Monday, December 29, 2014

Remembering Alfred Vohrer

Alfred Adolf Vohrer was born on December 29, 1914 in Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Alfred Vohrer was schooled and took acting and singing lessons. In the 1930s he became a member of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart. During the Second World War Vohrer was captured and in 1941 lost his right arm in Russia. He then worked as a volunteer at the Ufa , where he stayed until the war ended and worked an assistant director for Harald Braun and Alfred Brown.
 
In the early postwar years, the German film industry was very weak, so Vohrer first worked in radio worked. From 1946-1948 he was senior director at Radio Stuttgart and in 1949 he returned to film work, though mostly unnoticed by the public. He was a dubbing director at the MPEA and later joined with Josef Wolf as a partner in the firm synchronous Ultra-film GmbH. In the following years Vohrer was a synchronization director in charge of nearly 1,000 films, including many classics such as “On the Waterfront” (1954) and “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957).
 
In 1956 he planned his first film project, “Zum Leben verdammt” for which he wrote the screenplay. The project, however, was rejected.
 
In1958 Vohrer made his directorial debut with the filmSchmutziger Engel” followed by “Verbrechen nach Schulschluß”.
 
In 1960 Vohrer worked together for the first time with the Berlin producer Artur Brauner. Their first film together was the Edgar Rice Burroughs story “Dead Eyes of London” (1961), which became the largest success of the already established series. For the first color film of Rialto, “Our House in Cameroon, Vohrer was also selected as the director.
 
Vohrer then worked with Wendlandt on the Karl-May-series as the director of “The Treasure of Silver Lake” (1962). Constantin Film, which made the Edgar Wallace and Karl May series in order, also contracted director Harald Reinl. But Vohrer received in 1964 the opportunity to film “Frontier Hellcat” in the Western series. The comparatively action stressed film became the biggest success abroad among all the Karl May movies. The second film of Vohrers, “Old Surehand” (1965), was not continued. The more successful Spaghetti western-oriented “Winnetou and His Friend Old Fire Hand” (1966) ended up being the last Karl May movie produced by Rialto.
 
As the number of Edgar Wallace productions in the late 1960s dropped significantly and their popular success waned, Vohrer moved to Munich’s Roxy film under Luggi Waldleitner. There came first the mystery “School of Fear” and “Perrak” the sex comediesHerzblatt oder Wie sag ich’s meiner Tochter?” and “Das gelbe Haus am Pinnasberg”.
 
From 1971 Vohrer directed six film adaptations of novels by Johannes Mario Simmel building on the success of previous years. Besides, the developed Pushkin film version “Tears of Blood” and Erich Kästner’s adaption “Drei Männer im Schnee”. The public’s interest in cinema during the second half of the 1970s dropping significantly, so Vohrer from 1976 onward worked exclusively for television.
 
Alfred Vohrer worked since 1975 on the series ‘Derrick’. From 1977 he also directed the TV series ‘Der Alte’. He was one of the busiest directors of the two series.
 
In the 1980s, he worked on numerous episodic films of various genres.Weißblaue Geschichten” with Gustl Bayrhammer, ‘Hessische Geschichten’ with Günter Strack and ‘Krumme Touren’ with Manfred Krug had high ratings, so ZDF not passed on to Vohrer their Prestige series ‘Das Traumschiff’ and ‘Die Schwarzwaldklinik’ to producer. In addition, he made ​​more episodes of Derrick.
 
Alfred Vohrer, who lived with his partner Herbert in Berlin-Dahlem since the mid-1950s, died on 3 February 1986 in Munich, Germany.
 
Today we remember Alfred Vohrer on what would have been his 100th birthday.

No comments:

Post a Comment