[1] He directed films in Czechoslovakia, the United States, and Germany, including Erotikon and Ecstasy.

[2] Ecstasy was screened at the Venice Film Festival and made both Machatý and its lead actress Hedy Lamarr internationally famous.

[2] However his American career consisted mainly of low-level contract work for the studio and MGM producers didn't show interest in his ideas.

After the suicide of his wife Maria Ray (1904–1951) he returned to Europe and settled in Munich, West Germany.

He directed his last movie in 1955 and later worked as a professor at Deutsches Institut für Film und Fernsehen in Münich.