Harry R. Sokal

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Harry R. Sokal , born in Richard Henry Sokal (born February 20, 1898 in Craiova , Little Wallachia , Kingdom of Romania , † March 7, 1979 in Munich ), was a film producer of Romanian origin.

biography

The trained bank clerk and businessman helped finance various film projects, including Die joudlose Gasse in 1925 . Shortly afterwards he founded his own production company, HR Sokal-Film GmbH in Berlin.

One of his first films was a remake of the silent film classic The Student from Prague . Sokal developed into a mountain film specialist who produced several trend-setting productions by Arnold Fanck as well as Leni Riefenstahl's directorial debut The Blue Light . After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he first emigrated to Paris, where his son Henri was born in 1934. After a short stopover in England, where he took over the production management of Dusty Ermine in 1936 , he produced the snow fun game But my Hans, he can do it with a company in France in 1937 .

In 1941 he settled in the USA. There, his projects did not go beyond treatments . Despite a contract in Munich he founded the Henry Sokal-Film. He produced his first post-war work under the title Föhn , a remake of his greatest success The White Hell from Piz Palü . He himself directed the winter sports comedy Carnival in White . His most acclaimed post-war film became Heroes in 1958, based on the George Bernard Shaw comedy starring OW Fischer . In 1959, Helden was nominated for an “ Oscar ” for best foreign language film .

His first marriage was to actress Agnes Esterházy and his third was to Charlotte Kerr (1927–2011). In 1972 he received the gold film tape for many years of outstanding work in German film. His grave is in the Grünwald forest cemetery .

Filmography (as a film producer)

  • 1933: Love on Skis
  • 1936: Dusty Ermine (production manager)
  • 1940: But my Hans, he can do it (Le Grand élan) (also co-director)
  • 1946: The Face of Marble (production manager)
  • 1947: Winter Wonderland
  • 1950: hair dryer
  • 1952: Carnival in White (also co-director)
  • 1956: Tender Secret (also co-script)
  • 1958: heroes
  • 1959: And that on Monday morning
  • 1960: heroines

literature

  • 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. 463 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Remarks

  1. The dates of life correspond to the information on filmportal.de, Kay Less and the inscription on the grave slab. It is irritating that in the US documents that Mr. Sokal signed himself, the date of birth, year of birth, place of birth and nationality differ significantly.
  2. Charlotte Kerr played a leading role in Sokal's film "Carnival in White" in 1952.

Individual evidence

  1. Application for Naturalization, Petition for Naturalization No. 128989, issued in Los Angeles on May 28, 1946. Source: ancestry.com
  2. Source: Mein Film, No. 149, p. 22, Mein Film, No. 241, p. 14.