Carl Laemmle (2019)

(On Cable TV, July 2022) Over time, every significant figure in film history will get their own biographical documentary and that’s a good thing—despite the format’s limitations (and tendency toward hagiography, considering that they’re usually labours of love from friends, family and admirers), they can encapsulate the high points of a life in an easy-to-absorb format. Carl Laemmle (1867–1939) may not be a figure of modern notoriety these days, but his shadow looms large over early Hollywood history, and the eponymous documentary is able to demonstrate why. Having emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1884, Laemmle eventually becomes a figure in the burgeoning American film industry, and is among the first to migrate from the New York area to the sunnier (and less Edison-strangled) skies of California. That’s where he founds Universal Studios, helps create the Universal Monsters franchise (with his son) and eventually loses control of the studio after a few ill-advised financial moves. For most people, this would be the start of retirement—but in Laemmle’s case, it’s a shift toward activism as he engineers ways of welcoming Jewish refugees from 1930s Germany. The documentary has the usual mixture of stock footage, narration and testimonials from historians and descendants—some of the featured guests include Leonard Maltin and Peter Bogdanovich. If you’re just looking for the essentials, Carl Laemmle has it all—greatly expanding the Wikipedia articles about its subject and presenting information in a straightforward fashion with just enough historical context to make it make sense. Where the result has its limits, however, is that it’s a very staid presentation of its topic: just the acceptable minimum, and nothing else. Some of it feels a bit rough or old-fashioned for a 2019 film, which may reflect the film’s limited budget more than anything else. Still, you can imagine Carl Laemmle becoming the first stop for anyone looking to get more information on an early Hollywood mogul, perhaps motivated by seeing his name on some of the most enduring films of the early 1930s.