Erich von Stroheim

Prince Wolfram is the betrothed of mad Queen Regina V of Kronberg. Supreme ruler, her word is law and he is a playboy…Read More »

The first rough cut of Greed allegedly ran around 8-9 hours. Von Stroheim submitted a 5 hour version to MGM, who eventually cut it down to 2+ hours after Irving Thalberg – who had fired von Stroheim when they both worked at Universal – was placed in charge of post-production following the Metro/Goldwyn merger. Von Stroheim disowned this version of the film, but it is the only surviving version known to exist. Even in its truncated form, Greed is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.Read More »

As artistically brilliant as it is gleefully perverse, Foolish Wives is Erich von Stroheim’s epic-scale account of an American diplomat’s wife (Mrs. Dupont) who falls under the spell of a phony Russian Count (von Stroheim). With his trademark eye for visual metaphor and gritty detail, von Stroheim infuses the artistocratic splendor of Monte Carlo (rebuilt in all its majesty on the Universal backlot) with an air of moral depravity. The result is a Grimm’s fairy tale romance that is no less fascinating today than it was 80 years ago.Read More »

Mariani, a Corsican gangster, sympathizes with his cellmate, Léo, a police inspector who poses as an inmate. When Léo is to be released, Mariani hand him a letter to bring to his wife Elaine.Read More »

Paris, 1937. Winckler kills his enemy Gordon, a Chicago mobster, from the stage of a Parisian music hall, where he performs telepathy. He pays another artist, Helene, so that she tells the police they’ve spent the night together, which doesn’t fool Callas, the police officer who investigates the murder. He hires one of his fellow officers in order to seduce Helene.Read More »

An officer tries to convince an amnesiac bar entertainer that she is his long-lost lover.Read More »

Synopsis:
Erich von Stroheim is The Great Flamarion, a marksman who employs Mary Beth Hughes and Dan Duryea, a married couple, for his vaudeville act. Having decided to rid herself of her husband, Mary Beth plots to trick von Stroheim into doing the dirty work for her.Read More »

Quote:
An aging silent film queen refuses to accept that her stardom has ended. She hires a young screenwriter to help set up her movie comeback. The screenwriter believes he can manipulate her, but he soon finds out he is wrong. The screenwriters ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to a situation of violence, madness, and death.Read More »

A word from an expert on the area: dbmonteil of the IMDb:

“La Foire aux chimères” is a jewel, a sparkling diamond. It would deserve one hundred comments, and that would not be enough.

Pierre Chenal was a film noir director who made moderately successful movies before the war: “L’Alibi” which featured von Stroheim too and his first version of “The Postman always rings twice “, “Le Dernier Tournant (1939). But the 1946 work is much superior, being at once a film noir, a baroque melodrama and a fairy tale.

Frank, a disfigured man (von Stroheim) meets at a fair a beautiful blind long-haired blonde Jeanne (Madeleine Sologne) who is a knives thrower’s partner; this man, Robert, has a lover, Clara. Jeanne marries the ugly man, undergoes an operation and recovers sight. But,as says Marilou, Frank’s housekeeper a proverb says “happiness is a misfortune you cannot see”.Read More »