The Merry-Go-Round
About The Merry-Go-Round
Elena is thrown out by a stepmother. The cabaret man Peter Karvan makes her work as a prostitute. She gets free of him and becomes governess in the house of the merchant Albert Peters, then his lover. After his wife dies, Elena marries him and falls in love with his brother Fritz. Karvan has never stopped watching. She shoots him and poisons herself. Asta Nielsen plays Elena. Conrad Veidt plays Karvan. Eduard von Winterstein plays Albert. Theodor Loos plays Fritz. Richard Oswald directed. The German title is Der Reigen.
Cast & crew
More about The Merry-Go-Round
Oswald wrote and produced it. Carl Hoffmann and Axel Graatkjær photographed it. Hans Dreier designed the sets. The Berlin premiere was 27 February 1920. Censorship on 17 July 1920 passed a six-act version of 2,025 meters and barred it for young audiences. German Wikipedia lists lengths of 98 minutes for 1920, then 65 and 83. English Wikipedia credits Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 play Reigen. The filmed story is Elena’s, not Schnitzler’s chain of ten dialogues.
Themes
Making
Oswald borrowed Schnitzler’s title and wrote Elena a different life: the cabaret pimp, the merchant’s house, the brother, and the poison.
Look
Carl Hoffmann and Axel Graatkjær shot Nielsen and Veidt in Dreier’s sets.
Preservation
Copies survive at 65 and 83 minutes as well as the 98-minute 1920 length.
Notes
- Irmgard Bern plays Frau Peters. Loni Nest, Willi Schaeffers, Ilse von Tasso-Lind, Hugo Döblin, and Willy Karin are also billed.
- Later circulating copies are the 65-minute and 83-minute versions, not the 1920 length.
- An Internet Archive identifier is silent-the-merry-go-round.
- The English title The Merry-Go-Round is the translation of Der Reigen.
Scenes
- Karvan puts Elena to work and she later takes the governess job.
- She marries Albert after his wife dies and turns to Fritz.
- She shoots Karvan and takes poison.
Influenced by
- Arthur Schnitzler’s play Reigen (1897), used as a title credit
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-merry-go-round)
