consuming androids

Brigitte Helm on the set of 'Metropolis'
At Best of Behind-the-Scenes I just stumbled over the above still of German actress Brigitte Helm (1906/08-1996) on the set of ‘Metropolis’ (Lang 1927). Obviously it was quite hot inside the costume of the Maschinenmensch, which rendered the actress more or less helpless. Half a century later British actor Anthony Daniels suffered similar hardships as C3P-O on the set of ‘Star Wars’ (Lucas 1977), as the following stills show, which I collected from somewhere on the Net ages ago:
 
Anthony Daniels on the set of 'Star Wars'
It may or may not be that the designs of Lord Vader and C3P-O were inspired by vintage firefighters’ equipment, but the golden droid for sure was inspired by ‘Metropolis’. Here is a detail from an early production sketch of C3P-O by Ralph McQuarrie:
 
Early production sketch of C3P-O by Ralph McQuarrie

LANG, FRITZ. 1927. Metropolis [motion picture]. Berlin: Ufa.
LUCAS, GEORGE WALTON. 1977. Star Wars [motion picture]. Century City: 20th Century Fox.
Share
Comments
  • anthronaut Thursday, 23rd June 2011 at 08:34

    LOL, giving C-3PO a light, hilarious!

    • zephyrin_xirdal Thursday, 23rd June 2011 at 15:42

      Nice seeing you dropping by here, anthronaut :-) When I saw the picture of Brigitte Helm in costume getting a drink via a straw, I remembered that I had seen a picture of Anthony Daniels on the set of the original ‘Star Wars’. Under a sunshade he was leaning against a wooden board, slightly tilted backwards, as the C3P-O armour didn’t allow him to sit down. Some kind hand on the set gave him a drink with a straw—it looked just like Helm on the set of ‘Metropolis’. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I saw that picture, only could dig up from my HDD the two pics in the post, which both are not what I remember. So if somebody finds or has other pics of C3P-O drinking on set, let me know, please.

  • warauduati Wednesday, 20th July 2011 at 18:23
  • Post a comment

    Threaded commenting powered by interconnect/it code.