Curt Siodmak

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Curt Siodmak (August 10, 1902–September 2, 2000) was a novelist and screenwriter, author of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was made into a number of films. He also wrote the novels Hauser's Memory and Gabriel's Body. He made a name for himself in Hollywood with horror and science fiction films. He is the brother of noir director Robert Siodmak.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany to a Polish Jewish family, Curt Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the movie Menschen am Sonntag (1929) a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder in collaboration with Fred Zinneman and cameraman Eugen Schüfftan.[1]

In the following years Curt Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays and short stories including the novel F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1933) which became a popular movie starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre.

Siodmak decided to emigrate after hearing an anti-semitic tirade by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and departed for England where he made a living as a screenwriter before travelling to the USA in 1937.

His big break came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr., which established this fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.[1] In the film, Siodmak made reference to many werewolf legends: being marked by a pentagram; being practically immortal apart from being struck/shot by silver implements/bullets; and the famous verse:

"Even a man who is pure in heart,
And says his prayers by night
May become a Wolf when the Wolfbane blooms
And the autumn Moon is bright"

(the last line was changed in the sequels to "The Moon is full and bright").

Siodmak's science-fiction novel Donovan's Brain (1942) was a bestseller that was translated into many languages and was adapted for the cinema several times. Other notable films he wrote include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked With a Zombie and The Beast With Five Fingers. There is an extensive interview with Siodmak about his career in both Germany and Hollywood in Eric Leif Davin's Pioneers of Wonder. In the plots of his work, Siodmak utilised the latest scientific findings combining those with pseudo-scientific motifs like the Jekyll and Hyde complex, the Nazi trauma and the East-West dichotomy.

Curt died in sleep September 2, 2000, at his home in Three Rivers, California.

[edit] Works

[edit] Novels

  • F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (1933)
  • Black Friday (1939)
  • Donovan's Brain (1942)
  • The Beast with Five Fingers (1945)
  • Whomsoever I Shall Kiss (1952)
  • Riders to the Stars (1954)
  • Skyport (1959)
  • For Kings Only (1964)
  • Hauser's Memory (1968)
  • The Third Ear (1971)
  • City in the Sky (1974)
  • Frankenstein Meets Wolfman (1981)
  • Gabriel's Body (1992)

[edit] Short stories

  • The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika (1926)
  • Variation of a Theme (1972)
  • The P Factor (1976)
  • Experiment with Evil (1985)

[edit] Non fiction

  • Even a Man Who Is Pure in Heart: The Life of a Writer, Not Always to His Liking (1997)
  • Wolf Man's Maker (2001) (Posthumous autobiography)

[edit] Partial filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "Wettbewerb/In Competition". Moving Pictures, Berlinale Extra (Berlin): 85. 11-22 February 1998. 

[edit] External links

Film portal
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