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Joe May
Joe May (born Joseph Otto Mandl; 7 November 1880 – 29 April 1954) was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema. Biography After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he began his career as a stage director of operettas in Hamburg. In 1902 he had married the actress Mia May (born Hermine Pfleger) and took his stage name from hers. Continental-Kunstfilm As Joe May, he made ten films for Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH in Berlin; the first, ''In der Tiefe des Schachtes (In the Depths of the Pit)'' was released in November 1912, followed by ''Vorglühen des Balkanbrandes (The Balkan Traitors)'' (starring Ernst Reicher). In the spring of 1914 May directed the first three of the ' Stuart Webbs' films, a popular series in which Reicher played a gentleman detective modelled on Sherlock Holmes: ''Die geheimnisvolle Villa (The Black Triangle)''; ''Der Mann im Keller (The Man in the Cellar)''; and ''Der Spuk im Haus des Professors (T ...
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The Mistress Of The World
''The Mistress of the World'' (german: Die Herrin der Welt) is an eight-part 1919 silent film made in the Weimar Republic starring Mia May in the lead role. The film, under the creative control of director Joe May, is noted for bringing together talent from across German cinema, including many who would work behind the camera during the emergence of German Expressionist cinema. The story follows a young Danish woman on her globe-trotting adventures to find the legendary lost treasure of the Queen of Sheba that she hopes will enable her to bring revenge on the man that drew her father to commit suicide and led to her own social destruction. The first film was released in Germany on 5 December 1919, and this was followed each week by the release of the subsequent episodes. Plot Part 1, The Girlfriend of the Yellow Man german: Die Herrin der Welt 1. Teil – Die Freundin des gelben Mannes Young Danish adventuress Maud Gregaards (Mia May) answers an advertisement to take up a ...
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Stuart Webbs
Stuart Webbs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Webbs was one of a number of detectives with English-sounding names to appear in German cinema of the era. Like his contemporaries such as Joe Deebs he was modeled on Sherlock Holmes. Webbs was the most popular of the group. His original film series ran from 1914 to 1926Abel p.426 and he continued to appear in other later films such as ''The Green Monocle'' (1929). Webbs was played by Ernst Reicher until 1926. A number of figures directed entries in the series including Joe May, Johannes Guter and Robert Wiene. The series was originally made by Continental-Kunstfilm 123 Chauseestraße, Berlin, Continental-Kunstfilm's first studioThe inscription ERBAUT MDCCCXCVI (built 1906) appears on the building. Remarkably it survived East_Berlin.html"_;"title="World_War_II,_and_ended_up_on_the_East_Berlin">World_War_II, ..., but following a dispute May and Reicher left to form ...
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Screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. Terminology In the silent era, writers now considered screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright, photoplay writer, photoplay dramatist and screen playwright.Steven Maras. ''Screenwriting: History, Theory and Practice.'' Wallflower Press, 2009. pp. 82–85. Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being the authors of the films as shown and argues that they cannot be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for a technical product, a brief "scenario", "treatment", or "synopsis" that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed. Profession Screenwriting is a freelance profession. No education is required to be a professional scree ...
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Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 63. One of the best-known ''émigrés'' from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic ''Metropolis'' (1927) and the influential '' M'' (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film ''Woman in the Moon'' showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock.
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Harry Liedtke
Harry Liedtke (12 October 1882 – 28 April 1945) was a German film actor. Early life Liedtke was born in Königsberg, East Prussia to a merchant as the seventh out of 12 children. After the death of his father in 1896, he grew up in an orphanage and began a qualification in retail business. By the chance acquaintance of Hans Oberländer, a stage director at Berlin, he started to take stage classes and was first engaged at the municipal Theater of Freiberg, Saxony. In 1908 Liedtke worked at the New German Theatre in New York City and in 1909 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Career In 1912 Liedtke appeared for the first time in the silent movie ''Zu spät'' and from now on usually as a young "Charming Boy" and gentleman. With Ernst Lubitsch he made movies like ''Das fidele Gefängnis'' (1917), ''Die Augen der Mumie Ma'' (1918), ''Carmen'' (1918), '' Die Austernprinzessin'' (1919), ''Madame DuBarry'' (1919), '' Sumurun'' (1920) and '' Das Weib des Pharao'' (1921). He also appeare ...
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Max Landa
Max Landa ( be, Макс Ландаў; 24 April 1873 – 8 November 1933; born Max Landau) was a Russian-born Austrian silent film and stage actor. Career Landa attended the Handelsakademie (commercial academy) in Vienna and took classes with acting teacher in the same city. After working as a bank clerk for a short period he decided to focus on his acting career in 1893. After working at various theatres in Austria and Germany for about twenty years he was discovered in Berlin as leading man by movie star Asta Nielsen with whom he played in several movies directed by Urban Gad. When Joe May founded his own film production company in 1915 he formed a contract with Max Landa who became the first of a number of actors to play the role of the fictional British detective Joe Deebs, created as a rival to Sherlock Holmes during the silent era.Prawer p.88 The Jewish Landa and his wife Margot Walter fled Germany following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, and he committed suicid ...
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Joe Deebs
Joe Deebs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Along with Stuart Webbs and a number of other fictional cinema detective characters with Anglo-Saxon names, he was modeled on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In 2009, Ken Wlaschin wrote that "Joe Deebs was one of the most famous screen detectives of the German silent cinema, the suave crime-solving star of at least thirty films." Deebs was played by six different actors including Max Landa, Heinrich Schroth and Harry Liedtke. The films were produced by Joe May (Julius Mandl), who also directed several of the films. Some of the films were produced at Weissensee Studios. Deebs' first appearance was in 1915 during the First World War and the character continued to be featured in films through the early 1920s during the Weimar Republic. One example is "Der Onyxknopf," or The Onyx Head, a 1917 silent film starring Max Landa, Bruno Kastner and Leopoldine Konstanti ...
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Crime Film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but also include comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as mystery, suspense or noir. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified crime film as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy, claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres.  The other ten super-genres are action, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and western. Williams identifies drama in a broader category called "film type", mystery and suspense as "macro-genres", and film noir as a "screenwriter's pathway" explaining that these categories are additive rather than exclusionary. '' C ...
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Harry Piel
Heinrich Piel (12 July 1892 – 27 March 1963), known professionally as Harry Piel, was a prolific German actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer who was involved in over 150 films. Piel became a director in 1912, turning out such box-office successes as ''Mann Gegen Mann'' (1928), ''Achtung! - Auto-Diebe!'' (1930) and ''Artisten'' (1935). His last directorial effort was 1953's ''Gesprengte Gitter (Elephant Fury'', a.k.a. ''Panic''), which he also produced, wrote, and starred. Early life After attending elementary school in Benrath and High School in Derendorf, Piel became a cadet in 1909 on a sailing ship, the ''Grand Duchess Elizabeth''. In 1911, however, he finished his cadet hood and moved to Berlin in 1912 where he created the "Art Film Publishing House Company" and made, as a director, screenwriter and producer, his first feature ''Black Blood'' (1912) with Curt Goetz in the lead role. Further films followed, based on adventure and action. Career Piel recei ...
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First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdina ...
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Weissensee Studios
The Weissensee Studios (german: Filmstadt Weißensee) was a collection of separate film production studios located in the Berlin suburb of Weissensee (Berlin), Weißensee during the silent era. History The two main studios comprising the complex were almost next-door neighbours, and this has given rise to confusion as to the identity of the film companies involved and which premises they leased or owned. The studio buildings discussed in this article retained completely separate identities throughout their existence although they were occupied by several different film production companies. No films were ever made or released by "The Weissensee Studios" or "Filmstadt Weißensee", and there was never at any time any sort of joint or corporate entity with such a name. The two main locations were: *5-7 Franz Josef-Straße. Associated companies and directors: Deutsche Vitascope, Greenbaum-Film (Jules Greenbaum); PAGU (Paul Davidson (producer), Paul Davidson); Fema-Film Atelier Gmb ...
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The Armoured Vault (1914 Film)
''The Armoured Vault'' (german: Das Panzergewölbe) is a 1914 German silent thriller film directed by Joe May and starring Ernst Reicher, Hermann Picha and Fritz Richard. It was part of the series of Stuart Webbs series, popular during the silent era.Wlaschin p. 172 It was remade in 1926 with Reicher reprising his role. The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Leni. Cast * Ernst Reicher as Stuart Webbs * Hermann Picha * Fritz Richard * Arthur Ullmann Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ... References Bibliography * External links * 1914 films Films of the German Empire Films directed by Joe May German silent feature films German thriller films German black-and-white films 1910s thriller films Silent thriller films 1910s German films ...
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