Geza Herczeg(1888-1954)
- Writer
Hungarian-American playwright and screenwriter Geza Herczeg was also a
newspaper publisher and covered the Balkan Wars and later World War I
as a correspondent. In 1926 he was granted an interview with
Benito Mussolini in Rome; in 1936 he
was invited back, and asked to translate and produce a play Mussolini
had written about the last days of Napoleon. To the surprise of many,
"The Hundred Days" turned out to be a hit. Herczeg's first big success
had been his 1927 musical score "Wonder Bar", later adapted to the
screen, the German libretto "Kaiserin Josephine" (1936). He shared the
Academy Award for Best Writing and Screenplay with
Heinz Herald and and
Norman Reilly Raine for the biopic
The Life of Emile Zola (1937).
He also served as chief of the press department for the Hungarian
Ministry of State. During World War II he served with the US Office of
War Information. Though an author of many successful plays, his
reputation in America was based primarily on his work in Hollywood, but
he continued to work for the stage (1948's "The Vicious Circle", later
filmed as
The Vicious Circle (1948)) and
screenplays abroad
(Sangue sul sagrato (1950) and
Decameron Nights (1953)).
Shortly before his death he was planning to write a book and screenplay
on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
