Introduction
Born 100 years ago in Hódmezővásárhely and died in Jászberény in 1993, Ákos D. Hamza's career was mainly determined by his film producing and directing activity, complemented by his literary, journalistic and political work.
Having completed his studies, he wanted to be a painter, so after graduating at the Academy in 1926, he travelled to Paris with a scholarship. Here, he got acquainted with film production only as a source of money making and worked as a boy, a scenery painter, then a scenery designer. Later, as he became more interested in the secrets of filmmaking, he spent more and more time in the studios. After some minor jobs, he also worked as assistant director and production manager. He was assistant to René Clair, whose avantgarde movies, then films infiltrated with poetic realism made a great impression on young Hamza. He returned home eleven years later in 1936 and found a job in Hunnia Film Factory first as a producer, then production supervisor. (1,12)
With the experience he gained in Paris and Hungary, Hamza established his own company in 1938, Hamza Film. He worked as a producer and production manager with major directors of the era (Vaszary, Gaál, Balogh, Vajda, Ráthonyi, Zilahy). He began directing in 1940, and his first film was The Gyurkovics Boys (Gyurkovics fiúk) based on Ferenc Herceg's writing, achieving great success. Due to the sensitive topic of his next film, I am Guilty (Bűnös vagyok), he had to confront censorship (1). Sinfulness, aberrations and criminals were not favoured issues of Hungarian filmmaking at the time, but Hamza returned to it later, under the influence of the French school, in Guarding Post in the Outskirts (Külvárosi őrszoba).
In January 1942, he started shooting Sirius (Szíriusz) with Katalin Karády and László Szilassy as leading characters. This was his third film direction of the altogether eighteen movies he in the making of which he took part at home. He already worked with Szilassy in The Gyurkovics Boys, while one of Karády's film, Haunting Ghost (Hazajáró lélek) in 1940 was also made at Hamza's company, with him as production manager.
In 1942 Karády was a real film star, working in film industry for four years. She received assignments one after the other: in 1939, she shot one, in 1940 two, in 1941 four films, while in 1942, besides Siriusz and Guarding Post in the Outskirts, she made five feature films and two shots. She worked a lot, was immensely successful, even a fan club was founded for her honour. (2) About her performing talent and her films there were, and since her "re-discovery" there have been a lot of disputes. As her contemporary and director, Hamza considered her talented.
He recalled the Karády-phenomenon this way: "Karády's films always sold well. But not everybody could direct her films, because Karády did not undertake it. There were also actors and actress who didn't want to be second-rate performers in a Karády-film. Guarding Post in the Outskirts was a rare exception, for instance, in which Csortos was willing to play with Karády and managed to cooperate really well." (6)
In 1942, a successful director with significant experience from abroad and in Hungary and a film star, halfway through her comet-like career met at the shooting of Sirius and Guarding Post in the Outskirts.
Sirius
The script of Szíriusz was based on a short story by Ferenc Herczeg in 1894 and the play adapted by Imre Földes in 1908. (1) Why did Hamza choose this? On the one hand it seemed to be worth using Herczeg's story after the success of The Gyurkovics Boys and the somewhat cooler reception of I Am Guilty, from the income's point of view. Hamza put it this way: "Ferenc Herczeg's Sirius was one of my favourite childhood stories". (12) At the same time the opportunity hidden in the story was obvious: hearing the message form costumed figures is not ignorable from the point of view of censorship.
If we compare the short story and the film, the differences become apparent. The frame story is set in 1885 (in the film we are in 1942!), on the night before the adventure the earl is having fun in a casino and not at a fancy dress party (in the film that is the reason why Earl Ákos is wearing an eighteen-century costume). There is no female figure whose intention is to seduce the earl at the party - in the film it was probably necessary to counterpoint Rozina, played by Karády. There are differences in the figure of the great grandfather, too (in the short story, he sends assassins to Ákos), nor do "Kurucz" Hungarian gentlemen appear in such favourable light as in the film. There are a lot of similarities in the dialogues, sometimes word-for-word concord, although the openly anti-German manifestations are missing from the short story. (4)
According to contemporary practice, films were completed in no more than two weeks, there was little money and material for production. Sirius was an exception: ". it was a large-scale job, very expensive, and we shot it for nineteen days", remembered Hamza. (12) Even an innovation was introduced: "at the premier, the film was projected with colourful, if I remember well, golden yellow and blue gearing", he recalled in an interview. (6) The film was a huge success: "On the premier of Sirius, the best thing was that you could almost feel the heat of success. it's the director's merit, but there was no sign of lack style or fraction." (9)
Today, when the technical "tricks" of the film are totally obsolete, it seems to be a wise decision to limit the presence of the time machine. Perhaps the point was not to boast technical solutions, since time travel is only an excuse, a tool for the director. The aim is to quickly find the way to the past where the message of the film can be expressed.
In accordance, the exposition that begins with the fancy dress party is short, concise, the male hero appears and all the necessary information is listed that is important to know about him. We learn that Earl Ákos Tibor is the love of women, his foolhardy deeds echo in aristocratic saloons, and of course, he makes a lot of debts. So it goes without saying why he answers and advertisement promising a civic fiancée with a huge dowry and appears in his fancy dress at Professor Szergiusz'. During the short time he spends in the scientist's house, a beautiful woman's portrait flashes on the wall, and somewhere in the house a woman sings a song. As the prototype of the crazy genius, Szergiusz gives a quick, (mock) scientific introduction of the machine, and with our adventurous here he gets in at once to begin their journey to the past. At the same time in the room next door, a medical consultation discusses with ironic overtones the mental condition of the professor. The machine lifts off the terrace when the mental specialists leave, then we hear a roar and the screen darkens.
Adventurous young aristocrat, fancy dress, the portrait of a mysterious lady, time travel: everything is together for the plot that breaks at the peak of the frame story could immediately resume in another time layer. The earl, getting out of the time machine at the dusty crossroads, immediately encounters the female character on a carriage.
Karády's entrés are always typical, since she often arrives in the male hero's life accidentally or accompanied with some natural phenomena. In Entre Deux Eux (Valamit visz a víz) the river, in Haunting Ghost the wind, in Opium Waltz (Ópiumkeringő) the storm drifts her into the story.) Now, the mysterious night brings the two major characters together; Karády picks up the man on her carriage and they continue their way together to Tibor Castle. Meanwhile Earl Ákos betrays himself several times, of course. (It is even topped by the solo recital performed by Cafarelli, the castrated singer, also travelling with the woman, portrayed by Sándor Pethes.) By the time we reach the castle, the basic situation of the complication is put into the appropriate place and time frame.
The 18th-century aristocrat's castle with the wedding ceremony provides opportunity for Hamza to help viewers adapt to the age with carefully designed visual world: ". I look at scripts, scenery and costume plans in a different way, and if I have to, I make necessary changes myself", he revealed later on the advantages of artistic vision. (8) His compositional skills return: instead of plain, theatrical sets, Hamza thinks in diagonals, place, depth and groups. Contemporary reviews talk highly of him, in connection with his film, I Insist On Loving (Ragaszkodom a szerelemhez): "The director keeps changing the position of the camera, we see the characters from different angles, premier plans are projected in constant motion, which gives a special, almost rhythmic undulation to the scenes." (13) These lines might as well have been written about Sirius.
The dance insert of the water ceremony is also evocative. It does not appear in the short story in this form. There the princess meets "cannibals" on the decorated island, who give up eating humans enchanted by her "beauty". On the island in the film, we can see a dance disguised by a veil of fog with a solo couple and a female chorus dressed in short, Greekish tunic. This episode is interesting from several points of view. If Hamza had really wanted to have an authentic dance insert in the film, we should see hooped skirts, reserved, court-like ballet performed by wigged, reserved dancers. We can be sure that in 1748 nobody danced like that in the castle theatres of Hungary or on any other stages of the world. A few years must pass until Jean Georges Noverre's activity as a ballet master and choreographer changes the performing style of the whole genre, reforming the art of ballet. (Had Earl Ákos been more proficient in the history of dance art, he could also have "predicted" this.) (3) In the golden era of the art of movement, in 1942, this dance insert would be more elegant, especially if we also take a look at costumes and hairstyles. It is characterized by a unique duality: we can feel a kind of technical perfection, as well as a definite endeavour, typical of the spirit of the age, to make an artistic effect and to express emotions. It is the charming anachronism of the film that Earl Ákos flies back two hundred years in time, only to be soothed by a dance considered modern in 1942, by Karády's song in 1942 and get into a love mood on the lake of ancient Tibor Castle.
Meanwhile, we find ourselves in 1748, and among rice-powdered wigs, silks, rococo flattering and the frames of "Hungarian-Austrian" conflict, and there is a chance to transfer the message of the film. The director, just like Ákos Tibor flies here from the twentieth century and reveals the ideas requiring freedom, humanity and development that he could not utter as Ákos Hamza D. it is not too difficult to feel the topicality behind sentences, such as: "Italian manners, French dresses, German speech! Only the peasants are Hungarian?" As a symbol, the opposition empress-queen also comes forth. (compare Queen Elisabeth) At the same time, Ákos' meeting with his great-grandfather, whom he only read about in annuals, provides the opportunity for interference and self-criticism. The ancestor appears to be a flatterer and pro-emperor without any reservation, and he is ruthless and lightly spends money on celebrations and card games. As Ákos summarizes: ".this is how the family fortune drifts away?!", but it does not apply only to the aristocrat family in the film. It is also worth considering that Ákos, who is planning and thinking about how to adapt inventions and development, is left alone by Hungarian noblemen, although they sympathize with him. Gvadányi's suggestion is disappointing: "Shut your mouth and drink!" Györgyi Balogh and Jenő Király sum it up like this: "In the twentieth century we can see a man without a task and purpose, and in the images of the eighteenth century problems with no one to solve them." (11)
The director wraps the message - in order to be more digestible - into farcical situations and the humour of the character originating from the time travel. The wig-question that appears several times, the slips of the tongue of the main character (e.g. striking a cigarette) result in surprisingly fast and witty dialogues. Of course, the Earl (Ákos) who comments on everything, starts quarrelling with everybody, so it is no wonder that the noblemen send assassins to him, what is more, he has to fight a duel against his own great-grandfather for Rosina's honour. He gets injured, but Szergiusz, as "deus ex machina" arrives at the right moment and saves him. This solution successfully justifies the paradoxical duel between great-grandfather and great-grandson.
Ákos wakes up in the professor's villa and it turns out that the machine crashed after taking off and he experienced everything, all the adventures after losing his conscious, in a dream-like state. The explanation is logical, although some questions remain unanswered: why are Rosina's gloves in the pocket of his fancy dress? Is it rust or blood on his sword? These are worrying, open questions. During recovery, Ákos meets Rózsa, daughter of the professor, who was already taken to the psychiatric ward; and the girl is an absolute replica of Rosina (she turns out to be her great-granddaughter). Under the impression of the adventure and the meeting, the earl goes through a significant character change, gives up his former giddy lifestyle and intends to marry the girl. Optimistic ending? Hardly. The jovial, peaceful atmosphere of the short story can scarcely be felt in the film. The ending frame story, set already in the modern environment, suggests the solution, the necessity to change this irresponsible lifestyle not only for Ákos, but for his broader circle, too. It is a serious message, just like the love that is also serious and sad between the man and Rózsa, to whom Ákos matures (or gets just as old?) by the end of the movie.
The direction can be felt on the acting of the performers in the film. If we look at the film as a whole, we can define in a few words what Hamza required from his actors and actresses: simple, low-key style of acting. Mannerism and prettiness can only be a character-shaping tool (the rococo environment offers occasions for it), and its variety, its enrichment with unique colours or the contrast of artlessness and mannerism create excellent episode characters. As the contemporary review puts it: "They are not performed by actors, but experienced by people. we get great figures, who do not bring along their forever known 'individuality'." (9) The acting of László Szilassy, playing the hero was also emphasized: ". we have not seen a more fortunate, masculine and Hungarian-style acting from him so far". Hamza said: "When I was shooting Sirius with them, he was the wildest, left-wing Hungarian from 1848. and he actually felt like that then." (6) Karády was also praised by critics as follows: "She fits truly into the outfit of the rococo age.she gave one of the greatest performances in her life. Every moment is unforgettable." (16) ". we do not see Karády, because perhaps now she does not resemble herself at all", but that does not matter, since "the audience wants to see her." (9)
Is this enthusiasm justified? If we compare Sirius with Karády's other movies, on the basis of role analysis it seems that Hamza was seriously dealing with her, "working on" her. He deliberately cut her mannerisms, but also opened up new, surprisingly colourful shades in her acting. A counter-example is Haunting Ghost from 1940, or Deadly Kiss (Halálos csók) from 1942, in which we find several examples of hurtfully "theatrical" solutions.
What is most striking for the modern viewer: Karády in the film offers a pleasantly low-key, almost natural acting, with a surprisingly fluent speech. The two figures - Rosina, the Italian singer from the eighteenth and Rózsa from the twentieth century - are nicely distinguishable. Rosina repeats the schemes of Karády's roles: unknown origin, singer qualities are unexpectedly revealed, the hard life of artists and men lying at her feet. She is once again the femme fatale, although this time she did not mean to be. She is a kind, amiable, gentle character, yet men kill each other for her. Just like Rózsa, who is an intelligent, modern woman, who clearly sees her position and the direction expresses and emphasizes her artlessness with minimal gestures, subdued miming and simple speech. Yet, both figures have a handicap that is so typical of Karády: it is not easy to be a singer, exposed to the aristocrats' mood, not to be the daughter of a mad professor.
We see Karády's other face: the independent woman, the outsider. Rózsa acts like this because of her father's mad genius, while Rosina is an opera singer who travels on her own in the eighteenth century. She is also an outsider: on the one hand because of the judgement of the society, and on the other hand, because she keeps herself away from priggish society on purpose.
Form Karády's point of view, the opera insert is not too successful: the rather short song is highly disillusioning and her costume is not elegant enough, either. The creators also seemed to have focused the attention of the mystical song of the film: "Ma éjjel." (Tonight) is sung after proper introduction, in a lulling environment. Although it is alien in style, both regarding the music and the text, these minutes make the film really Karády-style. She made the following comment on it: "Regarding my songs in the film, we did not mean them to be inserts, since they play a rather important part: when words are not sufficient to express an emotion or a mood, I sing." (10) And indeed, the director managed to create a mystical atmosphere with the glittering dream lake in the magical night and with the seducing dance that at a certain point there is no other solution for Karády, only to sing. She sings instead of something else that was impossible to portray at that time. As Jenő Király puts it: "She begins hissing, sizzling. she looks into our eyes, mystifies, triumphs over us. in her musical melodramas the song inserts. are erotic peaks. In her songs she plays the absolute self-sacrifice." (5)
The film was allowed to be shown by the censors, but the message was very quickly answered. Owing to the Germans' interventions, it failed to receive the festival prize in Venice, although it was one of the nominees. Who knows, if it had received it then, it could have occupied a more distinguished position in the history of science-fiction, since it preceded by 17 years H. G. Wells' Time Machine, regarded to be the starting point of the genre. (1) About the anti-German attitude Hamza said the following: "I really meant to express that, but no one noticed it, only the Germans. So the award was gone." (6) It is rather surprising that in an era, when on a regular basis, the characters and the plot of films were re-written due to political or social considerations, the deliberate modernization and obvious "calling out" in Sirius were not recognized.
Contemporary articles spoke highly and enthusiastically about the film: "The film adaptation of Ferenc Herczeg's ever so beautiful novel summons past and present, the richness of its presentation, the "lavish tables at the ceremony", "the ethereal lake" and the "standing ovation" distracted the attention of censors from the real message. (9)
Guarding Post in the Outskirts
The expanding of melodrama, a typical film genre of the 1940es was mainly owing to Karády and the appearance of the female character she played. Looking back, it is not surprising that the meeting of Hamza, portraying the underworld and the periphery of society in the style of French poetic realism and favouring realistic themes, with the "face" of Hungarian melodrama resulted in a unique movie.
The film was shot in the summer of 1942, but was "resting" in the box for one year, when it was finally launched to the public also in the middle of summer, which is not quite a favourable timing as regards ratings. Hamza is both the director and scriptwriter of the film. After aristocrats' salons and historical environment, he turned to the realism of his period: the story is set in Angyalföld (a district of Budapest) and the central theme is the relation of sin and civilian morals. In order to prevent the fuss of censors, the policemen take an oath to the Constitution, the governor and the law immediately at the beginning. Both the introduction and Hamza name the policeman as the main character, who "came from the country", however, the real hero is Gizi Harmonikás, whom the film is about. (1)
The story is rather simple. After training, the young policeman begins his trial period in the district of his countryman, his future father-in-law. Karcsi, who served his sentence and is now released from prison, arrives. He commits robbery and murder during the alibi of his documents, which were mistakenly dated one day later. The young policeman sees him by accident on the spot on his night patrol. So Karcsi asks his "girlfriend" Gizi Harmonikás to seduce the policeman. At first, Gizi works for the murderer, but finally falls in love with her "vistim", so by informing him of the following step of the criminals, she saves his life. But she gets herself into trouble; Karcsi ruthlessly kills her. Eventually, the criminals are caught and the trust, as well as the peace in the neighbourhood is regained.
While the plot of Szíriusz is completely imaginary, the basis of Guarding Post in the Outskirts could be a real story, moreover, it might as well be shot today after minor modernization. The young policeman's name (János 18 Tóth) refers to an ordinary person, strengthening the "it-could-happen-to-you" feeling. The film also introduces the environment. "Life is hectic" in the bounds: by day, stall keepers quarrel and street kids ramble in the streets, by night "the underworld awakes, shots and screams are heard". The dialogues are enriched by typical slang: ".we only have to read the dialogues of the most artistic, most literary French films. Naked commonplaces abound! But this is not the problem, since the film pulsate the common language of common people. These simple, unpretentious dialogues proportioned appropriately, placed well and measured accordingly make the action statuesque and the figures alive", explained Hamza the solution later. (14)
Despite the naive, emotional line (between Lidi and János 18 Tóth), the film's atmosphere remains rather gloomy throughout the time, which is also strengthened by the rundown uptown environment, the typical figures of the underworld, the criminals, the beggars, the prostitutes and the chaos of raids. The uptown romantics, however, probably beautifies the poverty and misery that may have ruled Angyalföld that time. The review of the film notes: "A little more wealth could have been put into photography. The world of Apache farms always has a film-like effect." (15) The conceptual, uniform direction of the performers can be truly felt. The characteristic figures of the underworld come alive in their performances with especially outstanding actors, such as Gyula Csortos (Frici, the magician), János Makláry (Karcsi) and Gusztáv Pártos (the barman). On the whole Karády also successfully accomplished her role. Trailers did not even mention her as the main heroine, but Rózsi Csikós, portraying Lidi, daughter of the old officer. Later, however, Karády's performance was highly praised: "Her acting is much better than earlier and her song is also a precious part of the film." (15) As Hamza put it: ". the hobo girl from the outskirts of town is performed by Karády, who has perhaps never been such a great actress." (14) Gizi Harmonikás, the vamp, repeats the well-known schemes (seduction, intention to corrupt), but also carries some new colours. In the depth, Karády quotes the motives of her own fate, the wish to break out of the poverty. But Gizi Harmonikás is morally and existentially too deep to complete the outbreak successfully. This is Karády's only film, where she does not play an aristocrat, an artist or a woman who fell from good circumstances, but a figure that lives on the edge of society, also mingling with criminals. The change of image is not smooth either: her costumes are not suitable, her performing dress looks like an evening dress that was hastily fixed to the elegance of Angyalföld. Her makeup and hair differ only slightly from her gentlewoman roles. Even critics emphasize that "Karády's dresses are weak and lack style." (15) The filmmakers probably did not dare to introduce a radical change, since she was a trendsetter, a star famous for her elegance. That is why this ambiguous solution was used.
Authenticity in her acting is not violated to such a great extent: she shows stolidness to present the basic qualities of the girl accepting her situation and her circumstances. She is drifting passively, loitering about without a purpose. Only the "city", the illusion of a different, more beautiful world make her happy (there people are "clean and happy"), but this feeling quickly disappears amidst the ruthless laws of criminals. She says: "everything drags me here." Her medium is the night, but not the magical, starry night of Sirius, full of love. This darkness is full of frightening shadows and sin. She is exposed but manages to preserve her emotional independence, since after the relationship she "enjoyed" with Karcsi that was full of fear and was built upon ordinariness, she suddenly finds herself in a real, self-sacrificing emotion. We can nicely follow how Gizi Harmonikás's figure that is suffering in rundown pubs, is gradually filled with life. The need to change is becoming stronger in her, but she is hopeful in vain, she does not realize that the marriage to a policeman is impossible for her and not because of the social difference. No matter how high she grows by saving János 18 Tóth, according to its laws the underworld throws her out, so she has to perish. The end is predictable, since the happy marriage of an "Apache" girl and a policeman is impossible in this realistic environment. The distance between them is even bigger than in the "typist-general manager"-kind of relationships, because of the unbridgeable moral chasm. The scheme is well-known: the female figure appears as the "lover" of the current Evil, tries to kill the main hero, then she falls in love with him and after finding the right way, she saves his life, then falls victim of the Evil before the final destruction. She has to disappear so that the hero could walk to the altar without any twinge of guilt with the cute and blond girl, who is usually not involved in the conflict. In Sirius there is no female counterpart (Kata Párkányi cannot be regarded as such), but here the pattern is obvious. By looking at the "dark and bad woman" and the "blond angel", we immediately know who the winner will be. Of course, it is not their feminism, but the moral values of the time did not let the Karády-type of heroine take fiancés, husbands, the man from decent women. Karády's rather gloomy song (No mercy.), during which she is shot in a total, also refers to Gizi Harmonikás' tragic fate.
The policeman to be seduced and later loved (István Nagy) starts from a secure and comfortable social background, out of which his momentary hesitation sways him (what exactly happened on the night of seduction remains uncovered), but then he can smoothly return and accommodate to society. His eyes quickly and easily catch sight of Gizi playing the harmonica in the pub and he did not at all seem to be struggling, when he goes up to the girl, moreover, he appears to be pleased to stay there for the night, instead of the family dinner. His betrayal is dangerous mainly from social viewpoints: if he is not a good policeman (because he meets a debauched woman), he cannot be a good husband either, and cannot marry the daughter of a decent civic family. By catching the gang of criminals, he regains his respect as a policeman as well (he receives recognition from the highest circles), while the family and his fiancée seem to forget his affair with Gizi and the undisputable fact surprisingly quickly.
At first glance, the contemporary public taste obviously accepted it from the male hero's side: the policeman (as the emblematic figure of the society) must be true, above suspicion. The story of János 18 Tóth from this angle is only a lesson for censorship: if he makes a mistake, he might lose his job, his social reputation and his right to live a decent family life. Contemporary critic also stresses the "policeman-line": "A kind, possible and soul-stirring theme is adapted of the life of a policeman whom we regularly meet under pleasant or not quite pleasant circumstances." (15) Digging deep into the film, however, we find the real problem: the hopelessness of an "immoral" woman, living on the edge of society, to change her life. In the portrayal of the contrast between the sinful, seductive female figure and civilian decency, the point is not necessarily the obligatory victory of the latter one. Painting the picture of debauched (I Am Guilty, 1941) or emancipated women and their problems in Annemarie (Annamária) and This Happened in Budapest (Ez történt Budapesten) is not unusual for Hamza. Perhaps it is not by accident either that in I Am Guilty, Mária Mezey, while in Guarding Post in the Outskirts, Karády played the negative female figures. Both actress share suggestiveness, due to which we remember these two figures more than their counterparts, the gradually shading figures of decent girls.
As a counterpoint to Gizi Harmonikás' tragic fate in the film, the street gang of children is successfully conversed, who, owing to the old policeman's intention to better them, turn their back to their former lifestyle. Their story, a sideline of the plot, greatly connects to the mainstream; they contributed to the failure of the criminals' lat action and at the end of the film we meet them rehabilitated (too well), as members of the boy service. As contemporary critics said: "The fake pearls of deceitfulness and sinful past quickly flop off the armour wall of the honest policeman's heart, who came from the country, although the goodwill of betterment flashes up in the woman's life. Only the children's soul is capable of full betterment." (15) The comparison between Gizi and the children's fate is a mistake, since the girl truly improves, yet her example points out the fact that it is in vain, it is too late. She makes the longest road in the story, she improves most, yet she is the only one that no one rehabilitates in the end.
The realistic location, the figures and the story of Guarding Post in the Outskirts are novel in the era, and seeing the spinning images of the final confrontation of the police and the criminals, we might as well welcome it as an action movie of the time.
Summary
The careers of actress Karády and director Hamza crossed only twice, with Sirius and Guarding Post in the Outskirts, both shot in 1942. their cooperation brought public and artistic success to them. The director found the ideal actress for his films, and the actress met the director who saw more in her than just the man-eater vamp.
It is a fact, though, that Karády, no matter how talented she was, had the charisma that all other contemporary actresses lacked. If we peep into the magazines of the time, e.g. Film Színház Muzsika, we can see who ruled the screen then. Curly haired, identical faced actresses with drawn eyebrows and dreaming eyes, among whom Mária Mezey, Lili Muráti and Katalin Karády meant a real difference. (17) Her name and the concept attached to it could sell the film immediately and for most directors and producers that was enough.
Hamza was aware of the power of the image, but he did not build his films solely upon it; he only used what was absolutely necessary for his figures. Perhaps he was not really interested in artistic talent, but rather wanted to grab the special, forever outsider, timeless figure the was the secret of Karády's magic. He built upon it in both films, trying to push mannerism to the background. In these films he provided Karády with the opportunity to be someone else than herself, to be Rosina, Rózsa and Gizi Harmonikás. Something more, something other and something deeper than before, and she did not rule the film or the figures around her, but sensibly and integrally fit into the uniform directoral concept. In the films, she had a character, a task and a fate.
Unfortunately, they did not shoot any more film together. Following the premier of Guarding Post in the Outskirts, not much was left of their career in Hungary. Hamza was banned from filming in 1944 because of his film Half A Boy (Egy fiúnak a fele), while Karády was arrested by Gestapo in April of the same year. After the end of the war, Hamza left Hungary in 1946, while Karády in 1949. they met again in emigration. They officially worked together in a Brazilian movie, where Hamza was the art advisor and sujet writer. Karády had withdrawn from acting by then and leaving her stardom behind, she chose a civilian profession: she supplied the hats for the performers in the film. (1,2)
Literature
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Hamza Múzeum Alapítvány, Jászberény 2000.
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Filmarchívum és Múzsák közművelődési kiadó közös kiadványa Bp. (évszám nélkül)
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23.évf. 1987. 12. szám
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10. Gách Marianne: Karácsonyi beszélgetés Karády Katalinnal,
Film Színház Muzsika, 1980. dec. 20.
11. Balogh Gyöngyi - Király Jenő: A magyar film állócsillaga: Hamza D.
Ákos: Szíriusz, Filmkultúra 23. évf. 1987. 12.szám
12. Kiss Erika: Történelmi "mesék": Egy magyar művész emlékei a
huszadik századból, Jászkunság 39. évf. 1993. 4. szám
13. Ragaszkodom a szerelemhez azonosítatlan újságkivágat - Hamza
hagyaték
14. Az író filmet írjon és ne irodalmat - mondja Hamza D. Ákos a
Külvárosi őrszoba rendezője, Mozi Újság 1943. 3. évf. 30. szám
15. Gy.K.E.: Külvárosi őrszoba, Magyar Film 5. évf. 1943. 31. szám
16. Gy.K:E.: Szíriusz, Magyar Film 1942. 4. évf. 36. Szám
17. A Film Színház Irodalom 1942-es számai
(The essay won first prize at the competition announced by the Hamza Collection, Jász Galéria, as well as Szent István University's Jászberény College Faculty to celebrate director and painter Ákos D. Hamza's 100th birthday.)
