Leo Mittler (18 December 1893 – 16 May 1958) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

. Mittler was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, then the capital of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with t ...

, to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. He attended the University of Music and Performing Arts and worked as a playwright and director in the German theatre. Mittler then switched to work in the booming German film industry during the silent era. Mittler's best known film as director was '' Beyond the Street'' (1929), a "street film" influenced by Soviet cinema.Prawer p.89 As well as his work in the German industry, Mittler also spent time at the American company Paramount's

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

-subsidiary based at the Joinville Studios in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. Following the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

rise to power in 1933, Mittler spent many years in exile in several countries including Britain and France before settling in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Mittler's career as a director had all but ended in the mid-1930s, after making the Stanley Lupino musical comedy ''

Cheer Up Cheering involves the uttering or making of sounds and may be used to encourage, excite to action, indicate approval or welcome. The word cheer originally meant face, countenance, or expression, and came through Old French into Middle English ...

'' (1936), but he worked occasionally as a screenwriter. Mittler wrote the original story of the MGM pro- Soviet film '' Song of Russia'' (1944) which was later investigated by HUAC for its alleged

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

sympathies. Mittler returned to Germany post-war, and died there in 1958. Before his death, he worked for German theatre and television.

Selected filmography

Director

* '' We'll Meet Again in the Heimat'' (1926) * ''

Serenissimus and the Last Virgin ''Serenissimus and the Last Virgin'' (German:''Serenissimus und die letzte Jungfrau'') is a 1928 German silent film directed by Leo Mittler and starring Hans Junkermann, Adolphe Engers and Adele Sandrock.Gerhard Lamprecht. ''Deutsche Stummfilm ...

'' (1928) * '' Beyond the Street'' (1929) * '' There Is a Woman Who Never Forgets You'' (1930) * '' The King of Paris'' (1930, German) * '' The King of Paris'' (1930, French) * ''

Tropical Nights The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

'' (1931) * '' The Incorrigible'' (1931) * '' The Concert'' (1931) * '' Sunday of Life'' (1931) * '' Every Woman Has Something'' (1931) * '' Reckless Youth'' (1931) * ''

The Leap into the Void ''The Leap into the Void'' (German: ''Der Sprung ins Nichts'') is a 1932 American drama film directed by Leo Mittler and starring Cilly Feindt, Aribert Mog and Sigurd Lohde.Horak p.113 It was made at the Joinville Studios in Paris as the German ...

'' (1932) * '' The Night at the Hotel'' (1932) * '' Nights in Port Said'' (1932) * '' The Faceless Voice'' (1933) * '' Honeymoon for Three'' (1935) * '' The Last Waltz'' (1936) * ''

'' (1936)

Screenwriter

* '' Sixteen Daughters and No Father'' (1928) * ''

The Ghost Ship ''The Ghost Ship'' is a 1943 American black-and-white psychological thriller film, with elements of mystery and horror, directed by Mark Robson, starring Richard Dix and featuring Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard and Edmund Glover, along ...

'' (1943) * '' Song of Russia'' (1944)

References

Bibliography

* Mayhew, Robert. ''Ayn Rand And Song Of Russia: Communism And Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood''. Scarecrow Press, 2005. * Prawer, S.S. ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933''. Berghahn Books, 2005.

External links

* 1893 births 1958 deaths Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss Austrian male dramatists and playwrights Austrian film directors Austrian television directors Film people from Vienna Austrian male screenwriters 20th-century Austrian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Austrian male writers 20th-century Austrian screenwriters {{Austria-film-bio-stub