Foolish Wives

This decadent, delirious 1922 silent melodrama was the first epic from director/actor Erich von Stroheim, who created some of the most lavish, lascivious, and just plain long films of the era. Here, he stars as bogus Russian aristocrat Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin, who passes counterfeit money in Monte Carlo while seducing society women and juggling multiple affairs, including his latest conquest: Helen (Miss Dupont), the wife of American ambassador Andrew Hughes (Rudolph Christians). Karamzin continues to scheme his way through high society in this complicated melodrama featuring intrigue, corrupted innocence, and brazen lies. Foolish Wives is an impressively stylish and grandly mounted production, with larger-than-life sets and elaborate costumes. The film was chopped by the studio and the censors, but a 1972 restoration brought the running time up to a little under two-and-a-half hours and remains the most complete version in existence (although far short of Stroheim's original—but never released—six-hour cut). Newly remastered and featuring the original score composed by Sigmund Romberg (performed here by Rodney Sauer), extras include audio commentary by Stroheim biographer Richard Koszarski, the 1979 documentary “The Man You Loved to Hate” (on the life and career of Stroheim), audio interviews, a list of the New York Censor Board cuts, and stills. One of the landmarks of silent cinema, this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)