von Stroheim's "Greed" 1924 Movie Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

The 1899 novel "McTeague" by Frank Norris was a radical departure for American fiction of its era in its frank treatment of sex, domestic violence, and obsession.
McTeague is a huge, simple and brutish dentist living in San Francisco with his gentle, diminutive wife Trina. She wins a lottery and becomes obsessed with her wealth. Her jealous ex-lover Marcus demands a share of the money, and he and McTeague fight. Marcus reports McTeague to the City for having neither license nor degree, and McTeague loses his practice. McTeague discovers Trina's hoard of gold and she refuses to give any to him; he flies into a rage and beats her to death, then flees to the mining camps of his childhood, and southward toward Mexico. Marcus catches up with McTeague in Death Valley; McTeague beats Marcus to death, but the dying Marcus manages to handcuff himself to McTeague, and the story ends with McTeague stranded in the desert and handcuffed to a corpse.

History of The Film            A legendary 'lost film'. German-born movie actor Erich von Stroheim's career crashed with the hysteria accompanying America's entry into The Great War. Reduced to living in a dingy rooming house, he found a copy of Norris's 1899 novel "McTeague" left by a previous tenant. Director-producer D.W. Griffith brought von Stoheim with him to California to make an anti-war film, and von Stroheim was soon directing his own successful films.
           von Stroheim's plan was to film every event contained in the novel "McTeague". Grueling location filming in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and in Death Valley escalated the costs of production beyond a half million dollars (effectively bankrupting Goldwyn Pictures).
           von Stroheim delivered a film of ten hours length (42 reels!), which was shown once for contractual reasons, on 12 January 1924. The studio forced von Stroheim to make drastic cuts; he edited the film down to four hours. The still-displeased studio then took control and released a 2-hour & 20-minute version on 4 December 1924, which failed at the box office. von Stroheim later described himself as heartbroken. The excised negatives and exposed film elements were destroyed, perhaps as late as the 1950s; this lost film masterpiece is considered the 'holy grail' of film lovers.
           The Turner restoration of 1998 makes use of still photos & historical script continuity, and expands the run time to about four hours.

"McTeague: An Opera" [P.B.S. 1992]
Commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago & performed in 1992; co-written & directed by Robert Altman [1925-2006]; based on the 1899 novel "McTeague" by Frank Norris; composed by William Bolcom, libretto co-written by Arnold Weinstein; starring Ben Heppner, Catherine Malfitano & Timothy Nolen
filmed for broadcast on PBS • video/DVD not available • full credits at IMDb
"The Real McTeague" tv program [WNEW/PBS May 1993]
Directed by Robert Altman; narrated by Studs Terkel
video/DVD not available • credits at IMDb

Written & directed by Erich von Stroheim; based on the novel "McTeague" {above}; starring Gibson Gowland,
Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin & Joan Standing;
listed on the National Film Registry in 1991; not available on DVD
Turner 4-hr restoration [9/98] 2 tapes - out of prodn/used

"Frames: A Valentino Mystery" [2008]
by Loren D. Estleman
Valentino, young 'film detective' at the U.C.L.A. Film Archives, stumbles upon some missing reels of von Stroheim's "Greed", the long-lost silent film masterpiece of 1924. But he also finds a human skeleton, and the stupid cops threaten to impound the film cans as 'evidence' (storing the delicate nitrate film improperly), so Valentino must solve the murder case before the cinematic treasure deteriorates even further.
Forge 8½x5¾ hardcover [4/2008] for $16.29

	"Norris: Novels and Essays" [1986] Edited by Donald Pizer Library of America 8x5¼ hardcover [10/86] out of print/many used includes "McTeague" [1899], "The Octopus" [1901], "Vandover and The Brute" [1914], and 22 essays
	"The Art of Frank Norris, Storyteller" [1988] by Barbara Hochman Univ MO Press 8¾z5¾ hardcover [8/88] out of print/used Univ MO Press 8¾z5¾ hardcover [8/88] out of print/used
	"Frank Norris: A Life" [2006] by Joseph R. McElrath, Jr. & Jesse S. Crisler Univ IL Press 9½x6¼ hardcover [1/2006] for $31.00

Magic Lantern Video & Book Store"Greed" 1924 Silent Movie

Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
"Greed" 1924 Silent Movie