Frequently cited as both one of the greatest films about war and one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion is an often witty, sometimes poignant, frequently moving examination of the futility of war. During World War I, twoFrench airmen are shot down while taking surveillance photographs in German territory: Capt. de ...
Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo is the third take on Lajos Biro's theatrical tale of romance and espionage, Hotel Imperial. This time, the action is transplanted from World War I Galicia to World War II Egypt as Rommel's Afrika Corps viciously forces the British Army to retreat towards Cairo. Protagonist John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is ...
On the heels of his masterpiece, Intolerance, which dramatized the futility of war born out of prejudice, director D.W. Griffith shifted gears for this film. Intolerance had proven a financial disaster for Griffith, so he signed with producer Adolph Zukor to release his next film. He came upon the subject matter on a trip to England to promote ...
Actor/ writer/ director Erich Von Stroheim stars as a fraudulent count, living high on the hog in Monte Carlo. He supports himself by extorting huge sums of money from silly married ladies who are dumb enough to fall for his romantic charms. Von Stroheim's partners in crime, phony princesses Mae Busch and Maud George, live in a state of perpetual ...
Erich Von Stroheim's bravura performance is easily the most entertaining aspect of The Mask of Diijon, though it should be noted that the film itself is better than usual for a PRC production. "The Man You Love to Hate" is cast as Diijon, a stage magician specializing in a gruesome guillotine act. Long retired, Diijon refuses to return to work, ...
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise (originally, the film contained a ...
Three powerhouse European screen personalities--Pierre Brasseur, Erich Von Stroheim, Maria Montez---elevate the tawdry melodramatics of Le Portrait d'Un Assassin. Brasseur plays Fabius, a reckless motorcycle driver, currently working in a carnival. When he begins to "choke up" in front of the crowd, Fabius decides it would be best to quit his job ...
Often written off as just another Poverty Row effort featuring a fallen-from-grace Erich Von Stroheim, Mascot Pictures' Crimson Romance is actually a slick, entertaining little drama about broken dreams and dashed ideals. When World War I breaks out, a pair of German/American lads (Ben Lyon and Hardie Albright) return to their parents' homeland to ...
After the disastrous failure of Queen Kelly, the great silent film director Eric Von Stroheim began to parcel himself out as an actor-for-hire, his directing career in tatters. His first post-Queen Kelly acting job was in this early sound film curio, with Von Stroheim playing The Great Gabbo, a ventriloquist who is gradually going insane, ...
One of several Liberty productions picked up for release by Republic, The Crime of Dr. Crespi is a modern-dress adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Premature Burial. Erich Von Stroheim stars as brilliant surgeon Dr. Anton Crespi, who seeks revenge against Ross (John Bohn), the man who stole his sweetheart away. When Ross is brought into the ...
Also known as Alraune and Mandrake, The Unnatural is a kinky science fiction film, elevated by the bravura performance of Erich Von Stroheim. Playing a mad scientist (again?), Von Stroheim artificially inseminates an addled prostitute with the sperm of a vicious murderer. The result of this unholy union grows up to be Hildegarde Neff, who is none ...
Because of his portrayals of villainous Prussians in pictures such as Hearts of the World and The Heart of Humanity, Erich von Stroheim was already famous as "the man you love to hate." But Stroheim had also been quite busy behind the camera over the years, as an assistant director to D.W. Griffith and art director to Douglas Fairbanks. When he ...
Down on his luck in 1934, Erich Von Stroheim accepted a leading role in the Chesterfield Pictures cheapie Fugitive Road, making lemonade from a lemon by offering his services as "supervisor of military detail" (according to some sources, he also contributed to the script). Set during WW I, the film concerns a menage a trois at a border outpost. ...
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