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.