User Reviews

The synopsis says "Autocratic directors like the martinet Cecil B. DeMille and the idiosyncratic Eric Von Stroheim are highlighted in this episode." Actually this episode is about Von Stroheim and DeMille and nobody else. This is probably because they represent the two types of autocrats. DeMille actually owned part of Paramount at its founding, so he had huge latitude. This episode talks about DeMille's directing style, his obsession with historical accuracy, and the kinds of films that he directed, but it doesn't say much about how sound film impacted him, and it did a great deal. DeMille left Paramount to be an independent filmmaker in 1925, but sound coming in forced him to close up shop, due to the expense of converting to sound, and go to MGM. Always a success previously, he had a rough time at MGM with three unsuccessful films in a row and then being cut loose by the studio. He then returned to Paramount for the rest of his life. As for DeMille's temperament - when your own niece has nothing good to say about you decades after your death, you were probably not a nice guy.

Von Stroheim was a complete train wreck. He made wonderful films but they were terribly long and expensive. Films made to show to an audience are ultimately useless if they are impractical to show to an audience because they are seven hours long. Like DeMille he obsessed over detail, but refused to compromise. As a director he got thrown out by Universal, walked out on MGM (that studio is something that he and DeMille had in common), was fired by Paramount over The Wedding March, and finally canned by Joe Kennedy who was producing Queen Kelly for Gloria Swanson. His reputation for intransigence meant he was through directing and he spent the rest of his career as an actor.

Today, everybody wants to direct and many do, but in the silent era, being a director was a privilege reserved for very few. So DeMille represents the director that knew how to work the studio system and flourished. Von Stroheim represents one who did not, and quite frankly, did not seem to want to do so. Did he have a career death wish? We'll never know.

With lots of interviews with eyewitnesses to the careers of these two directors, this is definitely worth your time.

Hollywood: Autocrats (1980)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The seventh episode takes a look at two of the most remembered directors of the silent era. First up is a bit on Cecil B. DeMille who, like Griffith, started off as an actor but when that didn't work he switched over to directing. Through interviews we learn that DeMille was a perfectionist who would stop at nothing to make sure everything on screen was his idea. If this meant screaming at women until they cried then so be it as long as he got his way. We see his early successes like THE CHEAT and how this grew into bigger pictures like MALE AND FEMALE, MANSLAUGHTER and his religious epics. DeMille's niece is on hand to tell a few stories and it's clear she really doesn't think too highly of him as she's constantly getting in the fact that he liked to mistreat people. Gloria Swanson is also on hand to share a few stories as well as explain why the two of them worked so well together. The second half of this episode takes a look at the career of Erich von Stroheim, which started under Griffith before making his directorial debut with BLIND HUSBANDS. That wil, along with FOOLISH WIVES, made him a star but Universal and Irving Thalberg fired him because of his desire to go over budget. We then hear about the making of GREED, how it was taken away from him and how the rest of his directorial career had one disaster after another. If not a disaster at the box office he was a disaster for those working with him. Karl Brown perfectly sums up his feelings by saying he feels von Stroheim was abused at some point of his life and decided to use his genius to ruin other people. There's no doubt that very few good words are said about the man himself but you can't deny what he did with his films. Swanson is interviewed about their one film together, which she hired him for yet QUEEN KELLY would never get a theatrical release in the U.s.. Both stories are told extremely well even though both have had longer documentaries made since this was released. Fans of silent cinema will certainly enjoy seeing the old film clips as well as interviews.

This is yet another fantastic episode of the best series on silent films and Hollywood. Like the rest, it's incredibly easy to watch, filled with great interviews and film clips and is stuffed with great information and anecdotes. This particular one focuses on two early autocratic film directors, Erich von Stroheim and Cecil B. DeMille. Both, in my opinion, are highly overrated and both had very different outcomes in their careers. Von Stroheim basically destroyed his career because he was pathologically unable to work with any reasonable constraints. Many examples of his adversarial and excessive behaviors are given and I loved the interviewee who tried to give a psychological perspective on the man--it seemed dead on! As for DeMille, he was not a particularly nice guy (at least to most) and was incredibly dictatorial BUT he delivered successful films. While I would NOT agree he was a true genius (for every wonderful film he made, he made others that were just god-awful-- such as "Sign of the Cross"), he was successful and knew how to market himself. The similarities between them and differences are highlighted. Excellent throughout...

After a passable episode that glossily profiled two stars of the silent screen, the 13-part series returned to form; "The Autocrats," the seventh episode in the Kevin Brownlow-David Gill documentary, "Hollywood," compares the careers of two leading directors of the era. Cecil B. DeMille and Erich von Stroheim had similar autocratic natures, paid great attention to detail, and were blessed with directorial genius; both began their careers as actors, but, later as directors, one worked with the Hollywood system and one worked against it.

The son of playwrights, Cecil B. DeMille started out as a stage actor, although he was overshadowed by his playwright brother, William. In 1913, he struck out on his own, and, with Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn, he founded the Lasky Film Company, which later became Paramount Pictures. DeMille headed west to California the following year, and, in 1914, he produced "The Squaw Man," which was the first feature-length film produced in Hollywood. Always the perfectionist, DeMille emphasized production values in his films and developed his own stars, notably Gloria Swanson.

Initially, romantic sexual films interested DeMille, and among his early works were "The Cheat" in 1915 with Sessue Hayakawa and "Male and Female" in 1919 with Gloria Swanson. Many of his films, like "Male and Female," influenced fashion and interior design, and his star Gloria Swanson became the most imitated woman in America. Among the interviewees who discuss DeMille and his work, his niece, Agnes DeMille, and his most famous star, Gloria Swanson, stand out. Once Swanson left his employ, DeMille replaced her with Leatrice Joy, who starred in "Manslaughter" in 1922 and is also featured in a fine interview. Later, DeMille found great success with a mix of religion and sexuality with films like "The Ten Commandments" in 1923 and "King of Kings" in 1927. Director Henry Hathaway, who was a prop man on "The Ten Commandments," provides insight into the production of that epic. Although he enjoyed continued success until his death in the late 1950's, Cecil B. DeMille's best work was behind him in the silent era.

Unlike DeMille, Erich von Stroheim's directorial career did not survive into the sound era. But, like DeMille, von Stroheim began as an actor in the D.W. Griffith studio and was among the few directors who acted in his own films. Typecast as a sadistic German, von Stroheim seemed to relish his nickname "The Man You Love to Hate." Uncompromising and self destructive, von Stroheim made his first film for Universal in 1919; "Blind Husbands" was successful, but, although he wrote, directed, and starred, he was paid only for acting. The film's success led to backing for his next movie, "Foolish Wives" in 1922; he famously recreated the Monte Carlo Casino, and, a stickler for detail, von Stroheim shot enough footage for three films, until the studio called a halt, because of his extravagance and waste. Despite problems with the studio, von Stroheim was allowed to film the novel McTeague by Frank Norris in 1925. He retitled the film "Greed" and practically filmed the book cover to cover. Starring Jean Hersholt and Zazu Pitts, "Greed" was filmed on actual locations, including Death Valley, where the temperatures soared to 125 degrees. Von Stroheim shot 42 reels, an unmanageable length for a theatrical film, and producer Irving Thalberg took the film and ordered it cut to 10 reels for release. Reduced to a contract director at MGM, von Stroheim had a success with "The Merry Widow," which starred the temperamental Mae Murray, but was taken off production of the extravagant and overlong "The Wedding March" in 1928. Gloria Swanson then hired von Stroheim to direct "Queen Kelly" in 1928, which was financed by Joseph Kennedy. However, von Stroheim spent lavishly on the film and shot questionable scenes that sent Swanson walking off the set; the actress called Kennedy, who fired von Stroheim; Swanson talks at length in an interview about the experience. "Queen Kelly" was never shown in the United States and ended von Stroheim's career as a director. Besides Swanson, the director's wife, Valerie von Stroheim, is interviewed, and she fondly recalls her husband and dispels some misconceptions.

Ironically, von Stroheim appeared as a failed silent-film director opposite Gloria Swanson in 1950's "Sunset Blvd," in which Cecil B. DeMille played himself; Billy Wilder added further irony by using clips from "Queen Kelly" to show Swanson's character, Norma Desmond, at the height of her fame. Although the entire series is priceless film history, the seventh episode of "Hollywood" boasts a more informative profile of two contemporaneous silent-film careers than does the previous episode on "Swanson and Valentino." However, like all the episodes, the film clips, while generous, are not pristine, and the interview sequences are faded and low resolution.

Entertaining and informative study of two silent film directors, Cecil B. De Mille and Eric von Stroheim.

Both were noted for their egos and their extravagant production. De Mille's gargantuan movies made money. He gave the public what they wanted -- spectacle and a display of sin, just so the audience could see how sinful nude bathing was. Cluck cluck. He survived into sound films through the 1950s where it will be evident that his directorial techniques hadn't changed a bit. The overacting in his silents were carried over into his sound movies.

Von Stroheim -- nobody seems to know where the "von" came from -- was of a different caliber, equally demanding and equally extravagant, and probably more talented, but without the practical common sense of Cecil B. De Mille. Von Stroheim's movies, most of them either shelved or flops, were extremely expensive -- and extremely long. If a scene called for champagne and caviar at a banquet, it had to be real champagne and real caviar -- even if the caviar was to be thrown by the actors at each other. The original prints aren't available any longer. It's too bad because a twelve-hour epic could now be nicely sliced into a miniseries on television.

There's not much on the personalities but plentiful excerpts from the films themselves. Talking heads include Byron Haskin, Gloria Swanson, and Henry King.