Erich Pommer

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Erich Pommer (left) with Carl Zuckmayer and Emil Jannings (1929)

Erich Pommer (20 July 1889 – 8 May 1966) was a German-born film producer
and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German
and European Film Industries in the 1920s and early 1930s.[1]
As producer, Erich Pommer was involved in the German Expressionist film
movement during the silent era. As the head of production at Decla Film, Decla-
Bioskop, and, from 1924 to 1926, at UFA, Pommer was responsible for many of
the best known movies of the Weimar Republic such as The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari (1920), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Die
Nibelungen (1924), Michael (1924), Der Letzte Mann / The Last
Laugh (1924), Variety (1925), Tartuffe (1926), Manon
Lescaut (1926), Faust (1926), Metropolis (1927) and The Blue Angel (1930). He
later worked in American exile before returning to Germany to help rebuild the
German film industry after World War II.

Contents

 1Early life and career

 2Work with UFA
 3Paramount and MGM
 4Return to UFA
 5Exile and eventual return
 6Awards
 7Films
 8References
 9Bibliography
 10External links

Early life and career[edit]

Pommer was born in Hildesheim, Province of Hanover, to the Jewish[2] couple
Gustav Pommer and his wife Anna. His elder brother was Albert Pommer, who
also became a film producer. After a brief apprenticeship with the
Herrenkonfektion Machol & Lewin,[3] Pommer began his film career in 1907, with
the Berlin branch of the Gaumont company, eventually taking over as director of
its Viennese branch in 1910.[4] In 1912, Pommer concluded his military service
and became a representative of the French Éclair camera company in Vienna,
where he was responsible for film distribution to Central and Eastern Europe. In
1913, he became Éclair's general representative for Central Europe, Denmark,
Sweden, Norway and Poland, based in Berlin. In the same year, he married
Gertrud Levy and became, together with Marcel Vandal, the director-general of
the Viennese office of Éclair. Under Pommer's direction, the company began
the production of feature films including Das Geheimnis der Lüfte / Le mystère
de l'air (in English, the Mystery of the Air), the first films he produced.[5] Another
five films followed in 1915.
With French capital from Éclair, and together with Fritz Holz, Pommer - while
serving as a soldier in 1915 at the Western front - established the Deutsche
"Eclair" Film- und Kinematographen-GmbH ("Deutsche Eclair" or Decla) in
Berlin.[6] Decla produced adventure and detective films, drama, and society
pieces, as well as short film series. Its own Decla film distribution business, led
by Hermann Saklikower, also presented foreign films. Pommer served in the
First World War at the West and Eastern fronts, but injuries suffered in action
led him to return to Berlin in 1916, where he was responsible for training
recruits. Later, he worked for the Bild- und Filmamt (Bufa) at the German War
Ministry.
After the 1919 merger of Decla with the Meinert-Film-Gesellschaft, Rudolf
Meinert became head of production while Erich Pommer took charge of foreign
distribution. Decla's production became more ambitious. The brands "Decla
Abenteuerklasse" (producing, among others, Fritz Lang's Die Spinnen. 2. Teil:
Die Brillantenschiff (The Spiders, Part 2: The Diamond Ship, 1920) and "Decla
Weltklasse" (including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), under the direction
of Robert Wiene) were created.
Decla merged with Deutsche Bioskop AG to create Decla Bioskop AG, thus
becoming in 1920 the second largest German film company after Ufa. Decla
owned a studio in Neubabelsberg and a cinema chain. Two subsidiaries were
formed: Uco-Film GmbH and Russo Films. The Uco Film GmbH, in whose
establishment the Ullstein publishing house was involved, dedicated itself to
filming serials from novels. Schloß Vogelöd / The Haunted Castle and Phantom,
under the direction of F. W. Murnau, as well as Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, the
Gambler, were released. Russo Films focused on the adaptation of works of
world literature. In a 1922 interview, Pommer stated that the international
success of the German films would have to be linked to the production of quality
pictures.
Pommer gathered around him talented directors (Carl Froelich and Fritz
Wendhausen), script writers (Thea von Harbou, Carl Mayer, and Robert
Liebmann), cameramen (Karl Freund, Carl Hoffmann, and Willy Hameister),
architects (Walter Roehrig and Robert Herlth), as well as actors and actresses.
In November 1921, Decla-Bioskop was taken over by Universum Film AG (Ufa),
although it maintained a modicum of independence.

Work with UFA[edit]

As a result of the merger with UFA, Erich Pommer not only continued as CEO
of Decla-Bioskop, but also took over direction of Union-Film and Messter-Film.
In early 1923, Pommer also joined the Ufa executive committee, to oversee all
film production.[7] At about the same time, he became the first chairman of the
Central Organization of the German Film Industry (SPIO), which would shape
German cinema during the Weimar Republic. The country's hyper inflation
made expensive productions possible: at that time the work of several classical
authors were adapted into movies, and internationally successful big budget
films were released, including Der letzte Mann (The Last Laugh,
1924), Variety (1925), Faust (1926), and Manon Lescaut (1926).
Pommer led Ufa to unprecedented worldwide prestige.[8] However, Pommer
came to disagree with the policies of Ufa's new CEO Ferdinand Bausback,
including the Parufamet agreement[9] (which later proved disastrous for Ufa as
Pommer had predicted[10]). To save face, Bausback and the Ufa board blamed
the company's troubles on increasing production costs, especially cost overruns
of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (UFA's most expensive film to date), on Pommer
himself.[11]

Paramount and MGM[edit]

In January 1926, Pommer resigned from Ufa,[12] and a few months later, he left
with his family for Hollywood. He was followed by a number of his production
and acting team, including film directors Ludwig Berger, Paul Leni, E.A.
Dupont, Lothar Mendes, and William Dieterle and actors Conrad Veidt, Emil
Jannings, and Lya de Putti.[13]
Working for Paramount Pictures, Pommer produced two films starring Pola
Negri, Hotel Imperial and Barbed Wire (both 1927). He then was hired by Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to supervise all units involving foreign directors.[14] His
films at MGM included The Demi-Bride with Norma Shearer, California with Tim
McCoy, and Mockery with Lon Chaney.[15]
Meanwhile, Ufa had been acquired by the right-wing press magnate Alfred
Hugenberg, and in July 1927, he sent Ufa's new CEO Ludwig Klitzsch to
America to bring Pommer back to Germany.[16] From the USA, Pommer brought
organizational and technical innovations, such as the use of shooting schedules
and camera crane cars.

Return to UFA[edit]
Pommer was given his own production unit at UFA, working under the overall
control of the new head of production Ernst Hugo Correll, who effectively
occupied Pommer's former role at the company. As head of the "Erich-Pommer-
Produktion der Ufa" (Erich Pommer production of the Ufa), he
produced Heimkehr (Homecoming) and Ungarische Rhapsodie (Hungarian
Rhapsody, both 1928). His last silent productions were Asphalt directed by Joe
May and Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna starring Brigitte
Helm and Franz Lederer
Pommer was a pioneer of sound film in Germany and of multiple language
versions (MLV) as a means to cope with selling big productions to different
countries: Melodie des Herzens / Melody of the Heart, made at the end of 1929
in Berlin, was produced in a German, English, French, Hungarian as well as a
silent version. The film also created the Operetta film genre. The "Erich-
Pommer-Produktion der Ufa" turned out several international box office hits in
the following years, most notably Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930),
starring Marlene Dietrich. Among his productions was a series of popular
musical comedies such as Die Drei von der Tankstelle and Der Kongreß
tanzt / Congress Dances and the science fiction spectacle F.P.1, which was
shot in three language versions.

Exile and eventual return[edit]

After the Nazi Party came to power early in 1933, UFA rescinded Pommer's
contract and he picked up an offer of Fox Film Corporation to build Fox
Europa as its European arm in Paris, where he produced Max Ophüls' On a
volé un homme (1933) and Fritz Lang's Liliom (1934), and then went on to
Hollywood again. In 1936, he worked in the United Kingdom for Alexander
Korda's London Films (Fire Over England 1936 and Farewell Again 1937).[17] In
1937 he formed a production company, the Mayflower Picture Corp., with
actor Charles Laughton. Pommer not only produced but also directed their first
film, Vessel of Wrath (also known as The Beachcomber), replacing Bartlett
Cormack with the latter's agreement.[18] Although Pommer subsequently
received offers to direct and could have pursued a directing career, he preferred
producing and never directed another film[19] In 1938, Pommer produced St.
Martin's Lane directed by Tim Whelan starring Laughton and Vivien Leigh and
in 1939 Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn again with Laughton and also
introducing Maureen O'Hara in her first film.[20] Pommer was in New York City for
distribution negotiations when the Second World War broke out. Because he
still held a German passport, he was unable to return to the United Kingdom
and remained in the United States.[21]
In 1939 he signed with RKO Radio Pictures, in Hollywood, for whom he
produced two pictures, including Dance, Girl, Dance and They Knew What They
Wanted. Becoming seriously ill in 1941 (he was a chain-smoker and suffered a
heart attack), his contract with RKO was not renewed. Between 1942 and 1946,
Pommer worked on a few film projects, some of which eventually went into
production but without him. Pommer and his wife rented a small apartment and
lived off the proceeds from the sale of personal valuables. They also helped two
close friends, Fred Pinkus (a former business manager from Berlin) and his
wife, silent movie star Eliza La Porta, who bought chinaware and glasses and
then hand-painted them to sell to the higher-class department stores. Pommer's
wife helped with the painting, and Pommer alternated with Pinkus to work the
drying oven in Pinkus' garage.[22] Having resided continuously in the United
States since 1939, Pommer and his wife became naturalized American citizens
in 1944.
In 1946, Pommer returned to Germany, where he became the highest-ranking
film control officer of the American military Government OMGUS responsible for
the reorganisation of the German film industry overseeing the reconstruction of
studios and assigning production licenses. In spite of opposition from both
Americans and Germans, Pommer rebuilt the German film industry from
ashes.[23] By 1948, a total of 28 feature films had been produced in West
Germany under his supervision.[24] Together with film director Curt
Oertel and Horst von Hartlieb, director of the film distribution association in
Wiesbaden, Pommer also established a voluntary self-control system for the
German motion picture industry, which evolved into the Freiwillige
Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft (FSK), implementing a voluntary self-rating
system for the movie industry modeled on the Hays Code in the USA.
Establishment of this system (and the subsequent establishment of the FSK)
avoided government regulation and censorship of the movie industry and
replaced military censoring. In 1949 Pommer resigned his office, believing his
work to be complete,[25] and returned to the United States. He then attempted to
launch Signature Pictures with Dorothy Arzner to produce American films in
Europe, an endeavor that failed to obtain promised financing. [26]
In 1951 he started the "Intercontinental Film GmbH" in Munich, making a few
movies, including Nights on the Road (1951), which won the 1953 German Film
Award, and Kinder, Mütter und ein General, which won the 1955 Golden Globe
Award for Best Foreign Film and the 1956 Grand Prize of the Belgian Union of
Cinema Critics. However, restrictions forced on Pommer led him to resettle in
California. Physically badly shaken (Pommer used a wheelchair after the
amputation of a leg) his career as a producer was ended. He retired to live
quietly with his wife. After his wife's death, he lived with his son's family.
Pommer died in Los Angeles, California, in 1966.

Awards[edit]
 1953 German Film Award for "Nachts auf den Strassen".
 1955 Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for "Kinder, Mütter, und ein
General".
 1956 Grand-Prix de l'Union de la Critique de Cinéma (UCC) for "Kinder,
Mütter, und ein General".

Films[edit]
 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
 The Haunted Castle (1921)
 Destiny (1921)
 Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
 The Last Laugh (1924)
 The Pleasure Garden (1925)
 Variety (1925)
 Faust (1926)
 Metropolis (1927)
 Spies (1928)
 The Blue Angel (1930)
 Liliom (1934)
 Music in the Air (1934)
 Fire Over England (1937)
 Vessel of Wrath (1938)
 St. Martin's Lane (1938)
 Jamaica Inn (1939)
 Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
 They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
 Nights on the Road (1952)

References[edit]
1. ^ Nowell-Smith p. 145
2. ^ "Enemies of the State: Jewish Filmmakers in Nazi Germany". 27 August 2010.
3. ^ Hardt p. 16
4. ^ Hardt p. 19
5. ^ Hardt p. 20
6. ^ Jacobsen p. 21
7. ^ Hardt p. 68
8. ^ Hardt p. 87
9. ^ Jacobsen p. 75
10. ^ Hardt p. 88–89
11. ^ Hardt p. 89–91
12. ^ Hardt p. 92
13. ^ Hardt p. 92
14. ^ Hardt p. 98
15. ^ Hardt p. 102–104
16. ^ Jacobsen p. 83
17. ^ Hardt p. 149
18. ^ Hardt p. 151
19. ^ Hardt p. 152
20. ^ Hardt p. 154
21. ^ Hardt p. 154
22. ^ Hardt p. 162
23. ^ Hardt p. 202
24. ^ "Erich Pommer | UFA Stars | Spotlights | Channels | UFA - INSPIRING
ENTERTAINMENT". www.ufa.de. Archived from the original on 2011-01-07.
25. ^ Hardt p. 186
26. ^ Hardt p. 189