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Kurt Neumann (director)

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Kurt Neumann
Born(1908-04-05)5 April 1908
Nuremberg, Germany
Died21 August 1958(1958-08-21) (aged 50)
Los Angeles
OccupationFilm director

Kurt Neumann (5 April 1908 – 21 August 1958) was a German-born film director who specialized in science fiction movies in his later career.[1]

Biography

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Born in Nuremberg, he was the son of a manufacturer of tin stamps, and he studied music in several German cities, including Berlin. In 1926, he directed his first short movie.

Neumann came to the U.S. in the early sound era, hired to direct German-language versions of Hollywood films. Once he mastered English and established himself as technically proficient in filmmaking, Neumann directed movies such as The Big Cage (1932), Secret of the Blue Room (1933) with Paul Lukas and Gloria Stuart, Hold 'Em Navy (1936), It Happened in New Orleans (1936) with child star Bobby Breen, Wide Open Faces (1937) with Joe E. Brown, Island of Lost Men and Ellery Queen: Master Detective in 1939.

Neumann was signed by producer Hal Roach in 1941 to direct a series of "streamliners", 45-minute features designed to fill out short double bills. Among these four-reel comedies were About Face (1942), Brooklyn Orchid (1942), Taxi, Mister? (1943) and Yanks Ahoy (1943). Two Knights from Brooklyn (1949) is compiled from two of those streamliners: The McGuerins from Brooklyn and Taxi, Mister.

In 1945, he joined the company of producer Sol Lesser, who engaged Neumann as coproducer and principal director of the Tarzan series produced by Lesser from 1945 to 1954. The Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Gordon Scott.

Neumann became known as a specialist in science-fiction movies due to his producing and directing Rocketship X-M (1950, about an expedition to the Moon and Mars) and The Fly (1958, about a scientist's teleportation experiment that transforms him into a fly creature). Neumann directed other sci-fi and horror films such as Kronos (1957) and She-Devil (1957), and directed other films such as The Ring (1952) an independent feature co-starring Rita Moreno, Carnival Story (1954), Mohawk (1956), and The Deerslayer (1957).

Contrary to some published reports, Neumann did not die as a result of suicide, but rather from natural causes in Los Angeles on 21 August 1958, five weeks after filming of The Fly concluded. He was inurned at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.[2]

Partial filmography

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(Neumann credited as director unless otherwise noted)

References

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  1. ^ Allmovie entry
  2. ^ "Kurt neumann, director, dies in mystery". Los Angeles Times. Aug 22, 1958. ProQuest 167255402.
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