Lajos BiróFilmography

A Royal Scandal

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, William Eythe, Vincent Price

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch was the original director for A Royal Scandal, but illness forced him to bow out; his replacement was Otto Preminger, who did his utmost to retain the "Lubitsch touch." Based on a play by Lajos Biro and Melchior Lengyel, the film dwells upon a fictional incident in the life of Read More

Five Graves to Cairo

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Erich Von Stroheim, Peter Van Eyck, Akim Tamiroff

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo is the third take on Lajos Biro's theatrical tale of romance and espionage, Hotel Imperial. This time, the action is transplanted from World War I Galicia to World War II Egypt as Rommel's Afrika Corps viciously forces the British Army to retreat towards Cairo. Read More

The Thief of Bagdad

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: In ancient Bagdad, Abu, a good-natured young thief (Sabu), befriends the deposed king Ahmad (John Justin) as both are imprisoned in the palace dungeon, awaiting execution under orders from the evil vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), who has seized the throne. But they escape and make their way to Read More

The Way of All Flesh

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, Gladys George, William Henry, John Hartley, Marilyn Knowlden

Synopsis: This is the third film based on a story by Lajos Biro and Jules G. Furthman. The first two were silent films, Cecil B. DeMille's The Whispering Chorus in 1918, and The Way of All Flesh in 1927. In this melodrama, Paul Kriza (Akim Tamiroff), a respectable bank cashier, leaves his wife Anna (Gladys George Read More

Hotel Imperial

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Isa Miranda, Ray Milland, Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: In this drama, a vengeful woman searches for the man she blames for her sister's suicide. To get at him, the woman masquerades as a mousy maid in the tiny hotel where he stays. The story is set in Gallacia during WW I and while she enacts her plan, the Russians and Austrians take over the town. Read More

The Four Feathers

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan Jeayes

Synopsis: This was the first sound production of A.E.W. Mason's classic adventure novel, which was brought to the screen three times in the silent era. Harry Faversham (John Clements) is the son of a military man who expects his son to follow in his footsteps on the fields of battle. Gen. Burroughs (C. Read More

Over the Moon

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, Ursula Jeans, Robert Douglas, Louis Borell

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a humble country girl lives her life in the ramshackle mansion of her aged uncle. Feeling sorry for her "poor" relation and selflessly keeping him company until he dies, she is later shocked to learn that he has left her an enormous fortune. One might think such a windfall Read More

The Drum

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson, David Tree

Synopsis: The Drum is an opulent Technicolor "British India" epic, based on a story by A.E.W. Mason (of Four Feathers fame). Teenaged actor Sabu stars as a young East Indian prince educated in England. By rights, his loyalties should lie with his countrymen, but in typical "Sun Never Sets" fashion most of Read More

The Divorce of Lady X

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Binnie Barnes, Ralph Richardson, Morton Selten

Synopsis: Filmed in lavish Technicolor and given Tiffany production values by producer Alexander Korda, the British comedy Divorce of Lady X is at base a trivial little farce, buoyed by the sprightly performances of star Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. Ms. Oberon plays a costume-party guest who is forced Read More

Knight Without Armour

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat, Herbert Lomas, Austin Trevor, Basil Gill

Synopsis: Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat star in this gripping melodrama about the Russian revolution, based on the novel by James Hilton. Donat plays A.J. Fothergill, a British interpreter in St. Petersburg who is ordered to leave Russia after writing an article that criticized the czar. Fothergill Read More

The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Barry Barnes, Sophie Stewart, Margaretta Scott, James Mason, Francis Lister

Synopsis: The French revolutionary Robespierre vows to get revenge on the Scarlet Pimpernel who has been helping the aristocracy escape from the dreaded guillotine in this sequel to 1934's The Scarlet Pimpernel. To do so Robespierre kidnaps the Pimpernel's wife and takes her to France. Unfortunately, he is Read More

Dark Journey

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Vivien Leigh, Anthony Bushell, Margery Pickard

Synopsis: The unorthodox teaming of Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt is but one of the many pleasures of the 1937 spy yarn Dark Journey. Leigh plays a Stockholm dress-shop owner during World War I, who, being a neutral, is permitted to travel unmolested to and from France. Veidt plays a supposedly disgraced Read More

The Man Who Could Work Miracles

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Roland Young, Joan Gardner, Ralph Richardson, Ernst Thesiger, Robert Cochran

Synopsis: As a result of a discussion between a trio of gods over the true worthiness of Earth, a retiring British shop assistant is granted miraculous powers in this fantasy based on an H.G. Wells story. Roland Young stars as George McWhirter Fotheringay, whose new powers are virtually limitless; choosing Read More

Rembrandt

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, Elsa Lanchester, John Bryning, Edward Chapman, Walter Hudd, Richard Gofe

Synopsis: Lightning steadfastly refused to strike twice for the director/actor team of Alexander Korda and Charles Laughton. Though the pair had scored an international success with the 1933 quasi-biopic The Private Life of Henry VIII, they couldn't make the magic happen again with 1936's Rembrandt. Laughton Read More

Under the Red Robe

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Annabella, Raymond Massey, Romney Brent, Sophie Stewart

Synopsis: Famed Swedish director Victor Sjostrom was coaxed out of retirement to direct his final film, Under the Red Robe, a swashbuckling adventure that takes place in the France of Louis XIII. Conrad Veidt stars as Gil de Berault, quick with his sword yet set for execution. But right before his sentence Read More

Things to Come

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Raymond Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott, Maurice Braddell, Sophie Stewart

Synopsis: H. G. Wells was both the author of the original source -- an essay, rather than an actual novel, concerning mankind's future -- and the screenplay (in conjunction with Lajos Biro) of this epic science fiction tale, but it was producer Alexander Korda who framed the terms on which it is presented Read More

Sanders of the River

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Robeson, Leslie Banks, Nina Mae McKinney, Robert Cochran, Martin Walker

Synopsis: Based on the book by Edgar Wallace and produced by London Film Productions, the adventure drama Sanders of the River is an Imperialist propaganda film about British Colonial rule in Africa. Leslie Banks plays Commissioner "Lord Sandy" Sanders, who maintains British rule over the N'Gombi district Read More

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce, O.B. Clarence, Bramwell Fletcher

Synopsis: This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Leslie Howard stars as Sir Percy Blakeney, a British aristocrat who rescues innocent victims of the French Revolution under the guise of The Scarlet Pimpernel Read More

The Private Life of Don Juan

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Merle Oberon, Binnie Barnes, Joan Gardner, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Producer and director (Alexander Korda) followed up The Private Life of Henry VIII (one of the first internationally successful British films) with this historical comedy. After years in exile, the great lover Don Juan (Douglas Fairbanks) returns to Seville, the city of his salad days. However Read More

Catherine the Great

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elisabeth Bergner, Flora Robson, Gerald du Maurier, Irene Vanbrugh, Diana Napier

Synopsis: This historical drama recounts the events that led up to the rule of Russia's 18th-century Catherine the Great. Arriving from Germany as a young woman who is to wed Grand Duke Peter, she soon becomes caught up in the court intrigue and marries the lit-fuse duke. As the Grand Duke's mother lays Read More

The Private Life of Henry VIII

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Laughton, Binnie Barnes, Merle Oberon, Elsa Lanchester, Everley Gregg

Synopsis: Charles Laughton became an international star by chewing both mutton and scenes in his Oscar-winning turn as King Henry VIII. Alexander Korda's British super-production also put the British cinema on the map, which, until this film, received precious little respect in the international film Read More

Strange Evidence

Crew: Screen Story

The Faithful Hearts

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, Mignon O'Doherty, Lawrence Hanray, Anne Grey

Synopsis: Herbert Marshall and Edna Best, husband and wife in 1933, star in the British drama Faithful Hearts. Best plays the daughter of Marshall, who years earlier had run out on his family. When Edna re-enters Marshall's life, it causes him to reassess his values-and to end his engagement to his Read More

Reserved for Ladies

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Leslie Howard, George Grossmith, Morton Selten, Elizabeth Allan, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Adapted from the Ernest Vajda novel The Head Waiter, Service for Ladies stars Leslie Howard as Max Tracey, premiere waiter of a luxurious London hotel. Falling in love with the aristocratic Sylvia Robertson (Elizabeth Allen), Max poses as a European prince, enlisting the aid of an amiable Read More

Wedding Rehearsal

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: George Grossmith, Roland Young, John Loder, Lady Tree, Merle Oberon

Synopsis: Quite popular when first released, Wedding Rehearsal is a bit obscure today, which is a shame when one considers the talented cast and production staff. Roland Young plays a diffident aristocrat who is pressured to marry by his veddy proper family. Imagine their shock when Young falls in love with Read More

Michael and Mary

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Lawton, Herbert Marshall, Elizabeth Allan, Edna Best, D.A. Clarke-Smith

Synopsis: This romance, based on a surprisingly sophisticated story by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, teams up Herbert Marshall with his then-wife Edna Best. Best is Mary Price, deserted by her husband when he leaves England to seek his fortune during the Boer War in 1900. Destitute and desperate, she Read More

The Ghost Train

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Hulbert, Dame Cicely Courtneidge, Donald Calthrop, Ann Todd, Cyril Raymond, Allan Jeayes

Synopsis: In this British drama, a superstitious group of people, stranded in a lonely, isolated train station are frightened by the distant rumble and roar of what they think is a "ghost train." But the train is very real; it is only its contents that should frighten them as a detective reveals that it is Read More

Women Everywhere

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: J. Harold Murray, George Grossmith, Clyde Cook, Rose Dione

Synopsis: This musical is the last Hollywood film made by Alexander Korda before he went on to greatness in Europe. The story is set in Morocco and chronicles the exploits of a young soldier trying to escape from the French Foreign Legion by hiding out in a nightclub. There he encounters a seductive singer. Read More

Yellow Lily

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Billie Dove, Clive Brook, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Nicholas Soussanin

Synopsis: Archduke Alexander (Clive Brook) is better known for his sexual conquests than his diplomatic triumphs. After a lifetime of loving 'em and leaving 'em, the Archduke finally meets a girl he can't leave, Hungarian lass Judith Peredy (Billie Dove). She resists his advances but can't hide the fact Read More

The Haunted House

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Chester Conklin, Flora Finch, Edmund Breese, Larry Kent, Barbara Bedford

Synopsis: This nonsensical comedy-melodrama was a vehicle for two relics from the dawn of cinema history, walrus-mustached Chester Conklin and scrawny Flora Finch. A parody of the "old dark house" melodramas then in vogue, the film is chock full of hidden rooms, sliding panels and clutching hands. Convinced Read More

The Night Watch

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Billie Dove, Paul Lukas, Donald Reed, Nicholas Soussanin, Anita Garvin

The Last Command

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Nicholas Soussanin, Michael Visaroff

Synopsis: Josef vonSternberg's The Last Command was inspired by the true story of General Lodijenski, a Russian aristocrat who arrived penniless in the US after the 1917 Revolution and who supported himself by playing movie bit parts and managing a Russian restaurant. Emil Jannings stars as the Grand Duke Read More

Eine DuBarry Von Heute

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: María Corda

Synopsis: Just before launching the American phase of his career, filmmaker Alexander Korda directed his actress-wife Maria Corda in the German production A Modern DuBarry. Corda plays Toinette, a saucy, somewhat amoral scullery maid. Bouncing from bed to bed, Toinette becomes the mistress of Count Martel (Alfred Gerasch Read More

The Way of All Flesh

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Emil Jannings, Belle Bennett, Phyllis Haver, Donald Keith, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: This was Emil Jannings' first American-made picture, and his portrayal is reminiscent of his characters in his previous films, The Last Laugh and Variety, and would later be echoed in The Blue Angel. Jannings' powerful performance, along with his acting in The Last Command, would win him the first Read More

Hotel Imperial

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Pola Negri, James Hall, George Siegmann, Max Davidson, Michael Vavitch

Synopsis: Based on a Hungarian play by Lajos Biro, Hotel Imperial stars Pola Negri as a chambermaid in a small Gallacian hotel. When World War I erupts, the town in which Pola lives is alternately occupied by both the Russians and the Austrians. As the film's various intrigues play themselves out, we learn Read More

The Silent Lover

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Milton Sills, Natalie Kingston, William Humphrey, Arthur Edmund Carewe, William V. Mong

Synopsis: So far as his fans were concerned, Milton Sills could have played a ballerina and still cashed in at the box office. In this adaptation of Lajos Biros' play Der Legioner, Sills is cast as French aristocrat Count Pierre Tonai, who after losing all of his money joins the Foreign Legion "to forget." Read More

Eve's Secret

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Betty Compson, Jack Holt, William Collier, Jr., Vera Lewis, Lionel Belmore

Synopsis: Eve's Secret is that she's not the elegant society woman she seems to be. In fact, Eve (Betty Compson) is an unkempt country girl who's been "transformed," Pygmalion style, by European duke Poltava (Jack Holt). He has done this because he's fallen in love with her and wants her to be accepted by Read More

Forbidden Paradise

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Pola Negri, Rod La Rocque, Adolphe Menjou, Pauline Starke, Fred Malatesta

Synopsis: Star Pola Negri and director Ernst Lubitsch, who created an international sensation with the German superproduction DuBarry, Woman of Passion, were reunited in the frothy Hollywood comedy/drama Forbidden Paradise. Negri is cast as Catherine, the Czarina of an unnamed but very Russian-looking Read More