Shveitser, Mikhail

(Moisei Abramovich Shveitser). Born Mar. 16, 1920, in Penza. Soviet motion-picture director. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1977).

In 1944, Shveitser graduated from the department of film direction at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, where he studied in S. M. Eisenstein’s workshop. His first work was Path of Glory (1949, in collaboration with B. A. Buneev and A. M. Rybakov).

Shveitser’s most significant motion pictures have been film versions of well-known works of classical and Soviet literature. They include Someone Else’s Relatives (1956, based on V. F. Tendria-kov’s story “Not to the Yard”), Resurrection (1960–62, based on the L. N. Tolstoy novel), Time, Forward! (1966, in collaboration with S. A. Mil’kina; based on the novel by V. P. Kataev), The Golden Calf (1968, based on the novel by Il’f and Petrov), and The Flight of Mister McKinley (1976, based on a screenplay by L. M. Leonov).

Shveitser was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1977.