Edgar G. Ulmer

In 2005, researcher Bernd Herzogenrath uncovered the address where Ulmer was born in Olomouc. A memorial plaque commemorating Ulmer's birth home was unveiled on September 17, 2006, on the occasion of Ulmerfest 2006-the first European academic conference devoted to Ulmer's work.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of his death, a three-day symposium of lectures and screenings was held at New York City's New School in November 2002.

Ulmer's wife Shirley Ulmer discusses the life and career she shared with him in an interview in Tom Weaver's book "I Was a Monster Movie Maker" (McFarland & Co., 2001). Their daughter Arianne Ulmer shares her memories of Ulmer in Weaver's "Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Flashbacks" (McFarland & Co., 1998).

Interviewed in Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh." NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Profiled in John Belton's "American Directors, Vol. 1". [1983]

Ulmer died in 1972 in Woodland Hills, California, after a crippling stroke.

Actor Peter Marshall reminisces about the making of Ulmer's final film The Cavern (1964) in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland & Co., 2010) by Tom Weaver.

His last cinematical works as a director came in Italy into being with "Antinea, l'amante della citta sepolta" (1961) and "Sette contro la morte" (1964).

He was a director and writer, known for The Naked Dawn (1955), The Black Cat (1934) and Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943). He was married to Shirley Ulmer and Joan Warner.

In 1947, Ulmer made "Carnegie Hall" with the help of conductor Fritz Reiner, godfather of the Ulmers' daughter, Arianné. The film features performances by many leading figures in classical music, including Reiner, Jascha Heifetz, Artur Rubinstein, Gregor Piatigorsky and Lily Pons.

Ulmer did get a chance to direct two films with substantial budgets, The Strange Woman (1946) and Ruthless (1948). The former, featuring a strong performance by Hedy Lamarr, is regarded by critics as one of Ulmer's best.

Ulmer found a niche making melodramas on tiny budgets and with often unpromising scripts and actors for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), with Ulmer describing himself as "the Frank Capra of PRC". His PRC thriller Detour (1945) has won considerable acclaim as a prime example of low-budget film noir, and it was selected by the Library of Congress among the first group of 100 American films worthy of special preservation efforts.

Consigned to the fringes of the U.S. motion picture industry, Ulmer specialized first in "ethnic films," notably in Ukrainian-Natalka Poltavka (1937), Cossacks in Exile (1939)-and Yiddish-The Light Ahead (1939), Americaner Shadchen (1940). The best-known of these ethnic films is the Yiddish Green Fields (1937), co-directed with Jacob Ben-Ami.

After his success with The Black Cat (1934) for Universal, Fox wanted to borrow Ulmer for a Shirley Temple musical. The director walked out on his contract rather than do it, consigning himself to Poverty Row studios like PRC, where he could choose his own subject matter for his career.

Ulmer, began an affair with Shirley Beatrice Kassler, who had been married since 1933 to independent producer Max Alexander, nephew of Universal studio head Carl Laemmle. Shirley's divorce in 1936 and her subsequent marriage to Ulmer the same year led to his being exiled from the major Hollywood studios. Ulmer would spend most of his directorial career making B movies at Poverty Row production houses. His wife, now Shirley Ulmer, would act as script supervisor on nearly all of his films, and she wrote the screenplays for several. Their daughter, Arianne, appeared as an extra in several of his films.

Spent the first three years of his career in the U.S. (1930-33) as an art director. Began to direct features from late 1933. Except for brief stints at Universal in the mid-'30s and United Artists (1946-47), was primarily associated with "Poverty Row" studios, especially PRC.

Ulmer came to Hollywood for a few years with Murnau in 1926 to assist with the art direction on Sunrise (1927). He returned to Germany where he created the set for the movies "Spione" (1928), "Flucht in die Fremdenlegion" (1929) and "M" (1931).

The director and production designer Edgar G. Ulmer finished a study for applied arts in order to become a set designer for the theater. Soon the film became his main focus and he forged his age to start his profession as a production designer in 1920.

Ulmer's father was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I and was killed in battle in 1916, when Ulmer was just 12 years old.

Edgar G. Ulmer was born on September 17, 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary as Edgar George Ulmer.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 1107-1112. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.