Leo Erdody

Leo Erdődy (* 17th December 1888 in Chicago , † 5. April 1949 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American composer , songwriter , author , conductor and violinist , who in 1945 with his music for the film drama Minstrel Man for an Oscar was nominated.

Life

Erdody was an American film composer with Hungarian roots. His father was a conductor and of noble descent, which could be one reason that he, too, was sometimes only defined by his last name. He studied music in Germany with the Austro-Hungarian violinist, conductor and composer Joseph Joachim and the composer and conductor Max Bruch and also worked for some time in Germany. But he returned to the US and to Hollywood , where he worked on his first film 1928: Time of the lilac (Lilac Time) . In 1942 he joined the Producers Releasing Corporation and was involved in several of their films such as Baby Face Morgan , Tomorrow We Live , Queen of Broadway (all 1942), Corregidor , Hitler - Dead or Alive , My Son, the Hero and Girls in Chains (all 1943). In 1943 also was the action drama Isle of Forgotten Sins , playing on a South Sea island, again in collaboration with Edgar G. Ulmer , with him since his cooperation in Tomorrow We Live , My Son, the Hero and Girls in Chains a Friendship that led to frequent and productive collaboration. Erdody worked as music director in many of Ulmer's films.

Ulmer also directed the horror thriller Bluebeard from 1944 . The film is set in Paris, where a painter strangles his models after portraying them. In 1945 Leo Erdody and Ferde Grofé received an Oscar nomination in the category “Best Film Music” (musical film) for the film drama Minstrel Man . However, the award went to Carmen Dragon and Morris Stoloff and the musical film The Goddess Dances .

The crime drama Voice from the Beyond from 1945, in which a young man dreams that his mother falls in love with a dangerous man, was again directed by Ulmer, while Erdody was in charge of the music. In the same year, again in collaboration with Ulmer, he shot the film noir diversion , which is about random events. Together with Bluebeard , the latter two films are among the best and brightest B-films of all time, and the low-budget film diversion is one of the most intensively studied films in this genre. The music in Erdody's films was lively and inventive. He knew how to enrich his music with works by Mussorgsky and Brahms, for example, and to adapt the actions of the set images in such a way that the inner state of the people became visible, which particularly raises the films Bluebeard and Diversion above B films. Diversion even found its way into the National Film Registry . Bluebeard and Voice from Beyond were also released in special DVD editions 50 years after they were first released. The 1948 adventure film Miraculous Journey , which has a plane crash in the jungle as its theme, was to be the composer's last film.

Erdody's death, he died of complications from arteriosclerosis , came as a surprise and was a tragedy for Edgar G. Ulmer , who had worked with Erdody in many of his films. He should never have gotten over it.

Filmography (selection)

• 1928: Lilac Time
• 1930: Bright Lights (Author: Come Along! )
• 1941: Bad Man of Deadwood
• 1941: Outlaws of Cherokee Trail
• 1941: King of the Texas Rangers
• 1941: Down Mexico Way
• 1941: Gauchos of El Dorado
• 1941: The Devil Pays Off
• 1941: West of Cimarron
• 1942: Man from Cheyenne
• 1942: Cowboy Serenade
• 1942: South of Santa Fe
• 1942: Stagecoach Express
• 1942: Heart of the Rio Grande
• 1942: Shepherd of the Ozarks
• 1942: Sunset on the Desert
• 1942: Home in Wyomin '
• 1942: Romance on the Range
• 1942: The Cyclone Kid
• 1942: The Phantom Plainsmen
• 1942: Sons of the Pioneers
• 1942: Tumbleweed Trail
• 1942: For Life and Death (Law and Order)
• 1942: Shadows on the Sage
• 1942: Sunset Serenade
• 1942: Tomorrow We Live (Author: Juke Box Gal , Senorita Chula )
• 1942: The Boss of Big Town
• 1942: Baby Face Morgan (as Leon Erdody)
• 1942: Hitler - Dead or Alive
• 1942: Queen of Broadway
• 1943: Fugitive of the Plains
• 1943: My Son, the Hero
• 1943: Dead Men Walk
• 1943: Western Cyclone
• 1943: Terror in Texas (Wolves of the Range)
• 1943: Isle of Forgotten Sins (Poetry and Music: In Pango , Sleepy Island Moon )
• 1943: Jive Junction (poetry and music: In a Little Music Shop , Mother Earth , Jive Junction ,
  Cock a Doodle Doo , Where Is Love , We're Just In-Between , A-Doo-Dee-Doo-Doo )
• 1944: Minstrel Man
• 1944: Bluebeard
• 1944: Murder in the Blue Room (Author: A Doo-Dee-Doo-Doo )
• 1945: Voice from Beyond (Strange Illusion)
• 1945: Apology for Murder
• 1945: White Pongo
• 1945: Diversion ( Detour )
  (Performer: Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C sharp minor , Waltz Op. 39 in A flat major according to Frédéric Chopin )
• 1946: The Flying Serpent
• 1946: Murder Is My Business
• 1946: Larceny in Her Heart
• 1946: Blonde for a Day
• 1946: Money Madness
• 1947: Blonde Savage
• 1947: The Return of Rin Tin Tin
• 1948: Money Madness
• 1948: Lady at Midnight
• 1948: Miraculous Journey (Author: The Touch of Love )
• 2002: Dark Blue (author of the song Music Cues )

- operas -

• Peasants Love
• The Terrible Meek

Award

• 1945 : Oscar nomination for Minstrel Man

Web links

• Leo Erdődy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Leo Erdody at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ alternatively also Leon Erdody and only Erdody
2. ↑ The 17th Academy Awards | 1945 at oscars.org (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Bruce Eder: Leo Erdody In: The New York Times . Retrieved February 6, 2016.
4. ↑ Leo Erdody de Monyorókerék et Monoszló at geneall.net
5. ↑ Original quote: “Erdody and Edgar were bosom pals. Erdody was a fine musician. Erdody died very suddenly an it was a tragedy for Edgar - he didn't really get over ist ever. He loved Leo Erdody. "In: Tom Weaver: I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers , McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2001, p. 238, ISBN 0-7864-1000-0