Do I get my official movie buff card now?
*Warning: Spoilers
I just stayed up until 2:45 in the morning to watch the second longest movie ever made, and it was a silent film. I only drifted off to sleep once. The last thing I remember, Marcus had just thrown a knife at McTeague. I awoke an unknown number of minutes later to see them fighting, and Marcus biting off McTeague's earlobe. I can't have missed much, the plot moved slower than molasses in winter.
To begin, I should say something positive. I really enjoyed the score. Compared to the last 10 minutes of the preceding 1927 Alfred Hitchcock silent film, The Lodger, which had an overbearing piano score, the Israel score, utilizing a full orchestra, was marvelous.
Now for the criticism. My God, where to begin? First, I think the guide description, "A family is torn apart by the pursuit of wealth.", is horribly inaccurate. Based on the description, and that someone took the time to restore this film to a semi-directors cut, more about that later, I was expecting something more like Giant, with the plot following a large family involved in some ongoing business, in which there was destructive greed.
The greed in this film seems to be centered around the $5,000 Trina won in the illegal lottery. I'm not sure her wanting to protect her wealth is considered greedy, nor her husband wanting to spend it. That's just frugality versus spendthrift. McTeague killing her for the money, and Marcus riding into Death Valley to retrieve it, would qualify, but did we have to sit through 3 hours of what amounted to just a long argument over marital finances, to get to the action?
I was absolutely stunned when back-story revealed the original directors cut to have been NINE HOURS LONG. That's right, the director, Von Stroheim had requested that Metro-Goldwyn release this movie, having gone wildly over budget, as two, 4 and 1/2 hour parts, to be shown on consecutive nights. What an idiot! Is it any wonder this movie was his swan song as an A-list director in America.
Frankly, there wasn't enough story there for the four hours I watched tonight. Forcing him to cut it down to 2 hours was certainly correct, as this is basically a three-person plot. Boy meets girl, girl meets another boy. Girl comes into money and marries other boy. Boys fight over girl and then boys fight over the money. Husband kills wife for money. Boys fight over money again causing both their deaths. This movie could have easily been 90 to 120 minutes long. What extra value Von Stroheim thought 7 additional hours could have added to the story is beyond me.
If I knew where Von Stroheim was buried I would drive there tonight, dig up his corpse, and slap his skull around while screaming, "What the hell were you thinking?" Then I would force his skeleton to watch all four hours of this film, twice!
I did think the plot had problems at the very end. McTeague has just taken the gun away from Marcus after warning him not to try and reload it. He then bludgeons Marcus to death with the pistol, only to find himself handcuffed to the body. He sits there in despair as the film ends. McTeague is probably dead anyway because he has no water, but why not reload the gun from Marcus's gun belt, and shoot himself free of the handcuffs? Or a more morbid, but realistic ending, could show McTeague about to commit suicide with the gun to save himself the anguish of dying from the heat.
The film was set in 1908 California, and the lottery was illegal back then, interestly. Also, notice that this 1925 film showed McTeague as an unlicensed dentist, coping a feel off Trina as she lay unconscious in his dentistry chair? Did this get by the censors because he later marries her?