Foolish Wives (1922)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Erich von Stroheim

Writers:

Marian Ainslee (titles)
Walter Anthony (titles)

Release Date:

11 January 1922 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The first real MILLION DOLLAR PICTURE

Plot:

"Count" Karanzim, a Don Juan is with his cousins in Monte Carlo, living from faked money and the money he gets from rich ladies...

Plot Keywords:

Melodrama | Society | Partially Lost Film

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Rudolph Christians	...	Andrew J. Hughes (U.S. Special-Envoy to Monaco)
Miss DuPont	...	Helen Hughes, his wife
Maude George	...	Her Highness Olga Petchnikoff
Mae Busch	...	Princess Vera Petchnikoff
Erich von Stroheim	...	Their Cousin, Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin (Capt. 3rd Hussars Imper. Russian Army)
Dale Fuller	...	Maruschka, a Maid
Al Edmundsen	...	Pavel Pavlich, a Butler
Cesare Gravina	...	Cesare Ventucci, a Counterfeiter
Malvina Polo	...	Marietta, his half-witted daughter (as Malvine Polo)
C.J. Allen	...	Albert 1., Prince of Monaco

Runtime:

117 min | Sweden:384 min | Canada:140 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Film Manufacturing Company

Trivia:

As the production costs of the movie skyrocketed, Universal Pictures attempted to gain some publicity for the film. The studio erected an electronic sign on a rooftop overlooking Broadway, across the street from its New York offices. The sign read "Universal Pictures and Erich von Stroheim will spend $XXX,XXX to entertain you with 'Foolish Wives.'" Each week, the numbers of the production costs were updated on the electronic sign, telling how much more the picture had cost. In the end, the total cost of the film, as reported by Universal, was $1,103,736.38. Stroheim later claimed that the total cost was only around $700,000.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the original actor playing Mr. Hughes died in the middle of filming, he was replaced by a double, who completed his scenes with his back mostly to the camera. Apparently, however, nobody noticed that the original actor had significantly darker hair than his replacement. Therefore, Mr. Hughes's hair turns white in several scenes, including the sequence where his wife says goodbye to him in the casino, and his confrontation with the count at the villa.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinemania: Oi apagorevmenes tainies: I logokrisia ston kinimatografo" (2009)

It just couldn't grab me.

Normally I enjoy watching old movies from the '20's, even the more slower paced one's but this movie just didn't do it for me, although it also is of course far from the worst I have ever seen.

The movie has a good enough story but it isn't exactly the most intriguing or tense stories to follow. Lots of sequences don't seem to have a relevant enough importance. It might have to do with the fact that the original length of the movie was over 6 hours long, which might had shown some of the relevance of certain sequences and characters but there is really no way I'm ever going to watch this longer version. The movie was already overlong as it was. The movie didn't had very much interesting drama in it and although the main character seemed intriguing, it just didn't worked out powerful enough in the movie.

The movie also isn't as technically advanced as some of the other movies from the same time period, clearly directed by more talented and more experimental directors such as F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Victor Sjöström and D.W. Griffith, among others.

But this all of course doesn't mean that the movie is a bad one to watch. The story of a fake Russian aristocratic lady-killer in Monte Carlo trying to get money from rich ladies as on its own quite a good story and in a way for movie standards also ahead of its time. Many more movies like this one, in many different forms were made and are still being made, many years later now. In this particular case this is a movie I wouldn't mind seeing remade, perhaps also with some more humor in it and a more clear message. The movie also uses some quite good camera positions, on a positive note.

Also the acting is good enough, though Miss DuPont seems heavily miscast as a pretty 21 year young girl. She is too old looking for her role and she also most certainly wasn't pretty enough to find the story very convincing. Same perhaps goes for Dale Fuller. Erich von Stroheim plays the real main part of the movie and he does this with lots of flair. He also wrote and directed the movie. Laurel & Hardy regular Mae Busch shows up in a serious role for a change and it was refreshing to see her like that for a change.

Certainly a watchable movie but really no essential viewing in my opinion.

6/10