Cover designs for the novelized version of "Metropolis"

Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis," with a script co-written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou, was also novelized by von Harbou, partly as a promotion for the 1927 film. Thea von Harbou was a problematic figure in 20th century, as someone who gave in and cooperated with the National Socialist (Nazi) party in the early 1930s. The author and scriptwriter was ambitious, and I think she saw cooperating with the new political party as necessary if she wanted to have a career. She had grown up in a family with connections to royalty, and it was a bit like old money supporting Donald Trump, I imagine. It all cost her terribly; Fritz Lang emigrated to the United States and divorced her. after the war the author was interned for a period of time and afterward she never prospered in her career and in later life suffered a myriad of health issues and died in the early 1950s. She'd been to the screening of one of her very early films, and on the way out of the venue, she took a bad fall and died later as a result of her injuries

In the 1970s, the French pop singer Michel Fugain had a hit with the song "La Vielle Dame" (The Scandalous Old Woman") which told a slightly simplified and distorted version of the last day of Thea von Harbou's life.

Lyrics in English:

An old lady known all over the world Went into the neighborhood cinema one evening Time passes Time passes She wanted to see again almost forty years later The great film that won him an Oscar Time passes Time passes At that time she was a star, She was beautiful It was the height of his glory Universal She was like a deity, Almost unreal And the old lady known all over the world Seeing herself on the screen started to cry Time passes Time passes Heartbroken to have no more What she had, Beauty, missing youth For ever The former star left his chair To flee his shadow When she came out the old lady fell The evening papers didn't even mention it Time passes

Time is passing.

Thea von Harbou left an amazing legacy behind, if only in the scripts for the films "M" and "Metropolis." Recently, I came across a number of cover designs for the novelized version of the latter film. I never knew just how many editions of Metropolis there were, starting with its publication in a German magazine. Here are just a few of the many, many book covers.