The cars of Metropolis

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Freder Fredersen runs down the stairs of his father's Tower of Babel building to the family's waiting limousine - a Farman A6B Coupé de Ville circa 1925.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis of 1927 presents a dystopian view of a near-present time. It is in a small way futuristic, but not overtly so, and it cannot be called science-fiction as such, though it is classed as one of the first, and greatest, science fiction epics of all time. As a result, there are many elements of the film that are innovative, to say the least. For example, the creation of the robot woman, and the modern metropolis with its many skyscrapers and the aeroplanes. The cars in the movie are largely contemporary, though modern for the time and in some instances slightly altered or modernised. Two cars feature:

1) Rumpler Tropfenwagen, most notably in the traffic jam towards the end of the film, and as part of the funeral pyre used to burn the evil Maria.

 

2) The Fredersen family limousine, a Farman A6B Coupé de Ville. This car featured in Freder's journey from the encounter with the Moloch machine to meet with his father Joh Frederson atop the Tower of Babel skyscraper.

 

 

The 1921 Farman in the above photograph is a convertible, with no cabin as in the movie. It has the same wheels / hub caps and the rectangular sections along / above the sideboards. The spare wheel has obviously been removed from the Fredersen version. On the set, a mock up of the cabin was constructed, most likely in collaboration with Farman so as to blend in with the actual car used in other parts of the film. This can be seen in photograph #5 below.

 

Other cars are seen in the film at a point near the end when the crowd of workers passes through abandoned cars forming a traffic jam on one of the overhead roads. All can be seen below in screen captures from the film. In the first (#1), we see the Georgy character, in Freder's white clothes, entering the Fredersen garage and about to ask the chauffeur to be taken to Josephat's apartment, before changing his mind and heading off to the red light district of Yoshiwara.

1. Georgy getting into the Fredersen limousine.

In the second (#2) image we see the Farman on the left and the Tropfenwagen in the middle. The car on the right is not identifiable due to the darkness.

2. A Farman A6B and Rumpler Tropfenwagen in the Fredersen garage.

In the above scene of the film we see the front and side of the Farman as it pulls out of the garage with Georgy in the back. 

The next image (#3) shows Georgy looking out of the window of the limousine towards a young woman perhaps also heading off to Yoshiwara.

3. Georgy in the Farman A6B going to Yoshiwara.

We can see that the detail of the car is realistic, suggesting he was filmed in the back of an actual car, or that the studio mock up was to all intents and purposes a copy of the real thing and likely made by Farman. The fourth (#4) screenshot shows that the studio mock up had two sides to it in this instance, with two windows on each side.

4. Georgy in the Farman A6B looking at the Yoshiwara leaflet.

However, in a scene from later in the film (#5) wherein Slim is sitting in the car, after Georgy has left Yoshiwara, the left side of the cabin is missing, cut away.

5. Georgy and Slim in the mock-up, with Lang on the camera.

 

Here we see George entering the car after visiting Yoshiwara. Seated in the rear seat is Joh Fredersen's spy Slim. Fritz Lang is seen on the far right, manipulating a camera setup.

There is some debate on social media Metropolis fan sites about the precise details of the Farman, and a suggestion that a third car is featured in the movie. The third can be seen in the following crowd scene:

6. Cars at the end of the movie.

7. Car scene towards the end of the movie.

It is possible that some of the cars in the above scene, such as those with twin headlights, are variants of the  Rumpler Tropfenwagen.

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Last updated: 12 June 2023

Michael Organ, Australia