Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Greed
...The dead child is buried and Zarkow is convinced that Maria hides a treasury
One of the books I most treasure in my library is "The Complete Greed" compiled and annotated by Herman G. Weinberg. It has the "complete" version of Erich Von Stroheim's 1924 epic movie "Greed" in printed paper. The original film would have run for around 10 hours. Goldwyn Pictures, afraid of a complete catastrophe, mutilated the film cutting it to 140 minutes and destroying the original negative.
The film was never shown publicly in it's complete length though legend says that it was shown once in Buenos Aires in the mid twenties. Mr Weinberg has recreated the film using still photographs following the original shooting script. This book is an extraordinary labour of love recreating this lost masterpiece. It was published by Arno Press in 1972.
Turner Entertainment, the current owner of the copyright, recreated 4 hours of the film using similar material in 1992 .
Turner Entertainment, the current owner of the copyright, recreated 4 hours of the film using similar material in 1992 .
When Goldwyn cut the film, complete sub-plots were obliterated. This one concerns the story of scrub woman Maria Macapa (Dale Fuller) and junk man Zerkow (Cesare Gravina)