Géza von Cziffra

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Male

Birthday 1900-12-19

Deathday 1989-04-28 (88 years old)

Place of Birth Arad, Austria-Hungary (now Romania)

Also Known As John Ferguson, Peter Trenck, Albert Anthony, Thomas Harrer, Richard Anden, Enrico Anden, Horace Parker

Géza von Cziffra

Biography

Géza von Cziffra (19 December 1900 – 28 April 1989) was a Hungarian and Austrian film director and screenwriter. Cziffra was a Banat German in origin, born in 1900 in Arad in the Banat region, at that date in the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Romania. Cziffra made films from the 1930s onwards, at first in Hungary, and from 1936 in Germany as well, where he was initially more active as a screenwriter. In 1945, in Prague, then occupied by the Germans, he made the film Leuchtende Schatten ("Glowing Shadows"). As adviser for the criminal police, he was assigned SS-Sturmbannführer Eweler, a member of the SD and brother of the actress Ruth Eweler. After some time, Cziffra banned Eweler from the studios for excessive and obstructive criticism. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and taken to the Prague Gestapo Headquarters in the Pecec Palace, where he was accused of having eaten several times in the Czech restaurant "Neumann" without using ration stamps. He was eventually dispatched to Pankrác Prison, the remand and interrogation prison of Prague, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment, beginning on 12 February. He was released from detention on 19 April, shortly before the end of the war. In 1945, in Vienna, Cziffra founded the first post-war Austrian film production company: Cziffra-Film. Principally, and for preference, he made light entertainment and musical films, with well-known German and Austrian actors such as Peter Alexander, Rudolf Platte, Senta Berger and Hubert von Meyerinck. Through the input of musicians like Bill Ramsey or Bully Buhlan, the films mostly progressed to being musical revues with a local Austrian slant and flavour (Heimatfilme). Cziffra also worked as an actor himself, and later in his life published a number of books. He was married to the actress Ursula Justin, who starred in six of his films in the 1950s. He died on 28 April 1989 in Diessen am Ammersee in Bavaria. His remains are interred in the crematorium in the Ostfriedhof, Munich.

Known For

Director

1964
1963
Charley's Aunt

as Director

1963
1962
Die Fledermaus

as Director

1962
Der Vogelhändler

as Director

1962
1960
Kriminaltango

as Director

1960
1960
1959
Schlag auf Schlag

as Director

1959
Salem Aleikum

as Director

1959
1959
1958
1957
Der müde Theodor

as Director

1957
Der schräge Otto

as Director

1957
1957
1957
Das haut hin

as Director

1956
1956
Musikparade

as Director

1955
1955
Der falsche Adam

as Director

1954
Tanz in der Sonne

as Director

1954
Geld aus der Luft

as Director

1953
Das singende Hotel

as Director

1953
1952
Tanzende Sterne

as Director

1952
Der bunte Traum

as Director

1951
1951
1950
Gabriela

as Director

1950
1950
Liebe nach Noten

as Director

1949
Höllische Liebe

as Director

1949
1949
1948
1948
1947
Glaube an mich

as Director

1945
1944
Hundstage

as Director

1943
Der weiße Traum

as Director

1935
Villa for Sale

as Director

1935
1934
A Night in Venice

as Director

1930
The Gripper

as Assistant Director

Writer

1975
The Three Superguys

as Screenplay

1969
1962
Die Fledermaus

as Screenplay

1961
1960
Als geheilt entlassen

as Screenplay

1959
Ich bin kein Casanova

as Screenplay

1959
1959
Salem Aleikum

as Writer

1958
1957
Das haut hin

as Writer

1956
Musikparade

as Writer

1954
Geld aus der Luft

as Screenplay

1948
Der himmlische Walzer

as Screenplay

1944
1943
1941
1941
1940
1936
1935
Villa for Sale

as Writer

1935
1930
The Gripper

as Screenplay

Actor

1984
1981
1980
Heut' abend

as Self

1979

Producer

1955