Walter Reisch exerted a distinguished and civilizing influence on the cinema of Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London, and Hollywood for more than half a century. He was a man of culture and erudition and his screenplays are marked by his sensitivity, sentiment, and sophistication.

Reisch was born in Vienna to A. T. Reisch, a bookseller, and Gisela Kreisler Reisch, an author of romantic poetry. Through his father's book-store, Reisch had easy access to the best of classic and modern literature, a rare advantage in Vienna where books were prohibitively expensive. From 1913 to 1922 he attended the Reform-Real Gymnasium in Vienna. Students on state scholarship, like Reisch, were often drafted as extras for the performances of the state theaters or for locally filmed motion pictures. Reisch worked frequently for Sascha Film, one of Vienna's most successful studios. Also working for Sascha Film were two Hungarian directors, Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda...