Blind Husbands

Stroheim's first film as director (he also wrote, starred in, and designed the sets for it). Apart from the naturalistic acting styles from all the principals, Blind Husbands is not particularly remarkable in itself; but it adequately signposts many of the aspects of Stroheim's later work which make him unique. Stroheim himself plays the aristocratic officer attempting to seduce the neglected wife of a young American on holiday in the Austro-Italian Alps. It's a moral tale, as simplistic as it sounds, but what makes it distinctive is the use of design and the characters' personal mannerisms as fully functional elements of the director's overall moral purpose.