Alex Benno

Alex Benno (2 November 1873 – 2 April 1952) was a Dutch film actor, screenwriter and director of the silent era. He appeared in 15 films between 1913 and 1920.

Career
Benno, before directing films himself for the first time in 1919, played small roles in a number of films by other directors, he also acted as a so-called character comedian who had put some of his creations on paper. Quite a number of episodes of sheet music, with an illustration on the cover, show his productivity in this field.

A number of Jewish collaborators (Benno was also Jewish) from the German film industry also came to Holland. Thus several Dutch feature films with a German director and staff came about in the period 1933-1940. Amsterdam's film history begins in 1919 when De duivel in Amsterdam starring Eduard Verkade was released. De Jantjes, Bleeke Bet and Op Hoop van Zegen from 1934 are film adaptations of popular drama that attracted large audiences. De Jantjes is the first Dutch sound film. Bleeke Bet is a Jordaan comedy with songs that was directed by Richard Oswald. Oswald was an Austrian Berliner; his real name was Ornstein. He too fled to Holland in 1933, as did many dozens of other mostly Jewish directors, producers, actors and revue artists. For the music and sets of Bleeke Bet, Oswald attracted experienced fellow immigrants. Many a German artist, like Oswald, traveled to the Netherlands after 1933. Kathinka Dittrich, former director of the Amsterdam Goethe-Institut, described in her book Achter het doek - Duitse emigranten in de Nederlandse speelfilm in de jaren dertig (1987), how these immigrants were looked upon with the neck. If they could get work at all, these former employees of the Ufa studios were often given inexperienced people alongside and above them.

For example, in the case of "Bleeke Bet," veteran Oswald had to experience the Dutchman Alex Benno (Benno who actually had the name Bonefang was also of German descent) claiming the co-directorship. Holland learned the ropes of the film business in those years from producer Rudolf Meyer and from directors such as Kurt Gerron, Ludwig Berger and Herman Kosterlitz. After 1940, the fate of the immigrants diverged. The latter would become famous in America as Henry Koster. Berger, managed to survive the occupation in Amsterdam. Gerron was murdered in Auschwitz, while Meyer survived Auschwitz. He returned to the Netherlands and produced such major films as Fanfare (1958) and the resistance film De Overval (1962).

Filmography

 * John Heriot's Wife (1920)
 * Schakels (1920)
 * Brotherhood of Steel (1918)
 * Madame Pinkette & Co (1917)
 * Majoor Frans (1916)
 * Vogelvrij (1916)
 * Het geheim van den vuurtoren (1916)
 * Koningin Elisabeth's dochter (1915)
 * Ontmaskerd (1915)
 * Toffe jongens onder de mobilisatie (1914)
 * Luchtkastelen (1914)
 * Weergevonden (1914)
 * Heilig recht (1914)
 * Liefde waakt (1914)
 * Krates (1913)
 * De levende ladder (1913)