Dimitri Buchowetzki

Dimitri Buchowetzki

Born	Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky 1885 Russian Empire
Died	1932 (aged 46–47) Los Angeles, California United States
Occupation(s)	Film director Film actor screenwriter
Years active	1918 - 1931

Dimitri Buchowetzki (1885–1932),^[1] born Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky, was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor in Germany, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, and France.^[2]^[3]

Life and career

Initially Buchowetzki studied law. Later he starred in a number of silent films, mostly playing antagonistic characters, including Yakov Protazanov’s melodramas Giant of the Spirit (1918) and Maidservant Jenny (1918). He played the hussar officer Minski in Aleksandr Ivanovski’s Pushkin adaptation The Stationmaster (1918) and appeared in the title role of Aleksandr Razumnyi’s pro-Bolshevik film Comrade Abram (1919). In 1919, Buchowetzki immigrated to Germany, via Poland, where he directed his most artistic works: the expressionistic Fedor Dostoevsky adaptation The Brothers Karamazov (1921), the historical drama Danton (1921, based on Georg Büchner’s play), and Othello (1922), all starring Emil Jannings. Bukhovetski also made high-budget period pictures such as Peter the Great (1922). Pola Negri, whom Buchowetzki had directed in the German-made Sappho (1924), invited him to Hollywood, where he directed her in a series of erotic melodramas, including Men (1924), Lily of the Dust (1926), and The Crown of Lies (1926).

Buchowetzki began work at MGM on Love (1927) with Greta Garbo and Ricardo Cortez. However, producer Irving Thalberg was unhappy with the early filming, and replaced Buchowetzki with Edmund Goulding, cinematographer Merritt B. Gerstad with William H. Daniels, and Cortez with John Gilbert.^[4]

Selected filmography

Director

Anita Jo (1919)
The Last Hour (Germany, 1921)
The Experiment of Professor Mithrany (Germany, 1921)
Country Roads and the Big City (Germany 1921)
Symphony of Death (Germany, 1921)
Danton (Germany, 1921) with Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss, and Conrad Veidt^[5]
Sappho (Germany, 1921) released by Samuel Goldwyn in the US in 1923 as Mad Love, with Pola Negri
The Brothers Karamazov (Germany, 1921) co-director; with Emil Jannings
Peter der Große (Germany, 1922) with Emil Jannings
Othello (Germany, 1922) with Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss
The Vice of Gambling (1923, Germany)
Carousel (Sweden, 1923)^[6]
The Countess of Paris (1923)
Men (1924) with Pola Negri
Lily of the Dust (1924) with Pola Negri
The Swan (1925) with Frances Howard
Graustark (1925) with Norma Talmadge^[7]
Valencia (1926) with Mae Murray
The Midnight Sun (1926) with Laura La Plante
The Crown of Lies (1926) with Pola Negri
The Indictment (1931) French-language version of Manslaughter (1930)
The Night of Decision (1931) German-language version of The Virtuous Sin (1930)
Woman in the Jungle (1931) German-language version of The Letter (1929)
De Sensatie van de Toekomst (1931) co-director of Dutch version of Paramount film Television
Magie moderne (1931) co-director with Charles de Rochefort of French version of Television
Stamboul (UK, 1932), also Spanish-language version El hombre que asesino