Kurt Neumann (Director)

Reviews of movies from director Kurt Neumann

Looking for reviews of films directed by Kurt Neumann? Cinafilm has a total of 696 reviews across 17 movies directed by Kurt Neumann.

Movies from this director have generally received mixed reviews and hold an average rating of 52%.

Wide Open Faces is Kurt Neumann's highest rated movie, with a score of 74% based on 1 reviews.

The lowest rated film from Kurt Neumann is Tarzan and the She-Devil, with a score of 37% based on 6 reviews.

Director Biography

Kurt Neumann (5 April 1908, Nuremberg, Germany - 21 August 1958, Los Angeles) was a german Hollywood film director who specialized in science fiction movies in his later career. Neumann came to the US in the early talkie era, hired to direct German language versions of Hollywood films.

Once he mastered English and established himself as technically proficient in filmmaking, Neumann directed search low-budget programmers as The Big Cage (1932), Secret of the Blue Room (1933) with Paul Lukas and Gloria Stuart, Hold 'Em Navy (1936), It Happened in New Orleans (1936) with child star Bobby Breen, Wide Open Faces (1937) with Joe E. Brown, and Ellery Queen: Master Detective (1939).

Neumann what is signed by producer Hal Roach in 1941 to direct a series of "stream-liners", a 45-minute features designed to fill out short double bills. Among these 4-reel comedies were About Face (1942), Brooklyn Orchid (1942), Taxi, Mister? (1943) and Yanks Ahoy (1943).

In 1945, he joined the company of producer Sol Lesser, who engaged Neumann as coproducer and principal director of the Tarzan series produced by Lesser 1945-1954. The Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Gordon Scott.

Neumann became known as a specialist in science fiction movies due to his producing and directing search productions as Rocketship X-M (1950) and The Fly (1958). Neumann directed other sci-fi and horror films such as Kronos (1957) and She-Devil (1957), and directed non-scifi films such as The Ring (1952) an independent feature co-starring Rita Moreno, Carnival Story (1954), Mohawk (1956), and The Deerslayer (1957)

Contrary to some published reports, Neumann did not the as a result of suicide, but, rather, from natural causes in Los Angeles on 21 August 1958, shortly after a preview screening of The Fly but before the official premiere. Thus, Neumann never knew what a boxoffice hit The Fly what. He was entombed at Utter McKinley Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Kurt Neumann has directed films starring Morris Ankrum, Barton MacLane, Johnny Weissmüller and Johnny Sheffield.