Oddity Archive: Episode 247 - The Warped Afterlives of Metropolis & Phantom of the Opera

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Dryer's "Passion of Joan of Arc" is another silent film with a crazy history of versions. I first discovered and fell in love with it on a VHS copy from my local library which, bizarrely, has a soundtrack which includes, among other tracks, presumably unauthorized pieces from Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to "The Mission." I now emotionally associate the film so much with this first copy I watched that I went to the trouble of making my own copy of the film using the restored Blu-ray video but replacing the soundtrack with a recreation of the VHS soundtrack based on the crappy duplicate I made of the library VHS in the early '90s.

[@KoryGilesYT]

The original negative of that film, I believe, was lost in a fire. The director himself prepared a slightly different version sometime after, but that was also lost in a fire. Funny thing is, a practically complete version was found in a sanitarium in Norway of all places. Films can turn up in the damndest places: an old popcorn factory in Iowa or in a wheelbarrow on a Japanese farm, for examples.

[@chrisw6164]

I’m sure I am preaching to the choir here, but if you’ve never seen Metropolis, watch it immediately. Silent or not, it is riveting.

[@jasonhaman4670]

As a teen in the very late 80s or very early 90s, I came across the Viking Video Classics release of Phantom at KMart and bought it. (Viking Video Classics would be right up your alley, Ben, if you're not already familiar -- the tapes came with paper labels with "Viking Video Classics" printed at the top, and blank lines below that you had to write the title of the film, etc. on yourself. All recorded in LP mode. I bought quite a few of them back then.) First silent film I ever saw; still my favorite silent film, and my favorite of all the film versions of Phantom that followed.

[@brianhebert6152]

I can't believe you had to write the title of the film on those VHS tapes. Imagine all the abuse of that added thing - "Oh, my favorite Lon Chaney movie was "NWO 4 LIFE - TOO SWEET!!!""

[@plasquatch]

Fact: my first encounter with "Metropolis" was via Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" music video.

[@McBanditHope]

Same!

[@unigonfilms99]

That's just about the best untangling of the 1925/1929 "Phantom of the Opera" mess that I've come across on the web! Thanks.

[@caligulathegod]

I've been obsessed with this films since I was a child and saw that C3PO was based upon Maria. I've bought so many VHS copies over the years trying to get a good one. The Moroder cut is what really kicked off my truest obsession. When I finally saw the complete version, I actually cried.

[@figureheaduk]

I had a copy of Moroder's version of Metropolis recorded off a late night showing on Channel 4 in the UK around 1995. I've also read something about a version that the BBC did in the 70's where it was split into several "episodes" and given an electronic soundtrack

[@ichigokarasu]

As a kid, I remember watching an episode of Muppet Babies where they used footage of the Phantom, and I was more terrified than I'd ever been in my young life. Seeing it now, there's still this weird "primal realism" to the way he looks.

[@Scotfre]

Appreciate the focus on these two. Metropolis got me into silent film (and film history in general) back when I was a wee tot. My mom took me to see Star Wars in the theater when it came out and I was a bit too young to really appreciate it but, on the way home, she picked up a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland's Star Wars special issue for me. Later I poured over all the stills and articles especially one where Uncle Forry waxed nostalgic about great sci-fi films of the past and spoke reverently about Metropolis. Turns out our local library had a Super 8 version and, even though I didn't own or knew anyone who owed a film projector, I would check it out and longing look at the tiny frame and wonder what delights it held. By the early 80's, I had a VCR and one of the first (if not THE first) prerecorded VHS tapes I bought was Metropolis released by Goodtimes Video: a truly awful print that was barely understandable. Then I saw the Moroder version in the theater and was much more appreciative of the film. Then when I saw the Kino restoration on TCM, it was like it was a whole new film to me. So it has always been a part of my filmic life.

[@rjbuffalo519]

Thanks for the video, which I just discovered now, a year and a half after you posted it. _Metropolis_ has long been one of my faves. Your account is a good summary of the Common Knowledge. I did a deep dive into the original sources and, to my repeated surprise, discovered that pretty much everything ever written about the movie was wrong. So much for the Common Knowledge. The total budget was actually $190,500 (1926 dollars), funded entirely by Paramount Pictures. The movie cost Ufa effectively nothing to produce, but Ufa cooked the books by charging other expenses against _Metropolis._ Though there was a year+ preproduction period performed by a skeleton crew, the principal photography took only about three months and the editing one further month. _Metropolis_ opened at two cinemas in Berlin. The Ufa-Palast am Zoo played it only for a short while, but the Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz held it over for four months! That indicates to me that it had an audience and was successful. The studio then chopped the movie to ribbons, multiple times over, but not to make it more palatable. The reason was actually to make it less palatable. The reasons get rather complicated and deal with a battle between the Berlin studios and the Hollywood studios, exacerbated by dramatically shifting exchange rates. Hollywood won that battle and drove the German studios nearly to bankruptcy. That is what led to Ufa suffering a hostile takeover. It didn’t help that Fritz Lang’s abrasive personality had by then alienated pretty much all the studio bosses. So the studio slashed the film. Yet even with drastic cuts, the US première of _Metropolis_ played for six weeks at the Rialto in Manhattan. That was at a time when the typical première movie ran for only a single week before being shipped off to the neighborhood houses. A somewhat longer edition premièred in the UK at the Marble Arch Pavilion in London, where it also played for six weeks, selling out at every performance. That’s not my definition of “tanked.” In Central Europe, it was the #4 bestseller of 1927/1928. So I find it difficult to believe that audiences disliked the film. I have a massive essay about this movie on my rjbuffalo site. Not only do I have references, I have links to the actual documentation, much of which I reproduce in full. I also have a running commentary to help the reader make sense of the raw data. I detail the various editions of the movie issued through the years and, to the best of my limited financial ability, I also have info on each of the myriad VHS editions published throughout the world, most of which, I agree, have awful soundtracks. I explain which editions and which bootlegs they sourced. I also have information on the various restorations, from 1969 through the present. The proposed Soviet/Czechoslovakian restoration of 1969 was completed admirably by Eckart Jahnke in East Germany in 1972. It was Jahnke’s edition that was shown on BBC2 and later on PBS with an electronic soundtrack. (It was shown in a single go; it was not split into several episodes.) Jahnke’s work was a monumental achievement, not at all a duplicate of the US edition. Of course, it has now been rendered obsolete by subsequent discoveries. Why do you give Wolfgang Klaue’s dates as 1943 - 2019? He was born in 1935 and he is still very much alive. By the way, Giorgio Moroder slowed a few bits down, true, but he did not speed anything up. He did, though, pick up the pace by trimming countless shots by just a second or two. Moroder managed to locate some footage that no archivist had known about. Enno Patalas was certainly grateful for Moroder’s discoveries. So hey. Way to go Giorgio! The film had been known only to a small community of devotees who worshipped at the feet of the atrocious 8mm and 16mm dupes that were available on the grey market. Giorgio Moroder presented an edition that simply blew the other copies away; it was sharp, clear, bright, crisp. Almost nobody had seen it look so good since the 1920’s, though, unfortunately, cinemas all cropped it mercilessly to fit it onto their widescreens. The music ain’t my cup o’ tea, but the visuals more than compensated. The Murnau Stiftung’s edition of 2001 was, unwittingly, pretty much a reconstruction of Channing Pollock’s edition, which had never been screened publicly. A typographical error in Paramount’s press materials has led researchers to believe that the edition originally shown in the US was Pollock’s abridgment. It was not. The 1927 US edition was an abridgment of Pollock’s abridgment, about 15 minutes shorter until the NYC censor demanded another few seconds of cuts, shortly after which the Québec censor demanded yet another 5 minutes of cuts. Those cuts were made not just in NYC and Québec; they were made everywhere. (Pronunciation: PAHluhk.) More footage will be found. For instance, look at a KZbin video called “9.5mm Silent Film - SB745 Metropolis 1927 - 5 Reel Fritz Lang.” From about 0:35:20 to 0:35:45 you will see some shots that are missing from all other copies. With improved digital technology, it would now be possible to do a much better, cleaner transfer of the 16mm Argentine dupe, should anybody wish to fund that. There are materials at the BFI that are a bit longer than anybody would have a right to expect them to be, and that makes me wonder if some missing segments might be included. I bet there’s more material at Gosfilmofond that nobody has noticed. There were _at least_ 13 complete prints of the film in 1927, and it would be important to trace what happened to each of them. More footage will turn up, surely. Anyway, please keep doing what you’re doing to bring this movie to everybody’s attention. The latest restoration with Huppertz’s original music is a stunning entertainment. Georgy’s taxi ride and the Thin Man’s strong-arming are two of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. As for _The Phantom of the Opera,_ take a look for a Kickstarter page called “Phantom of the Opera: Original 1925 Version - 4K Restoration.” Interesting, yes?

[@shmikex]

That one Metropolis soundtrack sounds like it should be paired with early 30s Looney Tunes

[@KoryGilesYT]

Yeah, they took Metropolis and turned it into a dystopian silent comedy.

[@Dsun4456]

"Greed" would be an interesting silent film subject for next year.

[@JepMasta]

Thank you Ben for using that picture for your box this week… I didn’t feel like sleeping tonight anyway

[@OddityArchive]

Well, I figured since we were starting to creep up on Halloween...

[@otaking3582]

Did anyone else see the intro and imagine a ragtime version of Pavanned playing?

[@brianhebert6152]

I'm just shocked Giorgio Moroder didn't try giving the "popular music soundtrack" treatment to A Trip to The Moon.

[@Jared_Wignall]

I love these films. I do like how the Kino version of Metropolis is the closest we can get to a complete version, due to 5 minutes of footage being so bad that they had to put title cards in place of the missing footage to explain the scenes that are missing. Maybe somewhere there exists a print that’s in good condition where those 5 minutes are in good condition. Sucks that with Phantom of the Opera, the entire original ending is gone due to audiences not liking that the Phantom isn’t outright killed for everything he did. I’d love to see the broken heart ending. The Lon Chaney Phantom is the best Phantom of the Opera film in my opinion and I wish we had a full version of that film. I need to get the Kino version of Phantom of the Opera. That version looks great. Thank you for the video man, keep up the great work!

[@plawson8577]

I would say my 3 Favorite Silent films are The Son of Shiek(1926), Running Wild(1925), Gold Rush(1925) and the 1914 YOUTHFUL Charlie Chaplin classic “Making a Living.” The Production history of Metropolis and Phantom of the Opera 1925 AND 1929 are unbelievably fascinating though!

[@mightyfilm]

I remember at some point in the mid-late 00's Target carried these incredibly cheapy DVD's during Halloween. Like so cheapy they were in thin cardboard boxes, not sleeves, actual 3 dimensional thin boxes the size of a thinner plastic DVD container. Anyway, I got some silent movie version of Hunchback of Notre Dame. Didn't even have a score, just pure silent film. I could never get through the whole thing. Dead silence is unnerving to me, and I don't think any of my Weird Al or Muppet CD's would have been decent accompaniment. That said, while it doesn't look like it's incredibly respectful of the original source material, that 80's pop soundtrack music video version of Metropolis does look interesting as an experimental version. Somehow, they made it more dated as a remake than it ever was as a 20's silent film.

[@snowysnowyriver]

Thank you so much for setting out the history of Metropolis. I've read various bits and pieces over the years, but your chronology was just so clear and detailed. I first saw an edited version many decades ago and, as butchered as it was, I fell in love with it. It is truly amazing that there is now a version with so much lost footage put back where it belongs.

[@Ryan-on5on]

A fascinating bit of film distribution history, Ben! You should continue to make videos on more of those innumerable silent/pre-Code pictures well-known in the film archive world for having multiple prints and highly embellished (or is the word bastardized?) editions circulating around since their initial release. I know the Keystone comedies of Arbuckle and Chaplin are especially notorious in this regard. Another interesting topic that would fit the purview of your esteemed channel would be an analysis of the foreign-language versions of classic productions like Dracula and The Cat Creeps, made by Hollywood studios desirous of tapping into the non-English market abroad in the first half decade or so of Talkies.There is some great media history waiting to be unraveled here!

[@wcjoey]

Ben: whoopee freaking ding! John from America's Value Network: oh come on let me really hear you say it!

[@ostsan8598]

There's also a 2001 anime movie version of Metropolis, based off a 1949 manga. The movie is more closely related to the original Metropolis than the manga.

[@AjaxTheRoo]

I have the anime version on DVD. It is seriously underrated.

[@vonithipathachai8449]

Holy cow. I never expected you to do an episode of Oddity Archive on Metropolis, possibly my favorite movie ever. Thank you so much for this, Ben. You've made my day.

[@printo316]

The Phantom of the Opera has a special place in my heart being the first silent film I watched on Halloween of 2013 when I was only eight years ago.

[@AzraelEnterprise]

Nosferatu was my first silent movie.

[@Mistertbones]

Probably the best video I've seen about these two legendary movies.

[@michaelcarpenter2498]

Thanks!

[@jeenkzk5919]

The first time I saw Metropolis was on a cheap transfer. I piddled with it using the Shadows of the Empire CD as I didn’t like the music they slapped on it. The Phantom of the Opera was viewed from a tape that the county library had taped with no audio at all. I quite enjoyed it that way because my mind filled in the gap.

[@greggtaylor4849]

Hey Benny-Boy! Wanted you to know that I JUST discovered your channel--and subscribed of course. Your Blackhawk films video was what drew me in (*since I collected them😂). I just wanted you to know that your archive videos are so enjoyable and incredibly addictive! Keep up the EXCELLENT work (*while I make my way down the 10 years of your entries)👏(*those are clapping hands btw--I thought jazz hands would be too campy).

[@DavidLGill]

I am so excited that you are covering these...two of my favorite silent films

[@plawson8577]

I hope he covers Making a Living(1914) starring a Super Youthful Charlie Chaplin, The Son of Sheik, Fatty Arbuckle’s Post Scandal Masterpiece Hollywood(1923) and do a video on the obscure, sadly forgotten Silent Film Character Actor John Wray, who’s ONLY Talkie was the 1930 Historical Classic “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

[@maxhand1562]

Metropolis was regularly shown at my University's Student Center theater during their annual Science Fiction Week, and I always regretted not seeing it. I later found a cheap Goodtimes VHS of it that like a previous commenter said was so washed out at the beginning that I didn't think I'd be able to stick it out, but mine had the '20s music soundtrack you spotlight. I kind of liked the irony of Freder and Rotwang fighting to the death on the roof of the cathedral while a jaunty happy tune played on the soundtrack. Once I heard about the first Kino production I bought it and loved it, and bought the Complete Metropolis on Blu-ray once it came out. At the urging of a friend, I also bought the Georgio Moroder Blu-ray as well. I didn't like some of the changes to the title cards for the Complete Metropolis. At one point in the first version, Grot says something like "Who told you to destroy the machines, and thus to destroy yourselves?" in a wonderful echo of the book of Genesis. It is not there in the Complete Metropolis.

[@yvonnerogers6429]

Wow. We’re lucky we’ve got what we have of these films. Thanks.

[@BenPanced]

The VHS copy of "Metropolis" my first boyfriend bought was an absolute load of crap (I think it was the Goodtimes Home Video release). The PD print used was so washed out, you could barely make out the animation of the title sequence and even the soundtrack was PD. During a tense early scene, the audience is serenaded by the lilting strains of "Aloha Oe". It was much more than an out of scene experience; more like I was jolted out of body. And the Moroder restoration is a hill I'm willing to die on. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the soundtrack, and felt his attempts were admirable.

[@BritInvLvr]

Back in the 90s, we attended The Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles many times. It was owned by Laurence Austin. He inherited it from John Hampton’s widow. It truly was a great place to see a silent movie. The place was far from a movie palace and you sat on wood seats. They showed movies every night. There was a week long Lon Chaney festival and had a Chaney biographer (I’d get up and find the book but I’m already in bed). There would always be two films shown, a Felix the Cat cartoon and a newsreel. It was filled with silent movie fans. Such a loss when Mr. Austin was killed. The vast movie collection was sold. I truly miss that place.

[@brianhebert6152]

The tinting job on the Video Treasures release of Phantom just screams "We blew all our money hiring Rick Wakeman and Christopher Lee"

[@kicsiszol]

great show! keep it up!

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I'm not sure which version of _Metropolis_ I saw, but it was in the late 1990s or early 2000s. It had a weird "modern" soundtrack, but I think it might have been a live band rather than the one you showed in the video.

[@stephenhester9804]

I had a VHS Version from the early 90s from WH Smith (A Newspaper / Bookstore Chain the UK that had an oddball Synth Score that really didn't quite fit.

[@rickelliott3683]

Metropolis is an amazing work of art. It is still relevant with it's social commentary even today. I am glad that they have been able to coble together a fairly complete version of it over the years from various source discoveries. It may be considered sacrilegious but I think it would be interesting to see it colorized with dialog dubbed in. I think that would add perspective to the movie, that would open it up more to a broader range for amodern audience. of course I enjoy it just fine as a silent classic.

[@streetwithoutjoy]

Mehas been my favortie film since I was 11, so many different cuts.

[@nintendolunchbox]

Thanks so much for this episode. I knew little about why the edits were so fucked. Thanks for the info.

[@peanutbutterjeff5364]

I found this video very helpful. I was still confused on the cuts of Phantom, but I forgot silent prints of sound films existed. Where is the tinted footage of the ‘25 version from? I’ve been unsuccessful in finding if a tinted version existed.

[@OddityArchive]

The Kino Blu-Ray has a partially tinted copy of the 1925/Hampton version.

[@Z3R0FiR3]

Very interesting video. Personally, was never interested in silent movies... but every so often I read up on the movie industry of the time and that, in itself, is interesting as well. After watching this, however, I kinda now wanna watch these two movies.

[@OddityArchive]

Phantom is an easier entry point, for what it’s worth.

[@nebular-nerd]

I have the blu ray of Metropolis but will have check out some of those alternate versions. Be interesting to see how they turned out.

[@michelle_pgh]

I love the Moroder cut of Metropolis. I still have my laserdisc. I appreciate it's flawed, but it's how I first discovered the film back in the '80s. And I don't care what the razzies say, the soundtrack rocked!

[@transformingArt]

Ben, where can I get the images of the Show-at-Home brochure you show beginning at 19:53? I have been looking for period documentations of Show-at-Home offerings and this is the first time I have seen any.

[@michaelcarpenter2498]

Metdopolis is the one film that got me into silent movies. I own a public domain, the 2001 verson from Kino, the Moroder Blu ray, which i think is out of print, and the complete Metropolis. The missing scenes are in bad shape, but add a lot to the story. Phantom Is one I do not own yet, but have seen a number of times. Both of these are classocs and a shame to how they were treated in years past. Should I wait on Phantoms for the rediscovered cokor scene and which should I get? Thanks Ben. Very informative.

[@Princess-zu3jz]

I had seen 'Metropolis' for the first time as a pre-teen at my parents' house. Then later the 2010 version as a young adult. It really is one of the best movies ever made, imho.

[@soundminedd]

Phantom of the Archiive ❤❤❤❤❤

[@GabrielleCenter2000]

Happy Oddity Thursday. I'll watch this one next week.

[@Nomad-Rogers]

Lon hated that they took the Phantom's redemption out of the film the studio thought it was too subversive.

[@JL-sm6cg]

Well, I may finally have a reason to go out and get a copy of Metropolis after all these years. Secondly, you should look into Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" as well. I know there are many public domain choppy versions of that film out and about. I had a VHS version when I was a kid, then I got one of the many DVD versions where I found out they cut out the final scene from the VHS copy I had of where Chaplin kissed the girl and ruined the photographer's shot, then blew him off. Thirdly, I saw the Phantom of the Opera on stage in Toronto in 1990 when on a band trip. My only memory is afterwards when we went to a 50s themed restaurant and I made an ass of myself trying to sit with a girl I liked while I was being cock-blocked by a couple of boys...one whom I could've destroyed in a fight, but didn't for various reasons. Oh well.

[@brianhebert6152]

Question: Which stage version of the Phantom of the Opera did you see? The Ken Hill musical, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, or one of the stage play adaptations?

[@JL-sm6cg]

@@brianhebert6152 I believe it was the Andrew Lloyd Webber version.

[@Firthy2002]

That they named the most recent restoration as complete despite the missing scenes being large chunks still annoys me. I went to see it at the local multiplex when that release came out. There were less than a dozen of us in the screening and it remains the least attended cinema re-release of an old film I've been to. I find it quite jarring to watch due to the constant switching between the different source prints, although I did buy the dual disc steelbook release. I owned a copy of the 1998 restoration on DVD prior. My first experience of Metropolis was sometime in the 90s on late night TV. I haven't seen the Moroder Cut and am unsure if I want to. I keep hoping the final missing parts will be discovered in time for an actual complete version for its 100th anniversary, but I guess that is wishful thinking since nothing new seems to have happened since the unusable Chilean print.

[@devinsmith4790]

My two favorite silent films.

[@adrienfourniercom]

Did John Rad do the music for the Metropolis synchro? #obscurerefference

[@cyprianalexzander6628]

I appreciated your measured diction.

[@RoseWaltz]

are you going to cover Cabinat of Dr. Caligari?

[@Wallyworld30]

I recall in the mid 80s my father rented Metropolis on Betamax and before watching he told me it's supposed to be one of the greatest films ever made. We only got halfway through before giving up on it and agreeing it stunk!! I was only 8 years old at the time. I've since revisited it as an adult and while I still don't love it I can see why some people are so fond of it. Fritz Lang "M" is much better imo and truly is an all time great.

[@ajclements4627]

Can both of these still be purchased? I’ve never seen either of them.

[@OddityArchive]

The Complete Metropolis and the Kino issue of Phantom were still available new on Blu-Ray on Amazon as of my making this-I’d imagine they still are.

[@ajclements4627]

@@OddityArchive I appreciate it!

[@charlesbennett7484]

The first silent film I saw (which got me into silent films) was "Nosferatu". Which silent classic was your first?

[@OddityArchive]

I guess Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." I discussed my own backstory with the silents on last year's Silent Movie Day episode.

[@charlesbennett7484]

@@OddityArchive that's awesome, I'ma go check that video out right now. 👍

[@devinsmith4790]

@@OddityArchive The first silent I myself saw in full was the complete cut of Metropolis (which score of that version composed by The New Pollutants). I also checked the Giorgio Moroder version in the middle of your video, and it's definitely an 80s edit of the film and shows Freddie Mercury had more connection to it than just the Queen music video of Radio Ga Ga.

[@cpnscarlet]

Great episode!

[@kyleolson8977]

Meaningless artistic argument: I don't think it's correct to have no music in the intro when the subject is silent film. Live music was a part of the show. A silent film is almost never presented without music even though the original print does not have sound.

[@OddityArchive]

The day I get access to a Wurlitzer organ is the day the Silent Movie episodes get music during the intro.

[@TheSteveBoyd]

"That's HEDLEY!" Seriously though, Pollock = "Paul Luck", like the fish. NOT "Pole Lock" like, well... you know, the ethnic slur for people of Polish descent? No doubt unintentional, but one can't be too careful these days. That's kind of innocent mistake that could get a guy in trouble! All that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the video. 👍 Signed, Paul Luck

[@adamrichards3174]

Two of my favorite "silents"... it must be my birthday... oh wait, it is!

[@richardkennedy8481]

"Patalas, stubbornly continued trying to recreate a pure as possible copy of he original German version" Isn't that the point of film restoration?

[@OddityArchive]

It is. Having said that, given all the re-imaginings (intentional or not) going on at the time, it seemed like an appropriate statement.

[@nobodyyouknow1065]

23:29 Typical Lee leaving no room for improvement on any role.

[@spiderlime]

hello ben. can you please do a feature about the lost world of 1925?

[@printo316]

Also, Metropolis is the 20th century version of Dune imo.

[@BaccarWozat]

The Moroder version would have been better if it had Radio Gaga instead of Love Kills.