Ernest Vajda
Birth : , Komárno, Austria-Hungary [now Slovakia]
History
Hungarian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and actor.
Story
Marine bandmaster John Philip Sousa (Clifton Webb) becomes famous for his marches and inspires the sousaphone.
Writer
An Austrian prince flees his homeland when the Nazis take over and settles in London. He meets a beautiful Austrian émigré who makes him realize his mistake in leaving. He makes a deal with the Nazis to return in exchange for some Austrian prisoners, but discovers that the Nazis are not to be trusted.
Screenplay
Set in Paris, this romantic comedy revolves around the beautiful estranged wife of a wealthy banker who hides a handsome and fiery Communist fugitive in her apartment.
Screenplay
Aspiring actress Louise Muban attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works at a dreary factory assembling gas meters at night. She daydreams and "acts" her way through life, and her fellow students at school begin to suspect her stories are just that - fabrications. After Louise begins to weave an actual meeting with a debonair playboy into a fantasy of club dates and romance, her classmate Nana discovers the lie when she too meets the playboy. Nana sets a trap for Louise, and the result is an end to one fantasy and the realization of another.
Screenplay
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the rival countries. The opulent Marie indulges in various whims and flirtations. When Louis XV passes and Louis XVI ascends the French throne, his queen's extravagant lifestyle earns the hatred of the French people, who despise her Austrian heritage.
Writer
A British actor insults a French acting group only to fall victim to a prank that might destroy his career.
Screenplay
Raymond Dabney returns to his family after trouble with the law. He convinces the sheriff to give him a job watching the house and furniture of widow Crystal Wetherby without knowing she is engaged to his brother.
Screenplay
A Victorian-era woman struggles to break free of the moral codes established by society and enforced by her father.
Screenplay
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Screenplay
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta, but feels stifled by the domestic tyranny of her wealthy widowed father. When she meets fellow poet Robert Browning in a romantic first encounter, her heart belongs to him. However, her controlling father has no intention of allowing her out of his sight.
Additional Writing
Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.
Screenplay
An exiled archduke (John Barrymore) tries to renew romance with a former lover (Diana Wynyard) now wed to a psychiatrist (Frank Morgan).
Screenplay
Bank clerk William Marble is desperate for money to pay his family's bills. When his wealthy nephew visits, Marble asks him for a loan, but the young man refuses. Marble decides to kill his nephew. It is a twisted path to justice after Marble is transformed by the crime he committed and the wealth he gains.
Writer
On the day of his wedding, Sir John Carteret's fiancée, Moonyeen, is killed by a jealous rival named Jeremy, leaving him emotionally devastated. Carteret spends three decades in seclusion, mostly communing with the spirit of Moonyeen, until he learns that her niece, Kathleen, has become an orphan. He adopts and raises the child as his own but is alarmed when, as a young woman, she falls in love with the son of Moonyeen's murderer.
Screenplay
Monsieur Albert is a very elegant and much-appreciated butler. One day he falls in love with a client, Sylvia Robertson, and follows her to a winter sports resort. Sylvia does not recognize him and imagines that he is related to a king who goes incognito.
Novel
Monsieur Albert is a very elegant and much-appreciated butler. One day he falls in love with a client, Sylvia Robertson, and follows her to a winter sports resort. Sylvia does not recognize him and imagines that he is related to a king who goes incognito.
Screenplay
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Writer
Max Tracey is the head waiter at a London hotel. He falls in love at first sight with Sylvia Robertson, an aristocratic woman, and poses as a prince to win her love. In this venture, he is aided by Mr. Westlake, a Ruritanian monarch who owes him a favour. When Sylvia discovers Max's deception, she is appalled, but the situation is resolved when her father tells her that he was once a hotel dishwasher.
Screenplay
An acclaimed actor and his equally acclaimed actress wife, who have been married for less than a year, are already showing signs of strain in their marriage. The actor believes his wife is capable of infidelity and sets out to prove this is so. Disguising himself as the kind of man he believes she fancies (a Russian military officer), the actor woos his wife while she believes her husband to be out of town.
Writer
An Indian jewel merchant goes from penniless to wealthy in this story about gratitude.
Screenplay
A simple wink, intended by Austrian palace guard Lt. Nikolaus von Preyn for girlfriend, Franzi, is accidentally intercepted -- and misread -- by the visiting Princess Anna. As a result, the soldier has no choice but to marry the royal lady and move with her to the neighboring kingdom of Flausenthurm. His girlfriend follows to continue the romance and, subversively, give Princess Anna tips on how to keep her husband satisfied.
Screenplay
A young opera singer finds her career stalled because of her cold and passionless performances, until she finds romance with a handsome admirer.
Screenplay
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.
Screenplay
A wealthy and powerful industrialist changes his identity to avenge himself on the wife that spurned him on their wedding night.
Dialogue
A wealthy and powerful industrialist changes his identity to avenge himself on the wife that spurned him on their wedding night.
Writer
The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
Story
Menjou is a gentleman for sale to the daughter of any millionaire who will pay his debts and support him in the style to which he is accustomed.
Writer
Directed by Richard Wallace.
Story
Nancy Carroll stars in Manhattan Cocktail as Babs, a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus chums Fred (Richard Arlen) and Bob (Danny O'Shea), likewise aspiring thespians, Babes heads to Broadway with stars in her eyes. The winsome threesome are quickly disillusioned by the heartless machinations of nasty producer Renov (Paul Lukas) and his harridan wife (Lilyan Tashman). Before the plot proper gets under way, the audience is regaled with a cute "mythological" prologue, featuring the same three leading actors. Manhattan Cocktail was a silent picture, except for two brief musical numbers showcasing Nancy Carroll.
Story
Frank Tuttle silent romantic comedy about a Frenchman who seduces women all over Paris, but he meets his match in a proper American tourist. He does everything he can to seduce her, but he will only find romance when he does so on her terms!
Writer
When easterner Jack Steel gets into trouble with the law again, his father sends him to his ranch out west. There he and Alice Duncan become attracted to each other. Cowhand Slim was planning to marry Alice and now kidnaps her. When Slim's girl friend learns of Slim's interest in Alice, she tells Jack where Alice is and he heads out alone to face the three kidnapers.
Story
Rachel becomes the leading actress in the Comédie Française through the patronage of three influential men: Baron Hartman, the wealthiest man in France; Count Vareski, a relative of Napoleon; and Dr. Durande. All three men are in love with her, but she throws them over when she falls in love with Raoul Duval....
Screenplay
Writer
Theatre Play
A story of a woman who committed a murder.
Story
Albert Leroux, headwaiter at an exclusive Paris hotel, falls hopelessly in love with Elizabeth Foster, an American heiress, though he is convinced that she will never admire a waiter.
Story
On her way to the theater, Vera, star of a Russian vaudeville troupe, is rescued from a falling girder by Eugene Foster, a wealthy broker who persists in his efforts to win the girl. Foster engages the troupe to perform at his home, and Vera, stunned by a fall, awakens to find Foster pleading his love, while Norodin, her partner who loves her, sees them embrace. Norodin, who performs an underwater stunt, asks Vera not to be present for his act and causes her to believe him dead; heartbroken, Vera tells Foster of her mistake; and enraged, he attempts to seize her. The magician appears, pins Foster to the wall with knives, and advises him to leave before the last blade is thrown.
Story
Story
Romantic drama directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki.
Novel
Writer
A 35 mm access print is held by Filmarchiv Austria.
Writer
Theatre Play
A melodrama about a virtuous wife unjustly abandoned by her husband, who get him back with the help of a Hindu mystic.
Writer
A melodrama about a virtuous wife unjustly abandoned by her husband, who get him back with the help of a Hindu mystic.
Writer
Writer
Theatre Play
Screenplay
Screenplay