Foolish Wives

Watch: Foolish Wives

Unrated

1/11/19222h 23m

Theatrical Release (US)

Overview:

A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.

Director:

Erich von Stroheim

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$1,100,000.00

Revenue:

$400,200.00

Key words:

court
monte carlo
wig

Cast

Erich von Stroheim

~ as ~

Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin

Rudolph Christians

~ as ~

Andrew J. Hughes

Miss DuPont

~ as ~

Helen Hughes

Maude George

~ as ~

Princess Olga Petchnikoff

Mae Busch

~ as ~

Princess Vera Petchnikoff

Dale Fuller

~ as ~

Maruschka

Cesare Gravina

~ as ~

Cesare Ventucci

Malvina Polo

~ as ~

Marietta

Albert Edmondson

~ as ~

Pavel Pavlich

Mary Philbin

~ as ~

Crippled Girl (uncredited)

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
6
It's a soap. Despite all the associated history of cuts, recuts and restoration it is still just a beautifully photographed soap opera. Erich von Stroheim did just about everything in this entertaining, if a little too cyclical, tale of a cad. That cad "Count Sergius Karanzim" (EVS) parades around the Côte D'Azur luring unsuspecting (wealthy) women to his rented villa in which he, with his two "cousins" (Maude George & Mae Busch as the Princesses "Petchnikoff") fleeces them relentlessly. For quite a while his charm, wit and guile provides them with a good living until he aims a little too high with the wife of an American diplomat in Monte Carlo. "Mrs. Hughes" (Miss Dupont) and her husband (Rudolph Christians) may well be about to put a spoke in the wheel of these confidence tricksters. It's good fun, this, with Von Stroheim eminently convincing as the con man and DuPont equally effective as his ditzy mark. The production is maybe a bit static, but at 100 years old, it is still delivered in a fashion that shows off the Mediterranean scenery whilst aiming one squarely between the eyes of the vacuous, riche, clientele who assumed their excesses of funds were adequate compensation for their gullibility, stupidity and naivety. It sags from time to time, so I am not hugely shocked that this original 21 reeler was scaled back somewhat. What we have here, though, still have flows well enough with succinct inter titles that are, at times, quite witty too. I am not sure I would ever bother to watch it again, but I am glad that I did. You can see here the template for so many films that followed.