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Ferenc Molnár | |
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 Portrait byCarl Van Vechten, 1941 | |
| Born | Ferenc Neumann (1878-01-12)12 January 1878 |
| Died | 1 April 1952(1952-04-01) (aged 74) New York City, New York |
| Resting place | Linden Hill Cemetery,Ridgewood, Queens, New York |
| Occupation | Novelist, author, stage director, dramatist |
| Years active | 1901–1952 |
| Spouse | Margit Vészi (1906–1910; divorced; 1 child) Sári Fedák (1922–1925; divorced) Lili Darvas (1926–1952; his death) |
| Children | Marta Molnar Sarkozi (1907–1966) suicide[1] |
Ferenc Molnár (US:/ˌfɛrɛntsˈmoʊlnɑːr,-rənts-,-ˈmɔːl-/FERR-entsMOHL-nar, -ənts -, -MAWL-,[2][3][4]Hungarian:[ˈfɛrɛnt͡sˈmolnaːr]; bornFerenc Neumann; January 12, 1878 – April 1, 1952), oftenanglicized asFranz Molnar, was aHungarian-born author, stage director, dramatist, and poet. He is widely regarded as Hungary's most celebrated and controversial playwright.[citation needed]
His primary aim through his writing was to entertain by transforming his personal experiences into literary works of art. While he never connected to any one literary movement, he did use the precepts ofnaturalism,neo-romanticism,expressionism, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories, so long as they suited his desires. According to Clara Györgyey, “By fusing the realistic narrative and stage tradition of Hungary with Western influences into a cosmopolitan amalgam, Molnár emerged as a versatile artist whose style was uniquely his own."[5]
As a novelist, Molnár is perhaps remembered best forThe Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest. It has been translated into 42 languages and adapted for the stage and film. It has been considered a masterpiece by many.
However, it was as a playwright that he made his most significant contribution and how he is best known internationally. For Györgyey, "In his graceful, whimsical, sophisticated drawing-room comedies, he provided a felicitous synthesis ofnaturalism and fantasy,realism andromanticism, cynicism, and sentimentality, the profane and the sublime."[5] Of his many plays,The Devil,Liliom,The Swan,The Guardsman, andThe Play's the Thing endure as classics. His influences included luminaries such asOscar Wilde,George Bernard Shaw, andGerhart Hauptmann.[5]
Molnár's plays continue to be performed world-wide. His national and international fame has inspired many Hungarian playwrights, including Elemér Boross,László Fodor,Lajos Bíró,László Bús-Fekete,Ernő Vajda, Attila Orbók, andImre Földes, among others.[5]
He immigrated to the United States to escape the persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II and later adopted American citizenship. He died in New York City.
Ferenc Molnár was born in Budapest on January 12, 1878, to Dr. Mór Neumann, a prosperous and well-regarded gastroenterologist, and Jozefa Wallfisch, both ofGerman-Jewish heritage. The home in which he lived was opulent but gloomy. Even though he was born into wealth, "It was not a friendly atmosphere for the lively and precocious Ferenc, who constantly had to be warned to keep quiet."[5] Just a year before his birth, his parents' firstborn son and Molnár's brother, László, died. His mother was frail and frequently bedridden. Illness spread throughout the rooms of his house, and young Ferenc was constantly being told to keep quiet. His mother died in 1898 when Ferenc was 20 years of age.
In 1887, Molnár entered the Lónyay Utcai Református Gimnázium, a secondary school (high school) located in Budapest, Hungary, where he was inspired to learn foreign languages and where his talent as a writer began to emerge. At fourteen, he started a periodical,Haladás ("Progress"), which sold only four copies, and a secondary publication,Életképek ("Panorama"), selling only 20 copies. His first dramatic work wasA Kék Barlang (The Blue Cave),[6] a controversial play written, directed, and staged in the basement of a friend's house.[5]
Upon completing secondary school, Molnár studied law at the University of Budapest in 1895. Shortly after, he was sent to Geneva by his father to continue his studies at the Swiss University. While living in Geneva, he began to write frequently, often sending his work to various papers. Molnár also wrote the short novellaMagdolna during this time.
He also traveled to Paris to see some of the chic new plays. "The fashionableboulevard comedies ofBernstein,Bataille,Capus, and others left a deep impression on him and later greatly influenced his dramatic style."[5]
In 1896, he abandoned a legal career to pursue a full-time career as a journalist. He covered a variety of topics during his time as a journalist. However, his primary focus was the court trials forVészi's Budapesti Napló ("Budapest Daily"), a newspaper then edited and published byJózsef Vészi, a Jewish intellectual who dominated Hungarian political journalism. Molnár's first wife was one of Vészi's daughters, Margit Vészi.[7]
Molnár served as a proud and jingoistic supporter of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while working as a war correspondent during World War I.[8] His war reports were so positive that he was decorated by the Habsburg emperor but criticized by some pacifist peers.[8] He would later writeReflections of a War Correspondent, describing his experiences.
In 1901, Molnár published his first full-length novelAz éhes város ("The Hungry City"). This novel made Molnár's name familiar throughout Hungary. It was "a relentless exposé of the evil effect of money, viewed by a young, idealistic newspaperman."[5]
The year following the release ofAz éhes város, Molnár began writing for the theatre, the medium through which he became known internationally. His journalistic work influenced his early works as a playwright. Molnár's first play,A doktor úr (The Lawyer),[9][10] and the play that followed,Józsi, are both comedies that essentially dramatized newspaper sketches about a spoiled rich child, and were published as a collection of short dialogues.[5]
His personal life formed the basis for many of his works. After separating from his first wife, he became involved with the famous Hungarian actress Irén Szécsi, who was then married to a wealthy manufacturer. Their affair influenced some of his more critically successful works.
In 1907, Molnár wroteAz ördög (The Devil) for Irén, in which he challenged her to leave her husband. It brought Molnár international fame and was performed all over Europe and New York. Hungarian-born American directorMichael Curtiz later adaptedThe Devil into a film; three years later,James Young directed an English-language version.
He wroteLiliom, in 1909; he allegedly sought to regain favor with his wife Margit by portraying her in the role of Juli. The play was initially a failure when presented in Budapest,"[5] but became his best-known play when produced on Broadway in 1920 and elsewhere outside Hungary. It acquired even more widespread fame when adapted into a film byFritz Lang featuringCharles Boyer (Paris, 1934) and then the Broadway stage musical,Carousel (1945; film 1956) byRichard Rodgers andOscar Hammerstein II.
Molnár continued to dramatize the complexities of his affair with Irén through his plays,The Guardsman (1910) andThe Wolf (1912);[5]The Guardsman served as the basis for the 1931 film of the same name, starring American power coupleAlfred Lunt andLynn Fontanne.
Molnár fell into a deep depression after Irén cut off their affair and returned to her family. He resorted to drinking heavily as a result, and in 1911 attempted suicide. He was rehabilitated in Austria and continued writing during this dark time. Between 1910 and 1914, five volumes of his collected essays, plus his translations of over 30 French plays, were published. "Molnár's long and turbulent life was one of hard and incessant work. For over 50 years, he transposed his inner conflict in his literary work; writing was his oxygen, elixir, and self-therapy," wrote monographist and fellow Hungarian emigré Clara (Klára) Györgyey.[5] As a further example, while writingThe Devil in 1907, Molnár also wrote three books, including his juvenile novel,A Pál-utcai Fiúk (The Paul Street Boys).
Molnár's later plays, such asThe Swan (1920), andThe Play's the Thing (1924), continued to receive a wide audience and favorable reviews. More than 100 movies and television productions have been made out of his works, includingThe Swan, which was brought to the screen in 1956 withGrace Kelly andLouis Jourdan, andEgy, Ketto, Haro, whichBilly Wilder turned intoOne, Two, Three, starringJames Cagney andHorst Buchholz, in 1961. His novelThe Paul Street Boys has been filmed repeatedly inEnglish,Italian and Hungarian. That novel has also been widely popular in translation and made part of grade school curricula inCroatia,Serbia andPoland.
On January 12, 1940, Molnár relocated to America and spent his last 12 years living in Room 835 atNew York'sPlaza Hotel. In 1943, he suffered a massiveheart attack, forcing him to suspend work for almost a year. To celebrate the end ofWorld War II, Molnár wrote and publishedIsten veled szivem (God Be With You My Heart) and the English Edition ofThe Captain of St Margaret's.
After the war, Molnár became outraged and depressed after learning of the fate of his Jewish friends and colleagues during theHolocaust in Hungary, and his personality changed. He became apathetic, morose, and misanthropic.[5]
In 1947, Molnár's secretary and devoted companion Wanda Bartha died bysuicide. This event had a lasting effect on Molnár. Upon her death, he wroteCompanion in Exile, his most tragic work, recalling his friend's sacrifices and their time together. Molnár donated all his manuscripts and bound scrapbooks containing articles about him, prepared by Wanda Bartha, to theNew York Public Library.
Molnár's first marriage to Margit Vészi ended in divorce in 1910.
In 1922 he married the actorSári Fedák, after a six-year relationship. The couple divorced in 1925, after "he had accused her of intimacy with 42 gentlemen, and she had replied in kind with a list of 142 ladies".[11]
Molnár married the actorLili Darvas shortly after divorcing Fedák in 1925. They were active both in Vienna, where Darvas acted as part ofMax Reinhardt's theatrical troupe at theTheater in der Josefstadt from 1925 until theAnschluss in 1938, when they were forced to flee.
Molnár and Darvas had long been fixtures on the theatrical scene in New York, whereLiliom had become a hit. They arrived in New York in 1940. He and Darvas later separated amicably, but remained married and friends until Molnár's death in 1952.
Molnár died of cancer, aged 74, at theMount Sinai Hospital in New York City on April 1, 1952. Because of his superstitious fear that creating a will would hasten his death, Molnár left behind several manuscripts, unfinished work, and a significant amount of money. Lili attended his funeral with a few close friends. In the name of all women Molnár had loved, Darvas bid him farewell with a quotation: "Liliom, sleep my boy, sleep!"[5]
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