From 1917 onwards Eric Von Stroheim became identified in the role of Prussian officer ...a rigid and autocratic Hun with cruel thin lips and a sarcastic monocled gaze...billed in studio advertisements as "The Man You Love To Hate". Throughout his career as a director his insistence on authentic detail in both costume and sets earned him a reputation as an extravagent spendthrift. It is said that when making his first significant film Foolish Wives in 1921 he even insisted that the actors who played the Austrian troops should wear the correct undergarments beneath their uniforms.