Theo Frenkel

After the war, Frenkel returned to Berlin to direct German-Dutch co-productions such as Alexandra (1922) and Frauenmoral (1923), but his international career was over.

In his own country he was one of the most experienced directors at the time, and he waisted no time creating several sensational dramas such as Het wrak van de Noordzee (The Wreck of the North Sea, 1915), Genie tegen geweld (Genius Against Violence, 1916) and Pro domo (1918).

He worked for the British Pathé studios in 1912, moved to Berlin in 1913, and finally returned to neutral Holland at the outbreak of the World War I.

In 1910 he became head of Charles Urban's studio's in Hove near Brighton (UK) and in Nice (France), where he directed more than 120 films in two years, many of them in colour, using one of the earliest colour systems, Kinemacolor. To enhance the spectacle aspect of his films, he selected stories that demanded glamorous costumes and monumental landscapes, like Greek myths, biblical tales and historical romances.

Theo Frenkel made more than 220 films between 1908 and 1925, but only a few have survived, making it impossible properly to assess his artistic importance. He was a director on a European scale, producing a vast body of work spanning Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Frenkel preferred to call himself Theo Bouwmeester after his mother, who came from a well-known theatrical family in the Netherlands. Before entering the film industry, he worked as a stage actor in many countries.

He directed his first film in Cecil Hepworth's filmstudio in Walton-on-Thames (England) in 1908. He soon had his own troupe of actors and made more than fifty pictures in a variety of genres, mostly writing the scripts himself.

Frenkel cast his first wife Julie Meijer (1878-1963) in many leading roles and he himself seized every opportunity to appear with her in front of the camera. These films never made a profit, however, and Frenkel had to move on.

Theodorus Maurita Frenkel (14 July 1871 – 20 September 1956) was a Dutch film director, actor and screenwriter of the silent era. He worked in Britain under the name Theo Bouwmeester, using the surname of his renowned mother and uncle (both accomplished actors), before working in Germany in 1913 and 1914 and then returning to the Netherlands, a neutral country, before World War I. He directed 214 films between 1908 and 1928. He also appeared in 21 films between 1911 and 1948. His nephew Theo Frenkel Jr. (1893–1955) was a film actor.