Biography
Ryszard Srzednicki Boleslawski acted in theater as a teenager, and studied with Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater in the early teens. He was acting in Russian films by 1914 and began directing the following year. His 1918 feature
Bread, co-directed with Boris Sushkevich, was a Bolshevik propaganada tale, but the following year Boleslawski was fighting the Bolsheviks as a member of the Polish cavalry. Assigned to document the Army's efforts on film, he shot the semi-documentary The Miracle Of The Vistula. In 1921 Boleslawski acted in Carl Dreyer's German-made
Die Gezeichneten (aka
Love One Another), and soon after came to the States. After directing plays on Broadway in the late '20s, he went out to Hollywood where he began directing in 1930 with the short Treasure Girl and the musical sequences of
The Grand Parade. His notable features of the 1930s include
Rasputin and the Empress, the only film teaming of siblings Ethel, John, and
Lionel Barrymore;
Les Miserables with
Fredric March and
Charles Laughton; the celebrated farce
Theodora Goes Wild with
Irene Dunne; and the exotic drama
The Garden of Allah with
Marlene Dietrich. Boleslawski died while making The Last of Mrs. Cheyney; George Fitzmaurice completed the film. ~ All Movie Guide