Karl Freund

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia   Karl W Freund ASC January 16 1890May 3 1969 was a cinematographer and film director Born in Dv?r Králové Königinhof Bohemia his career began in 1905 when at age 15 he got a job as an assistant projectionist for a film company in Berlin where his family moved in 1901 He worked as a cinematographer on over 100 films including the German Expressionist films The Golem 1920 The Last Laugh 1924 and Metropolis 1927 Freund emigrated to the United States in 1929 where he continued to shoot well remembered films such as Dracula 1931 and Key Largo 1948 He won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Good Earth 1937 In 1937 he went to Germany to bring his only daughter Gerda Maria Freund back to the United States saving her from almost certain death in the concentration camps Karls exwife Susette Freund née Liepmannssohn remained in Germany where she was interned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp and eventually taken in March 1942 to Bernburg Euthanasia Center where she was murdered Between 1921 and 1935 Freund also directed ten films of which the best known are probably The Mummy 1932 starring Boris Karloff and his last film as director Mad Love 1935 starring Peter Lorre Freunds only known film as an actor is Carl Dreyers Michael 1924 in which he has a cameo as a sycophantic art dealer who saves the tobacco ashes dropped by a famous painter At the beginning of the 1950s he was persuaded by Desi Arnaz at Desilu to be the cinematographer in 1951 for the televisions series I Love Lucy Critics have credited Freund for the shows lustrous black and white cinematography but more importantly Freund designed the flat lighting system for shooting sitcoms that is still in use today This system covers the set in light thus eliminating shadows and allowing the use of three moving cameras without having to modify the lighting inbetween shots And where Freund did not invent the three camera shooting system he did perfect it for use with film cameras in front of a live audience Freund and his production team also worked on other sitcoms produced atthrough Desilu such as Our Miss Brooks Description above from the Wikipedia article Karl Freund licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia