Trivia

Influential producer-director, a former actor, who came to prominence in the German cinema of the 1920's (as Friedrich Zelnik). He was the mentor of his actress-wife 'Lya Mara', whose films he promoted through their joint production company Zelnik-Mara Film GmbH. Of Jewish background, he was forced to flee from Germany in 1933 and later continued making films in Britain.

After the studies in Vienna, Friedrich Zelnik worked as an actor in theaters in Nürnberg, Aachen, Worms, Prague and finally Berlin - in the theaters Theater an der Königsgrätzer Straße, Berliner Theater, Komödienhaus.

Before he was successful as a director he made his debut for the film in 1910 as an actor in "Des Sängers Fluch" (1910).

He began to stage movies as a director in 1917.

From 1915 Friedrich Zelnik appeared also as a producer and worked in this position for the "Berliner Film-Manufaktur" first, before he founded his own company in 1920.

He also changed his name to Frederic Zelnik and took British citizenship.

Friedrich Zelnik only got artistic appreciation in 1927 with his movie "Die Weber", after that followed "Mary Lou" (1928) and the Edgar Wallace adaption "Der rote Kreis" (1928).

In 1933 he went with his wife and actress Lya Mara to London where he wasn't much in evidence as a director. He shot "Happy" (1933), "Mister Cinders" (1934), "The Lilac Domino" (1937) and "Give Me the Stars" (1944).

Friedrich Zelnik was one of the most successful directors of the German silent movie. The critics reproached him with triviality in his movies but the audience appreciated his works and Zelnik's moves appeared periodical in the list of the most successful productions.

In 1918 he married a young Polish ballet dancer turned film actress named Lya Mara and promoted her to stardom by producing and directing movies for her.

Popular, operetta style costume films like The Blue Danube, The Bohemian Dancer, Dancing Vienna, Mariett Dances Today brought Lya Mara and Zelnik enormous success in Germany and beyond. Several of his collaborators, such as cameraman Frederik Fuglsang and production designer André Andrejew are perceived today as important artists of the German silent cinema.

After Hitler took power in 1933, Zelnik and Lya Mara left Germany for London. In the following years, Zelnik continued to direct and produce movies in Great Britain and The Netherlands.

In 1930, Zelnik travelled to Hollywood, California and upon his return directed his first full sound film, a new version of his silent success The Bohemian Dancer.

Upon the introduction of sound film, Friedrich Zelnik became the first director in Europe to post-synchronize a movie, The Crimson Circle (1929), using the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

He changed his name to Frederic Zelnik and took British citizenship in 1933.

Friedrich Zelnik was born in a Jewish family in Czernowitz, today in Ukraine, at the time the capital of the Duchy of Bukovina in the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Czernowitz has been then largely populated by Jews and has been after Wilno the most an important city for the Jewish culture in Eastern Europe.