John Brahm
Encyclopedia
John Brahm was a film and television director possibly best known today for directing a dozen of the original Twilight Zone
episodes including the now classic "Time Enough at Last
". His films include The Undying Monster
(1942), The Lodger
(1944), Hangover Square
(1945), the film noir The Locket
(1946) with Laraine Day
, Robert Mitchum
, and Brian Aherne
, and the Secret Sharer segment of Face to Face
. He also directed the 3D
horror film The Mad Magician
1954 with Vincent Price
and Mary Murphy
.
.
, he continued to moved between Shuttling between Vienna
, Berlin and Paris
, he became theatre director and was resident director for acting troupes as Deutsches Theater
and the Lessing Theater
, both in Berlin
.
With the rise of Hitler, he first moved to England where he directed film for a while, after working as a movie production supervisor, he got a chance to direct his first film, a remake of the D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent film, by the same name
as Broken Blossoms
in 1936, before moving to America in 1937. The German director started in the U.S. at Columbia Pictures
and eventually moved to 20th Century-Fox. He directed the ill fated Let us live, the true story of two men who were wrongly convicted for murder and almost executed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which was embarrassed by the incident and put pressure on the studio to cancel the film. The studio made the film nonetheless, but quietly, with a small budget.
In his book, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, American film historian and critic Andrew Sarris
states that Brahm "hit his stride" in the 1930s with "mood drenched melodramas", suggesting that Brahm went into artistic decline after this period. Nevertheless, Sarris further notes that Brahm did not lack work, as he made "approximately 150 TV films" during a the 1950s and 1960s, directing numerous episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
. Brahm's last full-length film
was Hot Rods to Hell
.
stage and film actress Dolly Haas
., who married Al Hirschfeld, the caricaturist after their divorce. In the 1950s he met and married Anna with whom he had two children.
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
episodes including the now classic "Time Enough at Last
Time Enough at Last
"Time Enough at Last" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It was adapted from a short story by Lyn Venable , which had been published in the January 1953 edition of the science fiction magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction...
". His films include The Undying Monster
The Undying Monster
The Undying Monster is a 1942 horror and mystery film, also known as The Hammond Mystery, featuring a werewolf as the primary antagonist...
(1942), The Lodger
The Lodger (1944 film)
The Lodger is a 1944 horror film about Jack the Ripper, based on the novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It stars Merle Oberon, George Sanders and Laird Cregar, features Sir Cedric Hardwicke and was directed by John Brahm from a screenplay by Barré Lyndon.Lowndes' story had previously...
(1944), Hangover Square
Hangover Square (film)
Hangover Square is a film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the novel Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon who made a number of changes to the novel, including the transformation of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the...
(1945), the film noir The Locket
The Locket
The Locket is a suspense film directed by John Brahm, starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond, and released by RKO Radio Pictures...
(1946) with Laraine Day
Laraine Day
Laraine Day was an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Career:Born La Raine Johnson in Roosevelt, Utah, to an affluent Mormon family, she later moved to California where she began her acting career with the Long Beach Players...
, Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, and Brian Aherne
Brian Aherne
Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...
, and the Secret Sharer segment of Face to Face
Face to Face (1952 film)
Face to Face is an anthology film adapted from the stories "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" by Stephen Crane. The film was produced by A&P heir Huntington Hartford and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
. He also directed the 3D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
horror film The Mad Magician
The Mad Magician
The Mad Magician was a 1954 horror film starring Vincent Price and Eva Gabor. In 1987, it became the first movie shown in 3D on television.-Plot:...
1954 with Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and Mary Murphy
Mary Murphy (actress)
Mary Murphy was an American film actress of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She was born in Washington, D.C. and spent most of her early childhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, James Victor Murphy, died in 1940. Shortly afterwards, she and her mother moved to Southern California...
.
Early life
Brahm was born in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of German actor Ludwig Brahm and the nephew of European theatrical impresario Otto BrahmOtto Brahm
Otto Brahm was a German drama and literary critic, theatre manager and director. His productions were noted for being accurate and realistic. He was involved in the foundation of the progressive Freie Bühne company, of which he became president and producer...
.
Career
John started his theatre career as an actor as a character actor. After World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he continued to moved between Shuttling between Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Berlin and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, he became theatre director and was resident director for acting troupes as Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
and the Lessing Theater
Lessing Theater
The Lessing Theater was a theater in Berlin-Mitte, Germany, at Friedrich-Karl-Ufer 1 . It opened in 1888 and was destroyed in April 1945 in a bombing raid; its ruins were demolished after World War II....
, both in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
With the rise of Hitler, he first moved to England where he directed film for a while, after working as a movie production supervisor, he got a chance to direct his first film, a remake of the D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent film, by the same name
Broken Blossoms
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl is a 1919 silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919...
as Broken Blossoms
Broken Blossoms (1936 film)
Broken Blossoms is a 1936 British drama film directed by John Brahm and starring Emlyn Williams, Arthur Margetson, Basil Radford and Edith Sharpe. It was based on the novel The Chink and the Child by Thomas Burke. It was made at Twickenham Studios in West London. The story had previously been...
in 1936, before moving to America in 1937. The German director started in the U.S. at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and eventually moved to 20th Century-Fox. He directed the ill fated Let us live, the true story of two men who were wrongly convicted for murder and almost executed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which was embarrassed by the incident and put pressure on the studio to cancel the film. The studio made the film nonetheless, but quietly, with a small budget.
In his book, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, American film historian and critic Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
states that Brahm "hit his stride" in the 1930s with "mood drenched melodramas", suggesting that Brahm went into artistic decline after this period. Nevertheless, Sarris further notes that Brahm did not lack work, as he made "approximately 150 TV films" during a the 1950s and 1960s, directing numerous episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
. Brahm's last full-length film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
was Hot Rods to Hell
Hot Rods to Hell
Hot Rods to Hell is a 1967 suspense film, originally intended for television, but released in theaters instead after its producers considered it too intense for TV viewers. It is one of many exploitation-type films from noted producer Sam Katzman, whose work is generally regarded as of higher...
.
Personal life
He married his first wife Hanna also an actress, who ran off with another actor leaving him seriously depressed. He married TeutonicTeutonic
Teutonic or Teuton may refer to:*the Teutons* Germanic peoples , see Theodiscus**Teutonic Mythology** Germanic languages * Having qualities related to Modern Germans*Nordic race*Furor Teutonicus...
stage and film actress Dolly Haas
Dolly Haas
Dorothy Clara Louise "Dolly" Haas was a singer and an entertainer who often appeared on Broadway.-Life and work:...
., who married Al Hirschfeld, the caricaturist after their divorce. In the 1950s he met and married Anna with whom he had two children.
Selected filmography
- Broken BlossomsBroken Blossoms (1936 film)Broken Blossoms is a 1936 British drama film directed by John Brahm and starring Emlyn Williams, Arthur Margetson, Basil Radford and Edith Sharpe. It was based on the novel The Chink and the Child by Thomas Burke. It was made at Twickenham Studios in West London. The story had previously been...
(1936) - Counsel for Crime (1937)
- Penitentiary (1938)
- Girls' SchoolGirls' School (film)Girls' School is a 1938 comedy film starring Anne Shirley. The film was directed by John Brahm and based upon a Tess Slesinger story.-Plot:...
(1938) - Let Us LiveLet Us LiveLet Us Live is a 1939 crime thriller film starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Henry Fonda. When two men are wrongly convicted of murder the girlfriend of one of them persuades a conscientious police detective to help her prove their innocence.-Cast:...
(1939) - Rio (1939)
- Escape to Glory (1940)
- Wild Geese CallingWild Geese CallingWild Geese Calling is a 1941 film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by John Brahm, and starring by Henry Fonda and Joan Bennett. The screenplay was written by Horace McCoy, based on novel by Stewart Edward White. The music score is by Alfred Newman....
(1941) - The Undying MonsterThe Undying MonsterThe Undying Monster is a 1942 horror and mystery film, also known as The Hammond Mystery, featuring a werewolf as the primary antagonist...
(1942) - Tonight We Raid Calais (1943)
- Bomber's Moon (1943)
- WintertimeWintertimeWintertime is a 1943 Twentieth Century-Fox musical film starring Sonja Henie and Cesar Romero, and featuring Woody Herman and His Orchestra.-Cast:*Sonja Henie ... Nora Ostgaard*Jack Oakie ... Skip Hutton*Cesar Romero ... Brad Barton...
(1943) - The LodgerThe Lodger (1944 film)The Lodger is a 1944 horror film about Jack the Ripper, based on the novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It stars Merle Oberon, George Sanders and Laird Cregar, features Sir Cedric Hardwicke and was directed by John Brahm from a screenplay by Barré Lyndon.Lowndes' story had previously...
(1944) - Guest in the HouseGuest in the HouseGuest in the House is an American film noir directed by John Brahm. The drama features Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon, among others.-Cast:* Anne Baxter as Evelyn Heath* Ralph Bellamy as Douglas Proctor* Aline MacMahon as Aunt Martha...
(1944) - Hangover SquareHangover Square (film)Hangover Square is a film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the novel Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon who made a number of changes to the novel, including the transformation of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the...
(1945) - Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)
- The LocketThe LocketThe Locket is a suspense film directed by John Brahm, starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond, and released by RKO Radio Pictures...
(1946) - The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
- SingaporeSingapore (1947 film)Singapore is a American romance film directed by John Brahm and starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. The film was remade as Istanbul with the location moved to Turkey.-Plot:...
(1947) - Siren of Atlantis (1949)
- A Star Shall Rise (1952)
- The Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a feature film made in 1952. It was promoted as a fact-based treatment of the events surrounding the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917....
(1952) - The Thief of VeniceThe Thief of VeniceThe Thief of Venice or Il Ladro di Venezia is a 1950 Italian film directed by John Brahm.-Cast:*Maria Montez ... Tina*Paul Hubschmid ... Alfiere Lorenzo Contarini*Massimo Serato ... Scarpa the Inquisitor*Faye Marlowe ... Francesca Disani...
(Italian: Il Ladro di Venezia) (1950) - Face to FaceFace to Face (1952 film)Face to Face is an anthology film adapted from the stories "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" by Stephen Crane. The film was produced by A&P heir Huntington Hartford and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
(1952) - The Diamond Queen (1953)
- The Mad MagicianThe Mad MagicianThe Mad Magician was a 1954 horror film starring Vincent Price and Eva Gabor. In 1987, it became the first movie shown in 3D on television.-Plot:...
(1954) - Hot Rods to HellHot Rods to HellHot Rods to Hell is a 1967 suspense film, originally intended for television, but released in theaters instead after its producers considered it too intense for TV viewers. It is one of many exploitation-type films from noted producer Sam Katzman, whose work is generally regarded as of higher...
(1967)