Downs Anton Walbrook

A Life of Masks and Mirrors
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78997-711-0
Verlag: Peter Lang Ltd. International Academic Publishers
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 19, 450 Seiten

Reihe: Exile Studies

Viennese-born actor Adolf Wohlbrück enjoyed huge success on both stage and screen in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, becoming one of the first truly international stars. After leaving Nazi Germany for Hollywood in 1936, he changed his name to Anton Walbrook and then settled in Britain, where he won filmgoers’ hearts with his portrayal of Prince Albert in two lavish biopics of Queen Victoria. Further film success followed with Dangerous Moonlight and Gaslight, several collaborations with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – including his striking performance as Lermontov in The Red Shoes – and later work with Max Ophuls and Otto Preminger.Despite great popularity and a prolific career of some forty films, alongside theatre, radio and television work, Walbrook was an intensely private individual who kept much of his personal life hidden from view. His reticence created an aura of mystery and «otherness» about him, which coloured both his acting performances and the way he was perceived by the public – an image that was reinforced in Britain by his continental background.Remarkably, this is the first full-length biography of Walbrook, drawing on over a decade of extensive archival research to document his life and acting career.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Downs, James

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations – Introduction and Acknowledgements – Wohlbrück – Circuses, Cloisters and Barbed Wire: Early Years, 1896–1919 – ‘I suppose one doesn’t count as a human being without a uniform.’ Stage, Silence and Sound, 1920–1932 – ‘You underestimate the lion.’ Stardom and Society, 1933–1934 – ‘Sentimental Dreamer … one cannot change one’s own skin.’ Filmmaking under the New Regime, 1934–1935 – ‘Will take the next ship … Useless to stop us.’ Leaving Germany for Hollywood, 1935–1936 – Walbrook – ‘How can one live happily in a country that’s so difficult to get to?’ The Exile Arrives in England, 1937–1938 – ‘I want to know more about the man!’ British Stage and Screen, 1939–1940 – ‘You call us brothers.’ Europe, the USA and International Relations, 1941–1942 – ‘This is not a Gentleman’s War.’ Playing ‘the Good German’, 1943–1945 – ‘Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by …’ War, Peace and Postwar Identities, 1946–1949 – Life as Movement – ‘We’re in the past. I adore the past.’ Circles and Roundabouts, 1950–1951 – ‘Everybody’s wearing masks.’ Myths of Mitteleuropa, 1952–1955 – ‘Have you never thought of staying? Of resting? Settling down for a while?’ Saints and Sinners, 1955–1957 – ‘The last chapter of my life has been written: a self-parody, naturally, with an ending like a third-rate kitsch operetta.’ First Steps on the Small Screen, 1958–1966 – Song at Twilight: Final Performance, Death and Legacy – Appendices – Filmography – Theatre Performances – Discography – Bibliography – Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Dr James Downs is an archivist in the University of Exeter’s Special Collections Department, also home to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, where he previously worked for almost a decade. He has written and presented conference papers about Walbrook on several occasions as well as being interviewed at the actor’s grave for the «Life and Death in Hampstead Sound Trail» and curating the 2013 exhibition «Anton Walbrook – Star and Enigma.» In addition to teaching film adaptation and cataloguing archival material relating to other German émigrés, he has written two books and over thirty articles on a range of topics relating to the history of film and photography, visual culture and religious history, and since 2018 he has been the editor of the magazine Photographica World.