WRITER CARL MAYER (1894-1944)

CONTENTS



FILMOGRAPHY
ABSTRACT
SOURCES
LITERATURE
    Carl Mayer (1894-1944)

FILMOGRAPHY






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ABSTRACT



Austrian Carl Mayer became German cinema's finest scriptwriter. In 1919, frustrated by his job at the Berlin Residenztheater and in dire need of some money, he was looking for a job in film industry, and co-scripted THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920) with Hans Janowitz. A friend of them, actress Gilda Langer, had already starred in a couple of films, and finally signed a contract with Decla Film-Gesellschaft, the company that would ultimately purchase Mayer's and Janowitz' script and produce CALIGARI. Following that, Mayer went on to script such remarkable films as CALIGARI-successor GENUINE (1920), "Kammerspielfilme" SCHERBEN (1921), HINTERTREPPE (1921) and SYLVESTER (1924), and Murnau's classics DER LETZTE MANN (1925) and SUNRISE (1927, recently made number 7 on a Sight & Sound critic's all-time favourite poll). Mayer collaborated with directors F.W. Murnau, Lupu Pick, Paul Czinner, and Paul Rotha, friend of Mayer's London years, who described him thus: "An autumn leaf floating on a soft wind; always a smile in those eyes. That was the image of Carl which I carried with me when not in his company, and that is the image I have today -- nearly thirty-six years after his death. He never wore a hat to cover his mass of luxurious hair. Sometimes he resembled Beethoven. His clothing was always nondescript. You could never hear him walk. He would just appear, with the same smiling greeting, "Hallo, Paul!"" Mayer died in London, and is buried on Highgate Cemetery.




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SOURCES



The following documents are registration forms confirming Mayer's residence in Vienna in the 1910s. Reprinted by friendly permission of the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv.

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna

Carl Mayer registration Vienna


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LITERATURE



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Last update (this page): 21 Jul 2004.

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