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Curt Siodmak
Born Kurt Siodmak
(1902-08-10)August 10, 1902
Dresden, Germany
Died September 2, 2000(2000-09-02) (aged 98)
Three Rivers, California, US
Occupation Novelist and filmmaker
Nationality German-American
Period 1929–2000
Genre Short stories, novels and screenplays
Relatives Robert Siodmak (brother)

Curt Siodmak (August 10, 1902 – September 2, 2000) was a German-American novelist, screenwriter and director. He is known for his work in the horror and science fiction film genres, with such films as The Wolf Man and Donovan's Brain (the latter adapted from his novel of the same name). He was the younger brother of noir director Robert Siodmak.

Life and career

Siodmak was born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, the son of Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak. His parents were both from Jewish families in Leipzig. Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the 1929 movie Menschen am Sonntag, a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on one Sunday, based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's brother Robert and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder in collaboration with Fred Zinnemann and cameraman Eugen Schüfftan. Siodmak was the nephew of film producer Seymour Nebenzal, who funded Menschen am Sonntag with funds borrowed from his father, Heinrich Nebenzahl.

In the following years Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays, and short stories, including the novel F.P.1 antwortet nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1932) which was adapted into a film featuring 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 moving to the United States in 1937. His big break in Hollywood came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr., which established the titular fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. In the film, Siodmak created several 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 of heart,
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright

(The last line was changed in the sequels to "And 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, beginning in 1943 with The Lady and the Monster, then 1953's Donovan's Brain and 1962's The Brain. Other films he wrote the screenplays for include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked with a Zombie and The Beast with Five Fingers. An extensive interview with Siodmak about his career in both Germany and Hollywood is found 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.

In 1998, he won the Berlinale Camera at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

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

Works

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) (novelisation of the film Riders to the Stars)
  • Skyport (1959)
  • For Kings Only (1964)
  • Hauser's Memory (1968)
  • The Third Ear (1971)
  • City in the Sky (1974)
  • Frankenstein Meets Wolfman (1981)(novelisation of the film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
  • Gabriel's Body (1991)

Short stories

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

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)

Filmography

Title Year Credited as Notes Ref(s)
Director Screenwriter Screen story writer Other
Mascots 1929 Yes
Escape to the Foreign Legion 1929 Yes
People on Sunday 1930 Yes Based on reportage by Siodmak
Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier 1930 Yes Yes
Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters 1930 Yes
The Man in Search of His Murderer 1931 Yes
Der Ball 1931 Yes
Le Bal 1931 Yes
The Invisible Front 1932 Yes
F.P. 1 antwortet nicht 1932 Yes
I.F. 1 ne répond plus 1932 Yes
Marion, That's Not Nice 1933 Yes
F.P.1 1933 Yes
Girls Will Be Boys 1934 Yes
The Crisis is Over 1934 Yes
It's a Bet 1935 Yes
Abdul the Damned 1935 Yes
The Crouching Beast 1935 Yes Treatment
I Give My Heart 1935 Yes Treatment
The Tunnel 1935 Yes
Non-Stop New York 1937 Yes
Her Jungle Love 1938 Yes
The Invisible Man Returns 1940 Yes
Black Friday 1940 Yes
The Ape 1940 Yes Yes
The Invisible Woman 1940 Yes
Aloma of the South Seas 1941 Yes
Pacific Blackout 1941 Yes
The Wolf Man 1941 Yes
Invisible Agent 1942 Yes
London Blackout Murders 1943 Yes
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 1943 Yes
The Mantrap 1943 Yes
False Faces 1943 Yes
I Walked with a Zombie 1943 Yes
The Purple V 1943 Yes
Son of Dracula 1943 Yes
The Climax 1944 Yes
House of Frankenstein 1945 Yes
Frisco Sal 1945 Yes
Shady Lady 1945 Yes
The Return of Monte Cristo 1945 Yes
The Beast with Five Fingers 1946 Yes
Berlin Express 1946 Yes
Tarzan's Magic Fountain 1949 Yes
Bride of the Gorilla 1951 Yes Yes
The Magnetic Monster 1953 Yes Yes
Riders to the Stars 1954 Yes
Creature with the Atom Brain 1955 Yes Yes
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon 1956 Yes Yes
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers 1956 Yes
Love Slaves of the Amazons 1957 Yes Yes Yes Producer
The Devil's Messenger 1962 Yes
The Brain 1962 Yes Based on "Donovan's Brain"
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace 1962 Yes
The Lightship 1963 Yes
Ski Fever 1966 Yes Yes
Ritual 2002 Yes Based on I Walked With a Zombie
The Wolfman 2010 Yes Based on The Wolf Man (1941)
Cercasi modella N/A Yes

Film adaptations

  • The Shot in the Talker Studio [de], directed by Alfred Zeisler (1930, based on the novel Schuß im Tonfilmatelier)
  • F.P.1 antwortet nicht, directed by Karl Hartl (1932, based on the novel F.P.1 antwortet nicht)
    • I.F.1 ne répond plus, directed by Karl Hartl (1933, based on the novel F.P.1 antwortet nicht)
    • F.P.1, directed by Karl Hartl (1933, based on the novel F.P.1 antwortet nicht)
  • Girls Will Be Boys, directed by Marcel Varnel (1934, based on the play The Last Lord)
  • The Lady and the Monster, directed by George Sherman (1944, based on the novel Donovan's Brain)
  • Donovan's Brain, directed by Felix E. Feist (1953, based on the novel Donovan's Brain)
  • Studio One: Donovan's Brain (1955, TV series episode, based on the novel Donovan's Brain)
  • The Brain, directed by Freddie Francis (1962, based on the novel Donovan's Brain)
  • Hauser's Memory, directed by Boris Sagal (1970, TV film, based on the novel Hauser's Memory)
  • Der Heiligenschein, directed by Heinz Schirk (1977, TV film, based on the story Variation of a Theme)
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