Greed (1925) Secret Life

The individuals in the film and the outside world relate to each other in a way designed to intensify the drama of their situation.  For example, when Mac embraces Trina at the train station, the train that roars past them suggests Mac’s suppressed passion; similarly, a funeral procession can be seen through the window of their apartment as they are wed, giving an irony to the ceremony and foreshadowing the marriage's doom.

 Although the film is rightly famous for its realism, von Stroheim frequently used suggestive and unrealistic styles if he felt that a scene called for them.   The murderous mood of Mac in the build up to the murder is emphasised by dark shadows and unusual shafts of light; we do not see the murder take place, but the vague figures of Mac and Trina struggling shortly before Mac emerges into the light, away from the shadow.   We do not have to see Trina’s body to know that she is dead.

 Von Stroheim was also prepared to dispense with any detail he felt was unnecessary or that would distract attention from the mood he was trying to establish.   When we see Trina working as a scrubwoman we see only her on her knees with her dark dress and hair in the shadows; we are told nothing about the building she is working in, whether it is a house, a factory or a shop, because such detail is of no significance.   Von Stroheim wishes to emphasise the oppression and drudgery of Trina’s life, and does so at the expense of realism.

 The principal characters in Greed are grounded in realism, their flaws and idiosyncrasies revealing their true character and propelling the story to its tragic conclusion.   Such depth of character was perhaps more of a rarity in the silent era, when characters were often sketched with broad strokes, but it allowed von Stroheim to establish a level of consistency in their actions that makes their subsequent fates not only believable but practically inevitable.   Audiences of the day were startled, even taken aback, by such a complexity of character that frequently expressed itself in moments of unexpected brutality.   While Trina is a hard and miserly soul who despises her husband for biting her finger to force her to give him money, she is also capable of great warmth and appeal.   Despite this inherent softness, it is the cruelty within her, borne of her grasping desire for money, that drives her to refuse entry to her husband when he appeals to her (and the audience’s) sympathy.   Starving, and with nowhere to sleep, he begs Trina to let him in.   Telling her he hasn’t eaten all day, he says that even a dog should be fed.   Trina coldly holds up the finger he once bit and cuts him down by saying, ‘Not a dog that bites you.’

The influence of D. W. Griffith, of whom von Stroheim was a student, is evident throughout the film.   While he makes much use of techniques pioneered (if not necessarily created) by Griffith such as close-ups, dramatic lighting and composition, the iris-out and mask-in, von Stroheim also employs the symbolism and style of acting employed by him.   The frail delicacy of Zasu Pitts is also reminiscent of typical Griffith heroines such as Lillian Gish.

Although the version of Greed that exists today is heavily edited down from von Stroheim’s original 42-reel version, this drastic reduction in running time has not affected the film as adversely as such a wholesale excision might have that of other directors.   Von Stroheim was not a skilled editor, a fact reflected in his practice of creating long, detailed scenes within which a huge amount of detail is contained.   He didn’t use a particular combination or sequence of shots to give meaning to what was taking place, but brought all the detail and information he felt necessary within the scope of the camera.  So, while the edited version was probably not as powerful as the original, it still captured much of von Stroheim’s vision.

This weakness of von Stroheim’s when it came to editing is the reason for his film’s major flaws, and also for their huge cost.   His inability to effectively compile a co-ordinated sequence of scenes meant his films sometimes come across as lumbering and cumbersome and imbues them with a constant level of dramatic intensity that can sometimes be wearing on the viewer.

The reduction in the original running time called for a large number of intertitles to bridge the gap between excised scenes.  The problem this creates is most evident in the early sequences of the film, where the sheer number of titles means that the scenes become little more than visual representations of what is written on them.

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Sources: The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History. Contributors: Lewis Jacobs - author. Publisher: Harcourt Brace. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1939.pp346-349;