Karel Lamač

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Karel Lamač

Karel Lamač [ ˈkarɛl ˈlamatʃ ] (born January 27, 1897 in Prague , † August 2, 1952 in Hamburg ) was a Czech film director , screenwriter and actor . In movie titles, his name is often given as Carl Lamac or Karl Lamac .

Life

As the son of a pharmacist, he studied pharmacy and was the conductor of a student orchestra . During the First World War he served as a front camera operator. Like his compatriot and colleague Martin Frič , Karel Lamač began his film career as an actor in 1918. Since 1919 he also directed, was technical director of a film production company and wrote scripts. In Akord smrti he made his directorial debut in 1919 alongside co-director Jan Stanislav Kolár . In 1920 he stood in Gilly for the first time in Prague ( Gilly poprvé v Praze ) for the first time with Anna Ondráková (Anny Ondra) in front of the camera. Since then he has starred in almost all of his films with the comedy actress, who grew up in Prague and with whom Lamač was also married for a while. In 1921 the two founded the Kalos film company . Around 1924, Otto Heller joined as cameraman and in 1926 the screenwriter Václav Wasserman . This successful team soon became known as "The Strong Four". In 1928 Lamač celebrated a great theatrical success under the direction of Martin Frič in Páter Vojtěch .

In 1930 Lamač and his girlfriend Ondra founded a new production company together in Berlin , Ondra-Lamač-Film GmbH , which mostly produced musical film amusements in German, comparable to the Viennese musical comedies that appeared at the same time. Their first production was the military comedy The False Field Marshal / CaK Polní maršálek / Monsieur le maréchal and appeared in 1930/1931. His films were often released in foreign language versions for the markets in Czechoslovakia and France. Otto Heller remains Lamač's preferred cameraman, sometimes Václav Vich is also used. The collaboration with the screenwriter Václav Wasserman and Martin Frič as an occasional actor, which has existed since the 1920s , continued into the sound film era.

After the National Socialist accession to government in 1933, the production conditions for Karel Lamač deteriorated. In 1938 he withdrew from Germany and only produced in Czechoslovakia , including one of his artistically most important films, He stood at the box office ( U pokladny stál , 1939). In 1939 he emigrated to the Netherlands, then via France to Great Britain. There he let the "good soldier" from Prague win over the Nazis in the satire Schweik's New Adventures in 1943 .

In 1947 he returned to France again. In 1952 he directed a German film for the last time: Die Diebin von Baghdad , with Sonja Ziemann and Rudolf Prack . A little later Karel Lamač died after a serious illness of the liver and kidneys.

His grave at the Ohlsdorf cemetery was closed.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1923: The young Medardus (actor only)
  • 1924: Helena (2 parts)
  • 1928: Eva's daughters
  • 1928: The first kiss
  • 1928: Saxophone Susi
  • 1929: Fall of Man
  • 1929: Sinful and sweet
  • 1929: The Sin of a Beautiful Woman
  • 1929: The girl with the whip
  • 1930: The caviar princess
  • 1930: The girl from USA
  • 1930: The one from the fairground
  • 1930: A friend as cute as you
  • 1930: The wrong field marshal
  • 1931: He and his sister
  • 1931: The zinc man
  • 1931: The bat
  • 1932: Mamsell Nitouche
  • 1932: One night in paradise
  • 1932: woe if he let go
  • 1932: The cruel friend
  • 1932: The Witcher
  • 1932: Kiki
  • 1933: The daughter of the regiment
  • 1933: Fräulein Hoffmann's stories
  • 1933: orchestra rehearsal
  • 1933: The hotel in love
  • 1934: The swapped bride
  • 1934: Carnival and love
  • 1934: what a theater!
  • 1934: The bewitched headlight
  • 1934: Little Dorrit
  • 1934: Frasquita
  • 1934: The Brenken case
  • 1934: Polish blood
  • 1935: Knock Out
  • 1935: Big cleaning
  • 1935: I love all women
  • 1935: In the white Rößl
  • 1935: The young count
  • 1936: The Lonjumeau postillon
  • 1936: The shy Casanova
  • 1936: honeymoon
  • 1936: Where the lark sings
  • 1936: A girl from the ballet
  • 1937: The Baskerville Dog
  • 1937: Warnings are given against love
  • 1937: Pat and Patachon in paradise
  • 1937: Peter in the snow
  • 1937: The reason for divorce
  • 1937: The tramps
  • 1938: Florentine
  • 1938: Whenever I'm happy
  • 1938: spring air
  • 1939: De spooktrein
  • 1943: They Met in the Dark
  • 1943: Schweik's New Adventures
  • 1944: It Happened One Sunday
  • 1947: La colère des dieux
  • 1947: Une nuit à Tabarin
  • 1952: The thief of Baghdad

literature

  • Karel Lamač. In: Hans-Michael Bock , Tim Bergfelder (Ed.): The Concise Cinegraph. Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books, New York NY et al. 2009, ISBN 978-1-57181-655-9 , p. 272, ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 291 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Margolick : Beyond Glory. Max Schmeling Vs. Joe Louis and a World on the Brink . Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2006, ISBN 0-7475-6185-0 , pp. 41 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ www.csfd.cz
personal data
SURNAME Lamač, Karel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lamac, Carl; Lamac, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech film director, screenwriter and actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 2nd August 1952
Place of death Hamburg