The Armistice marked not only the cessation of World War I, but also the cessation of films that cheered on the conflict and fanned the flames of national hatred. No actor had sunk his teeth into these anti-German roles as ravenously as Erich von Stroheim, who, in one infamous propaganda film, not only raped a woman, but threw a baby out of a window in the process. How might such an artist survive in post-war Hollywood? 

Stroheim pivoted to writing and directing, offering his services to Universal, bundled with his acting at a bargain rate, complete with a surefire scenario he had already worked out in every detail while (allegedly) imprisoned in an Austrian military fortress. The result was Blind Husbands, which concerns a love triangle between a wealthy American couple (Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington) and an Austrian army officer (guess who) in the resort village of Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Tyrolean Alps, the "Mecca of American tourists" lovingly recreated on the studio backlot. (An early intertitle sums up Stroheim's sympathies in these marital disputes: "Guilty! says the world condemning 'the other man' … But what of the husband?")

 Despite greatly outspending his initial budget, Stroheim delivered such a substantial critical and commercial hit that Universal eagerly gave him another shot behind the camera, and the rest is history. An atmospheric and foreboding drama, Blind Husbands remains among the key moments of sustained self-creation in silent cinema. One measure of the myth: the opening credits insinuate that Blind Husbands was adapted 'from the book The Pinnacle by Erich von Stroheim.' Of course, there was no such book. (KW)

93 min • Universal Film Manufacturing Co. • 35mm from Universal

Preceded by: "Screen Snapshots No. 10" (1922) – 3 min – 35mm from San Francisco Film Preserve