La Loi des montagnes

Blind Husbands (1919) : Brief Review -

Erich von Stroheim's extremist tale of masculine mistakes before he showed feminine faults in Foolish Wives (1922). Erich von Stroheim was an extremist when it came to films that showed feminine and masculine stuff from the perspective of married couples. Of course, that extramarital relationship thing drew a thin line between the acidic forms of female and male. When I saw Foolish Wives, I was stunned by his vision. I just couldn't believe that he made such an erotic film in 1922. Today, when I am just done watching Blind Husbands, I'm even more impressed. And believe me, it hasn't got anything to do with my male ego. At first I thought that this would hurt my male ego or satisfy that feminine anger, but I had no further thoughts of hating anything while watching it. I also realised that this film has given birth to the idea of an ignored wife - with different theories and conclusions, of course. Like, I remember David Lean's "Brief Encounter" (1945), Satyajit Ray's "Charulata" (1964) and "Ghare Baire" (1989), which all had the same idea of an ignored wife falling for the third man. And in the beginning credits, this film makes an extreme speech by saying, "People always blame the third man, but what about the husband?" That's so true. We never really thought that way. With that topic, Blind Husbands has that power to spark a debate even after 103 years, today in 2022. Stroheim excels as an actor and also as a director. Sam De Grasse and Francelia Billington looked great together even though they didn't have many scenes together. The intertitles and screenplay keep you intrigued, and the cinematography is decent. A bit too simple a film, but for 1919, I guess it was too much, especially when you learn the fact that many marriages were actually broken by 'the third man', just like this film says. Overall, a great effort for contemporary filmmaking, if not a great fllm.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

"Blind Husbands" is a film in which Von Stroheim both directed and acted. The story seems somewhat routine now, but was considered racy for its day. It concerns a rather bland American doctor and his neglected wife on vacation in the Alps who cross paths with Lieutenant Erich Von Steuben (Von Stroheim), a military man with an eye for the ladies. He pursues the doctor's wife while the doctor is preoccupied with climbing the local mountains. Its main features are that the characters are well-developed compared with other films of the 1910's and also that the running time is a mere 90 minutes compared with later Von Stroheim efforts where he wound up going wild and shooting hours of film.

Wow--is this the SAME director that was known for his obsessive need to film and re-film and re-film ad nauseum? Is this this the director who made GREED at over nine hours and insisted it not be cut any further? Is this the same director whose work was severely limited because the studios grew tired of his inflexibility and excessive spending? None of this appears to be the case when you watch this simple film, but all are amazingly true--just not evident in this film. Somehow, von Stroheim was able to complete a film that is simple, a reasonable length and well worth seeing. In fact, he also co-stars in this movie and does a fine job playing an adventurous cad.

The plot is pretty simple. A husband has a tendency to take his wife for granted while on vacation to the Dolemites (a mountain range in Northern Italy). A soldier and adventurer, von Stroheim, sees this and slowly tries to seduce the lonely wife. How all this works out as well as the beautifully filmed conclusion I'll leave to you to figure out on your own. This is a morality play that for its day isn't too preachy and is sure to entertain.

The story is simple and unoriginal: a love triangle, plus man's determination to conquer nature. But, this early effort by director Erich von Stroheim displays great restraint, especially for a filmmaker who would become notorious for excess. His films, such as "Greed" (1924), are better known for their production and post-production histories than for their actual merits. He would shoot an excessive amount of footage for films of extraordinary length, which the producers then butchered. That's not the case with "Blind Husbands", though; this one has a normal runtime.

It also features the familiar Stroheim touches on a smaller scale. The acting is rather subtile. Stroheim introduces his typical role as a villainous Teutonic womanizer, with a scar, a monocle and a history of military service--"the man you love to hate". Here, he's the other man. Furthermore, the mise-en-scène takes precedence over camera movement or editing. The décor is detailed and occasionally allegorical to the melodrama. Attention to lighting is also evident. "Blind Husbands" is sensational and too contrived and ruminant at times, but, for the most part, the simple story is harmonious with the restrained, yet detailed, film-making.

The story is seemingly simple and straightforward. For modern audiences, it probably feels like a cliche, but I'm sure that at the time of its release, 'Blind Husbands' might have been considered quite a raunchy movie - there is a scene where a married woman is kissing the strange man. There are more than enough written about Erich von Storheim's work ethics as a film director, so I will not go into that again.

'Blind Husbands' tells a story about a renowned surgeon and his wife who travel into the Dolomites, a mountain range in Italian Alps. With them travels Lieutenant Eric von Steuben (perfectly sly and vile performance by Erich von Stroheim) who notices that the beautiful wife is somewhat neglected by her husband. A womanizing lieutenant doesn't waste a minute and starts to make advances towards the wife every possible way.

The story is simple, especially more than a hundred years later, when the love triangle has become one of the most overused plot devices in all forms of storytelling. Taking that into the consideration, that the story might seem nothing special, the more special is the way it is brought to the screen. Von Stroheim gives us the three main players and the coming relationship right away. I like how the surgeon and his wife constantly meet with newlyweds (fresh wife asks from her husband - you'll never neglect me like that?). It is not perfectly explained why the doctor ignores his wife so much - yes, he is a good man, he even goes to help the needy while on the vacation; the mountain guide Sepp (Gibson Gowland is just awesome in this role) is the doctor's good old friend whom he hadn't seen years. Still, it wasn't quite clear why the good old doctor Armstrong ignored his gorgeous wife (rich performance by Francelia Billington) between. There is not only (melo)drama, but also nice touches of comedy - when we see von Steuben hit on one girl using a mawkish line about the moon, and later he tries to seduce our main heroine with the exact line.

I can't go without mentioning the exciting mountain climbing scene as the grande finale. Altogether 'Blind Husbands' might not compare to the greatest works of silent cinema, but it is a very good movie that is more nuanced than its simple plot might suggest.