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Walter Riml (September 23, 1905 – June 21, 1994) was an Austrian cameraman and actor.

Life

Born in Innsbruck, the 2.05 m tall Tyrolean at first was trained as a carpenter and an interior designer. As a passionate sportsman and skier he contacted the Mountain film-pioneer Arnold Fanck who made a film in the Tyrolean area of Arlberg in 1927. Fanck engaged him as a grip for the silent movie The Great Leap where Walter Riml appeared also in some short scenes. Fanck loved the artistic and humorous side of Walter Riml's talents and so he played a major role in Fanck's famous film The White Ecstasy (1931). Together with other already famous actors like Leni Riefenstahl, Hannes Schneider, Rudi Matt, Gustav Diessl and the pilot Ernst Udet Walter Riml played also in Abenteuer im Engadin or S.O.S. Eisberg and showed his further talent for the film business in The White Ecstasy.

Walter Riml played the tall carpenter "Fietje" from Hamburg together with his petite carpenter-partner "Tietje" Guzzi Lantschner, both in the traditional black woodworker costumes. Their ski acrobatic scenes became legendary until today. This film is also a favourite film for today's snowboarding generation because of the fabulous ski jumps.

Another film with these two comedians was North Pole, Ahoy filmed in Greenland, directed by Andrew Marton, produced by Universal Films. This film was a parodistic story in connection with S.O.S. Eisberg. Walter Riml was interested in becoming a professional cameraman and very soon into his career he got his visual education from two famous cameramen Hans Schneeberger and Richard Angst. Because of his visual talents Leni Riefenstahl committed to him as her still-photographer and as a second cameraman for her first movie Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light). The most famous photos of Leni Riefenstahl as the witch "Junta" from this film were shot by Walter Riml. This fact she mentioned in her book "Im Kampf in Schnee und Eis". Walter Riml became a great cameraman and expert for mountain films. Therefore, Luis Trenker engaged him several times. In the 30es, Walter Riml filmed in Japan Die Tochter des Samurai (1936) together with Arnold Fanck.

Because of a bomb attack in 1944 in Berlin he lost his archive with more than 30,000 negatives from his travels and works in Japan and Greenland. Therefore, planned film projects together with the American film producer Paul Kohner could not be realised any more.

After the Second World War he was a cameraman for the US Army. In 1957 he was one of the four western cameramen who were allowed to make a film about the daily life in Russia. Riml also worked on different TV productions.

Until the mid-1960s Walter Riml made a lot of the typical and famous mountain films and films with regional background. One of them is the famous film Two Times Lotte based on the book by Erich Kästner. In 1962 the American director John Sturges engaged him as a second cameraman for his film The Great Escape ^[1] with stars like Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson. As a specialist for films in snow atmosphere he filmed scenes in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969. His last filmwork was in 1970, a documentary for US television about the film The Last Valley with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif.

Walter Riml died at the age of 89 in the year 1994 in Steinach am Brenner. In his long life he worked on more than 100 film productions and documentaries worldwide.

List of films

Actor

1927: The Great Leap
1931: The White Ecstasy
1932: Abenteuer im Engadin
1933: S.O.S. Eisberg

1934: North Pole, Ahoy
1934: Der König des Montblanc
1934: The Eternal Dream
1952: Carnival in White

Cameraman

1930: Storm over Mont Blanc (Camera assistant)
1930: The Blue Light (2nd Camera, Stills)
1931: The White Ecstasy (Camera assistant)
1932: Abenteuer im Engadin (Camera assistant)
1932/33: S.O.S. Eisberg (Camera assistant)
1932/33: North Pole, Ahoy (Camera assistant)
1934: Der König des Montblanc (Camera assistant)
1934: Triumph of the Will
1935: Ikerasak
1935: Anschlag auf Schweda
1935: Purzelbaum ins Glück
1936: Das große Eis
1936: Reis und Holz im Lande des Mikado
1936/41: Frühling in Japan (Documentary)
1936/41: Japan's heiliger Vulkan (Documentary)
1936: Tapfere kleine Mitsuko
1936: Peter im Schnee
1937: The Daughter of the Samurai
1937: Hänschen Klein
1937: The Mountain Calls
1938: Der König der Berge (Documentary)
1938: Love Letters from Engadin
1938: Steputat & Co.
1938: Spiel im Sommerwind
1939: In the Name of the People
1939: Hochzeit mit Hindernissen
1939: Who's Kissing Madeleine?
1939: Alarm at Station III
1939: Weißer Flieder
1943: Josef Thorak – Werkstatt und Werk (Documentary)
1944: Harte Zeit, starke Kunst – Arno Breker (Documentary)
1944: Atlantik-Wall (Documentary)
1945: Sonderberichter (Camera) US Army, Division 777
1946/47: Wintermelodie
1947: Singende Engel
1948: Zyankali
1948: Anni
1948: Die Verjüngungskur / Nach Regen folgt Sonne

1948: Die Frau am Weg [de]
1948: White Gold
1949: Hexen [de]
1949: Das Kind der Donau
1950: Der geheimnisvolle Wilddieb (The Mysterious Poacher)
1950: Die Grenze
1950: The Lone Climber
1950: Two Times Lotte
1951: Weiße Hölle Montblanc / Fegefeuer der Liebe
1951: Stadtpark / Kleiner Peter, große Sorgen
1952: Carnival in White
1952: The Landlady of Maria Wörth
1953: Young Heart Full of Love
1954: Rose-Girl Resli
1954: The Silent Angel
1955: The Major and the Bulls
1955: As Long as You Live
1956: Fruit in the Neighbour's Garden
1957: The Twins from Zillertal
1957: Kleren maken de man
1957: Egon, der Frauenheld
1957: Almenrausch and Edelweiss
1957: Wir sahen mit unseren Augen: Russland heute (Documentary)
1958: Heimatlos
1958: Worüber man nicht spricht – Frauenarzt Dr. Brand greift ein
1959: Heimat – Deine Lieder
1960: Town Without Pity (uncredited)
1960: Armored Command (2.Camera)
1962: Schneewittchen und die sieben Gaukler
1962: The Great Escape
1963: Sturm am Wilden Kaiser / Bergwind
1968: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (uncredited)
1969: James Bond 007 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Specialist for filming mountain and snowscenes)
1970: The Last Valley (Documentary for the US TV)

Literature

Gesprengte Ketten: The Great Escape, Behind the Scenes, Photographs of cameraman Walter Riml, Editor Helma Türk & Christian Riml, House Publishing 2013, English/German [1]