Metropolis (novel)

Harbou, Thea von. Metropolis. 1926. First English trans. 1927. New York: Ace, 1963. Forrest J. Ackerman, introd. Based on the screenplay for METROPOLIS, by TvH and Fritz Lang.

Very useful work for the imaginative reconstruction of Lang's Metropolis in its original form for Ufa but differs from the original film and differs significantly from the versions of the film extant as of the early 1990s. The novel puts much less stress upon the robot Maria and far more on the (overwrought) psychologies of the major characters. See for explicit mechanical gods: the machines of the Metropolis, served by the men of the masses, whom the machines devour (as in the film). Caution: The owner of the Metropolitan exotic-drug and whore house is negatively characterized in terms of the nations contributing to his genealogy. The politics of the novel generally (definitely including its gender politics) differ from the film's somewhat, but may be even more simplistic. (RDE 21/10/93)

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