Carl von Haartman - biography
Carl von Haartman (1897-1980) was born in Helsinki, Finland, on July 6, 1897. He was a Finnish noble man, officer, actor, director, writer and editor, who was active in Hollywood film industry from 1927 to 1930. He was one of the first Finnish actors to work in Hollywood film productions.
Prior to his movie career, Carl von Haartman served as a soldier in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. After finishing his military tour of duty for Finland, in mid-1920s, Haartman departed for Hollywood.
Upon arrival in the "dream factory", Haartman first worked for several movie studios as a statistics expert. He then landed to a job as a military expert and an advisor for the movie Wings (1927) - directed by William A. Wellman -, which were to win the all time very first Academy Award equivalent for the Best Picture Award.
In this Academy Awards' first year, 1927-28 (awarded in 1929), there was no "Best Picture" award as such. There were two separate awards, one called Best Production, won by the epic "Wings", and one called Unique and Artistic Production, won by the art film "Sunrise".
The next year, the Academy instituted a single award called "Best Production", and decided retrospectively that the award won by "Wings" had been the equivalent of that award, with the result that "Wings" is often erroneously listed as the winner of a sole "Best Picture" award for the first year.
Finally, the title was changed to Best Picture, for the 1931 awards. Incidentally, "Wings" and "Sunrise" were not only the first movies ever to have won Academy Awards for the Best Picture -equivalent, but they were also the only silent films ever to have won such an award.
Thus, Carl von Haartman had an honor to play an important role in this historic first Oscar-winning production, Wings. Among his contributes for the movie, Carl von Haartman supervised the movie's entire flying sequences. The movie was also the beginning of Haartman's motion picture acting career, as in the movie Haartman played the acting role of the "German officer" (un-credited).
The same year, 1927, Haartman played the role of the "Chauffer" in the movie Very Confidential, directed by James Tinling.
The following year, 1928, Haartman portrayed the "Imperial Guard" (un-credited) in the movie The Wedding March, directed by Erich von Stroheim; That year, Haartman also played the role of "Lieutenant Franz Geyer" in movie The Awakening, directed by Victor Fleming.
In 1930, Haartman played the role of the "Zeppelin commander" in Hell's Angels, the thrilling multi-million dollar air spectacle directed by Howard Hughes, starring Jean Harlow.
In 1928, Finland's leading film studio, Suomi-Filmi, had hired Carl von Haartman as one of its directors. In 1929, Haartman's movie "Korkein voitto" (The Highest Triumph) opened for audiences. Haartman had written, directed and edited the film, and he played the leading role of "Paron Henrik von Hagen" in the film.
With the film's fluent delivery, clever expressions and resilient cinematography, critics today view this Haartman's film to have been ahead of its time, while its acting, love scenes and humoristic straight-forward touch bring out the feeling of later Hollywood's slapstick spirit, and - led by the movie's political theme - remind many particularly of the 1939 Ernst Lubitsch film, Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.
In 1930, Haartman wrote the screenplay for the movie Kajastus, which he also directed, and in which he played the role of the "Gentleman".
In 1931, Haartman directed the movie "Erämaan turvissa" (un-credited) - a.k.a. "Naisen tähden" ("Because of a Woman") -, in which he also played the acting role of the "Ohrana officer". In 1933, Haartman portrayed "Jack Irbaum" in the movie Sininen varjo ("The Blue Shadow").
Just as Carl von Haartman's movie career appeared to have gotten to a promising start - despite of some minor flops in co-productions with his German partners -, Haartman suddenly found his main focus been drawn to another major European civil arrest, this time one launching the Spanish Civil War.
After all - on a long run -, Carl von Haartman was at least as much a military officer, as a film director or an actor, if not more. Consequently, Haartman soon found himself fighting yet another European uprising, this time in Spain, under the auspices of General Francisco Franco.
From the Spanish Civil War, Haartman had to return to again serve the defense forces of his native country, Finland, as an officer in the Finnish-Soviet wars of World War Two - the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) -, and immediately following, the Finnish-German Lapland War (1945).
In the Winter War, Carl von Haartman commanded - as a major - the 2nd Battalion of the famous Finnish Infantry Brigade 34, which fiercely held tide on its defense line - on the River Kollaa - against the overwhelmingly massive Soviet attack, until the very end of the war.
Following the Winter War, Haartman wrote a book called "Francon Armeijasta Kollaanjoelle" ("From the Army of Franco to the River Kollaa"), published by Otava in 1940.
Despite of the Finnish defensive successes in the two consecutive wars against the Soviet Union, following the wars Finland had to acquire a more politically sensitive relationship with its big eastern neighbor, the Soviet Union. Consequently, after the dust of the battles had settled, Carl von Haartman's book and movies became barred from the public viewing for the duration of the entire Gold War, just like numerous other works of art and literature in Finland.
Carl von Haartman retired from his military career as a Colonel. He died in El Alamillo, Spain, on August 27, 1980. Finally in 1984, Haartman's movie "Korkein voitto" ("The Highest Triumph") - which had been considered not-wanted by the Soviet Union -, was once again aired in Finland, now on a national Finnish television channel.
When in year 2000 Helsinki served as one of the chosen Culture Capitals of Europe, the 1929 movie of Carl von Haartman, "Korkein voitto" ("The Highest Triumph"), was given the honor to represent Helsinki as the celebration film of the year.
~ Finn Film Entertainment, 2007
Trivia
Cavalry Captain Carl von Haartman (soon to be major - then also a lieutenant colonel during the war, colonel after the war) described his initial meeting with the famous war hero Lieutenant Aarne Edward Juutilainen (soon to be captain in the course of the war) - better known as "Marokon Kauhu" ("the Horror of Morocco") - during the Winter War at the River Kollaa, on the battle front by the Finnish-Soviet border, where the all out Soviet attack against the Finnish fences was taking place during the winter of 1939-1940:
As he squeezed my hand, I understood, that here was a man, whom I could trust, a real war officer, who is good to have around in circumstances like this …
… and one more time I squeezed the hand of Juutilainen, and as he said, "I am glad that the Cavalry it, and I felt in my bones, that we would becomCaptain came to our unit", I understood, that he also meant e good friends.
~ Finn Film Entertainment, 2007
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