Silent Film Screening - The Merry Widow

Running time: 136 mins

This year the Stanford Theatre Foundation presents two silent film operettas. The idea of a silent film based on operetta might seem contrary, but the marriage of film and music during the silent era was a natural extension for both arts, creating extraordinary experience of live entertainment. Only in silent film does the music play such an important role, bringing life and emotion to the film and characters, creating a unique, magical world. The audience is brought into this world as an active participant. - Cynthia Mortensen, The Stanford Theatre Foundation

Friday, February 26th at the California Theatre
The Merry Widow (1925)

Erich von Stroheim's lavish, hothouse adaptation of Franz Lehar's 1906 operetta. An American showgirl marries a lecherous count to spite the handsome officer who has rejected her; but on her wedding night she finds herself widowed and very wealthy. This was the only unqualified box office success for director Stroheim in Hollywood. Not only does it have wonderful performances by John Gilbert and Mae Murray (and a marvelously creepy villain in Roy D'Arcy), but it also contains Stroheim's usual penchant for the bizarre.

When producer Thalberg complained about excessive film being shot of shoes, director Stroheim defended himself by explaining one of the characters had a foot fetish, to which Thalberg retorted "And you have a footage fetish!"

"Like all the great silent directors he knew how necessary it was to abandon taste for obsession... His films amassed detail relentlessly, but never lost sight of character or structure." - David Thomson

"Not a production to which one ought to take others with finer sensibilities." - The Times

With Dennis James at the Wurlitzer organ.