Greed is an old movie.
It tells a story about people. The story is about gold. Some people want too much gold. It is a very famous film. Do you like old movies?
Greed is a famous old movie.
It tells a story about people. The story is about gold. Some people want too much gold.
The director filmed it in real places. He even filmed in a hot desert.
Many people in the crew got sick there. The movie was very long at first. Now, people think it is a great film. It is even kept in a special place for history.
Greed is a famous silent film from 1924.
It was written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. The story is based on a book called McTeague.
The movie shows how wanting too much can change people. It follows a dentist named John McTeague. He marries a woman named Trina. Trina wins a lot of money in a lottery. This money causes many problems for the couple.
Von Stroheim filmed the movie in real places. He spent two months filming in Death Valley. The desert was very hot. Many people on the crew got sick there.
The film was very long at first. It was over nine hours long! A studio cut it down to two and a half hours. Many people think the long version was a masterpiece. Today, the film is very important to history. The Library of Congress keeps it in a special registry. This is because it is a very significant work of art.
Greed is a famous silent film from 1924.
It was written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. The story is based on an 1899 book called McTeague by Frank Norris.
This movie is a psychological drama. It shows how the desire for money can change people. The story follows a dentist named John McTeague. He marries a woman named Trina Sieppe. Trina wins $5,000 from a lottery ticket. This sudden wealth causes many problems for the couple. They struggle with their choices as their lives change.
Making this film was a very big job. Von Stroheim used special filming techniques. He used deep focus cinematography to show many things at once. He also used montage editing to join scenes together. Most movies of that time used sets built in a studio. However, Greed was shot entirely on location in real places. This made the movie feel very real. The crew spent two months filming in Death Valley. The heat in the desert was very intense. Many people on the cast and crew became ill from the weather.
Von Stroheim had a very specific vision for this work. He wanted the film to feel like a Greek tragedy. He believed that a person's environment and family history could control their fate. He even called his characters "human beasts." This idea was part of a style called naturalism. He wrote a huge, 300-page script for the movie. This script included notes on camera movement and colors. He wanted every detail to be perfect. He worked very hard to make his ideas come to life on screen.
History changed how the movie was seen by the public. The film was originally over nine hours long. It had 42 reels of film. During the editing process, the company merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A man named Irving Thalberg took charge of the final version. He cut the film down to about two and a half hours. This was against the wishes of von Stroheim. Only twelve people ever saw the full version. That long version is now lost to history.
Today, people view Greed as a masterpiece of art. When it first came out, it was not a big success. It did not make much money at the time. However, by the 1950s, people began to love it. In 1958, it was voted number 6 on the Brussels 12 list. In 1991, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation. They put it in the National Film Registry. They did this because the film is culturally and historically significant. It continues to influence filmmakers even today.
Greed is a 1924 American silent psychological drama film.
It was written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. The story is based on the 1899 novel McTeague by Frank Norris. This film explores how the intense desire for wealth can change human nature. It follows a dentist named John McTeague and his wife, Trina Sieppe. The plot focuses on how money impacts their relationship and their fates.
The story begins in 1908 in Placer County, California. McTeague works in a gold mine before becoming a dentist apprentice. He eventually practices dentistry on Polk Street in San Francisco. While working, he meets Trina Sieppe, who is the cousin of his friend Marcus Schouler. Trina wins $5,000 from a lottery ticket, which creates a rift between the two men. As the couple marries, Trina refuses to spend her winnings. This choice leads to extreme poverty and desperation. The tension eventually results in violence and tragedy for the characters.
Von Stroheim used several advanced filmmaking techniques to tell this story. He utilized deep focus cinematography, which keeps both the foreground and background in sharp view.
He also employed montage editing to connect different sequences. The director wanted the film to function like a Greek tragedy. He believed that heredity and environment controlled the characters' lives. This approach is known as naturalism, a style that views humans as "bêtes humaines," or human beasts.
Production for Greed was an enormous and difficult undertaking. Unlike most films of the era, it was shot entirely on location. Von Stroheim shot approximately 85 hours of raw footage. The crew spent two months filming the final sequence in Death Valley. The intense desert environment caused many cast and crew members to become ill.
Von Stroheim even wrote a highly detailed 300-page script. This script included specific instructions for camera movements and color tints.
The history of the film is marked by significant studio interference. During post-production, the production company merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Irving Thalberg took control of the editing process. Thalberg had previously fired von Stroheim from Universal Pictures. Although the original version was over nine hours long, Thalberg edited it down to about two and a half hours. This was done against the director's wishes. The original 42-reel version is now lost to history. Only twelve people ever saw the complete, uncut film.
Despite the loss of the original cut, the film's reputation grew over time. Initially, Greed was a financial and critical failure. However, by the 1950s, scholars began to recognize it as a masterpiece. In 1958, it was voted number 6 on the Brussels 12 list at the World Expo. In 1991, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry. This honors films that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 1999, Turner Entertainment created a four-hour version using still images to reconstruct lost scenes.
Greed remains a vital study in the history of cinema. It shows the shift in power from directors to studio producers. The film's influence can be seen in many subsequent movies. It connects the literary ideas of Frank Norris to the visual language of silent film. The struggle between individual desire and environmental pressure remains a central theme. Even today, film archivists consider the missing footage to be a "holy grail" of cinema history.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (7)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.