Eduard Von Borsody - Biography

Biography

Eduard von Borsody began his film career as a cameraman. Among his first jobs were three films on which Mihály Kertész (later Michael Curtiz) carried out the production design for the Vienna-based Sascha-Film: an Arthur Schnitzler adaptation Der junge Medardus (1923), the romance Fiaker Nr. 13 and the artist's life Der goldene Schmetterling (both 1926). Later he worked with such different directors as Carl Wilhelm, Ernö Metzner, Gustav Ucicky and Max Nosseck.

After the switch to sound film he was engaged by the German industry leader Universum Film AG (Ufa) as a film editor (cutter). Eduard von Borsody thereafter often worked under Ucicky's direction and edited for him, among many other films, the National Socialist propaganda films Morgenrot and Flüchtlinge. After some experience as assistant director – also with Ucicky – and a series of short dramas, in 1937 he directed and designed for Ufa the first film of his own: Brillanten ("Diamonds"). The leading roles in this crime thriller were played by Hans Olden, Viktor Staal and Hansi Knoteck.

His next films also belonged to the action genre. Kautschuk ("Rubber") (1938), with René Deltgen, Gustav Diessl and Vera von Langen, was an adventure film showing the story of the Englishman Henry Wickham, who in 1876 smuggled rubber seeds to England to break the Brazilian monopoly. The film was classed as "Politically and artistically valuable". Sensationsprozeß Casilla (1939), with Heinrich George, Jutta Freybe and Albert Hehn, is about a child abduction. With Kongo-Express (also in 1939) Borsody again shot an adventure film in a tropical setting in an attempt to capitalise on the success of Kautschuk. Willy Birgel, Marianne Hoppe and René Deltgen starred. The set designer Anton Weber was contracted as a specialist for the more complicated special effects.

Once World War II began, light cheerful escapist films were much in demand, and Eduard von Borsody was cinematographer for the smash hit romantic musical drama Wunschkonzert ("Request Concert"), one of the most successful films of the entire Nazi period. Ilse Werner plays a young Berliner, who patiently and trustingly awaits the return of the man to whom she is engaged, played by Carl Raddatz, ordered on a secret mission to Spain. The film was classified as "politically valuable", "artistically valuable", "valuable for the people" and "valuable for youth", and took 7.6 million Reichsmarks. The science fiction film Weltraumschiff 18 (i.e. Spaceship 18), which he directed and had already begun filming had to be abandoned because of the outbreak of the war. Material was used in the short science-fiction movie Weltraumschiff 1 startet (Spaceship 1 takes off). The last film that Borsody shot before the end of the war, the Gottfried Keller adaptation Jugendliebe, with Rose Marten and John Pauls-Harding, fell foul of the film censor and did not have its opening until 1947.

After the end of the war Borsody had no trouble continuing his film career despite his previous involvement in propaganda films. After a number of Heimatfilme came his best-known post-war film, the romantic comedy of 1956 Dany, bitte schreiben Sie ("Dany, Please Write!"), with Sonja Ziemann and Rudolf Prack, and the smuggling film Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald, with which he returned to the exotic. His next film, Skandal um Dodo (1958), is of interest only because it was one of the first post-war films in German to star a black woman.

His 1965 film Bergwind was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.

Eduard von Borsody was the father of the actor Hans von Borsody and the younger brother of the great set designer Julius von Borsody. His granddaughter, Suzanne von Borsody, is a famous actress in Germany.