Karel Lamač (27 January 1897 – 2 August 1952) was a Czech

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, actor,

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, producer and singer. He directed more than 100 films in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Life

Lamač was born 27 January 1897 in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. His parents were Karel Lamač sr. (1863–1938), opera singer and a pharmacist, and Františka Lamačová (née Prusíková, 1860–1949). In his childhood Lamač was interested in pharmacy, electrical engineering, stage magic and acting. Before WWI he went to apprentice in camera manufacturer company Ernemann in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. During the war he was a combat cameraman. After the war he became a technical director of film laboratory in Excelsiorfilm. He started working in movies in 1918, first as an actor, later as a writer and a director. Among his best movies of this period are crime drama '' The Poisoned Light'', comedy ''Catch Him!'' and drama '' White Paradise''. In 1923 he wrote a book ''How to write a film libretto''. His frequent collaborators were actress Anny Ondra, cinematographer Otto Heller and screenwriter Václav Wasserman. In 1926 he co-founded a film studio Kavalírka where he made his movies until it burned down in 1929. In 1930 he founded a production company Ondra-Lamač Film with his then girlfriend Anny Ondra in Berlin. During 1930s he was making movies in Germany, Czechoslovakia, France and Austria. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia he left to Netherlands to make '' De Spooktrein'' and then to United Kingdom where he joined Czechoslovak Army. He served in RAF until 1941 and in infantry division until 1946. He made war documentaries and three feature movies during WWII. After the war he made two movies in France. In 1947 then went to USA where he worked on technical innovations of color film and camera lenses. In 1951 he returned to Germany and directed his last film '' The Thief of Bagdad''. He died in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, West Germany due to serious problems with his kidneys.

Selected filmography

Director

Actor

* '' Gilly in Prague for the First Time'' (1920) * '' The Poisoned Light'' (1921) * '' The Arrival from the Darkness'' (1921) * '' Look After Your Daughters'' (1922) * '' Lead Us Not into Temptation'' (1922) * '' Young Medardus'' (1923) * '' Helena'' (1924) * ''

The Secret Agent ''The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale'' is an anarchist spy fiction novel by Polish-British author Joseph Conrad, first published on 12 September 1907.. The story is set in Soho, London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a sp ...

'' (1924) * '' White Paradise'' (1924) * '' The Lantern'' (1925) * '' Eve's Daughters'' (1928)

Producer

* '' The Double'' (1934)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamac, Karel 1897 births 1952 deaths Male actors from Prague People from the Kingdom of Bohemia 20th-century Czech male actors Czech film directors Czechoslovak film directors Silent film directors Czech film producers Czech male film actors Czech male silent film actors Czech male screenwriters Silent film screenwriters German-language film directors English-language film directors 20th-century Czech screenwriters