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Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen

Play trailer Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen 2004 1h 17m Documentary Biography History Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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57% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 67% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
The life of B movie king Edgar G. Ulmer.

Critics Reviews

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Manohla Dargis New York Times 07/28/2005
3/5
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. Go to Full Review
Jay Weissberg Variety 07/28/2005
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. Go to Full Review
Ed Halter Village Voice 07/26/2005
[A] well-wrought investigation of the often mysterious life of Edgar G. Ulmer. Go to Full Review
David Walsh World Socialist Web Site 02/15/2021
One would still do better to turn to the films themselves. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid 11/12/2006
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. Go to Full Review
David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor 07/28/2005
3/4
The subject and the film clips are great, although the documentary as a whole is a bit gimmicky. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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11/08/2014 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. See more 07/02/2011 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. See more 01/08/2011 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. See more 11/29/2010 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. See more 11/29/2010 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. See more Read all reviews
Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen

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Movie Info

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