Cast:
Rudolph Christians (Andrew J. Hughes; Robert Edeson from the back), Miss DuPont (Helen Hughes), Maude George (Her Highness Olga Petchnikoff), Mae Busch (Princess Vera Petchnikoff), Erich von Stroheim (Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin), Dale Fuller (Maruschka, a maid), Al Edmundson (Pavel Pavlich, a butler), Cesare Gravina (Cesare Ventucci, a counterfeiter), and Malvina Polo (Marietta) Directed by Erich von Stroheim (#1782 - Blind Husbands)
Review:
Sometimes you need a romantic epic drama. Yes, one with a person that serves as director, co-producer, writer, and star. And yes, one with Erich von Stroheim behind the wheel for his third time around the director's chair (all with Universal Pictures), with this following Blind Husbands (1919) and The Devil's Pass Key (1920, a lost film), which generated success with audiences and publicity alongside a raise. This would be a project that would feature an elaborate production of spectacle and melodrama with large re-creations built by the studio to try and mimic the French Riviera and the Mediterranean coast. This would turn into a production that would require the extensive attention of the studio with its technicians that drove Universal to promote Irving Thalberg to head of production to try and bring von Stroheim into control. Believe it or not, von Stroheim actually wanted the film to be released "as is", which would have run long enough to have to be shown on two consecutive nights. With a cost of over one million dollars that had a shooting time of nearly a year to go with half a year in editing with countless extras, interiors, and sets, it one perhaps isn't surprised to find von Stroheim as a possible successor to the legacy of D. W. Griffith, particularly since Griffith was a mentor to him for a time. However, this would be the last time that the director would have complete control over a film, as his next film in Merry-Go-Round (1923) would see him clash with Thalberg to the point where he was fired after six weeks (this time he did not have the luxury of using his power as star and director to create a stalemate, since he wasn't acting in that film); he was fired from Universal. Greed (1924) would have been his great epic...but von Stroheim would find himself clashing with the newly established man in charge of production in Thalberg; von Stroheim would direct five further times in the next eight years, but none were as successfully realized.
One wonders just how much von Stroheim enjoyed being at the center of all the attention when it comes to spectacle like this, because simply stating the plot may not be enough to get the whole point across about how oddly effective the film is, one century removed from its release. You can point at the fact that the director ordered actual caviar and champagne for banquet scenes, or the fact that he effectively is playing the devil with all of the romances he goes off on that go from married women to a half-wit to a maid, but my favorite little moment is the time a book is seen in a shot called "Foolish Wives by Erich von Stroheim" that ends up closing the film. It all seems to fit together for a movie built on facades, either in the time taken to make facades that look like the real locations or the facades of the people in the film to hide who they really are. The restored version of the film runs at 142 minutes, so you'd better believe you are getting plenty of time to spend with the oozing qualities of von Stroheim, because he easily is the best part of the film, controlling the camera whether in front of it or behind in terms of stage presence in conviction that you believe through and through (i.e. one sees a swindler that could swindle someone straight out of a melodrama). DuPont does okay as the romantic interest, filled with calm grace mixed with a bit of nativity that makes for fairly curious moments spent being pursued by the other main lead. Christians died midway through production, which means that the second half of the film features the character he was playing shown with his back to the camera (since Edeson is playing the character from the back). The performance is therefore murky to quantify, because the role is already one destined to be dwarfed as a "normal" foil to the director at any rate. George and Busch make fair facades of alleged dignity that pays off with the last scene in particular. Fuller and the rest are fine, even if it is the climax that is more memorable than actual sequences of chemistry attempted with the star, which features fires and sewer stuffing. As a whole, it may be more of a spectacle movie than a movie filled with deep plotting, but it is entertaining spectacle that generally rewards the patience of its viewer by pulling out the stops necessary to get where it wants to go in the folly of facades without hammering one in the head with piety. Instead, it presents a tale of decadence and stays where it wants to go right until it needs to stick the landing in appropriate measures that doesn't fall into mockery. Whether one likes this film or Blind Husbands, it is clear to see where von Stroheim gets his interests in terms of making useful spectacle with facades in human nature that make for distinct films that are very much his own (warts and all) that served its time well that could still reach a viewer today.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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