Twelve Hours by the Clock

Géza von Radványi (26 September 1907 – 27 November 1986) was a Hungarian film director, cinematographer, producer and writer.

Brother of the writer Sándor Márai, Géza von Radványi made his debut in journalism before moving to cinema in 1941. He aimed to create a popular cinema in the 1950s and 1960s that would rival Hollywood studios, due to European coproductions.

He began at the end of the 1940s, with Valahol Európában and Donne senza nome, neorealist dramas with no concession to the ravages of war and the postwar period. During the 1950s, von Radványi changed his style: L’Étrange Désir de monsieur Bard, with Michel Simon and Geneviève Page (1953), and, above all, the success of his remake of Mädchen in Uniform with Lilli Palmer, Marthe Mercadier and the young rising star, Romy Schneider (1958). He also made in the same decade Ihr Verbrechen war Liebe, a thriller based on a script by Boileau and Narcejac, with Lino Ventura and Laurent Terzieff, as well as a slapstick comedy, Ein Engel auf Erden with Romy Schneider and Henri Vidal (1959).

During the 1960s, he became both more ambitious and more bankable, making 70 mm coproductions like, Onkel Toms Hütte with Mylène Demongeot and Herbert Lom (1965), and Der Kongreß amüsiert sich with Lilli Palmer, Curd Jürgens, Paul Meurisse and Françoise Arnoul (1966), both of which were rather unsuccessful.

In contrast, he surprisingly wrote the script for the successful film produced by Louis de Funès, L’homme orchestre, directed by Serge Korber (1970). His 1961 film Das Riesenrad was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. His 1965 film Uncle Tom’s Cabin was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.

Géza von Radványi ended his career with a modest production made in his home country, Circus Maximus (1980). —Wikipedia