While he never connected to any one literary movement, he did use the precepts of naturalism, neo-romanticism, expressionism, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories, so long as they suited his desires.

According to Clara Györgyey, “By fusing the realistic narrative and stage tradition of Hungary with Western influences into a cosmopolitan amalgam, Molnár emerged as a versatile artist whose style was uniquely his own.

For Györgyey, "In his graceful, whimsical, sophisticated drawing-room comedies, he provided a felicitous synthesis of naturalism and fantasy, realism and romanticism, cynicism, and sentimentality, the profane and the sublime.

[5] He immigrated to the United States to escape the persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II and later adopted American citizenship.

Ferenc Molnár was born in Budapest on January 12, 1878, to Dr. Mór Neumann, a prosperous and well-regarded gastroenterologist, and Jozefa Wallfisch, both of German-Jewish heritage.

His first dramatic work was A Kék Barlang (Blue Cave),[6] a controversial play written, directed, and staged in the basement of a friend's house.

"The fashionable boulevard comedies of Bernstein, Bataille, Capus, and others left a deep impression on him and later greatly influenced his dramatic style.

Hungarian-born American director Michael Curtiz later adapted The Devil into a film; three years later, James Young directed an English-language version.

For over 50 years, he transposed his inner conflict in his literary work; writing was his oxygen, elixir, and self-therapy," wrote monographist and fellow Hungarian emigré Clara (Klára) Györgyey.

[5] As a further example, while writing The Devil in 1907, Molnár also wrote three books, including his juvenile novel, A Pál-utcai Fiúk (The Paul Street Boys).

More than 100 movies and television productions have been made out of his works, including The Swan, which was brought to the screen in 1956 with Grace Kelly and Louis Jourdan, and Egy, Ketto, Haro, which Billy Wilder turned into One, Two, Three, starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz, in 1961.

On January 12, 1940, Molnár relocated to America and spent his last 12 years living in Room 835 at New York's Plaza Hotel.

To celebrate the end of World War II, Molnár wrote and published Isten veled szivem (God Be With You My Heart) and the English Edition of The Captain of St Margaret's.

After the war, Molnár became outraged and depressed after learning of the fate of his Jewish friends and colleagues during the Holocaust in Hungary, and his personality changed.

Molnár donated all his manuscripts and bound scrapbooks containing articles about him, prepared by Wanda Bartha, to the New York Public Library.

They were active both in Vienna, where Darvas acted as part of Max Reinhardt's theatrical troupe at the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1925 until the Anschluss in 1938, when they were forced to flee.

Because of his superstitious fear that creating a will would hasten his death, Molnár left behind several manuscripts, unfinished work, and a significant amount of money.