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Biró, Lajos (1883-1948)
 

Writer

Main image of Biró, Lajos (1883-1948)

Now best known as screenwriter and executive director of Alexander Korda's London Films, Lajos Biró was a journalist and political secretary in Budapest before fleeing to Vienna following the 1918 October Revolution.

In Vienna, he began his 23-film collaboration with Korda by writing the screenplay for a version of The Prince and the Pauper (Prinz und Bettelknabe, Austria, d. Alexander Korda, 1920); and became a popular author and playwright there before going to Hollywood in 1924 to sell his play, The Czarina, to Ernst Lubitsch.

In 1932, he moved to England, where he worked on three screenplays for Gainsborough, then either wrote the stories or collaborated on the screenplays of most of Korda's films and became his closest friend. Biró was a major influence in the international success of London Films that began with The Private Life of Henry VIII (d. Alexander Korda, 1933) for which he wrote the story.

Brian McFarlane, Encyclopaedia of British Cinema

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FILM & TV CREDITS

From the BFI's filmographic database

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Selected credits

Thumbnail image of Drum, The (1938)Drum, The (1938)

London Films' first Technicolor feature, a stirring Empire epic

Thumbnail image of Four Feathers, The (1939)Four Feathers, The (1939)

Lavish Technicolor costume epic about an alleged coward fighting in the Sudan

Thumbnail image of Knight Without Armour (1937)Knight Without Armour (1937)

Marlene Dietrich stars in a lavish Russian Revolution love story

Thumbnail image of Man Who Could Work Miracles, The (1937)Man Who Could Work Miracles, The (1937)

H.G. Wells fantasy in which an ordinary man receives unexpected gifts

Thumbnail image of Private Life of Henry VIII, The (1933)Private Life of Henry VIII, The (1933)

Charles Laughton stars as Henry VIII in British cinema's first US smash hit

Thumbnail image of Rembrandt (1936)Rembrandt (1936)

Charles Laughton stars in Korda's biopic of the great Dutch painter

Thumbnail image of Rise of Catherine the Great, The (1934)Rise of Catherine the Great, The (1934)

Lavish epic charting the rise of Russia's great 18th Century leader

Thumbnail image of Sanders of the River (1935)Sanders of the River (1935)

The first of Korda's British colonial epics, disowned by its star

Thumbnail image of Scarlet Pimpernel, The (1935)Scarlet Pimpernel, The (1935)

Most successful version of the French revolutionary romance

Thumbnail image of Thief of Bagdad, The (1940)Thief of Bagdad, The (1940)

Michael Powell co-directed Korda's lavish Arabian Nights fantasy

Related collections

Thumbnail image of Magyars in MayfairMagyars in Mayfair

Hungary's contribution to British film and television

Related people and organisations

Thumbnail image of Korda, Alexander (1893-1956)Korda, Alexander (1893-1956)

Director, Producer, Executive Producer