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Greed

Turkish title: Hırs

“The Film of Films”

1924 · 2 h 20 min
Directed by Erich von Stroheim
DramaThrillerWestern

Cast

Gibson Gowland ZaSu Pitts Jean Hersholt

Credits

Written by: June Mathis

Plot

A San Francisco dentist, McTeague, marries Trina, a young woman who wins five thousand dollars in a lottery. Her obsession with the money grows into miserliness, and the marriage turns bitter. Marcus, once McTeague's friend and rival for Trina, betrays him out of jealousy. The story ends in a chase across Death Valley. Erich von Stroheim shot Frank Norris's novel almost page by page on real locations, creating a film of some nine hours, which the studio cut to a fraction. The surviving version is still a landmark of cinematic realism and a famous example of a ruined masterpiece.

Sinekatalog’s take

Erich von Stroheim's silent epic of obsession over money was cut brutally by its studio. Even in surviving form, its grim realism and desert finale are astonishing, a landmark of cinema's early ambition.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.0 / 10 (11,736 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% (27 critic reviews)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset; Rotten Tomatoes snapshot from October 2026. Scores change over time.

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