MERRY-GO-ROUND

The Viennese have fun on the Prater’s wheel, the amusement park is full of fairground monsters: a hunchback, a trained monkey, a woman-cannon, a puppeteer. The puppeteer has a daughter who is sweet-natured, plays the organ and is very fond of one of the puppets. Her father, insensitive and miserly, takes it away from her. Meanwhile, in an aristocratic palace, a young count is getting dressed while an orgy is taking place there. The wife of the puppeteer dies, left alone because the boss had forbidden the husband and daughter to leave the show. After her father is arrested because of the boss’s lies and after being almost raped by the brute, the girl meets the count who has just returned from the orgy and who, in order to gain her trust, poses as a humble shopkeeper, offers her help and lures her into a lodging…

Merry-go-round was developed by von Stroheim after Foolish Wives, but soon there were violent disagreements between the director and the Hollywood establishment. After the tensions that had already characterised the production of Foolish Wives, Stroheim was forced out of the set by the very young Irving Thalberg, who accused him of spending too much money unnecessarily. The final signing of Rupert Julian is, for many, almost symbolic, as the film was effectively finished by the producer.