Arthur Maria Rabenalt

Arthur Maria Rabenalt (25 June 1905 – 26 February 1993) was an Austrian film director, writer, and author. He directed more than 90 films between 1934 and 1978. His 1958 film That Won't Keep a Sailor Down was entered into the 1st Moscow International Film Festival. Two years later, his 1960 film Big Request Concert was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. His career encompassed both Nazi cinema and West German productions. He also wrote several books on the 1930s and 1940s wave of German cinema.

Career In his early teens, Rabenalt began his stage career directing operas at theatres in Darmstadt, Berlin and Gera. From then on to the mid-1920s he worked (though uncredited) as a production assistant on several films such including G. W. Pabst's Joyless Street (1925).

After the war he resumed his stage career as a director, beginning with the East German production, Chemistry and Love (1948), satire on anti-capitalism based on a play by Bela Balasz. He continued to work on productions for East German state studio DEFA until 1948. In the 1950s, he moved into more mainstream entertainment, including the Weimar horror remake of Alraune (1952), which starred Hildegard Knef and Erich von Stroheim.

From 1960, Rabanalt worked only in television, adapting classic comedies and operettas for a mainstream audience. He also wrote several erotic pulp fiction books as well as memoirs and factual books about Nazi Germany.

Selected filmography

What Am I Without You (1934) Pappi (1934) The Love of the Maharaja (1936) Men Are That Way (1939) Escape in the Dark (1939) Midsummer Night's Fire (1939) The Three Codonas (1940) Achtung! Feind hört mit! (1940), i.e. Attention! The enemy is listening!, Nazi propaganda film Riding for Germany (1941), Antisemitic propaganda film Front Theatre (1942), i.e. Front theatre Circus Renz (1943) Love Premiere (1943) Life Calls (1944) Chemistry and Love (1948) Everything Will Be Better in the Morning (1948) Martina (1949) Nights on the Nile (1949) The Woman from Last Night (1950) Regimental Music (1950) Immortal Light (1951) Wedding in the Hay (1951) The White Adventure (1952) The Forester's Daughter (1952) We're Dancing on the Rainbow (1952) Alraune (1952) The Mistress of Treves (1952) The Immortal Vagabond (1953) Lavender (1953) The Last Waltz (1953) The Bird Seller (1953) The Little Czar (1954) The Gypsy Baron (1954) Operation Sleeping Bag (1955) As Long as There Are Pretty Girls (1955) Love Is Just a Fairytale (1955) Between Time and Eternity (1956) The Marriage of Doctor Danwitz (1956) (1956) Spring in Berlin (1957) That Won't Keep a Sailor Down (1958) A Woman Who Knows What She Wants (1958) Arena of Fear (1959) What a Woman Dreams of in Springtime (1959) Big Request Concert (1960) Man in the Shadows (1961)

Published books Tanz and Film (1960) Das Theater der Lust (1982) Theater ohne Tabu (Emsdetten, 1970) Der Operetten-Bildband Bühne Film Fernsehen (1980) Mimus eroticus (Hamburg, 1965/67) Joseph Goebbels und der Grossdeutsche Film (Munich, 1985) Gesammelte Schriften (Hildesheim, 1999)