Rummelplatz des Lebens

Erich von Stroheim started directing the movie Merry-Go-Round (1923) but got the sack by the producer Irving Thalberg and it was finished by Rupert Julian.Norman Kerry plays Viennese Count Franz Maximilian von Hohenegg.He's supposed to marry Countess Gisella von Steinbruck (Dorothy Wallace).That's one thing he doesn't want to do after he meets the beautiful, but poor Agnes Urban (Mary Philbin) at the amusement park.Merry-Go-Round is a good silent film.Norman Kerry is great in the lead and Mary Philbin is just charming.Cesare Gravina does a terrific performance as her father Sylvester.George Siegmann plays the villain of the movie, Schani Huber.He's the leader of the amusement park and a real sadistic person.In one dramatic scene he uses the whip on Agnes.This movie is could I say a forgotten gem.

A Stroheim project that was taken from him due to the usual excessive spending, and it suffers under the hand of the less flamboyant Rupert Julian. Von Stroheim would have had the marriage between Count von Hohenegg take place in a cathedral, witnessed by thousands of extras dressed in authentic garb right down to their monogrammed skivvies, but Julian makes it look as if it's taking place in a registry office in front of a dozen witnesses. Alternates between conventional romance and bizarre incidentals like a revenge-killer orang-utang.

After the struggles Universal Pictures had with director/actor/screenwriter Erich von Stroheim in making the budget-busting 1922 'Foolish Wives,' its president Carl Laemmle surprisingly gave the Austrian another chance. This time, though, during the production of September 1923's "Merry-Go-Round," he was closely overseen by Universal's young but talented primary producer, Irving Thalberg.

Stroheim agreed to formulate a script based on his memory of his native country to illustrate how The Great War changed it. He illustrated that change by focusing on an Austrian count, Franz Maxmillian (Norman Kerry), who occasionally goes about dressed as a commoner. Aimlessly walking around a Vienna amusement park, he comes upon a pretty organ-grinder, Agnes (Mary Philbin), toiling away providing the music for a merry-go-round. Falling in love at first sight, he tells a white lie to her he's a tie salesman, all the while he's preparing for a forced marriage because of his royal heritage. The war intercedes the relationship between the count and Agnes. When he returns stripped of his rank, privilege and the loss of his unloved wife, things turn interesting between the two when she discovers who he really is.

Thalberg loved the outline, and stipulated Stroheim could continue with completing the script and working on the details in pre-production, with the caveat he could only direct the picture and not act in it. That way if things went south the talented but undependable eccentric could be replaced without having to reshoot his parts. Predictably, Stroheim submitted an overblown script filled with unnecessary scenes, which Thalberg took a scalpel to.

Filming took place under Stroheim's direction. Shooting in sequence, he was ultimately compromised by his excessive demands for authenticity. He demanded a real Viennese streetcar for a simple street scene. He arranged the actual carriage the real-life Austrian Emperor used before the war to be shipped to the states, seen in the movie's opening sequences. And Stroheim delayed filming as his scouts looked for his ideal orangutan, not just any orangutan, to be part of a murder scene.

After six weeks into the plodding production where a streetcar derailed, an overloaded studio electrical circuit blew and a rebellion by scores of extras, Thalberg had seen enough and fired his director. He was replaced by Rupert Julian, who delivered "Merry-Go-Round" on time and more importantly for Universal on budget. But is it the same film that Stroheim was forming in that six weeks before he got canned? Film critic Evan Kindley argues it is not. The first 15 minutes of the movie bear Stroheim's imprint, where he sets a relaxed but lively pace showing the count beginning the day mistreating his attendant. A bit of an Ernst Lubitsch touch can be gleaned in these opening sequences as well as a Stroheim-directed scene showing a rowdy banquet with the count and his pals.

Once Julian was hired, the newly-arrived director rewrote Stroheim's script and reshot several of his scenes. "Where von Stroheim, even in the brief and relatively uneventful scenes that open the movie, manages to pace things perfectly," wrote critic Kindly, "Julian's version merely plods along." Movie goers, well aware of the studio intrigue, went to the theater to see for themselves how much influence Stroheim had on the final cut. Because of the controversy, "Merry-Go-Round" was the eighth highest box office attraction for 1923. Director Julian and actress Philbin, the organ grinder and love interest of the count, went on to become instrumental in the production of Lon Chaney's 1925 'The Phantom of the Opera.'

The film is set in pre-WWI Vienna. A Count (Norman Kerry) is expected by the Emperor to marry a certain Countess . However, he doesn't love her and would much rather act like a playboy. However, he meets up with a poor organ grinder and falls for her (Mary Philbin). This lady and her family lead a rather sad life at the Prater amusement park, as their boss is a total sadist and treats them more like slaves than employees. This mistreatment comes to a head when the boss pushes too far. He not only won't let Philbin and her father off work when the mother is dying, but soon afterwords he beats Philbin so badly that the father stabs the evil boss to stop this. Unfortunately, the police catch the father and jailed--though he was acting to save his daughter.

Later, Philbin just happens to meet Kerry once again. She tells him what has befallen her father and he decides to use is influence to help them. Unfortunately, in the process he falls head over heels for her and must have her...but what about the marriage?! In the meantime, Kerry marries and the old boss returns for revenge and nearly kills the father in a staged accident. This chance occurrence brings Kerry back in to their lives--and now it's obvious that he's the Count. Philben and her father had thought he was a regular fellow, as he'd told them he was a salesman...and not a married man! At around the same time, WWI begins and the world is royally...screwed. Kerry returns to Philbin to beg her forgiveness for deceiving her, but she'll have none of it...and he then goes to war. Is there any hope for this couple or is it too late?!

There are a couple things to note. First, the merry-go-round from the title is a metaphor for how life manipulates us all. In this case, periodically, a devilish being stands with a small merry-go-round spinning about him to symbolize this. It's pretty weird...but also kinda cool--especially as this guy really, really likes how he's screwing with people! Second, at one point one of the characters in the film who works with animals at the Prater announces that they have an "orang-utan straight from the jungles of Africa"?! Orangutans are about as African as Koalas--as they come from Borneo and Indonesia! And what the animal does in the film is possible but very hard to believe.

So is the film worth seeing? Absolutely. While the plot is a bit hard to believe (it has a lot of wild story elements), the story of love unrequited is quite lovely. Also, while no one will ever know how the Von Stroheim version might have been had it been finished, this less costly version was incredibly pretty and appeared like what you'd think Vienna must have looked like. I have been there, but following two world wars (with WWII causing huge damage), I am sure practically all of the city has changed dramatically. Overall, it's a very nice film--and it's lovely to see Miss Philbin in something other than her famous role in "Phantom of the Opera".

One final note--while I noticed one review refer to this as "Von Stroheim's masterpiece", according to IMDb hardly any of this film uses any of the crazed and perfectionistic director's work he'd done on the film before being replaced. And, considering that much of the budget was apparently wasted by Von Stroheim, the new director (Rupert Julian) did an amazing job--as the film is quite beautiful and his version of Emperor Franz Joseph looked an awful lot like the one taken from newsreels used at the very beginning of the film (one of the few Von Stroheim touches that made it to the film--and a very expensive scene according to IMDb).

ORIGINAL 2003 REVIEW MERRY-GO-ROUND was one of those silent films which was more talked about than actually seen. This was the movie in which producer Irving Thalberg fired director Erich von Stroheim halfway through the shooting. Rupert Julian (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) replaced him as director and was given sole credit. Thalberg would leave Universal following MERRY-GO-Round and go to MGM where 2 years later he'd cut Stroheim's most famous film, GREED, down to a running time of a bit over 2 hours, eliminating over an hour of the movie. In MERRY-GO-ROUND, approximately 15 minutes (3 scenes) of Stroheim's actual footage remains out of the 2 hour version which was released. Although the rest of the picture was done by Julian, he stuck closely to Stroheim's original outline in order to save money and complete the picture on schedule. M-G-R was a big success at the box office.

Stroheim's hand is still very much in evidence, from the opulent settings of Austrian aristocracy to the use of two members of his stock company, Dale Fuller and Cesare Gravina. The real revelation is Mary Philbin, best known for PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Here she demonstrates a greater acting ability then in any other of her surviving films. She does tend towards going a little over the top near the end of the film, no doubt the fault of director Julian who, according to Lon Chaney, encouraged his performers to overact in PHANTOM. Norman Kerry, a dependable leading man from the silent era, gives his usual solid performance but the acting honors go to to veteran silent film villain George Siegmann who replaced Wallace Beery as the sadistic carnival barker and little known George Hackathorne as the hunchback Bartholomew. The story of an Austrian nobleman who falls in love with a woman outside his social class would be remade by von Stroheim in 1928 as THE WEDDING MARCH with himself in the leading role.

This Image DVD transfer, which was supervised by Film Preservation Associates' David Shepard, comes from two surviving 16mm prints in the Blackhawk Films collection which include sepia color tints and the elaborately illustrated original title cards. Considering the source material the image quality is excellent. I've never seen a 16mm transfer look this good before. The new musical accompaniment by Brian Benison is taken from the film's 1923 cue sheets and provides an ideal accompaniment. If you're a fan of Erich von Stroheim or silent films in general then you'll want to take a ride on this MERRY-GO-ROUND.

UPDATE 2025: Silent film specialists Flicker Alley have released a new restoration of MERRY-GO-ROUND. This version restores the movie to its full 123 minutes which is 10 minutes longer than the 2003 Image DVD. Unlike that release, Flicker Alley utilizes several different prints including a lot of 35 mm material which gives us a better defined picture. The largest amount of footage comes from Austrian archives. Not only is it 35mm film stock, but it is both tinted and toned which provides additional highlights especially during the fairground scenes. Unlike the American print which is sepia tinted, this print alternates between B&W and a light blue tint. It keeps the illustrated title cards from the previous 16mm release as that is all that was available. A new orchestral soundtrack was composed and conducted by Robert Israel.

As is always the case with Flicker Alley, in addition to a quality restoration, this home video edition comes loaded with a number of informative extras. The new release features a full length commentary from von Stroheim scholar Richard Koszarski (who could have provided more information about the movie, rather than just focusing on Stroheim. A question I have is... What is the significance of the Satyr figure who crops up from time to time?), an excellent short feature from Lobster Films' Serge Bromberg on the restoration which explains the difference between tinting and toning when applied to film stock, vintage footage of Vienna ca.1914-1918, plus an unrestored presentation from 1915 of the first version of OLD HEIDELBERG (the source for the operetta THE STUDENT PRINCE) with Wallace Reid and Dorothy Gish. Definitely THE version of MERRY-GO-ROUND to own although I will always have a soft spot for the 2003 version...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.