Franz Schulz (screenwriter)

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Franz Schulz (born March 22, 1897 in Karolinenthal / Prague , Austria-Hungary , † May 4, 1971 in Muralto , Canton Ticino , Switzerland ) was an Austrian-Bohemian writer and screenwriter .

Life

Schulz came from a wealthy family and although he was Jewish, religion played no role in the family. His father was a lawyer and a college friend of the writer Friedrich Adler . One of his sisters was Lucia , the first wife of the painter László Moholy-Nagy .

Even as a high school student, Schulz had access to the literary circles in Café Arco (Hybernská); u. a. There he met Max Brod , Egon Erwin Kisch , Franz Kafka , Paul Leppin , Otto Pick and Franz Werfel .

Schulz began studying at the Karl Ferdinand University in his hometown in 1915 , but soon had to join the army. He took part in the First World War and was only released after the armistice . He went to Berlin and later to Prague and worked as a journalist from 1918 to 1920 . As a screenwriter he was successful with manuscripts for dramas and crime films before his comedic talent was discovered. With scripts for films like Die Privatsekretärin , Bombs on Monte Carlo or Die Drei von der Gasstelle (together with Paul Franck ) Schulz became one of the most sought-after authors in German cinema during the Weimar Republic .

In 1933 Schulz emigrated first to Prague and then via England to Hollywood and worked as an author and story supplier. From 1940 he officially called himself - as a naturalized US citizen - Francis George Spencer ; he was usually called Franz Spencer .

Based on his submission, his former co-writers Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote the script for Mitchell Leisen's comedy Unveiling at Midnight ( Midnight , 1939). After the end of the Second World War, Schulz settled in Ascona in Switzerland and mainly tried his hand as a playwright. His last work for the cinema is the script for the Austrian literary film adaptation of Fuhrmann Henschel from 1956.

Six weeks after his 74th birthday, Franz Spencer died on May 4, 1971 in Muralto and found his final resting place in the Jewish cemetery Pambio-Naranco near Lugano, Canton Ticino.

Works (selection)

Plays:

  • Esther Labarre . 1927.
  • A window facing east . 1949.
  • The happy anthill . 1952.
  • The revolving door . 1959.
  • Mme Vidac's villa . 1959.
  • The lost waltz .

Roman: (as Franz Spencer)

  • Candide 19th .. or the lousy century , Munich 1966; Reissued and with an afterword by Ginny G. von Bülow. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-7466-1029-X .

Filmography (selection)

Scripts for silent films

Screenplays for sound films

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schulz, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spencer, Franz; Spencer, Francis George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH 4th May 1971
Place of death Muralto , Switzerland