Biography
Herbert Selpin (29 May 1904 – 1 August 1942) was a German film director, film editor, and screenwriter of light entertainment during the 1930s and 1940s.
He is known for his final film, the partly suppressed 1943 propaganda film Titanic, during the production of which he was arrested by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. He was later found dead in his prison cell.
== Life and career ==
Herbert Selpin was born on 29 May 1904 in Berlin. After his medical studies in the same city, Selpin worked as a dancer, boxer, librarian, and art seller before he obtained, in the mid-1920s, an internship at the UFA film studios. Among other assignments at UFA, he worked on the set of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Faust (1926).
Selpin was subsequently employed by the European subsidiary of the Fox Film Corporation, where he held several positions, including – in 1927 – that of director's assistant to Walther Ruttmann on the set of Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt.
After several positions as editor, Selpin received an assignment as director for the comedy film Chauffeur Antoinette, released in 1931 by Excelsior Films. In the following two years, Selpin ran into conflict with the Nazi Party for his sympathetic portrayals of the British in his films.
From 1933 onwards, he made propaganda films for the UFA studios, which was by then under the control of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.