Hans Dreier

Began his film career with UFA in 1919 and came to the US four years later. Dreier was skilled at creating foreign locales on the studio lot, a talent frequently drawn on by European directors such as Josef von Sternberg, Rouben Mamoulian and Ernst Lubitsch. He was head of Paramount's design department from 1928 to 1951 and created the sets for 11 Cecil B. DeMille films between 1933 and 1949. A gifted artist and one of Hollywood's premiere art directors, Dreier worked with many major figures in his lengthy and distinguished career. To Dreier goes considerable credit for the lush Continental elegance and soft gradations of the gray scale which marked Paramount's distinctive black-and-white period of the 1920s and 30s. He proved equally adept at handling the changes of the 40s, from the demands of color in lavish period epics to the gloomy romanticism of film noir.