Ernst Reicher

Acting · Production · Art · Directing · Writing

Born September 19, 1885, Berlin, Germany

His father was the actor Emanuel Reicher, born in Galicia, then part of the Kingdom of Austria. Emanuel married firstly the opera singer Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann: their son was the actor Frank Reicher. After Hedwig's death, he married the actress Lina Harf and the couple had three children: Hedwiga Reicher, Ernst, and Elly, who all worked as actors. At Continental-Kunstfilm's studios Ernst Reicher acted, wrote scripts and directed films from 1912 to 1918. In December 1912 he starred in Vorglühen des Balkanbrandes, directed by Joe May. He wrote, directed and starred in two films: Das Werk in February 1913, and Die Statue in 1914, which was banned by the Berlin police censor until 1919. Starting in winter 1913/14, he wrote and starred in the first three of the 'Stuart Webbs' detective films, a popular detective series directed by Joe May for Continental. For more than a decade after 1914, Reicher continued to write and star as Stuart Webbs, and was closely identified with the part. It was not until 1918 that Reicher turned to other topics. On the first of April 1919, he moved the headquarters of his film company to Munich. At the beginning of the twenties he suffered a serious car accident, in which he suffered a vertebral and fractured skull. Only from 1926 he appeared again on the screen, but he could no longer build on previous successes. After the seizure of power in 1933 by the National Socialists, Reicher emigrated to Prague, where he fell into obscurity. His last, tiny role in the 1936 French-language remake of The Golem was cut out of the final version. Later that year, he committed suicide by hanging in a Prague hotel room.

Filmography

• 1936The Golem
• 1935Csardas: Her Wildest Night
• 1932Rasputin, Demon of the Women — Home Secretary
• 1931One Night at the Grand Hotel — Hoteldirektor
• 1931Road to Rio — German crime commissioner
• 1931The Squeeker — Inspektor Elford
• 1931The Theft of the Mona Lisa
• 1929Hände hoch, hier Eddy Polo — Kommissar Grant
• 1928Haus Nummer 17 — Harold Brant
• 1926The Armored Vault — Stuart Webbs
• 1925Das Geheimnis einer Stunde
• 1925Das Geheimnis von Schloß Elmshöh — Stuart Webbs
• 1925The Perfume of Mrs. Worrington — Producer
• 1924Das schöne Abenteuer
• 1921Camera obscura — Stuart Webbs, Writer
• 1921Das Rattenloch — Stuart Webbs, Director
• 1920Der Sprung ins Dunkle — Stuart Webbs, Director
• 1920Panic in the House of Ardon — Producer
• 1919Das Buch Esther — King Ahasuerus, Writer, Director
• 1919Das Gestohlene Modell — Stuart Webbs
• 1919Der verführte Heilige — Producer
• 1919Die Brüder von Sankt Parasitus — Stuart Webbs
• 1919Die Geheimnisvollen Briefe — Stuart Webbs
• 1919Drei Tage Freiheit — Art Direction
• 1919The Pagoda — Stuart Webbs, Director
• 1918Der Eisenbahnmarder — Stuart Webbs
• 1918Der Stier von Saldanha — Stuart Webbs
• 1918Die Fürstin von Beranien — Director
• 1918Die Geisterjagd — Stuart Webbs
• 1917Die Diamantenstiftung — Stuart Webbs
• 1916Der Brieföffner — Stuart Webbs, Producer
• 1916Der Hilferuf — Stuart Webbs
• 1916Die Peitsche — Stuart Webbs
• 1916The Amateur — Stuart Webbs, Director, Screenplay
• 1915Das Mitternachtsschiff — Stuart Webbs
• 1915Der Spuk im Hause des Professors — Stuart Webbs, Screenplay
• 1915Der gestreifte Domino — Stuart Webbs
• 1915Die Schloßfrau von Radomsk
• 1915Eines Mannes Schatten — Stuart Webbs, Director, Screenplay
• 1915Stuart Webbs: Die Toten erwachen — Stuart Webbs, Writer
• 1914Das Panzergewölbe — Stuart Webbs, Screenplay
• 1914Stuart Webbs: Die geheimnisvolle Villa — Stuart Webbs, Screenplay
• 1914Stuart Webbs: The Man in the Cellar — Stuart Webbs, Screenplay
• 1914The Statue — Screenplay, Director
• 1913Ein Ausgestoßener: 1. Teil — Robert Lambard
• 1913Ein Mädchen zu verschenken — Verehrer Nr. 1
• 1913Erloschenes Licht
• 1913Heimat und Fremde
• 1913The Life and Works of Richard Wagner — Ludwig II.
• 1912Vorgluten des Balkanbrandes