Erich Engels (director)

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Erich Engels (born May 23, 1889 in Remscheid , † April 25, 1971 in Munich ) was a German film director and screenwriter . Even in reputable reference works, Erich Engels is occasionally confused with his colleague Erich Engel .

Professional career

Erich Engels began his film career with his own film company, the Berlin- based Erich Engels-Film GmbH, which produced several feature films in the early sound film era, of which the Hans Albers film Three Make Your Luck was the most successful. His first directorial work was crime films. The film Secret of the Blue Room (1932) was so successful that three remakes were made in the United States .

After the accession of the NSDAP Engels came on April 4, 1933, the NSBO cell with German-born film directors. Engels dropped his favorite genre and began staging comedies and swans, the focus of which was mostly on the comedian trio Karl Valentin - Liesl Karlstadt - Reinhold Bernt . The technically most interesting film in this series is Cherries in Neighbors' Garden (1935) , in which Engels experimented with unusual assembly techniques.

In the second half of the 1930s, Erich Engels finally returned to crime films. After a crime comedy ( Sherlock Holmes - Die Graue Dame , 1937), he directed the film Mordsache Holm (1938), which was awarded the title “politically valuable” by the film inspectorate at the time of National Socialism for its portrayal of exemplary crime prevention . His next film, In the Name of the People from 1939 - a plea for the death penalty based on the Götze case and clad in a crime film plot - received this title. On three other crime films, one of which is the film adaptation of the Hawley Crippen crime with the title Dr. Crippen on Board (1942, with Rudolf Fernau ) was the most successful, followed in 1943 by the spy film The Golden Spider , which was also given the title “politically valuable” by the Nazis because of its anti-Soviet arguments .

After the end of the Second World War and the collapse of the film industry, Erich Engels initially struggled to regain a foothold as a director. Again and again he staged films according to tried and tested recipes and with the actors of his earlier successful films, such as the pseudo remake Cherries in Neighbors 'Garden (1956) with Grethe Weiser - although the film had nothing to do with Engels' comedy of the same name from 1935 - and the Dr .-Crippen- continued Dr. Crippen Lives (1958). Finally, he found a new recipe for success in comedy comedies staged in the style of the 1950s and tailored to Heinz Erhardt's talent : after the film Widower with Five Daughters (1957), Erich Engels directed father, mother and nine children and in 1958 1959 one of the most successful Heinz Erhardt films: Of course the drivers .

He is buried in the Grünwald forest cemetery near Munich.

Filmography

Until 1945

  • 1928: The production of healing serum (documentary film) - producer
  • 1929: Three make their fortune / expensive home ( Carl Wilhelm ) - producer
  • 1930: Quiet home with use of the kitchen. The girl from the operetta (Carl Wilhelm) - producer
  • 1930: Career / Tango der Liebe ( Adolf Sportwetten ) - producer
  • 1931: The secret of the red cat ( Erich Schönfelder ) - producer
  • 1931: The murderer Dimitri Karamasoff - director, screenplay (with Fjodor Ozep )
  • 1932: Crime reporter Holm - director, producer
  • 1932: Das Millionentestament / Der Querkopf - director, producer
  • 1932: Secret of the Blue Room - director, producer
  • 1933: The night in the forester's house / The Roberts case - director
  • 1933: The funny shamrock / Gasthaus zur loyal love - director
  • 1934: Immortal Valentin (episode film from four short films) - director
  • 1935: Peter, Paul and Nanette - director, screenplay
  • 1935: Cherries in a neighbor's garden - director, screenplay
  • 1936: Music for two (short film) - director
  • 1936: The checkered vest (short film) - director, screenplay
  • 1936: The Petitioner (short film) - director
  • 1936: Donner, Blitz und Sonnenschein - director, screenplay
  • 1936: At the lawyer (short film) - screenplay
  • 1936: At the Neurologist / Cold Feet (short film) - director, screenplay
  • 1937: Ewig Dein (short film) - director
  • 1937: The Gray Lady - director, screenplay
  • 1938: Mordsache Holm - director
  • 1939: In the name of the people - directed
  • 1939: Central Rio director
  • 1941: The sky blue evening dress - director, screenplay
  • 1942: Dr. Crippen on board - direction, screenplay
  • 1943: The Golden Spider - director, screenplay
  • 1944: Friday the 13th - director

Post war films

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 137.
personal data
SURNAME Engels, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Remscheid
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1971
Place of death Munich