Merry-Go-Round (BLU-RAY)

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.