Alexander Korda
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Alexander Korda
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The first motion picture producer ever to receive a knighthood, Alexander Korda was a guiding force behind the British film industry throughout the 1930s as a studio chief, producer, and sometime director, and continued as a major -- and highly influential -- film producer until his death in 1956. Although synonymous to the world with British films, Korda was Hungarian-born, and worked in movies in Austria, Germany, and America, without finding any particularly notable success, before coming to England in 1930. He was a crafty businessman as well as a flamboyant personality; he favored bold, ambitious, opulent productions -- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger modeled Boris Lermontov, the egotistical ballet impresario of The Red Shoes, partly on Alexander Korda. And toward that end, by 1933 he had founded a major (though always financially shaky) studio in London Films, and managed to pull off a seemingly impossible feat by directing and producing The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). The latter film succeeded as no British picture since the advent of the talkies had, becoming a major hit in America, also earning an Oscar nomination as Best Picture and turning its star, Charles Laughton (who won the Best Actor Oscar), into an international star.From that first great flash of success, London Films went on to occupy a unique niche in the firmament of the British cinematic world. Indeed, the studio was a study in brilliance and contradictions. For starters, there was its name -- it may have been "London" Films, but it was built on Korda's production genius, and also the work of his brothers, Zoltan Korda (one of England's best directors) and Vincent Korda (a world-renowned art director), along with their assembled staffs of writers, artists, costumers, etc., almost all of them expatriate Hungarians. Despite the national origins of its founder and most of its employees, however, the studio seemed bent on "selling" the British Empire all over the world, a fact not lost on the British bankers who financed the film industry or government officials whose financial and regulatory policies had profound impact on the motion-picture business.
Korda also saw success with a handful subsequent movies, including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Ghost Goes West (1935), and The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936). Rembrandt (1936), starring Laughton, is still considered by many to be among the great artist biopics; Things to Come (1936) is a multi-generational science fiction epic that expanded the boundaries of cinematic to a range that neither had exhibited since the heyday of the silents; Fire Over England (1937) is an account of Elizabeth I and England's successful defense against the Spanish Armada, which the storyboard for Warner Bros.' subsequent production of The Sea Hawk; Clouds over Europe (1939), starring Laurence Olivier is an espionage comedy that anticipated the 1960s series The Avengers; and The Thief of Bagdad (1940), starring Sabu and Conrad Veidt, remains one of the finest fantasy films of the time.
By the end of 1939, Korda was in the midst of the extended production of The Thief of Bagdad, but had literally run out of money and credit in England. The outbreak of the Second World War in September of that year was the tipping point, forcing Korda to move his operations to America early in the following year. He was able to finish the film in Hollywood, in the process bringing over his two brothers as well as composer Miklos Rozsa, all of the film's stars, and a brace of other production notables who would make their careers in America, some for the duration of the war and some permanently. The Thief of Bagdad was successful enough to wipe out most of his debts and allow the producer to set up Alexander Korda Productions -- using the same Big Ben logo that had opened all of the London Films releases -- in Hollywood.
The most important production to come out of Korda's Hollywood period was That Hamilton Woman (1941, aka Lady Hamilton), an account of the illicit romance between British naval hero Lord Nelson (Laurence Olivier) and Lady Emma Hamilton (Vivien Leigh) at the turn of the 18th century into the 19th century. It was the only movie that Olivier and Leigh did as husband and wife, and proved so compelling as veiled anti-German propaganda that it led to Korda's being investigated by the isolationist-minded United States Congress. He also made several enjoyable though less distinguished movies, including Lydia (1941), a handsome dramatic vehicle for leading lady Merle Oberon (who was also Korda's wife by then), and The Jungle Book (1942), with Sabu. And Korda played a key role in the production of Ernst Lubitsch's topical comedy To Be or Not To Be (1942). It was also during this period that Korda received his knighthood, an honor accorded him by the crown at the behest of the government of Winston Churchill. Although it was ostensibly for his work as a producer of movies, the knighthood also derived from his periodic clandestine work on behalf of the British government during World War II, when his trips across the Atlantic and other production activities served as cover for secret operations.
Korda resumed production in England after World War II, reactivating London Films in the process. His initial postwar activities, however, were conducted somewhat in the shadow of J. Arthur Rank, a rival British film mogul whose vast network of theaters, coupled with his acquisition of various studios and their facilities, had turned him into the reigning giant of the British movie industry in Korda's absence. But the departure from Rank's company of such talented filmmakers as Powell and Pressburger, Olivier, David Lean, and Carol Reed in the second half of the 1940s gave London Films new opportunities. The company didn't make many movies, but the quality of the films they did produce was often staggering. Among its successes were The Small Back Room (1949), The Fallen Idol (1948), The Third Man (1949), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), The Sound Barrier (1952), Summertime (1955), and Richard III (1955).
The financial underpinnings of Korda's studio were as shaky as ever, and with his death in early 1956, London Films was closed down. Ironically, it was just as the studio ceased to exist that its worldwide profile rose to a level it hadn't enjoyed since the 1930s, thanks to Korda's having sold his library to television in the mid-'50s, long before any American studios had made their films available for broadcast. His movies were among the best that could be seen on television for most of the second half of the 1950s and right into the '60s, by which time the company and its Big Ben logo were associated once again in the minds of film fans with movies of the highest quality. That logo remains among the most familiar in motion pictures; and among Korda's productions, The Thief of Bagdad has proved the most enduring across the decades. Even in the 21st century, with the movie long since available on VHS tape and DVD, it still fills theaters in periodic theatrical revivals. Known for moviemaking on a grand scale, Korda was probably the most articulate producer-showman in the history of motion pictures. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
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Alexander Korda
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Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Alexander Korda
| Alexander Korda | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Sándor László Kellner 16 September 1893 Pusztatúrpásztó, Hungary (Austria-Hungary) |
| Died | 23 January 1956 (aged 62) London, England |
| Occupation | Director/Producer |
| Years active | 1914–1955 |
| Spouse | María Corda (1919-1930) Merle Oberon (1939-1945) Alexandra Boycun (1953-1956) |
Sir Alexander Korda (16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956) was a Hungarian-born British film producer and director.[1] He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.
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Early life
The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent Korda, Korda was born as Sándor László Kellner to a Jewish family[2] in Pusztatúrpásztó in what is now Hungary (it was then a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), where he worked as a journalist (supporting the Hungarian Soviet Republic) before going into films as a producer.
Korda established a film company named Corvin Film, building it into one of the largest in Hungary. Korda was arrested in October 1919 during the White Terror that followed the overthrow of the Communist government. After his release he left Hungary for Austria, and never returned to his country of birth.[3]
Vienna and Berlin
During the next eleven years Korda made films in several countries working in Vienna, Berlin, Paris before eventually moving to Hollywood. He worked closely with many artists on his films, including his Hungarian friend, painter and set designer Emile Lahner.
After leaving Hungary, Korda accepted an invitation from Count Alexander Kolowrat to work for his company Sascha-Film in the Austrian capital Vienna.[4] Korda worked alongside the flamboyment Kolowrat, who had attracted several leading Hungarian and German directors into his employment, on the 1920 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.[5]
Korda's next two films Masters of the Sea (1922) and A Vanished World (1922) were both nautical-set adventures based on Hungarian novels. By this stage Korda had grown irritated with Kolowrat's interfence with his work and left Sascha to make an independent film Samson and Delilah (1922) set in the world of opera. The film was made on a lavish scale, with large crowd scenes, and a lengthy shooting schedule which lasted a hundred and sixty working days. In spite of this the film was not a success.[6]
Unable to find any further backing for his film projects, Korda left Vienna and travelled to Germany. Korda was able to raise finance for the melodrama The Unknown Tomorrow (1923). With backing from Germany's biggest film company UFA, Korda returned to Vienna to make Everybody's Woman (1924). While there he began work on his next film the historical Tragedy in the House of Habsburg (1924) which depicts the Mayerling Incident. It only earned back around half of its production cost.[7] He followed this with Dancing Mad (1925), another melodrama.
Korda had frequent problems with money, and often had to receive support from friends and business associates. Korda had cast his wife Maria Corda as the female lead in all his German-language films and to a large degree his productions depended on her star power. There was already a growing tension in their marriage which would come to a head once they went to America. Korda cast her again in A Modern Dubarry (1927), which updapted the life story of Madame Du Barry based on an original screenplay by Lajos Biro. The film may have aimed to highlight Maria Corda's star potential to Hollywood. [8] Korda made his final German film Madame Wants No Children (1926) for the American studio's Fox's Berlin-based subsidiary. Although made later, it was released before A Modern Dubarry.
Hollywood
In December 1926 after receiving a joint contract offer from the American studio First National, Korda and his wife sailed for the United States on board the S.S. Olympic.[9] Once they reached Hollywood both struggled to adapt to the studio system, and there was a considerable pause before Korda was handed his initial directorial assignment. The first American film Korda made, in 1927, was a drama titled The Stolen Bride. He was chosen because the production was a Hungarian-themed romance story about a peasant's love for a Countess.[10] The film starred the American actress Billie Dove, rather than Korda's wife.
After The Stolen Bride's moderate success, Korda was brought in to work on the comedy The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927), replacing the previous director George Fitzmaurice. The film retells the story of Helen of Troy, parodying the plot-line of 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. After this film, however, Korda became pigeon-holed as a director of female stars and exotic foreign locations and he was generally given similar assignments for the remainder of his time in Hollywood.[11] Nonetheless the film was his most satisfying work in the United States and provided the template for his later success in Britain.
Korda's next few films Yellow Lily (1928), Night Watch (1928) and Love and the Devil (1929) were disappointments as his career lost its momentum. The latter two were both Silent films but had sound effects and music added to their soundtracks as part of Hollywood's transitional phase of technology following the success of the Sound film The Jazz Singer. Korda's next film The Squall (1929) 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 had become further strained in Hollywood, and the arrival of sound films wrecked his wife's career as her heavy accent meant studios were unwilling to employ her. Love and the Devil was the last of Korda's films she appeared in and she only made two further films. She became increasingly resentful of the switch in the dynamic of their relationship as her career was now over while Korda, who had once relied on her for the production of his films, was relatively flourishing. This led to the collapse of their marriage and they divorced in 1930.[12]
Korda made two more sound films at First National Her Private Life (1929) and Lilies of the Field (1930), both of which were remakes of earlier silent films. Korda grew gradually 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 conract gave him $100,000 a year.[13]
His first film for Fox, Women Everywhere (1930) cost slightly more than some of the programmers he had previously directed in America and allowed him to collaborate with several figures who would contribute to his future success in Britain. Korda was then offered a series of scripts, all of which he disliked, before he finally agreed to make The Princess and the Plumber (1930).[14] Korda's clear reluctance to make the film led to his conflict with studio bosses which brought to an end his first period in Hollywood.
Britain
In 1932 Korda founded London Films with Big Ben as the company logo. The company's releases included The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Rembrandt (1936), both of which starred Charles Laughton and were directed by Korda. Other successes included The Four Feathers (1939), Q Planes (1939), The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Korda's brothers Vincent, an art director, and Zoltan, a film director, were involved with his projects.
In 1937, Korda retained Brian Hurst to direct a resurrected project, "Lawrence of Arabia". Hurst was about to leave on a trip to Jerusalem to scout locations when Korda cancelled the trip, saying the Palestinian government refused to permit large gatherings of Arabs and they could not make the film without Arab extras.[15] A screenplay, co-written by Hurst, Miles Malleson, and Duncan Guthrie, was completed in October 1938.[16]
Korda bought property in Denham, Buckinghamshire, including Hills House, and planned to build film studios on the property. London Film's Denham Film Studios was financed by the Prudential and opened in 1936. Korda though soon had financial difficulties and management of the Denham complex was merged with Pinewood in 1939[17] becoming part of the Rank Organisation.
Wartime in Europe meant The Thief of Bagdad had to be completed in Hollywood where Korda was again based for a few years. While in the United States, Korda produced and directed That Hamilton Woman (1941) and supervised Jungle Book (1942), a live action version of the Kipling story directed by Zoltan Korda.
Returning to the UK, Korda, via London Films, bought a controlling interest in British Lion Films which was involved in such productions as The Third Man (1949). The last film with Korda's involvement was Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Richard III (1955). A draft screenplay of what became The Red Shoes was written by Emeric Pressburger in the 1930s for Korda and intended as a vehicle for his future wife Merle Oberon. The screenplay was bought by Michael Powell and Pressburger who made it for J. Arthur Rank. During the 1950s, Korda reportedly expressed interest in producing a James Bond film based upon Ian Fleming's novel Live and Let Die, but no agreement was ever reached.[18]
In 1942, Alexander Korda was knighted for his contribution to the war effort,[19] the first film director to receive the honour.[20] He died at the age of 62 in London of a heart attack and was cremated. His ashes are at Golders Green Crematorium in London.
Family
Korda was married three times, first to Hungarian actress María Corda in 1919. They had one son, Peter Vincent Korda, and divorced in 1930. In 1939, he married film star Merle Oberon, but the marriage ended in divorce six years later. He married, lastly, on 8 June 1953, Alexandra Boycun, who survived him.
Michael Korda, the author of a roman à clef about Merle Oberon published after her death entitled Queenie, is Alexander Korda's nephew via his younger brother Vincent.
1936 Film Commission
Korda was also an important contributor to the 1936 Moyne Commission formed to protect British film production from competition, mainly from the United States. Korda said: "If American interests obtained control of British production companies they may make British pictures here but the pictures made would be just as American as those made in Hollywood. We are now on the verge of forming a British school of film making in this country."[21]
Legacy
The Alexander Korda Award for "Outstanding British Film of the Year" is given in his honor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The 1939 novel Nobody Ordered Wolves features a mogul named Napoleon Bott who is closely modelled on Korda.
References
- ^ Obituary Variety, 25 January 1956, page 63.
- ^ "Variety Club-Jewish Chronicle colour supplement "350 years"". The Jewish Chronicle. 2006-12-15. pp. 28–29.
- ^ Kulik.p.26-27
- ^ Kulik p.27-29
- ^ Kulik p.30-31
- ^ Kulik p.32-34
- ^ Kulik p.39
- ^ Kulik p.40
- ^ Kulik p.41-42
- ^ Kulik p.45
- ^ Kulik p.48
- ^ Kulik p.49-50
- ^ Kulik p.52
- ^ Kulik p.54-55
- ^ Kelly, Alexander;Richards, Jeffrey; & Pepper, James. Filming TE Lawrence: Korda's Lost Epic (IB Tauris and Co Ltd, 1997), p.6
- ^ Kelly, et al., p.33ff.
- ^ "Denham Studios", BFI screenonline page
- ^ Caplen, Robert A., Shaken & Stirred: The Feminism of James Bond, page 73 (2010)
- ^ "Korda, Alexander (1893-1956)", BFI screenonline page
- ^ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/35586/pages/2476
- ^ Quoted from terramedia website 2009
Bibliography
- Kulik, Karol. Alexander Korda: The Man Who Could Work Miracles. Virgin Books, 1990. ISBN 978-0870003356
External links
- Alexander Korda at the Internet Movie Database
- Alexander Korda at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Alexander Korda at Virtual History
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