Richard Fleischer

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Richard Fleischer (born December 8, 1916 in Brooklyn , New York , † March 25, 2006 in Woodland Hills , Los Angeles ) was an American film director and Oscar winner.

life and work

Richard Fleischer was the second son of the silent film pioneer and cartoon director Max Fleischer and Essie Fleischer. He studied psychology at Brown University and took medical courses to become a psychiatrist. In addition, he occupied himself with musical theater, after which he switched to the Yale Drama School. Fleischer organized a university theater company there that toured New England hotels. A talent scout from RKO - Pathé Pictures discovered him in 1942 , where he then wrote scripts for newsreels . Because of the Second World War he was drafted into the US Air Force , after the end of the war in 1945 he got a job in Hollywood as a director in the B-Picture department at RKO Pictures. For his documentary Design for Death (1947) he was awarded an Oscar in 1948. In it Fleischer showed the political and economic influences that drove the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor . Richard Fleischer was not limited to any genre, he shot westerns , crime novels as well as horror and science fiction films .

Resistances

Fleischer's life had to fight against the great power of the studio bosses. An example of this is his artistic breakthrough in 1952 with Um Haaresbreite ( The Narrow Margin ), a thriller that mainly takes place in a train compartment and is nevertheless rated by some film critics such as Leonard Maltin as one of the best B-movies of all. His film studio superiors at RKO refused to buy a real train wagon for reasons of cost . In this way, Fleischer used various techniques such as the hand-held camera in order to be able to compensate for the loss of reality. In 1947, Howard Hughes became RKO's new studio boss, laying off 700 employees and generally watching every film before it was released. Hughes wanted Fleischer to shoot The Narrow Margin again, but Fleischer refused.

Richard Fleischer's next major film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), was only possible with the help of his father's lifelong business rival, Walt Disney , whose name was never mentioned in the Fleischer's house. Fleischer asked his father beforehand for his consent to this adaptation of Jules Verne's novel , but the latter put his son's chances of success rigorously above his resentment: “You didn't have to call me. You go right ahead and take the job. " (You don't have to call me. You go straight there and take the job.)

When filming a biography of Che Guevara , the studio bosses unceremoniously deleted all passages that explained his political position. However, since it was his policy not to give up despite all adversities, he did not quit and turned to the end.

The science fiction film Fantastic Voyage ( Fantastic Voyage , 1966) through the bloodstream of the human body in a miniature submarine moved the space from the macrocosm of the universe in the microcosm of human biology. For this dramatic navigation inside the body, Fleischer was also able to draw on his medical knowledge from his studies.

Doctor Dolittle ( Dr. Dolittle , 1966), based on themes from children's books such as Doctor Dolittle and His Animals by Hugh Lofting , was one of the most successful musical films of its time.

Further to Fleischer's essential works, now also incorporates The Boston Strangler ( The Boston Strangler , 1968), who after a fall chasing the mentally disturbed woman killer Albert DeSalvo - played by Tony Curtis - portrays. The split-screen technique used extensively here fits in with the story of the perpetrator's confused psyche and the grueling work of the police officers.

In the end-time drama ... year 2022 ... who want to survive ( Soylent Green , 1973), a gloomy vision of the future, an ethically corrupt, militarized and overpopulated society is described, whose elite secretly misuses people as food for the starving masses because the oceans have been fished out and enough food can no longer be produced.

During his career, Richard Fleischer worked with actors such as Richard Attenborough , Charles Bronson , Tony Curtis , Henry Fonda , Rex Harrison , Robert Mitchum , Kirk Douglas , Meg Ryan and Arnold Schwarzenegger .

Private

Richard Fleischer left behind his wife Mary Fleischer, b. Dickson, (Los Angeles), whom he met while studying at Yale, as well as his three children and five grandchildren.

Awards

Filmography

literature

  • Fleischer, Richard: Just Tell Me When to Cry. A Memoir , New York: Carroll & Graf 1993, 349 pp., Ill. (Encounters with film greats)
  • Fleischer, Richard: Out of the inkwell . Max Fleischer and the animation revolution. Foreword by Leonard Maltin . Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky 2005, XII, 184 pp., Ill., ISBN 0-8131-2355-0
  • Wakeman, John (Ed.): World Film Directors, Vol. One, 1890-1945 , New York: HW Wilson, 1987, pp. 345-351. (Biography)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Obituary. Richard Fleischer " , Daily Telegraph , March 27th 2006
personal data
SURNAME Fleischer, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City , New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 2006
Place of death Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) , California , United States