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Magic Fire
''Magic Fire'' is a 1955 American biographical film about the life of composer Richard Wagner, released by Republic Pictures. Directed by William Dieterle, the film made extensive use of Wagner's music, which was arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Dieterle worked with Korngold on several Warner Bros. films, including ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and '' Juarez''. It was one of the final films Republic made in the two-strip color process known as Trucolor. Although many details about Wagner's life were accurately portrayed, the film often distorted some facts, apparently for dramatic purposes. One high point was the accurate depiction of the riot at the Paris Opera House for the premiere of the revised version of ''Tannhäuser''. The film depicted King Ludwig II's patronage of Wagner, without going into much detail about the king's controversial personality. The film used a very large cast, opulent sets, and lavish costumes. Since Republic was known primarily for western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Dieterle
William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood primarily as a director for much of his career, becoming a United States citizen in 1937. He moved back to Germany in the late 1950s. His best-known films include ''The Story of Louis Pasteur'' (1936), ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film), The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1939) and ''The Devil and Daniel Webster (film), The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941). His film ''The Life of Emile Zola'' (1937) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the second biographical feature to do so. Early life and career He was born Wilhelm Dieterle in Ludwigshafen, the youngest child of nine, to factory worker Jacob and Berthe (Doerr) Dieterle. As a child, he lived in considerable poverty and earned money by various means, including carpentry and as a scrap dealer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trucolor
Trucolor was a color motion picture process used and owned by the Consolidated Film Industries division of Republic Pictures. It was introduced as a replacement for Consolidated's own Magnacolor process. Republic used Trucolor mostly for its Westerns, through the 1940s and early 1950s. The premiere Trucolor release was '' Out California Way'' (1946) and the last film photographed in the process was '' Spoilers of the Forest'' (1957). With the advent of Eastmancolor and Ansco color films, which gave better results at a cheaper price, Trucolor was abandoned, coincidentally at the same time as Republic's demise. At the time of its introduction, Trucolor was a two-color subtractive color process. About 3 years later, the manufacturer expanded the process to include a three-color release system based on DuPont film stock. They later replaced the DuPont film with Eastman Kodak film stock. Thus, in its lifespan around 12 years, the Trucolor process was in reality three distinct syst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Freitag
Robert Peter Freytag (7 April 1916 in Vienna – 8 July 2010 in Munich), known professionally as Robert Freitag, was an Austrian-Swiss stage and screen actor and film director. Life Freitag was the son of the Swiss opera singer Otto Freitag (Otto Freytag). He was trained as an actor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. During the Nazi era, he went to Switzerland, where he was active as an actor at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Zürich playhouse). In 1945, he married the German actress Maria Becker, who had studied acting in Vienna and who since had been at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, which had benefitted from the presence of German émigrés during the Second World War. Becker became a Swiss citizen by marrying Freitag. In 1949, Freitag began participating in the Salzburg Festival. Later he performed, among other places, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus and the Hamburger Kammerspiele, both in Hamburg. With his wife Maria Becker and the German stage actor Will Quadflieg, he fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Von Bülow
Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States. Life and career Bülow was born in Dresden into an old and prominent House of Bülow. He was the son of novelist Karl Eduard von Bülow (18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Schumann
Erik Schumann (15 February 1925 – 9 February 2007) was a German actor. He appeared in 100 films and television shows between 1942 and 1997. He was most successful during the 1950s and 1960s, when he played leading roles in several German films. He starred in the 1964 film ''Time of the Innocent'', which was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival. Schumann also worked as a stage and dubbing-voice actor in German synchronisations. Among his dubbing roles were Tony Curtis in ''Some Like It Hot'', Cary Grant in ''Bringing Up Baby'' and Jack Nicholson in '' Prizzi's Honor''. He also performed the German voice of Stinky Pete in Pixar's third feature film ''Toy Story 2'', originally performed by Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993-2004), .... ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerhard Riedmann
Gerhard Riedmann (1925–2004) was an Austrian film actor. He was married to the actress Eva Probst. Partial filmography * ''Das andere Leben'' (1948) - (uncredited) * ''Child of the Danube'' (1950) - Bit Part (uncredited) * ' (1951) - Max' Freund (uncredited) * ''Verlorene Melodie'' (1952) * ''1. April 2000'' (1952) - Reitender Bote (uncredited) * ''Abenteuer im Schloss'' (1952) - Georg * ''Flucht ins Schilf'' (1953) - Gerhard Altdorfer, Postbote * ' (1953) - Kurt Amreiner * '' The Bird Seller'' (1953) - Adam, Vogelhändler * '' The Cousin from Nowhere'' (1953) - Hans, ein Wanderbursche * '' The Gypsy Baron'' (1954) - Sandor, sein Sohn * '' The Beautiful Miller'' (1954) - Fritz Mertens * ' (1954) - Christian * ''Espionage'' (1955) - Hauptmann Angelis * '' Sergeant Borck'' (1955) - Oberwachtmeister Borck * ''The Happy Village'' (1955) - Walter Meiners, Lehrer * ''Yes, Yes, Love in Tyrol'' (1955) - Peter Lenz * ''Love Is Just a Fairytale'' (1955) - Dr. Klaus Weinert * '' Your Life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Valk
Frederick Valk (10 June 1895 – 23 July 1956) was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen. Despite making his later career in the English-speaking world, Valk never attempted to shed his heavy accent in either his stage or film work, and it became a trademark, particularly in film where he was often the first choice for a role which called for a German or generic Central European accent. Stage career Valk made his first appearance on the London stage in 1939, going on to play in numerous productions of classic drama including leading roles in Shakespeare, with his performances as Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice'' and in the title role of ''Othello'', attracting critical admiration. In 1946 he won the ''Ellen Terry Award'' for best actor for his performance in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov''. Valk als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition in his home country for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, while earning international prominence as Grand Moff Tarkin in ''Star Wars'' (1977). Born in Kenley, Surrey, Cushing made his stage debut in 1935 and spent three years at a repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. After making his motion picture debut in the film '' The Man in the Iron Mask'' (1939), Cushing began to find modest success in American films before returning to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of ''Hamlet'' (1948), Cushing struggled greatly to find work during this pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathilde Wesendonck
Agnes Mathilde Wesendonck (née Luckemeyer; 23 December 182831 August 1902) was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of Richard Wagner's ''Wesendonck Lieder''; the composer was infatuated with her, and his wife Minna blamed Mathilde for the break-up of their marriage. Biography Agnes Mathilde Luckemeyer was born in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal) in the Rhineland of Germany in 1828. In 1848 she married the silk merchant Otto Wesendonck. Otto was a great admirer of Wagner's music, and after he and Mathilde met the composer in Zurich in 1852, he placed a cottage on his estate at Wagner's disposal. By 1857, Wagner had become infatuated with Mathilde. It is not known whether she returned his affections to the same degree, or if the affair - if there was one - was ever consummated. Nevertheless, the episode inspired Wagner to put aside his work on ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (which would not be resumed for the next twelve years) and begin wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosima Wagner
Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner (née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner, and with him founded the Bayreuth Festival as a showcase for his stage works; after his death she devoted the rest of her life to the promotion of his music and philosophy. Commentators have recognised Cosima as the principal inspiration for Wagner's later works, particularly ''Parsifal''. In 1857, after a childhood largely spent under the care of her grandmother and with governesses, Cosima married the conductor Hans von Bülow. Although the marriage produced two children, it was largely a loveless union, and in 1863 Cosima began a relationship with Wagner, who was 24 years her senior. They married in 1870; after Wagner's death in 1883 she directed the Bayreuth Festival for more than 20 years, increasing its repertoir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simply "c" in all words except surnames; this has led to Liszt's given name being rendered in modern Hungarian usage as "Ferenc". From 1859 to 1867 he was officially Franz Ritter von Liszt; he was created a '' Ritter'' (knight) by Emperor Francis Joseph I in 1859, but never used this title of nobility in public. The title was necessary to marry the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein without her losing her privileges, but after the marriage fell through, Liszt transferred the title to his uncle Eduard in 1867. Eduard's son was Franz von Liszt., group=n (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Thompson
Juan Carlos Mundin-Schaffter, known as Carlos Thompson, (7 June 1923 – 10 October 1990) was an Argentine actor. Career Of German and Swiss descent, he played leading roles on stage and in films in Argentina. He went to Hollywood in the 1950s and was typically cast as a European womanizer. His Hollywood films include '' Flame and the Flesh'' (1954) with Lana Turner and Pier Angeli, ''Valley of the Kings'' (1954), with Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, ''Magic Fire'' (1955) in which he played Franz Liszt, opposite Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, and Valentina Cortese. He moved to Europe and appeared in a large number of German films. He was chiefly known to English speakers for his appearance as Carlos Varela in the 1963 ITC Entertainment series '' The Sentimental Agent''. In the late 1960s, Thompson left acting to become a writer and TV producer. His first success on the European book market was ''The Assassination of Winston Churchill'' (1969), a refutation of allegations by Davi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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