Book description
Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957) was one of the giants in American film
history. Stubborn, arrogant, and colorful, he saw himself as a cinema
artist, which led to conflicts with producers and studio executives who
complained about the inflated budgets and extraordinary length of his
films. Stroheim achieved great notoriety and success, but he was so
uncompromising that he turned his triumph into failure. He was banned
from ever directing again and spent his remaining years as an actor.
Stroheim's life has been wreathed in myths, many of his own devising.
Arthur Lennig scoured European and American archives for details
concerning the life of the actor and director, and he counters several
long-accepted claims. Stroheim's tales of military experience are almost
completely fictitious; the ""von"" in his name was
an affectation adopted at Ellis Island in 1909; and, counter to his own
claim, he did not participate in the production of The Birth of a Nation
in 1914. Wherever Stroheim lived, he was an outsider: a Jew in Vienna,
an Austrian in southern California, an American in France. This
contributed to an almost pathological need to embellish and obscure his
past; yet, it also may have been the key to his genius both behind and
in front of the camera. As an actor, Stroheim threw himself into his
portrayals of evil men, relishing his epithet, ""The Man You
Love to Hate."" As a director, he immersed himself in every
facet of production, including script writing and costume design. In
1923 he created his masterpiece Greed , infamous for its eight-hour
running time. Stroheim returned to acting, saving some of his finest
performances for La Grande Illusion (1937) and Billy Wilder's Sunset
Boulevard (1950), a role he hated, probably because it was too similar
to the story of his own life.
