Prisoners of Paranoia (Ulmer)

Prisotzers of Paran oi a J

EDGAR G,.ULMER, one of the feast known, seenr and appreclated of Amerlcan dlrectors, remalns, along wlth Joseph Il. Lew1s, one of the greatest flIn_ makers to emerge fron the shadowy lower depths of Hol)-ywood's 'B" feature productlon ln the Fortles. One of the erars bleakest artlsts and one of f11n nolr's blackest vlslonarlesr Ulner today lE-ffi-TiT forgotten-except for a hand.ful (nyself of adrolrers lnclud.ed) and a score of d.ellactors. Who Is

Edgar

c.

Ulaer?

Ulmer! to raany, 1s a totally unknown or at nost obscure, murky flgure 1n f11n hlstory. Slnce hls career and the condltlons under whlch he worked. are sonewhat unusual, a few facts about h1s llfethough they w111 not necessarlly shed any 11ght on partlcular f1lns or on ldeas contalned wlthln then-w1l1hopefully draw hls obscurlty lnto sharper focus" Sternberg, Lang, Wilder, -U1mer, 1lke Strohelm, and Premlnger, was born ln Vlenna around. the tuln of the century (Septernber 12, 19OO). After studv_ lng architecture at the Acadeny of Arts and Scl-' ences, he became, at the age of 16 or l?, a set deslgner for the legendary stage dlrector, Max Relnhardt, at hls Josefstadt Theater. There he roet F.W" Murnau. In t923, ULoer caroe to the Unlted States wlth Relnhardt's play, The Mlracle, d1d sone set deslgnlng "r.16 for UnlverEilE-in 7)2). he became one of Irlurnau's asslstants (DER LETZTE MANN, 1924, and FAUST, I)26) and, worked wlth hln on most of hls Anerlcan productlons as asslstant ar:C set deslgner, uncredlted except for SUNRISE (192?), until rr Murna.u left the .^rinr''

1929 to m"tu 'il,eu.

After thls long

wlth Murnau (durlng w h l c h h e a l s o w o "ppi"riil".iirp ried wlth De_ Mll1e), Ulner returned to Berlln to roake hts flrst feature, M E N S c i I E NA I r { S o N N T A G ( t g z g ) , co-dlrected wlth Robert Slodnak. I\ 1930, Ulner noved back to the U.S. where he worked, untl1 19J3, both as art dlrector at Metro and as stage designer for the Phlladelphla Grand Opera. Because Ulmer wanted to dlrect h1s own ftlns and nalntaln control over thelr prod.uctlon, he worked for snall-budget, lndependent prod.uctlon outflts. Ulmer's anonymlty enabled hlro to work wlthout producer lnterference on a varlety of pro_ (in_ Jects and gave hln a control over prod.uction terference or delay on sroa1l-budget fllns rnade productlon costs prohlbltlve and was, therefore, rare) and,an lndependence that only a handful of Hollywood's greatest dlrectors enjoyed..

by JoHt\ BELT.ot\

went back to work for other snall outflts" In the late Fortles and early Flftles, Ulner nad.e fllos ln Italyo Gernany, Spaln, and the U.S. In 1!61, replaclng Frank Borzage who becane 1l-1 early 1n productlon, Ulner d.lrected L'ATLANTIDE. I{1s nost recent fllm, TEE CAVEBN,was nad.e ln Italy 1n All ln ?11, Ulmer has d.trected 128 ftlns by !?65, (though nost fllrnographtes lrst onty fl:--?*l_?."nt q , v 4 v

) J

l .

The qulckness with whlch Ul_ner worked., often conpletlng a f i l n r a w e e k , a n d t h e c h e a p n e s s o f h-l-sproductions, occaslonally as 1lttIe as^$ZOTOOO, nakes the quallty of hls work all the nore annaz_ lng. Though not all hls fllns are grear, a sur_ prlslng number of thelo (of those that I've seen, rate) gt pll are. rEE BLASK cAr (19j4), BLUEBEIRD

( 1 9 4 4 ) , S T R A N GTEL L U S T o N ( 7 9 4 5 ) , D E i o u u 'f t 9 n 6 j . - RUIqEsq {1218), rIIE NAI(EDDAHN(1954), and rrrE (7965) conprlse a fantastlcally conststent CAVEBN oeuvre and reflect genlus. Inltlation

the

Inbo

great

depth

The Ulqer

of

Ulnerns

I,Iysterles

Lltt1e has been wrltten about Ulner. Luc Moullet, Ulnerrs charnplon at Cahlers du Cln5ma ln the Flftles, parenthetlcally susgeTF-sd;;-th; theroes present ln hls workr great Ione1l_ "t[J ness of nan wlthout Godl the splrliual progresslon whlch leads fTon a yleldlng to Sln to the salva_ tlon of the soul, from the enptlness of exlstence to happiness, etc.,' (#58, eprit Ig56)" Uut Moul-. ]et doesn't elabcrate or 5;1vL """rp1u". For ne, what is most lmportant and lnterest_ lng about Ulmer's characteis is not thelr lcne_ llness, though it is a factor, nor thelr splr_ p r o g r e s s i o n itual (if , in fact, lt does occur ) b,_rt the nightnarish world they 1nhab1,;. Lllmer's world, somewhat akin to Murnau,s in its sensitivlty to and assertlon of abstract, nystical forces which haunt hls characters, is an lrration_ e l nne onrrorrad h_r rr crazy nlghtmare rnore than trv any co1d1y mechanlcal sense of fate. Ulmerrs characters do not struggle agalnst an externallv lmposed chaln of events but rather are powerles! prisoners of an lrratlonal serles of exnerlences whlch they can nelther understand. ;;;;;;i;"" "",

Ulner dlrected his flrst American flIm, MR. B R O A - D W A Yi ,n L 9 3 ) w i t h i n d . e p e n d e n t f i n a n c l n g . And, after maklng THE BLACK CAT (1914), h1s most fah^rre frar r u l h, fr^un r rlh urrlversal, Ulner worked 1n New York, n_aklng lndependently flnanced f1lns for Jews, Ukranlans, Arrnenlans, Blacks, and other nln_ orlty groups. .In 1942, Uhner returned. to Ho1ly_ wood_w1th pRc (producers' ReLeaslng corp. ), a smal1, lndependent conpany, where,'unAei iioducer Leon Frorokess, he wrote and dlrected-at anazingly l-lttle cost and at an amazlngly rapld rare_some of h1s best work, e.a. BLUEBEARD(1944), STRANGE ILLUSIoN (1945), and DEToUR (1946). After PRC folded Ln 1946, Ulner founded hls own short-flved company, Mld Century, and then

enlargement )

Ulner's characters, dellberately lnconsistent, act chaotlcal1y. They repeatedly surrender themsel-ves to thelr lntultlve but lrratlonal impulses. they lose control Consequently, over their actlons they exist envlronment. Ultinately' and thelr to what happens to them. onLy as passive reactors of DETOUR (Ton Neal), character The central wlth a man's death, belnvolved accldentalfy and senselessl-y fo1comes burdened. wlth gu1lt lows a course whlch leads to hls own destructlon. to h1s experlence and reactlng fatBy percelvlng character makes the DETOUR's central al1stlcal1y, Hls hard-bolled cyniclsn, auactlon fatallstlc" llfel Whlchever thor of such l1nes as, "That's out 1ts foot to trlp Fate stlcks way you turn, you, d creates a welrd slmpathy between hlnself and world around hlra that blnds h1n to the nlghtroarlsh not h1s own. lts loglc, Yet, slnce thls logic and mysterlous to hin, he remalns inconprehenslble caught up helplessseems to become 1ts prlsoner, a nan ln a drearn. 1y ln 1ts flor,r llke

o 7 F o o d

lnposter" ln hls fanlly), of an "unscrupulous splrlt. Eis Paul seens possessed by h1s father's flancS, Brett paranold. suiplclon of hls nother's (Warren l{1111an) and hls eventual ldenCurtls one of as Claude Barrington, of Orrtls tlflcatlon deathr are for hls father's the men responslble by the dead Judge treated. by Ulner as lnsplred fron beyond. the grave.

The world around Ulner's characters has no flxltyl lt 1s ultlmately unknowable. ULoer's un1(Karloff) verse, Ilke the house of Poelzlg ln TIIE BLACK CAT, 1s bu1lt upon a battfefleld that has lynawlth and ls und.ernlned becoroe a graveyard polnts out, as one character "the sllghtest ulter by one of us wou1d cause the d.estructlon nlstake llvlng on the brlnk of al-l-.' Ufuner's charactersr run the rlsk of maklng that of sanlty, constantly fantastlcally chaotone mlstake and of unleashlng haunt then to thelr own delc forces whlch will (on the structlon and wh1ch, to paraphrase Poelzlg as Ev1l 1tcat's nlne 1lves), are "as deathless

Gaston Morel In BLUEBEARD, puppeteer,/palnter (John Carrad.lne) a moment of artlstexperiences when he k11Is a rnodel who dlslIIuslon1c lnsanlty shoots on hlghly ed. hln. The scene whlch Ulner cannera anexpresslonlstlc sets and wlth t1lted seeros to be gles (lt 1s a flashback 1n the f1ln) whlch control the or1g1n of the lnsane forces of use of a puppet performance More1. Ulnerts hls centhat to suggest provld.es a netaphor @q llke Faust was, by EiET-character 1s controlled, unknown forces.

Judge Cartwright

inates

the

film

(frame

enlargement)

of O-rrtls, When Paul, susplclous read.s about Barrington ln hls father's flIes, Ulner slowly pans from Pau1, at hls fatherrs d.esk, past several objects 1n hls father's to a portralt study, of hls father hanglng on the waI1. the It ls as lf psychologlcal 1lnk carerar aware of the mysterlous to lts were tracing between Paul and hls father, possess that the invlslble 11nes of force orgin Paul, that puI1 his strings. roots itself not ln lognlse-en-scbne Uluer's wor1d, 1n the physlcal lc, as nohm6ffi-Eoe-E]a5r supernatas Hawksts does, but ln the abstract, the nlnds of his charthat control ural forces camera movements ULner's acters. Agaln and agaln, to the irratlonal sensitivity reveal a syropathetlc At the beforces that surround hls characters. glnning shot of STBANGE ILLUSION, a tracking (an obthrough the woods to the edge of a lake quote from SUNRISE) diverges fron, and then llque a llac ls bringing nreets Mac, the gane warden. (left by hls dead father to Paul, wrltten letter a warnlng that for hls son) and bearlng 1n trust

are narlcharacters of Ulmer's In a wey, all by sone they seen to be nanlpulated onettes r presence. I n S T R A N G EI L * 1nvls1ble mysterlous, nlghtthrough an actual LUSIONT Ulner creates, bond between the dead. Judge nare, a supernatural son' Paul (Janes and hls puppet-11ke Cartwrlght he wa.kes up froro the nlghtroare Lydon). After (1n whlch he foresees the lntruslon as "father"

r8

strangefy coincldes wlth Paul's earlier nightnare. Ulmer's camera, ln tune wlth these larger, inexpl1cabIe forces, seems to fo11on an lnvlsible path through the woods to lts destinatlon. It 1s in touch with a rnystical leve1 of experience of whlch his characters nelther nor his plot seem to be aware. Ulmerr s Characters

l-.er lonellness) in STnANcE ILLUSION, thelr feeltng for one another ahoost breaks the grlp of the forces whlch control them (e.g. the jud.ge and Rratl rpcnpnf irrol rr\ Th TTTTFDF^Dn . - , v. ,. o r e 1 ' s a f fectlon for the nodiste brlefly purges hirn of the demonic presence that haunts him" Veraos consunptive coughs and loneliness l n D E T O U Rg e t a sympathetic, human response from Roberts-yet nelther character can break away fron the course of action they are connitted to.

It 1s polntfess to questlon the rnotivatlon of Ulner's characters. The declsion of Roberts (Tom Neal) to run away first fron Haskell's mur-

Though the world's bleakness often overwhelms its Lrightness, the exjstence of both, almost slnultaneously, ln hls films reveals Ulmerrs leep-seated concern for moral confllct and sheds light on hls voyeurlstlc interest ln the abstract yet the fact struggle between Good and Frll. that characters, 1 l k e t h o s e i n T H E S T B A N G EW O M A N ,g l v e in to thc evil forces, destroying not only themselves but olhers is less irnportant for Uhner t h n n t h e -s f r ' : s s l e l t s e l f .

der, Lhen from Vera's has lts source only in the obscure nalure of guilt ltself. The treache-ry of Verrdig (Zachary Scott) in BUTIILESS, though at first expllc?ble as a neans of bettering hlnse1f, acqulrlng more money or power', seerns finalIy, because of hls dlssatisfaction with what he gets, a tot al Iy lrraLlonal 1npu1se. Sinilarly, the se1fcentered. actlons of Jenny (Hedy Larnarr) ln THE S T I T A N G t rW O M A N ( 1 9 4 6 ) w h l c h d e s t r o y the nen who love her have no 1oglca1 raotlvation beyond her profound desire for what she can not have.

In THE tsLACK CAT, llLmer concentrates on peter Al,11son (David Manners) as an lntruder 1n the Poelzig-Werdegas relatlonshlp, cornpllcatlng thelr lnsane struggle wlth an uncomprehending audience. Ulner focuses not on partlcular characters in THE BLACX CAT but rather, as Mike Prokosch has polnted out, on a pattern of reactions ro evenlst he pu1ls focus from the A]Ilsons klsslng to Poelgrasping zig, reflexively the arn of a bronze nude

Ulmer's women are also, as a ru1e, mysterlthey seem d.rawn by ously motivated. At tines, nothing but the force of evil- Itself. Fascl_ nated and hypnotized, llke Al_1ison.s wlfe (Jacqueline We11s) 1n TI{B BLACK CAT, they a1most become 1ts vlctins. The attraction of Marla (Betta St. John) to the outlaw Santlago (Arthur Kennedy) ln THE NAKED DAWN, the youns glr1rs interest ln Vendlg ln RUTHLESS, the attractlon of Paulrs sister and nother to 1n STRANGE ILLUSION, the rood.lste.s anour Curtis

fou for her puppeteer 1n BLUEBEARDreflect-TfiE paradoxlcal affinlty 1n ULoeres world beuween good, and acters.

evil

that

threatens

to

destroy

his

char-

Once Ulmer's characters recognize the exlstence of inexpllcable and. uncontrollable forces 1n the gradually world, these forces becone reinforced and magnifled, by the envlronnent unt1l the characpaul in ters becone prlsoners actually of thern. locked in Professor STRANGE ILLUSION 1s flnally the young couple 1n THE BLACK asylurn; Mulbach's CAT becoroe helpless spectator,/partlclpants 1n the struggle between poelzig and Werd.egas lelodraroatic. (Be1a Lugosl ) . They have no nore control over the sltuation than the chess pleces used by poelzlg and Werdegas to deternlne thelr fate. In THE CAVERN, the characters' origlnal sense of entrapment t h e ln cave lncreases wlth each failure to flnd. a way out of lt untll the cavern itself beglns to represent the physlcal enbodlrnent of the characters' lnner turbulence, paranoia, fear, and insanlty. A.11 thelr loglcal and orderly attempts to escape fa11. pathetlc Tn a flnal act of insanity, one of the characters sets off an exploslon which frees the others and breaks the decorrs gl'1p on the characters. mysterious

ln the foreground, watchlng them. What energes ls an lntrlcately constructed serles of noral-psychotoo nysterlous loglca1 encounters for the A11Lsons ever to und.erstand.. They renaln helpless spectators of a great, lnscrulable drana, Ulnerrs lrratlonalunlverse drlves characters 11ke A1 Roberts ln DETOUR nearly lnsane. Yet he, finally inltiated into the nysterles of hls world, reallzes hls own nortal weakness" At the end of D E T O U Rh e c o n c l u d e s , Fate...or sone nys"Yes. terious can put the finger force on you or ne for no good reason at aII."

of Ulnerrs The inabl11ty characters to control thelr envlronment, nlrrored In thelr failure to control their own actlons for any purpose other than thelr self-destructlon or self-punishment, glves a dlstlnctly pesslnlstlc tone to hls work. The deaths of Vendlg and Buck (Sldney Greenstreet) who drown one another wh11e flghtlng at the end of pesslmlsm at lts thls exRUTHLESI], represents treme. search (for escape Yet h1s characters' the cave 1n TIIE CAVEBN, for a lost love fron 1n TIIE STRANGE WOMAN, ln RUTHLESS, for happlness 1n BLUEBEABD) for sorne for artlstlc insplratlon nosltive value or absolute truth in thelr worlds sympathetlc. makes then trernendously Uhler's great sensltlvity to and symdlrectlon reveals pathy for hls characters' feellngs. When Paul (she nentions her rnarriage and. his mother discuss

Ulner"s characters are very weakly drawn. His plots ofLen contaln great gaps ln narrative contlnulty. Yet hts vlsuaI styIe, as Jean Doloarchl. and. Andrew Sarrls point out, never fal_ ters. In tune with a nystical level of experi_ ence, ULaer seems to und.erstand., wlth a certalnty and sureness that 1s unique in the cinena, the lnvls1b1e forces whlch nake hls characters' world the nlghtrnare that 1t is. *+***

t9

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* **t****tt**

** *****

**

Select

Fllnography

FILMS DIBECTED BY ULMER

r929 M E N S C I I E NA M S O N N T A G ( w i t h S i o d n a k ) r933 MR. BBOADWAY, DA]4AGED LIVES* THE BLACK CAT* GREENFIELDS (IlddlSh) THE SINGING BLACKSMITH (Yiddlsh) 1 a 3 Q MOON OVER HARLEM r942 T O M O R R O WW E L I V E 79+3M Y S O N T H E I I E R O * , G I B L S I N C H A I N S , I S L E JIVE JUNCTION O F F O R G O T T E NS I N S * , r944 BLUEBEARD 1 a b < STRANGE ILLUSION 1alr6 CLUB HAVANA, DETOUR, THE WIFE OF MONTEIIER SISTER'S SECRET, TI{E STBANGE CRISTO*, WOMAN 1 a42 CANNEGIE HALL L>)*

1937 I9)B

19 4 8

H U'I'tLLt'Ji)

r949 THE

PIRATES OF CAPRI 1 a 5 1 ST. BENNY THE DIP, TIIE MAN FROM PLANET X 1 a < 2 BABES ]N BAGDAD THE NAKED DAWN, MURDER IS Ii{Y BEAT 1 9 \ 7 DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL r 9 6 o HANNIBAI,, THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN, BEYOND TIIE TIIiIE BARRIEB 1 9 6 r L'ATLANTIDE 1 , 9 6 5TIIE CAVEBN

*lndlcates

fllns

partlally

wrltten

by Ulner

of PBISoNER oF Ulner was the wrlter or co-wrlter JAPAN (Rlp1ey, 1942), CoRREGIDoR(Nlsh, 1943) and DANGEnIWol,lENAT WORK(Newf1eld' 1943). **t*********+***********************tt*.r***1.******