The important film director (1904-1972) Edgar G. Ulmer, the son of Jewish parents, was born in 1904 in Olomouc. He worked in Vienna, Berlin and the USA, where he emigrated in 1929. Olomouc was not known as Ulmer’s birthplace. The director lived in Resslova Street, in house No. 1, where a memorial plaque has been placed since 2006.
Ulmer made only one film for a major Hollywood studio (the horror film The Black Cat, 1934). In 1937, he began making “ethnic” films, such as a film set in the black community, films with Mexicans and Indians, a Ukrainian film, and especially Yiddish films, which became classics of Jewish cinema. In 1942 Ulmer was employed as a contract director by PRC, one of a number of smaller studios for which he made some of his best films, including Club Havana, Strange Illusion and Bluebeard, as well as Detour, arguably Ulmer’s most important work. Today, Ulmer is celebrated and revered as an iconic director.
Olomouc as Ulmer’s birthplace was not well known, as Ulmer often cited Vienna as his birthplace. However, the address of the place where Ulmer was born in Olomouc in 1904 has been traced. It was “Resselgasse 1”, now Ressel Street. In 2006, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on Ulmer’s birthplace in Olomouc.
