Johannes Meyer (director)

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Johannes Meyer (born August 13, 1888 in Brieg , Silesia , † January 25, 1976 in Marburg ) was a German screenwriter and film director .

Life

Johannes Meyer began his film career in 1921 as a screenwriter at Ufa in Berlin . His first directorial work was the fictional film Horrido with Rudolf Forster and Lia Eibenschütz , which is set in the hunter's milieu and which he directed in 1924 for Europäische Lichtbild AG (Eulag). Meyer then shot another hunter drama - The Poacher - for Ufa, which from then on commissioned him more frequently to make feature films. His first sound film was the hit film Der Tiger with Charlotte Susa and Harry Frank in the leading roles , which premiered in April 1930 . Since the demand for sound films exceeded all expectations, Meyer shot one feature film after another over the next four years. In 1932 Johannes Meyer shot the literary film adaptation of the novel Gilgi for Paramount , one of us by Irmgard Keun with Brigitte Helm and Gustav Dießl in the leading roles.

In 1934 Johannes Meyer directed the adventure film Schwarzer Jäger Johanna, produced by Berlin-based Terra Film , with Marianne Hoppe , Gustaf Gründgens and Paul Hartmann in the leading roles. The film tells the story of a young woman who, during the wars of liberation against Napoleon, disguised herself as a man and joins a volunteer corps in order to be close to her lover. In Meyer's film Executioners, Women and Soldiers (1935), Hans Albers played two hostile cousins ​​who fought on different sides in World War I : one as a commander of Russian troops, the other as a daring German free corps fighter.

The biopic Fridericus (1937) with Otto Fee in the lead role was the only one of Johannes Meyer's films to receive the film rating “State-politically valuable” from the film inspection agency , but only after the ending shot by Meyer was banned and a new ending glorifying the war was shot under the direction of Goebbels had been. The film was able to be reconstructed and is now available again in the original version.

Although Johannes Meyer made many films during the National Socialist era, he never joined the NSDAP despite repeated requests and he managed to refuse to direct the anti-Semitic film The Rothschilds that he was asked to do .

Johannes Meyer often made ideologically inconspicuous adventure films such as The Refugee from Chicago , The Heritage in Pretoria (both 1934), The Impossible Woman (1936) and The Great Adventure (1937). The film Thirteen Men and a Cannon (1938) was banned by the Reich Propaganda Ministry immediately after its premiere. After the outbreak of the war, after two crime films, he directed almost exclusively comedies and romance films.

In 1950 Meyer retired from the film business.

Filmography

Director, unless otherwise stated:

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German screenwriter and film director
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Brieg , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1976
Place of death Marburg