Blind Husbands
About Blind Husbands
At Cortina d’Ampezzo, Dr. Robert Armstrong pays little attention to his wife Margaret. Lieutenant Eric von Steuben sets out to seduce her. When Armstrong leaves to help the village doctor, he asks the lieutenant to look after her. She tells von Steuben she needs more time and, that night, slides a letter under his door. On a climb the lieutenant brags about, then falters. Armstrong finds the letter in his pocket, asks if Margaret promised to leave, and gets a yes. He starts down and leaves the lieutenant on the summit. Lower on the mountain he reads the letter: she loves only her husband and wants the attentions to stop. Armstrong falls, soldiers save him, and he sends them back up. A vulture stares at von Steuben. He falls to his death before they reach him. Sam De Grasse plays Armstrong. Francelia Billington plays Margaret. Erich von Stroheim plays the lieutenant and directed.
Cast & crew
More about Blind Husbands
Stroheim adapted his own story The Pinnacle. Carl Laemmle’s Universal released it. Ben F. Reynolds photographed it. R. H. Cochrane, a Universal vice-president, rejected the title The Pinnacle. Sales staff renamed it Blind Husbands. Stroheim bought a page in Motion Picture News to protest. The film opened at the Rialto in Washington on 19 October 1919. The Wikipedia table also lists 7 December 1919. The table runtime is 91 minutes. Gibson Gowland plays the guide Silent Sepp.
Themes
Making
Stroheim wrote, directed, and played the officer. The climb is the test he fails, both as a mountaineer and as a liar.
Look
Ben F. Reynolds shot the Dolomite village and the climb where the letter changes hands.
Preservation
The film survives. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The letter Margaret writes is the opposite of the answer von Steuben gives on the summit.
- Fay Holderness plays a jealous waitress.
- Richard Cummings plays Dr. Brunner, the village physician.
- A Commons file uses the 1919 title.
Scenes
- Margaret puts the letter under the lieutenant’s door.
- Armstrong reads it only after he has already left von Steuben on the summit.
- A vulture stares, and the lieutenant falls before the rescue party arrives.
Influenced by
- Erich von Stroheim’s story The Pinnacle
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Blind Husbands (1919).webm)
