Just saw Merry-Go-Round

[Lokke Heiss]

As part of MoMA's salute to Vienna, I saw Merry-Go-Round last night with Donald Sosin accompanying. The film is more famous for it being one of the movies Stroheim was fired from than the movie itself. Perhaps partly because of that, the movie has a bad reputation, at least if you read reviews on the Internet - I can only think it's because the contemporary pro-Stroheim attitude, and perhaps more important, the issue of the watching the film on DVD vs. the theater experience, because it played great with a big crowd and the right accompaniment.

The movie starts out as a version of The Smiling Lieutenant but happily lurches into Tod Browning territory as it starts to follow the poor and unhappy lives of the Prater carnival employees. Apparently only a few scenes of Stroheim's remain, but the sadism of the story remains largely intact, with the amusement park merry-go-round owner one of the most sadistic and meanest villains I've ever seen in any film. But that brings me to my Vintage Film Primate Award under the category: Best Motivated Attack on a Human by an Orangutan Ever - won easily by the orang featured in this film, who is rewarded by 'getting the guy' in the end (a different guy).

[kaleidoscopeworld]

I didn't realize it was set in/around the Wiener Prater. Your review is great, I'm going to have to seek this out!