A Salute to Alexander Korda

On account of the tumultuous nature of the 20th century, the Hungarian-Jewish producer-director Sir Alexander Korda (Sándor László Kellner, 1893-1956) became a film-maker of international stature, turning out films initially in his native country, but also Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Hollywood, and especially London. Korda become one of the most important figures in the British movie industry, and was indeed the first filmmaker to be knighted.

I first took note of Korda’s name as the producer of Carol Reed’sThe Third Man (1949), for Orson Welles spoke of him with gratitude and respect. He was married to Merle Oberon from 1939 to 1945, another connection American movie fans are likely to know about. But honestly, Korda either produced, or both produced and directed a very long list of well-known English-speaking cinema classics, including The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) with Charles Laughton, The Private Life of Don Juan (1934, Douglas Fairbanks’ last film), The Scarlet Pimpernel(1934) with Leslie Howard,Rene Clair’s The Ghost Goes West (1935), Rembrandt (1936, also with Laughton), H.G. WellsThings to Come (1936), The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), Fire Over England (1937) and That Hamilton Woman (1941) both with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, The Four Feathers (1939), the 1942 live action The Jungle Book, An Ideal Husband (1947), Anna Karenina (1948), and many others. One of his last well known ones, was an assist to Olivier in making Richard III (1955). Initially a film-critic, he began writing scenarios for silent films in Hungary in 1914, and was directing by 1916.

I’m curious as to why Korda didn’t make Hollywood his permanent base as did so many European refugees. Something about the British system seems to have been hospitable to his productivity. Nor was he apparently tempted to return to his home country during the post-war period for obvious reasons. He died not long before the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, which might have given hope — for about 12 days, after which the Soviets crushed it.

Korda’s brothers were also in the film business, as was his first wife Maria Corda.