Paul Frank (screenwriter)

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Paul Frank , also Paul Franck (born April 14, 1885 as Paul Frankl in Vienna , † March 20, 1976 in Los Angeles , California , USA ) was an Austrian writer and screenwriter .

Life

Paul Frank made a name for himself as a writer of light comedies before making contact with film towards the end of the First World War. He was part of the Viennese literary scene in Café Central and, as a novelist and playwright, alone or in collaboration with other writers, wrote around 40 comedies and around a dozen prose works . In the 1920s he also wrote book reviews for the Neue Wiener Journal .

Towards the end of the First World War, when the Austrian film industry was on the move, he was discovered as a screenwriter. Among other things, he wrote the screenplay for the Austrian monumental film by Michael Curtiz Harun al-Rashid (1924). After an offer from Ufa director Erich Pommer , Frank left Vienna in 1930 and moved to Berlin. There he wrote several scripts, including the one for Die Drei von der Gasstelle (1930, together with Franz Schulz ), with which he achieved his breakthrough.

After the seizure of power of the Nazis , he returned with his wife, photographer Edith Barakovich back first in his hometown. When in 1936, due to an agreement with Germany, there was no longer any possibility for Jews in Austria to work on films, he wrote anonymously on screenplays. For example in 1937 with Gina Kaus on whiskey and soda . At the same time he wrote as a theater critic for the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung .

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, he emigrated to France . He then fled via Spain to Casablanca in Morocco . There they were waiting for entry visas to the United States. In this situation, which she perceived as hopeless, his wife committed suicide in December 1940.

In 1939 he was the unnamed co-author of Lilian Harvey 's last film "Serenade". In 1941 Frank finally came to New York on a Spanish ship . In June 1942 he moved to the west coast, where he was supported by the European Film Fund , which had just been set up for this purpose, and the director George Froeschel in getting into the Hollywood film industry. Frank received a trial one-year contract with Columbia and from then on was one of the expelled European filmmakers who were paid weekly with $ 100 checks. However, his script drafts were not implemented. After the contract expires, Frank should have landed on " Poverty Row ", the street that was the center of the cheap film companies.

Frank did not succeed in adjusting to the new living and working conditions and attempts to come up with scripts and ideas were unsuccessful. Only in 1947 did he gain recognition as a co-author of Howard J. Green , when the two wrote the screenplay for The Invisible Wall .

Because of a serious eye condition, Frank had to be looked after by his second wife. The friendship with George Froeschel and Gina Kaus remained until Frank's death in 1976.

Works

Novels
  • 1916: The Mango Tree Miracle (with Leo Perutz )
  • 1917: The cheetah
  • 1927: Journey to Sorrento
Plays
  • One night in the grand hotel

Filmography

A selection of films that Frank wrote scripts for:

Silent films
Sound films

literature

  • Gerhard Mack: Paul Franck. In: John M. Spalek , Joseph Strelka (ed.): Deutsche Exilliteratur since 1933. Volume 1, Franke Verlag, California / Bern / Munich 1976, p. 718.
  • Rudolf Ulrich: Austrians in Hollywood. New edition, Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3901932291 , p. 141
  • Frank, Paul. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 7: Feis – Frey. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-22687-X , pp. 273-279.
  • 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. ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 174

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ for example about Stern der demonen by Ernst Weiß (1922) or about Larion by Eduard Stucken (1926).
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1976
Place of death Los Angeles , California