Foolish Wives (1922)

Directed by

Gustav Machatý, Erich von Stroheim

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 22m

Rated

12

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 107 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A con man posing as a count seduces women in Monte Carlo for their money. His schemes become increasingly reckless as he targets a diplomat's wife.

melodramaticerotictensecynicalvisually lushslow-burndecadentunsettlingambitious

What happens

Foolish Wives is a 1922 American erotic silent drama film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures under their Super-Jewel banner and written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. The drama features von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont, Maude George, and others. When released in 1922, the film was the most expensive film made at that time, and billed by Universal Studios as the "first million-dollar movie" to come out of Hollywood. Originally, von Stroheim intended the film to run anywhere between 6 and 10 hours, and be shown over two evenings, but Universal executives opposed this idea. The studio bosses cut the film drastically before the release date. Foolish Wives, and the widespread media coverage that added to its "sensational notoriety", elevated von Stroheim into the ranks of preeminent directors of the early 1920s. In 2008, Foolish Wives was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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