Biography

March 23, 1902 · Zombor, Austria-Hungary [now Sombor, Serbia]

July 28, 1966 · Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Baky József

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 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1943) (ordered by Josef Goebbels to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Ufa film studios), Via Mala (1945), Das doppelte Lottchen (1950) and Confess, Dr. Corda (1958). Baky set up his own production company, Objectiv-Film, in 1947.

Báky's best known film is Münchhausen, which was released in 1943. It is a fantasy-comedy and is noted for how it avoids politics of its time. The film was ordered by Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels to celebrate the 25th anniversary of UFA and to compete with Hollywood productions.

After the war he became established as a reliable director who was at home in all genres.

The director Josef von Baky worked during his school time as a projectionist and later managed - with financial help of his father who was the owner of the Budapest Urania cinema - a film distribution which went bankrupt two years later. After this setback he run a hotel in Abbazia by order of a Hungarian bank.

Josef von Baky got married with singer Julia Nemeth.