Karel Lamač

Karel Lamač (27 January 1897 – 2 August 1952) was a Czech film director, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer.^[1] He directed more than 100 films in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Karel Lamač
Born	(1897-01-27)27 January 1897 Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)
Died	2 August 1952(1952-08-02) (aged 55) Hamburg, West Germany (now Germany)
Other names	Carl Lamac
Occupation(s)	Film director, actor, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1919–1952

Life

Lamač was born 27 January 1897 in Prague, Austria-Hungary. His parents were Karel Lamač sr. (1863–1938), opera singer and a pharmacist, and Františka Lamačová (née Prusíková, 1860–1949).^[2] In his childhood Lamač was interested in pharmacy, electrical engineering, stage magic and acting. Before WWI he went to apprentice in camera manufacturer company Ernemann in Dresden.^[2] During the war he was a combat cameraman. After the war he became a technical director of film laboratory in Excelsiorfilm. He started working in movies in 1918, first as an actor, later as a writer and a director. Among his best movies of this period are crime drama The Poisoned Light, comedy Catch Him! and drama White Paradise. In 1923 he wrote a book How to write a film libretto.^[2] His frequent collaborators were actress Anny Ondra, cinematographer Otto Heller and screenwriter Václav Wasserman.^[2] In 1926 he co-founded a film studio Kavalírka where he made his movies until it burned down in 1929.^[2]

In 1930 he founded a production company Ondra-Lamač Film with his then girlfriend Anny Ondra in Berlin.^[3] During 1930s he was making movies in Germany, Czechoslovakia, France and Austria. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia he left to Netherlands to make De Spooktrein and then to United Kingdom where he joined Czechoslovak Army. He served in RAF until 1941 and in infantry division until 1946. He made war documentaries and three feature movies during WWII.^[2] After the war he made two movies in France. In 1947 then went to USA where he worked on technical innovations of color film and camera lenses. In 1951 he returned to Germany and directed his last film The Thief of Bagdad.^[2]

He died in Hamburg, West Germany due to serious problems with his kidneys.^[2][4]

Selected filmography

Director

Year	Title	Notes
1919	The Furious Bridegroom	Short film. Considered lost.
1919	Chord of Death	Considered lost.
1920	Gilly in Prague for the First Time
1921	The Poisoned Light
1923	The Lumberjack
1924	White Paradise
1925	Catch Him!
1925	Karel Havlíček Borovský	Considered lost.
1925	The Lantern
1926	The Countess from Podskalí	Considered lost.
1926	The Good Soldier Schweik
1926	Schweik at the Front
1926	Never the Twain	Considered lost.
1927	The Old Dad Bezoušek
1927	A Flower of the Šumava Mountains	Considered lost.
1927	Sweet Josefine	Considered lost.
1928	Eve's Daughters
1928	The First Kiss
1928	Suzy Saxophone
1928	Der erste Kuß
1929	Sin	Considered lost.
1929	Sinful and Sweet
1929	Sin of a Beautiful Woman
1929	The Girl with the Whip
1929	The Caviar Princess
1930	Das Mädel aus U.S.A.
1929	Fairground People
1930	Imperial and Royal Field Marshal
1930	K. und K. Feldmarschall	German version of Imperial and Royal Field Marshal
1930	Monsieur le maréchal	French version of Imperial and Royal Field Marshal
1930	Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du
1931	Him and His Sister
1931	Er und seine Schwester	German version of Him and His Sister
1931	The Squeaker
1931	Business Under Distress
1931	Die Fledermaus
1931	Wehe, wenn er losgelassen
1931	La Chauve-Souris [fr]	Co-directed with Pierre Billon
1932	Mamsell Nitouche
1932	A Night in Paradise
1932	Une nuit au paradis
1932	Lelíček in the Services of Sherlock Holmes
1932	The Undertaker
1932	Die grausame Freundin
1932	Faut-il les marier?
1932	The Ringer
1932	Kiki
1932	Baby
1933	Daughter of the Regiment
1933	La fille du régiment	French version of Daughter of the Regiment
1933	Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen
1933	The Good Tramp Bernášek
1933	Jindra, the Countess Ostrovín
1933	The Love Hotel
1933	Orchesterprobe	Short film
1934	So ein Theater!	Short film
1934	Der verhexte Scheinwerfer
1934	The Switched Bride	Short film
1934	L'amour en cage
1934	Karneval und Liebe
1934	Little Dorrit
1934	Frasquita
1934	The Brenken Case
1934	Polská krev
1934	Polish Blood	German version of Polská krev
1934	Nezlobte dědečka
1935	Knockout
1935	Großreinemachen
1935	I Love All the Women
1935	J'aime toutes les femmes	French version of Ich liebe alle Frauen
1935	The White Horse Inn
1935	The Young Count
1936	The Postman from Longjumeau
1936	The Bashful Casanova
1936	Flitterwochen
1936	On the Green Meadow
1936	Where the Lark Sings
1937	The Hound of the Baskervilles
1937	A Girl from the Chorus
1937	Vor Liebe wird gewarnt
1937	Peter im Schnee
1937	Grounds for Divorce
1937	Cause for Divorce	German version of Důvod k rozvodu
1937	The Vagabonds
1937	Pat und Patachon im Paradies
1937	Florentine
1938	Immer wenn ich glücklich bin..!
1938	Forbidden Love
1938	Frühlingsluft
1938	Ducháček Will Fix It
1938	The Lantern
1938	Watch Out for the Ghosts
1939	Place de la Concorde
1939	Slávka, Don't Give In!
1939	U pokladny stál...
1939	De Spooktrein
1940	Narcisse
1943	Schweik's New Adventures
1943	They Met in the Dark
1944	It Happened One Sunday
1947	La Colère des dieux
1947	One Night at the Tabarin
1952	The Thief of Bagdad

Actor

• Gilly in Prague for the First Time (1920)
• The Poisoned Light (1921)
• The Arrival from the Darkness (1921)
• Look After Your Daughters (1922)
• Lead Us Not into Temptation (1922)
• Young Medardus (1923)
• Helena (1924)
• The Secret Agent (1924)
• White Paradise (1924)
• The Lantern (1925)
• Eve's Daughters (1928)

Producer

• The Double (1934)

References

1. "Karel Lamač". csfd.cz. Archived from the original on 1 September 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
2. "Lamač Karel (1897–1952) Inventář" (PDF) (in Czech). Národní filmový archiv. 1997.
3. "Funny Ladies 1 (2002)". Retrieved 6 April 2016.
4. Český hraný film I 1898–1930. Praha: NFA. 1995.

External links

• Karel Lamač at IMDb