Foolish Wives
Unknown, 1922
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 13% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyA 1922 advertising sheet for the Universal production written, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim. Universal promoted it as the first million-dollar picture and then cut it to a fraction of Stroheim's assembly — the first famous case of a studio destroying a director's film in public. The advertising's boasts about cost are inseparable from the argument that followed. The prominence given to expenditure and scale in the copy, rather than to story — the budget as the attraction. A masterpiece sold by the yard, then cut by it.
- Maker
- Unknown
- Date
- 1922
- Medium of the original
- Poster
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Cleared for print
- Catalogue number
- PA-00775
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 36 x 48 in | Wrong shape: a 19% crop |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 28% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 2,919 x 3,159 px, srgb, GIMP built-in sRGB
- Tone
- Darks 0, lights 174 of 255; 0.1% clipped light, 25.8% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0.1% vivid
- Sharpness
- 38.94
- Notes
- Shadows clip on 26% of the image: the darkest areas print as solid black
The Picture Palace
German Expressionism: shadow printed to the stone.
All 183 pieces from The Picture Palace
