Josef von Báky(1902-1966)

Hungarian director, who began as a projectionist and broke into films properly after acquiring the Urania-Kino cinema distribution company in Budapest. When the business went bankrupt, he became a hotel manager on the Adriatic coast. He moved to Berlin in 1927 and subsequently worked for eight years as an assistant to a fellow Hungarian, the film maker Geza von Bolvary. He became a director in his own right in 1936. His commercially most popular productions include the big budget fantasy Les aventures fantastiques du Baron Munchhausen (1943) (ordered by Josef Goebbels to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Ufa film studios), Via Mala (1945), Petite maman (1950) and Avouez, Docteur Corda (1958). Baky set up his own production company, Objectiv-Film, in 1947.