Signed limited edition, number 40 of 100 copies signed by both Lang and von Harbou and bound in silk, issued as a souvenir of the world premiere of the film Metropolis on 10 January 1927. Original bright red textured silk, gilt titles and decoration to spine and front board, cream endpapers, top edge gilt, cream silk bookmark. Housed in a custom black quarter morocco red cloth solander box. A remarkably fine copy of a fragile production. The soft silk binding is very prone to wear and tarnishing, but this example is uncommonly fresh with only a hint of rubbing to the spine, two isolated spots of wear to the lower corners of each cover.

The limitation page specifies that this was produced for the premiere held at Ufa-Palast am Zoo, a grand occasion to which only the most important people, such as Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, the minister of defence Otto Gessler, and the President of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht, as well as critics of leading newspapers, were invited. There was a parallel screening, at Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, for critics of lesser importance and the general public.
The text chosen for this deluxe issue is the second printing (seventh to eleventh thousand); the first printing in book form was issued in advance of the film. It contains the full text, not the cheap abridgement issued the same year.
The novel was based on the original screenplay written in 1924 by Thea von Harbou and her husband, the director Fritz Lang. The work was conceived and written with the intention of being adapted for the screen; it was first serialized in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt in 1925, accompanied by promotional screenshots from the upcoming film.
The subsequent film is a classic both of German expressionism and of silent-era science fiction. It remains the most expensive silent film ever made, costing approximately 5 million Reichsmark. Despite advances in film-making technology, no other film has surpassed Metropolis in terms of its impact on production design.

Stock ID: 43927