Dieterle,William b.July 15, 1893; Ludwigshafen am Rhein, (Bavarian Palatinate), Bavaria d. December 8, 1972; Ottobrunn, Bavaria
U.S. film director, born Wilhelm Dieterle
An eclectic filmmaker and producer, Wilhelm Dieterle grew up in Germany and began his artistic career as an actor for Max Reinhardt, onstage in Berlin, in 1921 (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and onscreen for director Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni (Hintertreppe [Backstairs], 1921), Paul Leni (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett [Waxworks], 1924), Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (playing Valentin in Faust, 1926), and many others, appearing in some sixty silent films mainly between 1920 and 1930.
In Germany, Wilhelm Dieterle directed fifteen films from 1923 to 1931. He was the first director who ever produced a biographical film, Ludwig der Zweite, Konig von Bayern (Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, 1929).In 1930, Wilhelm Dieterle emigrated to the United States, where he released more than fifty feature films under the Americanized name of William Dieterle. The genres varied: dramas, musicals, adaptations from classics (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, 1939), and film noir (Portrait of Jennie, 1948). In 1935, William Dieterle teamed with Reinhardt, and they codirected a flamboyant film version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), with the music of Felix Mendelssohn. Although it was a commercial failure, this big-budget film was acclaimed by critics, and it remains the only film production made in the United States by Max Reinhardt. In Hollywood, William Dieterle also worked with actor Paul Muni for two major biographies of French
celebrities: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935) and The Life of Emile Zola (1937). This second production won the Oscar for best picture in 1937. He also directed Bette Davis in an early version of the Dashiell Hammett novel The Maltese Falcon, titled Satan Met a Lady (1936). During World War II, Dieterle was the cofounder of an anti-Nazi magazine, The Hollywood Tribune, and helped many Jewish refugees arriving in the United States from Germany. William Dieterle returned to West Germany in 1959, working for minor productions, either in film, television, and later for theater festivals (Bad Hersfeld; Munich).
Yves Laberge
See also Hollywood; Leni, Paul; Murnau, Friedrich Wilhelm; Reinhardt, Max
References and Further Reading
Gemunden, Gerd. “Dieterle, William.” GERMAN 43: Exiles and Emigres. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~germ43/resou rces/biographies/dieterle-w.html (accessed May 11, 2005).
The German-Hollywood Connection. www.germanhollywood.com (accessed May 11, 2005).
Passek, Jean-Loup, ed. Dictionnaire du Cinema. Paris: Larousse, 1998.