Erich von Stroheim’s first feature film as a director, Blind Husbands (1919), came about through sheer determination. Somehow, Stroheim convinced Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, mogul Carl Laemmle to let him make a film of his scenario The Pinnacle. Vowing to make the film for the usual meagre amount alloted to Universal Westerns, Stroheim (who hadn’t even directed short films before) turned in a film that cost ten times the original budget. But, the film was a critical and popular success that made Universal a million dollars, and Stroheim shot from nowhere to virtual overnight success.

An American doctor (Sam de Grasse) and his wife (Francelia Billington) are vacationing in the Alps. In a mountain village they meet an Austrian cavalryman (Stroheim), who sets his womanizaing sights on the doctor’s neglected wife. As the doctor busies himself with vacationing and emergency work, the cad shrewdly manipulates the emotions of the wife, spending every possible moment with her until her resolve crumbles.

Silent Sepp, the mountain guide (Gibson Gowland, future star of Greed) who is devoted to the doctor, sees the sexual predator for what he is. When the main characters set off for the pinnacle of the mountain together, sexual tension is also set off. Feelings of jealousy, suspicion, guilt and dread clash at the mountain peak. As is to be expected, the just are redeemed and the unholy get their own rewards.

The film was shortened and rereleased in 1924 by Universal. It is this edited American version, as donated to the Museum of Modern Art in 1941, that is the source of most surviving English language prints. A slightly longer German-language version has also survived. — Carl Bennett

This Kino DVD edition has been prepared from a 35mm print held by the Museum of Modern Art, which features very-good to excellent image detail and range of graytones, and is marked by the usual flaws of a print its age: emulsion scuffing, moderate speckling, scratches, processing flaws, some frame jitters and dust. Some shots in the print appear to have been shortened, lost over time to print breaks and splices. But the overall image quality of the slightly windowboxed video transfer is quite high and is often a pleasure to watch, compared to the mediocre VHS editions from 16mm prints that have been available over the past decade.

The accompanying music was arranged from the 1919 M. Winkler cue sheet and performed on digital piano (with some brief synthesizers) by Donald Sosin. The performance is pleasing and appropriate to the film’s action.

The disc also includes The Great Gabbo (1929), a starring performance by Erich von Stroheim in his first sound film. The Library of Congress restoration print features excellent image detail. Read edition details here.

The supplementary materials include image details and exerpts from the 1919 pressbook, a still photo gallery, a brief note on the film by Erich von Stroheim, notes on the aborted 1929 remake, audio interview exerpts featuring Valerie von Stroheim and Paul Kohner, and a 1944 radio program featuring a performance by Erich von Stroheim.

We highly recommend this edition of Stroheim’s great success.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD is also available directly from Kino International.

This PAL edition has been mastered from the oldest known surviving print of Blind Husbands (1919), the Austrian release version with German language intertitles from circa 1921-1922.

The presentation is accompanied by a music score by Günter A. Buchwald.

Among the disc’s supplementary materials are a 20-page booklet of articles, a comparison of the American and Austrian versions of the film (10 minutes), the main titles from the 1924 American rerelease version (1 minute), footage of von Stroheim in Vienna in 1948 (1 minute), a stills gallery of photographs and lobby cards, and a DVD-ROM section of additional information and articles in PDF form.

This Region 0 PAL DVD is available directly from Edition Filmmuseum.

Other silent era Erich von Stroheim films available on DVD home video:
Foolish Wives (1922)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
Queen Kelly (1929)

Other silent era films featuring Erich von Stroheim as an actor:
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Great Gabbo (1929)
The Heart of Humanity (1918)

About Erich von Stroheim:
The Man You Loved to Hate (1979)