Béla Gaál

Biography

Director. He read law in Budapest, then in 1913 he completed the course on acting of the National Association for Acting. In 1914 he published a volume of poetry entitled Kóborlások. In 1918 he founded the Madách Theatre, which he became the director of. Between 1920-27 he is the director of Star. At the end of the silent film era he returned to the stage and became the leading director of Belvárosi Színház (Theatre of the Inner City). After the sound picture was introduced his interest turned towards the cinema again. He was the Director of the film school of the National Association for Films and he himself lectured. His true genre is comedy. He called attention to himself back in the twenties with a burlesque made based on the script of Lajos Zilahy, Rongyosok. There are two memorable movie hits associated with his name: Meseautó (1934) and the Budai Cukrászda a (1935).Béla Gaál's extremely successful film, Meseautó (Car of Dreams, 1934) was the first example of Hungarian glamour comedy. The story of the big boss falling in love with his secretary became a model for Hungarian comedies, and was even successful abroad - an English language remake was shot entitled Car of My Dreams.