I consider three films my all time favorites and one of those three, quite possible THE #1 in the group, is the subject of this piece, the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis.

Directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea Von Harbou, the movie was a flop when originally released and the German studio that financed it, desperate to turn a profit on what was a very expensive undertaking, clipped the film down. For many years, the original cut of the film was thought lost but, by a miracle, an almost complete print, damaged but watchable, was found in South America and today we can see the film almost as it originally was intended (there remains a sequence which was too damaged to salvage, but otherwise you have most of the film available).

HIGHLY recommended.