Walter Riml

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Walter Riml (September 23, 1905 – June 21, 1994) was an Austrian

cameraman and actor
.

Life

Born in Innsbruck, the 2.05 m tall Tyrolean at first was trained as a carpenter and an interior designer. As a passionate sportsman and skier he contacted the Mountain film-pioneer Arnold Fanck who made a film in the Tyrolean area of Arlberg in 1927. Fanck engaged him as a grip for the silent movie The Great Leap where Walter Riml appeared also in some short scenes. Fanck loved the artistic and humorous side of Walter Riml's talents and so he played a major role in Fanck's famous film The White Ecstasy (1931). Together with other already famous actors like Leni Riefenstahl, Hannes Schneider, Rudi Matt, Gustav Diessl and the pilot Ernst Udet Walter Riml played also in Abenteuer im Engadin or S.O.S. Eisberg and showed his further talent for the film business in The White Ecstasy.

Walter Riml played the tall carpenter "Fietje" from Hamburg together with his petite carpenter-partner "Tietje" Guzzi Lantschner, both in the traditional black carpenter costumes. Their ski acrobatic scenes became legendary until today. This film is also a favourite film for today's snowboarding generation because of the fabulous ski jumps.

Another film with these two comedians was

Die Tochter des Samurai
(1936) together with Arnold Fanck.

Because of a bomb attack in 1944 in Berlin he lost his archive with more than 30,000 negatives from his travels and works in Japan and Greenland. Therefore, planned film projects together with the American film producer Paul Kohner could not be realised any more.

After the

US Army. In 1957 he was one of the four western cameramen who were allowed to make a film about the daily life in Russia
. Riml also worked on different TV productions.

Until the mid-1960s Walter Riml made a lot of the typical and famous mountain films and films with regional background. One of them is the famous film Two Times Lotte based on the book by Erich Kästner. In 1962 the American director John Sturges engaged him as a second cameraman for his film The Great Escape [1] with stars like Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson. As a specialist for films in snow atmosphere he filmed scenes in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969. His last filmwork was in 1970, a documentary for US television about the film The Last Valley with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif.

Walter Riml died at the age of 89 in the year 1994 in Steinach am Brenner. In his long life he worked on more than 100 film productions and documentaries worldwide.

List of films

Actor

Cameraman

  • 1930:
    Storm over Mont Blanc
    (Camera assistant)
  • 1930: The Blue Light (2nd Camera, Stills)
  • 1931: The White Ecstasy (Camera assistant)
  • 1932: Abenteuer im Engadin (Camera assistant)
  • 1932/33: S.O.S. Eisberg (Camera assistant)
  • 1932/33: North Pole, Ahoy (Camera assistant)
  • 1934: Der König des Montblanc (Camera assistant)
  • 1934: Triumph of the Will
  • 1935: Ikerasak
  • 1935: Anschlag auf Schweda
  • 1935: Purzelbaum ins Glück
  • 1936: Das große Eis
  • 1936: Reis und Holz im Lande des Mikado
  • 1936/41: Frühling in Japan (Documentary)
  • 1936/41: Japan's heiliger Vulkan (Documentary)
  • 1936: Tapfere kleine Mitsuko
  • 1936: Peter im Schnee
  • 1937: The Daughter of the Samurai
  • 1937: Hänschen Klein
  • 1937: The Mountain Calls
  • 1938: Der König der Berge (Documentary)
  • 1938: Love Letters from Engadin
  • 1938: Steputat & Co.
  • 1938: Spiel im Sommerwind
  • 1939: In the Name of the People
  • 1939: Hochzeit mit Hindernissen
  • 1939: Who's Kissing Madeleine?
  • 1939: Alarm at Station III
  • 1939: Weißer Flieder
  • 1943: Josef Thorak – Werkstatt und Werk (Documentary)
  • 1944: Harte Zeit, starke Kunst – Arno Breker (Documentary)
  • 1944: Atlantik-Wall (Documentary)
  • 1945: Sonderberichter (Camera) US Army, Division 777
  • 1946/47: Wintermelodie
  • 1947: Singende Engel
  • 1948: Zyankali
  • 1948: Anni
  • 1948: Die Verjüngungskur / Nach Regen folgt Sonne

Literature

  • Gesprengte Ketten: The Great Escape, Behind the Scenes, Photographs of cameraman Walter Riml, Editor Helma Türk & Christian Riml, House Publishing 2013, English/German [1]

References

  1. ^ "Walter Riml cameraman - actor - photographer". www.walter-riml.at. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19.

External links