Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian–born British film director, producer, and screenwriter, who founded his own film production studios and film distribution company.
Born in Hungary, where he began his career, he worked briefly in the Austrian and German film industries during the era of silent films, before being based in Hollywood from 1926 to 1930 for the first of his two brief periods there. The change led to a divorce from his first wife, the Hungarian film actress María Corda, who was unable to make the transition from silent films to "talkies" because of her Hungarian accent.
From 1930, Korda was active in the British film industry, and soon became one of its leading figures. He was the founder of London Films and, post-war, the owner of British Lion Films, a film distribution company. Korda produced many outstanding classics of the British film industry, including The Private Life of Henry VIII, Rembrandt, Things To Come, The Thief of Baghdad and The Third Man. In 1942, Korda became the first filmmaker to receive a knighthood.
Personal background
Korda was born Sándor László Kellner into a Jewish family in Pusztatúrpásztó, Austria-Hungary. His parents were Henrik Kellner and Ernesztina Weisz. He had two younger brothers, Zoltan and Vincent, who also had careers in the film industry, often working with Alexander.Early career in European silent film
Films in Hungary
After the death of his father, Korda began writing film reviews to support his family. He also changed the family name, deriving the new name Korda from the Latin phrase "sursum corda".Having been excused from military service in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the First World War, because he was short-sighted, Korda became an important figure in the Hungarian film industry, initially through his magazines Pesti Mozi, Mozihét and Világ. This led to invitations to write screenplays. His first script was for Watchhouse in the Carpathians, which he also helped to direct. He also made a film with Gyula Zilahy, The Duped Journalist, and directed Tutyu and Totyo, The Officer's Swordknot and Lyon Lea.
In 1916, Korda established his own production company, Corvin Film. Its first film was White Nights, which was a big success. Korda went on to build Corvin into one of the largest film companies in Hungary with such productions as The Grandmother, Tales of the Typewriter, The Man with Two Hearts, The One Million Pound Note, Cyclamen, Struggling Hearts, The Laughing Saskia, Miska the Magnate, St. Peter's Umbrella, The Stork Caliph , and Magic. Korda later regarded Harrison and Barrison as his best film. He also made Faun, Man of Gold, and Mary Ann.
Under the shortlived Hungarian Soviet Republic Korda made Ave Caesar!, White Rose, Yamata and Neither at Home or Abroad. His final Hungarian film was Number 111.
In October 1919 Korda was arrested during the White Terror that followed the overthrow of the Communist government, but was soon released. He then left Hungary for Austria. He never returned to his country of birth.
Films in Vienna
After leaving Hungary, Korda accepted an invitation from Count Alexander Kolowrat to work for his company Sascha-Film in the Austrian capital Vienna. Korda worked alongside Kolowrat, who had attracted several leading Hungarian and German directors into his employment, on the historical epic The Prince and the Pauper. The film was a major international success and inspired Korda with the idea of making "international films" with global box office appeal.Korda's next two films, Masters of the Sea and A Vanished World, were both nautical-set adventures based on Hungarian novels.
By that stage, Korda had grown irritated with Kolowrat's interference with his work and left Sascha to make an independent film, Samson and Delilah, set in the world of opera. The film was made on a lavish scale, with large crowd scenes. The lengthy shooting schedule lasted 160 working days. The film was unsuccessful.
Films in Berlin
Korda left Vienna and travelled to Germany. He had frequent problems with money, and often had to receive support from friends and business associates, but in Berlin he raised funding for the melodrama The Unknown Tomorrow. With backing from Germany's biggest film company, UFA, Korda returned to Vienna to make Everybody's Woman. While he was there he began work on his next film, the historical Tragedy in the House of Habsburg, which portrayed the Mayerling Incident. It earned back around half of its production costs. He followed this with Dancing Mad, another melodrama.Korda cast his wife Maria Corda as the female lead in all his German-language films. To a large degree the success of his productions depended on her star power. Korda cast her again in A Modern Dubarry, an update of the life of Madame Du Barry based on an original screenplay by Lajos Bíró. The film may have been intended to showcase Maria Corda's star potential to producers in Hollywood.
Korda made his final German film, Madame Wants No Children, for the Berlin-based subsidiary of the American studio Fox. Although made later, it was released before A Modern Dubarry.
In Hollywood and France
In December 1926 Korda and his wife sailed for the United States on board the steamer Olympic, with a view to Korda taking up a contract with the American studio First National. In Hollywood both struggled to adapt to the studio system. Korda had to wait some time before gaining his first directorial assignment, The Stolen Bride, a Hungarian-themed romance about a peasant's love for a countess. The film starred the American actress Billie Dove rather than Korda's wife.Following the moderate success of The Stolen Bride Korda worked on the comedy The Private Life of Helen of Troy, replacing the previous director, George Fitzmaurice. The film retells the story of Helen of Troy, parodying the historical epics of the era by transforming the classical characters into everyday people with modern problems. The film was a significant success for Korda, with his wife playing the role of Helen. The film was his most satisfying work in the United States and provided the template for his later success in Britain.
After this film, however, Korda became pigeonholed as a director of female stars and exotic foreign locations. He was generally given similar assignments for the remainder of his first period in Hollywood. His next few films were disappointments as his career lost its momentum: Yellow Lily, Night Watch both with Dove, and Love and the Devil with Maria Korda. The latter two, though still Silent films, had sound effects and music added to their soundtracks during Hollywood's transition to fully synchronized Sound films.
Korda's next film The Squall, with a young Myrna Loy, was his first talkie and featured a Hungarian setting. Although, like many other directors, Korda had misgivings about the new technology, he quickly adapted to making sound films.
Korda's marriage was strained in Hollywood. The arrival of sound films wrecked his wife's career, as her heavy accent made her unemployable for most American films. Love and the Devil was the last of Korda's films she appeared in, and she made only two more films. She became increasingly resentful of the switch in their relationship, as her career was now over while Korda, who had once relied on her for the success of his films, was relatively flourishing. Their marriage collapsed, and they divorced in 1930.
Korda made two more sound films at First National: Her Private Life and Lilies of the Field, both of which were remakes of earlier silent films.
Korda grew more frustrated in Hollywood as he came to strongly dislike the studio system. He hoped to save up enough money to return to Europe and begin producing on a large scale there, but his lavish personal spending and the large amounts he lost in the Wall Street crash prevented this. When his producer, Ned Marin, moved from First National to the Fox Film Corporation Korda followed him. Korda's new contract gave him $100,000 a year.
Fox
His first film for Fox, Women Everywhere, cost slightly more than some of the programmers he had previously directed in the United States. He collaborated with several figures who would contribute to his future success in Britain. Korda was offered a series of scripts, all of which he disliked, before he finally agreed to make The Princess and the Plumber. Korda's reluctance to make the film led to his conflict with studio bosses, which brought to an end his first period in Hollywood.Films in France
Korda went to France where he made The Men Around Lucy for Paramount. He also made Rive gauche.Korda had a success with Marius starring Raimu from the play by Marcel Pagnol. He followed it with the Swedish and German versions of Marius, respectively Longing for the Sea, and The Golden Anchor.