Max Schach

Max Schach
Born	2 May 1886 Čenta, Vojvodina Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	1957 London, England United Kingdom
Other names	Max Schacherl
Occupation	Journalist Producer
Years active	1929 - 1937 (producer)

Max Schach (1886–1957) was a Austro-Hungarian-born film producer. Schach is particularly associated with British cinema, where he was a leading figure in the boom of the mid-1930s.

Schach was born as Max Schacherl to a Jewish family in Čenta, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He worked in Germany for many years as a journalist, and was particularly noted as a theatre and later film critic. He became involved in the German film industry during the silent era, working in a variety of roles at UFA, Emelka and Universal Pictures' German subsidiary. He personally produced several films, including some directed by his brother-in-law Karl Grune.

Schach emigrated to Britain in 1934 following the Nazi takeover in Berlin. In the wake of the international success of Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) Schach secured financial backing from the City of London who wanted to invest in the growing British film industry. He oversaw a series of independent film companies which made large-budget productions aimed at international markets. Many of his films employed fellow European exiles from the Nazis, including Fritz Kortner and Richard Tauber and Karl Grune. Because of his lavish budgets Schach was able to attract figures away from more established film companies. While some of the films such as Abdul the Damned (1934) made money, a lot struggled to recover their large budgets.

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