During the early 1930s, the British magazine Film Weekly produced dozens of four card sets on popular films. Today a film special with a Film Weekly set for the classic film musical 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), produced by Warner Bros. Among the stars are Warren Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent and the upcoming Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers and Dick Powell. The biggest star of the film however is dance director Busby Berkeley and his daring and dazzling camerawork. In 1934, the film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity postcard for 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with George Brent, Bebe Daniels, and Warren Baxter.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity postcard for 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with George Brent, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler and Warren Baxter.

Kaleidoscopic patterns of female flesh

42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) is the original depression-era back stage musical. Noted Broadway producers Jones (Robert McWade) and Barry (Ned Sparks) are putting on Pretty Lady, a musical starring Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels). She is involved with wealthy and sleazy sugar daddy Abner Dillon (Guy Kibbee), the show's financial backer, but while she is busy keeping him both hooked and at arm's length, she is secretly seeing her old vaudeville partner, out-of-work Pat Denning (George Brent).

Renowned Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) is hired to put together the musical revue. Marsh is quite ill, and he must make his last show a hit, in order to have enough money to retire on. He is a difficult task master working long hours and continually pushing the cast to do better. When Brock breaks her ankle one of the chorus girls, naive newcomer Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) from Allentown, gets her big chance to be the star. The show's juvenile lead, Billy Lawler (Dick Powell), takes an immediate liking to Peggy. (In the original novel Julian and Billy are lovers. Since same-sex relationships were unacceptable in films by the moral standards of the era, the film substituted a romance between Billy and Peggy.)

What makes 42nd Street special is the dazzling and daring choreographed and filmed musical numbers by Busby Berkeley. He still overwhelms audiences with his larger-than-life lavish entertainment. Berkeley elaborately engineered colossal geometrically patterned dance routines. Berkeley evidently loved his chorus girls, and aimed his camera at their their beautiful legs. When the chorus girls leave their dressing rooms and are coming down the stairs for opening night, Berkeley puts his camera under the stairs and shoots up their dresses as they pass. Further along, all the chorus girls are shown in a spectacular array of rhythmic movement, kaleidoscopic patterns of female flesh. In one musical number they form an arc and Berkeley tracks right through their legs all the way around the circle. Once the production code was strictly enforced in Hollywood after 1934, shots like this were never seen again.

42nd Street has three great musical number in the last twenty minutes of the film, 'You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me, 'Shuffle Off To Buffalo' and of course '42nd Street'. They were written by the powerhouse songwriting team of composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin. The script was written by Rian James and James Seymour, with Whitney Bolton, who was not credited, from the 1932 novel of the same name by Bradford Ropes. 42nd Street (1933) was Ruby Keeler's first film, and the first time that Busby Berkeley, Harry Warren and Al Dubin had worked for Warner Bros. Director Lloyd Bacon was not the first choice to direct – he replaced Mervyn LeRoy when LeRoy became ill. LeRoy was dating Ginger Rogers at the time, and had suggested to her that she take the role of the gold-digging chorus girl 'Anytime' Annie.

The story of 42nd Street is typical Warner Bros. in the Depression years: both hard-hitting and humorous. The film combines stunning musical numbers with a frank story about the desperation of people whose lives depend on putting on a hit show in trying times. Mordaunt Hall, the famous critic of The New York Times called the film "invariably entertaining" and, "The liveliest and one of the most tuneful screen musical comedies that has come out of Hollywood". 42nd Street has a tough urgency seldom found in musical films of the time. It struck a nerve with a world in crisis and became a huge hit. Warner already had a follow-up  – Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, Busby Berkeley, 1933) – in production before the film's release, and the success of both films permitted a higher budget and more elaborate production numbers in Warner's next follow-up, Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley, 1933).


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity postcard for 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with Ruby Keeler and George Brent.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity postcard for 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with Guy Kibbee and Ginger Rogers.

Sources: Emanuel Levy (emanuellevy.com), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Vitagraph, also known as the American Vitagraph Company, was a pioneering film studio, active during the silent era. It was founded in 1897 in Brooklyn by two British immigrants, J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith. Their company prospered thanks to the filming of some major historical events around the turn of the century. In 1906, Vitagraph opened a modern, glass-enclosed studio in New York, and became the most prolific American film production company, producing many well-known early silent films. The studio made countless contributions to the history of film-making, and created the first American film star, Florence Turner ‘the Vitagraph Girl’, the first Matinee Idol Maurice Costello and the most popular film comedian before Chaplin, John Bunny. But Vitagraph was to slow with starting to make feature films and in 1925, it was bought by Warner Bros.


American postcard by The Ess an Ess Photo Co., New York. Photo: Vitagraph. Caption: Florence E. Turner, Vitagraph Players.


British postcard. Editor unknown. Caption: Maurice Costello, of the Vitagraph Players.


John Bunny. British or American postcard. Editor unknown.


British postcard. Editor unknown. Caption: Flora Finch, of the Vitagraph Players.


British postcard. Editor unknown. Caption: Lilian Walker, of the Vitagraph Players.

The first modern film studio in the U.S.

In 1896, English émigré J. Stuart Blackton worked for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his new film projector. The inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of films and a projector. A year later, Blackton and business partner Albert E. Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. Vitagraph made its debut at Tony Pastor's New Fourteenth Street Theatre on 23 March 1896, with fellow Brit Ronald Reader as projectionist. Blackton and Smith performed vaudeville acts, but with the addition of motion pictures that were typical of the day - a train coming into the station, Niagara Falls, a man shovelling snow, a boy romping with his dog and anything else that showed movement. A third partner, distributor William ‘Pop’ Rock, joined in 1899. The company's first studio was located on the rooftop of 140 Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan. There Blackton and Smith shot their first film, The Burglar on the Roof (1897). Tim Lussier at Silents are Golden: “The film was supposed to only involve a burglar (played by Blackton) and a policeman, however, when the ‘policeman’ began struggling with the ‘burglar,’ Mrs. Olsen, the wife of the building's janitor, came on the scene. Thinking she had happened upon the real thing, she began beating the ‘burglar’ with her broom. At first worried that their film was ruined, they were pleased to see the favorable reaction from the audience at Pastor's the next evening.” Operations were later moved to the spacious and less expensive Midwood neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. Vitagraph produced The Humpty Dumpty Circus (J. Stuart Blackton, 1897 or 1898), which was the first film to use the stop-motion technique. The film featured a circus with acrobats and animals in motion.

The reputation of the American Vitagraph Company was bolstered greatly by the filming of some major historical events around the turn of the century like the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Boer War in South Africa in 1900, the 1904 inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt and the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. When the dead from the Maine explosion were brought back to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C., Vitagraph was there to film it with very successful, and emotional, results. Smith and Blackton then managed to gain passage to Cuba on the same ship that Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were on eventually accompanying him on his famous 'charge' up San Juan Hill. These shorts were among the first works of film propaganda, and a few had that most characteristic fault of propaganda, studio re-enactments being passed off as footage of actual events. The Battle of Santiago Bay (J. Stuart Blackton, 1898) was filmed in an improvised bathtub, with the ‘smoke of battle’ provided by Mrs. Blackton's cigar. It still proved believable to the filmgoers of the day and was very, very popular. The American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of film-making. In 1903 the Austrian director Joseph Delmont started his career by producing Westerns, one-reel pictures lasting only a few minutes. He later became famous by using ‘wild carnivores’ in his films — a sensation for that time. In 1906, Vitagraph opened a glass-enclosed studio in New York, the first modern film studio in the U.S. Very successful proved the foreign operations of the studio and Vitagraph opened offices in London, Paris and Berlin in 1908. In 1911, they created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California, and a year later moved to a 29-acre sheep ranch in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, a studio subsequently owned by ABC and currently Disney Studios.

The American Vitagraph company temporarily ceased production in January 1901 due to Edison patents lawsuits. Vitagraph was not the only company seeking to make money from Edison's motion picture inventions, and Edison's lawyers were very busy in the 1890s and 1900s filing patents and suing competitors for patent infringement. The company resumed production after a distribution agreement was reached with Edison Manufacturing Company in 1902. By circa 1904, the company was again handling its own distribution. Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying a special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution. In 1909, Vitagraph was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner film-making, the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC), a trust of all the major USA film companies and local foreign-branches (Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig Polyscope, Lubin Manufacturing, Kalem Company, Star Film Paris, American Pathé), the leading film distributor (George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak. From 1911 through circa April 1915, all the product of the MPPC members was distributed by The General Film Company. MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on American screens, standardised the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited within the USA, and improved the quality of American films by internal competition. But it also discouraged its members' entry into feature film production, and the use of outside financing, both to its members' eventual detriment. Vitagraph did not release its first features until 1914, after dozens, if not hundreds, of feature films had been released by independents.

By 1909, the Vitagraph Company began to release three reels of film a week and had 30 actors and actresses and seven directors under contract, in addition to technical and business staff. Vitagraph created one of the world's first film stars, Florence Turner also known as 'the Vitagraph Girl'. She had made her film debut in How to Cure a Cold (1907). At the time there were no stars per se, unless an already famous stage star made a film. Performers were not even mentioned by name. The Vitagraph Girl became the most popular American actress to appear on screen which was at that time still dominated by French pictures, especially from the Pathé and Gaumont companies. Her worth to the studio, as its biggest box-office draw, was recognised in 1907 when her pay was upped to $22 a week, as proto-star plus part-time seamstress. Florence was paired several times with heart throb Wallace Reid, who was also on his way to stardom. In March 1910, Turner and Florence Lawrence became the first screen actors not already famous in another medium to be publicised by name by their studios to the general public. But with the rise of more stars such as Mary Pickford at Biograph Studios, Florence Turner was no longer quite as special. By 1913 she was looking for new pastures and left the United States accompanied by director Laurence Trimble. They moved to England, where she and Trimble began performing together in London music halls and started their own film company.

The first of the matinee idols was the super-popular Maurice Costello, who had been a prominent vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s. In 1908, Costello joined Vitagraph, and thus also became a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed. Among some of his best known pictures are the condensed Charles Dickens adaptation A Tale of Two Cities (William Humphrey, 1911), The Man Who Couldn't Beat God (Maurice Costello, Robert Gaillard, 1915) and For the Honor of the Family (Van Dyke Brooke, 1912) with his young daughter Dolores Costello as a child. Later, he found the transition to ‘talkies’ extremely difficult, and his leading man status was over. However, Costello was a trouper, and continued to appear in films, often in small roles and bit parts, right up until his death in 1950. Vitagraph produced a series of William Shakespeare adaptations, the first American adaptations of the Bard's works. The series included Macbeth (James Stuart Blackton, 1908) starring William Ranous, Romeo and Juliet (James Stuart Blackton, 1908) with Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Charles Kent, J. Stuart Blackton, 1909) with Maurice Costello as Lysander. Most of these short films are considered lost now. Vitagraph also was the first to film one of Mark Twain's stories, A Curious Dream (J. Stuart Blackton, 1904 or 1907), with the author's blessings. And several other Vitagraph films were centred on such well-known characters as Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Salome, Richelieu, Moses, and Saul and David.

The first animal star of the Silent Era was Jean, the Vitagraph Dog. Jean was a female Scotch Collie, owned and guided by director Laurence Trimble. From 1910 on, Jean was starring in her own short films, all directed by Trimble. One-reelers and two-reelers with titles such as Jean and the Calico Doll (Larry Trimble, 1910), Jean and the Waif (Larry Trimble, 1910) and Jean Goes Fishing (Larry Trimble, 1910) were made by Trimble as the Vitagraph troupe filmed along the coastline in his native Maine. Actress Helen Hayes played as an eight-year-old with long curls the juvenile lead in Jean and the Calico Doll (Larry Trimble, 1910). Trimble became a leading director at Vitagraph, directing most of the films made by Florence Turner and John Bunny, as well as those made by Jean. In December 1912, Jean gave birth to six puppies — two male and four female — and was the subject of the Vitagraph documentary short, Jean and Her Family (Larry Trimble, 1913). In March 1913, Trimble and Jean left Vitagraph and accompanied Florence Turner to England, where she formed her own company, Turner Films. Trimble and his canine star returned to the United States in 1916. Jean died later that year, at age 14.


Helen Case. French postcard, probably by the French subsidiary of The Vitagraph Co., Paris, no. 13.


E.R. Phillips. French postcard, probably by the French subsidiary of The Vitagraph Co., Paris, no. 14.


Wiliam Shea. French postcard, probably by the French subsidiary of The Vitagraph Co., Paris, no. 15.


Norma Talmadge. French postcard, probably by the French subsidiary of The Vitagraph Co., Paris, no. 16. In contrast to most American film companies, who had London as their hub for the European film distribution market, Vitagraph arranged its European publicity from Paris, including the astonishing film posters (de)signed by Harry Bedos. Between 1909 and 1915 Norma Talmadge was one of the regular actors at Vitagraph, acting in hundreds of shorts, but also in the feature The Battle Cry of Peace (J. Stuart Blackton, Wilfrid North, 1915).


Leah Baird. French postcard, probably by the French subsidiary of The Vitagraph Co., Paris, no. 27.

The most popular film comedian in the world

Multiple-reel films had appeared in the United States as early as 1907, when Adolph Zukor distributed Pathé’s three-reel Vie et Passion de N.S. Jésus Christ/Passion Play (Ferdinand Zecca, 1907). In 1909, Vitagraph distributed the first film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables as a proto-feature film: four short films that can be seen separately, but when combined appear as a short film series resembling that of a full-length feature film. In Les Misérables (J. Stuart Blackton, 1909), Maurice Costello stars as Jean Valjean, an honest man who is running from the obsessive police inspector Javert (William V. Ranous) chasing him for an insignificant offence. The film consists of four reels, each released over the course of three months from 4 September till 27 November 1909. In 1910, cinemas showed the five parts of the Vitagraph serial The Life of Moses (J. Stuart Blackton,1909) consecutively. It was the first of a series of Biblical pictures. With a total length of almost 90 minutes, The Life of Moses claims the title of ‘the first feature film.’ The MPPC had forced Vitagraph to release it in serial fashion at the rate of one reel a week. Two years later, the multiple-reel film — which came to be called a 'feature', in the vaudevillian sense of a headline attraction — achieved general acceptance with the smashing success of the three-and-one-half-reel French film La Reine Elisabeth/Queen Elizabeth (Louis Mercanton, 1912), which starred Sarah Bernhardt and was imported by Adolph Zukor. Then the nine-reel Italian ‘super spectacle’ Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1912) was road-shown in legitimate theatres across the country at a top admission price of one dollar, and the feature craze was on. Vitagraph had missed the boat.

From 1910 on, comedian John Bunny started to make short films for Vitagraph. Bunny was 48 years old at the time, and had enjoyed a very successful career on stage. In the following years, he made over 150 short films, many of them marital situation comedies. In these comedies such as A Cure for Pokeritis (Larry Trimble, 1912) and Bunny as a Reporter (Wilfrid North, 1913), the rotund Bunny was coupled with the thin and small comedian Flora Finch. John Bunny became the most popular film comedian in the world in the years before Charlie Chaplin. In 1915, Bunny had been acting in films for only five years when he died from Bright's disease at his home in Brooklyn. His death was observed worldwide. Vitagraph also produced the first aviation film, The Military Air-Scout (William J. Humphrey, 1911). The U.S. Army authorities had allowed Lieutenant - and future General of the Air Force - Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold to carry out the stunt flying for the film. He doubled for the lead actor Earle Williams. Arnold had brought his Army Wright Model F/Wright Burgess Hydro biplane from College Park Airport, Maryland, by train. Flight operations were conducted from the Nassau Boulevard aerodrome in Garden City, Long Island, and were completed in October 1911. Arnold, who picked up 'a few extra bucks' for his services, became so excited about films that he almost quit the Army to become an actor.

Vitagraph made two ‘super productions’ in late 1913, early 1914,­ A Million Dollar Bid at five reels and The Christian at eight reels, but exhibitors were not convinced that the public would come. Smith and Blackton decided to test the big pictures and did something no other producing company had done at that point - they became exhibitors. They leased the Criterion Theatre on Broadway in New York, renamed it the Vitagraph Theatre, and opened it in February 1914, with a sketch, a short and A Million Dollar Bid (Ralph Ince, 1914) which starred Anita Stewart and Julia Swayne Gordon. The opening was a success. In May, they leased the Harris Theatre on 42nd Street and opened with The Christian (Frederick A. Thomson, 1914) which starred Earle Williams and Edith Storey. This, too, was a success. Exhibitors became very concerned about this new venture and confronted Vitagraph about their concerns. After a meeting with a committee of exhibitors, Vitagraph announced it would acquire no more theatres, although this was to become a common practice of film producers in the ensuing years.

Upon its release, The Battle Cry of Peace (J. Stuart Blackton, Wilfrid North, 1915) generated a controversy rivalling that of Birth of a Nation because it was considered to be militaristic propaganda. Producer Stuart Blackton believed that the US should join the Allies involved in World War I overseas, and that was why he made the film. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was one of the film's staunchest supporters, and he persuaded Gen. Leonard Wood to lend Blackton an entire regiment of Marines to use as extras. Ironically, after America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war.

World War I spelled the beginning of the end for Vitagraph. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic Studio system, Vitagraph was slowly but surely being squeezed out of the business. The General Film company of the MPPC continued to distribute their shorts domestically, but it became necessary to form a new releasing organisation. In 1915, Chicago distributor George Kleine orchestrated a four-way film distribution partnership, V-L-S-E, Incorporated, for the Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig, and Essanay companies. Albert Smith served as president. In 1916, Benjamin Hampton proposed a merger of the distribution companies Paramount Pictures and V-L-S-E with Famous Players and Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, but was foiled by Adolph Zukor. V-L-S-E was dissolved in August, 1916, when Vitagraph purchased a controlling interest in Lubin, Selig, and Essanay.

New names began to be added to Vitagraph's roster during these years that would be some of the most famous names of the silent era. Norma Talmadge came to Vitagraph straight from Erasmus High School in Flatbush in 1910. Wallace Reid joined in 1911 after a short stint with Selig. One of the most famous cowboys stars of the 1920s, Fred Thomson, started his career with Vitagraph. Jane Novak came to the studio in 1913 because her aunt, Anne Schaefer, was already a star with Vitagraph. Clara Kimball Young made her first Vitagraph film in 1912. Both Bebe Daniels and Mabel Normand spent a short time with the company. Antonio Moreno entered films with the Vitagraph Company in 1914. Alice Joyce's name was added to the roster in 1916 when Vitagraph purchased the Kalem studio where she was already a popular star. Comedian Larry Semon joined the company in 1917.

‘Pop’ Rock died in 1916 leaving Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton to run the company without their elder mentor. Blackton resigned in 1917. He went into independent production for a while, but it proved to be an unsuccessful venture. He also unsuccessfully took a turn at producing films in England, but he returned to Vitagraph as 1923 as an equal partner once again with Smith. In 1919, the General Film Company folded. In the early 1920s, the company was feeling the effects of the bigger film companies who were emerging, buying up theatres across the country and releasing more and bigger pictures than Vitagraph. In September, 1922, the company estimated its losses to be nearly a million dollars. Though most of the company's features in the 1920s were programmers, two top quality productions enjoyed both critical and financial success. Black Beauty (David Smith, 1921) and Captain Blood (David Smith, Albert E. Smith, 1924) both starred Smith's wife, Jean Paige. In April 1925, Blackton and Smith finally gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros. for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed Vitaphone) was later used as an independent unit within Warner Bros., specialising in early sound shorts.

After losing his fortune in the economic depression of 1929, J. Stuart Blackton supported himself by exhibiting his old films at sideshows. He died in 1941. In 1952, Albert E. Smith, in collaboration with co-author Phil A. Koury, wrote an autobiography, ‘Two Reels and a Crank’. It includes a very detailed history of Vitagraph and a lengthy list of people who had been in the Vitagraph Family which also included Billy Anderson, Richard Barthelmess, Francis X. Bushman, Dustin Farnum, Hoot Gibson, Corinne Griffith, Alan Hale, Oliver Hardy, Mildred Harris, Hedda Hopper, Rex Ingram, Boris Karloff, J. Warren Kerrigan, Rod La Rocque, Viola Dana, Bessie Love, May McAvoy, Victor McLaglen, Adolphe Menjou, Conrad Nagel, May Robson, Wesley Ruggles, George Stevens, William Desmond Taylor, Alice Terry, Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, and hundreds of other people are listed. In his book, Smith also refers to hiring a 17-year-old Rudolph Valentino into the set-decorating department, but within a week he was being used by directors as an extra in foreign parts, mainly as a Russian Cossack.

In 1910, a fire had destroyed virtually all of the negatives of every film the Vitagraph company had made since 1896. Today, many of the early Vitagraph films are considered lost. From 1960 to 1969, the Vitagraph name was briefly resurrected at the end of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes cartoons with the end titles reading "A Warner Bros. Cartoon / A Vitagraph Release". That’s all Folks!


Alice Joyce. French postcard in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Editions Filma, no. 35. Photo: Vitagraph.


Maurice Costello. British Postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Stacy.


Harry Morey. British Postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Vitagraph.


Antonio Moreno. British Postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Vitagraph.


Jean Paige. British Postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Hill / Vitagraph.

Sources: Tim Lussier (Silents are Golden), Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Silent Era, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. Her breakthrough film was the drama La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (1934), the sole Italian film of the great director Max Ophüls. Isa Miranda played her future self: a glamorous and famous film star who is everybody's woman... Her haunting beauty drives men mad.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Isa Miranda in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934).


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Enrico Benfer and Isa Miranda. Gaby and Roberto at the ball.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for ;La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda. Gaby cannot stand to be in Leonardo's house anymore.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda. Gaby breaks up with Leonardo.

Attracting Men Like Moths to a Flame

La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) was shot at the Cines Studios in Rome and on location in Como. The plot verges on the melodramatic but German born director Max Ophüls' spirited flashbacks within flashbacks, his lush tracking shots, his montages and dissolves, are stunning, and turn the film into a bravura masterpiece. La signora di tutti daringly begins with a wipe of the label on a 78 rpm record and ends on a static shot of the face of the heroine on a poster. The film deservedly won a 'technical' award at the Film Festival of Venice.

Isa Miranda plays beautiful Gabriella Murge, a.k.a. famous film star Gaby Doriot, a woman who attracts men like moths, destroying themselves or others. The film opens with a panorama of the film studio where after a frantic search her agent finds Gaby after an attempted suicide, slitting her wrists.

On the operation table in the hospital, the anesthetic gas she is given induces the flashbacks which make up the entire film. Gaby relives her life. At school, a married music teacher tells her he can't live without her. He flees abroad, leaving his family. Though she has done nothing, Gaby is expelled from her school, and is punished by her stern father (Lamberto Picasso).

Later, after being confined to her home, she is at a party of Roberto Nanni (Enrico/ Federico Benfer), son of wealthy businessman Leonardo Nanni. Roberto and Gaby dance and Roberto falls in love with her. Roberto's handicapped mother Alma (Tatiana Pavlova), fearful of Gaby's reputation, eventually loves her and adopts her as an aid.

Gaby goes to their house to take care of Alma, and while Roberto goes on a trip to Rome, his father Leonardo (Memo Benassi) falls in love with Gaby and takes her to the opera. Fate strikes one night, when Leonardo invites Gaby to a private talk in the garden, and meanwhile, Alma, having put on music to go to bed, calls out for Gaby. Not hearing a response, Alma becomes frantic. While Leonardo declares Gaby his love in front of his villa, a desperate Alma falls down the stairs in her wheelchair, killing herself.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Mario Ferrari and Franco Coop as the film producer and Gaby's agent Verari challenging each other when striking a deal over star Gaby Doriot (Isa Miranda). This is the very first scene of the film.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Franco Coop in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934). Coop is Miranda's agent Verari who, at the beginning of the film, crosses the whole studio and discovers the film star has committed suicide. After that, the film is told in flashback.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Isa Miranda singing in the school choir (shortly before her affair with a school teacher is exposed), in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934). Miranda is the blonde, in the middle, wearing a checkers motived dress. After hearing what has happened to her teacher, she faints.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Nelly Corradi, Lamberto Picasso and Maria Puccini. Caption: Film prescelta per la II Biennale Cinematograficia di Venezia. (Film selected for the second Venice Film Festival). For the scandal in school, Gaby's father decides to punish her by isolating her.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda. After the ball, Gaby comes home ecstatically.

Haunted by the memory

After Alma's death, Leonardo and Gaby go on a seemingly endless trip across Europe, despite the calls of Leonardo's business associates to return, and when they finally return, Gaby is haunted by the memory of the house and flees hysterically. Gaby leaves Leonardo, telling him he should be with his wife, even if she is dead, and soon after, Leonardo is charged with embezzlement and sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Gaby becomes a film star. When released from prison, Leonardo wanders around the foyer of a cinema, during the premiere of her new film. Leonardo is stunned by the multiplication of Gaby's images on the pictures in the foyer, but he is expelled for being improperly dressed for the occasion (not being in evening attire). Chased outside, he's run over by a car.

To avoid a scandal, Gaby's managers and entourage call in Roberto to exonerate her. Gaby realises she has loved Roberto all along, but it is too late, as Roberto married her more modest sister Anna (Nelly Corradi), after meeting her at the auction of his father's house. "We'll still be together in the film", Roberto says.

Gaby realises she will stay lonesome despite wealth and stardom and slits her wrists. Gaby leaves a note detailing her loneliness that persisted through her stardom. The flashback ends when the anesthetic mask is removed. The doctors confirm her death, and the printing presses stop to print the poster for her last film.

At AllMovie, Hal Erickson writes that La Signora di Tutti can be regarded as a dress rehearsal for Ophüls' masterpiece Lola Montes (1955): "though it comes nowhere near the brilliance of that later classic (...), but Ophuls' basic premise--that fame and celebrity are ultimately hollow entities--is not to be taken lightly. The director's fabled camera techniques help smooth over some of the rougher and more ludicrous passages."

D.B. DuMonteil at IMDb: "The flashback was not so innovative after all (the year before, Stahl did the same in Only Yesterday) but the directing which sometimes has thriller accents: the scene when the heroine hears a radio nobody can't hear would not be out of place in a psychological suspense; ditto for the wheelchair scene in the night which is really awesome."


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda and Memo Benassi. Leonardo takes Gaby to the opera.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda and Memo Benassi. Leonardo is wildly in love with Gaby.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda. Gaby at the villa of the Nanni's in the countryside.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda, Tatiana Pavlova and Memo Benassi. Remarkable is that Pavlova stands, while in the film her character is crippled.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Enrico Benfer and Nelly Corradi. After his father's death, Roberto and Anna meet at the auction of Leonardo's house.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XXII. Photo: Novella-Film. Enrico Benfer and Isa Miranda in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934). After his father's death, Roberto pleas Gaby's innocence to save her star image. When Gaby tries to reunite, he confesses he has already chosen her sister instead.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Enrico Benfer in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934). Roberto's last call with Gaby.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Isa Miranda on the operation table in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), D.B. DuMonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia (English), IMDb, and the postcards and the film itself.

Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923) was a series of four biographical films with Otto Gebühr as the eighteenth century monarch Friedrich II (Frederic II). It started the Prussian films cycle, historical films made in Germany during the Weimar (1918–1933) and Nazi (1933–1945) eras. The films were noted for their glorification of Prussian history and its military, and are set during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Prussian films were extremely popular with German audiences and an estimated forty four were produced by the end of the Second World War.


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/1. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Albert Steinrück as Friedrich Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, the father of Frederick the Great, in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/2. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Otto Gebühr as Crown Prince Frederick for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy Film Co. Publicity still of Charlotte Schulz as Wilhelmine, Marchioness of Bayreuth, favourite sister of Frederick the Great, in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/4. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Erna Morena as Queen Elisabeth Christine, spouse of Frederick the Great, in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/5. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Otto Gebühr as King Frederick the Great in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).

The Old Fritz

Friedrich II or in English Frederick II (1712-1786) was King of Prussia from 1740 until 1786, the longest reign of any Hohenzollern king. His most significant accomplishments during his reign included his military victories, his reorganisation of Prussian armies, his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years' War. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and declared himself 'King of Prussia' after achieving sovereignty over most historically Prussian lands in 1772. Prussia had greatly increased its territories and became a leading military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as 'Frederick the Great' (Friedrich der Große), and was nicknamed 'Der Alte Fritz' (The Old Fritz) by the Prussian people, and eventually the rest of Germany.

In his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than the art of war. Nonetheless, upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. Toward the end of his reign, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by acquiring Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland. He was an influential military theorist whose analysis emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

Considering himself  'the first servant of the state', Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges and senior bureaucrats. Frederick also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia. Some critics, however, point out his oppressive measures against conquered Polish subjects during the First Partition. Frederick supported arts and philosophers he favoured, as well as allowing complete freedom of the press and literature. Frederick is buried at his favourite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II, son of his brother, Augustus William.

Nearly all 19th-century German historians made Frederick into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building up Prussia to a great power in Europe. Historian Leopold von Ranke was unstinting in his praise of Frederick's "heroic life, inspired by great ideas, filled with feats of arms ... immortalised by the raising of the Prussian state to the rank of a power". Johann Gustav Droysen was even more extolling. Frederick remained an admired historical figure through the German Empire's defeat in the First World War. The Nazis glorified him as a great German leader pre-figuring Adolph Hitler, who personally idolised him. Associations with him became far less favourable after the fall of the Nazis, largely due to his status as one of their symbols.


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, no. 647/6. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still for Georg John as Generalfeldmarschall von Zieten (Field Marshal von Zieten) in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1921-1922).

Hans Joachim von Zieten (1699-1786), also known as 'Zieten aus dem Busch', was a cavalry general in the Prussian Army. He served in four wars and was instrumental in several victories during the reign of Frederick the Great, most particularly at Hohenfriedberg and Torgau. He is also well known for a raid into the Holy Roman Empire during the Second Silesian War, known as 'Zieten's Ride'. After engaging in a reputed 74 duels, and fighting in four wars, he died in his bed at the age of 86.


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, no. 647/7. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still for Eduard von Winterstein as Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923). Caption: Fürst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau, "Der alte Dessauer" (Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, "the old Dessauer").

Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1676–1747) was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Dessau from 1693 to 1747. He was also a Generalfeldmarschall in the Prussian army. Nicknamed 'the Old Dessauer' (German: der alte Dessauer), he possessed good abilities as a field commander, but was mainly remembered as a talented drillmaster who modernised the Prussian infantry. Appointed by Frederick I to the rank of field marshal in 1712, Leopold distinguished himself for his success during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was later appointed the commander of the Prussian-Saxon army during the Great Northern War against Sweden. Leopold was a personal friend of Frederick I. The last great achievement of his military career was commanding the Prussian troops to victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Kesselsdorf in 1745 during the Second Silesian War.


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/8. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Julia (here: Julie) Serda as the Empress Maria Theresia of Austria in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923)


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/9. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Alfred Abel as 'Voltaire, the genial friend of Frederick [the Great]' in the Fridericus Rex series (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923). Alfred Abel is not listed at IMDb as playing Voltaire in any of the Frederick the Great films, but the back of this postcard states this was the case.


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/10. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Maria Orska as the dancer Barberina of the Royal Theatre in Berlin in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by W.J. Morlins, Berlin / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 647/ 12. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Karl Geppert as the grenadier Damian Mampe in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923)

A historical continuum between Frederick the Great and Hitler?

Fridericus Rex (1922-1923) was a series of four German silent historical films about Friedrich II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) starring Otto Gebühr as the king and Albert Steinrück as his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. The four films are Fridericus Rex - 1. Teil: Sturm und Drang (1922) about his early life, his love of music and his father's displeasure with it; Fridericus Rex - 2. Teil: Vater und Sohn (1922) about his marriage to Elisabeth-Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern (Erna Morena), and the death of his father following which he becomes king; Fridericus Rex - 3. Teil: Sanssouci (1923) in which Friedrich befriends the French philosopher Voltaire (Alfred Abel) and he realises a long held dream by building the castle of Sanssouci; and Fridericus Rex - 4. Teil: Schicksalswende (1923), which shows the king as the man who leads the Prussian army to the ultimate victory in the seven-years-war.

All four films were directed and produced by Arzén von Cserépy (1881–1958). Von Cserépy was a Hungarian screenwriter, film producer and director who was based in Germany. He ran his own production company Cserépy-Film until it was merged into the larger UFA empire. The first film's sets were designed by the art directors Hans Dreier and Ernö Metzner. The first film was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. Location filming took place at the Charlottenburg Palace and other sites around historic Brandenburg.

Ross Verlag published two beautiful series of sepia postcards on Fridericus Rex. Ross mentions a trilogy of films on the flip side of the cards and probably this was changed by Von Csérepy during the production of the films. The first series of postcards, the portraits in the style of 18th century portraits, were co-published by Berlin-based W.J. Morlins. The other series with film stills was published by Ross solely. Portraits and stills were made by Karl Schenker, whose Atelier Schenker was one of the most famous German photo studios between the early 1910s and early 1930s. When the Nazis took the power in 1933, the Jewish Schenker could not stay in Berlin. He emigrated to England in 1938. There he opened a studio in London on Regent Street and he died in the British capital in 1954. Check out our earlier post on Atelier Schenker.

Otto Gebühr had been playing in films since 1913, but was known as a character actor in supporting roles. He had played Friedrich II once before in the film Die Tänzerin Barberina/The Dancer Barbarina (Carl Boese, 1920) with Lyda Salmonova in the title role. Due to his uncanny resemblance to the famous monarch, Gebühr was also cast in Fridericus Rex (1922). The film was immensely popular, and was soon followed by three sequels, all starring Gebühr. The series launched the Prussian film as a major German genre during the Weimar era. Gebühr went on to impersonate Friedrich II in 16 films and numerous stage performances.

Throughout World War II, Adolph Hitler often compared himself to Frederick the Great. Hitler kept an oil painting of Anton Graff's portrait of Frederick with him to the end in the Führer bunker in Berlin. British-American historian Gordon A. Craig relates that to help legitimise Nazi rule, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels commissioned artists to render fanciful images of Frederick, Bismarck, and Hitler together to postulate a historical continuum between them. In 1942, Goebbels gave the assignment to make the film drama Der Große König/The Great King (1942), to be directed by Veit Harlan. Once again Otto Gebühr starred as Frederick the Great. The film received the rare 'Film of the Nation' distinction of the Nazi government.

Is there a (cinematic) historical continuum between Frederick the Great and Hitler? Following the collapse of the Nazi regime and the Allied Occupation of Germany in 1945, strict rules were enacted concerning German films and any perceived promotion of German ultra-nationalism which might lead to a revival of Nazism was outlawed. This effectively ended the cycle of Prussian films, although films set in the Prussian-era continued.

Nowadays Frederick is generally held in high regard, according to Wikipedia, especially for his statesmanship – and for his enlightened reforms that positively changed not only Germany but European society in general. German intellectuals even assert that the revolutions in both France and America were to some extent 'belated' attempts to 'catch up with Prussia'. The early Prussian films are no longer seen as prefiguring the rise of Nazism. The Fridericus Rex films represented a nostalgic wish for a restored monarchy.

Tomorrow and the day after, EFSP will do two more posts with postcards on Prussian films from the Weimar era, featuring Otto Gebühr as King Friedrich II. Tomorrow follows a post on the silent film Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill at Sanssouci (1926) directed by Siegfried Philippi and Friedrich (Frederic) Zelnik. On Wednesday, we finish this short series with the early sound film Das Flötenkonzert von Sans-souci/The Flute Concert of Sanssouci (1930) directed by Gustav Ucicky.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 651/1. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still of Otto Gebühr as crown prince Friedrich (Frederick, the future Frederick the Great), and Albert Steinrück as his father Friedrich Wilhelm I in the Fridericus Rex series (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/2. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still for Otto Gebühr as crown prince Frederick (the future Frederick II) and Lili Alexander as Doris Ritter in Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Publicity still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923), with Friedrich Wilhelm Kaiser as Lt. Katte. Caption: Verhaftung des Leutnant Katte (Arrest of Lt. Katte).

Hans Hermann von Katte was a Lieutenant of the Prussian Army, and a friend, tutor and possible lover of the future King Frederick II of Prussia, who was at the time the Crown Prince. He had helped Frederick with a - failed - plan of letting the crown prince escape to Paris, to flee the stern, military education of his father, King Frederick William of Prussia. The plot was betrayed, Katte was arrested and executed to set an example. Some researchers consider the king suspected Katte had seduced the crown prince and thus tried to ban his son's homosexual inclinations by killing of Katte. In Fridericus Rex Katte was played by actor Friedrich Wilhelm Kaiser.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/4, sent by mail in 1922. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923), with Otto Gebühr. Caption: Im Park von Rheinsberg (In the Park of Rheinsberg). From 1734 to his crowning to King of Prussia in 1740, Frederick the Great lived happily at Rheinsberg Palace with his wife Elisabeth.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/5. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923), with Otto Gebühr as Frederick II and Lilly Flohr as Frau von Morriën.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/6. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923). Caption: 'Huldigung Friedrichs II'. (The inauguration of Frederick II in 1740 as king of Prussia.)


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/7. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923). Caption: 'Die königliche Karosse au der Reise' (The royal carriage on the journey).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 651/8. Photo: Karl Schenker / Cserépy-Film Co. Still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923), with Friedrich Wilhelm Kaiser as Lt. Katte. Caption: 'Katte: "Mein Prinz, und hätte ich tausend Leben, gern gäbe ich sie für Sie hin.' (Katte: My Prince, even if I had a thousand lives, I gladly gave them all away for you).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 73, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Fridericus Rex (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Otto Gebühr played again King Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) in the German silent film Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926). The film was released by the German subsidiary of the American company Fox Film. Die Mühle von Sanssouci is part of the popular cycle of Prussian films, and alludes to the Historic Mill of Sanssouci constructed in the 18th century.


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Fox. Otto Gebühr as King Frederick the Great in the German silent film Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/2. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) with Otto Gebühr and Olga Tschechowa as Barberina.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/3. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) with Otto Gebühr and Olga Tschechowa as Barberina.

The legend of a loudly rattling mill

Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) tells of an episode from the life of the Prussian King Frederick II, (Otto Gebühr) beyond the usual bouts of battle and court ceremonies. The year is 1750. After the end of the Silesian Wars, Friedrich returns exhausted to Sanssouci and wants to recover from the turbulent war events.

But the mill of miller Casper (Jacob Tiedtke), once the noblest and most expensive in the world, rattles so loud that his majesty feels his need to rest massively disturbed. Not even a new directive of the monarch changes the situation because Casper is more than stubborn. He refers to the King's decree that before the law in Prussia, all people are equal: the citizen as the nobleman, the beggar as the king.

Soon, the dispute escalates, and Casper decides to even bring about a court verdict on this matter. Friedrich knows that he can only lose it in front of Justitia in view of the equality rule he has set up. But finally, the two fighting roosters decide to find an out-of-court solution that will allow for reconciliation.

In the various subplot lines, his majesty can promote the love of two couples, including two of his soldiers (Lieutenant von Bärenfels - Georg Alexander - and Corporal Jobst - Wilhelm Dieterle), exchange ideas with the great French writer Voltaire (Karl Götz), and finally in his own, to push forward matters in his relationship with the dancer Barberina (Olga Tschechowa).

Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci was shot in November-December 1925 at the Staaken studios in Berlin and had its premiere on 1 February 1926 at the Berlin cinema Kino am Zoo. While Siegfried Philippi was the director, Friedrich Zelnik had the supervision.  Art direction was by Andrej Andrejew and Gustav A. Knauer.

The Austrian Paimann’s Filmlisten summarised: "The mostly historical plot is interesting and not too lengthy, with many grazing lights, the direction tight, the presentation consistently good, excellent Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great. Presentation and photography are also very good."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/4. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) with Otto Gebühr and Jacob Tiedtke as miller Casper.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/5. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) with Otto Gebühr.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/6. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926) with Otto Gebühr, Hanni Weisse as Henriette, and Karl Götz as General Zieten.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51/9. Photo: Fox. Otto Gebühr as King Frederick the Great in the German silent film Die Mühle von Sanssouci/The Mill of Sanssouci (Friedrich Zelnik, Siegfried Philippi, 1926).

Source: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

In the German early sound film Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sans-Souci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930), Otto Gebühr returned as King Frederick the Great (Friedrich II) of Prussia - and for the first time he speaks on screen. The film depicted the incidents that lead to the Seven Years War. The sets were designed by the art directors Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig. Location filming took place around the Berlin area including at the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. After the premiere, there were fierce protests against the film in Germany.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/1. Photo: Ufa. Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great in Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sans-Souci (Gustav Ucicky, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/2. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr, Friedrich Kayssler, Alfred Beierie, and Georg John.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/3. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr, Kurt Pehlemann, Alfred Beierie, Friedrich Kühne, Georg John and Friedrich Kayssler. They played respectively: King Frederick the Great, Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, Wolf Friedrich von Retzow, Schwerin, Hans Joachim von Zieten, and Karl Wilhelm von Finckenstein.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/5. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr and Paul Biensfeldt as Johann Joachim Quantz.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/6. Photo: Ufa. Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great in Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sans-Souci (Gustav Ucicky, 1930), also with Margarete Schön and Olga Engl. This picture is a literal citation of the famous painting Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci (1850-1852) by Adolph (von) Menzel, now at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Stink bombs and itch powder in the cinema

In Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sans-Souci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930), film audiences heard the voice of Otto Gebühr for the first time. They were so excited by his voice that often the public stood up and applauded as he spoke his first sentence.

Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci describes the developments that lead to the Seven Years War. In 1756, an official masquerade ball is celebrated in the Dresden Palais of the Saxon Minister Heinrich von Brühl. Unofficially, however, talks are taking place with the ambassadors of Austria, Russia and France, who are aiming for a plot against the Prussian King Frederick. The Prussian envoy Major von Lindeneck (Hans Rehmann) notices this incident and manages to bring a copy of the concluded secret treaty to the Prussian king (Otto Gebühr).

The king consults his generals, who advise him to be careful. Frederick is stunned by this reaction and develops a counter-plan. For this he sends Lindeneck again to Dresden. Lindeneck is not very enthusiastic about this asignment because he thinks he doubts his wife Blanche's (Renate Müller) marital fidelity, and that he does not want to leave her alone. However, the royal loyalty is more important to him and he carries out all orders of the Prussian king.

When the ambassadors of Austria, Russia and France ask for an audience with Friedrich, he gives, in order to gain time, a flute concert, which is modeled in its lineup the famous picture of Adolph von Menzel. In the course of this concert he receives the dispatch from Vienna, which completely reveals the plot. He ends the concert and lets the envoy give the declaration of war. He goes outside and announces that he has just given them the marching orders for the regiments. The Seven Years War begins.

Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci  provoked fierce protests, as one day before the premiere the anti-war film All Quite on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930) was banned in Germany. The press criticised that such an anti-war film was banned while Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci was screened, which called for war.

Especially in the Berlin workers' districts, there were many protests. During a performance at the Excelsior cinema in Neukölln, protesters threw stink bombs and itch powder into the audience and inked the screen. In the Kristallpalast in Wedding, young workers destroyed the windows of the cinema. Workers in the same district tried to cut the electric cables to the Metro Theatre but were stopped by the police. The newspaper Vorwärts sympathised with the protests, and called for a boycot of the cinemas that screened the film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/7. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr and Friedrich Kayssler.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/8. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Walter Janssen and Hans Rehmann.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/9. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Otto Gebühr in Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/10. Photo: UFA. Publicity still of Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr.


Sanssouci, Potsdam, Berlin, Germany.

Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Berlin is an ensemble of palaces and garden complexes, which was built under Frederick the Great during the 18th century. It was expanded under Frederick William IV in the 19th century. Frederick the Great wanted to reside there 'sans souci' (= without a care) and to follow his personal and artistic interests.


Neues Palais, Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, Berlin, Germany.

Twenty years following his creation of Sanssouci, Frederick the Great built the New Palace (Neues Palais) in the western part of the park. This far larger palace was in direct contrast to the relaxed ethos behind Sanssouci, and displayed Frederick's power and strength to the world, in the Baroque style. The design of the New Palace was intended to demonstrate that Prussia's capabilities were undiminished despite its near defeat in the Seven Years War. Frederick made no secret of his intention, even referring to the new construction as his 'fanfaronnade' (= showing off).

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

In the biopic Bismarck, Teil. 1/Bismarck (Ernst Wendt, 1925), Franz Ludwig appeared as the famous German politician Otto von Bismarck, while his son Ralph Ludwig played Bismarck as a boy. Bismarck is another example of the Prussian films made during the Weimar republic. The film deals chronologically with the various stages of the life of young Otto von Bismarck: from his childhood through his academic years to his first political experience as a confessed conservative in the German province. The film ends in 1862 when King Wilhelm I appoints Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia. Tomorrow, EFSP will post on part 2.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 42/1. Photo Karl Schenker. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Ralph Ludwig as the young Bismarck.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 42/3. Signed by Erna Morena. Photo: Karl Schenker. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Erna Morena as his wife, Johanna von Bismarck, née Puttkamer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 45/2. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), with Ralph Ludwig as young Bismarck. Caption: Schäfer Brand erzählt "Jung-Bismarck" Geschichten aus den Befreiungskriegen (Shepherd Brand narrates young Bismarck about the liberation wars). Meant are the 1813-1815 wars of the Prussians and their allies against Napoleon.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 45/4. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), with Ralph Ludwig as young Bismarck and Bruno Ziener as Schleiermacher. Caption: Einsegnung Otto von Bismarck's durch Schleiermacher in der Dreifaltigkeitskirche zu Berlin. Ostern 1830 (Otto von Bismarck's confirmation by Schleiermacher in the Trinity Church in Berlin. Easter 1830.)


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 45/5. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck. Caption: Studentenzeit in Göttingen. Aufnahme Bismarck's in das Corps "Hannovera" (Student years in Göttingen. Bismarck's admission to the Corps 'Hannovera').


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 45/6. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925). Caption: Bismarck's Verlobung mit Joahnna von Puttkammer (Bismarck's betrothal to Johanna von Puttkamer). Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck, Erna Morena as Johana von Puttkamer, also with Rudolf Lettinger and Maria Santen.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 45/7. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Erna Morena as his wife Johanna. Caption: Der Gutsherr Bismarch bei seinen Bauern in Schönnhausen (Squire Bismarck with his farmers at Schönnhausen).

To give the German youth a new patriotic spirit

The two-part Bismarck-Film (1925-1926) was one of the most ambitious film projects of the Weimar Republic. The two films were inspired by the loss of the First World War and producer Josef Coböken wanted to give the German youth a new patriotic spirit based on the German national history. For this film he founded a special production company, the Bismarck-Film GmbH.

No expenses and efforts were spared, and the film makers received the support of the very highest body of the state. The freshly appointed Reich President Paul von Hindenburg became the patron of the mammoth project. Several famous experts were hired for the film: Ludwig Manzel for the artistic consultation, Colonel von Hahnke for the military consultation, the sculptor Hans Sametzki was the expert for the preparation of the historical masks (Bismarck, Wilhelm I, Moltke etc.) and the military expert Herbert Knötel was consulted for the uniforms and weaponry.

The Bismarck-Film project was created from the beginning in two parts. Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925) deals with the period from 1815 to 1862, and the second part, Bismarck-Film, 2. Teil/Bismarck 1862-1898 (Kurt Blachnitzky, 1926), deals with Bismarck's late, decisive years as Prussian Prime Minister and German Chancellor.

Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925) was based on a screenplay, for which IMDb credits Max Jungk, Julius Urgiss and Ludwig Ziehen as the authors. In fact it was written by Ludwig Ziehen, who paid meticulous attention to the historical details in scientific collaboration with historian Erich Marcks and philosopher, physician, and psychologist Max Dessoir. The two experienced authors Max Jungk and Julius Urgiss appeared merely as editors of Ziehen's manuscript.

In 1935, Oscar Kalbus wrote about the film: "The film Bismarck (1925), however, does not want to be a feature film right from the start, nor does it mean to be a film drama or an average historical film. It wants to be seen as a historical document, as a monumental panorama of moving images. If one does not demand more of the film, one can address Bismarck as a national folk film. All the masks in the Bismarck film are admirably portrayed, true to life, never rigid and theatrical."

For the 49-year-old director Ernst Wendt, Bismarck, Teil. 1 was his last feature film as a director.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/1. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Erna Morena as his wife Johanna. Caption: Otto und Johanna von Bismarck an der Wiege ihres Sohnes Herbert (Otto and Johanna von Bismarck at the cradle of their son Herbert).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/2. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1926), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Erna Morena as his wife Johanna. Caption: Otto and Johanna Bismarck in their castle at Varzin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/3. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1926), starring Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck. Caption: Bismarck's erstes parlementarisches Hervortreten. Sitzung im "Vereinigten Landtag" 1847 (Bismarck's first parliamentary performance. Meeting at the Vereinigten Landtag (regional parliament), 1847).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/4. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1926), starring Franz Ludwig as Bismarck, and with Adolf Klein and Viktor Sänger. Caption: Prince Wilhelm's congratulations to Bismarck at his appointment as a member of parliament. Wilhelm (Adolf Klein) is the future king Wilhelm of Prussia, whom Bismarck made Emperor of Germany in 1871.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/5. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925) with Franz Ludwig as Otto von Bismarck and Heinrich Peer as Count Thun-Hohenstein. Caption: Erster Besuch Bismarck's beim Präsidenten des Bundestages dem Grafen Thun-Hogenstein in Frankfurt a. M. (The first visit of Bismarck at the president of the Bundestag, Count Thun-Hohenstein).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 46/6. Photo: Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925) with Franz Ludwig. Caption: Abgeordneter Otto von Bismarck in der Bundesratssitzung in Frankfurt a. M. (Delegate Otto von Bismarck representative in the federal council meeting in Frankfurt am Main).

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

One of the most prominet Prussian films was the Bismarck-Film project on Otto von Bismarck, prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90) and founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire. Yesterday we posted on Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), which deals with the period from 1815 to 1862. Today a post on the second part, Bismarck 1862-1898/Bismarck-Film, 2. Teil (Kurt Blachnitzky, 1926), about Bismarck's late, decisive years as Prussian Prime Minister and German Chancellor. Franz Ludwig starred again as Otto von Bismarck, and for this film Karl Schenker made a wonderful portrait series which were published as postcards by Ross Verlag.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 43/2. Photo: Karl Schenker / Bismarck-Film. Postcard for the German biopic Bismarck 1862-1898 aka Bismark. 2. Teil (Kurt Blachnitzky, 1926) with Adolf Klein as Emperor Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia who on Bismarck's instigation was crowned Emperor of Germany in 1871 in Versailles, at the Galerie des Glaces.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 43/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck 1862-1898/Bismarck-Film, 2. Tei (Kurt Blachnitzky, 1927) with Toni Zimmerer as German Emperor Friedrich III, who only ruled for 99 days. Frederick, Crown Prince since 1861 when his father became King of Prussia, fought in the wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, even if he hated war, showed mercy to his enemies, and attended to German victims. When Wilhelm became Emperor of Germany in 1871, Frederick also became Crown Prince to the Empire. As he and his wife Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, were on the liberal side, e.g. defending the Jewish German population against antisemitic attacks, they often clashed with Wilhelm and Bismarck, and the latter two tried to curtail Frederick's power as much as possible. Frederick's own son, Wilhelm II, hated his father's liberal ideas and allied with his grandfather, though he dismissed Bismarck as soon as he became Emperor himself. Historians dispute whether history, in particular, German history, would have taken another turn, had Frederick lived longer. In 1887 he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, which increasingly wrecked him, despite various attempts to remove the cancer. He became emperor when his father died in 1888, but was rather powerless. On 15 June 1888 he died.

The Iron Chancellor

Bismarck 1862-1898 is a 1926 German silent historical film directed by Kurt Blachnitzky, later known as Kurt Blachy. Because it was a sequel to Bismarck, Teil. 1 (Ernst Wendt, 1925), Bismarck 1862-1898 is sometimes referred to as Bismarck Part II. Franz Ludwig starred again as Otto von Bismarck, and also Robert Leffler and Erna Morena returned. The film's sets were designed by the art director Willi Herrmann.

Bismarck 1862-1898 depicts the latter part of Otto von Bismarck's career including his long spell as Chancellor of Germany. In 1862, King Wilhelm I appointed Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia, a position he would hold until 1890, with the exception of a short break in 1873. He provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. Following the victory against Austria, he abolished the supranational German Confederation and instead formed the North German Confederation as the first German national state in 1867, leading it as Federal Chancellor. This aligned the smaller North German states behind Prussia. Later receiving the support of the independent South German states in the Confederation's defeat of France, he formed the German Empire in 1871, unifying Germany with himself as Imperial Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia at the same time. The new German nation excluded Austria, which had been Prussia's main opponent for predominance among the German states.

With that accomplished by 1871, Bismarck skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to maintain Germany's position in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace. Bismarck's diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the 'Iron Chancellor'. German unification and its rapid economic growth was the foundation to his foreign policy. He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion. Juggling a very complex interlocking series of conferences, negotiations and alliances, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position and used the balance of power to keep Europe at peace in the 1870s and 1880s. Bismarck distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power in the hands of a traditional Junker elite that consisted of the landed nobility in eastern Prussia. Under Wilhelm I, Bismarck largely controlled domestic and foreign affairs, until he was removed by the young Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, at the age of seventy-five.

Although Bismarck 1862-1898 was in fact propaganda propagated by German-national circles, the film was poorly received by the political right who accused it of "reducing a genius to the level of banality". The film also received extremely bad reviews in the newspapers and was rejected by the public. The following year, producer Josef Coböken tried it with another Prussian film, Luther – Ein Film der deutschen Reformation/Luther (Hans Kyser, 1927) about the life of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation. Again, it was not a success, and Coböken left the film business.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 43/4. Photo: Karl Schenker / Bismarck-Film. Postcard for the German biopic Bismarck 1862-1898 aka Bismark. 2. Teil (Curt von Blachnitzky, 1926) with Eugen Moebius as Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, head of the Prussian army from 1857, and thus victoriously leading the Prussians during the wars against Denmark (1864), Austria and its German allies (1866), and France (1870-1871).


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 44/1. Photo: Karl Schenker / Bismarck-Film. Publicity still for Bismarck 1862-1898/Bismarck-Film, 2. Tei (Kurt Blachnitzky, 1927) with Carl de Vogt as Napoleon III.


Statue of Otto von Bismarck. The statue is part of a Bismarck memorial at the Geschwister Scholl-Platz, Barmen, Wuppertal, Germany.  Statue by Hugo Lederer.

Sources: Kenneth Barkin (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or Universal) is one of Hollywood's ‘Big Six’ films studios, and now owned by Comcast. Founded in 1912, it is the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film, and the oldest surviving film studio in the United States. During Hollywood's golden age, Universal was one of the ‘Little Three’ majors. In two posts we tell the story of Universal and its stars. Today, part 1: 1912–1936. Under Movie Mogul Carl Laemmle, Universal was one of the leading producers of film serials in the 1920s and of popular horror films in the 1930s. Universal also presented many of the silent films of Erich von Stroheim and the classic anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).


Visitors at Entrance to Universal City. American postcard by Van Ornum Colorprint Co, Los Angeles, no. 778. This postcard may refer to the opening of the Second Universal City on Lankershim Bd. on 15 March 1915.


Gladys Walton. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Universal Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 105/1. Photo: Universal Pictures Corp. Publicity still for The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928) with Mary Philbin and Conrad Veidt.


Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 65. Postcard for the American WWI, anti-war-film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on the novel Im Westen nichts neues by Erich Maria Remarque, and starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis jr.



American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 233/007. Photo: Roman Freulich / Universal Pictures. Publicity still for The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935) with Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff.

Independents against the trust

Universal Studios was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann,Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour.

After immigrating to America in 1884, Carl Laemmle spent the next decade at a series of dead-end jobs, mostly in Chicago, then worked for another 12 years at a dry-goods store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1905, while he searched for a place to open a clothing store in Chicago, Laemmle stumbled onto a line of people waiting to see a nickelodeon. Intrigued by the popularity of moving pictures, Laemmle changed careers and opened a nickelodeon, The White Front Theater. Soon, Laemmle was the owner of several nickelodeons and had also established a film distribution business.

The creation in 1908 of the Motion Picture Trust by Thomas Edison and others meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on several patents, the trust collected fees on all aspects of film production and exhibition, and attempted to enforce a monopoly on distribution. Although he was an original member of Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company, Laemmle bristled at the idea of paying royalties to move to the next level: film production.

In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. That company quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The first effort of the studio involved a one-reel film entitled Hiawatha (William V. Ranous, 1909), a 15-minute version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem. Eventually, production would increase to an average of one film per week.

In the meantime, Edison's agents did their best to shut IMP down. Laemmle broke with the trust’s custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers. By naming the film stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, and contributed to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as ‘The Biograph Girl’, and actor King Baggot, and IMP became one of the first studios using stars in its marketing.

The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York in 1912 when IMP merged with five other companies. Carl Laemmle, who became president, was the primary figure in the partnership. Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal studio was a vertically integrated company, with film production, distribution and exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio system era. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its production efforts in the Hollywood area. Hollywoodland, as it was known at the time, was a perfect place for the independent film makers to regroup and build their respective businesses.


Marie Prevost. French postcard by A.N., Paris in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma, series, no. 1. Photo: Universal Film.


Priscilla Dean. French postcard by A.N., Paris in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma, series, no. 3. Photo: Universal Film.


Baby Peggy. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 4. Photo: Universal Film.


Helen Dupont. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 10. Photo: Universal Film.


Pat O'Malley. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 241. Photo: Universal Film.

A water fantasy movie with beautiful mermaids in King Neptune's garden

Universal offered a variety of film packages which allowed an exhibitor to show a different film every day. The Complete Service Plan, for example, included a two-reel comedy, a serial, and a feature film. One of the first hits of Universal was the adventure-drama Ivanhoe (Herbert Brenon, 1913) starring King Baggot, and based on the epic historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Produced by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures after IMP was absorbed into the newly founded Universal, which was the distributor, the screenplay was adapted by Brenon. Ivanhoe was filmed on location in the United Kingdom. It was one of the first expeditions of an American studio abroad.

Another success was the silent crime drama Traffic in Souls/While New York Sleeps (George Loane Tucker, 1913), focusing on forced prostitution (white slavery) in the United States. Traffic in Souls consists of six reels which was longer than most American film of the era. The film grossed $0.5 million and its significance was also in the innovative editing and plot lines which gave the impression of simultaneously occurring events.

Lucille Love, Girl of Mystery (Francis Ford, 1914) with Grace Cunard was Universal’s first serial. Then followed the fantasy Neptune's Daughter (Herbert Brenon, 1914 ) with former swimming champion Annette Kellerman. It was based on Kellerman's idea of "a water fantasy movie with beautiful mermaids in King Neptune's garden together with a good love story." It was filmed by Universal on Bermuda, cost approximately $50,000, and grossed one million dollars at the box office.

Land in California was cheap and weather-wise, ideal. In 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Studio management became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organisation. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. About 500 people visited Universal City daily until the advent of sound films required enclosed stages.

Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, Westerns and serials. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films—Red Feather, low-budget programmers; Bluebird, more ambitious productions; and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. It held a talented roster of stars such as Lon Chaney, Mae Murray, Harry Carey and Rudolph Valentino. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, one of the few women directing films in Hollywood. Among her successes were the dramas Where Are My Children? (Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, 1916), starring Tyrone Power, Sr. and Marie Walcamp, and Shoes (Lois Weber, 1916) starring Mary MacLaren. John Ford directed several silent Westerns with Harry Carey such as A Marked Man (John Ford, 1917) and The Phantom Riders (John Ford, 1918).


Harry Carey. French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 6. Photo: Universal Film / Roman Freulich, no. 203.


Gladys Walton. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 710/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Unifilman (Universal).


Hoot Gibson. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5020/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for The Galloping Kid (Nat Ross, 1922).


Virginia Valli. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 711/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Unifilman.

A studio as a 21st birthday present

Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theatre chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively lavish production values for his films Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), but Universal shrewdly gained a return on some of the expenditure by launching a sensational ad campaign that attracted filmgoers.

Character actor Lon Chaney became a drawing card for Universal in the 1920s, first appearing steadily in dramas such as The Trap (Robert Thornby, 1922). His two biggest hits for Universal were The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) with Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry.

During this period Laemmle entrusted most of the production policy decisions to Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by his smart observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, 'the Boy Wonder' was giving Universal's product a touch of class, but MGM's head of production Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal with a promise of better pay. Without his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.

In 1928, Laemmle, Sr. made his son, Carl Laemmle, Jr. head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday present. Universal already had a reputation for nepotism—at one time, 70 of Carl, Sr.'s relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Among these relatives was future Academy Award-winning director/producer William Wyler. ‘Junior’ Laemmle persuaded his father to bring Universal up to date. He bought and built theatres, converted the studio to sound production, and cut the studio's output by 40 percent in order to allow for longer films of higher quality.

His interest in novels led to several prominent productions. Universal put over $1,000,000 into The Man Who Laughs (1928), an extremely high budget for an American film of the time. The Man Who Laughs (1928) is a romantic drama directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. It stars Mary Philbin as the blind Dea and Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. The film is known for the grim carnival freak-like grin on Gwynplaine's face.


Lon Chaney. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 52. Photo: Universal Film. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Mary Philbin. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 49. Photo: Universal Film.


Norman Kerry. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 239. Photo: Universal Film.


Conrad Veidt. Dutch postcard, no. 142. Photo: Universal.


Reginald Denny. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, Paris, no. 5324. Photo: Universal-Film.

Universal Horror

Carl Jr. ‘s early efforts included the critically panned part-talkie version of Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat (Harry A. Pollard, 1929), the lavish musical Broadway (Paul Fejos, 1929) which included Technicolor sequences; and the all-color musical King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson, 1930). The anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), won its year's Best Picture Oscar, the studio's first.

Laemmle, Jr. created a niche for the studio, beginning a series of horror films which extended into the 1940s, affectionately dubbed Universal Horror. Among them are Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931) with Béla Lugosi, Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) with Boris Karloff, The Mummy (Karl Freund, 1932), The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933) with Claude Rains, and The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935). Other Laemmle productions of this period include the melodramas Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, 1934) starring Claudette Colbert, and the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936) with Carole Lombard.

Most of the higher quality films that Laemmle, Jr., initiated did not engage the audiences of their day, however, and box office receipts did not compensate for the high cost of feature film production. Taking on the task of modernising and upgrading a film conglomerate in the depths of the depression was risky, and for a time Universal slipped into receivership. The theatre chain was scrapped, but Carl, Jr. held fast to distribution, studio and production operations.

The end for the Laemmles came with a lavish version of Show Boat (James Whale, 1936), a remake of its earlier 1929 part-talkie production, and produced as a high-quality, big-budget film rather than as a B-picture. The new film featured several stars from the Broadway stage version, which began production in late 1935, and unlike the 1929 film was based on the Broadway musical rather than the novel.

Carl, Jr.'s spending habits alarmed company stockholders. After a costly flop with Sutter's Gold (James Cruze, 1936), the stockholders would not allow production to start on Show Boat unless the Laemmles obtained a loan. Universal was forced to seek a $750,000 production loan from the Standard Capital Corporation, pledging the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. It was the first time Universal had borrowed money for a production in its 26-year history. The production went $300,000 over budget; Standard called in the loan, cash-strapped Universal could not pay, Standard foreclosed and seized control of the studio in 1936. Although Show Boat (released a little over a month later) became a critical and financial success, it was not enough to save the Laemmles' involvement with the studio. They were unceremoniously removed from the company they had founded. Carl Laemmle Sr. died in 1939 in Los Angles at the age of 72.

From 1912 till 1936, Universal Pictures had various logos. The first logo that was used already showed a globe which has a lot of resemblance to Saturn with its ring. In 1923 a new logo shows a plane flying around the world leaving a trail of smoke which slowly turn into the words 'Universal Pictures'. In 1927 an updated version of the previous logo was introduced which also has the plane flying around the globe. The text now read 'A Universal Picture'. It would stay until 1936. To be continued.


Ivan Mozzhukhin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3179/4, 1928-1929. Photo: Freulich / Universal / Matador. Publicity still for Surrender (Edward Sloman, 1927).


Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Postcard for the American WWI, anti-war-film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on the novel Im Westen nichts neues by Erich Maria Remarque, and starring Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim.


Béla Lugosi. British postcard in the Picturegoer series. Photo: Universal. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Boris Karloff. British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no 707 H. Photo: Universal.


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933) with Gloria Stuart.

Sources: David S. Smith (IMDb), Encyclopaedia Britannica, My Film Views, Universal Pictures.com, Funding Universe, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or Universal) is one of Hollywood's ‘Big Six’ films studios. In two posts we tell the story of Universal and its stars. Today, part 2. What happened with the studio after 1936, when Movie Mogul Carl Laemmle and his son had to leave Universal?


Deanna Durbin. Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam). Photo: Universal.


Maria Montez. Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, Barcelona. Photo: Universal. Photo: publicity still for Sudan (John Rawlins, 1945).


Douglas Fairbanks Jr.American postcard by Universal. Photo: publicity still for The Exile (Max Ophüls, 1947).


Bud Abbott& Lou Castello. Dutch postcard, no. 950. Photo: Universal Film.


George Nader and Virginia Mayo. Spanish postcard by F.A.G., no. 440. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Congo Crossing (Joseph Pevney, 1956).

Light musicals with young sopranos

Standard Capital's J. Cheever Cowdin had taken over as president and chairman of the board of directors, and instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Gone were the big ambitions, and though Universal had a few big names under contract, those it had been cultivating, like William Wyler and Margaret Sullavan, left.

Meanwhile, producer Joe Pasternak, who had been successfully producing light musicals with young sopranos for Universal's German subsidiary, repeated his formula in America. Teenage singer Deanna Durbin starred in Pasternak's first American film, Three Smart Girls (Henry Koster, 1936). The film was a box-office hit and reputedly resolved the studio's financial problems. It also began an eight-year era of successful Deanna Durbin musicals and spawned two sequels, Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939) and Hers to Hold (Frank Ryan, 1943).

When Pasternak stopped producing Durbin's pictures, and she outgrew her screen persona and pursued more dramatic roles, the studio signed 13-year-old Gloria Jean for her own series of Pasternak musicals from 1939; she went on to star with Bing Crosby, and Donald O'Connor. Her best-known picture is her fourth, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F. Cline, 1941), in which she co-starred with W. C. Fields.

A popular Universal film of the late 1930s was Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), starring James Stewart as Destry and Marlene Dietrich in her comeback role after leaving Paramount. The successful film was for Stewart and Dietrich their first Western, and especially the ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel was memorable.

By the early 1940s, the company was concentrating on lower-budget productions that were the company's main staple: Westerns, melodramas, serials and sequels to the studio's horror pictures, the latter now solely B-pictures. The studio fostered many series: The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys action features and serials (1938–43); comedies with The Ritz Brothers (1940–43); and Westerns with Tom Mix (1932–1933), Buck Jones (1933–1936), and Johnny Mack Brown (1938–1943).

Universal could seldom afford its own stable of stars, and often borrowed talent from other studios, or hired freelance actors. In addition to Stewart and Dietrich, Margaret Sullavan, and Bing Crosby were two of the major names that made a couple of pictures for Universal during this period. Some stars came from radio, including Edgar Bergen, W. C. Fields, and the comedy team of Abbott and Costello (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello). Abbott and Costello's military comedy Buck Privates (Arthur Lubin, 1941) gave the former burlesque comedians a national and international profile. The film received two Academy Award nominations in 1941, and was one of the biggest money-makers of the year for Universal, grossing over $4 million at the box office. Japan used this film as propaganda to demonstrate to its own troops the 'incompetence' of the American Army.


Marlene Dietrich. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 219, offered by Victoria, Brussels. Photo: Universal Pictures.


Yvonne De Carlo. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 298. Photo: Universal.


Maria Montez and Jon Hall. Vintage card. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for White Savage (Arthur Lubin, 1943).


Burt Lancaster. British postcard in The People series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P. 1038. Photo: Universal International.


Marta Toren. Vintage postcard, no. 505. Photo: Universal International.

Arabian Nights in Technicolor

During the war years Universal did have a co-production arrangement with producer Walter Wanger and his partner, director Fritz Lang, lending the studio some amount of prestige productions. Their Film Noir Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945) is now considered a central film in the genre. The screenplay concerns two criminals (Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea) who take advantage of a middle-age painter (Edward G. Robinson) in order to steal his artwork. Alfred Hitchcock was also borrowed for two films from Selznick International Pictures: the spy thriller Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942) and the psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943) starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten.

Universal's core audience base was still found in the neighbourhood cinemas, and the studio continued to please the public with low- to medium-budget films. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce appeared in a new series of twelve films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and Universal made a series of teenage musicals with Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, and Peggy Ryan like What's Cookin'? (Edward F. Cline, 1942) and Get Hep to Love (Charles Lamont, 1942).

As Universal's main product had always been low-budget film, it was one of the last major studios to have a contract with Technicolor. The studio did not make use of the three-strip Technicolor process until Arabian Nights (John Rawlins, 1942), starring Sabu, Jon Hall and Maria Montez. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but owes more to the imagination of Universal Pictures than the original Arabian stories. The film is one of series of 'exotic' tales released by Universal during the war years. In 1943, Technicolor was also used in Universal's remake of their 1925 horror melodrama, Phantom of the Opera (Arthur Lubin, 1943) with Claude Rains, Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster. With the success of their first two colour pictures, a regular schedule of high-budget, Technicolor films followed.

While there were to be a few hits like The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946) starring Burt Lancaster in his film debut, and Ava Gardner, and the Film Noir The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948), Universal-International's new theatrical films often met with disappointing response at the box office. By the late 1940s, the ambitious head of production William Goetz was out, and the studio returned to low-budget and series films.

The inexpensive comedy Francis (Arthur Lubin, 1950), starring Donald O'Connor, Patricia Medina and Francis, the talking mule, was a hit. It lead to a series of six films about Francis, whose distinctive voice is a voice-over by actor Chill Wills. Another mainstay of the company was the Pa and Ma Kettle franchise which started with Ma and Pa Kettle (Charles Lamont, 1949), starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. Once again, the films of Abbott and Costello, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton, 1948), were also among the studio's top-grossing productions.

In the 1950s, Universal-International resumed their series of Arabian Nights films, including The Prince Who Was a Thief (Rudolph Maté, 1951) with Tony Curtis in his first starring role. The studio also had a success with monster and science fiction films produced by William Alland, such as It Came from Outer Space (Jack Arnold, 1953), the first Science-Fiction horror film in the 3D process, and Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954) with Richard Carlson and Julia Adams. Other successes were Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954) with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, and other melodramas directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter, the so-called 'King of the Weepies' Although for film critics they were not so well thought of on first release as they have since become. Hunter's production of Pillow Talk (1959), starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day, grossed $7.5 million and prompted a surge in the romantic comedy genre.

Among Universal-International's stable of stars were also Audie Murphy, Kirk Douglas, Maureen O'Hara, Charlton Heston, Jeff Chandler, and John Gavin. In 1950 MCA agent Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client James Stewart that would change the rules of the business. Wasserman's deal gave Stewart a share in the profits of three pictures in lieu of a large salary. When one of those films, Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950) starring Stewart and Shelley Winters, proved to be a hit, the arrangement would become the rule for many future productions at Universal, and eventually at other studios as well.


Tony Curtis. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, no. 1578. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for The Prince Who Was a Thief (Rudolph Maté, 1951).


Julia Adams. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1210. Photo: Universal International.


Gloria Grahame. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1190. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Naked Alibi (Jerry Hopper, 1954).


Maureen O'Hara. Dutch postcard, no. 198. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Lady Godiva of Coventry (Arthur Lubin, 1955).


Shelley Winters. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 316. Photo: Universal International.

A full-blown, A-film studio, with leading actors and directors

By the late 1950s, the film business was again changing. The combination of the studio/theatre-chain break-up and the rise of television saw the reduced audience size for cinema productions. The Music Corporation of America (MCA), the world's largest talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer. Universal agreed to sell its studio lot to MCA in 1958. MCA dit not own Universal Pictures, yet was increasingly influential on Universal's product. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like Doris Day, Lana Turner, Cary Grant, and director Alfred Hitchcock were signed to Universal contracts. The long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA, Inc. happened in mid-1962. The company reverted in name to Universal Pictures from Universal-International.

As a final gesture before leaving the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. In 1964, MCA formed Universal City Studios, Inc., merging the motion pictures and television arms and thus Universal became a full-blown, A-film studio, with leading actors and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a studio tour subsidiary launched in 1964. Early film productions under MCA included The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1962), which grossed $4.6 million, and To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), which won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck. Ross Hunter continued to be the company's most successful producer with Thoroughly Modern Millie (George Roy Hill, 1968) with Julie Andrews, followed by the all-star blockbuster Airport (George Seaton, 1970) with Burt Lancaster, which grossed $45.3 million. Airport originated the 1970s disaster film genre.

Hal B. Wallis, who had recently worked as a major producer at Paramount, moved over to Universal, where he produced several films, among them the lavish costume drama Anne of the Thousand Days (Charles Jarrott, 1969) which tells the story of Anne Boleyn, and the equally lavish Mary, Queen of Scots (Charles Jarrott, 1971), starring Vanessa Redgraveand Glenda Jackson. Although neither could claim to be a big financial hit, both films received Academy Award nominations, and Anne was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Richard Burton), Best Actress (Geneviève Bujold), and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Quayle). Wallis retired from Universal after making the Western Rooster Cogburn (Stuart Millar, 1975), a sequel to True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969), which Wallis had produced at Paramount. Rooster Cogburn co-starred John Wayne in his penultimate film, reprising his Oscar-winning role as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn from the earlier film, and Katharine Hepburn. It would be their only film together. The film was only a moderate success.

In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with Paramount to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal outside of the US and Canada. Although Universal was primarily a television studio during the decade, it did produce occasional hits, among them the caper The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973) starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford and winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). A huge box-office success which restored the company's fortunes was Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) with Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster, with its release regarded as a watershed moment in film history. It became the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977). Both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple high-concept premises released during the summer in thousands of cinemas and heavily advertised.

During the 1980s Universal released several award-winning films. Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980) grossed $38.5 million, and Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for Best Actress. On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981) grossed $63 million and won three of ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Henry Fonda and Best Actress for Katherine Hepburn. Meryl Streep won the Best Actress Oscar for Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, 1982). Sidney Pollack's production of Out of Africa (1985) won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack.

CIC decided to merge UA's international units with MGM and reformed it as United International Pictures. There would be other film hits like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982), Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985), An American Tail (Don Bluth, 1986), The Land Before Time (Don Bluth, 1988), and Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993), but the film business was financially unpredictable. UIP began distributing films by start-up studio DreamWorks in 1997, due to connections the founders have with Paramount, Universal, and Amblin Entertainment.

Universal was involved in a series of acquisitions, and in 2004 the company (as part of Vivendi Universal Entertainment) merged with the National Broadcasting Co., Inc., to form NBC Universal. Recent blockbusters were the sequels Despicable Me 2 (Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, 2013), Furious 7 (James Wan, 2015) and Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015).


Doris Day. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4240. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Ann Margret. Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, S.L., no. 27. Photo: Universal Pictures. Publicity still for Kitten with a Whip (Douglas Heyes, 1964).


Michael Parks. Vintage American collectors card. Photo: Universal / Pennebaker. Publicity still for Wild Seed ( Brian G. Hutton, 1965).


Cate Blanchett. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

Sources: Funding Universe, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948) is a French romantic comedy in which the line between artifice and reality is blurred. Beautiful Madeleine Sologne played the girl from the title, a role which was in fact about and written for another French film star, Madeleine Robinson.


French postcard. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Madeleine Sologne in Une grande fille toute simple (Jacques Manuel, 1948). This postcard was for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema.


French postcard. This postcard was made for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly, Madeleine Sologne and Raymond Rouleau in Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948).


French postcard. This postcard was made for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly and Madeleine Sologne in Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948).

A Love Triangle Backstage

The tour of a theatre group is troubled by a love triangle backstage. The young and beautiful actress Stepha can’t choose between the lead actor of the play and the director.

The actors gamely act out their roles as if everything is okay, but then a strange woman walks on stage and begins digressing from the script. The line between artifice and reality blurs.

Une grande fille toute simple was directed by former costume designer Jacques Manuel. The production was supervised by Marcel L’Herbier, who had directed Le vertige (1926), which had been Manuel’s first film job.

The screenplay was written by André Roussin based on his own 1942 stage play of the same name. When he wrote Une grande fille toute simple, Roussin was inspired by his love affair with actress Madeleine Robinson during rehearsals of the play Musique légère (Light music) by Louis Ducreux. The play, co-starring Gérard Philipe was a huge success.

Paradoxically, the role of Stepha, especially written for Madeleine Robinson, was entrusted to Madeleine Sologne for the film adaptation of the play. The other parts went to Raymond Rouleau and director Jean Desailly. Gabrielle Dorziat played aunt Edmée and author Louis Ducreux played a bit part.


French postcard. This postcard was made for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Madeleine Sologne and Louis Ducreux in Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948).


French postcard. This postcard was made for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly and Madeleine Sologne in Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948). The sets were by Robert Gys.


French postcard. This postcard was made for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly, Madeleine Sologne and Raymond Rouleau in Une grande fille toute simple/Just a Big Simple Girl (Jacques Manuel, 1948).

The most completely incoherent lot of twaddle

When Une grande fille toute simple was released in the US as Just a Big Simple Girl, critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times reviewed: “Into the Arcadia Theatre, at Third Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, someone of reckless disposition deposited a new French film yesterday. The title of this adventurous import was announced as Just a Big Simple Girl, and mainly to check on that title, this reviewer went over to have a look.

That's the title, all right, and, as near as we could make out, it suitably describes the crazy dame who races about in this picture—except that she's not very big.But we've got to confess quite frankly that we can't be entirely sure that it's the girl in the case who is simple and not the people who made the film.

For this tale of a platinum-blonde French actress, who appears to be two or three kinds of maniac, is the most completely incoherent lot of twaddle we ever heard or saw. For almost an hour and three-quarters, this dame is all over the lot, pushing and grabbing at fellows and talking them blue in the face. What it is precisely that she wants we never know, for the cutting is quite as provoking as the writing and directing of this film.”

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The French Just a Big, Simple Girl strives to emulate Pirandello by blurring the line between artifice and reality. The scene is a theater, where a group of actors are performing in a play. We have already been informed that there is a real-life romantic triangle going on backstage, but the actors gamely act out their roles as if everything is okay. But everything becomes no-kay when a strange woman walks on stage and begins digressing from the script."

Jacques Manuel directed one more film, the Colette adaptation Julie de Carneilhan (1950), with Edwige Feuillère and Pierre Brasseur. Manuel passed away in 1968 in Paris.


Belgian postcard. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Artistes Associés. Madeleine Sologne and Jean Desailly in Une grande fille toute simple (Jacques Manuel, 1948). This card was for the showing of the film at the Palais des Arts/ Feestpaleis in [Antwerp? Ghent?].


French postcard. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly in Une grande fille toute simple (Jacques Manuel, 1948). This postcard was for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema. The sets were by Robert Gys.


French postcard. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly and Madeleine Sologne in Une grande fille toute simple (Jacques Manuel, 1948). This postcard was for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema.


French postcard. Photo: Prod. CAPAC. Jean Desailly and Madeleine Sologne in Une grande fille toute simple (Jacques Manuel, 1948). This postcard was for the exclusive release at the Madeleine cinema.

Sources: Bosley Crowther (The New York Times), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Lars Hanson and Karin Molander played the leading roles in the Swedish silent rural drama Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920). In the films of Mauritz Stiller, Molander became a symbol of the modern, young and emancipated women of the 1910s. Hanson was one of the best known stars of the Scandinavian silent cinema, who also had a career in Hollywood. In real life, Hanson and Molander were a couple too.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/1. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/2. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Lars Hanson and Karin Molander in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/3. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Käte Schnitzer in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/4. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Egil Eide in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/5. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Egil Eide in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).

Completely naked but in all chastity

Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920) is situated in a small, rugged fishing village on the west coast of Sweden. The community is permeated by the Puritan spirit and Schartauanism, a revivalist movement influenced by the Lutheran priest Henric Schartau and which is widespread in south and southwest Sweden. The local priest (Nils Arehn) is a tough man who controls his congregation boys with an iron hand. Jakob Vindås (Egil Eide), a widower, lives in the village with his daughter and mother (Hildur Carlberg). The latter is even more unbearable than the priest. The school teacher Rilke (Carl Helleman) also lives in the village, together with his son Thomas (Lars Hanson), who studied for three years at the university, and the orphan girl Martina (Karin Molander).

Jakob wants to marry Martina and the priest gives him permission, but his mother denies the marriage harshly. Meanwhile, Martina and Thomas have fallen in love with each other. They meet in a crowded place on the island and bath together there, completely naked but in all chastity. They do not even kiss each other. Yet, someone has seen them without clothes, and the gossip goes like a rush through society. The priest orders the school teacher to immediately send Thomas away or look after another job. Thomas leaves the village.

Later, when Thomas returns, Martina is married to Jakob. She assures Jakob that her past with Thomas is dead and forgotten. Calmly, Jakob goes on a fishing trip, which will last for 14 days. Only the night before Jakob is expected back, Thomas and Martina meet again after their long separation. Thomas now knows that the priest forced Martina to marry Jacob. "But now it's all too late," says Martina. Thomas goes resigned, but at the door, he kisses Martina in parting. The door opens and Mother Vindås is on the doorstep. She rushes out and returns immediately with the priest. A bold appearance follows as the priest concludes with the words: "Tomorrow the whole village will know your shame!"

The next day, on Sunday, the whole village is gathered in the church, including Martina, Thomas, and his father. From the pulpit, the priest holds a sulphurous punishment over the traitor Thomas and the unfaithful wife Martina. Then he wants to chase them out of the church and the community. But Thomas and Martina do not have to go alone. Thomas's father joins them and Jakob's little daughter (Käte Schnitzer) also runs out after Martina. Meanwhile, Jakob has come home, and his mother tells him what has happened. Thomas and Martina have resorted to the school teacher's house. The villagers have gathered there and throw stones at the house. But when Jacob arrives, he does not do what everyone is waiting for. He instead drives the people away. He enters the house and asks Martina forgiveness: "You're free to follow him. It should never have been otherwise. I am too old, my hands too rough for you."

The shooting of Fiskebyn took place at the Svenska Biografteatern studio at Lidingö with exterior scenes shot in Fiskebäckskil (in Västra Götaland County), on the island Gåsö and at several locations in  the Swedish province of Bohuslän. Henrik Jaenzon took care of the cinematography. The film was based on Georg Engel's play Im Hafen, published in Berlin in 1905. During and after the shooting, scriptwriter Bertil Malmberg revised the manuscript into a novel of the same name, published just before Christmas 1919. Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920) premiered on 15 March 15 1920. The bath in the nude of Hanson and Molander did not raise any major upheaval although the film was also exported to a number of Catholic countries. But for the foreign market, the role of the priest was changed into the chairman of the village council and all the shots with the church were cut out of the film. In Great Britain, Fiskebyn was released under the title Chains. The film is believed to be lost.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/6. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Lars Hanson in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/7. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/8. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Lars Hanson in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/9. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander and Lars Hanson in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/10. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Karin Molander, Hildur Carlberg, and Lars Hanson in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1094/11. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still of Carl Helleman, Karin Molander and Lars Hanson in Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).

Sources: Svenskfilmdatabas.se, Wikipedia (Swedish) and IMDb.

In the Swedish silent film Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920), two weary travellers come upon a monastery. While staying the night, they learn of its mysterious founding. Director Victor Sjöström adapted an 1828 short story by Franz Grillparzer for his historical melodrama.  Stars were Tora Teje, Renée Björling, Richard Lund and Tore Svennberg.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/2. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/3. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Renée Björling and Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/4. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje and Renée Björling.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/6. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje and Richard Lund.

The sad story of a strange, old monk

The main part of Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920)  is told in a flashback by a monk to two visiting noblemen on their way to Warsaw in the 17th century. The two noblemen arrive at the monastery of Sendomir (Sandomierz) and ask for passing the night. They are served by a very humble and somewhat strange old monk.

When they ask about the monastery's history, the monk becomes very upset, yet he begins to tell about the events that led to the monastery's arrival. Near the place where the monastery now stands, once stood a large and magnificent castle, where the mighty Count Starschensky (Tore Svennberg) lived happily with his rather saddened, younger wife Elga (Tora Teje), her child and their servants.

One day, the Count's staff receives reports that unknown persons sometimes get access to the castle via a certain gate. The administrator informs the Count of his findings, and the Count detects that the key to the corresponding porch is missing. When the Count returns next time, he notices that an officer (Richard Lund) is secretly let in through the gate by the Countess's maid-in-law (Renée Björling).

The chambermaid detects after a while that the Count is on his way back, summoned by his servants. The lover succeeds in escaping and the Count cannot induce the chambermaid to give his name. Elga spells her fierce anger, but remains very cold and succeeds to let him believe that it is just her maid getting these secret visits. The Count takes relief from this false interpretation of the course of events.

Shortly thereafter, he realises he has been fooled. Tucked away in a box, he recognises a picture of a cousin to his wife, Oginsky, who has become his wife's lover. The Count is shocked by the suspicion that Oginsky may be the father of the daughter (Gun Robertson) he considered as his own. With the administrator's help, the Count sets a trap and captures Oginsky. He forces her wife to get up at night and leads her to the captive Oginsky who confesses having made love to the Countess and being the father of her child.

The lover is able to escape through a window. The countess prays for her life and, on her husband's request (testing her), she is even prepared to kill her 'untimely' child by her own hands, just to save her skin. This takes the count as the definitive proof of her unworthiness to live. He drives his knife into her. That same night, the castle burns to the ground, and a poor local wife gets the little girl with a promise of money for her education.

The monk concludes his story by telling that the count left the estate and his belongings to the monastery which he was able to institute after his crime. The guests ask the monk what happened to the count himself and get the answer that he became an insignificant and impoverished brother in his own monastery. They discover that the monk is Starschensky himself.

Though critics admitted that Klostret i Sendomir was a melodramatic story, they emphasised that the melodrama was embedded within artistic consistency and authenticity. The wonderful cinematography was lauded as well as the impressive studio resources that could create this 17th century ambiance. Of course, Tore Svennberg and Tora Teje's performances were also admired


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/8. Photo: publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tore Svennberg and Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/9. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje and Tore Svennberg.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/10. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/11. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tore Svennberg, Richard Lund and Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/12. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Richard Lund, Tore Svennberg and Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/13. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje and Tore Svennberg.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/14. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/15. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920) with Tore Svennberg and Tora Teje.

Sources: Svenskfilmdatabas.se, Wikipedia (English and Swedish), and IMDb.

Blonde and beautiful Anna Q. Nilsson (1888-1974) was a Swedish-American actress, who peaked in the silent era. Photoplay magazine named her 'the ideal American girl' in 1919. She became one of the first super stars of the American film industry and played in about 200 silent films, including one Swedish production. Her glittering career came to a tragic abrupt end.


British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery, no. 109, London.


Swedish postcard by Officin. A.-B. Svea Film Imp. Photo: Wolfenstein.


British Real Photograph postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 175a. Sent by mail in 1932.

Dreaming of finding happiness in America

Anna Quirentia Nilsson (popular known as Anna Q) was born in 1888, in Ystad, Sweden, as the daughter of police constable Per Nilsson. Her middle name, 'Quirentia', is derived from her date of birth, 30 March, Saint Quirinius' Day. She moved with her family to Hasslarp outside Helsingborg when she was eight years old.

In her teens, she dreamed of 'finding happiness' in America. A neighbour, just returned from a trip to the United States came by the Nilsson home for a visit. She wore a hat made of ostrich plumes. "I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life as that hat," recalled Anna later: "and I decided that America was the place for me." For five years she worked at the sugar fields at Hasslarp and as a clerk in Halmstad to collect money for the ticket.

In 1905, she took the boat to New York where she received work as a nanny ans started to learn English. One day she was discovered on a thriving avenue by the famous portrait painter James Carroll Beckwith. Anna leaped at the opportunity. She became New York's highest paid model, working for well-known fashion photographers and fine artists, such as Penrhyn Stanlaws. In 1907 she was named 'America's most beautiful woman' and she became a model for the 1910s beauty ideal, The Gibson Girl Look.

In 1911, Nilsson was offered the title role in the Kalem film Molly Pitcher (Sidney Olcott, 1911), which became the start of her acting career. Her screen husband in that film was Guy Coombs. They played together at Kalem for years, and she would eventually marry him, though the marriage didn't last long. She stayed at the Kalem studio until 1915, acting in some 70 shorts. She ranked second behind Kalem's top star, Alice Joyce.

She branched out to other production companies, such as Fox, Erbograph, Metro Pictures, Famous Players, etc., alternating star roles with supporting parts. Feature films of special note in her post-Kalem years are the gangster film Regeneration (Raoul Walsh, 1915) starring Rockliffe Fellowes, Her Surrender (Ivan Abramson, 1916), the first feature in which she was the star of the film, and Seven Keys to Baldpate (Hugh Ford, 1917) which still exists.

Other films include Venus in the East (Donald Crisp, 1919) with Bryant Washburn, The Love Burglar (James Cruze, 1919) with Wallace Reid, Soldiers of Fortune (Allan Dwan, 1919) with Norman Kerry and Wallace Beery.

In 1920-1921, she appeared in The Toll Gate (Lambert S. Hillyer, 1920) with William S. Hart, One Hour Before Dawn (Henry King, 1920) with H.B. Warner, The Luck of the Irish (Allan Dwan, 1920) with James Kirkwood sr., and The Lotus Eater (Marshall Neilan, 1921) with John Barrymore.

In 1921, Nilsson returned to Sweden to act in the rural film comedy Värmlänningarna/Harvest of Hate (Erik A. Petschler, 1921), produced by Svea Film. It would be her only Swedish film. The main role of Anna was first given to Rosa Tillman, but when the famous Hollywood star Anna Q. Nilsson came to visit her old homeland just at the time of the shooting of the film, Nilsson was given the part and Tillman got a supporting role.

The film was a box office hit in Sweden and the press praised Nilsson's acting. Värmlänningarna was long believed to be lost, but in 1998 a print showed up in the Moscow film archive and was restored by the Swedish film archive.


Swedish postcard by Officin. A.-B. Svea Film Imp, no. 1. Photo: Svea Film. Publicity still of Anna Nilsson and Tor Weijden in Värmlänningarna (Erik Petschler, 1921). Värmlänningarna was adapted from a play by Fredrik August Dahlgren. Anna (Anna Q. Nilsson) plays a poor girl who loves Erik (Tor Weijden), the son of a rich farmer. His parents are however determined to make Erik marry the rich Britta.


Swedish postcard by Officin. A.-B. Svea Film Imp, no. 2. Photo: Svea Film. Publicity still of Anna Q. Nilsson and Tor Weijden in Värmlänningarna (Erik Petschler, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Officin. A.-B. Svea Film Imp, no. 9. Photo: Svea Film. Publicity still of Anna Q. Nilsson in Värmlänningarna (Erik Petschler, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Officin. A.-B. Svea Film Imp, no. 17. Photo: Svea Film. Publicity still of Anna Q. Nilsson in Värmlänningarna (Erik Petschler, 1921).

Hollywood's Wrangle

All in all, Anna Q. Nilsson participated in exactly 200 films (and a handful where she played herself). All films were American, except for the one mentioned above - recorded in Värmland. Nilsson was one of the very first big stars (and the first Swedish) in American film and one of the silent film's most engaged female actors. She was very affectionate about Hollywood, and, soon after arriving in Hollywood, she bought a landmark, which became the heart of the film industry, and when she built a weekend house on the then still deserted beach strip of Malibu, it became 'in'.

Nilsson was often called 'Hollywood's wrangle' because she consistently refused to take the help of any stunt woman. In the 1920s, Nilsson successfully freelanced for Famous Players/ Paramount, Universal, First National, and many other studios. In 1923, she made nine films, including Cecil B. DeMille's Adam's Rib (remade in 1949), Hollywood (James Cruze, 1923), one of the first satires on film life, and The Spoilers (Lambert Hillyer, 1923),  with Milton Sills in the male lead. Nilsson was severely burned while filming a scene in which she drove a locomotive through a forest fire for Hearts Aflame (Reginald Barker, 1923). She required a week to recuperate, but that did not impede her career.

Anna Q reached a peak of popularity just before the advent of sound film. In 1926, she was named 'Hollywood's most popular woman'. Nilsson welcomed royalty when the Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf) and his wife Louise Mountbatten visited Hollywood. In 1928, Nilsson was one of the highest-rated Hollywood stars, earning $ 20,000 a week, for films such as Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927) with H.B. Warner. Nilsson played opposite legendary baseball player Babe Ruth in the sports comedy Babe Comes Home (Ted Wilde, 1927), an early sound film. While working on this film, Nilsson seriously injured her vertebrae.

In 1928, Anna Nilsson made her last film of the silent era, Blockade (George B. Seitz, 1928), which was actually a part-talkie. That same year (some sources claim it was in 1925 or 1929), while horse riding, she either fell off the horse or was kicked by the horse (versions differ), was thrown against a stone wall and broke her hip. After two years of being hospitalised and hard training, she was on her feet again, but it took until 1933 for a new film to be released with her: The World Changes (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933) with Paul Muni and Mary Astor. By then the film world had changed as the sound film had set in, and Nilsson was reduced to supporting roles.

During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Nilsson participated in 39 sound films, always in minor roles opposite stars such as James Stewart, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor. She played the role of the Swedish immigrant mother of Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter (H. C. Potter, 1947). The film won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Young and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Charles Bickford.

In Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950), Nilsson played a cameo role as herself, along with Buster Keaton and H.B. Warner. They were referred to as the ‘waxworks’, playing bridge with Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond. Today she is best remembered for this film, where she has only one single reply. Her very last film effort was an even smaller film role in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954).

During World War II, Nilsson worked with Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich and many other stars at the Hollywood Canteen to raise cash for the war fund. She served food to the soldiers and sold war bonds. After the war, she was rewarded by both the US state, the army, and the navy, and the Red Cross. Her money had been well invested and she threw herself into a life of charity work, reading, and extensive travel. Throughout her life, Nilsson kept in touch with her country of origin and when she was in Sweden in 1921 to shoot Värminänningar, she bought a house for her parents at Tingsgatan in Klippan, dubbed 'Quirentia'.

Anna Q. Nilsson was married with actor Guy Coombs in 1916, with actor Robert Taber, and from 1923 till 1925 with Norwegian-American shoe dealer John Marshall Gunnerson. Her second divorce drew big headlines in the newspapers. Anna Q. Nilsson died in 1974, in Hemet Convalescent Hospital, California, at the age of 85. She was the first Swedish actor to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1161.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1312.


Swedish postcard by A/B Nordiska Papperskompaniet, Helsingfors, no. 809.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), The New York Times, The Glory Days of Hollywood, Wikipedia (English, German, and Swedish), and IMDb.

Talented, temperamental and tragic Mario Lanza (1921–1959) was an American tenor, actor and Hollywood film star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. His masterpiece was The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951), the top-grossing film in the world in 1951. Lanza's voice was so dazzling that an awestruck Arturo Toscanini called it the ‘voice of the century’. He was the first singer to ever earn gold records, with million sellers in both classical and popular categories. Lanza was known to be rebellious, tough, and ambitious. He suffered from addictions to overeating and alcohol which had a serious effect on his health and his career. Lanza died at the age of 38.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 40. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).


Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for The Toast of New Orleans (Norman Tautog, 1950).


Austrian postcard by Kellner Fotokarten, Wien, no. 1436. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).

A sensational concert at the Hollywood Bowl

Mario Lanza was born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza in 1921 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mario was exposed to opera and classical singing at an early age by his Abruzzese-Molisan Italian parents. In 1940 he began studying repertoire with soprano Irene Williams. Two years later, he came to the attention of the celebrated conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who promptly invited him to the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood on a full scholarship. It was here, at Koussevitzky’s urging, that Alfred Cocozza became Mario Lanza—the masculine form of his mother’s name (Maria Lanza).

The young tenor made his opera debut, as Fenton in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, at the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood in August 1942, after just six weeks of intensive study with conductors Boris Goldovsky and Leonard Bernstein. In the New York Times, noted music critic Noel Straus hailed the 21-years-old Lanza as “an extremely talented, if as yet not completely routined student, whose superb natural voice has few equals among tenors of the day in quality, warmth, and power.”

His budding operatic career was interrupted by World War II, when he was assigned to Special Services in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He appeared in the wartime shows On the Beam and Winged Victory. He also appeared in the film version of the latter, Winged Victory (George Cukor, 1944), albeit as an unrecognisable chorus member.

In 1945 he married Betty Hicks. She was the sister of Lanza's army buddy. He was interested in her picture, and the buddy introduced them. Lanza resumed his singing career with a concert in Atlantic City with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in September 1945 under Peter Herman Adler, subsequently his mentor.

After a sensational concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947, the good-looking tenor signed a seven-year film contract with Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who was impressed by his performance. The contract required him to commit to the studio for six months, and at first Lanza believed he would be able to combine his film career with his operatic and concert one.

In 1948,  he sang the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's Madame Butterfly in New Orleans. Reviewing the opening-night performance in the St. Louis News, Laurence Oden wrote, "Mario Lanza performed ... Lieutenant Pinkerton with considerable verve and dash. Rarely have we seen a more superbly romantic leading tenor. His exceptionally beautiful voice helps immeasurably."

Following the success of these performances, he was invited to return to New Orleans in 1949 as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. But, as biographer Armando Cesari wrote, Lanza by 1949 "was already deeply engulfed in the Hollywood machinery and consequently never learned that role.”


Vintage card. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Publicity still for The Toast of New Orleans (Norman Taurog, 1950) with Kathryn Grayson.


Belgian postcard, no. 452. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 46. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 238. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Pubicity still for Because You're Mine (Alexander Hall, 1952).

Million-selling hit songs

Mario Lanza’s film debut for MGM was in the musical romance That Midnight Kiss (Norman Taurog, 1949) with top-billed Kathryn Grayson and Ethel Barrymore. According to MGM records the film earned $1,728,000 in the US and Canada and $1,449,000 overseas resulting in a profit of $173,000.

A year later, in The Toast of New Orleans (Norman Taurog, 1950), again opposite Kathryn Grayson, his featured popular song ‘Be My Love’ became his first million-selling hit. In 1951, he played the role of tenor Enrico Caruso, his idol, in the biopic The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951). This film was a highly fictionalised biography of the life of the great operatic tenor, and co-starred Ann Blyth and Czech soprano Jarmila Novotná. It produced another million-seller with ‘The Loveliest Night of the Year’, a song which used the melody of 'Sobre las Olas'.

The Great Caruso was the top-grossing film that year, and according to MGM records it made $4,309,000 in the US and Canada and $4,960,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $3,977,000. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards; at the 24th Academy Awards ceremony, Douglas Shearer and the MGM Studio Sound Department won for Best Sound. The film was also Oscar-nominated for its costume design and its score.

The title song of his next film, Because You're Mine (Alexander Hall, 1952), was his final million-selling hit song. The song went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Though popular at the box office, the film was not a critical success.

After recording the soundtrack for his next film, The Student Prince, he embarked upon a protracted battle with studio head Dore Schary arising from artistic differences with director Curtis Bernhardt. Lanza was eventually dismissed by MGM. The film would later be made by Richard Thorpe with Edmund Purdom as young prince Karl, lip-synching to Lanza. The film was a big hit, but Lanza’s career began a downturn that would never be reversed.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 875. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. 152. Photo: MGM.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 448.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. U 361. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Overeating, crash dieting, coupled with binge drinking

After four years, Mario Lanza returned to an active film career in Serenade (Anthony Mann, 1956), with Joan Fontaine and Sara Montiel, and released by Warner Bros. However the film was not as successful as his previous films, despite its strong musical content, including arias from Der Rosenkavalier, Fedora, L'arlesiana, and Otello, as well as the Act I duet from Otello with soprano Licia Albanese.

The film differs greatly from the James M. Cain source novel. In the book, the male protagonist is John Howard Spring, a professional opera singer who has lost his voice and fled the United States to Mexico in a crisis of confidence after being sexually wooed (not unsuccessfully, though details are vague) by a male socialite and impresario. Juana Montes is a Mexican prostitute who sees Spring as gay and therefore a trouble-free partner to open a brothel with. But after having sex in a deserted church with Juana, Spring recovers his voice and his preferred sexual identity. The two lovers come into conflict with the local police and flee to Los Angeles, where Spring reestablishes his singing career, more successful than ever. But once they move to New York, the singer must struggle against the renewed blandishments of the gay impresario, whom Juana eventually murders with a torero's sword.

As none of this material could be considered suitable for an American film in 1955, the story's male impresario becomes female instead and the Mexican prostitute becomes a Mexican bullfighter's daughter. The film made a purported loss of $695,000.

Lanza then moved to Rome, Italy in May 1957, where he worked on the film Arrivederci Roma/Seven Hills of Rome (Roy Rowland, 1958) with the gorgeous Marisa Allasio. He returned to live performing in November of that year, singing for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium. From January to April 1958, Lanza gave a concert tour of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany.

During most of his film career, Lanza suffered from addictions to overeating and alcohol which had a serious effect on his health and his relationships with directors, producers and, occasionally, other cast members. In September 1958, he made a number of operatic recordings at the Rome Opera House for the soundtrack of what would turn out to be his final film, For the First Time (Rudolph Mate, 1959) with Johanna von Koczian and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Howard Thompson of The New York Times called it Lanza’s "most disarming vehicle in years."

The Rome Opera’s artistic director, Riccardo Vitale, offered the tenor carte blanche in his choice of operatic roles. Lanza also received offers to sing in any opera of his choosing from the San Carlo in Naples. At the same time, however, his health continued to decline, with the tenor suffering from a variety of ailments, including phlebitis and acute high blood pressure. His old habits of overeating and crash dieting, coupled with binge drinking, compounded his problems.

In 1959, Mario Lanza died of an apparent pulmonary embolism in Rome, at the age of 38. At the time of his death, he had agreed to sing the role of Canio for the Rome Opera’s 1960-1961 season, but Lanza’s dream of becoming a great opera star remained unfulfilled. He was survived by his wife and four children. Betty Lanza returned to Hollywood completely devastated. She died five months later of a drug overdose.

Derek McGovern at Opera Vivrá: “He left behind an uneven but astonishingly diverse legacy of operatic recordings—some of which rank alongside the best efforts of more celebrated practitioners—together with Neapolitan songs, English love songs, and operetta; and seven operatically flavored films.“

Jeff Rense at IMDb: “Lanza's seven films and scores of astonishing recordings continue to stun and inspire singers and the public 40 years after his death. He is celebrated and honored with film festivals, a steady flow of new Cd's, and constant worldwide musical tributes.” Lanza has been a major influence on the generation of tenors who came after him. Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, and Roberto Alagna all credit Lanza as an inspiration to them in pursuing their chosen careers.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 714. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Serenade (Anthony Mann, 1956).


Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM. Tea time with Mario Lanza and his wife Betty Hicks Lanza.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 178. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2106, 1964. Photo: publicity still for For the First Time (Rudolph Maté, 1959) with Johanna von Koczian.

Coming soon: Next weeks, we will post the first of two film specials on Mario Lanza's most popular films.

Sources: Derek McGovern (Opera Vivrá), Jeff Rense (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

The following weeks we will interrupt the weekly series on Hollywood studios at EFSP with some posts on pioneering Italian studios. The Società Ambrosio & C., or simply Ambrosio-Film, was founded in 1906. From 1908 on, the studio flooded the world with its short films and, from 1911 on, with its features. Ambrosio established worldwide its reputation and that of Italian cinema with the historical drama’s Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompei (1908) and Nerone/Nero (1909). The company was dissolved in 1924 after releasing 1400 films.


Febo Mari. Italian postcard by La Rotofotografica, no. 1. Photo: Ambrosio-Film.


Tullio Carminati. Italian postcard by La Rotofotografica, no. 27. Photo: Ambrosio Film. Tullio Carminati's outfit and hairdo reminds of these in the film Romanticismo (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915).


Diana Karenne. Dutch postcard for the Dutch Cinema Palace, Steenstraat, Arnhem, sent 17 February 1919, from Apeldoorn, to a girlfriend in Ghent, Belgium. Photo: Ambrosio, Torino. The postcard could have been to promote Sofia di Kravonia, shown at this cinema in September 1918.


Ermete Novelli. Italian postcard by La Rotofotografica, no. 52. Photo: Ambrosio-Film.


François-Paul Donadio. Italian postcard by La Rotografica, no. 112. Photo: Ambrosio Film.

Flooding the world with shorts and features

The Ambrosio film company was founded in 1906 in Turin by Arturo Ambrosio and Alfredo Gandolfi, first as ‘Società Ambrosio & C.’, in 1907 turned into the public corporation ‘Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino’.

From 1908, when it opened its new studio complex, until 1912 it flooded the world with its shorts and, from 1911 on, with its feature-length films, starting with L’ultimo dei Frontignac/The Last of the Frontignacs (Mario Caserini, 1911) with Alberto Capozzi.

In 1912 and 1913 Ambrosio managed to release around 200 films per year and shared with the Roman company Cines the primate of the Italian cinema on the international market. Ambrosio established worldwide its reputation and that of Italian cinema with the historical drama’s Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompei (Arturo Ambrosio, Luigi Maggi, 1908) and Nerone/Nero (Arturo Ambrosio, Luigi Maggi, 1909), both with Luigi Maggi and Lydia Roberti

Ambrosio’s historical films, released from 1909 on as ‘serie d’oro’ (Golden Series), were the firm’s business card. Among them were films as Spergiura!/Swear! (Arturo Ambrosio, Luigi Maggi, 1909, the first in the ‘serie d’oro’), Il granatiere Roland/Grenadier Roland (Luigi Maggi, 1911) and in 1913 the second version of Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei  (Mario Caserini, Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1913), released in competition with that of Pasquali.

The historical films won Ambrosio much prestige. In 1911 the company received the prize for the best artistic film and best documentary at the International Exposition in Turin with the Risorgimento drama Nozze d’oro/The Golden Wedding (Arturo Ambrosio, Luigi Maggi, 1911), featuring the leading Ambrosio actors Alberto Capozzi and Mary Cléo Tarlarini, and the documentary La vita delle farfalle/Life of the Butterflies (Roberto Omegna, 1911), based on a text by Guido Gozzano.


Italian postcard. Photo: Ambrosio. Publicity still for I promessi sposi (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1913), adapted from Alessandro Manzoni's classic novel, and starring Mario Voller-Buzzi as Renzo and Gigetta Morano as Lucia. Here Renzo is about to be arrested on false accusation. Caption: Ah! Have you understood at last, Lorenzo Tramaglino?, the man with the black cape said. (Ch. XV).


German postcard by Rodera-Lichtspiele, Dresden, 1913. Photo: Publicity still for Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1913). From left to right: Antonio Grisanti as Arbaces, the Egyptian High Priest of Isis; Cesare Gani Carini as Apecides; Eugenia Tettoni Fior as Jone; Ubaldo Stefani as Glaucus, Jone's lover; and Fernanda Negri Pouget as the blind slave Nidia. The film was produced by Società Anonima Ambrosio.


Italian postcard. Photo: Ambrosio Film. Publicity still for La Gorgona (Mario Caserini, 1915), scripted by Arrigo Frusta and starring a young Annibale Ninchi and French stage and screen actress Madeleine Céliat. The film was based on a play by Sem Benelli. The film was released in Rome on 9 March 1915.


Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 748. Photo: Film della Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still for Romanticismo (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915) with Tullio Carminati. Caption: Friday Night. Romanticismo was based on a famous play by Gerolamo Rovetta, and was the film debut of diva Helena Makowska.


Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 749. Photo: Film della Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still for Romanticismo (1915) with Domenico Serra. Caption: There is also conspiration among the flags and the garments.

Hiring a lion tamer for sensational dramas

Considering other genres, Ambrosio profiled itself mainly through comedy such as the farces with the tall and anarchic Marcel Fabre alias Robinet and the corpulent but swift Ernesto Vaser alias Fricot. It also became well known for its boulevard-like comedies with Morano, Rodolfi en De Riso.

The company was famous for its actualities and travel films from all over Europe, sometimes including remarkable split-screen effects such as in Tripoli (Pietro Marelli, 1912), and its scientific films such as La nevropatologia/The Neuropathology (Camillo Negro, Roberto Omegna, 1908) on hysteria.

Ambrosio’s distribution reached as far as Russia. In 1909-1910 Ambrosio cameraman Giovanni Vitrotti shot films here and contributed to the start of the Russian film production.

In 1912 Ambrosio hired lion tamer Alfred Schneider and his lions for a series of sensational drama’s such as La nave dei leoni/The Ship With the Lions (Luigi Maggi, 1912), starring Mario Bonnard. Ambrosio never really was a production company of diva films, notwithstanding the sole production with stage star Eleonora Duse: Cenere/Ashes (Febo Mari, 1916).

After 1911 Ambrosio’s international market share started to drop in favour of that of Cines. The most serious problems however started with the outbreak of the First World War and Italy’s joining the Allied forces. The government requisitioned the studio complex for the construction of airplane propellers and production dropped to 9 films in 1917.

After the war Ambrosio tried to revive itself through expensive productions as La Nave/The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921) with dancer Ida Rubinstein, and Teodora/Theodora (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1922), but they were economic failures.

Arturo Ambrosio left the company, the production stopped in 1923 and, one year after, the company was dissolved. In the two decennia of its productivity, Ambrosio released 1400 films, of which a little more than 1/10 remains today, mainly in the film archives of Turin, Amsterdam, London, Gemona, Bologna and Rome.


Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3873. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still for the lost film La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916, released 1917), based on Gabriele D'Annunzio's play and with Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan. Caption: The resurrected mummy told the monk, refugee in the desert, the story of her ancient life: She had been a voluptuous courtesan who lived in the times of the great Pharaon.'


Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3876. Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Publicity still of Umberto Mozzato as Lucio Settala and Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916). Caption: Lucio Settala is madly in love with his model Gioconda Dianti.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex. Photo: Film Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino, no. 4043. Publicity still of Diana Karenne in Il romanzo di Maud aka Demi-vierges (1917), based on Marcel Prévost's novel Demi-vierges, and directed by Diana Karenne herself. The film stars Diana Karenne as Maud, while Alberto Capozzi plays Maxime and Francesco Cacace Julien.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex. Photo: Film Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still of Febo Mari in the title role in Attila (Febo Mari, 1918). Caption: Attila orders to kill all prisoners.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex. Photo: Film Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still of Febo Mari in the title role in Attila (Febo Mari, 1918). Caption: The torture of a girl by orders of Attila.


Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana, no. 9. Photo: Ambrosio Film. Publicity still for Teodora (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1921). Caption: When Teodora (Rita Jolivet) meets the Greek Andrea (Ferruccio Biancini) she becomes his lover, pretending she is a widow with the name of Mirta.

Sources: Paolo Bertetto and Gianni Rondolino (Cabiria e il suo tempo - Italian), Ivo Blom (Encyclopedia of Early Cinema) and IMDb.

Red-haired, cupid-bow-mouthed Nancy Carroll (1903-1965) became a very popular Hollywood star upon the advent of sound film because of her singing and dancing abilities. She was reported to have received more fan mail than any of her Hollywood peers of the same era. As she expanded her acting range from flaming flapper to ditzy comedienne to sensitive heroine, she was nominated for an Oscar for The Devil's Holiday (1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4978/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount Pictures.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 765. Photo: Otto Dyar.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4674/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5395/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Didier Hanson.

A formidable film force

Nancy Carroll was born Ann Veronica LaHiff in New York in 1903 (some sources say 1904). She was the daughter of Thomas and Ann Lahiff, of Irish parentage. Her education came at Holy Trinity School in New York, but she left there at age 16 to work as a stenographer in an office of a lace manufacturer. She was smitten early by the acting bug and she had some limited experience on New York stages.

When she was just 14, she appeared in the silent Western Riders of the Purple Sage (Frank Lloyd, 1918), starring William Farnum. The film was not a success and the girl returned to school and did accidental acting stints. But she had tasted life in front of the camera and wanted to get back there someday.

Carroll and her sister Elsie performed a dancing act in a local contest of amateur talent. This led to an acting career in Broadway musicals. After being spotted in a play on the West Coast, she finally made her 'second' film debut in Ladies must dress (Victor Heerman, 1927) with Virginia Valli. She impressed the right people and was signed to a contract with Paramount.

In 1928 she appeared in seven films including Manhattan Cocktail (Dorothy Arzner, 1928) with Richard Arlen, and Chicken a La King (Henry Lehrman, 1928). She established her reputation as Barbara Quayle in Easy Come, Easy Go (Frank Tuttle, 1928), a vehicle for Richard Dix. It was a big hit, and made Nancy Carroll a formidable film force.

Her next film was Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928), adapted from the stage version that had run on Broadway for six years. Paramount shelled out $500,000 for the film rights (the highest at that time) and cast Nancy as Rosemary Murphy. She and her co-star Charles 'Buddy' Rogers made a lovely stage couple, but other films with a similar theme caused that the film did not do well at the box office.

In 1929 Nancy Carroll had another big hit with her part in The Shopworn Angel (Richard Wallace, 1928) with a young Gary Cooper. Denny Jackson at IMDb:'"It was her first (partial) 'talkie' and showed the Paramount executives that she would be among those who made the successful transition from the 'silent' to an exciting new medium."

Later that year, she made with Buddy RogersClose Harmony (John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland, 1929), Paramount's first full talkie, and once again a hit was born. In their third pairing, she and Buddy Rogers filmed Illusion (Lothar Mendes, 1929). They were able to profit from their intense popularity, but there was a sameness to their material.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 111/1. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers, Nancy Carroll, and Jean Hersholtin Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5547/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930) with Charles Rogers.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5395/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Publicity still for Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1930).


British Real Photograph postcard in the Celebrity Series, no. 140. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Paramount had a genuine superstar on their hands

In 1929, Nancy Carroll was nominated for an Academy Award for her luminous performance as savvy city girl Hallie Hobart in the highly-acclaimed The Devil's Holiday (Edmund Goulding, 1930). She didn't win but her genuine-star status was solidified. By the time Nancy filmed Honey (Wesley Ruggles, 1930), she received more fan mail than any other Hollywood star. Paramount had a genuine superstar on their hands.

Nancy Carroll continued to be a big success throughout the first half of the 1930s. Among her best films are Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1930) with Fredric March, the all-star revue Paramount on Parade (Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, a.o., 1930), and the drama Hot Saturday (William A. Seiter, 1932) with Cary Grant in his first role as a leading man and Randolph Scott.

Notable films are also The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933) directed by James Whale, and Broken Lullaby aka The Man I Killed (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) with John Barrymore. Then her leading lady days were over.

Her last big picture was the Deanna Durbin musical That Certain Age (Edward Ludwig, 1938). She retired after its filming and returned to the stage. In the early 1950s, she tried the infant medium of television, and appeared in such series as The Aldrich Family (1950-1951), and The Egg and I (1951), starring her daughter, Patricia Kirkland.

After another interval of several years, she did some other guest appearances in such TV series as Naked City (1961) and Going My Way (1963). In 1965, Nancy Carroll failed to report to a stage performance, and was found dead of a heart attack. She was 61 years old. Carroll was married three times. Her husbands were Jack Kirkland (1925–1930), Francis Bolton Mallory (1931–1935) and C.H. 'Jappe' Groen (1953–1965).


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London series, no. C 13.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6865/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxusklasse series, no. 510. Photo: Paramount.


French postcard by Europe, no. 817. Photo: Paramount.

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Jarod Hitchings (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Yesterday, Marlene Pilaete infomed us that exotic dancer and film actress Laya Raki has passed away on 21 December 2018. During the 1950s, she was a popular sex symbol in Germany. Raki appeared in revealing outfits in films and on photos, and captured men's attention like no other German showgirl. Later, 'the black-haired volcano' also became an international star with her roles in British films and TV productions. Laya Raki was 91.


Austrian postcard by HDH-Verlag (Verlag Hubmann), Wien (Vienna). Photo: Joe Niczky, München (Munich) / Ufa.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag. Photo: Real Film / Lilo. Publicity still for Die Dritte von rechts/Third from the Right (Géza von Cziffra, 1950).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FH 1160. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Publicity still for The Seekers (Ken Annakin, 1954).


German postcard by UFA, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1697. Photo: Czerwonski / HD-Film / Constantin. Publicity still for Die Frau des Botschafters/The Ambassador's Wife (Hans Deppe, 1955).


German postcard by UFA, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1905. Photo: Publikcontact.

Erotic Radiance

Laya Raki was born Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns in Calvörde near Brunswick, Germany, in 1927. Her parents were acrobat Maria Althoff, and her partner, acrobat and clown Wilhelm Jörns. Her mother left when Brunhilde was five and life was tough in the immediate aftermath of the war in occupied Germany.

As Brunhilde was an admirer of the legendary dancer La Jana and liked to drink raki, she assumed her stage name Laya Raki. The seventeen-year old Laya made ends meet by cashing in on the fad for erotic cabaret by performing striptease, initially at the Monte Carlo club in Berlin. With a solid background in ballet and having followed in her father's footsteps as an acrobat, she found herself perfectly suited to performing all manner of exotic and alluring dances.

She attracted attention for the first time in 1947-1950 as a glamour dancer (in German: Schönheitstänzerin) in Frankfurt and other German cities. When she performed again in Berlin, her star began to rise: her 38-23-36 figure and erotic radiance became the talk of the town. With her new-found fame as Germany's most popular night club performer came engagements in Scandinavia, Switzerland and Italy.

Film company DEFA engaged her for a small role as a rumba dancer in Der Rat der Götter/The Council of the Gods (Kurt Maetzig, 1950), which won two awards. The Berliner Morgenpost reported that she was a great dancer with an expressive face, rich in nuances.

That same year the press department of Realfilm presented her as their new discovery in Die Dritte von rechts/The Third from the Right (Géza von Cziffra, 1950), starring Vera Molnar. It was a rather boring revue film, but the highlight was the scene in which the scantily clad Raki (with only two white stars on her nipples) exposed herself to the lustful gazes of the cinema audiences.

In 1953, she danced in Ehe für eine Nacht/Marriage for One Night (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953), starring Gustav Fröhlich, Hannelore Bollmann and Adrian Hoven, and in Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stamboul (Karl Anton, 1953), Austrian actor Paul Hörbiger wanted to marry her upon seeing her dancing.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 1637.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 1775.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden, no. 1941.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2366. Photo: Sascha / Lux / Gloria Film / Miczky. Publicity still for Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (Franz Antel, 1956).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 2556. Photo: Sascha-Lux-Gloria-Film / Niczky. Publicity still for Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (Franz Antel, 1956).

Lured by a Swindler

In 1954, Laya Raki was lured to London by a swindler with empty promises of film roles in the United Kingdom and Hollywood. This was bigamist and serial fraudster Arthur Howard Rowson, posing as big-time producer and director 'Major Michael Howard'. Her unemployed situation made headlines in the British newspapers which in turn opened opportunities quickly. Howard is sentenced at London’s Old Bailey to seven years preventive detention

The J. Arthur Rank Film Company, which needed a slightly exotic type for a film in New Zealand, received her with open arms. They gave Raki the role of the seductive wife of a Maori chieftain's in The Seekers (Ken Annakin, 1954) opposite Jack Hawkins and Glynis Johns. She created a worldwide stir by baring her breasts.

Next she played in the comedy Up to His Neck (John Paddy Carstairs, 1954) and in the adventure film Quentin Durward (Richard Thorpe, 1955) starring Robert Taylor. She also appeared in the revue 'Cockles and Champagne', presented and produced by Cecil Landau. In Germany, she acted in film productions like Am Anfang war es Sünde/The Beginning Was Sin (Frantisek Cáp, 1954) with Viktor Staal, and Die Frau des Botschafters/The Ambassador's Wife (Hans Deppe, 1955) with Ingrid Andree.

In the Heimatfilm Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (Franz Antel, 1956) she played the gypsy girl Ilonka and conducted refreshing dialogues with famous Viennese comic Hans Moser. After some acting lessons in Hollywood, she appeared in several British TV productions, including 39 episodes of the series Crane (1962-1965). She played Moroccan dancer and bartender Halima, the partner of smuggler Richard Crane (Patrick Allen).

In the meantime she modeled for postcards, pin-up photos and magazines all over the world. In 1962, she recorded the songs 'Faire l'amour' and the twist song 'Oh Johnny hier nicht parken' (Oh, Johnny don´t park here). The latter was banned by a Nuremberg court who thought her ecstatic moaning was imitating coitus.

She continued to play in German films, including the Krimis Die Nylonschlinge/Nylon Noose (Rudolf Zehetgruber, 1963) with Dietmar Schönherr, and Das Haus auf dem Hügel/The House on the Hill (Werner Klingler, 1964) starring Australian-born actor Ron Randell. She also appeared with him in her last film, Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1966) starring Robert Taylor.

In 1957, Laya Raki had married Ron Randell in London. They appeared together on the Sydney stage in 'Come Live with Me'. “He is the best and most beautiful man of the world”, she told the press, and she remained at his side until his death in 2005. Her second husband was Duane O. Wood, a former vice president of Lockheed International. They married in 2009 and lived in Los Angeles. There her busband died earlier in 2018, and Laya passed away on 21 December 2018.


German postcard by ISV, no. C 10. Photo: Sascha-Lux / Gloria / Grein. Publicity still for Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (Franz Antel, 1956).


German postcard by Netter's Star Verlag, Berlin, no. A 741. Photo: NF. Publicity still for Ehe für eine Nacht/Marriage for One Night (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953).


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. A FK 3120. Photo: Rolf Lantin / Hassia Film / Allianz Film. Publicity still for Kuss mich noch einmal/Kiss me one more time (Helmut Weiss, 1956).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3695.


Vintage postcard.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 142. Photo: Sascha-Lux-Gloria-Film / Niczky.


German postcard by ISC, no. C 7. Photo: Sascha / Lux / Gloria / Grein. Publicity still for Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (Franz Antel, 1956).

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Today, we present a set of 10 postcards for the Italian period piece Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941), with German star Carola Höhn as the title character and Giulio Donadio as her brutal father. It is one of several films portraying the tragic story of the sixteenth century Italian noblewoman Beatrice Cenci. The film was produced by Manenti Film and the cards were published by by Casa editrice Albore in Milan. But how truthful was the film?


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 1. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941), with Carola Höhn as Beatrice Cenci and Giulio Donadio as her father.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 2. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). In the middle Giulio Donadio as Francesco Cenci, right of him Cenci's son Giacomo (Osvaldo Valenti), and kneeling on the foreground his daughter Beatrice (Carola Höhn).


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 3. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). Debt-ridden Roman count Francesco Cenci is forced to stay for 7 months in a lonely castle. He forces his family to accompany him.

Innocently executed 

Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941) was the first sound adaptation of the seven films about the historical character Beatrice Cenci. However, there was a 1926 silent version by Baldassarre Negroni, which was sonorised a few years after. In addition to Carola Höhn as Beatrice and Giulio Donadio as her violent father, the cast included Tina Lattanzi (as Cenci's second wife Lucrezia), Osvaldo Valenti (Cenci's son Giacomo), Enzo Fiermonte (Beatrice's lover Olimpio), Elli Parvo (Cenci's mistress Angela), Luigi Pavese, and others.

Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941) was shot at the studios of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. The sets were designed by Guido Fiorini, while Gino Sesani took care of the costumes.The film was cinematographed by Jan Stallich, scripted by Tommaso Smith,  and edited by Vincenzo Zampi.

The action of the film takes place at the end of the sixteenth century between Abruzzo and Rome. The Roman Count Francesco Cenci (Giulio Donadio), a dissolute and violent man, is condemned for debts to seven months of exile to spend in a distant fortress of Abruzzo.

A true tyrant, Cenci demands that the members of his family accompany him, which pains especially his daughter Beatrice (Carola Höhn), forced to leave her boyfriend Olimpio (Enzo Fiermonte) behind to follow her father. Subjected to the harshest humiliations by her cruel father, she asks for help from Olimpio, who decides to free her and arrives at the fortress with the intent to kidnap her. The plan fails and the young man remains locked inside the castle.

The following morning, the corpse of Count Cenci is found in a ravine, under the window of his room. Misfortune or crime? The process begins, during which the suspicions now weigh on one, then on the other family member.

Beatrice, the only one who had publicly opposed her father's authority, is the one on whom the main clues seem to fall, clues that assume the importance of proof, and she is therefore condemned to beheaded. When the truth, which proves the innocence of Beatrice, makes its way, the sentence has already been executed.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 4. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). Francesco Cenci is a bonvivant and spendthrift, notorious for his embezzlements.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 5. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). Francesco Cenci (Giulio Donadio) and his mistress Angela (Elli Parvo).


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 6. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). Francesco Cenci (Giulio Donadio) whips his daughter Beatrice (Carola Höhn) when he finds out she has communicated about the tyrant to the outside world.

An illegitimate child 

Beatrice Cenci has been the subject of a number of literary works. Percy Bysshe Shelley composed his verse drama The Cenci: A Tragedy in Five Acts at Rome and at Villa Valsovano near Livorno, in 1819. It is well known as a magnificent piece of writing, although the author adopts a purely fictitious version of the story. Nor is Francesco Domenico Guarrazzi’s novel, Beatrice Cenci (1872), more trustworthy. The first attempt to deal with the subject on documentary evidence is A. Bertolotti’s Francesco Cenci e la sua famiglia (1879), containing a number of interesting documents which place the events in their true light.

But how truthful was the film version of 1941, and how innocent was Beatrice?

Beatrice Cenci was a young Roman noblewoman, born in Rome in 1577. She was the daughter of Count Francesco Cenci (1549–1598), the bastard son of a priest, and a man of great wealth but dissolute habits and violent temper. He seems to have been guilty of various offences and to have got off with short terms of imprisonment by bribery; but the monstrous cruelty which popular tradition has attributed to him is purely legendary.

His first wife, Ersilia Santa Croce, bore him twelve children, and nine years after her death he married Lucrezia Petroni, a widow with three daughters, by whom he had no offspring. He was very quarrelsome and lived on the worst possible terms with his children, who, however, were all of them more or less disreputable. He kept various mistresses and was even prosecuted for unnatural vice, but his sons were equally dissolute.

His harsh treatment of his daughter Beatrice was probably due to his discovery that she had had an illegitimate child as the result of an intrigue with one of his stewards, but there is no evidence that he tried to commit incest with her, as has been alleged. The eldest son Giacomo was a riotous, dishonest young scoundrel, who cheated his own father and even attempted to murder him in 1595. Two other sons, Rocco and Cristoforo, both of them notorious rakes, were killed in brawls.

Finally Francesco’s wife Lucrezia and his children Giacomo, Bernardo and Beatrice, assisted by a certain Monsignor Guerra, plotted to murder him. Two bravos were hired (one of them named Olimpio, according to Bertolotti, was probably Beatrice’s lover), and Francesco was assassinated while asleep in his castle of Petrella in the kingdom of Naples in 1598.

Giacomo afterwards had one of the bravos murdered, but the other was arrested by the Neapolitan authorities and confessed everything. Information having been communicated to Rome, the whole of the Cenci family were arrested early in 1599; but the story of the hardships they underwent in prison is greatly exaggerated. Guerra escaped; Lucrezia, Giacomo and Bernardo confessed the crime; and Beatrice, who at first denied everything, even under torture, also ended by confessing.

Great efforts were made to obtain mercy for the accused, but the crime was considered too heinous, and pope Clement VIII refused to grant a pardon. At dawn on 11 September 1599, they were taken to Sant'Angelo Bridge, where the scaffold was usually built.  Giacomo, after having been tortured with red-hot pincers, was killed with a mace, drawn and quartered. First Lucrezia and finally Beatrice were beheaded. The 12-year-old Bernardo’s penalty, on account of his youth, was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, and after a year’s confinement he was pardoned.

The property of the family was confiscated and given to the Pope's family. Beatrice was buried in the church of San Pietro in Montorio. Beatrice has become a symbol to the people of Rome of resistance against the arrogant aristocracy, and a legend arose. It is related that every year on the night before the anniversary of her death, she comes back to the bridge where she was executed, carrying her severed head.

Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941) was followed by two more screen versions in the next decades. The first was Beatrice Cenci (Riccardo Freda, 1956) with Micheline Presle as Beatrice, Gino Cervias her father, and Fausto Tozzi as Olimpio. In 1969, director Lucio Fulci made a new film version, Beatrice Cenci/The Conspiracy of Torture (1969), starring Tomas Milian, Adrienne Larussa as Beatrice and Georges Wilson as her father. The film follows the historical events of Cenci's life very closely. Fulci said it was one of his favourite films, even though he later became known for excessively gory horror films.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 7. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). Here Beatrice (Carola Höhn) and her lover, Olimpio (Enzo Fiermonte), who helps her killing her brutal father.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 8. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). The blacksmith Il Catalano (Luigi Pavese) has slain Cenci. Beatrice (Carola Höhn) watches her dead father (Giulio Donadio).


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 9. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). The trial.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano, no. 10. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity still for Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941). The beheading of Beatrice Cenci.

Sources: Roberto Chiti, Enrico Lancia, and Roberto Pop (I film: Tutti i film italiani dal 1930 al 1944 - Italian), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.