Snaps:Directed by
Rupert Julian
Erich von Stroheim
Writing credits
Finis Fox
Harvey Gates
Mary O'Hara
Erich von Stroheim
Cast:
Norman Kerry .... Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg
Mary Philbin .... Agnes Urban
Dale Fuller .... Marianka Huber
Maude George .... Madame Elvira
Cesare Gravina .... Sylvester Urban
George Hackathorne .... Bartholomew Gruber
George Siegmann .... Schani Huber
Lillian Sylvester .... Mrs. Aurora Rossreiter
Anton Vaverka .... Emperor Francis Joseph
Dorothy Wallace .... Countess Gisella Von Steinbruck
Edith Yorke .... Ursula Urban
User Comment:
Mary Philbin shines in Von Stroheim melodrama, 16 August 2001
Although Rupert Julian is given directorial credit for this, it was Von Stroheim's film - Julian was pulled in to finish it after Thalberg fired him. It is Von Stroheim all the way - thematically and texturally. Several themes are begun here and developed in later Von Stroheim vehicles. The nobleman roue slated for a marriage of state who falls in love with a commoner - later used as the crux for THE WEDDING MARCH. The abject cruelty of the man who dominates the fragile common girl's life (echoed in both GREED and in THE WEDDING MARCH).
Count Franz fools around although he is engaged to marry a Countess. He dallies with the impressionable carousel organ grinder at a local fair. The fair is run by a brute of a sadist, who dominates her life and that of her father, a puppeteer - refusing to allow them to stop work to attend to their dying mother/wife, destroying the doll given her by the Count, stepping on her foot and ordering her to smile while grinding the organ (GREED again), and finally pushing a plant from a height onto her father to kill him (he fails). Finally an observant and vengeful orangutan puts an end to the sadist's life.
The second part of the film finds the disillusioned girl nursing her father to health, having confronted the Count (with his new wife) as a liar and cheat. The war intervenes, conveniently killing her father and his wife and at war's end, laying open the path to their reunion, albeit at the tearful renunciation of marriage with the loyal hunchback who has loved her from afar.
The film is quite solidly made and both grabs and sustains interest though many of the plot twists (especially the orangutan) are hardly plausible or believable. This should be sought out by all those interested in Von Stroheim's work. Unlike the earlier films (BLIND HUSBANDS, FOOLISH WIVES) which are experimental and uncertain, this emerges as Von Stroheim's first clear vision of where he wants to go and what he wants to do in film.
Mary Philbin's fine performance and the photoplay are deserving of award consideration. Under the main title and at various transition points we see Mephistopheles standing at the center of a carousel and laughing at the antics of the human race - well done.
Source:Imdb
Rip Specs:
CD 1:
Name.........: Merry-Go-Round CD 1 (Erich von Stroheim, 1923).avi
Filesize.....: 700 MB (or 717,128 KB or 734,339,072 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:54:42 (98,358 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 5.0
Video Bitrate: 1561 kb/s
Audio Codec..: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate: 224 kb/s (112/ch, stereo) CBR
Frame Size...: 464x352 (1.32:1) [=29:22]
CD 2:
Name.........: Merry-Go-Round CD 2 (Erich von Stroheim, 1923).avi
Filesize.....: 700 MB (or 717,012 KB or 734,220,288 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:58:40 (105,507 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 5.0
Video Bitrate: 1439 kb/s
Audio Codec..: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate: 224 kb/s (112/ch, stereo) CBR
Frame Size...: 464x352 (1.32:1) [=29:22]
Ed2k:
Merry-Go-Round CD 1 (Erich von Stroheim, 1923).avi 
Merry-Go-Round CD 2 (Erich von Stroheim, 1923).avi 
626 del CD1