Today, Universal is arguably the most well known movie distributor on planet Earth, but not enough people care to look into the origins of the company and how it came to exist in the first place. This recent documentary is an adequately thorough exploration of the life of Carl Laemmle: the immigrant from Germany who, unlike most other people of his time, foresaw that motion pictures had a future and place in this world. The film goes over how Carl, a Jewish German born in the town of Laupheim in 1867, was born in a particular area that had a long history of antisemitism. He had 11 siblings, but 8 of them were all killed by scarlet fever. In the 1880s, Carl emigrates to the US. At the time, there was no Statue of Liberty yet to greet him or the millions of other immigrants seeking a better life. While living in New York, he discovers movies for the first time, and makes a note to himself about how he wants to make films that not only made people laugh, but made them have a feeling of worth. Carl wanted immigrants to feel like they belonged in the US. We see how Thomas Edison tried literally hundreds of times to sue Carl, with Edison saying he was infringing his patent for motion pictures as a whole. Edison didn't win a single lawsuit. In 1912, Carl establishes Universal Studios, choosing this name because he believes movies are not the type of things that are restricted to the elites of society. After this, it's shown how Carl indulged a lot in nepotism, since he often gave friends of his family and the families of his friends prestigious positions in his studio. While this practice is typically looked down upon, Carl helped jumpstart the careers of many now legendary actors and directors, such as John Ford, William Wyler and Erich von Stroheim. As a birthday present to his 21 year old son, Carl made him head of production at the studio. A few years later, America gets involved in the First World War, and Carl wastes no time in producing anti-German films to stir up feelings of determination and aggression towards the enemy. However, he was a bit of a hypocrite at this juncture because Carl himself was a german immigrant. In the postwar era, Carl produces more classic movies, with one of the best films ever made being released from his company in 1930: All Quiet on the Western Front. This movie, based on a novel written by a german World War 1 veteran, depicts the horrors of the world's largest conflict (at the time) and how constant exposure to such carnage shattered the feeling among young soldiers that it was a glorious thing to die in battle. Around the time the film was released, Hitler was steadily gaining popularity in the german parliament. By the time Carl attempted to showcase his masterpiece in his native country, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels attempted to sabotage its premier by spreading a message about Carl. He said the film was anti-war, made the german military look like a bunch of cowards who are afraid to fight, and the person behind it is the same guy who produced all those anti-german movies during world war 1. Carl tried to fight against this, but the damage had been done. Hitler banned the movie, along with all other films made by Carl's studio. After Adolf becomes chancellor in 1933, he prevents jews from working in the movie industry, despite Goebbels' preference for films by jewish directors. Things become very drastic when in 1938, the nazis burn, loot and destroy jewish businesses across germany in what is today called Kristallnacht. Suddenly, Carl feels an obligation to help as many refugees out of the country as possible. Throughout the rest of the 1930s, Carl devotes much of his time to writing affidavits to the government so that he can assist important families wanting to flee germany into the US. When the government put a stop to it, he got his relatives to write them instead. Carl would eventually die in autumn 1939, right when World War II was getting started. I really enjoy when TCM plays things like this. Even though it's not an old movie, it still held my attention the whole time because it tells the story of how one of the most influential companies in the film industry came to be. It also helps that it has to do with both world wars. After seeing this, you'll understand why Carl was a great man, not only for helping many families escape Nazism's clutches, but also because his studio is responsible for countless amazing works of entertainment.
