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So, Erich von Stroheim walks into a bar. He collides with an epic bestseller and MGM’s checkbook. What ensues? The film of the day! And night, and the next day....and that night, and the day after....because this movie, in it’s primary edit, was somewhere between a whopping 8 TO 10 HOURS LONG! The title of this behemoth creation? “Greed”, of course!
“Greed” was based on a bestselling book from 1899, entitled “McTeague: A Story of San Francisco”. The story revolves around 3 people whose lives are completely destroyed by (what else?) greed. Erich knew he wanted to film it, even mentioning it to a journalist in 1920. Erich also had personal ties to San Francisco, as he had lived there – in poverty, just like the characters in the story! So it was a small wonder when he finally got permission to make “Greed”. Erich had recently joined Sam Goldwyn’s company (before it became MGM), and the bigwigs had wanted Erich to make a film version of the popular operetta “The Merry Widow”. He agreed – but only if he could make “Greed” first. Erich promised to keep the costs low. HA! This guy....
And so, Erich was off! He wrote a highly detailed 300-page script, complete with camera movements, tints, everything. As he had been in his previous films, Erich was a perfectionist, intensely devoted to authenticity and details. Not bad qualities to have as a director – but remember, this guy took it to the extreme! Unsurprisingly, Erich decided to shoot on location in San Francisco, as well as Death Valley, California, and other “fun”, “easy access” locations. Sarcasm intended. He also rented several buildings that were said to have inspired the novel when it was written, and simply redecorated actual locations instead of building sets. SEE?? "LOW COSTS". NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT HERE.
Giving direction to Gibson Gowland and ZaSu Pitts
Filming began in March 1923, and lasted until October. Yes, October. A multitude of unfortunate events took place during these three months, one of which was Erich, collapsing from exhaustion after only a few days of filming! He had been working 24-hour days prior to the start of shooting, and it finally took a toll. Film legend extraordinaire or not – get your Zzzz’s, folks! Erich recovered and managed to keep working, but the drama was far from over. Actor Cesare Gravina ended up with double pneumonia, which he managed to work through – only to have his scenes cut from the finished film. Erich did not approve of the edits, but was unable to prevent them. In a fight scene, actor Jean Hersholt was completely knocked out (accidentally) by co-star Gibson Gowland, and actress ZaSu Pitts almost got run over by a trolley! And then – things got wild.
The aforementioned Cesare Gravina (left), being directed by Erich. Cameraman: Benjamin F. Reynolds.
Erich wanted a real knife thrown in a scene. MGM said "HELL NO". Paraphrasing ours.
In June, the production company finished shooting the scenes in San Francisco, and headed to Death Valley. Yes, in June. Anything for the sake of authenticity, right??? Well, “anything” turned out to be the life of a film crew member, when someone suffered heat stroke. 14 others were so sick they had to be transported back to Los Angeles immediately. Collapsing from heat exhaustion was a daily occurrence among the crew that did remain. Actor Jean was hospitalized upon his return, suffering internal bleeding and losing 27 lbs (12 kg). And oh yeah, the company’s insurance was denied! In spite of Jean’s physical afflictions, he would always consider his role in “Greed” to be the best of his entire career. Dedication or delusion?? We’ll let you decide...
After finishing the Death Valley scenes, the company moved on to the Big Dipper mine in Placer County, California – where Erich insisted on descending 3,000 feet (900 m) underground to shoot the mine scenes, that would have looked exactly the same at 100 feet (30 m). But, ya know – realism. So they filmed underground at 3,000 feet between the hours of 9pm – 6am. Nothing was too strenuous after almost being baked alive in Death Valley, right?? Well, after a total of 198 days filming....they finally wrapped. Erich’s contract stated that the length of his film must not exceed 8,500 feet (2,600 m). The amount used for “Greed”? 446,103 feet (135,972 m). 85 HOURS OF FOOTAGE, PEOPLE.
The editing of “Greed” was a drama in itself, which Erich personally supervised and the first cut being around 8 to 10 hours long, depending on who you ask. His contract did not include payment for anything during post-production, and because of his notorious perfectionism, editing took almost a year! A year without pay?? Um, no. It is said that Erich hand-tinted certain scenes himself, which is quite impressive. Only 12 people are said to have seen the 8-10 hour version. Most of them agreed that it was the best film they’d ever seen.
Hand tinted by Erich
But still....over 8 hours?? Audiences sure weren’t going to sit still for that, no matter how good it was. So Erich was ordered to cut it down. Way down. After much fussing and feuding with Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer , "Greed" was whittled down first to 6 hours, and then a 4 hour, 20 minute version, with Erich insisting that he could cut it down no further. It was *still* too long, even though the idea was to show it over 2 nights. Back and forth to editing, where it was again scaled down. It *still* didn’t get full approval, so MGM put our girl June Mathis on this project, telling her to chop the heck out of it (paraphrasing, of course!). Yeah, that'll go well...
The final cut supervised by June was roughly 2 hours. Erich. Was. Miffed. He later said that the film "was cut by a hack with nothing on his mind but his hat." THE SHADE! Unsurprisingly, Erich completely disowned this version and (of course) blamed June personally for destroying his work. Never mind the fact that several editors worked on it, and that Irving Thalberg himself had demanded more cuts...
“Greed” was finally released in December of 1924. It was a flop. And the price for making the movie?? $665,603, twice as much as the studio agreed to. What it made at the box office? A mere $224,500. So much for keeping those costs low, Erich. A majority of the reviews were negative, with one critic even calling Erich a “genius...badly in need of a stopwatch.” Harsh but not entirely wrong, I mean...
“Greed” was Erich’s passion project, so it’s understandable that he wanted no part of the heavily edited studio version for many years. In 1950 he finally saw it, and he said:
"It was as if a man's beloved was run over by a truck, maimed beyond recognition. He goes to see her in the morgue. Of course, he still loves her but it's only the memory of her that he can love—because he doesn't recognize her anymore."
In modern times, “Greed” is a somewhat bittersweet topic, as all of the hours of footage that were edited out no longer exist. It is said that the film was “melted down” to extract the silver nitrate (and were presumably re-used). Attempts to restore the entire story began in 1958, based on the original, uncut script that had belonged to Erich. Three books were published, chronicling the script and comparing it to the existing (2 hour) version, utilizing 400 still photos from the production. In 1999, Turner Entertainment reconstructed the film as best as they could, restoring the many subplots that had been removed and inserting photographs from the missing scenes. This version runs nearly 4 hours, which is close to Erich’s personal edit!
Newsreel footage from the Death Valley shoot:
Got a spare *checks notes* 3 hours and 59 minutes?? Or maybe 2 days, with about 2 hours in each?? Take a gander at the version that would have made Erich very happy:
Or, check out the much-shorter, studio-edited film! Please note, this version has no music, drat the lot:
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