Edgar G. Ulmer
Directing
Born: September 17, 1904 · Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]
Died: September 30, 1972 (aged 68)
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edgar Georg Ulmer (September 17, 1904 – September 30, 1972) was an Austrian-American film director. He is best remembered for the movies The Black Cat (1934) and Detour (1945). These stylish and eccentric works have achieved cult status, whereas Ulmer's other films remain relatively unknown. The first feature he directed in North America, Damaged Lives (1933), was a low-budget exploitation film exposing the horrors of venereal disease. His next film, The Black Cat (1934), starring Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff, was made for a major studio, Universal Pictures. Demonstrating the striking visual style that would be Ulmer's hallmark, the film was Universal's biggest hit of the season. Ulmer, however, had begun an affair with Shirley Beatrice Kassler, who had been married since 1933 to independent producer Max Alexander, nephew of Universal studio head Carl Laemmle. Kassler's divorce in 1936 and her marriage to Ulmer later the same year led to his being exiled from the major Hollywood studios. Ulmer was relegated to making B movies at Poverty Row production houses. His wife, now Shirley Ulmer, acted as script supervisor on nearly all of these films, and she wrote the screenplays for several. Their daughter, Arianne, appeared as an extra in several of his films. Consigned to the fringes of the U.S. motion picture industry, Ulmer specialized first in "ethnic films," notably in Ukrainian—Natalka Poltavka (1937), Cossacks in Exile (1939)—and Yiddish—The Light Ahead (1939), Americaner Shadchen (1940). The best-known of these ethnic films is the Yiddish Green Fields (1937), co-directed with Jacob Ben-Ami. Ulmer eventually found a niche making melodramas on tiny budgets and with often unpromising scripts and actors for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), with Ulmer describing himself as "the Frank Capra of PRC". His PRC thriller Detour (1945) has won considerable acclaim as a prime example of low-budget film noir, and it was selected by the Library of Congress among the first group of 100 American films worthy of special preservation efforts. In 1947, Ulmer made Carnegie Hall with the help of conductor Fritz Reiner, godfather of the Ulmers' daughter, Arianné. The film features performances by many leading figures in classical music, including Reiner, Jascha Heifetz, Artur Rubinstein, Gregor Piatigorsky and Lily Pons. Ulmer did get a chance to direct two films with substantial budgets, The Strange Woman (1946) and Ruthless (1948). The former, featuring a strong performance by Hedy Lamarr, is regarded by critics as one of Ulmer's best. In 1951 he directed a low-budget science-fiction film with a noirish tone, The Man from Planet X. In 1964 he directed his last film, The Cavern, in Italy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Edgar G. Ulmer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Photos (1)
Directing (53)
Let My People Live
Director
The Last Laugh
Assistant Director
The Black Cat
Director
Hannibal
Director
Detour
Director
The Man from Planet X
Director
Loves of Three Queens
Director
The Strange Woman
Director
Beyond the Time Barrier
Director
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll
Director
People on Sunday
Director
Journey Beneath the Desert
Director
So Young, So Bad
Director
Murder Is My Beat
Director
American Matchmaker
Director
The Cavern
Director
The Wife of Monte Cristo
Director
The Amazing Transparent Man
Director
Her Sister's Secret
Director
Isle of Forgotten Sins
Director
The Pirates of Capri
Director
The Finances of the Grand Duke
Assistant Director
The Naked Dawn
Director
The Fate of Two Queens
Director
Girls in Chains
Director
My Son, The Hero
Director
Club Havana
Director
Babes in Bagdad
Director
St. Benny the Dip
Director
Bluebeard
Director
Ruthless
Director
Natalka Poltavka
Director
Strange Illusion
Director
From Nine to Nine
Director
The Light Ahead
Director
Minstrel Man
Second Unit Director
Minstrel Man
Director
Damaged Lives
Director
Swiss Family Robinson: Lost in the Jungle
Director
Cloud in the Sky
Director
Goodbye, Mr. Germ
Director
Carnegie Hall
Director
Aloha
Assistant Director
The Singing Blacksmith
Director
Another to Conquer
Director
Cossacks in Exile
Director
They Do Come Back
Director
Moon Over Harlem
Director
Jive Junction
Director
Tomorrow We Live
Director
Thunder Over Texas
Director
The Border Sheriff
Assistant Director
The Naked Venus
Director
Writing (19)
Let My People Live
Writer
The Black Cat
Story
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Screenplay
The Strange Woman
Writer
The Wife of Monte Cristo
Adaptation
Isle of Forgotten Sins
Screenplay
Hitler's Madman
Writer
Girls in Chains
Story
My Son, The Hero
Writer
We Live Again
Writer
Danger! Women at Work
Story
Corregidor
Story
Corregidor
Screenplay
From Nine to Nine
Original Story
The Light Ahead
Screenplay
Damaged Lives
Writer
Swiss Family Robinson: Lost in the Jungle
Adaptation
Cloud in the Sky
Screenplay
Prisoner of Japan
Story
Producing (9)
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Production Manager
People on Sunday
Executive Producer
American Matchmaker
Producer
The Cavern
Producer
The Perjured Farmer
Producer
Swiss Family Robinson: Lost in the Jungle
Producer
Cloud in the Sky
Producer
Goodbye, Mr. Germ
Producer
Moon Over Harlem
Producer
Other Crew (33)
Metropolis
Set Designer
M
Set Designer
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Assistant Art Director
The Last Laugh
Production Design
Queen Christina
Production Design
The Black Cat
Costume Design
The Black Cat
Set Designer
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge
Set Designer
The Golem: How He Came into the World
Set Designer
Lady Windermere's Fan
Art Direction
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
Set Designer
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Supervising Editor
City Girl
Assistant Art Director
Journey Beneath the Desert
Set Designer
Spies
Set Designer
The Street of Sin
Set Designer
The Secret Six
Production Design
Hitler's Madman
Production Design
Sodom and Gomorrah
Production Design
The Finances of the Grand Duke
Production Design
Merry-Go-Round
Art Direction
The World's Greatest Sinner
Director of Photography
I Can't Escape
Second Unit
Babes in Bagdad
Production Design
Afraid to Talk
Art Direction
Way Down South
Art Direction
Kleiner Mann – was nun?
Set Designer
Joyless Street
Set Designer
4 Devils
Assistant Art Director
The Saga of Gösta Berling
Set Designer
The Light Ahead
Production Design
Minstrel Man
Production Design
The Astrologer
Production Sound Mixer