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Joe May | |
|---|---|
 Cast and crew ofDie Herrin der Welt with Joe May at center with hands in pockets | |
| Born | Joseph Otto Mandl (1880-11-07)November 7, 1880 |
| Died | April 29, 1954(1954-04-29) (aged 73) Hollywood,California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,producer |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Eva May |
Joe May (bornJoseph Otto Mandl; 7 November 1880 – 29 April 1954) was an Austrianfilm director andfilm producer and one of the pioneers ofGerman cinema.[1]
After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he began his career as a stage director ofoperettas inHamburg. In 1902 he had married the actressMia May (born Hermine Pfleger) and took his stage name from hers.
AsJoe May, he made ten films forContinental-KunstfilmGmbH inBerlin; the first,In der Tiefe des Schachtes (In the Depths of the Pit) was released in November 1912, followed byVorglühen des Balkanbrandes (The Balkan Traitors) (starringErnst Reicher).[2]
In the spring of 1914 May directed the first three of the 'Stuart Webbs' films, a popular series in which Reicher played agentleman detective modelled onSherlock Holmes:Die geheimnisvolle Villa (The Black Triangle);Der Mann im Keller (The Man in the Cellar); andDer Spuk im Haus des Professors (The Spook in the Professor's House).[3]
May and Reicher fell out with the managers of Continental over the 'Stuart Webbs' films, and left Continental together.[4] Having formed their own production company, Stuart Webbs-Film GmbH, they made the next in the 'Stuart Webbs' series,Das Panzergewölbe (The Armoured Vault) in June 1914, using Continental-Kunstfilm's new studios at 9 Franz Joseph-Strasse,Weissensee Studios, for the filming.
When theFirst World War broke out in August 1914, May had to return to his nativeVienna to do his military service, and on his return to Berlin he and Reicher split up.[5] May's last film at Continental wasDer geheimnisvolle Nachtschatten (The Secret Shadows of Night) which he produced in December 1914, withHarry Piel directing. Reicher then leased the studio at 9 Franz Joseph-Strasse from Continental, and continued to make the 'Stuart Webbs' films with his Reicher & Reicher company until 1918.
In 1915 he founded his own film production company, May-Film GmbH[6] and began to produce a successful series ofcrime films, whose detective hero went by the name ofJoe Deebs. Some of these were directed by May himself, others byHarry Piel;Max Landa and laterHarry Liedtke played the title role. In 1917 May gaveFritz Lang one of his earliest breaks in the film industry asscreenwriter on the filmDie Hochzeit im Excentricclub (Wedding in the Eccentric Club) and Lang also worked on other May films at this time.
After the end ofWorld War I May-Film leased the double glasshouse studios at 5–7 Franz Joseph-Strasse (belonging toDeutsche Vitascope) in 1919 for 600,000 marks, which became known as the May-Atelier.[7][8] He also built a film studio inWoltersdorf a village northeast of Berlin inBrandenburg. There he went on to produce and direct a series of popular and exotic adventure films, among them the monumental three-hour-longVeritas vincit (1919), the eight-part seriesDie Herrin der Welt (The Mistress of the World) (1919–20) as well as the two-part adventure filmDas indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb) (1921) starringConrad Veidt and written byFritz Lang andThea von Harbou.
These featured Mia May in leading roles and she regularly worked under her husband's direction in a number of melodramas likeTragedy of Love (1922/23) co-starringEmil Jannings. Their teenage daughterEva May (born 1902 in Vienna) tried to build her own career as an actress but committed suicide in 1924 after the end of her third marriage with the film directors Manfred Liebenau,Lothar Mendes andManfred Noa.
Towards the end of the 1920s, May moved away from adventure films and produced more realist works, notable among them the World War I love-triangleHeimkehr (The Return Home) (1928) and the contemporary thrillerAsphalt (1929). During the early years of sound film he worked as a producer forErich Pommer atUfa then for different production companies in Germany, Austria and France directing a series of multilingual versions in German and French among those isIhre Majestät die Liebe / Son altesse l'amour (1930) one of the best musical comedies of theWeimar Cinema.
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In 1933 he and Mia, along with many others in the German film industry, emigrated to theUnited States where he was able to establish himself as director, mainly forUniversal Pictures, although his work was mainly on what would be regarded asB movies.
His most notable works of this period were the Kay Francis vehicleConfession, a remake of the 1935 German filmMazurka,The House of the Seven Gables andThe Invisible Man Returns (1940). He also worked with theDead End Kids during this period, helming two films,You're Not So Tough (1940) andHit the Road (1941), despite constant friction with his juvenile delinquent cast members.
Confession is especially interesting, in that May's film is an exact copy of Austrian directorWilli Forst'sMazurka, right down to the last fade and dissolve, with every shot timed to run exactly the same length, and using the same music as Forst's original film.
May's last film was the wartime comedy featuringRobert Mitchum in a small role,Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More, made in 1944 by theKing Brothers and released throughMonogram Pictures.
After retiring as a director, May and his wife opened the Blue Danube Restaurant in Los Angeles which was not a successful business venture. He died on April 29, 1954, after a long illness. He is interred in theHollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.[citation needed]
May served as director unless otherwise noted.
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