I am also a camera: John Heygate andTalking Picture

Abstract

In 1932, during the death throes of the Weimar Republic, the British writer John Heygate was hired to work as a supervisor in Berlin on English-language versions of Ufa films, produced in collaboration with the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. In 1934 he published a novel, Talking Picture , principally based on his experiences making Early to Bed (1933). The essay unearths the real film personnel, German and English, lurking behind Heygate's characters, and draws comparisons with the ‘camera eye’ writings of his Berlin contemporary, Christopher Isherwood.