Greed

GREED

On January 12, 1924 a small group attended a nine-and-one-half hour screening of Erich von Stroheim's epic "Greed, " at the request of the director.

By the time it premiered in New York City on December 4, 1924 it had been cut by order of the studio heads to a little over two hours.

What was lost is regarded as the greatest tragedy in motion picture history. The missing footage has been called the "Holy Grail" of cinema.

What we have attempted to do is reconstruct the lost story narrative that Erich von Stroheim originally intended.

"No matter if I could talk to you three weeks steadily could I possibly small describe even to a degree the heartache I suffered through the mutilation of my sincere work." -- Erich von Stroheim

GREED

From the American Classic

McTEAGUE BY FRANK NORRIS

"I never truckled; I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies. By God, I told them the truth. They liked it or they didn't like it. What had that to do with me? I told them the truth; I knew it for the truth then, and I know it for the truth now." FRANK NORRIS

Dedicated my mother

THE BIG DIPPER GOLD MINE Placer County, California A. D. 1908

GOLD-GOLD-GOLD-GOLD BRIGHT AND YELLOW, HARD AND COLD MOLTEN, GRAVEN, HAMMERED, ROLLED HARD TO GET AND LIGHT TO HOLD; STOLEN, BORROWED, SQUANDERED-DOLED

NO ADMITTANCE

McTeague

COOK HOUSE

Mother McTeague

MIKE'S SALOON

BUY A DRINK AND HELP YOURSELF

Father McTeague

Mother McTeague asked for her share of the weekly earnings

Doctor "Painless" Potter Extractions 50cts Fillings, $2. Qup All Work Guaranteed Absolutely Painless Have your teeh attended to Now

Father McTeague told her this was a great chance to have her mouth fixed.

Drunkenness is the vice of a constitution so treacherously good - that it never bends till it breaks

Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it --

Mother McTeague implored the dentist to take her son as an apprentice.

Oh cursed ambition - to thy lures we owe all the great ills that mortals bear below --

"At the revolution of every Five years we find ourselves another and yet the same ---"

DOCTOR PAINLESS POTTER DENTAL SURGEON EXTRACTIONS GUARANTEED

Dr. Potter chose two volunteers from the audience.

But McTeague was embarrassed - he had never practiced on a lady before -

Asked to change chairs, the girl was insulted.

McTeague, not realizing his extraordinary feat, extracted the man's tooth with his bare fingers.

Mrs. McTeague, your mother, passed away yesterday, and asked me to inform you that she had left with me her belongings the sum of $250.00, which I will send to you as soon as you let me know where ---

So he cut loose from the charlatan to open his "Dental Parlors" on Polk Street... in the residence quarter of the town. Frank Norris

HOTEL NORDEN ROOMS HOT & COLD WATER STEAM HEAT

Then five more years passed. McTeague felt his life was a success, that he could hope for nothing better.

DRMSTEAGUE DENTAL PARLORS GAS GIVEN

THE MODERN DOG HOSPITAL CHAS. W. GRANNIS PROPRIETOR EST 1895

Marcus was Old Grannis's assistant in a little dog hospital that the latter had opened in a sort of alley just off Polk Street. F.N.

REESE'S PHARMACY Chloroform

Maria Macapa was the Mexican woman who took care of the lodgers' rooms. F.N.

"Got any junk?"

"No."

"Oh sure"

Old Grannis lived in one of the back rooms of McTeague's flat. F.N.

Miss Baker, the retired dressmaker... had a tiny room a few doors down the hall. F.N.

It was current talk amongst the lodgers of the flat that the two were in love with each other. F.N.

Singularly enough, they not were even acquaintances; never a word had passed between them. F.N.

But their rooms were divided by a single wall so thin they could hear each other's every movement.

Marcus Schouler was the dentist's one intimate friend. F.N.

"Just look at that -- Ain't she a pip? - huh? Ain't she?"

"Sure is a Pip -- That's the word!"

"By damn, I'll be late. I'm supposed to meet my cousin Trina at the Ferry at half past five and I got to doll up yet."

"Steppin' out a little -- I got to beat it."

"So long, Mac. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. You know."

Oelbermann's Store

Trina had her own little trade. She made Noah's ark animals for Uncle Oelbermann's store. F. N.

CASHIER

PRIVATE OFFICE RUDOLPH OELBERMANN

"Hello, Uncle."

"Just wanted to say hello, Uncle, cause I'm in a hurry. I have an appointment with Marcus at the Ferry and I got to shop yet."

CAR CONDUCTOR'S COFFEE JOINT STEAKS & HOPS

PET SHOP SUPPLIES BIRDS BABY CHICK ANIMALS DOGS CATS PIGEONS MONKEYS PETS BOARDED

"Going to buy it today. Doc?"

"Ain't got enough yet to buy both. I'll take the male and the cage."

"So you did buy your bird after all."

SOUTHERN LINES

"Got any junk, Mr. Grannis?"

"Oh, Maria -- I don't know --"

"What you allus sewing up them books for, Mr. Grannis? -- They ain't no good to you."

"Well, well, a little habit, you know. I don't smoke; it takes the place of a pipe, perhaps."

"Got any junk?"

"You're always after junk -- you know I haven't got anything like that."

"You two people are just alike, you have less junk than anybody."

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO TOUCH THE FLOWERS

Marcus took dinner with the Sieppes every Saturday evening at their home at B Street Station, across the bay. F. N.

"Attention -- Salute!"

hans Sieppe

"Papa setz der children. Der dinner is reatty!"

"Ground der rifles."

"Attention -- Vorwarts!"

"Down setzen!"

"Attention - der chilt vot ist not good vill not to der pignick go tomorrow."

ZERKOW THE JUNK MAN Metals a speciality

ZERKOW OLD JUNK

Maria sold the junk to Zerkow, the rag - bottles - sacks man, who lived in a filthy den in the alley just back of the flat... F. N.

Gold fillings stolen from McTeague's dental parlors --

"Maria isn't your only name, is it?"

"Name is Maria - Miranda - Macapa!"

"Had a flying squirrel an' let him go!"

"Say, how about those gold dishes you told me about the last time you was here?"

"- the plate you said your father owned in Central America a long time ago -- don't you know -- Red, gold - like oranges?"

"There were more than hundred pieces, and every one of them gold."

"You should have seen the sight when the leather trunk was opened. It fair dazzled your eyes. --"

"How much do you think it was worth?"

"Oh, a million dollars."

"A million dollars, a gold service worth a million dollars --"

"--A punch bowl worth a fortune, red gold plate, heaps and piles -- God!"

"Did you want that tooth tonight, Doc?"

"Ain't got enough yet. Just came to look at it."

"-- would look like a million outside of your window -- sure is a dandy!"

"Dandy - that's the word."

- They had come to know each other's habits. Old Grannis knew that at quarter of five precisely Miss Baker made a cup of tea. - F. N.

Miss Baker felt instinctively the exact moment when Old Grannis took down his little binding apparatus from the second shelf in his clothes closet and began his favorite occupation of binding pamphlets. F. N.

- pamphlets that he never read, for all that. F. N.

Sunday! --- let it be the most joyful of the seven ---

CAR CONDUCTOR'S COFFEE JOINT

Trina broke her tooth in the fall.

"It's your fault, Marcus. Now I'm disfigured for life."

"That's nothing! My pal, Doc McTeague'll fix that easy - it's a cinch - that's a fact."

MONDAY

"Something extraordinary has happened, Dr. McTeague."

"I found out yesterday that Mr. Grannis' room and mine was at one time all one room --"

"It almost amounts to our occupying the same room. I don't know - why, really - do you think I should speak to the landlady about it?"

"I know Mr. Grannis would feel very upset about it, too --"

"Have a seat, Marcus."

"He's the strongest duck you ever seen."

"Get on to the size of him. Yes, Mac's all right."

"She's a greaser and she's queer in the head - you ought to hear her go on about a gold dinner service --"

"How do, Maria?"

"Didunt always haveta work for your living though, did you, when you ate offa gold dishes?"

"Say, Maria, what's your name?"

"Name is Maria - Miranda - Масара."

"Had a flying squirrel an' let him go!"

"Buy a ticket in the lottery?"

"-- just a dollar!"

"Go 'long with you! Lotteries is against the law!"

"-- the butcher in the next block won twenty dollars the last drawing!"

"Mac, old pal, I wantcha to shake hands with my cousin, Trina Sieppe. She's my sweetie!"

"Don't you hurt her too much, Mac."

"The roots of the broken tooth are still in the gum; they'll have to come out, and I guess I'll have to pull that other bicuspid."

"One hole is bad enough."

"Let's look at that again."

- And for the first time in his life, McTeague felt an inkling of ambition to please a woman --

- It is an old, old story, yet remains ever new.

He found himself thinking of her constantly. F.N.

For a fortnight Trina had come nearly every other day and passed two and even three hours in McTeague's chair

"Ether... not so dangerous as gas."

"But below the fine Fabric of all that was good in him ran the foul stream of hereditary evil, like a sewer--"

"Why should it be, he did not desire it. Was he to blame?"

"I never felt a thing."

"Listen here, Miss Trina, I like you better than any one else; what's the matter with us getting married?"

"Didun't I tell you - Didn't I? Mac's all right, all right."

"So long, Mac."

One week later McTeague had finished Trina's filling and since then he had not seen her any more.

VIEW POST CARDS FILMS SOLD HERE LIGHT LUNCHE, REGULAR MEALS SEAL ROCK TEA GARDENS AND GRILL MEALS FROM 25 UP, FAMILY STYLE

"What's the matter with you these days, Mac, you got a bean about somethun, hey. Spit it out."

"Ah, rats! - Huh, -- guess you're in love."

"Maybe I can help you. We're pals, you know. What's the row?"

"I'll do all I can to help you."

"It's... it's... Miss Sieppe!"

"Trina, my cousin? How do you mean?"

"You mean - that you are - that you, too."

"I couldn't help it, it wasn't my fault."

"It came on so slow that I was, that - that - that - that it was done before I knew it, before I could help myself."

"-- she was the first girl I had ever known -- and you don't know!"

"Why I was so close to her and smelt her hair --"

"--and felt her breath. Oh, you don't know--"

It's everything. It's - it's - Oh, it's everything! ----- I -- why Marc, it's everything -- everything!

"Well, what are we going to do about it?"

"I don't want anything to - to come between us, Marc!"

"Well, nothun will, you bet. No, sir, you bet not, Mac."

"Well, Mac, go ahead. I guess you - you want her pretty bad. I'll pull out, yes by damn, I'll give her up to you, old man!"

"Friends for life --"

ON YOU KID

"-- or... death!"

"I'm much obliged! -- I'm much obliged! -- much obliged, Marc!"

"I tell you what, we'll go over there Washington's Birthday, next Wednesday, sure, they'll be glad to see you."

"They are goin' to Schutzen Park for a picnic."

"Mac, this is Trina's father!"

"Sure glad t' know ya, Mr. Sieppe."

"Mommer!"

"Doc,... shake hands with my cousin, Selina."

"Don't you think picnics are fine fun, Doctor McTeague? And when lunch time comes oh? aren't you hungry. The woods and the grass smell so fine."

"I don't know, Miss Sieppe -- I never went to a picnic."

"Here's where we shell out, Mac."

"Gimme four bits!"

"I ain't got no money with me... only a dime!"

What a day that was for McTeague... what a never-to-be-forgotten day!

Shel Mound Shooting Range SIGNALS

- nips and cracks and Wanton wiles -- nods and becks and wreathed smiles --

- And what an evening that was for McTeague -- what a never-to-be-forgotten -- evening -

HANS

Marcus would sleep in the lounge in the front parlor. Trina would sleep with August giving up her room to McTeague. F.N.

McTeague went softly about the room from one object to another, beholding Trina in everything he touched and looked at. F.N.

-- And what a night that was for McTeague --- what a never-to-be- forgotten night---

Weeks passed, February went, March came in very rainy putting a stop to all their picnics and Sunday excursions.

"This is the first day it hasn't rained in weeks. I thought it would be nice to go for a walk."