Cinematographer Karl Freund hated Fritz Lang and only agreed to work on Metropolis when producer Erich Pommer promised to hire an intermediary so Freund would not have to speak with the director. Like many in Berlin, Freund blamed Lang for the death of his first wife, Lisa Rosenthal, who had discovered Lang's affair with screenwriter Thea von Harbou and either committed suicide or, in Freund's opinion, was shot by the director.

Because of Brigitte Helm's inexperience and Lang's obsession with innocent young women, workers at UFA nicknamed her "The Virgin of Babelsberg."

The film's Yoshiwara nightclub was named for Tokyo's notorious red light district.

Helm's robot costume was not designed with the human body in mind. Nor did it help that the cast for the liquid wood armor was taken with the actress standing, but Lang decided to film the sequence with her sitting. The armor left several cuts and bruises on her body after long days of shooting. To make matters worse, Lang insisted on using her rather than a stunt double in the creation scenes. The armature in which the transformation occurred was so tight, she fainted from lack of oxygen.

The robot costume was just one of the trials Helm had to endure. Under Fritz Lang's direction, she also had to leap from perilous heights without a double and was subjected to real flames when the workers burn the robot Maria at the stake. At one point, her costume actually caught fire.

Lang spent two days shooting the scene in which Gustav Frohlich falls to his knees in front of Helm. By the time he was finished, the actor could barely stand. For another scene, in which Frohlich beats on large wooden doors, Lang shot so many takes the actor's hands were bleeding. Lang shot fewer takes for a fight scene, but only because the actor dislocated his thumb in the scuffle. Even then, he only gave the actor half an hour to recover before doing more takes of the scene.

Cinematographer Gunther Rittau created the whirling bands of light for the creation of the robot Maria by filming a spinning silver ball in front of a black velvet curtain. The rings' movement was created by raising and lowering the camera.

To capture the concussive blast that ruptures the water lines, Lang instructed that the camera be mounted on a swing moving toward and away from the actors.

During production, the set had two distinguished visitors. Alfred Hitchcock, then an assistant director and set designer, came to watch filming while working on The Blackguard (1925), a Gainsborough Pictures-UFA co-production. Sergei Eisenstein, an admirer of Lang's work, also visited the set, where they briefly discussed the merits of static and moving camera shots.

More than 37,000 extras worked on the film.

According to the film's novelization, the robot's name is Parody.

By Frank Miller

Quotes from METROPOLIS

"'We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars!' Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many -- BABEL! BABEL! BABEL! " -- Brigitte Helm as Maria

"There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator." -- Helm, as Maria

"It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?"
"In their proper place, the depths." -- Gustav Frohlich, as Freder, and Alfred Abel, as Joh Fredersen

Compiled by Frank Miller