Géza von Cziffra
Géza von Cziffra was a Hungarian and Austrian film director and screenwriter.
Life
Cziffra was a Banat German in origin, born in 1900 in Arad in the Banat region, at that date in the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Romania.Cziffra made films from the 1930s onwards, at first in Hungary, and from 1936 in Germany as well, where he was initially more active as a screenwriter.
In 1945, in Prague, then occupied by the Germans, he made the film Leuchtende Schatten. As adviser for the criminal police, he was assigned SS-Sturmbannführer Eweler, a member of the SD and brother of the actress Ruth Eweler. After some time, Cziffra banned Eweler from the studios for excessive and obstructive criticism. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and taken to the Prague Gestapo Headquarters in the Pecec Palace, where he was accused of having eaten several times in the Czech restaurant "Neumann" without using ration stamps. He was eventually dispatched to Pankrác Prison, the remand and interrogation prison of Prague, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment, beginning on 12 February. He was released from detention on 19 April, shortly before the end of the war.
In 1945, in Vienna, Cziffra founded the first post-war Austrian film production company: Cziffra-Film.
Principally, and for preference, he made light entertainment and musical films, with well-known German and Austrian actors such as Peter Alexander, Rudolf Platte, Senta Berger and Hubert von Meyerinck. Through the input of musicians like Bill Ramsey or Bully Buhlan, the films mostly progressed to being musical revues with a local Austrian slant and flavour. Cziffra also worked as an actor himself, and later in his life published a number of books.
He was married to the actress Ursula Justin, who starred in six of his films in the 1950s.
He died on 28 April 1989 in Diessen am Ammersee in Bavaria. His remains are interred in the crematorium in the Ostfriedhof, Munich.
Selected filmography
Gulliver's Travels The Copper, with Hans AlbersThree Days Confined to Barracks Everything for the Woman A Night in Venice Villa for Sale Ball at the Savoy Where the Lark Sings St. Peter's Umbrella The Man Under the Bridge The Vagabonds The Green Emperor The Life and Loves of Tschaikovsky, with Zarah Leander and Marika RökkMelody of a Great City Love Premiere Women Are No Angels The White Dream The Wedding Hotel Liebe nach Noten, with Rudolf Prack and Sonja ZiemannThe Immortal Face, with O. W. FischerThe Queen of the Landstrasse The Heavenly Waltz Lambert Feels Threatened Dangerous Guests Gabriela, with Zarah Leander Third from the Right The Man in Search of Himself A Tale of Five Cities Maya of the Seven Veils The Colourful Dream The Singing Hotel The Flower of Hawaii Money from the Air The False Adam Bandits of the Autobahn The Stolen Trousers Aunt Wanda from Uganda, with Grethe WeiserThe Legs of Dolores Night Nurse Ingeborg So ein Millionär hat's schwer, with Peter Alexander and Heinz ErhardtPeter Shoots Down the Bird Crime Tango, with Peter AlexanderThe Adventures of Count Bobby, with Peter AlexanderJunge Leute brauchen Liebe, with Cornelia Froboess and Johannes HeestersKauf dir einen bunten Luftballon Die Fledermaus, with Peter Alexander, Marika Rökk and Hans MoserThe Bird Seller, with Cornelia FroboessThe Phone Rings Every Night, with Elke SommerThe Sweet Life of Count Bobby Charley's Aunt, with Peter AlexanderLana, Queen of the Amazons Stolen Heaven- ''Dschungelmädchen für zwei Halunken''
Awards
- 1975: Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der Stadt Wien
- 1976: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- 1985: Filmband in Gold for long and excellent work in the German film industry