As this extravagant, wickedly ironic 1928 melodrama shows, ErichvonStroheim was not only a supreme (if typecast) actor but one of the greatest silent-era directors.
Even major films occasionally dot the lineup like the deliciously sadistic "Gaslight" (1944), for which Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar, or Erichvon Stroheim's masterly silent version of "The Merry Widow" (1925), starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert.