Willy Schmidt-Gentner


Willy Schmidt-Gentner was one of the most successful German composers of film music in the history of German-language cinema. He moved to Vienna in 1933. At his most productive, he scored up to 10 films a year, including numerous classics and masterpieces of the German and Austrian cinema.

Life

Schmidt-Gentner was born in Neustadt am Rennsteig in Thuringia, Germany. During his childhood he learnt the violin and took lessons in composition from Max Reger. After World War I Schmidt-Gentner worked as a civil servant checking that cinema owners were paying their full taxes. Through one of his clients he got a position as a band leader at film theatre performances. This raised his interest in films and as early as 1922 he produced his first composition to accompany a silent film. He performed many of his new pieces himself on the piano during films. He was also already responsible at this period for the sound tracks of a number of German classic films, for example Alraune, The White Hell of Pitz Palu and Hokuspokus
With the arrival of sound films he quickly became one of the most sought-after filmscore composers in Germany, so that for a time he was scoring up to 10 films a year. He had a preference for light comedies and cheerful musical romances, but occasionally he took on more heavyweight productions with political overtones, for example the National Socialist propaganda film Wien 1910 or the historical film about the k. u. k. spy Colonel Redl.
In 1933 he moved to Vienna, where he directed his only two films, Die Pompadour and Prater, for the company Mondial-Film. For Sascha-Film he composed the music for some of the greatest specimens of the Wiener Film genre, among others Maskerade and Hohe Schule. During this time he was romantically involved with Zsa Zsa Gabor. After the Anschluss he became the "house composer" for the National Socialist-owned Wien-Film, which had developed out of the former Sascha-Film. For them he scored not only their many escapist romantic comedies, but also some of their few overt propaganda films such as Heimkehr, Wien 1910 or Das Herz muß schweigen. He was also repeatedly commissioned by the top directors of wartime Vienna, Willi Forst and Gustav Ucicky, whom he already knew from previous work, to write scores for their productions, such as Der Postmeister, Operette, Wiener Blut and Wiener Mädeln.
After the end of the war Schmidt-Gentner remained loyal to Vienna and successfully continued his composing career for many more films, predominantly musicals set in Austria, until he retired in 1955. Altogether he composed the music for about 200 films. He died in Vienna on 12 February 1964.

Selected filmography

A selection of films scored by Willy Schmidt-Gentner, with names of directors:

Silent films

Nathan the Wise Between Evening and Morning I.N.R.I. The New Land By Order of Pompadour Carlos and Elisabeth The Voice of the Heart The Power of Darkness The Wife of Forty Years Living Buddhas If Only It Weren't Love The Adventures of Sybil Brent If You Have an Aunt Comedians The Blue Danube Madame Wants No Children The Student of Prague The Red Mouse The Mill at Sanssouci The Three Mannequins My Friend the Chauffeur The Violet Eater Derby Circus Romanelli State Attorney Jordan Fadette Children of No Importance Ghost Train Mata Hari The Master of Nuremberg The Queen of Spades The Indiscreet Woman The Tragedy of a Lost Soul Nameless Woman The Woman Who Couldn't Say No Dancing Vienna The White Spider Attorney for the Heart The Weavers The Trousers Linden Lady on the Rhine Orient Express Prinz Louis Ferdinand Alraune Secrets of the Orient Charlotte Somewhat Crazy Prince or Clown Hurrah! I Live! Hungarian Rhapsody Who Invented Divorce? Casanova's Legacy The Model from Montparnasse Woman in the Moon The White Hell of Pitz Palu The Smuggler's Bride of Mallorca Napoleon at Saint Helena The Burning Heart

Sound films

Hocuspocus The White Devil Darling of the Gods Dolly Gets Ahead The Flute Concert of Sanssouci Love's Carnival Wibbel the Tailor Everyone Asks for Erika Ash Wednesday That's All That Matters Marshal Forwards Companion Wanted Two in a Car The Song of Night A City Upside Down One Night's Song Her Highness the Saleswoman The Princess's Whim Frasquita Volga in Flames Tales from the Vienna Woods Gently My Songs Entreat Maskerade Tales from the Vienna Woods Hohe Schule Episode ... nur ein Komödiant Asew Blood Brothers The World's in Love The Cossack and the Nightingale The Divine Spark Thank You, Madame The Emperor's Candlesticks His Daughter is Called Peter Premiere Darling of the Sailors Hotel Sacher Uproar in Damascus A Mother's Love Der Postmeister Beloved Augustin Operetta Heimkehr Brüderlein Fein Wien 1910 Vienna Blood Späte Liebe Schrammeln Late Love Laugh, Pagliacci Laugh Bajazzo The Heart Must Be Silent Viennese Girls '