Boese was a director and screenwriter who studied theater and philosophy in Berlin and Leipzig. He served in the army in the First World War and was seriously injured. He wrote film reviews before making his directing debut in 1917. He was a successful director working in different film genres, which prevented him from developing his own personal style. His most famous films are melodramas Verschleppt (1919), Golem, How He Came into This World (Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, 1920), a film influenced by expressionism and co-directed by Paul Wegener, and the socially aware film Kinder der Straße (1929). During his long film career he directed about sixty silent films and ninety sound films.