Walter Reisch(1903-1983)
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
After completing studies in literature at the University of Vienna,
Walter Reisch began his screen career as an extra and title writer in
1918. He eventually made the acquaintance of
Stephan Lorant, a refuge from the Horty
regime in Hungary, who, within a single year, had made a name for
himself in Austrian films as a film maker and cinematographer. Lorant
gave Reisch a break by promoting him as his assistant director on
Die Narrenkappe der Liebe (1921).
Reisch followed Lorant to Berlin -- then the artistic hub of Europe --
to work as his assistant cameraman. He subsequently continued on in the
same capacity, working on documentary newsreeels in Switzerland.
In 1925, Reisch returned to Austria to specialise as a scenarist.
Before long, his growing reputation led the producer
Erich Pommer to sign him to a contract with
Germany's leading film company Ufa, where he had the opportunity to
work alongside another gifted Viennese writer named
Billy Wilder. Much of Reisch's work at this
time was adapted from literary classics, but he also used some of his
own original stories as material. From 1930, he managed to fulfill his
long-standing ambition to write lyrics for operatic films. For the next
three years, he contributed to many melodies which became popular
across the European continent, featured in films like
Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel-Takt (1930),
The Theft of the Mona Lisa (1931)
and A Blonde Dream (1932).
With the rise of Nazism, Reisch, like most creative talent of Jewish
background, was forced to join the mass exodus from Germany. He had a
brief resurgence in Vienna, where he worked under
Willi Forst on the comedy
Masquerade in Vienna (1934) and the
Franz Schubert biopic
Unfinished Symphony (1934).
Both turned out to be solid international hits. By 1936, the political
situation in Austria had made it untenable for Reisch to continue his
work. Almost penniless, he moved on to join his previous mentor
Alexander Korda (for whom he had
worked as assistant in his student days) in London. After writing and
directing the comedy
Men Are Not Gods (1936),
starring Miriam Hopkins, Reisch
unexpectedly received an offer from
Louis B. Mayer, who was on a tour of
European cities scouting for talent. Soon bound for MGM, Reisch crossed
the Atlantic aboard the cruise liner Normandie, with ice-skating star
Sonja Henie and actors
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and
Gertrude Lawrence as fellow
passengers.
At MGM (1938-48), his chief contribution was in story construction,
solving continuity problems, providing narrative, inventing characters
and making relationships between characters plausible and compelling.
It remained for other writers, like
Charles Brackett or Wilder, to sort out
the dialogue. Reisch also had a knack for tailoring scripts to suit a
specific star, which he achieved to great effect for
Greta Garbo (with
Ninotchka (1939)),
Clark Gable (with
Comrade X (1940)) and
Ingrid Bergman (with
Gaslight (1944)). Reisch had another
crack at directing with
Song of Scheherazade (1947).
It ended up being made at Universal, because MGM, having an
over-abundance of directors under contract, wanted to keep their
writers doing what they did best. Though made relatively cheaply, "Song
of Scheherazade" turned out to be an ill-advised piece of kitsch,
centred around a purely fictitous romance between composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and a
dancer. The film was roundly slammed by critics and Reisch was never
again approached to direct another picture.
Despite this setback, he returned to best writing form after joining
20th Century Fox in 1949, though he had to adapt himself to a new
working methodology: budgets and schedules were tighter and just about
everything had to be run past
Darryl F. Zanuck; the studio also
tended to lean towards action subjects, rather than musical comedy,
romantic melodrama or wry satire, which had hitherto been Reisch's
forte. Nonetheless, his lengthy tenure at Fox encompassed two massive
back-to-back hits. In collaboration with his former writing partner
Charles Brackett, he first worked on location at Niagara Falls,
devising the entire original story for
Niagara (1953), Brackett handling the
dialogue and production. Reisch next worked on
Titanic (1953), for which he developed
many of the characters by researching contemporary newspaper articles.
For this, he was made co-recipient of the Oscar for Best Writing, Story
and Screenplay in 1954. His last worthy effort was a powerful,
underrated drama based on a sensational 1906 scandal:
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).
Zanuck wanted a star vehicle for his latest acquisition,
Joan Collins, and Reisch obliged by
selling him on the Thaw-White murder case, with Collins in the role of
actress Evelyn Nesbit. He had the script
ready within ten weeks, painstakingly researched from the original
transcripts, and, as he later proudly claimed, '70 % fact and only 30%
fictionalised'!
In 1959, a strike of the Screen Writer's Guild prevented Reisch from
working for six months. When he was finally able to return, a regime
change at Fox had taken place, and, as part of a general purge, his
contract was not renewed.
Walter Reisch began his screen career as an extra and title writer in
1918. He eventually made the acquaintance of
Stephan Lorant, a refuge from the Horty
regime in Hungary, who, within a single year, had made a name for
himself in Austrian films as a film maker and cinematographer. Lorant
gave Reisch a break by promoting him as his assistant director on
Die Narrenkappe der Liebe (1921).
Reisch followed Lorant to Berlin -- then the artistic hub of Europe --
to work as his assistant cameraman. He subsequently continued on in the
same capacity, working on documentary newsreeels in Switzerland.
In 1925, Reisch returned to Austria to specialise as a scenarist.
Before long, his growing reputation led the producer
Erich Pommer to sign him to a contract with
Germany's leading film company Ufa, where he had the opportunity to
work alongside another gifted Viennese writer named
Billy Wilder. Much of Reisch's work at this
time was adapted from literary classics, but he also used some of his
own original stories as material. From 1930, he managed to fulfill his
long-standing ambition to write lyrics for operatic films. For the next
three years, he contributed to many melodies which became popular
across the European continent, featured in films like
Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel-Takt (1930),
The Theft of the Mona Lisa (1931)
and A Blonde Dream (1932).
With the rise of Nazism, Reisch, like most creative talent of Jewish
background, was forced to join the mass exodus from Germany. He had a
brief resurgence in Vienna, where he worked under
Willi Forst on the comedy
Masquerade in Vienna (1934) and the
Franz Schubert biopic
Unfinished Symphony (1934).
Both turned out to be solid international hits. By 1936, the political
situation in Austria had made it untenable for Reisch to continue his
work. Almost penniless, he moved on to join his previous mentor
Alexander Korda (for whom he had
worked as assistant in his student days) in London. After writing and
directing the comedy
Men Are Not Gods (1936),
starring Miriam Hopkins, Reisch
unexpectedly received an offer from
Louis B. Mayer, who was on a tour of
European cities scouting for talent. Soon bound for MGM, Reisch crossed
the Atlantic aboard the cruise liner Normandie, with ice-skating star
Sonja Henie and actors
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and
Gertrude Lawrence as fellow
passengers.
At MGM (1938-48), his chief contribution was in story construction,
solving continuity problems, providing narrative, inventing characters
and making relationships between characters plausible and compelling.
It remained for other writers, like
Charles Brackett or Wilder, to sort out
the dialogue. Reisch also had a knack for tailoring scripts to suit a
specific star, which he achieved to great effect for
Greta Garbo (with
Ninotchka (1939)),
Clark Gable (with
Comrade X (1940)) and
Ingrid Bergman (with
Gaslight (1944)). Reisch had another
crack at directing with
Song of Scheherazade (1947).
It ended up being made at Universal, because MGM, having an
over-abundance of directors under contract, wanted to keep their
writers doing what they did best. Though made relatively cheaply, "Song
of Scheherazade" turned out to be an ill-advised piece of kitsch,
centred around a purely fictitous romance between composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and a
dancer. The film was roundly slammed by critics and Reisch was never
again approached to direct another picture.
Despite this setback, he returned to best writing form after joining
20th Century Fox in 1949, though he had to adapt himself to a new
working methodology: budgets and schedules were tighter and just about
everything had to be run past
Darryl F. Zanuck; the studio also
tended to lean towards action subjects, rather than musical comedy,
romantic melodrama or wry satire, which had hitherto been Reisch's
forte. Nonetheless, his lengthy tenure at Fox encompassed two massive
back-to-back hits. In collaboration with his former writing partner
Charles Brackett, he first worked on location at Niagara Falls,
devising the entire original story for
Niagara (1953), Brackett handling the
dialogue and production. Reisch next worked on
Titanic (1953), for which he developed
many of the characters by researching contemporary newspaper articles.
For this, he was made co-recipient of the Oscar for Best Writing, Story
and Screenplay in 1954. His last worthy effort was a powerful,
underrated drama based on a sensational 1906 scandal:
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).
Zanuck wanted a star vehicle for his latest acquisition,
Joan Collins, and Reisch obliged by
selling him on the Thaw-White murder case, with Collins in the role of
actress Evelyn Nesbit. He had the script
ready within ten weeks, painstakingly researched from the original
transcripts, and, as he later proudly claimed, '70 % fact and only 30%
fictionalised'!
In 1959, a strike of the Screen Writer's Guild prevented Reisch from
working for six months. When he was finally able to return, a regime
change at Fox had taken place, and, as part of a general purge, his
contract was not renewed.