Films/DVD Asylum

Re: "Greed"

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In Reply to: Re: "Greed" posted by Rob Doorack on March 27, 2006 at 08:14:14:

I thought that the reason for the destruction was the extraction of silver from the film stock.

Re: "Greed" - Rob Doorack 12:32:55 03/27/06 (0)
Recovering the silver from the Greed negatives has been the "official" explanation for the uncivilized boor Thalberg's vandalism, but it's clear from the history of escalating disputes between the director and the executive that Thalberg's real reason was to teach Von Stroheim who was the boss. Thalberg and Meyer saw movie making as nothing more than manufacturing, and eccentric craftsmen like Von Stroheim did not fit into MGM's new assembly line model. Destroying the extra Greed footage was unnecessary and petty. Thalberg had already won; Greed had been cut down to two hours and Von Stroheim brought to heel. Thalberg was too stupid and too bound up with hate for the director to imagine that preserving the film in its entirety could someday work to MGM's advantage. A 10 hour Greed would never have been profitable but it could have earned good will and respect for the studio. Hell, MGM even could have used parts of it as stock footage.

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