Émile Chautard

French film director, actor, and screenwriter (1864–1934)

Emile Chautard
Chautard in 1920
Born	(1864-09-07)7 September 1864 Paris, France
Died	24 April 1934(1934-04-24) (aged 69) Westwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Occupation(s)	Film director, actor, screenwriter
Years active	1910–1934

Émile Chautard (7 September 1864 – 24 April 1934) was a French-American film director, actor, and screenwriter, most active in the silent era. He directed more than 100 films between 1910 and 1924. He also appeared in more than 60 films between 1911 and 1934.

Life and work

Chautard was born in Paris. After a significant career beginning as a stage actor at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe and moving up to the head of film production at Éclair Films' Paris studio in 1913,^[1] Chautard emigrated to the United States in January 1915, sailing on the S/S Rochambeau, from Le Havre to New York. From 1915 to about 1918, Chautard worked for the World Film Company based in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

At World, along with a group of other French-speaking film technicians including Maurice Tourneur, Léonce Perret, George Archainbaud, Albert Capellani and Lucien Andriot, he developed such films as the 1915 version of Camille, and taught a young apprentice film cutter at the World studio: Josef von Sternberg.^[2] In 1919 Chautard hired von Sternberg as his assistant director for The Mystery of the Yellow Room, for his own short-lived production company.

Choosing Hollywood over a return to France, Chautard went to work for Famous Players–Lasky and other studios. He received some high-profile assignments, for instance a Colleen Moore vehicle and two features for Derelys Perdue, but he was a generation older than other directors in Hollywood's French colony. After 1924 Chautard did not direct again, but continued to make film appearances, in the von Sternberg film Blonde Venus (1932), where he appears for his former protege as "Night club owner Chautard".

Chautard died in Los Angeles, California. He is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Selected filmography

La Dame de Monsoreau (1913)

The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1913, director)
Protéa (1913) - Ministre de CEltie
The Eaglet (1913) - Napoleon Bonaparte
The Rack (1915, director)
The Boss (1915, director)
Human Driftwood (1916, director)
The Family Honor (1917, director)
The Fires of Youth (1917, director)
Magda (1917, director, lost)
A Girl's Folly (1917) - Actor (uncredited)
The Eternal Temptress (1917, director)
The Marionettes (1918, director)
The House of Glass (1918, director)
The Ordeal of Rosetta (1918, director)
Under the Greenwood Tree (1918, director)
The Marionettes (1918, director)
Eyes of the Soul (1919, director)
The Marriage Price (1919, director)
The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1919, director, based on a Gaston Leroux story)^[3]
The Black Panther's Cub (1921, director)
Whispering Shadows (1921, director)
Forsaking All Others (1922, director)
Youth to Youth (1922, director)
The Glory of Clementina (1922, director)
Daytime Wives (1923, director)
Untamed Youth (1924, director)
Paris at Midnight (1926) - Père Goriot
Broken Hearts of Hollywood (1926) - Director
Bardelys the Magnificent (1926) - Anatol
My Official Wife (1926) - Count Orloff, Hélène's Father
Upstage (1926) - Performer (uncredited)
The Flaming Forest (1926) - André Audemard
Blonde or Brunette (1927) - Father-in-Law
Upstream (1927) - Campbell-Mandare
Whispering Sage (1927) - José Arastrade
Seventh Heaven (1927) - Father Chevillon, the Priest
Now We're in the Air (1927) - Monsieur Chelaine
The Love Mart (1927) - Louis Frobelle
The Noose (1928) - Priest
His Tiger Lady (1928) - Stage Manager
The Olympic Hero (1928) - Grandpa Brown
Lilac Time (1928) - The Mayor
Out of the Ruins (1928) - Père Gilbert
Caught in the Fog (1928) - The Old Man
Adoration (1928) - Murajev
House of Horror (1929) - Old Miser
Marianne (1929, silent and musical versions) - Père Joseph
Times Square (1929) - David Lederwitski
South Sea Rose (1929) - Rosalie's Uncle
Tiger Rose (1929) - Frenchman (uncredited)
Free and Easy (1930) - Minor Role (uncredited)
Le spectre vert (1930) - Abdoul
Sweeping Against the Winds (1930)
Estrellados (1930)
A Man from Wyoming (1930) - French Mayor
Mysterious Mr. Parkes (1930) - Sylvester Corbett
Just Like Heaven (1930) - Jacques Dulac
Morocco (1930) - French General (uncredited)
Counter Investigation (1930) - O'Brien
Échec au roi (1930) - Le roi Eric VIII - The King
The Little Cafe (1931) - Philibert
The Big Trail (1931) - Padre
Révolte dans la prison (1931) - Pop
The Common Law (1931) - Doorman (uncredited)
The Road to Reno (1931) - Andre
The Yellow Ticket (1931) - Headwaiter (uncredited)
Le procès de Mary Dugan (1931)
Cock of the Air (1932) - French Ambassador
Shanghai Express (1932) - Major Lenard
Le fils de l'autre (1932) - John Whitcomb
The Man from Yesterday (1932) - Priest
Blonde Venus (1932) - Chautard, French Nightclub Manager (uncredited)
Le bluffeur (1932) - Oscar Brown
Rasputin and the Empress (1932) - Minor Role (uncredited)
The California Trail (1933) - Don Marco Ramirez
The Three Musketeers (1933, Serial) - Gen. Pelletier [Ch. 1]
The Devil's in Love (1933) - Father Carmion
The Solitaire Man (1933) - French Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Design for Living (1933) - Train Conductor (uncredited)
Gallant Lady (1933) - French Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
The Way to Love (1933) - M. Prias
Man of Two Worlds (1934) - Natkusiak
Wonder Bar (1934) - Pierre - the Concierge (uncredited)
Come On Marines! (1934) - Priest
Riptide (1934) - Doctor (uncredited)
Viva Villa! (1934) - General Told to Leave Room (uncredited)

References

^ Maurice Tourneur: The Life and Films, by Harry Waldman, pages 5-6
^ Von Sternberg, by John Baxter, pages 21-22
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 243.ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.