Features: DVD
Two silent classics: BLIND HUSBANDS and THE GREAT GABBO on one DVD.BLIND HUSBANDS: Rarely in history has a single film catapulted a director to the forefront of world cinema, but the innovative style and sophisticated themes of Blind Husbands made Erich von Stroheim an immediate sensation, exposing the complex layers of repression, jealousy, and lust that lie beneath the surface of an American couple's marriage. As they vacation in the Alps, a roguish officer (von Stroheim) ensnares the wife (Francellia Billington) in a web of infidelity, testing her loyalty and ultimately challenging the manhood of her husband (Sam DeGrasse). THE GREAT GABBO: One of Hollywood's earliest--and most peculiar--musicals, The Great Gabbo stars von Stroheim as an egotistical ventriloquist who casts a Svengali-like spell upon an ingenue (Betty Compson), against a backdrop of singularly strange numbers (including "Icky" and the spider-and-fly-themed "Caught in a Web"). Director James Cruze (The Covered Wagon) allowed von Stroheim to endow the character with his signature flourishes, resulting in a wicked cocktail of garish stage shows and Austro-Hungarian villainy that is a diabolical delight.
Editor's Note
This special double feature contains two Erich von Stroheim classics: BLIND HUSBANDS and THE GREAT GABBO. BLIND HUSBANDS (1919)|Erich von Stroheim wrote, directed and starred in this sly romantic drama, which was also his first film as a director. Von Stroheim stars as von Steuben, a Prussian officer who pursues a surgeon's wife while the couple is on vacation in the Alps. After successfully seducing the wife, Mrs. Armstrong, von Steuben decides to further emasculate Dr. Armstrong by challenging him to a series of contests. Von Stroheim's first film is filled with the director's signature themes and finds him already experimenting with the cinematic techniques he would perfect in his later masterpieces. THE GREAT GABBO (1929)|This bizarre drama/musical stars Erich von Stroheim as the volatile ventriloquist The Great Gabbo. Along with his dummy Otto, Gabbo has become a supremely successful act at a popular nightclub. Unfailingly cruel to his colleagues, Gabbo begins a sadistic relationship with one of the club's young ingenue. Unfortunately, Gabbo's self-imposed loneliness has led him to rely more and more on Otto, whom he begins to treat like a real person. Filled with grandly staged musical numbers and featuring a diabolical lead performance by von Stroheim, THE GREAT GABBO is one of the forgotten treasures produced by Hollywood during the early days of sound features.
|
