SOURCE: "Second Thoughts on Stroheim," in Film Comment, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1974, pp. 6-13.

In the following essay, Rosenbaum reexamines Stroheim's canon, noting especially the discrepancy between the "legend" of the director and his actual work.

Preface

Total object, complete with missing parts, instead of partial object. Question of degree.

—Samuel Beckett, "Three Dialogues"

Two temptations present themselves to any modern reappraisal of Erich von Stroheim's work; one of them is fatal, the other all but impossible to act upon. The fatal temptation would be to concentrate on the offscreen image and legend of Stroheim to the point of ignoring central facts about the films themselves: an approach that has unhappily characterized most critical work on Stroheim to date. On the other hand, one is tempted to look at nothing but the films—to suppress biography, anecdotes, newspaper reviews, reminiscences, and everything else that isn't plainly visible on the screen...