Gloria Swanson Loses a Director

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 614, 16 March 1929, Page 25

Gloria Swanson Loses a Director

Erich Von Stroheim Objects to Talkies

Whenever there is trouble in a big Hollywood production camp the chances are that Erich Von Stroheim—that celebrated but temperamental Austrian director—will be somewhere near at hand.

XTIS latest passage at arms with his producers had ended with his withdrawal from Gloria Swanson’s secret and much-discussed production, “Queen Kelly.” It was announced recently that he was “out” and that Edmund Goulding would finish the film in his place, says an American exchange. Reports were current that Von Stroheim was living up to his reputation of spending too much money and taking too much expensive time; that a £IO,OOO set was to be built, over and above the budget allotted to the picture, and that Miss Swanson was not even going to appear in the scene in which this set was to be used. Hollywood has heard all these stories before, ever since Von Stroheim began directing pictures in a big way. The real fact of the matter, from Von Stroheim’s point of view, was that Von Stroheim was opposed to making the picture a talkie at all. He believes that talkies are not sufficiently perfected to be considered worthy adjuncts of really good pictures. He proclaimed that he knows nothing about directing talkies, that his contract had nothing in it about sound and dialogue and that he did not wish to jeopardise his reputation as a director by turning out something he considers inferior. Therefore, say those on Von Stroheim’s side of the argument, the Austrian director was well pleased to bow himself out.