... A clever leftist publicist (Willy Münzenberg, 1989-1940) managed to squeeze it past the first censorship attempts in Berlin. To quote a major critic of the day, "We were electrified". It became such a hit that it quickly moved from one small left-wing theater to twelve theaters all around the city, including the exclusive Kudamm. Though continually censored, cut and outlawed it somehow managed to break through to world fame. Forbidden at first in the USA - as a blueprint for sailors on how to mutiny - the great actor Douglas Fairbanks helped make it possible to premiere at the Biltmore Theater on 47th Street in New York in late 1926, and it won so much praise that Eisenstein was given a contract for Hollywood (which unfortunately resulted not in films but in unsurmountable differences). The film remained banned in Britain until 1954 and in France nearly every copy of it was burned....