Erich von Stroheim

Erich von Stroheim's directorial debut, in which he also stars as a predatory Austrian lieutenant who sets his sights on an American doctor's wife during a holiday in the Alps. Made for Carl Laemmle's Universal on a small budget, the film already bears von Stroheim's signatures: the meticulous detail, the moral rot beneath polite society, the contempt for men too absorbed in their work to notice their wives. Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington play the couple, with Gibson Gowland as the mountain guide. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's third directorial effort was advertised as "the first million-dollar picture," a claim producer Carl Laemmle happily promoted even as he battled his director over the spiraling budget. Stroheim stars as Count Karazmin, a phony Russian aristocrat who, with his "cousins" Marietta and Olga, sets up in a villa above Monte Carlo to prey on wealthy women. The production recreated the casino and plaza of Monte Carlo on the California coast at Point Lobos, with hundreds of carpenters building an entire Riviera resort. Stroheim's obsessive attention to detail, from hand-tailored uniforms to accurate military decorations, established the template for his later extravaganzas. The surviving version runs about 130 minutes, a fraction of the director's original cut. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's adaptation of Frank Norris's novel McTeague follows a gentle San Francisco dentist who marries the woman his best friend courted, and watches their life curdle over a lottery jackpot she hoards while he drinks. Von Stroheim shot a film that reportedly ran over nine hours; MGM cut it to roughly two, and the excised footage is believed lost. What survives is still one of the most celebrated silent films ever made, famous for its naturalistic location shooting in San Francisco and Death Valley and for ZaSu Pitts's harrowing portrait of avarice. The final crawl across the baking desert, with the two survivors handcuffed to a corpse, is one of the great endings in cinema. The film was a financial failure on release and is now regarded as a high-water mark of American silent drama. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2020.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's lavish adaptation of the operetta follows a American showgirl who marries a European prince, is banished by his royal family, and returns years later as the wealthy widow the whole kingdom is courting. Stroheim, never one for restraint, packed the film with decadent set design, a famous masked-ball sequence, and the kind of obsessive detail that made his productions famously expensive. Mae Murray's ballet training is put to use in extended dance numbers, and John Gilbert plays the prince with the smooth melancholy that made him a silent-era matinee idol. The film was a hit despite the studio's cuts to Stroheim's preferred cut. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's lavish romance set in Vienna on the eve of the First World War, in which a penniless aristocrat falls for a brewer's daughter but is pushed into an arranged marriage for money. Stroheim directed and starred, and the production was as extravagant as everything he touched: real period uniforms, a full-scale carnival sequence, and a budget that ran far over what Paramount had agreed to. The studio cut the film down sharply, and the version that survives is only the first half of Stroheim's intended two-part story; the second half, The Honeymoon, is largely lost. Fay Wray, a year before King Kong, plays the girl he cannot marry. What remains is a film of extraordinary visual density and a director's refusal to compromise. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's directorial debut, in which he also stars as a predatory Austrian lieutenant who sets his sights on an American doctor's wife during a holiday in the Alps. Made for Carl Laemmle's Universal on a small budget, the film already bears von Stroheim's signatures: the meticulous detail, the moral rot beneath polite society, the contempt for men too absorbed in their work to notice their wives. Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington play the couple, with Gibson Gowland as the mountain guide. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's adaptation of Frank Norris's novel McTeague follows a gentle San Francisco dentist who marries the woman his best friend courted, and watches their life curdle over a lottery jackpot she hoards while he drinks. Von Stroheim shot a film that reportedly ran over nine hours; MGM cut it to roughly two, and the excised footage is believed lost. What survives is still one of the most celebrated silent films ever made, famous for its naturalistic location shooting in San Francisco and Death Valley and for ZaSu Pitts's harrowing portrait of avarice. The final crawl across the baking desert, with the two survivors handcuffed to a corpse, is one of the great endings in cinema. The film was a financial failure on release and is now regarded as a high-water mark of American silent drama. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2020.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's directorial debut, in which he also stars as a predatory Austrian lieutenant who sets his sights on an American doctor's wife during a holiday in the Alps. Made for Carl Laemmle's Universal on a small budget, the film already bears von Stroheim's signatures: the meticulous detail, the moral rot beneath polite society, the contempt for men too absorbed in their work to notice their wives. Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington play the couple, with Gibson Gowland as the mountain guide. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Erich von Stroheim's third directorial effort was advertised as "the first million-dollar picture," a claim producer Carl Laemmle happily promoted even as he battled his director over the spiraling budget. Stroheim stars as Count Karazmin, a phony Russian aristocrat who, with his "cousins" Marietta and Olga, sets up in a villa above Monte Carlo to prey on wealthy women. The production recreated the casino and plaza of Monte Carlo on the California coast at Point Lobos, with hundreds of carpenters building an entire Riviera resort. Stroheim's obsessive attention to detail, from hand-tailored uniforms to accurate military decorations, established the template for his later extravaganzas. The surviving version runs about 130 minutes, a fraction of the director's original cut. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

A vaudeville sharpshooter is manipulated by his beautiful assistant and her alcoholic husband into killing the husband on stage, only to realize he has been set up. Erich von Stroheim stars in this early Anthony Mann noir. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Drama

A pre-Code early sound musical drama directed by James Cruze, based on Ben Hecht's short story "The Rival Dummy." Erich von Stroheim stars as Gabbo, a ventriloquist who becomes increasingly unhinged as he relies more and more on his dummy Otto as his only means of emotional expression. Betty Compson co- stars as Mary, his former assistant and lover. The film was originally released with Multicolor sequences, now surviving only in black and white. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain.

Music · Drama · Horror

Five young friends in a Ukrainian village set out on a walking trip to Kiev in June 1941 — and march straight into the first wave of the Nazi invasion. Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Walter Huston, and Walter Brennan star in Lewis Milestone's wartime drama from a Lillian Hellman screenplay, produced by Samuel Goldwyn with a score by Aaron Copland. A prestige Hollywood plea for the Soviet ally, released through RKO. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · War

Erich von Stroheim's lavish romance set in Vienna on the eve of the First World War, in which a penniless aristocrat falls for a brewer's daughter but is pushed into an arranged marriage for money. Stroheim directed and starred, and the production was as extravagant as everything he touched: real period uniforms, a full-scale carnival sequence, and a budget that ran far over what Paramount had agreed to. The studio cut the film down sharply, and the version that survives is only the first half of Stroheim's intended two-part story; the second half, The Honeymoon, is largely lost. Fay Wray, a year before King Kong, plays the girl he cannot marry. What remains is a film of extraordinary visual density and a director's refusal to compromise. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent