The Great Flamarion (1945)
“A perfect shot, a perfect trap, a perfect betrayal.”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
The Great Flamarion is an early showcase for director Anthony Mann and a poignant late role for the legendary Erich von Stroheim. Told largely in flashback after a backstage killing, it follows Flamarion, an arrogant and friendless trick-shot marksman who tours the vaudeville circuit with a beautiful assistant, Connie, and her drunken husband Al. When Connie sets her sights on Flamarion, she manipulates the lonely sharpshooter into engineering Al's death during their act, then vanishes, leaving him to spiral into drink, gambling, and obsession. Stroheim brings real pathos to a man whose icy discipline collapses the moment he allows himself to feel, while Mary Beth Hughes makes Connie a thoroughly modern femme fatale and Dan Duryea sketches a memorable portrait of the doomed husband. Shot on a shoestring in roughly two weeks, the film already displays the expressive shadows and trauma-haunted protagonists that would define Mann's celebrated noirs to come.
Cast
About the Director
Anthony Mann — Made before his breakthrough run of noirs and Westerns, The Great Flamarion finds Anthony Mann already drawn to men undone by buried wounds and the women who exploit them. Mann clashed with the imperious Stroheim on set, later calling him a genius and himself merely a worker, yet he coaxes from the aging master a performance of genuine tragic weight.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
The Great Flamarion is in the public domain in the United States. It was produced independently by W. Lee Wilder Productions and only distributed by Republic Pictures; its copyright was never renewed during the required 28-year term, and the authoritative Republic Pictures library inventory confirms the title as a non-renewed work, so it is in the public domain.
Behind the Scenes
Produced by W. Lee Wilder, the elder brother of Billy Wilder, the film was based on the short story Big Shot by Vicki Baum and shot on a budget of about $150,000 in roughly two weeks. After Republic's distribution rights lapsed, the picture circulated through television distributors and independent owners for decades.
Did You Know?
- Erich von Stroheim, a towering silent-era director, reportedly urged Mann to photograph the whole film through his monocle, an idea the budget could not support.
- Marksmanship as a symbol of honor recurs in Mann's later Winchester '73, which also featured Dan Duryea.
- The story is structured as the dying confession of Flamarion, recounted to a stagehand after the opening murder.
Reception & Legacy
Long regarded as a cult curiosity, the film is valued today as an early sign of Anthony Mann's gift for expressionist noir and for the melancholy resonance of Stroheim, a fallen giant of cinema, playing a proud man brought low. Reviewers have singled out its chiaroscuro lighting and the tragic charge of its central performance.
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