Edgar G. Ulmer

Directing·Sep 17, 1904·Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]

Rate

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.

Film	Credit
The Cavern1964 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
The World's Greatest Sinner1962 · Director of Photography	Director of Photography
Journey Beneath the Desert1961 · Director	Director
Beyond the Time Barrier1960 · Director	Director
The Amazing Transparent Man1960 · Director	Director
Hannibal1959 · Director	Director
The Naked Venus1959 · Director	Director
Swiss Family Robinson: Lost in the Jungle1958 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll1957 · Director	Director
The Perjured Farmer1956 · Producer	Producer
The Naked Dawn1955 · Director	Director
Murder Is My Beat1955 · Director	Director
Loves of Three Queens1954 · Director	Director
The Fate of Two Queens1954 · Director	Director
Babes in Bagdad1952 · Director	Director
St. Benny the Dip1951 · Director	Director
The Man from Planet X1951 · Director	Director
So Young, So Bad1950 · Director	Director
The Pirates of Capri1949 · Director	Director
Ruthless1948 · Director	Director
Carnegie Hall1947 · Director	Director
The Strange Woman1946 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Her Sister's Secret1946 · Director	Director
The Wife of Monte Cristo1946 · Director	Director
Detour1945 · Director	Director
Club Havana1945 · Director	Director
Strange Illusion1945 · Director	Director
Bluebeard1944 · Director	Director
Minstrel Man1944 · Director	Director
Jive Junction1943 · Director	Director
Isle of Forgotten Sins1943 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Hitler's Madman1943 · Writer	Writer
Girls in Chains1943 · Director	Director
My Son, The Hero1943 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Corregidor1943 · Screenplay	Screenplay
TTurbosupercharger: Flight Operation1943 · Director	Director
TThe Turbosupercharger - Master of the sky1943 · Director	Director
Tomorrow We Live1942 · Director	Director
Another to Conquer1941 · Director	Director
Goodbye, Mr. Germ1940 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
DDiagnostic Procedures in Tuberculosis1940 · Director	Director
Cloud in the Sky1940 · Director, Producer, Screenplay	Director, Producer, Screenplay
They Do Come Back1940 · Director	Director
American Matchmaker1940 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
The Light Ahead1939 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Moon Over Harlem1939 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
Let My People Live1939 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Cossacks in Exile1939 · Director	Director