Arthur Maria Rabenalt was an Austrian film director, writer, and author. He directed more than 90 films between 1934 and 1978. His 1958 filmThat 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 was well known for encompassing Nazi cinema and West German Productions. He also wrote several books expanding on the 1930s and 1940's 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-1920's he had worked as a production assistant on several films such including G.W. Pabst's Joyless Street. After Nazi's rises to power, Rabenalt's association with some of the artude stage production's made him alter into a new medium, and made his feature film debut directing the musicalcomedy, What Am I Without You, which was then shortly followed with the release of the German comedy Pappi. He would continue to develop his craft and work in different range of genres, including The Love of the Maharaja, and Men Are That Way and Midsummer Night's Fire which were released in 1939. Through out the forties, Rabaenalt had worked with melodramatic dramas and comedy and felt that he wanted to reinvent himself. While some of his early films in the 1940s supported the Naz ideology such as Riding for Germany. He stated back in February 1989 when asked about the influence "You mean because of the Nazi films? No not at all. I had only made circus films and chamber-type entertainment films since 1941. The only Nazi film I knew was... rides for Germany, and it was admired. The first films of mine that were distributed again after the war were Circus Renz and Regimental Music. The controversy about... rides for Germany came much later. After the war he had resumed his stage career as a director, beginning with the East German Production, Chemistry and Love a satire on anti capitalism based off the play by Bela Balasz. He would continue to work on several DEFA productions up until 1948. However, in the 50's he had begun credentializing himself as a "versatile entertainment specialis. He followed this with the Weimar horror classic remake of Alraune, which starred Hildegard Knef and Erich von Stroheim. In 1960, Rabanalt worked only in Television, focusing on adoption classic comedies and operettas for a wide stream audience. However, he would go on to write several erotic pulp fiction books as well as memoirs and factual books about Nazi Germany.
