‘Kennen wir uns nicht aus Wien?’: Emigré Film-Makers from Austria in London 1928-1945

Tobias Hochscherf

From the mid-1920s onwards, Austrians formed a vital émigré group within the British film industry. Whether they came voluntarily or as refugees, their contributions and expertise helped to establish a viable national cinema and to consolidate the studio system. In addition to the storylines of individual films, their influence is particularly visible in the organization of production and the improvement of standards. In this respect, film-making in Britain was shaped considerably by the work of technicians and art directors who introduced pioneering camera techniques, rationalized production processes, and increased the importance of mise en scène. Actors and producers from Vienna also soon became central figures within the London exile community and the British cinema.

For the British cinema, the 1930s stand out as a time of consolidation and expansion. The introduction of protectionist laws had spread optimism and boosted investment. In fact, the thriving film business was among the most dynamic industries in pre-war Britain.1 Between 1935 and 1937 alone, 640 new film companies were founded. The increase of firms and production facilities was accompanied by new developments in the market. Following the overwhelming international success of Alexander Korda’s historical epic The Private Life of Henry VII1 (1933), highly capitalized film companies such as the Gaumont British Picture Corporation increasingly sought to conquer overseas markets. What seems to be a genuinely British success story, however, was in fact the outcome of international cooperation. As the cast and credits of the era clearly illustrate, foreign personnel – most of them from German- speaking countries – played a pivotal role in the making of British films. The producer Alexander Korda, for instance, began his career working in Vienna and Berlin. For his box-office hit The Private Life of Henry VIII, a film he both produced and directed, he employed numerous other émigrés: the sets were designed by his brother Vincent Korda, Viennese-born Lajos Biró was co-author of the script, and the German composer Kurt Schröder was responsible for the music. This article examines the various contributions of German-speaking émigrés from Austria to the British film industry. It advances the assertion that, as far as the film business is concerned, the crucial years of 1933 for Germany and 1938 for Austria were not the beginning of migration processes. The reciprocal interactions, transactions and career paths of 134 Tobias Hochscherf individuals such as Alexander Korda, Emeric Pressburger, or Oskar F. Werndorff, for instance, underline the cosmopolitan character of cinema in the 1920s and 1930s. This implies that our understanding of émigré contributions to the British cinema depends on taking into account the various migration processes of the era in the context of pan-European co- operation that existed well before the Nazis came to power. Thus it will be argued that from the mid-1920s onwards, various migration processes, multi- faceted ways of inter-European co-operation, and the unprecedented mass purge of continental film practitioners as a result of Nazi policies, fundamentally affected film-making in the UK. Besides directors (such as Berthold Viertel, Paul L. Stein, and Wilhelm Thiele), script-writers (including Walter Reisch, Robert Neumann, and Lajos Biró) or actors (such as Adolf Wohlbrück, Richard Tauber, and Hans Wengraf), it was especially the work of German-speaking technicians and art directors who revolutionized the modes of studio production. The cinematographers Otto Kanturek and Günther Krampf and the set designer Oskar F. Werndorff, all born in Vienna, introduced pioneering camera techniques, for instance, rationalized production processes, and increased the importance of mise en scène. Furthermore, the producers Max Schach and Alexander Korda were central figures within the London exile community and can be regarded as the most important independent producers at that time in England. Given the numerous links between the Austrian and German film industries, a basic thesis of this article is that it is not possible to differentiate clearly between Austrian and German film-makers. Attracted by the vibrant culture and the film scene in Berlin, many Austrians learned their craft in Germany, in particular in the UFA studios – one of the biggest and most modern production facilities outside Hollywood. Calling them Austrian film- makers seems problematic given that many of them never worked in their home country. The great number of German-speaking Hungarians, Czechs, and other film-makers who worked for the German/Austrian film industry make simplistic national distinctions even more difficult. Once again Alexander Korda’s career path serves as a good example. Born in Hungary, he started to work in the film business in Budapest before he became a producer in Vienna from 1919 to 1923. From 1927 to 1930 he worked in Berlin before he eventually came to Britain in 1932 after some time in Paris and Hollywood. The itineraries of Korda’s fellow countryman Josef Somlo also illustrate the mobile and global character of the film business. Born in Papá, Hungary, Somlo studied law in Budapest. After his graduation he began to work as the managing director of Viennese-based film companies in 1908. From 1919 to 1922 he then acted as head of UFA’s foreign department in Berlin before founding his own production company with