Foolish Wives (1922) | |
| Director(s) | Erich von Stroheim |
| Producer(s) | Irving Thalberg (uncredited) |
| Top Genres | Drama, Silent Films |
| Top Topics | |
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Foolish Wives Overview:
Foolish Wives (1922) was a Drama - Black-and-white Film directed by Erich von Stroheim and produced by Irving Thalberg.
Foolish Wives was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2008.
Foolish Wives BlogHub Articles:
More than Max: Erich von Stroheim and Foolish Wives (1922)
By shadowsandsatin on Dec 16, 2023 From Shadows and SatinIf you?re like me, you know Erich von Stroheim best as Max Von Mayerling, the butler (and first husband) of aging silent movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in the classic 1950 noir Sunset Blvd. But there was so much more to von Stroheim than Max. While writing about von Stroheim for the soon-... Read full article
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Facts about Foolish Wives
After six months in the editing room, Erich von Stroheim turned over his cut of the film to Universal Pictures in December of 1921. The film was 32 reels and 8 hours long, but von Stroheim insisted it was now "a perfect story." When asked how it would be possible to present 32 reels for an evening's entertainment, he replied, "That's a detail I hadn't time to bother about" (the magazine "Photoplay" suggested that the movie should be re-titled, "Foolish Directors," and released as a serial). Universal took over the movie, and edited it down to 14 reels, with a 210-minute running time. Von Stroheim hated the shorter version, complaining that all that was left of his masterpiece was "the bones."
The Ambassador, played by Rudolph Christians, has his back to the camera for most of the second half of the movie because Christians died in the middle of production and his part was completed by Robert Edeson.
As the film's production costs skyrocketed, Universal Pictures attempted to use the situation to garner some publicity for it. The studio erected an electronic sign on a rooftop overlooking Broadway, across the street from its New York offices. The sign read "Universal Pictures and 'Erich von Stroheim' (v) will spend $XXX,XXX to entertain you with 'Foolish Wives.'" Each week the numbers of the production costs were updated on the electronic sign, telling how much more the picture had cost. In the end, the total cost of the film, as reported by Universal, was $1,103,736.38. Von Stroheim later claimed that the real cost was only around $700,000.
read more facts about Foolish Wives...
The Ambassador, played by Rudolph Christians, has his back to the camera for most of the second half of the movie because Christians died in the middle of production and his part was completed by Robert Edeson.
As the film's production costs skyrocketed, Universal Pictures attempted to use the situation to garner some publicity for it. The studio erected an electronic sign on a rooftop overlooking Broadway, across the street from its New York offices. The sign read "Universal Pictures and 'Erich von Stroheim' (v) will spend $XXX,XXX to entertain you with 'Foolish Wives.'" Each week the numbers of the production costs were updated on the electronic sign, telling how much more the picture had cost. In the end, the total cost of the film, as reported by Universal, was $1,103,736.38. Von Stroheim later claimed that the real cost was only around $700,000.
read more facts about Foolish Wives...
