Hans J. Salter

Salter gained his education from the Vienna Academy Of Music, and studied composition with Alban Berg, Franz Schreker, and others. He worked for the State Opera in Berlin before being hired in 1928 to compose music at UFA studios. Salter emigrated to America in 1937 and was quickly put under contract at Universal, where he worked for nearly 30 years, arranging, composing, conducting, and serving as musical director.

He composed mainly for Universal, most famously for horror and science fiction films but also for other studios and for television. His most celebrated scores include The Wolf Man (1941), Scarlet Street (1945), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Salter was nominated for a number of Academy Awards, including Christmas Holiday (1944) and This Love Of Ours (1945). Much of his output for Universal was uncredited, as it became stock music, used time and time again in minor pictures. Notable non-horror scores include the Western Bend of the River (1953) and the Swashbuckler Against All Flags (1952).

Salter died in Studio City, California on July 23, 1994, at the age of 98, and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• The Office Manager (1931)
• Holzapfel Knows Everything (1932)
• Madame Wants No Children (1933)
• Fräulein Lilli (1936)
• Eyes of the Underworld (1942)
• The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
• The Spoilers (1942)
• The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
• Son of Dracula (1943)
• Phantom Lady (1944)
• The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
• Christmas Holiday (1944)
• San Diego, I Love You (1944)
• House of Frankenstein (1944)
• Scarlet Street (1945)
• The Web (1947)
• Cover Up (1949)
• The Reckless Moment (1949)
• Borderline (1950)
• Apache Drums (1951)
• The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951)
• You Never Can Tell (1951)
• Thunder on the Hill (1951)
• The Golden Horde (1951)
• Bend of the River (1952)
• The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
• Untamed Frontier (1952)
• Against All Flags (1952)
• The Human Jungle (1954)
• Autumn Leaves (1956)
• Red Sundown (1956)
• Hold Back the Night (1956)
• Day of the Badman (1958)
• Raw Wind in Eden (1958)
• The Wild and the Innocent (1959)
• Hitler (1962)
• Showdown (1963)
• Bedtime Story (1964)
• Incident at Phantom Hill (1966)
• Gunpoint (1966)
• Beau Geste (1966)
• Return of the Gunfighter (1967)

Interview

• Hans J. Salter: "Als ich 1937 nach Hollywood kam, lag das Land noch immer in tiefster Depression". In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (eds.): Aufbruch ins Ungewisse. Österreichische Filmschaffende in der Emigration vor 1945. Vienna, Wespennest: 1993.

• Matthias Wiegandt, Salter, Hans Julius, Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB), vol. 22, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2, 398-99,http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb00016410/images/index.html?seite=412
• Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood. Directed by Karen Thomas. 2007, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/cinemasexiles/.