August Blom on AllMovie

A major influence on the early Danish silent film and for many years the artistic director of the Great Northern Film Company -- at the time Europe's leading producer -- August Blom began his screen career acting in the studio's popular Sherlock Holmes series. Blom began directing in 1910 and helmed some of Denmark's -- and thereby Europe's -- most popular vehicles. He became a major influence on future Hollywood director Michael Curtiz, who assisted Blom on Atlantis (1913), the director's paean to both the novelist Gerhard Hauptmann and the then-recent Titanic tragedy. Although Atlantis proved far from the success it was anticipated to be, several other Blom films were celebrated artistic and box-office successes, including Ved Fængslets Port (1911), which brought instant fame to its leading man, the handsome Valdemar Psilander, and Verdens Undergang (1916). Although his career was in decline by the late '10s, Blom stayed with Great Northern until 1924. He retired from directing the following year and, like so many of his contemporaries, including Benjamin Christensen, later operated a Copenhagen movie theater.