Carl Wilhelm


Carl Wilhelm, was a prolific German film director, film producer and screenwriter of the silent film era, at the end of which his career apparently entirely faded away and he vanished into obscurity.

Life

After his first work, the short documentary film Ein vergnügter Wintertag im Berliner Grunewald, made for the producer Oskar Messter in 1909, Wilhelm worked for many other Berlin production companies. For example, in the years before World War I, he filmed for Deutsche Mutoskop- und Biograph GmbH in Lankwitz and BB-Film-Fabrikation Bolten-Baeckers in Steglitz a series of comedies starring the silent film star Leo Peukert.
The two comedies he shot in 1913 and 1914 with Ernst Lubitsch - Die Firma heiratet and Der Stolz der Firma - were very successful. As late as 1919 a critic could write: "Die Firma heiratet and Meyer aus Berlin are still our best films."
In 1915, with his company Cewe-Films, and in 1920/21, with Carl-Wilhelm-Film GmbH, he also operated as his own producer. In 1917 and 1918 he made a number of films in Hungarian. Carl Wilhelm remained a sought-after director until the end of the silent film period. He then ceased to work almost entirely - he is last heard of as a production assistant in 1935. He left Germany for Vienna after the coming to power of the Nazi party in 1933 and, already ill, joined his son Wolfgang in London where he died in 1936.

Filmography

As director

  • 1909: Ein vergnügter Wintertag im Berliner Grunewald - also actor
  • 1911: Leibeigenschaft
  • 1912: Der abgeführte Liebhaber
  • 1912: Brüderchens Heldentat
  • 1912: Das elfte Gebot: Du sollst nicht stören Deines Nächsten Flitterwochen
  • 1912: Die Hand des Schicksals – co-director with Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
  • 1912: Leo, der Witwenfreund / Leo als Witwenfreund
  • 1912: Mama: Roman aus dem Leben einer Schauspielerin
  • 1912: Die Nachbarskinder – co-director with Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
  • 1912/13: Leo, der schwarze Münchhausen
  • 1913: Die Kunstschützin – also actor; co-director with Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
  • 1913: Der Shylock von Krakau – also actor)
  • 1913: Tangofieber
  • The Firm Gets Married
  • 1914: Fräulein Leutnant / Fräulein Feldgrau
  • 1914: Die Marketenderin
  • 1914: Der Stolz der Firma. Die Geschichte eines Lehrlings
  • 1915: Der Barbier von Flimersdorf – also screenplay
  • 1915: Berlin im Kriegsjahr
  • 1915: Carl und Carla
  • 1915: Frau Annas Pilgerfahrt. Episode aus dem Wien-Berliner Leben 1914/15 – also screenplay together with, and production
  • 1916: Sami, der Seefahrer
  • 1916: Ein Zirkusmädel
  • 1917: Albert läßt sich scheiden
  • 1917: Doktor Lauffen
  • 1917: Az elátkozott család
  • 1917: Fabricius úr leánya
  • 1917: Fekete gyémántok
  • 1918: A Gazdag szegények
  • 1918: A Szerelem bolondjai
  • 1919: Die Himmelskönigin / Du meine Himmelskönigin – also screenplay
  • The Duty to Live
  • 1919: Prinzessin Tatjana oder Wenn ein Weib den Weg verliert
  • The Yellow Death
  • The Yellow Death
  • Respectable Women
  • The Eyes of the World – also screenplay together with Ruth Goetz, and production
  • 1920: Das Götzenbild der Wahrheit
  • 1920: Der langsame Tod / Die nach Liebe schmachten – also screenplay together with Ruth Goetz, production
  • The Clan - also screenplay together with Ruth Goetz, production
  • 1921: The House of Torment – also screenplay and production
  • 1921: Das gestohlene Millionenrezept – also production
  • Country Roads and the Big City / Musikanten des Lebens – also production
  • 1921: Der Liebling der Frauen – also production
  • 1921: Perlen bedeuten Tränen / Tragische Abenteuer des Japaners Dr. Rao
  • 1921: Unrecht Gut
  • 1921/22: Menschenopfer
  • Lumpaci the Vagabond – also screenplay
  • Debit and Credit - also screenplay, together with Karl Figdor based on the novel by Gustav Freytag
  • Nick, King of the Chauffeurs
  • Upstairs and Downstairs
  • The Alternative Bride
  • The Third Squadron – also screenplay together with Bobby E. Lüthge
  • 1926: Mikoschs letztes Abenteuer – also screenplay
  • When the Young Wine Blossoms – also screenplay, together with Max Jungk based on a story by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
  • It Attracted Three Fellows
  • The Duty to Remain Silent – also screenplay
  • 1928: Kaczmarek
  • The Gypsy Chief – also screenplay
  • Dear Homeland - produced by Erich Engels
  • Rooms to Let – also screenplay, together with Bobby E. Lüthge
  • ''The Firm Gets Married''

    Other

  • 1910: Hexenlied – actor
  • 1910: Die Vernunft des Herzens – actor
  • 1910: Pro patria. Ein Unterseebootsfilm – director's assistant
  • 1910/11: Vater und Sohn – actor
  • 1911: Das Herz einer Gattin – actor
  • 1913/14: Eine venezianische Nacht – director's assistant
  • 1932: Spell of the Looking Glass – "collective direction", together with Herbert Ephraim
  • 1935: J'aime toutes les femmes – production assistant