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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2021
Led by German-born Carl Laemmle, Universal Pictures devoted itself to winning over the German market in the interwar period. Yet the German market proved difficult to crack, owing to political risk and cultural distance. We argue that cultural differences kept most American films from becoming more successful, even those that were shown in German theaters and prior to the advent of sound film. Universal Pictures resorted to a film strategy of localization using German actors and directors, which proved a winning formula just as the Nazis came to power.
We thank Kathleen Feeley, Alfred Reckendrees, and the three insightful anonymous reviewers, as well as the stellar help from archivists Reinhard Frost and Martin Müller of the Deutsche Bank Archives, Gerrit Thies of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Edward Comstock of the University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library, and the staff of the Margaret Herrick Library. On S.O.S. Iceberg's failed reception, see “Taking a Look at the Record,” New York Times, 25 Nov. 1934; and John Andrew Gallagher, “S.O.S. Iceberg: Arctic Wastes, Antic Adventures,” American Cinematographer 73, no. 11 (Nov. 1992): 86–91.
1 Universal Film Manufacturing Company changed its name to Universal Pictures in 1922; for simplicity's sake, we use Universal.
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7 Bakker, Entertainment Industrialised, esp. chap. 6. The conceptual overlaps with Chandler are considerable.
8 Miskell, Peter, “Entertainment and the Film Industry,” in Routledge Handbook on the Makers of Global Business, ed. da Silva Lopes, Teresa, Lubinski, Christina, and Tworek, Heidi J. S. (London, 2019), 377–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 Philippe Meers, “‘It's the Language of Film!’ Young Film Audiences on Hollywood and Europe,” in Stokes and Maltby, Hollywood Abroad, 158. Higson, Andrew, “The Concept of National Cinema,” Screen 30, no. 4 (1989): 36–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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11 Craig, C. Samuel, Greene, William H., and Douglas, Susan P., “Culture Matters: Consumer Acceptance of U.S. Films in Foreign Markets,” Journal of International Marketing 13, no. 4 (2005): 80–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Miskell, “Global Efficiency,” 429. See also Lee, Francis L. F., “Cultural Discount and Cross-Cultural Predictability: Examining the Box Office Performance of American Movies in Hong Kong,” Journal of Media Economics 19, no. 4 (2006): 259–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lee, “Hollywood Movies in East Asia: Examining Cultural Discount and Performance Predictability at the Box Office,” Asian Journal of Communication 18, no. 2 (2008): 117–36.
13 Hoskins and Mirus, “US Dominance”; Hoskins, McFayden, and Finn, Global Television and Film.
14 Carlos M. P. Sousa and Frank Bradley distinguish the two concepts most readily, in “Cultural Distance and Psychic Distance: Two Peas in a Pod?,” Journal of International Marketing 14, no. 1 (2006): 49–70. For a useful critique, see Hang, Haiming and Godley, Andrew, “Revisiting the Psychic Distance Paradox: International Retailing in China in the Long Run (1840–2005),” Business History 51, no. 3 (2009): 383–400CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 Stokes and Maltby, Hollywood Abroad, 12 (see also the chapters on India and Japan). On Mexico, see Paul Kohner, Observations on Motion Picture Production situation during Recent Mexican Trip, 24 Dec. 1942, 4.3-1988/14a-3.1, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin (hereafter, DK).
16 Philippe Meers, “‘It's the Language of Film!’ Young Film Audiences on Hollywood and Europe,” in Stokes and Maltby, Hollywood Abroad, 158–75; Crane, Diana, “Cultural Globalization and the Dominance of the American Film Industry: Cultural Policies, National Film Industries, and Transnational Film,” International Journal of Cultural Policy 20, no. 4 (2014): 365–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lee, “Cultural Discount,” 259–60.
17 Vany, Arthur de, Hollywood Economics: How Extreme Uncertainty Shapes the Film Industry (London, 2003), 3–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 Quote from Drinkwater, Life and Adventures of Carl Laemmle, 223–224.
19 Taussig, Markus, “Foreignness as Both a Global Asset and a Local Liability: How Host Country Idiosyncrasies and Business Activities Matter,” Journal of International Business Studies 48, no. 4 (2017): 498–522CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Edman, Jesper, “Reconciling the Advantages and Liabilities of Foreignness: Towards an Identity-Based Framework,” Journal of International Business Studies 47, no. 6 (2016): 674–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lubinski, Christina, “Global Trade and Indian Politics: The German Dye Business in India before 1947,” Business History Review 89, no. 3 (2015): 503–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Bayer, Carl Laemmle: Von Laupheim nach Hollywood, 12–31, 73 (on the Laupheim restaurant); Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 13–35; Bayer, Carl Laemmle und die Universal, 7–29; Dick, City of Dreams; Mark Garrett Cooper, Universal Women: Filmmaking and Insitutional Change in Early Hollywood (Urbana, IL, 2010).
21 Gabler, Empire of Their Own, 4, 7.
22 Hoberman and Shandler, Entertaining America, 16–22; Cristina Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: The Forgotten Movie Mogul” (PhD thesis, Heidelberg University, 2013); Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 36–71; Bayer, Carl Laemmle und die Universal, 29–77; Bayer, Carl Laemmle von Laupheim to Hollywood, 33–39.
23 Poster for the grand opening of Universal City, in Bayer, Carl Laemmle Von Laupheim nach Hollywood, 47.
24 “Carl Laemmle an die deutschen Kinobesitzer,” Film-Kurier, no. 107/108, 5 May 1928, quoted in Michael Wedel, “‘A Universal Language?’ Oder: Die Unsichtbare Front: Die Tonfilmumstellung und die Marktstrategien der Universal in Deutschland 1929–1932,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 44–69.
25 Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 286–305. Stanca-Mustea, Cristina, “Final Crossings: Carl Laemmle between Laupheim and Los Angeles,” Jewish Culture and History 17, no. 1–2 (2016): 22–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 72–94, 130–40; Bayer, Carl Laemmle und die Universal, 78–104.
26 Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 17–18.
27 DeBauche, Leslie Midkiff, “United States Film Industry and World War One,” in The First World War and Popular Cinema, ed. Paris, Michael (New Brunswick, NJ, 2000), 138–39Google Scholar; Finkelman, Paul, “The War on German Language and Culture, 1917–1925,” in Confrontation and Cooperation: Germany and the United States in the Era of World War I, 1900–1914, ed. Jürgen Schröder, Hans (Oxford, 1993), 178–200Google Scholar.
28 Spieker, Markus, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz (Trier, 1999), 27–34Google Scholar; Leab, Daniel J., “Screen Images of the ‘Other’ in Wilhelmine Germany and the United States, 1890–1918,” Film History 9, no. 1 (1997): 49–70Google Scholar.
29 Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 202–14; Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 95–130. Bayer covers the Laemmle-Laupheim local connection in the 1920s; see Bayer, Carl Laemmle und die Universal, 117–50.
30 Thomas Saunders, “Die Universal in der Weimarer Republik: Firmenpolitik und Firmenbild,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 13.
31 Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 220–25, 275–76; Hirschhorn, Universal Story, 38–39.
32 Los Angeles Times, 17 Nov. 1920, quoted in Stanca-Mustea, “Final Crossings,” 29.
33 Paul Kohner, Observations on Motion Picture Production situation: Memorandum on the Post War Production on the Continent of Europe, 2 Oct. 1943, 4.3-1988/14a-3.1, DK.
34 Silberman, Marc, “What Is German in the German Cinema?,” Film History 8, no. 3 (1996): 297–315Google Scholar.
35 Paul Kohner to Carl Laemmle, 27–28 Apr. 1925, file: 4.3-1988/14a-2 Kohner Berichte [VAR] 1925 Laemmle, Carl, DK.
36 Kohner to Laemmle, 24 Mar. 1925; Kohner to Laemmle, 26 Mar. 1925, both in file: 4.3-1988/14a-2 Kohner Berichte [VAR] 1925 Laemmle, Carl, DK. On cross-cultural exchanges in the 1920s, see Horak, Jan-Christopher, “Sauerkraut & Sausages with a Little Goulash: Germans in Hollywood, 1927,” Film History 17, no. 2–3 (2005): 241–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Horak, “Rin-Tin-Tin in Berlin or American Cinema in Weimar,” Film History 5, no. 1 (1993): 49–62; Asper, Helmut G., Filmexilanten im Universal Studio: 1933–1960 (Berlin, 2005)Google Scholar; and Gerald D. Feldman, “The Deutsche Bank from World War to World Economic Crisis 1914–1933,” in The Deutsche Bank 1870–1995, by Lothar Gall, Gerald D. Feldman, Harold James, Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, and Hans E. Büschgen (London, 1995), esp. 151–54 on Fritz Lang's trip to America examining the differences in the markets.
37 Bakker, “Decline and Fall,” 311.
38 Deutsche Bank [Bausback, Kiehl] to Direktor Hugo Schmidt, “Betr. Amerikanische Verträge der UFA, Vertraulich!,” 7 Jan. 1926, Folder 3670, Historisches Archiv der Deutschen Bank, Frankfurt am Main (hereafter, HADB); Nina Isa Blase, “Die Krise der Universum-Film AG 1924–1927” (master’s thesis, 2007), 23, Table 3; Saunders, “Die Universal in der Weimarer Republik,” esp. 13–15.
39 “Notiz über die Besprechung der Herren Dr. von Strauss und Kiehl mit Mr. Wobber von der Famous Players,” 14 Nov. 1925, Folder 3670, HADB; Deutsche Bank [Bausback, Kiehl] to Schmidt, 7 Jan. 1926.
40 Kreimeier, Klaus, Die UFA Story: Geschichte eines Filmkonzerns (Munich, 1992), 146–57Google Scholar. Blase estimates a minimum RM 17.8 million in losses in the fiscal year 1925–1926 and RM 7.2 million in the previous year. Blase, “Krise der Universum-Film AG,” 21–39. Other authors’ figures range from RM 36 million to RM 50 million in losses.
41 Anton Kaes, Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War (Princeton, 2009), 134–35.
42 Feldman, “Deutsche Bank,” 151–54.
43 Kreimeier, Die UFA Story, 153; Kiehl [to Stauss/Direktion], “Betr. Universum-Film AG Amerikanische Verträge,” 4 Jan. 1926; Deutsche Bank [Kiehl, Bausback] to Schmidt, 7 Jan. 1926; “Contract between Universal (represented personally by Carl Laemmle) and Ufa (represented by the Vorstand),” 30 Dec. 1925; “Agreement made between Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft and Famous Players-Lasky Corporation & Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation: Loan” and “General Contract,” 29 Dec. 1925; Klitsch to Konsul Marx UFA, 19 Aug. 1927, all in Folder 3670, Sekretariat Berlin, HADB.
44 Deutsche Bank [Bausback, Kiehl] to Schmidt, 7 Jan. 1926.
45 Hugo Schmidt to Deutsche Bank (Stauss), “Amerikanische Verträge der Ufa,” 21 Jan. 1926, Band 3670, HADB.
46 Paul Kohner, speech to Universal Pictures Salesmen, [Chicago, ca. May 1925], file: 4.3-88/14a-2 [DUB], DK; timing identified from Paul Kohner to Carl Laemmle, 29 Apr. 1925, file: 4.3-88/14a-2 [Laemmle, Carl], DK.
47 UFA negotiator [Kiehl] to the Direktion [Deutsche Bank], “Betr.: Ufa, Amerikanische Verträge,” 30 Dec. 1925, Folder 3670: EVV-Nr: HA/002560K, Sekretariat Berlin, HADB.
48 Contract between Universal Pictures and UFA, 30 Dec. 1925; Deutsche Bank [Bausback, Kiehl] to Schmidt, 7 Jan. 1926; K[iehl] to Direktion Deutsche Bank, 30 Dec. 1925.
49 Kreimeier, Die UFA Story, 155–56. UFA historian Kreimeier (and Jean-Luc Godard, the director) viewed the “Parufamet” agreement also as a German capitulation. Dr. [Emil Georg] von Stauss über die Bedeutung der deutsch-amerikanischen Filmabmachung, n.d. [early 1926], Sekretariat Berlin band 3670, HADB.
50 Blase, “Krise der Universum-Film AG,” 39–41. They renegotiated the Parufamet contract on August 12, 1927; see “Gegenüberstellung des wesentlichen Inhalts a) der alten Verträge vom Dezember 1925, b) des neuen Rahmen-Vertrages,” 12 Aug. 1927, band 3670, HADB; and Barbara Hales, Mihaela Petrescu, and Valerie Weinstein, eds., Continuity and Crisis in German Cinema, 1928–1936 (Rochester, NY, 2016), 7–10.
51 Drinkwater, Life and Adventures, 225; Dick, City of Dreams, 73–94.
52 See “Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928–1937,” Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), exhibition, 3 May–15 June 2016, https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/1642; or “MOMA Launches a Spectacular Series: Universal Restorations & Rediscoveries, 1928–1937,” Sister Celluloid (blog), 8 May 2016, https://sistercelluloid.com/2016/05/08/moma-launches-a-spectacular-series-universal-restorations-rediscoveries/.
53 Universal Weekly, 8 May 1926; Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 276–85.
54 Laemmle to Kohner, Berlin, “Private and Confidential,” 19 Nov. 1928, file: 4.3-1988/14a-2 Laemmle, Carl [1/2], DK; Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 274–81.
55 Universal Weekly, 28 May 1927; “Filmdeutschland und Filmamerika von Carl Laemmle, Präsident der Universal Pictures Corporation,” Illustrierte Film-Zeitung: Wochenschrift des Berliner Tageblatts, no. 42, 1 Nov. 1928, file 4.3-88/14-1.9, DK.
56 Saunders, “Die Universal in der Weimarer Republik,” 16.
57 Saunders, 15–17; Saekel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 175–81; Miskell, “Entertainment and the Film Industry.”
58 Mr. Kohner to Mr. Laemmle, 11 July 1928, file: 4.3-1988/14-6 (1/1) [Schildkraut, Joseph], DK; emphasis in original.
59 Wedel, “Universal Language,” 45; Saunders, “Die Universal in der Weimarer Republik,” 17–19; Kohner, Magician of Sunset Boulevard, 56–58; Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, 23–25.
60 Saekel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 173–81; Segrave, American Films Abroad, esp. 37–62. Segrave attributes American “domination” to the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) “cartel” under Hays that managed to break down restrictions. This did not work everywhere. Quota restrictions were often used as leverage to try to open up the American market. Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, 24–27. Making matters more complicated was the complex distinction between internal import licences and external import licenses, because Hollywood studios also had German subsidiaries and sometimes distributed other countries’ films.
61 Saekel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 160–63, Table 51. Different sources account for the slightly different figures and what constitutes a feature-length film. For consistency, we follow Spieker for overall figures.
62 Jeanpaul Goergen, “Weniger Steuern und Grösserer Erfolg: Das Beiprogramm der Deutschen Universal,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 28. In 1923, Universal captured 31 percent of all imported American short films. Its share dropped to a low of 9.7 percent in 1928 but bounced back to 50 percent in 1931 and 45 percent in 1932.
63 For a global overview, see Biltereyst, Daniel and Winkel, Roel Vande, Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World (Basingstoke, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Loiperdinger, Martin, “Filmzensur und Selbstkontrolle: Politische Reifeprüfung,” in Geschichte des deutschen Films, ed. Jacobsen, Wolfgang, Kaes, Anton, and Prinzler, Hans Helmut (Stuttgart, 2004), 525–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Loiperdinger, “State Legislation, Censorship and Funding,” in The German Cinema Book, ed. Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter, and Deniz Göktürk (London, 2002), 148–57.
64 Petro, Patrice, “National Cinemas/International Film Culture: The Blue Angel (1930) in Multiple Language Versions,” in Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era, ed. Isenberg, Noah (New York, 2009), 255–70Google Scholar; Segrave, American Films Abroad, 52–72. For specific examples, see (on Scarface [1931]) Trumpbour, Selling Hollywood, 34–39; and (on All Quiet) Valentin Mandelstamm to Carl Laemmle Jr., 31 March 1930, file 350 – All Quiet on the Western Front, MPPDA Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA (hereafter, MHL). On censorship in Germany and Universal's East of Borneo, see Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 203–5, 370–89.
65 Saekel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 173–81 (survey on p. 173); Kreimeier, Die UFA Story, 24–25.
66 Alfred Döblin, “Das Theater der kleinen Leute,” in Kino-Debatte: Texte zum Verhältnis von Literatur und Film 1909–1929, ed. Anton Kaes (Munich, 1978), 37.
67 Anton Kaes, “Einführung,” in Kaes, Kino-Debatte, 10.
68 Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus, “German Film Censorship during World War I,” Film History 9, no. 1 (1997): 81.
69 Frank Kessler and Eva Warth, “Early Cinema and Its Audiences,” in Bergfelder, Carter, and Göktürk, German Cinema Book, 121–28; Hake, German National Cinema, 7–25.
70 Paul Kohner, “Some Features that should be exploited in forthcoming Universal Pictures to Win Back European Audiences,” memo, n.d. [ca. 1934–1935 based on film references], file: 4.3-88/14-1.8.1, DK.
71 Paul Kohner, “Memorandum on Postwar Production on the Continent of Europe,” 2 Oct. 1943, file: 4.3-88/14a-3, DK; Hardt, Ursula, From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars (New York, 1996)Google Scholar; Sabine Hake, “Transatlantic Careers: Ernst Lubitsch and Fritz Lang,” in Bergfelder, Carter, and Göktürk, German Cinema Book, 217–26; Peter Krämer, “Hollywood in Germany/Germany in Hollywood,” in Bergfelder, Carter, and Göktürk, German Cinema Book, 227–37.
72 Saeckel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 160 (general discussion is based on pp. 144–69 and Tables 16, 18, 27).
73 Direktor [Ludwig] Klitsch (UFA) to Direktor [Emil Georg] von Stauss (Deutsche Bank), 2 Apr. 1928, band 3670, HADB.
74 Klitsch to Stauss, with appendices from theatre owners.
75 Saekel, US-Film in der Weimarer Republik, 163–94, Tables 54–56; Spieker lists the weeks of the top ten films after 1931 based on large Berlin premiere movie theaters. American films did better in Berlin than in the provinces; there it saw two films in the top ten in 1931, seven in 1932 (two with Dietrich, three with von Sternberg, and one with Garbo), and seven in 1933. By far, the most successful American film prior to 1939 in terms of running time nationally as well as in Berlin was MGM's Broadway Melody of 1936; Les Perles de la Couronne (1937) performed best overall. Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, Table 5. On the German star system, see Mihaela Petrescu, “Brigitte Helm and Germany's Star System in the 1920s and 1930s,” in Hales, Petrescu, and Weinstein, Continuity and Crisis, 190–91.
76 Kohner, “Some Features.”
77 On films involving national myths, see Anton Kaes, “Film in der Weimarer Republik: Motor der Moderne,” in Jacobsen, Kaes, and Prinzler, Geschichte des deutschen Films, 71–75.
78 Deutsche Universal-Film AG (copy) to Mr. H. Henigson, Universal City, CA, 6 Mar. 1931 and F. Lampe (Picture Dept.), 24 Feb. 1931 to Deutsche Universal Film AG, William Wyler Papers, Folder 185: Hell's Heroes—censorship, MHL .
79 Saunders, “Universal in der Weimarer Republik,” 23. On Universal Films’ transition to sound, see Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 316–38.
80 Paul Kohner to Mr. Carl Laemmle, 29 July 1932, file: 4.3-88/14a-2 [Laemmle, Carl, 29.7.1932], DK.
81 Anna Sarah Vielhaber, Der populäre deutsche Film 1930–1970: Eine kulturvergleichende Analyse zur Erklärung seines Erfolgs (Norderstedt, 2012), 85–116, 176–84.
82 Koepnick, Lutz, The Dark Mirror: German Cinema between Hitler and Hollywood (Berkeley, 2002), 260Google Scholar.
83 Vielhaber, Der populäre deutsche Film; Koepnick, Dark Mirror, 99–134.
84 Klautke, Egbert, Unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten: “Amerikanisierung” in Deutschland und Frankreich 1900–1933 (Stuttgart, 2003)Google Scholar; Vielhaber, Der populäre deutsche Film, 21–35.
85 On Universal's marketing, see Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 234–51; the HBS speech appears in Universal Weekly, no. 10, 16 April 1927.
86 Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 251–79; Saunders, “Die Universal in der Weimarer Republik,” 17.
87 Jan-Christopher Horak, “German Film Comedy,” in Bergfelder, Carter, and Göktürk, German Cinema Book, 29–38.
88 Thomas Brandlmeier, “Early German Film Comedy, 1895–1917,” in A Second Life: German Cinema's First Decades, ed. Thomas Elsaesser (Amsterdam, 1996), 103–13; Horak, “German Film Comedy”; Helmut Korte and Werner Faulstich, “Der Film zwischen 1925 und 1944: ein Überblick,” in Fischer Filmgeschichte, vol. 2, 1925–1944, ed. Faulstich and Korte (Frankfurt/Main, 1991), 11–41, esp. 22–24. Susan Tegel, Nazis and the Cinema (London, 2007), 21–35.
89 Kaes, “Film in der Weimarer Republik,” 38–91 (on detective stories, p. 39); Tim Bergfelder, “Extraterritorial Fantasies: Edgar Wallace and the German Film,” in Bergfelder, Carter, and Göktürk, German Cinema Book, 39–47; Tom Gunning, “Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922): Grand Enunciator of the Weimar Era,” in Isenberg, Weimar Cinema, 95–113; Helmut Korte and Werner Faulstich, “Der Film zwischen 1895 und 1924: Ein Überblick,” in Fischer Filmgeschichte, vol. 1, Von den Anfängen bis zum etablierten Medium 1895–1924, ed. Faulstich and Korte (Frankfurt/Main, 1994), 13–47, esp. 30; Korte and Faulstich, “Der Film zwischen 1925 und 1944,” 11–41, esp. 22–24; Lutz Haucke, “Nationalspezifische Anfänge: Kulturkreise—Länder—Pioniere,” in Faulstich and Korte, Fischer Filmgeschichte, 1:99–115.
90 Kaes, Film in der Weimarer Republik, 54–60; Inge Degenhardt, “Kleinbürgerschicksale im deutschen Spielfilm: Die Strasse (1923),” in Faulstich and Korte, Fischer Filmgeschichte, 1:394–411; Hake, German National Cinema, 39–41; Sara F. Hall, “Inflation and Devaluation: Gender, Space, and Economics in G.W. Pabst's The Joyless Street (1925),” in Isenberg, Weimar Cinema, 135–54; Risholm, Ellen, “Formations of the Chamber: A Reading of Backstairs,” in Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema, ed. Calhoon, Kenneth S. (Detroit, 2001), 121–43Google Scholar; Bastian Heinsohn, “Film as Pedagogy in Late Weimar and Early Nazi Cinema: The Role of the Street in Mobilizing the Spectator,” in Hales, Petrescu, and Weinstein, Continuity and Crisis, 51–69.
91 Jan-Christoph Horak and Gisela Pichler, eds., Berge, Licht und Traum: Dr. Arnold Fanck und der deutsche Bergfilm (Munich, 1997); Carsten Strathausen, “The Image as Abyss: The Mountain Film and the Cinematic Sublime,” in Calhoon, Peripheral Visions, 171–89.
92 Carl Laemmle Sr. to Al Szekler, 30 Apr. 1932, file: 4.3-88/14a-2 [Dub], DK.
93 On Pasternak, see Margaret Frölich, “Liberties and Constraints: Emigre Producers in Hollywood Motion Pictures from the 1930s to the early 1950s,” Jewish History and Culture 17, no. 1–2 (2016): 59-80; and Brigitte Mayr, “Universal's European Money-Maker: Franziska Gaal—von Budapest nach Hollywood,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 100–10.
94 [Anonymous Universal executive] to Carl Laemmle Sr., n.d. [mid-1930s], copy for Mr. Paul Kohner, file: 4.3-88/14a-2 [Dub] Laemmle, Carl, DK.
95 “Notiz über die Besprechung,” 14 Nov. 1925.
96 Deniz Göktürk, “Moving Images of America in Early German Cinema,” in Elsaesser, Second Life, 94; Barry Salt, “Early German Film: The Stylistics in Comparative Context,” in Elsaesser, Second Life, 225–36.
97 Kohner, “Some Features.”
98 Hake, German National Cinema, 45.
99 Guerin, Frances, A Culture of Light: Cinema and Technology in 1920s Germany (Minneapolis, 2005)Google Scholar. Kenneth S. Calhoon (ed.), Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema (Detroit, 2001).
100 Kaes, Shell Shock Cinema.
101 Kaes, 55 (on ghosts), 36–37 (on the disruption of gender relations).
102 Nora M. Alter, “Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927): City, Image, Sound,” in Isenberg, Weimar Cinema, 193–215.
103 Anton Kaes, “Metropolis (1927): City, Cinema, Modernity,” in Isenberg, Weimar Cinema, 173–91; Kaes, Shell Shock Cinema, 167–210.
104 Todd Herzog, “Fritz Lang's M (1931): An Open Case,” in Isenberg, Weimar Cinema, 291–309.
105 Helmut G. Asper and Jan-Christopher Horak, “Three Smart Guys: How a Few Penniless German Émigrés Saved Universal Studios,” Film History 11, no. 2 (1999): 134–53; Dick, City of Dreams, 111–20 (17 percent figure from p. 115); Fitzgerald, Universal Pictures, 11–12, 19–31; Hirschhorn, Universal Story, 96ff.
106 Wedel, “Universal Language,” 47; Kohner, Magician of Sunset Boulevard, 48–73; [Laemmle Sr.] to Szekler, 30 Apr. 1932.
107 “Paul Kohner: Hollywood sagt: Nur in Europa produzieren!,” Film-Kurier, no. 184, 6 Aug. 1930, quoted in Wedel, “Universal Language,” 49.
108 The three films discussed here leave aside many others produced and distributed by Deutsche Universal, including the notorious Ekstase (1933) with Hedwig Kieser (later Hedy Lamarr) and Burning Secret (1932–1933), later banned by the Nazis; see Erich Wottrich, “Filme der Deutschen Universal,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 163–78; Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 339–69; Frölich, “Liberties and Constraints,” 59–80.
109 Universal Weekly, 31 May 1930. See also the following editions of Universal Weekly: 24 May 1930, 9 Nov. 1929, 1 Mar. 1930, and 29 Mar. 1930; Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 339–69; Stanca-Mustea, Carl Laemmle, 152–72; and Morris Eksteins, “War, Memory, and Politics: The Fate of the Film All Quiet on the Western Front,” Central European History 13, no. 1 (1980): 60–82. On audience receptions, see Stefan Volk, Skandalfilme: Cineastische Aufreger Gestern und Heute (Marburg, 2012), 55–70. On film censoring of All Quiet around the world, see Andrew Kelly, Filming All Quiet on the Western Front: “Brutal Cutting, Stupid Censors, Bigoted Politicos” (London, 1998), chap. 4; Michael Wedel, “Universal, Germany, and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: A Case Study in Crisis Historiography,” NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies (Spring 2014), https://doi.org/10.5117/NECSUS2012.1.WEDE.
110 Kelly, Filming All Quiet, chap. 5.
111 Regarding approval of the Road Back, the sequel to All Quiet, see “Review of All Quiet, International Federation of Catholic Alumnae,” 6 May 1930, file 350—All Quiet on the Western Front, MPPDA Collection, MHL; and Frederick L. Herron (MPPDA) to Colonel Jason S. Joy (Hollywood), 14 Jan. 1931, file: The Road Back (Universal, 1937)—102_074519, MHL. See also Harold L. Smith, Paris, to Colonel F. D. Herron, New York, 28 Nov. 1939, file: The Road Back (Universal, 1937), MHL.
112 “Col. Jason S. Joy's Resume,” 15 Feb. 1930, file 350—All Quiet on the Western Front, MPPDA Collection, MHL; Kelly, Filming All Quiet, esp. 107–32; Eksteins, “War, Memory, and Politics”; Hans Beller, “Gegen den Krieg: Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front),” in Faulstich and Korte, Fischer Filmgeschichte, 2:110–29.
113 Volk, Skandalfilme, 64–65; Curt Belling, “Preparatory Work of the Party until the Takeover of Power” (originally in “Der Film” in Staat und Partei [Berlin, 1936], 17–19), reproduced in Anson Rabinbach and Sander L. Gilman, eds., Third Reich Sourcebook (Berkeley, 2013), 570–72; “Col. Jason S. Joy's Resume,” 15 Feb. 1930; Eksteins, “War, Memory, and Politics”; Stefan Volk, “Geld heraus, Juden heraus, Schluss mit diesem Judendreck!,” Titel: Kulturmagazin, 4 Dec. 2010. Stefan Volk, “Der Kinokrieg um den Antikriegsfilm,” Spiegel Geschichte, 11 Dec. 2020 accessed 17 March 2021, https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/im-westen-nichts-neues-der-kinokrieg-um-den-antikriegsfilm-a-7090f133-cf54-43f8-8578-61c75bd22aa1; Simmons, Jerold, “Film and International Politics: The Banning of All Quiet on the Western Front in Germany and Austria, 1930–1931,” The Historian 52, no. 1 (1989): 40–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thomas Doherty, prologue to Hollywood and Hitler, 1933–1939 (New York, 2013); Urwand, Collaboration, 20–38; Wedel, “Universal Language,” 57–64.
114 Saekel, US-Filme in der Weimarer Republik, Table 55; Vielhaber, Populäre Deutsche Film, 188 (see also pp. 188–200); Andrew Marton, interviewed by Joanne D'Antonio, in A Directors Guild of America Oral History (Metuchen, NJ, 1991), 73.
115 Beller, “Gegen den Krieg,” 120; Urwand, Collaboration, 45–58.
116 Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, 34–40; [Laemmle Sr.] to Szekler, 30 Apr. 1932; “Wieder Laemmle-Sensation: Nach Fanck-Trenker,” Film-Kurier, no. 145, 22 June 1932; Hull, David Stewart, Film in the Third Reich (Berkeley, 1969), 14–17Google Scholar.
117 Kohner to Laemmle, 29 July 1932; Luis Trenker to Herr Kohner, 4 Aug. 1932, file: 4.3-88/14-0 Der Rebell-2, DK.
118 “‘Trenker’-Erfolg in Stuttgart,” Film-Kurier, no. 302, 23 Dec. 1932; “Wie der ‘Rebell’ entstand,” Film-Kurier, no. 13, 14 Jan. 1933; “Grosser Tag der Universal,” Film-Kurier, no. 16, 18 Dec. 1933.
119 “Rebell muss jugendfrei sein!,” Film-Kurier, 27 Dec. 1932; Marton interview, Oral History, 66–68. Ironically, Trenker wanted a happy ending in which Hofer/Trenker did not die even after hundreds of bullets were fired directly at him; Marton dissuaded him.
120 Franz A. Birgel, “Luis Trenker: A Rebel in the Third Reich? Der Rebell, Der verlorene Sohn und Der Kaiser von Kalifornien, Condottieri, and Der Feuerteufel,” in Cultural History through a National Socialist Lens: Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich, ed. Robert C. Reimer (Rochester, NY, 2000), 37–64.
121 Marton interview, Oral History, 72–73.
122 “Gespräch mit Luis Trenker: Gedanken um den ‘Rebell,’” Film Kurier, no. 87, 11 Apr. 1933.
123 Quoted in Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, 39n153.
124 Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, vol. 2, 1930–1934 (Munich, 1992), 749 (19–20 Jan. 1933 entry). On Trenker's career in the Third Reich, see Birgel, “Luis Trenker,” 37–64; and Julia Teresa Friehs, “‘Amerika’ in Luis Trenkers ‘Der Verlorene Sohn’ (1934)” (MA thesis, Universität Wien, 2008), esp. 16–21, http://othes.univie.ac.at/2177/.
125 Philips, Alastair, City of Darkness, City of Light: Emigre Filmmakers in Paris, 1929–1939 (Amsterdam, 2004), 67–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
126 David Kalat, DVD commentary, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Criterion edition (2005); Kohner to Laemmle, 4 May 1933, box 809/26716, Universal Collection, USC Cinematic Arts Library, Los Angeles; Marton interview, Oral History, 74–75.
127 Kohner, Lupita Tovar, 132–65.
128 Spieker, Hollywood unterm Hakenkreuz, 45–61; “Dr. Goebbels’ Rede im Kaiserhof am 28.3.1933,” in Albrecht, Gerd, Film im Dritten Reich (Karlsruhe, 1979), 26–31Google Scholar.
129 On the filming, see Rainer Rother, “Wilde Landschaft, Heroische Figuren: Arnold Fancks SOS Eisberg—Ein Film-Expeditions-Film,” in Wottrich, Deutsche Universal, 144–61.
130 Steven Bach, Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl (London, 2007), 86–94.
131 Deutsche Universal Film AG, Werbe-Abteilung, Wochenbericht no. 10, 26 Aug. 1933, box 205/26720, USC Cinematic Arts Library, Los Angeles; Marton interview, Oral History, 63.
132 Carl Laemmle to Paul Kohner, 28 July 1932, file: 4.3-99/14.a-2 (1/1) Carl Laemmle, DK; Kohner to Laemmle, 29 July 1932; Carl Laemmle to Paul Kohner, 28 Sept. 1932, file: 4.3-88/14a-2 (1/1), DK; Karin Wieland describes the ordeal and Riefenstahl's first meeting with Hitler. Wieland, Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Der Traum von der neuen Frau (Munich, 2011), Kindle, loc. 2063–22273.
133 Carl Laemmle to Paul Kohner (Berlin), 11 Nov. 1932, “Personal and Confidential,” file: 4.3-1988/14a-2 Laemmle, Carl [1/2], DK.
134 Marton interview, Oral History, 60; “Film-Kritik S.O.S. Eisberg,” Film-Kurier, no. 204, 31 Aug. 1933; Jan-Christopher Horak, “Dr. Arnold Fanck: Träume vom Wolkenmeer und einer guten Stube,” in Horak and Pichler, Berge, Licht und Traum, 49–53.
135 Kohner, Lupita Tovar, 163–78; Der Agent von Sunset Boulevard: Paul Kohner und das amerikanische Filmexil (ZDF Dokumentar, 1996); Rainer Rother, Leni Riefenstahl: The Seduction of Genius (London, 2002), 45–46; Horak, “Dr. Arnold Fanck,” 49; Rother, ed., Filmreihe Zerstörte Vielfalt: Die Transformation des Weimarer Kinos in den Nationalsozialistischen Film (Deutsche Kinemathek, 2013), accessed 16 March 2021, http://www.cinegraph.de/pdfs/Programmheft_1933.pdf. See also Bach, Leni, 87, 119–20. Riefenstahl met with Hitler on June 14, 1933, to discuss her first Party film, and with Goebbels on June 20, 1933. See Goebbels Tagebücher, 812, 814.
136 Stanca-Mustea, “Carl Laemmle: Forgotten Movie Mogul,” 417–23.
137 For a thorough deconstruction, see Friehs, “‘Amerika’”; Ludewig, Alexander, Screening Nostalgia: 100 Years of German Heimat Film (Bielefeld, 2011), 94–104Google Scholar; “Luis Trenker im Jofa-Atelier: ‘Wer nie fortkommt, kommt nie heim,’” Film-Kurier, no. 81, 6 Apr. 1934; “34 Einstellungen einer Schnitt-Anweisung: Trenker lässt boxen,” Film Kurier, no. 94, 21 Apr. 1934.
138 “Zwei Uraufführungen im Reiche erfolgreich: Trenker in Stuttgart,” Film-Kurier, no. 210, 7 Sept. 1934; “Trenker in Hamburg,” Film-Kurier, no. 223, 22 Sept. 1934.
139 “Film-Kritik: Der verlorene Sohn,” Film-Kurier, no. 233, 4 Oct. 1934; Images and program at Illustrierter Film-Kurier/1934/2215/Der Verlorene Sohn, accessed 16 March 2021, https://www.scribd.com/document/223169737/Illustrierter-Film-Kurier-1934-2215-Der-Verlorene-Sohn.
140 “Luis Trenker: Mein Neuer Film: Der Sinn des neuen Werkes: ‘Sonnwende,’” Film-Kurier, no. 251, 25 Jan. 1933; this was excerpted from the Völkischen Beobachter, one of the main press releases for the Nazis. “Billingers Rauhnacht wird Trenkers Rauhnacht,” Film-Kurier, no. 96, 24 Apr. 1934.
141 On the premiere, see Kohner, Lupita Tovar, 178–85; Paul Kohner to William Wyler, 11 Oct. 1934, folder 656: Paul Kohner (1931–1938), file: William Wyler Papers, MHL; Kohner to Laemmle, 29 July 1932.
142 Carl Laemmle to Paul Kohner, 26 Nov. 1934, file: 4.3-88/14a-1, DK.
143 Paul Kohner to Fritz [Friedrich], 21 Sept. 1935, file 4.3-88/14a-2 [Kohner, Fritz.], DK.
144 Bakker, Entertainment Industrialised.
