In his first picture post-Greed, von Stroheim litters the screen with pathetic, greedy men who were no doubt stand-ins for the producers, exhibitors and censors he held responsible for mutilating his masterworks. In the film, their prey is the beautiful dancer Sally O’Hara played by starlet Mae Murray, one of many concessions von Stroheim made to appease the Hollywood movie machine. He succeeds in crafting a thoroughly engrossing melodrama with wit, whimsy and plenty of sardonic von Stroheim details, like the diabolical baron with a foot fetish and a crown prince with a speech affect in the intertitles. Straying wildly from the Franz Lehar operetta, von Stroheim was applauded for wringing a complex performance out of Murray whose turbulent, on-screen romance with the rakish Prince played by John Gilbert proved box office gold.