Rudi Feld (1896–1994) was a German art director and set designer who worked for many years 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 ...
.
Germany
Feld was born Rudi Feilchenfeld in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
, the elder brother of the actor Fritz Feld. He served in the German army during World War I and then began his early career designing
posters
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
for
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own du ...
and
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...
shows, before graduating to creating film sets. Feld worked in the German film industry during the boom years of the late
silent era
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
.Ward p.193 He designed the exterior displays of the flagship UFA cinemaUfa-Palast am Zoo for each new
premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...
.
Exile
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, the
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 ...
Feld went into exile. Feld settled in
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
where he briefly owned a
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
. In 1937 he emigrated to 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 ...
and from the mid-1940s he found regular work in the American film industry. Feld was frequently employed by smaller
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywoo ...
World War II
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 ...
years, and worked as a draftsman for MGM. He continued working until 1969.
William Tell
William Tell (german: Wilhelm Tell, ; french: Guillaume Tell; it, Guglielmo Tell; rm, Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland.
According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albr ...
The Adventure of Mr. Philip Collins
''The Adventure of Mr. Philip Collins'' (german: Herrn Filip Collins Abenteuer) is a 1925 German silent comedy film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Georg Alexander, Ossi Oswalda and Elisabeth Pinajeff. It was one of two comedy films wit ...
'' (1925)
* ''
Express Train of Love
''Express Train of Love'' (German:''Blitzzug der Liebe'') is a 1925 German silent comedy film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Ossi Oswalda, Willy Fritsch and Lillian Hall-Davis. It premiered on 6 May 1925 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Be ...
The Armoured Vault
''The Armoured Vault'' (german: Das Panzergewölbe) is a 1926 German silent thriller film directed by Lupu Pick and starring Ernst Reicher, Johannes Riemann, and Mary Nolan.Thomson p. 113 It was part of a popular series featuring the detective ...
Whistle Stop
In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...
Parole, Inc.
''Parole, Inc.'' is a 1948 American film noir film directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Michael O'Shea, Turhan Bey, Evelyn Ankers and Virginia Lee.
Plot
FBI agent Richard Hendricks lies in a hospital bed, dictating the results of his investi ...
Death of a Scoundrel
''Death of a Scoundrel'' is a 1956 film written, directed and produced by Charles Martin (1910-1983) and starring George Sanders, Yvonne De Carlo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Victor Jory and Coleen Gray. This film and ''The Falcon's Brother'' are the only two ...
The Gun Hawk
''The Gun Hawk'' is a 1963 American Western film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Rory Calhoun, Rod Cameron, Ruta Lee and Rod Lauren.
Plot
Gunslinger Rory Calhoun dispenses his own brand of justice in this action-packed Western advent ...
'' (1963)
References
Bibliography
* Prawer, S.S. ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933''. Berghahn Books, 2005.
* Ward, Janet. ''Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany''. University of California Press, 2001.