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      Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen

      2004 1h 17m Documentary Biography History Drama List
      57% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 73% Audience Score 100+ Ratings The life of B movie king Edgar G. Ulmer. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (7) Critics Reviews
      Manohla Dargis New York Times This 77-minute primer sheds partial light on this B-movie legend who, unlike his contemporaries like Lang, never managed to ascend to the A-list. Rated: 3/5 Jul 28, 2005 Full Review Jay Weissberg Variety Despite some excellent talking heads, Palm's good-natured attempt to stuff Ulmer's life into a B-movie mold of its own ultimately lacks the lean crackerjack narrative stylization that marked the emigre helmer's best works. Jul 28, 2005 Full Review Ed Halter Village Voice [A] well-wrought investigation of the often mysterious life of Edgar G. Ulmer. Jul 26, 2005 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site One would still do better to turn to the films themselves. Feb 15, 2021 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid The documentary employs many of Ulmer's trademark techniques, such as rear-projection, and tries to open up the usual talking-head format by taking the camera outside, in and around Hollywood. Nov 12, 2006 Full Review David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor The subject and the film clips are great, although the documentary as a whole is a bit gimmicky. Rated: 3/4 Jul 28, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (5) audience reviews
      Audience Member I've been familiar with the films of Edgar G. Ulmer, but never read about him or knew his story, which this film provided in an interesting and entertaining way. Featuring interviews with many current filmmakers (Peter Bogdanovich, John Carradine, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Wim Wenders) sharing their stories about Ulmer's history and featuring many clips from his films, they paint a picture of an iconoclast along the lines of Samuel Fuller, who refused to make conventional films and instead toiled in making many low budget genre pictures. Like Fuller, both sough bigger films, stars and budgets, but both also pretty steadily worked at making B-pictures, which gave them autonoby allowed them to make their unique films. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Film Geeks rejoice! A very good film about the king of the B's has been produced. I have only seen a hand full of Ulmer movies myself (Bluebeard, Detour, Moon Over Harlem, Strange Woman, The Man from Planet X and The Amazing Transparent Man on MST3K). But even from this lite exposure, I have always been very impressed by the way Ulmer could make something out of nothing. If you are a fan of Hitchcock, Fritz Lang or Billy Wilder you should check this out. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Ulmer is such a fascinating figure. Such enormous talent. His career was amazing/tragic. The ultimate idol for the struggling director. This doc has some terrific voices from the past and sheds some (not much) new light on the man but the structure of the film itself is distracting and, in the end, distracting. A good place to start if you are not familiar with Ulmer. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Film Geeks rejoice! A very good film about the king of the B's has been produced. I have only seen a hand full of Ulmer movies myself (Bluebeard, Detour, Moon Over Harlem, Strange Woman, The Man from Planet X and The Amazing Transparent Man on MST3K). But even from this lite exposure, I have always been very impressed by the way Ulmer could make something out of nothing. If you are a fan of Hitchcock, Fritz Lang or Billy Wilder you should check this out. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Film Geeks rejoice! A very good film about the king of the B's has been produced. I have only seen a hand full of Ulmer movies myself (Bluebeard, Detour, Moon Over Harlem, Strange Woman, The Man from Planet X and The Amazing Transparent Man on MST3K). But even from this lite exposure, I have always been very impressed by the way Ulmer could make something out of nothing. If you are a fan of Hitchcock, Fritz Lang or Billy Wilder you should check this out. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis The life of B movie king Edgar G. Ulmer.
      Director
      Michael Palm
      Screenwriter
      Michael Palm
      Production Co
      Westdeutscher Rundfunk
      Genre
      Documentary, Biography, History, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Runtime
      1h 17m