Churchill's Connections

Alexander Korda

Home » Friends » Alexander Korda

1893-1956
Sándor Kellner
UK film producer

  1. Introduction
  2. Stories
  3. Biographical summary
  4. See also
  5. Further reading
  6. References

1. Introduction

Born in Hungary, Alexander Korda became a naturalised UK citizen and the UK’s leading film producer, receiving a knighthood in 1942. He launched the careers of Vivien Leigh and Merle Oberon (his second wife) and boosted the screen reputation of Laurence Olivier. Korda’s pictures include That Hamilton Woman (1942), a propaganda movie made at the request of Winston Churchill to encourage the USA to enter World War II. Korda is believed to have been an MI6 agent and to have allowed his film business to be used as a cover for anti-fascist intelligence-gathering. The BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film is given in his honour.

2. Stories

  • Born Sándor Kellner in rural Hungary, Korda became the most prominent person in the British film industry in the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Korda hired Churchill in 1934 as a script writer and advisor and later bought the film rights to a number of his books, rescuing his finances.
  • Korda’s film The Four Feathers (1939) included a cavalry charge during the Battle of Omdurman (1898) in which Churchill had participated in real life.
  • Korda’s skills and antipathy to Nazism made him a useful resource for the British establishment.
  • Korda was called for interview by the US Senate for possible incitement to war and was investigated by the FBI for secret intelligence activities.
  • Korda gave Churchill some cinema equipment to install at Chartwell, after which Churchill usually watched three films per week.
  • Korda’s finances were very volatile, like Churchill’s, with high income and high expenditure.

Born Sándor Kellner in rural Hungary, Korda became the most prominent person in the British film industry in the 1930s and 1940s.

The son of a Jewish estate manager, Sándor (pronounced ‘SHAND-or’) began as a journalist with the pseudonym Sursum Corda (Latin for ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’, a eucharistic prayer), from which he adapted Korda as his surname from around 1910. He became a scriptwriter, director and producer of silent movies in Hungary until 1919 when he moved to Vienna, changing his first name to Alexander.

He moved with his actress wife Mária to Hollywood in 1926, but she struggled to transition to sound movies because of her heavy Hungarian accent. They divorced in 1930, after which Korda, frustrated with the Hollywood studio system, moved briefly to Germany, France and then the UK.

He founded London Films and made The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, with Charles Laughton winning Best Actor. He constructed Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire where he made Fire Over England (1937), the first of three movies with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He often collaborated with his brother Zoltán, who directed their hit The Four Feathers (1939), and his brother Vincent, who won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for The Thief of Bagdad (1941).

In 1939, he married Merle Oberon who played Cathy in Wuthering Heights (1939), opposite Olivier as Heathcliff (although Olivier did not like her).* At Churchill’s instigation, he returned to Hollywood and made That Hamilton Woman (1942) as a propaganda movie to help try to draw the USA into the war. He received a knighthood the same year, the first person in the film industry to gain the honour.

He moved back to the UK in 1943 and was divorced from Oberon in 1945. He continued a frantic pace of movie-making, including The Third Man (1949) with Orson Welles. In 1953 the 60-year-old Korda married 26-year-old society beauty Alexa Boycun. He died three years later from his third heart attack.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (‘BAFTA’) named its Best British Film prize as the Alexander Korda Award. It is now the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film but is still awarded in his honour.

* Churchill introduced Merle Oberon to painting in Monaco: British Pathé, ‘The Other World Of Winston Churchill Reel 2’, British Pathé, 1964. (From 07:26)

Korda hired Churchill in 1934 as a script writer and advisor and later bought the film rights to a number of his books, rescuing his finances.

Churchill was introduced to Korda by his son Randolph in a pub near Isleworth film studios, western London, perhaps at the prompting of Claude Dansey, deputy head of MI6, known to Churchill from the Boer War. Korda engaged Winston to contribute to ten short films on topical issues and to write a script for a film on the reign of George V for the king’s silver jubilee. Neither the topical shorts nor the film eventuated, but Churchill was paid well for his efforts.

In 1937 Korda asked Churchill to advise as a historical consultant on the script of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a film he was making about Lawrence of Arabia. Again, this project did not reach fruition. Four years later, with the negotiating assistance of Brendan Bracken, Churchill secured £7,500 (equivalent to £372,000 today) from Korda’s studios, backed by Warner Brothers, for the film rights to his autobiographical book My Early Life (1930), covering the period 1874 to 1902.

Korda bid unsuccessfully for Churchill’s work on his ancestor, Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933-38), but secured the film rights to Churchill’s four-volume A History of the English-Speaking Peoples which Churchill began in 1937 but did not finish until 1958. The sum was a handsome £50,000 (£2.1 million today). He paid Churchill a further £35,000 in 1945 (£1.5 million today) for The River War (1899), an account of the Mahdist War in Sudan in which Churchill had fought. Then in 1948 he paid £10,000 (£357,000 today) each for Savrola (1900), Churchill’s only work of fiction, and My African Journey (1908), an account of his 1907 travels.*

In the end only My Early Life became a movie as Young Winston (1972), written and produced by Carl Foreman and directed by Richard Attenborough. Its release was seven years after Churchill’s death and nearly twenty years after that of Korda. Churchill was played by Simon Ward and his parents by Robert Shaw and Anne Bancroft. It was nominated for three Academy Awards but did not win any.

* For the financial arrangements, see Lough’s No More Champagne in ‘Further reading’.

Korda’s film The Four Feathers (1939) included a cavalry charge during the Battle of Omdurman (1898) in which Churchill had participated in real life.

The panoramic movie, directed by Korda’s brother Zoltán (a former cavalry officer), was shot largely on location in the Sudan and was nominated for the inaugural Palme d’Or in 1939. The East Surrey Regiment, located there at the time of filming, provided many extras, as did the Sudan Defence Force.

Churchill had managed to attach himself in August 1898 to General Herbert Kitchener’s campaign to re-conquer the Sudan (the Mahdist War), while also writing for the Morning Post. Kitchener opposed the assignment, suspecting Churchill of publicity-seeking, but Churchill pulled some strings with Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and others, and joined the 21st Lancers in Cairo.

Kitchener’s forces proceeded to Omdurman, where Churchill’s unit conducted an attack that is sometimes erroneously described as the UK’s last cavalry charge, as other charges took place in World War I. Churchill participated on a grey polo pony, riding straight into a mass of dervishes who were armed with rifles, spears and axes. He had dislocated his right shoulder in India, so he used a pistol rather than a sword, which may have saved his life. He wrote later that he killed ‘several – three for certain – two doubtful – one very doubtful’.1 He narrowly escaped injury or worse, unlike 22 others of Kitchener’s forces who were killed and 75 wounded, out of 320; 119 horses also died. Churchill filed his reports for the Morning Post and returned promptly to England, where he set about writing his full account in The River War.

Some of the actors and crew on The Four Feathers were not used to working with the three Korda brothers who would suddenly start screaming and swearing at each other in Hungarian and English and throwing things around. Lead actor John Clements believed someone was about to be killed but the shouting matches would stop as fast as they started and there would then be hugs all round.

Having made The Four Feathers, it is curious that Korda paid Churchill six years later for the film rights for The River War. His brother Zoltán remade the movie as Storm Over the Nile (1955) but did not incorporate any Churchill material.

Korda’s skills and antipathy to Nazism made him a useful resource for the British establishment.

In 1936, the UK Air Ministry commissioned Korda to make a docudrama, Conquest of the Air (1936), on the history of aviation, featuring Britain’s role in its development. Laurence Olivier acted in it and Churchill, an aviation enthusiast, provided some advisory input. As the Nazi threat grew, Korda promised Churchill that he would produce a propaganda film within one month of hostilities beginning, highlighting the strength of the RAF. When the UK declared war on 3 September 1939, Korda put The Thief of Bagdad on hold and sent crews out to shoot simultaneously over 12 days on three different locations. He incorporated some scenes from Fire Over England (1937), in which England overcomes the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada. The Lion Has Wings (1939) was completed in around four weeks and released in UK cinemas in early November, then in the USA in February 1940. An update to Conquest of the Air was also made and released in the UK and the USA.

In May 1940, Korda was asked to a meeting with Duff Cooper, Churchill’s newly appointed minister of information, and agreed to move back to Hollywood to make a stirring film about Nelson taking on Napoleon at Trafalgar. That Hamilton Woman was released in March 1941, featuring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who was now world-famous after Gone with the Wind (1939). Olivier and Leigh had married seven months earlier, adding to press and audience interest.

US audiences thought they were going to watch a period love affair but also saw a drama of plucky Britain standing up to foreign aggression and appeasement. Olivier delivers the lines (believed to have been written by Churchill himself), ‘You cannot make peace with dictators. You have to destroy them. Wipe them out! […] Do not ratify this peace!’2

The movie had critical and financial success, being nominated for four Academy Awards and winning Best Sound. Churchill watched it on numerous occasions during and after the war and showed it to many colleagues and others, including Franklin D. Roosevelt on board HMS Prince of Wales in August 1941.

Korda was called for interview by the US Senate for possible incitement to war and was investigated by the FBI for secret intelligence activities.

In the early 1940s, around 60 percent of the 132 million US population went to the cinema each week. Aware of the influence of the big screen, the US Senate formed a committee in September 1941 to investigate propaganda in movies, interviewing moguls such as Harry Warner of Warner Brothers. Korda was summoned to be interviewed on 12 December as to whether he was inciting the American public to war. Five days before the interview, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, whereupon the USA entered the war and the hearings were ended.

The FBI were also concerned, suspecting Korda of acting for the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Although the UK and USA were allies, it was illegal for foreign powers to conduct secret intelligence activities on US soil. Two FBI agents interviewed Korda in his Hollywood office in 1946 but no formal action was taken.

Korda’s biographer Charles Drazin believes that Korda may have been involved with British intelligence authorities from well before the war. Korda’s company, London Films, was seemingly used as a front for himself and others, under the direction of MI6 deputy director Claude Dansey (codename ‘Z’). Drazin indicates that Dansey brokered considerable funding in the mid to late 1930s for London Films and for the construction of its Denham studios. This was one of the reasons why Korda was able to be so financially generous to Churchill, for whom he also appears to have acted as a private transatlantic courier during the war.

Apart from propaganda movie making, film studios also had the skills and resources for wartime deception. Korda offered the use of Denham for camouflage projects, but it was mainly Shepperton Studios, owned by Norman Loudon, which was asked to construct decoy airfields, aircraft, tanks and dummy factories to divert bombing raids. Real runways and factories were covered with tarpaulins and paintwork to pretend that they were bomb damaged. Some of the decoy airfields were so effective that many aircraft were damaged trying to land on them until special markings were added to indicate to pilots that they were not real.

Korda gave Churchill some cinema equipment to install at Chartwell, after which Churchill usually watched three films per week.

In 1950 Korda wrote to Churchill, saying, ‘I do want to give you a substantially good gift, so I’m giving you a cinema.’3 Two 35 mm projectors, an amplifier and a large movable screen were installed in what had previously been the dining room at Chartwell. A retired projectionist in the nearby town of Westerham helped with the installation and shows. Introducing him to guests, Churchill would say, ‘This is Mr. Shaw. He’s a Labour man but quite a nice fellow.’4

The films would be chosen by one of Churchill’s secretaries from a list provided by Korda’s studio, and sent by train to Oxted, five miles (eight km) from Chartwell, where they would be collected by an assistant or by Mr Shaw’s wife. Brandy and cigars would be provided after dinner and at around 9.15 p.m. Churchill would announce, ‘Let it roll’. He sat in his armchair, next to another armchair for the principal guest. Clementine sat on a six-seat sofa with other guests. Various staff would attend at weekends.

Churchill’s preferences were historical dramas, stage adaptations, war movies, westerns and Disney nature movies. His favourite performers included Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Although he did not know it, the actor John Wayne was his fifth cousin, twice removed, through Churchill’s mother Jennie. As well as That Hamilton Woman (1941), his favourite films included Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) and George Stevens’s Shane (1953).

The home cinema was a huge success, unlike an earlier gift from Korda. Korda knew that Churchill dictated to his secretaries until late into the night and believed that the process could be improved. He told Churchill that ‘you’re never at leisure; you’re never with your family! There’s a wonderful invention; it’s called a Dictaphone. I’d like to give you one.’5 Dictaphone was launched in 1907 but had just produced a new model which was installed in Churchill’s bedroom, next to his study. At eight a.m. the next morning, his secretary was called in and told, ‘Take it away. I don’t like it. I can never work like this.’6

Korda’s finances were very volatile, like Churchill’s, with high income and high expenditure.

Both men were flamboyant, determined, persuasive and visionary. Both were writers, rakish dressers and cigar smokers. They loved storytelling, drama and sentimental movies. Both secured remarkable income streams but usually spent more than they earned, sometimes teetering on the edge of financial ruin. Korda once wrote, ‘The art of filmmaking is to come to the brink of bankruptcy and stare it in the face.’7

After coming from a poor background, Korda built up some finances but often overstretched himself and had to be helped out by friends and associates. He made some reasonable savings in Hollywood but lost a large amount in the Wall Street Crash in 1929. He was rescued by a contract with Fox studios for US$100,000 annually (equivalent to US$2 million today, or £1.4 million).

His UK company London Films secured over £3 million (over £200 million today) from Prudential Assurance in the mid to late thirties, but the investment returns were negative and Korda lost control of his studios. An internal Prudential memorandum from the time said, ‘His financial sense is non-existent and his promises (even when they are sincere) worthless. […] Korda is a very dominant man and dangerous to converse with owing to (among other things) his powers of persuasion.’8

After That Hamilton Woman, Korda was put in charge of a 10-year, £35 million per year project with MGM, but this ended after a year with a loss. Despite this, he managed to gain funding for his next ventures with London Films and British Lion Films, only to struggle due to competition with Hollywood. Nevertheless, he secured a significant investment from a New York company in 1954 and continued making films until his death in 1956.

Churchill’s dire financial position in the 1940s was considerably improved by the sale of Chartwell in 1946-47 (see Lord Camrose) and revenues from his six-volume The Second World War (published 1948 to 1953). However, the major turning point was in the early to mid-40s, thanks largely to Korda. Churchill started the war deeply in the red, and despite not being able to add to his writings while prime minister, managed to end it in the black.

OccupationFilm director and producer
CountryHungary, UK (naturalised 1936)
CareerJournalist, screenwriter and producer in Hungary (1909-19). Director in Vienna and Berlin (1919-26), then Hollywood (1926-30). Returned to UK (1931) and created London Films production company (1933). Signed Vivien Leigh and became a partner in United Artists distribution company (1935). Constructed Denham studios (1935-36) which later merged with Pinewood (1939). Moved to Hollywood to make That Hamilton Woman (1942). Knighted (1942). Acquired British Lion Films (1944; bankrupt in 1954). Final films Richard III (1956) and Smiley (1956) (producer).
Born1893 in Pusztatúrpásztó, near Túrkeve, Austria-Hungary (19 years younger than Churchill); named Sándor Kellner
FatherHenrik Kellner (c.1830-1906), soldier, estate manager
MotherErnesztina Weisz (1863-c.1921)
SiblingsEldest of three brothers:
1. Sándor (1893-1956); later Alexander
2. Zoltán (1895-1961), ‘Zolly’, soldier, screenwriter, director and producer
3. Vilmos (1897-1979), ‘Vincent’, art director; nominated for 4 Academy awards; won Best Art Direction in 1941
EducationSecondary school in Austria-Hungary
Spouses1. María Farkas (1898-1976), m. 1919, div. 1930; Hungarian actress
2. Merle Oberon (1911-1979), m. 1939, div. 1945; UK actress; Academy Award Nominee for The Dark Angel (1935); Cathy in Wuthering Heights (1939); born Estelle Thompson; nickname ‘Queenie’
3. Alexandra ‘Alexa’ Boycun (1928-1966), m. 1953 until Korda’s death in 1956; Canadian of Ukrainian extraction; second husband was high society figure David Metcalfe, m. 1957, div. 1964; Alexa died from a barbiturate overdose, possibly suicide
Relationships 
ChildrenBy Maria:
1. Peter (1921-1988); changed his surname by deed poll to de Korda in 1965
Died1956 at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, aged 62; heart attack (nine years before Churchill)
BuriedCremated at Golders Green Crematorium, Barnet, London; ashes at Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens, Buckinghamshire
Chartwell 
Other Club–
NicknameAlex
Height 

4. See also

Movie and media personalities

Wartime propaganda

Churchill controversies

  • Anti-appeasement
  • Financial affairs

5. Further reading

Alexander Korda

Korda and Churchill

UK propaganda in the USA

  • Conant, Jennet, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (Simon & Schuster, 2008)
  • Hemming, Henry, Our Man in New York: The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War (Quercus, 2019)

Churchill’s finances

  • Lough, David, No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money (Head of Zeus, 2015)

Miscellaneous

  • Bennett, M. Todd, One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
  • Harris, Ed, Britain’s Forgotten Film Factory: The Story of Isleworth Studios (Amberley Publishing, 2012)
  • International Churchill Society, ‘Churchill and the Duke’, The International Churchill Society, 2016 (Churchill’s relationship to actor John Wayne).

6. References

1. Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (Random House, 2000), p. 97.

2. Kati Marton, The Great Escape (Simon & Schuster, 2006), p. 142.

3. Justin Reash, ‘“Let It Roll”: Churchill’s Chartwell Cinema’, The International Churchill Society, 2018.

4. Roy Howells, Simply Churchill (R. Hale, 1965), p. 63.

5. Reash

6. Ibid.

7. IMDb, ‘Alexander Korda’, IMDb.

8. Laurie Dennett, A Sense of Security: 150 Years of Prudential (Granta Editions, 1998), pp. 265–66.