Blind Husbands (1919) User Reviews (17)

The remarkable debut of a legendary director

[wmorrow59 · 8/10 · 23 May 2004]

Erich Von Stroheim's first film as writer/director stands as one of his most satisfying works. Not so coincidentally, it is one of only two films he directed that was left largely intact by the 'Front Office' executives of his studio, Universal, at least on its initial release. (The other would be his 1925 version of The Merry Widow, made for MGM.) Surviving prints of Blind Husbands lack some material cut for a 1924 reissue but are otherwise substantially complete. After this successful debut Von Stroheim's productions became more elaborate, his off-camera behavior more outrageous, and his relationships with studio chiefs and money men behind the scenes more contentious, almost always resulting in the films being taken out of his hands and re-edited by others. (The movie career of Orson Welles would follow a sadly similar trajectory.) But the trouble and notoriety came later. In 1919 Erich Von Stroheim was still a little known character actor noted for playing sadistic Huns in war movies, and this maiden effort as screenwriter, director and star took Hollywood by surprise.

In comparison with Von Stroheim's later, more elaborate, and often bizarre works, Blind Husbands is simple and straightforward. The story concerns an unhappy romantic triangle involving an upper class American couple, Dr. Robert Armstrong and his wife Margaret, and a Lieutenant Eric Von Steuben, whom they encounter while vacationing at a resort in the Austrian Alps. The tension between the three is apparent from the beginning, as they share a carriage ride uphill to the resort. The husband is inattentive to his wife; she is frustrated; and the lieutenant, having quickly analyzed the situation -- and Margaret's legs -- begins a determined campaign to seduce her away from her seemingly indifferent husband. This opening sequence gives us the essence of the plot in a matter of moments, primarily through visuals instead of wordy title cards.

We soon learn that Lieutenant Von Steuben has other irons in the fire, so to speak: he is a 'serial seducer' with a number of lady friends at the resort, including a frumpy middle-aged chambermaid and a young local girl who pathetically takes his protestations of love at face value. Dr. Armstrong, on the other hand, treats his wife coldly, and the only clue we're given as to why this is so comes when he cheerfully holds a villager's baby -- then shoots a significant look of unhappiness at his wife, who is shopping and doesn't notice. Clearly, this man wants to have a child, and his wife is either unwilling or unable to accommodate him. We have to assume that the former is the case, because as the story develops we learn that although the doctor is something of a cold fish he is also a basically decent guy, and not someone who would resent his wife for a medical condition beyond her control. Margaret appears to be considerably younger than her husband, and presumably doesn't feel ready to settle down to child-rearing.

Whatever the reasons for the friction in the Armstrong marriage, the plot turns on Margaret's response to Lieutenant Von Steuben's brazen advances; this is the crux of the film and what makes it worth watching today. Viewers unaccustomed to silent drama might expect a great deal of arm-waving, eyebrow-waggling, and other histrionics associated (with some justification) with the early days of cinema, but here is where Blind Husbands made its mark in 1919, and why it's still surprisingly watchable today: director Von Stroheim, a one-time assistant to D.W. Griffith, inspired his actors to give intensely felt yet remarkably restrained performances which for latter-day viewers might suggest Ingmar Bergman's ensemble company, or, more specifically where this material is concerned, the triangle at the center of Roman Polanski's A Knife in the Water. Thanks especially to the understated work of Francellia Billington as Margaret Armstrong, a great deal of information is conveyed with glances, shrugs, half-smiles, and frowns; no arm waving is necessary. It is clear to the viewer that Margaret is startled and then flattered by the lieutenant's audacity, at least at first, but also that she soon feels he has overstepped his bounds and is more upset than pleased about the situation. Von Stroheim's own performance as (his alter ego?) Von Steuben is highly enjoyable and set the standard for some of his later screen scoundrels, although the character is rather limited in scope in this early incarnation. Also notable in a sympathetic supporting role is Gibson Gowland, who would later embody the dentist MacTeague in Von Stroheim's masterpiece Greed.

The plotting of Blind Husbands turns hokey at the climax, when the doctor confronts his rival face-to-face on a mountain top. (The original title of the screenplay was "The Pinnacle.") There is some melodramatic hokum over a letter Margaret wrote to Von Steuben, but after all that understatement a little melodrama is forgivable -- and, frankly, rather fun.

An earlier posting concerning this film suggests it's a comedy, which it's not, but there are nice comic touches throughout. I first saw it at a museum screening a long time ago, and still remember the laughter when Von Steuben approaches two different women at a party and uses the same pick-up line, verbatim, on each of them. That device is still amusing today. And this movie stands as one of Erich Von Stroheim's strongest achievements in his all-too-brief, star-crossed career as a filmmaker.

Restraint

[Cineanalyst · 7/10 · 16 July 2005]

The story is simple and unoriginal: a love triangle, plus man's determination to conquer nature. But, this early effort by director Erich von Stroheim displays great restraint, especially for a filmmaker who would become notorious for excess. His films, such as "Greed" (1924), are better known for their production and post-production histories than for their actual merits. He would shoot an excessive amount of footage for films of extraordinary length, which the producers then butchered. That's not the case with "Blind Husbands", though; this one has a normal runtime.

It also features the familiar Stroheim touches on a smaller scale. The acting is rather subtile. Stroheim introduces his typical role as a villainous Teutonic womanizer, with a scar, a monocle and a history of military service--"the man you love to hate". Here, he's the other man. Furthermore, the mise-en-scène takes precedence over camera movement or editing. The décor is detailed and occasionally allegorical to the melodrama. Attention to lighting is also evident. "Blind Husbands" is sensational and too contrived and ruminant at times, but, for the most part, the simple story is harmonious with the restrained, yet detailed, film-making.

A Von Stroheim film with a reasonable length!

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 25 March 2017]

"Blind Husbands" is a film in which Von Stroheim both directed and acted. The story seems somewhat routine now, but was considered racy for its day. It concerns a rather bland American doctor and his neglected wife on vacation in the Alps who cross paths with Lieutenant Erich Von Steuben (Von Stroheim), a military man with an eye for the ladies. He pursues the doctor's wife while the doctor is preoccupied with climbing the local mountains. Its main features are that the characters are well-developed compared with other films of the 1910's and also that the running time is a mere 90 minutes compared with later Von Stroheim efforts where he wound up going wild and shooting hours of film.

Erich von Stroheim's extremist tale of masculine mistakes before he showed feminine faults in Foolish Wives (1922).

[SAMTHEBESTEST · 7/10 · 9 May 2022]

Blind Husbands (1919) : Brief Review -

Erich von Stroheim's extremist tale of masculine mistakes before he showed feminine faults in Foolish Wives (1922). Erich von Stroheim was an extremist when it came to films that showed feminine and masculine stuff from the perspective of married couples. Of course, that extramarital relationship thing drew a thin line between the acidic forms of female and male. When I saw Foolish Wives, I was stunned by his vision. I just couldn't believe that he made such an erotic film in 1922. Today, when I am just done watching Blind Husbands, I'm even more impressed. And believe me, it hasn't got anything to do with my male ego. At first I thought that this would hurt my male ego or satisfy that feminine anger, but I had no further thoughts of hating anything while watching it. I also realised that this film has given birth to the idea of an ignored wife - with different theories and conclusions, of course. Like, I remember David Lean's "Brief Encounter" (1945), Satyajit Ray's "Charulata" (1964) and "Ghare Baire" (1989), which all had the same idea of an ignored wife falling for the third man. And in the beginning credits, this film makes an extreme speech by saying, "People always blame the third man, but what about the husband?" That's so true. We never really thought that way. With that topic, Blind Husbands has that power to spark a debate even after 103 years, today in 2022. Stroheim excels as an actor and also as a director. Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington looked great together even though they didn't have many scenes together. The intertitles and screenplay keep you intrigued, and the cinematography is decent. A bit too simple a film, but for 1919, I guess it was too much, especially when you learn the fact that many marriages were actually broken by 'the third man', just like this film says. Overall, a great effort for contemporary filmmaking, if not a great fllm.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Interesting Early Stroheim

[electricsheep-1 · 7/10 · 27 August 2006]

A basic marital morality tale, enthused with Stroheim's lust for self-loathing. He plays an over-sexed, effete, lizard of a Prussian Officer, named Von Steubens, who zealously seeks to dishonour the wife of an American doctor holidaying in an Alpine retreat.

Interestingly, Stroheim is said to have virtually stalked Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal, in order to get his story, The Pinnacle, made into what would become Blind Husbands. Not the least hint or sign, then, of the crazy, obsessive auteur, a part that Stroheim would pioneer! As a director, Stroheim does have a wonderful visual eye (scenes of men climbing mountains etc.). There are also some very inventive shots, such as when the wife is looking at her practically impotent husband, the doctor, sleeping in bed, via a mirror, and then sees a young couple at the lodge in place of him, completely in love, before going back to the snoring doctor.

Moreover, the English actor who would go on to play McTeague in Stroheim's much greater, later, work: Greed, here plays a mountain guide. He is a symbol of the people of the mountains, strong, pious and devout, a complete opposite to Von Steubens' decadent Officer, who uses his cultural refinement only to guarantee his baser purposes, wooing the local peasant girls with poetry for instance, and wooing the doctor's wife with a violin.

But that's the problem with film. Although the characterisation isn't completely two-dimensional, the esteemed doctor, for instance, shows envy and hatred. His wife also admits an ambivalent interest in Von Steubens unwholesome charm. But Stroheim seems to idealise these mountain people from the get go, which is stupid romanticism. Anyone who has such romanticism should read An Alpine Idyll, a short story by Hemingway.

Still, an interesting early Stroheim.

The Pinnacle

[davidmvining · 7/10 · 3 February 2023]

Erich von Stroheim started his directing career with an adaptation of his own novel, The Pinnacle (a better title than Blind Husbands, I think), working with the original studio head of Universal, Carl Laemmle Sr. It was also the beginning of Stroheim's problems with producers since they cut him out of the editing bay at one point and recut the film to their own liking (Laemmle was also known for wanting smaller, cheaper productions because of Universals lack of ownership of first run theaters, something that Laemmle Junior would try to change a few years later when daddy gave him the studio as a twenty-first birthday present). There was a new restoration in 2021 to bring the film closer to Stroheim's original vision, but I couldn't find a way to watch it. I ended up watching the copy held by the Museum of Modern Art, the copy that's essentially been in some level of circulation for decades, and I was actually quite entertained.

Doctor Robert Armstrong (Sam De Grasse) and his wife Margaret (Francelia Billington) are going on vacation into the Dolomite Alps, and on the same wagon into the remote town at the foot of the mountains also rides an Austrian army officer, Lieutenant Eric von Steuben (Stroheim) who, as the intertitles tell us, loves wine, WOMEN, and song. He has obvious eyes for Margaret, an attractive young woman, and he can discern that there's a certain distance between husband and wife that he can exploit to his own ends.

One of the interesting things I find in the film is how Stroheim cast himself as the absolute cad Steuben. His look fits the part perfectly, of course, it's how an Austrian army officer should look, but Steuben is an awful human being. He goes from speaking sweetly in the ear of the woman tending tables in the inn to saying the exact same things to Margaret when she peels away from her husband to play on a piano alone. He's really aggressive despite her protestations that she loves her husband, so when he buys her an expensive box as a present, forces himself into her room while her husband goes up the mountain to help some climbers in trouble, and keeps himself so close and so aggressive that she promises to meet him later. The middle third of the film is split between this "seduction" and Robert finding out about it, thinking that Margaret is an enthusiastic participant.

The action builds up to a climb up the Pinnacle with Robert and Steuben tied to each other as they go up. Through the action of the film there's a minor character consistently on the side of the film, a mountain guide named Sepp (Gibson Gowland). He observes Steuben's actions quietly, even changing rooms with Margaret at one point to deter Steuben from making a move in the middle of the night, and he provides Margaret some solace about the climb up the mountain that she knows could lead to terrible result, saying that the two men will be fine if they can leave their concerns at the foot of the mountain.

The location photography is great, obviously born of Stroheim's need to get things authentic and refusing to shoot in a studio, and it helps provide a real sense of danger to the climb where the two men do seem to put everything aside...for a time. The thrills of the last act revolve around a letter written by Margaret to Steuben, the reveal of which allows Robert to demonstrate his resolve and honesty and for Steuben to reveal his duplicitousness and cowardice. The mechanical action around the letter (it gets thrown off the mountain and then Robert just picks it up on his way down) is not that believable and undermines it slightly, but it's nice to see the character beats play out around it.

And I think that's the core appeal of the film: it's a fairly simple tale well told where good guys win, bad guys lose, and a lesson is learned by all. That it's focused on an attempted affair is interesting for the period, showcasing the much more lenient air towards the content of movies before the rise of the Hays Office in the early 30s. The physical production is a real treat with location filming in northern Italy providing the wide expanse views of the mountains to give the finale, especially, a tactile reality that helps create a real sense of danger. The sets are lived in and detailed as well. Performances are strong as well, with nary a clasp at the chest to be found. Stroheim himself is great as the monster of the piece while Billington carries herself well as the embattled wife. De Grasse as the good, heroic, if absent-minded husband has a quiet dignity that's really compelling as well.

Erich von Stroheim blew up his budget, the first time of many, and got kicked out of the editing bay by his producer, but the end result is a solid, well-told little cautionary romance.

Delightful alpine movie - review of the Austrian version

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 9/10 · 30 May 2009]

This is a review of the Austrian version of the film, which is available on the R2 Edition Filmmuseum DVD. I believe it is also available in the States on Kino DVD in the truncated American version that has a different sentiment.

Blind Husbands is a story about folks holidaying in the alps (Cortina specifically). The main characters are a famous American surgeon, his wife Maguerite, and Leutnant von Steuben, a German military man (the filmmuseum English subtitles are a bit misleading here because they translate the intertitles referring to him as an impostor, whereas I believe von Stroheim's intention was to portray him as someone unfit to wear the uniform rather than literally not allowed to wear it). Von Steuben is played by von Stroheim himself.

He's meant to be a philanderer of married women. He looks the part, excepting that he is actually very short, shorter in fact than Maguerite. The world may have changed a lot in ninety years, but I doubt the women back then were too different from women today who are generally unable to take the advances of men shorter than themselves seriously.

I'll give the world and the female race the benefit of the doubt for the movie's sake. Von Steuben is after a clinch with Maguerite, but he's already had a squeeze with two of the hotel serving girls by the time he gets round to her. He's got a soft target really, because the husband is much too self-involved to notice that his wife is feeling lonely and in need of rekindling. Obviously where the title "Blind Husbands" arises from.

There's quite a lovely dinner scene outside the hotel in Cortina at night, there's all these paper lanterns in lines interspersed with the permanent hotel lanterns, very pretty really. Maguerite excuses herself from the hubbub and goes inside to play the piano. Whilst sat at the piano we see her head shot against a totally black background, quite an unusual shot for a film of any era. It's at this point that she appears totally alone, not just lonely, but alone. Back to the normal shot and Steuben has sidled in. He picks up a violin and starts to play a duet. What a powerful thing to do to one in such a suggestive frame of mind! Part two of the plan is to buy her the marquetry box that hubby was too busy to notice that she wanted. It's apparently two hundred years old, the design on the lid is all lozenges and grains, really reminded me very much of a Matisse type pattern, we get a lovely close up of it.

As it happens there are another two shots against a dark background, one of a bell ringing in the bell tower (to mourn the dead) and one of von Steuben pointing his grubby finger at Maguerite.

Most of the film basically concerns the von Steuben/Maguerite cat and mouse game. Can't blame him for chasing Maguerite really, my favourite shot of her was her wearing these lovely antique sunglasses with wildflowers in the back of her alpinist hat band. The movie is all shot really quite sympathetically, I'd almost call it realism, a surprising term for a 1919 film! According to others the level of mise en scene is apparently not up to Foolish Wives or Greed standard, but I'll go with it on an absolute basis.

If you see the movie as containing realism, then the ending is a bit of a cop-out, a sop to dramatic cliché. However we'll let Erich off as it still kind of works. The movie turns into a bit of a bergfilm at the end, American superman, surgeon, strong, weakling German braggart, this being totally exposed as they climb the mountain, having been rather sotto voce before.

The only silly part of the film concerns the shadow of an eagle, which is blatantly produced by a crude silhouette hanging on the end of a wire (unless eagles can fly backwards), yikes! Other than that though I thought the movie was brilliant.

Amazingly simple film

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 29 July 2006]

Wow--is this the SAME director that was known for his obsessive need to film and re-film and re-film ad nauseum? Is this this the director who made GREED at over nine hours and insisted it not be cut any further? Is this the same director whose work was severely limited because the studios grew tired of his inflexibility and excessive spending? None of this appears to be the case when you watch this simple film, but all are amazingly true--just not evident in this film. Somehow, von Stroheim was able to complete a film that is simple, a reasonable length and well worth seeing. In fact, he also co-stars in this movie and does a fine job playing an adventurous cad.

The plot is pretty simple. A husband has a tendency to take his wife for granted while on vacation to the Dolemites (a mountain range in Northern Italy). A soldier and adventurer, von Stroheim, sees this and slowly tries to seduce the lonely wife. How all this works out as well as the beautifully filmed conclusion I'll leave to you to figure out on your own. This is a morality play that for its day isn't too preachy and is sure to entertain.

Never neglect your wife

[nukisepp · 7/10 · 16 January 2021]

The story is seemingly simple and straightforward. For modern audiences, it probably feels like a cliche, but I'm sure that at the time of its release, 'Blind Husbands' might have been considered quite a raunchy movie - there is a scene where a married woman is kissing the strange man. There are more than enough written about Erich von Storheim's work ethics as a film director, so I will not go into that again.

'Blind Husbands' tells a story about a renowned surgeon and his wife who travel into the Dolomites, a mountain range in Italian Alps. With them travels Lieutenant Eric von Steuben (perfectly sly and vile performance by Erich von Stroheim) who notices that the beautiful wife is somewhat neglected by her husband. A womanizing lieutenant doesn't waste a minute and starts to make advances towards the wife every possible way.

The story is simple, especially more than a hundred years later, when the love triangle has become one of the most overused plot devices in all forms of storytelling. Taking that into the consideration, that the story might seem nothing special, the more special is the way it is brought to the screen. Von Stroheim gives us the three main players and the coming relationship right away. I like how the surgeon and his wife constantly meet with newlyweds (fresh wife asks from her husband - you'll never neglect me like that?). It is not perfectly explained why the doctor ignores his wife so much - yes, he is a good man, he even goes to help the needy while on the vacation; the mountain guide Sepp (Gibson Gowland is just awesome in this role) is the doctor's good old friend whom he hadn't seen years. Still, it wasn't quite clear why the good old doctor Armstrong ignored his gorgeous wife (rich performance by Francelia Billington) between. There is not only (melo)drama, but also nice touches of comedy - when we see von Steuben hit on one girl using a mawkish line about the moon, and later he tries to seduce our main heroine with the exact line.

I can't go without mentioning the exciting mountain climbing scene as the grande finale. Altogether 'Blind Husbands' might not compare to the greatest works of silent cinema, but it is a very good movie that is more nuanced than its simple plot might suggest.

A meditation of marriage and faithfulness

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 25 January 2015]

As a director/writer, Erich von Stroheim is a bit of an acquired taste. A great deal of his work revels in the grotesque and in being rather long-winded, which is why Blind Husbands (1919) may be the most accessible of his films, along with The Merry Widow (1925).

A meditative piece on love and fidelity, Blind Husbands follows the story of a marriage which has grown cold due to the husband's workaholic nature. As they vacation in the mountains, the wife is pursued by a lecherous lieutenant who, when unable to get her in bed, urges her that her husband does not love her and entices her to run away with him.

It's the stuff of melodrama to be sure, but everything is so underplayed and von Stroheim engenders a great deal of atmosphere into the picture. The only flaw would be the finale, where everything is resolved much too cleanly and in the typical melodramatic fashion. It's a rather childish ending to an otherwise mature movie.

Early Mountain Drama

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 5 January 2019]

Based on his novel 'The Pinnacle' by Erich Stroheim (as he was then billed), not a lot really happens during the preliminaries as third-billed Stroheim eyes up the heroine, who is presumably drawn to the attention he lavishes upon her rather than any charm or sexual magnetism he displays.

Fay Holderness as The 'Vamp' Waitress later played Mrs Oliver Hardy in 'Hog Wild' (1930), placing her ahead of Mae Busch as the earliest Stroheim veteran to work with Laurel & Hardy.

Good If a Tad Bit Too Simple

[Michael_Elliott · 12 September 2010]

Blind Husbands (1919)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A doctor (Sam DeGrasse) and his wife (Francelia Billington) travel to the Dolemites in Northern Italy where their rocky marriage shows. The doctor pays very little attention to his beautiful wife, which an Austrian military officer (Erich von Stroheim) notices and decides to try and seduce her. After viewing this film I must admit that I was rather shocked about all the positive reviews it has received over the past several decades. Apparently the film was very popular when it was first released, which is shocking too because I found the film to be way too simple. Half way through I really started to think I was watching a film by D.W. Griffith due to how simple the story structure was. It's pretty simple as we have a lazy husband, a bored wife and a jerk who wants her. There's no problem in keeping all of this simple but the issue I had with the entire film is that I found all the characters to be under-written. We never learn why the doctor is so uninterested in his wife. We never learn why the wife puts up with it. She never mentions anything to the husband and instead just sits back doing nothing. We get a few hints at the type of person the military officer is but von Stroheim's story really doesn't give him too many details either. This type of simple storytelling can be effective but I found a lot of the 91-minutes here just to wonder on without anything either going for them or the scenes just leading to no where. Many of them just run on and on for no apparent reason so perhaps a good ten-minutes edited out would have helped the flow of the film. The issues with the story are the main problem and the rest is pretty good. The performances by the three leads make the film worth viewing and of course von Stroheim stands out as the creepy. You can tell he's having a good time playing this jerk and it looks rather effortless so perhaps he's just playing himself. The opening credits explain the situation of the film and it's written as if the director was trying to explain himself to many husbands out there. I found Billington to be extremely effective as well as she does a very good job at showing the character's boredom without going over the top. Another plus is the vision of the director as each scene has a very nice look and the cinematography really packs a nice punch. BLIND HUSBANDS is far from a bad movie but at the same time I just didn't think there was enough here to make it a classic or something that is a must see.

Strong Early Stroheim

[carlbaugher · 8/10 · 4 July 2006]

This is really a bookend with "Foolish Wives" for me. The later film was perhaps more melodramatic but they both share the Euro-womanizer and gullible wife angle. In "Husbands," Stroheim casts himself unsympathetically (and rather courageously, if you think about it) and seems to relish the villainy and cowardice of the role. The cast is excellent with particular credit due the off-balance wife for her uncomfortable acceptance of the Leutenant's attention.

Stroheim's strength as a director always pivoted on his ability to move a story forward, however, and that's the very quality that makes this film work; one is always interested to follow along and see what happens.

It's a real shame that the world of cinema was denied the complete development of Stroheim's directorial skills as it would have been fascinating to see how he developed full-formed in the sound era.

A worthy, classic rendition of an age-old story

[I_Ailurophile · 9/10 · 30 April 2022]

It's a tale as old as time itself, yet Erich von Stroheim manages to make it feel as fresh and as compelling as any rendition could be. It may lack the finesse of more modern films, or the poetry of stories from antiquity, yet in highlighting conflicts of the heart and human drama, 'Blind husbands' nonetheless carves out a worthy space all its own. The intertitles that open the feature spell it out very plainly - a loving wife, the neglectful husband, and the man that swoops in to woo her. From that foundation is built a story of heartbreak, scheming, secrecy, discovery, and at last a climactic collision of it all. I can appreciate why silent films are hard to engage with for some viewers in all the years since, yet in this feature I once again see a classic that very much holds up and is well worth watching even one century later.

To read even a little bit about the production history informs of the arduous experience of getting this movie made, and the substantial work that was poured into it. One gathers that Von Stroheim was a bit of a perfectionist - yet his fastidious, demanding nature paid off. The whole cast is well, but the principal actors particularly impress with their displays of nuanced range and physicality. Francelia Billington is excellent as beleaguered wife Margaret, embodying her troubled innocence, and frankly giving a performances that does much all on its own to heighten the emotional turmoil. Sam De Grasse is solid as husband Robert, unseeing of the mess developing around him. Von Stroheim, already wearing multiple hats as writer, director, producer, and co-editor, is a smarmy delight as womanizing Lieutenant Von Steuben, capably embracing the man's cool, confident demeanor. It's also worth mentioning Gibson Gowland, whose steady portrayal of mountain guide Sepp reinforces the figure's seeming ubiquity, and his quiet knowing. With these and other swell supporting parts locked in, it's easy to become absorbed in the tale as it unfolds, and in retrospect one can hardly blame von Stroheim for accordingly filming multiple takes in pursuit of the very best.

All this is to say nothing of small touches in the excellent set design and decoration, editing, costume design, or hair and makeup that are fetching in their own right, but which also serve to underline or further the picture's story and themes. The filming locations are marvelous, captured with keen cinematography alongside the active tale. And once more, von Stroheim illustrates fine skills in all the capacities in which he operates here, but not least of all in his screenplay. The final cut perhaps comes across as slightly imprecise, as though a sliver of footage could have been left on the editing room floor, while some beats are presented a tad too brusquely. By and large, however, the story is complete and full yet concise, and engaging for the miasma that is stirred between the three main characters. If not the most wholly riveting saga in the world, every aspect in the movie is pointed toward the same goal of communicating a narrative as rich and as low-key tense as possible. That especially goes for the intertitles, imparting sometimes sharp dialogue, and the dynamic scene writing, but also again the superb acting that is part and parcel to the latter.

It would be easy to sit here and continue to dissect ever more every iota of the picture's construction. From pre-production and writing, to work behind the scenes and von Stroheim's oversight of the production, to the acting and editing and all the details that brings the title to life, there's a lot to take in beyond just the core narrative. This is a film that was made very carefully, and very attentively, in all regards. That doesn't mean it will appeal to all comers; the silent era is for niche audiences these days, and even putting that aside there's a certain simplicity compared to movies of subsequent decades that may or may not comport to personal preferences. All the same, 'Blind husbands' is so well made and sufficiently engrossing that I'd have no qualms recommending it to just about anyone. If you're looking for a movie of interpersonal drama that will keep you watching, you don't necessarily need to look any further than this.

Stroheim's First Directed Movie

[springfieldrental · 9/10 · 27 September 2021]

Actor Erich von Stroheim, who was also serving as a technical advisor under several directors, was convinced he could be a first-class director onto his own. He was composing a work-in-progress script about a philanderer who has his eyes on a married woman and he felt he would fit perfectly in the director's chair. Knowing Universal Studio chief Carl Laemmle was a cheapskate, Stroheim proposed the company pay for only his acting services while he would direct and throw in his script for free. He got the approval with a minuscule $25,000 budget.

The Stroheim working script's title, 'The Pinnacle,' was changed by studio execs for the now-famous name "Blind Husbands," released in December 1919. Stroheim was so livid with the title change he paid for a one-page in an industry magazine complaining about the alteration, to no effect.

The studio also witnessed the perfectionist Stroheim demand repeated takes to statisfy his high level of exact standards. With so much at stake the studio had to pony up ten times the original budget while taking on an expensive marketing campaign for the movie to try to recoup its investment. But all the financial expenditures paid off for Universal as the public flocked to see Stroheim's motion picture, ensuring the actor "Blind Husbands" would launch the start of a promising directing career.

This debut film does not have the look of a beginner. Stroheim, who worked with D. W. Griffith as an assistant in his "intolerance," created several innovative sequences. One is the mirror scene showing the neglected wife in sharp focus gazing into a mirror before the sleeping doctor husband gets the clear focus treatment from the mirror's reflection. Then a dissolve effect in the mirror shows the younger two in happier days.

"Blind Husbands" did introduce the producers to Stroheim's eccentricities when they heard rumors he had killed a dog during filming one scene. That and the massive amount of film he was shooting caused the executives to bar him from the editing room so the editors could speedily work getting the final product out for release in a timely fashion. More colorful stories would emerge as Stroheim's movie career progressed.

Fabulated Nobility

[tedg · 7 March 2008]

I saw this "Mr Magorium's Wonderful Emporium" because I think this was the first to construct a story with the primary intent of creating a character for an actor. In this case the actor is the writer and director. He's a slight Jewish kid with poor education and working class background. For the international movie industry, he created an extremely well articulated story about himself as an Austrian nobleman, with bearing and art in the blood.

He did so by extreme consistency in lies throughout his life, but he introduced himself, using films as the main truth. This is the first.

The story is simple: he is traveling with a renown doctor and his supposedly beautiful wife to the Alps. While the doctor is away, he seduces the wife. The doctor confronts him on the mountain and he dies. It is told primitively: von Stroheim was for all his own story never a good storyteller. The mountains are significant of course, being something that references and defines the majesty of the Germanic soul. They would be exploited later in the service of Nazi identity, using much the same technique of imposing the unreal of the ideal on the real.

Does it matter that he created this life for himself. It does for me, because I consider "Sunset Blvd." a touchstone and his placement in it an act of genius.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.