Edgar G. Ulmer [electronic resource] : a filmmaker at the margins / Noah Isenberg.

ISBN:

9780520957176

Title:

Author:

Isenberg, Noah William.

Personal Author:

Isenberg, Noah William.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 365 pages) : illustrations.

Series:

Weimar and now: German cultural criticism

Contents:

Preface -- Traces of a Viennese youth -- Toward a cinema at the margins -- Hollywood horror -- Songs of exile -- Capra of PRC -- Back in black -- Independence days -- Postscript.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Ulmer, Edgar G. (Edgar George), 1904-1972.

Subject Term:

Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Biography.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2013

2014

Publication Information:

Berkeley :

University of California Press,

2013.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
791.430233092	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Edgar G. Ulmer is perhaps best known today for Detour, considered by many to be the epitome of a certain noir style that transcends its B-list origins. But in his lifetime he never achieved the celebrity of his fellow Austrian and German émigré directors--Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Fred Zinnemann, and Robert Siodmak. Despite early work with Max Reinhardt and F. W. Murnau, his auspicious debut with Siodmak on their celebrated Weimar classic People on Sunday, and the success of films like Detour and Ruthless, Ulmer spent most of his career as an itinerant filmmaker earning modest paychecks for films that have either been overlooked or forgotten. In this fascinating and well-researched account of a career spent on the margins of Hollywood, Noah Isenberg provides the little-known details of Ulmer's personal life and a thorough analysis of his wide-ranging, eclectic films--features aimed at minority audiences, horror and sci-fi flicks, genre pictures made in the U.S. and abroad. Isenberg shows that Ulmer's unconventional path was in many ways more typical than that of his more famous colleagues. As he follows the twists and turns of Ulmer's fortunes, Isenberg also conveys a new understanding of low-budget filmmaking in the studio era and beyond.

Author Notes

Isenberg Noah :

Noah Isenberg is Director of Screen Studies and Professor of Culture and Media at the New School, author of Detour , and editor of Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era .

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This definitive study of fringe director Edgar Ulmer (1904-72) is also an anatomy of the B-movie industry. An emigre, Ulmer aspired to become a quintessential American director, and he first explored the faith and conviction of the nation's various ethnicities. Isenberg (New School) scrutinizes the features Ulmer directed, from the syphilis-warning Damaged Lives (1933) across the range of B films to The Cavern (1964), his last film, with Dalton Trumbo as screenwriter. Ulmer's classics include The Black Cat, Girls in Chains, Bluebeard, Strange Illusion, The Naked Dawn (his best Western), and his three great noirs, Detour, Ruthless, and Murder Is My Beat. Isenberg also travels down fascinating byways: Ulmer's four Yiddish films, the Canadian feature From Nine to Nine, the semi-documentary Carnegie Hall, and his foray into sci-fi. Forced to operate on minuscule budgets and short shooting schedules, Ulmer relied on opportunity: John Ford's The Hurricane provided the palm trees that led to Ulmer's Isle of Forgotten Sins, which led to his war-shadowed musical Jive Junction. The stories of Ulmer's offscreen seat-of-the-pants artistry make for a delightful and inspiring read. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals; general readers. M. Yacowar emeritus, University of Calgary

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Reviews (1)

Choice Review