Reinhold Schünzel
Reinhold Schünzel | |
---|---|
Reinhold Schünzel in 1921 | |
Born |
7 November 1888 Hamburg, German Empire |
Died |
11 November 1954 (aged 68) Munich, West Germany |
Occupation | Actor, Director, Writer, Producer |
Years active | 1916-1954 (film) |
Reinhold Schünzel (7 November 1888 – 11 November 1954) was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despite being Jewish, Schünzel was allowed by the Nazis to continue making films for several years until he eventually left to live abroad.
Life in Germany
Reinhold Schünzel or Schuenzel started his career as an actor in 1915 with a role in the film Werner Krafft. He directed his first film in 1918 Maria Magdalene and in 1920 directed Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstrasse, ("The girl from the farm road") and Catherine the Great. He was one of Germany's best-known silent film stars after World War I, a period in which films were very influenced by the consequences of the war. Schünzel performed roles in both comedies and dramas, often appearing as a villain or a powerful and corrupt man.
He was influenced by filmmakers such as his mentor Richard Oswald and Ernst Lubitsch, for whom he worked as an actor in the film Madame Du Barry in 1919.
Schünzel's work was very popular in Germany and the Nazi regime gave him the title of Ehrenarier or Honorary Aryan, allowing him to continue to direct and act despite his Jewish heritage (his mother was Jewish). He found that the government, first under Kaiser Wilhelm II and later under Adolf Hitler, interfered with his film projects, impelling him to leave 1937. Schuenzel described both the Kaiser and Hitler "persons of recognized authority and the worst possible dramatic taste."
Moving to the United States, he worked in Hollywood, playing Nazis and scientists. One of many examples was the film The Hitler Gang (1944), directed by John Farrow. This film and was about the rise of Hitler from a small political adventurer to the dictator of Germany showed in the way of a gangster film and here Reinhold Schünzel played the role of General Erich Ludendorff.
Family
Schünzel had a daughter Marianne Stewart, who was born in Berlin, Germany and followed her father by becoming an actress. She appeared in Broadway plays and she was known for The Facts of Life (1960), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), and Time Table (1956).
Schuenzel in the United States
Schünzel went to the United States in the thirties. He began his American career in Hollywood in 1937 signed by MGM. Among the films he directed were Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938), Ice Follies (1939), Balalaika (1939), and New Wine (1941). He also acted in films like The vicious cycle, Hitler's Gang and Dragonwyck among others. Schünzel went to New York in 1945 to make a debut in Broadway, although he was familiar to New Yorker audiences after he directed and appeared with the Swiss-born German/Austrian actor Emil Jannings in a film called Fortune's Fool, which was released in New York in 1928. Also in Broadway he acted in Temper the Wind in 1946 and Montserrat in 1949. His most memorable performance was as Dr. Anderson, a Nazi conspirator, in the film Notorious in 1946.
Among the prizes he received was the Federal West German Film prize for the best supporting role in the movie My Father's Horses. He became a U.S citizen in 1943 and he returned to Germany in 1949. [1] Schünzel died of a heart attack in Munich, Germany.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Selected filmography
- Der Fall Grehn (1916), as Kriminalrat Rat Anheim
- Bubi ist eifersüchtig (1916), as Hellmut Hartleben
- Werner Krafft (1916), as Heinz Kleinschmidt
- Seine kokette Frau (1916)
- Das Geständnis der grünen Maske (1916)
- Das unheimliche Haus (1916), as Engelbert Fox
- Der chinesische Götze - Das unheimliche Haus, 3. Teil (1916), as Ralph Robin, Privatdetektiv
- Freitag, der 13. - Das unheimliche Haus, 2. Teil (1916), as Engelbert Fox
- Ihr liebster Feind (1916)
- Die Stricknadeln (1916)
- Im Banne des Schweigens (1916)
- Benjamin, der Schüchterne (1916)
- Das Nachtgespräch (1917)
- Der neueste Stern vom Variété (1917)
- Die ledige Frau (1917)
- Die Erzkokette (1917), as Tertianer Rolf
- Der Schloßherr von Hohenstein (1917)
- Höhenluft (1917), as Von Storch
- Kain. II. Im Goldrausch (1918)
- Das Armband (1918), as Hausfreund
- Countess Kitchenmaid (1918), as Der Schüchterne
- Auf Probe gestellt (1918), as Reichsgraf Adolar von Warowingen
- Im Schloß am See (1918), as Erich von Strehsen
- Kain (1918)
- Frühlingsstürme im Herbste des Lebens (1918), as Reinhold, Neffe von Königswart
- Mitternacht (1918), as Dick Tillinghaft, Reporter
- Das Mädel vom Ballet (1918), as Eduard Stutzig, Lebemann
- Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1918), as Graf Kasimir Osdorff
- Es werde Licht! 4. Teil: Sündige Mütter (1918), as Fabrikbesitzer Kallenbach
- Die Filmkathi (1918)
- Um Krone und Peitsche (1919)
- Die Liebschaften der Kaethe Keller (1919), as Erbprinz Ottokar
- The Carousel of Life (1919)
- Baccarat (1919)
- Die Prostitution, 1. Teil - Das gelbe Haus (1919), as Karl Döring
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1919), as Archibald Corsican
- Der oder der? (1919)
- Different from the Others (1919), as Franz Bollek
- Die Peruanerin (1919), as Egon Hartenstein
- The Apache of Marseilles (1919), as Apache Badinguet
- Hedda's Revenge (1919), as Georg
- Seelenverkäufer (1919), as Orville
- Blondes Gift (1919), as Adolf Reiss
- Die Prostitution, 2. Teil - Die sich verkaufen (1919)
- Das Geheimnis der Wera Baranska (1919)
- Madame Du Barry (1919), as Minister Choiseul
- Madness (1919), as Jörges
- Seine Beichte (Bekenntnisse eines Lebemannes) (1919), as Achim von Wellinghausen
- Ut mine stromtid (1919), as Axel von Rambow
- Die schwarze Marion (1919)
- Die Pflicht zu leben (1919)
- Der Teufel und die Madonna (1919)
- Unheimliche Geschichten (1919), as Der Teufel (framing story) / Former husband (ep.1) / Murderer (ep,2) / Drunk (ep.3) / Artur Silas, detective (ep.4) / Travelling Baron (ep.5)
- Lilli (1919), as Dr. Goldmann
- Liebe (1919), as Herbert Warfield
- Was den Männern gefällt (1919)
- Die Rose des Fliegers (1919)
- Das Mädchen und die Männer (1919)
- Das Geheimnis des Amerika-Docks (1919), as Corbett, Reisender
- The Anti-Detective (1920)
- The Count of Cagliostro (1920), as Cagliostro
- Figures of the Night (1920), as Sekretär
- Tänzerin Tod (1920)
- Maria Magdalene (1920, director), as Leonhard
- The Dancer Barberina (1920), as Prinz von Carignan
- Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße - 1. Teil (1920, director)
- Der Gefangene (1920), as Französischer Lagerkommandant
- Three Nights (1920), as Verbrecher
- Die Banditen von Asnières (1920), as Jean, der Apache
- Moriturus (1920)
- Catherine the Great (1920, director), as Tsar Peter
- Das Chamäleon (1920)
- Weltbrand (1920)
- Die letzte Stunde (1921)
- Der Roman eines Dienstmädchens (1921)
- Lady Hamilton (1921), as Ferdinand IV, König von Neapel
- Das Geld auf der Strasse (1922), as Harry Lister
- Luise Millerin (1922), as Hofmarschall Kalb
- Bigamie (1922), as Alexandroff
- Das Liebesnest 1 (1922), as Lothar von Brandt
- Die drei Marien und der Herr von Marana (1923), as Don Juan de la Marana
- The Treasure of Gesine Jacobsen (1923), as Rasmussen
- Der Menschenfeind (1923)
- Adam and Eve (1923), as Schieber
- Der Pantoffelheld (1923)
- The New Land (1924)
- Die Schmetterlingsschlacht (1924), as Richard Keßler, Reisender
- A Woman for 24 Hours (1925, director)
- Rags and Silk (1925), as Max
- Die Kleine aus der Konfektion (1925)
- The Marriage Swindler (1925)
- Flight Around the World (1925), as Louis Renard
- The Flower Girl of Potsdam Square (1925), as Stiefelputzer
- Der Hahn im Korb (1925), as Peter Abendrot
- Den of Iniquity (1925), as Emil Stiebel
- Zwischen zwei Frauen (1925)
- The Pride of the Company (1926), as Wilhelm, der Stolz der Kompagnie
- Tea Time in the Ackerstrasse (1926)
- Circus Romanelli (1926), as Der dumme August
- In der Heimat, da gibt's ein Wiedersehn! (1926), as Gustav Knospe
- The Imaginary Baron (1927), as Der Juxbaron
- Hello Caesar! (1927), as Caesar, Artist
- Heaven on Earth (1927), as Traugott Bellmann
- Always Be True and Faithful (1927), as Orje Duff
- Gesetze der Liebe (1927)
- You Walk So Softly (1928, director), as Gustav Mond
- Herkules Maier (1928), as Stadtreisender Herkules Maier
- Don Juan in a Girls' School (1928, director), as Dr. Eckehart Bleibtreu
- Adam and Eve (1928), as Adam Grünau
- From a Bachelor's Diary (1929), as Franz
- Peter the Mariner (1929), as Peter Sturz
- Column X (1929), as Robert Sandt, Führer der Kolonne X
- Love in the Ring (1930) (uncredited)
- Phantoms of Happiness (1930, director)
- 1914 (1931), as Czar Nicholas II
- Ronny (1931, director) (German-language version)
- Ronny (1931, director) (French-language version)
- The Little Escapade (1931, director)
- The Threepenny Opera 1931, as Tiger Brown
- Her Grace Commands (1931), as Staatsminister Graf Herlitz
- Le Bal (1931), as Alfred Kampf
- How Shall I Tell My Husband? (1932, director)
- The Beautiful Adventure (1932, director)
- Victor and Victoria (1933, writer and director)
- Season in Cairo (1933, director)
- Idylle au Caire (1933, director)
- The English Marriage (1934, director)
- George and Georgette (1934, director)
- Amphitryon (1935, writer and director)
- The Girl Irene (1936, director)
- Donogoo Tonka (1936, director)
- Land of Love (1937, director)
American films
- Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938, director)
- The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939, director)
- Balalaika (1939, director)
- The Great Awakening (1941, director)
- Hangmen Also Die! (1943), as Gestapo Insp. Ritter
- First Comes Courage (1943), as Col. Kurt von Elser
- Hostages (1943), as Kurt Daluege
- The Hitler Gang (1944), as Gen. Ludendorff
- The Man in Half Moon Street (1945), as Dr. Kurt van Bruecken
- Dragonwyck (1946), as Count De Grenier (uncredited)
- Notorious (1946), as Dr. Anderson
- Plainsman and the Lady (1946), as Michael H. Arnesen
- Golden Earrings (1947), as Prof. Otto Krosigk
- Berlin Express (1948), as Walther
- The Vicious Circle (1948), as Baron Arady
West German films
- The Dubarry (1951, director)
- Weekend in Paradise (1952), as Peter Kralik
- Meines Vaters Pferde I. Teil Lena und Nicoline (1954), as Konsul Rittinghaus
- Meines Vaters Pferde, 2. Teil: Seine dritte Frau (1954), as Konsul Rittinghaus
- Eine Liebesgeschichte (1954), as Schlumberger, Schauspieldirektor (final film role)
References
- ↑ ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2010) Pg. 27
- ↑ http://www.GermanFilms.de
- ↑ http://www.german-films.de/filmarchive/browse-archive/view/person/person/schuenzel/
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0778306/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
- ↑ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aryan
- ↑ http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036921/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl