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Berthold Viertel is a Director, Scriptwriter and Co-Director Autrichien born on 28 june 1885 at Vienna (Austria)

Berthold Viertel

Berthold Viertel
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Nationality Austria
Birth 28 june 1885 at Vienna (Austria)
Death 24 september 1953 (at 68 years) at Vienna (Austria)

Berthold Viertel (28 June 1885 - 24 September 1953) was an Austrian screenwriter and film director notable for his work in Germany, Britain and the United States.

Biography

Berthold Viertel était issu de la bourgeoisie cultivée juive de l'Empire austro-hongrois. Il fit connaissance de Karl Kraus et de Peter Altenberg et entra en 1910 dans la revue littéraire de Kraus, Die Fackel.

Il devint ensuite metteur en scène, auteur de scénarios, et se rendit à Dresde, Berlin, Zurich, en Angleterre et aux États-Unis, notamment à New York où il monta des œuvres de Tennessee Williams. Il vécut aux Etats-Unis à Santa Monica dans les années 1930 et retourna en Europe après la guerre.

Il épousa en 1918 Salka Viertel, née Steuermann, dont il divorça en 1947 et qui lui donna trois fils, dont l'écrivain Peter Viertel. Il épousa en seconde noces l'actrice Elisabeth Neumann qui avait dû fuir l'Autriche à cause des lois raciales et vivait aux Etats-Unis.

Il est enterré au cimetière central de Vienne.

Best films

4 Devils
4 Devils
(1928)
(Writer)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Berthold Viertel (15 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

The Passing of the Third Floor Back
The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935)
, 1h30
Directed by Berthold Viertel
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Conrad Veidt, Rene Ray, Anna Lee, Ronald Ward, Mary Clare, John Turnbull
Rating68% 3.436833.436833.436833.436833.43683
The film focuses on a run-down boarding house in London, home to an assorted group of residents. Many of them cling precariously to their social positions with only one figure, the wealthy self-made businessman Mr Wright, being truly successful. The house is owned by the grasping Mrs Sharpe, who mistreats the maid, Stasia, a rehabilitated juvenile delinquent. The various members of the household are miserable and openly sneering and rude towards each other, the one exception being the respect shown by all to the powerful Mr Wright. In the case of one couple, Major Tomkin and his wife, this involves pressuring their daughter Vivian to marry Wright in spite of her obvious horror at the idea.
Little Friend
Little Friend (1934)

Directed by Berthold Viertel
Genres Drama
Actors Matheson Lang, Lydia Sherwood, Nova Pilbeam, Arthur Margetson, Jean Cadell, Jimmy Hanley
Rating66% 3.3485853.3485853.3485853.3485853.348585
A young girl (Pilbeam) slowly becomes aware that her parent's marriage is disintegrating.
The Man from Yesterday
The Man from Yesterday (1932)
, 1h11
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, Henry Hathaway, Berthold Viertel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes Political films
Actors Claudette Colbert, Clive Brook, Charles Boyer, Andy Devine, Alan Mowbray, Greta Meyer
Rating59% 2.9522652.9522652.9522652.9522652.952265
In Paris at the end of the First World War, Sylvia Suffolk and British officer Tony Clyde get married, shortly before Tony leaves for the front. Sylvia, newly pregnant, is given the news that Tony is dead while working as a nurse for surgeon René Gaudin. Sylvia gradually falls in love with René, but is reluctant to remarry since she has no official news of Tony's death. On holiday in Switzerland with René, Sylvia is shocked to find Tony is still alive, and convalescing, and now finds herself torn between duty to Tony and marriage to René.
The Wiser Sex
The Wiser Sex (1932)
, 1h12
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, Berthold Viertel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Actors Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, Lilyan Tashman, Franchot Tone, William Boyd, Ross Alexander
Rating69% 3.457793.457793.457793.457793.45779
After prosecutor David Rolfe (Douglas) has racketeer Benny Morgan arrested, mobster Harry Evans (Boyd) gives orders to his chauffeur (Dumbrille) to kill David, but the chauffeur fails. The next day, David's fiancée, Margaret Hughes (Colbert), leaves on a cruise with Jimmy O'Neill (Alexander), her friendly suitor, warning David she won't marry a man for whom work is more important than she. David cannot give Margaret a proper bon voyage because he is trying to save his naïve young cousin, Phil Long (Tone), from the clutches of gold-digging moll Claire Foster (Tashman), with whom David used to be involved. When David warns Phil that Claire belongs to Evans, Phil takes David's revolver with him to Claire's hotel to confront her. Evans enters in his housecoat and Phil shoots him in the arm. They struggle and Phil is killed. When David arrives, Claire, on Evans' orders, says Phil killed himself, then calls the police and frames David as the killer. In court, David's defense is greatly weakened by Claire's acting ability, and she successfully seduces the all-male jury. Margaret returns for the trial and remarks that a jury of the "wiser sex" would see right through Claire's histrionics. In order to gather evidence, Margaret goes undercover as blonde gold digger Ruby Kennedy and takes a room adjacent to Claire's. Through diamonds and liquor, Margaret befriends Claire and wheedles her into revealing more about the case. Jimmy and Margaret throw a party for Claire and Evans, and Evans makes several passes at Margaret. During the party, Evans' cook, Fritz (Fischer), who helped him with his wound the morning of the murder, accidentally bumps Evans' arm and Evans scolds him for calling attention to it. The next day, Fritz is found dead, and Margaret now knows the missing bullet from David's gun is lodged in Evans. Margaret then meets Evans for a rendezvous, while Jimmy tells Claire he has lost her to Evans. As Evans' chauffeur identifies Margaret, Claire enters in a jealous rage and reveals Evans as Phil's murderer. Due to the sleuthing abilities of the "wiser sex," David is released and marries Margaret.
Seven Faces
Seven Faces (1929)
, 1h18
Directed by Berthold Viertel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Eugenie Besserer, Russell Gleason, Salka Viertel
Rating75% 3.789683.789683.789683.789683.78968
A common convention in the early decades of newspaper and magazine film reviews was to describe in the write-up the entire storyline including, in a substantial number of instances, the ending, thus unintentionally enabling subsequent generations of readers to reconstruct a lost film's contents. True to form, those who evaluated Seven Faces, such as Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times, did go into considerable detail regarding plot twists, as related herein below.
Adventures of a Ten Mark Note
Adventures of a Ten Mark Note (1926)
, 1h26
Directed by Herbert Selpin, Berthold Viertel
Origin German
Genres Drama, Crime
Actors Walter Franck, Werner Fuetterer, Oskar Homolka, Maly Delschaft, Renate Brausewetter, Karl Etlinger
Rating27% 1.377171.377171.377171.377171.37717
Anna vient de faire sa première semaine de travail de sa vie et a son premier salaire : un billet de dix marks avec le numéro de registre K 13513. Andreas, son compagnon, le marque d'une croix et Anna le confie à sa mère qui le cache dans une bible. Robert, le frère d'Anna, vole le billet et achète avec ce billet un couteau avec lequel il commet un meurtre. Par la suite, la mère tente de se suicider et Anna perd son emploi. Le mobilier est menacé d'être saisi. Elle parle de ses difficultés financières au riche directeur Haniel qui, sous de bonnes actions, a des motifs inavouables. Quand Anna découvre les véritables intentions de Haniel, elle prend la fuite avec Andreas qui vend sa bicyclette pour racheter les meubles d'Anna. Lors de la vente de la bicyclette, il récupère le billet de dix marks d'Anna. C'est un signe qu'ils doivent rester ensemble.

Scriptwriter

Little Friend
Little Friend (1934)

Directed by Berthold Viertel
Genres Drama
Actors Matheson Lang, Lydia Sherwood, Nova Pilbeam, Arthur Margetson, Jean Cadell, Jimmy Hanley
Roles Writer
Rating66% 3.3485853.3485853.3485853.3485853.348585
A young girl (Pilbeam) slowly becomes aware that her parent's marriage is disintegrating.
City Girl
City Girl (1930)
, 1h17
Directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Charles Farrell, Mary Duncan, Anne Shirley, David Torrence, Edith Yorke, Tom McGuire
Roles Writer
Rating76% 3.842753.842753.842753.842753.84275
The city girl Kate falls in love with farmer Lem. He takes Kate to his family farm but Kate has trouble being accepted by the family.
4 Devils
4 Devils (1928)
, 1h40
Directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action
Themes Circus films, Films about children
Actors Janet Gaynor, Charles Morton, Anders Randolf, Barry Norton, J. Farrell MacDonald, George Davis
Roles Writer
Rating70% 3.5261253.5261253.5261253.5261253.526125
The plot concerns four orphans (Janet Gaynor, Nancy Drexel, Barry Norton, and Charles Morton) who become a high wire act, and centers around sinister goings-on at a circus.