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VON STROHEIM
We Hand
it to
OU!
Vh«/o much has been written about Merry-Go -Round, the Universal production started by Eric Von Stroheim and finished by Rupert Julian, that Screenland has investigated carefully the making of the picture.
To the observing, this story of decadent Vienna has the imprint of the Von Stroheim hand everywhere. Yet, following the New York premier, Julian announced in advertisements that the final print had in it but 600 feet of Von Stroheim's original and that he (Julian) had actually changed the various characters. In other words, he essentially claimed Merry-Go-Round as his own.
The actual truth about Merry-Go-Round is:
Facts about Merry-Go-Round
T
JL hat Von Stroheim wrote and worked out all the details of the story, although Harvey Gates was later called in by Universal to condense and cut the script for Julian.
That all the research and details were developed by Von Stroheim.
That the costumes were selected and ordered by him.
That the essential properties, including the emperor's carriage, were imported at Von Stroheim's direction.
That all the real sets of the picture were built under Von Stroheim's eye.
That the cast was selected by Von Stroheim. Mary Philbin was a Von Stroheim discovery. The director himself wanted to play the count but, when Universal insisted that he confine himself to directing, he gave way and selected Norman Kerry.
That Von Stroheim actually "shot" on the picture for about five weeks.
Then the break came between Von Stroheim and Universal— and Julian entered upon the scene. If you have seen Merry-Go-Round in its present form you will be interested to know just how Von Stroheim's original story worked out. The present version follows the Von Stroheim original fairly closely up to the point where the count, rehabilitated in the spiritual stress of the war, returns to Vienna and its amusement park, the Prater. This scene was to have taken place in mid-winter, with the various concesions encrusted in heavy snow. Here the count and Agnes Urban, the little player of the merry-goround hurdy gurdy, were to meek — and the officer was tc learn that the girl, during the war, had promised to marry the faithful hunchback.
From behind a bush banked with ice and snow the hunchback was to overhear all this — and to realize that the girl loved the officer.
CE, Who really was responsible for the unusual qualities of ' 'Merry GoRound ' '— Von Stroheim or Julian?
tLThis question is answered for the first time here.
T:
How the Tragedy Ended
he camera was to follow the girl as she parted from her lover and then to swing back to the bush, as a tiny spiral of smoke ascended from its snowy branches.
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