Max Oppenheimer adopted the pseudonym of "Ophüls" which is the name of an aristocratic German family. When his name began to spread because of his qualities as a film-maker, the original Ophüls family wrote to him to ask which branch he belonged to, because they couldn't figure it out. So the director wrote back confessing the innocent scam, to which they replied that, since he had arrived into the family by chance, he could stay: they were glad to keep him.