The Return of the Undesirable: A Hungarian Classic Found

The history of film in Hungary is almost as long as the history of film itself. This is a nation that prides itself on its record of technical innovations and challenging narrative techniques. The country’s rich cinematic past twines with its technology-savvy present now that the reels of Michael Curtiz’s A Tolonc (The Undesirable) has been restored and digitally remastered at Budapest’s National Digital Archive and Film Institute.

The Undesirable is one of the many lost films of Hungary’s golden age of silent film, and represents one of the first directorial efforts from Michael Curtiz, who went on to achieve international fame as the director of such films as Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, and The Jazz Singer. His hundred-year-old silent film was discovered in the basement of the Hungarian House, a cultural center in New York City. How it got there is still unknown, but great efforts have been made to return the film to its homeland. The undertaking of returning and restoring the film, at a cost of close to 50,000 Euro, was funded by the Hungarian National Film Foundation, and overseen by Terminator and Rambo producer, and HNFF head honcho, the late Andrew Vajna.

Curtiz, born Manó Kaminer Kertész, shot the film in 1914 in the then Hungarian-ruled city of Kolozsvár, (now also known as Cluj-Napoca, Romania). Shooting for the film was completed in the summer before the outbreak of WWI. There is evidence that the film was shown in the United States in the 1920s. This would make it one of Hungary’s first releases into the US market.

Some years back there was a theatrical showing in Budapest to celebrate the film’s 100 year anniversary, offering a fine homecoming for a film that spent so long abroad. These days, you can find scenes from the remastered A Tolonc posted on You Tube. We saved you the trouble of looking that up, and posted one very well-restored scene below.

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