1940 Budapest, Hungary

Charles Baltay

1937

Budapest, Hungary

Interviewed on September 18, 2019

By Vuong Mai

My first movie? I think they were the Charlie Chaplin movies. I don’t remember which, there were so many. This was in Hungary — I was born and grew up in Hungary, some place in Budapest. Must have been in the early 1940’s, since we left in ’45. Budapest is a very pretty town, with a river right through the middle. One side is flat, called Pest, and the other side is a hill — not a mountain — but a hill, and so they unite to make Budapest. But even now in Budapest, they say “I’m going to Buda” or “I’m going to Pest.”

I remember in that time, in Hungary, Chaplin was very famous. Everybody knew about the Chaplin movies. I remember one scene where he’s very hungry and eating his shoe like a fancy piece of chicken, and the expression on his face was very self-satisfied. I don’t remember much else – just the Chaplin movies. And they were all silent, as in no talking, but there was always piano music. I think it was pretty common in old movies in movie houses. Maybe there was someone there playing? It’s very different from digital sound, it’s not the same. I was, I don’t know, between 5 and 10. Going to the movie house was not a habit, maybe on a Birthday or something like that – a special occasion. I always went with my parents. I don’t remember much about that time – that was more than 50 years ago.

After we left Hungary, I didn’t go to movie houses anymore. I’ve just never did. Now? I watch movies with my wife, at home. We watched a couple of Alfred Hitchcock movies, To Catch a Thief was one, and North by Northwest. I like Hitchcock’s movies, they’re very clever, very subtle. He’s a classic movie producer. We rarely go out to movie houses; we just watch at home. I would prefer being in a movie house, but on the other hand you got to get dressed, go out, park; it’s much easier to sit at home and watch. A few years ago, my wife and I decided we wanted to watch Humphrey Bogart, so we watched all of his movies, the whole series – African Queen was a good one. But the quality [in movie houses] is obviously better; you have a bigger screen and better sound. I do like watching movies with a crowd of people, but then again sometimes it’s a bother.

Generally, I like color, although some movies are better in black and white, like Casablanca. Somehow it wouldn’t look right in color. Some movies are just better in black and white, that’s just the artiness of the movie. I remember arguing with some friends, “what’s the greatest movie ever made?” I say it’s Casablanca. Every other sentence: “here’s to looking at you, kid,” “round up the usual suspect,” “play it again, Sam,” every other line is a cliché. You watch any other old movie, it’s silly and outdated, but Casablanca is sophisticated as ever – it was a World War II movie — and even 60 years later it’s still sophisticated. I think both the story and the acting made it so. Humphrey bogart had a certain style, the actress too. It’s hard to define, but Casablanca doesn’t look dated, it has its own style. I suppose Chaplin movies are silly too, but it was on purpose, and he had his own style, his own way.