Years ago, the late renowned film archivist David Shepard put together a restored version of Merry-Go-Round (1923) from two16mm reduction prints. Film historians and silent film enthusiasts applauded the opportunity to see this notorious film.
It’s difficult to determine what exactly makes Merry-Go-Round, originally dubbed a Super-Jewel from Universal Studios, a legendary part of film history. Is the story powerful and unique? No. Are the lead actors—Norman Kerry and Mary Philbin, captivating? Not really. Hmm… maybe it has something to do with the filmmaker behind its creation. Or should I say “filmmakers”?
The credits on original release prints read Rupert Julian as director. While Julian’s filmography includes such gems as The Phantom of the Opera in 1925 and The Yankee Clipper in 1927, he will go down in history as the man who had the audacity to take over a film already six weeks into production by Erich von Stroheim. Stroheim is one of the most colorful real-life characters in early film history. In 1885 he was born in Vienna to a Jewish storekeeper who sold hats. He totally reinvented himself and his background as someone so much more colorful when he got to Hollywood in the mid-teens.
Stroheim was a genius at creating stories that went beyond Hollywood’s standard fare, with quirky characters who surpassed what audiences were used to seeing. Much of what survives of Stroheim’s work in Merry-Go-Round, are the details that energize the film. It’s as though Julian filled in the blanks and just couldn’t find the punch to make his efforts work. Stroheim’s downfall was his inability to work within a commercial film industry within a budget. This was due to an insistence on authenticity and out-of-control creativity—and studio executives were all about budgets!
Irving Thalberg—a legend himself, fired Stroheim from the project. Julian took over. And that always has been the most significant, most mentioned fact about Merry-Go-Round.
It’s an interesting film with a robust melodramatic storyline. Recently, Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films released a newly-restored version of the film in a deluxe Blu-ray edition. The restoration involved combining 16mm and 35mm elements from world archives and film collections, and adding a newly composed orchestral score by Robert Israel which was underwritten by the Sunrise Foundation for the Arts.
Fortunately, the film remains filled with Stroheim touches. Erotic statuary, detailed costumes, story points that shock. In the first sequence, a woman jumps off a bridge to her death as her child looks on. The main plot concerns the star-crossed love affair of a married Viennese nobleman and a vulnerable woman who pumps out music at the Prater’s merry-go-round in Vienna. Add to this a handful of bizarre characters: a kindly boyish man- who is a hunchback, who also loves the sweet music maker, and the horribly sadistic boss who eventually is felled by an orangutan. (Yes, you heard right.). There also are a handful of women victimized by their helpless status in an inhumane world. Merry-Go-Round is a highly melodramatic tale of cruelty and deceit—and the power of love. For film history lovers, there is enough of Stroheim’s genius surviving to make this film a must-see.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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