Ernő Metzner

Ernő Metzner (February 25, 1892 – September 25, 1953) was a film director and production designer.

Metzner was born in Subotica (then Austria-Hungary). He studied art at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts, then worked as a painter and graphic artist. In 1920 he moved to Berlin and began working as an art director and production designer with some of the best-known German directors of the time: Ernst Lubitsch (Sumurun, The Loves of Pharaoh), Robert Wiene (I.N.R.I.) and Karl Grune (Arabella). From the 1926 Secrets of a Soul he developed a close and continuous partnership with Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Metzner was art director for seven major Pabst films from 1926 to 1933, notably designing the production of Kameradschaft (1931), for which Metzner constructed realistic mining tunnels in the studio.^[1]

In 1927 Metzner began to direct films himself. His first short films are documentaries commissioned by the Social Democratic Party of Germany. His most important work is probably the 1928 short film Polizeibericht Überfall ("Police Report: Hold-Up", known in English as "Accident"). Metzner both wrote and directed this landmark of the New Objectivity movement in film, banned by authorities as "brutalizing and demoralizing."

As a Hungarian Jew,^[1] in 1933 Metzner emigrated from Germany to France and then to England, where he reunited with Austrian director Friedrich Feher. From 1936 Metzner moved with his family to the United States, but found only occasional work in Hollywood.

He died in Hollywood, California on September 25, 1953.

Filmography

Sumurun (1920) - Production Design
The Bull of Olivera (1921) - Costumes
The Loves of Pharaoh (1922) - Costumes
Don Juan (1922) - Costumes
Fridericus Rex (in four parts, 1922-1923) - Production Design
Salome (1923) - Production Design
Old Heidelberg (1923) - Production Design
I.N.R.I. (1923) - Production Design, Costumes
Explosion] (1923) - Costumes
Arabella (1924) - Costumes
Wood Love (1925) - Production Design, Costumes
Secrets of a Soul (1926) - Production Design
At the beginning was the Word (1927) - Director
Naftalin (1927) - Director
Free Ride (1928) - Director
It rises (1928) - Director
Mikosch Comes In (1928)
Accident (1928) - Director, Screenplay
Destiny (1928) - Director
Hotel of Secrets (1929) - Production Design
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) - Production Design
The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) - Features
Westfront 1918 (1930) - Production Design
Rivals for the World Record (1930) - Director, Screenwriter, Production Design
Kameradschaft (1931) - Production Design
The Unknown Guest (1931)
The Firm Gets Married (1931)
L'Atlantide (1932) - Production Design
Monsieur, Madame and Bibi (1932) - Production Design
Scandal on Park Street (1932)
A Bit of Love (1932)
Gypsies of the Night (1932)
The Marathon Runner (1933)
High and Low (1933) - Production Design
Princess Charming (1934) - Production Design
Chu Chin Chow (1934) - Production Design
Oh, Daddy! (1935) - Production Design
The Tunnel (1935) - Production Design
The Robber Symphony (1936) - Production Design
Seven Sinners (1936) - Production Design
O.H.M.S. (1937) - Production Design
Take My Tip (1937) - Production Design
The Great Awakening (1941) - Production Design
It Happened Tomorrow (1944) - Production Design
The Macomber Affair (1947) - Production Design