European Film Star Postcards

In 2012, collector Amit Benyovits started our love for Massilia collectors cards. Last week he sent me scans of a new acquisition, a series of 50 'Premium' collectors cards from Belgium. The cards were produced for Chocolaterie Clovis in Pepinster, and while Belgium is a bilingual country, the texts on the flip sides of the cards are both in French (the language spoken in Wallonia) and in Dutch (spoken in Flanders). The cards were printed in Italy by Bromofoto in Milan, and the portrayed stars are all well known Hollywood movie actors. There are no dates on the cards, but Amit and I guess they were made in the late 1940s.

Errol Flynn. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Photo: publicity still for Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935). Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Ingrid Bergman. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 5. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Olivia de Havilland. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 13. Photo: Warner Brothers. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Clark Gable. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 14. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Myrna Loy. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 25. Photo: Universal International. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Dorothy Lamour. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 37. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Rita Hayworth. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits

Lana Turner. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Katharine Hepburn. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Shirley Temple. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Flipside of Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Show me your chocolate side, please

Belgium must be the no. 1 Chocolate country in the world. There are many little chocolate factories and their 'pralines' are delicious. The Belgians, but also foreign visitors, go to shop for them on Sundays in the countless confiseries of the country.

I had never heard of Chocolaterie Clovis before. French Wikipedia writes that the factory does not exist anymore. Clovis was founded in 1920 in Pepinster. The company ceased operations in 1966, following the destruction of the buildings by fire.

In the 1930s and 1940s, there must have been a close connection between chocolate and film stars. Directors prepared their female stars for their close-ups by saying: "Show me your chocolate side, please", as commemorated by Dutch film star Cissy van Bennekom in an old interview with Vrij Nederland magazine.

Other Belgian chocolate firms, like Kwatta, also published film star postcards and included them with their products. So, this beautiful series of film star cards is one of the few things that still remind us of Chocolaterie Clovis. A sweet reminder.

Hedy Lamarr. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Bing Crosby. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Bette Davis. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Maurice Chevalier. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 34. Photo: Star. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

James Cagney. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster, no. 40. Photo: Warner Bros. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade (1948)

Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Publicity still for Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948). Collection: Amit Benyovits.

High grade and well made

The 50 Clovis photos came housed in a special album. Amit Benyovits sent me some pictures of the high grade and well made album, which you can see below. Amit: "The card stock is very thick and of very high quality pictures and paper."

In his mails to me, Amit also mentioned that the album size is 10 x 11 3/4" (25 x 30 cm) and the card size 6 1/2 x 8 7/8" (16,5 x 22,5 cm). Among the 50 cards there are at least 8 different backs but all with Clovis Pepinster either stamped or pre-printed on the backs. Sometimes the cards have the backs showing they were produced by a well known postcard publisher in Italy, Bromofoto in Milano (Milan).

Amit: "I'm dating these in the 1940s as some stars only began their careers during that time. It is mine and Cliff Aliperti's as well as Troy Kirk's opinion that these are what we call in North America 'Premium' photos. Premium photos are those that are acquired from the company. By redemption of something you had to mail in ...in Clovis' case probably a certain number of Clovis cards plus some cash too. We are just speculating and hope that you may be able to shed some light on how these were acquired by collectors."

My guess is that the cards were not sold, but were included as gifts in the Clovis Star chocolate boxes. Customers got probably hooked and must have lost their nice figures while collecting all these beautiful star cards.

The albums could be bought in the chocolate shops. Anyway that was - and still is - one of the traditions of collecting cards in the Netherlands. Another form of collecting is buying packages of cards in tobacco shops, like the famous Panini cards of soccer players and pop stars.

Clovis also made other series of collectors cards, for example a series with cyclists. Then and now, cycling is a very popular sports in Belgium.

I like Amit's Clovis star cards very much and only had two Clovis cards in my own collection. So Amit, thank you very much for sharing this new acquisition with us!

Album for Belgian Star collectors cards by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Sources: Amit Benyovits and Wikipedia (French).

Louis Jouvet (1887-1951) was one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century theatre. He is almost forgotten now, but Jouvet used to be a living glory of the French stage. He made a huge impact as both a stage director and an actor. His character, his eagle-like profile and his unique way of speaking made him also an unforgettable film star who appeared in some of the masterpieces of the ‘poetical realism’, the Golden Age of the French cinema.

French postcard by Massilia. Photo: Eclair.

French postcard in the collection Magie Noire by Editions Hazan, Paris, 1990, no. 6218. Photo: publicity still for Les bas-fonds/Underground (Jean Renoir, 1936).

French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Un carnet de bal/Life Dances On (Julien Duvivier, 1937).

French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil (S.-O.). Photo: R.A.C. Publicity still for Ramuntcho (René Barberis, 1938). Sent by mail in 1954.

French postcard by Erpé, no. 583.

A staccato, syncopated diction

Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet was born in Crozon, Bretagne in 1887 in a devoutly catholic family. His father, from Brive, was an engineer, his mother Eugénie was from the Ardennes. When he was two years old, young Louis was sent to live with his grandmother Marie, in Belleville-sur-Bar in Ardennes, until 1894. Louis loved and admired his grandmother, and he would always remember this period as one of the happiest in his life.

At school, Louis was a quiet, reserved child spending his time working or dreaming. His teacher tried to make him lose his diction problems: he stammered and had great difficulty pronouncing the s. Later at the Notre-Dame College, where Chanoine Morigny was leading the theatre group with passion and harsh discipline, Louis became so preoccupied with his new passion for the theatre, that he decided to make it his career.

When Louis was 14, his father was crushed under rocks while he was overseeing the digging of a tunnel. After this tragedy, Louis left with his mother and two brothers to live with an uncle in Rethel in the Ardennes. Louis's uncle was a pharmacist, and his family urged him to make this his profession. From 1904, Louis studied pharmacy in Paris, but he spent all his spare time in the theatres.

His first job was as a pharmacy assistant, but he still longed to be an actor. Louis auditioned for the Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique de Paris but he was rejected three times. He was reproached for his bad diction and his physical appearance. Jouvet was wounded by these failures, but managed to be admitted as auditor in Leloir's class at the Conservatoire in 1908. That's where he learned to better control his diction.

In 1908 Jouvet started to work for a theatre company as an administrator, later as a set dresser, and as an assistant. He approached actor Léon Noël after a performance and enrolled in his acting class, where he remained until 1910. Léon Noël was hard on his pupil, but Jouvet loved and respected him. In 1910 he finally made his stage debut in a production of The Brothers Karamazov. He also fell in love with a young Danish woman, Else Collin. In 1912 they married in Copenhagen and the couple would have three children, among them the later actress Lisa Jouvet.

In 1913, Jacques Copeau engaged him as a director for his Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. This meant the turning point in his career. For a while, he was better known for his lighting design than for his acting (he even designed a new kind of lamp, named the jouvet). That year he also played a minor role in the film Shylock (Henri Desfontaines, 1913), starring Harry Baur, but his next film role would follow nearly two decades later.

Soon, critics and public alike took notice of Louis Jouvet's great acting talent in memorable productions of Molière's La Jalousie du Barbouillé, and William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. He masked his speaking problems with a staccato, syncopated diction which made him instantly famous.

From 1919 till 1921 he worked in New York, appearing with his troupe in a repertory of productions that received much acclaim. In 1922, he broke with Jacques Copeau, and started his career as a stage director. He founded his own theatre company at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. There, he had his first great success with Knock ou le triomphe de la médecine (1923) by Jules Romains, which he played 1500 times.

In 1928, he met author Jean Giraudoux of whom he would go on to direct several plays. In 1934 he also became a teacher of acting technique and theatrical history at the Conservatoire de Paris. From 1935 on, he managed the Théâtre de l'Athénée in the centre of Paris, where the first performances took place of Giraudoux’ La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (Tiger at the Gates) (1935), and Ondine (1939).

Louis Jouvet in La Kermesse héroïque (1935)

French collectors card in the series Les Vedettes de L'écran by Edit. R. Tricot, offered by Becco Douceurs, no. 56. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for La Kermesse héroïque/Carnival in Flanders (Jacques Feyder, 1935).

French card by Massilia. Photo: B.N. Films. Publicity still for L'Alibi /The Alibi (Pierre Chenal, 1937).

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 123. Photo: Paramount.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by Collection Chantal, Paris, no. 563. Photo: Paramount.

Undisputed classics

Louis Jouvet would dedicate his life to the theatre. He is reputed to have said that he acted in films only so that he could raise the money to finance his stage work. Yet his 32 films, many of which are now undisputed classics of the French cinema, provide an enduring record of the talent of this great actor.

Jouvet made his first significant film appearance in the comedy Topaze (Louis Gasnier, 1932), an adaptation of a play written by Marcel Pagnol, whom Jouvet admired greatly. He played an earnest schoolteacher who teaches his pupils that honesty is the best policy eventually changes his mind when confronted with the corruption of the business world. The film was made at the Joinville Studios in Paris by the French subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.

The following year, Jouvet enjoyed his first commercial film success with the adaptation of his stage hit Knock ou le triomphe de la médecine/Knock (Louis Jouvet, Roger Goupillières, 1933). In Knock, he cast a young actress in a small role, Madeleine Ozeray. They would remain together for the next ten years, both on stage and in life.

Soon more film successes followed, such as the historical romantic comedy La kermesse héroïque/Carnival in Flanders (Jacques Feyder, 1935) with Françoise Rosay, and the drama Un Carnet de bal/Life Dances On (Julien Duvivier, 1937) starring Marie Bell, but his subtle, forceful, witty performances redeemed also some poor films.

His finest performances were in some of the masterpieces of the poetic realism cinema: the black comic farce Drôle de drame/Bizarre, Bizarre (Marcel Carné, 1936) in which he played the Bishop of Bedford opposite Michel Simon, the drama Hotel du Nord (Marcel Carné, 1938) with Annabella and Arletty, and the drama La fin du jour/The End of a Day (Julien Duvivier, 1939) with Jean Gabin.

Jouvet also appeared in two films by Jean Renoir. In the romantic crime drama Les bas-fonds/The Lower Depths (1936) he played a bankrupt baron who makes friends with a charismatic thief (Jean Gabin) and comes to live in the thief's slum. La Marseillaise/The Marseillaise (1938) is a news-reel like film about early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people, including Jouvet as a district attorney.

In 1941, having experienced serious problems with the censorship of the German occupier, he took his repertory company for a tour of South America. Only after the war, Jouvet returned to France. Again as the director of the théâtre de l’Athénée, he created with Giraudoux La Folle de Chaillot (The Madwoman of Chaillot) (1945). He also helped the new theatre figures like André Barsacq, Jean-Louis Barrault and Jean Vilar.

His comeback film after the war was the atmospheric thriller Quai des Orfèvres/Quay of the Goldsmiths (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) with Suzy Delair. Jouvet had become good friends with director Clouzot before World War II. Jouvet accepted the part of Inspector Antoine on the condition that a flexible shooting schedule would be allowed and that Clouzot would cast some of Jouvet's troupe members in the film, including Charles Dullin as Brignon, the murder victim. In 1947, Quai des Orfèvres was the fourth most popular film in France, drawing 5.5 million spectators.

In 1950, Louis Jouvet received the Légion d'honneur. Just before his death he appeared in a new film adaptation of his old success, Knock ou le triomphe de la médecine: Knock/Dr. Knock (Guy Lefranc, 1951). It also featured Jean Brochard, Pierre Renoir, Jean Carmet and an uncredited appearance by Louis de Funès.

At the age of 63, Louis Jouvet died of a heart attack in 1951 in Paris. He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery. Jouvet was married twice; to Else Collin and to Madeleine Ozeray. The Athénée theatre now includes his name as an homage: Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet.

French collectors card by Dist. Les Films Vog. Photo: publicity still for Un carnet de bal/Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 1937) with Louis Jouvet at right.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 563. Photo: Dist. Les Films Vog. Publicity still for Un carnet de bal (Julien Duvivier, 1937).

Belgian postcard, offered by Kwatta chocolade. Photo: Dist. Filmsonor / N. Els, Bromurite.

Scene from Drôle de drame/Bizarre, Bizarre (1936) with Jouvet and Michel Simon. Source: Julien Morvan (YouTube). Sorry, no subtitles.

French trailer for La fin du jour/The End of a Day (Julien Duvivier, 1939). Source: Pathe (YouTube). Sorry, no subtitles.

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Volker Boehm (IMDb), Geocities, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The German silent film Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923) deals with the historical affair between the German court physician Johann Friedrich Struensee and the Swedish Queen Caroline Mathilde. The famous lovers were played by Harry Liedtke and Henny Porten.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/1. Photo: Maxim Film. Henny Porten and Walter Janssen in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/2. Photo: Maxim Film. Harry Liedtke and Henny Porten in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/4. Photo: Maxim Film. Henny Porten in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

Forced pregnancy, homesickness and insanity

In 1766, 15-year-old Princess Caroline Mathilde (Henny Porten), youngest sister of King George III of England, is forced to marry her cousin, the notoriously insane King Christian VII of Denmark (Walter Janssen).

The Queen suffers from a forced pregnancy (she has a son with Christian), homesickness and the insanity of her husband. Gradually Caroline Mathilde falls in love with Johann Friedrich Struensee (Harry Liedtke), the smart new personal physician and counsellor of Christian.

She seduces him and gives herself the right to live her passion with the commoner. She even has an illegitimate daughter with him, Princess Louise Augusta, officially a daughter of Christian.

Struensee becomes de facto ruler of the kingdom and inspired by the Enlightenment he issues all kinds of reforms. Both are yet blind for the powers behind the screens. Christian VII at first tolerates the relationship of Caroline and Struensee, but acts when the enemy clique in court, led by the Queen-Dowager (Olga Limburg), accuses Struensee and the Queen of high treason.

Struensee is killed, while the queen's children are taken away from her and raised by her enemies. She herself is exiled to Castle Celle near Hannover, where, three years after, she dies of scarlet fever.

Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (1923) was written and directed by Ludwig Wolff and produced by Maxim Galitzenstein for his Maxim Film studio. Their film premiered in Berlin on 14 September 1923.

Several novels and stage plays were written about the Struensee affair. It was also at the heart of Per Olov Enquist's popular novel Livläkarens besök (The Visit of the Royal Physician, 1999). Irony has it that many a European royal house has lineage with Struensee through his daughter, Princess Louise Augusta.

There were several film adaptations of the historical affair. In 2012 it was again filmed as En kongelig affære/A Royal Affair by Nikolaj Arcel, starring Mads Mikkelsen as Struensee, Alicia Vikander as the Queen and Mikkel Følsgaard as the King. The film had nominations for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. At the Berlin Film Festival, Mikkel Følsgaard won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/5. Photo: Maxim Film. Henny Porten in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/6. Photo: Maxim Film. Henny Porten in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

Harry Liedtke and Max Gülstorff in Struensee (1923)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 657/1. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still of Harry Liedtke and Max Gülstorff in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

Harry Liedtke in Struensee/ Die Liebe einer Köningin

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 657/2. Photo: Maxim Film. Harry Liedtke in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).

Sources: Wikipedia, Filmportal.de and IMDb.

German actor and he-man Sascha Hehn (1954) participated in many feature films including a dozen sexploitation films. He is best known for two long-running TV shows, but he also acted on stage and dubbed international films. His is the German voice of Shrek in the famous animation films.

German autograph card by Honda. Photo: Gabowicz, München. Publicity still for the TV series Das Traumschiff/The Dreamboat (1981-1991).

German autograph card by Karstadt. Caption: Sascha Hehn trägt Globetrotter von KARSTADT.

Film debut at five

Alexander Josef Alberto ‘Sascha’ Hehn was born in 1954 in Munich. He is one of the four sons of film actor Albert Hehn from his fourth marriage to Gardy Artinger, a former beauty-queen and assistant director.

After the divorce of his parents, he lived with his mother in the Munich suburb of Grünwald. At the age of five he made his film debut in the Heimatfilm Hubertusjagd/Hubertus Castle (Hermann Kugelstadt, 1959) starring Wolf Albach-Retty and Angelika Meissner in her final role.

More film roles for Hehn followed soon. He had parts in the melodrama Ein Student ging vorbei/A student passed by (Werner Klingler, 1960) with Luise Ullrich, and the Schlager and Heimat film Drei weiße Birken/Three White Birches (Hans Albin, 1961), starring Erika Remberg. As a pupil, he was so busy with his acting career that he left school before he reached the middle school.

During the 1960s he could be seen in many TV films, such as Der doppelte Nikolaus/The Double Nicholas (Rainer Erler, 1964), and the TV series Alarm in den Bergen/Alarm in the mountains (1965) with Armin Dahlen.

In 1971, Hehn returned to the cinema in the softsex film Schülerreport/Fresh, Young and Sexy (Eberhard Schröder, 1971), based on the schedule of the Schulmädchen-Report genre which was very successful in the early 1970s.

In the following years, the handsome teenager starred in a dozen German sexploitation films with such titles as Mädchen beim Frauenarzt/Girls at the Gynecologist (Ernst Hofbauer, 1971), Die Klosterschülerinnen/Sex Life in a Convent (Eberhard Schröder, 1972), and Junge Mädchen mögen’s heiß, Hausfrauen noch heißer/Crackajacks (Eberhard Schröder, 1973) with Birgit Bergen.

To avoid military service, Hehn falsely announced his first residence in West Berlin and later he had to serve a five-week prison sentence. In 1982 he was a soldier for several months with the mountain hunters in Landsberg am Lech.

German autograph card by Bravo, 1979.

German autograph card by Möbelhöhn. Caption: Ein herzliches Dankeschön für ihren Besuch am 25. September 1988 bei Möbelhöhn (A heartfelt thank you for your visit on 25 September 1988 at Möbelhöhn).

German Exorcist Rip-off

In the following years, Sascha Hehn also made non-sex films including a new version of Schloss Hubertus/Hubertus Castle (Harald Reinl, 1973) with Robert Hoffmann, and the German Exorcist Rip-off Magdalena – vom Teufel besessen/Beyond the Darkness (Walter Boos, 1974).

He also turned up in popular TV Krimi’s like Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1975), Der Alte/The Old Fox (1979-1982) and in six episodes of Derrick (1979-1986) with Horst Tappert and Fritz Wepper.

In 1976 he played Pete Jarrett, a young man following his grandfather (Andrew Kier) throughout ‘down under’ in the 13-part Australian-German TV series The Outsiders. Later, he had another role in an international production as Baron Gottfried von Cramm opposite Farrah Fawcett in Poor Little Rich Girl – The Barbara Hutton Story (Charles Jarrott, 1987).

Hehn also played theatre. In 1972, he went on tour with O.W. Fischer in the comedy The Glass of Water by Eugène Scribe. In 1980 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Orlando in William Shakespeare's As you like it, as a partner of Barbara Sukowa. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, he explained why he broke off his promising stage career: "Intendant Ernst Haeusserman wanted to get me to the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, but I said: No, Professor, that's not my way. I want to earn money in commerce. That's the only excuse I'm allowing, he said."

So, Sascha Hehn became best known in Germany for two long-running TV series. In Das Traumschiff/The Dreamboat (1981-1991), he played chief steward Viktor and in Schwarzwaldklinik/The Black Forest Clinic (1985-1989), he played doctor Udo Brinkmann opposite Klausjürgen Wussow. In 2014, he succeeded Siegfried Rauch in Das Traumschiff as captain Victor Burger. The series still continues. In the same role, he also appears in the spin-off Kreuzfahrt ins Glück/Cruise to happiness (2014-2018).

Hehn also dubbed several international films. He gave his voice to Shrek for the German versions of the films Shrek (Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, 2001), Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, 2004), Shrek the Third (Chris Miller, Raman Hui, 2007) and Shrek Forever After (Mike Mitchell, 2010).

Sascha Hehn lives with his girlfriend in Mittergars, a small village in Bavaria.

German autograph card.

Who the f--k is Sascha Hehn? Source: Der Batz (YouTube). Sorry, no subtitles.

German trailer for Shrek Forever After (2010). Source: xtreamproductionz (YouTube).

Sources: Malte Herwig (Süddeutsche Zeitung - German), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Lately, there has been a revival of interest in photographer Frieda Riess (1890-ca. 1955), who had a studio in central Berlin. In Germany, a biography was published and in 1908, the Berlinische Galerie had a major exhibition with Riess'portraits. Her sitters included Albert Einstein, Benito Mussolini, Josephine Baker, Jack Dempsey and many film stars. She also worked as the stills photographer on Fritz Lang’s films.

Mia May. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 450/5, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Riess. Possibly for Die Herrin der Welt/The Mistress of the World (Joe May a.o., 1919).

Mia May. German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 450/6, 1919-1924. Photo: May Film / Riess. Possibly for Die Herrin der Welt/The Mistress of the World (Joe May a.o., 1919).

Liane Haid. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 462/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Harry Liedtke. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 463/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

An exclusive meeting place for Berlin celebrities

Frieda Riess was born in Czarnikau in the Western Prussian town of Czarnikau (now Carnkov in Poland) in the province of Poznán where her German-Jewish parents were shopkeepers.

At the end of the 1890s, the family moved to Berlin where she first studied sculpture under Hugo Lederer (c. 1907) and later photography at the Berlin 'Photographischen Lehranstalt' of the Lette Verein (she later inspired photographer Marianne Breslauer to enrol there too). Riess received her diploma in the summer of 1915.

In 1918, she opened a studio (in German: atelier) on the prestigious Kurfürstendamm. It became one of the most popular studios in the city. Partly as a result of her marriage to the poet and journalist Rudolf Leonhard in the early 1920s, her social connections extended through Berlin’s art world of the 1920s. Her studio became an exclusive meeting place at exhibition openings.

Her clientele included such celebrities as playwright Walter Hasenclever, novelist Gerhart Hauptmann and actors and actresses including Tilla Durieux, Asta Nielsen, Mia May and her daughter Eva May, and Emil Jannings. In addition, she contributed to the journals and magazines of the day including Die Dame, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Der Weltspiegel, Querschnit and Koralle.

Like her colleagues Hugo Erfurth, Madame D´Ora, Lotte Jacobi and Edward Steichen, Riess became a master of the advanced art of portraiture. The solo exhibition of 177 portraits in Alfred Flechtheim’s gallery in 1925 played a decisive part in this appreciation of the photographer. Flechtheim was one of the leading collectors and dealers in modern art during the 1920s. At that time it was somewhat surprising for one of Berlin’s leading art dealers to show photographs, and the fact that he refers to photography as art invited particular attention.

Riess travelled to Paris, London and Rome, where she moved in similar literary and aristocratic circles. While on a trip to Italy in 1929, she was invited to photograph Benito Mussolini.

Why she doesn’t rate a mention in histories of German photography until recently? Part of that was through her design. Since 1930 Frieda Riess had a liaison with the elderly French ambassador to Berlin, Pierre de Margerie. In 1932, they married and moved to Paris. She retreated from photography and Berlin society. She disappeared from the public eye.

From 1940 to 1945, she survived the German occupation of Paris in seclusion, and died there in the mid 1950s. The date of her death cannot be clearly established and her place of burial remains unknown.

In 2008, a retrospective of the work of Frieda Riess was held in the Berlinische Galerie. That year Thomas Ehrsam published 'Die Riess: fotografisches Atelier und Salon in Berlin 1918-1932'.

Eva May. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 563/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Riess.

Maria Jacobini. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 569/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin.

Maria Jacobini. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 569/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin.

Liane Haid. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1023/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Riess, Berlin.

Bernhard Goetzke. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1279/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Riess.

Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag no. 780. Photo: Riess, Berlin.

Sources: Kraftgenie (Weimar), One Man's Treasure and Wikipedia.

Porcelain pretty Yoko Tani (1928–1999) was a French-born Japanese actress and also a sensual nightclub entertainer. She appeared in many French films, but also played starring roles in Japanese, British, American, Canadian and even East-German productions.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 469. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 713. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sexy ‘Geisha’ Dances

Yoko Tani was born as Itani Yōko (猪谷洋子) in Paris, France in 1928. She was the daughter of the Japanese ambassador in France and she had a younger sister, Aiko.

She has occasionally been described as 'Eurasian', 'half-French', 'half-Japanese', and even 'Italian-Japanese'. Wikipedia claims that all these descriptions are incorrect: "According to contemporary French sources, her father and mother were attached to the Japanese embassy in Paris, and Tani herself was conceived en route during a shipboard passage from Japan to Europe in 1927, hence given the name Yōko, one reading of which can mean ‘ocean-child.’

Japanese sources indicate that the family returned to Japan in 1930, when Yoko still was a toddler, and she did not return to France until 1950, when her schooling was completed". The Wikipedia author doubts this while there were severe restrictions on Japanese travelling outside Japan directly after WW II. However, the Japanese sources state that Itani had attended an elite Catholic girls' school in Tokyo, and through it secured a Catholic scholarship to study at the University of Paris.

Installing herself in Montmartre, she developed an immediate attraction to cabarets, nightclubs, and music-halls. Setting herself up as an exotic oriental beauty she quickly established a reputation for her provocatively sexy ‘geisha’ dances, which generally ended with her slipping out of her kimono.

It was here she was spotted by famous director Marcel Carné, who took her into his circle of artistic friends, including French actor Roland Lesaffre, whom she would marry in 1956.

As a result, she began to get bit parts in films - starting as a Japanese dancer, in Le port du désir/House on the Waterfront (Edmond T. Gréville, 1954) starring Jean Gabin - and on the stage, with a role as the blue lotus in la Petite Maison de Thé (a French adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon) at the Théâtre Montparnasse.

Other films in which she had small roles that year were the crime drama Les Clandestines/Vice Dolls (Raoul André, 1954) with Philippe Lemaire, the Fernandel comedy Ali Baba et les Quarante voleurs/Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Jacques Becker, 1954), Marchandes d'illusions/Nights of Shame (Raoul André, 1954) with Nicole Courcel, the crime film Les pépées font la loi/The Chicks Make the law (Raoul André, 1954) with Dominique Wilms, and the German production Verrat an Deutschland/Betrayal of Germany (Veit Harlan, 1954) starring Kristina Söderbaum.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 787. Photo: Studio Vauclair.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 800. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Absolutely Beguiling

Yoko Tani's involvement with cinema was, up to the mid 1950s, limited entirely to that of portraying stereotyped Orientals in French films.

With the end of the US occupation of Japan in 1952, however, postwar Japanese cinema itself burst upon the French scene, culminating in the years 1955 and 1956 when a total of six Japanese films, including Ikimono no Kiroku/I Live in Fear (Akira Kurosawa, 1955), were entered at the Cannes film festival.

At Cannes, Tani made contact with directors Akira Kurosawa and Hisamatsu Seiji, which led to a trip to Japan in 1956 by Tani and Lesaffre, and their joint appearance in the Toho production Fukuaki no seishun/Barefoot Youth (Taniguchi Senkichi, 1956). It was originally intended that the film would be directed by Kurosawa himself, but in the end it fell to his Toho colleague Taniguchi Senkichi. Tani and Lesaffre's ambition was to bring the film back to France and release it in the French market, an aim which was never achieved.

During the same trip, and also for Toho, Tani took a small role in Jōshû to tomo ni/Women in Prison (Hisamatsu Seiji, 1956), in which she played a westernised Japanese Catholic named Mary. This film, now virtually unobtainable, starred the legendary Japanese stars Hara Setsuko and Tanaka Kinuyo.

Early in 1957 Tani appeared in a small role in her first English-language film: the MGM production of Graham Greene's The Quiet American (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1957), a political drama set in French Indochina starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave. The American production was shot entirely in Rome with additional location scenes of Saigon. Tani played a francophone Vietnamese nightclub hostess.

She had her breakthrough in English-language cinema came with the war-time love story The Wind Cannot Read (Ralph Thomas, 1959). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb notes about her performance: “The cameras displayed a lovely, quiet beauty in the 1950's and she was absolutely beguiling”. The film had originally been a project of the British producer Alexander Korda, and was to have been directed by David Lean, who in 1955 travelled to Japan with author Richard Mason and cast Japanese actress Kishi Keiko as the female lead. At a very advanced stage, the project fell apart, and a few months later Korda died.

The pieces were eventually picked up by the Rank Organisation, and it was decided to produce the film using the script and locations already set out by Lean, with one of Rank's big stars, Dirk Bogarde, in the male lead as a British POW in a Japanese camp. Tani played his ill wife.

The film was a modest commercial success, and lead to further roles in British co-productions - as the Inuit Asiak in the Anglo-French-Italian The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray, 1959) with Anthony Quinn, and as the ingenue Seraphina in the crime drama Piccadilly Third Stop (Wolf Rilla, 1960).

Vintage card, no. 914.

Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 49142.

Meek Princess in Distress

Aside from The Quiet American, Yoko Tani’s only other Hollywood roles were in the comedy My Geisha (Jack Cardiff, 1962) starring Shirley MacLaine and Yves Montand - shot, however, on location in Japan - and the lively sex-comedy Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (Daniel Mann, 1963) with Dean Martin as a womanising soap-opera star.

Usually type-cast as an exotic, Tani nevertheless got to play unusual roles as a result. She portrayed Japanese medical doctor Sumiko Ogimura in one of the few Communist-bloc Sci-Fi films, the East-German/Polish film adaptation of Stanisław Lem's novel The Astronauts, Der schweigende Stern/Milcząca Gwiazda/First Spaceship on Venus (Kurt Maetzig, Hieronim Przybył, 1959).

Perhaps even more unusual (for the time) was her trip to the Vancouver Islands in Canada to play the role of Mary Ota in The Sweet and the Bitter (James Clavell, 1962-1967), which treated the aftermath of the wartime internment of Canadian Japanese and the loss of their properties and their businesses.

In Italy she became a customary player of meek princess-in-distress types in such Peplums as Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan/Maciste at the Court of the Great Khan (Riccardo Freda, 1961) starring muscleman Gordon Scott, and Ursus e la ragazza tartara/The Tartar Invasion (Remigio Del Grosso, 1961), which co-starred her husband, Roland Lesaffre.

In 1962, she returned to France. Her marriage to Lesaffre, who maintained an ongoing, homosexual liaison with Marcel Carné, was childless. It ended in divorce in 1962.

From this point on, she was to be more strictly Europe-based and to take on work mainly as a femme fatale in Eurospy films as OSS 77 – Operazione fior di loto/OSS77 – Operation Lotus (Bruno Paolinelli, 1967) with Dominique Boschero, and in the final two episodes of the popular British TV series Danger Man/Secret Agent, featuring Patrick McGoohan. These episodes – filmed in colour - were combined into one feature-length film, Koroshi (Michael Truman, Peter Yates, 1967) that was released theatrically in several countries.

Despite her involvement with film, Tani never abandoned her attachment to nightclub and cabaret. She worked as a stripper in the well-known Le Crazy Horse de Paris and other girlie clubs. Even as late as 1977, she had a small role in the Brazilian sexploitation thriller O Estripador de Mulheres/The Women Ripper (Juan Bajon, 1977). That year she also starred in a transvestite show in downtown São Paulo.

Her final film was the French comedy Ça fait tilt!/Tilt (André Hunebelle, 1978) with Bernard Menez and Eleonora Giorgi. On TV her final appearance was as a madam in the erotic anthology Serie rose/Softly from Paris (Walerian Borowczyk, 1986).

In later life Tani remarried, wedding Roger Laforet, a native of the seaside village of Binic in Brittany. A wealthy industrialist, Laforet was an associate of Baron Marcel Bich, co-founder of the BIC consumer products empire. Tani's declining years were spent between Paris and their house in Paimpol overlooking the sea. Gary Brumburgh adds at IMDb: “In later years she enjoyed painting and was devoted to her religion and her dog that she named ‘Toto’.”

Yoko Tani died of cancer in 1999 in Paris, after a long illness. She is buried in Binic, together with Laforet. Their tomb carries the Breton inscription «Ganeoc'h Bepred» (roughly, "Always With You"). Her late husband, Ronald Lesaffre, is buried together with Marcel Carné in his grave in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1391. Sadly the edges above and at right of the card were cut off by a former owner.

German trailer of Der schweigende Stern/Milcząca Gwiazda/First Spaceship on Venus (1959). Source: DEFA Stiftung (YouTube).

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Rolf Weih (1906–1969) was a German film actor, who played supporting parts in many comedies and musicals of the 1930s and 1940s. After the war he appeared in numerous Heimat-films in West-Germany.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2873/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Baumann / Terra.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3236/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tita Binz.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no A 3514/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tita Binz / Terra.

Young lover with a comedic note

Rolf Weih was born in 1906 in Barmen near Wuppertal, Germany. He was the son of a medical board.

After his graduation from high school, Weih did a commercial apprenticeship. He then worked in various industries, including as an engineer at Siemens & Halske in Berlin.

Weih also appeared as an amateur magician at the vaudeville circuit and performed as a cabaret artist. He did performances in Hamburg and Paris. In 1927 he got an engagement at the Rose-Theater in Berlin for three years.

In 1930, he played his first small film role in Flachsmann als Erzieher/Flachsmann as an educator (Carl Heinz Wolff, 1930) with Paul Henckels and Charlotte Ander.

Weih took acting lessons and performed as an operetta buffo in various provincial theatres. In 1936, the Ufa brought him for the film camera for the film Männer vor der Ehe/Men before marriage (Carl Boese, 1936). From then on, Weih worked mainly as a film actor.

He had a supporting part in the Propaganda film Kameraden auf See/Comrades at Sea (Heinz Paul, 1938), starring Theodor Loos. The film is set during the Spanish Civil War, which it portrays as a Communist uprising against the lawful government.

Weih appeared often as the young lover with a comedic note, for example, in Der Gouverneur/The Governor (Viktor Tourjansky, 1939) as the partner of Hannelore Schroth. In Lauter Liebe/Nothing but Love (Heinz Rühmann, 1940), he had one of his few leading roles opposite Hertha Feiler and also did a singing number.

He also appeared in the Revue film Wir machen Musik/We Make Music (Helmut Käutner, 1942), starring Ilse Werner and Viktor de Kowa, and the comedy Meine Frau Teresa/My Wife Theresa (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1942) starring Elfie Mayerhofer and Hans Söhnker.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 130, 1941-1944. Photo: Terra / Quick.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 167, 1941-1944. Photo: Terra / Quick.

Diabolical Dr. Mabuse

After the war, Rolf Weih was seen in the West-German crime comedy Freitag, der 13/Friday the Thirteenth (Erich Engels, 19489), starring Fritz Kampers, Angelika Hauff and Fita Benkhoff.

It was already made in 1944 by Tobis, but the film was not released before the end of the Second World War. Several Nazi-era productions were given releases in the years after the end of the war.

Weih also had a supporting part in the crime film Mordprozeß Dr. Jordan/The Murder Trial of Doctor Jordan (Erich Engels, 1949), starring Rudolf Fernau and Maria Holst.

During the 1950s, he became a busy supporting actor and participated in numerous Heimat-films. Examples are Grün ist die Heide/The Heath Is Green (Hans Deppe, 1951) with Sonja Ziemann and Rudolf Prack, and Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen/Through the Forests and Through the Trees (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1956) with Eva Bartok.

In East-Germany he appeared in the musical Rauschende Melodien/Swelling Melodies (E.W. Fiedler, 1955), based on the operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) by Johann Strauss II and Richard Genée and produced by the state-backed DEFA studios.

Among his final films were Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse/Diabolical Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1960) with Dawn Addams, and the Freddy Quinn musicals Freddy und die Melodie der Nacht/Freddy and the Melody of the Night (Wolfgang Schleif, 1960) and Freddy und das Lied der Südsee/Freddy and the Song of the South Seas (Werner Jacobs, 1962).

For health reasons, he had to restrict his professional activity from 1961 on. Rolf Weih was married to the dancer Ira Kraut and was the father of two children.

In 1969, Rolf Weih died after a heart attack in Frankfurt am Main and was buried in the Berlin cemetery Wilmersdorf. He was 63.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3586/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Dührkoop.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3634/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Terra / Quick.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3655/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wesel / Berlin Film.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line – German), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Recently Ivo Blom acquired a series of Polish postcards of Polish films and stars of the late 1920s and early 1930s. We knew very little of this cinema and its stars, although EFSP did some earlier posts on actors like Zbigniew Sawan and a few others. But there are many Polish postcards from this period, often published by the company Polonia in Krakow. For this post we did a bit of research on film stars like Jadwiga Smosarska and Irma Green and we added some postcards to Ivo's from the collections of Joanna and Didier Hanson and from my own collection.

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow. Photo: Jadwiga Smosarska in Tredowata/The Leper (Boleslaw Mierzejewski, Edward Puchalski, 1927).

Jadwiga Smosarska (1898-1971) was the biggest star of the Polish cinema of the pre-WW II era. From 1919 on, the Polish actress made more than 25 silent and sound films. She also was very successful on stage. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, she fled to the US. In 1970, she returned to Poland.

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 1648. Photo: Van Dyck.

Polish actress Irena Gawęcka (1901-1982) was a star of the late silent Polish cinema, who made 5 films between 1928 and 1930.

Marja Gorczynska in Tajemnica lekarza (1930)

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. P. 56-10, 1707. Photo: Paramount-Film.

Marja Gorczynska was the female star of Tajemnica lekarza (Ryszard Ordynski, 1930). The film was shot at the Paramount studios in Joinville near Paris. It was one of the eleven alternative language versions of The Doctor's Secret (William C. de Mille, 1929), based on J.M. Barrie's play Half an Hour, and all shot at Paramount in Paris. In the original American version, Ruth Chatterton had the female lead.

Andrzej Karewicz and Irma Green in Mascotte (1930)

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow. Photo: Zoro-Film. Andrzej Karewicz and Irma Green in the film Mascotte (Aleksander Ford, 1930), scripted by Jerzy Dal-Atan.

Mascotte was Aleksander Ford's first feature as director. Ford is better known for his post-war documentary Majdanek - cmentarzysko Europy/Majdanek – the Cemetery of Europe (1945) and the fiction films Ulica Graniczna/Border Street (1949), Piątka z ulicy Barskiej/Five Boys from Barska Street (1954) and Krzyżacy/Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960). Yet, he had already made five feature fiction films and several documentaries and shorts in the 1930s before fleeing to the USSR in the late 1930s when WWII broke out. He returned a convinced and stern communist, became head of the government controlled Film Polski, and was for 20 years professor at the famous Lodz National Film School. During the 1968 Polish crisis, and the raising anti-Jewish sentiments, the Jewish Ford fled the country. Blacklisted and publicly silenced by the communist government and unable to produce successful films abroad, he committed suicide in a Florida hotel in 1980.

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 1342. Photo: Dorys, Warszawa.

Andrzej Karewicz (1894-1969) was a handsome Polish film actor who appeared in six films in his country between 1928 en 1935. In 1930, he appeared in Aleksander Ford's feature debut Mascotte (1930) with Irma Green.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5374. Photo: Kiesel.

Polish actress Irma Green (or Gren) appeared in a handful of silent Polish and German films of the laste 1920s.

Living Pictures Theatre

The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of film. The first cinema in Poland (then occupied by the Russian Empire) was founded in Łódź in 1899, several years after the invention of the Cinematograph. Initially dubbed 'Living Pictures Theatre', it became very popular and by the end of the next decade there were cinemas in almost every major town of Poland.

The earliest surviving feature film, Antoś pierwszy raz w Warszawie/Antoś for the First Time in Warsaw (1908), was directed by and starred Antoni Fertner. The date of its première, 22 October 1908, is considered the founding date of the Polish film industry.

Soon Polish artists started experimenting with other genres of cinema: in 1910 Władysław Starewicz made one of the first animated cartoons in the world - and he was the first to use the stop motion technique, for Piękna Lukanida/Beautiful Lukanida. The Russian revolution forced him to flee to France.

At the end of World War I, when Poland regained independence following over 120 years of occupation, the Polish film industry took off. The large majority of films produced by the burgeoning industry were melodramas and patriotic films.

Polish silent cinema unearthed a major star, who could take advantage of the internationalism afforded by the absence of dialogue. Born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec, it was as Pola Negri that she shone in first Polish, then German, and finally in American silents films.

Polish cinematography developed dynamically during the inter-war period. Over 150 film studios were set up. Among the most important ones were Sfinks, Leo-Film and Falanga. Their yearly production would amount to 30 features and between 100 and 300 shorts. One of the most important films of the period was Cham/The Boor (Jan Nowina-Przybylski, 1931) with Mieczyslaw Cybulski. The film, an adaptation of Eliza Orzeszkowa's novel, was shown in 13 different countries.

One of the leading figures of the period was director Henryk Szaro, a one-time student of theatre innvovator Vsevolod Meyerhold, and who went on to direct significant films such as Mocny Człowiek/The Strong Man (1929) with Gregori Chmara. Szaro also flourished in the sound era; he made the Faustian drama Pan Twardowski/Mistr Twardowski (1936) and followed it with a Yiddish film, Klamstwo Krystyny/The Vow (1939), on the eve of the war. Szaro, a Polish Jew, was shot dead in 1942 after the Nazis invaded Warsaw.

The chaos and destruction wrought by the second world war meant that Poland had to reinvent its film industry from the ground up after 1945. Ironically, probably the best-known film to survive Poland's pre-war period is the Yiddish musical Yidl mitn fidl/Yidl with a Fiddle (Joseph Green, Jan Nowina-Przybylski, 1936), shot in Krakow's Kazimierz district with an imported American star, Molly Picon.

Irena Gawecka and Mieczyslaw Cybulski in Magdalena (1929)

Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 1352. Photo: Enhafilm. Publicity still for Magdalena (Konstanty Meglicki, 1929) with Irena Gawecka and Mieczyslaw Cybulski.

Russian-born Mieczyslaw Cybulski (1903-1984) appeared in 26 Polish films between 1927 and 1939. Then the Nazis forced him to fly the country and his film career abruptly ended. He died in Fort Lauderdale, in the U.S., at the age of 81.

Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 1403. Photo: Paramount-Film. Publicity still for Tajemnica Lekarza/The Doctor's Secret (Ryszard Ordynski, 1930).

Polish actor Zbigniew Sawan (1904-1984) starred both in silent and sound film, and was also a respected stage actor in his country. He also worked as a theatre director and manager.

Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 923. Collection: Joanna.

Polish actor Harry Cort (1905-?) came from a royal dynasty and had a short film career with starring roles in three silent films, 9:25. Przygoda jednej nocy (1929), Halka (1930) and Karuzela zycia (1930).

Zbyszko Sawan and Aleksander Zelwerowicz in Huragan (1928)

Polish postcard, no. 83. Photo: publicity still for Huragan/Hurricane (Joseph Lejtes, 1928) with Aleksander Zelwerowicz and Zbigniew Sawan. Collection: Joanna.

Aleksander Zelwerowicz (1877-1955) was a Polish actor, director, theatre president and a teacher. He received the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest Orders. He is also one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations, recognized by Yad Vashem as non-Jews who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust.

Marja Malicka and Zbyszko Sawan in Dzikuska (1928)

Polish postcard by Edition Victoria. Photo: Lux. Publicity still for Dzikuska/Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928) with Marja Malicka and Zbigniew Sawan. Collection: Joanna.

Maria Malicka (1900-1992) was married to Zbigniew Sawan and also often his co-star. She starred in 9 Polish film before the Second World War and returned to the screen some 30 years later as a cleaning lady in Jerzy Skolimowski's acclaimed film Bariera/Barrier (1966).

Jadwiga Smosarska. Polish postcard by BHK, no. 7. Photo: Sfinks. Publicity still for Tredowata/The Leper (Boleslaw Mierzejewski, Edward Puchalski, 1927). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Andrew Pulver (The Guardian), A Foreigner's Guide to Polish Cinema, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Grit Hegesa (1891–1972) was a German dancer and silent film actress. She appeared in seventeen films, including Ewald André Dupont's crime film Whitechapel (1920).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 363/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Frieda Riess.

Wahnsinn

Grit Hegesa was born as Caroline Margaretha Schmidt in Niederlahnstein, German Empire, in 1891.

After attending dance and acting lessons in Brighton in the U.K., she made her first appearances on stage in Germany.

In 1911 Hegesa married businessman Johann Nikolaus Meyer, but they divorced in 1919.

Grit Hegesa made her film debut in Des Prokurators Tochter/The procurator's daughter (William Wauer, 1917) with Adolf Klein and Hermann Thimig.

She became known for such silent films as Hotel Esplanade (Karin Swanström, 1919), the horror film Wahnsinn/Madness (Conrad Veidt, 1919) starring Conrad Veidt, Hegesa and Reinhold Schünzel, and Der weisse Pfau/The White Peacock (Ewald André Dupont, 1920).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Children of darkness

Grit Hegesa played the leading role in the two-part drama Kinder der Finsternis - 1. Der Mann aus Neapel/Children of darkness - 1. The man from Naples (Ewald André Dupont, 1921) and Kinder der Finsternis - 2. Kämpfende Welte/Children of Darkness - 2. Fighting Worldsn (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Hans Mierendorff.

Her final film was Fräulein Else/Miss Else (Paul Czinner, 1929) starring Elisabeth Bergner.

Besides her activity as a film actress, she also acted regularly on stage and performed as a dancer.

Since 1925, Hegesa was married with the artist painter Emil van Hauth. Grit Hegesa died in 1972 in Munich, Germany. She was 80

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (1928) was one of the last silent films of director Jean Renoir. The lavish historical film was scripted by Henry Dupuis-Mazuel. Sets were designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens, and costumes by George Barbier. The exteriors were shot in the medieval French city of Carcassonne.

Blanche Bernis in Le tournoi dans la cité (1928)

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 208. Photo: publicity still for Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928), with Blanche Bernis as Cathérine de Médicis.

Jackie Monnier in Le Tournoi de la Cité (1928)

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 210. Photo: publicity still for Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928), with Jackie Monnier as Isabelle Ginori.

The winner of the tournament will be Isabelle's husband

The story of Le tournoi dans la cité takes place in 16th Century France, during the reign of the young King Charles IX (Gérard Mock) and his mother Catherine de Medici (Blanche Bernis).

The beautiful Isabelle Ginori (Jackie Monnier) becomes engaged to a Catholic gentleman, Henri de Rogier (Enrique Rivero). Unfortunately, the cruel Protestant leader De Baynes (Aldo Nadi) meets Isabelle and declares in lively terms that she will belong to him.

Count Ginori (Manuel Raabi), the girl's relative, declines the proposal, so François kills him in a duel. For political reasons, the Queen is ready to unite Isabelle and François, but a mistress of the latter, Lucrezia Pazzi (Viviane Clarens), intervenes.

Catherine decides that the winner of the tournament will become Isabelle's husband. François surpasses his rival, but the corpse of Ginori is discovered and the culprit unmasked. Charged by the guard, François succumbs. Isabelle and Henri may finally become engaged.

Who were the actors in this little known film by Jean Renoir? Jackie Monnier would also act in Jean Renoir's final silent film, Le Bled/The Bled (1929). She also appeared in G.W. Pabst's Westfront 1918 (1930) and some 10 other films.

The hero, Chilean actor Enrique Rivero, would become famous for his part in Jean Cocteau's Le sang d'un poète/The Blood of a poet (1930). For a time he was known as the European Rudolph Valentino.

Aldo Nadi was a professional fencer, who had one of his rare film roles here. He also played a bodyguard in the Humphrey Bogart classic To Have and To Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944).

Little is known about Blanche Bernis, who had a career in late 1920s and 1930s French film. She first played a prostitute in Alberto Cavalcanti's city symphony Rien que les heures (1926).

Her debut was followed by a peak in 1928 films: Cavalcanti's Guy de Maupassant adaptation Yvette (1928) and his En Rade (1928), both starring Catherine Hessling, Renoir's Le tournoi dans la cité (1928), plus Ewald André Dupont's Moulin Rouge (1928), starring Olga Tschechova.

In 1929 she played in L'arpète by Donatien, starring Lucienne Legrand.

In the sound era, Bernis acted in three films: the drama Le train des suicidés (Edmond T. Gréville, 1931), Judex 34 (Maurice Champreux, 1934), and Gosse de Riche (Maurice de Canonge, 1938), starring Madeleine Robinson and Pierre Brasseur.

Enrique Rivero in Le tournoi dans la cité (1928)

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 207. Photo: publicity still for Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928), with Enrique (de) Rivero as Henri de Rogier.

The European Valentino

Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928) was commissioned by Société des Films Historiques, a historical society to commemorate 500 years of history of the medieval French city of Carcassonne, where the film was made.

According to D.B. DuMonteil at IMDb, director Jean Renoir did not take the consignment seriously: "It's the (modest) granddaddy of La Reine Margot and other costume dramas in the catholic vs protestants background. It seems that the director had a comfortable budget at his disposal, but it's far from being more than a footnote in his oeuvre."

While the first night of Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (1928) took place in Brussels in December 1928, the Parisian premiere was on 9 February 1929 at the cinema Marivaux.

For many years this silent Renoir was considered lost, except for an abbreviated 40-minute print that could only have provided a tantalising hint of the splendour of the original feature.

Michael Neumann at IMDb calls the restored film 'a handsome medieval romance': "Agile camera-work and painterly lighting effects lend momentum to a drama which otherwise has a tendency to become bogged down in narrative exposition and meticulous period detail, up until the stirring climactic joust."

And the anonymous author at BAMPFA adds: "Although Renoir confessed an aversion to the 'pageantry' genre, he took the opportunity to invent some bravura camera strokes (including at least one magnificently conceived tracking shot) and invested the film with an impressive realism of place (shooting the exteriors in Carcassone), historical detail, and psychology. The highlight of the film is its beautifully staged tournaments and jousts, for which Renoir employed the members of the famous riding school in Samour."

Suzanne Desprès in Le tournoi dans la cité (1928)

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 3. Photo: publicity still for Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928), with Suzanne Desprès as La Comtesse de Baynes.

Viviane Clarens in Le tournoi dans la cité (Jean Renoir 1928)

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 202. Photo: publicity still for Le tournoi dans la cité/The Tournament (Jean Renoir, 1928), with Viviane Clarens as Lucrezia Pazzi.

Sources: Michael Neumann (IMDb), D.B. DuMonteil (IMDb), BAMPFA, Wikipedia and IMDb.

With his nonchalant playboy image and his legendary irony, singer and actor Jacques Dutronc (1943) is one of the most popular performers in the French-speaking world. He wrote successful songs for his later wife Françoise Hardy in the 1960s before moving on to pursue a successful solo career. In 1973, he branched out into film acting, and earned a Cesar for Best Actor in 1992 for the leading role in Van Gogh (1992). Dutronc is often portrayed with a gauloise or a big cigar in the mouth.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 1416. Promotion card for Disques Vogue. Photo: Bernard Leloup (Salut Les Copains).

Belgian postcard by Edt Decker, Brussels, no. A 119. Photo: Disques Vogue.

Belgian collectors Card by Clark, Brussels. Illustration: Tibet.

French promotion card for Disques Vogue. Photo: Gilbert Moreau.

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, Tessancourt, no. CP 374. Design: G. Ochecki. Caption: Merde in France.

Openly Provocative Style

Jacques Dutronc was born in Paris in 1943. He grew up in a highly musical environment at home as his father, an engineer, was a passionate music fan.

Jacques learned to play the piano at an early age and soon progressed to the guitar, which would become the favourite instrument of his teenage years. Between 1963 and 1964, Dutronc played guitar for the yé-yé group El Toro et les Cyclones. During this time he also appeared as backing guitarist for 60s star Eddy Mitchell, the former lead singer of Les Chaussettes Noires.

His teenage music career was cut short, when he was sent off to do his miltary service in Germany. After his return, he landed a job as an assistant of Jacques Wolfsohn at Vogue Records. He arranged songs for several lesser known artists such as Zou Zou and Cleo.

Dutronc later wrote a whole string of hits for the popular teenage star Françoise Hardy including Va pas prendre un tambour and C'est le temps de l'amour. He teamed up with writer Jacques Lanzmann, and one of their first commissions was for the pop singer Benjamin.

After Benjamin's first EP failed to perform, Vogue Records dismissed the singer. After hearing one of the demos that Dutronc had produced, his boss declared that Jacques should perform the record for release. This single, Et moi, et moi, et moi (1966) turned Dutronc into a star. (In 1973, an English version Alright Alright Alright became an international hit for the group Mungo Jerry.)

The French public adored the singer’s nonchalant stage persona and his openly provocative style. In an age where most pop stars were growing hippy beards and dressing in Afghan coats and bell-bottom jeans, Dutronc’s tailored suits and chic silk ties were guaranteed to make him stand out from the crowd.

The 10-year collaboration of Lanzmann and Dutronc produced several of Dutronc’s best-known hits. His songs combine American and British musical influences with French lyrical themes. Many of his early songs feature a British garage sound comparable to that of Ray Davies of The Kinks.

Dutronc is distinctive for his mocking attitude toward late 1960s French youth culture. His biggest hit was Il est cinq heures, Paris s'eveille, in which he paints an evocative portrait of the French capital in the early morning hours.

Jacques Dutronc, El Toro et les Cyclones

El Toro et les Cyclones. French postcard by Éditions Publistar (E.P.M.B.), no. 759. Photo: Disques Vogue.

El Toro et les Cyclones was a French rock group, active in the early 1960s. Their songs included French versions of foreign hits like L'Oncle John (Long Tall Sally) in 1961 and Le Vagabond (The Wanderer) in 1962. The group members were Daniel Dray (singer), Jacques Dutronc (solo guitar), Hadi Kalafate (bass guitar) and Charles Benarroch (drums). In 1962, Benarroch left the group to form Les Fantômes, and was replaced by André Crudo.

French promotion card by Disques Vogue, no. 1416. Photo: Paul Koll P.P.P.

French collectors card in the series 'Hit Collection' by Figurine Panini, no. 37. Photo: Vogue.

French postcard by PSG, no. 1345. Promotion card for Disques Vogue.

French postcard, no. 3.

Hip Retro Clubs

In 1973, Jacques Dutronc began a second career as a film actor. He made his debut in Antoine et Sébastien/ Antoine and Sebastian (Jean-Marie Périer, 1973) with François Périer.

Next he played Romy Schneider’s husband in L'important c'est d'aimer/That Most Important Thing: Love (Andrzej Żuławski, 1974). The film was an international hit. He also appeared with her in Mado (Claude Sautet, 1976).

Another popular film was Violette & François (Jacques Rouffio, 1977) in which he co-starred with Isabelle Adjani.

In the 1980s, Dutronc focused on his acting career, and worked sometimes with major directors as Claude Lelouch at A Nous Deux/ An Adventure for Two (1979), Jean-Luc Godard at Sauve qui peut (la vie)/Slow Motion (1980), and Barbet Schroeder at Tricheurs/Cheaters (1984).

Most of his films in this period were mediocre though. Then he was awarded the Cesar for his unusual portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in the final 67 days of his life in Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat, 1992).

He co-starred with Isabelle Huppert in the suspense thriller Merci pour le chocolat/Thanks for the Chocolate (Claude Chabrol, 2000), with Sandrine Bonnairein C'est la vie/Thats Life (Jean-Pierre Améris, 2001), and with Charlotte Rampling in the comedy Embrassez qui vous voudrez/Summer Things (Michel Blanc, 2002).

Since then he was seen in the thriller Joseph et la fille'/Joseph and the Girl (Xavier De Choudens, 2010), and most recently in the comedy Les Francis (Fabrice Begotti, 2014).

In 2005, he won an honorary César for his whole film career. Jacques Dutronc currently lives in the town of Monticello on the island of Corsica. In 1967 he started to live together with singer Francoise Hardy. They married in 1981 and have a son, Thomas (1973), who grew up to become a successful jazz and pop musician.

Dutronc recorded in 1995 the new album called A part ça. He also enjoyed a resurgence of popular interest in his music. Since the early Dutronc songs had a classic late-sixties freakbeat backing, his songs were played in the hip retro clubs of the UK and US.

In 2010 Dutronc went on a successful new tour with more than 80 concerts. In November 2014, Dutronc performed a series of concerts with Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday at Paris Bercy, under the name 'Les vieilles canailles (The Old Gits).

In 1998, Jacques Dutromc began a relationship with a stylist whom he had met on the set of the film Place Vendôme. Dutronc and Hardy are now separated, but remain married and see each other regularly. He currently lives in the town of Monticello, Corsica.

French postcard by Editions Bertrand, Paris, in the series Les Années 60. Photo: Patrick Bertrand.

German promotion card by Deutsche Schallplatten Gmbh. Photo: Wolfgang Kühn, Duisburg.

Belgian postcard by Edt Decker, Brussels, no. A 119.

French postcard, no. 202.

Dutch collectors card in the series 'Filmsterren: een Portret' by Edito Service, 1993. Photo: Collection Christophe L. Caption: Jacques Dutronc, 1980, Frankrijk.

Sources: Yuri German (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.

Max Munn Autrey (1891-1971) was an American photographer who worked in Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s. He portrayed many of the Fox stars. Autrey was also the uncredited still photographer on such Hollywood classics as 7th Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927), Sunrise (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1927) and Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936).

Victor McLaglen. French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 332. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for What Price Glory? (Raoul Walsh, 1926).

Janet Gaynor, Nancy Drexel, Barry Norton and Charles Morton in 4 Devils (1928). Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 708. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for 4 Devils (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1928).

Greta Nissen. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3081/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Dolores del Rio in The Red Dance (1928). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3905/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for The Red Dance (Raoul Walsh, 1928). Del Rio is wearing a kokoshnik (Russian: коко́шник; IPA: [kɐˈkoʂnʲɪk]), a traditional Russian head-dress worn by women and girls.

George O'Brien. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 315. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Mystique and sensuousness

Max Munn Autrey was born in 1891 in Dallas, Texas, USA.

He was trained as a painter, but as an adult, Autrey moved around the state taking photographs. He was employed by P.T. Collier & Son in Dallas, per his World War I registration papers.

In 1918, he married his wife, Bonnie, in her hometown of Tyler. They lived in Burleson in 1920, but soon decided to move to California.

In 1922, the great Hollywood photographer Albert Witzel needed a steady hand to help produce the many portraits turned out by his studio, occasioned by the departure of his head photographer Walter Frederick Seely to establish his own studio.

Autrey’s artistry impressed the portraitist, renowned for producing high-quality, striking images. Autrey found his niche in portraiture, helping devise mystique and sensuousness in star portraits. Clients loved the lush look of his portraits and seated compositions.

Industry enthusiasm for Autrey’s work was so great that Witzel established a branch studio in Hollywood, run by Autrey from 1922 to 1925. Pictures and Picture Goer called Autrey “a master photographer” in an August 1925 article, stating that he produced most of the Witzel Studios portraits and earned that position only two months after joining the studio.

The Fox Film Corporation quickly seized upon Autrey and his talents, signing him to an exclusive contract late in the year. His first assignment as a still photographer for Fox was the drama Hell's Four Hundred (John Griffith Wray, 1926) starring Margaret Livingston.

Soon followed more prestigious assignments like What Price Glory? (Raoul Walsh, 1926), 7th Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927) with Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, and Street Angel (Frank Borzage, 1928). Autrey became noted for his glamorous style.

For director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau he did the stills for Sunrise (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1927) starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor, and the lost masterpiece Four Devils (1928). Later followed Dressed to Kill (1928) with Mary Astor.

Autrey portrayed many film stars. He photographed Madge Bellamy coyly poised on tiptoe for The Play Girl (Arthur Rosson, 1928) and portrayed Dolores del Rio as an exotic Russian dancer for The Red Dance (Raoul Walsh, 1928).

Lou Tellegen. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 307. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film.

Buck Jones. French postcard, no. 5031. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Janet Gaynor. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5702. Photo Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film.

Charles Farrell. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5889. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Victor McLaglen in What Price Glory? (1926). Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5053. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for What Price Glory? (Raoul Walsh, 1926).

A sharp focus, high-contrast style

Max Autrey employed a sharp focus, high-contrast style, inscribing his name into the negative. Fox stars soon appeared as radiant and ravishing as those at the more luxurious studios, posing as Jazz Age cuties, holiday belles, and, like actor George O’Brien, almost nude camera studies.

One of the best known stars photographed by Max Autrey for Fox is Clara Bow. He photographed her for her early sound film Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon, 1932). David Atfield at IMDb: “What a film! Daring to tackle issues few films would even look at today. Stunningly photographed and directed, and with greater style than many early talkies.”

Bow was known as the ‘It’ girl. Cathy Curtis in the L.A. Times: “’It’ of course, really meant ‘sex’, and, even in the demure bathing suit of the time, Bow's exuberant, upraised-arm stance in swirling surf gave her an air of ready-for-anything sauciness.”

In 1932, Autrey established his own portrait studio on the side, where he worked part-time. Many Fox stars and other film people continued coming to him for portraits and special work at the 7075 Sunset Blvd. location.

Autrey’s best known later works are his stills for Chaplin’s Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936). During the same time, his wife, Bonnie, began breeding and selling Irish setters out of their home, dogs which won many awards at competitions.

As time passed, Autrey turned his attention to shooting society portraits, while occasionally making star headshots, which he entered in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Still Show.

During World War II, he shot photographs of soldiers on leave. While Autrey and many of his peers like Fred Hartsook, Albert Witzel, Nelson Evans, and Melbourne Spurr helped devise and establish the field of glamour photography in the 1910s and 1920s, they were all virtually forgotten by the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, Autrey closed his studio and retired.

Max Munn Autrey died in 1971 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 80, with little notice taken in local newspapers. In 1996, his photos were hanging alongside master photographer George Hurrell’s in the exhibition Still Men: The Glamour Photography of Max Munn Autrey and George Hurrell, 1920-1940 at the Laguna Beach Museum. It was the start of the rediscovery of one of the major pioneers of Hollywood glamour photography.

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in Seventh Heaven (1927). Italian postcard offered by Cioccolata Lurati, no. 124. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for Seventh Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927).

Janet Gaynor and Charles Morton in 4 Devils (1928). Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 720. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox. Publicity still for 4 Devils (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1928).

Charles Farrell and Dolores del Rio in The Red Dance (1928). Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 827. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film. Publicity still for The Red Dance (Raoul Walsh, 1928).

Janet Gaynor. Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no 107. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Greta Nissen. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5035. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Sources: Larry Harnish / Mary Mallory (The Daily Mirror), Cathy Curtis (LA Times), David Atfield (IMSb), Vintage Movie Star Photos, and IMDb.

Okay, the pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000, but what does it mean? For us, it's a good excuse to update the five most popular posts of all times and to thank you for visiting our blog. And we are Paul van Yperen and partner-in-crime Ivo Blom. Today, the most popular post ever. It was many times updated, the last time on 3 July 2015. The stats says 26,049 pageviews.

A highlight at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2015 is the open-air screening tonight of Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) in a magical black and white, thanks to a new restoration. Today's post is about Alain Delon (1935), the actor who played Rocco in this landmark Italian film. Delon was the breathtakingly good-looking James Dean of the European cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s who proved in this film that he was also a magnificent actor.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1967. retail price: 0,20 MDN.Photo: publicity still for Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 22. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 25.

French postcard by St. Anne, Marseille. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spanish postcard, no. 161. Photo: Philippe R. Doumic.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., Barcelona, no. 463, 1967.

Stormy Childhood

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, a suburb of Paris in 1935. His parents, Édith Arnold and Fabien Delon, divorced when Delon was four. He had a stormy childhood and was six times expelled from different schools.

At 14, Delon left school, and worked for a brief time at his stepfather Paul Boulogne's butcher shop. Three years later, the 17-year-old enlisted in the French Marines, serving in 1953-1954 in Indochina as a parachutist. In 1956, after being dishonourably discharged from the military, he returned to France. He had little money and worked at various odd jobs, including as a waiter, salesman, and porter in the Les Halles market.

During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber, and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where his film career would begin with a screentest for David O’Selznick. He didn't go to Hollywood, but decided to stay in France. He made his film debut in Quand la femmes s'en mele/Send a Woman When the Devil Fails (Yves Allégret, 1957).

In 1958, during the making of the love story Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1959), Delon met Romy Schneider. They would be engaged till 1964.

Delon’s first outstanding success came with the role of the parasite Tom Ripley in the sundrenched thriller Plein soleil/Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960), based on the crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Delon presented a psychological portrait of a murderous young cynic who attempts to take on the identity of his victim. The critics liked his performance. According to Wikipedia, Patricia Highsmith herself was also a fan of his portrayal.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne Eickel, no. 419. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1957.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1004. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1026. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Belgian postcard by D.R.C, licency holder for Belgium and Belgian Congo of Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4615. Photo: Sam Lévin / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by Muziekparade, Hilversum, no. AX 4701. Photo: Hafbo / Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 838. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3980. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film / Speva / Play Art Prod. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

The Eclipse

Luchino Visconti offered Alain Delon a totally different role in Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). In this film, he plays the devoted Sicilian immigrant Rocco, who accepts the greatest sacrifices to save his characterless brother Simone, played by Renato Salvatori. Delon received international recognition for this role.

The following year Alain Delon made his stage debut in Paris in Dommage qu'elle soit une putain/'Tis Pity She’s a Whore, alongside Romy Schneider. The play, written by John Ford, was directed by Luchino Visconti. The production cost a reported 60 million francs and broke box office records. It ran for more than 8 months.

Delon also gave tremendous performances in L'Eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) opposite Monica Vitti, and the epic Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) starring opposite Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. L’Eclisse won the Special Prize of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and the following year Il Gattopardo won the Golden Palm in Cannes.

After these acclaimed Italian films, Alain Delon returned to France and to the crime film in Mélodie en sous-sol/The Big Snatch (Henri Verneuil, 1963), with Jean Gabin. This classic genre film was distinguished by a soundly worked-out screenplay, by careful production and by excellent performances of both Gabin and Delon.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1383. Photo: Unifrance Film / Ufa.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 44. Photo: Unifrance / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 6176.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 444. Photo: Privat.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 42. Photo: Unifrance Film / Philippe R. Doumic.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1151A, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1161, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane. Photo: Pierre Manciet.

A bid for American stardom

By now Hollywood studios were very interested in Alain Delon and he decided to make a bid for American stardom. In 1965, MGM signed him to a five picture contract. The first movie of this deal was Les Félins/Joy House (René Clément, 1964), shot in France with Jane Fonda. He followed it up with two more films for the studio: the all-star The Yellow Rolls Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1965), in which Delon had a relatively small role, and Once a Thief (Ralph Nelson, 1965), where he co-starred with Ann-Margret.

Delon then signed a three picture deal with Columbia. He appeared for this studio in the big budget action film Lost Command (Mark Robson, 1966) with Anthony Quinn. Universal Studios used Delon in the Western Texas Across the River (Michael Gordon, 1966), opposite Dean Martin.

For Seven Arts, Delon starred in Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1966) about the liberation of Paris in August 1944 by the French Resistance and the Free French Forces. This was a massive hit in France but it performed disappointingly at the US box office - as did all of Delon's Hollywood financed films. So after six Hollywood movies Delon returned to France.

In the late sixties, Delon came to epitomise the calm, psychopathic hoodlum, staring into the camera like a cat assessing a mouse. His tough, ruthless side was used to grand effect in Le Samouraï/The Godson (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), maybe Delon’s finest moment. Later Melville directed him again in the crime films Le Cercle Rouge/The Red Circle (1970) with Bourvil and Yves Montand, and Un Flic/A Cop (1972) with Catherine Deneuve.

In 1968 Delon also in real life got involved in a murder scandal when one of his bodyguard was found shot dead on a garbage dump nearby Delon's house. Eventually Delon was cleared of all charges.

In the cinema, Alain Delon had a huge success in the bloodstained Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970). He and Jean-Paul Belmondo played small-time gangsters who become kings of the Marseilles underworld of the 1930s. He also produced Borsalino, and the film became one of France’s highest grossing films of the time. Between 1968 and 1990 he went on to produce 26 films.

Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in Christine

Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht. Photo: NV Meteor Film. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958) with Romy Schneider.

French postcard by the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris / Imp. Bussière A.G., Paris, 1990. Photo: Roger Pic. Alain Delon in the play Dommage qu'elle soit une p.../'Tis Pity She’s a Whore directed by Luchino Visconti (1961).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/95. Photo Sam Lévin. Another sexy publicity photo for Amours célèbres (Michel Boisrond, 1961) with Brigitte Bardot.

Monica Vitti and Alain Delon in L'eclisse, 1962

Small Romanian collectors card by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse/The Eclypse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) with Monica Vitti.

Alain Delon and Shirley MacLaine in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 313. Photo: publicity still for The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1964) with Shirley MacLaine.

Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) with Nathalie Delon.

Catherine Deneuve and Alain Delon in Le choc (1982)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Le choc/Shock (Robin Davis, 1982) with Catherine Deneuve.

Roles Against Type

In later years Alain Delon won critical acclaim for roles against type. In the Kafkaesk thriller Mr Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976) he was brilliant as the icily sinister art trader in German-occupied France.

In 1985 he was awarded the César Award as Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic in Notre histoire/Our Story (Bertrand Blier, 1984). Another acclaimed role was the homosexual Baron de Charlus in the fine Marcel Proust adaptation Un amour de Swann/Swann in Love (Volker Schlöndorf, 1984).

And in 1990, Delon worked with New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard on Nouvelle vague/New Wave (1990), in which he played twins. He also directed two films himself, Pour la peau d'un flic/For a Cop's Hide (1981) and Le Battant/The Fighter (1983).

A string of box office disasters in the next years culminated in 1998 in the unexpected failure of Une chance sur deux/Half a Chance (Patrice Leconte, 1998) in which Alain Delon was reunited with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Delon announced that he would give up acting. For his impressive film career he received the Legion d'Honneur, the highest French decoration.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 469. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., no. 572.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. Star 28.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3453. Photo: Michel Ginfray.

Astérix

Alain Delon returned in the cinema as Julius Cesarin Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques/Asterix at the Olympic Games (Frederic Forestier, Thomas Langmann, 2008), and he reunited with former girlfriend Mireille Darc in a stage adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller at the Marigny Theatre in Paris.

Alain Delon has a son, Christian Aaron Boulogne 'Ari' Päffgen (1962), from a relationship with German singer/supermodel Nico. The child was raised mostly by Delon's mother and stepfather. He broke the relationship with his mother after she insisted on taking care of Ari. They spoke again when his step-father died in 1988, the same year Nico died.

From his first marriage to Nathalie Delon (Nathalie Barthélemy) he has another son, Anthony Delon (1964), who also acted in a number of films. Then he was a longtime companion of actress Mireille Darc from 1968 to 1982. Then he had a relationship with Anne Parillaud. From his second marriage with former Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen he has a son Alain-Fabien (1990) and a daughter Anouchka (1994). Rosalie was 21 when she met Alain who was 52. They lived together from 1987 till 2001.

Today, Alain Delon lives in Geneva, Switzerland. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1999, and the company managing products sold under his name is based in Geneva. Since the formation of a perfume label in his name, Delon has had a variety of products sold under his name including wristwatches, clothing, eyewear, stationery and cigarettes.

His most recent film appearance was in the Russian comedy S Novym godom, mamy!/Happy New Year, Mommies! (Artyom Aksyonenko, Sarik Andreasyan, Anton Bormatov, Dmitriy Grachev, Klim Poplavskiy, 2012).

Trailer Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his Brothers (1960). Source: Filmmuseum Amsterdam (YouTube).

Trailer for Mélodie en sous-sol/The Big Snatch (1963). Source: Curtis Hayden (YouTube).

Trailer Le Samouraï/The Godson (1967). Source: Edwin Nieves (YouTube).

Trailer La Piscine/The Pool (1968). Source: Filmmuseum Amsterdam (YouTube).

Sources: Alain Delon.ch, Wikipedia, Sarah (IMDb), Il Cinema Ritrovato and IMDb.

Yesterday, 11 August 2018, the pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000. In the upcoming days, we'll update our five most popular posts of all times to commemorate this milestone. We start with number 5: an I.M. for Aïché Nana, which we posted at EFSP on 31 January 2014, two days after her death. This post had 8581 views, till now.

On 29 January, Lebanese actress and former belly dancer Aïché Nana (1940-2014) died. In 1958, a 'striptease' by the then 18 years old Nana at a Roman party caused an international scandal. Subsequently she became one of the icons of ‘La Dolce Vita’, the liberated era of sex, drugs and rock & roll as documented by Federico Fellini. Aïché Nana appeared in 15 European films between 1956 and 1985.

Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano (Milan), no. 238.

High-powered Publicity

Aïché Nana was born as Kiash Nanah in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1940.

She became a famous belly-dancer in Istanbul and soon also danced in Paris left-bank cabarets. She reportedly employed high-powered publicity to sell her act to European producers. In 1956 French newspapers reported her mysterious disappearance from a Paris cabaret after writing a single word on a paper in her dressing room: "Farewell”. After the French police was alerted and in the midst of all the publicity, she suddenly returned in good shape.

In 1958, the then 18 year old dancer caused a scandal that alerted the world to the luxurious and decadent lifestyle of the international jet-set in Rome that soon would become known as La Dolce Vita. Thanks to Cinecittà, the film production studios on the east side of the city, Rome had become a popular location for Hollywood films, and the foreign stars and writers began hanging out in the bars of Via Veneto.

On that historical November night, the Swedish actress Anita Ekberg danced barefoot at a party in the Rugantino, a trattoria in Trastevere before Aïché Nana stripped to her knickers. The public was a mix of playboys, film stars like Linda Christian and Elsa Martinelli, and aristocrats, who fled when the police arrived. To the police Aïcha claimed that merrymakers had ripped off her clothes.

The next day the striptease became a historical scandal when gossip columnist Victor Ciuffa published photo’s taken by Tazio Secchiaroli in his column in the newspaper, Corriere d'Informazione. Years later, Ciuffa would claimn to be the subject for the Marcello Mastroianni character in La Dolce Vita/The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960))

The published photos gave lie to Aïché Nana’s story to the police. Italian authorities threatened her with a three year jail sentence and she quickly returned to Paris where striptease was permitted at the time.

The photos were published in magazines all over the world, including the famous American weekly Life. Later both Anita Ekberg's barefoot dance and Aïché Nana’s striptease were immortalised in La Dolce Vita/The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960). Tazio Secchiaroli, the original paparazzo, became the director’s privileged stills photographer.

Aïché Nana’s striptease in Rugantino. Photos: Tazio Secchiaroli. Source: Iconic Photos.

Nunsploitation

Aïché Nana ad already appeared as a dancer in the French-Italian adventure film La châtelaine du Liban/The Lebanese Mission (Richard Pottier, 1956) starring Jean-Claude Pascal and Omar Sharif. Just 16, she stayed in Europe and danced ín the Frankie Howerd comedy A Touch of the Sun (Gordon Parry, 1956).

Following her moment of infamy, Nana became something of a celebrity. So, she stepped up to proper, secondary roles in the 1960s. The majority of her parts were in Euro-Westerns where her dark looks made her a natural at playing Mexicans. She appeared with bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay in the Spanish-Italian Western Lo sceriffo che non spara/The Sheriff Won’t Shoot (José Luis Monter, Renato Polselli, 1965).

Among her other Spaghetti Westerns were Thompson 1880 (Guido Zurli, 1966) with George Martin and Gordon Mitchell, Crisantemi per un branco di carogne/Chrysanthemums for a Bunch of Swine (Sergio Pastore, 1968) with Edmund Purdom, and Giurò... e li uccise ad uno ad uno/Gun Shy Piluk (Guido Celano, 1968) also starring Purdom as a coffin maker.

She also appeared in the thriller A... come assassin/A… Like Assassin (Angelo Dorigo, 1966) starring Alan Steel (aka the Italian actor Sergio Ciani) and was the leading lady of another Italian thriller Due occhi per uccidere/Two Eyes To Kill (Renato Borraccetti, 1968).

In the 1970s she appeared in Edipeon (Lorenzo Arato, 1970) with Magali Noël and Massimo Serato, the Oscar nominated comedy I nuovi mostri/The New Monsters (Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, 1977) starring Vittorio Gassmann and Ornella Muti, and the Nunsploitation film Immagini di un convent/Images in a Convent (Joe D’Amato, 1979).

In the 1980s followed roles in two big budget productions. In Marco Ferreri’s Storia di Piera/The Story of Piera (1983) she supported a star cast including Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla and Marcello Mastroianni. Her final film was the British-American Bible epic King David (Bruce Beresford, 1985) starring Richard Gere as the King of Israel who took on Goliath.

Aïché Nana was married to director Sergio Pastore (1932-1987), who had directed her in Crisantemi per un branco di carogne

German trailer for Thompson 1880 (Guido Zurli, 1966). Don't glimpse or you'll miss Aïché. Source: The Spaghetti Western Database (YouTube).

Sources: La Repubblica (Italian), Corriere della Sera (Italian), Matt Blake (The Wild Eye), Tom Kington (The Observer), Benito Carlo Jr. (The Inside Story via Modern Mechanix Blog), Life and IMDb.

On 11 August 2018, the pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000. We commemorate this milestone with updates of our five most popular posts of all times. Today number 4, the first part of a double post on Claudia Cardinale. It was last updated on 16 November 2015 and counted 9822 page views. Click here for Part 2.

Italian actress Claudia Cardinale (1938) is one of Europe's iconic and most versatile film stars. The combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. Her most notable films include the classics 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963), Il Gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, 1963), and Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/164. Photo: Georg Michalke / UFA.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/132. Photo: Sam Levin / Ufa.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 243, offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. H 72.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/115.

The most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia

Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale was born in La Goulette in Tunisia in 1938 (some sources claim 1939). Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Italian (Sicilian) emigrants from Trapani, Italy. Her father was an Italian (Sicilian) railway worker, born in Gela, Italy.

Her native languages were Tunisian Arabic and French. She received a French education and she had to learn Italian once she pursued her acting career.

She had her break in films after she was voted the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia in 1957. The contest of the Italian embassy had as a prize a trip to the Venice Film Festival. She made her film debut in the French-Tunisian coproduction Goha (Jacques Baratier, 1958) starring Omar Sharif.

After attending the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome for two months, she signed a 7-year contract with the Vides studios. The contract forbade her to cut her hair, to marry or to gain weight.

Later that year she had a role in the heist comedy I soliti ignoti/Big Deal On Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1958) with Vittorio Gassman and Renato Salvatori. The film was an international success, and her film career was off and running.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. FK 104. Photo: Herbert Fried / Ufa.

German postcard by Kolibri (W. Sander Verlag, Minden), no. 1865.

German postcard by Kolibri (W. Sander Verlag, Minden), no. 1968.

Dutch postcard.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, French licency holder for Ufa, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. FK 99 B Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa.

After BB Comes CC

At this point, the press, noting her initials, announced that CC was the natural successor to BB (Brigitte Bardot), and began beating the drum on her behalf.

Dozens of alluring photographs of Claudia Cardinale were displayed in newspapers and magazines throughout the world. According to IMDb, she has appeared on more than 900 magazine covers in over 25 countries.

The contrast between these pictures and those of Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield is striking. Cardinale never appeared in a nude or fully topless scene. Her pictures promoted an image of a shy family girl who just happened to have a beautiful face and a sexy body.

A photograph of Cardinale was featured in the original gate fold artwork to Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde (1966), but because it was used without Cardinale's permission, the photo was removed from the cover art in later pressings.

Claudia Cardinale, Yvonne Monlaur and Francoise Darnell in Tre straniere a Roma (1958)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1187, 1960. Publicity still for Tre straniere a Roma/Three Strangers in Rome (Claudio Gora, 1958) with Yvonne Monlaur and Francoise Darnell.

Claudia Cardinale and Leonardo Botta in Tre straniere a Roma (1958)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb. Publicity still for Tre straniere a Roma/Three Strangers in Rome (Claudio Gora, 1958) with Leonardo Botta.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2569, 1965.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2388, 1965.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2268, 1965.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2949, 1967.

Manager-Producer-Husband

Claudia Cardinale's early career was largely managed producer Franco Cristaldi. Because of her film contract, she told everyone that her son Patrizio was her baby brother. He was born out of wedlock when she was 17; the father was a mysterious Frenchman. She did not reveal to the child that he was her son until he was 19 years old. In 1966, she married Cristaldi, who adopted Patrizio.

In only three years she made a stream of great films. First she made three successful comedies, Un Maledetto imbroglio/The Facts of Murder (Pietro Germi, 1959), Il Bell'Antonio/Bell'Antonio (Mauro Bolognini, 1960) featuring Marcello Mastroianni, and Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti/Fiasco in Milan (Nanni Loy, 1960).

Cardinale had a supporting part in the epic drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) in which she played the sister-in-law of Alain Delon and Renato Salvatori.

And then followed leading parts in La Ragazza con la valigia/Girl with a Suitcase (Valerio Zurlini, 1961), La Viaccia/The Lovemakers (Mauro Bolognini, 1961) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Senilità/Careless (Mauro Bolognini, 1961).

German postcard by Krüger.

French postcard.

German postcard by ISV, Sort. 10/6.

Dutch postcard, Serie 6.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1084, offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Ektachrome Anders.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 521, 1963.

Deep voice and heavy accent

Claudia Cardinale had a deep, sultry voice and spoke Italian with a heavy French accent, so her voice was dubbed in her early films.

In Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), she was finally allowed to dub her own dialogue. In the film, she plays a dream woman - a character named Claudia, who is the object of the fantasies of the director in the film, played by Marcello Mastroianni. With Fellini's surrealistic masterpiece she received her widest exposure to date with this film.

That same year, she also appeared in another masterpiece of the Italian cinema, the epic Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon.

The combined success of these two classic films made her rise to the front ranks of the Italian cinema. And it also piqued Hollywood's interest.

To be continued tomorrow.

Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale in Otto e Mezzo (1963)

French postcard by Edition La Malibran, Paris, no. MC 38, 1990. Photo: Claude Schwartz. Publicity still for Otto e Mezzo/8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) with Marcello Mastroianni.

Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo (1963)

Vintage card. Photo: publicity still for Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) with Alain Delon.

Original Italian trailer of 8½ (1963). Source: Raúl Quintanilla (YouTube).

Original Italian trailer of Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963). Source: Blondinka Inoz (YouTube).

Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), Roger Fristoe (TCM), IMDb and Wikipedia.

On 11 August 2018, the pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000. We commemorate this milestone with updates of our five most popular posts of all times. Today we update number 3, an I.M. for Bud Spencer (1929-2016) on 10 July 2016. Spencer had passed away two weeks earlier. 10,704 page views were counted for this post.

On 27 June, 86-years old Bud Spencer has died in Rome, Italy of natural causes. The huge Italian actor with his trademark black beard was the popular star of many Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget action films of the late 1960s and 1970s. In 18 films he co-starred with his long time film partner Terence Hill. In his youth, Spencer (then: Carlo Pedersoli) was the first Italian to swim 100 metres in less than a minute. He also had a degree in law, and he registered several patents.

German autograph card by BRAVO.

With Terence Hill. German autograph card by BRAVO.

Italian postcard. Promotional card for Io Sto Con Gli Ippopotami/I'm for the Hippopotamus (Italo Zingarelli, 1979).

Bitten By the Acting Bug

Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli in Santa Lucia, a historical part of the city of Naples, in 1929. He was educated as an attorney and he even got a Juris Doctor degree, but Carlo was bitten by the acting bug.

His first film role was as a member of the Praetorian guard in the MGM epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn Leroy, 1951), shot in Italy. During the 1950s, he appeared in minor parts in various films made for the Italian market. Italian director Mario Monicelli gave him his first big role in Un eroe dei nostri tempi/A Hero of Our Times (Mario Monicelli, 1955) with Alberto Sordi.

Pedersoli was also a successful swimmer. In 1950, he was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute (59.5 seconds). In the 1951 Mediterranean Games, he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event.

He participated in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final). As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954, with S.S. Lazio. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.

Pedersoli appeared in some more Italian films such as the Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1959) starring Victor Mature, but for most of the 1960s his film career would stay minor league.

Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.

Terence Hill. Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.

God Forgives... I Don't!

In 1967 Carlo Pedersoli changed his screen name to Bud Spencer. Reportedly he chose this pseudonym to pay homage to Hollywood star Spencer Tracy as well as to his favourite Czech-American beer, Budweiser. Other sources report that he found it funny to call himself ‘Bud’ despite his weight and his height at 1.94 m, which made him beloved as 'the big friendly giant' of the screen.

With Terence Hill a.k.a. Mario Girotti, he appeared in the Spaghetti Western Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967). Their pairing was a coincidence while a foot injury had forced lead actor Peter Martell (Pietro Martellanza) off the picture. Terence Hill took over the part of the pistolero Cat Stevens, and the rest is history.

Their dual outings made both actors famous, particularly in Europe. At IMDb, reviewer Benjamin Gauss calls Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! one of their best films: “Although the movie has many gags and humorous parts, God Forgives... I Don't! is not one of the usual Spencer/Hill comedies, but a pretty brutal and rather serious Spaghetti Western”.

Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! wasn’t their first film together. Both had also appeared in the Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (1959). After the success of Dio perdona... Io no! followed such Westerns as I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967) with Eli Wallach, and La collina degli stivali/Boot Hill (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1969) with Woody Strode.

Then they played two brothers in Lo chiamavano Trinità.../They Call Me Trinity (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1970), a comedic spoof of the Spaghetti Western genre. They Call Me Trinity became Italy’s top-grossing title.The enormous success lead to the sequel ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (Enzo Barboni, 1971) with Harry Carey Jr., which became an even bigger success.

Most of these films have alternate titles, depending upon the country and distributor. Some films have longer Italian versions that were edited for release abroad. Hill and Spencer also appeared together in other action genres, such as in the pirate adventure Il corsaro nero/Blackie the Pirate (Lorenzo Gicca Palli, 1971), the action film ...Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!/Watch Out, We're Mad (Marcello Fondato, 1974) with Donald Pleasence, and another actioner I due superpiedi quasi piatti/Crime Busters (Enzo Barboni, 1977).

Practically all of Bud Spencer's films have him playing the role of a bearded, balding, and brawny omnipotent who usually ends a fist fight by striking a hammer-like blow on the top of his opponent's head.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in Trinity is still my name (1971)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity is still my name (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1971) with Terence Hill.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 53189.

Bud Spencer and Baldwin Dakile in Piedone l'africano (1978)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43 157. Photo: publicity still for Piedone l'africano/The knock-out cop (Steno, 1978) with Baldwin Dakile.

Extralarge

Bud Spencer also appeared solo in many films. He played in the Spaghetti Westerns Oggi a me... domani a te!/Today It's Me (Tonino Cervi, 1968) starring Brett Halsey aka Montgomery Ford, and Un esercito di cinque uomini/The Five Man Army (Don Taylor, Italo Zingarelli, 1969) with Peter Graves.

Spenver made a rare entry in the horror genre in 4 mosche di velluto grigio/4 Flies on Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971) with Mimsy Farmer. Then he played a dramatic role as a man innocently kept in prison in Torino nera/Black Turin (Carlo Lizzani, 1972) with Françoise Fabian as his wife.

Later films include the action-packed potboilers Piedone lo sbirro/Piedone, the cop (Steno, 1973), and Lo chiamavano Bulldozer/They Call Him Bulldozer (Michele Lupo, 1978) with Raimund Harmstorf. Spencer also wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his films.

His feature film career slowed down after 1983, shifting more toward television. He also became a jet airplane and helicopter pilot in 1972. He established Mistral Air in 1984, an air-mail company that also transported pilgrims. He later sold it to Poste Italiane to buy a textile mill that produced clothes for children. He also has registered several patents.

In the 1990s he acted on TV in the comic action series Extralarge (Enzo G. Castellari, 1990-1993) and Noi siamo angeli/We Are Angels (Ruggero Deodato, 1997), both with Philip Michael Thomas, best known from the 1980s TV hit Miami Vice. His final film with Terence Hill was Botte di Natale/Troublemakers (Terence Hill, 1994).

After he made a film with internationally renowned Italian director Ermanno Olmi, Cantando dietro i paraventi/Singing Behind Screens (2003), Spencer confessed that was perhaps the first time he felt he was an actor. “I always said that I was only a character” as opposed to an actor, he said. The adventure-drama is loosely inspired to real life events of Chinese pirate Ching Shih. The film won three David di Donatello and four Nastro d'Argento Awards.

In 2005, Pedersoli briefly entered politics. Then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked him to run as a regional councilor in Lazio for the centre-right Forza Italia party, but he was not elected. That same year he was awarded with the Caimano d'oro (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. Two years later, he received swim and water polo coach diplomas from the Italian Swimming Federation's president Paolo Barelli.

Bud Spencer continued to appear on TV, and could be seen in the Italian Giallo-comedy television series I delitti del cuoco/Recipe for Crime (Alessandro Capone, 2010) and in an episode of the American comedy series Ninja the Mission Force (2013).

Since 1960, Carlo Pedersoli was married to Maria Amato. They had three children: Giuseppe (1961), Christine (1962) and Diamante (1972).

Pedersoli passed away “peacefully” in Rome on 27 June 2016, his son Giuseppe said in a media statement. Spencer said sports taught him humility. “One day you wake up and someone goes better than you. And you’re not anyone anymore. It’s the same way in cinema.”

Trailer of I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (1968). Source: Bud Spencer Official (YouTube).

Trailer of ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (1971). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).

Trailer for Pari e dispari/Odds and Evens (1978). Source: Bud Spencer Official (YouTube).

Trailer for Non c'è due senza quattro/Double Trouble (1984). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Nick Vivarelli (Variety), The Washington Times, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000 on 11 August 2018. We commemorate this milestone with updates of our five most popular posts of all times. Today number 2, Marina Vlady, last updated on 7 July 2012. It had 13,785 page views. This summer, Ms. Vlady attended a screening of one her first films, Giorni d'amore/Days of Love (Giuseppe de Santis, 1954), at Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, where we took a snapshot which we added to this post.

Sensual and alluring French star Marina Vlady (1938) had the makings of just another blonde bombshell, but in 1963 she stunned everybody with her performance in L’Ape Regine/The Conjugal Bed. At the Cannes Film Festival the feline beauty won that year the Golden Palm for Best Actress.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 74. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-76. Photo: Unifrance Film.

German postcard by Krüger.

Vision of Loveliness

Marina Vlady was born Marina De Poliakoff-Baidaroff in Clichy, France, as the daughter of a noted, Russian born painter and opera singer Vladimir de Poliakof and star dancer Militza Envald. She is the youngest sister of the actresses Odile Versois, Hélène Vallier, and Olga Baïdar-Poliakoff.

Like her siblings, she began acting as a child and for a while she pursued a ballet career. Marina and Olga both made their minor film debuts in Orage d'été/Summer Storm (Jean Gehret, 1949) which featured their sister Odile.

Marina caught the eye of talent agents. She was a vision of loveliness alongside Marcello Mastroianni in the touching WW II drama Penne nere/Black Feathers (Oreste Biancoli, 1952).

The following year, she co-starred with Italy's top character actor Aldo Fabrizi as his daughter in L’età dell'amore/Too Young for Love (Lionello De Felice, 1953).

In 1955, at the ripe young age of 17, Vlady met and married actor-writer-director Robert Hossein, who featured her prominently and seductively in a number of his films.

These films included Les salauds vont en enfer/The Wicked Go to Hell (Robert Hossein, 1956) as a femme fatale bent on revenge, Pardonnez nos offenses(Robert Hossein, 1956), La nuit des espions/Double Agents (Robert Hossein, 1959), and notably, Toi, le venin/Nude in a White Car (Robert Hossein, 1958) which co-starred her sister Odile.

With her sensual and alluring image Marina Vlady gained international renown. The marriage with Hossein lasted only a few years.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 470. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Collectors card. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2476. Photo: Cinepress / Stempka.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1842, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (1958, Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek) with Robert Hossein.

Sexually Insatiable Wife

Marina Vlady could have ended up in the film history annals as merely a second-rate Brigitte Bardot, but the provocative sex kitten proved that she was capable of much more.

In 1961 her role in the costume drama La Princesse de Clèves/Princess of Cleves (Jean Delannoy, 1961) at the side of Jean Maraiswas reviewed favorably.

In 1963 she gave a stunning performance as the sexually insatiable wife in L’Ape Regine/The Conjugal Bed (Marco Ferreri, 1963) opposite Ugo Tognazzi. She was nominated for a Golden Globe, and won the Best Actress Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.

She also starred in Godard’s essay on Paris, prostitution and cinema, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle/Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967).

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane, no. 950. Photo: Studio Bernard & Vauclair.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1093. Photo: Ektachrome Anders. This postcard was offered by Corvisart (a biscuit factory), Epinal.

Israelian postcard by Editions de Luxe, no. 120.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 3624, 1975. This postcard was printed in an edition of 200.000 cards. Retail price: 5 kop.

Caustic Characters

Gracing both French and Italian productions throughout most of her career, Marina Vlady was not shy at playing unsympathetic, even caustic characters, and proved adept at both saucy comedy and edgy drama.

One of her rare English roles was Kate Percy in the William Shakespeare adaptation Campanadas a medianoche/Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965).

In 1967 she played at the Théâtre Hébertot in Paris with her three sisters, Hélène Vallier, Odile Versois, and Olga Poliakoff, and they had 250 performances.

Her later films included Ök ketten/The Two of Them (Márta Mészarós, 1977), Tangos, l'exil de Gardel/Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (Fernando Solanas, 1985), Splendor (Ettore Scola, 1989), and she also worked a lot for TV. Five years later followed Jeunesse/Youth (Noel Alpi, 1995).

In 2011 she returned to the screen in the French-Algerian film Quelques jours de répit/A Few Days of Respite (Amor Hakkar, 2011). It competed in the World Cinema section at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Recently, she could be seen in the short film, L'air d'un oubli/Maxence & Clara (Olivier Fely-Biolet, 2016) and gave her voice to another short, La lettre à Noémie/The Letter to Noémie (Micheline Abergel, Natasha Mashkevich, 2017).

Marina Vlady was married four times. She has two sons with Robert Hossein, Igor and Pierre Her second husband was Jean-Claude Brouillet.

In 1969 (or 1970 - the sources differ about the date) she married Russian poet, song-writer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky, who died in 1980 of a drug overdose aggravated by chronic alcoholism. About their love affair she wrote the memoir Vladimir, or the Aborted Flight. Her fourth husband, doctor Léon Schwartzenberg, passed away in 2003.

East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin. Photo: Les Films Metzger & Woog und Productions Iena, no. 1/457. Still from La Sorcière/The Blonde Witch (André Michel, 1956). In this film Marina Vlady plays Ina, a Swedish nature-girl, who meets Brulard, a French civil engineer on assignment in Sweden for a lumber company. They fall in love, and have an affair. He tries to convert her to 'civilization', but ends up getting her killed by superstitious villagers instead.

Serbian postcard by ZK, no. 2183. Sent by mail in 1961.

East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Les Films Metzger & Woog u. Productions Iena, no. 1.375, 1957. Still from La Sorcière/The Blonde Witch (André Michel, 1956), with Maurice Ronet.

Scene with Marina Vlady and Maurice Ronet in La Sorcière/The Blonde Witch (André Michel, 1956). Source: Jinochka (YouTube).

Bologna, Marina Vlady at Cinema Ritrovato 2018

Marina Vlady was one of the guests at Cinema Ritrovato 2018. Here, she is interviewed by festival director Gian Luca Farinelli before the screening of Giorni d'amore/Days of Love (Giuseppe de Santis, 1954) at the Cinema Arlecchino. She was funny and very alert and looked amazing.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The pageview teller of European Film Star Postcards passed the 5,000,000, and today we repost the most popular page ever. The Alain Delon page, which we updated most recently on 3 July 2015 and counted 26,049 pageviews. But what does it tell? For us, it was a good excuse to update the five most popular posts, and a way to thank you for visiting our blog. And we are Paul van Yperen and partner-in-crime Ivo Blom. So, thanks!

A highlight at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2015 is the open-air screening tonight of Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) in a magical black and white, thanks to a new restoration. Today's post is about Alain Delon (1935), the actor who played Rocco in this landmark Italian film. Delon was the breathtakingly good-looking James Dean of the European cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s who proved in this film that he was also a magnificent actor.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1967. retail price: 0,20 MDN.Photo: publicity still for Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 22. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 25.

French postcard by St. Anne, Marseille. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spanish postcard, no. 161. Photo: Philippe R. Doumic.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., Barcelona, no. 463, 1967.

Stormy Childhood

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne Eickel, no. 419. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1957.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1004. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1026. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Belgian postcard by D.R.C, licency holder for Belgium and Belgian Congo of Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4615. Photo: Sam Lévin / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by Muziekparade, Hilversum, no. AX 4701. Photo: Hafbo / Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 838. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3980. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film / Speva / Play Art Prod. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

The Eclipse

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1383. Photo: Unifrance Film / Ufa.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 44. Photo: Unifrance / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 6176.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 444. Photo: Privat.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 42. Photo: Unifrance Film / Philippe R. Doumic.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1151A, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1161, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane. Photo: Pierre Manciet.

A bid for American stardom

Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht. Photo: NV Meteor Film. Publicity still for Christine/Liebelei (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958) with Romy Schneider.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/95. Photo Sam Lévin. Another sexy publicity photo for Amours célèbres (Michel Boisrond, 1961) with Brigitte Bardot.

Small Romanian collectors card by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse/The Eclypse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) with Monica Vitti.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 313. Photo: publicity still for The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1964) with Shirley MacLaine.

Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) with Nathalie Delon.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Le choc/Shock (Robin Davis, 1982) with Catherine Deneuve.

Roles Against Type

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 469. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., no. 572.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. Star 28.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3453. Photo: Michel Ginfray.

Astérix

In the early 1960s, the East-German film distributor VEB Progress Film-Verleih published some series of big cards for East-European films. Earlier we did a post on
the French-Czechoslovakian co-production La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with Marina Vlady and Robert Hossein. Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) is a Russian drama about the homefront during the Second World. The beautiful Larisa Luzhina plays the lead role, a peasant girl waiting for her beloved to return from the front.

Larisa Luzhina in Na semi vetrakh (1962)

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 1. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 2. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962).

Larisa Luzhina and Vyacheslav Tikhonov in Na semi vetrakh (1962)

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 3. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina and Vyacheslav Tikhonov.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 4. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962).

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 7. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962).

Waiting in a back-water town

In the Russian war drama Na semi vetrakh (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) a simple Russian girl, Svetlana Ivashova (Larisa Luzhina) arrives in a small, back-water town to meet her boyfriend Igor.

But the Second World War has begun and Igor has left to join the army. Svetlana decides to stay, to wait for his return and for the war to end.

Svetlana patiently waits in the post office, where her boyfriend works, for the war to end, and she does all she can to help defeat the Nazis. Sometimes she works on a newspaper.

When the post office is temporarily used as a hospital, she works as a nurse. Her hard work earns her a medal. Eventually Svetlana and her lover are happily reunited.

In the US Na semi vetrakh was titled Four Winds of Heaven and in the UK In Seven Winds.

Other actors in the cast were Vyacheslav Tikhonov as Captain Suzdalev, Klara Luchko as Doctor Natalia Guseva and Leonid Bykov as Postman.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 8. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 9. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 10. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Larisa Luzhina and Leonid Bykov in Na semi vetrakh (1962)

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 11. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina and Leonid Bykov.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 12. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 14. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 15. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962).

Big East-German card by Progress, no. 16. Publicity still for Na semi vetrakh/Four Winds of Heaven (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962) with Larisa Luzhina.

Source: Kinoglaz.fr and IMDb.

In the early 1910s, Edition Pathé Frères published many postcards of the studio's stars. Among them were Stacia Napierkowska, Robinne and Berthe Bovy. And the biggest star of them all was the marvellous comedian Max Linder. Their photos were often taken by photographer Félix, who worked in his studio in Paris.

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Andrée Pascal (1892-1982) was a French actress who was highly active in French silent cinema. She did over 30 films for Pathé in the early 1910s, but suddenly stopped her film career after acting in L'empereur des pauvres (1922).

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix. Caption: Mlle Berthe Bovy of the Comédie Française. 1910s.

Berthe Bovy (1887-1977) was a Belgian stage and screen actress. She was a regular stage actress at the Comédie Française since 1907, but also acted in some 30 early silent films at mainly Pathé, and afterwards in some 20 sound films between the 1930s and early 1970s. She also worked for TV.

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Madeleine Céliat was a French stage actress who started out in film in 1909. She played in historical films by Pathé like Messalina (Henri Andréani 1910) and in one film by Eclair: La fin de Don Juan (Victorine-Hippolyte Jasset 1912), in which she played donna Anna. In 1912 Charles Pathé sent her to its Italian subsidiary Film d'Arte Italiana, in order to replace Francesca Bertini

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Germaine Dermoz (1888–1966), younger sister of actress Jeanne Delvair, was a French film and theatre actress of the early-to-mid twentieth century. She is most famous for her portrayal of Madame Beudet in Germaine Dulac's avant-garde film La souriante Madame Beudet/The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923).

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Maria Fromet (1902-1967), aka 'la petite Fromet', is mostly known for her countless parts as little girl in the films by Pathé Frères of the early 1910s.

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

French comedian Max Linder (1883-1925), with his trademark silk hat, stick and moustache was an influential pioneer of the silent film. He was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy and he was the highest paid entertainer of his day.

French postcard by Editions Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Marcelle Monthil (1892-1950) was a French actress who started her film career in the days of the early silent cinema. She played dozens of supporting and bit parts during the 1930s and 1940s.

French postcard by Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

During the early 1910s handsome French actor Castillan starred in several short films by Pathé Frères.

French postcard by Editions Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Gabriel Signoret aka Signoret (1878-1937) was a French actor and director who played in some 85 films, mostly silent ones.

French postcard. Photo: Félix, Paris. Signed in 1913.

With his brooding good looks, stage and film actor Paul Capellani (1877-1960) became a successful star of some 100 French and American films between 1908 and 1930. He was the younger brother of noted film director Albert Capellani and he appeared in many of his brother’s silent historical films.

Show me your chocolate side, please

High grade and well made

A staccato, syncopated diction

Undisputed classics

Forced pregnancy, homesickness and insanity

Film debut at five

German Exorcist Rip-off

An exclusive meeting place for Berlin celebrities

Sexy ‘Geisha’ Dances

Absolutely Beguiling

Meek Princess in Distress

Young lover with a comedic note

Diabolical Dr. Mabuse

Living Pictures Theatre

Wahnsinn

Children of darkness

The winner of the tournament will be Isabelle's husband

The European Valentino

Openly Provocative Style

Hip Retro Clubs

Mystique and sensuousness

A sharp focus, high-contrast style

Stormy Childhood

The Eclipse

A bid for American stardom

Roles Against Type

Astérix

High-powered Publicity

Nunsploitation

The most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia

After BB Comes CC

Manager-Producer-Husband

Deep voice and heavy accent

Bitten By the Acting Bug

God Forgives... I Don't!

Extralarge

Vision of Loveliness

Sexually Insatiable Wife

Caustic Characters

Stormy Childhood

The Eclipse

A bid for American stardom

Roles Against Type

Astérix

Waiting in a back-water town

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