualities. This movie doesn’t work to give an upbeat tale or a happy ending, and this is another reason why many speculate that the film did poorly at the box office when it was first released. This type of rawness was not the norm during the early days of Hollywood films. The central tale is that of dentist Dr. John McTeague (Gibson Gowland), and Trina (Zasu Pitts), the woman he falls in love with and eventually marries. After winning a lottery of $5,000, Trina becomes obsessed with saving it and hoarding even more money. Marcus (Jean Hersholt) begins the film as a close friend of McTeague who actually introduced him to Trina. When Trina wins the lottery, Marcus becomes jealous and envious and soon begins to despise his former friend, wanting to be paid for all the good deeds he had done in the past to help McTeague. All three primary actors excel in their roles.

Where the majority of the still photos come into play is within the two subplots that obviously made up the majority of the film that had been edited out back in 1924. One subplot revolves around desperate junkman Zerkow, and his greedy and manipulative wife Maria. Unlike the McTeagues, Zerkow and Maria have never had wealth and they are consumed with obtaining it while living in filthy conditions. The second subplot is that of Charles Grannis and Anastasia Baker, two elderly neighbors who live in the same apartment as the McTeagues. Their tale is the counter story to the McTeagues. They have some money set aside, but they don’t let it consume them and they aren’t afraid to use it when needed. Their fates are the only truly happy ones in the entire story.

I loved Greed and am so very impressed by its engaging story and brilliant storytelling through the skills of director Erich van Stroheim. This is a must-see for any true film buff. For its day, it should have been a masterpiece. For our day it certainly has been turned into one.