Born on May 21, 1902 as Mikhail Anatol Litvak in Kiev (then part of the Russian Empire) Anatole Litvak grew up in a Lithuanian Jewish family.
As a teenager, he worked at a theater in St. Petersburg and took acting lessons at the state drama school. Litvak worked with Leningrad’s Nordkino Studios as assistant director for silent films. After Russian theaters were nationalized, he fled for Berlin in 1925.
In 1930, Litvak made his directing debut, the musical Dolly Gets Ahead, with Dolly Haas. He then helmed two Lilian Harvey films, No More Love (1931) and Calais-Dover (1931).
In 1932, he directed Lilac in France, and then went back to Germany for The Song of Night (1932), shot at the same time in English as Tell Me Tonight (1932).
He made Sleeping Car (1933), with Ivor Novello, in England.