Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch (born May 23, 1903 in Vienna , † March 28, 1983 in Los Angeles ) was an American screenwriter and film director of Austrian origin. He was Georg Kreisler's cousin .
life and work
Walter Reisch came to film during his school days, as he had the opportunity to put together groups of extras for film productions through a sideline job as a theater statistic. He broke off a medical degree when he was offered a long-term engagement with a film company. He took on various, mostly organizational, tasks and worked as a production assistant with Alexander Korda , among others . He also wrote articles, features and poems for the press. At the same time he began writing scripts, which were often used without his name being mentioned in the opening credits.
From 1930 Walter Reisch worked at the Berlin Super-Film GmbH, where he worked six times with the director Géza von Bolváry within two years . From 1930 he also worked for Ufa under Erich Pommer . After the seizure of power of the Nazis back in 1933 had Reisch his Jewish heritage due to Vienna, where he developed the screenplay for Willi Forst's film Masquerade wrote (1934). With Paula Wessely , who had also played the leading role in Masquerade , he directed the film Episode (1935) based on her own script . After Masquerade , he succeeded in another masterpiece of Viennese film and a successful implementation of the atmosphere of Vienna at the time of the inflation in 1922. The film was also the only Austrian production with the participation of Jews that was allowed to be shown in National Socialist Germany after 1933.
When the MGM offered him a contract, Walter Reisch went to Hollywood in September 1937 , where he wrote scripts for films with the most important female stars of the MGM: Greta Garbo , Olivia de Havilland , Hedy Lamarr , Vivien Leigh , Merle Oberon , Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman . In 1942 he became an American citizen. In 1946 he moved to Universal, 1947 to Paramount, and in 1949 to 20th Century Fox, where he wrote scripts for films with Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Stanwyck , among others . Since 1954 Reisch wrote repeatedly for German film companies. In 1954 Walter Reisch received an Oscar for the screenplay for the sinking of the Titanic (1953).
In the late 1970s, Reisch wrote an operetta of the same name based on Masquerade , together with his cousin Georg Kreisler , who composed the music. (Reisch supported Kreisler and his parents after they fled the Nazis to the United States in 1938 without their belongings and had already worked with him in 1946 on the film "Song of Scheherazade" in Hollywood ). Actually, Robert Stolz intended to write the music, but he died in 1975 at the age of 95 years when he had just begun. The world premiere took place in 1983 at the Wiener Festwochen in the Theater in der Josefstadt under Kreisler's musical direction and ran two seasons to a sold out house. The work has never been played since then. Reisch did not live to see the performance because he fell seriously ill and died on March 28, 1983 in Los Angeles .
Walter Reisch was married to the dancer Poldi Dur alias Elisabeth (Lisl) Handl, who appeared in several of Reisch's Austrian films as a supporting actress, in his second marriage .
Filmography
Script, unless otherwise stated:
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Awards
- Venice International Film Festival 1934: “Best Screenplay” for Masquerade
- 1941 : Oscar nomination for " Best Original Story " for Comrade X.
- 1954 : Oscar for " Best Screenplay " for Titanic
literature
- Wolfgang Jacobsen: Reisch, Walter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 386 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Günter Krenn: Walter Reisch: Writing a film. Filmarchiv Austria , Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901932-28-3 .
- Rudolf Ulrich: Austrians in Hollywood. Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901932-29-1 .
- 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. 418 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
Web links
- Walter Reisch in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Walter Reisch at filmportal.de
- www.cyranos.ch Photo, short biography
- Walter Reisch in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Reisch, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American screenwriter of Austrian origin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 28, 1983 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |