---
name: "Edgar G. Ulmer"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/edgar-g-ulmer"
fi1m_id: "edgar-g-ulmer"
imdb_id: "nm0880618"
tmdb_id: 5030
wikidata_id: "Q1283902"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "17 September 1904"
died: "30 September 1972"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-25T03:42:56.265950+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Edgar G. Ulmer

## Identity

Edgar G. Ulmer

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/edgar-g-ulmer
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** edgar-g-ulmer
- **IMDb ID:** nm0880618
- **TMDB ID:** 5030
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1283902
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_G._Ulmer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1283902, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880618/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5030

Director and writer. Born 17 September 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]. Died 30 September 1972.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 17 September 1904, Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]
- **Died:** 30 September 1972
- **Active:** 1924–1945
- **Also known as:** John Warner, Edgar George Ulmer, Edgar Georg Ulmer,  Ove H. Sehested
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 1 directing, 1 writing, 3 crew
- **Frequently works with:** [F. W. Murnau](https://film.one/person/f-w-murnau.md)
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1920s 88 (2), 1930s 75 (3)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_G._Ulmer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1283902, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880618/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5030

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Tabu: A Story of the South Seas*](https://film.one/film/tabu-a-story-of-the-south-seas.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Edgar G. Ulmer was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter and set designer. Born on 17 September 1904 in Olomouc, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), he died on 30 September 1972 in Woodland Hills, California. He worked in European theatre and film before emigrating to the United States, contributing to the screenplay of *Tabu: A Story of the South Seas* (1931) and production design on *The Last Laugh* (1924).

Ulmer directed *The Black Cat* (1934) for Universal Pictures. Following a personal relationship that led to his exclusion from major studios, he worked primarily on low-budget productions for Poverty Row companies such as PRC. His notable later films include *Detour* (1945), *Bluebeard* (1944) and *The Man from Planet X* (1951). His wife Shirley Ulmer served as script supervisor on many of his films.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, filmportal.de.*

## On Fi1m (5)

### Directed (1) — the average rests on these

- *The Black Cat* (1934), Fi1m 80, Director, Story, Costume Design, Costume design, Set Designer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-black-cat.md)

### Wrote (1)

- *Tabu: A Story of the South Seas* (1931), Fi1m 80, Screenplay, Supervising Editor, Production Manager — [page](https://film.one/film/tabu-a-story-of-the-south-seas.md)

### Crew (3)

- *Queen Christina* (1934), Fi1m 64, Production Design, Production design — [page](https://film.one/film/queen-christina.md)
- *Metropolis* (1927), Fi1m 87, Set Designer — [page](https://film.one/film/metropolis.md)
- *Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans* (1927), Fi1m 88, Assistant Art Director — [page](https://film.one/film/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans.md)

## Complete filmography (88)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Astrologer* (1976), Production Sound Mixer
- *The Cavern* (1964), Director, Producer
- *The World's Greatest Sinner* (1962), Director of Photography
- *Journey Beneath the Desert* (1961), Director, Set Designer
- *Beyond the Time Barrier* (1960), Director
- *The Amazing Transparent Man* (1960), Director
- *Hannibal* (1959), Director
- *The Naked Venus* (1959), Director
- *Swiss Family Robinson: Lost in the Jungle* (1958), Adaptation, Director, Producer
- *Daughter of Dr. Jekyll* (1957), Director
- *The Perjured Farmer* (1956), Producer
- *The Naked Dawn* (1955), Director
- *Murder Is My Beat* (1955), Director
- *Loves of Three Queens* (1954), Director
- *The Fate of Two Queens* (1954), Director
- *Babes in Bagdad* (1952), Director, Production Design
- *St. Benny the Dip* (1951), Director
- *The Man from Planet X* (1951), Director
- *So Young, So Bad* (1950), Director
- *The Pirates of Capri* (1949), Director
- *Ruthless* (1948), Director
- *Carnegie Hall* (1947), Director
- *The Strange Woman* (1946), Director, Writer
- *Her Sister's Secret* (1946), Director
- *The Wife of Monte Cristo* (1946), Director, Adaptation
- *Detour* (1945), Director
- *Club Havana* (1945), Director
- *Strange Illusion* (1945), Director
- *Bluebeard* (1944), Director
- *Minstrel Man* (1944), Director, Production Design, Second Unit Director
- *Jive Junction* (1943), Director
- *Danger! Women at Work* (1943), Story
- *Isle of Forgotten Sins* (1943), Director, Screenplay
- *Hitler's Madman* (1943), Writer, Production Design
- *Girls in Chains* (1943), Director, Story
- *My Son, The Hero* (1943), Director, Writer
- *Corregidor* (1943), Story, Screenplay
- *The Turbosupercharger - Master of the sky* (1943), Director
- *Turbosupercharger: Flight Operation* (1943), Director
- *Tomorrow We Live* (1942), Director
- *Prisoner of Japan* (1942), Story
- *Another to Conquer* (1941), Director
- *Goodbye, Mr. Germ* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Diagnostic Procedures in Tuberculosis* (1940), Director
- *Cloud in the Sky* (1940), Director, Producer, Screenplay
- *They Do Come Back* (1940), Director
- *American Matchmaker* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Way Down South* (1939), as Art Direction
- *The Light Ahead* (1939), Director, Screenplay, Production Design
- *Moon Over Harlem* (1939), Director, Producer
- *Let My People Live* (1939), Writer, Director
- *Cossacks in Exile* (1939), Director
- *The Singing Blacksmith* (1938), Director
- *Natalka Poltavka* (1937), Director
- *Green Fields* (1937), Director
- *From Nine to Nine* (1936), Director, Original Story
- *We Live Again* (1934), Writer
- *Thunder Over Texas* (1934), Director
- *I Can't Escape* (1934), Second Unit
- *The Black Cat* (1934), Director, Story, Costume Design, Set Designer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/the-black-cat.md)
- *Queen Christina* (1934), Production Design — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/queen-christina.md)
- *Damaged Lives* (1933), Director, Writer
- *Kleiner Mann – was nun?* (1933), Set Designer
- *Afraid to Talk* (1932), as Art Direction
- *Tabu: A Story of the South Seas* (1931), Production Manager, Screenplay, Supervising Editor — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/tabu-a-story-of-the-south-seas.md)
- *M* (1931), Set Designer — Fi1m 94, [page](https://film.one/film/m.md)
- *Aloha* (1931), Assistant Director
- *The Secret Six* (1931), Production Design
- *People on Sunday* (1930), Director, Executive Producer
- *City Girl* (1930), Assistant Art Director
- *Spiel um den Mann* (1929), as Art Direction
- *Flucht in die Fremdenlegion* (1929), as Art Direction · Line Producer
- *4 Devils* (1928), Assistant Art Director
- *The Street of Sin* (1928), Set Designer
- *Spies* (1928), Set Designer
- *Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans* (1927), Assistant Art Director — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans.md)
- *Metropolis* (1927), Set Designer — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/film/metropolis.md)
- *The Border Sheriff* (1926), Assistant Director
- *Lady Windermere's Fan* (1925), as Art Direction
- *Joyless Street* (1925), Set Designer
- *The Last Laugh* (1924), Production Design, Assistant Director
- *Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge* (1924), Set Designer
- *The Saga of Gösta Berling* (1924), Set Designer
- *Die Nibelungen: Siegfried* (1924), Set Designer
- *The Finances of the Grand Duke* (1924), Production Design, Assistant Director
- *Merry-Go-Round* (1923), as Art Direction
- *Sodom and Gomorrah* (1922), Production Design
- *The Golem: How He Came into the World* (1920), Set Designer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/edgar-g-ulmer