Dimitri Buchowetzki
Dimitri Buchowetzki, born Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky, was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor in Germany, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Life and career
Initially Buchowetzki studied law. Later he starred in a number of silent films, mostly playing antagonistic characters, including Yakov Protazanov’s melodramas Giant of the Spirit and Maidservant Jenny. He played the hussar officer Minski in Aleksandr Ivanovski’s Pushkin adaptation The Stationmaster and appeared in the title role of Aleksandr Razumnyi’s pro-Bolshevik film Comrade Abram.In 1919, Buchowetzki immigrated to Germany, via Poland, where
he directed his most artistic works: the expressionistic Fedor Dostoevsky adaptation The Brothers Karamazov, the historical drama Danton, and Othello, all starring Emil Jannings. Bukhovetski also made high-budget period pictures such as Peter the Great. Pola Negri, whom Buchowetzki had directed in the German-made Sappho, invited him to Hollywood, where he directed her in a series of erotic melodramas, including Men, Lily of the Dust, and The Crown of Lies.
Buchowetzki began work at MGM on Love with Greta Garbo and Ricardo Cortez. However, producer Irving Thalberg was unhappy with the early filming, and replaced Buchowetzki with Edmund Goulding, cinematographer Merritt B. Gerstad with William H. Daniels, and Cortez with John Gilbert.
Selected filmography
DirectorAnita Jo The Last Hour The Experiment of Professor Mithrany Country Roads and the Big City Symphony of Death Danton with Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss, and Conrad VeidtSappho released by Samuel Goldwyn in the US in 1923 as Mad Love, with Pola NegriThe Brothers Karamazov co-director; with Emil JanningsPeter der Große with Emil JanningsOthello with Emil Jannings and Werner KraussThe Vice of Gambling Carousel The Countess of Paris Men with Pola NegriLily of the Dust with Pola NegriThe Swan with Frances HowardGraustark with Norma TalmadgeValencia with Mae MurrayThe Midnight Sun with Laura La PlanteThe Crown of Lies with Pola NegriThe Indictment French-language version of Manslaughter The Night of Decision German-language version of The Virtuous Sin Woman in the Jungle German-language version of The Letter De Sensatie van de Toekomst co-director of Dutch version of Paramount film TelevisionMagie moderne co-director with Charles de Rochefort of French version of TelevisionStamboul, also Spanish-language version El hombre que asesinoScreenwriter