Reginald Le Borg

Reginald Le Borg (born December 11, 1902 in Vienna as Reginald Grobel , † March 25, 1989 in Los Angeles ) was an Austrian-American film director . As the director of " B-Movies " for Universal Pictures (see Universal Horror ) , he was successful in Hollywood for decades.

In his 30-year film career, Reginald Le Borg made 44 feature films between 1943 and 1973 and around 100 episodes for television series from the late 1950s.

Live and act

Education and banking career in Europe

Reginald Grobel was born on December 11, 1902 in Vienna as the son of a wealthy banker . He first studied music with the aim of becoming a conductor, took acting lessons and also practiced writing. Giving in to his father's wish, he then studied political economy in Vienna and one day succeeded his father in the banking business. In Paris he also studied art and literature at the Sorbonne .

He then entered the banking business and represented his father in Paris. On Black Thursday 1929 his father lost all his fortune and Grobel had to earn his living elsewhere. He followed his artistic inclinations and tried to work in the theater and began to write.

Emigration and first employment in Hollywood

In 1932 he traveled to the United States , where he met an acquaintance from Paris who was meanwhile an editor at a film studio in Hollywood. He then tried his luck here as well and got his first job as a writer of film scripts for an author. Soon, through Josef von Sternberg, he also got some extra roles. From the beginning, his goal was to become a director. However, he only came closer to this in small steps. Grobel simply chose the reverse spelling of his surname as his stage name. In the meantime, the opera connoisseur and Le Borg, who played several musical instruments, gave music lessons to keep himself afloat financially.

He studied arias for filming with singers and soon turned music and opera scenes himself for other directors - this was the case for the first time in 1934 with One Night of Love . He got other commissions of this kind and staged opera scenes and musical numbers in films such as The Melody Lingers On (1935), The Girl of the Golden West (1938), A Day at the Races (1937) and Intermezzo (1939). But even these engagements brought little income, which is why Le Borg continued to do other jobs. For a while he was the personal assistant and chauffeur of director Joe May - an émigré from Vienna who had a difficult life in Hollywood. On the other hand, the production of musical short films was more lucrative, of which the MGM production Swing Banditry (1936) was the first. This was followed by more one and two acts for the MGM. Also Soundies (forerunner of today's music videos ) and shorts for Educational Pictures were among his pursuits in Hollywood.

In 1937, Le Borg became a US citizen and was active against the National Socialist German Reich during the Second World War . He directed training films for the US Army and propaganda films for the Office of War Information , for which he was later honored by the State Department .

In 1941 he was finally offered a long-term contract - he was to produce short music films in series for Universal Pictures - including assistance with script, editing and post-production. He initially received $ 150 a week, from 1942 $ 250 with a guaranteed minimum employment of 40 weeks and the prospect of staging a feature film. Until 1943, Le Borg made 20 such short films in three to five days each, which were shown in cinemas as a sideline.

Successful B-movie directing career

Universal was happy with Le Borg's musical short films and offered him in 1943 a six-year contract as a "contract-director" (contract director) at. Le Borg's first feature film was made that same year: the musical comedy She's for Me - shot within six days. The film had a budget of $ 100,000 and grossed around double that amount. His next film, Calling Mr. Death , was not only successful, but also earned him a reputation as a "horror specialist".

1944 he won in 1937 for MGM written music film Heavenly Music (1943) the Oscar as Best two-act play . The film received awards as a complete work and not specifically for the script, but it led Universal to offer Le Borg a larger film. It became the most expensive production he ever directed: San Diego, I Love You (1944), starring Buster Keaton, cost $ 459,000 and grossed $ 836,000. The film reviews were extremely positive. However, his hopes for follow-up projects of this or even greater caliber were not fulfilled.

As a contract director - inevitably, since he could not afford sanctions such as a three-month filming ban including a suspension of wages - always strictly adhered to the script, budget and shooting schedule and earned a reputation for working quickly, precisely and punctually. For this he often had to carry out series productions, such as the Inner Sanctum Mysteries or The Mummy's Ghost - the studio never thought of directing Le Borg A films. His efforts to escape the B-movie trade were ultimately unsuccessful. He adhered to guidelines too correctly and set aside his own claims.

In 1945, Le Borg recognized the lack of perspective at Universal and, after ten films, separated from the company in just two years. But the hoped-for success did not materialize, as film production slowed down after the end of the war and as a freelance director he found it difficult to get orders. He worked for still cheap productions by societies of the so-called Poverty Row .

It was not until the 1950s that he returned to staging B-movies for large companies such as Universal or Columbia Pictures . With The Black Sleep , one of Bela Lugosi's last films , he had one of his greatest commercial successes. The result were further orders for horror films. At the end of the 1950s, Le Borg finally got orders for western films. In War Drums (1957) he clearly sided with the Indians and portrayed their lives in an unusually detailed and realistic manner for a Western. In The Dalton Girls (1957), Le Borg was also involved in the underprivileged by making it clear that the Dalton sisters were pushed into a life of bandits as their only chance to live in freedom and dignity.

Career as a television director

With the triumph of television in the 1950s, Le Borg soon received numerous offers from TV producers due to its reputation as a fast and accurate director. He staged around 100 series episodes up until the 1960s.

Reginald Le Borg died of a heart attack in 1989 on the way to a celebration of the Academy of Family Films and Family Television , which was about to give him the Lifetime Achievement Award .

Filmography

Musical short films (selection):

• 1936: Swing Banditry
• 1936: A Girl's Best Years
• 1941: Shadows in Swing
• 1941: Jingle Bells / Snowtime Serenade
• 1942: Gay Nineties
• 1942: Merry Madcaps
• 1942: Tune Time
• 1942: Jivin 'Jam Session
• 1942: Swing's the Thing
• 1943: Hit June Jamboree
• 1943: Russian Revels

Feature films (selection):

• 1943: She's for Me
• 1943: Calling Dr. Death
• 1944: The secret of Dr. Fletcher (Jungle Woman)
• 1944: The Mummy's Ghost
• 1944: San Diego, I Love You (San Diego, I Love You)
• 1944: Dead Man's Eyes
• 1944: Destiny
• 1945: Honeymoon Ahead
• 1946: Scandal at the Sports Palace (Joe Palooka, Champ)
• 1946: Susie Steps Out
• 1947: Guy case
• 1947: The Adventures of Don Coyote
• 1947: Joe Palooka in the Knockout
• 1948: Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
• 1948: Port Said
• 1948: Joe Palooka in Winner Take All
• 1949: Fighting Fools
• 1950: Young Daniel Boone
• 1950: Dangerous Mission (Wyoming Mail)
• 1951: GI Jane
• 1952: Models, Inc.
• 1953: The Flanagan Boy
• 1953: Devil in Blond (Bad Blonde)
• 1953: Sins of Jezebel
• 1954: The White Orchid
• 1956: The Chamber of Horrors of Dr. Thosti (The Black Sleep)
• 1957: Voodoo Island
• 1957: Rebel of the Red Mountains (War Drums)
• 1957: Shotgun women (The Dalton Girls)
• 1961: The Flight that Disappeared
• 1962: Deadly Duo
• 1963: Diary of a Murderer (Diary of a Madman)
• 1964: The Eyes of Annie Jones
• 1965: House of the Black Death
• 1966: The Mummy's Ghost
• 1974: So evil, my sister

In addition, there were numerous episodes from American television series from 1953.

literature

• Helmut G. Asper: Something Better Than Death - Film Exile in Hollywood. Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2002, ISBN 3-89472-362-9 , pp. 154-168.

Web links

• Reginald Le Borg in the Internet Movie Database (English)