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Greed (1924)
Topic Started: Jan 30 2009, 01:07 PM (779 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Notice from our friends at the Capitol Film Arts Alliance. I am planning on attending.

A Screening of the Silent Film “Greed”
Placer County Museums Community Education Program:
(Placer Co. Film Commissioner Beverly Lewis will be making a few comments about the film before it begins)

In 1924, Erich Von Stroheim directed the epic silent film Greed, which some critics claim is the greatest movie ever to grace the silver screen. Portions of the film were shot in the Iowa Hill region of Placer County. The film is a morality tale that illustrates the destructive nature of greed as three people, whose lives are intertwined, struggle until the bitter end for wealth.

A special screening of Greed will take place in the Gold Country Museum on Saturday, February 7th at 1:00 pm. After a brief introduction, we will show half of the film, take a 15-20 minute intermission, then screen the last half. Greed has a running time of three hours and 48 minutes.

Greed is one of four films featured in a new exhibit in the Placer County Museum , History on the Go, the Silver Screen Edition.

The Gold Country Museum is located at 1273 High Street inside the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn. Because seating is limited, reservations are required.

For more information or to make your reservation, please call 530-889-6500.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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Is this film available on DVD, LG? I must see it. I must own it. It must be mine, all mine...Bwa ha ha ha ha...

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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I want to see it too. I couldn't find if it was sold anywhere, but I did find this
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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When I went to Bill Everson's house in '62, in his basement vault there was a stack of 35mm cans marked "McTeague," but it was just a gag.

I have always loved Greed. Seen it four or five times. It's just so, so, so NASTY! How it came out under Leo the Lion is one of life's mysteries.

What size screen, Mr. G?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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No idear, dear.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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It's a long drive to Placer County -- I need to know.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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Well, I simply just called the number in the first post. Slacker.

The Feb. 7 selling is sold out, so they're planning a second one in March. They're going to notify me when that is (I'll be the foist to know, so I can book the seats).

It's not a big screen; a reg'lar projection screen, I b'lieve.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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You mean a projection TV?

Oh what the hell, I'll go anyway. It's been too long, Mr. G.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Frank Hale
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I don’t care for the film, myself, (too “nasty”), but “Let’s go out and sit on the sewer” is definitely a classic intertitle.

Is this that TCM reconstruction? My laser disc only ran 130m.
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Black Tiger
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Rick Schmidlin (who restored Welles' "Touch of Evil") interpolated Greed into a near four hour version back in '99 using over 600 stills from the lost footage incorporated into the surviving footage. It did air on TCM.
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panzer the great & terrible
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That seems to be the version they're showing at Placer. The one I showed back in 1963 was about two hours. It was powerful though. I planted a big wet kiss on June Mathis' tomb for not ruining the movie. (I do things like that)
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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CliffClaven
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TCM ran Eric's follow-up, "The Merry Widow." Now that was a strange -- if very entertaining -- piece of work.

The operetta on stage (and in the Lubistch adaptation) is very, very light -- a nobleman is assigned to marry a glamorous widow -- his ex-lover -- to prevent her from taking her wealth out of the country. A lot of it is romantic comedy byplay between the two. The stage version has a subplot where the widow rescues a married friend's reputation by compromising her own.
This version, for all its fairy-tale splendor and presumably intentional comic touches, is more a thundering melodrama with perverse touches that may or may not be intentionally funny:

-- Mae Murray is a pretty American dancer touring with a revue. She's got a bit of tough American attitude, but when the chips are down she's the helplessly pure and sincere virgin. In closeups they shoot her so she's actually fluorescent.
-- The lecherous snob Crown Prince comes complete with monocle and a fixed leering smile creepier than Conrad Veidt's in Man Who Laughs. He bullies underlings, throws an orgy at which he practices sharpshooting at statuary, and beats up the dear old man who rents discreet facilities for orgies.
-- John Gilbert is the Crown Prince's womanizing cousin. Sure he grabs serving girls and mauls them against their will, but he's nice to other folks and a regular fellow compared to the Crown Prince.
-- The crippled old baron, who is the money behind the throne, has a foot fetish. When Mae does her dance -- sort of a French postcard ballet -- we see Gilbert, the Crown Prince and the baron staring through their opera glasses. The baron is focused on her feet (she dances with heels instead of ballet slippers); the Crown Prince on her body below the neck, and Gilbert on her face. Evidently there's good objectification and bad objectification.
-- After the show, all three try to lure her to a private supper. Mae pawns the baron off on some of her questionable friends (the baron, no prize himself, registers revulsion at their feet). Gilbert discourages his cousin by setting a sheet of flypaper where he's about to rest his head (welcome to the comedy portion of this movie).
-- After luring her to a private supper, in an apartment complete with two blindfolded lady musicians keeping the bed warm, Gilbert discovers she really, really doesn't like forcible seduction -- but still loves him in a pure, virginal way. This turns his playful horniness into true, virtuous, beautifully-lit love.
-- The king and queen break up Gilbert's intended marriage (seemingly the day after the fateful supper) with the expected subtitles about Duty over Love. Gilbert takes it badly, and beats up the Crown Prince like an upset teenager.
-- Mae marries the baron because he convinces her that his wealth can buy her revenge. She waits on the wedding sofa in terror as a laughing maid -- also crippled -- limps away. The overheated baron starts in -- surprising -- on her bare shoulder. Then, before it can get any creepier, he keels over dead.
-- A year later, Mae is the toast of Paris and the King and Queen send the princes to marry her and keep her massive inheritance at home. Now, finally, we're in The Merry Widow. Mae and Gilbert seem to hate each other, and despite a waltz together she ends up engaged to the Crown Prince to spite him.
-- Gilbert duels the Crown Prince, deliberately missing because he thinks Mae actually wants to marry the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince, still smiling, shoots him.
-- The Crown Prince goes home to claim the throne, but is assassinated by the dear old semi-pimp he beat up several reels ago.
-- Gilbert, gradually recovering, discovers that Mae has stayed with him. True love triumphs, and a messenger brings word that Gilbert is now king.
-- King Gilbert is seen setting a crown on Mae's head. Happy end.
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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I've been watching The Merry Widow too; that Eric Von Stroheim: what a card!
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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mort bakaprevski
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CliffClaven
Feb 1 2010, 01:50 PM
The lecherous snob Crown Prince comes complete with monocle and a fixed leering smile creepier than Conrad Veidt's in Man Who Laughs. He bullies underlings, throws an orgy at which he practices sharpshooting at statuary, and beats up the dear old man who rents discreet facilities for orgies.
The ever-popular Roy D'Arcy... who went on to portray a delightful red herring in THE WHISPERING SHADOW.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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shelbyvinje
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I was just cleaning my shelf the other day and found my copy of GREED, four hours, from TCM. Only problem was I did the dorky routine of switching VHS videos at the time so there's about two minutes in the middle not there. Course I transferred it to two DVDs so it's two minutes in between discs. And the opening minutes of the second video had lines across the screen from wear. Does anyone have all four hours on one (or preferrably two) discs from the TCM airing more than ten years ago?
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