I first encountered FOOLISH WIVES back in 2003 as part of Kino’s Erich von Stroheim Collection of 3 DVDs. The other two were BLIND HUSBANDS / THE GREAT GABBO and QUEEN KELLY. I had heard of WIVES, had read about it, and knew there were a few public domain copies out there but I waited for this Kino release so that I could see the most complete version available. The running time was 2 hours and 23 minutes. Back around the turn of the century, interest in restoring silent movies was just beginning. Companies like Kino, the late, lamented Image Entertainment, and occasionally the Criterion Collection began releasing quality DVD versions of these old films in tinted copies with new and usually appropriate musical accompaniment.
Then in 2002 a new company, Flicker Alley, made its debut with GARDEN OF EDEN, a 1928 feature directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Corrine Griffith. This would be the first of many silent film releases that made fully restored movies available on home video. These included the movies of Georges Melies, epics by Abel Gance, and the complete early films of Charlie Chaplin. As the century has progressed FA has branched out into Blu-Rays and streaming and now offers restored offerings from Cinerama, rare titles from classic Hollywood, and an ongoing series of lesser known Film Noirs. As a now retired movie critic and silent film historian, I am happy to say that I have been following FA since their first release. I have yet to be disappointed.
Which brings me to their latest offering, a newly restored version of FOOLISH WIVES which is a collaborative effort from the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The running time is 2 hours and 27 minutes and is essentially the same as the 2003 Kino edition in regards to footage. There the similarity ends as this edition has been meticulously restored with film debris removed, color tints added, and hand colored visual effects duplicated in the movie’s fiery climax. Also added is a fitting orchestral soundtrack from silent film specialist Timothy Brock that replaces the old Rodney Sauer reduction of the original 1921 Sigmund Romberg score. There are also numerous supplemental features relating to Stroheim, the locations he used, and the restoration of the film.
The story is taken from a fictitious novel by Stroheim which the heroine is reading in the early parts of the movie. The title, FOOLISH WIVES, was suggested by Universal head Carl Laemle’s wife as a follow-up to Stroheim’s very successful BLIND HUSBANDS. It tells the story of three grifters (Stroheim, Maud George, Mae Busch), posing as Russian aristocrats, who infiltrate Monte Carlo in the hopes of making a financial killing. Stroheim sets his sights on the naive wife of an American ambassador, He plans to seduce her and then blackmail her husband. Things go as planned until a jealous maid (Dale Fuller) sets fire to their villa and then everything unravels. The two ladies are arrested, Stroheim comes to a well deserved bad end, and the American wife’s reputation is saved.
The casino at Monte Carlo is duplicated down to the last detail. That along with other expansive sets, authentic costumes, and hundreds of extras made WIVES the first million dollar movie (a fortune back in 1921). Like most of Stroheim’s productions, this film has a troubled history. The actor playing the ambassador died before shooting was completed and a double had to be used. Filmed on the shores of the Pacific, a freak storm destroyed most of the sets which then had to be rebuilt. As the expenses mounted, Stroheim had his first clash with producer Irving Thalberg which would later come back to haunt him during the filming of GREED. The final film ran over 6 hours and was eventually cut to 2 1/2 when it was released. It was a box office success but established Stroheim’s reputation as a profligate overspender.
FOOLISH WIVES, as is usually the case with Flicker Alley, comes in a dual format release offering both Blu-Ray and DVD. Along with the two discs is a 24 page insert booklet that tells the story of the movie from concept to final release to its first restoration in the 1970s. This 2021 restoration uses materials from the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Cineteca Italiana in Milan. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival commissioned the new score from Timothy Brock and it was first presented with live orchestral accompaniment in 2022. Now if SFSFF could only do the same thing with the 130 minute release version of GREED which was actually shot in San Francisco. That would be a real piece de resistance for them and for silent film enthusiasts everywhere.
The Capsule Critic 