(eigenl. Ryszard Srzednicki)

* 4.2.1889, Warsaw, Poland - 1937

Education:     University of Odessa

A stage actor from age sixteen, he studied and performed under Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater. In 1914 he began appearing in Russian films and the following year made his debut as director. In 1918 he co-directed and acted in the Bolshevik propaganda film BREAD (1918), but in 1919 he returned to Poland to fight against the Bolsheviks as a cavalry officer. He was put in charge of the motion picture coverage of the Polish army campaigns and in 1920 compiled the film footage into a semidocumentary, THE MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA (1920). The following year he went to Germany to act in Carl Dreyer's film DIE GEZEICHNETEN (1922)/LOVE ONE ANOTHER and after a stopover in France sailed for the US. Here he quickly became established as a successful director of Broadway plays and musicals and headed the Laboratory Theater, an experimental group.

In 1929 he joined the Broadway hegira to Hollywood with the advent of the talkies and within a year had moved up from dialogue director to feature film director. He directed a number of minor productions at Columbia and RKO before replacing Charles Brabin at the helm of MGM's prestigious RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS (1932), which starred the three famous Barrymores.

At MGM, and later also at Fox, Boleslawski became associated with elegant, commercially attractive productions, notably an elaborate version of LES MISÉRABLES (1935), starring Charles Laughton and Fredric March; the effervescent, sophisticated comedy THEODORA GOES WILD (1936), with Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas; and the exotic THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1936), with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. He died suddenly at 48 during the production of THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY (1937) and the film was completed by George Fitzmaurice.

Boleslawski was the author of Six Lessons of Dramatic Art, an analysis of the Stanislavsky method of acting, and of two autobiographical novels, which dealt with the East European phase of his life.

Filmografie Richard Boleslawski

1915   TRI VSTRECHI         

1918   BREAD director— co-director with Boris Suskevich; also actor

1920   THE MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA     

1930   THE GRAND PARADE 

1930   THE LAST OF THE LONE WOLF      

1930   TREASURE GIRL       

1931   THE GAY DIPLOMAT 

1931   WOMAN PURSUED    

1932   RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS       

1933   BEAUTY FOR SALE   

1933   STORM AT DAYBREAK        

1934   FUGITIVE LOVERS    

1934   HOLLYWOOD PARTY 

uncredited— co-director with Allan Dwan and Roy Rowland

1934   MEN IN WHITE        

1934   OPERATOR 13

1934   THE PAINTED VEIL   

1935   CLIVE OF INDIA       

1935   LES MISERABLES     

1935   METROPOLITAN       

1935   O'SHAUGHNESSY'S BOY      

1936   THE GARDEN OF ALLAH

Regie Richard Boleslawski
Draaiboek W.P. Lipscomb, Lynn Riggs
Camera W. Howard Greene, Harold Rosson, Virgil Miller, Wilfred Cline, Robert Carney, Bauten Sturges Carne, Lyle Wheeler, Edward Boyle
Muziek Max Steiner
Kostuums Ernest Dryden, Jeanette Couget
Produktion David O. Selznick
Acteurs: Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine
 

1936   THEODORA GOES WILD      

1936   THREE GODFATHERS