Ignace Morgenstern
Ignace Morgenstern was a Hungarian-born French film producer. He was the owner of Cocinor, one of the largest French film distributors of the 1950s.
Career
Morgenstern was born in 1900 to a Jewish family in Mád, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After emigrating to France he worked for Les [Films Osso|Osso Films] until the company went bankrupt in 1934. He moved to Lille where he helped establish a branch of the distributor SEDIF. In 1939 he was conscripted into the French Army. Following the Fall of France in 1940 he and his family sheltered on a farm they rented in Frontenas in the unoccupied zone of Vichy France. Following the Liberation of France in 1944 he re-established SEDIF.In 1948 he acquired the assets of the company from Joseph Lucachevitch and established his own distribution company Cocinor, based in Paris. He concentrated in producing commercially orientated hits starring established stars such as Fernandel and Jean Gabin.