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EMERIC PRESSBURGER The Life and Death of a Screenwriter Kevin Macdonald Foreword by Billy Wilder ew major figures in cinema history have remained as personally and professionally enigmatic as Emeric Pressburger. A Hungarian Jew who lived and worked in half a dozen European countries before arriving in Britain in 1935, Pressburger's reputation rests on the series of strikingly original films he made in collaboration with Michael Powell under the banner of The Archers. The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life find Death, Black Narcissus and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp all bear the unique credit 'Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger'. Frequently controversial, always experimental, The Archers suffered a long period of neglect before being rediscovered by such prominent admirers as Martin Scorsese, Derek Jarman and Francis Ford Coppola. But even now Pressburger remains a shadowy figure, often ignored, or demoted to being merely 'Michael Powell's screenwriter'. Written by his grandson, and containing extracts from private diaries and correspondence, this biography defends the notion of film as a collaborative art and illuminates the adventurous life and work of the film-maker who brought continental grace, wit and style to British cinema. Kevin Macdonald was born in Glasgow in 1967. He was educated at Glenalmond College, Perthshire and St Anne's College, Oxford and now works as a documentary film-maker. He is also the writer of the short film Dr Reitzer's Fragment. This is his first book. Back cover stills courtesy of BFI Stills, Posters and Designs UK £20.00 net j Canada $35.00 " 1.95 EMERIC PRESSBURGER The Life and Death of a Screenwriter KEVIN MACDONALD Foreword by BILLY WILDER s faberandfaber I ONDON BOSTON First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Faber and Faber Limited 3 Queen Square London wcin 3 au Photoset in Sabon by Parker Typesetting Service, Leicester Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic © Kevin Macdonald, 1994 Foreword © Billy Wilder, 1994 A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 0-571-16853-1 For My Grandparents ALTA MARGARET MACDONALD ‘D B’ MACDONALD WENDY NEWMAN EMERIC PRESSBURGER Contents LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi FOREWORD BY BILLY WILDER xiii INTRODUCTION XV PART I IMRE 1 Beginnings 3 2 Travelling 17 3 Down and Out in the Tiergarten 37 PART II EMMERICH 4 Ufa and the Weimar Movie Brats ¿3 5 Friends and Mentors 83 6 La Vie Parisienne 101 7 Being Hungarian is not Enough 120 PART III EMERIC 8 The Teller of the Tale 143 9 The War 159 10 Artists United 183 11 Blimp’s Biography 204 12 Knowing Where To Go 229 13 Other Archers 250 14 The Red Shoes 273 15 Production Values 298 16 Divorce 332 PART IV RICHARD IMRIE 17 Second Childhood 365 18 Ending's 392 FILMOGRAPHY 414 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EMERIC PRESSBURGER 433 BIBLIOGRAPHY 434 SOURCE NOTES 436 INDEX 450 List of Illustrations 1. The Pressburger family, c. 1900, at Imre’s aunt Mariska’s wed ding in Baqka Topola. 2. Magda Rona in 1947. Emeric’s first love. 3. Emeric’s Ufa pass. 4. Writing Abschied, with Irma von Cube in the South of France. 5. Writing Ronrry (1931) in Bad Ischl with Emmerich Kalman, Hans Albers and Reinhold Schunzel. 6. Front and back of the programme for Ronny (1931). 7. Exile in Paris. With Pierre Brasseur on the Champs Elysees, 1933 8. Emeric outside an English football ground during the season of 1935-6 9. Emeric’s first marriage, with Stapi, Magda Kun, Agi and Eliza beth Ramon. 10. Emeric with Michael Powell and red setter outside Denham studios shortly after completing The Spy in Black (1939). 11. Emeric with Laurence Olivier on the set of 49th Parallel (1941). 12. Emeric with Wendy and Angela in the garden of the house in Hendon, 1943. 13. Alfred Junge, Michael and Emeric on the set of A Canterbury Tale( 1944). 14. Emeric with Wendy and Michael Powell on location for I Know Where Vm Going (1944). 15. Emeric with Wendy, Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans at the Royal Command Performance of A Matter of Life and Death (1946). X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 16. Deborah Kerr, Emeric, Rumer Godden, Michael and Alfred Junge on the set of Black Narcissus (1947). 17. Part of the set for Black Narcissus (1947). 18. Kathleen Byron on the same set in the finished film. 19. Anton Walbrook, Albert Basserman and Leonid Massine in a scene cut from the finished film of Red Shoes (1948). 20. Michael and Emeric with costume designer Jacques Fath and Moira Shearer and Anton Walbrook. 21. J. Arthur Rank presents Emeric and Michael with a Japanese award for The Red Shoes. 22. Emeric admires Sir Thomas Beecham during a play-through of The Tales of Hoffman (1950). 23. With Angela at a children’s matinee. 24. Directing debut. With the twins on the set of Twice Upon a Time in Kitzbuhel, 1952. 25. Emeric with Hein Heckroth, Columba, Frankie and Michael Powell on the set of The Battle of the River Plate (1956). 26. En route for Kashmir. David Lean and his purple Rolls-Royce, 1958. 27. Emeric retreats into Shoemaker’s cottage. 28. The distinguished elder statesmen of British cinema. 29. A photograph of Emeric taken by Michael during the Museum of Modern Art retrospective. All photographs © the author, with the exception of 14, 17, 18, 19 and 20 reproduced courtesy of The Rank Organization, 28 courtesy of Cornel Lucas, 29 courtesy of the estate of Michael Powell and 8 with thanks to Kevin Gough-Yates. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people who took the time to be interviewed or to write to me, sometimes on more than one occasion, or who helped in other ways: Noreen Ackland, Agnes Anderson, Helmut Asper, Ian Bannen, Dirk Bogarde, Kevin Brownlow, Kathleen Byron, Rudolph Cartier, Jack Cardiff, Chris Challis, Joan Colburn Alkinson, Betty Curtis, Cyril Cusack, Nancy Dennis, Brian Easdale, Thomas Elsaesser, Rudi Fehr, Freddy Francis, Don Jokin Garmilla Ebro, Sidney Gilliat, Michael Gough, Tom Greenwell, Tamara Grun- wald, Angela Gwyn John, Guy Hamilton, Hans Holba, Bill Hopkins, Valerie Hobson, Wendy Hiller, Erwin Hillier, Felix Jackson, Rudolph Joseph, Michel Kelber, Vivienne Knight, Francis Lederer, Linn and James Lee, Patrick Leigh-Fermour, Malla Macdonald, William Mac donald, Geoffrey McNab, Hans Marcus, Ronald Neame, the late Harold Newman, Charles Orme, Joan Page, Bill Paton, Mr and Mrs Gyorgy Peteri, the late Jozef Pressburger, Zsu-Zsa Roboz, Miklos Rozsa, Julian and Kato Schoepflin, Anne-Marie Schiinzel, Martin Scorsese, Moira Shearer, Curt Siodmak, Marga Stapenhorst, Hugh Stewart, the remarkable survivors Fricy Szekely, Dr Adolph Aczel and Gizaneni Pressburger from Timi§oara and Backa Topola, Mrs Tarjan, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann. Also: Ada Heckroth for hospitality and permission to quote from her late husband’s revealing diaries. Caroline Ball and David Watson at Faber. Mark and George at London Management for access to contracts etc. David Moore for reading the manuscript with an editor’s eye, and Chantal Joffe for the comments of a bibliophile. For translations: the Schoepflins, David, Cathy, Zsuzsa, Ildiko and Simon. Carmen Reid for her help both practical (translations beyond the call of duty) and impractical. At the British Film Institute I would like to express my gratitude to Wilf Stevenson for arranging a grant for translations, and to Janet Moat and David Sharp at Library Services. Help was also furnished by the staff of the Stiftung Deutsche Kinematek in Berlin. Extracts from Crown Copyright Records (Chap ter n) appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s