Arthur
Stroheim, Keaton,
Poe—and Beckett for the butler. Thalberg saw the master boozing from a
hip flask and said sayonara to Merry-Go-Round (dir. Rupert Julian), or
so the story goes.
Stroheim is the
main beneficiary and exemplar of Gordon’s great and acclaimed comedy.
Keaton as son-in-law gets his kicks in, too.
The grandmother
with Vermeer’s Pearl Necklace is from Poe, translated by
Baudelaire. The butler is in Murphy, if one is perhaps not mistaken.