Edgar George Ulmer studied architecture and philosophy while simultaneously working as an actor and set designer in theatre. With Max Reinhardt’s theatre, he visited America and upon his return to Germany, he was the assistant director to the famous F. W. Murnau. Together with Robert Siodmak he directed the film People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag, 1929), after which he immigrated to the US. For Universal studios, he directed his debut The Black Cat (1934), a horror with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. He continued to work on independent low-budget productions, such as the western Thunder Over Texas (1934), a film in Yiddish Green Fields (1937), Cossacks in Exile (1939), and Tomorrow We Live (1942). During 1943, he began to direct and later produced films for the PRC studio. During that period, he made Bluebeard (1944), a modern version of Hamlet, Strange Illusion (1945) and Detour (1945), his most esteemed film. Afterwards he made Ruthless (1948), a sci-fi called The Man From Planet X (1951), The Naked Dawn (1955), Beyond the Time Barrier (1960), L\' Atlantide (1961) and Sette contro la morte (1964).