Nationality Polish, French Name Alfred Savoir Education University of Montpellier | Occupation Playwright Role Playwright | |
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Full Name Alfred Poznanski Born 23 January 1883 ( 1883-01-23 ) Lodz, Poland Died June 26, 1934, Paris, France Movies Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Lost: A Wife, His Tiger Wife Spouse Misz Hertz (m. 1908–1921), Suzanne Vilboeuf (m. ?–1934) Similar People Charles Brackett, Ernst Lubitsch, Herman J Mankiewicz, Hobart Henley, Malcolm St Clair | ||
Alfred Savoir (23 January 1883 - 26 June 1934) was a French Jewish comedy playwright of Polish Jewish origin.
Contents
Career
Alfred Poznanski was born in Lodz in Poland (then in the Russian Empire) on 23 January 1883, in a Jewish family. After being educated in a public junior high school in Lodz, he was admitted to the University of Montpellier, where he studied law. On graduating, he settled in Paris.
Poznanski became a playwright, writing in French under the pen name of Alfred Savoir. His plays were mainly staged in France, but some were put on in Poland. His first play to be staged was the comedy Le troisieme couvert (the Third cover). His work included sarcastic comedy and vaudeville, but also some serious pieces such as a historical drama about Catherine the Great (La Petite Catherine). He co-founded the weekly magazine "Marianne" and was one of the editors. Poznanski served in the French air force in World War I and was awarded the Legion of Honour for his courage.
Savoir was a rival of Steve Passeur, but had little doubt about his own superior ability. After seeing the first performance of a work by Passeur, he was heard to say, "What an admirable play! I am going to write it." Savoir's plays were called vaudeville ideologique, and he was called "the Bernard Shaw of the Boulevard." His farces took a relaxed attitude towards sex, "an appetite in which man is revealed as funny". This common view among Parisians of the time was disturbing to the more puritan and sentimental Americans.
His play Lui, about a man who thinks he is god, was the basis for the stage play Himself written by Mercedes de Acosta. His 1922 comedy Banco, thought to be daring at the time, was adapted by Clare Kummer and played by Alfred Lunt in Washington and New York with some success. Banco was filmed by Paramount in 1925. His circus farce Der Dompteur (The Lion Tamer) was staged at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in March 1931 with a cast that included Carola Neher, Fritz Kampers, Gustaf Grundgens and Peter Lorre.
Paramount Pictures founded a film production studio at St. Maurice in mid-1930, where they planned to produce all their European films, all of which were multilingual. Savoir succeeded Adolphe Osso as head of production in the French language, with the scripts subject to approval by a committee that included Sacha Guitry and Pierre Benoit.
Alfred Savoir died in Paris on 26 June 1934.
Savoir's play Bluebeard's Eighth Wife was adapted as a film by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, was released in March 1938. It starred Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. The play concerned a man who repeatedly married on the basis that his wife would agree to a divorce and settlement when he had lost interest in her. His eighth wife challenged this arrangement, and eventually obtained a marriage on her own terms. The plot was somewhat controversial in the USA at that time.