Paul L. Stein

Paul Ludwig Stein (4 February 1892 – 2 May 1951) was an Austrian-born film director with 67 films to his credit. Stein began his career in Berlin in 1918 and worked exclusively in the German silent film industry until 1926, when he first went to Hollywood, and spent the next five years commuting between Germany and the U.S., where he worked with stars such as Jeanette MacDonald, Lillian Gish and Constance Bennett.

In 1931, Stein relocated to England after gaining a contract with British International Pictures, where he was assigned a number of big-name prestige productions, including some of the popular operetta films of the mid-1930s. These included Blossom Time and Heart's Desire starring his boyhood friend Richard Tauber, who also made cameo appearances in two of his post-war films Waltz Time and Lisbon Story. For most his career, Stein's credits tended to be films primarily aimed at female audiences, although later he also directed crime and spy thrillers. Stein remained in England for the rest of his life and career, becoming a British citizen in 1938.