Foolish Wives (1922)

A con artist masquerades a Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.

Director:

Erich von Stroheim (as Erich Von Stroheim)

Writers:

Erich von Stroheim (story and scenario) (as Erich Von Stroheim), Marian Ainslee (titles)

Stars:

Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont, Maude George

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Rudolph Christians	...	Andrew J. Hughes - U.S. Special-Envoy to Monaco
Miss DuPont	...	Helen Hughes (as Miss Dupont)
Maude George	...	Princess Olga Petchnikoff
Mae Busch	...	Princess Vera Petchnikoff
Erich von Stroheim	...	Count Sergius Karamzin - Capt. 3rd Hussars Imper. Russian Army (as Erich Von Stroheim)
Dale Fuller	...	Maruschka
Albert Edmondson	...	Pavel Pavlich (as Al Edmondson)
Cesare Gravina	...	Cesare Ventucci
Malvina Polo	...	Marietta Ventucci (as Malvine Polo)
C.J. Allen	...	Albert 1 - Prince of Monaco

Storyline

"Count" Karanzim, a Don Juan is with his cousins in Monte Carlo, living from faked money and the money he gets from rich ladies, who are attracted by his charmes and his title or his militaristic and aristocratic behaviour. He tries to have success with Mrs Hughes, the wife of the new US ambassador.

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Plot Keywords:

national film registry | roulette | uniform | maid | fire brigade | 

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Taglines:

A SENSATION

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the intertitles, there is a mistake in French. Faites vos joux should be Faites vos jeux. The word is misspelled.

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Goofs

When Marushka is pleading with the Count to marry her, at the start of the scene he has a black, mourning armband on his upper left arm. When a different perspective is shown, the armband is gone. A few seconds later, the armband is back, where it stays for the rest of the scene.

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Quotes

Count Sergius Karamzin - Capt. 3rd Hussars Imper. Russian Army: Yes-husbands are stupid; with them a woman won is a woman secure...

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Alternate Versions

The Kino Video edition released in 2003 is 143 minutes.

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Connections

Featured in The Universal Story (1996)

User Reviews

Greed (1924) is much better.

Erich von Stroheim does do a great job as a creep, who cons young, naïve women into getting his hands on their money and the last 30 minutes of this film is pretty good, but that really is all this film has. This is considered von Stroheim's greatest film. It's supposed to be a true classic. I was too turned off by the disjointed editing and piecing together of the story. There were a lot of technical issues that could have easily been fixed, even for 1922. I was disappointed and I have seen some amazing silent movies before this.

6.7 (C- MyGrade) = 7 IMDB

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

None English Latin French

Release Date:

11 January 1922 (USA)

Also Known As:

Foolish Wives

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$1,100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Film Manufacturing Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min 384 min (original) 140 min (Ontario) 107 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1