As a screenwriter and director, he collaborated with some of the leading figures of the silent era of German cinema and worked on several influential films.
Following the collapse of Viertel's theatre troupe, he faced severe financial difficulties and accepted an offer from the Fox Film Corporation.
Viertel wanted to gain experience working for the booming Hollywood film industry and hoped to earn enough to return to Europe.
Viertel grew to intensely dislike the atmosphere in Hollywood, which he found paranoid and which he believed placed too many artistic restraints on him.
The Viertels' house in Santa Monica Canyon was the site of salons and meetings of the Hollywood "intelligentsia" and European intellectuals.