TCM’s ad copy states, “In 1924, Erich von Stroheim created a cinematic masterpiece that few would see - until now.” This is a lie, but one characteristic of an era that wants to believe that capitalism always has a happy ending, no matter how venal or stupid or shortsighted the capitalists happen to be. If you believe the hype of Turner Classic Movies, what’s been lost has now been found - even though the studio burned the footage it cut almost 75 years ago, in order, according to Stroheim, to extract the few cents’ worth of silver contained in the nitrate. There’s surely no more famous lost film than Erich von Stroheim’s Greed, a silent film made in 1923 and ’24 and released by MGM in mutilated form in late 1924. From the Chicago Reader, November 26, 1999.
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