Marton Keleti

Keleti, Márton 

Born Apr. 26, 1905, in Budapest. Hungarian stage and motion picture director. People’s Artist of the Hungarian People’s Republic (1965).

Keleti graduated from the Conservatory in Budapest. In 1924 he made his debut as a stage director in an opera theater. He later worked as an assistant motion picture director, producing his first film, The Bride From Torockó, in 1937. Most of his films are light comedies, of which the best known are Micky the Aristocrat (1948), Janika (1949), Strange Marriage (1951, based on the novel by K. Mikszáth), and The Junior Sergeant and Others (1965). He also made two political films, Yesterday (1959) and Dawn (1960), about the suppression of the counterrevolutionary revolt in Hungary in 1956. Other films include Rookies At the Stadium (1951), Erkel (1952, Soviet title Hungarian Melodies), The Story of My Folly (1966), and Reveries of Love (1970, jointly with the Lenfil’m studio; Soviet title Ferenc Liszt). He taught at the Institute of Theater and Film in Budapest after 1950. Keleti was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1951, 1953, and 1954.

M. M. CHERNENKO