The 1920s were also the age of the epic film, on the model of films of the pre-war period from the United States (for example those of D.W. Griffith) and Italy. In Austria the Austro-Hungarian filmmakers Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda produced epic films for "Sascha-Film" and "Vita-Film" (the successor company of "Wiener Kunstfilm"), among them "Prinz und Bettelknabe" (1920), "Samson und Delila" (1922), "Sodom und Gomorrha" (1922), "Der Junge Medardus" (1923), "Die Sklavenkönigin" (1924), "Harun al Rashid" (1924) and "Salammbo" (1925). These films were the biggest ever produced in Austria, with enormous production costs, up to 10,000 costumed extras, and huge sets such as the "Temple of Sodom" which were designed and built by Austria's top set designers of the period, Emil Stepanek, Artur Berger and Julius von Borsody. The who's-who of the Austrian film scene worked on these films. Leading cinematographers like Franz Planer and Hans Theyer photographed the films, and the directors' wives, Lucy Doraine (Michael Curtiz) and Maria Corda (Alexander Korda), were the films' leading ladies. The casts were completed by Austrian film and theatre stars like Hans Thimig, Walter Slezak, Oskar Beregi, Hans Marr. Some film stars of later years, Willi Forst for example, appeared in some of these movies as extras.