eMoviePoster.com
Auction History Result 5a0052 METROPOLIS English hardcover book 1927 Thea von Harbou's novel, Aubrey Hammond cover art! Date Sold 7/12/2020 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. A Vintage English Hardcover Book (measures 4 1/4" x 7" [11 x 18 cm]; 250 pages) (Learn More) Metropolis, the classic 1927 Fritz Lang German silent anti-fascism science fiction (sci-fi) robot fantasy dystopian future thriller ("The screen sensation of the age!"; "The wonder city of the future"; "Adapted by Channing Pollock"; based on the novel by Thea von Harbou; set designs by Edgar Ulmer; about an ultra-depressing world of the future where the rich people live in cities in the clouds, and the poor people toil away endlessly underground; a female populous leader arises and a mad scientist makes an android robot duplicate of her to ruin her work; a brilliant movie, light years ahead of its time, and movie makers are still stealing from it!) starring Brigitte Helm (in a dual role as Maria, the female leader of the workers, and as the android [gynoid] "Maschinenmensch"), Gustav Frohlich (as Freder), Alfred Abel (as Joh Frederson), Rudolf Klein-Rogge (as Rotwang the Inventor), Theodor Loos (as Josaphat), Fritz Rasp (as the Thin Man), Heinrich George, and Margarete Lanner. Note that there is a fascinating story behind this movie being imported to the U.S. in 1927, that we did not learn until 2023, when we noticed the "Adapted by Channing Pollock" on the first U.S. herald we auctioned, and Internet research (NOT on the IMDb) revealed this: Fritz Lang's version of this movie at the premiere was 153 minutes, and Paramount was unwilling to release such a long movie in the U.S. So they hired playwright Channing Pollock to shorten the movie to a more "reasonable" length, around 2 hours. What Pollock did was to essentially drastically change the entire movie, by shortening it to 115 minutes, and changing all of the inter-titles to ones he wrote! Among the changes he made was that the man who made the robot (Rotwang) had made it in the image of the love of his life, named "Hel", who had run off with another man. Pollock did not want to use the name "Hel", because of its similarity to "Hell", but instead of just changing it, he eliminated all references to the robot having a name, or to the reason why Rotwang built it! He made a number of other major changes to the movie. When Fritz Lang heard what had been done, he said "I love films, so I shall never go to America"! The movie was somewhat restored to its original version in 1984, when the Giorgio Moroder score was added, and has since been completely restored to its original version! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Artist: Aubrey Hammond Important Added Info: Note that, not only is this is the first English edition of this book, it is also the very first English-language version of the German book, and it is from the Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd. in 1927, in its original dust jacket (which has had restoration; see below). Also note that we have pictured the front cover, the title page, and the interior page that shows the publishing information, and one or more interior 2-page spreads, as well as the front and back of the entire dust jacket. Condition: good to very good. The dust jacket was missing much of the flap that folds over to the inside front cover. It also had paper loss at the bottom of the front cover in the left and right, and also paper loss at the top and bottom of the spine. It had some smudges and scuffs on the rest of the jacket. A restorer replaced the missing area on the flap, and the small missing areas at the top and bottom of the cover and spine of the jacket. They did a nice job, but you can see signs that it has been restored. The book itself has an intact spine, with faint staining on the back cover, but otherwise, the book's covers and spine are in pretty nice condition. The interior pages are darkened around the edges. The spine is slightly weakened at the page before chapter 1 begins. See our many images to get a good sense of the exact condition of this book. Learn More about condition grades 
Postal Mailing Address:
Bruce Hershenson, P.O. Box 874, West Plains, MO 65775. (For our UPS or FedEx address, click here) phone: +1 417 256-9616 fax: +1 417 257-6948 E-mail: Contact Us Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM & 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (CST) |
|||||||||||||
