Ernst Reicher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 September 1885 |
| Died | 1 May 1936 (aged 50) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Occupation |
|
| Years active | 1912–1932 |
| Spouse(s) | Stella Harf (divorced) |
| Parent(s) | Emanuel Reicher (father) |
| Relatives | Hedwiga Reicher (sister) Frank Reicher (half-brother) |
Ernst Reicher (19 September 1885 – 1 May 1936) was a German-Jewish [1] actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director of the silent era. [2]
His father was the actor Emanuel Reicher, born in Galicia, then part of the Kingdom of Austria. Emanuel married firstly the opera singer Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann (15 July 1853 – 2 June 1883): their son was the actor Frank Reicher. After Hedwig's death, he married the actress Lina Harf and the couple had three children: Hedwiga Reicher, Ernst, and Elly (b. Berlin 1893), who all worked as actors. [3] [4]
At Continental-Kunstfilm's studios Ernst Reicher acted, wrote scripts and directed films from 1912 to 1918. In December 1912 he starred in Vorglühen des Balkanbrandes, directed by Joe May. He wrote, directed and starred in two films: Das Werk in February 1913, and Die Statue in 1914, which was banned by the Berlin police censor until 1919.
Starting in winter 1913/14, he wrote and starred in the first three of the 'Stuart Webbs' detective films, a popular detective series directed by Joe May for Continental in which he played a gentleman detective modelled on Sherlock Holmes: Die geheimnisvolle Villa ; Der Mann im Keller ; and Der Spuk im Haus des Professors. [5] [6] When World War I broke out, Joe May split with up Reicher to make his own Joe Deebs detective motion pictures. [7]
For more than a decade after 1914, Reicher continued to write and star as Stuart Webbs, and was closely identified with the part. It was not until 1918 that Reicher turned to other topics. On the first of April 1919, he moved the headquarters of his film company to Munich. His most elaborate production was The Book of Esther (1919) in which he also starred. At the beginning of the twenties he suffered a serious car accident, in which he suffered a vertebral and fractured skull. Only from 1926 he appeared again on the screen, but he could no longer build on previous successes.
After the seizure of power in 1933 by the National Socialists, Reicher emigrated to Prague, where he fell into obscurity. His last, tiny role in the 1936 French-language remake of The Golem was cut out of the final version. Later that year, he committed suicide by hanging in a Prague hotel room, "in a small, narrow room, in a street that was far from the stage of fame." [8]
Nicholas Benton "Ben" Alexander III was an American motion picture actor, who started out as a child actor in 1916. He is best remembered for his role as Officer Frank Smith in the Dragnet franchise.
Frank Reicher was a German-born American actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film King Kong.
Joe May was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema.
Heinrich Piel, known professionally as Harry Piel, was a prolific German actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer who was involved in over 150 films.
Alfred Peter Abel was a German film actor, director, and producer. He appeared in more than 140 silent and sound films between 1913 and 1938. His best-known performance was as Joh Fredersen in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.
Die geheimnisvolle Villa is a 1914 silent German detective film directed by Joe May and starring Ernst Reicher. It is the first in the series starring the fictional gentleman detective Stuart Webbs, modelled on Sherlock Holmes. It also features Werner Krauss.
Julius Falkenstein was a German stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1914 and 1933. Falkenstein was Jewish, but secured a special permit to continue making films following the Nazi rise to power in 1933. He died of natural causes the same year, having made only one further film.
Carl Theodor Auen was a German film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1938. Auen was a member of the Militant League for German Culture and also a member of the Advisory Council (Präsidialrat) of the president of the Reichsfilmkammer.
Lupu Pick was a German actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter of the silent era. He appeared in 50 films between 1910 and 1928.
Heinrich August Franz Schroth was a German stage and film actor.
Fritz Richard was an Austrian actor and theatre director.
Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH was a short-lived German film production company based in Berlin, formed in February 1912 by Walter Schmidthässler and Max Rittberger. A large number of Continental-Kunstfilm's productions are now probably lost, although some significant films have survived into the 21st century.
Max Landa was a Russian-born Austrian silent film and stage actor. He attended the Handelsakademie in Vienna and took classes with acting teacher Karl Arnau in the same city. After working as a bank clerk for a short period he decided to focus on his acting career in 1893. After working at various theatres in Austria and Germany for about twenty years he was discovered in Berlin as leading man by movie star Asta Nielsen with whom he played in several movies directed by Urban Gad.
Stuart Webbs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Webbs was one of a number of detectives with English-sounding names to appear in German cinema of the era. Like his contemporaries such as Joe Deebs he was modeled on Sherlock Holmes. Webbs was the most popular of the group. His original film series ran from 1914 to 1926 and he continued to appear in other later films such as The Green Monocle (1929).
The Armoured Vault is a 1926 German silent thriller film directed by Lupu Pick and starring Ernst Reicher, Johannes Riemann, and Mary Nolan. It was part of a popular series featuring the detective character Stuart Webbs, and a remake of an earlier film The Armoured Vault directed by Joe May in 1914.
The Weissensee Studios was a collection of separate film production studios located in the Berlin suburb of Weißensee during the silent era.
The Ghost Hunt is a 1918 German silent crime film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Ernst Reicher, Esther Carena and Aruth Wartan. It is part of a long-running series of films featuring the detective Stuart Webbs.
The Armoured Vault is a 1914 German silent thriller film directed by Joe May and starring Ernst Reicher, Hermann Picha and Fritz Richard. It was part of the series of Stuart Webbs series, popular during the silent era. It was remade in 1926 with Reicher reprising his role.
The Man in the Cellar is a 1914 German silent thriller film directed by Joe May and starring Ernst Reicher, Max Landa and Olga Engl. It was part of a series of films featuring the fictional detective Stuart Webbs.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Biographical dictionaries | |
