Greed (1924 film)

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.