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Auction History Result 3m0123 METROPOLIS 8x10.25 still 1927 Fritz Lang, best image of Alfred Abel, Klein-Rogge & the robot! Date Sold 2/23/2020 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical 8" x 10 1/4" [20 x 26 cm] Movie Still (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. Important Added Info: Note that over the years, we have auctioned a number of U.S. stills from this classic movie, but most of them were much lesser scenes. Three years ago, however, we had a great U.S. still showing solely a close up of Maria during the transformation, and that still sold for $1,300. This still is clearly superior, and is far and away the best U.S. still we have ever had! Three years ago, we also auctioned a German lobby card that had the same image as this U.S. still, and that German lobby card sold for $6,850! Condition: good. The still has some smudges around the edges and a tiny bit of paper loss in the top left corner. Someone put a light grid over the image (perhaps with pencil, but we can't say for certain). We have seen this with other stills and posters, and we are not sure why it was done. It is surprisingly not very distracting at all when the still is looked at head on, but you can clearly see the grid when the still is tilted to the light, and we doubt that it can be removed or restored. But the still can definitely be displayed and enjoyed as it is! However, do not bid on it unless you can accept this unusual defect. Learn More about condition grades 
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