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Hugo Haas

January 21, 2023

Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer.[1] He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962.

Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas in Pickup (1951)
Born(1901-02-19)19 February 1901
Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
Died1 December 1968(1968-12-01) (aged 67)
Vienna, Austria
Occupations
  • Actor
  • film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
Years active1926–1962
Spouse(s)Maria von Bibikoff
(m. 1938; div. 19??)
Children1
RelativesPavel Haas

Life and career

Haas was born in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), and died in Vienna, Austria from complications of asthma. He and his brother, Pavel Haas, studied voice at the Brno Conservatory under composer Leoš Janáček. Pavel Haas went on to become a noted composer himself before he was killed in Auschwitz in 1944.

Czechoslovak theater and film

After graduating from the conservatory in 1920, Hugo Haas began acting at the National Theater in Brno, in Ostrava and in Olomouc. In 1924 he moved to Prague and regularly appeared at the Vinohrady Theatre,[2] where he remained until 1929. In 1930,[3] Karel Hugo Hilar made Hugo Haas a member of the Prague National Theatre drama company, where he remained until his emigration in 1939. One of his most highly acclaimed roles was as Doctor Galén in The White Disease, which Karel Čapek had written especially for him. His final role at the National Theater was as Director Busman in Čapek's R.U.R.[3]

Haas made his film debut as Notary Voborský in the silent film Jedenácté přikázání (The Eleventh Commandment) in 1923. (Twelve years later he played the same role again in Jedenácté přikázání directed by Martin Frič.) With the advent of sound film, Haas was able to apply his comedic talent in Svatopluk Innemann's Muži v offsidu in 1931. By 1938 Haas had acted in some thirty films.

In 1936 he directed his first film, Camel Through the Eye of a Needle (co-directed with Otakar Vávra). He later directed Kvočna (the film score was composed by his brother Pavel), The White Disease and Co se šeptá. His final comedy in Czechoslovakia was Miroslav Cikán's Andula Won, which appeared in cinemas in 1938.[4]

Emigration

Following the 1938 Munich Agreement and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in early 1939, Hugo Haas was dismissed from the National Theater due to his Jewish origin.[3] In April he and his wife, Maria von Bibikoff ("Bibi"), fled via Paris, Spain, and then from the port of Lisbon, Portugal, to the port of New York in October–November 1940. Their son, Ivan, was taken in by his brother Pavel. Hugo Haas' father Lipmann (Zikmund) Haas and brother Pavel died at Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

United States

By the mid-1940s, Haas had become a character actor in American films. In 1951 he launched a successful if unacclaimed career as a film director in Hollywood with a string of B movie melodramas, usually starring blonde actresses in the role of a predatory mantrap. Haas usually cast himself as the male lead in the films although the female role almost always dominated the storyline and was usually exclusively promoted on film posters. His work also includes a touching human drama, The Girl on the Bridge (1951) – which he co-wrote, directed and starred in – about a kindly watchmaker who after having lost his wife and family in the Holocaust, befriends, marries, and raises a second family with a young woman he saves from suicide.

Cleo Moore starred in six films for Haas, becoming a well-known film star in that era. Other actresses who starred in Haas' films were Beverly Michaels and Carol Morris. The Haas pictures generally received poor reviews but were for the most part commercially successful, and on occasion featured such well-known names as Eleanor Parker, John Agar, Vince Edwards, Joan Blondell, Agnes Moorehead, Julie London, Corinne Griffith, and Marie Windsor.

Haas's final film, Paradise Alley, was rejected by the major studios and sat unreleased for over three years, finally surfacing in a limited run in 1962.

Production company

Haas's first American film was bankrolled out of his own pocket for $85,000. The financial success of Pickup lead to the creation of the independent Hugo Haas Productions, which he used to produce 12 of his 14 American films from 1951 to 1959. Independent studios were not atypical at this time, but Haas' operating procedures were. He financed his own films, and the budgets were minuscule compared to most Hollywood fare. While his films' budgets usually ran from $80,000 to $100,000, the average cost for a Hollywood picture in 1955 was $1,500,000. His ventures were risky; he did not secure distribution deals with larger studios until after the movies were made, sometimes delaying their release for months or even years. While Hollywood studios practiced division of labor, with well defined and distinct roles for workers, Haas was described as a "one-man production team," having financed, produced, written, and directed all of his Hugo Hass productions, and having acted in all but one.[5]

Return to Europe

In the late 1950s Haas returned to Europe. After a brief stay in Italy, he settled in Vienna in 1961, where he made occasional appearances on television. Except for a brief visit during the centennial celebrations for the National Theater in Prague in 1963, he never returned to his homeland, until his burial in Brno.

Selected filmography

 
Grave of Hugo Haas at the Jewish Cemetery in Brno

As director

As actor

References

  1. ^ "Hugo Hass". csfd. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  2. ^ Z. Sílová, R. Hrdinová, A. Kožíková, V. Mohylová : Divadlo na Vinohradech 1907–2007 – Vinohradský ansámbl, published by Vinohrady Theatre, Prague, 2007, p. 192, ISBN 978-80-239-9604-3
  3. ^ a b c Kolektiv autorů: Národní divadlo a jeho předchůdci, Academia, Prague, 1988, p. 128
  4. ^ Figlárová, Jana (13 August 2009). "Postava Hugo Haase v české meziválečné kinematografii" (PDF). Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  5. ^ Hain, Milan (1 January 2013). "Hugo Haas: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer". Humanities and Social Sciences Review.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hugo Haas.
  • Hugo Haas at IMDb
  • Hugo Haas, "The Power of Self-Preservation"
  • Milain Hain, "Hugo Haas, Trauma, and Survivor Guilt"
  • Milain Hain, "Hugo Haas, Forgotten Emigre"

January 21, 2023
hugo, haas, february, 1901, december, 1968, czech, film, actor, director, writer, appeared, more, than, films, between, 1926, 1962, well, directing, films, between, 1933, 1962, pickup, 1951, born, 1901, february, 1901brno, moravia, austria, hungarydied1, decem. Hugo Haas 19 February 1901 1 December 1968 was a Czech film actor director and writer 1 He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962 as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962 Hugo HaasHugo Haas in Pickup 1951 Born 1901 02 19 19 February 1901Brno Moravia Austria HungaryDied1 December 1968 1968 12 01 aged 67 Vienna AustriaOccupationsActorfilm directorscreenwriterproducerYears active1926 1962Spouse s Maria von Bibikoff m 1938 div 19 Children1RelativesPavel Haas Contents 1 Life and career 1 1 Czechoslovak theater and film 1 2 Emigration 1 3 United States 1 4 Production company 1 5 Return to Europe 2 Selected filmography 2 1 As director 2 2 As actor 3 References 4 External linksLife and career EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Haas was born in Brno Austria Hungary now in the Czech Republic and died in Vienna Austria from complications of asthma He and his brother Pavel Haas studied voice at the Brno Conservatory under composer Leos Janacek Pavel Haas went on to become a noted composer himself before he was killed in Auschwitz in 1944 Czechoslovak theater and film Edit After graduating from the conservatory in 1920 Hugo Haas began acting at the National Theater in Brno in Ostrava and in Olomouc In 1924 he moved to Prague and regularly appeared at the Vinohrady Theatre 2 where he remained until 1929 In 1930 3 Karel Hugo Hilar made Hugo Haas a member of the Prague National Theatre drama company where he remained until his emigration in 1939 One of his most highly acclaimed roles was as Doctor Galen in The White Disease which Karel Capek had written especially for him His final role at the National Theater was as Director Busman in Capek s R U R 3 Haas made his film debut as Notary Voborsky in the silent film Jedenacte prikazani The Eleventh Commandment in 1923 Twelve years later he played the same role again in Jedenacte prikazani directed by Martin Fric With the advent of sound film Haas was able to apply his comedic talent in Svatopluk Innemann s Muzi v offsidu in 1931 By 1938 Haas had acted in some thirty films In 1936 he directed his first film Camel Through the Eye of a Needle co directed with Otakar Vavra He later directed Kvocna the film score was composed by his brother Pavel The White Disease and Co se septa His final comedy in Czechoslovakia was Miroslav Cikan s Andula Won which appeared in cinemas in 1938 4 Emigration Edit Following the 1938 Munich Agreement and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in early 1939 Hugo Haas was dismissed from the National Theater due to his Jewish origin 3 In April he and his wife Maria von Bibikoff Bibi fled via Paris Spain and then from the port of Lisbon Portugal to the port of New York in October November 1940 Their son Ivan was taken in by his brother Pavel Hugo Haas father Lipmann Zikmund Haas and brother Pavel died at Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust United States Edit By the mid 1940s Haas had become a character actor in American films In 1951 he launched a successful if unacclaimed career as a film director in Hollywood with a string of B movie melodramas usually starring blonde actresses in the role of a predatory mantrap Haas usually cast himself as the male lead in the films although the female role almost always dominated the storyline and was usually exclusively promoted on film posters His work also includes a touching human drama The Girl on the Bridge 1951 which he co wrote directed and starred in about a kindly watchmaker who after having lost his wife and family in the Holocaust befriends marries and raises a second family with a young woman he saves from suicide Cleo Moore starred in six films for Haas becoming a well known film star in that era Other actresses who starred in Haas films were Beverly Michaels and Carol Morris The Haas pictures generally received poor reviews but were for the most part commercially successful and on occasion featured such well known names as Eleanor Parker John Agar Vince Edwards Joan Blondell Agnes Moorehead Julie London Corinne Griffith and Marie Windsor Haas s final film Paradise Alley was rejected by the major studios and sat unreleased for over three years finally surfacing in a limited run in 1962 Production company Edit Haas s first American film was bankrolled out of his own pocket for 85 000 The financial success of Pickup lead to the creation of the independent Hugo Haas Productions which he used to produce 12 of his 14 American films from 1951 to 1959 Independent studios were not atypical at this time but Haas operating procedures were He financed his own films and the budgets were minuscule compared to most Hollywood fare While his films budgets usually ran from 80 000 to 100 000 the average cost for a Hollywood picture in 1955 was 1 500 000 His ventures were risky he did not secure distribution deals with larger studios until after the movies were made sometimes delaying their release for months or even years While Hollywood studios practiced division of labor with well defined and distinct roles for workers Haas was described as a one man production team having financed produced written and directed all of his Hugo Hass productions and having acted in all but one 5 Return to Europe Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message In the late 1950s Haas returned to Europe After a brief stay in Italy he settled in Vienna in 1961 where he made occasional appearances on television Except for a brief visit during the centennial celebrations for the National Theater in Prague in 1963 he never returned to his homeland until his burial in Brno Selected filmography Edit Grave of Hugo Haas at the Jewish Cemetery in Brno As director Edit Velbloud uchem jehly 1936 Devcata nedejte se 1937 Kvocna 1937 Co se septa 1938 Skeleton on Horseback The White Disease 1937 Pickup 1951 The Girl on the Bridge 1951 Strange Fascination 1952 One Girl s Confession 1953 Thy Neighbor s Wife 1953 Bait 1954 The Other Woman 1954 Hold Back Tomorrow 1955 Edge of Hell 1956 Hit and Run 1957 Lizzie 1957 Night of the Quarter Moon 1958 Born to Be Loved 1959 Paradise Alley 1962 As actor Edit Jedenacte prikazani 1925 Jiri Voborsky From the Czech Mills 1925 Baron Zacharias Zlamany Kdyz struny lkaji 1930 Host v baru The Last Bohemian 1931 MUDr Katz Muzi v offsidu 1931 Naceradec Naceradec kral kibicu 1931 Richard Naceradec businessman Kariera Pavla Camrdy 1931 Vokoun Obraceni Ferdyse Pistory 1932 Richard Rosenstok banker Zapadli vlastenci 1932 Adam Hejnu shoemaker Madla z cihelny 1933 Jan Dolansky The House in the Suburbs 1933 Zajicek Jeji lekar 1933 Pavel Hodura painter Life Is a Dog 1933 Skladatel Viktor Honzl Prof Alfred Rokos Sister Angelika 1933 Pavel Ryant Okenko 1933 Lecturer Jakub Johanek Posledni muz 1934 Prof Alois Kohout The Little Pet 1934 Dr Alois Pech vezensky knihovnik Long Live with Dearly Departed 1935 Petr Suk Jedenacte prikazani 1935 Jiri Vobosky Paradise Road 1936 Tobias The Seamstress 1936 Francois Lorrain Parisian fashion king Three Men in the Snow 1936 Tovarnik Eduard Barta Devcata nedejte se 1937 Prof Emanuel Pokorny Morality Above All Else 1937 Professor Antonin Karas Andula Won 1937 Pavel Haken The White Disease 1937 Dr Galen Co se septa 1938 Vilem Gregor Svet kde se zebra 1938 Josef Dostal beggar millionaire Camel Through the Eye of a Needle 1939 Zebrak Josef Pesta Days of Glory 1944 Fedor Summer Storm 1944 Anton Urbenin Strange Affair 1944 Domino Constantine Mrs Parkington 1944 Balkan King uncredited The Princess and the Pirate 1944 Proprietor Bucket of Blood Documents secrets 1945 Morenius A Bell for Adano 1945 Father Pensovecchio Jealousy 1945 Hugo Kral Dakota 1945 Marko Poli What Next Corporal Hargrove 1945 Mayor Quidoc Two Smart People 1946 Senor Rodriquez Holiday in Mexico 1946 Angus Evans butler The Private Affairs of Bel Ami 1947 Monsieur Walter Fiesta 1947 Maximino Contreras Northwest Outpost 1947 Prince Nickolai Balinin The Foxes of Harrow 1947 Otto Ludenbach Merton of the Movies 1947 Von Strutt Director My Girl Tisa 1948 Tescu Casbah 1948 Omar For the Love of Mary 1948 Gustav Heindel The Fighting Kentuckian 1949 Gen Paul De Marchand King Solomon s Mines 1950 Van Brun aka Smith Vendetta 1950 Brando a Bandit Pickup 1951 Jan Horak The Girl on the Bridge 1951 David Strange Fascination 1952 Paul Marvan One Girl s Confession 1953 Dragomie Damitrof Thy Neighbor s Wife 1953 Town Judge Raphael Vojnar Bait 1954 Marko The Other Woman 1954 Walter Darman Edge of Hell 1956 Valentine Hit and Run 1957 Gus Hilmer Twin Brother Lizzie 1957 Walter Brenner Born to Be Loved 1959 Prof Brauner Bonanza 1960 TV Series Zirko Paradise Alley 1962 Mr AgnusReferences Edit Hugo Hass csfd Retrieved 26 November 2018 Z Silova R Hrdinova A Kozikova V Mohylova Divadlo na Vinohradech 1907 2007 Vinohradsky ansambl published by Vinohrady Theatre Prague 2007 p 192 ISBN 978 80 239 9604 3 a b c Kolektiv autoru Narodni divadlo a jeho predchudci Academia Prague 1988 p 128 Figlarova Jana 13 August 2009 Postava Hugo Haase v ceske mezivalecne kinematografii PDF Retrieved 1 March 2015 Hain Milan 1 January 2013 Hugo Haas Hollywood s Independent Pioneer Humanities and Social Sciences Review External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hugo Haas Hugo Haas at IMDb Hugo Haas The Power of Self Preservation Milain Hain Hugo Haas Trauma and Survivor Guilt Milain Hain Hugo Haas Forgotten Emigre Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hugo Haas amp oldid 1096837144, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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