Born in Vienna in 1892, Stein began his film career in Berlin in 1918. He 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 United States, 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. He died in London in 1951. ==Partial filmography==