Greed

1924

Drama / Thriller / Western

Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 96% · 27 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.0/10 10 11525 11.5K

gold greed marriage lottery gold mine money

Director

Erich von Stroheim Photo
Erich von Stroheim

Top cast

Lillian Lawrence Photo
Lillian Lawrence as Gossip
Frank Hayes Photo
Frank Hayes as Charles W. Grannis
Erich von Stroheim Photo
Erich von Stroheim as Balloon Vendor
Jean Hersholt Photo
Jean Hersholt as Marcus

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Bored_Dragon 7 / 10

Be patient

It's pretty tiresome to watch four hours of a black and white silent movie, which was cut to two hours seventy years ago and then, in our time, restored to original length by using photos from shooting to replace lost material... But it is definitely worth your patience. In the beginning, it may seem too stretched and even boring, but as you watch for some time it starts to pull you in and all shortcomings slowly fade from sight until you are left with a strong impression.7/10
Reviewed by Polaris_DiB 8 / 10

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
Reviewed by larcher-2 8 / 10

The one great myth about this movie

The one great myth about this movie is that it would have been better if it had been four time longer. It's extremely good, at it is highly unlikely that the "unmutilated" version would have been better. In all likelihood, it would simply have been boring. It's a matter of faith among the conventional cinema intellegentia that the studio bosses routinely butchered great films. Judging from the self-indulgent dreck pumped out by unleashed geniuses once the studio system broke down, this is untenable. Stroheim was doubly lucky that the studio cut this film; the cutting made it good and further gave rise to the legend that an even better movie lived in the director's cut.
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