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Birthday:
04-17-1904
Deathday:
06-08-1994 (90 years)
Birthplace:
Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Biography
Rudolph Cartier (born Rudolph Kacser, renamed himself in Germany to Rudolph Katscher; 17 April 1904 – 7 June 1994) was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC. He is best known for his 1950s collaborations with screenwriter Nigel Kneale, most notably the Quatermass serials and their 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
After studying architecture and then drama, Cartier began his career as a screenwriter and then film director in Berlin, working for UFA Studios. After a brief spell in the United States he moved to the United Kingdom in 1935. Initially failing to gain a foothold in the British film industry, he began working for BBC Television in the late 1930s (among other productions he was involved in the making of Rehearsal for a Drama, BBC 1939). The outbreak of war, however, meant that his contract was terminated; his television play The Dead Eye was stopped in the production stage. After the war, he occasionally worked for British films before he was again hired by the BBC in 1952. He soon became one of the public service broadcaster's leading directors and went on to produce and direct over 120 productions in the next 24 years, ending his television career with the play Loyalties in 1976.
Active in both dramatic programming and opera, Cartier won the equivalent of a BAFTA in 1957 for his work in the former, and one of his operatic productions was given an award at the 1962 Salzburg Festival. The British Film Institute's "Screenonline" website describes him as "a true pioneer of television", while the critic Peter Black once wrote that: "Nobody was within a mile of Rudolph Cartier in the trick of making a picture on a TV screen seem as wide and as deep as CinemaScope."
After studying architecture and then drama, Cartier began his career as a screenwriter and then film director in Berlin, working for UFA Studios. After a brief spell in the United States he moved to the United Kingdom in 1935. Initially failing to gain a foothold in the British film industry, he began working for BBC Television in the late 1930s (among other productions he was involved in the making of Rehearsal for a Drama, BBC 1939). The outbreak of war, however, meant that his contract was terminated; his television play The Dead Eye was stopped in the production stage. After the war, he occasionally worked for British films before he was again hired by the BBC in 1952. He soon became one of the public service broadcaster's leading directors and went on to produce and direct over 120 productions in the next 24 years, ending his television career with the play Loyalties in 1976.
Active in both dramatic programming and opera, Cartier won the equivalent of a BAFTA in 1957 for his work in the former, and one of his operatic productions was given an award at the 1962 Salzburg Festival. The British Film Institute's "Screenonline" website describes him as "a true pioneer of television", while the critic Peter Black once wrote that: "Nobody was within a mile of Rudolph Cartier in the trick of making a picture on a TV screen seem as wide and as deep as CinemaScope."
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Their works
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The Kneale Tapes
Act like Self (archive footage)
event2003
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Documentary about Nigel Kneale, creator of Quatermass.
Cartier and Kneale in Conversation
Act like Self (archive footage)
event2005
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Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Kneale talk about there careers
On the Road to Hollywood
event1982
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Bernhard Frankfurter, a young Austrian filmmaker, follows the trails and roots of several German-speaking filmmakers who had been forced into exil by Hitler faschism. He interviewed prominent and less well-known artists who were forced to leave their (artistic) heimat because they were politically or racially no longer "acceptable"...
A documentary film in which the personal commitment of the filmmaker is purposely brought to the attention of the viewer.
A Shot at Dawn
Writer
event1932
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A Berlin policeman tracks down a group of diamond thieves in the outskirts by posing as a gang member.
Corridor of Mirrors
Producer
event1948 star_border 5.7
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A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life.
Gaslicht
Director
event1956
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Why does the gaslight flicker so ominously in Mrs. Manningham's house? And is she really losing her mind?
Wuthering Heights
Director
event1962 star_border 10
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Foundling Heathcliff is raised by the wealthy Earnshaws in Yorkshire but in later life launches a vendetta against the family.
The Man from Morocco
Story
event1945 star_border 5
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With the ending of the Spanish Civil War, a dispirited band of volunteers from the International Brigades seeks refuge in France. But on reaching the frontier, the band is disarmed, and all are detained as political prisoners. Then come instructions from Vichy that all fit prisoners are to be sent to Morocco to work on the Sahara railway for the Germans. However, one man manages to escape to London with vital information for the Allies.
Wuthering Heights
Director
event1953
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Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation.
Anna Karenina
Director
event1961 star_border 6.5
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Anna, the wife of government minister Alexis Karenin, visits Moscow to help straighten out a family quarrel. There, Count Alexis Vronsky falls in love with her. Television adaptation of a play based on Leo Tolstoy's novel by Marcelle Maurette.
The Avenger
Writer
event1960 star_border 7
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A maniac is loose in London, decapitating his victims and sending the heads to Scotland Yard.
The Oil Sharks
Director
event1933
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The plot revolves around an oil swindle in a South American country.
An Ideal Husband
Director
event1969 star_border 6
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Set during the London season of 1895, An Ideal Husband is a dazzling blend of farce and morality that explores human frailty and social hypocrisy Sir Robert Chilterns secret is discovered and exposed. He is accused of having exploited government secrets for his own gain early in his political career. With this revelation from Mrs. Cheveley comes the threat of blackmail and the ruin of Sir Robert's career. Yet in order to be a successful blackmailer, one's own reputation must be beyond reproach.
Storm Over Jamaica
Director
event1958 star_border 6
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A British schoolteacher moves to Jamaica to teach after a tumultuous divorce and meets an exciting new woman.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Producer
event1954 star_border 7.4
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A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.
The Dybbuk
Director
event1952
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A young bride is possessed by a dybbuk, a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person, on the eve of her wedding.
Adventure Story
Director
event1961 star_border 6
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The story of Alexander the Great.
Loyalties
Director
event1976
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During a weekend at a country house in the 1920s, a Jewish outsider accuses a former officer of theft, setting off a tragic chain of events.
The July Plot
Director
event1964
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Dramatisation of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944 by a conspiracy of high-ranking German Army officers.
Level Seven
Director
event1966
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Level 7 is the deepest and the safest level in a nuclear bunker. The nerve centre of the government is based here. But how safe is it?
The Shot in the Talker Studio
Writer
event1930 star_border 5.6
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During the shooting of a jealousy scene on a soundstage, one actress is murdered. Due to the fact that the male star of the movie had a relation with the victim and the female star is now his fiance, he is suspected by the police.
The Tiger Murder Case
Writer
event1930 star_border 5.6
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Mysterious murders committed by a criminal have kept the public on their toes and the police have mistakenly accused an imposter of the crimes.
Perpetrator wanted
Screenplay
event1931 star_border 5
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A dedicated editor, who is engaged to the daughter of a wealthy senator thrills her father with a lecture about convictions based on circumstantial evidence. When a corpse with a disfigured face is found in the house of the senator, evidence points to the editor. An entertaining thriller with a fairly intricate plot and some critical comments on the practice of the law. Based on the novel "Der geschlossene Ring" by Frank Arnau.
Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Disappeared
Producer
event1951 star_border 6
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Adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle novel, in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the secret of a wealthy businessman.
Trapeze
Writer
event1931
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Robby and Jim are two friends working in a circus. When Marina, a new acrobat, enters the show, both men will compete for her love. She needs a partner for a flying number, and one of them will be elected. Then accidents will happen.
The News-Benders
Director
event1968
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An idealistic young television producer is approached by the representative of a clandestine agency offering an unusual job: creating the news - before it happens. And a refusal, it seems, is not an option.
The Man with the Claw
Writer
event1931
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A killer is on the loose, murdering people with an iron claw.
The Quatermass Experiment
Director (6 ep.)
event1953 star_border 6.6
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The story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.
Quatermass and the Pit
Director (6 ep.)
event1958 star_border 6.8
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A team of scientists search for the origin and purpose of a mysterious capsule found on a building site.
Out of the Unknown
Director (2 ep.)
event1965 star_border 6.8
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Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story. Some were written directly for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories.
The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror/fantasy stories. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time. A large number of episodes are still missing but some do turn up from time to time; for instance, Level Seven from series two, originally broadcast on 27 October 1966 was returned to the BBC from the archives of a European broadcaster in January 2006.
Z-Cars
Director (2 ep.)
event1962 star_border 7
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Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Quatermass II
Director (6 ep.)
event1955 star_border 6.1
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The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind.
Fall of Eagles
Director (2 ep.)
event1974 star_border 6.8
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"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs).
BBC Play of the Month
Director (2 ep.)
event1965 star_border 5
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Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina.
Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s. Unless stated otherwise, the indication that the play is "lost" is taken from the lostshows.com website page as of 25 May 2013.
Maigret
Director (3 ep.)
event1960 star_border 6.9
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BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television.
Sunday Night Theatre
Director (3 ep.)
event1950 star_border 3.5
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Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959.
The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.
Sunday-Night Play
Director (1 ep.)
event1960
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BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.
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