Edgar Georg Ulmer ( German: Edgar Georg Ulmer ; September 17, 1904 , Olomouc , Austria-Hungary - September 30, 1972 , Woodland Hills , California , USA ) - Austro-Hungarian and American film director.
| Edgar Georg Ulmer | |
|---|---|
| Edgar G. Ulmer | |
 Plaque in Olomouc | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Olomouc , Moravia , Austria-Hungary |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | Woodland Hills , California , USA |
| Citizenship | |
| Profession | filmmaker screenwriter film producer decorator |
| IMDb | |
“Ulmer was one of the few truly creative filmmakers who chose for themselves the world of low-budget films of category B, leaving the world of rich, mainstream , widely advertised films of category A” [4] . Ulmer's most famous directorial work was the horror film Black Cat and the film noir Detour . Director and film critic Peter Bogdanovich praised Ulmer’s directorial work in low-budget films such as Naked Dawn (1955) and “Seven Against Death (Cave)” (1964), which he called classics, noting that “so many films of Ulmer have such a clear and recognizable handwriting, despite the fact that they were made with little support and with such small funds” [5] .
Apart from the short work at Universal Pictures Studios in the mid-1930s and United Artists Studios in 1946–1947, Ulmer’s career is mainly associated with small film studios (the “poor group”) such as Producers Releasing Corporation. " While working for PRC, Ulmer became the de facto head of this corporation, overseeing the work of other directors and helping the company’s president draw up an annual production plan [5] .
Content
Biography and career
The early years
Edgar G. Ulmer was born on September 17, 1904 in Olomouc ( Moravia , Austria-Hungary ) into a Jewish family. As a teenager, Ulmer began working in Vienna as a decorator in the theater of the Austrian director Max Reinhardt [5] . He studied architecture and philosophy, tried himself as a theater actor. In 1923, Ulmer as part of the Reinhardt Theater came to the United States with the play "Miracle", which was on Broadway [5] .
Upon his return to Germany, Ulmer worked as an assistant director for F.V. Murnau , and then as a production designer for his film “ Sunrise ”, which was shot in Hollywood in 1927. Ulmer then returned to Germany, where, together with Robert Siodmak, he directed his first feature film, “Men of Sunday” (1929). Then Ulmer moved to Hollywood, where he worked as an artist and screenwriter, in particular, in the film V.F. Murnau " Taboo " [4] .
Director's career in the 1930s
After three years of working in the USA as an artist, in late 1933 Ulmer began directing work [5] . Ulmer’s first feature film in the United States was Destroyed Lives , a low-budget film about the horrors of a sexually transmitted disease. It was filmed in Hollywood by the American Public Hygiene Association for the Canadian Public Health Council and was first shown in Toronto [6] .
His second film, Black Cat , featuring Bela Lugosha and Boris Karloff, was produced for one of the largest Universal Pictures studios. Demonstrating a striking visual style that will become a hallmark of Ulmer's work, the film became the biggest hit of the Universal that season [7] . This unusual and heartbreaking horror, which seems to be created to hit and make you shudder at every plot twist, combined frightening sadism with smart black comedy. Black Cat seemed to proclaim the emergence of a major new talent in the genre. But ironically, this was Ulmer’s last film at a major studio for 14 years [4] .
Ulmer began an affair with the wife of producer Max Alexander, who was the nephew of the head of Universal Studios Karl Lemmle . Shirley Alexander’s divorce from her husband and her subsequent marriage to Ulmer led to the fact that Ulmer was actually deprived of the opportunity to work at major Hollywood movie studios. As a result, Ulmer spent most of his directorial career shooting Category B films in small studios [8] .
To get at least some work in the cinema, Ulmer was forced to move to New York , where the once powerful movie industry was still warm. Very few talented directors of Hollywood at that time were leaving for the East, and Ulmer, having behind him experience in Hollywood and in Germany (and one Hollywood hit in the clip), became a real find for New York filmmakers. He, in turn, found a place where he can continue his career by creating films for producers working with a specific, rather significant audience [4] . Ulmer initially specialized in "ethnic" films, in particular, on the Ukrainian theme - Natalka Poltavka (1937), Cossacks in Exile (1939), and Yiddish - The Light Ahead (1939), American Matchmaker ( אַמעריקאַנער שדכן - American shathn , 1940) [9] . The most famous among Yiddish films was “ Green Fields ” (1939), staged together with Jacob Ben-Ami.
Director career in the 1940s
Ulmer spent a significant part of his remaining career at PRC Studios, which had occupied the lowest rung on the stairs of poor Hollywood studios by the time he arrived. In October 1943, he signed a long-term contract with the studio and staged the "big budget" (by PRC standards) film " Jazz Playground ", becoming director number 1 in the studio. In the director’s biography, presented in the book “World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945 ”(ed. John Wakeman, 1987), states:“ Today, the name Ulmer remains the main reason that the name of the PRC studio is generally mentioned in the history of Hollywood ” [5] . It was during this period that Ulmer's reputation began to take shape as a kind of cinematic magician who knew how to implement good ideas on the screen for very little money. This was largely facilitated by the help of his wife Shirley Ulmer, who worked as a screenwriter and screenwriter on many of his films.
When Ulmer came to a studio that had already existed for two years, PRC, under the direction of the new general producer Leon Fromkess, began to raise the level of her films. Ulmer and Fromkess worked well together, and Ulmer was able to convince his boss that he was not only able to make good films for little money, but also to perform leading production functions. As a result, while remaining the leading director of the company, Ulmer was also able to become one of the main driving forces of PRC, having a significant impact on improving the artistic level of films and improving the image of the company. He was the main producer in every sense, except for the position he occupied, not only independently developing his own projects, but also inviting other directors of his choice to films [4] .
Ulmer’s own works of this period are among the most complex and fascinating films of the 1940s category. One of the best films in Ulmer was the beautiful, lyrical, touching and at the same time intense historical drama Bluebeard (1944) with John Carradine as the famous strangler. The woeful and piercing film noir “ Strange Illusion ” (1945) offered a modern interpretation of Hamlet’s plot. The Noir Road thriller " Detour " (1945) was shot in less than a week and for less than $ 20 thousand, but it is still often shown on television, it periodically returns to cinemas and is studied at film courses around the world [4] . " Detour " was widely recognized as one of the best examples of a low-budget film noir , and in 1992 was included by the National Council for the Preservation of Films of the Library of Congress in the National Register of Films [10] . All these films looked much better and were more memorable than films made at large studios, which cost ten or twenty times more [4] .
Ulmer worked at PRC until 1947, when he was invited to the United Artists studio to stage the film The Strange Woman . This was the first opportunity for Ulmer to work at a large studio in 13 years, which provided significantly greater opportunities in terms of budget, selection of actors and the organization of the filming process. In total, in 1947, Ulmer made three major films that received widespread advertising, distribution and criticism - “The Strange Woman”, “ Carnegie Hall ” and “ Merciless ” (released a year later) [4] . Noir historical thriller "The Strange Woman " with an exciting play by charming Hedi Lamarr, critics attribute to his best films. Ruthless was also a rather successful noir experiment in the spirit of Citizen Kane . Carnegie Hall was staged with the help of conductor Fritz Rainer , who was the godfather of Ulmer Arianna's daughter. The film features performances by many leading classical music artists of the time, including Rainer himself, Yasha Heifetz , Arthur Rubinstein , Grigory Pyatigorsky and Lily Pons [11] .
Film career in the 1950s and 1960s
In 1949, Ulmer shot the historical adventure thriller Capri Pirates in Italy, after which he returned to United Artists , where in 1951 he directed the film Man from Planet X , one of the first and most strange (and very popular) scientific fantastic stories about aliens. In 1951, Ulmer directed the rather original comedy drama “ Saint Benny Pickpocket ” in New York, but most of Ulmer’s films over the following years were quite traditional in content and production [4] .
In the early 1960s, Ulmer released a series of strange, engaging, low-budget science fiction films Beyond the Time Barrier (1960), The Astounding Transparent Man (1960), and Atlantis (Journey Under the Desert) (1961), the last of which became a remake of the film of his friend Seymour Nebenzal, staged in Germany in 1932. Ulmer ended his career in 1965 with one of the most unusual dramas about World War II, the film " Cave (Seven Against Death) " [4] .
Edgar Ulmer died on September 30, 1972 in Woodland Hills, California, after a stroke.
Selected Filmography
As a Director
- 1930 - People of Sunday / Menschen am Sonntag (co-director)
- 1933 - Destroyed Lives / Damaged Lives
- 1934 - The Black Cat
- 1937 - Natalka Poltavka / Natalka Poltavka
- 1939 - Cossacks in exile / Cossacks in exile
- 1939 - The Light Ahead
- 1939 - Green Fields (co-director)
- 1939 - Moon Over Harlem
- 1943 - Girls in Chains
- 1944 - Bluebeard
- 1945 - Strange Illusion
- 1945 - Detour
- 1946 - The Strange Woman
- 1947 - Carnegie Hall
- 1948 - Ruthless
- 1949 - The Pirates of Capri
- 1951 - The Man from Planet X
- 1951 - St. Benny Pickpocket / St. Benny the dip
- 1952 - Babes in Bagdad
- 1955 - Murder Is My Work / Murder Is My Beat
- 1955 - The Naked Dawn
- 1957 - Daughter of Dr. Jekyll / Daughter of Dr. Jekyll
- 1958 - Naked Venus
- 1960 - The Amazing Transparent Man
- 1960 - Beyond the Time Barrier
- 1964 - Seven Against Death (Cave) / Sette contro la morte / The Cavern
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 124471196 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Internet Movie Database - 1990.
- ↑ 1 2 BNF identifier : Open Data Platform 2011.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Edgar G. Ulmer movies, photos, movie reviews, views, and biography
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Edgar G. Ulmer - Biography
- ↑ Firsching, Robert, “Damaged Lives” (review) , Allmovie ; Rist, Peter (2001). Guide to the Cinema (s) of Canada (Westport, Conn., And London: Greenwood Press), p. 77. ISBN 0-313-29931-5
- ↑ Mank, Gregory William (1990). Karloff and Lugosi: The Story of a Haunting Collaboration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 81
- ↑ Cantor, Paul A. (2006). "Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland in Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour ," in The Philosophy of Film Noir , ed. Mark T. Conard (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky), p. 143. ISBN 0-8131-2377-1
- ↑ Turan, Kenneth (2004). Never Coming To A Theater Near You: A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Movie (New York: PublicAffairs), p. 364. ISBN 1-58648-231-9 .
- ↑ National Film Preservation Board, USA (1992)
- ↑ Cantor (2006), p. 150
Links
- Edgar G. Ulmer at IMDb
- Edgar G. Ulmer at Allmovie
- Edgar G. Ulmer at Senses of Cinema
- The American Cinematheque presents ... Strange Illusions: The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer