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Shirley Temple

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Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was an American film and television actress, singer, dancer and public servant, but everybody knows her as the most famous child star in the 1930s. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Four years in a row, between 1935 and 1938, she was the top box-office draw for Hollywood. As an adult, she entered politics and became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia, and as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Shirley Temple
British Real Photograph postcard by Art Photo, no. 36.2. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film.

Shirley Temple
British Real Photograph postcard by Art Photo, no. 41B. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film.

Shirley Temple, Michael Whalen and Claude Gillingwater in Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 52. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film. Shirley Temple, Michael Whalen and Claude Gillingwater in Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936).

Shirley Temple
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 64 D. Photo: Fox Films.

Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. 64.P. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film. Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936).

Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Scott in Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 108. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film. Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Scott in Wee Willie Winkie (John Ford, 1937).

Baby Burlesks


Shirley Temple was born in 1928, in Santa Monica, California. She was the third child of homemaker Gertrude Amelia Temple and bank employee George Francis Temple. The family was of Dutch, English, and German ancestry. She had two brothers: John Stanley, and George Francis, Jr. The family moved to Brentwood, Los Angeles.

Her mother encouraged her singing, dancing, and acting talents, and in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles. At about this time, Shirley's mother began styling her daughter's hair in ringlets.

While at the dance school, she was spotted by Charles Lamont, who was a casting director for Educational Pictures. Temple hid behind the piano while she was in the studio. Lamont took a liking to Temple, and invited her to audition; he signed her to a contract in 1932.

At the age of three, Shirley Temple began her film career in Baby Burlesks (Charles Lamont, 1932), multiple short films satirising recent film and political events by using preschool children in every role.

A series of two-reelers called Frolics of Youth followed with Temple playing Mary Lou Rogers, a youngster in a contemporary suburban family. To underwrite production costs at Educational Pictures, she and her child co-stars modelled for breakfast cereals and other products.

She was lent to Tower Productions for a small role in her first feature film, The Red-Haired Alibi (Christy Cabanne, 1932) and, in 1933, to Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Pictures for various parts. After Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy in 1933, her father managed to purchase her contract for just $25.

Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney arranged for her to have a screen test for the film Stand Up and Cheer! (Hamilton MacFadden, 1934).  She won the part and was signed to a $150-per-week contract that was guaranteed for two weeks by Fox Film Corporation. The role was her breakthrough. Temple's charm was evident to Fox executives, and she was ushered into corporate offices almost immediately after finishing 'Baby Take a Bow', a song-and-dance number she did with James Dunn.

Her contract was extended to a year at the same $150/week with a seven-year option and her mother Gertrude was hired on at $25/week as her hairdresser and personal coach. In June 1934, her success continued when she was loaned out to Paramount for Little Miss Marker (Alexander Hall, 1934) with Adolphe Menjou, a story about a little girl held as collateral by gangsters.

Then, she found international fame in Bright Eyes (David Butler, 1934) with James Dunn, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. Her signature song, 'On the Good Ship Lollipop', was introduced in the film. In 1935, she received a special Juvenile Academy Award for her performance.

In 1935, Fox Films merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox. Producer and studio head Darryl F. Zanuck focused his attention and resources upon cultivating Shirley's superstar status. She was said to be the studio's greatest asset. Nineteen writers, known as the Shirley Temple Story Development team, made 11 original stories and some adaptations of the classics for her. Film hits such as Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935), Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936) and Heidi (Allan Dwan, 1937) followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s.

Most of the Shirley Temple films were inexpensively made at $200,000 or $300,000 apiece and were comedy-dramas with songs and dances added, sentimental and melodramatic situations, and bearing little production value. Her film titles are a clue to the way she was marketed—Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935) and Dimples (Wiliam A. Seiter, 1936), and her 'little' pictures such as The Little Colonel (David Butler, 1935) with Lionel Barrymore, and The Littlest Rebel (David Butler, 1935). Shirley often played a fixer-upper, a precocious Cupid, or the good fairy in these films, reuniting her estranged parents or smoothing out the wrinkles in the romances of young couples.


Shirley Temple
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9793/4, 1935-1936. Photo: Fox.

Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1080/1, 1937-1938. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film. Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936).

Shirley Temple in Heidi (1937)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1483/5, 1937-1938. Photo: 20th Century Fox Film. Shirley Temple in Heidi (Allan Dwan, 1937).

Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson in Just Around the Corner (1938)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1909/3, 1937-1938. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson in Just around the Corner (David Butler, 1938).

Shirley Temple in Captain January (1936)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1909/7, 1937-1938. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Shirley Temple in Captain January (David Butler, 1936).

Bright, bouncy and cheerful image


Based on Shirley Temple's many screen successes, Darryl F. Zanuck increased budgets and production values for her films. By the end of 1935, her salary was $2,500 a week. Licensed merchandise that capitalised on her bright, bouncy and cheerful image included dolls, dishes, and clothing.

In 1937, John Ford was hired to direct the sepia-toned Wee Willie Winkie (Temple's own favourite) and an A-list cast was signed that included Victor McLaglen, C. Aubrey Smith and Cesar Romero. Elaborate sets were built at the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, for the production, with a rock feature at the heavily filmed location ranch eventually being named the Shirley Temple Rock. The film was a critical and commercial hit.

In 1938, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Allan Dwan, 1938) with Randolph Scott, Little Miss Broadway (Irving Cummings, 1938) and Just around the Corner (David Butler, 1938) were released. The latter two were panned by the critics, and Just Around the Corner was the first of her films to show a slump in ticket sales.

The following year, Zanuck secured the rights to the children's novel 'A Little Princess', believing the book would be an ideal vehicle for the girl. He budgeted the film at $1.5 million - twice the amount of Just around the Corner (David Butler, 1938) - and chose it to be her first Technicolor feature. The Little Princess (Walter Lang, William A. Seiter, 1939) was a critical and commercial success, with Shirley's acting at its peak.  Zanuck then cast her in Susannah of the Mounties (William A. Seiter, Walter Lang, 1939), her last money-maker for Twentieth Century Fox.

Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence. Her parents bought up the remainder of her contract, and sent her, at the age of 12, to Westlake School for Girls, an exclusive country day school in Los Angeles.

In 1944, David O. Selznick signed Shirley Temple to a four-year contract. She appeared in two wartime hits: Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, Edward F. Cline, 1944), and I'll Be Seeing You (William Dieterle, 1944). Selznick, however, became romantically involved with Jennifer Jones, and lost interest in developing Shirley's career. Temple was then lent to other studios. Kiss and Tell (Richard Wallace, 1945), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (Irving Reis, 1947) with Cary Grant, and Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948) with John Wayne and Henry Fonda, were her few good films at the time. Temple left the film industry in 1950 at the age of 22.

In 1958, Temple returned to show business with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations, Shirley Temple's Storybook. She made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of corporations and organisations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation.

She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S Mission under Ambassador Charles W. Yost. In 1988, she published her autobiography, 'Child Star'.

In 1943, 15-year-old Temple met John Agar, an Army Air Corps sergeant, physical training instructor, and member of a Chicago meat-packing family. She married him in 1945 before 500 guests. In 1948, Temple bore a daughter, Linda Susan. Agar became an actor, and the couple made two films together: Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949). The marriage became troubled, and Temple divorced Agar on December in 1950. She was awarded custody of their daughter.

In January 1950, Temple met Charles Alden Black, a World War II Navy intelligence officer and Silver Star recipient and reputedly one of the richest young men in California. Temple and Black were married in his parents' Del Monte, California home in 1950. In 1952, Temple gave birth to a son, Charles Alden Black, Jr., and in 1954 to a daughter, Lori. The couple were married for 54 years until his death in 2005.

Shirley Temple Black was 85, when she died in 2014 in Woodside, California. Temple was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.


Shirley Temple
German collectors card in the Unsere Bunten Filmbilder series by Cigarettenfabrik Josetti, Berlin, no. 229. Photo: Fox / Ross Verlag.

Shirley Temple
German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Caid, Series no. 2, no. 496. Photo: Fox-Film / Ross Verlag.

Shirley Temple (1928-2014)
French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinématographiques, no. 107. Photo: Fox-Film.

Shirley Temple and Bennie Bartlett in Just Around the Corner (1938)
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 181. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Shirley Temple and Bennie Bartlett in Just Around the Corner (Irving Cummings, 1938).

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

Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple in I'll Be Seeing You (1944)
Dutch postcard by J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 31 HL. Photo: Nederland Film. Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple in I'll Be Seeing You (William Dieterle, 1944).

Shirley Temple
Belgian postcard by N.V. Victoria, Brussels, no. 639 / 27. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ricardo Montalban

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Handsome Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009) was the epitome of elegance, charm and grace on film, stage and television. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he reinvigorated the Latin Lover style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. He fought to upscale the Latin image in Hollywood and this may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a solid reputation and provided wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors. Montalban is probably best remembered for his starring role as the mysterious Mr. Roarke on the TV series Fantasy Island (1977–1984), with Hervé Villechaize as his partner Tattoo, and as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise.

Ricardo Montalban
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1040. Photo: Columbia Pictures.

Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams in Neptune's Daughter (1949)
Belgian postcard, no. 951. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Neptune's Daughter (Edward Buzzell, 1949) with Esther Williams.

Ricardo Montalban
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 1694. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ricardo Montalban takes a few minutes between scenes of Two Weeks with Love (Roy Rowland, 1952) to start a summer tan.

He's a Latin from Staten Island


Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino was born in Mexico City in 1920 and grew up in Torreón. He was the youngest of four children to Castilian Spanish immigrants, Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán, a dry goods store owner. Montalbán moved to Los Angeles as a teen and lived with his much older brother Carlos Montalbán, who was then pursuing show business as both an actor and dancer.

Ricardo attended Fairfax High School in Hollywood and was noticed in a student play but passed a screen test. In 1940, he travelled with his brother to New York, where he earned a bit part in the Tallulah Bankhead stage vehicle Her Cardboard Lover, and won subsequent roles in the plays Our Betters and Private Affair. In 1941, Montalbán appeared in three-minute musicals produced for the Soundies film jukeboxes. He appeared in many of them as an extra or as a member of a singing chorus, and had the lead role in He's a Latin from Staten Island (1941). Simply billed as 'Ricardo', he played the title role of a guitar-strumming gigolo, accompanied by an offscreen vocal by Gus Van.

Returning to Mexico to care for his ill mother, his dark good looks and magnetic style helped propel him into the Spanish-language film industry. After 13 Spanish-language films, he was on the verge of stardom in Mexico when MGM took an interest in him. Montalban relocated back to Los Angeles. The studio wanted to change his name to Ricky Martin, but he refused.

He made his Hollywood leading debut as a robust bullfighter and twin brother of Esther Williams in the musical Fiesta (Richard Thorpe, 1947), and attracted immediate attention. His second film with Williams, On an Island with You (Richard Thorpe, 1948), led to a contract with the studio. He routinely ignited 'Latin Lover' sparks opposite such female stars as Cyd Charisse, Shelley Winters, Anne Bancroft, Pier Angeli, Laraine Day and (once again) Esther Williams, this time in Neptune's Daughter (Edward Buzzell, 1949).

One of his MGM extravaganzas opposite gorgeous Lana Turner was actually called Latin Lovers (Mervyn LeRoy, 1953). In this musical comedy, he replaced his friendly Latin Lover rival Fernando Lamas, because Lana Turner's real-life affair with Lamas had just reached a tempestuous conclusion. During the 1950s and 1960s, Montalban was one of only a handful of actively working Hispanic actors in Hollywood. He was seldom able to extricate himself from the usual portrayals of gringos, bandidos and gigolos, although he sometimes portrayed other ethnicities – occasionally of Japanese background.

He managed to find roles in interesting films, such as his turn as a Mexican undercover cop in the gritty Border Incident (Anthony Mann, 1949), a Cape Cod police officer in Mystery Street (John Sturges, 1950), the classic war film Battleground (William A. Wellman, 1949) with Van Johnson, and the hard-edged boxing drama Right Cross (John Sturges, 1950) with June Allyson and Dick Powell. He played a villainous Blackfoot Indian chief in Across the Wide Missouri (William A. Wellman, 1951) starring Clark Gable, a heroic, bare-chested rebel warrior in the steamy Italian sword-and-sandals costumer La cortigiana di Babilonia/The Queen of Babylon (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1954) alongside Rhonda Fleming, and a Japanese Kabuki actor in the Oscar-winning feature Sayonara (Joshua Logan, 1957), starring Marlon Brando.

During the filming of Across the Wide Missouri (1951), he suffered a serious injury to his spine after he slipped and fell off a running horse, which resulted in a permanent limp. In 1954, Montalban returned to the stage with varied roles in such fare as Can-Can, The Inspector General, South Pacific and Accent on Youth. In 1955, he made his Broadway debut as Chico in the original musical Seventh Heaven with Gloria DeHaven. He then earned a Tony nomination as the only non-African-American actor in the tropical-themed musical Jamaica (1957) singing several light-hearted calypso numbers opposite Lena Horne. He also toured as the title role in Don Juan in Hell in the 1960s, returning to Broadway with it in 1973 with Agnes Moorehead, and touring once again with the show in 1991.

Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban and Xavier Cugat in On an Island with You (1948)
Belgian postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban and Xavier Cugat in On an Island with You (Richard Thorpe, 1948).

Ricardo Montalban
British autograph card.

Ricardo Montalban
British autograph card.

Ricardo Montalban
Belgian postcard, no. AX-131. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Typically Playing Continental Smoothies


Ricardo Montalban had a strong work ethic and a reservoir of talent which enabled him to continue on television long after his exotic beefcake status in films had waned. He had married Loretta Young's half-sister Georgiana Young in 1944, and appeared on his sister-in-law's television series The New Loretta Young Show (1962) several times. He also showed up in a number of television dramatic anthologies like Playhouse 90 (1956) and Colgate Theatre (1958), and made guest appearances on the popular series of the day, such as Bonanza (1959), Dr. Kildare (1961), Burke's Law (1963), and Hawaii Five-O (1968). Memorable was a 1967 Star Trek episode in which he portrayed galaxy arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh. He resurrected this character in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982), starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

Over the years, he continued to appear occasionally on the big screen, typically playing continental smoothies, in such films as Love Is a Ball (David Swift, 1963) starring Glenn Ford, Madame X (David Lowell Rich, 1966) featuring Lana Turner, and Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse, 1969) with Shirley MacLaine, but it was television that finally made him a household name.

Montalban won an Emmy for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1976). He captivated audiences as the urbane, white-suited concierge of mystery Mr. Roarke in the Aaron Spelling series Fantasy Island (1977). He stayed with the series for six seasons, buoyed by his popular 'odd couple' teaming with Hervé Villechaize, who played Mr. Roarke's diminutive sidekick, and fellow greeter, Tattoo.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "While it may have seemed a somewhat lightweight and undemanding role for the talented Montalban, it nevertheless became his signature character. The series faltered after Villechaize, who had become erratic and difficult on the set, was fired from the series in 1983. Corpulent Britisher Christopher Hewett, as Lawrence, replaced the Tattoo character but to little avail and the series was canceled one season later. The troubled Villechaize committed suicide in 1993."

Montalban was a noteworthy villain in the Dynasty (1981) spin-off soap series The Colbys (1985). Montalban was also famous for a series of television commercials in which he returned somewhat to his Latin lover persona. For years in the 1970s, he was a commercial spokesperson for Chrysler Corporation automobiles. Later, he good-naturedly spoofed his Hollywood image in a number of featured parts, including a hilarious send-up of himself in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker, 1988), starring Leslie Nielsen. His deep, soothing, confident tones could also be heard in animated features and television series.

Frustrated at Hollywood's portrayal of Mexicans, he helped to found, and gave support to the image-building Nosotros organisation, a Los Angeles theatre-based company designed for Latinos working in the industry. In 1997, Nosotros and the Montalban foundation bought the historic Doolittle Theater in Hollywood, which was built in 1927, and renamed the theatre in his honour in 2004. It became the first major theatre facility (1200 seats) in the United States to carry the name of a Latino performing artist.

In 1980 he, along with Bob Thomas, published his memoir, 'Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds'. Gary Brumburgh: "A class act who was beloved in the industry for his gentle and caring nature, the long-term effects of his spinal injury eventually confined him to a wheelchair in his later years." In 1993, he had a 9 1/2 hour surgical operation on his spine to repair the old back injury. He had been in constant pain ever since. The operation left him paralysed below the waist and requiring the use of a wheelchair. That year, he won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

Montalban continued to perform, providing voices for animated films and supporting his Nosotros foundation. Two of his final film roles were as the grandfather in the two Spy Kids sequels: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (Robert Rodriguez, 2002) and Spy Kids 3: Game Over (Robert Rodriguez, 2003). Rodriguez created the role specifically for Montalban, which included the use of a jet-propelled wheelchair.

Ricardo Montalban died in his Los Angeles home of complications from old age in 2009 at the age of 88. His wife, Georgiana Young, had died in 2007, and he was survived by their two daughters and two sons: Laura, Anita, Victor and Mark. Montalban was interred with his wife at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Ricardo Montalban
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 149. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Ricardo Montalban
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 500. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1953.

Ricardo Montalban
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 317. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Ricardo Montalban
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 670. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Zizi Jeanmaire

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Glamorous ballet dancer and film star Zizi Jeanmaire (1924) became famous in the 1950s after playing the title role in the ballet version of Carmen, produced in London in 1949. She went on to appear in films in France and Hollywood. She is the widow of dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, one of the major creative forces in ballet during the 1940s and 1950s.

Zizi Jeanmaire
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 797. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Zizi Jeanmaire in Casino de Paris
French postcard by Iris / Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 455. Caption: Le tableau final de la revue du Casino de Paris. (The final picture of the stage production 'Revue' at the Casino de Paris.)

Erotic Frankness in Dance


Renée Marcelle Jeanmaire was born in Paris, France, in 1924.

At the age of nine, she entered the Paris Opéra Ballet school in 1933, where she would meet her future husband and long-time collaborator Roland Petit.

In 1940, she was engaged in the corps de ballet. In 1944, Renée Jeanmaire quited the Paris Opera House to work with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. She briefly joined Petit’s new company, Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées in 1946, and reunited with him at Les Ballets de Paris in 1949.

Petit defined a new French chic and erotic frankness in dance, and Jeanmaire became his muse and prima ballerina. Petit reinvented the suffering, virginal ballerina as a provocative, irresistible femme fatale of the modern day. Two of their most famous ballets were Le jeune homme et la mort (The Young Man and the Death) and Carmen, with Jeanmaire as the lethal female destroying a hapless male in both.

In its 2011 obituary of Petit, The Telegraph candidly recalled: “Petit created Carmen, an encapsulation of Bizet's opera in ballet, which premiered in 1949 at the Prince's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, and became an instant world hit. Jeanmaire bobbed her hair short and wore a scant black corset, which, coupled with the candid seductiveness of her pas de deux with Petit, caused both shock and delight among the crowds who rushed to see it. One observer commented that he could see men's trouser buttons popping during the performance.“

Their ballets caused a sensation worldwide and Petit and Jeanmaire (now Zizi Jeanmaire) swiftly became the most exciting names in French dance. Samuel Goldwyn invited them to come to Hollywood for the choreography and leading lady role in the fantasy Hans Christian Andersen (Charles Vidor, 1952) starring Danny Kaye as the famous Danish fairytale writer.

In 1954 Petit and Jeanmaire married.

Zizi Jeanmaire
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 615. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Reinventing the Paris Revue


When Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire toured the Ballets de Paris through the U.S. in 1955 they were showered with Hollywood invitations. To Jeanmaire's chagrin, Petit chose a younger lookalike, Leslie Caron, to be the lead in his Fred Astaire musical Daddy Long Legs (Jean Negulesco, 1955).

Jeanmaire did appear in Petit’s Anything Goes (Robert Lewis, 1956) with Bing Crosby, but her Hollywood stint was brief. She returned to France to appear in such musicals as Folies-Bergère (Henri Decoin, 1956) with Eddie Constantine and choreography by Petit. In this film she first sang her hit song Mon truc en plumes (My Feather Trick).

Petit also choreographed 1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs/Black Tights (Terence Young, 1960) to show Zizi Jeanmaire's magnetic balletic gifts alongside Cyd Charisse and Moira Shearer.

Petit then created La Revue des Ballets de Paris and set about reinventing the Paris revue around his wife, exploring new levels of luxury and sophistication for her many talents. Not only did Jeanmaire dance like an angel in any style, dressed flamboyantly (and sometimes minimally) by costumiers such as Erté, but she possessed an alluring singing voice and a worldly verbal wit that sold countless records.

In 1970, Petit accepted to take the direction of the Paris Opera ballet, but he resigned after only six months. He bought Le Casino de Paris to create two musicals: 'La Revue' and 'Zizi je t’aime', with scenery and costumes from Erté, Yves Saint Laurent, Vasarély, Guy Pellaert, and César. Lyrics are by Jean-Jacques Debout, Guy Béart, Jean Férrat, Michel Legrand, and Serge Gainsbourg. The result was a supercharged new kind of music-hall, in which Zizi was the centre. In 1976, in spite of the big success, the tax burden forced Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire to give up Le Casino de Paris.

During her career, Zizi Jeanmaire produced more than 60 shows with Petit. She was honoured to be Chevalier des arts et des lettres (in 1962), Chevalier de la légion d’honneur (1974), Officier de l’ordre national du mérite (1983), Officier de la Légion d’honneur (1993), and Commandeur de l’ordre national du mérite (1997).

Roland Petit passed away in 2011. He and Zizi had one daughter, Valentine Petit, a dancer and actress. Zizi Jeanmaire lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

Zizi Jeanmaire, Rudolf Nureyev
French postcard by Repetto, Paris. Photo: Studio Mardyks.

Sources: Official Roland Petit site, The Telegraph, Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.

Das goldene Kalb (1924)

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The German silent drama Das goldene Kalb/The Golden Calf (1924) by Peter Paul Felner has an all-star cast with Henny Porten, Albert Steinrück, Olga Engl, Rosa Valetti, Angelo Ferrari, Colette Brettel, Johannes Riemann and the Russian actor Ossip Runitsch. However, the postcards by Ross Verlag all focus on Henny Porten, and her love interest in the film, the Italian Angelo Ferrari.

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/1. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/2. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924). The woman on the left is Rosa Valetti.

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/3. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).

Dividing the Golden Calf in two


In Das goldene Kalb/The Golden Calf (1924), the female owner of a large fortune should, according to the wishes of her father, leave only one of her two grandchildren - two boys - the entire property. The woman decides to give the whole heir to one grandchild.

Then she is tormented by a vision and sees the granddaughter of the other, disadvantaged grandchild will once grow up as an orphan. The girl will fall into the hands of an unscrupulous adventurer and end up on the gallows.

To prevent this terrible fate, the old lady now decides to favour the other grandchild. But this decision proves to be fatal in a second vision: for now, the grandson of the disinherited will become a criminal and also land under the gallows.

The testator decides, therefore, against the desire of her own father, to the only true, Solomonic solution: she divides the heritage, the 'golden calf', into two equal parts and thus follows her sense of justice.

Das goldene Kalb/The Golden Calf was shot in the autumn of 1924. The exterior shots were taken near Dürnstein. Otto Erdmann and Hans Sohnle created the film sets. Eugen Kürschner was the location manager.

Das goldene Kalb passed the film censorship on 15 December 1924. It premiered on 30 January 1925, in Vienna, where it was banned from schools. The German premiere took place on 17 April 1925, in the Alhambra cinema on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.

Paimann's Filmliste state: "The subject is interestingly worked, in the director's afloat, the presentation in all roles very well, Henny Porten especially in some scenes of the first action interesting, where she managed to get rid of the usual template. Featuring and photos are sour work, the latter noteworthy, especially in the beautiful outdoor scenes near Dürnstein.

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/4. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/5. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).

Henny Porten in Das goldene Kalb (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 593/6. Photo: Westi-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Das goldene Kalb (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).

Sources: Wikipedia (German), Filmportal.de, and IMDb.

Elli Parvo

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Elli Parvo (1914–2010) was an Italian screen actress between the mid-1930s and 1960 and known as 'the woman men fight over' as in Desiderio (1943-1945) or 'the femme fatale' as in Il sole sorge ancora (1946).

Elli Parvo
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini Editori, Florence, no. 2392. Photo: Generalcine.

Mundane, lush ladies of loose morals


Elli Parvo, an anagram of her real name Elvira Gobbo, was born in Milan, in 1914. Her father was from Friuli, her mother from Berlin.

Elli was educated in a Swiss school in her native town. She debuted at the age of 19 as an extra in the period piece Teresa Confalonieri/Loyalty of Love (1934) by Guido Brignone. Several bit parts followed.

From 1937, she also had major roles in Italian films, as in the comedy Lasciate ogni speranza/Abandon all hope (Gennaro Righelli, 1937) with Antonio Gandusio, Gatta ci cova/Cat cats us (Gennaro Righelli, 1937) with Angelo Musco, Mia moglie si diverte, the Italian version of the multiversion film Unsere kleine Frau/Our Little Wife (Paul Verhoeven, 1938) with Käthe von Nagy, Il marchese di Ruvolito/The Marquis of Ruvolo (Raffaele Matarazzo, 1939) with Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo, and La notte delle beffe/The Night of Tricks (Carlo Campogalliani, 1939) with Amedeo Nazzari and Dria Paola.

During the first war years, Parvo was most active in film, acting in about six films per year. In La donna perduta/The lost woman (Domenico Gambino, 1940), she had the lead, opposite a range of former actors of the silent screen including Alberto Capozzi, Mary Cléo Tarlarini and Oreste Bilancia.

She appeared in Ridi pagliaccio/Laugh clown (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1941) with Fosco Giacchettiand Laura Solari, and played the lead in L’allegro fantasma/The Happy Ghost (Amleto Palermi, 1941) with Totò.

Parvo often played either cheeky maids as in Sette anni di felicità/Seven Years of Happiness (Ernst Marischka, Roberto Savarese, 1942) and its German version, Sieben Jahre Glück (Ernst Marischka, 1942) – both shot at Cinecittà, or mundane, lush ladies of loose morals, such as Angela, the girlfriend of Francesca Cenci in Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941) featuring Carola Höhn.

Her other films from the war years include I due Foscari/The two Foscari (Enrico Fulchignoni, 1942), Il fanciullo del West/The child of the West (Giorgio Ferroni, 1942) with Macario– considered the first Italian Western parody, Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1943) with Viviance Romance, and La porta del cielo/The Gates of Heaven (Vittorio De Sica, 1944).


Elli Parvo
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & Co., Milan, 1940. Photo: Caminada.

Elli Parvo
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini Editori, Florence, no. 4304. Photo: Pesce /Scalera Film. Parvo's outfit is that of I due Foscari (Enrico Fulchignoni, 1942).

Not afraid of showing as much of her body as could be


"Gorgeous, dark-haired, luscious-lipped, shapely-legged, not afraid of showing as much of her body as could be, Elli Parvo was THE femme fatale of post-war Italy", writes Guy Bellinger at IMDb.

She got this repuataion with the female lead in Desiderio (Marcello Pagliero, 1946). The film was started by Roberto Rossellini in 1943 as Scalo merci/Goods terminal, but finished by Pagliero. The film tells the tragic story of Paola, a woman who hides her former life as prostitute for Giovanni, an honest man (Carlo Ninchi) who wants to marry her. Returned to her village and family because of her sister’s wedding, he follows her, so in the end three men rival for her: her lover, her brother-in-law and an evil former lover. She cannot cope with this and kills herself. The film was quickly taken out of release and cut back by the censors, partly for having shown Parvo bare-breasted.

Also released in 1946 was the classic Neorealist film Il sole sorge ancora/Outcry, directed by her husband Aldo Vergano. Here Parvo played Matilde, a wealthy estate owner who, towards the end of the war in Italy, seduces the male lead, the ex-soldier Cesare (Vittorio Duse), who has returned to his village, finding it filled with displaced persons.

More femme fatale parts followed in the rural dramas Legge di sangue/Blood law (Luigi Capuano, 1948) with Leonardo Cortese and Luigi Tosi, Vertigine d'amore/Vertigo of love (Luigi Capuano, 1949) with Charles Vanel and Folco Lulli, and Santo disonore/Dishonored (Guido Brignone, 1950) with men constantly fighting about her.

Parvo also acted in two comedies by Luigi Zampa: È più facile che un cammello.../Twelve Hours to Live (1950) with Jean Gabin, and L'arte di arrangiarsi/The Art of Getting Along (1954) with Alberto Sordi.

In the mid-fifties Parvo’s career went into decline, when her femme fatale-like characters became less in demand. Her only important participation was a parody of her stereotype, alongside Totò, in Totò terzo uomo/Toto the Third Man (1951), by Mario Mattoli. She can also be seen in a bit part in Antonioni's heart-rending Il grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957). In 1960, after playing a small role in Madri pericolose/Dangerous Mothers (Domenico Paolella, 1960), Parvo retired.

Elli Parvo died in 2010 in Rome, at the high age of 94.

Eli Parvo
Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 82. Photo: Pesce.

Elli Parvo
Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 141. Photo: Atlas Tirrenia.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Corinne Griffith

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Corinne Griffith (1894–1979) was dubbed 'The Orchid Lady of the Screen'. She was one of the most popular American film actresses of the 1920s and widely considered the most beautiful star of the silent screen. While she started out at Vitagraph in 1916, she became a very popular actress at First National Pictures. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for The Divine Lady (1929). When sound film set in, Griffith stopped acting and became a successful writer and businesswoman.

Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (1929)
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 19. Photo: First National. Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (Frank Lloyd, 1929).

Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (1929)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3679/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Defina / First National. Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (Frank Lloyd, 1929).

Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (1929)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3679/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Defina / First National. Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (Frank Lloyd, 1929).

Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (1929)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 103/5, 1928-1929. Photo: Defina / First National. Corinne Griffith in The Divine Lady (Frank Lloyd, 1929).

A highly unusual character for the 1920s


Corinne Mae Griffith was born in 1896 in Texarkana, Texas, as the daughter of John Lewis Griffin, a Methodist minister, and Ambolina (Ambolyn) Ghio Griffin. She was educated in the Sacred Heart Convent school in New Orleans and worked as a dancer before she began her acting career.

She signed a studio contract with Vitagraph in 1916 and made quite a few films there, e.g. opposite the male lead at Vitagraph then, Earle Williams. By 1920 she had become a well-known film star herself at Vitagraph, known as 'The Orchid Lady of the Screen'.

Able to command her salaries, she left Vitagraph for First National Pictures in 1923, where her salaries were raised from 2.500 dollars a week in 1923 to 10.000 a week in 1927. In contrast to her ethereal screen image, Griffith negotiated each of her contracts personally and also personally dealt with the issue of her high salaries.

By the mid-1920s, she was considered Hollywood's richest woman next to Mary Pickford. In addition, already at Vitagraph, she could choose from three leading men and three directors. Also, she obtained decent working hours for herself on shooting days, which was uncommon in those years.

As Tom Slater writes in his biography on Women Film Pioneers Project, "A great beauty and comic talent, Griffith also played dramatic roles in which her character faced major decisions affecting her life and many others. Altogether, this body of work reveals the centrality and complexity of women’s roles in the post-Victorian consumer society.

In The Common Law (1923), Classified (1925), and The Garden of Eden (1928), directed by Lewis Milestone, Griffith must endure male lechery while attempting to earn a living and find romance. In Single Wives (1924), Déclassée (1925), and Three Hours (1927), she played wives involved in traumatic searches for love and meaning due to spousal abuse and neglect. In Black Oxen (1923), Griffith plays a highly unusual character for the twenties, or, indeed, probably any era, a woman who rejects romance for a political career."

Corinne Griffith
British postcard by Cinema Chat. Photo: Vitagraph.

Corinne Griffith
Belgian postcard by S. A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvorde / N. V. Cacao en Chocolade Kivou, Vilvoorde. Photo: United Artists.

Corinne Griffith
French postcard by A.N. (A. Noyer), Paris, no. 124. Photo: Bird. Corinne Griffith in Black Oxen (Frank Lloyd, 1923).

Corinne Griffith
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 316.

Corinne Griffith and Milton Sills in Single Wives (1924)
Danish postcard by Eneret, no. 725. Photo: First National. Corinne Griffith and Milton Sills in Single Wives (George Archainbaud, 1924).

A fabulous personal fortune


During her Vitagraph years, Corinne Griffith modestly lived at the Hotel des Artistes, while she would buy a large home when working at First National. Moreover, Slater reveals that in 1926, Griffith paid $185,000 for two properties in downtown Beverly Hills. This property would become the basis for a second career in real estate and a fabulous personal fortune.

By consequence, she became the first woman to address the National Realty Board in the early 1950s and campaigned throughout that decade to repeal the federal income tax. At one stage, Griffith owned four complete office buildings in Los Angeles.

She was the executive producer of eleven of her films starting with Single Wives (George Archainbaud, 1924) and ending with Three Hours (James Flood, 1927).

In 1929, Griffith was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Frank Lloyd's The Divine Lady (1929), a historical drama about the lives of Lady Emma Hamilton and Admiral Nelson.

This was an American Vitaphone sound film with a synchronised musical score, sound effects, and some synchronised singing, but no spoken dialogue. Griffith played the female lead of Lady Hamilton, opposite Victor Varconi as Horatio Nelson.

Anthony Slide argues in 'Silent Players' that The Divine Lady was even more fitted to end the silent film era than F. W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise (1928): "it is even better that silent film came to a close with the brilliant romanticism of Corinne Griffith's The Divine Lady, which is exemplary of the best in direction (by Frank Lloyd), scripting (by Agnes Christine Johnston), cinematography (by John Seitz), and above all is dominated by a lyrical performance of its star."  Slide's assessment is supported by the fact that The Divine Lady received Oscars for photography and direction.

In 1930, Griffith's first real sound film, Lilies of the Field, (Alexander Korda, 1930) with Ralph Forbes, was released. Her voice did not record well and The New York Times stated that she "talked through her nose". The film was a box office flop, as war her next film, Back Pay (William A. Seiter, 1930). First National paid the actress $ 250,000 to terminate her contract with the studio.

Griffith made another film in the UK for Paramount-British Lily Christine (Paul L. Stein, 1932) opposite Colin Clive, and in 1935-1936, she did a theatre tour of Noël Coward's 'Design for Living'. After the tour was finished, she retired from acting.

Corinne Griffith
British postcard in the Pictures Potrait Gallery series by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 10/202. Sent by mail in 1931.

Corinne Griffith
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 62.

Corinne Griffith
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 897/2, 1925-1926. Photo: First National Pictures, New York.

Corinne Griffith
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4090/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Defina / First National.

Corinne Griffith
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4945/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Defina / First National.

The real Corinne Griffith?


After 1936, Corinne Griffith focused on her real estate and her writing. In the late 1950s, she returned one more time to the screen in the last film by actor-producer-director Hugo Haas, the low-budget social commentary Stars in Your Own Backyard.  It was released as Paradise Alley (Hugo Haas, 1961), and at IMDb, the few reviewers are very positive about the film and about Griffith's performance.

One of the 13 books she published was her biography: 'Papa's Delicate Condition'. In 1963, the book was filmed as Papa's Delicate Condition (George Marshall, 1963). Griffith was not fond of the film. In the credits, her name was misspelled as "Corrine Griffith". She had unsuccessfully campaigned for Fred Astaire to play her father and was disappointed with the choice of Jackie Gleason.

In addition, she wrote the text of 'Hail to the Redskins', the official hymn of the American football team the Washington Redskins, with whose owner George Preston Marshall she was married from 1936 to 1958. She described the experiences around the team in another bestseller, 'My Life with the Redskins'.

In the mid-1960s, Griffith's name reappeared in the headlines when she wanted to annul her short-term marriage with the 33-year-younger realtor and former Broadway actor Danny Scholl in court. During the process, she said that she was, in fact, the - at least 20 years younger and long-dead - sister of Corinne Griffith.

However, several colleagues from the silent film era, including Lois Wilson, Claire Windsor, and Betty Blythe, were able to prove in the course of the trial that the plaintiff would clearly be the real Corinne Griffith. Griffith pertained until her death she was her sister.

Griffith was married four times, first to her frequent co-star Vitagraph actor-director Webster Campbell (1920-1923). Then she mattied theatre producer Walter Morosco (1924-1934 or 1928-1934), who produced Lewis Milestone's The Garden of Eden, the sole film to come out of their short-lived joint production company Corinne Griffith Productions.

Her third husband was George Marshall (1936-1958), founder and longtime owner of the Washington Redskins. At the age of 71 she married realtor and Broadway actor Dan Scholl in 1965. They separated after six weeks and, following a messy and much publicised court battle, they were divorced. Griffith had no children of her own but had adopted two girls, Pamela and Cynthia.

Apart from real estate, she developed as a writer, painter, and composer. When she passed away in 1979, at her mansion in Bevely Hills, Corinne Griffith left behind an estate of about $ 150 million. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1560 Wine Street, reminds of the actress.

Tom Tryon wrote a novella, Fedora, based on Griffith's claim that she had taken the place of the real actress. It was filmed by Billy Wilder as Fedora (1978) starring Hildegard Knef and Marthe Keller.

Sources: Anthony Slide (Silent Players), Tom Slater (Women Film Pioneers Project), Tim Lussier (Silents are Golden), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

Photo by MGM

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM or Metro) is one of the world's oldest film studios. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. From the end of the silent film era through the late 1950s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the dominant  Hollywood studio. MGM had 'More Stars Than There Are in Heaven' including Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Ethel, Lionel, and John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Jeanette MacDonald, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, and Greer Garson. In 1971, it was announced that MGM was to merge with 20th Century Fox, but the plan never came to fruition. Over the next 39 years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history.

Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow. Spanish collectors card by J.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Judy Garland
Judy Garland. Belgian postcard by S.A. Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney. Belgian postcard by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn. Belgian postcard by N.V. Victoria, Brussels, no. 12. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Cary Grant
Cary Grant. Belgian postcard by N.V. Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A Boy Wonder and a Lion called Slats


In 1924, film theatre magnate Marcus Loew had a problem. He had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loew's Theatres chain. With Loew's lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality. However, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theatres.

Approached by Louis B. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924. Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. Mayer would remain executive head of the studio for 25 years. The 24-year-old 'boy wonder' Thalberg became the creative head of production with the authority to reedit any MGM film, along with the no-nonsense Harry Rapf, as production supervisor. The new studio launched with tremendous success when their first silent film, He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924) starring Lon Chaney, became a critical and commercial hit.

MGM's classic logo, a roaring lion encircled in a banner with the words Ars Gratia Artis (Art for Art's Sake), was already created in 1916 for the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation by ad executive Howard Dietz. The first lion, called Slats, was used for the original Goldwyn Pictures design and for the first MGM version. He didn’t actually roar, preferring to people watch. The lion gave an audible roar on 31 July 1928 for the premiere of the film White Shadows in the South Seas. The roar was heard via a gramophone record.

From the outset, MGM tapped into the audience's need for glamour and sophistication. Having inherited few big names from their predecessor companies, Mayer and Thalberg began at once to create and publicise a host of new stars, among them were Greta GarboJohn Gilbert, William Haines, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer, who followed Thalberg from Universal. They soon became husband and wife.

Established names like 'the man of a thousand faces'Lon Chaney, William Powell, Buster Keaton, Marion Davies, Ramon Novarro and Wallace Beery were hired from other studios. They also hired top directors such as King Vidor, Clarence Brown, Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, and Victor Sjöström a.k.a. Victor Seastrom.

In its first two years, MGM produced more than 100 feature films. In 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925) featuring Ramon Novarro, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Soon followed two other hits, The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925) starring John Gilbert, and Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926) with Gilbert and Greta Garbo. Also in 1925, MGM, Paramount and Ufa formed a joint German distributor, Parufamet.

MGM was one of the first studios to experiment with filming in Technicolor. Using the two-color Technicolor process then available, MGM filmed portions of The Uninvited Guest (Ralph Ince, 1924), The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925), and Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925), among others, in the process. MGM released The Viking (Roy William Neill, 1928), the first complete Technicolor feature with a synchronised score and sound effects, but no spoken dialogue.

Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loew's passed to Nicholas Schenck. In 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew family's holdings with Schenck's assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision. Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds.

During this time, in the summer of 1929, Fox was badly hurt in an automobile accident. By the time he recovered, the stock market crash in the fall of 1929 had nearly wiped Fox out and ended any chance of the Loew's merger going through. Schenck and Mayer had never gotten along (Mayer reportedly referred to his boss as Mr. Skunk), and the abortive Fox merger increased the animosity between the two men.

Ben-Hur
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 73/4. Photo: Parufamet / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro (or his double?) leading the chariot in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).

John Gilbert in The Big Parade
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 393. Photo: MGM. John Gilbertin The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925).

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil (1926)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1886/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926).

Jackie Coogan in Buttons (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Jackie Coogan in Buttons (George W. Hill, 1927).

Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1894/1, 1927-1928. Photo: MGM / FaNuMet.

All-color, all-talking


MGM was the very last studio to convert to sound film with their first full-fledged 'talkie', the musical The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929). However, it was both a box-office success and won the Academy Award as Best Picture of the Year. MGM had moved slowly and reluctantly into the sound era, releasing features like White Shadows in the South Seas (W.S. Van Dyke, 1928) with music and sound effects, and Alias Jimmy Valentine (Jack Conway, 1928) featuring William Haines, with limited dialogue sequences. The arrival of talking pictures gave opportunities to new stars, many of whom would carry MGM through the 1930s: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Jeanette MacDonald, and Nelson Eddy among them.

MGM's first all-color, 'all-talking' sound feature with dialogue was the musical The Rogue Song (Lionel Barrymore, 1930). MGM included a sequence made in Technicolor's superior new three-color process, a musical number in the otherwise black-and-white The Cat and the Fiddle (William K. Howard, 1934), starring Jeanette MacDonald and Ramon Novarro. The studio then produced a number of three-color short subjects including the musical La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935). Their first complete feature in the process was Sweethearts (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938) with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, the earlier of the popular singing team's two films in colour. From then on, MGM regularly produced several films a year in Technicolor with Northwest Passage (King Vidor, 1940) being one of the most notable.

Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932) became the first film to feature an 'all-star' cast for the studio with such stars as John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery, and Lionel Barrymore all gathered together. Other popular films of the early 1930s included Anna Christie (Clarence Brown, 1930), The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard, 1930) starring Norma Shearer, Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931) with Harry Carey, Private Lives (Sidney Franklin, 1931), Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933), and A Free Soul (Clarence Brown, 1931), starring Shearer and one of MGM's most appealing new leading men, Clark Gable.

In addition to a large short-subjects program of its own, MGM also released the shorts and features produced by Hal Roach Studios, including comedy shorts starring Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang and Charley Chase. MGM's distribution deal with Roach lasted from 1927 to 1938, and MGM benefited in particular from the success of the popular Laurel and Hardy films. In 1938, MGM purchased the rights to the Our Gang series and moved the production in-house, continuing production of the successful series of children's comedies until 1944. From 1929 to 1931, MGM produced a series of comedy shorts called All Barkie Dogville Comedies, in which trained dogs were dressed up to parody contemporary films and were voiced by actors. One of the shorts, The Dogway Melody (Zion Myers, Jules White, 1930), spoofed MGM's hit musical The Broadway Melody (1929).

MGM entered the music industry by purchasing the 'Big Three' starting with Miller Music Publishing Co. in 1934 then Robbins Music Corporation. In 1935, MGM acquired a controlling interest in the capital stock of Leo Feist, Inc., the last of the 'Big Three'. During the first musical craze of 1928-1930, a custom MGM label was created by Columbia using tunes from MGM productions that were recorded by Columbia.

MGM produced approximately 50 pictures a year, though it never met its goal of releasing a new motion picture each and every week. Loew's 153 theatres were mostly located in New York, the Northeast, and Deep South. Gone with the Wind(Victor Fleming, 1939) had its world premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. A fine reputation was gained for lavish productions that were sophisticated and polished to cater to an urban audience. Still, as the Great Depression deepened, MGM began to economise by 'recycling' existing sets, costumes, and furnishings from yesteryear projects. This recycling practice never let up once started.

In addition, MGM saved money because it was the only one of the big five studios that did not own an off-site movie ranch. Until the mid-1950s, MGM could make a claim its rivals could not: it never lost money, although it did have an occasional disaster like Parnell (John M. Stahl, 1937), Clark Gable's biggest flop. It was the only Hollywood studio that continued to pay dividends during the 1930s.

Norma Shearer and John Gilbert in The Hollywood Revue of 1929
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4700/1. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Norma Shearer as Juliet and John Gilbert as Romeo in the early sound film The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (Charles Reisner, 1929), shot as a series of variety acts. In the film, this sequence was shot in two-color Technicolor.

Jean Hersholt in Grand Hotel (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7244/1, 1932-1933, distributed in Italy by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jean Hersholt in Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932).

Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in Red Dust (1932)
Dutch postcard, no. 483. Photo: M.G.M. Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932). Sent by mail in 1935.

Charles Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Dutch postcard, no. 705. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Charles Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935).


Tyrone Power and Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 180. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tyrone Power and Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938).

The King of Hollywood


MGM stars dominated the box-office during the 1930s, and the studio was credited for inventing the Hollywood stable of stars system, as well. MGM contracted with the American Musical Academy of Arts Association to handle all of their press and artist development. The AMAAA's main function was to develop the budding stars and to make them appealing to the public. Stars such as Norma Shearer, Joan CrawfordGreta Garbo, Myrna Loy and Jeanette MacDonald reigned as the top-paid figures at the studio.

Another MGM sex symbol actress, Jean Harlow, who had previously appeared in the Howard Hughes film Hell's Angels (1930), now had a big break and became one of MGM's most admired stars, as well. Despite Harlow's gain, Garbo still was a big star for MGM. Shearer was still a money maker despite screen appearances becoming scarce, and Crawford continued her box-office power until 1937. MGM also received a boost through the man who would become 'King of Hollywood', Clark Gable. Gable's career took off to new heights after he won an Oscar for the Columbia film It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934).

Mayer and Irving Thalberg's relationship began warmly, but eventually the two became estranged. Thalberg preferred literary works to the crowd-pleasers Mayer wanted. He enjoyed selecting novels for film adaptation. Some of these great literary films included Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935), The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin,1936), Captains Courageous (1938), and his crowning achievement, Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938). Thalberg, always physically frail, was removed as head of production in 1932. Mayer encouraged other staff producers, among them his son-in-law David O. Selznick, but no one seemed to have the sure touch of Thalberg. As Thalberg fell increasingly ill in 1936, Louis B. Mayer could now serve as his temporary replacement. Thalberg's early death in 1936, at age 37, cost MGM dearly.

Mayer became head of production, as well as studio chief, becoming the first million-dollar executive in American history. The company remained profitable. The change toward 'series' pictures like Andy Hardy starring Mickey Rooney, Maisie starring Ann Sothern, Dr. Kildare, Tarzan, and the Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, is evidence of Mayer's restored influence. Also playing a huge role was Ida Koverman, Mayer's secretary and right hand.

In 1937, Mayer hired Mervyn LeRoy, a former Warner Bros. producer/director as MGM's top producer and Thalberg's replacement. LeRoy talked Mayer into purchasing the rights to make a film version of the popular book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 1939 was undoubtedly the golden year for the studio. Hits in 1939 included The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), Boys Town (Norman Taurog, 1939), The Women (George Cukor, 1938), Goodbye Mr. Chips (Sam Wood, 1939), Babes in Arms, At the Circus with The Marx Brothers, and Gone with the Wind(Victor Fleming, 1939) starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. It was a beautiful send-off to a glorious decade of glamour and roaring good success.

Leslie Howard, Olivia De Havilland and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the wind (1939)
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 345. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leslie Howard, Olivia De Havilland and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). Caption: Bridal scene from Gone with the Wind.

Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone with the wind (1939)
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 347. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the wind (1939)
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 348. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the wind (1939)
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 349. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Vivien Leigh in Gone with the wind, 1939
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 350. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Dishing out chunky slices of Mayer-made American apple pie


Throughout World War II, MGM broke record breaking profits. Constance and Diana Metzinger write at their blog Silver Scenes that MGM was "dishing out colorful period films which showcased their biggest star Judy Garland (Meet Me in St. Louis, Little Nellie Kelly, The Harvey Girls); patriotic flag wavers for the women at home (Mrs. Miniver, The White Cliffs of Dover, The Clock); and chunky slices of Mayer-made American apple pie (The Andy Hardy series, The Human Comedy, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes). These films celebrated family values and were filled with scenes that made audiences weep, laugh, smile and cheer all at the same time."

Within one year, beginning in 1942, Mayer released his five highest-paid actresses from their studio contracts: Joan Crawford, Norma ShearerGreta Garbo, Myrna Loy and Jeanette MacDonald. After a two-year hiatus, Crawford moved to Warner Brothers, where her career took a dramatic upturn. Shearer and Garbo never made another film after leaving the lot. Of the five stars, Loy and MacDonald were the only two whom Mayer rehired, in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

Increasingly, before and during World War II, Mayer came to rely on his 'College of Cardinals'— senior producers who controlled the studio's output. This management-by-committee resulted in MGM losing its momentum, developing few new stars and relying on the safety of sequels and bland material. Production values remained high. After 1940, production was cut from 50 pictures a year to a more manageable 25 features per year. During this time, MGM released very successful musicals with players such as Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra.

Audiences began drifting to television in the late 1940s. MGM found it difficult to attract them to theatres. With its high overhead expenses, MGM's profit margins continued to decrease. Word came from Nicholas Schenck in New York: find 'a new Thalberg' who could improve quality while paring costs. Mayer thought he had found this savior in Dore Schary, a writer and producer who had found success at running RKO. Top notch musicals were Schary's focus, with hits like Easter Parade and Mario Lanza's The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951) keeping MGM afloat.

In August 1951, Mayer was fired by MGM's East Coast executives and was replaced by Schary. Schary gradually cut loose expensive contract players including $6,000-a-week Judy Garland in 1950. He also saved money by recycling existing film sets instead of building costly new scenery, and reworking pricey old costumes. Schary managed to keep the studio running much as it had through the early 1940s though his sensibilities for hard-edged, message films would never bear much fruit.

One bright spot was MGM musical pictures, under the aegis of producer Arthur Freed, who was operating what amounted to an independent unit within the studio. MGM produced some well-regarded and profitable musicals that would be later acknowledged as classics. Among them were An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951) with Gene Kelly, Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954). However, Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954), Deep in My Heart (Stanley Donen, 1954), It's Always Fair Weather (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1955), and Invitation to the Dance (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1956), were extravagant song and dance flops, and even the now-classic The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953) starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, lost money in its initial release. Audiences more and more were staying home and watching television.

As the studio system faded in the late 1950s and 1960s, MGM's prestige faded with it. In 1957, the year Mayer died, the studio lost money for the first time in its 34-year history. Cost overruns and the failure of the big-budget epic Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1957) starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, prompted the studio to release Schary from his contract. Schary's reign at MGM had been marked with few bonafide hits, but his departure along with the retirement of Schenck in 1955, left a power vacuum that would prove difficult to fill. Initially Joseph Vogel became president and Sol Siegel head of production. By 1960, MGM had released all of its contract players, with many either retiring or moving on to television.

Mickey Rooney, Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland and Lana Turner in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1281. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mickey Rooney, Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland and Lana Turner in Love Finds Andy Hardy (George B. Seitz, 1938).

Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland and Lana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Dutch postcard, no. 3114. Photo: MGM. Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland andLana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl (Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley, 1941).

Vera Ellen and Gene Kelly in On the Town (1949)
French postcard, no. 1. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vera Ellen and Gene Kelly in On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949).

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

Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly in An American in Paris (1951)
Vintage autograph card. Photo: Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly in An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951).

A nearly four-hour Technicolor epic


In 1958, MGM released what is generally considered its last great musical, Arthur Freed's Cinemascope color production of Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958), starring Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, and Louis Jourdan. It was adapted from the novel by Colette, and written by the team of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, who also wrote My Fair Lady and Camelot. Gigi was a box-office and critical success which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. From it came several hit songs, including 'Thank Heaven For Little Girls', 'I Remember It Well', and the Oscar-winning title song.

Gigi was the last MGM musical to win a Best Picture Oscar, an honour that had previously gone to The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929), The Great Ziegfeld (Robert Z. Leonard, 1936), and An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951). The very last musical film produced by the 'Freed Unit' was an adaptation of the Broadway musical Bells Are Ringing (Vincente Minnelli, 1960) with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. However, MGM did release later musical films, including an adaptation of Meredith Willson's The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Charles Walters, 1964) with Debbie Reynolds.

In 1959, MGM enjoyed what is quite probably its greatest financial success of later years, with the release of its nearly four-hour Technicolor epic Ben–Hur (William Wyler, 1959), a remake of its 1925 silent film hit, loosely based on the novel by General Lew Wallace. Starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the film was critically acclaimed, and won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a record that held until Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) matched it in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003) in 2003.

During this period, MGM fell into a practice that would eventually sink the studio: an entire year's production schedule relied on the success of one big-budget epic each year. This policy began in 1959, when Ben–Hur was profitable enough to carry the studio through 1960. However, four succeeding big-budget epics failed: Cimarron (Anthony Mann, 1960), King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Vincente Minnelli, 1961), and, most notoriously, Mutiny on the Bounty (Lewis Milestone, 1962), starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard.

The Cinerama film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Henry Levin, George Pal, 1962) with Laurence Harvey and Karlheinz Böhm, the first film in Cinerama to actually tell a story, was also a flop. But one other epic that was a success, however, was the MGM-Cinerama co-production How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe, 1962), with a huge all-star cast. King of Kings, while a commercial and critical flop at the time, has since come to be regarded as a film classic. The losses caused by these films led to the resignations of Sol Siegel and Joseph Vogel who were replaced by Robert M. Weitman (head of production) and Robert O'Brien (president).

The combination of O'Brien and Weitman seemed to temporarily revive the studio. MGM released David Lean's immensely popular Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965), starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, later followed by such hits as The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968). However the company's time was taken up fighting off proxy attacks by corporate raiders, and then MGM backed another series of flops, including Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970). Weitman moved over to Columbia in 1967 and O'Brien was forced to resign a few years later.

Always slow to respond to the changing legal, economic, and demographic nature of the motion picture industry during the 1950s and 1960s, and although at times its films did well at the box office, the studio lost significant amounts of money throughout the 1960s. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr., whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios.

MGM Stars, including Judy Garland
Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam). Photos: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The pictured stars are Judy Garland, Betty Hutton, Vivian Blaine (twice), Monica Lewis, Pier Angeli, Ann Blyth and Mario Lanza, Coleen Gray, and Jane Powell. The postcard must date from ca. 1951, when Blyth and Lanza starred together in The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).

Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Dutch postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952).

Leslie Caron
German postcard by ISV, no. B 17. Photo: Leslie Caron in Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).

Charlton Heston in Ben Hur (1959)
French postcard by E.D.U.G., presented by Corvisart, Epinal, no. 252. Photo: Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959).

Geraldine Chaplin, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
American postcard. Photo: MGM. Photo: Geraldine Chaplin, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Dr. Zhivago (David Lean, 1965).

Bidding wars and massive debts


Three years later, an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, who slashed staff and production costs, forced the studio to produce low-budget fare, and then shut down theatrical distribution in 1973. For a time, MGM diversified into such nonfilm ventures as hotels and casinos. From 1973 on, MGM had various financial associations with another motion-picture studio, United Artists Corporation.

A portion of the backlot was sold in 1974. The last shooting done on the backlot was the introductory material for That's Entertainment! (Jack Haley Jr., 1974), a retrospective documentary that became a surprise hit for the studio. That's Entertainment! was authorised by Dan Melnick, who was appointed head of production in 1972. Under Melnick's regime, MGM made a number of successful films, including Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973) starring Yul Brynner, Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973), The Sunshine Boys (Herbert Ross, 1975), and Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976) with Faye Dunaway, which the studio co-produced with United Artists.

However, MGM never reclaimed its former status.The studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and an expanded film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. WarGames (John Badham, 1983) and the James Bond adventure Octopussy (John Glen, 1983) starring Roger Moore, were MGM/UA's only early 1980s hits, but did not push MGM into the profit range that Kerkorian wanted.

MGM ramped up internal production, as well as keeping production going at UA, which included the lucrative James Bond film franchise. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production. The studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few months later, sold the company back to Kirk Kerkorian to recoup massive debt, while keeping the library assets for himself. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt.

MGM was bought by Pathé Communications, led by Italian publishing magnate Giancarlo Parretti, in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the studio's major creditor, then took control of MGM. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australia's Seven Network in 1996.

The debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGM's ability to survive as a separate motion picture studio. After a bidding war which included Time Warner and General Electric, MGM was acquired in 2004, by a partnership consisting of Sony Corporation of America, Comcast, Texas Pacific Group , Providence Equity Partners, and other investors. MGM filed for bankruptcy in 2010, but it emerged and MGM still co-produces, co-finances, and co-distributes films. Recent films include A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018) starring Lady Gaga, and Vice (Adam McKay, 2018), and of course, we look forward to the new adventures of 007 in Bond 25 (Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2020) with Daniel Craig and Rami Malek.

Roger Moore and Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die (1973)
Dutch card by Loeb uitgevers, Amsterdam. Photo: Danjaq S.A. Roger Moore as James Bond in Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton, 1973). The Bond girl is the British actress Jane Seymour, who played Solitaire.

Roger Moore in Octopussy
Dutch postcard by Loeb Uitgevers BV, Amsterdam. Photo: Eon Productions / Gilrose Publications / Danjaq S.A. Roger Moore in Octopussy (John Glen, 1983).

Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
British postcard by Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. Photo: Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997).

Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006)
British postcard by EON Productions. Photo: Danjaq / LLC / United Artists Corporation / Columbia Pictures Ind. Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006).

Daniel Craig and  Olga Kurylenko in Quantum of Solace (2008)
British postcard by Peek & Cloppenburg, Col., no. 198. Photo: Danjaq / LLC / United Artists Corporation / Columbia Pictures Ind. Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko in Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008).

Sources: Constance and Diana Metzinger (Silver Scenes), Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and IMDb.

Cameron Diaz

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Blue-eyed, natural blonde Cameron Diaz (1972) is a former model and film actress. Her big break arrived in 1994 with the Jim Carrey film The Mask. Roles in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Shrek (2001) – in which she voiced Princess Fiona – solidified her as one of the most bankable Hollywood stars. Her other film credits include hits like Charlie's Angels (2000), Gangs of New York (2003) and In Her Shoes (2005).

Cameron Diaz
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD., London, no. SPC 3328.

Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz at the Cannes Film Festival 2002
French postcard by Forum Cartes et Collections, Nouaillé, no. 35. Cannes (06), 2003. Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat-STF. Caption: The director Martin Scorsese (middle), the actor Leonardo DiCaprio (left) and the actress Cameron Diaz pose for the photographers before a screening of Gangs of New York on 20 May 2002 during the 55th Cannes Film Festival.

Cameron Diaz
British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 2051.

An adventurous, independent and a tough kid


Cameron Diaz was born in 1972 in San Diego, California. She is the daughter of a Cuban-American father and an Anglo-German mother.

She graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic (Poly) High School (Class of 1990) in Long Beach, California. As a member of that school's 'Polyettes' dance-drill team, Cameron performed during half-time at football games. Self described as "adventurous, independent and a tough kid", she lived in such varied locales as Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Paris.

Returning to California at the age of 21, Diaz was discovered by a photographer at a Hollywood party. He helped her land a contract with the Elite Modeling Agency. She was working as a model when she auditioned for a big part in the comedy The Mask (Chuck Russell, 1994), based on a Dark Horse comic book series of the same name.

To her amazement and despite having no previous acting experience, she was cast as the female lead in the film opposite Jim Carrey. It proved to be a great acting debut for her. The Mask is both a crazy comedy, which surpasses the imagination, but also works well as a thriller with a dark atmosphere.

Over the next 3 years, she honed her acting skills in such low budget independent films as The Last Supper (Stacy Title, 1995), Feeling Minnesota (Steven Baigelman, 1996) with Keanu Reeves, and Head Above Water (Jim Wilson, 1996) with Harvey Keitel.

She returned to main stream films in My Best Friend's Wedding (P.H. Hogan, 1997), in which she held her own against leading lady Julia Roberts. In 1998, she earned full fledged star status for her performance in the box office smash There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, 1998) with Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller.

Her following two projects — the sports drama Any Given Sunday (Oliver Stone, 1999) starring Al Pacino, and Spike Jonze's surrealist fantasy Being John Malkovich (1999) — lent Diaz a reputation as a dramatic actress, the latter earning her her second Golden Globe nomination.

Cameron Diaz in Charlie's Angels (2000)
German postcard by ZigZag Posters, no. CA. 14. Photo: Columbia Pictures, 2000. Cameron Diaz as Natalie in Charlie's Angels (McG, 2000).

Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in Charlie's Angels (2000)
German postcard by ZigZag Posters, no. CA 09. Photo: Columbia. Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in Charlie's Angels (McG, 2000).

The highest-paid actress over 40 in Hollywood


Cameron Diaz earned a third Golden Globe nomination for her supporting role in Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001) starring Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz. She appeared in numerous high-profile films in the early 2000s, including Charlie's Angels (McG, 2000) with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, and its sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (McG, 2003), as well as voicing the character of Princess Fiona in the Shrek series (2001–2010).

In 2003, she was cast opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis in the period epic Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2003), for which she earned her fourth Golden Globe nomination. Worldwide, the film grossed a total of US$ 193 million, while it was embraced by critics.

Her subsequent films included the dramatic comedies In Her Shoes (Curtis Hanson, 2005) with Toni Colette, and The Holiday (Nancy Meyers, 2006) with Kate Winslet, and the disappointing psychological thriller The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009). Diaz appeared in starring roles in the gross comedies The Other Woman (Nick Cassavetes, 2014) and Sex Tape (Jake Kasdan, 2014).

She tried to break out of her self-imposed prison of dumb blonde jokes but crashed with forgettable blockbusters such as Knight & Day (James Mangold, 2010) with Tom Cruise, and struggled as a cheetah-owning sociopath in Ridley Scott’s nonsensical thriller The Counsellor (2013). And then there were the duds Gambit (Michael Hoffman, 2012), and What to Expect When You’re Expecting (Kirk Jones, 2012).

She appeared in a new film adaptation of Annie (Will Gluck, 2014). For her part, Diaz was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. Although the film received generally negative reviews, it managed to break even financially, grossing $133 million. Months after the film's release, Diaz confirmed she was formally retiring from acting, and she did not make a new film since.

Diaz wrote two health books: 'The Body Book' (2013), a New York Times bestseller, and 'The Longevity Book' (2016). In 2015, Cameron Diaz married her boyfriend of 8 months, Benji Madden. After appearing in There's Something About Mary (1998), Diaz briefly dated her co-star Matt Dillon. The following year, she began a four-year relationship with actor Jared Leto, which ended in 2003. Later, she dated singer and actor Justin Timberlake. They separated in 2007.

Her accolades include four Golden Globe Award nominations, three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and a New York Film Critics Award. In 2013, she was named the highest-paid actress over 40 in Hollywood. As of 2018, the U.S. domestic box office grosses of Diaz's films total over $3 billion USD, with worldwide grosses surpassing $7 billion, making her the fifth highest-grossing U.S. domestic box office actress.

Cameron Diaz
Belgian postcard in de 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (The 50 most beautiful women of the century) series by P magazine, no. 1. Photo: Mark Seuger / Outline.

Cameron Diaz
British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no PC 8228.

Sources: Tom McDonough (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

15 films we loved at Il Cinema Ritrovato

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Looking back at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2019, we can definitively say the 33rd edition was one of the best editions yet - and one of the warmest. The Fox programme offered some unforgettable masterpieces, just like the 1919 programme did. A surprise for me were the films by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. And I was very happy to see the last film by Agnès Varda, presented by her daughter Rosalie, and to experience Chaplin's The Circus with a huge orchestra and thousands of other laughing people at Bologna's Piazza Maggiore. 

Here are my 15 favourite films of this year's festival. Ivo Blom also did a post on Il Cinema Ritrovato at his personal blog. Check it out.

Cinema Ritrovato
Piazza Maggiore, Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Italia.

15. Becky Sharp (Rouben Mamoulian, 1935)


Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp (1935)
French postcard by Editions EC, Paris, no. 504. Photo: RKO. Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp (Rouben Mamoulian, 1935).

14. En cas de malheur (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958)


Brigitte Bardot in En cas de malheur (1958)
German postcard, no. 1. Photo: Unifrance-Film. Brigitte Bardot in En cas de malheur/Love is my profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958).

13. I Clowns (Federico Fellini, 1970)


Paolo Fratellini
Paolo Fratellini. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 151.

François Fratellini
François Fratellini. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 152. Photo: Studio V. Henry. One of the highlights in Fellini's mockumentary I Clowns (1970) is a scene in which the maestro recreates a performance of the famous Fratellini brothers in a mental asylum. The wit, charm, and superb acting techniques of the three clowns were widely admired. By 1923, the Fratellini brothers had become the darlings of the Parisian intellectuals. They were lauded in print and worshipped by adoring fans who would show up at the circus just in time for the Fratellini entree, which sometimes ran as long as forty-five minutes.

12. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)


Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott. British postcard, no. 60. Photo: Warner Bros. Entertaining Western with an impressive Scott and Pernell Roberts, better known as Adam Cartwright from the classic TV series Bonanza.

11. Moulin Rouge (John Huston, 1952)


José Ferrer and Zsa Zsa Gabor in Moulin Rouge (1952)
German postcard. Photo: Deutsche London Film. José Ferrer and Colette Marchand in Moulin Rouge (John Huston, 1952). Beautiful ode to 19th Century Montmarte and its music halls and artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Huston opens the film with a colourful 20 minute Can-Can sequence which brilliantly captures the atmosphere, and sets the tone for the drama to follow.

10. Siraa Fil-Wadi/The Blazing Sun (Youssef Chahine, 1954)


Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif. Egyptian collectors card, no. 7. Siraa Fil-Wadi was Omar Sharif's film debut. Director Youssef Chahine discovered the handsome young Michel Chahoub on the streets in Cairo and invited him for a screentest. Re-named Omar El Cherif, he starred opposite the renowned Egyptian actress Faten Hamamah whom he married in 1955.

9. Film ohne Titel (Rudolf Jugert, 1948)


Fritz Wagner and Käte Pontow in Film ohne Titel (1948)
German postcard by Degro Phot., Berlin, no. C 187. Photo: Herzog Filmverleih / Camera Film / Kurt Julius. Fritz Wagner and Käte Pontow in Film ohne Titel/Film Without Title (Rudolf Jugert, 1948). A pleasant surprise was this funny and unconventional comedy about making a film in Germany after the war.

8. College (James W. Horne, Buster Keaton, 1927)


Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton. Russian postcard, no. 1725, 1927.

7. Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962)


Sean Connery in Dr. No (1962)
Spanish postcard by Eurocromo S.L., no. R 001. Photo: Sean Connery in Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962). Although the copy we saw was not superb, the first Bond is still a joy to watch. Connery is excellent, as are the sets by Ken Adam, John Barry's Bond theme and the title design by Maurice Binder. The only disappointment is the so-called classic scene with Ursula Andress rising from the sea in a white bikini. It sounds good, but it's rather tame and Andress acts wooden. Halle Berry redid that scene in a later Bond adventure and then the screen really sizzled.

6. Varda par Agnès (Agnès Varda, 2019)


Agnès Varda
Wall Art Cineteca di Bologna, Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Italia. Adieu, madame Varda!

5. The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926)


Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1795/1, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky in The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926). A wonderful silent Western full of great stunts, and three intriguing stars, also including the young and delicious Gary Cooper.

4. Street Angel (Frank Borzage, 1928)


Street Angel
Publicity still of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in Street Angel (Frank Borzage, 1928). Collection: The Island of Cinema @ Flickr. My favourite romantic couple from silent Hollywood in their first part-sound film.

3. Sången om den eldröda blomman/Song of the Scarlet Flower (Mauritz Stiller, 1919)


Lars Hanson in Sången om den eldröda blomman (1919)
Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 993. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Lars Hanson in Sången om den eldröda blomman/Song of the Scarlet Flower (Mauritz Stiller, 1919). This was another suprise, an excellent and technically perfect Mauritz Stiller production of 1919. 'Large Handsome' plays the merry and carefree Olof who wins the heart of Edith Erastoff by daringly steering logs through the rapids on a wild river. An incredible stunt.

2. The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928)


Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 290. Photo: United Artists. Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928). Highlight is of course the scene in which Charlie is doing a tight rope wire act and tries to balance himself while loose monkeys crawl all over him, thus disrupting his act. His gags brought forth as many laughs at the Piazza Maggiore during Cinema Ritrovato as it did in 1928. Great fun.

1. 3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)


George O' Brien
George O'Brien. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 313. Photo: Fox Film. Collection: Didier Hanson. John Ford's classic silent Western 3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926) was our favourite film this year. A sweeping, entertaining adventure which includes an impressive church burning scene and the Oklahoma Land Rush scene with an abandoned infant. The cast includes the excellent Olive Borden, Tom Santschi and Dutch actor Lou Tellegen as the evil Sheriff. Although my postcard choice perhaps suggests otherwise, George O'Brien is the romantic hero of the film and not one of the three title characters.

Cinema Ritrovato
Musidora, Sala Mastroianni, Cineteca di Bologna, Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Italia.

Later this week we will do two posts on new acquisitions we found at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Book Fair.

New Acquisitions: Italian postcards by Cines-Pittaluga

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Today and tomorrow, EFSP does two posts on postcards Ivo Blom acquired last month at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Book Fair in Bologna. Tomorrow a film special on the Italian silent drama Zingari (1920), starring Italia Almirante Manzini, but we start with a post on Italian postcards from the early 1930s. 

All the postcards were published by the film company Cines-Pittaluga to promote their own films. The head of this company, Stefano Pittaluga (1887-1932) helped revive Italian film production in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1926, he acquired the pioneering film studio Cines from the conglomerate Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Cines produced the first Italian sound film La canzone dell'amore/The Song of Love (1930), and became the dominant force of the early sound era. Under Pittaluga the company specialised in musicals and comedies, of which many were later branded 'Telefoni Bianchi' (White Telephone films). After Pittaluga's sudden death in 1932 the company continued to release the same kind of populist films, and Cines-Pittaluga was only overtaken when the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini invested large sums of money in production and constructed the vast Cinecittà complex in Rome.

Vele ammainate (1931)


Dria Paola in Vele ammainate
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 3. Dria Paola in Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).

Carlo Fontana in Vele ammainate
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 5. Carlo Fontana in Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).

Dria Paola and Carlo Fontana in Vele ammainate
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. ? Dria Paola and Carlo Fontana in Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).

Amerigo Bomprezzi in Vele ammainate
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 115. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga. Amerigo Bomprezzi in Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).

Dria Paola in Vele ammainate
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 146. Dria Paola in Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).

The Italian melodrama Vele ammainate/Lowered Sails (1931) is the only sound film by former Futurist artist Anton Giulio Bragaglia. The film was made at the Cines studio in Rome, and the outdoors scenes were shot in Savona. Dria Paola, star of La canzone dell'amore/The Song of Love (Gennaro Righelli, 1930), played the lead role and little known Carlo Fontana was her co-star. Fontana only appeared in a few Italian sound films and also one silent German film.

La cantante dell'opera (1932)


Germana Paolieri and Isa Pola in La cantante dell'opera
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 4. Germana Paolieri and Isa Pola in La cantante dell'opera/The opera singer (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932).

Germana Paolieri and Isa Pola in La cantante dell'opera
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 6. Germana Paolieri and Isa Pola in La cantante dell'opera/The opera singer (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932).

La cantante dell'opera
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 22. Postcard for La cantante dell'opera/The opera singer (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932). The man on the right is Gianfranco Giachetti as the waiter Papussa.

In the drama La cantante dell'opera/The opera singer (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932) daughter Lina (Germana Paolieri) distances herself for hem humble home and leaves for new horizons. Her father, the poor and old waiter Papussa (Gianfranco Giachetti), has worked all his life, so that his daughter could perfect her singing. When he is gradually separated from her while she gains new triumphs, his father heart is hurt. For the sake of his daughter, he even pretends to not recognising her, so that she does not look humiliated in front of her fiance and his family. But providence returns to the troubled father the affection of his child.

La tavola dei poveri (1932)


La tavola dei poveri
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 42. Postcard for La tavola dei poveri/The table of the poor (Alessandro Blasetti, 1932). On the left Raffaele Viviani as Marquis Isidoro Fusaro, on the right Mario Ferrari as attorney Volterra.

La tavola dei poveri
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 43. Postcard for La tavola dei poveri/The table of the poor (Alessandro Blasetti, 1932). In the middle Leda Gloria as Giorgina Fusaro, on the right Mario Ferrari as attorney Volterra.

La tavola dei poveri/The table of the poor (Alessandro Blasetti, 1932) is based on a one-act play by Raffaele Viviani, in which an impoverished Marquis (Viviani), president of a charity society, is trying to keep up decorum by selling all his valuables. When a beggar (Salvatore Costa) gives him his savings of 30 years of begging in custody, the society thinks it is a gift by the Marquis and takes it. The penniless Marquis now quickly needs to find a way to repay the beggar.

O la borsa o la vita (1933)


O la borsa o la vita
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 26. Sergio Tofano, Rosetta Tofano and Luigi Almirante in O la borsa o la vita/Your money or your life (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1933). Aviation stuntman Mario De Bernardi performed acrobatic loops for the film. This card suggests everybody is looking at the aerial stunts.

In the comedy O la borsa o la vita/Your money or your life (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1933), a man receives a large sum of money from a friend so that he can invest it, but due to a stock exchange collapse, he believes he has lost everything, so he tries every means of death to allow his friend to collect the insurance. But the various attempts (being invested by a car, ending up in the lion's den at the zoo, performing a dangerous mission on behalf of a group of anarchists - in reality, lunatics escaped from an asylum) are in vain, life does not give up. Until his friend reaches him in a tavern: the shares in which he invested have risen sharply, allowing him to earn an even more substantial sum. The film was based on a radio play by Alessandro De Stefani.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

New acquisitions: Zingari (1920)

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Today the second post on postcards Ivo Blom acquired last month at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Book Fair in Bologna. It's a film special on the Italian silent drama Zingari/Gypsies (1920), starring diva Italia Almirante (Manzini) and directed by her husband, Mario Almirante for the film studio Fert Film. Italia Almirante played Vielka, daughter of the king of the gypsies.

Italia Almirante Manzini in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920), starring Italia Almirante Manzini.

Italia Almirante and Amleto Novelli in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: The first encounter of Vielka (Italia Almirante) and Sindel (Amleto Novelli). The woman Novelli carries may be Rosetta Solari, who plays Radscia.

Italia Almirante Manzini and Amleto Novelli in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: Vielka challenges Sindel. The second woman may be Rosetta Solari.

A warm, vigorous and deeply human performance


In Zingari/Gypsies (1920), Old Jammadar (Alfonso Cassini), king of the gypsies, wants to marry his daughter Vielka (Italia Almirante) to Gudlo (Franz Sala), member of an important and valuable clan, but also a violent and ambitious man.

Vielka, instead, loves the head of another clan, Sindel (Amleto Novelli). When Jammadar dies, Vielka is crowned queen of the gypsies. The proud Sindel distances himself of the woman out of fear to become a prince consort. The perfidious Gudlo wounds and betrays Sindel, but Vielka renounces her crown and thus regains Sindel's love, who chases Gudlo from the clan.

Zingari was produced by Fert Film and distributed by Pittaluga. The film was scripted and directed by Mario Almirante and photographed by Ubaldo Arata. It was one of Arata's first films. The active cinematographer did over 100 films between 1918 and 1947, including Roberto Rossellini's Roma città aperta/Rome, Open City (1945).

The film premiered on 27 December 1920. At the time, critics wrote mixed reviews. The Neapolitan Cine-Fono wrote that despite the luxurious mise-en-scene, script and direction were not top, while Italia Almirante was beautiful but too external and lacking psychology and her co-star Amleto Novelli was straight-jacked in his acting.

Instead, the Roman journal Febo wrote that despite well-known romantic elements, the story was solid, convincing and at times original. Also, the mise-en-scene was impeccable, faithful for the interiors, and picturesque for the exteriors - while the used film technology showed modernity and innovation. Among the performance of the actors in particular that of Italia Almirante was singled out as warm, vigorous and deeply human.

Italia Almirante Manzini and Alfonso Cassini in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: Jammadar (Alfonso Cassini) shouts to Vielka (Italia Almirante): I will crush you!

Italia Almirante Manzini, Alfonso Cassini and Franz Sala in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: Jammadar forces Vielka to marry Gudlo.

Italia Almirante Manzini in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: Vielka returns to the gypsy wagon.

Italia Almirante Manzini and Amleto Novelli in Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: Vielka (Italia Almirante) tends to the wounded Sindel (Amleto Novelli) in her wagon.

Zingari (1920)
Italian postcard for Zingari (Mario Almirante, 1920). Caption: The gypsy camp.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano 1920 - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Valentina Cortese dies at 96

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Yesterday, Wednesday 10 July 2019, Italian film and stage actress Valentina Cortese (1923-2019) has passed away in Milan. She appeared in more than 100 Italian, French, British and American films and TV series. Cortese was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in François Truffaut’s La nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973). She also worked with such titans of cinema as Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. Valentina Cortese was 96.

Valentina Cortese dies at 96
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 243. Photo: MGM. Valentina Cortese in Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949).

Valentina Cortese dies at 96
Italian postcard by ASER, Roma, no. 48. Photo: Scalera Film.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini (B.F.F. Edit.), Firenze, no. 4260. Photo: Bragaglia.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard. B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini Firenze) Edizioni, no. 42290. Photo: Pesce / I.C.I.

Valentina Cortese, Spencer Tracy
Belgian collectors card. Photo: MGM. Spencer Tracy and Valentina Cortesa in Malaya (1949).

Sensual Prostitute With A Golden Heart


Valentina Cortese was born in Milan, Italy in 1923. As a young girl she attended the acting school of Scalera Film.

She started her film career in 1940 and played small ingenue parts in such films as Orizzonte dipinto/Horizon painting (Guido Salvini, 1941), L'Attore scomparso/The actor died (Luigi Zampa, 1941) and Primo Amore/First Love (Carmine Gallone, 1941) with Vivi Gioi.

The following year, she had her breakthrough with a supporting part in the Western Una signora dell'Ovest/Girl of the Golden West (Carl Koch, 1942) with Michel Simon. She soon became one of the most popular actresses of the fascist period/

Cortese appeared in several entertainment films of the 1940s, including La Cena delle beffe/The Joker’s Dinner (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942) starring Amedeo Nazzari, Quarta pagina/3/4 of a Page (Nicola Manzari, 1942) based on an original screenplay by Federico Fellini, Nessuno torna indietro/Responsibility Comes Back (Alessandro Blasetti, 1945), and Un Americano in vacanza/A Yank in Rome (Luigi Zampa, 1946).

A sensation was her double role as both Fantine and Cosette in I miserabili/Les Miserables (Riccardo Freda, 1948), a competent screen adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic.

The international success of the British-French melodrama The Glass Mountain (Henry Cass, 1949) brought her a Hollywood offer from 20th Century Fox. Studio mogul Darryl F. Zanuck emphasised her Mediterranean background by changing the spelling of her name to Cortesa.

She appeared as a sensual prostitute with a golden heart in Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway (1949). Other American productions were Black Magic (Gregory Ratoff, 1949) with Orson Welles, and Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949) with Spencer Tracey and James Stewart.

She portrayed a girl pursued by a killer in the thriller The House on Telegraph Hill (1951, Robert Wise). Her co-star was Richard Basehart, whom she married that same year. She had one son with him before they divorced in 1960.

Cortese returned to Europe and worked with such great directors as Michelangelo Antonioni, who cast her in his Le amiche/The Girlfriends (1955) with Eleonora Rossi Drago, and Federico Fellini, who gave her a supporting part in his surrealist fantasy Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (1965) starring Giulietta Masina.

For her role in Le Amiche she won a Nastro d’argento (Silver Ribbon) for Best Supporting Actress. During these years she also appeared in such international films as The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954) in which she played Countess Eleanora Torlato-Favrini, Magic Fire (William Dieterle, 1955), Barabba/Barabbas (Richard Fleischer, 1961) starring Anthony Quinn, and The Visit (Bernhard Wicki, 1964) with Ingrid Bergman.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini Firenze Edizioni), no. 4306. Photo: Scalera Film / Foto Pesce.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini Firenze Edizioni), no. 4311. Photo: E.N.I.C. / Foto Vaselli.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1942. Photo: Pesce. Valentina Cortese as Lisabetta in La cena delle beffe/The Jester's Supper (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942).

Valentina Cortese
British postcard by Picturegoer, no. 785. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Cortese is named Cortesa, the name often given to her in Hollywood. At Fox, Cortese did films such as Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949).

Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte in Thieves' Highway (1949)
Spanish postcard by Sobe, no. 638. Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte in Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949).

Fading, Alcoholic Film Star


Valentina Cortese did some of her finest work in her middle years. She gave a memorable performance as a fading, alcoholic film star, who can’t remember her lines, in François Truffaut's film-about-film La nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973).

She won several awards for this bravura role including the British Bafta award. In the US she was nominated for both a Golden Globe and the Oscar. When Ingrid Bergman won for her small role in Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet, 1976), Bergman apologised in her acceptance speech, saying that Cortese deserved the award more.

Other interesting performances by Cortese were the exalted mother in Le bateau sur l’herbe/The Boat on the Grass (Gérard Brach, 1971), and the wife of Leon Trotzky (Richard Burton) in The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey, 1973).

For director Franco Zeffirelli, she played the mother of St. Francis of Assisi in Fratello Sole, sorella luna/Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Franco Zeffirelli, 1972). Later followed several parts in the theaterre for Zeffirelli and a role as Herodias in his TV Mini-Series Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977), an uncredited part in Il giovane Toscanini/Toscanini (Franco Zeffirelli, 1988) a biopic of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and her final role as a mother superior in Storia di una capinera/Sparrow (Franco Zeffirelli, 1995) with Johnathon Schaech.

Her later films also included the adventure film When Time Ran Out... (James Goldstone, 1980) starring Paul Newman, Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), and the comedy Buster’s Bedroom (Rebecca Horn, 1991) with Geraldine Chaplin.

Valentina Cortese also had a fruitful stage career, working with directors like Giorgio Strehler and starring in plays like Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart and Frank Wedekind's Lulu. Her son, Jackie Basehart, also became an actor and appeared in several Italian films.

Valentina Cortese
British (or American) postcard. Photo: MGM. Cortese is presented as Cortesa, the name she was often given in Hollywood. Cortese wears a dress from the time of Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949), a film she did with James Stewart and Spencer Tracy.

Valentina Cortese dies at 96
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 32. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1954.

Valentina Cortese dies at 96
West-German collectors card in the Flmstars der Welt series by Greiling-Sammelbilder, 2. Band, Serie E, Bild 99. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Valentina Cortese
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 399.


Theatrical trailer Thieves' Highway (1949). Source: Diva Daniela 1 (YouTube).


Trailer for Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (1965). Source: Danios 12345 (YouTube).


Scene from La nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973). Source: The Bathroom Singer (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thanassis Agathos (IMDb), Trova Cinema (Italian), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Producer Artur Brauner dies at 100

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On Sunday 7 July 2019, prolific film producer and writer Arthur Brauner (1918-2019) has passed away. He was one of the most successful and best-known film producers in Germany. Brauner, himself Jewish, produced over 20 films about the Holocaust. His award-winning films include Il giardino dei Finzi Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) and Europa Europa (1990). The postcards in this post give an impression of the films Brauner's company CCC produced.

Artur Brauner (1918-2019)
German autograph card.

Luis Mariano in Der Zarewitsch (1954)
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1336. Photo: CCC / Gloria / Arthur Grimm. Luis Mariano in Der Zarewitsch/The Little Czar (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1954).

Nadja Regin in Roman eines Frauenarztes (1954)
German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. I 240. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC Film / Gloria. Nadja Regin in Roman eines Frauenarztes/Novel of a gynaecologist (Falk Harnack, 1954).

Ingrid Lutz in Du mein stilles Tal  (1955)
West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1622. Photo: CCC / Gloria / Arthur Grimm. Ingrid Lutz in Du mein stilles Tal/You my quiet valley (Leonard Steckel, 1955).

Angelika Meissner in Der erste Frühlingstag (1956)
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. F 10. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Deutsche London. Angelika Meissner in Der erste Frühlingstag/The first day of spring (Helmut Weiss, 1956).

A revival of Dr. Mabuse


Artur Brauner was born Abraham Brauner, the oldest son of a Jewish family, in Łódź, Lódzkie, Poland in 1918. His father was a timber wholesaler. His brother was the later producer and production manager Wolf Brauner.

Brauner attended a general education liceum in Łódź, where he took the matura final exam, and then studied at a local polytechnic technical school. As a young man, he saw Fritz Lang's film Das Testament der Dr. Mabuse/The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), which affected him greatly, making him interested in film.

After the Nazis attacked Poland in September 1939, he and his parents and four siblings were forced to flee. The family moved to the Soviet Union, thus escaping the fate of other family members who were murdered in the massacres by German forces at Babi Yar in Ukraine.

After the war, his parents and three of his siblings emigrated to Israel. Despite his plans to emigrate to the United States, Brauner founded in 1946 his production company Central Cinema Company (CCC) in the American sector of Berlin.

His first production was the romantic comedy Sag' die Wahrheit/Tell the truth (Helmut Weiss, 1946) with Gustav Fröhlich and Mady Rahl. Brauner was the associate producer. Such popular films enabled him to produce films on topics close to his heart, including a number on the Holocaust.

As early as 1948, Brauner made Morituri (Eugen York, 1948), a film about the escape of prisoners from a concentration camp. It was a commercial failure and threw him into debt. Brauner realised that to produce critically successful films he had to make up their losses by producing critically derided films that were appreciated by the public.

With his brother Wolf, he built a career producing a seemingly relentless backbeat of music films, medical dramas, Westerns, tales of youthful rebellion and Heimatfilms. He lured back many Germans who had experience in Hollywood such as Robert Siodmak. His film Der 20. Juli/The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (Falk Harnack, 1955) was a fictionalised recounting of the failed attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. The film won several German awards.

Brauner convinced the German director Fritz Lang to return to Germany from Hollywood for a sequel to Das Testament der Dr. Mabuse/The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), a film that the Nazis had banned. The sequel, Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse/The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) with Dawn Addams and Peter van Eyck, was the last film directed by Lang. It started a revival of Dr. Mabuse.

Ivan Desny and Lilli Palmer in Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter (1956)
German postcard by Ufa, Wanne-Eickel, no. 393. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / NF-Film. Ivan Desny and Lilli Palmer in Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter/Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (Falk Harnack, 1956).

Ulla Jacobsson
German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, no. 1999. Photo: CCC / Constantin-Film / Grimm. Ulla Jacobsson in Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein/The Last Ones Shall Be First (Rolf Hansen, 1957).

Olive Moorefield
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2644. Photo: CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Arthur Grimm. Olive Moorefield in Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/To be a great lady for once (Erik Ode, 1957).

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Kolibri Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden/Westf., no. 2797. Photo: CCC / Constantin Film/ Arthur Grimm. Alice & Ellen Kessler in Der Graf von Luxemburg/The Count of Luxemburg (Werner Jacobs, 1957).

Horst Frank in Abschied von den Wolken (1959)
German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorff, no. 2866. Photo: CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa / Grimm. Horst Frank in Abschied von den Wolken/Rebel Flight to Cuba (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1959).

Capturing the emotional range and contradictions of postwar West Germany


Artur Brauner did much to keep Germans entertained through the decades after the second world war — and also made sure that they did not ignore the dark realities of their history that he had experienced at first hand.

He co-produced Il giardino dei Finzi Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1971), starring Dominique Sanda and Helmut Berger. The film was based on Giorgio Bassani’s book about a Jewish family in 1930s fascist Italy. It won an Academy Award for best foreign film.

His film Die Weisse Rose/The White Rose (Michael Verhoeven, 1982), starring Lena Stolze, told the story of a German anti-fascist resistance group whose leaders were guillotined by the Nazis in 1943.

In 1992, Brauner produced Europa Europa, Agnieszka Holland’s film about a Jewish boy who disguised himself as a Hitler Youth to survive the war. The film, based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel, was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe award.

Brauner also produced and co-wrote Babij Jar (Jeff Kanew, 2003), a film about the Babi Yar massacres, where many of his own relatives had been killed. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, about 100,000 people were murdered there.

In 2010, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel named a new media centre for Brauner. He reportedly called the recognition “the crowning achievement of my film career.”

Last year he allowed director Dominik Kuhn to re-work Fritz Lang's Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960). Kuhn is known in the German-speaking world as 'Dodokay' from his comedic dubs in Swabian (a south German accent) on YouTube. He completely re-cut the film, shot additional footage, re-formatted it to 2.35:1, fitted the new version with a new story line, visual effects, new sound design, a score by Dennis Le Rose and finally dubbed all the original voices himself. The result was the comedy Die 1000 Glotzböbbel vom Dr. Mabuse (2018).

On 7 July 2019, Artur Brauner died in Berlin, Germany at the age of 100. He had been married to costume designer Maria Brauner-Stammgast, from 1947 till her death in 2017. They had four children, including the film producer Alice Brauner. Over the years, Artur Brauner’s company Central Cinema Company Film (CCC) produced over 700 films and TV programs. Brauner was a recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz. At the 2003 Berlinale, he was awarded the Berlinale Kamera honouring his lifetime achievement.

Frederick Studemann in The Financial Times: "Brauner is remembered for capturing the emotional range and contradictions of postwar West Germany — from memory and suppression, thrill-seeking and modernity, to the desire for harmony and homeliness — all the while reminding fellow citizens of recently perpetrated horrors."

Carlos Thompson in Franziska (1957)
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. FT 20. Photo: CCC / Gloria-Film / Grimm. Carlos Thompson in Franziska (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1957).

Der Schut (1964) with Lex Barker and Ralf Wolter
German postcard by Heinerle Karl-May-Postkarten, no. 15. Photo: CCC / Gloria. Lex Barker and Ralf Wolter in Der Schut/The Yellow One (Robert Siodmak, 1964). Caption: "Am Abend im Hause Galingré: 'Halef, ich werde dem Mübarek einen Streich spielen. Deshalb musstest du mir Wismut und Quecksilber besorgen. Daraus mache ich Kugeln, die genau aussehen wie Bleikugeln, aber beim Schiessen zerfallen. Nun lade ich das Gewehr immer abwechselnd mit einer Kugel aus Blei und mit einer falschen...''" (In the evening at home Galingré: "Halef, I will play a trick on the Mübarek. Therefore, you had to get me bismuth and mercury. From this I''ll make bullets that look like lead bullets, but disintegrate during firing. Now I'll load the gun alternately with a bullet made of lead and a fake one ...")

Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (1964)
German postcard, no. 23 (1-36). Photo: CCC Produktion / Constantin. Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (Hugo Fregonese, 1964). Caption: "Captain Bradley ist der neue Kommandant von Fort Grant." (Captain Bradley is the new commander of Fort Grant).

Die Nibelungen (1966)
German postcard, no. 15. Photo: CCC / Constantin Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen, Teil 1 - Siegfried / Siegfried (Harald Reinl, 1967) with Uwe Beyer as Siegfried and Siegfried Wischnewski as Hagen. Caption: "Hagen überredet König Gunther, zu Siegfrieds Abschied einen Jagdausflug zu veranstalten. Unter dem Vorwand, Siegfried eine nahe gelegene Quelle zu zeigen, lockt Hagen mit des Königs wissen diesen von der Jagdgesellschaft weg. Als sich Siegfried, Erfrischung suchend, über die Quelle neigt, trifft ihn Hagens wohlgezielter Speer an der verwundbaren Stelle. Vergebens bäumt sich Siegfried noch einmal auf." (Hagen persuades King Gunther to organise a hunting trip as Siegfried's farewell. Under the pretext of showing Siegfried a nearby source, Hagen lures with the king know, him off the hunt. When Siegfried, searching for refreshment, leans over the source Hagen's well-aimed spear hits him on the vulnerable spot. In vain Siegfried rears up again. ")

Karin Dor (1939-2017)
German postcard, no. 15 (1-36). Photo: CCC / Constantin. Karin Dor in Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten/The Valley of Death (Harald Reinl, 1968). Caption: Mabel wants to give the letter to the bandits to save Lieutenant Cummings.

Sources: Toby Axelrod (The Jerusalem Post), Frederick Studemann (Financial Times), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Konstantin Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre

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Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938) was an outstanding Russian character actor and one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. He founded the legendary Moscow Art Theatre (MAT), and originated 'method acting'. Stanislavski's System of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique was spread over the world by his students, including Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski.

Konstantin Stanislavsky
Russian postcard. Konstantin Stanislavski as Lieutenant-colonel Aleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin in  'Три сeстры/Tri sestry/Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. The play, written in 1900, was first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.

C.S. Stanislavsky
French postcard, no. 5 C. Konstantin Stanislavski as Gaiev in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov, Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Constantin Stanislavsky
French postcard, no. 9 S. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky. Konstantin Stanislavski as Verchinine in 'Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov, Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.

An Actor of Feeling


Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski (Константи́н Серге́евич Станисла́вский) (1863–1938) was a Russian actor and theatre director. The eponymous Stanislavsky method, or simply 'method acting', has had a pervasive influence on the American theatre and cinema, especially in the period after World War II.

Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour requiring dedication, discipline and integrity. Throughout his life, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection. His development of a theorised praxis — in which practice is used as a mode of inquiry and theory as a catalyst for creative development —identifies him as one of the great modern theatre practitioners.

Stanislavski's work was as important to the development of socialist realism in the Soviet Union as it was to that of psychological realism in the United States. It draws on a wide range of influences and ideas, including his study of the modernist and avant-garde developments of his time (naturalism, symbolism and Meyerhold's constructivism), Russian formalism, Yoga, Pavlovian behavioural psychology, James-Lange (via Ribot) psychophysiology and the aesthetics of Pushkin, Gogol, and Tolstoy.

He described his approach as 'spiritual Realism'. Stanislavski wrote several works, including 'An Actor Prepares', 'An Actor's Work on a Role', and his autobiography, 'My Life in Art'.

In 1885, Stanislavski briefly studied at the Moscow Theatre School, where students were encouraged to mimic the theatrical tricks and conventions of their tutors. Disappointed by this approach, he left after little more than two weeks. Instead, Stanislavski devoted particular attention to the performances of the Maly Theatre, the home of psychological realism in Russia.

Psychological realism had been developed here by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Shchepkin. Shchepkin was the father of Russian realistic acting who, in 1848, promoted the idea of an 'actor of feeling.' This actor would 'become the character' and identify with his thoughts and feelings: he would "walk, talk, think, feel, cry, laugh as the author wants him to."

Ivan Moskvin and Vasily Kachalov in The Lower Depths (1902)
Russian postcard, no. 8572. Photo: publicity still for the Moscow Art Theatre production of 'The Lower Depths'(1902) by Maxim Gorky, with Ivan Moskvin as Luka and Vasili Kachalov as the Baron. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vasily Kachalov as Hamlet
Russian postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Hamlet in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of 'Hamlet' (1911–1912). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vasily Kachalov
French postcard, no. 7 N. Vasily Kachalov as The Baron in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of The Lower Depths (1902) by Maxim Gorky. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vasily Kachalov
Russian postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Anathema in the prologue in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of Anathema (1909) by Leonid Andreev. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The principle of opposites


By the age of twenty-five, Konstantin Stanislavski was well known as an amateur actor. He made a proposal to Fyodor Sollogub and theatre director Alexander Fedotov to establish a society that would unite amateur and professional actors and artists. They founded in 1888 The Society of Art and Literature. Fedotov became head of the dramatic section, Komissarzhevski was the head of the operatic and musical section, while Sollogub was appointed head of the graphic arts section; the drama and opera sections each had a school.

In 1889 in the society's production of Aleksey Pisemsky's historical play 'Men Above The Law', Stanislavski discovered his 'principle of opposites,' as expressed in his aphoristic advice to the actor: "When you play a good man, try to find out where he is bad, and when you play a villain, try to find where he is good." Stanislavski insisted that the actors learnt their parts thoroughly, almost entirely removing the prompter from the society's productions.

It was Stanislavski's historic meeting with playwright Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1897, however, that would create the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). In 1898, Stanislavski co-directed with Nemirovich the first of his productions of the work of Anton Chekhov. The MAT production of 'The Seagull' was a crucial milestone for the fledgling company that has been described as "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama."

Stanislavski went on to direct the successful premières of Chekhov's other major plays: 'Uncle Vanya' in 1899, 'Three Sisters' in 1901, and 'The Cherry Orchard' in 1904. Stanislavski's encounter with Chekhov's drama proved crucial to the creative development of both men. His ensemble approach and attention to the psychological realities of its characters revived Chekhov's interest in writing for the stage, while Chekhov's unwillingness to explain or expand on the text forced Stanislavski to dig beneath its surface in ways that were new in theatre.

Stanislavski had different pupils during each of the phases of discovering and experimenting with his 'system' of acting. Two of his former students, Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, founded the American Laboratory Theatre in 1925. One of their students, Lee Strasberg, went on to co-found the Group Theatre (1931–1940) with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, which was the first American acting company to put Stanislavski's initial discoveries into practice.

Clurman and Strasberg had a profound influence on American acting, both on stage and film, as did Stella Adler, who was also part of the Group Theatre and who had studied briefly with Stanislavsky and quarrelled with Strasberg's approach to the work. Sanford Meisner, another Group member, joined with Adler in opposing Strasberg's approach. This conflict was the partial cause of the Group Theatre's dissolution. After the Group broke up, Strasberg, Adler and Meisner each went on to found their own acting studios which trained many of the most prominent actors in American theatre and film.

Vasili Kachalov as Baron in Gorky's The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre
German postcard. Vasili Kachalov as Baron in Maxim Gorky's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Russian film and stage actor Vasily Kachalov (1875-1948) was one of Konstantin Stanislavsky's best-known performers. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. He also appeared in four films.


Mariya Germanova
German postcard. Mariya Germanova as Olga in 'Three Sisters', by Anton Chekhov. Caption: Guest performances by the Moscow Art Theatre (in Germany, 1920s).

Mariya Germanova (1884–1940) was known for such films as Anna Karenina (1914) and Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923). In 1901 she enrolled in the just opened Moscow Art Theatre Drama School and a year later joined the Moscow Art Theatre. Debuting in Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' in 1903, she got positive reviews in Maxim Gorky's 'Children of the Sun' (1905), in Griboyedov's 'Woe from Wit' and in Henrik Ibsen's 'Brand' (both 1906).

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko relied mostly upon her stage persona in his stage experiments like 'Boris Godunov' by Alexander Pushkin (1907), 'Anathema' by Leonid Andreyev (1909), 'The Karamazov Brothers' by Dostoyevsky (1910), Leo Tolstoy's 'The Living Corpse' (1911). In late 1920s she started working as theatre director herself. In 1929 she went to the US and that year she succeeded Richard Boleslawski as the head of the American Laboratory Theatre, where she produced Chekhov's 'Three Sisters'. The Lab, as it was known, disbanded in 1933, but proved to be an important link between Stanislavski and the New York's Group Theatre.


Alexander Vishnevsky as A Tartar in Gorki's The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard. Alexander Vishnevsky as A Tartar in Maxim Gorki's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Aleksandr Leonid Vishnevsky (1861-1943) was one of the founding members of the Moscow Art Theatre. Vishnevsky studied at the Taganrog gymnasium where he befriended the young Anton Chekhov. From 1883 he took part in the performances of the Taganrog Music and Drama Society. Later he acted in the theatres of Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, Odessa, Saratov where he was a jeune premier.

In 1898 he joined the troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). On the opening night of the MAT, Vishnevsky played the part of Boris Godunov in the play 'Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich' by Alexei Tolstoy. In 1899 he played Godunov again in Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan the Terrible'. Vishnevsky was the first to play the title role in Chekhov's play 'Uncle Vanya' at the MAT. Vishnevsky acted in three films: Cagliostro (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1918), Pobeda zhenshchiny (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1927), and the comedy Prazdnik svyatogo/Holiday of St. Jorgen Yorgena (Yakov Protazanov, Porfiri Podobed, 1930).


Alla Tarassova as Anya, The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 2 C. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky. Alla Tarassova as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Alla Tarassova (1898-1973) started to play in productions of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1916. She made a mark already in 1916 as Boyar woman in 'Tsar Fedor Ioannovich' by Alexander Tolstoy. During the Civil War, she toured from 1919 to 1922 with the Kachalov Group. It was here she broke through as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard', Verushka in 'Autumn Violins', The Maid in 'Three Sisters', and Ophelia in 'Hamlet'. She toured Europe and the US in 1922-1924, where she also lived for a while. From 1923 till 1971 Tarassova was a regular of the Moscow Art Theatre, playing e.g. Nastya in 'The Lower Depths' by Gorki in 1923. Together with many of the Moscow Art Theatre group, Tarassova played in 1923 in the classic German Expressionist Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923). Tarassova performed the sister of the title character, played by Gregori Chmara. Back in the Soviet Union, she acted as Mary in Kto ty takoy?/Who Are You (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1927; not listed in IMDb) and had the lead in the silent film Vasilisina pobeda (Leonid Molchanov, 1928).

In the 1930s Tarassova acted in various Russian films. She starred as Katerina Petrovna Kabanova in Groza/The Storm (Vladimir Petrov, 1933), awarded at the 1934 Venice film festival. She also had a lead in Dreamers/The Rise of Man, or Is Russia in the Dark? (David Marian, 1934; not listed in IMDb). In the two-part biopic Пётр Первый/Peter the Great (1937-38), she played Yekaterina/ Catherine, a peasant girl, who will become the powerful Tzarina Catherine in part II. In 1940 Tarassova starred in Бабы/Baby (Vladimir Batalov, 1940). In 1952 she repeated her former stage role of Nastya in the film adaptation of 'The Lower Depths', Na dne (Andrey Frolov, 1952), a faithful adaptation of Stanislavski's direction of the play in the late 1930s. In 1953 Tarassova played the title role in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a recording of the stage performance by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Tatyana Lukashevich.


Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard. 6 C. Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin in Anton Chekhov's play 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Leonid Mironovich Leonidov (1873-1941) worked at the Moscow Art Theatre from 1903. Stanislavski called Leonidov "the only Russian tragic actor." His roles included Dmitri Karamazov, Othello, and Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard. In the late 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, Leonidov also appeared in several films. He started in the propaganda film Khleb/Bread (Richard Boleslawski, Boris Sushkevich, 1918) with Olga Baclanova and Boleslawski himself, followed by Zheleznaya pyata/The Iron Heel (Vladimir Gardin, 1919) with Aleksandra Khokhlova and based on a Jack London novel; and Pyotr i Alexei (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1919) in which he had the lead as Tsar Peter the Great.

In 1926 Leonidov returned to the sets, again as tsar, but now as Ivan the Terrible in the Sovkino production Krylya kholopa/The Wings of a Serf (Yuri Tarich, 1926), which was also shown in the West. In 1928 he played a double leading role in Yego prevoskhoditelstvo/His Excellency (Grigoriy Roshal, 1928), about a rabbi who in 1902 attempts to murder a governor who had workers flogged for a May-Day rally. Leonidov played both the rabbi and the governor. In the same year 1928, Leonidov also had the lead in the Mezhrabpomfilm production V gorod vkhodit' nelzya (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1928). In the sound era, Leonidov acted in two Russian films, as a munition manufacturer in the political pamphlet against the fascists, Marionetki/The Marionettes (Yakov Protazanov, Porfiri Podobed, 1934) and as the title character in Gobzek (Konstantin Eggert, 1937).


Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik in The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 8 C. Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik in Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Vladimir Fyodorovich Gribunin (1873-1933) learned drama at the Maly Theatre Drama college in the class of Mikhail Sadovsky, then joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 with which he stayed until his death in 1933. Critically lauded were his performances as Nikita in Leo Tolstoy's 'Power of Darkness',  Simeonov-Pishchik in Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard' and Kuroslepov in the 1926 production of Alexander Ostrovsky's 'An Ardent Heart'. The latter is considered to be the high point of his artistic career. He was cast in three early Soviet films: Алёшина дудка/Alyosha's Pipe (Vladimir Kasyanov 1919), Трое/Threesome (Michael Narokov 1919) and Хромой барин/Limping Landlord (Vladimir Kasyanov, 1920).

Ivan Moskvin as Yepikhodov in The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 9 C. Ivan Moskvin as Yepikhodov in Anton Chekhov's play 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

The career of Ivan Moskvin (1874-1946) is closely identified with the Moscow Art Theatre, of which he became director in 1943. In 1898 he was invited by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko to join the newly formed MAT, and he appeared opposite Olga Knipper in the title role of the theatre’s first production, 'Czar Fyodor Ioannovich' (1898), by Aleksey Tolstoy. He went on to create the role of Luka in Maxim Gorky’s 'The Lower Depths' (1902) and Epikhodoff in Anton Chekhov’s 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904).

The international acclaim Moskvin won when touring Europe and the United States (1919–1924) was reinforced in later years by his work in Soviet films that were distributed worldwide. Among Moskvin’s film roles were e.g. the Russian serf in the Tolstoy adaptation Polikushka (Alexander Sanin, 1922), the government clerk in the Chekhov adaptation Chiny i lyudi/Ranks and People (Mikhail Doller, Yakov Protazanov, 1929), and the title role in the Pushkin adaptation Kollezhskiy registrator/The Station Master (Ivan Moskvin himself with Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1925), also with Vera Malinovskaya. Moskvin was a much-respected teacher with three generations of Moscow Art Theatre actors, and he continued to appear in the theatre’s productions through 1942 when he played a principal role in N.F. Pogodin’s 'Kremlin Chimes'.


Ivan Moskvin as Luka in Gorky's The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 9 N. Ivan Moskvin as Luka in Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre.


Faina Shevchenko as A Boyar Woman in Tolstoy's Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 11 L. Faina Shevchenko as A Boyar Woman in Aleksey Tolstoy's 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich', Moscow Art Theatre.

Faina Vasilyevna Shevchenko aka Faïna Chevtchenko (1893-1971) was the People's Artist of the USSR (1948) and the recipient of several high-profile state awards (including the Order of Lenin, 1938) and twice the Stalin Prize laureate (1943, 1946). She was one of the leading actresses of the Moscow Art Theatre where she debuted in 1914 and stayed until 1959. Shevchenko excelled in Russian drama classics and was best remembered for her roles in the plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, including 'Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man' (1920), 'An Ardent Heart' (1926), 'The Storm' (1934), 'The Last Victim' (1944) and 'The Forest' (1948), as well as plays by Maxim Gorky, including 'The Lower Depths' (1916). She was also a successful singer with folk songs.

Shevchenko was cast in seven sound films, including the Georgian spoken David Guramishvili (Nikoloz Sanishvili, Joseb Tumanishvili, 1946) where she played the Russian Empress, The Composer Glinka (Grigoriy Aleksandrov, 1952) where she was Mme Ivanovich, and The Lower Depths (Andrey Frolov, 1952). "Dazzlingly simple, vivid, filled to the brim with life, endowed with huge temperament and open heart," was how the theatre historian Pavel Markov described her in his book of memoirs. Shevchenko was said to be the artist Boris Kustodiev's favourite model and, as a 21-year-old, sat nude for his The Beauty sessions. This daring venture caused scandal and almost cost Shevchenko her place in the troupe.


Olga Knipper-Chekhova as Nastia in Gorky's The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 16 N. Photo A. Gubtschewsky, Berlin. Olga Knipper-Chekhova as Nastia in Maxim Gorky's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Olga Leonárdovna Knipper-Chekhova (1868-1959 ) was a Russian actress. After marrying Antón Chékhov in 1901, she added the surname of the writer to her father's name. She was one of the 39 members of the Moscow Art Theatre when Konstantin Stanislavski formed it in 1898. She played the role of Arkadyina in 'The Seagull' (1898) and was the first person to star as Masha in 'Three Sisters' (1901) and Madame Ranévskaya in 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904). In 1901 Knipper married Antón Chékhov, the author of these stageplays, but the wedding was almost done in secret. Three years after, in 1904, Chekhov would die of tuberculosis.

In 1919, Knipper fled the famine with her company by moving first to Kharkiv, then the Crimea, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, before returning to the Soviet Union in 1922. She then went on an official stage tour to France and the United States. At her return, she passed Germany, where her niece Olga was starting a career in silent cinema. Olga Knipper herself played in three films, the silent film Plenniki morya/Prisoners of the Sea (Mikhail Verner, 1929), Zavtra nochyu/Tomorrow Night (Ilya Kravchunovsky, 1930), and Mastera stseny (Vladimir Yurenev, 1947), in which she reprised her part of Madame Ranévskaya. Olga Knipper continued a successful stage career with the Moscow Art Theatre. She played the role of Ranévskaya again in 1943 to celebrate the three hundredth representation of 'The Cherry Orchard'.


Ivan Moskvin as Tsar Fyodor in Tolstoy's Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard,no. 19 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin. Ivan Moskvin as Tsar Fyodor in Aleksey Tolstoy's 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich', Moscow Art Theatre.


Barbara (Varvara) Bulgakova as Natasha in Gorki's The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre
French postcard, no. 19 N. Barbara Bulgakova as Natasha in Maxim Gorki's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Barbara Bulgakova aka Barbara Bulgakov (c. 1898-1977) was the wife of actor, stage and film director Leo Bulgakov. Both were regulars from the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) from an early date. As Varvara Bulgakova, she had her first film part in Polikushka (1922), starring Moscow Art Theatre actor Ivan Moskvin. The Bulgakovs were part of the MAT troupe that officially toured Europe and the States in the early 1920s.

When the troupe returned to Russia, Bulgakov and his wife remained in the US. They started to act in shows on Broadway, which Leo Bulgakov partly also produced himself, including classic Russian plays such as 'The Seagull', 'The Lower Depths', etc. He also directed and acted in various films. Barbara acted with her husband in Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, Laslo Benedek, 1944). After the death of her husband in 1948, she also acted in a few TV plays.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Evelyn Brent

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Evelyn Brent (1899-1975), was an American actress of the silent screen. Josef von Sternberg paved the way for her to become a top star through her role of the tough prostitute Feathers in Underworld (1927). The dark-haired, aquiline Brent became a matinee idol with performances as exotic temptresses and vamps in such films as the epic war drama The Last Command (Josef von Sternberg, 1928).

Evelyn Brent
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5330. Photo: Paramount.

Adolphe Menjou and Evelyn Brent in His Tiger Wife (1928)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4102/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Adolphe Menjou and Evelyn Brent in His Tiger Wife (Hobart Henley, 1928).

Four years in England


Evelyn Brent was born as Mary Elizabeth Riggs in 1899. 'Betty' was a child of 10 when her mother Eleanor died, leaving her father Arthur to raise her alone. After moving to New York City as a teenager, her good looks brought modelling jobs.

She originally studied to be a teacher. While attending a normal school in New York she visited the Popular Plays and Players Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a production cooperative for distributors World Film, Pathe and Metro. Two days later she was working there as an extra making $3 a day, using her original name, Betty Riggs.

She made her major debut in the silent film production of the Robert W. Service poem, The Shooting of Dan McGrew (Herbert Blaché, 1915) for Solax Studios. As Evelyn Brent, she continued to work in film, developing into a young woman whose sultry looks were much sought after.

From 1916 on, she already had leading roles in East coast film productions. In 1917 she joined John Barrymore in Raffles the Amateur Cracksman (George Irving, 1917), about a highly educated crook with entree to the best social circles. Barrymore had personally hand-picked her as his leading lady.

Evelyn Brent then took a sabbatical for health reasons and went to England. She met American playwright Oliver Cromwell who urged her to accept an important role in the George Bernard Shaw comedy 'The Ruined Lady' at the West End.

The actress remained in England for four years. She performed for such film companies as Ideal and Stoll and with male partners like Clive Brook and Jack Trevor. In 1922, she even went to Spain as star of The Spanish Jade (John S. Robertson, 1922) opposite Charles de Rochefort, distributed in America by Paramount.

She returned in 1922 to the US, and moved to Hollywood. In 1923, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. signed her but failed to find a story for her; she left his company to join Associated Authors.

Brent acted in a whole series of films at Fox in 1924, while in 1924-1926 she did a large number of films at Robertson-Cole and FBO, turning her into a popular actress in such B films as Midnight Molly (Lloyd Ingraham, 1925) and Broadway Lady (Wesley Ruggles, 1925).

Evelyn Brent
Belgian postcard by S.A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvoorde / N.V. Cacao en Chocolade Kivou, Vilvoorde.

A prostitute named Feathers


In the later 1920s, Evelyn Brent occasionally starred in A productions, mainly at Paramount. At Paramount, it was Josef von Sternberg who paved the way for Brent to become a top star through her role of the prostitute Feathers in Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, 1927), opposite Clive Brook and George Bancroft.

Next she appeared as Natacha Dabrova in the epic war drama The Last Command (Josef von Sternberg, 1928), opposite Emil Jannings and William Powell.  In The Last Command, Brent's character saves Jannings' Grandduke Sergius during the Russian Revolution, at the expense of her own life. Jannings won the first Oscar for his part in this film and in The Way of All Flesh (Victor Fleming, 1927).

Paramount used Evelyn Brent, William Powell and Clive Brook as stars in their first feature-length all-talking film, Interference (Lothar Mendes, 1928). She was excellent as a blackmailer, but the film did not live up to expectations at the box office.

Despite that, Brent played major roles in several more features, most notably the Alaska-set romantic drama The Silver Horde (George Archainbaud, 1930) with Joel McCrea. The New York Times described the film in a critical review as 'dull and trivial' . And Brent's part in Paramount Pictures all-star revue Paramount on Parade (Edmund Goulding, a.o., 1930) was only small.

Overall, the transition to sound film ended her promising future. I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "While Evelyn's voice proved no detriment to her success in talking pictures, the declining quality of her films did." Paramount annulled their contract with Brent, who then spent the remaining years of her film career in cheap Westerns and 'quota quickies' for RKO and later for poverty row studios, such as Monogram and PRC. She also appeared in vaudeville shows.

Wikipedia: "She photographed attractively opposite leading men who were also at advanced ages and later stages in their careers: Neil Hamilton in Producers Releasing Corporation's production Dangerous Lady, Lee Tracy in the same studio's The Payoff, and Jack Holt in the serial Holt of the Secret Service, produced by Larry Darmour for Columbia Pictures. Her performances were still persuasive, and her name was still recognizable to moviegoers: theater owners often put "Evelyn Brent" on their marquees."

In the early 1940s veteran director William Beaudine cast her in many B-films, including Emergency Landing (1941), Bowery Champs (1944), The Golden Eye (1948), and Again Pioneers (1950). After performing in more than 120 films, she retired from acting in 1950 and worked for a number of years as an actor's agent.

Evelyn Brent was married three times: to film executive Bernard P. Fineman, to producer Harry D. Edwards, and finally to the vaudeville actor Harry Fox for whom the foxtrot dance was named. They were still married when he died in 1959.

Evelyn Brent died of a heart attack in 1975 at her Los Angeles home. She was cremated and interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills. In 1960, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Evelyn Brent
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4004/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.

Evelyn Brent
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5400/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb),  Wikipedia and IMDb.

Barbara Lang

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Beautiful, brassy Barbara Lang (1928–1982) was an American actress and singer. During the 1950s she was one of the many B-level blondes in Hollywood who were promoted as the new Marilyn Monroe. However, Lang appeared in only three films.

Barbara Lang
German postcard by ISV, Sort V 6.

Barbara Lang
Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 3480. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Faith performing a miracle


Barbara Lang was born as Barbara Jean Bly in 1928 in Hollywood, California, U.S. She was the daughter of Los Angeles nose drop bottler Leonidis Stannage Bly and his wife Esther W., nee Kaufman, former silent movie dancer Maureen Knight.

Barbara worked a number of jobs before she broke into the entertainment industry. She sold jewellery in a Los Angeles department store and was a part-time fashion model at the age of seventeen. She was also a pianist and singer for a time in a cocktail lounge.

Lang suffered an attack of poliomyelitis in late 1953. She spent three weeks in the polio ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. Lang was told that she might never walk again. She turned to the Bible during this time and reportedly credited faith for performing a miracle. Shortly after being stricken, her legs and facial muscles were paralysed, and she had difficulty speaking. After many months of treatment she was able to walk again. The lingering effects of her illness robbed her of much of her stamina and she would tire easily for the rest of her life.

Recovered from polio, Lang went into television work. She first came to the attention of Hollywood producers with appearances in Death Valley Days (1955–1956), a TV series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Reportedly, half a dozen film studios vied to sign Lang after her TV performances.

She chose for Metro Goldwyn Mayer and was assigned to drama lessons. The starlet's first role was a bit part in Hot Summer Night (David Friedkin, 1957), starring Leslie Nielsen.

As a new star for MGM, Lang played the feminine lead in the Film Noir House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957), co-starring with Jack Palance. In the film, Palance plays two similar-looking brothers: Bill and his younger brother Arnie Judlow. Bill is a good citizen, trying to help his ex-professional boxer brother, Arnie, convicted of murder, escape from San Quentin State Prison to return to Arnie's wife, Ruth, played by Lang. It was filmed inside San Quentin Prison and in Mill Valley, California.

Bethany Cox at IMDb: “While the story is less than perfect, there are some twists that keep it from being a standard thriller and there is some low-key suspense. The prison escape scheme is at times pretty ingenious. The characters maintain interest and the chemistry between the actors is continually good.”

Barbara Lang
German postcard by ISV, B 11. Photo: MGM. Still for House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957).

A Chicago showgirl of the 1930s called Ginger D'Amour


In the classy, exciting Film Noir Party Girl (Nicholas Ray, 1958), Barbara Lang played the supporting part of Ginger D'Amour, a Chicago showgirl of the 1930s.

Bruce Eder at AllMovie: “Party Girl is regarded by many Nicholas Ray fans as the most beautiful looking of all of his movies. Shot in CinemaScope and color, and starring Cyd Charisse (with Robert Taylor, it gave cinematographer Robert J. Bronner one of the best showcases he ever had for his work, and was a treat to the eye of the viewer, a veritable explosion of color and motion for many of its best sequences.”

A huge disappointment then for Barbara was when she lost out on the co-starring role opposite Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 1957). After being initially named by the studio for the part, Judy Tyler was given the coveted role instead.

Lang would make only three films, but her TV credits are numerous. She appeared in episodes of The Thin Man (1957), Maverick (1958), The Bob Cummings Show (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1959), Lawman (1959), Tightrope (1959), and The Outlaws (1960).

In November 1958, Lang won an annulment of her two-year marriage to actor Alan Wells, who had been her co-star in Death Valley Days. The decree was granted on grounds that Wells married Lang in Ensenada, Mexico, ten months before his divorce from actress Claudia Barrett was final.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: “With her annulment from Wells finalised in 1958 and a career going into an abrupt tailspin, Barbara attempted suicide in 1959 with an overdose of sleeping pills. She recovered but her career did not.”

Wells was her second husband. The first had been William McCorkle (1946-1952; divorced), and her final husband would be John George (1967-1972; divorced). She had two daughters, Pam and Cheryl. At age 54, Barbara Lang died in 1982 in Los Angeles, reportedly from pneumonia.

Barbara Lang in House of Numbers (1957)
Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3671. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957).

Barbara Lang
Spanish postcard, no. 2823. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Sources: Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

I.N.R.I. (1923)

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The German silent film I.N.R.I. (1923), directed by Robert Wiene, was one of the first big-screen adaptations of the Passion of Christ. The film retells the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. The Ukrainian born actor Gregori Chmara played Jesus Christ, Henny Porten the Virgin Mary and Alexander Granach Judas. Asta Nielsen also appeared as Maria Magdalen. I.N.R.I. was reissued in 1933 in the United States with an added music track and narration as Crown of Thorns.

Henny Porten in I.N.R.I. (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 666/1. Photo: Neumann. Henny Porten as Mary in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Grigori Chmara in I.N.R.I.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 666/3. Photo: Neumann. Gregori Chmara as Jesus Christ in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Alexander Granach in I.N.R.I. (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 666/4. Photo: Neumann. Alexander Granach as Judas in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Judas as a social revolutionary 


I.N.R.I. (1923) was made by Robert Wiene, who had revolutionised the German cinema with his expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). He just had made Raskolnikow/Crime and Punishment (1923), also starring Gregori Chmara and the Moscow Art Theatre players.

Wiene had based I.N.R.I. on a 1905 novel by Peter Rosegger and he embedded the Passion of Christ in a contemporary story. The film is generally conventional in its treatment of the story except for the character of Judas Iscariot (Alexander Granach).

Wiene portrays Judas as a social revolutionary who wants Jesus (Gregori Chmara) to become the leader of a Jewish uprising against the Roman army of occupation. Judas' eventual betrayal of Jesus comes from political disillusionment rather than money. The Judas role is very important to the film as it was conceived by Wiene, because it links the biblical story to the framing story.

The framing story is set in modern Russia. An anarchist shoots the prime minister of his country out of political conviction. He is sentenced to death. A few hours before the execution, he starts doubting the meaning of his death and he decides to write down the Passion of Christ.

It is believed that Wiene intended the framing story to give the Biblical story an anti-Bolshevist propaganda function. However, the modern scenes provoked opposition from the censors, and the film was generally shown without them

IMDb suggests it was added without the knowledge of the actors in the Passion story, who included some of the major stars of the period: Asta Nielsen as the seductive Mary Magdalene, Henny Porten as Jesus' mother Mary, and Werner Krauss as Pontius Pilate. Krauss played the titular Dr Caligari in Wiene's famous film.

Werner Krauss in I.N.R.I. (1923),
German postcard by Ross Verlag , Berlin, no. 666/5, 1919-1924. Photo: Neumann. Werner Krauss as Pontius Pilate in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

I.N.R.I.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 666/6. Photo: Neumann. Theodor Becker as the Roman captain in I.N.R.I./Crown of Thorns (Robert Wiene, 1923).


Henny Porten in I.N.R.I. (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 667/1. Photo: Neumann. The Nativity Scene with Henny Porten as Mary in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Expensive sets and hundreds of extras


I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923) was shot over 90 days between May and September 1923 at the Staaken Studios in Berlin. The film was produced by Hans Neumann and Hans von Wolzogen for Neumann-Filmproduktion

I.N.R.I. was the first biblical epic made in Germany and it was made with expensive sets and hundreds of extras for the mass scenes. In scale and length, it was the largest film directed by Robert Wiene during his career. He had Ernö Metzner for the film's art direction and had three cinematographers to film his epic: Axel Graatkjær, Reimar Kuntze and Ludwig Lippert.

Edgar Mauricio, at his blog Stone Movie Spree, is impressed: "As for the staging, the work done by the expressionist master is impeccable, his setting is impeccable, the costumes, the decorations, without excessive ornaments or mannerisms, but a simplicity that leads to a more intimate closeness to what is portrayed, and it contrasts with the reloading efforts of representation that can be seen in these days, so artificial and pastiche that they end up eliminating a genuine approach to those days.

I.N.R.I. premiered in Berlin on Christmas Day 1925. The film received mixed reviews in the German newspapers and soon disappeared from the cinema screens.

For a long time I.N.R.I. was believed to be lost, but a surviving complete copy, a 16mm print, was discovered in the archives of the Cineteca del Friuli in Italy in October 1999. Since the film lacked opening credits, it had been labelled as an unknown film. Another copy was found in Japan and screened at National Film Center, Tokyo at February 2006. Although it looks like some scenes are missing, it is 35mm tinted print with English intertitles.

Grigori Chmara and Henny Porten in I.N.R.I.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 667/2. Photo: Neumann. Gregori Chmara as Jesus Christ and Henny Porten as Mary in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Last Supper in I.N.R.I. (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 667/3. Photo: Neumann. Gregori Chmara as Jesus Christ at the Last Supper in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923). Foreground right, looking up is Alexander Granach as Judas.

Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen in I.N.R.I. (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 667/4. Photo: Neumann. Asta Nielsen as Mary Magdalen and Henny Porten as the Virgin Mary in I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Sources: Edgar Mauricio (Stone Movies Spree),  Ed Meza (Variety), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Rolf Wanka

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Austrian actor Rolf Wanka (1901-1982) was a handsome, suave star of the European cinema of the 1930s and the 1950s. He often played supporting parts as well-dressed, dignified gentlemen, and appeared in more than 100 films and television shows between 1931 and 1976.

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9844/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Metropolitan-Film.

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Bild u. Ton.

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1228. Photo: Rolf Lantin.

The Lover of Love


Rudolf Josef Wanka was born in 1901 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria).

He studied at the Technological Highschool in Prague, and later at the universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, where he majored in economics, medicine and philosophy. From 1928 on, he was the director of a machine factory.

In 1931, he made his film debut with a bit part in the classic thriller M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder/M (Fritz Lang, 1931), starring Peter Lorre. The film revolves around the actions of a serial killer of children and the manhunt for him, conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld.

Wanka decided to become an actor The following year, he appeared in the German-Czech comedy Wehe, wenn er losgelassen/Woe, if he let go (Martin Fric, Karel Lamac, 1932). In 1933 and 1934, he studied acting with Aurel Novotny in Vienna.

In the next years he took part in German, Austrian as well as in Czech films. In 1935, he was the partner of Marta Eggerth in the comedy Die ganze Welt dreht sich um Liebe/The World's in Love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1935).

He played leading roles in in such films as the drama Páter Vojtech/Father Vojtech (Martin Fric, 1936), the musical Flucht an die Adria/Escape to the Adriatic (Eugen Schulz-Breiden, 1937) and the romantic comedy Poslícek lásky/The Lover of Love (Miroslav Cikán, 1937) with Hana Vitova. These films were shot at the Barrandov Studios in Prague, and they were often made in alternate language versions in German and Czech.

Rolf Wanka also directed one film, Vydelecne zeny/Working Woman (Rolf Wanka, 1937).

Rolf Wanka in Rote Rosen - blaue Adria (1938)
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Metropolitan / Bavaria. Publicity still for Rote Rosen - blaue Adria/Red Roses - Blue Adriatic (Jan Sviták, 1938).

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9914/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Panorama / Märkische / Schneider.

Rolf Wanka
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa.

Captain Sindbad


Rolf Wanka was multi-lingual and for his role in the French adventure film Alerte en Méditerranée/Alert in the Mediterranean (Leo Joannon, 1938) with Pierre Fresnay, he was awarded the Grand prix du cinéma français.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, he limited his film work. He first accepted a commitment to the Vienna Kammerspiele and was artistic director of the Vienna City Theater from 1940 to 1944. After the war, he appeared mainly at the Raimundtheater and at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna.

During the 1950s, he returned to the cinema and played in German and Austrian productions as well as in several Spanish films. These included La mestiza (José María Ochoa, 1956) with Lida Baarova, El batallón de las sombras/The Battalion of Shadows (Manuel Mur Oti, 1957) and Horas de pánico/Day of Fear (Donald Taylor, 1957). In 1963, he appeared as the King in the American-German adventure film Captain Sindbad (Byron Haskin, 1963) featuring Guy Williams.

He made his last screen appearances during the 1970s. His last film was the excellent historical war drama Il deserto dei tartari/The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976), starring Jacques Perrin and Vittorio Gassman. On TV, his final appearance was in an episode of the Krimi series Tatort (1978).

Rolf Wanka died in 1982 in Munich, West Germany. He was married to Ilse Vogl and actress Friedl Czepa. From a liaison with Helene Amon his son Rudolf Wanka was born in 1954, whom he adopted at the age of 4 years. In 1954, he met Brigitta Dahlem, who became his third wife, known as Lili Wanka. In 1961, their daughter, actress Irina Wanka, was born.

Rolf Wanka
Small German collectors card by Ross Verlag.

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2569/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Cine Allianz.

Rolf Wanka
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Ferdy Dittmar, Stuttgart.

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

Sophia Loren's Ieri, Oggi Domani

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New series alert! This Summer, I read several film books (some interesting, some great). On the coming Thursdays, I would like to share my thoughts about them at EFSP. I'll combine these 'book reviews' with a choice of our postcards. 

In 'Ieri, oggi, domani', the then nearly 80 years old Sophia Loren waits for her grandchildren while preparing a Christmas dinner for her family. She opens a box full of little objects, which bring back memories of a long life and a magnificent career. The title of this memoir, which translates as 'Yesterday, today, tomorrow', refers to her famous film from 1963 in which she costarred with Marcello Mastroianni and was directed by Vittorio De Sica. In her book, she often refers to these two friends, who were as important for her career as she was for theirs. Less she writes about what her husband, producer Carlo Ponti, meant for her film career. 

Sophia Loren, Ieri, oggi, domani
Dutch book cover for Sophia Loren, 'Mijn leven - Ieri, oggi, domani' (1994). Original title: 'Ieri, oggi, domani'. Translated by Edwin Krijgsman and Els van der Pluijm. Publisher: Uitgeverij-Sijthoff B.V., Amsterdam.

That famous sensual walk through the rain


The most interesting part of Sophia Loren's film career was in the Italian cinema. During the 1950s and 1960s, she was a typical film producer's muse. Like Silvana Mangano often worked with husband Dino De Laurentiis and Claudia Cardinale with her husband Franco Cristaldi, Sophia almost always worked with Carlo Ponti.

In 1951, the 17-year old Sofia Scicolone met Ponti, then 39 and married. Ponti was a great catch. In 1941, he had had his breakthrough as a producer with the drama Piccolo mondo antico/Old-Fashioned World (Mario Soldati, 1941), which made a star of Alida Valli. In 1949 Ponti started his own production company together with Dino De Laurentiis. They worked with all the major directors of the time: De Sica, Lattuada, Rossellini, Blasetti, Visconti... Sophia wonders in retrospect if she realised how important her new companion was.

In 1949, Sofia started her career at a beauty contest in a cinema in Naples, to which she was pushed by her poor mammina. She won a prize which included a train ticket to Rome. In her memoir, Loren vividly describes how she and her mother arrived in Cinecittà, where MGM was just filming Quo Vadis?. Rome had become Hollywood on the Tiber! Director Mervyn Le Roy even offered Sofia a bit part in the film, although the only English word she could say to him was 'yes'.

In the following years, she gathered experience by posing for the very popular Fotoromanzi, the photo comics which emerged in Italy in the 1940s and expanded into the 1950s. Loren writes that the Fotoromanzo, introduced by the De Luca brothers and the Milanese company Universo, helped her to learn to express herself. For her and other young hopefuls, they formed a stepping stone to the cinema.

Was it Carlo who helped her get her first leading role in Africa sotto i mari/Africa Under the Seas (Giovanni Roccardi, 1953)? Probably, but Loren had real star appeal. In the publicity stills of her first films, she already looked sensational. A beauty with a natural talent who enjoyed Cinecittà as her wonderland.

Loren did one film after another in these years. And then came her 28th film (in four years), she was directed by Vittorio De Sica in Pizze a credito, a segment of the anthology film L'oro di Napoli (Vittorio De Sica, 1954). She played a charming Neapolitan pizza cook, who loses an emerald ring which her husband gave her. She searches for it  and supposes she baked it into a pizza, but in reality she left it on her lover's nightstand. Her vivacious smile, her pronounced cleavage and her famous sensual walk through the rain while followed by her cuckolded husband made her an international star. It started a long series of films with De Sica, and soon also Hollywood was calling.

Sophia Loren
German postcard printed by Krüger, no. 902/304. Photo: Georg Michalke. Publicity still for Loren's 31nd (!) Italian film, La donna del fiume/Woman of the River (Mario Soldati, 1954).

Sophia Loren in La donna del fiume (1954)
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 328. Photo: Ponti-De Laurentiis. Publicity still for La donna del fiume/Woman of the River (Mario Soldati, 1954).

Sophia Loren
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 358.

Sophia Loren in Peccato che sia una canaglia (1954)
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 449. Photo: Documento Film. Publicity still for Peccato che sia una canaglia/Too Bad She's Bad (Alessandro Blasetti, 1954).

Sophia Loren
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 591.

A tough cookie from Naples


Sophia Loren writes about her encounters and films in Hollywood, but she remains a lady who does not gossip. She writes warmly about admirers as Cary Grant and Peter Sellers.

One of the few co-stars, whom she did not like was Marlon Brando, her co-star in A Countess from Hong Kong (Charles Chaplin, 1967). She describes how Brando arrives three quarters too late at the first day of shooting, how the whole crew has to wait and how Chaplin scolds him in front of the whole crew. From then on, Brando never arrived late again at the set.

Later during the production of the film, Brando made a pass at her. Loren reacted as a blazing cat and furiously hissed "Don't ever do that again! Never, never again." No, for Ms. Loren  #metoo was not necessary, growing up poor in a little village near Naples had made her a tough cookie.

La Loren writes a lot about her family, her passion for cooking and her troubles with the Italian government concerning the divorce of Carlo Ponti and his first wife and concerning taxes. She even had to go 100 days to jail for that, although the state later offcially declared that she was innocent.

It's all interesting, but I like the book most when Loren tells about her films. About her first 'serious' role in La Ciociara/Two Women (Vittorio De Sica, 1961), for which she won an Oscar, and of course for Una giornata particolare/A Special Day (Ettore Scola, 1977). Once again she surprised critics and filmgoers by playing a resigned housewife in Fascist Italy, who expresses a whole range of feelings in just one look.

Una giornata particolare was for me her pne of her best pairings with co-star Marcello Mastroianni. He plays her neighbour, a persecuted, homosexual journalist, who is just as lonely as she is. During a national holiday when Hitler visits Rome in May 1938 and everybody is out on the streets to see the parade, the two have a brief encounter on the roof of their apartment complex. An unforgettable love story between two people who don't fit in the world they live in.

Sophia Loren
French postcard by P.I. / Korès, no. 38. Photo: Constantin Film. Publicity still for La bella mugnaia/The Miller's Wife (Mario Camerini, 1955).

Sophia Loren
German postcard by UFA, no. 1007. Photo: UFA. Publicity still for La bella mugnaia/The Miller's Wife (Mario Camerini, 1955).

Sophia Loren in La fortuna di essere donna (1956)
German postcard by UFA. Photo: publicity still for La fortuna di essere donna/What a Woman! (Alessandro Blasetti, 1956).

Sophia Loren
German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. A 102. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for The Millionairess (Anthony Asquith, 1960).

Sophia Loren
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 4894. Photo: Hafbo. Publicity still from El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961).

Sophia Loren
German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, EssenParis, no. 5096. Photo: publicity still for Boccaccio '70 (Vittorio De Sica, 1962).

Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren in La Moglie del Prete
German postcard by pwe Verlag, München (Munich). Photo: publicity still for La moglie del prete/The Priest's Wife (Dino Risi, 1970) with Marcello Mastroianni.

Jodie Foster

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American actress, director, and producer Jodie Foster (1962) has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Cecil B DeMille Award. A child prodigy, Foster began her professional career at the age of 3. Foster's breakthrough came at 14 with Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver (1976). She played a child prostitute, for which she received an Oscar nomination. As an adult she won new acclaim with The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Nell (1994). She later starred in four thrillers, Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006) and The Brave One (2007), which were commercially successful and well-received by critics. She has focused on directing in the 2010s.

Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (1976)
British postcard by Music & Movie Stars Ltd. Publishers, no. MMS 036. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

Jodie Foster
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. Z325. Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Caption: Jodie Foster, Malibu, California, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card donated to AIDS organizations.

A prostitute at the tender age of 12


Jodie Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster in 1962 in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Evelyn Ella 'Brandy' (Almond), a producer, and Lucius Fisher Foster III, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and real estate broker. She is the younger sister of Buddy Foster, Cindy Foster Jones and Connie Foster, who all also acted. Brandy had filed for divorce in 1959 after having three children with Lucius, but the exes had a brief re-encounter in 1962 which resulted in Alicia's birth.

Her older siblings nicknamed her Jodie, a name she has used in her profession. She started her career in a Coppertone Suntan Lotion commercial when she was 3 years old and made commercials for four years. She made her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968), on which her brother, Buddy Foster, was a regular. She stayed very busy as a child actress, working on television programs such as The Doris Day Show (1968), Adam-12 (1968), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969), The Partridge Family (1970), Bonanza (1972), and Gunsmoke (1969-1972).

After her film debut in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha (Bernard McEveety, 1972), Foster was much in demand. Her film roles included playing Raquel Welch's daughter in Kansas City Bomber (Jerold Freedman, 1972) and a tomboy in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974) starring Ellen Burstyn. She starred as Addie Pray on the short-lived television series Paper Moon (1974), which was originally a film by Peter Bogdanovich starring Tatum O'Neal.

Jodie first drew attention from critics with her appearance in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) alongside Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, where she played a prostitute at the tender age of 12. Her sister, Connie Foster, was her stand-in during the more explicit scenes. She received her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role.

She was 12 turning 13 during production of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Gessner, 1976), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. Foster went on to have a very successful career in her early teens with leading roles in Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) as the mini-vamp Tallulah, and the Disney films Freaky Friday (Gary Nelson, 1976) with Barbara Harris, and Candleshoe (Norman Tokar, 1977) opposite David Niven and Helen Hayes.

Fluent in French by age 14, she spoke her own lines in the French film Moi, fleur bleue (Eric Le Hung, 1977) with Jean Yanne and Sydne Rome. She also co-starred in the Italian comedy Casotto (Sergio Citti, 1977) with Catherine Deneuve. The last film she made during this era was the coming-of-age drama Foxes (Adrian Lyne, 1980), before enrolling at Yale University.

In 1981, during her freshman year at Yale, she was attached to a worldwide scandal when a crazed and obsessed fan named John Hinckley stalked her and attempted to assassinate President Reagan.  When captured, Hinckley insisted he'd done it to impress Foster - a re-creation of a similar incident in Taxi Driver.

Jodie Foster
Italian postcard in the Le più belle del mondo series by Tele Tutto, no. 11.

Jodie Foster
Postcard, no. 135.

A waitress who is gang-raped in a bar


In 1985, Jodie Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a degree in literature. She resumed her acting career and appeared in the comedy drama The Hotel New Hampshire (Tony Richardson, 1984) opposite Rob Lowe and Nastassia Kinski, and based on the novel by John Irving. In France, she appeared in the historical drama Le sang des autres/The Blood of Others (Claude Chabrol, 1984) based on the novel by Simone de Beauvoir.

Foster sought a breakthrough role that would return her to stardom. After appearing in a few obscure films with limited release, she landed an audition for The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan, 1988). She was cast in the part of Sarah Tobias, a waitress who is gang-raped in a bar during a night of partying and teams up with a lawyer played by Kelly McGillis to prosecute the attackers. This performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress, but despite the Oscar win, Jodie still hadn't re-established herself as a bankable star.

Her next film, Catchfire (Dennis Hopper, 1990), went straight to video, and she had to campaign hard to get her next good role. In 1991, she starred as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee assisting in a hunt for a serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) with Anthony Hopkins. The film was a blockbuster hit, winning Jodie her second Academy Award for Best Actress and establishing her as an international film star.

With the wealth and fame to do anything she wanted, Jodie started directing. She made her directorial debut with Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster, 1991), about the tribulations of a child genius. It was followed by Home for the Holidays (Jodie Foster, 1995) with Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr. These films were critically acclaimed but did not do well at the box office, and she proved to be a far more successful actress than she was a director.

On the set of Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993) with Richard Gere, she met Cydney Bernard and was in a serious relationship with her until they broke up in 2008. 1994 was a huge triumph for her acting career. She first played a sexy con artist in the successful Western comedy Maverick (Richard Donner, 1994) with Mel Gibson and James Garner.

She made her debut as producer in 1994 with Nell (Michael Apted, 1994). She also played the title role opposite Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. For her compelling performance as a wild, backwoods hermit who speaks an invented language and must return to civilisation, Jodie was nominated for another Academy Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award as Best Actress.

Although she was working far less frequently as an adult than she did as a child, the films she turned out were commercially successful and critically acclaimed. Her next big screen role was in the science fiction drama Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997) opposite Matthew McConaughey. She played a scientist who receives signals from space aliens. The film was a huge hit and brought her a Golden Globe nomination.

She had to pull out of Double Jeopardy (Bruce Beresford, 1999) because she became pregnant, and was replaced by Ashley Judd. In 1999, her son Charles Foster, with partner Cydney Bernard, was born. She returned to work four months later in order to begin filming Anna and the King (Andy Tennant, 1999), a non-musical remake of The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956). The film was only modestly received in the U.S. but was successful in the rest of the world.

Jodie Foster
British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd., London, no. SPC2540.

Jodie Foster in Nell (1994)
Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-253. Jodie Foster in Nell (Michael Apted, 1994).

Playing tough women in mainstream thrillers


Jodie Foster returned to work four months after giving birth to her second son Kit Foster, but she shut down her production company Egg Pictures in late 2001 to spend more time with her children. She headlined the thriller Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002), which co-starred Kristen Stewart. The film was a smash box-office hit and gave Jodie a $30 million opening weekend, the biggest of her career yet.

She then appeared in two low-profile projects: the independent film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Peter Care, 2002) and the French film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004) with Audrey Tautou and Gaspard Ulliel.

She returned to making Hollywood mainstream films, first with Flightplan (Robert Schwentke, 2005), in which she played a woman whose daughter disappears on an airplane that she designed. Once again Jodie proved herself to be a box-office draw, and the film was a worldwide hit.

The following year, she starred in another hit, the bank heist thriller Inside Man (Spike Lee, 2006) with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Jodie was on a roll. Her next film was the revenge thriller The Brave One (Neil Jordan, 2007), which once again opened at #1 at the box office and earned her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Following this succession of thrillers that all had her playing tough women, Jodie returned to the comedy genre in Nim's Island (Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, 2008) with Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin. She reunited with Mel Gibson in the comedy The Beaver (Jodie Foster, 2011). Strong roles followed in Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011) with Kate Winslet, and the Sci-Fi film Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013) with Matt Damon.

In 2013, she received the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globe Awards. In April 2016, Jodie Foster married Alexandra Hedison. In July that year, John Hinckley was released after almost 35 years of commission to St. Elizabeth's Mental Institution. Lately, she focused on directing and made the film Money Monster (2016), as well as episodes for the TV series Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, and Black Mirror.

Jodie Foster's most recent film is Hotel Artemis (Drew Pearce, 2018) in which she runs a high-security, members-only hospital for high-rolling criminals in Los Angeles.


Trailer Taxi Driver (1976). Source: YouTube Movies (YouTube).


Trailer Hotel Artemis (2018). Source: Zero Media (YouTube).

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

Re: