Max Nosseck

Max Nosseck (19 September 1902 – 29 September 1972) was a German film director, actor, and screenwriter.^[1]

Nosseck was born in Nakel, then in Prussia, but now in Poland. Nosseck established himself as a director in the German Film Industry, but due to his Jewish background he was forced to emigrate following the Nazi takeover in 1933. He directed films in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and United States.

In 1934 Max Nosseck directed Buster Keaton, then struggling with alcoholism and a messy divorce, in the French feature Le Roi des Champs-Élysées.

Nosseck's American films typed him as a director of sensationalist subjects, usually juvenile-vagrancy melodramas. His most famous "exploitation" film is Dillinger (1945), a gangster picture chronicling the rise and fall of John Dillinger. The film starred Lawrence Tierney, with whom Nosseck reunited for two crime thrillers in later years. In a surprising turnabout, Nosseck directed two wholesome animal adventures in 1946 and 1947.

After his American assignments, he returned to work in the German and Austrian film industries. Nosseck married three times: to Austrian actress Olly Gebauer, to German actress Ilse Steppat, and to the writer and aviator Genevieve Haugen.

He died in Bad Wiessee.

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Director