Curt Siodmak

Template:Infobox writer 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.Template:R 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.Template:R

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.Template:R 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.Template:R 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) (novelization of the film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
• Gabriel's Body (1991)

Short stories

• ' (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	Template:Abbr
		Director	Screenwriter	Screen story writer	Other
Mascots	1929		Template:Yes
Escape to the Foreign Legion	1929		Template:Yes
People on Sunday	1930				Template:Yes	Based on reportage by Siodmak
Template:Sort	1930		Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1930		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1931		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1931		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1931		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1932		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1932		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1932		Template:Yes
Marion, That's Not Nice	1933		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1933		Template:Yes
Girls Will Be Boys	1934		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1934			Template:Yes
It's a Bet	1935		Template:Yes
Abdul the Damned	1935		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1935				Template:Yes	Treatment
Template:Sort	1935				Template:Yes	Treatment
Template:Sort	1935		Template:Yes
Non-Stop New York	1937		Template:Yes
Her Jungle Love	1938		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1940		Template:Yes
Black Friday	1940		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1940		Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1940			Template:Yes
Aloma of the South Seas	1941			Template:Yes
Pacific Blackout	1941			Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1941		Template:Yes
Invisible Agent	1942		Template:Yes
London Blackout Murders	1943		Template:Yes
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man	1943		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1943		Template:Yes
False Faces	1943		Template:Yes
I Walked with a Zombie	1943		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1943		Template:Yes
Son of Dracula	1943			Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1944		Template:Yes
House of Frankenstein	1945			Template:Yes
Frisco Sal	1945		Template:Yes
Shady Lady	1945		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1945			Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1946		Template:Yes
Berlin Express	1946			Template:Yes
Tarzan's Magic Fountain	1949		Template:Yes
Bride of the Gorilla	1951	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1953	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Riders to the Stars	1954		Template:Yes
Creature with the Atom Brain	1955		Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon	1956	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers	1956			Template:Yes
Love Slaves of the Amazons	1957	Template:Yes	Template:Yes		Template:Yes	Producer
Template:Sort	1962		Template:Yes
The Brain	1962			Template:Yes		Based on "Donovan's Brain"
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace	1962		Template:Yes
Template:Sort	1963		Template:Yes
Ski Fever	1966	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Ritual	2002		Template:Yes			Based on I Walked With a Zombie
The Wolfman	2010		Template:Yes			Based on The Wolf Man (1941)
Model Wanted	Template:N/a		Template:Yes

Film adaptations

• Template:Ill, 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)

External links

• Template:ISFDB name
• Template:IMDb name
• Siodmak on Siodmak