Greed. 1924. USA. Written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. Based on the novel McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, by Frank Norris. With Jean Hersholt, Chester Conklin, Sylvia Ashton. 35mm. Silent, with musical accompaniment. 123 min.
Jay Leyda, Soviet film scholar and assistant to Iris Barry, wrote, “Eight years before, while von Stroheim was a movie extra, he had come upon this Norris novel and determined to make a film of it someday. When his chance came, von Stroheim insisted upon adapting the accumulative structure of the novel by including its every detail and filming every scene against its original background and not against studio-made imitations no matter how perfect they might be.” Courtesy Warner Bros.