Michał Waszyński

Michał Waszyński (29 September 1904 – 20 February 1965) (born Mosze Waks) was first a film director in his native Poland, then in Italy, and later (as Michael Waszynski) a producer of the major American films, mainly in Spain. Known for his elegance and impeccable manners he was called by people who knew him "the prince".

Waszyński was born into a Polish-Jewish family as Michał Waks in 1904 in Kowel, a small Jewish town in Volhynia (now in Ukraine), which at the time was part of Imperial Russia. As Germany occupied this part of Europe during World War I, he moved first to Warsaw and later to Berlin. As a young man he worked as an assistant director of the legendary German director F.W. Murnau. Upon his return to Poland he changed his name to Michał Waszyński and converted to Catholicism.

In the 1930s Waszyński became the most prolific film director in Poland, directing 37 of the 147 films made in Poland in that decade, nearly one out of four. Along with the popular films in Polish directed to a wide local audience, he directed an important film in Yiddish The Dybbuk, today a monument of the rich cultural life of East European Jewry before the Holocaust.

At the beginning of World War II, when Poland was invaded from the West by Nazi Germany and from the East by the Soviet Union, Waszyński escaped from Warsaw, which was being bombed by German planes, to Białystok. That city was taken in mid-September 1939 by the Germans, but within weeks, as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the city was given to Soviet Union and occupied by its army. Waszyński began a new career as a theater director, first in Białystok and later in Moscow.

In the summer of 1941, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Waszyński joined the newly formed Polish Army of general Władysław Anders (loyal to the Polish government in Exile in London) and subsequently was relocated to Persia (Iran), and later as a soldier of the 2nd Corps of the Polish Army to Egypt and Italy. As a member of the army film unit, he filmed the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Polish Army suffered great losses, but helped to win the day.

After WWII, he stayed in Italy, where he directed a Polish language feature film about the Battle of Monte Cassino, and then three Italian films.

Later in his career, Waszyński worked as a producer for the major American studios in Italy and (primarily) Spain, credited as Michael Waszynski. His credits include The Quiet American (1958) (associate producer), El Cid (1961), and The Fall of the Roman Empire (film) (1964) (executive producer and associate producer).

He died of heart attack on 20 February 1965 in Madrid, and was buried in a ceremonious Catholic funeral in Rome.

Filmography

• La Grande strada(1948) Polish film produced in Italy, (1946, Italian version completed in 1948, with the collaboration of Vittorio Cottafavi); with Jadwiga Andrzejewska
• Fiamme sul mare (1947)
• Lo Sconosciuto di San Marino (1946)
• Wielka droga (1946)
• Monte Cassino (1944)
• Mp. Adama i Ewy (1944)
• Dzieci (1943)
• Pobyt generala Wl. Sikorskiego na Srodkowym Wschodzie (1943)
• Polska parada (1943)
• Kronika wojenna nr 1 (1942)
• Marsz do wolnosci (1942)
• Od pobudki do capstrzyku (1942)
• Trzy serca (1939)
• U kresu drogi (1939)
• Włóczegi (1939)
• Serce matki (1938)
• Gehenna (1938)
• Profesor Wilczur (1938)
• Ostatnia brygada (1938)
• Druga młodość (1938)
• Kobiety nad przepaścią (1938)
• Rena (1938)
• The Dybbuk(1937)
• Znachor (1937)
• Papa się żeni (1936)
• Bohaterowie Sybiru (1936)
• Dodek na froncie (1936)
• 30 karatów szczęścia (1936)
• Będzie lepiej (1936)
• Bolek i Lolek (1936)
• Nie miała baba kłopotu (1935)
• Panienka z poste restante (1935)
• Wacuś (1935)
• Jaśnie pan szofer (1935)
• ABC miłości (1935)
• Antek policmajster (1935)
• Czarna perła (1934)
• Kocha, lubi, szanuje (1934)
• Pieśniarz Warszawy (1934)
• Parada rezerwistów (1934)
• Co mój mąż robi w nocy (1934)
• Zabawka (1933)
• Prokurator Alicja Horn (1933)
• Dvanáct kresel (1933)
• Jego ekscelencja subiekt (1933)
• Sto metrów miłości (1932)
• Głos pustyni (1932)
• Bezimienni bohaterowie (1932)
• Uwiedziona (1931)
• Niebezpieczny romans (1930)
• Kult ciała (1930)
• Pod banderą miłości (1929)

References

• Michał Waszyński at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Waszynski, Michal
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 September 1904
Place of birth
Date of death	20 February 1965
Place of death