Erich Pommer(1889-1966)
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
On November 1, 1895, the first public motion picture film presentation
was projected at Berlin's Wintergarten with the "Bioscop" apparatus
invented by Max Skladanowsky and
Emil Skladanowsky. In December 1895,
Auguste Lumière and
Louis Lumière began exhibiting projected
films to the paying public in Paris with their "Cinematographe," a
portable camera, printer and projector.
Thomas A. Edison's company meanwhile
had developed the "Vitascope" for motion picture projection. In 1896,
the Gaumont Film Company became the first film company in the world,
founded before any other studios. Within a few years, the 35-mm wide
Edison film and the 16-frames-per-second projection speed of the
Lumière Cinématographe had become the industry standard.
On July 20, 1889, Erich Pommer was born at
Altpetristrasse 496, Hildesheim, Germany. As a boy going to school in
Göttingen, he neglected some classes in preference to reading stories
and books by famous writers of all ages, in English and French as well
as German. After he and his brothers had finished sufficient schooling
to require only one year of military service, the family moved to
Berlin.
In 1906, Pommer went to work at Machol & Lewin's Men's Furnishings
shop. There he met his future wife, Gertrud (Gerdy) Levy, who was the
company's accountant and whom he married in 1913 in a civil ceremony.
In 1907, Pommer's younger sister Grete, who was working at the Berlin
office of the Gaumont Film Company, told him that they needed another
salesman. Pommer applied and got the job to make bookings for Gaumont
films at movie theaters.
There he met a young projectionist who aspired to become a film
cameraman; Karl Freund and Pommer become
lifelong friends.
By 1909, Pommer was so successful that he wrote in his letters about
"chasing all over Germany and beyond, almost to the border of Turkey".
Soon thereafter, Gaumont placed him in charge of film distribution for
the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Through his job, he met many film executives, including
Marcel Vandal, the director-general of the
Éclair Company, with whom he became close friends.
In 1911, Pommer served his mandatory year in the German Army. During
his first leave that year, Vandal invited him to Paris, where Pommer
was well impressed by the equipment at the Éclair studios (they started
manufacturing cameras in 1912).
Pommer did not return to Gaumont because their Berlin office wanted to
keep control over Pommer's Vienna branch, while he wanted to report to
the Paris corporate headquarters. Instead, he joined Éclair where he
would report directly to its Paris headquarters.
Pommer started Éclair's newsreel division. Éclair News photographed a
balloon flight in Vienna, with Pommer scheduled to shoot the aerial
shots while his cameraman photographed from the ground. Just as Pommer
was about to enter the gondola, a gust of wind blew the balloon into
the air with him hanging on the outside. He was pulled into the gondola
and covered the flight as he had intended. After landing, Pommer found
out that his cameraman on the ground was so worried about Pommer that
he forgot to crank the camera and got no shots of Pommer hanging
outside the balloon and being pulled in. Pommer fired the cameraman for
not photographing his assignment regardless of circumstances.
After film, flying and the development of aviation was perhaps Pommer's
greatest fascination. The Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 may not
have had any impact on him, but in August 1908 a demonstration in
LeMans, France, made the Wright brothers world-famous. By 1912, Pommer
had made the acquaintance of and flew with
Louis Blériot, the first man to
fly across the English Channel. Pommer had started to produce feature
films, and one of his first two productions
Das Geheimnis der Lüfte (1913)
(Mystery of the Air) had an aviation theme. In 1933, his last
pre-Hitler German production was
F. P. 1 Doesn't Answer (1933), a science-fiction film with
an aviation background.
At that time and throughout the first half of the 20th century, a
creative producer could initiate, coordinate, supervise and control all
aspects of a motion picture from inception through completion,
including release. Pommer became an exemplar of the "creative producer"
and remained so throughout his career.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Pommer was immediately called
into service by the German army. He arranged to place the assets of his
French employer, Éclair, into a German company called Decla (Deutsche
Éclair), while he served on both the Western and the Eastern fronts. He
was seriously wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross.
In 1916, the Pommer's son Hans (later changed to John) was born. That
same year the German Government founded the Bild-und-Filmamt (Bufa).
Still a non-commissioned officer, Pommer was placed in charge of its
Bucharest, Romania office where he supervised all stage and film
showings until the end of the war.
During one of his trips for Bufa, going between Berlin and Bucharest,
Pommer stopped over in Vienna where he was introduced to a young actor
with training in art and architecture, who was interested in films.
Pommer initially engaged in conversation only to be polite. However, he
ended up talking with Fritz Lang the
entire night, finally inviting Lang to come work for Decla after the
war.
Since the early 1900s,
Max Reinhardt had been giving the
German theater a new dimension to old plays through powerful
performances and a targeted combination of stage design, language,
music and dance. Film was the new medium that could bring those
dimensions to the entire public. A number of Reinhardt-trained
directors and actors transitioned to film, including to Decla.
After the war, Pommer assumed hands-on management of Decla. Before the
war, France dominated the European film market. Soon after the war
concluded, Germany's film companies faced a new competitor - Hollywood.
Pommer, however, was by then an experienced film businessman with
insight into the international implications of the film industry.
Post-war competition between international film companies was sometimes
hostile. The Berlin trade press saw Decla as the emerging leader in the
industry, crediting Pommer's "very skillful and goal-oriented
leadership."
Decla acquired large movie theaters through the Decla-Lichtspiel-GmbH
as well as more theaters, studios and distribution channels through
mergers with other companies. In 1919, Decla merged with Meinert Film
and Oliver-Film. In February 1920, Decla released the first of several
international hits, including Fritz Lang's spy thriller Die Spinnen
(Spiders) and Robert Wiene's
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
In 1921, Decla merged with Deutsche Bioscop, which owned the large
Babelsberg Studios. In 1922, Universum Film (Ufa) bought Decla-Bioscop
and placed Pommer in direct charge of most of its product. Pommer was
also able to improve Babelsberg and made it into the largest film
studio in Europe.
Ufa had grown out of the wartime Bufa through a series of forced
mergers. As Prof. Thomas Elsaesser has pointed out, with the
acquisition of Decla-Bioscop, Ufa had became a modern multi-national
company and media conglomerate. Very aware of Hollywood, Ufa tried to
emulate it, rival with it, or differentiate itself from it. Focused on
principles of product differentiation and niche marketing, Ufa
deliberately created an art cinema and super-productions for export
(the latter specifically designed and budgeted to break into the
American market), while it looked to domestic cinema based on popular
genres and stars for its economic foundation.
Pommer's and Ufa's international successes during this time included
Fritz Lang's two-part Nibelungen
(Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)
and
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924))
and F.W. Murnau's
The Last Laugh (1922) where the
camera was "unchained" for the first moving shots taking place by
strapping the camera to Karl Freund's chest and allowing him to walk
forward and backward. When Pommer and Lang attended the U.S. Premiere
of Nibelungen, they saw the skyline of New York as their ship came into
harbor. The view inspired the look for
Metropolis (1927), probably Ufa's most
ambitious project thus far. Typical for Pommer productions, Metropolis
implemented new film techniques, including the first zoom shot where
Karl Freund sat on a swing with the camera on his lap, pulling focus as
he was swung forward and back.
By 1926, disagreements arose between Pommer and Ufa's new CEO and its
Board of Directors appointed by Deutsche Bank, including whether the
studio should invest in developing sound technology and over the terms
of the Parufamet agreement (which later proved disastrous for Ufa, as
Pommer had predicted). Pommer therefore left Ufa, even before
Metropolis was finished shooting. Under financial pressure, Ufa
management also did not allow Fritz Lang to participate in
post-production, so the film was never shown as intended. Nonetheless,
images of Metropolis have influenced many science-fiction films. The
most complete version of the film since its Berlin premiere in 1927 was
released in 2010, after discovery of 16mm footage in South America and
restoration by the Murnau Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Having left Ufa, Pommer brought his family to Hollywood. After
producing Mauritz Stiller's
Hotel Imperial (1927) and
Barbed Wire (1927), both with
Pola Negri, for Paramount and several
uncredited films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including
The Demi-Bride (1927) with
Norma Shearer and
Mockery (1927) with
Lon Chaney, Pommer returned to Berlin in 1928
at the request of a new Ufa ownership. He did not resume his old
position but produced films as an independent within Ufa.
When sound came, Pommer often made simultaneous multiple language
versions of his films with the same international crew, including
The Blue Angel (1930) introducing
Marlene Dietrich and directed by
Josef von Sternberg and
Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931)
starring Hans Albers. In addition, Pommer
continued to experiment with innovative musicals, such as
Wilhelm Thiele's
Three from the Filling Station (1930)
(The Three Good Friends) with
Willy Fritsch and
Lilian Harvey.
In February 1933, Pommer, accompanied by his wife Gerdy, traveled to
New York for business meetings. They left New York a week or so later
to return to Germany. On the last night before reaching Europe, they
were guests at the captain's table. In those days, intercontinental
communications were strictly by transatlantic cable. Radio had only a
limited range. During dinner, the radio officer reported to the captain
that European stations had just come into range. After the meal, the
captain invited his guests to the radio room. In honor of the Pommers,
the captain asked the operator to find a German station. Soon over the
loudspeaker came one of Hermann Göring's early, vitriolic anti-Semitic
speeches!
The Pommers stopped over in Paris before traveling on to Berlin. Their
French and American friends counseled them not to return to Germany as
it could be dangerous. With their son still in Berlin, staying in Paris
was not a option. They returned to Berlin near the end of March 1933.
Ludwig Klitzsch, chairman of the board of Ufa, personally assured
Pommer the following day that Ufa would make no distinction between
Aryan and non-Aryan employees. However on 28 March 1933, Josef Goebbels
assembled the leaders of the motion picture industry at the Hotel
Kaiserhof to explain the Nazi concepts of film policy and production.
Pommer did not attend this meeting.
The following day, at its Meeting No. 905, the Ufa Board complied fully
with the Nazi directions. Regarding the "national question" about
continuing the employment of Jewish employees, the Executive Board
decided that the contracts with Jewish executives and employees should
be terminated. Item (4) of the meeting reads in part: "It was also
decided to terminate the contract with Pommer, in view of the
impossibility under the present circumstances of exhibiting his films."
Pommer sent his wife and son to the safety of Paris.
Josef Goebbels tried to have Pommer run the German motion picture
industry for him. During his years as Ufa production chief and
president of the Spitzenorganisation of the German film industry,
Pommer had been very active in the export of German films. He was in
close contact with aides of German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann,
and Pommer had maintained his connections to the Aussenamt (Foreign
Office) through the years. He was approached by some of his contacts in
the Foreign Office on behalf of Goebbels in April 1933. Pommer never
had the slightest intention of coming to terms with the Nazis.
Nevertheless, he entered a series of talks with Stresemann's aides,
held at his home. These discussions gave him enough time to arrange for
his business affairs and pending commitments.
By early May 1933, Pommer felt that he could not stall Goebbels any
longer. In his last meeting with the Foreign Office officials, he
showed them a recent notification from John's high school of a meeting
to discuss the school's participation in a May Day parade. Pommer also
showed them a newspaper article, advising that Jewish pupils would not
be allowed to participate with their fellow students in the parade. He
asked the Aussenamt officials: "Gentlemen, how can you expect me to
work in a country that summons my son to school to tell him in front of
his peers that he is not good enough to participate with them in the
parade?" The next morning Pommer received his exit visa.
That evening, Pommer boarded the express train to Paris. He knew that
the Nazis were arresting passengers at the border. When the train
stopped in Hannover, he got off. He had his car and driver waiting.
They crossed the border into Belgium, without incident, at a local
crossing normally not used for Berlin-Paris traffic. Perhaps the
diplomats had been kind enough to delay their report to the Nazis.
Pommer was also permitted to export his household belongings to France,
although they were later confiscated in Paris by the German Army.
In France, Pommer produced two films for Fox, Fritz Lang's
Liliom (1934) (the storyline was later
used for the musical Carousel), with
Charles Boyer and
Madeleine Ozeray, and
Max Ophüls'
On a volé un homme (1934),
with Lili Damita and
Charles Fallot On June 5, 1933, the
United States went off the gold standard. Later in the year, Fox
management came to the conclusion that - due to the new exchange rate
of the U.S. dollar against French franc - production activities on the
European continent were no longer financially advisable. They directed
Pommer to complete the two films that were in production and then move
with his family to Hollywood. This was one of several decisions that
possibly saved Pommer's immediate family from becoming victims of the
Holocaust.
After Pommer produced one more film,
Joe May's
Music in the Air (1934) with
Gloria Swanson, Fox was acquired
by 20th Century. Louis B. Mayer tried to
bring him to MGM, but Pommer had already made a handshake deal with
Alexander Korda to go to London.
There he produced two films for Korda's London Film Productions:
Fire Over England (1937) with
Laurence Olivier and
Tim Whelan's
Troopship (1937).
During the filming of Fire Over England, Pommer met
Charles Laughton who was starring in
Korda's Rembrandt (1936). When
Laughton's next
project,I, Claudius (1937), was
canceled, Laughton and Pommer founded Mayflower Pictures. Pommer had
previously worked well with reputedly difficult actors, and he worked
very well with Laughton. He produced three films with Laughton,
including The Beachcomber (1938),
where Pommer took over as director,
The Sidewalks of London (1938), where
Laughton starred with Vivien Leigh, and
Alfred Hitchcock's
Jamaica Inn (1939) that introduced
Maureen O'Hara.
In 1939, Pommer was in New York negotiating with RKO to distribute
Mayflower's future productions when World War II broke out in Europe.
Pommer still had a German passport and could not risk return to
England. He went to RKO where he produced
Dorothy Arzner's
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) with
Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, and also
Garson Kanin's
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
with Charles Laughton and
Carole Lombard. In 1941, Pommer
had five more films in preparation, with scripts completed for three,
when his heart attack forced a hiatus.
In 1946, he was hired by the U.S. State Department and later
transferred to the War Department - with assimilated rank of Colonel -
to reorganize the German motion picture industry in the American Zone
as Chief Film Officer, Office of Military Government, United States
(OMGUS). Working under strict policies to prevent Nazis and Communists
from entering the film industry, he was to reorganize and later to
rebuild the German film industry and its private assets as part of the
Marshall Plan, the overall plan of reconstruction of the German
industrial base destroyed in WWII. He headquartered in war-devastated
Berlin and quickly re-instituted his practice of frequent dinner
parties, not only to transact business but also to feed film industry
colleagues who were starving in the post-war chaos. He would often
"rest his eyes" during meetings, surprising colleagues who thought he
was sleeping when he would suddenly add insightful comments and offer
solutions to the discussion.
Pommer was in charge of new film production in the U.S. Zone, which
meant that he was responsible to guide studios and film producers,
approve all scripts and major contracts, supervise new productions and
studio operations, and supervise the financial arrangements of
producers, studios and distributors concerning new films. Production of
"Rubble Films" began in West Germany, a neorealist genre characterized
by location exteriors in the rubble of bombed-out cities, began,
including Harald Braun's
Zwischen gestern und morgen (1947)
and Josef von Báky's
And the Heaven Above us (1947).
In June 1948, in an attempt to wrest control of Berlin from the West,
the Soviet Union began a blockade. American and British planners
devised an airlift. The pilots and crews of 342 planes made 277,000
flights to deliver millions of tons of food and clothing to Berlin
until the blockade was lifted. Denied use of the Babelsberg Studios,
which were in the Russian Zone, Pommer had been rebuilding Berlin's
Tempelhof Studios. Although the Tempelhof Studios were eventually
rebuilt, they were then not yet ready, and the blockade forced the
focus of production away from Berlin and Pommer to move his
headquarters to Munich and its Geiselgasteig Studios, which had
survived the war intact.
During his tour of duty with OMGUS, Pommer was able to abolish
government censorship of films in Germany through establishment of a
national Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (Voluntary Self-Control) system,
envisioned as an improvement on the U.S. Motion Picture Production Code
system. Pommer also built greater flexibility into the process through
periodic critical self-review. Initially opposed by the Soviets, the
British and the French, all protecting their own economic and political
interests, the FSK system was eventually adopted throughout Europe and
continues to this day. After three years, having re-established the
film industry throughout West Germany and considering his job complete,
Pommer returned to California in 1949. He and Dorothy Arzner together
planned a new production company, Signature Pictures, but promised
financing fell through.
In 1950, Pommer again returned to Munich, as the best location for his
next films despite the fact that his work for OMGUS in abolishing state
censorship of films had been over the vehement opposition of
politicians in the State Government of Bavaria. After Pommer resumed
producing films in Munich, Bavarian politicians continued to complicate
his professional life.
Pommer's first post-war film,
The Mistress (1952)
with Hans Albers won the Best Picture Award at the 1951 Berlin Film
Festival. His last film,
Sons, Mothers and a General (1955)
was awarded the Grand Prize of the Belgian Critics as Best Picture of
1955, beating out such remarkable films as
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
and Blackboard Jungle (1955).
Pommer's last film was also awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film in the U.S. under the title Sons, Mothers, and a General.
In 1956, Pommer took what was to be a two months' trip to the United
States to negotiate for an English-dubbed version of Sons, Mothers, and
a General. While he was in California, a foot infection aggravated by
diabetes worsened to such a degree as to require amputation of his
right leg and a long-term recovery. He could not return to Germany. He
canceled all projects and retired. He lived in a modest house in
Southern California with Gerdy until she died in 1960. Then he lived
with his son's family, including his two grandchildren, until his death
in 1966.
was projected at Berlin's Wintergarten with the "Bioscop" apparatus
invented by Max Skladanowsky and
Emil Skladanowsky. In December 1895,
Auguste Lumière and
Louis Lumière began exhibiting projected
films to the paying public in Paris with their "Cinematographe," a
portable camera, printer and projector.
Thomas A. Edison's company meanwhile
had developed the "Vitascope" for motion picture projection. In 1896,
the Gaumont Film Company became the first film company in the world,
founded before any other studios. Within a few years, the 35-mm wide
Edison film and the 16-frames-per-second projection speed of the
Lumière Cinématographe had become the industry standard.
On July 20, 1889, Erich Pommer was born at
Altpetristrasse 496, Hildesheim, Germany. As a boy going to school in
Göttingen, he neglected some classes in preference to reading stories
and books by famous writers of all ages, in English and French as well
as German. After he and his brothers had finished sufficient schooling
to require only one year of military service, the family moved to
Berlin.
In 1906, Pommer went to work at Machol & Lewin's Men's Furnishings
shop. There he met his future wife, Gertrud (Gerdy) Levy, who was the
company's accountant and whom he married in 1913 in a civil ceremony.
In 1907, Pommer's younger sister Grete, who was working at the Berlin
office of the Gaumont Film Company, told him that they needed another
salesman. Pommer applied and got the job to make bookings for Gaumont
films at movie theaters.
There he met a young projectionist who aspired to become a film
cameraman; Karl Freund and Pommer become
lifelong friends.
By 1909, Pommer was so successful that he wrote in his letters about
"chasing all over Germany and beyond, almost to the border of Turkey".
Soon thereafter, Gaumont placed him in charge of film distribution for
the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Through his job, he met many film executives, including
Marcel Vandal, the director-general of the
Éclair Company, with whom he became close friends.
In 1911, Pommer served his mandatory year in the German Army. During
his first leave that year, Vandal invited him to Paris, where Pommer
was well impressed by the equipment at the Éclair studios (they started
manufacturing cameras in 1912).
Pommer did not return to Gaumont because their Berlin office wanted to
keep control over Pommer's Vienna branch, while he wanted to report to
the Paris corporate headquarters. Instead, he joined Éclair where he
would report directly to its Paris headquarters.
Pommer started Éclair's newsreel division. Éclair News photographed a
balloon flight in Vienna, with Pommer scheduled to shoot the aerial
shots while his cameraman photographed from the ground. Just as Pommer
was about to enter the gondola, a gust of wind blew the balloon into
the air with him hanging on the outside. He was pulled into the gondola
and covered the flight as he had intended. After landing, Pommer found
out that his cameraman on the ground was so worried about Pommer that
he forgot to crank the camera and got no shots of Pommer hanging
outside the balloon and being pulled in. Pommer fired the cameraman for
not photographing his assignment regardless of circumstances.
After film, flying and the development of aviation was perhaps Pommer's
greatest fascination. The Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 may not
have had any impact on him, but in August 1908 a demonstration in
LeMans, France, made the Wright brothers world-famous. By 1912, Pommer
had made the acquaintance of and flew with
Louis Blériot, the first man to
fly across the English Channel. Pommer had started to produce feature
films, and one of his first two productions
Das Geheimnis der Lüfte (1913)
(Mystery of the Air) had an aviation theme. In 1933, his last
pre-Hitler German production was
F. P. 1 Doesn't Answer (1933), a science-fiction film with
an aviation background.
At that time and throughout the first half of the 20th century, a
creative producer could initiate, coordinate, supervise and control all
aspects of a motion picture from inception through completion,
including release. Pommer became an exemplar of the "creative producer"
and remained so throughout his career.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Pommer was immediately called
into service by the German army. He arranged to place the assets of his
French employer, Éclair, into a German company called Decla (Deutsche
Éclair), while he served on both the Western and the Eastern fronts. He
was seriously wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross.
In 1916, the Pommer's son Hans (later changed to John) was born. That
same year the German Government founded the Bild-und-Filmamt (Bufa).
Still a non-commissioned officer, Pommer was placed in charge of its
Bucharest, Romania office where he supervised all stage and film
showings until the end of the war.
During one of his trips for Bufa, going between Berlin and Bucharest,
Pommer stopped over in Vienna where he was introduced to a young actor
with training in art and architecture, who was interested in films.
Pommer initially engaged in conversation only to be polite. However, he
ended up talking with Fritz Lang the
entire night, finally inviting Lang to come work for Decla after the
war.
Since the early 1900s,
Max Reinhardt had been giving the
German theater a new dimension to old plays through powerful
performances and a targeted combination of stage design, language,
music and dance. Film was the new medium that could bring those
dimensions to the entire public. A number of Reinhardt-trained
directors and actors transitioned to film, including to Decla.
After the war, Pommer assumed hands-on management of Decla. Before the
war, France dominated the European film market. Soon after the war
concluded, Germany's film companies faced a new competitor - Hollywood.
Pommer, however, was by then an experienced film businessman with
insight into the international implications of the film industry.
Post-war competition between international film companies was sometimes
hostile. The Berlin trade press saw Decla as the emerging leader in the
industry, crediting Pommer's "very skillful and goal-oriented
leadership."
Decla acquired large movie theaters through the Decla-Lichtspiel-GmbH
as well as more theaters, studios and distribution channels through
mergers with other companies. In 1919, Decla merged with Meinert Film
and Oliver-Film. In February 1920, Decla released the first of several
international hits, including Fritz Lang's spy thriller Die Spinnen
(Spiders) and Robert Wiene's
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
In 1921, Decla merged with Deutsche Bioscop, which owned the large
Babelsberg Studios. In 1922, Universum Film (Ufa) bought Decla-Bioscop
and placed Pommer in direct charge of most of its product. Pommer was
also able to improve Babelsberg and made it into the largest film
studio in Europe.
Ufa had grown out of the wartime Bufa through a series of forced
mergers. As Prof. Thomas Elsaesser has pointed out, with the
acquisition of Decla-Bioscop, Ufa had became a modern multi-national
company and media conglomerate. Very aware of Hollywood, Ufa tried to
emulate it, rival with it, or differentiate itself from it. Focused on
principles of product differentiation and niche marketing, Ufa
deliberately created an art cinema and super-productions for export
(the latter specifically designed and budgeted to break into the
American market), while it looked to domestic cinema based on popular
genres and stars for its economic foundation.
Pommer's and Ufa's international successes during this time included
Fritz Lang's two-part Nibelungen
(Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)
and
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924))
and F.W. Murnau's
The Last Laugh (1922) where the
camera was "unchained" for the first moving shots taking place by
strapping the camera to Karl Freund's chest and allowing him to walk
forward and backward. When Pommer and Lang attended the U.S. Premiere
of Nibelungen, they saw the skyline of New York as their ship came into
harbor. The view inspired the look for
Metropolis (1927), probably Ufa's most
ambitious project thus far. Typical for Pommer productions, Metropolis
implemented new film techniques, including the first zoom shot where
Karl Freund sat on a swing with the camera on his lap, pulling focus as
he was swung forward and back.
By 1926, disagreements arose between Pommer and Ufa's new CEO and its
Board of Directors appointed by Deutsche Bank, including whether the
studio should invest in developing sound technology and over the terms
of the Parufamet agreement (which later proved disastrous for Ufa, as
Pommer had predicted). Pommer therefore left Ufa, even before
Metropolis was finished shooting. Under financial pressure, Ufa
management also did not allow Fritz Lang to participate in
post-production, so the film was never shown as intended. Nonetheless,
images of Metropolis have influenced many science-fiction films. The
most complete version of the film since its Berlin premiere in 1927 was
released in 2010, after discovery of 16mm footage in South America and
restoration by the Murnau Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Having left Ufa, Pommer brought his family to Hollywood. After
producing Mauritz Stiller's
Hotel Imperial (1927) and
Barbed Wire (1927), both with
Pola Negri, for Paramount and several
uncredited films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including
The Demi-Bride (1927) with
Norma Shearer and
Mockery (1927) with
Lon Chaney, Pommer returned to Berlin in 1928
at the request of a new Ufa ownership. He did not resume his old
position but produced films as an independent within Ufa.
When sound came, Pommer often made simultaneous multiple language
versions of his films with the same international crew, including
The Blue Angel (1930) introducing
Marlene Dietrich and directed by
Josef von Sternberg and
Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931)
starring Hans Albers. In addition, Pommer
continued to experiment with innovative musicals, such as
Wilhelm Thiele's
Three from the Filling Station (1930)
(The Three Good Friends) with
Willy Fritsch and
Lilian Harvey.
In February 1933, Pommer, accompanied by his wife Gerdy, traveled to
New York for business meetings. They left New York a week or so later
to return to Germany. On the last night before reaching Europe, they
were guests at the captain's table. In those days, intercontinental
communications were strictly by transatlantic cable. Radio had only a
limited range. During dinner, the radio officer reported to the captain
that European stations had just come into range. After the meal, the
captain invited his guests to the radio room. In honor of the Pommers,
the captain asked the operator to find a German station. Soon over the
loudspeaker came one of Hermann Göring's early, vitriolic anti-Semitic
speeches!
The Pommers stopped over in Paris before traveling on to Berlin. Their
French and American friends counseled them not to return to Germany as
it could be dangerous. With their son still in Berlin, staying in Paris
was not a option. They returned to Berlin near the end of March 1933.
Ludwig Klitzsch, chairman of the board of Ufa, personally assured
Pommer the following day that Ufa would make no distinction between
Aryan and non-Aryan employees. However on 28 March 1933, Josef Goebbels
assembled the leaders of the motion picture industry at the Hotel
Kaiserhof to explain the Nazi concepts of film policy and production.
Pommer did not attend this meeting.
The following day, at its Meeting No. 905, the Ufa Board complied fully
with the Nazi directions. Regarding the "national question" about
continuing the employment of Jewish employees, the Executive Board
decided that the contracts with Jewish executives and employees should
be terminated. Item (4) of the meeting reads in part: "It was also
decided to terminate the contract with Pommer, in view of the
impossibility under the present circumstances of exhibiting his films."
Pommer sent his wife and son to the safety of Paris.
Josef Goebbels tried to have Pommer run the German motion picture
industry for him. During his years as Ufa production chief and
president of the Spitzenorganisation of the German film industry,
Pommer had been very active in the export of German films. He was in
close contact with aides of German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann,
and Pommer had maintained his connections to the Aussenamt (Foreign
Office) through the years. He was approached by some of his contacts in
the Foreign Office on behalf of Goebbels in April 1933. Pommer never
had the slightest intention of coming to terms with the Nazis.
Nevertheless, he entered a series of talks with Stresemann's aides,
held at his home. These discussions gave him enough time to arrange for
his business affairs and pending commitments.
By early May 1933, Pommer felt that he could not stall Goebbels any
longer. In his last meeting with the Foreign Office officials, he
showed them a recent notification from John's high school of a meeting
to discuss the school's participation in a May Day parade. Pommer also
showed them a newspaper article, advising that Jewish pupils would not
be allowed to participate with their fellow students in the parade. He
asked the Aussenamt officials: "Gentlemen, how can you expect me to
work in a country that summons my son to school to tell him in front of
his peers that he is not good enough to participate with them in the
parade?" The next morning Pommer received his exit visa.
That evening, Pommer boarded the express train to Paris. He knew that
the Nazis were arresting passengers at the border. When the train
stopped in Hannover, he got off. He had his car and driver waiting.
They crossed the border into Belgium, without incident, at a local
crossing normally not used for Berlin-Paris traffic. Perhaps the
diplomats had been kind enough to delay their report to the Nazis.
Pommer was also permitted to export his household belongings to France,
although they were later confiscated in Paris by the German Army.
In France, Pommer produced two films for Fox, Fritz Lang's
Liliom (1934) (the storyline was later
used for the musical Carousel), with
Charles Boyer and
Madeleine Ozeray, and
Max Ophüls'
On a volé un homme (1934),
with Lili Damita and
Charles Fallot On June 5, 1933, the
United States went off the gold standard. Later in the year, Fox
management came to the conclusion that - due to the new exchange rate
of the U.S. dollar against French franc - production activities on the
European continent were no longer financially advisable. They directed
Pommer to complete the two films that were in production and then move
with his family to Hollywood. This was one of several decisions that
possibly saved Pommer's immediate family from becoming victims of the
Holocaust.
After Pommer produced one more film,
Joe May's
Music in the Air (1934) with
Gloria Swanson, Fox was acquired
by 20th Century. Louis B. Mayer tried to
bring him to MGM, but Pommer had already made a handshake deal with
Alexander Korda to go to London.
There he produced two films for Korda's London Film Productions:
Fire Over England (1937) with
Laurence Olivier and
Tim Whelan's
Troopship (1937).
During the filming of Fire Over England, Pommer met
Charles Laughton who was starring in
Korda's Rembrandt (1936). When
Laughton's next
project,I, Claudius (1937), was
canceled, Laughton and Pommer founded Mayflower Pictures. Pommer had
previously worked well with reputedly difficult actors, and he worked
very well with Laughton. He produced three films with Laughton,
including The Beachcomber (1938),
where Pommer took over as director,
The Sidewalks of London (1938), where
Laughton starred with Vivien Leigh, and
Alfred Hitchcock's
Jamaica Inn (1939) that introduced
Maureen O'Hara.
In 1939, Pommer was in New York negotiating with RKO to distribute
Mayflower's future productions when World War II broke out in Europe.
Pommer still had a German passport and could not risk return to
England. He went to RKO where he produced
Dorothy Arzner's
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) with
Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, and also
Garson Kanin's
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
with Charles Laughton and
Carole Lombard. In 1941, Pommer
had five more films in preparation, with scripts completed for three,
when his heart attack forced a hiatus.
In 1946, he was hired by the U.S. State Department and later
transferred to the War Department - with assimilated rank of Colonel -
to reorganize the German motion picture industry in the American Zone
as Chief Film Officer, Office of Military Government, United States
(OMGUS). Working under strict policies to prevent Nazis and Communists
from entering the film industry, he was to reorganize and later to
rebuild the German film industry and its private assets as part of the
Marshall Plan, the overall plan of reconstruction of the German
industrial base destroyed in WWII. He headquartered in war-devastated
Berlin and quickly re-instituted his practice of frequent dinner
parties, not only to transact business but also to feed film industry
colleagues who were starving in the post-war chaos. He would often
"rest his eyes" during meetings, surprising colleagues who thought he
was sleeping when he would suddenly add insightful comments and offer
solutions to the discussion.
Pommer was in charge of new film production in the U.S. Zone, which
meant that he was responsible to guide studios and film producers,
approve all scripts and major contracts, supervise new productions and
studio operations, and supervise the financial arrangements of
producers, studios and distributors concerning new films. Production of
"Rubble Films" began in West Germany, a neorealist genre characterized
by location exteriors in the rubble of bombed-out cities, began,
including Harald Braun's
Zwischen gestern und morgen (1947)
and Josef von Báky's
And the Heaven Above us (1947).
In June 1948, in an attempt to wrest control of Berlin from the West,
the Soviet Union began a blockade. American and British planners
devised an airlift. The pilots and crews of 342 planes made 277,000
flights to deliver millions of tons of food and clothing to Berlin
until the blockade was lifted. Denied use of the Babelsberg Studios,
which were in the Russian Zone, Pommer had been rebuilding Berlin's
Tempelhof Studios. Although the Tempelhof Studios were eventually
rebuilt, they were then not yet ready, and the blockade forced the
focus of production away from Berlin and Pommer to move his
headquarters to Munich and its Geiselgasteig Studios, which had
survived the war intact.
During his tour of duty with OMGUS, Pommer was able to abolish
government censorship of films in Germany through establishment of a
national Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (Voluntary Self-Control) system,
envisioned as an improvement on the U.S. Motion Picture Production Code
system. Pommer also built greater flexibility into the process through
periodic critical self-review. Initially opposed by the Soviets, the
British and the French, all protecting their own economic and political
interests, the FSK system was eventually adopted throughout Europe and
continues to this day. After three years, having re-established the
film industry throughout West Germany and considering his job complete,
Pommer returned to California in 1949. He and Dorothy Arzner together
planned a new production company, Signature Pictures, but promised
financing fell through.
In 1950, Pommer again returned to Munich, as the best location for his
next films despite the fact that his work for OMGUS in abolishing state
censorship of films had been over the vehement opposition of
politicians in the State Government of Bavaria. After Pommer resumed
producing films in Munich, Bavarian politicians continued to complicate
his professional life.
Pommer's first post-war film,
The Mistress (1952)
with Hans Albers won the Best Picture Award at the 1951 Berlin Film
Festival. His last film,
Sons, Mothers and a General (1955)
was awarded the Grand Prize of the Belgian Critics as Best Picture of
1955, beating out such remarkable films as
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
and Blackboard Jungle (1955).
Pommer's last film was also awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film in the U.S. under the title Sons, Mothers, and a General.
In 1956, Pommer took what was to be a two months' trip to the United
States to negotiate for an English-dubbed version of Sons, Mothers, and
a General. While he was in California, a foot infection aggravated by
diabetes worsened to such a degree as to require amputation of his
right leg and a long-term recovery. He could not return to Germany. He
canceled all projects and retired. He lived in a modest house in
Southern California with Gerdy until she died in 1960. Then he lived
with his son's family, including his two grandchildren, until his death
in 1966.