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https://flickeralley.com/products/merry-go-round

This is a superb restoration with a  score created by Robert Israel which captures every nuance of the picture.

MERRY-GO-ROUND is essentially an Erich Von Stroheim film.

He was fired by 20 year old Irving Thalberg. His mistake was in casting Norman Kerry as the lead when Universal refused to allow him to star.

Kerry is fine. I think this is the best I’ve ever seen him.

Von Stroheim discovered Mary Philbin (more famous today for THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) with Lon Chaney.

Again I have never seen her better than in this picture.

Direction was given over to Rupert Julian.

The loss was  Universal’s.

Stroheim was a bankable star. He was a director in a league with D. W. Griffith and Rex Ingram.

I first saw MERRY-GO-ROUND in a silent 8mm print in the 1960s when I began acquiring films so that I could see them.

It was issued on DVD. I have that.

But watching this film today shortly after it arrived I felt like I was seeing it for the first time.

I believe I read somewhere there is  copy of THE DEVIL’S PASSKEY, the film Von Stroheim made between BLIND HUSBANDS and FOOLISH WIVES in Cuba.

If there is every effort should me made to restore it.

MERRY-GO-ROUND is a lesson for every film maker.

Never be in such a hurry you lose control.

It is good, very good but, oh, if only we had the picture Stroheim set out to make.

We can say tat about FOOLISH WIVES, GREED, and every picture he made.

–Reg Hartt 07-04-2025

BLU-RAY EDITION

Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films are honored to present for the first time ever on Blu-ray the new restoration of Erich von Stroheim’s Merry-Go-Round.

Pre-war Vienna sets the stage for a fated love affair between young, freewheeling Count Franz Maximilian (Norman Kerry) and lowly organ grinder Agnes Urban (Mary Philbin), in a ‘Super-Jewel’ spectacle of opulence, class strata, and carnal desire.

Merry-Go-Round (1923) was initially intended to be Erich von Stroheim’s fourth directorial feature for Universal, following the success of Foolish Wives (1922). Behind the scenes, however, Stroheim wrote the script, supervised the production but was initially forbidden by the studio from headlining and, six weeks into shooting, was fired by the new head of production Irving Thalberg, and replaced by Rupert Julian (The Phantom of the Opera). Flicker Alley is honored to present this newly restored edition of the film, thanks to the dedicated restoration efforts of Blackhawk Films with the support of the Sunrise Foundation and many archives throughout the world (from Austria, Denmark, France, etc.), in a deluxe Blu-ray edition.

This new restoration of Merry-Go-Round reconstructs the original continuity by combining the surviving original abridged and incomplete elements scattered around the world, meticulous image restoration, and recreation of the original stunning color effects, to offer audiences the closest look possible at the original version of the film.

Merry-Go-Round features a newly commissioned orchestral score composed and conducted by Robert Israel, generously underwritten by the Sunrise Foundation for the Arts.

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

  • Audio Commentary by Richard Koszarski – Go behind the scenes of the troubled production and explore Merry-Go-Round’s incredible filmic legacy with an in-depth commentary track from cinematic historian Richard Koszarski
  • Vienna Actualities – Explore Vienna in the years before World War I with 17 minutes of historical footage, courtesy of Filmarchiv Austria
  • Old Heidelberg (1915) – A new restoration of a feature from director John Emerson and producer D.W. Griffith, which served as an influence on Merry-Go-Round and also boasts Erich von Stroheim’s very first acting role
  • Restoring Merry-Go-Round – Go behind the scenes of the brand-new restoration with film restorer Serge Bromberg
  • Photo Galleries – Production stills, publicity, and other rare documentation
  • Souvenir Booklet – Featuring a new essay on the production by Richard Koszarski and notes on the restoration by Serge Bromberg and Lucie Fourmont
  • English SDH Subtitles
  • Reversible Cover Artwork
  • Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
  • All Region Encoding (A,B,C)

Release Date: March 18, 2025

Format: Blu-ray

Region: ALL REGION

Director: Erich von Stroheim and Rupert Julian

Year: 1923

Language: Silent (English Intertitles)

Length: 123 mins.

UPC: 6-17311-60069-2

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