Photo by Union Film

March 22, 2019, 11:00 pm

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Union Film or the Projektions-AG Union (PAGU) was a German film production company which operated during the silent era between 1911 and 1924. The company was founded by Paul Davidson, a leading cinema owner who branched out into production. One of his first major coups was signing up the Danish film star Asta Nielsen for a lengthy contract. A rising star of the company was also the actor-director Ernst Lubitsch who made a series of comedies for Union Film. From 1917 onwards the company functioned as an independent unit of Universum Film AG (UFA), and was eventually merged into it entirely.


German small photo for the album by Dr. Oskar Kalbus, Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, Vol. I, Der Stummfilm (Cigaretten Bilderdienst, 1935). Photo: PAGU. Asta Nielsen in Engelein/The little Angel (Urban Gad, 1914).


Erna Morena. German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 79/5. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / P.A.G. Union. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1983. Photo: Union Film. Ernst Lubitsch in Der Blusen-König (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1986. Photo: Union-Film. Publicity still of Erna Morena in Rafaela/Wer weiss? (Arsen von Cserépy, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1990. Photo: Union Film. Erna Morena, Emil Jannings and Harry Liedtke in the German silent drama Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari (Alfred Halm, 1917).

Paul Davidson

Paul Davidson (1867–1927) was born in Lötzen, East Prussia (now Giżycko, Poland). He was the son of Moritz Davidson. Paul initially worked as a commercial traveller in the textile industry and he became the manager of a security firm in Frankfurt am Main in 1902.

On vacation to Paris, he saw his first film, a Georges Méliès production, in a cinema. Back in Frankfurt, he founded the 'Allgemeine Kinematographen-Theater Gesellschaft, Union-Theater für lebende und Tonbilder GmbH' (A.K.T.G.) on 21 March 1906 and opened Mannheim’s first permanent cinema, the Union-Theater (U.T.). Further cinemas followed in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Initially his company was based in Frankfurt, but in 1912, Davidson moved his headquarters to Berlin as it was clear that Berlin had become the centre of the German film industry.

In 1909, Davidson transformed the A.K.T.G. into the Projektions-AG 'Union' (PAGU), the first publicly traded film company in Germany. A year later, he started Germany's first distribution company, renting rather than selling outright prints of the heavyweight championship boxing fight between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries.

On 4 September 1909, Davidson opened the Union-Theater at Berlin, Alexanderplatz. Another, even more luxurious Union-Theater was opened at Berlin's Unter den Linden on 21 August 1910. By 1910 Davidson had built up a sizeable chain of 600–1000 seater luxury cinemas.

In less than ten years, Paul Davidson had created an empire of over 56 cinemas in Germany, Belgium, and Hungary, drawing 6 million patrons in 1913.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1998. Photo: Union Film. Ossi Oswalda in Ossi's Tagebuch/Ossi's Diary (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2001. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for John Riew (Walter Schmidthässler, 1917) with Karl Valentin, Dagny Servaes and Käthe Dorsch.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2008. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Wenn vier dasselbe tun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917), starring Ossi Oswalda as the girl, Fritz Schulz (here on the left) as her lover, and Emil Jannings as her father (here on the right).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2012. Photo: Union Film. Ernst Lubitsch in Prinz Sami/Prince Sami (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2027. Photo: Union Film. Gertrude Welcker in Eine Nacht in der Stahlkammer/A night in the steel chamber (Felix Basch, 1917).

Asta Nielsen

Paul Davidson had not been thinking about moving into film production himself, but then he saw the first Asta Nielsen film, Afgrunden/The Abyss (Urban Gad, 1910). He realised that the age of short film was past. In Asta Nielsen he also saw the first artist in the medium of film. She was thus the decisive factor for his move to film producing.

In March 1910, Paul Davidson founded the Projektions-Aktiengesellschaft Union (PAGU), Germany’s first joint-stock company in film industry and the first to integrate production, distribution and equipment hire. At the time, the majority of films being shown in Germany were foreign-produced, a situation which Davidson attempted to change.

Following the success of Afgrunden/The Abyss (1910), he founded the Internationale Film-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft in conjunction with Asta Nielsen and her husband Urban Gad on 1 June 1911. The company held the European rights on all Nielsen films.

Davidson instantly felt that the Danish actress could be a global success. It was International film Sales that provided Union with eight Nielsen films per year. Davidson built her a studio in Berlin Tempelhof, later overlooking Berlin’s Tempelhof airport, and set up a big production staff around her. He was confident that Nielsen could carry it off.

Davidson used every available means – and devised many new ones – in order to bring the Asta Nielsen films to the world. It was a success. Asta Nielsen became a sensational international film star with an annual fee of 85,000 Marks in 1914 alone.

Davidson was also notable for his success in breaking a boycott of German playwrights, who were refusing to allow their works to be adapted for the screen. He was even able to persuade the leading German stage director Max Reinhardt to make two films, shot in Italy, for the company. On 2 August 1913 the Union-Palast, Kurfürstendamm, one of the first buildings of Berlin exclusively built as a cinema, premiered with Max Reinhardt’s Die Insel der Seligen/The Islands of Bliss (Max Reinhardt, 1913).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2033. Photo: Union-Film. Leo Peukert in the German silent film Baronin Kammerjungfer (Leo Peukert 1918)


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


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2931. Photo: Union. Reinhold Schünzel in Das Karussell des Lebens (Georg Jacoby, 1918). According to German Wikipedia Schünzel's presence in the film is unsure, but this postcard seems to prove it.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 611/5. Photo: Union / Ufa. Julius Falkenstein and Ossi Oswalda in Die Austernprinzessin/The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 614/1. Photo: Union. Publicity still with Asta Nielsen and Alfred Abel in Rausch/Intoxication (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919).

Ernst Lubitsch

A financial crisis at the beginning of World War I forced Paul Davidson to sell his cinema chain to the Danish Nordisk Film Company in August 1915.

Davidson decided to focus on film production. His Union Film engaged such actors as Paul Wegener, Fern Andra, Pola Negri, Ossi Oswalda, Emil Jannings, and Harry Liedtke.

The rising star of the company became the actor Ernst Lubitsch who starred in a series of comedies for Union Film. Lubitsch soon also became a director. The  position of Union Film was boosted when German government restricted the screening of non-German films because of the war.

Davidson produced propaganda films at the request of the German Military High Command such as Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart/Dr. Hart's Diary (Paul Leni, 1917). By decree of the German Military High Command, Union became a founder of the new government-backed conglomerate Universum Film A.G. (UFA) in November 1917.

Many of German's leading production companies were merged into a single organisation which would dominate German cinema for the next thirty years. So, the Nordisk's Union-Theater chain, as well as Davidson's Union were re-united under one roof.

Davidson worked as the UFA’s artistic director and head of production. Lubitsch and Davidson's films continued to fill the coffers of the UFA. Now functioning as one of several production units of UFA, the company made further propaganda films such as Der gelbe Schein/The Yellow Passport (Eugen Illés, Victor Janson, Paul L. Stein, 1918).

In 1920 Paul Davidson left the UFA to produce Lubitsch’s Das Weib des Pharao/The Wife of the Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) and Die Flamme/The Flame (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) within the short-living Europäische Film-Allianz (EFA). When Ernst Lubitsch moved to Hollywood in 1922, Davidson had produced 39 films directed by Lubitsch.



German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 627/8. Photo: Union. Pola Negri in Madame Dubarry (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 635/3. Photo: Union. Ossi Oswalda in Die Puppe (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Pola Negri, Paul Wegener and Jenny Hasselqvist.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 410/1. Photo: Union-Film. Emil Jannings as Henry VIII in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 645/2. Photo: Union Film. Henny Porten as Anna Boleyn in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).

Paul Davidson

Following the end of the war Davidson grew increasingly unhappy with his subordinate position at UFA and he resigned from the company in 1922. Germany's film industry boomed after 1918 and was increasingly artistically respected, partly due to the films produced by Davidson's Union production unit featuring Emil Jannings and Pola Negri.

Davidson made an attempt to buy back Union Film from UFA, but this was rejected - partly because it was believed he was backed by the large Hollywood studios who wished to gain a foothold in the German market. Soon afterwards Union's existence as a notionally separate company was brought to an end.

On 7 April 1921, Davidson resigned from his positions as production head of UFA and on the Board of UFA. He joined Lubitsch, Famous Players, Joe May, Dimitri Buchowetzki, and others in forming the Europäischen Film-Allianz (EFA).

UFA lost its most successful producer, eventually finding a worthy replacement when Erich Pommer joined UFA after the merger with Decla-Bioscop AG in early 1922. Davidson's offers to buy the PAGU were rejected.

After the failure of the EFA, Davidson founded the Paul-Davidson AG on 17 September 1924, producing films 'independently' within the UFA.

In the Spring of 1927, he cancelled his contract and entered a mental institution. It was not the first time he had experienced a breakdown. A few months later, on 18 July 1927, Paul Davidson committed suicide at the institution.

Sources: Jan-Christopher Horak (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Haarlem Film City

March 23, 2019, 11:00 pm

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Today a new film book will be presented, 'Haarlem filmstad' (Haarlem film city), edited by Harry Hosman and Arie Vestering. 'Haarlem Film city' describes the cinema life and the well-known and lesser-known studios, filmmakers and stars from the Dutch city. During the 1910s and 1920s, Haarlem even seemed to be the centre of the Dutch film world. Cameramen, actors and set builders walked back and forth in the Filmfabriek Hollandia at the Spaarne river, where dozens of silent films were created. Haarlem-based actresses like Annie Bos achieved star-status. For this new book, I wrote a chapter on film poster designer Frans Bosen, who worked and lived in Haarlem, and designed dozens of colourful film posters during the 1920s. EFSP joins the festivities around the book presentation with a post on the work of Frans Bosen, but we start with a very rare card with Annie Bos which we found just a few weeks ago.


Dutch postcard by E & B. Photo: Annie Bos in Toffe jongens onder de mobilisatie (deel 1)/Cool boys under the mobilisation (part 1) (Jan van Dommelen, 1914). Translation caption: The coast guard, My Johnny is here all day on the coast watching, I think he likes a bath, so I'll be the coast guard.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Salambbo (Pierre Maradon, 1924) with Jeanne de Balzac.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924) starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (1883-1939) was the elegant, dashing, and athletic star of several classic swashbuckling films of the silent era. He produced and starred in ever more elaborate, impressive costume films, such as The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921), Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922), The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924), The Black Pirate (Albert Parker, 1926, the first full-length Technicolor film), and The Gaucho (F. Richard Jones, 1927) with Lupe Velez. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as ‘The King of Hollywood'.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Don Q Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp, 1925) starring Douglas Fairbanks.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) with Lon Chaney.

Lon Chaney (1883-1930) was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema. Between 1912 and 1930 he played more the 150 widely diverse roles. He is renowned for his characterisations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, (1923), He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924) and The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925).


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Tartüff/Tartuffe (F.W. Murnau, 1925) starring Emil Jannings.

If Weimar cinema had one film star, then it was Emil Jannings (1884-1950) for sure. Jannings managed to get away from his famous historical characters in such films as Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) and Quo Vadis (Georg Jacoby, Gabriellino D'Annunzio, 1925) with two major films. In Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924) he was a proud hotel doorman who loses his self-esteem and the esteem of others when he is reduced to a toilet man, working in the basement of the hotel. In Varieté/Variety (Ewald André Dupont, 1925), he was the strong acrobat, who killed his rival out of jealousy. Jannings magnificently expressed the fears and doubts of proud and big-hearted men, who are cheated by their surroundings. Murnau directed him in two more silent classics Tartüff/Tartuffe (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1925) with Lil Dagover, and Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926) as Mephisto opposite Gösta Ekman as Faust.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926) starring Emil Jannings.

Frans Bosen

As a designer of film posters, Bosen was a pioneer: he was one of the first Dutch designers to use film images. Before 1920, mainly 'letter posters' were made in the Netherlands: cinema advertisements with text only, on which a number of films were announced simultaneously. Another habit was to take over the placards from abroad with the films and stick the Dutch title on them. Frans Bosen, on the other hand, designed film posters with original images that stood out with their bright colors and short, powerful texts.

Frans Bosen (1891-1949) made dozens of film posters. The circumstances for these assignments were not comfortable: there was little time and money for it and he had to base his designs on a press photo of the film.

What is striking about his posters is that there is hardly any text on it. Modern film posters mention the credits of the actors, the producers, the director, the screenwriters, the composer, etc. In addition to the film title, Bosen sometimes only gave the name of the protagonist.

He designed the letters himself. Many posters also feature the logo of publisher De Brakke Grond, which was designed by him. The logo even contains his signature, on which he made small variations over the years. The result is often a calm, clear image.

The Bosen posters give a colorful insight into what was seen in Dutch cinemas in the 1920s. There are Hollywood classics among them, including the horror film The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) and films with action hero Douglas Fairbanks, for example The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924). But he also made many posters for European films, such as the religious film La Vie merveilleuse de Bernadette/The wonderful life of Bernadette (George Pallu, 1929).


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Triumph of the Rat (Graham Cutts, 1926) with Ivor Novello.

Gorgeous matinee idol Ivor Novello (1893-1951) was one of the multi-talents of the British stage and cinema during the first half of the 20th century. On stage, the 'British Sex God in tight pants' produced and composed a string of hit musicals, starring himself. The 'Valentino from The Valleys' also appeared in the classic Hitchcock thriller The Lodger (1927) and other successful silent and early sound films in France, Great-Britain and Hollywood.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Wien, wie es weint und lacht/Vienna, how it cries and laughs (Rudolf Walther-Fein, Rudolf Dworsky, 1926) with Mady Christians.

Austrian-born stage actress Mady Christians (1892-1951) was a star of the German silent cinema and appeared in Austrian, French, British and Hollywood films too.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Die geschiedene Frau/The Divorcée (Victor Janson, Rudolf Dworsky, 1926) with Mady Christians.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for An der Schönen blauen Donau/The Beautiful Blue Danube (Frederic Zelnik, 1926) with Lya Mara.

Lya Mara (1897-1960?) was one of the biggest stars of the German silent cinema. Some immensely successful silent operettas presented her as the perfect Viennese Girl. Hundreds of postcards and trading cards cemented her stardom, which was even the subject of a novel, published in 100 episodes between 1927 and 1928. Her career virtually ended after the arrival of sound film.


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for Die tolle Lola/Fabulous Lola (Richard Eichberg, 1927) with Lilian Harvey.

Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s was British born German actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968). With Willy Fritsch she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. In 1924, Harvey made her film debut as the young Jewish girl Ruth in the silent film Der Fluch/The Curse (Robert Land, 1925). Director-producer Richard Eichberg signed her on, and under his direction she played her first leading roles in Leidenschaft/Passion (Richard Eichberg, 1925) with Otto Gebühr, Liebe und Trompetenblasen/Love and Trumpet Blows (Richard Eichberg, 1925) opposite Harry Liedtke, Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926) for the first time with Willy Fritsch, and Die tolle Lola/Fabulous Lola (Richard Eichberg, 1927).


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Ghost Train (Geza von Bolvary, 1927).


Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for La Vie merveilleuse de Bernadette/The wonderful life of Bernadette (George Pallu, 1929) with Alexandra.

A silent film reconstruction of Bernadette Soubirous's life (1844-1879), a 14-year-old girl that catholics believe had eighteen visions of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in a grotto near Lourdes, France. The place became a peregrination centre since then.

For more information in Dutch on 'Haarlem Filmstad' see Haarlemfilmstad.nl

Tragödie (1925)

March 24, 2019, 11:00 pm

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Tragödie/Tragedy (Carl Froelich, 1925) is a lost film. None of the sources gives a plot of the film, but the title says it all. Because of her past (the letter!), Henny Porten loses her wealthy life as a countess and her dearly beloved daughter. I think the last postcard of the two Ross Verlag series is the most beautiful one: it shows the elegant but desperate Henny in tears. Tragödie is indeed a tragedy, and confirms why Henny Porten was one of the most popular German screen stars of the 1910s and 1920s.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 41/1. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten as Countess Maria Tamar, Walter Janssen as Count Tamar and Annemarie Winkler as their daughter Monica in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 41/2. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 41/4. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten and Annemarie Winkler in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 41/5. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten and Walter Janssen in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).

The social repression by patriarchy over women

Tragödie/Tragedy (Carl Froelich, 1925) was produced by Henny Porten's own film production company Henny-Porten-Film. Porten had founded in 1919 in a period when several stars started their own film studio. Most of them were finished after one or two films but Henny-Porten-Film flourished. But during 1923-1924 she was seen as 'box office poison, and could only find work with difficulty.

Henny Porten achieved a renewed comeback with the melodrama Mutter und Kind/Mother and Child (1924), produced and directed by Carl Froelich. On the 26 September 1924, the company Henny Porten-Froelich Produktion GmbH was founded in Berlin, in which Porten, Froelich and Porten's husband Wilhelm von Kaufmann were associates. Till 1929, the company made fifteen star vehicles for Porten, all directed at the general public. Tragödie/Tragedy was one of them.

Hans-Michael Bock writes in his encyclopedia of the German cinema, The Concise Cinegraph: "These films were often solidly produced, but mostly comprised formulaic narratives, such as the maternal melodramas Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child, 1924) and Mutterliebe (Mother Love, 1929)."

Henny Porten used to play women who found fulfilment in serving others and in self-sacrifice, who indulged in submission even against their will. Her films exposed the social repression that patriarchy exercised over women, showed how women with extramarital relationships or who were single mothers were separated from social life, and showed unequal competition between men and women at work.

Porten's personal life also became a tragedy after 1933. Her refusal to divorce her Jewish husband increasingly narrowed her film options. She had only six small roles by 1943. In 1937 she was taken on by the Tobis company on a work for money basis, but was never offered any work.

Carl Froelich joined the Nazi party in 1933. His company became an associate partner of the state-controlled Ufa film studio. From 1939 on, Froelich was in charge of the Gesamtverband der Filmherstellung und Filmverwertung ("Union of Film Manufacture and Film Evaluation").

In 1934, Froelich directed Ich für Dich – Du für mich on behalf of the Ministry of Propaganda. The film depicted women’s involvement in the state labour service. As a producer of entertainment films, Froelich adjusted to the 'new spirit of National Socialism'. In 1937, he was appointed professor, and in 1939, he was appointed president of the Reichsfilmkammer, a public corporation that regulated the German film industry between 1933 and 1945. After the end of the war, Froelich was arrested and 'de-Nazified' in 1948.He died in 1953.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/1. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/2. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/3. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/4. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/5. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1192/6. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Publicity still of Henny Porten in Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).

Sources: Hans-Michael Bock (The Concise Cinegraph), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gunnar Möller

March 25, 2019, 11:00 pm

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German actor Gunnar Möller (1928-2017) was one of the stars of the Wirtschaftswunder Kino of the 1950s. He appeared in over 160 film and television productions between 1940 and 2016. He later turned to character roles and worked for a number of years in England.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 244. Photo: Veit / Gloria Film. Publicity still for Ferien vom Ich/Holiday From Myself (Hans Deppe, 1952).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 743. Photo: Ariston / Neue Filmverleih (NF). Publicity still for Ehe für eine Nacht/Marriage for One Night (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1210. Photo: Europa / Bristol-Mundus Film. Publicity still for Ein Haus voll Liebe/A house full of love (Hans Schweikart, 1954).

A foothold in the film business

Gunnar Thor Karl Möller was born in 1928 in Berlin, Germany. He was the son of a master optician.

As a child, Gunnar already took part in some 20 films during World War II. After the war, he had a stage education. The theatre offered him his first engagements, and he worked successfully on the stages of Berlin and later Munich with Gustaf Gründgens and other stage directors.

Then he again gained a foothold in the film business with a role as a student in Wozzeck (Georg C. Klaren, 1947). He followed this up with parts in Heimliches Rendezvous/Secret Rendezvous (Kurt Hoffmann, 1949) with Hertha Feiler, and Hans im Glück/Lucky Hans (Peter Hamel, 1949) with Erich Ponto.

In the 1950s followed the height of Gunnar Möller's career with roles in many popular productions. He was especially successful with his role in the romantic comedy Ich denke oft an Piroschka/I Often Think of Piroschka (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955) with Liselotte Pulver.

Later he became a character actor such as in the war film Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben/Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever? (Frank Wisbar, 1959), starring Joachim Hansen, and the British thriller SOS Pacific (Guy Green, 1959), with Richard Attenborough and Pier Angeli.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2247. Photo: Berolina / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Was die Schwalbe sang/What the swallow sang (Géza von Bolvary, 1956) with Maj-Britt Nilsson.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf. Photo: Constantin Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Was die Schwalbe sang/What the swallow sang (Géza von Bolvary, 1956) with Maj-Britt Nilsson.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 2838. Photo: publicity still for Drei weiße Birken/Three white birches (Hans Albin, 1961) with Erika Remberg.

Second-degree murder

Gunnar Möller's popularity decreased in the 1960s. One of his more interesting films was Liselotte von der Pfalz (Kurt Hoffmann, 1966) featuring Heidelinde Weis.

From then on his activities varied between theatre, cinema and TV. His later films included the Czech war drama Dny zrady/Days of Betrayal (Otakar Vávra, 1973) in which he played Adolf Hitler, the British thriller The Odessa File (Ronald Neame, 1974), and another Czech war drama Osvobození Prahy (Otakar Vávra, 1978).

In 1979 a tragic incident happened when Möller killed his wife, the actress Brigitte Rau, with a stool during a divorce argument in London. He was sentenced to five years in prison in England because of second-degree murder. He served two years and was released on probation in 1981.

He was able to continue his career in Germany and played in the films Im Zeichen des Kreuzes/The Sign of the Cross (Rainer Boldt, 1983), and the crime film Die Nacht der vier Monde/Night of the Four Moons (Jörg A. Eggers, 1984).

Most often he worked in the theatre. His final film appearance was a small part in the Italian/French thriller Le confessioni/The Confessions (Roberto Andò, 2016) with Toni Servillo and Daniel Auteuil.

Gunnar Möller was married from 1954 till her death in 1979 to Brigitte Rau and from 2003 till his death to actress Christiane Hammacher, with whom he had performed in Loriots Dramatische Werke (Loriot's Dramatic Works) at Frankfurt's Fritz Rémond Theater and on tour during the 1980s.

Möller died in 2017 in his hometown Berlin. He had three children from his marriage with Brigitte Rau: Michael, Florian and Hillevi.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag. Photo: Georg Witt / Schorchtfilm. Publicity still for Ich denke oft an Piroschka/I Often Think of Piroschka (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955).


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. HK 3272. Photo: Wesel / Berolina / Constantin Film. Publicity still for Was die Schwalbe sang/What the swallow sang (Géza von Bolváry, 1956).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. V 104. Photo: Constantin Film / Berolina / Wesel. Publicity still for Was die Schwalbe sang/What the swallow sang (Géza von Bolváry, 1956).


German autograph card by Simon offset, München. Photo: Virginia.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Son of the Sheik (1926)

March 26, 2019, 11:00 pm

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The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926) is one of the most popular films from the silent era. It is a delightful adventure full of romance, action and drama. It was the last film of Italian-born Hollywood star Rudolph Valentino, the great Latin lover of the 1920s. What made this film and its star so good?


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2089. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2093. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2094. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2095. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


American postcard by Curt Teich & Company, inc., Chicago, no. 114111. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926). Captions: The late Rudolph Valentino mounted on Jadaan. This picture was taken at the time of filming the famous photoplay The Son of the Sheik in which the late Rudolph Valentino, with Jadaan as his mount, achieved notable success. Jadaan was the last horse ridden by Valentino. Jadaan, a beautiful Arabian stallion, was used in the picture through the courtesy of W. K. Kellogg owner of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch, Pomona, Calif. Mr. Kellogg is the well-known Cereal Manufacturer of Battle Creek, Michigan.

A secret love, torture and revenge

The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926), is situated 'Not East of Suez, but South of Algiers', as we read in the opening title. In fact, the city of Touggourt in the south of Algiers is the location. In the marketplace, Ahmed (Rudolph Valentino), the handsome son of sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan meets a dancing girl, Yasmine (Vilma Bánky). The two fall in love, and every night he travels from his desert camp to see her again and again.

Yasmine is the daughter of renegade Frenchman Andre (George Fawcett), who is the leader of a group of entertainers and criminals. By dancing publicly, Yasmine fronts her father's gang of cutthroats. Among the gang members is the villainous moor Gahbah (Montague Love), "whose crimes outnumber the desert sands" and to whom Yasmin is promised.

In the ruins near Touggourt, Yasmine and Ahmed meet secretly. During a rendez-vous under the moonlight, Ahmed is suddenly caught and robbed by Gahbah and his gang. The gang holds Ahmed captive in a building where he hangs by his tied-up wrists placed on the window bars. He is tortured with a whip for not revealing the name of his father or any other information. Gahbah poisons Ahmed, telling him that Yasmin is a bait to lure victims for them.

The young prince is freed by his trusted servant Ramadan (Karl Dane), who takes him to a friend's home to recover. Ahmed now believes that Yasmin has betrayed him. He seeks revenge and takes her by force to his desert camp. Ahmed subjects her to his methods of torture, with one scene looking at Yasmin with vengeance in his eyes, and (off camera) raping her. When his father takes his son home to fulfil a marriage agreement, Ahmed Ben Hassan orders him to release the girl.

Bitterly chastised by his father, Ahmed learns the truth about the innocent Yasmin from Ramadan, who has just escaped from Gahbah and his gang. The young prince tries to win back Yasmin. She has returned to the dance hall, and does not want to have anything to do with him anymore. In the dance hall, a fight breaks out with the gang of criminals and Ahmed tries to rescue Yasmin from Gahbah. Finally, he chases them in the desert and saves the girl. And of course all is forgiven in the end.


British postcard for Butywave Shampoo. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists Corporation. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky in The Son of the Sheik (1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, United Artists 1926).


French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (1926). Despite the card telling this is Banky, the lady in question is Agnes Ayres. Ayres and Valentino play the parents of the leading character, also played by Valentino. Actually the parents are the former protagonists of the earlier film The Sheik, now grown older.

A success beyond anyone's wildest dreams

The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926) was Rudolph Valentino's last film. It was a sequel to his earlier success, The Sheik (George Melford, 1921), in which he had played the impassioned lover who is initially impetuous, self centred and brutal, but who gradually matures into an admirable man. The box office hit The Sheik had solidified Valentino's image as 'the Great Lover'. In many ways, however, The Son of the Sheik is a much more interesting story than its predecessor. The film has a lighter tone that allows some humour as well as a lot more action.

Sequels were rare in the silent era. Earlier, Douglas Fairbanks had followed his popular adventure film The Mark of Zorro (Fred Niblo, 1920) with the sequel Don Q, Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp, 1925). In The Son of the Sheik, the male lead is also the son of the original sheik. In the sequel, Valentino plays a stronger and more nuanced version of his signature role. He portrays both the son and his now middle aged father, who is wiser but still commanding and able to wield a sword.

Agnes Ayres, Valentino's leading lady in The Sheik (1921), got special billing in the opening credits, and re-enacted her original role as Diana, this time as wife and mother. She makes the transition to worried mother effortlessly. The Son of the Sheik reunited Valentino with Vilma Bánky, with whom he had co-starred in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925). He had personally picked her as his leading lady, and there is a fine chemistry between them. The beautiful Banky dances magnificently well, and has a great interpretation of her role. The famous erotic scene where Valentino ravishes her is one of the highlights of the film.

Another striking (and homoerotic) sequence is the one in which Valentino, tied up, his tailored white shirt torn to shreds, is subject to a prolonged whipping by the gang of thieves. The most sadistic of them addresses him as "My young lion." Also memorable are Montagu Love in his role as the villain, the sandy sets with production designs by William Cameron Menzies and the impressive cinematography by George Barnes. Barnes executed the shots of the two characters played by Valentino in the same frame - even touching each other - flawlessly.

The Son of the Sheik is for all Rudolph Valentino's film. His burning stare and fetching smile made many filmgoer swoon, and the pure raw sensuality that Valentino portrays in this film is still exciting. He is excellent from start to finish and shows real talent in portraying both the son and the father. Valentino is very charming as the son and manages to be funny in his own right but the more impressive performance comes from the older father. Valentino is unrecognisable as the old sheik.

Rudolph Valentino turned The Son of the Sheik into a rollicking and sexy adventure film, with adequate doses of humour. The swashbuckling scenes are exciting and well choreographed. Frances Marion and Fred de Gresac had adapted Edith Maude Hull's novel Son of the Sheik for the screen. George Marion Jr. made the sometimes delicious tongue-in-cheek title cards. "The night was young at the Cafe Maure. Not a knife had been thrown, so far", one of his title cards reads.

The Son of the Sheik premiered at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles on 9 July 1926. There it played for four weeks. Valentino then embarked on a nationwide tour to promote the film as it rolled out around the first run theatres in the country's cities. On 15 August, he collapsed in his New York City hotel room and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors discovered he had a perforated ulcer which required emergency surgery. After the surgery, Valentino developed peritonitis and died on 23 August 1926.

The Son of the Sheik was one of the first films to be released after its star's death. On 5 September 1926, nearly two weeks after Valentino had died, the film was put into general release nationwide. The Son of the Sheik grossed $1,000,000 within the first year of its release. Eventually it more than doubled that. Who knows how far Valentino's film career would have gone had it not been for this untimely death at 31.

Hal Erickson concludes at AllMovie: "The finished film manages to convey a tongue-in-cheek, larger-than-life approach to its melodramatic material without ever actually making fun of that material or condescending to Valentino's legions of fans. Rudolph Valentino had made Son of the Sheik in hopes of boosting his slightly flagging career; while it succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams, Valentino, alas, had died just before the film was released."


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 243. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 244. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard by Europe, no. 232. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


French postcard by Europe, no. 235. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1535/2, 1927-1928. Distributed in Italy by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1534/3, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3373/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3678/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still of Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).


Dutch-German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3945/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926). This vintage postcard contains a Dutch text at the backside.

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

Margaret Livingston

March 27, 2019, 11:00 pm

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Margaret Livingston (1895–1984) was an American film actress and businesswoman, most notable for her work during the silent film era. She remains best known today as 'the Woman from the City' in F.W. Murnau's classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927).


Italian postcard by G. B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 284. Photo: Fox Film. Publicity still for Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927).


Italian postcard by Fotocelere.

Dark, slit-like eyes

Margaret Livingston was born in Salt Lake City as the daughter of Scottish immigrant John Livingston and his wife Eda from Stockholm.

Livingston came to the cinema as a teenager. Unlike other actresses of her time, she had not previously gained any stage experience. In The Chain Invisible (Frank Powell, 1916), the actress, who initially also appeared under the name of Marguerite Livingston, first appeared on the screen.

She became a sought-after actress in the 1920s and appeared in almost 50 films until the end of the silent film era. Only rarely, the petite, just 1.60 m tall actress with the chestnut hair and the dark, slit-like eyes, had leading roles.

Often she played the female antagonist to the female lead. Several times she played seductresses of European descent, e.g. the French women in His Private Life (Frank Tuttle, 1928) with Adolphe Menjou, and Innocents of Paris (Richard Wallace, 1929) with Maurice Chevalier.

In the early 1920s, Livingston often played at Paramount, in the mid-1920s at Fox and at the end of the decade at Paramount, mixed with a wide string of other companies, such as First National, Pathé Exchange, Tiffany, FBO, Universal, and MGM.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1967/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


Belgian postcard, made for the Antwerp film journal Cinema.

Ice-cold vamp

Unlike many other silent film stars, Margaret Livingston effortlessly made the transition to the sound film, including Smart Money (Alfred E. Green, 1931) starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.

In The Canary Murder Case (Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle, 1929), she lent her voice to Louise Brooks, who had refused to participate in the dubbing of the original silent film. For the sound version, some scenes had to be re-shot, where Livingston was also used as a double for Brooks. However, she was only seen from the back or from the side.

Margaret Livingston was then in about 20 sound film productions before she finally retired to private life. In 1934 she made her last feature film, called Social Register (Marshall Neilan
Harold Godsoe, 1934), staring Colleen Moore.

Since Livingston rarely worked with well-known directors, her films are now largely forgotten. Memorable, however, was the ice-cold vamp which Margaret Livingston embodied in 1927 in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Sunrise/Sunrise - A Song of To Humans, produced by Fox.

By the mid-1920s she was earning 1000 dollars a week at Fox, while the star Janet Gaynor earned 1500, but that was after her breakthrough in Sunrise - for which she only got 100 dollars a week.

Since 1931 Margaret Livingston was married to jazz musician Paul Whiteman (1890-1967). The marriage remained childless. Her sister Ivy (1894-1986) also worked as an actress.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 204. Photo: Albert Witzel / Fox Film.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 381-1. Photo: Albert Witzel, Hollywood / Fox Film.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 381-2. Photo: Albert Witzel, Hollywood / Fox Film.

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

Betty Grable

March 28, 2019, 11:00 pm

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American film star Betty Grable (1916-1973) was known as 'The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs'. During World War II, the quicksilver blonde's famous pin-up pose - in bathing suit, back to the camera, smiling over her right shoulder - adorned barracks all around the world. Her 42 films during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s grossed more than $100 million. One of her biggest successes was the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), which was also one of her last films.


British postcard by Picturegoer, no. 1028a. Photo: Paramount.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 33. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for I Wake Up Screaming (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941) with Victor Mature.


Spanish postcard, no. 3113.


Vintage postcard with printed autograph.

Hopes of Stardom

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born in 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lillian Rose (Hofmann) and John Charles Grable, a stockbroker. Her stubborn and materialistic mother was determined to make her daughter a star. Betty was enrolled in Clark's Dancing School at the age of three.

With her mother's guidance, Betty studied ballet and tap dancing. At age 13, Betty and her mother set out for Hollywood with the hopes of stardom. Lillian lied about her daughter's age, and Betty landed several minor parts in films, such as Whoopee! (Thornton Freeland, 1930).

In 1932, she signed with RKO Radio Pictures. The bit parts continued for the next three years. Betty finally landed a substantial part in By Your Leave (Lloyd Corrigan, 1934). One of her big roles was in College Swing (Raoul Walsh, 1938).

Unfortunately, the public did not seem to take notice, and Grable was beginning to think she was a failure. The next year, she married former child star Jackie Coogan, with whom she had starred in Million Dollar Legs (Nick Grinde, 1939). His success boosted hers, but they divorced in 1940.


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 197. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. AX-154. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. 3133. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Down Argentine Way (Irving Cummings, 1940).

Adorning barracks all around the world

When Betty Grable landed the role of Glenda Crawford in Down Argentine Way (Irving Cummings, 1940), the public finally took notice of this shining bright star. Stardom came through musicals and comedies such as Moon Over Miami (Walter Lang, 1941), and Coney Island (Walter Lang, 1943).

The public was enchanted with Betty. Her famous pin-up pose during World War II adorned barracks all around the world and Betty became the highest-paid star in Hollywood. After the war, her star continued to rise.

In 1947, she earned about $300,000 a year. Later, 20th Century-Fox insured her legs with Lloyds of London for a million dollars. Betty continued to be popular until the mid-1950s, when musicals went into a decline.

A success was How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953), a romantic comedy about three models plotting to marry wealthy men, in which she co-starred with Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall.

Her last film was How to Be Very, Very Popular (Nunnally Johnson, 1955). She then concentrated on Broadway and nightclubs. In 1965, she divorced band leader Harry James, whom she had wed in 1943.

Betty Grable died at age 56 of lung cancer on 2 July 1973 in Santa Monica, California.

Denny Jackson at IMDb: "Her life was an active one, devoid of the scandals that plagued many stars in one way or another. In reality, she cared for her family and the family life more than stardom. In that way, she was a true star."


Dutch postcard, no. 204. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 072. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard by PCB.

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

Photo by Decla

March 29, 2019, 11:00 pm

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Decla Film (originally Deutsche Eclair) was a German film production and distribution company of the silent era. Formed in 1911 as the German subsidiary of the French company Eclair, it was taken into German ownership in 1915 during the First World War. Under the direction of Erich Pommer, Decla emerged as one of the leading German film companies of the early Weimar era.


German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 501/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Mädel von nebenan (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Hella Moja.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 502/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Die Faust des Schicksals/Fist of Doom (Alwin Neuss, 1917) with Alwin Neuss.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 545/5. Photo: Decla. Alwin Neuss in Der Cowboy (Alwin Neuss, 1918).


German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 547/1. Publicity still for Heide-Gretel (Otto Rippert, 1918), with Hella Moja. Cinematography was by Carl Hoffmann, script by Carl Schneider. Moja's male co-actors were Max Ruhbeck and Leopold von Ledebur. The film premiered at the Berlin Marmorhaus cinema in February 1918.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 548/5, 1919-1924. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Glück der Frau Beate/The luck of the Mrs. Beate (Alwin Neuß, Otto Rippert, 1918) with Ressel Orla.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 549/2. Photo: Decla. Ressel Orla in Die Sünde/The Sin (Alwin Neuss, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 555/8. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Änne Wolter (Otto Rippert, 1918) with Charlotte Böcklin. The name Änne Wolter is sometimes also written as Anne Wolter.


German postcard by Ross B.-V.-G., Berlin. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for the German historical drama Die Pest in Florenz/The Plague in Florence (Otto Rippert, 1919). The back of the card has a Spanish imprint.

Adventure and Detective films, Drama, and Society Pieces

German-born film producer and executive Erich Pommer (1889-1966) was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European Film Industries in the 1920s and early 1930s.

As producer, Erich Pommer was involved in the German Expressionist film movement during the silent era. As the head of production at Decla Film, Decla-Bioscop and from 1924 to 1926 at Ufa, Pommer was responsible for many of the best known films of the Weimar Republic such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler/Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922), and Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924).

Erich Pommer began his film career in 1907, with the Berlin branch of the Gaumont company, eventually taking over as director of its Viennese branch in 1910. In 1912, Pommer concluded his military service and became a representative of the French Éclair camera company in Vienna, where he was responsible for film distribution to Central and Eastern Europe.

In 1913, he became Éclair's general representative for Central Europe, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland, based in Berlin. In the same year, he married Gertrud Levy and became, together with Marcel Vandal, the director-general of the Viennese office of Éclair. Under Pommer's direction, the company began the production of feature films.

After film, flying and the development of aviation was perhaps Pommer's greatest fascination. Pommer had made the acquaintance of and flew with Louis Blériot, the first man to fly across the English Channel. One of Pommer's first productions Das Geheimnis der Lüfte/The Mystery of the Air (1913) with Julius Brandt, had an aviation theme.

At that time, a creative producer could initiate, coordinate, supervise and control all aspects of a motion picture from inception through completion, including release. Pommer became an exemplar of the 'creative producer' and remained so throughout his career. Another five films followed in 1915. With French capital from Éclair, and together with Fritz Holz, Pommer - while serving as a soldier in 1915 at the Western front - established the Deutsche Eclair Film- und Kinematographen-GmbH (Decla) in Berlin.

Decla produced adventure and detective films, drama, and society pieces, as well as short film series. Its own Decla film distribution business, led by Hermann Saklikower, also presented foreign films. Pommer served in the First World War at the West and Eastern fronts, but injuries suffered in action led him to return to Berlin in 1916, where he was responsible for training recruits. Later, he worked for the Bild- und Filmamt (Bufa) at the German War Ministry.

During one of his trips for Bufa, going between Berlin and Bucharest, Pommer stopped over in Vienna where he was introduced to a young actor with training in art and architecture, who was interested in films. Pommer initially engaged in conversation only to be polite. However, he ended up talking with Fritz Lang the entire night, finally inviting Lang to come work for Decla after the war.


German photocard for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film by Ross Verlag, picture no. 63. Photo: Decla-Film. Lil Dagover and Carl de Vogt in Die Spinnen/The Spiders (Fritz Lang, 1919-1920).


Hella Moja. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 78/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Decla Film.


Alwin Neuss. German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 83/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Decla-Film.


Werner Krauss. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 263/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / Decla.


Paul Morgan. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 283/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass / Decla.


Carola Toelle. German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin-Wilm., no. 369/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / Decla.


Xenia Desni. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 886/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Decla / Ufa. From Tatiana.


Lil Dagover. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 890/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film.

The Quintessential Work of German Expressionist Cinema

After the war, Erich Pommer assumed hands-on management of Decla. Before the war, France dominated the European film market. Soon after the war concluded, Germany's film companies faced a new competitor - Hollywood. Pommer, however, was by then an experienced film businessman with insight into the international implications of the film industry. Post-war competition between international film companies was sometimes hostile. The Berlin trade press saw Decla as the emerging leader in the industry, crediting Pommer's "very skillful and goal-oriented leadership."

Decla acquired large movie theaters through the Decla-Lichtspiel-GmbH as well as more theatres, studios and distribution channels through mergers with other companies. In 1919 Decla merged with the Meinert-Film-Gesellschaft. Decla-Film appointed Austrian screenwriter, film producer and director Rudolf Meinert to oversee production. Erich Pommer took charge of foreign distribution. Decla's production became more ambitious. Two brands were created. 'Decla Abenteuerklasse' produced among others, Fritz Lang's spy thriller Die Spinnen. 2. Teil: Die Brillantenschiff/The Spiders, Part 2: The Diamond Ship (1920). The second brand, 'Decla Weltklasse' produced such films as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920).

Rudolf Meinert, rather than Erich Pommer, is sometimes credited as the producer behind Decla's revolutionary Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). It tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders. Wikipedia: "The film features a dark and striking visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets."

Now considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, Decla produced Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) as a low-budget horror film at their small studio in Weissensee. In fact it was filmed in the Lixie-Atelier film studio (formerly owned by Continental-Kunstfilm) at 9 Franz Joseph-Strasse (now Max Liebermannstraße), Weißensee, a north-eastern suburb of Berlin. Decla had been making films at the Lixie studio since October 1919, having previously released three titles, Die Pest in Florenz/The Plague in Florence (Otto Rippert, 1919) and the two parts of Fritz Lang's The Spiders/Die Spinnen (1919-1920). The relatively small size of the studio (built some five years earlier in 1914) meant most of the sets used in the film do not exceed six meters in width and depth. Certain elements from the original script had to be cut from the film due to the limited space.

In April 1920, Decla merged with a rival company Bioscop Film and became known as Decla-Bioscop. Bioscop had recently constructed a large, modern studio at Babelsberg in Potsdam and production was now concentrated there. Decla Bioskop AG thus became the second largest German film company after Universum Film AG (Ufa). Decla owned a studio in Neubabelsberg and a cinema chain.

Two subsidiaries were formed: Uco-Film GmbH and Russo Films. The Uco Film GmbH, in whose establishment the Ullstein publishing house was involved, dedicated itself to filming serials from novels. Schloß Vogelöd/The Haunted Castle (1921) and Phantom (1922) with Alfred Abel, both under the direction of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, as well as Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler/Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), were released. Russo Films focused on the adaptation of works of world literature. In a 1922 interview, Pommer stated that the international success of the German films would have to be linked to the production of quality pictures.

Pommer gathered around him talented directors (Carl Froelich and Fritz Wendhausen), script writers (Thea von Harbou, Carl Mayer, and Robert Liebmann), cameramen (Karl Freund, Carl Hoffmann, and Willy Hameister), architects (Walter Roehrig and Robert Herlth), as well as actors and actresses. In 1921, under pressure from its creditors at the Deutsche Bank, the company was absorbed into the giant Ufa concern which dominated German cinema in the interwar years. A rival, and higher offer, from National Film was rejected.

In 1922, Ufa placed Pommer in direct charge of most of its product. Pommer was also able to improve Babelsberg and made it into the largest film studio in Europe.Although Decla was now a part of Ufa, the success its films had enjoyed led to the continued use of the brand name for releases for some time. Decla maintained a modicum of independence. As late as 1924 Fritz Lang's two-part version of Die Nibelungen, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache/Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924), a big-budget prestige Ufa production, was released as a Decla-Bioscop Film.

After his glittering career at the Ufa ended in 1933, Erich Pommer worked in American exile before returning to Germany to help rebuild the German film industry after the war.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 673/1. Photo: Decla / Ufa-Film. Paul Richteras Siegfried and Margarete Schön as Kriemhild in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/2. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Caption: Siegfried and Alberich in the fog meadow.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 678/4. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). After slaying the dragon, Siegfried (Paul Richter) bathes in the dragon's blood, which will make him invulnerable. Incidentally, a leaf falls on his back, creating Siegfried's one weak spot (his Achilles heel). When the vain and arrogant Paul Richter refused to strip for this scene, Lang called in the not so pretty Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Etzel - Attila - in the film), who immediately undressed and played the scene, to the dismay of Richter, as people now would identify Klein-Rogge's behind as his.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 676/5. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still of Rudolf Kleinn-Rogge as lord Etzel, King of the Huns, in Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Fritz Lang, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 677/2. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Margarete Schön in Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Fritz Lang, 1924). Caption: Kriemhild at the spring where Siegfried died.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 677/7. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Fritz Lang, 1924). Hagen von Tronje (Hans Adalbert Schlettow) protects King Gunther (Theodoor Loos) in the burning palace of Etzel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. Photo: Decla / Ufa-Film. Rudolf Klein-Rogge as King Etzel in part II of Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Fritz Lang, 1924). Caption: Etzel and the children at the blossoming tree.

Sources: John Pommer (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Tyrone Power

March 30, 2019, 10:00 pm

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Strikingly handsome Tyrone Power (1914-1959) was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of Hollywood’s golden age. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power starred in such adventure films as The Mark of Zorro (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), The Black Swan (1942), Captain from Castile (1947), Prince of Foxes (1949) and The Black Rose (1950). Among his best films are the Film Noir Nightmare Alley (1949) and Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957). In the 1950s he devoted more time for theatre productions, and received accolades for his roles in 'John Brown's Body' and 'Mister Roberts'. Power died from a heart attack at the age of 44.


British postcard by Art Photo Postcard, no. 142.


British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 176. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Alexander's Ragtime Band (Henry King, 1938) with Alice Faye.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London, nr. FS 177. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Suez (Allan Dwan, 1938), with Annabella. Suez is a highly fictionalised biographical account of the builder of the Suez canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps.


British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 178. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Suez (Allan Dwan, 1938) with Loretta Young.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 325. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Johnny Apollo (Henry Hathaway, 1940) with Dorothy Lamour.


French postcard, no. 437. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Walking out the premiere a star

Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. (also called Tyrone Power III) was born at his mother's home of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. He was the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century.

His great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish comedian. His father, known to historians as Tyrone Power Sr., but to his contemporaries as either Tyrone Power or Tyrone Power the Younger, was a huge star in the theatre and later in films. On stage, he acted in both classical and modern roles. His mother, Helen Emma ‘Patia’ née Reaume (Mrs. Tyrone Power), was also a Shakespearean actress as well as a respected dramatic coach.

A frail, sickly child, Tyrone was taken by his parents to the warmer climate of southern California. He made his stage debut at age seven, appearing with his father in a stage production at San Gabriel Mission.

After his parents' divorce, he and his sister Anne Power returned to Cincinnati with their mother. There he attended school while developing an obsession with acting. Although raised by his mother, he corresponded with his father, who encouraged his acting dreams. He was a supernumerary in his father's stage production of 'The Merchant of Venice' in Chicago.

After turning professional, Power supported himself between engagements working as a theater usher and other such odd jobs. Tyrone was scheduled to make his film debut playing with his father, Tyrone Power Sr., in The Miracle Man (Norman Z. McLeod, 1932). Tyrone held his father as he died suddenly of a heart attack while preparing for his role. They were both replaced.

Startlingly handsome, young Tyrone nevertheless struggled to find work in Hollywood. He appeared in a few small roles, then went east to do stage work in Katherine Cornell's theatrical company. Among the Broadway plays in which he was cast are Flowers of the Forest, Saint Joan, and Romeo and Juliet.

A screen test led to a contract at 20th Century Fox in 1936. Power was cast in a supporting role in the Simone Simon vehicle Girl's Dormitory (Irving Cummings, 1936). The reaction from preview audiences to Fox's new contractee was so enthusiastic that Darryl F. Zanuck ordered that Power's part be expanded for the final release version.

Power played the lead in the drama Lloyd's of London (Henry King, 1936) opposite Madeleine Carroll, and Guy Standing. Loosely based on historical events, the film follows the dealings of a man who works for Lloyd's of London during the Napoleonic Wars.

Lloyd's of London was a hit; it demonstrated that 22-year-old Power, in his first starring role, could carry a film, and that the newly formed 20th Century Fox was a major Hollywood studio. He walked into the premiere of the film an unknown and he walked out a star, which he remained the rest of his career.

As Fox's biggest male star, he played in contemporary and period pieces with ease. Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943. Jim Beaver at IMDb: “Most of his roles were colourful without being deep, and his swordplay was more praised than his wordplay.”

He was loaned out by Fox once, to MGM for Marie Antoinette (W. S. Van Dyke, 1938), starring Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette. The film was based upon the 1932 biography of the ill-fated Queen of France by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck was angry that MGM used Fox's biggest star in what was, despite billing, a supporting role, and he vowed to never again loan him out.

After the hit The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoulian, 1940), Power's career took a dramatic turn. He became the romantic, swashbuckling hero of such adventure films as Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941) with Rita Hayworth, and The Black Swan (Henry King, 1942), with Maureen O’Hara.

In 1943, Power served in the Marine Corps in World War II as a transport pilot, and he saw action in the Pacific Theatre of operations. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Power was a much better actor than he was given credit for at the time. He also handled his celebrity like an old pro; he was well liked by his co-stars and crew, and from all reports was an able and respected leader of men while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II."


French postcard, no. 37. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard by MPEA. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 180. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938) with Norma Shearer.


British Real Photograph postcard in the Film Partners series, London, no. P 254. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938) with Norma Shearer.


Vintage card, no. 1658. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Son of Fury - The Story of Benjamin Blake (John Cromwell, 1942) with Gene Tierney.


British postcard by Valentine & Sons, Dundee and London, no. 217.

Good night, sweet prince...

After the war, Tyrone Power got his best reviews for an atypical part as a downward-spiralling con-man in the Film Noir Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947).

Although he remained a huge star, much of his post-war work was unremarkable. Zanuck released several costume-clad adventures films with Power, including Captain from Castile (Henry King, 1947), Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949) with Orson Welles, and The Black Rose (Henry Hathaway, 1950) with Cécile Aubry.

He continued to do notable stage work and also began producing films. Darryl F. Zanuck, persuaded him to play the lead role in The Sun Also Rises (Henry King, 1957), adapted from the Ernest Hemingway novel, with Ava Gardner and Errol Flynn. This was his final film with Fox.

Power gave a fine performance opposite Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton in the Agatha Christie adaptation Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957).

Next, Power began production on Solomon and Sheba (King Vidor, 1959). Halfway through shooting, he collapsed during a duelling scene with George Sanders, and he died of a heart attack before reaching a hospital. He was replaced by Yul Brynner.

Power’s last complete work was a public-service announcement for television (in which he appeared on a motion-picture set in costume) about spotting the signs of a heart attack and going to the hospital to have a doctor check it out...

Power had been married three times. His first wife was French actress Annabella (1939-1948). After their divorce, he married Mexican actress Linda Christian (1949-1956), with whom he had two daughters, singer-actress Romina Francesca Power (1951) and actress Taryn Power (1953).

His third wife was Deborah Jean Smith Minardos (7 May 1958 - 15 November 1958; his death). Their son, Tyrone William Power IV (1959) was born, some two months after Power's death. He became known professionally as Tyrone Power Jr., and also followed his father in the family acting tradition. Power was also the adoptive father of Annabella’s daughter, Ann Power.

Tyrone Power is interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, CA. His tombstone includes the masks of Comedy and Tragedy and the inscription, "Good night, sweet prince...".


Italian postcard by Edizioni Beatrice D'Este in the Photocards series, no. 20192. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Crash Dive (Archie Mayo, 1943). On the card the name of Tyrone Power is misspelled.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 219. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Captain from Castile (Henry King, 1947).


German postcard by Wilhelm Schulze-Witteborg Grafischer Betrieb, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


With Linda Christian. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 613. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Still from The Black Rose (1950) with Cécile Aubry.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2496. Photo: Columbia Pictures. Publicity still for The Eddy Duchin Story (George Sidney, 1956).


Italian postcard by Vannina, Milano.

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

La bocca chiusa (1925)

March 31, 2019, 10:00 pm

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Italian diva Maria Jacobini stars as a poor country girl in the silent drama La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925). Lido Manetti aka Arnold Kent plays a British duke who seduces her. Later, her stepfather sells her child to the duke, making her believe the child died.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

The sad tale of a poor country girl

Director Guglielmo Zorzi himself wrote the story for La bocca chiusa//The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925). His film was produced by the S.A.I.C., which also produced La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone, 1925) in the same year.

In La bocca chiusa, Lido Manetti plays a British duke who seduces a poor country girl (Maria Jacobini). Her stepfather (Augusto Poggioli) sells her child to the duke, making her believe the child died.

With the money, he embellishes his house, but when the girl finds out, she goes mad, burns down the house and becomes a wanderer.

Twenty years after, her son (Lido Manetti again) lovingly takes her into his service, not knowing who she is. She recognises a picture, though, and not wanting to destroy his happiness, she silently goes away.

Maria Jacobini (1892-1944) was an island of serenity among the divas of the Italian silent cinema,  as film historian Vittorio Martinelli expressed it. She was the personification of goodness, of simple love. Her weapon was her sweet and gracious smile.

Lido Manetti (1899-1928) also had a prolific career in the Italian silent cinema. He was then brought to Hollywood as a young leading man under the name of Arnold Kent. Sadly, he died before he could live up to his promise.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 348. Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. The film title on this card is a mystery. Maria Jacobini did not play in La via del peccato (Amleto Palermi 1925), but her sister Diomira Jacobini did. Maria acted in a film called L'onestà del peccato (Augusto Genina, 1918). But this is probably a card for La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (1925), for the moment when the aged Maria, now a domestic to a lord, sees a childhood photo and realises her employer is her own son.



Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: SAIC. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa/The closed mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Meine Tante - deine Tante (1927)

April 1, 2019, 10:00 pm

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Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari are the stars of the German silent comedy Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt (Carl Froehlich, 1927). Henny Porten-Froelich-Produktion produced it and the Ufa distributed the film in Germany and ParUfaMet internationally.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/1 Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Meine Tante - deine Tante (Carl Froehlich, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/2. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Willi Allen and Henny Porten in Meine Tante - deine Tante (Carl Froehlich, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/3. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt(Carl Froehlich, 1927).

Pretending he is unmarried

In Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt(Carl Froehlich, 1927) Henny Porten plays Helene, the wife of Edgar von Bocksdorff (Angelo Ferrari), whose uncle Bodo (Ralph Arthur Roberts) hates women. Bodo loves the muse of the music though, so when his first violin player becomes engaged to a woman, he engages his nephew, who performs in vaudeville houses.

Edgar goes to his uncle's castle, pretending he is unmarried, but his wife smuggles herself into the castle in men's clothes. She first pretends to become betrothed to the old man, but by forcing him to desperation, he accepts she marries his nephew instead.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.

Italian actor Angelo Ferrari(1897-1954) appeared in nearly 200 films. He started his career in Italian silent films and later got a strong foothold in the German cinema.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/4. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt (Carl Froehlich, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/5. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt (Carl Froehlich, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 75/6. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Meine Tante - deine Tante/My Aunt, Your Aunt (Carl Froehlich, 1927).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 118, Group 39. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Henny Porten and Ralph Arthur Roberts in Meine Tante - deine Tante (Carl Froehlich, 1927).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Zopf und Schwert (1926)

April 2, 2019, 10:00 pm

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The 'Prussian films' on Frederick the Great were a huge success in Weimar. The Aafa Film company decided to produce also a film set at the court of 18th century Prussia: Zopf und Schwert/Braid and Sword (Victor Janson, 1926). It starred Mady Christians as Princess Wilhelmine - Frederick's sister, William Dieterle as her lover, the Prince of Bayreuth, Hanni Weisse as the Princess's lady-in-waiting Von Sonnsfeld, and Albert Steinrück as King Frederick Willliam I of Prussia.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/1. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians and Wilhelm (William) Dieterle in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/2. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians, Hanni WeisseandTheodor Loos in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).

A Princess locked up in her rooms and threatened to death

Zopf und Schwert is a romantic comedy, based on the stage play (1843) by Karl Gutzkow. The exact plot of the (lost) film is unknown but the stage play creates a fictitious love story between Prince Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1711-1763) and Princess Wilhelmine (1709–1758), daughter of King Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia and sister of the future Frederick the Great.

The story takes place after 1730, when, historically, the stern, army loving King had punished his son with exile to Küstrin (now the Polish Kostrzyn nad Odrą) after the latter had tried to flee to France, fed up with his father's brutal behaviour. Frederick's aid Katte was decapitated before his eyes. Wilhelmine, considered part of the Crown Prince's 'desertion', was locked up in her rooms. Both brother and sister had been threatened with death.

While the Queen wanted to marry Wilhelmine with a British royal, her father wanted an alliance with Habsburg, but nothing came of it. In 1731 Wilhelmine married Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, future Margrave, who initially was betrothed to Wilhelmine's younger sister, but their father at the last moment shifted daughters, even without asking the groom.

Wilhelmine was forced into the marriage by her father and thus hoped to relieve the conflict between the King and the Crown Prince. When the Margrave got into his inheritance, the couple turned Bayreuth in a little Versailles. Their building activities, rebuilding the residence and the opera house, and building a new opera, a theatre, a palace and an university, almost bankrupted the principality. The couple had only one daughter, who died young.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/3, Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians and Wilhelm Dieterle in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/4. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still of Mady Christians and Hanni Weisse in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin/Braid and sword (Victor Janson, 1926).

A less calculating and horrifying situation

In Karl Gutzkow's stage play, the situation is presented as less calculating and horrifying. The Prince of Bayreuth (Wilhelm Dieterle), who is a close friend of and go-between for the exiled Crown Prince Frederick (Walter Janssen), visits the Prussian court and falls in love with Wilhelmine (Mady Christians).

The Queen (Julia Serda), related to the British King, orders him to mediate with her husband (Albert Steinrück) in marrying off her daughter with the Prince of Wales. The King, who officially wants to marry her to Habsburg, confesses Bayreuth he agrees with the British marriage and orders him to throw a huge party.

Moreover, Bayreuth happens to know the British envoy Hotham (Robert Scholtz) from his time in England, and hears from him a Prussian-British trade contract is behind all this. Bayreuth betrays all this to Wilhelmine and declares her his own love.

With help of her lady-in-waiting Sonnsfeld (Hanni Weisse), Wilhelmine masks as an unknown white lady and tries to escape her rooms. Sonnsfeld seduces the guard Eckhoff (Theodor Loos), who happens to be an amateur violin player, to play for them so they can dance, despite the King's disgust of music and dance.

The King surprises them, degrades the officer to stage player (which he doesn't mind), orders Sonnsfeld to move to another court (which she doesn't mind), and announces his daughter her future marriage.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1467/1. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1467/2. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).

A secret rendez-vous

When the King hears the British want to restore the earlier free trade between the two nations, he explodes. He immediately orders Bayreuth to go to Vienna to arrange a marriage with Habsburg.

Hotham, in reality, is only helping Bayreuth by discrediting his own employer. Hotham and the King battle over the failed affair but peace is made over beer and tobacco, with Bayreuth present as well.

However, at the smoking table with all the King's men, and forced to talk, Bayreuth gently but critically creates the King's doubt whether he has thought of the hearts of his children in his deeds and arrangements.

When the King, masked in a white domino, surprises the Queen and her ladies-in-waiting in card plays with money and drinking forbidden teas and coffees, a mysterious lady in white appears, who happens to be Wilhelmine, helped to escape from her rooms by her mother. She confesses she has had a secret rendez-vous with the Prince of Wales.

Just when the King threatens to divorce because of this affront, Hotham appears telling that the Prince of Wales has fled after Bayreuth challenged him to a duel, because he loved the princess too (it is all a scam by Hotham, as the real Prince of Wales was never around, only his rumour). Finally, King and Queen agree with the marriage of their daughter to Bayreuth, even more so as their future son-in-law has announced he will join the Prussian army.

Zopf und Schwert (Victor Janson, 1926) was scripted by Jane Bess and Adolf Lantz, the cinematography was by Carl Drews, sets and costumes were designed by Ernst Stern. Rudolf Dworsky was the producer. The film premiered in Berlin on 26 August 1926. 'Zopf' in the title refers to the braid of a wig Prussian officers wore then, 'Schwert' clearly refers to their swords.



German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1468/1. Photo: Aafa Film. Hanni Weisse in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1469/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Aafa Film. Wilhelm Dieterle in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Kid (1921)

April 3, 2019, 10:00 pm

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The Kid (1921) is one of the greatest films of the silent era. The comedy-drama was written, produced and directed by Charlie Chaplin. He also stars in it with Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. Chaplin's first full-length film as a director was a huge success, and was the second-highest-grossing film in 1921.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 721/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Jackie Coogan.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 664/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin.

Abandonned in the back seat of an expensive automobile

The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921)  starts off with inter-titles, "A picture with a smile - and perhaps a tear," followed by "The woman whose sin was motherhood". An unknown woman (Edna Purviance) leaves a charity hospital carrying her newborn son. An artist (Carl Miller), the apparent father, is shown with the woman's photograph. When it falls into the fireplace, he first picks it up, then throws it back in to burn up.

The woman decides to abandon her child in the back seat of an expensive automobile with a handwritten note imploring the finder to care for and love the baby. However, the car is stolen. When the two thieves discover the child, they dump him in a garbage can on the street.

The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) notices the baby wrapped in a blanket. First, Charlie tries to pass it off to someone else, but after stumbling upon a note which reads, "Please love and care for this orphan child", he decides to raise the child himself. He names the boy John. Elsewhere, the woman has an apparent change of heart and returns for the baby, but is heartbroken and faints upon learning of the baby having been taken away.

Five years pass, and the child (Jackie Coogan) becomes the Tramp's partner in minor crime, throwing stones to break windows that the Tramp, working as a glazier, can then repair. Meanwhile, the woman becomes a wealthy opera star. She spends her spare time with charitable work handing out gifts to the children of poor districts to fill the void left by her missing child. By chance, the paths of the kid and his mother meet on numerous occasions, unaware of each other's identities.

When the boy becomes seriously ill,  a middle-aged country doctor comes to see him. He discovers that the Tramp is not the boy's father. The Tramp shows him the note left by the mother, but the doctor merely takes it and notifies the authorities of the County Orphan Asylum  to take the child away.

Two men come to take the boy to the orphanage, but after a fight and a chase, the Tramp steals the boy back just before he arrives at the Orphan Asylum. When the woman comes back to see how the boy is doing, the doctor tells her what has happened, then shows her the note, which she recognises.

Now fugitives, the Tramp and the boy spend the night in a flophouse, but the manager (Henry Bergman), having read of the $1,000 reward offered for the child, takes him to the police station to be united with his ecstatic mother. When the Tramp wakes up, he searches frantically for the missing boy, then returns to doze beside the now-locked doorway to their humble home.

In his sleep, he enters 'Dreamland', with angels in residence and devilish interlopers. He is awakened by a kind policeman (Tom Wilson), who places the Tramp in a car and rides with him to a mansion. When the door opens, the woman and John emerge, reuniting the elated adoptive father and son. The policeman, who is happy for the family, shakes the Tramp's hand and leaves, before the woman welcomes the Tramp into her home.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 664/3. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin, Lita Grey and Charles Reisner.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/1. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/2. Photo: Hansaleih. Publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan.

The first major child star of the cinema

The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) is notable for combining comedy and drama. As the opening title says: "A picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear". The most famous and enduring sequence in the film is the Tramp's desperate rooftop pursuit of the agents from the orphanage who had taken the child, and their emotional reunion.

The film made Jackie Coogan, then a vaudeville performer, into the first major child star of the cinema. Many of the Chaplin biographers have attributed the relationship portrayed in the film to have resulted from the death of Chaplin's firstborn infant son just ten days before the production began.

J. Spurlin at IMDb: "Jackie Coogan (about five in this film), with his charming manners, his talents as a mimic and his adeptness at physical comedy, is one of the all-time great child actors. Want more evidence of Chaplin's genius? Coogan doesn't steal the film from him. This is true even though Chaplin, as producer, star and director, makes every evident attempt to spotlight the boy's talents. Coogan is even better here than he is in his own vehicles, like My Boy and Oliver Twist."

The portrayal of poverty and the cruelty of welfare workers are also directly reminiscent of Chaplin's own childhood in London. Several of the street scenes were filmed on Los Angeles's famed Olvera Street, almost 10 years before it was converted into a Mexican-themed tourist attraction.

Another IMDb reviewer, Lugonian, notes: "Chaplin, who constructs his gags to perfection, has one difficult scene that comes off naturally, this being where Charlie cuts out diapers from a sheet for the infant as he's lying beside him in a miniature hammock crying out for his milk. The baby immediately stops after Charlie directs the nipple attached to a coffee pot (a substitute for a baby bottle) back into his mouth. Another classic moment, on a serious nature, is when Charlie is being held back by authorities, being forced to watch his crying 'son' taken away from him. Charlie breaks away and goes after the truck as he's being chased by a policeman from the slanted roof-tops. The close-up where father and son tearful reunite is as touching as anything ever captured on film."

After production was completed in 1920, the film was caught up in the divorce actions of Chaplin's first wife Mildred Harris, who sought to attach Chaplin's assets. Chaplin and his associates smuggled the raw negative to Salt Lake City, reportedly packed in coffee cans, and edited the film in a room at the Hotel Utah. Before releasing the film Charlie Chaplin negotiated for and received an enhanced financial deal for the film with his distributor, First National Corporation, based on the success of the final film. Twelve-year-old Lita Grey, who portrays an angel in the film, would become Chaplin's second wife from 1924 to 1927.

In 1971, Charles Chaplin edited and reissued the film and he composed a new musical score.


Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Jackie Coogan.


Postcard by Palm Pictures, no. C 23. Photo: publicity still for The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) with Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan. Collection: Daniël van der Aa. Tom Wilson is probably the cop in the background.


Jackie Coogan. Modern American postcard by Fotofolio. Photo: James Abbe, 1921.

Sources: J. Spurlin (IMDb), Lugonian (IMDb),  Wikipedia and IMDb.

Linda Darnell

April 4, 2019, 10:00 pm

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American film actress Linda Darnell (1923-1965) progressed from modelling as a child to acting in theatre and film as an adolescent. The ravishing beauty appeared in supporting roles in big-budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s, and rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films. She established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947), and won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).


Spanish postcard by Falgra, Barcelona, no. 1136. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk, 1944).

The most physically perfect girl in Hollywood

Monetta Eloyse Darnell was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1923, as one of four children to postal clerk Calvin Roy Darnell and the former Pearl Brown. She was the younger sister of Undeen and the older sister of Monte Maloya and Calvin Roy, Jr. Her parents were not happily married, and she grew up as a shy and reserved girl in a house of domestic turmoil.

Starting at an early age, her mother Pearl had big plans for Darnell in the entertainment industry. She believed that Linda was her only child with potential as an actress and ignored the rearing of her other children. Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting on the stage by the age of 13. She initially started modelling to earn money for the household, and performed mostly in beauty contests.

Darnell was a student at Sunset High School, when in November 1937, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox arrived in Dallas, looking for new faces. Encouraged by her mother, Darnell met him, and after a few months, he invited her for a screen test in Hollywood. In California, Darnell was initially rejected by film studios and was sent home because she was declared "too young". Darnell was featured in a ‘Gateway to Hollywood’ talent-search and landed a contract at RKO Pictures. There was no certainty, though, and she soon returned to Dallas.

When 20th Century Fox offered her a part, Darnell wanted to accept, but RKO was unwilling to release her. Nevertheless, by age 15, she was signed to a contract at 20th Century Fox and moved to a small apartment in Hollywood all alone in 1939. Her first film was Hotel for Women (Gregory Ratoff, 1939), which had newspapers immediately hailing her as the newest star of Hollywood. Loretta Young was originally assigned to play the role, but demanded a salary which the studio would not give her. Darryl F. Zanuck instead cast Darnell, advertise her beauty and suggested a Latin quality.

Although only 15 at the time, Darnell posed as a 17-year-old and was listed as 19 years old by the studio. Her true age came out later in 1939, and she became one of the few actresses under the age of 16 to serve as leading ladies in films. Linda Darnell was assigned to the female lead opposite Tyrone Power in the light romantic comedy Day-Time Wife (Gregory Ratoff, 1939). Although the film received only slightly favourable reviews, Darnell's performance was received positively for her breath-taking looks and splendid acting.

Life magazine stated that Darnell was "the most physically perfect girl in Hollywood". Following the film's release, she was cast in the drama comedy Star Dust (Walter Lang, 1940) with John Payne. The film was hailed as one of the "most original entertainment idea in years" and boosted Darnell's popularity, being nicknamed 'Hollywood's loveliest and most exciting star'.

After appearing in several small films, Darnell was cast in her first big-budget film opposite Tyrone Power in Brigham Young (Henry Hathaway, 1940), regarded as the most expensive film 20th Century Fox had yet produced. Darnell and Power were cast together for the second time due to the box office success of Day-Time Wife, and they became a highly publicised onscreen couple, which prompted Darryl F. Zanuck to add 18 more romantic scenes to Brigham Young.

Darnell began working on the big-budget adventure The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoulian, 1940), in which she again co-starred as Power's sweetheart. Critics raved over the film. The Mark of Zorro was a box office sensation and did much to enhance Darnell's star status. Afterwards, she was paired with Henry Fonda for the first time in the western Chad Hanna (Henry King, 1940), her first Technicolor film.

The film received only little attention, unlike Darnell's next film Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941), in which she was reteamed with Power. It was the first film for which she was widely critically acclaimed. Thereafter the studio was unable to find her suitable roles. Darnell was disappointed and felt rejected. Months passed by without any work, and in August 1941, she was cast in a supporting role in the musical Rise and Shine (Allan Dwan, 1941). The film was a setback in her career, and she was rejected for a later role because she refused to respond to Darryl F. Zanuck's advances. Instead, she contributed to the war effort, working for the Red Cross, selling war bonds, and she was a regular at the Hollywood Canteen.


Belgian postcard, no. 750. Photo: 20th Century-Fox.


Spanish postcard. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk, 1944).

A new screen image as a pin-up girl

Linda Darnell and Twentieth Century-Fox weren't on the best of terms, and as a punishment, she was loaned out to Columbia for a supporting role in a B-film called City Without Men (Sidney Salkow, 1942). In 1943, she was put on suspension. Darnell had married, which caused the fury of Zanuck. Darnell was reduced to second leads and was overlooked for big-budget productions.

Matters changed in 1944 when Look Magazine named her one of the four most beautiful women in Hollywood, along with Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, and Gene Tierney. The studio allowed her to be loaned out for the lead in Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk, 1944), opposite George Sanders. She played a type of role she had never before: a seductive peasant girl who takes three men to their ruin before she herself is murdered. The film provided her a new screen image as a pin-up girl.

Shortly after, Darnell was again loaned out to portray a showgirl in The Great John L. (Frank Tuttle, 1945), the first film to feature her bare legs. Darnell complained that the studio lacked recognition of her, which prodded Zanuck to cast her in the Film Noir Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945), playing a role she personally had chosen. The film became a great success, and she was added to the cast of another Film Noir, Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, 1945), which also included Dana Andrews and Alice Faye.

Despite suffering from the "terrifying" Preminger, Darnell was praised by reviewers so widely that there was even talk of an Oscar nomination. In 1946, Darnell filmed two pictures simultaneously, the expensively budgeted Anna and the King of Siam (John Cromwell, 1946) with Irene Dunne, and Centennial Summer (Otto Preminger, 1946) with the legendary Lillian Gish.

Then she went on location in Monument Valley for the classic Western My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) with Henry Fonda end Victor Mature. It was another hit and garnered Linda some of the best reviews of her career.

In 1946, Linda Darnell won the starring role in the highly anticipated romantic drama Forever Amber (Otto Preminger, 1947), based on a bestselling historical novel that was denounced as being immoral at that time. Although she had to work with Preminger, she was delighted to play the title role. However, Forever Amber did not live up to its hype, and although it became a success at the box office, most reviewers agreed that the film was a disappointment.

The following year, Darnell portrayed Daphne de Carter in the comedy Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturges, 1948), also starring Rex Harrison, and was then one of the three wives in the comedy/drama A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949). Darnell's hard-edged performance in the latter won her unanimous acclaim and the best reviews of her career.

Darnell became one of the most-demanded actresses in Hollywood, and she now had the freedom to select her own roles. She was cast opposite Richard Widmark and Veronica Lake in Slattery's Hurricane (Andre DeToth, 1949), which she perceived as a step down from the level she had reached with A Letter to Three Wives, though it did well at the box office.

She then co-starred opposite Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier in the groundbreaking No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950). But her later films were rarely noteworthy, and her appearances were increasingly sporadic. Further hampering Darnell's career was the actress's alcoholism and weight gain. Her next films included the Western, Two Flags West (Robert Wise, 1950), The 13th Letter (Otto Preminger, 1951) and The Guy Who Came Back (Joseph M. Newman, 1951).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag. Photo: 20th Century-Fox. Publicity still for Forever Amber (Otto Preminger, 1947).


German postcard by Kunst und Film Verlag H. Lukow, Hannover, no. L2/1042. Caption: Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt (Film actors from around the world).

From top left to down right: Linda Darnell, Tyrone Power, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Taylor and his wife Ursula Thiess, Gina Lollobrigida and her husband Milko Skofic, Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer, Mona Baptiste, Mara Lane and Gloria de Haven.

Alcohol addiction and weight problems

In 1951, Linda Darnell signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox that allowed her to become a freelance actress. Her first film outside 20th Century Fox was for Universal Pictures, The Lady Pays Off (Douglas Sirk, 1951). She was responsible for putting the film behind schedule, because on the fifth day of shooting, she learned that Ivan Kahn, the man responsible for her breakthrough, had died.

Darnell then headed the cast of the British romantic war film Saturday Island (Stuart Heisler, 1952), which co-starred Tab Hunter and was filmed on location in Jamaica. There, Darnell fell ill and had to be quarantined for several weeks. Because her contract required her to make one film a year for the studio, she reported to the lot of 20th Century Fox for the Film Noir Night Without Sleep (Roy Ward Baker, 1952) with Gary Merrill and Hildegard Knef. It was the only time that she had to live up to this part of her contract, since she was released from it in September 1952.

The competition of television forced studios all over Hollywood to drop actors. This news initially excited Darnell, because it permitted her to focus on her film career in Europe, but the ease and protection enjoyed under contract was gone. Before travelling to Italy for a two-picture deal with Giuseppe Amato, Darnell was rushed into the production of Blackbeard the Pirate (Raoul Walsh, 1952). In Italy she made Donne proibite/Angels of Darkness (Giuseppe Amato, 1954) with Valentina Cortese and Giulietta Masina. The second collaboration, the French-Italian comedy Gli ultimi cinque minuti/The Last Five Minutes (Giuseppe Amato, 1955) with Vittorio De Sica and Peppino De Filippo proved disastrous, and was never released in the United States.

Back in Hollywood, she accepted an offer from Howard Hughes to star in RKO's 3-D film Second Chance (Rudolph Maté, 1953) with Robert Mitchum, filmed in Mexico. Because of her then-husband, Philip Liebmann, Darnell put her career on a hiatus. In 1955, she returned to 20th Century Fox, by which time the studio had entered the television field. She guest-starred in series like Cimarron City and Wagon Train, and also returned to the stage.

Linda Darnell’s last work as an actress was in a stage production in Atlanta in early 1965. At the time of her death a few months later, she was preparing to perform in another play. She died in 1965, from burns she received in a house fire in Glenview, a suburb of Chicago. The house of her former secretary and agent caught on fire in the early morning and Darnell died that afternoon in Cook County Hospital.

Linda Darnell was only 41. She had been married three times. In 1943, at age 19, she eloped with 42-year-old cameraman Peverell Marley in Las Vegas. Marley was a heavy drinker and introduced Darnell to alcohol, which eventually led to an addiction and weight problems. In 1946, during production of Centennial Summer, she fell in love with womanising millionaire Howard Hughes. She separated from Marley but when Hughes announced that he had no desire to marry her, Darnell returned to her husband. Because Darnell and Marley were unable to have children, they adopted a daughter, Charlotte Mildred 'Lola' Marley (1948), the actress's only child.

In mid-1948, she became romantically involved with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and filed for divorce. Mankiewicz, however, did not want to leave his wife for Darnell, and though the affair continued for six years, she again returned to her husband. In 1949, Darnell went into psychotherapy for hostile emotions that she had been building since childhood. Darnell and Marley finally divorced in 1951.

In 1954, she married brewery heir Philip Liebmann but the marriage ended in 1955 on grounds of incompatibility. From 1957 to 1963, Linda Darnell was married to pilot Merle Roy Robertson. Darnell's final screen appearance was opposite Rory Calhoun in the low-budget Western Black Spurs (R.G. Springsteen, 1965).


Vintage postcard. Photo: 20th Century-Fox.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 216.

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

Photo by Aafa

April 5, 2019, 10:00 pm

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Aafa or Aafa-Film was a German film production and distribution company which operated during the 1920s and 1930s. Established in 1920 as Radio-Film, the company was controlled by the producer Gabriel Levy and the director Rudolf Dworsky. The company was one of the leading producers of the Weimar Republic, and survived the transition from silent to sound film in 1929.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/3. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians andWilhelm (William) Dieterle in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 91/4. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927) with Maria Paudler and Ernst Verebes.


Harry Liedtke. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3957/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Aafa Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5384/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Leutnant warst Du einst bei deinen Husaren/Lieutenant were you once with your Hussar (Manfred Noa, 1930) with Mady Christians.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5679/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Aafa-Film. Publicity still for Stürme über dem Mont Blanc/Storm Over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930) with Leni Riefenstahl and Sepp Rist.

Italian Strongman

The predecessor of Aafa was the Radio Film AG company founded on 2 June 1920. Already on 10 July 1920, the first stock exchange listing took place, and during the year 1921 there was a strong expansion.

The Radio Film AG first took over the companies of Gustav Althoff in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Cologne, Frankfurt a. M., Munich, Wroclaw and Gdansk. Later, the Ambos Film Export Dworsky & Levy KG led by film director and producer Rudolf Dworsky and producer and merchant Gabriel Levy and the company Ambos Film GmbH were added.

As a result of these acquisitions, Radio-Film AG was renamed just one year after its founding and went public again on March 20, 1921 under the new name Aafa stood for Althoff-Ambos-Film AG. According to a stock market listing, the stock was listed on the open market in Hanover. Rudolf Walther-Fein mostly directed and produced the films, Rudolf Dworsky was responsible for the artistic direction and Gabriel Levy was the studio head.

One of the first films produced by Aafa-Film was Nur eine Nacht/Only One Night (Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1922) starring Bruno Eichgrün, Joseph Römer and Olga Engl. It was one of several German silent films featuring the detective Nick Carter.

The company produced a large number of films in the silent film era. Among them were productions with film stars like Maria Paudler, Harry Liedtke and Mady Christians.

Very popular were the films with the Italian strongman Luciano Albertini, like the silent adventure film Rinaldo Rinaldini (Max Obal, Rudolf Dworsky, 1927) in which Albertini co-starred with Olga Engl and Grit Haid. It is an Italian-set Swashbuckler, based on Christian August Vulpius's 1797 novel 'Rinaldo Rinaldini, the Robber Captain'.


Luciano Albertini. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4624/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa-Film.


Max Hansen. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 718. Photo: Aafa / Sascha Film.


Livio Pavanelli. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5154. Photo: Aafa / Lux Film Verleih.


Elisabeth Pinajeff. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5212. Photo: Aafa / Lux Film Verleih.


Hans Stüwe. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5781. Photo: Aafa / Lux Film Verleih.


Gustav Diessl. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4485/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Hans Casparius, Berlin. Publicity still for Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü/The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst, 1929).

The first German full sound film

Aafa-Film made the first German full sound film - as opposed to part-sound films or silent films with sound added later - Dich hab’ ich geliebt/It's You I Have Loved (Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1929) with Mady Christians and Hans Stüwe. It was a box office hit and was also released in the US.

Aafa then made a multi-language version musical Leutnant, warst du einst bei den Husaren/Lieutenant, Were You Once a Hussar? (1930). Another popular film operetta was Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Victo  also released in the US.

Aafa then made a multi-language version musical Leut r Janson, 1931) starring Hans-Heinz Bollmann, Jarmila Novotná andFritz Schulz. The film was based on the 1882 operetta Der Bettelstudent. A British version of the film, The Beggar Student, was also released the same year.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Aafa produced a number of mountain films directed by Arnold Fanck. These were Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü/White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929) with Gustav Diessl and Leni Riefenstahl, Stürme über dem Mont Blanc/Storm over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930), with Sepp Rist and Leni Riefenstahl, and Der weiße Rausch – neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs/The White Ecstasy (Arnold Fanck, 1931), again with Leni Riefenstahl.

Rudolf Dworsky had died after a car accident in 1927 and the Jewish Gabriel Levy led the company until October 1934. His last German production was the Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation Hanneles Himmelfahrt (Thea von Harbou, 1934) with Inge Landgut as Hannele, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as her stepfather.

Aafa also produced the classic Belgian film De Witte/The White (Jan Vanderheyden, 1934) about a smart but naughty farmhand's son (Jefke Bruyninckx) whose eternal mischief, pranks and disobedience drive his elders and classmates to despair.


Hanni Weisse. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3271/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Aafa Film.


Gösta Ekman. German postcard. by Ross Verlag, no. 4034/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa Film.


Vivian Gibson. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4625/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa Film.


Sepp Rist. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5680/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Aafa-Film. Publicity still for Stürme über dem Mont Blanc/Storm Over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930).


Rolf von Goth. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6634/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Aafa-Film / Lindner.


Marta Eggerth. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7096/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Kiesel, Berlin / Aafa Film.

Aryanisation measures

Then the National Socialists forcibly disbanded Aafa. There was a forced bankruptcy and Aafa was no longer listed in the manual of German stock companies. The Nazi Party confiscated businesses from Jewish ownership in the course of their Aryanisation measures. This was also part of a wider move which led to production being concentrated in the hands of four major studios: Bavaria, Tobis, Terra and UFA.

Gabriel Levy left Germany in 1935 and settled in the Netherlands. In 1935, he produced the Dutch comedy De kribbebijter/The Cross-Patch (Hermann Kosterlitz a.k.a. Henry Koster, Ernst Winar, 1935) with Cor Ruys.

At the beginning of 1937, he committed the also exiled producer Hermann Millakowsky as Rental Manager of Milo-Films. In 1938, a tax record was issued to Levy and his wife in Berlin for payment of 'Reichsfluchtsteuer' (Reich Flight Tax) in the amount of 44,000 RM.

The 'Reichsfluchtsteuer' was a capital control law implemented by the Weimar Government in order to stem capital flight from the Republic. The tax was used by the Nazis as a 'partial expropriation' of the assets of Jewish refugees who were persecuted and driven to flee their homeland.)

In June 1939, Levy was expatriated from Germany. He was no longer able to continue working as a producer the Netherlands and did not make another film until after the war. Then he produced the comedy Een Koninkrijk voor een huis/A Kingdom for a House (Jaap Speyer, 1948) with Heintje Davids and Johan Kaart. It would be his final film. Gabriel Levy died in Amsterdam in 1965.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 57/2. Photo: Aafa Film. Mady Christians and Wilhelm Dieterle in Zopf und Schwert - Die tolle Prinzessin (Victor Janson, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 128/3. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Victor Janson, 1931) with Hans Heinz Bollmann and Fritz Schulz.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 152/4, 1932. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Theodor Körner (Carl Boese, 1932) with Lissi Arna and Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender.


Harry Liedtke. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3125/1. Photo: Aafa Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7394/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Das blaue vom Himmel/The Blue from the Sky (Victor Janson, 1932) with Margarete Schlegel and Ernst Verebes.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

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Jean Harlow

April 6, 2019, 10:00 pm

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American film actress Jean Harlow (1911–1937) was with her come-hither body, platinum blonde hair, and keen sense of humour, one of Hollywood's sex symbols of the 1930s. She had her breakthrough in Howard Hughes' World War I epic Hell's Angels (1930). Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde (1931) cemented her role as America's new sex symbol. In 1932, she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became the leading lady in a string of hit films. These included Red Dust (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Reckless (1935) and Suzy (1936). Among her frequent co-stars were William Powell, Spencer Tracy and, in six films, Clark Gable.


Spanish collector's card by J.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.


British Real Photograph postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 37 A. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 6. Photo: M.G.M.


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 16. Photo: M.G.M.


British Real Photograph postcard by Valentine's in the Famous Film Stars series, no. 7123 D. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Baby

Jean Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911. The name is sometimes incorrectly spelled Carpentier, following later studio press releases. Her father, Mont Clair Carpenter was a dentist from a working-class background who attended dental school in Kansas City. Her mother, Jean Poe Carpenter née Harlow was the daughter of a wealthy real estate broker, Skip Harlow. The marriage was arranged by Jean's father for their under-age daughter in 1908. Jean was resentful, and became very unhappy in the marriage. The couple lived in Kansas City in a house owned by Jean's father.

Harlean was nicknamed 'The Baby', a name that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Harlean and 'Mother Jean', as she became known when Harlean became a film star, remained very close. Harlean's mother was extremely protective and coddling, reportedly instilling a sense that her daughter owed everything she had to her. "She was always all mine", she said of her daughter. When Harlean was at school, her mother filed for a divorce that was finalised in 1922. She was granted sole custody of Harlean, who loved the father who would survive her by thirty-seven years. However, Harlean would rarely see him again.

Mother Jean moved with Harlean to Hollywood in 1923 with hopes of becoming an actress, but was too old at 34 to begin a film career. Young Harlean attended the Hollywood School for Girls, but dropped out of school at age 14 in the spring of 1925. Finances dwindling, she and her mother moved back to Kansas City after Skip Harlow issued an ultimatum that he would disinherit Jean if she did not return. Several weeks later, Skip sent his granddaughter to a summer camp, Camp Cha-Ton-Ka, in Michigamme, Michigan, where she became ill with scarlet fever. Her mother travelled to Michigan to care for her, rowing herself across the lake to the camp, but was told she could not see her daughter.

Harlow attended the Ferry Hall School (now Lake Forest Academy) in Lake Forest, Illinois. Her mother had an ulterior motive for Harlean's attendance there, as it was close to the Chicago home of her boyfriend, Marino Bello. Each freshman was paired with a 'big sister' from the senior class, and Harlean's big sister introduced her to 19-year-old Charles 'Chuck' Fremont McGrew, heir to a large fortune, in the fall of 1926. Soon the two began to date, and then married. Early 1927, Jean Carpenter also married Bello; Harlean was not present.

Shortly after the wedding, the McGrews left Chicago and moved to Beverly Hills. McGrew turned 21 two months after the marriage and received part of his large inheritance. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1928, settling into a home in Beverly Hills, where Harlean thrived as a wealthy socialite. McGrew hoped to distance Harlean from her mother with the move. Neither McGrew nor Harlean worked, and both, especially McGrew, were thought to drink heavily.

In Los Angeles, Harlean befriended Rosalie Roy, a young aspiring actress. Lacking a car, Roy asked Harlean to drive her to Fox Studios for an appointment. Reputedly, Harlean was noticed and approached by Fox executives while waiting for her friend, but stated that she was not interested. Nevertheless, she was given dictated letters of introduction to Central Casting. A few days later, Rosalie Roy bet Harlean that she did not have the nerve to go and audition. Unwilling to lose a wager and pressed by her enthusiastic mother, now back in Los Angeles, Harlean drove to Central Casting and signed in under her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow.

After several calls from Central Casting and a number of rejected job offers, Harlean was pressed into accepting work by her mother. She appeared in her first film, Honor Bound (Alfred E. Green, 1928), as an unbilled extra. This led to small parts in feature films such as Moran of the Marines (Frank R. Strayer, 1928) with Richard Dix, This Thing Called Love (Paul L. Stein, 1929), Close Harmony (John Cromwell, 1929), and The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929), starring Maurice Chevalier.

In December 1928, she signed a five-year contract with Hal Roach Studios for $100 per week. She had a co-starring role in Laurel and Hardy's short Double Whoopee (Lewis R. Foster, 1929), and went on to appear in two more of their films: Liberty (Leo McCarey, 1929) and Bacon Grabbers (Lewis R. Foster, 1929).

In March 1929, however, she parted with Hal Roach, who tore up her contract after Harlow told him, "It's breaking up my marriage, what can I do?" In June 1929, Harlow separated from her husband and moved in with her mother and Bello. After her separation from McGrew, Harlow worked as an extra in several films. She landed her first speaking role in The Saturday Night Kid (A. Edward Sutherland, 1929), starring Clara Bow. The couple divorced in 1929.

In late 1929, Jean was spotted by actor James Hall, who was filming Howard Hughes'Hell's Angels (1930). Hughes revamped most of his originally silent film of 1927 with sound, and he needed an actress to replace Greta Nissen, who had a Norwegian accent that was considered to be undesirable for her character. Harlow made a test and got the part. In this film she uttered the immortal words "Would you be shocked if I changed into something more comfortable?" Hughes signed Harlow to a five-year, $100-per-week contract in 1929. Hell's Angels premiered in Hollywood on 27 May 1930, at Grauman's Chinese Theater, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1930, besting even Greta Garbo's talkie debut in Anna Christie (Clarence Brown, 1930).

Hell's Angels (Howard Hughes, Edmund Goulding, James Whale, 1930) made Harlow an international star. Although she was popular with audiences, critics were less than enthusiastic. The New Yorker called her performance "plain awful", though Variety magazine conceded, "It doesn't matter what degree of talent she possesses ... nobody ever starved possessing what she's got." During the shooting, Harlow met MGM executive Paul Bern. She was again an uncredited extra in the Charlie Chaplin film City Lights (1931), though her appearance did not make the final cut.

With no projects planned for Harlow, Hughes sent her to New York, Seattle, and Kansas City for Hell's Angels premieres. In 1931, loaned out by Hughes to other studios, she gained more attention when she appeared in The Secret Six (George W. Hill, 1931), with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable; Iron Man (Tod Browning, 1931), with Lew Ayres and Robert Armstrong; and The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931), with James Cagney. Though the successes of the films ranged from moderate to hit, Harlow's acting was mocked by critics. Concerned, Hughes sent her on a brief publicity tour, which was not a success, as Harlow dreaded such personal appearances.

Jean Harlow dated notorious New Jersey mobster Abner Zwillman (aka 'Longy"), who secured a two-picture deal for her with Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures by loaning Cohn $500,000 in cash. He also purchased her a jewelled charm bracelet and a red Cadillac.

Columbia Pictures cast her in Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra, 1931), with Loretta Young. The film, originally titled Gallagher, was renamed to promote Harlow, capitalising on her hair colour, called 'platinum' by Hughes' publicists. Though Harlow denied her hair was dyed, the platinum blonde colour was reportedly achieved by bleaching with a weekly application of ammonia, Clorox bleach, and Lux soap flakes. This process weakened and damaged Harlow's naturally ash-blonde hair. Many female fans began dyeing their hair to match hers. Howard Hughes' team organised a series of 'Platinum Blonde' clubs across the nation, with a prize of $10,000 to any beautician who could match Harlow's shade. No one could, the prize went unclaimed but Hughes' publicity worked and the nickname stuck with Harlow.

Harlow next filmed Three Wise Girls (William Beaudine, 1932), for Columbia Pictures, with Mae Clark and Walter Byron. Paul Bern then arranged to borrow her for The Beast of the City (1932), co-starring Walter Huston. After filming, Bern booked a 10-week personal-appearance tour on the East Coast. To the surprise of many, especially Harlow herself, she packed every theatre in which she appeared, often appearing in a single venue for several nights. Despite critical disparagement and poor roles, Harlow's popularity and following was large and growing and, in February 1932, the tour was extended by six weeks.


French postcard by Editions Chantal (EC). Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


French postcard by CE (Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris), no. 2098. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3827. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Saratoga (Jack Conway, 1937).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9062/3, 1935-1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, no. A 1349/1, 1937-1938. Publicity still for Saratoga (Jack Conway, 1937).


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Platinum Blonde Bombshell

Jean Harlow was now romantically involved with MGM producer Paul Bern and he spoke to Louis B. Mayer about buying out her contract with Hughes and signing her to MGM, but Mayer declined. MGM's leading ladies were presented as elegant, while Harlow's 'floozy' screen persona was abhorrent to Mayer. Bern then began urging close friend Irving Thalberg, production head of MGM, to sign Harlow, noting her popularity and established image. After initial reluctance, Thalberg agreed and, on 3 March 1932, Harlow's 21st birthday, Bern called her with the news that MGM had purchased her contract from Hughes for $30,000.

At MGM, Harlow was given superior movie roles to show off her looks and nascent comedic talent. Though Harlow's screen persona changed dramatically during her career, one constant was her apparent sense of humor. In 1932, she starred in the comedy Red-Headed Woman (Jack Conway, 1932), for which she received $1,250 a week. The film is often noted as being one of the few films in which Harlow did not appear with platinum blonde hair; she wore a red wig for the role. She next starred in Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932), her second film with Clark Gable. Harlow and Gable worked well together and co-starred in a total of six films.

She was also paired multiple times with Spencer Tracy and William Powell. At this point, MGM began trying to distinguish Harlow's public persona from that of her screen characters, changing her childhood surname from common 'Carpenter' to chic 'Carpentier', claiming that writer Edgar Allan Poe was one of her ancestors and publishing photographs of Harlow doing charity work to change her image from that of a tramp to an all-American girl. This transformation proved difficult; once, Harlow was heard muttering, "My God, must I always wear a low-cut dress to be important?"

During the making of Red Dust, Bern—her husband of two months—was found dead at their home. His death created a lasting scandal. Initially, Harlow was speculated to have killed Bern, but Bern's death was officially ruled a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound. Reportedly, the day after Bern's former common-law wife met Harlow, Bern shot himself. A few days later former Mrs. Bern was found floating in the Sacramento River, after allegedly committing suicide.

Louis B. Mayer feared negative publicity from the incident and intended to replace Harlow in the film, offering the role to Tallulah Bankhead. Bankhead was appalled by the offer and wrote in her autobiography, "To damn the radiant Jean for the misfortune of another would be one of the shabbiest acts of all time. I told Mr. Mayer as much." Harlow kept silent, survived the ordeal, and became more popular than ever. A 2009 biography of Bern asserted that Bern was, in fact, murdered by a former lover and the crime scene re-arranged by MGM executives to make it appear Bern had killed himself.

After Bern's death, Harlow began an indiscreet affair with boxer Max Baer who, though separated from his wife Dorothy Dunbar, was threatened with divorce proceedings naming Harlow as a co-respondent for "alienation of affection", a legal term for adultery. After Bern's mysterious death, the studio did not want another scandal and defused the situation by arranging a marriage between Harlow and cinematographer Harold Rosson. Rosson and Harlow were friends and Rosson went along with the plan. They quietly divorced eight months later. By 1933, MGM realised the value of the Harlow-Gable team and paired them again in Hold Your Man (Sam Wood, 1933), which was also a box-office success.

The same year, she played the adulterous wife of a ruthless tycoon (Wallace Beery) in the glittering all-star comedy-drama Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933), and played a pressured Hollywood film star in the screwball comedy Bombshell (Victor Fleming, 1933) with Lee Tracy. The film has often been cited as being based on Harlow's own life or that of 1920s 'It girl', Clara Bow. The film included Harlow's greedy stepfather, her nine-room Georgian-style home with mostly-white interiors, and her numerous pet dogs. The following year, she was teamed with Lionel Barrymore and Franchot Tone in The Girl from Missouri (Jack Conway, 1934). The film was the studio's attempt at softening Harlow's image, but suffered with censorship problems, so much so that its original title, Born to Be Kissed, had to be changed.

In 1934, Jean Harlow went on a salary strike from MGM, during which she wrote a novel, 'Today is Tonight'. The book was not published until 1965.

After the financial success of Red Dust and Hold Your Man, MGM cast Harlow with Clark Gable in two more successful films: China Seas (Tay Garnett, 1935), with Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russell; and Wife vs. Secretary (Clarence Brown, 1936), with Myrna Loy and James Stewart. Jean Harlow's popularity rivalled and soon surpassed that of her MGM colleagues Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. Reckless (Victor Fleming, 1935) was her first film musical. It co-starred her then-boyfriend William Powell and Franchot Tone.

Suzy (George Fitzmaurice, 1936), in which she played the title role, gave her top billing over Franchot Tone and Cary Grant. While critics noted that Harlow dominated the film, they added that her performance was imperfect, and the film was a reasonable box-office success. She then starred in Riffraff (J. Walter Ruben, 1936) with Spencer Tracy and Una Merkel, a financial disappointment, and the worldwide hit Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936), in which she was top billed over Powell, Myrna Loy, and Tracy.

By the late 1930s, Jean Harlow had become one of the biggest stars of Hollywood, often nicknamed the 'Blonde Bombshell' and the 'Platinum Blonde'. She filmed W.S. Van Dyke's comedy Personal Property (1937), co-starring Robert Taylor. It was Harlow's final fully completed film appearance. During the filming of Saratoga (Jack Conway, 1937), she died in 11 hospital of renal failure at the age of 26. The official cause of death was 'uremic poisoning brought on by acute nephritis'. For many years it was a widely-held belief that she died because her mother, a Christian Scientist, refused to let doctors operate on her after she became sick. This story has been repeatedly shown to be completely untrue.

MGM closed on the day of her funeral, 9 June 1937. Saratoga was completed using doubles and released a little over a month after Jean Harlow's death. It became MGM's second-highest grossing picture of 1937. In 1965, two films about Jean Harlow were released, both called Harlow. The first, Harlow (Alex Segal, 1965), was released by Magna in May 1965 and stars Carol Lynley with Ginger Rogers as Mama Jean. The second, Harlow (Gordon Douglas, 1965), was released in June by Paramount Pictures and stars Carroll Bakerwith Angela Lansbury as her mother. Both were poorly received, and did not perform well at the box office.


Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 307. Photo: M.G.M.


Dutch postcard, no. 316. Photo: M.G.M.


Dutch postcard, no. 465. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. 483. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932) with Clark Gable. Sent by mail in 1935.


Dutch postcard, no. 516. Photo: M.G.M.


Dutch postcard, no. 631. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard by S. A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvorde / N. V. Cacao en Chocolade Kivou, Vilvoorde. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Hell's Angels (Howard Hughes, Edmund Goulding, James Whale, 1930).


Jean Harlow residence, Beverly Hills. American postcard by Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, no. 815.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Richard Gere

April 7, 2019, 10:00 pm

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American actor Richard Gere (1949) has been hailed as The Sexiest Man alive and a humanitarian, but he is foremost a good actor. He shone in such box office hits as American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Pretty Woman (1990). For portraying Billy Flynn in the Academy Award-winning musical Chicago (2002), he won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the cast.


American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Richard Gere, San Bernardino, 1979. Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery Los Angeles. Proceeds of the sale of this card benefit The American Foundation For Aids Research.


French postcard by Editions Librairie Images'in, no J 19. Photo: publicity still for American Gigolo (Paul Schrader, 1980).


Italian postcard by Ediber-Angelus. Photo: publicity still for Breathless (1983) with Valerie Kaprisky.

A poetic biblical parable in the Texas Panhandle

Richard Tiffany Gere was born in 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was the second of five children of Doris Ann (Tiffany), a homemaker, and Homer George Gere, an insurance salesman, both Mayflower descendants.

Gere had a strict Methodist upbringing. He started early as a musician, playing a number of instruments in high school and writing music for high school productions. He graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967, and won a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he majored in philosophy.

He left college after two years to pursue acting. Gere first worked professionally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1969, where he starred in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'. He landed the lead role as Danny Zuko in the London production of the musical 'Grease' in 1973. While in London, Gere became one of the few Americans ever to work with Britain's Young Vic Theater, with which he appeared in 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

He later reprised his role as Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway. In 1974, Gere made his feature film debut with a tiny part in Report to the Commissioner (Milton Katselas, 1974). He returned to the stage the following year as part of the cast of an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's Killer's Head.

Some of Gere's earliest photos, known as 'head shots' were taken by boyhood friend and struggling photographer Herb Ritts. The people handling Gere were so impressed with the photos that they began hiring Ritts for other assignments. Ritts became a top photographer.

Onscreen, Gere had a few roles, and gained recognition in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977) opposite Diane Keaton. He played his first leading role in the dream-like drama Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978). Joshua Dysart at IMDb: "A poetic biblical parable played out in the Texas Panhandle at the turn of the century, it gives total preference to the emotion of imagery over the emotion of the actors. It's an exorcise in feeling and seeing that's so successful it elevated Terrence Malick into the ranks of visual storytellers like Tarkovski and Kurosawa."

In Italy, Gere won the David di Donatello Award (the Italian Oscar) for Best Foreign Actor. Gere spent 1978 meeting Tibetans when he travelled to Nepal, where he spoke to many monks and lamas.

Returning to the US, Gere won considerable theatrical acclaim for his performance as a gay concentration-camp prisoner in the Broadway production of Martin Sherman's 'Bent'. For his role he received the 1980 Theatre World Award.

Back in Hollywood, he played the title role in American Gigolo (Paul Schrader, 1980), which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. His star status was reaffirmed by An Officer and a Gentleman (Taylor Hackford, 1982) with Debra Winger. The film grossed almost $130 million and won two Academy Awards out of six nominations. Gere himself received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. In The Cotton Club (Francis Coppola, 1984) he appeared with Diane Lane.

In the early 1980s, Richard went to Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador amidst ongoing wars and political violence. With a doctor, he visited refugee camps. In the late 1980s, his career seemed to have a dip. His celebrity status was jeopardised with roles in the several poorly received biblical drama King David (Bruce Beresford, 1985) and the underrated political drama Power (Sidney Lumet, 1986).


British postcard in the Photographs series, no. 104. Photo: publicity still for Yanks (John Schlesinger, 1979).


Italian postcard by Compagnia Distribuziona Europea. Photo: publicity still for Breathless (Jim McBride, 1983).


Spanish postcard in the 'Yo amo al Cine' series by Rovensa / Lauren Films. Photo: Lauren Films. Publicity still for The Honorary Consul (John Mackenzie, 1983).

Capturing the nation's heart

In 1990 Richard Gere returned to the front row with two excellent films. In Internal Affairs (Mike Figgis, 1990), he was a sensation as the bad guy. Andy Garcia played an Internal Affairs agent who becomes obsessed with bringing down a cop (Gere) who manages to maintain a spotless reputation despite being involved in a web of corruption.

Gere then teamed up with Julia Roberts to star in the the smash romantic comedy Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990). His cool reserve as a ruthless businessman was the perfect complement to Julia's bubbling enthusiasm. The film captured the nation's heart, and it earned Gere his second Golden Globe Award nomination.

Fans clamoured for years for a sequel, or at least another pairing of Julia and Richard. They got that with Runaway Bride (Garry Marshall, 1999), which was a runaway success. Gere received $12 million, and the box office was $152 million. Off screen, Richard and Cindy Crawford got married in 1991. They were divorced in 1995.

Gere had a leading role in the Japanese film Hachi-gatsu no rapusodî (Akira Kurosawa, 1991), a film warning viewers of the dangers of nuclear power. Gere is also active in AIDS fund raising and agreed to play a small role in the HBO film And the Band Played On (Roger Spottiswoode, 1993) despite the prevalent belief in the film industry a film about AIDS would be detrimental to his career. It was not.

He co-starred with Jodie Foster in the box office hit Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993). A Buddhist for over a decade, he was banned from the Oscars once after making anti-China comments on the air at the 1993 ceremony. Gere played one of his best roles in Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit, 1996), as a fame-hungry lawyer who defends an altar boy (Edward Norton) accused of murdering a priest.

People magazine had picked him as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1991, and in 1999 picked him as their Sexiest Man Alive. The following year, the actor enjoyed some of his best reviews to date as a gynaecologist at once devoted to and bewildered by all of the women in his life in the aptly titled Dr. T & the Women (Robert Altman, 2000). Critics noted that Gere seemed to have finally come into his own as an actor, having matured amiably with years and experience.

After his divorce from Cindy Crawford, Gere had started dating actress Carey Lowell. In 2000, they had a son, Homer James Jigme Gere. Jigme means 'fearless' in Tibetan. Gere and Lowell married in 2002.

His later films include the thriller Unfaithful (Adrian Lyne, 2002) in which he reunited with Diane Lane, the Oscar winning musical Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002) with Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the ballroom dancing drama Shall We Dance? (Peter Chelsom, 2004), which grossed $170 million worldwide.

In the comedy-drama The Hoax (Lasse Hallström, 2006), he played Clifford Irving who sold his bogus biography of Howard Hughes to a premiere publishing house in the early 1970s. Gere was one of the characters who embody a different aspect of Bob Dylan's life and work in I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007).

Other interesting films are the crime drama Brooklyn's Finest (Antoine Fuqua, 2009) with Don Cheadle, the British comedy-drama The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden, 2015) with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and Three Christs (Jon Avnet, 2017) with Peter Dinklage. He was notably singled out for portraying businessman Robert Miller opposite Susan Sarandon in Arbitrage (Nicholas Jarecki, 2012), earning his fourth Golden Globe Award nomination.

Gere is also an accomplished pianist, music writer, and above all a humanitarian. He's a founding member of Tibet House, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture. He has been an active supporter of Survival International, which supports tribal people, including the natives of the Amazon, the Maasai of East Africa, the Wichi of Argentina.

After 11 years of marriage, Richard Gere and Carey Lowell separated. Since April 2018, Richard Gere is married to Spanish activist Alejandra Silva.


British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd., London, no. C237.


Spanish postcard.


German autograph card by BRAVO, 1990.


Italian postcard in the 'World Collection' series, no. P.c. 310. Photo: G. Neri.

Source: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), K.D. Haisch (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Nadja Regin (1931-2019)

April 8, 2019, 10:00 pm

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On 7 April, Serbian actress Nadja Regin (1931-2019) passed away. She started her career in Yugoslav-German co-productions and later she worked in Germany, Austria and New Zealand. In England, she guest-starred in many classic TV series of the 1960s and she appeared opposite Sean Connery in two James Bond films. She was 87.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. I 240. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Constantin. Publicity stll for Die Unschuld vom Lande/The Country Wife (Rudolf Schündler, 1957).


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2040. Photo: CCC / Constantin / Arthur Grimm. Nadja Regin in Die Unschuld vom Lande/The Country Wife (Rudolf Schündler, 1957).

The Man without a Body

Nadja Regin was born as Nadezda Poderegin in Niš, Serbia in 1931. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and also the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy.

Her acting career began during her student years with small parts in Yugoslavian films like Prica o fabrici/The Factory Story (Vladimir Pogacic, 1949). She also appeared in the first film ever made in Macedonia, Frosina (Vojislav Nanovic, 1952) with Meri Boskova.

Her career expanded through such Yugoslav-German co-productions as Das Haus an der Küste/The House on the Coast (Bosko Kosanovic, 1954) with René Deltgen, to Germany.

There she played supporting parts in films like the drama Roman eines Frauenarztes/Novel of a woman doctor (Falk Harnack, 1954) with Rudolf Prack, and the romance Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska!/Goodbye, Franziska (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1957) starring Ruth Leuwerik and Carlos Thompson.

Later, she moved to England, where she appeared in the horror film The Man without a Body (Charles Saunders, W. Lee Wilder, 1957). A scientist resuscitates the head of 16th-century seer Nostradamus by transplanting it onto the body of a man suffering from a brain tumour. He does it for the benefit of an avaricious financier who wants the prophet to give him the power of prediction in business...

In Don't Panic Chaps! (George Pollock, 1959), a British comedy set in WW II, she played an attractive young woman who set some forgotten soldiers on an Adriatic island back into a competitive, hostile attitude.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1342. Photo: CCC / Constantin / Arthur Grimm. Nadja Regin in Roman eines Frauenarztes/Novel of a gynecologist (Falk Harnack, 1954).


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. I 240. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC Film / Gloria. Publicity stll for Roman eines Frauenarztes/Novel of a gynecologist (Falk Harnack, 1954).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1262. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Gloria.

Two James Bond films

Nadja Regin played the female lead in the thriller The Fur Collar (Lawrence Huntington, 1962) about an espionage ring.

She then acted in two James Bond films featuring Sean Connery. In the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963), she was the lonely mistress of Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz).

She also appeared in a smaller but still notable appearance in the pre-credit sequence of the next James Bond film, Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

Her TV roles included The Invisible man (Peter Maxwell, 1959), Danger Man (1961-1964) featuring Patrick McGoohan, Maigret (1961) starring Rupert Davies, The Avengers (1961), The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1962-1964), The Third Man (1965), and The Saint (1967) with Roger Moore.

Notable was also her role in the New Zealand thriller Runaway/Runaway Killer (John O’Shea, 1964) with Colin Broadley and Kiri Te Kanawa. It was the first locally produced New Zealand film in 12 years.

In Austria she appeared in the TV series Donaug'schichten/Stories of the Danube (1966) with Willy Millowitsch and Christiane Hörbiger.

At the end of the 1960s her film acting career halted. In the 1970s she moved to Australia. Her work included reading and selecting film scripts for production by film companies including Rank Films and Hammer Films.

In 1980, she and her sister Jelena formed Honeyglen Publishing Ltd, a small publishing company, specializing in philosophy of history, belles lettres, biography and some fiction.

Nadja Regin now devotes her time to writing and has written a novel, The Victims and the Fools, a children's story, The Puppet Planet, and has begun working on her memoirs.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2588. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Constantin. Publicity still for Die Unschuld vom Lande/The babe in the woods (Rudolf Schündler, 1957).


Trailer From Russia with Love (1963). Source: 86BillieJean (YouTube).


Official trailer Goldfinger (1964). Source: MOVIECLIPS Classic Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Hintertreppe (1921)

April 9, 2019, 10:00 pm

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Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921) is an early example of the German Kammerspiel film. Henny Porten, Wilhelm Dieterle and Fritz Kortner played the lead roles. Henny Porten's film company produced the film.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 102. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921) with Henny Porten, Wilhelm Dieterle and Fritz Kortner.

Intercepting the letters of two lovers

In Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921), Henny Porten plays a maid to a rich family who lives in one of the city's poor neighbourhoods. Every evening she meets her handsome, young lover (Wilhelm Dieterle) at the door of the backstairs of her house.

The two are regularly observed by the crippled postman (Fritz Kortner) living in the basement, who secretly loves the girl. Desperate to win her love, he begins to intercept the letters the two lovers send to each other and replaces them with his own messages, which each thinks is from the other.

His plan seems to be succeeding, but then something happens that bring tragic results to them all. One day she waits in vain for her lover, his letters are also missing.

The postman brings her a letter in which her lover assures her of his love. Full of exuberance to thank him, she brings the postman a pitcher with punch in his basement apartment. She then realises that he had written the letter to comfort her.

Believing her lover has forgotten her, she finally turns to the postman. They have their romance. When she awaits him for dinner, the former lover returns unexpectedly. He was in the hospital and his mail did not arrive - the postman, namely, had embezzled her out of jealousy. A dispute between the postman and the lover starts, but the maid cannot enter the room, so she cries for help.

When the neighbours break down the door, they see the postman with an axe in his hand and the dead lover at his feet. Because of the scandal, the maid loses her position. She climbs up to the roof of the house and jumps to her death.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/1. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/2. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921).

A very remarkable year for European cinema

Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, 1921) is one of the first examples of the Kammerspielfilm (Chamber Drama), a German silent film genre which had the heightened sense of reality at its centre. According to IMDb, the film was co-directed by Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni.

Aside from Max Reinhardt, Leopold Jessner was considered the most-advanced director in the German theatre. He was the director of the Berlin Staatstheater. The hallmark of his stage productions was the use of stairs, and his critics coined the word, 'Jessnertreppin', as a short-club to beat him with in their newspaper reviews.

In Hintertreppe, his only film, Jessner uses stairs to dramatise both the social status of the characters and their emotional relationships. For the greater part of the film, only three people are seen, and the lighting seems to come from within the characters and is used to convey the sense of isolation. A highlight is the stage-expressionist performance by Fritz Kortner under the direction of Jessner.

Paul Leni and Karl Görge were the art directors of the film and their image-filling buildings by Paul Leni and Karl Görge, especially the narrow, angled backstairs and the towering, barely light-emitting house fronts are also responsible for the expressionistic look of the film.

The Austrian Carl Mayer scriptwriter was also the author of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), the prime example of German Expressionist horror. But for Hintertreppe, he turned away from the fantastic and towards realism. He did it for the second time, after his script for another Kammerspielfilm Scherben/Shattered (Lupu Pick, 1921).

On 11 December 1921, Hintertreppe had its world premiere in the Berlin U.T. Kurfürstendamm. Teviewer Kekseka at IMDb: "The film has a small set, virtually no titles, only three actors for most of its length but there is a great freedom allowed to the spectator to construct for him of herself the context of the action, a context that lives in the various inanimate objects that represent a presence of others never seen (the shoes, the plates, the glassware, the table-setting, the flowers, the punch) as well as in the Chinese shadows occasionally seen in the room(s) beyond.

The famous stairs are not the only powerful symbol. Another is the small half-moon shaped barred window for which, as far as I know there is no word in English but which s called in French a 'soupirail' and is a feature to basement flats throughout Continental Europe and will turn up as commonly as the backstairs in the films of the period.

It is one of the great films of the year which also saw Lang's Der müde Tod, Lubitsch's Die Bergkatze, Pick's Scherben, Murnau's Der Gang in der nacht, Buchetowski's Sappho, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Blade af Satans Bog, Feyder's L'Atlantide, the Asta NielsenHamlet, Sjöström's Phantom Carriage, Stiller's Johan. Altogether a very remarkable year for European cinema."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/3. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Hintertreppe/Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni, 1921).

Sources: Kekseka (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Les Mystères de New York (1915)

April 10, 2019, 10:00 pm

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The French serial Les Mystères de New York/The Mysteries of New York (1915) is an oddity. In fact it is a European re-edition of three American serials, starring Pearl White: The Exploits of Elaine (1914), The New Exploits of Elaine (1915) and The Romance of Elaine (1915). These three serials were based on books by Pierre Decourcelle, and produced in 1914-1915 for Pathé Exchange for its film version and for William Hearst for its press version.


Spanish postcard by PA Cines. Photo: publicity still for Paris misterioso, the Spanish title for Les Mystères de New York (1915) with Pearl White and Riley Hatch.


Spanish postcard for Paris misterioso, the Spanish title for Les Mystères de New York (1915) with Pearl White and Riley Hatch.


French postcard for Les Mystères de New York. Caption: Why did Miss Elaine Dodge herself open the safe in which the man with the red handkerchief has just taken papers that he examines carefully? What mysterious influence led the girl to obey the one she knows to be an agent of 'The Clutching Hand'? If you want to know, read in Le Matin, or see in the cinema: 'The Mysteries of New York'.

The serial queen to beat

American silent film star Pearl White (1889-1938) was dubbed 'Queen of the Serials". She was noted for doing her own stunts, in silent film serials such as The Perils of Pauline (1914) and The Exploits of Elaine (Louis J. Gasnier, George B. Seitz, Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton, 1914). George B. Seitz was an early serial expert who is today perhaps better known for directing the Andy Hardy-series (1937-1944) with Mickey Rooney.

Many episodes ended with a literal cliffhanger with Elaine in some physical peril or confronted with a shocking revelation. For example, at the close of Chapter 10 Elaine actually dies. She is then brought back to life in the next chapter by private detective Craig Kennedy (Arnold Daly).

In Europe, The Exploits of Elaine (Louis J. Gasnier, George B. Seitz, Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton, 1914) were re-edited with two subsequent serials into Les Mystères de New York. These two other serials were The New Exploits of Elaine (Louis J. Gasnier, Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton, 1915) and The Romance of Elaine (George B. Seitz, Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton, 1915), all starring Pearl White.

The Exploits of Elaine (1914) tells the story of a young woman named Elaine (Pearl White) who, with the help of a detective, Justin Clarel (Arnold Daly), tries to find the masked criminal mastermind, known only as 'The Clutching Hand' (Sheldon Lewis), who murdered her father (William Riley Hatch). The Clutching Hand was the first mystery villain to appear in a film serial. The concept was widely used for the remainder of the format's existence.

Other actors in the cast were Creighton Hale and Lionel Barrymore, who had a small role. The serials were produced by the Whartons Studios in and around Ithaca, New York. The serial was distributed by Pathé Exchange, the American distribution branch of the French company Pathé at that time. Pathé was the largest film equipment and production company in the world during the first part of the 20th century.

Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "Although not as remembered as The Perils of Pauline (also 1914), The Exploits of Elaine was by all accounts the superior serial, grossing over $1 million dollars and further establishing its athletic leading lady Pearl White as the serial queen to beat."


French postcard for Les Mystères de New York. Caption: On the top side of this safe, Justin Clarel has just discovered the hole that has given passage to 'The Clutching Hand'. This is what Le Matin and all the good cinemas will teach you by simultaneous serialisation in the newspaper and in film of the great novel 'The Mysteries of New York'.


French postcard for Les Mystères de New York. Caption: "If Justin Clarel does not give up pursuing 'The Clutching Hand', he will die", says the sheet of paper which the famous detective reads. How did this funeral notice come to him? And who wrote it? You'll know it when you read in Le Matin and see in the cinema: 'The Mysteries of New York'.


French postcard for Les Mystères de New York. Caption: What distressing problem Justin Clarel is trying to solve so that the people with whom he is surrounded follow with such attention his least gestures? That's what you learn when you read in Le Matin or see in the cinema: 'The Mysteries of New York'.

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.