Charles Reisner

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Charles "Chuck" Reisner (born March 14, 1887 in Minneapolis , Minnesota , USA as Charles Francis Riesner , † September 24, 1962 in La Jolla , California , USA ) was an American director , actor , screenwriter and film producer . Reisner first appeared as an actor from 1916, and from the beginning of the 1920s he also worked as a director and screenwriter. He gained his first experience as an assistant director in 1918. While he stopped acting in the mid-1920s, he staged more than 60 productions up to and including 1950.

life and career

Charles Reisner began his career as a professional boxer before embarking on a career as a vaudeville actor for a decade. He also wrote lyrics for Broadway musicals . In 1915 he moved to California to pursue a career as a film actor. By 1925 Reisner played supporting roles in at least 30 films, mostly in short film comedies. He gained his first experience behind the camera in 1918 as assistant director to Charlie Chaplin in A Dog's Life . By 1925, he served as Chaplin's assistant director on a total of ten films, including classics like The Kid and Gold Rush . He also played supporting roles in four of these films: the beefy and muscular-looking Reisner played, among other things, the street thug from The Kid , who fights with Chaplin; as well as a crook in The Pilgrim who brings a woman out of her savings.

In 1920 Reisner directed his first own film, A Champion Loser . In the 1920s he shot numerous short film comedies, including several times with Chaplin's brother Syd Chaplin in the lead role. Reisner also acted as a screenwriter and gag writer for over 20 of his films. In the mid-1920s he gave up his work as an actor in order to work exclusively as a director from then on. Reisner's first major film was Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) with Buster Keaton in the lead role, which is considered a masterpiece today but went down at the box office at the time. In 1929 Reisner directed the revue film The Hollywood Revue of 1929 , which brought together some of Hollywood's greatest stars - including Joan Crawford , Norma Shearer and Laurel & Hardy - on the screen.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Reisner occasionally tried his hand at directing more serious crime films or dramas. However, he continued to work mainly as a director of relatively inexpensive, cheerful musical films and comedies. Among the highlights of his work were the collaborations with the Marx Brothers in Die Marx Brothers im Kaufhaus (1941) and with Abbott and Costello in Abenteuer im Harem (1944). Reisner directed a total of 65 productions until 1950, his last film being The Traveling Saleswoman with Joan Davis in the leading role. He was also the producer of The Winning Ticket (1935), The Perfumed Killer (1947) and Burry Me Death (1947).

Charles Reisner, whose nickname was "Chuck" among fellow film makers, died of a heart attack in 1962 at the age of 75. His son was the screenwriter and actor Dean Riesner (1918-2002).

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

  • 1916: His First False Step
  • 1918: A Dog's Life (A Dog's Life)
  • 1919: Hilarious hours (A Day's Pleasure)
  • 1921: The Kid
  • 1923: The Pilgrim (The Pilgrim)
  • 1924: Bring Him In
  • 1924: An Experience in Paris (So ​​This Is Paris)
  • 1925: The Man on the Box

As a director

Assistant direction

Main direction

As a producer

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Criticism from the Lexicon of International Films
  2. ^ Dean Riesner on the Internet Movie Database

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reisner, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reisner, Chuck (nickname); Riesner, Charles; Riesner, Charles Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Minneapolis , Minnesota , USA
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1962
Place of death La Jolla , California , USA