Abstract

With his pencil moustache, strong physical presence, and volatile character, Hungarian film star Pál Jávor rose to fame as a dashing romantic lead in the Clark Gable mould. However, as opposed to Gable, Jávor emerged as a star in a state-controlled film sector, where audience demand was at times overruled by film industry bosses, most notably during the anti-Jewish purge of 1938-41. While star studies as a field of inquiry focused on Hollywood at the outset (Dyer 1998), and has since been enriched by explorations of stardom in France (e.g. Vincendeau 2000, Hayward 2004), and beyond (e.g. Bandhauer and Royer, 2015) the star systems of pre-1945 undemocratic Europe have received little attention, with the exception of Germany (Ascheid, 2003), and Occupied France (Mayne, 2010). This chapter seeks to address this gap in scholarship by sketching the context of Hungary’s interwar and wartime film sector through the star image of Jávor, and by exploring his longevity in an industry which he struggled to fit into, but which, in turn, depended on his box office draw. This chapter then has the dual aim of exploring star studies within a national cinema not usually addressed through its framework and investigating a national cinema little known outside Hungary.