Photo by Massaglia

September 7, 2018, 10:00 pm

Ercole Massaglia (1890-1941) was an Italian professional (studio) photographer. He signed his photos with “Massaglia, Torino”. Among them were many portraits of actors and actresses of the Italian stage and cinema as well as the Italian aristocracy and upperclass.

Tatiana Pavlova. Italian postcard, no. 106. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Tatiana Pavlova. Italian postcard, no. 107. Photo: Massaglia, Torino. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Russian actress Tatiana (or Tatyana) Pavlova (1893-1975) left Moscow after the revolution and found film work in the silent Italian cinema. Later she became an innovating stage director.

Maria Jacobini. Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini Co., Firenze, no. 305. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Italian diva Maria Jacobini (1892-1944) in her outfit for the film Amore rosso (Gennaro Righelli, 1921), set in Spain.

Lydia Quaranta. Italian postcard, no. 316. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Giulietta De Riso. Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini Co., Firenze, no. 394. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Maria Melato. Italian postcard, no. 408. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Vera Vergani. Italian postcard, no. 601/2. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Vera Vergani. Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 601/5. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Supplier of the Royal House of Savoy

Ercole Massaglia was born in Asti on 2 July 1890. His family emigrated to Corfu in 1902, but he returned to Turin in 1915, during the First World War, possibly because of Italy joining the Allies.

He opened a photo studio in Via Cernaia 34 in Turin. The Turinese photographic magazine Luci e Ombre, founded in 1922 by the Gruppo piemontese di fotografia artistica, published some of his photos in the years 1923 to 1929 and in 1931.

Massaglia took part in the first International Exhibition of Photography, Optics and Cinematography of 1923 in Turin with some images of actress Paola Borboni and was awarded with an honorary diploma of merit and a gold medal.

In his studio the most famous figures of culture, politics and industry of the time were immortalised, such as Crown Prince Umberto and Princess Jolanda of Savoy, resulting in the text "Supplier of the Royal House of Savoy" on the backs of his pictures.

But also the stage actors such Paola Borboni, Dina Galli, Lydia Quaranta, Vera Vergani, Giulietta De Riso, Gianfranco Giachetti and Annibale Betrone, the painter Giacomo Grosso and the sculptor Vincenzo Gemito were portrayed by Massaglia.

In 1924 he won a 100 lire award for 5 years, for the Professional School of Photography and Optics "Teofilo Rossi". In that same year he was nominated Knight of the Crown of Italy and vice president of the Union of Professional Photographers of Turin. He also won a gold medal "Gevaert" and a "Callegari".

In 1927 two of his images, including the portrait of Cesare Schiaparelli, were published in the Second Yearbook of the Subalpine Photographic Society. In the Corriere Fotografico of December 1928 an article reappeared from Il Nazionale, in which a profile of Ercole Massaglia was traced.

This article accurately described his artistic skills as a portraitist, in particular, and the modernity and efficiency of his studio. In those years, it was considered one of the most avant-garde-like studios in Italy, the only one to own certain machines like the Super-Ego of ing. Bianchi from Milan. In 1931 Massaglia took part in the First Experimental Exhibition of Futurist Photography, held in Turin.

Cavaliere Ercole Massaglia died in Turin on 29 September 1941.

Paola Borboni. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 602/1. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Paola Borboni. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 602/3. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Paola Borboni. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 602/4. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Paola Borboni (1900-1995) was one of the greatest stage actresses of Italy. She also played in many films. She was often heard on the radio and seen in television, but her true passion was the stage.

Dina Galli. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 603/4. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Dina Galli. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 603/5. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Dina Galli. Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 603/6. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Dina Galli (1877-1951) was a classic Italian comedienne who also performed in Italian silent and sound cinema.

Annibale Betrone. Italian postcard. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.

Source: Comune di Torino (Italian).

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Saint-Granier

September 8, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Ermete Zacconi

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Saint-Granier (1890-1976) was a French journalist, singer, (song)writer, actor, director, and radio star. Between the two wars he was one of the great personalities of the French cabaret. He was also the director of Paramount Pictures in France in the early 1930s.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 52. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris (EC), no. 3. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

French postcard by Erres, no. 3. Photo: Paramount.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 766. Photo: Paramount.

Hush you, it's crazy

Saint-Granier was born as Jean de Granier de Cassagnac in Paris in 1890. Among his aristocratic family were many journalists and MP’s.

He studied at the Lycee Condorcet in Paris, where he met Jean Cocteau and Alexandre Stavisky. He had to break up his studies in 1907, when his mother died. With the help of his family, he became a stockbroker from 1908 till 1912.

During this period he regularly attended the cabarets of Montmartre, where he heard Yvette Guilbert, Harry Fragson (his favourite) and Damia (who called herself Carmen at the time).

It stimulated him to become a satirist for such magazines as Le Charivari, l'Indiscret and Bravo, but he also wrote for such prominent newspapers as Le Matin and Le journal. He wrote newspaper columns about Parisian artistic life, and till the end of his life he considered himself a journalist.

In 1913 he embarked on the stage of the cabaret Le Porc Épic (the Porcupine) to sing his own texts. His status as a journalist led him to choose topics related to current events. In 1914 he wrote his first revue in collaboration with Yves Meralli, Tais toi, c'est fou ! (Hush you, it's crazy), which was presented at the venue Le Little Palace.

In 1916 he opened the cabaret Le Perchoir and in the 1918 the Theatre de la Potinière. Between 1921 and 1928 he moved to the Casino de Paris where he made his debut with Maurice Chevalier and where he created six revues: Dans un fauteuil (In a wheelchair) (1921), Paris en l'air (Paris in the air) (1922), En douce (The Sweet) (1923), On dit ça (They say it) (1924), Bonjour Paris (1926), and Tout Paris (1928).

Some of his songs became hits such as Billet doux (Love notes), C'est jeune et ça n'sait pas (It is young and does not know it) popularised by Maurice Chevalier, Yo t'aime yo t'adore (Yo love you yo adore), Marquita and finally Ramona. They were echoed by several famous performers till today and he would be associated with them throughout his life and against his will.

Parallel to these activities, he continued to sing and perform in cabarets such as Le Grillon (the Cricket), Le Moulin de la chanson (the Mill of the song), Le Caveau de la République (the Cave of the Republic), and then sang exclusively at La Pie qui chante (the singing Magpie).

He also performed in his own revue on which collaborated Willemetz Albert, Rip or Jacques Charles. His success earned him the derisive nickname ‘demi-mondain’ because of his origins and his upscale dating. Because of his seductive smile he was also called ‘singe Granier’ (monkey Granier).

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 698. Photo: Paramount.

French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, no. 966. Photo: Paramount.

French postcard by Campari. Photo: Studio Lorelle. Caption: "Si le public a ri, C'est j'en fais le pari, que les gens de Paris, ont bu du Campari, Saint Granier." (If the audience laughed, I bet it, the people of Paris, drank Campari, Saint-Granier.")

French postcard by EPC, Paris, no. 184. Photo: Piaz.

Paramount

In 1921, Saint-Grenier made his film debut in Villa Destin/Villa Fate (Marcel L'Herbier, 1921), an Oscar Wilde adaptation in which he co-starred with Alice Field.

Throughout the 1920s he continued to appear in such silent films as Le taxi 313-X-7 (Pierre Colombier, 1923), Par-dessus le mur (Pierre Colombier, 1923) with Dolly Davis, and La malchanceuse/The unlucky person (Donatien, Benito Perojo, 1925).

Then he sang Ramona in the French version of the Hollywood sound production Ramona (Edwin Carewe, 1928) starring Dolores del Rio. He also worked on Champagner/Champagne (Géza von Bolváry, 1929), the German version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Champagne (1930) with Betty Balfour starring in both versions.

Then Saint-Granier extended his activities for the cinema and became the director of Paramount Pictures for France from 1930 to 1932. During this period he also appeared in Paramount en parade/Paramount on Parade (Charles de Rochefort, 1930) with Maurice Chevalier, Chérie (Mona Goya, Louis Mercanton, 1930), and Maquillage/Make-up (Karl Anton, 1932) with Edwige Feuillère.

Then he went to the radio where he had made his debut in 1930. Seven years later he became the producer at Radio Cité, the most famous French radio station in the 1930s. There he produced with Jacques Canetti the first radio column, La minute du bon sens (The minute makes sense) later renamed by the public as La minute de Saint-Granier (The minute of Saint-Granier).

Incidentally he could be seen in the cinema, such as in the comedies Tartarin de Tarascon/Tartarin of Tarascon (Raymond Bernard, 1934) with Raimu, and Un coup de rouge/A glass of red wine (Gaston Roudès, 1937).

After the war he continued with his radio columns and made On chante dans mon quartier (The Songs of My Neighbourhood) (1945) with the legendary opening song by Francis Blanche, Ploum ploum Tralala.

He also continued to appear in films, such as in the musicals Destins/Fates (Richard Pottier, 1946) with Tino Rossi, Boîte de nuit/Hotbed of Sin (Alfred Rode, 1951) with Junie Astor, and as a presenter in the comedy Bébés à gogo/Babes a GoGo (Paul Mesnier, 1956) with Jane Sourza.

In the 1950s, he made the television show La joie de vivre (The joy of living). The success of the show lead to more jokes against him and he was nicknamed ‘the Marquis’ or ‘Saint-Ploum ploum’. In this period he decided to take a step back, and to continue only the radio column to keep in touch with the public.

Saint-Granier passed away in 1976 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 88. He was the father of actor Jean Grenier.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 615. Photo: G & L Manuel.

French postcard by EDUG, no. 1049. Photo: Paramount.

French postcard by Erpé. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 145. Photo: ERPE, Nice.

Sources: Karine Le Bail (French - Radio France), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

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Ermete Zacconi

September 9, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Miou-Miou

≪ Previous: Saint-Granier

Ermete Zacconi (1857-1948) was a monstre sacré of the Italian theatre. He also acted in various Italian silent and sound films.

Italian postcard. Photo: Sciutto, no. 76.

Italian postcard. Photo: Sciutto, no. 77.

Italian postcard. Photo: Sciutto, no. 78.

Ghosts

Ermete Zacconi was born in Montecchio, Italy in 1857. He made his stage debut as a child, performing with his parents.

Over a period beginning in the 1880s, he held a leading position in troupes directed by G. Emmanuel, G. B. Marini, and V. Marini.

Zacconi developed as an actor during the period when naturalism was established in the Western European theatre. He became one of its most important representants. Following Emile Zola’s naturalism, this also included that he studied psychopathology, theories on the effects of heredity, and related subjects.

He did this in order to understand the psychology of man, in particular the clinical symptoms of an unhealthy psyche, which he reproduced with perfection. Zacconi’s most famous role was that of Oswald in Henrik Ibsen’s Spettri/Ghosts, reaching the maximum of realism with a shocking performance of the symptoms of the growing paralysis of the protagonist.

In Il cardinale Lambertini by Alfredo Testoni he did his most famous interpretation, showing a witty humour. His repertory also included the roles of Nikita in Lev Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness, Kusovkin in Ivan Turgenev’s The Boarder, and Corrado in Paolo Giacometti’s La morte civile/Civil Death.

Zacconi also had lead roles in plays by Plato (Dialogues), William Shakespeare (King Lear, Othello), Carlo Goldoni, Alfred de Musset (Lorenzaccio), Alexandre Dumas fils, Ferenc Molnar, and August Strindberg.

After engagements with other companies, Zacconi organised his own troupe in 1894. He was worldwide appreciated, thanks to tours to France, Egypt, South-America and Russia.

At Eleonora Duse’s invitation, he performed with her troupe in 1899, 1901, and 1921. Zacconi’s leading actresses were his wife Ines Cristina Zacconi and Paola Pezzaglia.

Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 2379. Photo: G. Rossi. Card is dated February 1904.

Italian postcard by Tip. Biondo, Palermo. Photo: Corrado. Ermete Zacconi in the stage play La morte civile by P. Giacometti.

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 43.

Italian postcard, no. 57. Photo Badodi, Milano.

Italian postcard by Ed. Stab. Capecchi, Livorno, no. 203.

Padre

In 1912, Ermete Zacconi was won for the cinema. He made his film debut debuting with the spectacular melodrama Padre/Father (Dante Testa, Gino Zaccaria, 1912), based on a play by August Strindberg.

Padre narrates the story of an unjustly imprisoned businessman (Zacconi), who escapes and plots revenge on the culprit, his competitor. But he discovers the other has raised the convict’s daughter as his own, while the other man’s son is in love with the girl. The poor protagonist lets go, he even saves the culprit when a terrible blaze menaces to kill him. The other repents while dying, and indicates the girl her real father.

Padre was a success, inspiring other films with Zacconi such as Lo scomparso/The Dread of Doom (Dante Testa, 1913) and L'emigrante/The Emigrant (Febo Mari, 1915), the latter on the emigration of Italians to the United States.

After two more films, Gli spettri/The Ghosts (A.G. Caldiera, 1918) and La forza della coscienza/The power of consciousness (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1918), Zacconi left the screen and focused on the stage.

In the late 1930s, he returned to the set for Coeur de gueux/Cuor di vagabondo/Heart of a Vagabond (Jean Epstein, 1936) with Madeleine Renaud, Un colpo di vento/A blast (C.V. Tavano, 1936), Pioggia d'estate/Summer rain (Michele Badich, 1937), Les perles de la couronne/The Pearls of the Crown (Sacha Guitry, 1937) with Jacqueline Delubac, and Processo e morte di Socrate/Trial and Death of Socrates (Corrado d'Errico, 1939) with Rossano Brazzi.

During the Second World War, Zacconi performed in Orizzonte dipinto/Horizon painting (Guido Salvini, 1941), Romanzo di un giovane povero/Romance of a poor young man (Guido Brignone, 1942), Le comte de Monte Cristo, 1ère époque: Edmond Dantès/The Count of Monte Cristo, 1st episode: Edmond Dantes (Robert Vernay, 1943) featuring Pierre Richard-Willm, and Piazza San Sepolcro/San Sepolcro Square (Giovacchino Forzano, 1943) starring Vivi Gioi.

Ermete Zacconi died in 1948 in Viareggio. His son Giuseppe Zacconi would later produce the film Le avventure di Pinocchio/The Adventures of Pinocchio (Gianetto Guardone, 1947).

Italian postcard. Ermete Zacconi in the Italian silent film Spettri/Gli spettri (A.G. Caldiera, 1918), adapted from Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (Gengangere, 1881). Caption: She grabbed the child from his father's arms. Helene Alving (Ines Cristina-Zacconi) and young Oswald (Peppino Zacconi), on the right captain Alving (Ermete Zacconi) and the maid, the mother of Regina.

Italian postcard. Ermete Zacconi in the Italian silent film Spettri/Gli spettri (A.G. Caldiera, 1918), adapted from Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (Gengangere, 1881). Caption: Not being able anymore to paint, to do anything, nothing!

Italian postcard. Ermete Zacconi in Spettri/Gli spettri (A.G. Caldiera, 1918). Caption: Mama, give me the sun!

Italian postcard. Ermete Zacconi and Ines Cristina-Zacconi in Spettri/Gli spettri (A.G. Caldiera, 1918). Caption: Mama, what if I would become a child again, or even worse as a child?

Italian postcard. Ermete Zacconi in Spettri/Gli spettri (A.G. Caldiera, 1918). Caption: I immediately forget what I have read. On the right Ermete Zacconi as Oswald/Osvaldo Halving. The man on the left could be Pastor Manders (Giovanni Grassi).

Sources: The free dictionary.com, Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.

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Miou-Miou

September 10, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Giovanni Grasso

≪ Previous: Ermete Zacconi

French actress Miou-Miou (1950) is a 10-time César Award nominee and was one of the leading ladies of the French cinema during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In her long career she has worked with such international directors as Michel Gondry, Bertrand Blier, Jacques Deray, Joseph Losey and Louis Malle. Her films include Les Valseuses/Going Places (1974), Coup de foudre/Entre Nous (1983), Milou en mai/May Fools (1990), Germinal (1993), and Le huitième jour/The Eighth Day (1996). She won the César Award for Best Actress for La dérobade/Memoirs of a French Whore (1979).

Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 9/82.

Mario Girotti (Terence Hill), Miou Miou, Robert Charlebois

German promocard. Photo: publicity still for Un genio, due compari, un pollo/The Genius (Damiano Damiani, 1975) with Terence Hill and Robert Charlebois.

A cat’s meow

Miou-Miou was born Sylvette Herry in Paris in 1950. Her father was a gendarme, her mother a green-grocer.

While selling strawberries helping out at her mother's fruit and vegetable stand at the Les Halles street market, Sylvette was spotted by actor-director Romain Bouteille. He invited her to work at Cafe de la Gare, a little cafe-theatre in Montparnasse which would be the launching pad for numerous French actors including Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere and Coluche.

There she began as a cleaning lady, then became a dresser, then an actress. Her stage name, Miou-Miou (a reference to a cat’s meow), was given to her by Coluche, her companion at the very beginning of the Café de la Gare in 1969.

Later, she became romantically involved with Patrick Dewaere. She appeared with him in her film debut, La vie sentimentale de Georges Le Tueur/The Sentimental Life of George the Killer (Patrick Berger, 1971), also with Gérard Depardieu.

Miou-Miou soon appeared in several interesting films, including the cult film Themroc (Claude Faraldo, 1973) as the young neighbour of Michel Piccoli, Les granges brulées/The Burned Barns (Jean Chapot, 1973) with Simone Signoret and Alain Delon, and the successful comedy Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob/The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Gérard Oury, 1973) as the daughter of Louis de Funès.

Her big break came with Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses/Going Places (1974) opposite Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere. With its casual and rather raw approach, the film provoked controversy but was also a smash hit. Joan Dupont in The New York Times: “Les Valseuses sported a vast range of indecencies — nudity, obscene language, gestures and misogynous insults. It was a passionate adventure, flaunting bourgeois values and taking a poke at the new feminism. Depardieu and Dewaere were at their high-strung, sexy-brat best, with free spirited Miou-Miou as a girl careening in all directions, seeking elusive pleasure.”

After her role in Les valseuses, Miou-Miou began getting leading roles in comedy and drama. She co-starred again with Dewaere in F comme Fairbanks/F Like Fairbanks (Maurice Dugowson, 1976), but the filming was hard and hectic because she had just left Dewaere. The plot resembled the history of their relationship: the persistent and cheerful heroine is in love with a depression-prone neurasthenic, trying to awaken in him the hope and love of life.

Through the 1970s, she had roles in such art house films as the Swiss film Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000/Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (Alain Tanner, 1976), Dites-lui que je l'aime/This Sweet Sickness (Claude Miller, 1977) with Gérard Depardieu, and Les routes du sud /Roads to the South (Joseph Losey, 1978).

But she also appeared in several comedies such as Un genio, due compari, un pollo/A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot (Damiano Damiani, 1976). Sergio Leone directed the opening scene of this comic Spaghetti Western, which starred Terrence Hill as a genius conman. In Italy, she also made the drama Marcia trionfale/Victory March (Marco Bellocchio, 1976) with Franco Nero and Michele Placido, and the satirical comedy-drama L'ingorgo - Una storia impossibile/Traffic Jam (Luigi Comencini, 1979).

In the French drama La dérobade/Memoirs of a French Whore (Daniel Duval, 1979), Miou-Miou portrayed a young prostitute. She received her sole César Award for that role. The following year, she had a box office hit with the Policier La Femme flic/The Woman Cop (Yves Boisset, 1980) in which she portrayed a female police inspector, one of the first in the French cinema.

French postcard in the Signes du Zodiaque series by Editions F. Nugeron, no. 19. Caption: Poissons (Pisces).

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron. Photo: Collection d'Ecole de Cinéma Camiris, Lyon. Publicity still for La lectrice/The Reader (Michel Deville, 1988).

Reading sensual literature for a living

After her relationship with Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou became the partner of singer Julien Clerc. With both men, she had a daughter, writer Angele Herry-Leclerc (1974) with Dewaere, and actress-director Jeanne Herry (1978) with Clerc. Since 1998, she lives with the novelist Jean Teulé.

Through the 1980s Miou-Miou was seen in such films as La gueule du loup/The wolves (Michel Léviant, 1981), Coup de foudre/Entre nous (Diane Kurys, 1983) with Isabelle Huppert, and Blanche et Marie/Blanche and Marie (Jacques Renard, 1984) with Sandrine Bonnaire. She played opposite Lee Marvin in one of his last roles in Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984).

Then she was nominated for the César for the provocative comedy-drama Tenue de soirée/Evening Dress (Bertrand Blier, 1986) in which she formed a threesome with Gérard Depardieu and Michel Blanc. Another international success was La lectrice/The Reader (Michel Deville, 1988). Miou-Miou played a woman who reads sensual literature to others for a living. The film won that year's Louis Delluc Prize, and was nominated for nine César Awards, including one for Best Actress.

The 1990s saw her first as the daughter of Michel Piccoli in Louis Malle's Milou en mai/May Fools (1990). The film portrays the impact of the French revolutionary fervour of May 1968 on a French village. She appeared opposite Gérard Depardieu in a new, epic production of Émile Zola's Germinal (Claude Berri, 1993).

Her other films at the time include in the thriller Netchaïev est de retour/Netchaïev is back (Jacques Deray, 1991), the comedy Un indien dans la ville/An Indian in the city (Hervé Palud, 1994), and the Belgian comedy-drama Le huitième jour/The Eighth Day (Jaco Van Dormael, 1996) with Daniel Auteuil. Miou-Miou received another César nomination for her role in the French-Spanish drama Nettoyage à sec/Dry Cleaning (Anne Fontaine, 1997).

By now in her fifties, her film roles had abated, as she also began to appear in theatre. Her later film roles include a woman who has lost her husband to a young blonde in L'après-midi de monsieur Andesmas (Michelle Porte, 2004), adapted from a Marguerite Duras novel, and an asylum inmate, set free during the 1939 Paris exodus before the Second World War in Folle Embellie (Dominique Cabréra, 2004). She also appeared with Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the surrealistic science fantasy comedy La Science des rêves/The Science of Sleep (2006) written and directed by Michel Gondry.

Among her more recent films are the Mystery Le Grand alibi/The Great Alibi (Pascal Bonitzer, 2008) based on a crime novel by Agatha Christie, and the thriller Arrêtez-moi/Stop Me (Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, 2013). In the latter, she played a woman who shows up at a police station and confesses to the murder of her abusive husband several years earlier. The female police officer (Sophie Marceau) who interviews her cannot understand why this woman who was never a suspect has come forward after all this time.

Miou-Miou continues to appear in films. Recently, she was directed by her daughter Jeanne Herry in La Pupille (2018). At IMDb, Steve Shelokhonov writes: “Miou-Miou has been an unusual personality in the French cinema. She once refused to take the Cesar Award for Best Actress, which she won for the title role in La dérobade (1979). She explained that refusal citing her belief that artists should not compete against each other. Her career was hardly affected by such a gesture.”

French postcard in the Les belles bobines series by Editions d'Art Yvonne, no. 24 00 0022. Illustration: Jean-Michel Renault.

Trailer Les Valseuses/Going Places (1974). Source: Michi Turner (YouTube).

Sources: Joan Dupont (The New York Times), Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Giovanni Grasso

September 11, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Michel Strogoff (1926)

≪ Previous: Miou-Miou

Giovanni Grasso (1873-1930) was an Italian stage and screen actor. While he was seen as the best Sicilian tragic actor and one of the best in Italy, he also had limited but very important career in Italian silent cinema. Sadly, all of Grasso's films were considered lost, but in 2005 fortune smiled at us...

Italian postcard, no. 320. Photo: Photo Reale.

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 447.

Nature as a mirror

Giovanni Grasso was born in Catania, Sicily, in 1873, as the son of puppet master Angelo Grasso and his second wife Ciccia (Francesca) Tudisco, who was a puppet master too. From Naples, Angelo Grasso’s father supposedly introduced the puppet theatre in Catania. Angelo opened a small puppet theatre in Catania, Teatro Machiavelli.

After Angelo's death, his family turned it into a vaudeville theatre in order to survive. Small provincial companies stopped there, alternating edifying dramas with farces and subject performances ('scenoni'), inspired by news events. In this eclectic environment of the 1890s, young Giovanni Grasso was trained as a man of the theatre.

He decided to brush up his paternal puppets, presenting – successful - shows. Among his greatest admirers was the playwright and journalist Nino Martoglio, who led the famous actor Ernesto Rossi to the Machiavelli. At the end of the show, Rossi, dazed by the expressive power of the puppeteer, urged him to become an actor.

This was the first of more 'revelation meetings'– with people like Gabriele D'Annunzio, Russian playwright Isaac Babel, and Russian stage director Vsevolod Meyerhold - that punctuated Grasso’s life, whose art was perhaps greater and, above all, more meaningful than he was aware of. At Rossi's requests, Grasso rearranged the auditorium and increasingly alternated written texts with crime scenes, thus beginning to define his own dramaturgical repertory that clung to Sicilian texts but renewed by his interventions and his acting.

Among his battle horses were I mafiusi di La Vicaria di Palermo, by Gaspare Mosca & Giuseppe Rizzotto, La zolfara, by Giuseppe Giusti Sinopoli, and Cavalleria rusticana, by Giovanni Verga. I mafiusi (1863), was based on the stories of an authentic mafioso, a certain Gioacchino D'Angelo, just out of jail. The drama had an immediate and lasting success, especially when Grasso began to interpret it. Zolfara, based on the big upheaval of the strikes of the Sicilian miners, did not gain much recognition when premiered in 1895, but thanks to Grasso’s version in dialect, it became a triumph. Instead, Cavalleria rusticana, following Grasso’s often used practice, was represented in the Sicilian translation of Martoglio.

In 1901 Grasso formed his own company Città di Catania, with Angelo Musco as ‘brilliante’ and Carmelina Tria as first actress (later replaced by Mimì Aguglia and after her by Marinella Bragaglia). He did his first world tour, starting at the Politeama in Salerno (with La zolfara), on initiative of the capocomico (company manager) Mimì de Cesare, who sensed Grasso’s great talent. The tour subsequently touched Avellino and Naples, with a good artistic success but bad economic results.

The real consecration of Grasso, however, took place in Rome, where he was called for some charity performances organised for the victims of the Modica flood in 1902. Grasso made his debut in Argentina with Cavalleria rusticana and I mafiusi in 1901. When asked about Grasso, Martoglio answered: "His mirror is nature". This axiom, together with his powerful vigor, instinctive to the limit of violence, remained the trademark of the actor and his company. His assistant, the Argentine Luigi Capuana, offered him the reworking in dialect of his play Malia, while Grasso continued with resounding success his performances in Rome at the Teatro Metastasio.

In Catania, the Macchiavelli burned down in 1903. The same year Martoglio wrote for Grasso a new text, Nica, and together with him he raised the first Sicilian dialectal drama company, which included Musco, Bragaglia, Lo Turco, Totò Majorana, Micio Grasso, and the families Spadaro and Balistrieri. Their repertory included, in addition to the dramas already mentioned, La lupa and Caccia al lupo by Giovanni Verga, San Giuvanni addicullatu by Martoglio; and La festa di Adernò by Grasso himself.

After performances in Catania and Naples, the company set off for a new tour. While La zolfara played without great success in Milan, Gabriele D'Annunzio, present, was struck by the expressive power. Nica and Cavalleria rusticana fared better, even if critics condemned the interventions in the latter. After Milan, the tour continued touching Florence, Palermo, Messina and, again, Naples. Back in Catania in August 1903, Grasso had to accept another economic failure of the tour, and dedicated himself to the reconstruction of the Teatro Machiavelli.

Meanwhile, urged by V. Ferraù, administrator of the company, Martoglio gave life to the second Sicilian dialectal drama company. In 1904, this company set off for a new tour, ending in Turin. A novelty among the repertory became the hit of the season: 'A figghia di Joriu, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese’s Sicilian version of D'Annunzio's tragedy La figlia di Jorio (The Daughter of Iorio), performed at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1904.

Italian postcard, no. 604. Photo: Sciutto.

Italian postcard. Photo: Badodi, Milano, no. [510].

A physical obsession

At the end of 1906, the company departed for Spain, the initial stage of the long season of the big tours abroad, starting at the Novedades theater in Barcelona. They continued in Portugal, and from there went to South America. After reprisals in Buenos Aires, the famous French actor A. Lugné Poe, impresario of Eleonora Duse, hired the Sicilian actors for one of their most important international impact: a tour in France.

After their Parisian debut with Malia at the Marigny Theater, critics wrote: "No convention, no tradition: nature, life". The realism of the actors was compared to that of the 'Japanese', the recitation was defined as "of an infinitely accurate and precise accuracy". Grasso’s repertory was classic: 'A figghia di Joriu, Cavalleria rusticana and La morte civile by Paolo Giacometti, already known to the Parisian public. Great appreciation was also obtained for La lupa, La zolfara, and Rusidda, by critics such as C. Mendès and by actors like Mounet-Sully. The usual appreciation for the 'naturalness' of acting was now joined by the recognition for the great technical expertise of Grasso and his companions. Giovanni Verga withdrew his texts for the changes made arbitrarily by Grasso. This also happened afterwards with Capuana and even with Martoglio.

Preceded by the echo of his French success, Giovanni Grasso debuted in London, again with Malia. Here he saw the excellent criticisms repeated that praised his realism as "amazing, fulminant, colossal" and, again, his great acting technique. In October the company made its debut in Berlin.After a fleeting episode in Hungary, the company moved to Russia, at the time one of the most vital centres of the European theatre. The debut was in St. Petersburg, with Malia, Stone between stones by H. Sudermann, The zolfara, 'A figghia di Joriu and Feudalism. This was a Sicilian version by A. Campagna of Terra baixa (Lowlands), by Angel Guimerà and another pillar of the repertoire of Grasso after his South American tour. Subsequent shows were given in Moscow and Odessa, both very important for the construction of the 'fame' of Grasso and for the definition of his artistic figure.

In Moscow, personalities of the caliber of the innovating actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsk, author Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and designer and director Edward Gordon Craig attended his shows, while Grasso, at the height of his success, was received at court. In Odessa he saw a fourteen-year-old Isaac Babel, who would later write on it in one of his Stories of Odessa (1931). In Babel's stunned words, Grasso’s performance of Grasso in Feudalism, already famous, exploded to theoretical attention, the famous anecdote for the way in which the pastor, played by Grasso, kills his rival by biting him in the throat, after having literally 'flown' across the whole scene.

In this respect, Vsevolod Meyerhold wrote: "I realised numerous laws of the biomechanics when I saw the acting of the magnificent Sicilian tragic actor Grasso". By identifying the biomechanical roots in the movement of the whole body, regardless of the part directly affected, Meyerhold was the first in succeeding to clarify that 'expressive power', which many had only intuitively perceived. With Grasso it was always the whole body that acted, spoke, or simply, was present, that is: to be perceived, on stage.

In 1909, after the Russian tour, the company returned to England. Particularly significant, this time, was Grasso’s interpretation of Othello, one of Grasso’s earliest roles but one he had always refused to represent outside his Catania. The success was, as usual, amazing, while critics spoke now openly of self-restraint, while for Feudalism they defined Grasso 'a physical obsession', but a controlled obsession and guided by technique.

In 1910, the company embarked on a second eight-month tour to South America, touching Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru. Back in Catania, after a new stop in England, Grasso married singer Concetta Silvia Carducci, with whom he had lived from the times of the Machiavelli variety, and with whom he had four children. He then dissolved the company for a long period of rest.

More or less since this time Grasso, now in a declining phase, threw off his theatrical activity, although never interrupted and even if the repertoire was enriched with new texts, including Il berretto a sonagli by Luigi Pirandello. In 1913 he played Cavalleria rusticana in Rome; in 1916 he was in Messina; in 1917 in Palermo and in 1919 in Rome, at the Teatro Eliseo.

In 1921, he left for a tour in the United States with Carolina Balistrieri Bragaglia as first actress. They debuted in New York with Feudalism, at the Major Royal Theatre, in the heart of the Italian quarter. The performances lasted for five months, with traditional battle horses like Malia and Cavalleria rusticana, but also with novelties by young authors.

Success continued to be great, but at the end of this tour Grasso's voice showed the first signs of hoarseness worsened over time. In 1923, he formed a new company with his brother Micio, his cousin Giovanni junior (who eventually would become a famous sound film actor too), and Virginia Balistrieri, junior’s wife. In 1927-1928 Grasso did his last tour in America. In his last years, with a by now almost extinct voice, he gradually lost the public’s favour.

Giovanni Grasso and Tina Xeo in Cavalleria rusticana

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Roma. Giovanni Grasso as Alfio and Tina Xeo as Santuzza and in the Italian silent film Cavalleria rusticana (Mario Gargiulo, 1924), based on Giovanni Verga's text.

The only surviving film

Giovanni Grasso was also a popular cinema actor. Already in 1910, during his second South American tour, he had shot two films based on his stage successes: La morte civile/Muerte civil (1910) and Cavalleria rusticana (1910). The two films were directed by Mario Gallo. But, as usual, Martoglio offered him the most significant occasions.

At the end of 1913, Martoglio had been appointed artistic director of the Rome based company Morgana films. Morgana produced the trilogy Capitan Blanco (Nino Martoglio, Roberto Danesi, 1914), starring Grasso and Virginia Balestrieri, Sperduti nel bui/Lost in the dark (Nino Martoglio, 1914), with Grasso, Balestrieri and Maria Carmi; and Teresa Raquin (Nino Martoglio, 1914) with Maria Carmi and Dillo Lombardo but without Grasso. It was based on Émile Zola’s famous novel.

Sperduti nel bui/Lost in the dark is Grasso’s most famous film and was considered almost an incunabulum of neorealist cinema. Grasso interpreted the blind Nunzio. In a review, Bracco underlined the "expressive" contrast between the grace of the character and the power of the actor. In the early 1940s, Sperduti nel buio was hailed as precursor of what would become Italian Neorealism, but during the war the German took the print from the Roman archive. It never resurfaced; neither other prints of the film. This raised the film's mythology.

The cinematographic activity of Grasso continued until 1926. Between 1919 and 1926, he was very active and performed in some nine films, including Mala Pasqua (Ignazio Lupi, 1919) with Linda Pini, L'ospite sconosciuta/The Unknown Guest (Telemaco Ruggeri, 1923) with Pina Menichelli, and Cavalleria rusticana (Mario Gargiulo, 1924) with Grasso as Alfio, Mary Cléo Tarlarini as Nunzia, Tina Xeo as Santuzza and Livio Pavanellias Turiddu.

Twice Grasso had the lead in Balzac adaptations Vautrin (Alexandre Davrennes, 1919) and Tromp-la-Mort (Devarennes, 1920). Amleto Palermi directed Grasso in three films: Dopo il peccato (1920) with Bella Starace Sainati, Il dramma dell’amore (1920) with Claretta Sabatelli, and La casa degli scapoli (1923) with Diomira Jacobini and Livio Pavanelli.

Grosso’s had his last film part in the Capuana adaptation Il cavalier Petagna (Mario Gargiulo, 1926), with Soava Gallone. Giovanni Grasso died in Catania in 1930. He was 56.

Unfortunately, almost all of Giovanni Grasso's films have been lost. With particular reference to Sperduti nel buio, one of the most sought films in the world of film archives and film history, we can only talk about it on the basis of the screenplay, photos and reviews. A booklet with 24 photos has been put online on the website Portale cinema muto italiano.

But sometimes fortune smiles at us. In 2005, at the Dutch EYE Filmmuseum, a tinted print of the short Cines film Un amore selvaggio (director unknown, 1912) was found, restored and relaunched internationally. Un amore selvaggio is a rural drama, clearly influenced by the literary works of Verga and Capuana. On a Sicilian farm, brother Giuseppe and sister Carmela work both. The rebel and violent Giuseppe is fired for offending his master, and would like to take his sister with him, but she refuses because she desperately loves the owner’s son Alessandro (Grasso).

Alessandro rejects her while he is already engaged. Carmela then tries to poison her rival in love, but she is discovered and in turn cast out. In order to take revenge, she tells Giuseppe that she has been seduced by Alessandro and asks her brother to kill him. But while she spies her rival's house she rolls into an embankment and is cared for by Alexander's good and kind girlfriend. Repentant, Carmela confesses Giuseppe she lied, just as he is about to hit Alessandro with a sickle. He forgives her and the two leave together.

But who were the Southern Italian actors in Un amore selvaggio? In 1912, Cines had shot three films with the famous southern actor Raffaele Viviani and his sister Luisella Viviani. These were known as their only film roles. Cines had also filmed two famous plays with Giovanni Grasso, Malia and Feudalismo. However, film historians Aldo Bernardini and Vittorio Martinelli did not connect him to Un amore selvaggio in their famous filmography Il cinema muto italiano).

In 2011, Un amore selvaggio was shown in Sicily before the heirs of Giovanni Grasso and Raffaele Viviani’s son. They immediately recognised the actors. Raffaele Viviani played Giovanni, his sister Luisella Viviani played Carmela and Grasso played Alessandro. This is remarkable while the brutal and tragic character of Giuseppe reminds of Grasso’s expressive parts, an here Viviani plays that part and Grasso has a more moderate role. Anyway, Un amore selvaggio (1912) is the only surviving film with Raffaele and Luisella Viviani, but also the only surviving film with Giovanni Grasso.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Pina Menichelli and Giovanni Grasso in Malafemmina.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Pina Menichelli and Giovanni Grasso in Malafemmina. Malafemmina is a film unknown to IMDb, but it was the alternative title of L'ospite sconosciuta/The Unknown Guest (Telemaco Ruggeri, 1923). The plot (written by future director Amleto Palermi) deals with Pietro, a young provincial (Andrea Conigliaro) who falls into the clutches of Stasia, a mundane adventuress (Menichelli) and spends his father's money on her. Di Scenta, the father (Grasso), pushes the woman to convince the son she never loved him and enforces this by having his son discovering the two of them in a restaurant. The son shoots the woman, while the father takes the blame.

The Italian censor didn't allow the representation nor even the suggestion that the son thinks he has to compete with his father in the love for Stasia. So all the scenes in which the father pretends his love for the woman in order to save his son were cut, as well as the intertitles explaining this situation. The film became incomprehensible and Italian critics didn't like it.

Sources: Franco Ruffini (Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 58 2002 - Italian), Ipercultura (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

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Michel Strogoff (1926)

September 12, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Angelika Waller

≪ Previous: Giovanni Grasso

Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko were the stars of the French-German silent film Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926), based on Jules Verne's classic novel. In many European countries, postcards were published for this classic adventure film.

Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (1926)

French postcard by Europe, no. 180. Photo: Société des Cinéromans. Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nathalie Kovanko and Acho Chakatouny in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).

French postcard by Europe, no. 181. Photo: Société des Cinéromans. Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1510/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).

Nathalie Kovanko and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Michel Strogoff (1926)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1512/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Postcard for Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926). Nadia Fedor (Nathalie Kovanko) consoles Michel Strogoff (Ivan Mozzhukhin) after he is blinded.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag no. 574. Photo: Micheluzzi-Film. Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).

A magnetic hold on our attention

Jules Verne wrote Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar in 1876, and it is considered one of his best books. The book was later adapted to a play, by Verne himself and Adolphe d'Ennery. Incidental music to the play was written by Alexandre Artus in 1880. The book has been adapted several times for films, television and even cartoon series.

One of the best versions is this French-German silent film, made by exiles from the Russian Revolution of 1917 under direction of Victor Tourjansky, shortly before his emigration to Hollywood. The film's art direction was by Eduardo Gosch, César Lacca, Alexandre Lochakoff, Vladimir Meingard and Pierre Schild who recreated the atmosphere of the mid-nineteenth century Russian Empire.

Tourjansky's screenplay follows the Jules Verne novel to the letter. In 1860s Russia, invading Tartars cut off all telecommunications between the border cities and the capital. The czar (Vladimir Gajdarov) sends the young captain Michael Strogoff (Ivan Mozzhukhin) to deliver a vital message to the last line of defence. Along the way he finds love with the practical Nadia (Nathalie Kovanko), a woman trying to visit her exiled father in Siberia, and danger from the traitorous Ivan Ogereff (Acho Chakatouny), who wants to stop him at all costs. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Strogoff is captured by The Grand Khan (Boris de Fas), who prepares to shove hot pokers in the hero's eyes while Strogoff's mother (Jeanne Brindeau) looks on helplessly. Despite these and other perils, Strogoff completes his mission and wins the hand of the beautiful Nadia."

Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926) was a co-production by Ciné France, Deulig Europa-Produktion and Films de France. A huge production, easily rivalling Hollywood's biggest, it represents the European film industry at it's most accomplished. 4,000 soldiers, including cavalrymen, were loaned by the Latvian army to portray the Russian and Tartar armies, and the battles were filmed outside Riga on large plains, which simulated the Siberian steppes.

The result is a wonderfully exciting historical adventure, full of epic sweep, pulsating action, intrigue, romance and even a little comedy relief. The silent film was a big hit in it's time. Despite a 3 hour length, the pace never lags and the story is compelling throughout. Technically the film was cutting edge 1926-style, with it's use of colour and tinting and some dazzling editing of the type associated with Abel Gance and Sergei Eisenstein.

Another strong asset of the film is the charismatic performance of Ivan Mozhukhin, who according to reviewer Hamilton65 at IMDb"draws us effortlessly into Strogoff's mission to reach the Tsar in time to save the empire from the Tartars. From his first appearance Mozhukhin exerts a magnetic hold on our attention. He never overplays, yet conveys a wide range of emotions and thoughts with the subtlest of movements."

With the coming of sound, Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926) got virtually forgotten. Renée Lichtig made for the Cinémathèque française a superb restoration which returned the film to it's proper state.

Romanian postcard by Editura Librariei SOCEC & Co. S.A., Bucuresti, no. 53. Photo: Monopol "Lux-Film". Ivan Mozzhukhin and Nathalie Kovanko in Michel Strogoff (Viktor Tourjansky, 1926).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Michel Strogoff (1926)

Romanian postcard by Editura Librariei SOCEC & Co. S.A., Bucuresti. Photo: Monopol "Lux-Film". Ivan Mozzhukhin in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).

Romanian postcard by Editura Librariei SOCEC & Co. S.A., Bucuresti. Photo: Monopol "Lux-Film". Ivan Mozzhukhin in Michel Strogoff (Victor Tourjansky, 1926).

The restored version of Michel Strogoff (1926). Source: Peliculas Mudas/Silent Films (YouTube).

A rough transfer of the ballroom scene from Michel Strogoff (1926) from a 9.5m print, including a section missing from the restoration. The score is Glinka's Valse Fantasie. Source: Christopher Bird (YouTube).

Sources: Hamilton65 (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Angelika Waller

September 13, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Photo by Atelier Eberth

≪ Previous: Michel Strogoff (1926)

East German actress Angelika Waller (1944) appeared in more than hundred films and TV productions since 1962. Her first leading role was in Das Kaninchen bin ich/The Rabbit Is Me (1965), a film which was banned in East Germany and which had its world premiere only in 1989.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2675, 1966 Photo: Balinski.

Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2985, 1967. Photo: Balinski.

The rabbit I am

Angelika Waller was born in 1944 in Bärwalde in der Neumark in former East-Germany (GDR). She went to school in Biesenthal in Brandenburg. As a kid, she already developed an interest in acting.

From 1963 to 1966 she was trained as an actress at the youth studio of the Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), the former state television broadcaster in East Germany. To finance her studies, she worked as an ice cream seller and furniture painter.

In 1965, Helene Weigel took her to the Berliner Ensemble, and since 1966 she has been a member of the theatre company. She made her stage debut in the comedy Frau Flinz by Helmut Baierl. She appeared in several Bertolt Brecht plays, including as Polly in Brecht's Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera).

Her film debut is also her most famous role, which was only made public in 1989 (some sources say 1990). The film, Das Kaninchen bin ich/The Rabbit I Am (Kurt Maetzig, 1965) came in the GDR on the index.

Waller played 19-year-old Maria Morzeck, who dreams of studying Slavistics, but her hopes are shattered when her brother, Dieter, is sent to prison after being convicted of sedition against the state. She cannot enter college, and becomes a waitress. Maria meets and falls in love with Paul Deister, an older, married man who turns out to be the judge who convicted her brother. Their affair ends when Deister is exposed as hypocritical and corrupt. After Dieter's release, he learns of his sister's relationship with the judge and assaults her. Eventually, Maria distances herself from both of them, and decides to pursue her forgotten dream.

The film was based on Manfred Bieler's book Maria Morzeck or the Rabbit is Me. It was filmed in the aftermath of the VI Party Congress of the Socialist Unity Party at January 1963, during which the establishment allowed a measure of liberalisation in the cultural life of East Germany. Although Bieler's novel was highly critical of the court system, he and director Maetzig took care to include several 'alibi scenes' in the film that were intended to put the state in a better light and also prevent the banning of the picture. The scenes were also meant to present the judicial reforms that took place between 1961 and 1963.

The short era of liberalisation ended gradually when Leonid Brezhnev took power in the Soviet Union and introduced a conservative, more repressive course on cultural questions. Das Kaninchen bin ich, alongside eleven other films that were deemed politically damaging, was banned in 1965. In 1989, shortly before the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the picture had finally its world premiere and was released for public screening. It was presented at the Berlin and Locarno film festivals, and was elected as one of the 100 most important German films by a group of historians and critics in 1995.

Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3203, 1968. Photo: Balinski.

Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 187/70. Photo: Uhlenhut.

Hitler's mistress

Angelika Waller became a crowd favourite with her second film, the circus film Schwarze Panther/Black Panthers (Josef Mach, 1966). She played the young Martina, who, despite the opposition of her father, tames the panthers in the circus ring and, according to Filmportal.de, “she impresses, among other things, by her artistic talent.”

In subsequent years, she is seen in numerous films in larger and smaller roles, repeatedly under the direction of Rolf Losansky. In the epic film series Osvobozhdenie/Liberation (Juri Oserow, Julius Kun, 1969-1970), Waller played Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun. The five-part film series is a dramatised account of the liberation of the Soviet Union's territory during World War II and the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany. The series was a Soviet-Polish-East German-Italian-Yugoslav co-production and according to official Soviet statistics, Liberation sold more than 400 million tickets worldwide. In the English-speaking world, a shorter, 118-minutes long version was distributed as The Great Battle.

In the meanwhile, the DEFA studio gave Waller only a few meaty parts, in which she could present her many acting facets, but the television offered her more possibilities. At the East-German television, she could convince in modern women's roles. She embodied emancipated women who decide for themselves in difficult situations. An extremely popular role was the title heroine - a postwoman - in the TV film Rotfuchs/Red Fox (Manfred Mosblech, 1973).

Angelika Waller also regularly played in the Krimi series Polizeiruf 110/Police Call 110 (1972-1987). Very popular was also the TV series Johann Sebastian Bach (1985) in which she played Bach's first wife. Since the 1970s, she worked as a teacher, and later as a professor at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst 'Ernst Busch' Berlin (Academy of Dramatic Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin). She also worked as a director and staged plays at the Berliner Arbeiter-Theater.

Until 1992, she remained a member of the Berliner Ensemble. In 1990, she returned to the cinema in the post-war comedy Der Bruch/The Break-In (Frank Beyer, 1990) alongside Götz George, Rolf Hoppe and Otto Sander. Waller played a busty woman, cheated by her spouse, who clearly expresses her material wishes. Next, she appeared in two TV films, the comedy Baby-sitter/Babysitter (Peter Welz, 1992) and again together with Götz George - in Tote sterben niemals aus/Dead people never die out (Jürgen Goslar, 1996). She starred in the role of Omi in the experimental film Happiness Is a Warm Gun (Thomas Imbach, 2001) on Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian.

In addition, she also lent her voice as a voice actor to among others Geneviève Bujold in the TV film Anthony and Cleopatra (James Cellan Jones, 1976) and Linda Purl in the TV mini-series The last days of Pompeii (Peter R. Hunt, 1984). In 1978 she received the Art Prize of the GDR. Since 2010 Waller has been a regular guest lecturer at the Thomas Bernhard Institute for Acting and Directing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Most recently, she appeared in the cinemas as the grandmother in Rückenwind von vorn/Away You Go (Philipp Eichholtz, 2018). Angelika Waller lives in Berlin. Her daughter Susann Thiede (born 1963) also works as an actress.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 128/74, 1974. Photo: Linke.

Sources: Ines Walk (Filmzeit.de– German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

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Photo by Atelier Eberth

September 14, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Patrick McGoohan

≪ Previous: Angelika Waller

In her Berlin studio, German photographer Anny Eberth portrayed aristocratic ladies and elegant fashion models, but also film actors and expressionist dancers, including the notorious Anita Berber. During the 1910s and 1920s, her photos were published in such Berlin magazines as Die Dame and Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, and were used for many sepia film star postcards. For this post on Atelier Eberth, we selected 15 postcards with female portraits.

Pola Negri. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 304. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin.

Erika Glässner. German postcard by Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 5540. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin.

Lotte Neumann. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 5694. Photo: Eberth, Berlin.

Hilde Wörner in Die Berliner Range (1913)

Hilde Wörner. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 6253. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin. Publicity still for Die Berliner Range/The Berlin Urchin (Max Mack, 1913).

Rose Liechtenstein. German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2351. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin.

Anita Berber. German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2406. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2765. Photo: Atelier Eberth / Union. Pola Negri as Carmen in the German silent drama Carmen (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918).

Hilde Wörner. German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 3341. Photo: Eberth, Berlin.

Martha Novelly. German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 163/1. Photo: A. Eberth, Berlin / Astra Film.

Fritzi Massary in Die Rose von Stambul (1919)

Fritzi Massary. German postcard by NPG, no. 795. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin. Publicity still for Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stamboul (Felix Basch, Arthur Wellin, 1919).

Hanne Brinkmann. German postcard by NPG, no. 807. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Maria Widal. German postcard by NPG, no. 889. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Lucie Kieselhausen. German postcard by Kunstverlag Juno, Charlottenburg, no. 115. Photo: Atelier Eberth.

Maria Leeser. German postcard, no. 1025. Photo: A. Eberth, Berlin. Costume design: Walter Schnackenberg. Caption: Märchen (Fairytales). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Aud Egede Nissen. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 476/1, 1919-1924. Photo: A. Eberth, Berlin.

Xenia Desni. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 571/1, 1919-1924. Photo: A. Eberth, Berlin.

Sources: Europeana Collection and Getty Images.

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Patrick McGoohan

September 15, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Elisabeth Müller

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Though born in America, charismatic Irish actor Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009) became the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. He also had an extensive stage and film career, including roles in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Clint Eastwood's Escape from Alcatraz (1979), David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981) and Mel Gibson's Braveheart (1995).

Patrick McGoohan in Danger Man (1960-1961)

German postcard by Kolibri Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 1876. Photo: Verleih Leo J. Horster, München. Publicity still for the TV series Danger Man (1960-1961).

Dutch postcard. Photo: publicity still for Danger man (1960).

Spanish postcard by Oscar Color, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 612.

I am not a number - I am a free man!

Patrick Joseph McGoohan was born in Queens, New York City in 1928. His parents, the Irish immigrants Thomas McGoohan and Rose Fitzpatrick McGoohan, moved back to Ireland when he was very young and, seven years later, they moved to Sheffield, England. McGoohan thus acquired a neutral accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue.

He left school at the age of sixteen and worked as a chicken farmer, a bank clerk and a lorry driver before getting a job as a stage manager at Sheffield Repertory Theatre. When one of the actors became ill, McGoohan filled in, launching his acting career.

McGoohan slowly graduated to small roles before eventually becoming the company's lead player. In the following years he would gain experience in repertory, the West End and the Old Vic, including leading roles in plays by Henrik Ibsen and William Shakespeare.

His first film appearances were in British productions like Passage Home (Roy Ward Baker, 1955) starring Anthony Steel, the Christopher Isherwood adaptation I Am a Camera (Henry Cornelius, 1955), and the cool action film Hell Drivers (Cy Endfield, 1957) opposite Stanley Baker.

In 1959, he won a BAFTA award for Best Television Actor for his role in The Greatest Man In The World (Ted Kotcheff, 1958), a one-off drama in ITV's Armchair Theatre series.

Shortly thereafter, he was chosen for the starring role as John Drake in Danger Man (1960-1961 and 1964-1967), which proved to be an immense successful series and allowed the British to break into the burgeoning American TV market for the first time. There it was renamed Secret Agent. McGoohan starred in 86 episodes of Danger Man, rocketing to international stardom and becoming Britain's highest-paid TV actor into the bargain, on a reputed £2,000 per week.

McGoohan then starred in, directed, produced, and wrote (as 'Paddy Fitz') many of the episodes of the ITV series The Prisoner (1967) about the efforts of a secret agent, Number Six, who resigned early in his career, to clear his name. His aim was to escape from a fancifully beautiful but psychologically brutal prison 'The Village' for people who know too much. The entire time his character attempts to find out the identity of his captor, the elusive Number One. He repeatedly declared: "I am not a number - I am a free man!"

The series was as popular as it was surreal and allegorical and its mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to desert England for more than 20 years to seek relative anonymity in Hollywood.

Spanish postcard by Ediciones Este, no. 141, 1966.

Spanish postcard by Ediciones Este, no. 149, 1966.

Vintage postcard. Photo: publicity still for the TV series Danger Man (1960-1961).

The Computer Wore Menace Shoes

Patrick McGoohan appeared in many films, including Ice Station Zebra (John Sturges, 1968), for which he was critically acclaimed, Mary, Queen of Scots (Charles Jarrott, 1971), with Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, and the Sergio Leone production Un Genio, due compari, un pollo/The Genius (Damiano Damiani, 1975) starring Terence Hill.

During the 1970s, Mc Goohan appeared as a murderer in four episodes of the TV detective series Columbo, for which he won twice an Emmy Award. He also appeared in Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981), a science fiction/horror film that has since attained cult status.

His film roles lapsed from prominence until his powerful part as King Longshanks in Mel Gibson's production of Braveheart (1995). In 1996 he appeared as Judge Omar Noose in A Time to Kill (Joel Schumacher, 1996), based on a John Grisham thriller.

In 2000, he reprised his role as Number Six in an episode of The Simpsons, 'The Computer Wore Menace Shoes'. In it, Homer Simpson concocts a news story to make his website more popular, and he wakes up in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Dubbed Number Five, he befriends Number Six and escapes with his boat.

McGoohan's last film was a voice role in the animated film Treasure Planet (Ron Clements, John Musker, 2002). That same year, he received the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for The Prisoner.

Patrick McGoohan died in 2009 in Santa Monica, USA, after a brief illness. That same year, Jim Caviezel played the role of Number Six in an ITV remake of The Prisoner (Nick Hurran, 2009), which also starred Sir Ian McKellen. McGoohan was married to actress Joan Drummond and they had three daughters, including actress Catherine McGoohan.

Trailer for Hell Drivers (1957). Source: Night of the Trailers (YouTube).

A complete episode of Danger Man, Position of Trust. Season 1, Episode 7, 23 October 1960. Source: Virginia Maskell S317 (YouTube).

Clip of The Prisoner (1967). Source: Polar Bear (YouTube).

Sources: Robert Sellers (The Independent), Roger Philip Mellor (Encyclopedia of British Film), AllMovie, BBC News, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Elisabeth Müller

September 16, 2018, 10:00 pm

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≪ Previous: Patrick McGoohan

Swiss actress Elisabeth Müller (1926-2006) was a popular star of the German Cinema in the 1950s. Her popularity brought her to Hollywood where she appeared in a few films.

Elisabeth Müller in Moselfahrt aus Liebeskümmer (1953)

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1107. Photo: Joe Niczky / Ariston / Columbia. Publicity still for Moselfahrt aus Liebeskümmer/Heartbroken on the Moselle (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 238. Photo: Ariston-Film. Publicity still for Moselfahrt aus Liebeskümmer/Heartbroken on the Moselle (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953).

Elisabeth Müller and Will Quadflieg in Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer (1953)

East-German postcard by Progress, Berlin, no. 242, 1956. Photo: Ariston-Film. Publicity still for Moselfahrt aus Liebeskümmer/Heartbroken on the Moselle (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953) with Will Quadflieg.

Elisabeth Müller and Ivan Desny in André und Ursula (1955)

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1364. Photo: Rotary / Deutsche London / Schlawe. Publicity still for André und Ursula/Andre and Ursula (Werner Jacobs, 1955) with Ivan Desny.

Elisabeth Müller and Robert Taylor in The Power and the Prize (1956)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 2819. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Power and the Prize (Henry Koster, 1956) with Robert Taylor.

A Darling of the Cinema Public

Elisabeth Müller was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1926.

She studied acting with her aunt, stage actress Ellen Widmann, and between 1944 and 1946 she followed classes at the Schauspielschule Zürich. The next years she worked in many Swiss and German theatre companies.

As Lisabet Müller, she made her film debut in Paragraph 51 – Seelenarzt Dr. Laduner/Paragraph 51 - Headshrinker Dr. Laduner (Leopold Lindtberg, 1947). Another popular Swiss film with her was the crime film Matto regiert/Madness Rules (Leopold Lindtberg, 1947).

In Germany, she played in the comedy Der Tag vor der Hochzeit/The Day before the Wedding (Rolf Thiele, 1952) opposite Paul Dahlke and Joachim Brennecke.

Her first big hit, the sentimental romance Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer/Heartbroken on the Moselle
(Kurt Hoffmann, 1953) with Will Quadflieg, made her a darling of the cinema public in the 1950s.

Next she worked twice with the legendary director G.W. Pabst, for the crime drama Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr/Afraid to Love (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1954) with Curd Jürgens, and for the drama Rosen für Bettina/Ballerina (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1956) opposite Willy Birgel.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1218. Photo: NF / Lilo / Ariston GmbH. Publicity still for Morgengrauen/Dawn (Viktor Tourjansky, 1954).

Elisabeth Müller in Rosen für Bettina (1955)

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Carlton / NF / Michaelis. Publicity still for Rosen für Bettina/Ballerina (G.W. Pabst, 1955).

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3488. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Maack / Arca-NF-Film. Publicity still for Geliebte Corinna/Beloved Corinna (Eduard von Borsody, 1956).

Elisabeth Müller in Geliebte Corinna (1956)

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3489. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Arca-NF-Film. Publicity still for Geliebte Corinna/Beloved Corinna (Eduard von Borsody, 1956).

Elisabeth Müller in Skandal in Ischi (1957)

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. T 871. Photo: Vienna / Schorcht / Hämmerer. Publicity still for Skandal in Ischi/Scandal in Bad Ischl (Rolf Thiele, 1957).

Hollywood

Her popularity brought Elisabeth Müller to Hollywood where she appeared in The Power and the Prize (Henry Koster, 1956), costarring with Robert Taylor, and the war drama The Angry Hills (Robert Aldrich, 1957-1959) with Robert Mitchum and based on a novel by Leon Uris. Neither film was a commercial success.

She returned to Europe where she appeared in such films as Taxichauffeur Bänz/Taxi Driver Bänz (Werner Düggelin, Hermann Haller, 1957) with Maximilian Schell in one of his first roles, and El Hakim (Rolf Thiele, 1957) with O.W. Fischer.

Her biggest TV success was the Mini-series Am grünen Strand der Spree/At the Green Beach of the River Spree (Fritz Umgelter, 1960) with Peter Pasetti, based on a novel by Hans Scholz.

Since the early 1960s, she worked mainly in the theatre, but in the 1960s and in the 1980s she also occasionally was seen in TV films like Ottiliens Tollheiten/Ottilien's Follies (Ludwig Berger, 1964) and Die Tote im Schlosspark/The Body in Schlosspark (Jürgen Goslar, 1984).

At the age of 80, Elisabeth Müller passed away in 2006 in Sempach, Switzerland. She was married to director and director of photography Kurt Grigoleit.

Elisabeth Müller and Peter van Eyck in Dr. Crippen lebt (1958)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1534, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: publicity still for Dr. Crippen lebt/Doctor Crippen lives (Erich Engels, 1958) with Peter van Eyck.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1535, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: publicity still for Dr. Crippen lebt/Doctor Crippen lives (Erich Engels, 1958) with Peter van Eyck.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 41. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 114. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 12.

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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Anton Walbrook

September 17, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Gustavo Serena

≪ Previous: Elisabeth Müller

Dark and handsome Anton Walbrook or Adolf Wohlbrück (1896-1967) was a distinguished Austrian actor who starred in early German sound films as Walzerkrieg (1933) and Viktor und Viktoria (1933). After the rise of Adolph Hitler, he settled in Great Britain where he appeared in such film classics as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and The Red Shoes (1948). He also played the ringmaster in La Ronde (1950).

Vintage collectors card.

Adolf Wohlbrück in Michel Strogoff (1936)

French postcard by Les Productions J.N. Ermolieff / Tobis. Photo publicity still for Michel Strogoff (Jacques de Baroncelli, Richard Eichberg, 1936), based on the novel by Jules Verne.

German postcard by Ross Verlag/Das Programm von Heute. Photo: Slavia - Tobis Europa. Publicity still for Port Arthur (Nicolas Farkas, 1936).

Gender-bending

Anton Walbrook was born as Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1896. He was the son of Adolf Wohlbrück II and his Austrian wife Gisela Rosa Cohn. He descended from ten generations of actors though his father broke with tradition and had become a circus clown.

Young Adolf studied with the famous stage director Max Reinhardt, who signed him to a five-year contract at the Deutsches Theater. In 1915 he had made his film debut as a circus director in the German silent film Marionetten/Marionettes (Richard Löwenbein, 1915).

During the mid-1920s, he starred in several films of the Stuart Webbs detective series, but the young actor was not noted in them. After the advent of sound film, this changed. He had a leading part opposite Anna Sten in the German language version of the drama Salto Mortale/Trapeze (Ewald André Dupont, 1931) and starred opposite Heinz Rühmann in the comedy Der Stolz der 3. Kompanie/The Pride of the Third Company (Fred Sauer, 1932).

Opposite lovely Anny Ondra, he appeared in the musical comedy Baby (Carl Lamac, 1932). The dashing actor then graced a number of romantic films. He played Johann Strauss in the UFA operetta Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933) opposite Renate Müller.

Again with Müller, he appeared in the gender-bending UFA-comedy Viktor und Viktoria/Viktor and Viktoria (Reinhold Schünzel, 1933), which later served as the inspiration and basis for the Hollywood comedy Victor Victoria (Blake Edwards, 1982) starring Julie Andrews. He also appeared in the French version, Georges et Georgette (Roger Le Bon, Reinhold Schünzel, 1934), with Meg Lemonnier replacing Müller.

A huge hit was Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934) with Paula Wessely. Thensellek reviews at IMDb: “A delightful movie, full of atmosphere of the post World War I Vienna. (...) The story is told quickly, the scenes full of wit and very discreet erotic hints. The leads are cast with two of Austria finest (...). If you want to dive deeply into Austrian culture and understand the country's roots, then watch this wonderful movie.”

Another interesting role was that of the student Balduin in the fantasy film Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Arthur Robison, 1935), a new and different version of the silent classic of 1913 starring Paul Wegener.

In 1936 Wohlbrück went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the RKO production The Soldier and the Lady (George Nicholls, 1937) the English language version of the Jules Verne adaptation Der Kurier des Zaren/The Czar's Courier (Richard Eichberg, 1936) in which he played Michael Strogoff, a role he had also played impeccably in the French and German versions. In Hollywood he changed his name from Adolf Wohlbrück into Anton Walbrook.

German postcard by Ross Verlag. no. 9205/2, 1935-1936. Photo: Bender & Jacobi, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9205/3, 1935-1936. Photo: Bender & Jacobi, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9379/2, 1935-1936. Photo: Genja Jonas, Dresden.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9839/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Bender.

Half-Jewish and Homosexual

Anton Walbrook was classified under the Nuremberg Laws as half-Jewish. He was also a homosexual and a political opponent of the Nazi regime. So instead of returning to Austria, he decided to settle in England.

There he continued working as a film actor making a speciality of playing continental Europeans with his trademark moustache. Meanwhile he supported Jewish actors and their families in Germany from London.

Producer-director Herbert Wilcox cast him as Prince Albert opposite Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria in the black-and-white costume film Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937) and Walbrook also appeared in the colour sequel, Sixty Glorious Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1938). He was also on the London stage from 1939 in Design for Living.

In the original film version of the stage thriller Gaslight (Thorold Dickenson, 1940), he was the sadistic husband of Diana Wynyard, roles played by Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in the later Hollywood remake. In the romantic melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1941), Walbrook was a Polish pianist torn over whether to return home.

Walbrook played a gentle pacifist in the wartime propaganda film 49th Parallel (Michael Powell, 1941), made by the team of director Michael Powell and writer-producer Emeric Pressburger. In their satire The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, 1943) he played the role of the dashing, intense ‘good German’ officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff.

In their greatest hit, the romantic melodrama The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, 1948), he was the tyrannical but charismatic impresario Lermontov who poises ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) to superstardom. Lotti St writes at IMDb: “Anton Walbrook is the star of this film, playing a Diaghilev type character and absolutely dominates any scene he is in. He is not bombastic in a showy, hammy way. It is a more silent but deadly charismatic performance. It is a pity he did not receive an award for it. He is stern, uncompromising, cold and passionate and absolutely deadly. He is a gentleman tough guy.”

One of his most unusual films is the brilliant The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickenson, 1949), an odd, Gothic thriller based on the Alexander Pushkin short story in which Walbrook co-starred with Edith Evans. In 1947, Walbrook had become a British citizen.

Luise Ullrich and Adolf Wohlbrück in Regine (1935)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8937/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fanal-Europa. Publicity still for Regine (Erich Waschneck, 1935) with Luise Ullrich.

Anton Walbrook (Adolf Wohlbrück) in Zigeunerbaron (1935)

German postcard by Ross Verlag. no. 9128/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Zigeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron (Karl Hartl, 1935).

German postcard by Ross Verlag. no. 9840/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Tobis-Europa / Stania. Publicity still for Port Arthur (Nicolas Farkas, 1936).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9840/2, 1935-1936. Photo: Tobis-Europa / Stania. Publicity still for Port Arthur (Nicolas Farkas, 1936).

Chilling Arrogance and Tragic Pathos

During the 1950s, Anton Walbrook appeared in British productions as well as in continental films. In the French classic La Ronde/The round of love (Max Ophüls, 1950), he was the gently ironic ringmaster who guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, around 1900. Another French production was L'affaire Maurizius/On Trial (Julien Duvivier, 1954) starring Daniel Gélin.

In Great Britain, he reunited with Powell and Pressburger for their musical Oh... Rosalinda!! (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1955) featuring Ludmilla Tchérina. It was an updated version of Johann Strauss's 1874 operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) and Walbrook played the role of Dr. Falke a.k.a. the Bat.

For Ophüls, he then played king Ludwig I of Bavaria in Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955) starring Martine Carol. He also appeared in Saint Joan (Otto Preminger, 1957) with Jean Seberg as Joan of Arc. His last English-speaking film was I Accuse! (José Ferrer, 1958), in which he played again a stiff and stern military officer.

He then retired from films but continued to perform on stage. He also appeared in some German television films, including a new version of the classic Hollywood mystery Laura (Franz Josef Wild, 1962) with Hildegard Knef, and Robert und Elisabeth (Eberhard Schröder, 1966) with Sabine Sinjen.

In March 1967, Anton Walbrook collapsed during a performance of Noel Coward’s play A Song at Twilight at Munich’s Kleine Komödie. He was just honoured with the notable award the Filmband in Gold for his longtime and important contributions to the German cinema.

Later that year he died of the consequences of a heart attack in Garatshausen, Germany. His ashes were interred in the churchyard of St. John's Church in London, as he had wished in his testament. Tim Bergfelder notes in the Encyclopedia of British Cinema that “Anton Walbrook's screen acting combined melancholic irony and old-worldly charm, chilling arrogance and tragic pathos.”

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London no. 1153. Photo: Radio.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 432. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organization Ltd.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. no. 2273. Photo: Tobis / E.N.I.C.

Scene from Life of Colonel Blimp (1943). Source: Mutikonka (YouTube).

Sources: Tim Bergfelder (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

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Gustavo Serena

September 18, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Battle of Britain (1969)

≪ Previous: Anton Walbrook

Italian silent film actor and director Gustavo Serena (1882-1970) is now best remembered as diva Francesca Bertini's co-star, but he did much more than that.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 36. Photo: Pinto, Roma.

Italian postcard by the magazine Film (Naples/Rome). Photo: Caesar Film.

Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 451bis.

Francesca Bertini

Gustavo Serena was born into a wealthy Neapolitan aristocratic family in 1881 or 1882. He left his military career for the stage.

In 1909, he switched to the cinema. He made his film debut in the Cines production Bianca Cappello/White Chapel (1909), a period piece by Mario Caserini.

From 1910 on, Serena acted in the films by the Italian Pathé film unit Film d'Arte Italiana. Here he was already paired with his future partner Francesca Bertini in 6 period pieces such as La Contessa di Challant e Don Pedro de Cordova/The Countess de Challant (Gerolamo Lo Savio, 1911), Romeo e Giulietta/Romeo and Juliet (Ugo Falena, 1912) and Lucrezia Borgia (Gerolamo Lo Savio, 1912) with Bertini in the title role of Lucrezia Borgia.

Then, Serena and Bertini both moved to the Cines company, though they did not play together there. At Cines, Serena also started to direct films.

In 1913, he had a major breakthrough as Petronius in the epic Cines film Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). The film became a worldwide success and was arguably the first blockbuster in the history of cinema, with 5,000 extras, lavish sets, and a running time of two hours, setting the standard for 'superspectacles' for decades to come.

In 1913 Serena also acted in productions by Roma Film. In 1914, he moved on to the Turinese company Pasquali, where he played in films by Umberto Paradisi and opposite actors as Maria Jacobini and Anna Petersen. In 1915, he left Pasquali and returned to Rome to work at Caesar Film, where he became not only an important actor but also a major director.

Gustavo Serena and Amleto Novelli in Quo vadis?

Italian postcard by Film Cines, Roma, no. 6572. Gustavo Serena as Petronius Arbiter and Amleto Novelli as Marcus Vinicius in Enrico Guazzoni's epic film Quo vadis? (produced 1912, released 1913), based on the famous homonymous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1913)

Italian postcard for the classic epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The devotion of the slave Eunice (Amelia Cattaneo) to Petronius (Gustavo Serena).

Francesca Bertini & Gustavo Serena in La signora delle camelie

Italian postcard by Vettori. Photo: still from La signora dalle camelie/The Lady of the Camellias (Gustavo Serena, 1915), with Francesca Bertini. The film was based on Alexandre Dumas fils' classic stage play La dame aux camélias, which in its turn was the basis for Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera La traviata.

Golden Couple

At Caesar, Gustavo Serena directed various films with Francesca Bertini. In the meantime, she had become an adored film star, a 'diva'.

The first of the films of Serena with Bertini was a classic precursor of neorealism, Assunta Spina (Gustavo Serena, 1915), based on a Neapolitan stage play by Salvatore Di Giacomo.

Wikipedia: "One of the aims of creating this film was to reveal the subtle expressive power of filmmaking, compared to theatrical plays. Francesca Bertini' fully displayed her talent for the first time, setting a new standard for acting on the silver screen. Her performance is generally rated as extraordinary, and in polar opposition to the work of writer and dramatist Gabriele D'Annunzio who was very popular at the time."

Today, Serena's direction of the film is discussed; some historians maintain that Bertini directed a part of or even the whole film.

At Caesar, Serena played the lead opposite Bertini in 11 feature films. Of these, he both directed and played in Assunta Spina (1915), Diana l'affascinatrice/Diana, the Adventuress (1915), Ivonne la bella danzatrice/Yvonne, the Beautiful Dancer (1915), Il capestro degli Asburgo/The Rope of Habsburg (1915), and La signora dalle camelie/The Lady of the Camelias (1915).

In 1916, Giuseppe De Liguoro took over the direction of the Bertini-Serena films, including Odette (1916) and Fedora (1916). The following year, Serena again both directed and acted in Andreina (1917). After that, Alfredo De Antoni took over and he directed the golden couple Bertini-Serena in such successes as Il processo Clémenceau/The Clemenceau Affair (1917), Tosca (1918) and Frou-Frou (1918).

When Bertini starred in seven films based on the 7 mortal sins, Serena played opposite her in L'ira/Anger (Edoardo Bencivenga, 1918) and L'avarizia/Greed (Gustavo Serena, 1919). These were their last collaborations. Then Gustavo Serena was replaced as Francesca Bertini's co-star by actors such as Livio Pavanelli, Sandro Salvini and Mario Parpagnoli.

Spanish postcard by Gurgui, no. 11. Gustavo Serena in Tosca(1918).

Spanish postcard by Amattler Marca Luna, series 5, no. 10. Photo: Caesar Film. Publicity still for Tosca (Alfredo De Antoni, 1918), starring Francesca Bertini as Floria Tosca and Gustavo Serena as Mario Cavaradossi. After having killed Angelotti, Sacrpia (Alfredo De Antoni) arrests Caravadossi, to Tosca's despair.

Spanish postcard by Amattler Marca Luna, series 5, no. 18. Photo: Caesar Film. Publicity still for Tosca (Alfredo De Antoni, 1918), starring Francesca Bertini as Floria Tosca and Gustavo Serena as Mario Cavaradossi. The execution of Cavaradossi on the roof of the Castel Sant' Angelo, with St Peter's cupola in the distance. Tosca discovers Scarpia's (Alfredo De Antoni) betrayal. She herself has just stabbed Scarpia to death. When Scarpia's men try to arrest her, she jumps of the roof with the words: "O Scarpia, davanti a Dio!"

Fascist Propaganda Piece

While not making films with Bertini anymore, Gustavo Serena continued to direct films at Caesar, with actors from its regular troupe, such as Carlo and Olga Benetti.

Among these films were A San Francisco (1915), based on another play by Di Giacomo; Parigi misteriosa/Mysterious Paris (1917), based on Eugene Sue's novel Les mystères de Paris, and Fernanda (1917), starring Leda Gys. He often played in these films too. Serena continued to direct films up to 1923, often with the actresses Anna Fougez, Tilde Kassay and Nella Serravezza.

Until 1926, Serena regularly acted in films too, including the German 2-part period piece Sterbende Völker/Dying People (Robert Reinert, 1922), shot in Italy; the fascist propaganda piece Il grido dell'aquila/The Shout of the Eagle (Mario Volpe, 1923); the Ronald Colman-Lilian Gish melodrama The White Sister (Henry King, 1923), an American production shot in Italy, and Fra Diavolo (Roberto Roberti, Mario Gargiulo, 1925) in which Serena played the title role.

When sound film came to Italy, Serena made a handful films, based on regional theater, such as Zappatore (1930), in which he played the lead himself. He quitted directing after that, but continued to play minor roles in Italian sound films in the late 1930s.

During the war years, Serena was production manager for a few films. Again from the late 1940s and all through the 1950s, he acted in several films, though in small parts. His last roles were even uncredited: bit parts in I soliti ignoti/Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1959) and Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo/Don Camillo: Monsignor (Carmine Gallone, 1961).

Gustavo Serena's parabole ended in 1970, when he died in Rome. He was 88. Serena had appeared in 107 films and had directed 33 films.

Italian postcard. Photo: Soava Gallone and Gustavo Serena in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).

Soava Gallone and Gustavo Serena in La via del peccato (1925)

Italian postcard. Photo: Soava Gallone and Gustavo Serena in La via del peccato/The Way of Sin (Amleto Palermi, 1925).

Sources: Aldo Bernardini/Jean A. Gili (Le cinéma italien 1905-1945), Gianfranco Mingozzi/Vittorio Martinelli (Francesca Bertini), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Battle of Britain (1969)

September 19, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Alain Barrière

≪ Previous: Gustavo Serena

The British War film Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969), produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz, is a historical reenactment of the air war in the early days of World War Two. In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle for control of the skies over Britain as the new Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force determine whether or not an invasion can take place. The film drew many respected British actors to accept roles as key figures of the battle, including Sir Laurence Olivier as Hugh Dowding and Trevor Howard as Keith Park. It also starred Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer and Robert Shaw as Squadron Leaders. Spitfire productions produced a series of 32 postcards of the film.

Laurence Olivier in The Battle of Britain (1969)

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus, no. L6/8699, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption Sir Laurence Olivier in his role as Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding in the film Battle of Britain. Dowding, now Lord Dowding, was Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command from 1936-1940 and one of the chief architects of Britain's victory.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8700, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Trevor Howard as Vice-Marshal Keith Park in the film Battle of Britain. Park was Air Officer Commanding No. 11 Group, based at Uxbridge, which controlled Britain's southern sector against attacks from the Luftwaffe.

Kenneth More in Battle of Britain (1969)

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8701, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Kenneth More, one of Britain's truly international stars, portrays Station Commander Baker in the film Battle of Britain.

Patrick Wymark in Battle of Britain (1969)

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8702, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Patrick Wymark as Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory in the film Battle of Britain. Leigh-Mallory was Air Officer Commanding No. 12 Group, based in the Midlands, and was one of the originators of the Big Wing air tactics in the fight against the Luftwaffe. He was killed in active service in 1944.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8703, 1969. Photo: David James. Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: No factual names are given to the pilots in the film of Battle of Britain. Playing Squadron Leader Skipper, a veteran of the R.A.F.'s withdrawal from France and later one of the aces in the Battle, is famous actor and author Robert Shaw.

The cancellation of Hitler's Operation Sea Lion

The script of Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969) by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster.

The film endeavoured to be an accurate account of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Luftwaffe and so ensured the cancellation of Operation Sea Lion – Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Britain.

The film is notable for its spectacular flying sequences, on a far grander scale than had been seen on film before. These made the film's production very expensive.

Filming in England was at Duxford, Debden, North Weald and Hawkinge, all operational stations in 1940 – one surviving First World War 'Belfast' hangar at Duxford was blown up and demolished for the Eagle Day sequence.

Some filming also took place at Bovingdon, a former wartime bomber airfield. The title-sequence scene, showing a review of German bombers on the ground by Fieldmarshal Milch, was filmed at Tablada Airfield in Spain (now San Pablo Airport).

Stunt coordinator Wilson Connie Edwards retained a Mark IX Spitfire, six Buchons, and a P-51 Mustang in lieu of payment, which were stored in Texas until sold to collectors in 2014.

Susannah York in Battle of Britain (1969)

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8705, 1969. Photo: David James / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Appearing in uniform for the first time in the film Battle of Britain is lovely Susannah York. She portrays Section Officer Maggie Harvey, one of the W.A.A.F. heroines of the sixteen weeks summer battle of 1940.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8717, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: The Luftwaffe raiders score a direct hit on one of Britain's airfields in this scene from Battle of Britain. Despite the tremendous onslaught the Germans only managed to put one airfield permanently out of action - Manston in Kent.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8719, 1969. Photo: Lee Battaglia / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Sheets of flame soar towards the sky when an R.A.F. hangar is bombed during an attack on a British airfield. A scene from the film Battle of Britain, an epic re-construction of that awe-inspiring summer of 1940.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8727, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: St. Katharine Docks near East Smithfield, London was the scene for the dockland inferno featured in Battle of Britain. In September 1940, St. Katharine's suffered heavily in the German bombing.

British postcard by Dixon-Lotus Production, no. L6/8730, 1969. Photo: David James / Spitfire Productions Ltd. Publicity still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). Caption: Firefighters battle against a blazing street during a Blitz sequence from Battle of Britain.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Alain Barrière

September 20, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: JosPe

≪ Previous: Battle of Britain (1969)

French singer and songwriter Alain Barrière (1935) recorded a number of timeless hits in the 1960s which earned their place in French music history. Internationally he is known for participating in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest. At the height of his popularity, he made one venture into film acting.

Italian postcard.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 975. Photo: Wolf Fiebig.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 1088. Photo: Wolf Fiebig.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 1228. Photo: Wolf Fiebig / RCA Victor.

Bitten by the Music Bug

Alain Barrière was born as Alain Bellec in La Trinité-sur-Mer, France in 1935. He grew up in the son of hardworking fishmongers in a small town on the coast of Brittany.

In 1955 Barrière enrolled in the École nationale s des Ingénieurs d'arts et métiers in Angers. In 1958 the young student was bitten by the music bug. He bought a guitar and began to write songs. On graduating in engineering in 1960, he moved to Paris to take up employment, and started to perform in the evenings at a small cabaret.

In 1961, Alain Bellec adopted his stage name, Alain Barrière, and entered the Coq d’or young talents contest. He won the final at the prestigious Olympia music-hall with the self-written song Cathy. He had an original chanson style that did no concession to the burgeoning yé-yé scene.

He signed a record contract with RCA Victor and started to release singles regularly. It enabled him to give up his job and make at least a modest living from music. In 1963, Barrière's song Elle était si jolie (She Was So Pretty) was chosen as the French representative in the eighth Eurovision Song Contest in London. Elle était si jolie finished fifth of 16 entries.

The song turned out to be by far the biggest seller of Barrière's career to that point. This gave him access to a much wider audience. Barrière went on to support Paul Anka on a concert tour. He released his first album, Ma vie (My Life), in 1964 and the title-track became a huge hit.

In 1965 he played a leading role in a heist thriller, Pas de panique/No Panic (Sergio Gobbi, 1966), alongside Pierre Brasseur. This would be his only venture into acting, but his singing career reached its peak in the latter part of the decade with a string of hits making him one of France's biggest stars and a sell-out live attraction.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 6934.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, in the Ministar series, no. 975B. Photo: Wolf Fiebig.

French postcard by PSG, no. 841. Offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: J. Aubert.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 363. Offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Wolf Fiebig.

French promotion card by Barclay. Photo: Alain.

Money-Spinner

Alain Barrière gained a reputation for being outspoken, uncompromising and at times difficult to work with. In the early 1970s, he left his record company to set up his own label. He kept his fan base, which ensured his records and concerts continued to provide a good living, despite his being overlooked by sections of the French broadcast media.

1975 proved to be a turning-point in Alain Barrière's personal life. He married Anièce and they had a daughter Guénaelle. The duet Tu t'en vas (1975) with Noëlle Cordier, topped the French chart, and was a hit in many European countries.

Barrière and his wife opened Le Stirwen, a nightclub-restaurant in a converted castle in Brittany near the famous menhirs in Carnac. Although the venue proved successful and popular, Barrière found himself facing severe tax problems, a result of dubious advice.

In 1977 he took his family to the US, where they remained for four years. After returning to France, Barrière made several comeback attempts, to little avail. After another period spent overseas, this time in Quebec, the family were back in Brittany.

In 1997, Barrière's career was unexpectedly rejuvenated by the release of Ma vie: Trente années de chansons (My Life, Thirty Years of 'Chanson'), a CD containing remastered versions of his old hits. It was a money-spinner.

Shortly afterwards, he released Barriere 97, an album of new material, which also sold well. Alain Barrière published an autobiography Ma Vie in 2006.

Alain Barrière continues to release both retrospective and newly-recorded albums.

Belgian postcard by Edit. Decker, Bruxelles, no. A 115.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 363. Photo: Wolf Fiebig / RCA Victor.

Small French collectors card by Publistar, Marseille.

French postcard by I.D.N. Photo: Alain Marouani / Barclay.

Alain Barriere and Noëlle Cordier sing Tu t'en vas. Source: Woud90 (YouTube).

Sources: rfi musique (French), Nostalgie (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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JosPe

September 21, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Viktor de Kowa

≪ Previous: Alain Barrière

From 1925 on, the Dutch firm JosPe printed and published hundreds of film star postcards. Founder of the company was the German businessman Joseph Peter Welker.

Greta Garbo. Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 34. Photo: MGM / Clarence Sinclair Bull. Publicity still for the German version of Anna Christie (Jacques Feyder, 1930).

Greta Garbo. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 299. Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931).

Greta Garbo. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 381. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932).

Truus van Aalten. Dutch Postcard by Jospe, no. 462. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

Fien de la Mar. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 581. Sent by mail in 1935. Photo: Godfried de Groot.

Louis Davids. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 582. Photo: Godfried de Groot.

Real Industry

Postcards used to be a real industry in the Netherlands in the first decades of the 20th Century. There were many firms who produced postcards. JosPe from the city of Arnhem was one of the biggest photo postcard printers and publishers of the country.

The firm was named after Joseph Peter Welker, a businessman from Hamburg in Germany, who founded the company in 1925. First it was located in the Koningstraat in Arnhem, later in the Kerkstraat in the same city.

In Germany, Welker had been the main owner of Jos-Pe Farben-Photo GmbH, a camera-maker firm in Hamburg and later Munich. The company is known only for the Tri-Color Camera, made between about 1924 and 1934, a metal-bodied plate camera for 'one-shot' colour separation photography.

Between 1925 and 1987, the Dutch JosPe firm produced thousands of postcards of cities and villages in the Netherlands, mostly pictures of streets and buildings. JosPe could also be commissioned by local hotels, cafes, churches and industries to make postcards of the respective buildings.

In 1930 A. Bruinier started working as a director at the company. Until the bankruptcy of the company in 1978, the Bruinier family remained in the management. In 1978 the activities were continued by new companies. In 1984 another bankruptcy followed and the BV was dissolved in 1987 for lack of income.

Buster Keaton, Anita Page and Cliff Edwards in Sidewalks of New York (1931)

Buster Keaton, Anita Page and Cliff Edwards. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 310. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Publicity still for Sidewalks of New York (Zion Myers, Jules White, 1931).

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 327, ca. 1932. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still of Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall and Dickie Moore in Blonde Venus (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marta Eggerth. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 330. Photo: City Film.

Marta Eggerth with operetta colleague Richard Tauber. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 468.

Marta Eggerth. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 547.

Christmas with Marta Eggerth. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 593.

Serrated Pictures

Through the years JosPe also published hundreds of film cards, all with the logo JP. The format of the JosPe postcards is 142 x 92 mm. Their pictures are sometimes serrated, and always printed glossy.

There are many JosPe cards of film stars like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalierand Marta Eggerth (in Dutch Martha Eggerth), who very popular stars in the Netherlands during the 1930s. With operetta diva Eggerth, JosPe even made a special Christmas card.

Other popular subjects were Dutch actors like Fien de la Mar, Louis Davids and Truus van Aalten, who was one of the backfish stars of the German film industry. Their portraits were often taken by glamour photographer Godfried de Groot in Amsterdam.

JosPe shut down in 1987 (or 1989 - the sources differ). In 2005 the Regionaal Archief Tilburg in the south of the Netherlands bought a part of the negatives of the firm; other archives did the same.

Anny Ondra. Dutch postcard by JosPe, Amsterdam, no. 285. Photo: Remaco. Publicity still for Eine Nacht im Paradies/One Night in Paradise (Carl Lamac, 1932).

Ralph A. Roberts and Anny Ondra in Eine Nacht im Paradies (1932)

Ralph A. Roberts and Anny Ondra. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 287. Photo: Remaco. Publicity still for Eine Nacht im Paradies/One Night in Paradise (Carl Lamac, 1932).

Maurice Chevalier visits the Netherlands

Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 290. In 1932 Maurice Chevalier visited the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Volendam.

Maurice Chevalier. Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 392.

Maurice Chevalier in the fishertown of Volendam, The Netherlands, 1932. Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 298.

Maurice Chevalier in The Netherlands. Dutch postcard by Jospé, Arnhem. 'Den Haag 21 September 1932 is written on the back of the card. That night Chevalier performed at the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Arts & Sciences building) in Den Haag/The Hague. The day before Chevalier had visited Volendam and Amsterdam and had performed at the Amsterdam movie palace Tuschinski Theater, which still exists today.

Sources: Het Volkspark Enschede (Dutch), Camera Wiki, OudOmmen.nl (Dutch) and Archieven.nl (Dutch).

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Viktor de Kowa

September 22, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Johan Kaart

≪ Previous: JosPe

Viktor de Kowa (1904-1973) was a German actor, singer, director and comedy writer. In the 1930s he became one of the most prominent and beloved comedy actors of the German cinema.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8909/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen), no. 1221. Photo: Filma.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3382/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Tita Binz / Tobis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8698/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3754/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

A Darling of the Female Public

Viktor (sometimes Victor) de Kowa was born as Viktor Paul Karl Kowarzik (some sources write Kowal(l)czyk) in 1904 in the village Hochkirch (nowadays Przesieczany), Germany (now south-western Poland, close to the German border).

He was educated at the Art Academy in Dresden and started his career as a poster and fashion drawer. Soon he abandoned this job and took acting lessons by the famous actor Erich Ponto.

He debuted in 1922 at the Dresdner Staatstheater and also worked in Lübeck, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg before he went to Berlin. There he was engaged at the Volksbühne, the Deutsches Theater and from 1935 at the Staatstheater.

He made his cinema debut with the silent film Der Herzensdieb/The Heart Thief (Nils Olaf Chrisander, 1927) starring Joseph Schildkraut and Lya de Putti. Two years later he had a supporting part in the circus film Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929) featuring Carmen Boni.

After the introduction of the sound film he became a darling of the female public with his very individual romantic roles.

He took part in such films as the comedy Pension Schöller (Georg Jacoby, 1930), the war drama Die andere Seite/The Other Side (Heinz Paul, 1931) with Conrad Veidt, the comedy Der Stolz der 3. Kompanie/The Pride of the Third Company (Fred Sauer, 1932), the horror comedy Unheimliche Geschichten/Unholy Tales (Richard Oswald, 1932) with Paul Wegener, and the romantic drama Ein Lied geht um die Welt/The Joseph Schmidt Story (Richard Oswald, 1933).

He had his great breakthrough with the post-war drama Kleiner Mann - was nun?/Little Man What Now (Fritz Wendhausen, 1933), based on the novel by Hans Fallada.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8089/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Klagemann.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8822/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der junge Baron Neuhaus/The Young Baron Neuhaus (Gustav Ucicky, 1934) with Käthe von Nagy.

Dutch postcard by City Film, no. 501. Photo: publicity still for Das Schloß im Süden/The Castle in the South (Géza von Bolváry, 1933) with Liane Haid.

Viktor de Kowa and Hilde Weissner in Lockvogel

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8883/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Lockvogel/Decoy (Hans Steinhoff, 1934) with Hilde Weissner.

Pacifist or God-gifted NSDAP actor?

In the following years, Viktor de Kowa became a star with comedies like Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs/The Grand Duke's Finances (Gustaf Gründgens, 1934) opposite Hilde Weissner, Der junge Baron Neuhaus/The Young Baron Neuhaus (Gustav Ucicky, 1934) with Käthe von Nagy, Die grosse und die kleine Welt/The Big and the Small World (Johannes Riemann, 1936), and Die göttliche Jette/The Divine Jetta (Erich Waschneck, 1937) with Grethe Weiser.

During the war years, he starred in Wir machen Musik/We Make Music (Helmut Käutner, 1942) co-starring Ilse Werner, and the crime comedy Peter Voss, der Millionendieb/Peter Voss - the million thief (Karl Anton, 1943-1946).

In those years he also directed three films - Schneider Wibbel/Tailor Wibbel (1939) starring Erich Ponto, Casanova heiratet/Casanova Marries (1940) and Kopf hoch, Johannes/Head Up, Johannes (1941) starring Albrecht Schoenhals and Dorothea Wieck.

He continued his acting during the war. He was a member of the NSDAP and directed the Nazi propaganda film Kopf Hoch, Johannes/Head high, Johannes. In this Nazi youth film the independent, freedom-loving boy Johannes is converted in a Nazi-youth organization, a Napola school, to discipline and obedience. This subject made De Kowa euphoric: "The task to create an image from the life of this young generation, these future leaders of Greater Germany - this is a work about which one can be enthusiastic honestly and without reservations."

Although Joseph Goebbels called the subject of the film 'well', he was disappointed by the direction of De Kowa. Nevertheless, Goebbels placed De Kowa in August 1944 on the Gottbegnadeten-Liste (god-gifted list of the indispensable actors) which retained him from a war application, and from the Heimatfront.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2401/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tobis / Sandau.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9260, 1935-1936. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3889/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Star-Foto-Atelier.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Harlip.

Working Permit

After the war, Viktor de Kowa immediately received a working permit and he became the manager of the Berliner Tribüne till 1950. From 1956 to 1962 he was a member of the Burgtheater in Vienna. As chairman of the trade unions for art, culture and media, he was also a board director of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB).

He was also active in the post-war film, produced some films and wrote plays. To his well-known films after the war belong Zwischen gestern und morgen/Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Harald Braun, 1947) starring Hildegard Knef, Anonyme Briefe/Anonymous Letters (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1949) with Käthe Haack.

During the 1950s, such films followed as Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955) opposite Curd Jürgens, Ein Mädchen aus Flandern/The Girl from Flanders (Helmut Käutner, 1955) with Maximilian Schell, Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1957) starring Romy Schneider, and Der veruntreute Himmel/Embezzled Heaven (Ernst Marischka, 1958), based on a novel by Franz Werfel.

From the 1960s on, Viktor de Kowa worked for the cinema as well as for television. To his last films belong the Edgar Wallace mystery Der Fälscher von London/The Forger of London (Harald Reinl, 1961), the thriller Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein/Operation Caviar (Géza von Radványi, 1961) with O.W. Fischer, and the comedy Das Haus in Montevideo/The House in Montevideo (1963, Helmut Käutner) with Heinz Rühmann.

His last film part was Ravenhurst in Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Thunder at the Border (Alfred Vohrer, 1966) with Rod Cameron and Pierre Brice.

Viktor de Kowa was married twice. In 1926 he married the actress Ursula Grabley. After their divorce he married in 1941 the Japanese actress and singer Michiko Tanaka. Viktor de Kowa died of cancer in 1973 in Berlin. He was 66.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3457/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Tita Binz.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3582/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis.

German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. FK 3081. Photo: Dührkoop / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1108. Photo: Ufa (Universum-Film Aktien-gesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof). Publicity still for Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958) with Romy Schneider.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), The Androom Archives, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

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Johan Kaart

September 23, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Rosanna Schiaffino

≪ Previous: Viktor de Kowa

For decades, Johan Kaart junior (1897-1976) was a huge star in the Dutch entertainment world. Between 1934 and 1937, he starred in seven films and after the war he played in several more films. He also often worked for radio and television, but his main stage was the theatre.

Jan van Ees, Willy Costello, Johan Kaart jr

Dutch postcard by Hollandia Film Prod. / Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: publicity still for De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Dutch postcard, no. 7. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Publicity still of Johan Kaart junior in the comedy Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (1934).

Johan Kaart in De familie van mijn vrouw

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Productie. Publicity still of Johan Kaart junior in the Dutch comedy De familie van mijn vrouw/My Wife's Family (Jaap Speyer, 1935).

Theatre Dynasty

Johannes Antonius Kaart was born in a theatre dynasty in Amsterdam in 1897. He was the son of small-time actor Johannes Antonius Kaart (Senior), and soubrette and actress Isabella Willemsens.

When Johan Junior was 16, he made his debut as an extra with the in Amsterdam located stage company Het Tooneel under direction of Willem Royaards, against the wishes of his parents. A year later, his father gave in and sent him to acting classes.

With his stubby shape, gritty timbre and somewhat roughly cut facial features, he was not the appropriate figure for the role of young lover. However, he soon became a star in the Dutch entertainment world. He played many classic theatre roles, but he also developed himself more and more as a comedian.

According to IMDb, Kaart made his screen debut in the Dutch silent film Helleveeg (Theo Frenkel, 1920) with Mien Duymaar van Twist and Lily Bouwmeester. This is a mistake, it was actually his father who appeared as a butler in the film.

Junior would have his breakthrough in one of the first Dutch sound films, De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934), based on the popular play by Herman Bouber. The film is based on a fairly well known and still popular Dutch play, set in the Jordaan, a neighbourhood where the the working class of Amsterdam used to live.

Kaart played Manus or 'De Schele' (the Cross-Eyed), one of the three roguish tars of the title. The other two were Jan van Ees and Willy Costello. The three friends return from their military service in the navy. Dolle Dries is happily united with his girlfriend Blonde Greet. Schele Manus courts Jans, but is less lucky, since she adores luxury. The third sailor, De Blauwe, is usually tipsy. The three sailors continue their comradeship, and support each other during hardships.

Johan Kaart and Lau Ezerman in Don Quichot

Dutch postcard for the stage play Don Quichot op de Bruiloft van Kamatcho/ Don Quichot on the Wedding of Kamatcho (1711) by Pieter Langendijk, starring Lau Ezerman as Don Quichotte and Johan Kaart Jr. as Sancho Panza. The play was performed by the Schouwburgtoneel of Jan Musch in the open air theatre in Valkenburg in 1920. In 1925 the play was performed again with Kaart as Sancho Panza at the Amsterdam open air theatre Frankendaal, this time by the company Vereenigd Tooneel.

Johan Kaart, Suzy Klein, Willy Castello, Henriette Davids, Jan van Ees and Sylvain Poons in De Jantjes

Dutch postcard by Hollandia Film Prod. / Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: publicity still for De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Marlene Dietrich Impersonation

After De Jantjes had become a surprisingly huge success, Johan Kaart went on to star in six more films between 1934 and 1937. These were all comedies.

First he reunited with director Jaap Speyer to make Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) and De familie van mijn vrouw/My Wife's Family (Jaap Speyer, 1935) with Sylvain Poons.

Then followed De vier Mullers/The Four Mullers (Rudolf Meinert, 1935) with Johannes Heesters, the army comedy De big van het regiment/The Mascot of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935) with Frits van Dongen aka Philip Dorn), and 't was een april/It was April Fools' Day (Detlev Sierck aka Douglas Sirk, Jacques van Tol, 1936).

In Kermisgasten/Carnival People (Jaap Speyer, 1936) with Henriëtte Davids, he did a hilarious Marlene Dietrich impersonation.

Dutch critic Henk van Gelder writes in his biography of Kaart at Huygens.ING: "Unlike many of his colleagues, Kaart realised very well that the camera did not allow stage acting. He radiated a natural kind of joviality that made him a crowd favourite. Whether he played a popular type, a slow student or a dedicated policeman, he easily knew how to create a credible character out of every kind of role."

Johan Kaart, Sylvain Poons, Hansje Andriesen, Matthieu van Eysden, and Adolphe Engers in De Big van het regiment (1935)

Dutch postcard by Monopole Film N.V. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still for De Big van het Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. For a better view of the postcard please click double on the picture.

Johan Kaart in De Big van het Regiment (1935)

Dutch postcard by N.V. Monopole Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still for De Big van het Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Frits van Dongen, Cruys Voorbergh, Matthieu van Eysden, Adolphe Engers, and Johan Kaart in De Big van het regiment (1935)

Dutch vintage postcard by Monopole Film NV. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still for De Big van het Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Box Office Hit

After the war, Johan Kaart returned on the screen in the old fashioned comedy Een koninkrijk voor een huis/A Kingdom for a House (1949), again directed by Jaap Speyer and co-starring Henriëtte Davids.

Next he played a cab driver who wants to emigrate to Australia in the comedy Sterren Stralen Overal/Stars Twinkle Everywhere (Gerard Rutten, 1953).

A huge box office hit in the Netherlands was the drama Ciske de Rat/Ciske the Rat (Wolfgang Staudte, 1955) in which Kaart played a supporting part.

He played more supporting parts in the comedy Kleren maken de man/Clothes Make the Man (Georg Jacoby, 1957) starring Kees Brusse, and the thriller Rififi in Amsterdam (Giovanni Korporaal, 1962) with Maxim Hamel.

Louis de Bree, Johan Kaart, Malle gevallen

Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 1. Photo: Publicity still for the comedy Malle gevallen (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Annie van Duyn, Enny Meunier, Johan Kaart jr., Roland Varno in Malle gevallen

Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 3. Photo: publicity still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Roland Varno, Louis Borel & Johan Kaart in Malle gevallen

Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 4. Photo: publicity still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Roland Varno, Johan Kaart, Annie van Duyn, Louis Borel, Jopie Koopman, Enny Meunier, Malle gevallen

Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn Film, no. 11. Photo: still for Malle Gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Potash & Perlmutter

Johan Kaart often worked for radio and later also for TV, but his main stage was the theatre. Since 1950 he performed Potasch en Perlemoer (Potash & Perlmutter) by Montague Glass for more than 3,500 times. The farce is about the ups and downs of two constantly squabbling Jewish textile merchants. His co-star in this evergreen was Johan Boskamp.

Kaart was also acclaimed for his role as the job-shy garbage collector Alfred Doolittle in the 1960 Dutch stage version of My Fair Lady, alongside Wim Sonneveld as Professor Higgins. It was another success.

On TV he was seen in the popular youth series Ja zuster, nee zuster/Yes Nurse, No Nurse (1967) and Oebele (1968-1971).

Between 1969 and 1972, he went on tour again with Johan Boskamp as opponent in Potasch & Perlemoer. Forced by the aftermath of a fractured hip, caused by a fall during a performance of this success, and Parkinson's disease, he disappeared from the scene.

In 1975 the Johan Kaart Prijs was introduced, a Dutch theatre entertainment award named after him.

In 1976, Johan Kaart died in Amsterdam at the age of 78. He was married to former actress Maria Wilhelmina Jeanne 'Willy' von Saher from 1920 till his death in 1976. They had one daughter, Freddie (1924). Johan Kaart was also the uncle of the talented film actor and opera singer Hans Kaart.

Johan Kaart en Jacques van Bijlevelt in De Vier Mullers

Dutch postcard. Photo: Habé Film. Publicity still of Johan Kaart and Jacques Bijlevelt in the comedy De Vier Mullers (1935), a Dutch version of the Austrian multilingual Alles für die Firma (1935). Both were shot at the Schonbrunn studios in Vienna. The film deals with three quarrelsome generations of textile business owners: granddad Philip (Adolf Bouwmeester), dad Max (Bijlevelt) and son Otto (Johannes Heesters). Kaart plays their go-between Jacob Schat.

Johan Kaart en Johan Heesters in De Vier Mullers

Dutch postcard by Habé Film. Photo: publicity still for De Vier Mullers/The Four Mullers (Rudolf Meinert, 1935) with Johannes Heesters.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

Johan Kaart in Sterren stralen overal (1953)

Dutch postcard by Editions Altona, Amsterdam, no. T 63. Photo: publicity still for Sterren Stralen Overal/Stars Twinkle Anywhere (Gerard Rutten, 1953).

Sources: Henk van Gelder (Huygens ING - Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis - Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Rosanna Schiaffino

September 24, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Pierre Mingand

≪ Previous: Johan Kaart

Glamorous, Italian film actress Rosanna Schiaffino (1938-2009) was a show business icon of the 1960s, famous for her eye-catching legs and her temperamental performances. She appeared frequently in sword-and-sandal films, and on covers of European and American magazines.

German postcard by Ufa, no. CK 421. Photo: Georg Michalke.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/59.

German postcard by Krüger.

German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/114. Photo: Farabola.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 125.

Sacrificial Virgin and Evil Princess

Rosanna Schiaffino was born as Rosa Anna Schiaffino in Genoa, Liguria, into a well-off, non-show business family. Her sister later became actress Maria Pia Schiaffino.

When she was 14 she won the Miss Liguria beauty contest. The resulting photographs aroused the interest of film producers. Without her father's blessing but chaperoned by her mother and sister, Rosanna travelled to Rome for a screen test.

From 1956 onward, she was seen in earthy, sexy roles like in the Totò comedy Totò, lascia o raddoppia? (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956), and the drama La Sfida/The Challenge (Francesco Rosi, 1958). The latter was well received at the 1958 Venice festival, where Schiaffino was much admired for her powerful but sensitive performance as a Neapolitan girl, inspired by a real-life character. On the day of her wedding to the young man with whom she has been having a passionate affair (José Suarez), he is killed by the Camorra, which he has been trying, ingenuously, to outwit for control of the fruit market.

She became famous for her eye-catching legs, and her temperamental performances. Her photographs graced covers of magazines in countries where her minor films were not even released. So she started with playing small parts, but by the end of the 1950s she had become a leading lady in Italian and French films, and later also in British and Hollywood productions.

In 1959 Schiaffino put her career in a higher gear with La Notte Brava/Bad Girls Don't Cry (Mauro Bolognini, 1959), an enjoyable tale of young people in an urban slum. The cast was full of attractive starlets like Elsa Martinelli, Mylène Demongeot, Antonella Lualdi, and Rosanna, showing her sexy legs on high heels. It was one of the first films co-scripted by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Though not an actress of any great depth, she managed to land the dual role of the sacrificial virgin Ariadne and the evil princess Phaedra in Teseo Contro Il Minotauro/The Minotaur (Silvio Amadio, 1961). This sword-and-sandal epic meant her international breakthrough. Till the mid 1960s she would be busy on the international scene.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4802. Photo: Mondial Agency / Ufa.

German postcard by Kolibri / Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1699.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1789. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / Gloria.

German postcard by Kolibri / Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2563.

German postcard by Kolibri / Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1622.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. 941.

Form-fitting Period Garb

After Franco Cristaldi focused on his didcovery Claudia Cardinale, Rosanna Schiaffino found another producer interested in her career, Alfredo Bini, whom she would marry in 1963.

In Bini's production RoGoPaG (named after its four directors, Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Pasolini and Ugo Gregoretti, 1963), Schiaffino showed her mettle in Rossellini's Illibatezza/Chastity. John Francis Lane in The Guardian: "She gave credibility and humour to the role of an air hostess who succeeds in shaking off the advances of an American PR guy looking for the perfect chaste girl for an advertising campaign, by turning herself into a vampish glamourpuss."

Rosanna Schiaffino was a pleasing appearance in contemporary costumes in English language films like Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli, 1962) as a very temperamental film star, and in the war drama The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963).

Schiaffino was even more fun to watch in her form-fitting period garb as the mistress of villainous Moroccan chieftain Sidney Poitier in The Long Ships (Jack Cardiff, 1964).

She also worked in Italian films like La Corruzione/Corruption (Mauro Bolognini, 1963), the episode film Ro.Go.Pa.G./Let’s Have a Brainwash (Roberto Rossellini, 1963), Sette contro la morte/The Cavern (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1964).

Next she appeared in the amusing costume comedy La Mandragola/The Mandrake (Alberto Lattuada, 1965), La Strega in amore/The Witch in Love (Damiano Damiani, 1966), and the biopic Simón Bolívar (Alessandro Blasetti, 1969) opposite Maximilian Schell.

Despite the increase of nudity in films at the end of the 1960s, Schiaffino refused to appear in such scenes. In the 1970s she played leading parts in comedies, Spaghetti Westerns and thrillers by minor directors that have all been forgotten. Obviously her career petered out. In 1976 she decided to give up the cinema.

Rosanna Schiaffino was married twice. In 1977 she divorced producer Alfredo Bini, with whom she had a daughter, Antonella. During the summer of 1980, in Portofino, she met the playboy and steel industry heir Giorgio Falck. Their affair was big news for the gossip tabloids. In 1981 she gave birth to their son, Guido, and in 1982 she married Falck. She and Falck had a son, Guido, but they divorced in 2001.

In 1991, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rosanna Schiaffino died in Milan, Italy in 2009. She was 69.

Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3807. Photo: Vides. Publicity still for La Sfida/The Challenge (Francesco Rosi, 1958).

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N 77.

Italian postcard, no. 140.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 411.

Trailer of The Man Called Noon (Peter Collinson, 1973). Source: Ady Black (YouTube).

Sources: John Francis Lane (The Guardian), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Pierre Mingand

September 25, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Op hoop van zegen (1934)

≪ Previous: Rosanna Schiaffino

Pierre Mingand (1900-1982) was a talented French actor who could also tap dance, play the piano and sing. He started his career as an athletic dancer in the circus. Later he often appeared together with Danielle Darrieux, both on stage and in a series of films.

French postcard by Erpé, no. 116. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 94. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Athletic dance number

Pierre Mingand was born Joseph-Yves-Pierre Magnin in 1900 in Besançon in the east of France. He was the son of Achille and Hélène Magnin.

Graduated in commercial sciences, he studied singing and mime. In 1926 the young Pierre Mingand performed in the Circus Molier, founded in 1880 by Ernest Molier. In 1927, he performed at the Cirque de Paris in a duet with Maxime Vaz in an athletic dance number.

Later he was part of Ray Ventura's orchestra as a singer and pianist. He also sang and recorded duets with Danielle Darrieux, with whom he was befriended.

They made several films together: the Policier Mauvaise Graine/Bad Seed (Billy Wilder – his debut as a director, Alexander Esway, 1934), Mademoiselle Mozart/Miss Mozart (Yvan Noé, 1935), Abus de confiance/Abuse of trust (Henri Decoin, 1937) with Charles Vanel, and Retour à l'aube/Back to dawn (Henri Decoin, 1938) with Pierre Dux.

Mingand had started his film career as Johann Strauss in La Guerre des valses/The Waltz Wars (Ludwig Berger, Raoul Ploquin, 1933), with Fernand Gravey and Arletty. La Guerre des valses was the alternative language version of the Ufa production Walzerkrieg (Ludwig Berger, 1933) with Willy Fritsch.

Pierre Mingand also had a small part in Sacha Guitry’s Remontons les Champs-Élysées/Champs-Elysees (Sacha Guitry, 1938).

French card.

French postcard by E.P.C. (Editions et Publications cinématographiques), no. 179. Photo: Star.

French postcard by E.C., Paris, no. 26. Photo: Verhassel.

Nothing in your hands, nothing in your pockets

During the war, Pierre Mingand appeared in the film musical Mademoiselle Swing/Miss Swing (Richard Pottier, 1942), with Irène de Trébert and Jean Murat.

During filming Coup de tête/Impulse (René Le Hénaff, 1944) with André Alerme and Josseline Gaël, Mingand had an accident during a fight scene. He was seriously injured when a part of the set collapsed and fell on top of him. He was immobilised for months and this accident nearly ended his career.

His final film was the comedy Le voleur se porte bien/The thief is doing well (Jean Loubignac, 1948). Mingand also worked in the music hall where he was very successful too. Well known was his song song Rien dans les Mains, rien dans les Poches (Nothing in your hands, nothing in your pockets) which was written in 1948 by Henri Betti and André Hornez.

In 1935, after his success in the stage musical comedy Mademoiselle Mozart (Miss Mozart), he starred in the operetta Trente et Quarante (Thirty-eight) at the Bouffes-Parisiens with music by Werner Richard Heymann. His co-stars were Alice Cocéa and Pierre Brasseur. Many stage productions would follow.

In the 1960s, when his acting career was over, he worked as a sales manager for the company Arago, a subsidiary of the electronics firm Radiohm in Montreuil.

From 1933 till their divorce in 1941, he was married to Irène Montanet. In 1964, he married Marguerite Magnin, born Marguerite Arandel.

In 1982, Pierre Mingand died as a result of an epidemic at the Esquirol Clinic in Agen. He was buried in the family vault at the Chaprais cemetery in Besançon.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 55. Photo: Star, Paris.

French postcard, no. 51. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Le bloc-notes de cirk75 (French), Artistes 1940 (French), Encyclopédie Multimédiale de La Comedie Musicale (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

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Op hoop van zegen (1934)

September 26, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Jeroen Krabbé

≪ Previous: Pierre Mingand

Today, a new edition of The Netherlands Film Festival starts in the city of Utrecht. The NFF is every year both the home of Dutch cinema and the leading platform for the Netherlands’ national film culture. The 38th edition takes place from 27 September – 5 October 2018, and celebrates the achievements of Dutch filmmakers. And EFSP joins the fun again with The Netherlands Film Star Postcard Festival. We begin with a film special on the early Dutch sound film Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934). There are four film adaptations of Herman Heijermans' stage classic Op hoop van zegen about a fishermen's tragedy: produced in 1918, 1924, 1934, and 1986. The 1934 version stars the iconic Esther de Boer-van Rijk, the senior actress who won a special mention at the Venice Film Festival of 1935 for her intensely tragic performance as Kniertje.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk in Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934).

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Herman Heijermans

The play Op Hoop van Zegen (1900) is still staged in the Netherlands, and it remains the most popular play by Herman Heijermans (1864–1924).

Heijermans was the leading Dutch dramatist at the close of the 19th century. He was a writer of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies who single-handedly brought Dutch theatre into the modern time.

Op Hoop van Zegen takes place in a fishing village. A conflict between the fishermen and their employer ends in tragedy with the unsound boat setting out to sea and sinking with all hands and the owner pocketing the insurance money.

The third film version of 1934 was the first sound version and is also the first too survive intact. Of the two silent versions, only bits and pieces remain.

Alex Benno, the director of the 1934 version, worked as a gopher on the 1918 version and also appeared as an extra.

It was his dream to make a sound version of the film and to use the same lead actress, Esther de Boer-van Rijk, who had become synonymous with the part of Kniertje on stage. Willem van der Veer, who played the youngest son Barendje in the 1918 version, was cast as the unscrupulous Reder Bos this time around.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Annie Verhulst, Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Miep van den Berg, Anton Verheijen and Annie Verhulst. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Willem Hunsche, Anton Verheijen, August Kiehl, Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Willem Hunsche, Anton Verheijen and August Kiehl. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Coen Hissink, Willem v.d. Veer, Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Coen Hissink and Willem v.d. Veer. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Esther de Boer van Rijk and Coen Hissink in Op hoop van zegen (1934)

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer van Rijk and Coen Hissink.

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer-van Rijk and Frits van Dongen.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk

The star of the 1934 film version was the 80-year-old Esther de Boer-van Rijk, the most popular Dutch actress ever.

She had played the tragic fisherwoman Kniertje in the first performance of Op hoop van zegen on stage in 1900 and the role had made a national icon of her. Through the years, she had played Kniertje again and again.

Driven by poverty and honour, Kniertje sends the last of her kin to sea. Her two sons will work on the ship Op Hoop van Zegen, of which some people in town doubt it is seaworthy.

She played Kniertje again in the first silent film version of 1918 directed by Maurits Binger and repeated the role in the 1934 sound version directed by Alex Benno. In the latter, the film actors Frits van Dongen and Jan van Ees played her two sons.

De Boer-van Rijk also appeared in a dozen more Dutch silent films, but Kniertje would always be her biggest success.

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Jan van Ees and Esther de Boer-van Rijk. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Esther de Boer van Rijk, Aaf Bouber, Cissy van Bennekom, Clara Visscher, and Annie Verhulst, in Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Aaf Bouber, Cissy van Bennekom, Clara Visscher, and Annie Verhulst. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Aaf Bouber in Op Hoop van Zegen

Aaf Bouber and Clara Visscher in Op hoop van zegen (1934)

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) with Aaf Bouber and Clara Visscher. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dutch postcard by Cinema Palace / M.H.D.-Film. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934). Probably published to commemorate the death of Esther de Boer-van Rijk in 1937.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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