Erich Von Stroheim was born to play the hard-nosed, disinterested, infallible guy. Everything about him screamed it. From his posture and facial expressions to the harsh accent and tone of his voice, he seemed an impenetrable, stone wall that only the loveliest of ladies could break through or scale.
In The Great Flamarion (1945), Von Stroheim plays Flamarion, a traveling vaudeville performer whose talent is astounding skill and accuracy in acts of sharpshooting.
His assistants are a husband and wife team, who perform a skit as Flamarion shoots around them and at various items of their apparel.
The wife has grown sick of her husband's heavy drinking, however and comes up with a scheme to get rid of him.
She convinces Flamarion that she is really in love with him. Reluctant and hesitant at first, Flamarion eventually caves in and reciprocates her love.
The scheming, seductive temptress persuades Flamarion into thinking that the only way for them to be together is for him to "accidentally" shoot her husband on stage.
Blinded by love, he concedes and kills the husband. After the investigation, Flamarion is cleared, but the woman has skipped town, leaving him with the realization that he has been double crossed and she was lying and using him all along. He must track her down to enact his revenge...
scene from The Great Flamarion
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