The Merry Widow is a 1925 American silent romantic drama/black comedy film directed and written by Erich von Stroheim.

Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film stars Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Roy D'Arcy, and Tully Marshall,[3][4] with pre-fame uncredited appearances by Joan Crawford and Clark Gable.

As described in film magazine reviews,[5] Prince Danilo meets Sally the dancer and, when he proposes marriage, his uncle, King Nikita I of Monteblanco and Queen Milena object because she is a commoner.

Selected cast that were uncredited: “Though Stroheim and Mae Murray hated each other, the performance which he got from her in The Merry Widow was worth everything else she ever did put together.”— Edward Wagenknecht in The Movies in the Age of Innocence (1962).

After production, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided it could no longer work with the director after he added sexually explicit scenes and changed the operetta's libretto.