He was born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe but changed his surname to Murnau after a town in Germany. The son of a Swedish-German textile merchant, he forgot to stop growing up until he was almost 7 foot tall. While a combat pilot in WWI he found himself lost in a fog over Switzerland so he landed and stayed there making propaganda movies for the Kaiser!

Max Reinhardt

Murnau studied art and architecture at Heidelberg University but while he was there, he became interested in the theater and in turn, Max Reinhardt, the famous stage director, became interested in him. Reinhardt offered Murnau a scholarship to study at his theater in Berlin, an offer readily accepted.

Considered one of the most important filmmakers of cinema’s first 35 years, Murnau was a beacon of light for film’s golden age. He directed his first film in 1919 but unfortunately most of his work done before 1921 has been lost. But his most famous classic “Nosferatu, the Vampire” made in 1922 is still in existence. It was regarded as the best big screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula of its time.

Nosferatu, the Vampire

He followed that with another classic in 1925 titled “The Last Laugh” with Emil Jannings, the famous German actor in the leading role. The film caught the attention of Hollywood studios and would eventually propel both Murnau and Jennings to the

US and American celebrity. But Murnau still had two more films to make in Germany both with Jannings. The first was “Tartuffe” in 1925 based on Moliere’s play and the second was Goethe’s “”Faust” in 1926.

"The Last Laugh"

Emil Jannings

"Faust"

In Hollywood, Murnau joined Fox Studio and made what many film scholars tout as perhaps the greatest film of all time…“Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” in 1927 co-starring George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor . It was often considered a German film made in Hollywood with American stars! It had tremendous critical acclaim but was a box-office failure.

George O'Brien

"Sunrise"

Janet Gaynor

So after two more films, Murnau and documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty took off to the South Pacific to make “Tabu” a semi-documentary using a native cast and Polynesian locations. When artistic differences between the two made filming difficult. Murnau finished the film himself.

"Tabu"

Then just a week before the US premiere of the film, Murnau planned a boat trip up the coast to Monterey. Superstitious, Murnau consulted his fortuneteller and was advised not to take the trip or tragedy would ensue. Murnau cancelled the boat trip. But forgetting the fortuneteller’s final warning to stay home during that time, he planned instead to go by car. There was what should have been a minor fender-bender outside Santa Barbara and while both the driver and another passenger were unhurt, Murnau was thrown from the car and killed. It was a strange ending to a brilliant career.

F. W. Murnau’s body was flown home to be buried in Berlin. Robert Flaherty, Emil Jannings and Greta Garbo attended the funeral.

……It seems that when director Fred Zimmerman wanted to film Rogers and Hammerstein’s “ Oklahoma” , Oklahoma just wouldn’t do! Oil derricks dotted the landscape, airplanes kept flying overhead ruining the shots and there just weren’t any big, open spaces anymore. So the movie location was moved to Arizona. But rainstorms plagued the filmmaker and “corn as high as an elephant’s eye” had to be planted in movable crates and placed where they would create the illusion of cornfields.

Gordon MacRae & Shirley Jones

….He began as Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones in Wales, member of the Royal Guard and a superb marksman. He was hired on that premise for a part in the British film “The Informer” in 1929 when the German marksman originally hired for the part was killed on his way to the studio. Then he was hired for a role in “The Flying Scotsman” at the same studio when the leading man broke his leg. It seemed that Ray Milland would never have gone into the acting business at all if everyone had stayed healthy!

Ray Milland

….Director Henry Hathaway firmly believed in going to where the storyline took him and doing things in a very realistic fashion. In “Brigham Young” (1940) starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, he went looking for an event rather than a place. You see, he wanted a locust plague and finally found one in Elko, Nevada! The studio staffers just called around to local Chambers of Commerce asking for a locust plague and no one locked them up!

Brigham Young poster