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1 May 1972: Janus Films
Remember Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey, Jr.?
They had booked Metropolis at their 55th Street Playhouse in NYC back in 1955,
booked through Brandon Films.
It was part of a ten-picture series called “The Golden Age of the Cinema.”
Well, Bry and Cy also founded Janus Films.
My new goal in life is to study every Janus Films catalogue ever printed.
Somewhere in my storage locker 800 miles away is a Janus Films catalogue from, I think, 1973,
but can I ever find it again?
I just purchased on eBay Janus Films catalogue # 7 dating from a little before September 1971.
And, to my shock, Metropolis is not listed anywhere in it.
The only silent pictures included are
The Gold Rush (surely Paul Killiam’s monstrous revision of 1970 with the beautiful Bill Perry piano score of 1971),
The Last Laugh,
Spies, and
Witchcraft through the Ages
(without any reference to the Burroughs narration or the jazz score of 1968, and with no reference to any soundtrack at all).
Metropolis is in the 1978 catalogue, and it was surely in the Janus catalogue by 1976.
My memory is that it was in the 1973 catalogue as well.
Ah. I just received catalogue # 8, a 16mm noncommercial catalogue,
clearly published near the beginning of 1972,
and it lists Metropolis but with a proviso on the order form in the back:
“† FOR AVAILABILITY INQUIRE AFTER MAY 1, 1972.”
Interestingly, there is no mention of a music score.
The film is labeled simply as “Silent,”
which I suppose was an oversight.
The listed running time is the usual 94 minutes.
Where did Janus Films get Metropolis?
The only answer I can think of is EMI-Elstree , which was the successor to the Associated British Picture Corporation.
Yes, I know, I know, I know, there are horror stories about Janus Films, yes.
Janus attempted to monopolize distribution of all finer films
and to impose terms that put certain cinemas out of business,
and that was done with malice aforethought.
Yet there was something good, too.
Janus, unlike the major US distributors, understood that different audiences enjoyed different things.
Janus understood that audiences who like Elvis Presley movies would not enjoy Ingmar Bergman movies,
and so, contrary to Hollywood practice, Janus did not modify Ingmar Bergman movies to resemble Elvis Presley movies.
Janus instead left the Ingmar Bergman movies alone, unaltered, and targeted its marketing with precision
at educated people who enjoyed the fine arts and who wanted to see unusual and thoughtful films.
16mm, probably a Janus print rented from Films, Inc.
The Guild, 3405 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM