The Great Flamarion (1945)
A jealous vaudeville sharpshooter is talked by his stage assistant into killing her husband mid-act, only to discover — once she moves on to a younger partner — that he was never more than a means to that end.
Erich von Stroheim, the once-imperious director of Greed reduced by the 1940s to character roles, plays Flamarion’s self-deception with the same wounded dignity he would bring to Sunset Boulevard five years later.
Background
The Great Flamarion gave Erich von Stroheim, once the imperious, lavishly spending director of films like Greed and Foolish Wives, one of the character roles that largely defined the later stages of his career after his directing opportunities dried up. Directed by Anthony Mann, the film follows a jealous vaudeville sharpshooter who is talked by his stage assistant into killing her husband mid-performance, only to discover, once she moves on to a younger partner, that he was never more to her than a means to that end.
What to watch for
Watch for how von Stroheim plays Flamarion’s self-deception and wounded dignity, a performance that anticipates the similarly faded, delusional grandeur he would bring to his most famous later role, as the butler Max in Sunset Boulevard five years afterward. The film is a useful example of how a filmmaker once at the absolute top of the industry could find a second act as a character actor specializing in exactly the kind of proud, damaged men his own career had, by then, come to resemble.
