Erich von Stroheim

Erich Oswald Stroheim, better known as Erich von Stroheim, was born in Vienna, in the middle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on September 22, 1885. His past before succeeding in Hollywood was always unknown, as was usual at the time, and he fit perfectly With the filmmaker’s personality, he was surrounded by a false legend of noble and almost princely origin, according to which he would have been the son of a high-born army officer. This fit well with his roles as a military nobleman that characterized him, but it was completely spurious, in reality his origins were humble, he was born into a Jewish family and his father was a hatter.

In 1909 he emigrated to the United States, and according to Jean Renoir commented , his German was not very good. He met his first wife, Margaret Knox, in a tavern in 1912, and it seems that she helped him with the language, and guided him in the publication of his first novel, “In the Morning”, where the favorite topics that he would also address appeared. in his films, the longing for a decadent nobility, the frivolity of women and the depravity of men, true predators. The marriage with Knox would last little more than a year, Stroheim had a very difficult character due to her changing mood. He would still marry two other times, with Mae Jones, who gave him a son, and with the actress Valerie Germonprez, who gave him another; he would finally be with the actress Denise Vernac, who would accompany him until death.

Of course Stroheim was a self-made man, and when he arrived in Hollywood he started at the bottom, performing the most humble tasks, as a consultant on Germanic issues, assistant director and extra. The first film in which he appeared, naturally uncredited, was 1915’s The Country Boy . He was lucky enough to see David W. Griffith work on Intolerance , and indeed many traits of this director’s traits would form part of his personality. future as a filmmaker, like the taste for melodrama, and the excess in sets and footage.

From 1918 he began to stand out as an actor with roles as a depraved nobleman, in titles such as Hearts of the world , The Hun Within and The Heart of Humanity . His bearing and distinction are such that no one doubts the official story about his quasi-princely origins. He has finished World War I and with it the Vienna of his childhood, but the following year Stroheim is ready to make his directorial debut, adapting his own stories and novels. He is well placed at Universal and begins with Forgotten Heart , followed by The Devil’s Passkey (1920) and Frivolous Wives .(1922). His sensitivity in the conception of the scenes and in the psychological profile of his characters are undeniable, but who was described as an actor as “the man you love to hate” also seemed to fit that same description as a director.

His perfectionism, the expensive sets that he insists on building and that skyrocket budgets – the Monte Carlo of Frivolous Wives is amazing –, his mood swings, and the many meters of film that he spends and that are not used are striking. He would like to edit seven-hour films, but this is not possible. Universal’s Carl Laemmle is concerned, and newcomer Irving Tahlberg threatens to be fired in Frivolous Wives . The director feels safe, because the protagonist cannot do without him, but this will no longer serve him in his next film, The Carousel of Life (1923), where he will end up being replaced by Rupert Julian. Stroheim would say of Tahlberg that he “had nothing on his head except a hat.” These two films draw attention for how the nobility is portrayed, with lowliness that humanize even if they do not favor it, and the loving troubles. And the realism of the studio reconstruction of Monte Carlo was followed by the no less perfect recreation of Vienna. In his drawing of royalty, and comparing himself to Ernst Lubitsch , the filmmaker said: “he shows you the king on the throne and then in the bedroom, I show him first in the bedroom. So when you see him on the throne you have no illusions.”

For his next film, Stroheim ends up at MGM, and delivers what for many is his masterpiece, Greed (1924), an adaptation of Frank Norris ‘s McTeague novel , shot in Death Valley, and truly overwhelming. As usual, it suffers vicissitudes in the editing, its duration must be ostensibly shortened. Two of Stroheim’s most popular titles will come later, also starring him, The Merry Widow (1925) and The Wedding March (1928). The 1928 film Honeymoon has unfortunately been lost. New shooting problems affect the filmmaker with Queen Kelly, an unfinished film in which he did not act, and which was produced for United Artists by one of the artists, Gloria Swanson . It is a little gem that one can only regret that half the story is missing. By now Stroheim’s directing career was doomed, no one was willing to support him, although he would still direct, rather unevenly, his only sound film, Hello, Sister! (1933).

I would continue writing novels. And, as he happened to Orson Welles , he would always have to act, a task that he would alternate between France and the United States. His compositions stand out in The Lost Squadron -where he imitates himself as a film director-, Five graves in Cairo , The twilight of the gods -which reunited him with Gloria Swanson, and suggested to Billy Wilder the idea that his character from Butler wrote fake fan letters to his mistress, a former diva—and The Rules of the Game —great again in his recurring role as Honorary Officer for Jean Renoir. One of his last jobs was for a movie that hits him a lot, Napoleon (1955) ., although his character was not the emperor, but the composer Beethoven.

He was able to exercise his taste for ‘grandeur’ and ceremony when he was awarded the Legion of Honor while already ill. René Clair described that the act took place in his bed arranged in an elegant catafalque with red velvet, and he in black silk pajamas. In any case, and although he liked luxury and spent so much as a director, he died rather poor and with few means in Maurepas, Seine-et-Oise, in France, on May 12, 1957.