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Foolish Wives
A counterfeit count works Monte Carlo, in a picture its studio advertised by the dollar.
What
A 1922 advertising sheet for the Universal production written, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim.
Why
Universal promoted it as the first million-dollar picture and then cut it to a fraction of Stroheim's assembly — the first famous case of a studio destroying a director's film in public. The advertising's boasts about cost are inseparable from the argument that followed.
Notice
The prominence given to expenditure and scale in the copy, rather than to story — the budget as the attraction.
“A masterpiece sold by the yard, then cut by it.”
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 24x36" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
Provenance
- Film
- Foolish Wives (1922), dir. Erich von Stroheim
- Country / studio
- United States · Universal Pictures
- Format
- Other
- Poster published
- U.S. trade advertisement, 1922
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (poster published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year, never the film’s. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
From Silent Hollywood
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