Curt Siodmak
Curt Siodmak (* 10. August 1902 in Dresden as Kurt Siodmak ; † 2. September 2000 in Three Rivers , California ) was a German-American screenwriter , film director and writer of science fiction - novels .
Life
Siodmak's Jewish parents were the merchant Ignatz Siodmak and his wife Rosa Philippine, née Blum. Ignatz Siodmak originally came from Silesia , emigrated to America and then, as a US citizen, settled in Germany in 1899, where he married. In 1900 Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert was born here.
Kurt initially studied physics , mathematics (doctorate in 1927, master's examination in 1930 in Zurich) and engineering in Dresden , Berlin , Stuttgart and Zurich until 1930 . On the side he wrote - often under the pseudonym "Curt Baron" - fantastic stories such as Helene is about to burst . As early as 1926, when he was still active as a journalist, he had contacts with the film scene; he was interested in the development of Fritz Lang's Metropolis , in which he - like his future wife - worked as an extra . In 1928 he turned completely to film. Menschen am Sonntag , his brother's first major success, goes back to an idea by Curt Siodmak. The script came from Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann . In 1930 he addressed the emerging new genre with Der Schuss im Tonfilmatelier with Gerda Maurus and Harry Frank . The man who is looking for his murderer with Heinz Rühmann (1931) and The invisible front with Trude von Molo (1932) also belong to this period.
In Switzerland , Siodmak met the architect Baroness Henrietta Erna de Perrot, whom he married in 1931. In 1932 his science fiction novel FP1 answers not with Hans Albers , Peter Lorre and Sybille Schmitz was filmed. A year later, startled by Goebbels' speech about the future of German film, he fled first to Switzerland - which however was not ready to accept him - and then via France , where he was unable to gain a foothold due to a lack of language skills, to Great Britain , where he wrote the script for the film The Tunnel (based on the novel of the same name by Bernhard Kellermann ).
1933 son Geoffrey Curt was born in England.
Meanwhile who had Nazis in Germany confiscated his property. Since Great Britain was not ready to accept him permanently, Siodmak initially commuted for a few days on the France – England ferry , and also lived in Belgium for some time . Several scripts that he wrote during this time - including for Alfred Hitchcock - were never made into a film.
In 1937 he emigrated to the USA and made a living there, first with Paramount , then with the Universal Film Manufacturing Company . As a science fiction and horror specialist , he created classic films such as The Invisible Man Returns , The Invisible Woman and the werewolf classic The Wolf Man (1941). Other horror films Siodmak wrote the script are Son of Dracula (Dracula's son) (1943), directed by his brother Robert, and The Beast With Five Fingers (1946).
His 1942 novel Donovan's Brain was made into films several times (including 1953) and was also adapted for radio by Orson Welles .
Now a US citizen, Siodmak trained as a secret agent and wrote leaflets against the National Socialist German Reich.
Siodmak first directed it after his brother Robert, with whom he had discussed this, returned to Europe in 1951. He shot his last film, Ski Fever (love game in the snow) , in 1966 with Vivi Bach , Dietmar Schönherr and Toni Sailer in Czechoslovakia .
Since 1957, Siodmak lived with his wife on his farm in Three Rivers , California . In the last decades of his life he was mainly concerned with his autobiography , several novels and musicals . Occasionally he lectured at Stanford University in California .
He was an honorary member of the Association of German Scriptwriters .
Curt Siodmak died of cancer on his ranch at the age of 98 .
bibliography
- Novels
- The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika (1926)
- Helene is about to burst (1929)
- The shot in the sound film studio (1930)
- FP1 does not respond (1931)
- City Behind Mists (1931)
- Vengeance in the Ether (1932)
- The Madonna from Markusstrasse (1932)
- Until the End of the World (1933)
- The Power in the Dark (1937)
- Black Friday (1939)
-
Donovan's Brain (1942)
- German: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Nest, 1951. Also called: Donovan's Brain. Heyne (Heyne General Series # 66), 1960.
- The Beast with Five Fingers (1945)
- Whomsoever I Shall Kiss (1952)
-
Riders to the Stars (1954)
- German: The way to the stars. Pabel (Utopia Grossband # 25), 1955.
-
Skyport (1959)
- German: Hotel in space. Heyne (Heyne General Series # 149), 1962.
- For Kings Only (1964)
-
Hauser's Memory (1968)
- German: Hauser's memory. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3413), 1974, ISBN 3-453-30303-2 .
-
The Third Ear (1971)
- German: The third ear. Fischer paperback (Fischer Orbit # 27), 1973, ISBN 3-436-01740-X .
-
City in the Sky (1974)
- German: The city in space. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3506), 1976, ISBN 3-453-30396-2 .
- Frankenstein Meets Wolfman (1981)
-
I, Gabriel (1986)
- German: I Gabriel. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4290), 1986, ISBN 3-453-31298-8 .
-
The Witches of Paris
- English: The Witches of Paris. Goldmann-Taschenbuch # 9475, 1991.
- Gabriel's Body (1992)
- Autobiography
- Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart: The Life of a Writer, Not Always to His Liking (1997)
-
Wolf Man's Maker (1995 and 1997)
- German: Among wolf men. 2 vols. Weidle Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 978-3-931135-16-4 (volume 1); ISBN 978-3-931135-27-0 (Volume 2).
Filmography
Literary template
- 1930: Menschen am Sonntag - also co-director
- 1940: The Invisible Woman ( The Invisible Woman )
- 1948: Berlin Express
- 1953: Donovan's Brain ( Donovan's brain )
- 1962: A dead man seeks his killer ( The Brain )
- 1971: Constantly in fear ( Hauser's memory )
script
- 1931: The man who is looking for his murderer
- 1932: FP1 does not respond
- 1934: The crisis is over ( La crise est finie! )
- 1940: The Invisible Man Returns ( The Invisible Man Returns )
- 1940: Black Friday ( Black friday )
- 1941: The Wolf Man ( The wolf man )
- 1942: Invisible Agent ( The Invisible Agent )
- 1943: Dracula's son ( Son of Dracula )
- 1943: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man ( Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man )
- 1943: I Walked with a Zombie ( I Walked with a Zombie )
- 1944: House of Frankenstein ( House of Frankenstein )
- 1946: The Beast with Five Fingers ( The Beast with five finger )
- 1949: Tarzan and the blue valley ( Tarzan's magic fountain )
- 1950: A sailor is not a snowman ( Swiss tour )
- 1952: Bride of the gorilla - also directed
- 1954: R 3 overdue ( Riders to the star )
- 1956: Curucu, the beast of the Amazon ( Curucu, beast of the Amazone ) - also director
- 1962: The lightship
- 1962: Sherlock Holmes and the Necklace of Death
- 1966: Love play in the snow - also directed
literature
- Wolfgang Jacobsen: Siodmak, Curt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 476 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Franz Rottensteiner : space stations, mad scientists and demonic brains. The SF Curt Siodmaks . In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Das Science Fiction Jahr , Volume 1 (1986), Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich, ISBN 3-453-31233-3 , pp. 311-325.
- Curt Siodmak , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 05/2001 from January 22, 2001, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
- He transplanted his brain to California . In: Berliner Zeitung of February 9, 1998
- Lexicons
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 379 f.
- Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 902 f.
- John Brosnan , Peter Nicholls , Mike Ashley , David Langford : Siodmak, Curt. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated August 12, 2018.
- Don D'Ammassa : Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Facts On File, New York 2005, ISBN 0-8160-5924-1 , pp. 340 f.
- Kenneth Jurkiewicz: Siodmak, Curt . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, ISBN 1-55862-111-3 , pp. 737 f.
- Robert Reginald : Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. A Checklist, 1700-1974 with Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II. Gale, Detroit 1979, ISBN 0-8103-1051-1 , p. 1077.
- Robert Reginald: Contemporary Science Fiction Authors. Arno Press, New York 1974, ISBN 0-405-06332-6 , pp. 248 f.
- Brian Stableford : Siodmak, Curt . In: James Gunn : The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Viking, New York et al. a. 1988, ISBN 0-670-81041-X , p. 418.
- Donald H. Tuck : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968. Advent, Chicago 1974, ISBN 0-911682-20-1 , pp. 393 f.
- 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. 458 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
- interview
- Lutz Gräfe, Olaf Möller: A conversation with Curt Siodmak. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The Science Fiction Year 1997 . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-453-11896-0 , pp. 710-735.
Web links
- Literature by and about Curt Siodmak in the catalog of the German National Library
- Curt Siodmak in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Curt Siodmak in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Works by and about Curt Siodmak at Open Library
- Curt Siodmak in the Science Fiction Awards + Database (English)
- Curt Siodmak in Fantastic Fiction (English)
- Curt Siodmak in Fancyclopedia 3 (English)
- Information at filmportal.de
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Siodmak, Curt |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Siodmak, Kurt |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American screenplay and science fiction writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 10, 1902 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden |
DATE OF DEATH | September 2, 2000 |
Place of death | Three Rivers (California) |