The blue book of the screen (1923)

REALISM numerable difficulties which beset his path. "McTeague" is the story of an ex-carboy of the Big Dipper mine, who picks up a smattering of crude dentistry from an itinerant dentist, eventually opens his own unlicensed office in San Francisco, prospers, marries the thrifty daughter of a Swiss family living in Oakland and then goes into moral disintegration through the basic avarice and greed of his own nature, his wife's and his associates'. Power and stark realism are the outstanding qualities of Frank Norris' novel, In casting the production, the director selected real actors -who looked and fitted the roles in ■which they were cast, regardless of whether or not they had a "big" name. Thus he brings the people of the Norris novel to life on the screen. by both American and European critics of discriminating taste as one of the few literary masterpieces of our native literature. Erich von Stroheim is a realist, first, last and always. For nearly a decade he had dreamed of producing "McTeague." Long ago in his dreams he had decided that the story must be filmed against its real background. When his opportunity came he clung to his convictions in the face of the in and Von Stroheim has made them the dominant notes in his picturization of the story. To achieve this absolute realism Von Stro 350