Karl Hartl | |
---|---|
Born |
Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
10 May 1899
Died | 29 August 1978 Vienna, Austria |
(aged 79)
Occupation | Director |
Years active | 1917–1962 |
Spouse(s) | Marte Harell |
Karl Hartl (10 May 1899 – 29 August 1978) was an Austrian film director.
Born in Vienna, Hartl began his film career at the Austrian Sascha-Film company of Alexander Kolowrat and from 1919 was assistant to the Hungarian director Alexander Korda. As a production manager, he in the 1920s accompanied Korda to Berlin, until in 1926 he returned to Vienna to work for his former class-mate director Gustav Ucicky.
From 1930 he worked for Universum Film AG (UFA) and gave his debut as director of Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg ("A Fraternity Song from Heidelberg") starring Hans Brausewetter and Willi Forst, with young Billy Wilder as a screenwriter. Together with Luis Trenker he directed the Gebirgsjäger drama Berge in Flammen ("Mountains in Flames") in 1931. He then experimented with other genres, for example the comedy Die Gräfin von Monte Cristo ("The Countess of Monte Cristo") (1932) with Brigitte Helm and Gustaf Gründgens, and in the same year achieved his final breakthrough with the flying drama film F.P.1 antwortet nicht written by Curt Siodmak and produced by Erich Pommer, with Hans Albers, Peter Lorre and Sybille Schmitz in the leads. His lavish science fiction film Gold, released in 1934, is surprisingly listed as among the most successful German films of the genre. Karl Hartl had some experience in Spanish documentaries, and in 1937 also directed the popular criminal comedy Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war ("The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes") starring Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann.