In Volume 1, Episode 14 of the Cinefantastique Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Podcast, Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski visit the futuristic city of METROPOLIS, the 1927 science fiction classic from director Fritz Lang. The subject of a recent restoration that added over twenty minutes of footage, the film is ripe for reappraisal. Is it even better than before, or is the additional running time a mere marketing ploy to get you to buy more DVDs? Also under consideration this week: a Frank Frazetta obituary, Dario Argento does Dracula in 3D, plus a week’s worth of news and a look at upcoming home video releases.
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In our podcast discussion of METROPOLIS, I forgot to add this footnote, which I found rather interesting:
Namely, how many important future directors either worked with Lang on the film or visited the set.
Edgar G. Ulmer was an art director on the film, and of course the great cameraman Karl Freund was the director of photography, long before he came to American and directed THE MUMMY and MAD LOVE.
Visitors to the set included these future and current directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Curt Siodmak and Sergei Eisenstein. Of course, in 1927 only Eisensein was actually a famous director.