Géza von Cziffra

Birthday: 1900-12-19
Deathday: 1989-04-28
Birthplace: Arad, Austria-Hungary (now Romania)
Gender: Male

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.

Credits

Year Title
1969-08-15 Should a Schoolgirl Tell?
1968-04-18 Paradies der flotten Sünder
1965-10-14 An der Donau, wenn der Wein blüht
1964-11-10 Lana: Queen of the Amazons
1963-12-20 Charley's Aunt
1963-08-16 Frauen sind keine Engel
1962-11-02 Nachts ging das Telefon
1962-08-02 Der Vogelhändler
1962-04-26 Das süße Leben des Grafen Bobby
1962-02-02 Die Fledermaus
1961-09-01 Ein Stern fällt vom Himmel
1961-05-17 Junge Leute brauchen Liebe
1961-04-01 Die Abenteuer des Grafen Bobby
1961-01-19 Kauf Dir einen bunten Luftballon
1960-10-13 Hauptmann - deine Sterne
1960-07-30 Kriminaltango
1960-02-02 Als geheilt entlassen
1959-12-03 Salem Aleikum
1959-09-23 Ich bin kein Casanova
1959-07-22 Bobby Dodd intervenes
1959-05-14 Peter schießt den Vogel ab
1959-01-29 Schlag auf Schlag
1958-12-18 So ein Millionär hat's schwer
1958-10-01 Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen
1958-04-02 Nachtschwester Ingeborg
1957-07-07 Der müde Theodor
1957-05-30 Tante Wanda aus Uganda
1957-05-08 Das haut hin
1957-01-09 Der schräge Otto
1957-01-01 Die Beine von Dolores
1956-06-12 Mädchen mit schwachem Gedächtnis
1956-05-16 Die gestohlene Hose
1956-05-08 Musikparade
1955-08-31 Bandits of the Highway
1955-06-15 Der falsche Adam
1954-10-05 Tanz in der Sonne
1954-07-27 Geld aus der Luft
1953-12-18 Die Blume von Hawaii
1953-07-29 Das singende Hotel
1952-11-27 Tanzende Sterne
1952-02-29 Der bunte Traum
1951-08-30 Die verschleierte Maja
1951-03-01 A Tale of Five Cities
1950-12-25 Die Dritte von rechts
1950-10-12 Liebe nach Noten
1950-08-17 Der Mann, der sich selber sucht
1950-04-06 Gabriela
1949-12-25 Gefährliche Gäste
1949-11-17 Höllische Liebe
1949-09-02 Das unsterbliche Antlitz
1949-03-04 Lambert fühlt sich bedroht
1948-12-03 Der himmlische Walzer
1948-10-08 Königin der Landstraße
1947-04-04 Glaube an mich
1945-01-01 Leuchtende Schatten
1944-08-04 Hundstage
1943-10-04 Der weiße Traum
1935-11-14 Szent Péter esernyője
1935-04-10 Villa for Sale
1934-01-12 A Night in Venice