Bernard Vorhaus

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Bernard Abraham Vorhaus (born December 25, 1904 in New York City , † November 23, 2000 in London ) was an American - British film director , film producer and screenwriter .

Life

Bernard Vorhaus was born as the son of the Krakow lawyer Louis Jacob (Leib Leopold) Vorhaus (1868–1957) and his wife Johanna, née Cohn (1869–1942). His sister Amelia "Amy" Rose Vorhaus, married Oppenheimer (1893–1952), wrote scripts for a few short films , which sparked Bernard Vorhaus' interest in the film business.

He first graduated from Harvard University and, thanks to his relationships with Harry Cohn, then also began scriptwriting, for the first time for Frank R. Strayer's Steppin 'Out (1925). In 1928 he and Jessie Burns produced the first short film entitled Sunlight . This was followed by some scriptwriting and production participations in Europe before he settled in London . In 1933 he first directed The Ghost Camera . In the same year he produced On Thin Ice and Money for Speed , which he wrote and directed the stories for. In England he was politically inspired and was impressed by John Strachey's book The Coming Struggle for Power and by Rajani Palme Dutt's examination of fascism in Fascism and Social Revolution . In 1932 he married the Welsh filmmaker and activist Esther "Hetty" Davis Olwen (1909–1997). The lawyer and author Gwyneth Vorhaus and White Noise co-founder and film music composer David Vorhaus emerged from the marriage.

Bernard Vorhaus became a member of the Left Book Club founded in London in 1936 , supported the Frente Popular in the Spanish Civil War and was involved in groups that were politically directed against Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini . From the mid-1930s on, he directed so-called B-Movies, mainly in Hollywood , where he had contact with politically left-wing and communist artists. In the rank of major , he worked for the US Army Air Force film unit during World War II . The film Resisting Enemy Interrogation , made in 1944, won an Oscar in 1945 in the “Best Documentary” category. Since vestibule refused later in the investigation of the Committee on Un-American Activities (House Un-American Activities Committee - HUAC) testify against friends in the industry who were suspected of American Communist Party to belong, he was established in 1951 on the Black List of HUAC set.

As early as 1950 Vorhaus was filming So Young and So Depraved in Germany with Edgar G. Ulmer . Pardon My French was his last film to be produced in the United States in 1951 - it was shot in France. The HUAC decision then prompted him to move back to London, as he had been declared an undesirable person in the USA, France and Italy at that time. In 1953 he was the last director in Italy under the pseudonym Piero Mussetta for Girls Without Morals . After taking architecture courses in England, he started a property renovation company. During the Vietnam War , he took on British citizenship. He was an active member of the Labor Party .

In 1992 Bernard Vorhaus was featured in the television documentary series The Late Show and again in 1997 in the documentary series Hollywood Commandos . He died in November 2000 at the age of 95.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1933: The Ghost Camera (Director)
  • 1933: On Thin Ice (Direction, Screenplay, and Production)
  • 1933: Money for Speed ​​(direction, screenplay and production)
  • 1933: Crime on the Hill (Director and Screenplay)
  • 1934: Blind Justice (Director)
  • 1934: The Night Club Queen (Director)
  • 1934: The Broken Melody (Director)
  • 1935: Ten Minute Alibi (Director)
  • 1935: Dark World (Director)
  • 1935: Street Song (Director and Screenplay)
  • 1936: The Last Journey (Director)
  • 1936: Dusty Ermine (director)
  • 1937: Cotton Queen (Director)
  • 1938: King of the Newsboys (Direction and Production)
  • 1938: Tenth Avenue Kid (Director)
  • 1939: Fisherman's Wharf (Director)
  • 1939: Way Down South (Director)
  • 1939: Meet Dr. Christian (director)
  • 1940: The Courageous Dr. Christian (director)
  • 1940: Three Faces West (Director)
  • 1941: Lady from Louisiana (director and production partner)
  • 1941: Angels with Broken Wings (Director)
  • 1941: Hurricane Smith (Director)
  • 1941: Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case (Director)
  • 1942: The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (Director)
  • 1942: Ice-Capades Revue (Director)
  • 1943: Learn and Live (Director)
  • 1943: Recognition of the Japanese Zero Fighter (Director)
  • 1944: Resisting Enemy Interrogation (Director)
  • 1947: Winter Wonderland (Director)
  • 1947: Bury Me Dead (Director)
  • 1948: The Amazing Mr. X (Director)
  • 1950: So Young and So Depraved (O: So Young So Bad)
  • 1951: Pardon My French (Director)
  • 1953: Girls without morals (O: Fanciulle di lusso)

literature

  • Bernard Vorhaus: Saved from Oblivion: An Autobiography . Scarecrow Press; Lanham, Md., 2000.
  • John Simkin: Bernard Vorhaus , Spartacus Educational, September 1997 (updated August 2014).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f David Robinson: Bernard Vorhaus - Film director who found refuge in Britain from America's anti-communist witch-hunt , The Guardian , December 5, 2000.
personal data
SURNAME Entrance hall, Bernard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vorhaus, Bernard Abraham (full name); Mussetta, Piero (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-British film director, film producer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 2000
Place of death London , UK