The disproportionate number and seminal influence of Austrian and German film noir directors-Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Edgar G. Not that these directors’ importance to the noir cycle per se has been neglected quite the contrary. The error is one of omission, and relates to the crucial contributions of Jewish, German-speaking, refugee directors to the emergence and evolution of film noir. “History,” said George Santayana, “is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten.”1 This study of Jewish émigré filmmakers of the 1930s and 1940s aims to rewrite a wrong in the historiography of American cinema generally and film noir specifically. It’s my thoughts that belong to the world.
The greatest godsend was my dear wife, love of my life, and research assistant extraordinaire, Karen Brook, without whose guidance, inspiration, and abiding love this book would never have seen the dark of night, much less the light of day. And access to some of the rarer films, which were legion, came courtesy of the treasure troves at Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee video store, Video Journeys, Danger and Despair, and the UCLA Film and Television Archives. The excellent editors at Rutgers University Press, Leslie Mitchner and Marilyn Campbell presiding, did their yeoman’s duty, as usual. Fellow scholars who contributed information, counsel, or constructive feedback include Marc Dolezal, Thomas Elsaesser, Lester Friedman, Jan-Christopher Horak, Klaus Kreimeier, and Michael Meyer. Ulmer’s daughter Arianné Ulmer Cipes Curtis Bernhardt’s son Tony Bernhardt John Brahm’s daughter Sumishta Brahm and Henry Koster’s son Bob Koster. Of these I must give special thanks to Fritz Lang’s close friends Cornelius Schnauber and Kevin Thomas Robert Siodmak’s nephew Geoff Siodmak Billy Wilder’s wife, Audrey Wilder, and daughter Victoria Roberts Willy Wilder’s son Miles Wilder, Miles’s wife, Bobbe Wilder, and their daughter Kim Wilder-Lee Edgar G. I also contacted via e-mail, telephone, or in person as many relatives or close friends of the deceased directors as possible. For many of the filmmakers, however, I was blessed with excellent alternatives: extensive interviews and oral histories biographies, autobiographies, and film studies, many of them quite recent files at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences the resources of the Goethe Institute of Los Angeles and the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin and special collections of the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Pathological Noir, Populist Noir, and an Act of Violence: John Brahm, Anatole Litvak, Fred Zinnemann - 185 Appendix: American Film Noirs by Jewish Émigré Directors - 213 Notes - 215 Bibliography - 261 Index - 269Īcknowledgments That all the Jewish émigré directors in this study were no longer alive when I began researching obviously deprived me of an invaluable resource. Woman’s Directors: Curtis Bernhardt and Max Ophuls - 167 The ABZs of Film Noir: Otto Preminger and Edgar G. Viennese Twins: Billy and Willy Wilder - 124 The French Connection: Robert Siodmak - 104 Jews and Expressionism: “Performing High and Low” - 38 Jews in Germany: Torn Between Two Worlds - 22 Visit our Web site: Manufactured in the United States of America Typesetting: BookType
The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. Copyright © 2009 by Vincent Brook All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. PN1995.9.F54B76 2009 791.43'6556-dc22 2009000772 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. Jewish motion picture producers and directors-United States. Film noir-United States-History and criticism. Includes bibliographical references and index. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brook, Vincent, 1946– Driven to darkness : Jewish émigré directors and the rise of film noir / Vincent Brook. Rutgers university press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
“And they shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness.” Isaiah 8:22ĭRIVEN TO DARKNESS Jewish Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir vincent brook
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