The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
- Awards
- 3 wins
Sylvia Ashton
- 'Mommer' Sieppe
- (as Silvia Ashton)
William Barlow
- The Minister
- (uncredited)
Lita Chevrier
- Extra
- (uncredited)
Jack Curtis
- McTeague Sr.
- (uncredited)
Gwendolynne D'Amour
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
James F. Fulton
- Cribbens - Prospector
- (uncredited)
Edward Gaffney
- Extra
- (uncredited)
Florence Gibson
- Hag
- (uncredited)
James Gibson
- Deputy
- (uncredited)
Oscar Gottell
- Sieppe Twin
- (uncredited)
Otto Gottell
- Sieppe Twin
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Erich von Stroheim(personally directed by)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis film features one of the earliest uses of a hidden camera in film-making. When Trina (Zasu Pitts) leaves the junk shop after discovering the dead body, she rushes into a real street and into real passers-by who were unaware they were being filmed. A crowd gathered, police turned up to the scene and it is said that a reporter called in the 'murder' to his editor. This coincides with Dziga Vertov's Kino Eye (1924) which also used hidden camera techniques for the first time.
- GoofsAfter Marcus breaks McTeague's pipe and throws a knife at him, men pull McTeague's tie off as they hold him back. The tie is back in place a moment later as McTeague rushes out of the saloon.
- Quotes
Title card: GOLD - GOLD - GOLD - GOLD. Bright and Yellow, Hard and Cold, Molten, Graven, Hammered, Rolled, Hard to Get and Light to Hold; Stolen, Borrowed, Squandered - Doled.
- Alternate versionsVersion 5, 16 reels (4,800 meters), edited by June Mathis - According to Jean Mitry who saw it in Paris ("Le romantisme de Stroheim", article in L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma, no. 83-84, July 1968), this version had exactly 4 hours running time. It cut off all derivative stories about supporting characters, concentrating the story on the character McTeague, and adding a number of inter-titles to explain what happened in the deleted scenes. This version was shown in the theatre Studio des Ursulines, Paris, and then the French distributor cut it to a 2 hour film. Cinémathèque Française has a copy of the Mathis' cut - but versions 1 to 4 of the film are considered lost films (1999).
- ConnectionsEdited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)
Featured review
I'd Like to See the Ten Hour Cut
A film almost as powerful as it is famous, Greed is pretty straight-forward about its theme: Greed. And what it does to people.
This would not be a silent film known for its subtlety, but a large part of that is the fact that it's really only a tenth of the film it was supposed to be. Entire reels have been cut down to single cue-cards, entire years jump by that were obviously supposed to be shown. In terms of the general "rules" of narrative, it works out well enough that it's still a quite clear story that follows a reasonable pace, but the lack of a lot of the character development and the like is pretty apparent.
Still, the music used on the film and the general story itself is powerful enough, it's definitely worth your time.
A man and a woman marry. The man is a simpleton, the woman is a hoarder. When she wins a $5000 lottery, she vows never to spend a cent of it... something that sets her husband and their common friend at odds as they all want the cash... but not necessarily to spend it. Entire relationships and lives are ripped asunder as they all grapple for their rights to "their" property: their greed.
This movie has been praised for its realism, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This movie is romanticized to the level of absurdity, the characters are so full-blown they are often hard to relate to. This comes from the fact that 80% of their development has been lost in the final cut. I don't want this to seem like a bad thing: because of their incredible antics, the movie takes you to places almost entirely unheard of and definitely unexpected.
It's one deep thrill after the other, backed up by some very beautiful imagery and intense music. It's just unfortunately not what the director intended. Even back in the day, people just didn't have a big enough attention span, and I find that very tragic. I want to see the ten-hour version.
--PolarisDiB
This would not be a silent film known for its subtlety, but a large part of that is the fact that it's really only a tenth of the film it was supposed to be. Entire reels have been cut down to single cue-cards, entire years jump by that were obviously supposed to be shown. In terms of the general "rules" of narrative, it works out well enough that it's still a quite clear story that follows a reasonable pace, but the lack of a lot of the character development and the like is pretty apparent.
Still, the music used on the film and the general story itself is powerful enough, it's definitely worth your time.
A man and a woman marry. The man is a simpleton, the woman is a hoarder. When she wins a $5000 lottery, she vows never to spend a cent of it... something that sets her husband and their common friend at odds as they all want the cash... but not necessarily to spend it. Entire relationships and lives are ripped asunder as they all grapple for their rights to "their" property: their greed.
This movie has been praised for its realism, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This movie is romanticized to the level of absurdity, the characters are so full-blown they are often hard to relate to. This comes from the fact that 80% of their development has been lost in the final cut. I don't want this to seem like a bad thing: because of their incredible antics, the movie takes you to places almost entirely unheard of and definitely unexpected.
It's one deep thrill after the other, backed up by some very beautiful imagery and intense music. It's just unfortunately not what the director intended. Even back in the day, people just didn't have a big enough attention span, and I find that very tragic. I want to see the ten-hour version.
--PolarisDiB
helpful•355
- Polaris_DiB
- Sep 23, 2005
- How long is Greed?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Greedy Wives
- Filming locations
- 611 Laguna Street, San Francisco, California, USA(McTeague's Dental Office)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $546,883 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 20 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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