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Nebenzal, Seymour

(New York 1897–Munich 1961)

Producer. Born in America, Nebenza(h)l began his career in Berlin by co-founding Nero-Film with Richard Oswald in 1924. Their company helped fund some of the most important productions of the silent era. The many directors with whom Nebenzal worked include: G.W. Pabst on Pandora's Box (1929); Fritz Lang on M (1931) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933); and Paul Czinner on Ariane (1931). Because of his Jewish heritage, however, he went into exile in the mid-1930s. In France, he produced features like Anatole Litvak's Mayerling (1936) and Max Ophuls's Werther (1938). In the United States, he worked on Douglas Sirk's Summer Storm (1944) and Joseph Losey's remake of M. While an outcast from Germany, he mainly produced films directed by fellow exiles and émigrés.