HELLO, SISTER!

(1933) James Dunn and Boots Mallory find love in lower-class New York, despite clinging pal ZaSu Pitts and sleazoids Minna Gombell and Terrence Ray. Von Stroheim’s only sound film finds true love even in non-imperial tenements and was brought in on schedule and budget, but, caught in a studio power struggle, was half-way shot by others.
2:25, 5:05, 7:45

"The detail in so many scenes is unquestionably Stroheim: the grotesque dwarfs at Coney Island, the cripple entering the medical building, the detailed listing of medical names on a directory used only for a brief establishing shot. The sequence in the doctor’s office, with the long tracking shot up to the painting of the Last Supper, combines the religious sincerity and moralistic tolerance which Stroheim had exhibited on many occasions. And Zasu Pitts in particular… The framing of the shots, the fadeout on her deliberate fingering of the iron, the subtlety of scenes in which slight nuances of expression belie the words she is speaking – all of these are things that no director, re-shooting those scenes, would have done."
– William K. Everson

AS YOU DESIRE ME

(1932, George Fitzmaurice) GARBO’S BLONDE! – and Stroheim’s got her! Bleached blonde, amnesiac Budapest cabaret artist Greta Garbo is “protected” by Von Stroheim, when Count Melvyn Douglas arrives as her forgotten husband – or is he? Adapted from a Pirandello play.
1:00, 3:40, 6:20

"Garbo brings a real erotic undertow to the love scenes, while Stroheim is terrific as the demonically sadistic writer trying to model her as one of his own creations."
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)