Director and producer of Hungarian origin. After studying in Prague
and Stuttgart, Pressburger worked as a journalist before screenwriting
for Austrian and German films. In 1936 he fled Germany due to Hitler's
rise to power, and after one year in France eventually settled in England.
Writing scripts for Alexander Korda's London
Films, he was brought him into contact with Michael
Powell, with whom he would begin a long-running association.
Along with Powell, simultaneously co-scriptwriting and co-producing,
they found The Archers production company in 1942 and collaborated on
fifteen films. Amongst their most outstanding productions were The
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A
Canterbury Tale ! (1944), I
Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A
Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black
Narcissus (1947), The
Red Shoes (1948) and The
Tales of Hoffmann (1951). Unaccompanied, he directed Twice Upon
to Time (1953), and wrote and produced Miracle in Soho (1957). In addition
to that he was the author of Killing a Mouse on Sunday, a novel that
Fred Zinnemann took to the cinema under the title of Behold to Pale
Horse (1964).
