Quantcast
Channel: European Film Star Postcards
Viewing all 4108 articles
Browse latest View live

Ica Lenkeffy

0
0
Ica Lenkeffy a.k.a. Ica von Lenkeffy (1896-1955) was a Hungarian actress of the stage and screen, who was most active in Hungarian silent cinema in the late 1910s and early 1920s. She also made some films in Austria, Germany, and France.

Ica Lenkeffy
German postcard by NPG, no. 999. Photo: Angelo, Budapest, 1918.

Ica Lenkeffy
German postcard by NPG, no. 1000. Photo: Angelo, Budapest, 1918.

Ica Lenkeffy, Angelo
German postcard. NPG, no. 1062. Photo Angelo, Budapest 1918.

Summer Love


Ica (von) Lenkeffy was born in 1896, in Miskolc, Hungary. She was the daughter of actor Kornél Lenkefi (originally Manó József Győző Kaukal) and Ernesztin (Catherine) Kaukal, so her real name was Ilona Kaukál.

Lenkeffy attended school in Budapest but did not complete drama school. She first appeared in the countryside, and at the age of fifteen introduced herself in the role of Julie in 'Summer Love' at Vígszínház (the Comedy Theatre of Budapest).

Until 1913, she was a member of the Vígszínház, then worked from 1914 at the Hungarian Theatre, and in 1915 she became a member of the Royal Theatre. In 1918, she married Imre Roboz, the director of the company Projectograf in Budapest, but they divorced in 1923.

Ica Lenkeffy started in film in 1912 with director Sándor (Alexander) Góth, who had just started his career. Her first successful film was Szulamit (1916, directed by Jenő Illés (Eugen Illés), set in Old Testaments times and with Dezsõ Kertész as her co-star.

Lenkeffy then mostly played in films directed by Márkus László, Bela Balogh, Mihály Kertész (Michael Curtiz) and Sándor (Alexander) Korda. Among her film partners were Alfréd Deésy, Oscar Beregi Sr., Gyula Csortos, Mihály Várkonyi (Victor Varconi), Artúr Somlay, Jenő Törzs, Svetislav Petrovic (Iván Petrovich), and the later Oscar winner Pál Lukács (Paul Lukas).

Ica (von) Lenkeffy and Mihály Várkonyi (Victor Varconi) in A csikós (1917)
Hungarian postcard. Photo: Corvin Film. Ica Lenkeffy and Mihály Várkonyi (Victor Varconi) in A csikós (M. Miklós Pásztory, 1917).

Ica Lenkeffy
Hungarian postcard by Jòzsef Reinitz, Budapest.

Ica Lenkeffy
Hungarian postcard by József Reinitz, Budapest. Photo: Miklós Labori, Budapest.

Living in Luxury


In 1921 Ica Lenkeffy moved to Vienna for acting in films there, e.g. in Boccaccio (Michael Curtiz, 1920), also with Paul Lukas.

She then moved on to Berlin, where she e.g. starred opposite Paul Hartmann in the May-Film production Die Erbin von Tordis (Robert Dinesen, 1921). In the German production of Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922), Ica (by now von) Lenkeffy played Desdemona opposite Emil Jannings as Othello and Werner Krauss as Jago.

In 1923 Lenkeffy married again, this time to Parisian banker Louis Mannheim. She moved to Paris with him, where she lived in luxury, but left the cinema at her husband's request.

In the late 1920s she tried to return and appeared in two French silent films, Yvette (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1928) and Souris d'hôtel (Adelqui Migliar, 1929) - she had the lead in the latter film.

The advent of sound cinema made any follow-ups impossible. She then escaped her husband with Miklós Goldberger, son of industrial magnate Leo von Goldberger de Buday.

In the 1930s Lenkeffy returned to Hungary, where she died in 1955, in Budapest.

Ica Lenkeffy in Vengerkák (1917)
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.2303. Photo: Astra Film. Ica Lenkeffy in the Hungarian silent film Vengerkák (Béla Balogh, 1917), based on a play by Sándor Góth.

Emil Jannings and Ica von Lenkeffy in Othello (1922)
French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Emil Jannings and Ica von Lenkeffy in Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

Ica von Lenkeffy and Theodor Loos in Othello (1922)
French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Photo: publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922) with Ica von Lenkeffy and Theodor Loos.

Emil Jannings and Ica von Lenkeffy in Othello (1922)
French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Emil Jannings and Ica von Lenkeffy in Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

Sources: Wikipedia (Hungarian and English) and IMDb.

Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...! (1926)

0
0
In the film comedy Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (1926), Henny Porten played once again a double role. The film was a parody on hypermodern women. Carl Froelich was the director and the film was produced by Henny Porten-Froehlich-Produktion.

Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 55/1. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

A good-looking bourgeois housewife and an ugly countryside girl


Just like she had done before in Kohlhiesels Töchter (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), Henny Porten again played two parts in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froelich, 1926): that of a good-looking bourgeois housewife, Cecilia Angeropp, and that of an ugly countryside girl, Liesl, the maid of the other.

Porten said herself about this: "I have always had a special preference for double-roles. It was not the masquerades that were particularly appealing to me but the psychological aspects:

I wanted to portray two completely different characters to the point that the spectator would as long as possible keep the illusion of both roles being played by two different actresses." (Quoted in Christiane Schönefeld ed., Processes of Transposition: German Literature and Film, 2007).

The two-shots with both characters within the same shot (see the fifth postcard in this post) were obtained with double exposure.

Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...! (1926)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 55/2. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 55/3. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

The world cannot move without her


While the usual online sites don't give a content description, the Dutch historical newspaper site Delpher mentions one, when the film was reprised in 1928 at the Amsterdam cinema Corso, under the title of Vrouwenlist (A Woman's Ruse):

"The film is intended as a parody on hypermodern women. Henny Porten plays the part of Mrs. Cecilia Angeropp, wife of a wealthy merchant. As a modern woman, she thinks the world cannot move without her but is incapable to make things right. Her husband lets her feel how foolish she is." (Voorwaarts, sociaal-democratisch dagblad, 25-02-1928).

When first shown in the Netherlands in 1926 under the title Moderne Vrouwen (Modern Women), the newspaper Het Vaderland thought, the mocking of modern women was a bit unreasonable, but because of the truly good humor there was no real harm in it.

 While the play of the husband by Bruno Kastner was considered a bit flat, Curt Bois's'performance as the third person in this love triangle was considered excellent. (Het Vaderland, 20-11-1926).

Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 55/4. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 55/5. Photo: A. Schmoll, Berlin / Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten in Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen...!/When She Starts - Look Out! (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

Sourceas: Voorwaarts (Dutch), Het Vaderland (Dutch), Filmportal.de and IMDb.

Pablito Calvo

0
0
Pablito Calvo (1948–2000) was a Spanish child actor. After the international success of Marcelino, pan y vino/Marcelino Bread And Wine (1955), he became a star. At the age of 16, he retired.

Pablito Calvo
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 744.

Pablito Calvo
Italian postcard by Ed. Villaggio del Fanciullo, Bologna. Photo: E.N.I.C. Publicity still for Marcelino, pan y vino/Marcelino Bread And Wine (1955).

Pablito Calvo in Mi tío Jacinto (1956)
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1180. Photo: Enic Falco Film. Pablito Calvo in Mi tío Jacinto/Pepote (Ladislao Vajda, 1956).

An orphan in a Monastery



Pablito Calvo was born as Pablo Calvo Hidalgo in Madrid, Spain in 1948.

At the age of 8, he played the lead role in Marcelino, pan y vino/The Miracle of Marcelino (Ladislao Vajda, 1955). The film was written by José María Sánchez Silva, who based it on his novel, and directed by Ladislao Vajda.

Pablito plays the orphan Marcelino who grows up in a monastery. One day when he eats his small meal in a room full of old things he gives a piece of his bread to an old wooden Jesus figure - and indeed it takes the bread and eats it. At the 1955 Cannes Film Festival the film won an award, and at the 5th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Silver Bear.

Pablito, who had received a special mention from the Cannes festival jury, became Spain's most famous child actor. The following year he appeared in Mi tío Jacinto/Pepote (Ladislao Vajda, 1956) which won the Golden Bear (Audience Award) at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Hal Erickson notes at AllMovie: “Though Pepote is hardly upbeat entertainment, the relaxed, natural performance of newcomer Pablito Calvo brightens every scene he's in.”

A year later followed Un ángel se paseó por Brooklyn/An Angel Over Brooklyn (Ladislao Vajda, 1957) with Peter Ustinov as a nasty, grasping Brooklyn slum lord who turns into a dog. Pablito also filmed in Italy, where he appeared with comedian Totò in Totò e Marcellino/Toto and Marcellino (Antonio Musu, 1958).

Pablito Calvo in Marcellino, Pan y Vino (1955)
Italian postcard by Ed. Villaggio del Fanciullo, Bologna. Photo: E.N.I.C. Publicity still for Marcelino, pan y vino/The Miracle of Marcelino (Ladislao Vajda, 1955).

Pablito Calvo
Vintage postcard.

Pablito Calvo
Italian postcard by Ed. Villaggio del Fanciullo, Bologna.

Mexican Revolution


During the early 1960s, Pablito Calvo starred in Juanito (Fernando Palacios, 1960) with Georg Thomalla, Alerta en el cielo/Alert in the sky (Luis César Amadori, 1961) with Antonio Vilar, Dos años de vacaciones/Shipwreck Island (Emilio Gómez Muriel, 1962) based on a story by Jules Verne, and Barcos de papel/Paper Boats (Román Viñoly Barreto, 1963).

Calvo sang in a few films, but his singing voice was always dubbed on screen, in Spain by a woman, Matilde F. Vilariño.

In 1963, he retired from acting at the age of 16 to become an industrial engineer. Later, he worked in tourism and promoting buildings in Torrevieja.

Pablito Calvo died of a brain hemorrhage in 2000 in Alicante, Spain. He was aged 52. He had been married to Juana Olmedo since 1976.

Pablito’s successful debut, Marcelino pan y vino, was remade several times. A Philippine remake, May Bukas Pa, was released in 1979. An Italian remake, Marcellino, was produced in 1991 in colour. And also a Mexican remake was made in 2010, with the basic storyline and framed by the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

The original version remains one of the most famous and successful Spanish films ever made in history, and one of the first Spanish films to become successful in the U.S. as well.

Michel Ray and Pablito Calvo
Michel Ray and Pablito Calvo. Italian postcard by Ed. Villaggio del Fanciullo, Bologna.

Pablito Calvo
Italian postcard by Ed. Villaggio del Fanciullo, Bologna.


American trailer Marcelino, pan y vino/The Miracle of Marcelino (1955). Source: Jose Mattioli (YouTube).


Scene from Mi Tío Jacinto/Pepote (1956). Source: Alfie1982Alfie (YouTube).

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

Nana (1934)

0
0
Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934), starring Ukrainian-born Anna Sten, is an American film, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and released through United Artists. This version of Émile Zola's famous novel was to be the vehicle for Sten's triumph as Samuel Goldwyn's trained, groomed and heavily promoted answer to Greta Garbo. Despite a record-breaking opening week at Radio City Music Hall, Sten was beautiful but disappointing.

Anna Sten in Nana (1934)
British postcard in the Famous Film Stars Series by Valentine's, no. 7123B. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Anna Sten in Nana (1934)
British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 6. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Anna Sten in Nana
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 612. Anna Sten in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Phillips Holmes and Anna Sten in Nana (1934)
Hungarian postcard by Globus, Budapest. Photo: United Artists / City Film. Phillips Holmes and Anna Sten in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Anna Sten in Nana (1934)
Hungarian postcard by Globus, Budapest. Photo: United Artists / City Film. Publicity still for Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Anna Sten
Portuguese postcard by Tip. Costa Sanches, Lisboa (Lisbon). Photo: publicity still for Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

A homogenised version of a scandalous novel


Her MGM contract up, the elusive Greta Garbo had returned to Sweden for several months during 1932-1933. Various Hollywood moguls tried to fill the gap by finding a "New Garbo". While she worked in Germany, Ukrainian-born actress Anna Sten came to the attention of Samuel Goldwyn. He decided to build her up as the rival of, and possible successor to Garbo.

For two years Goldwyn had his new star tutored in English and taught Hollywood screen acting methods. Goldwyn's tutoring of Sten is mentioned in Cole Porter's 1934 song 'Anything Goes' from the musical of the same name: "If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction / Instruct Anna Sten in diction / Then Anna shows / Anything goes."

Her first American film was Nana (1934), directed by Dorothy Arzner and George Fitzmaurice. Fitzmaurice was fired and replaced by Arzner. Her co-stars were Lionel Atwill, Richard Bennett, Mae Clarke and Philips Holmes. Nana was a somewhat homogenised version of Emile Zola's scandalous novel.

In 1860s Paris, beautiful Nana is the toast of the Paris theatre. She falls in love with handsome lieutenant George Muffat (Phillips Holmes). When his older brother colonel Andre (Lionel Atwill) finds out that Nana is also the mistress of the elderly impresario Gaston Greiner (Richard Bennett), he forbids his brother to marry her, but then Andre falls for her himself.

Wes Connors at IMDb: "Sten, who had already proved herself an accomplished and versatile actress, comes across as unable to handle the lead role. A good supporting cast, fine photography from Gregg Toland, and capable direction by Dorothy Arzner failed to create anything approaching Garbo or Dietrich. Ironically, Garbo's own Camille (1936) would later cover much of the territory attempted in Nana."

Tracy Figueira at IMDb: "The problem is that there was no way Hollywood in 1934 could do justice to Emile Zola's scathing account of sexual debauchery in Second Empire Paris. The nudity is gone, most of the lovers are gone, the lesbian relationship with Satin (Mae Clarke) is barely hinted at. Nana, as played by Sten, is a far more sympathetic character than she is in the book. She shoots herself rather than rotting to death from smallpox (a euphemism for syphilis?) No mention is made of her illegitimate child or the path of death and destruction she leaves in her wake. The film is an interesting if dated curio, worth watching at least once, but proof that not every film from Hollywood's 'Golden Age' is a gem."

Nana was a box office disappointment, as were Anna Sten's two subsequent Goldwyn films, We Live Again (Rouben Mamoulian, 1934) and The Wedding Night (King Vidor, 1935) with Gary Cooper. Reluctantly, Goldwyn dissolved his contract with his ‘new Garbo'.

Philips Holmes, Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (1934)
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Philips Holmes, Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934). Lady of the Boulevards was the British title of Nana.

Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (1934)
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934). Lady of the Boulevards was the British title of Nana.

Anna Sten and Richard Bennett in Nana (1934)
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Anna Sten and Richard Bennett in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Lionel Atwell, Anna Sten and Richard Bennett in Nana (1934)
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Lionel Atwell, Anna Sten and Richard Bennett in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Anna Sten in Nana (1934)
British card. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934). Lady of the Boulevards was the British title of Nana.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Susan Hayward

0
0
American actress Susan Hayward (1917-1975) had her greatest roles in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) and I Want to Live! (1958). The latter won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Her ruby mane was her trademark.

Susan Hayward
Dutch postcard by J.S.A. (J. Sleding, Amsterdam). Photo: Universal M.P.E.

Susan Hayward
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 41.

Susan Hayward in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
West-German postcard by Wilhelm-Schulze Witteborg (WS-Druck), Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Centfox. Susan Hayward in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Henry King, 1952).

A life-long grudge


Susan Hayward was born Edythe Marrener in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1917. Her father was a transportation worker.

The youngest of three children, she grew up in the shadow of her older sister Florence who was her mother's favourite. Edythe would nurse a life-long grudge over what she perceived as her mother's neglect.

She attended public school in Brooklyn, where she graduated from a commercial high school that was intended to give students a marketable skill. She had planned on becoming a secretary, but her plans changed. She started doing some modelling work for photographers in the NYC area.

By 1937, Edythe was brought to Hollywood as one of the hundreds of girls who had won a chance to screen test in the nationwide search for someone to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Although she lost out to Vivien Leigh, Susan was to carve her own signature in Hollywood circles. It would take several years of studio subsidised acting and voice lessons before her talent would emerge and she would be renamed Susan Hayward.

She got a bit part in Hollywood Hotel (Busby Berkeley, 1937). The bit parts continued all through 1938, with Susan playing, among other things, a coed, a telephone operator and an aspiring actress. She wasn't happy with these bit parts, but she also realised she had to "pay her dues".

In 1939 she finally landed a part with substance, playing Isobel Rivers in the hit action film Beau Geste (William A. Wellman, 1939) with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland.

Susan Hayward
Spanish postcard in the Hollywood (California) series by Belfo, no. 3790. Photo: Universal International.

Susan Hayward
Belgian card. Photo: R.K.O.

Susan Hayward
Yugoslavian postcard by Sedmo Silo / IOM, Beograd.

She played the part to the hilt


Two years later, Susan Hayward played Millie Perkins in the offbeat thriller Among the Living (Stuart Heisler, 1941). This quirky little film showed Hollywood Susan's considerable dramatic qualities for the first time.

She then played a Southern belle opposite John Wayne and Ray Milland in Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind (1942), one of the director's bigger successes, and once again showed her mettle as an actress.

Following that film she starred with Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray in The Forest Rangers (George Marshall, 1942), playing tough gal Tana Mason.

Although such films as Jack London (Alfred Santell, 1943), And Now Tomorrow (Irving Pichel, 1944) with Alan Ladd, and Deadline at Dawn (Harold Clurman, William Cameron Menzies, 1946) with Paul Lukas, continued to showcase her talent, she still hadn't gotten the meaty role she craved.

In 1947, however, she did, and received the first of five Academy Award nominations, this one for her portrayal of Angelica Evans in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (Stuart Heisler, 1947). She played the part to the hilt and many thought she would take home the Oscar, but she lost out to Loretta Young for The Farmer's Daughter (H.C. Potter, 1947).

In 1949 Susan was nominated again for My Foolish Heart (Mark Robson, 1949) and again was up against stiff competition, but once more her hopes were dashed when Olivia de Havilland won for The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949).

Susan Hayward
German postcard by edition cicero, Hamburg, no. 150/5. Photo: Hal McAlpine, 1941.

Susan Hayward and Dana Andrews in My Foolish Heart (1949)
Belgian card, no. 850. Photo: R.K.O. Susan Hayward and Dana Andrews in My Foolish Heart (Mark Robson, 1949).

Susan Hayward
Vintage postcard, no. KF 46.

The performance of her lifetime


Now, with two Oscar nominations under her belt, Susan Hayward was a force to be reckoned with. Good scripts finally started to come her way and she chose carefully because she wanted to appear in good quality productions. Her caution paid off, as she garnered yet a third nomination in 1953 for With a Song in My Heart (Walter Lang, 1952).

Later that year she starred as Rachel Donaldson Robards Jackson in The President's Lady (Henry Levin, 1953) with Charlton Heston. She was superb as Andrew Jackson's embittered wife, who dies before he was able to take office as President of the United States.

After her fourth Academy Award nomination for I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955), Susan began to wonder if she would ever take home the coveted gold statue. She didn't have much longer to wait, though.

In 1958 she gave the performance of her lifetime as real-life California killer Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (Robert Wise, 1958), who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the gas chamber. Susan was absolutely riveting in her portrayal of the doomed woman. This time she was not only nominated for Best Actress, but won. After that role she appeared in about one film a year.

Thomas Mc Williams at IMDb: "Susan's personality is usually described as cold, icy, and aloof. She did not like socialising with crowds. She disliked homosexuals and effeminate men. Her taste in love ran strictly to the masculine, and both of her husbands were rugged Southerners. She loved sport fishing, and owned three ocean going boats for that purpose. Film directors enjoyed Susan's professionalism and her high standards. She was considered easy to work with, but she was not chummy after the cameras stopped."

In 1972 she made her last theatrical film, The Revengers (Daniel Mann, 1972), starring William Holden. A two-pack a day smoker with a taste for drink, Susan was diagnosed with brain cancer in March of 1972. The disease finally claimed her life in 1975 and she died at her Hollywood home. Susan Hayward was 57.

She was laid to rest in a grave adjacent that of her husband Floyd Eaton Chalkley in the peace of Carrollton, Georgia where they had spent several happy years together in life. Hayward had been married twice: first to actor Jess Barker from 1944 till their divorce in 1954. They had two children. With Floyd Eaton Chalkley, she was married from 1957 till his death in 1966.

Susan Hayward
Belgian postcard, no. 3414. Photo: Universal Int.

Susan Hayward
German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 148. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in David and Bathsheba (1951)
British postcard by The Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 88. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in David and Bathsheba (Henry King, 1951).

Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in David and Bathsheba (1951)
British postcard by The Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 92. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in David and Bathsheba (Henry King, 1951).

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

New acquisitions: Cinémagazine, Part 2

0
0
Last Saturday, EFSP had a post with a series of French postcards by Editions Cinémagazine, recently acquired by Ivo Blom. We love these sepia postcards of the 1920s, and have many more in our collections. Last week, we published 25 Cinémagazine cards with Hollywood stars. For today, we chose 25 cards with European stars, which we did not publish before.

Rachel Devirys
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 53. Photo: Jean Desboutin.

Rachel Devirys (1890-1983) was a Franco-Russian actress, who started in French cinema in 1917 and is known for such films as Visages d'enfants (Jacques Feyder, 1923) as the stepmother of Jean Forest, Monte Carlo (Louis Mercanton, 1925) with Betty Balfour, and Croquette (Mercanton, 1928) again with Balfour. Devirys continued well into the sound era, with films such as Maternité (Jean Benoît-Lévy, 1930). One of her last parts was in Les enfants terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950).

Denise Legeay
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 54. Photo: Jean Desboutin.

Denise Legeay (1898-1968) was a French film actress whose career and popularity peaked in the first half of the 1920s. Legeay debuted in L'infante à la rose (Henry Houry, 1921), starring Gabrielle Dorziat. In the episode film Vingt ans après (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922), the sequel to Les trois mousquetaires (1921), Legeay played Anne Geneviève de Bourbon, Duchess of Longueville. She also acted opposite Maurice Chevalier in Le mauvais garçon (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1923). Legeay was paired with Harry Piel in Der Mann ohne Nerven (1924) and Face à la mort/ Au secours!/Schneller als der Tod (1924), both directed by both Gérard Bourgeois and Harry Piel. The collaboration lead to two other Harry Piel films in Germany: Zigano (1925), and Achtung Harry! Augen auf! (1926). These were her last films.

Gilbert Dalleu
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 70. Photo: Studio Rahma.

Gilbert Dalleu (1861-1931) was a French actor of the silent era.

Monique Chrysès
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 72. Photo: Jean Desboutin.

Little is known about Monique Chrysès. Her life dates are lacking. She debuted in French silent film in Le père Goriot (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1921), where she played Madame de Restaud opposite Gabriel Signoret as the title character. In 1922 she acted in the Oscar Wilde adaptation Le crime de Lord Arthur Savile (René Hervil, 1922) with the British actor Cecil Mannering as the title character. In 1923 she appeared in Germaine Dulac's serial Gossette (1923) starring Régine Bouet and costarring Maurice Schutz. Then, she was Mme Belmont in L'enfant des halles (René Leprince, 1924) and Marthe Guéroy in L'aventurier (Maurice Mariaud, Louis Osmont, 1924) with Jean Angelo. After years of absence from the screen, Chrysès had a last, supporting part in the sound film La voix qui meurt (Gennaro Dini, 1934) starring André Burdino.

Gaston Rieffler
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 75. Photo: Monférino, Nice.

Gaston Rieffler (1880-1959) was a French actor who peaked in the French silent cinema of the 1910s and early 1920s.

Ivan Mozzhukhin
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 93.

Russian actor Ivan Mozzhukhin (1889-1939) was a legendary star of the European silent film. He escaped from execution by the Soviet Red Army and made a stellar career in Europe, but he suffered in Hollywood.

Ginette Maddie
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 107. Photo: Wyndham.

Ginette Maddie (1898-1980) was a French actress who acted in French and German silent films. She started opposite Claude Merelle in Le diamant noir (André Hugon, 1922). Maddie had female leads in Sarati le terrible (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1923), the comedy Les héritiers de l'oncle James (Alfred Machin, Henry Wulschleger, 1924), and La lueur dans les ténèbres (Maurice Charmeroy, 1928), while she often played the second woman in the story in French and German films opposite e.g. Dolly Davis, Madeleine Erickson, Xenia Desni, and Dita Parlo.

Eric Barclay
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 115. Photo: Wyndham.

Eric Barclay (1894–1938) was a Swedish film actor. Barclay became a prominent actor in French silent films of the early 1920s, often working with director Jacques de Baroncelli. He also appeared in German and British films and those of his native Sweden.

Jean Devalde
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 127. Photo: Rahma.

Jean Devalde (1888-1982) was a Belgian actor in French silent cinema. After his career as actor, Devalde became impresario of Pierre Fresnay, Yvonne Printemps, Pierre Richard-Willm and Edwige Feuillère.

Max Maxudian
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 134. Photo: Rahma.

Max Maxudian (1881-1976) was a French stage and film actor with tall, broad shoulders, a high forehead under hair thrown-back, a Bourbon nose, a black beard framing an energetic face, tempered by Oriental eyes. He appeared in supporting parts in 77 films, including some of the silent classics of Abel Gance like the epic Napoleon (1927).

Arlette Marchal
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 142. Photo: P. Apers.

Elegant French actress Arlette Marchal (1902-1984) started as a fashion model and from the 1950s on she dedicated herself mostly to her fashion enterprise. Between 1922 and 1951 she starred in 41 European and American films.

Lucien Dalsace
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 153.

Lucien Dalsace (1893-1980) was a French stage and screen actor who peaked in French silent cinema of the 1920s.

Marcya Capri
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 174. Photo: Fretté.

Little is known about Marcya Capri, no life dates are known. She was first seen in The Empire of Diamonds (Léonce Perret, 1920), an American film shot on location in the South of France and elsewhere. Perret then hired her for major parts in The Money Maniac (1921) starring Robert Elliott, and his French production, L'écuyère (1922). She had a smaller part in Perret's superproduction Koenigsmark (1923), starring Huguette Duflos as Grandduchess Aurore and Jaque Catelain as her tutor Raoul Vignerte. Capri played Melusine de Graffenfried, the Grand Duchess's head of staff. Afterwards, Capri acted in La closerie des Genets (André Liabel, 1925) opposite Henry Krauss and Ninna Vanna. In Les deux mamans (Giuseppe Guarino, 1925), and the Franco-Romanian production Calvaire/ Drumul iertarii (Ion Niculescu-Bruna, Gabriel Rosca, 1927). Capri acted opposite Soava Gallone as the Other Woman in Celle qui domine (Carmine Gallone, Léon Mathot, 1927). After some bit parts and years of absence from the screen, she returned in 1936 for a small part in the sound film Marinella (Pierre Caron, 1936), starring Tino Rossi and Yvette Lebon.

Gaston Norès
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 188. Photo: V. Henry.

Gaston Norès (1894-1958) was a Belgian actor, who first chose operetta as his career and triumphed as Prince Danilo in 'The Merry Widow', just before the First World War. After four years at the front, his vocal cords were ruined and he could not sing anymore. He was introduced to film director Gérard Bourgeois and became the lead in the two-part film La dette de sang (1922) and instantly a star. Several films followed, a.o. the serial Tao (Gaston Ravel, 1923), in which he played the young adventurer Jacques Chauvry opposite Joë Hamman. The 10-episodes serial was a huge success. He only played in 12 films and often had supporting parts. At the advent of sound cinema, Norès's career was over. His last film was the early sound film Les papillons de nuit (Maurice Kéroul, 1930).

Cameron Carr
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 216.

Cameron Carr (1876-1944) was a British film actor of the silent era. Carr started his career in 1918, working for Broadwest, directed by Walter West. Often he was the other man opposite leading man Stewart Rome, with actress Violet Hopson in the middle. In 1922 he alternated his work at Broadwest with Stewart and Hopson, with roles at Stoll Pictures. There he worked in films by and with Guy Newall, and with Ivy Duke. Carr had his first lead in 1925 in the Stoll production The Notorious Mrs. Carrick, playing David Carrick. In several films, Carr played second fiddle to Clive Brook or Victor McLaglen. From 1927, he mainly played supporting parts for BIP.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 230. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.

Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) was a French actor, singer and entertainer. His trademark was a casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage with a cane and a tuxedo.

Constant Rémy
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 256.

Constant Rémy (1882-1957) was a French actor and director, who played in almost 70 films.

Percy Marmont
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 265.

Percy Marmont (1883-1977) was a British actor, who had a prolific career in 1920s Hollywood and 1930s British cinema.

Jean Dehelly
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 268.

Jean Dehelly (1896-1964) was a French film actor, who was active in French cinema of the 1920s and early 1930s.

Maria Dalbaicin
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 309. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.

María Dalbaicín (1902-1931) was a Spanish flamenco dancer who became an actress. Dalbaicín grew up in a gypsy family and her mother Agustina Escudero Heredia was nicknamed the 'Queen of Gypsies'. From 1925 on, she appeared in French and German films. When she died in 1931, she was only 28.

Claude Merelle
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 312.

Claude Mérelle (1888-?) was a French film actress of the silent era. She is best remembered as the evil Milady de Winter in Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921).

Raquel Meller
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 339. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.

Spanish actress, singer, and diva Raquel Meller acted mainly in French silent films. She was already a highly popular singer before debuting as a film actress in 1919.

Camille Bardou
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 365.

Camille Bardou (1872-1941) was a French stage and screen actor, who acted in cinema between 1904 and 1934.

Armand Tallier
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 399.

Armand Tallier (1887-1958) was a stage and screen actor, who peaked in the silent era. Theatre director Jacques Copeau, who had opened the alternative Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, directed Tallier on stage from 1913 for several years. Inspired by him, Tallier began with Laurence Myrga the Studio des Ursulines, one of the first Parisian art houses, founded to ensure the diffusion of avant-garde cinema. The first session took place in January 1926. As an homage, the Prix Armand Tallier for the best book on film is awarded since 1958 (since 1977 called Prix littéraire du syndicat français de la critique de cinéma).

Catherine Hessling in Nana (1926)
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 411. Catherine Hessling as the title character in Nana (Jean Renoir, 1926), based on the homonymous novel (1880) by Emile Zola.

Catherine Hessling (1900-1979) was an attractive brunette with bee-stung lips, who started as a model for the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1917-1919) in the Provence. She married his son Jean in 1920 and they had a son Alain in 1921. From 1924 Hessling acted in Jean Renoir's first films, first in Catherine/Une vie sans joie (1924, re-edited by Albert Dieudonné in 1927), about an orphan girl who is a victim of the jealousy of women and the greed of men. In her second film, La fille de l'eau/The Whirlpool of Fate (1925), Hessling is the daughter of a pole man, whose father drowns and whose uncle tries to rape and rob her. Renoir's next production was the prestigious and costly Nana (Jean Renoir, 1926), filmed at the Bavaria Studios in Munich, and with stars like Jean Angelo and Werner Krauss. Hessling and Renoir became household names.

Léon Mathot in Dans l'Ombre du Harem (1928)
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 540. Photo: Franco Film. Léon Mathotin the French silent film Dans l'ombre du harem/In the Shadow of the Harem (Léon Mathot, André Liabel, 1928). The title on the postcard is slightly incorrect.

Léon Mathot (1886-1968) was a French actor and director, who became well-known for his role of Edmond Dantès in the French serial Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1918), directed by Henri Pouctal. Mathot became one of the most popular stars of French silent film of the 1920s with such film as L'Empereur des pauvres (René Leprince, 1922) and Coeur fidèle (1923) by Jean Epstein. From 1927, he also became a film director, directing over 20 films.

The Kessler Twins

0
0
In the 1950s and 1960s the gorgeous twin sisters Alice & Ellen Kessler (1936) were very popular in Europe, especially in Germany and Italy. In 1959 the singing, dancing and acting duo represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/199. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Gloria-Film.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/154. Photo: UFA.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. CK-115. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Joe Niczky / UFA.

Alice & Ellen Kessler in Scherben bringen Glück (1957)
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. FT 18. Photo: Erma / Gloria-Film / Czerwonski. Alice and Ellen Kessler in Scherben bringen Glück/Seven Years Hard Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1957).

Featherlight films


The German twin sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler (originally Kaessler) were born in Nerchau, Germany in 1936. They are usually credited as the Kessler Twins (Die Kessler-Zwillinge in Germany and Le Gemelle Kessler in Italy).

Their parents, Paul and Elsa Kaessler, sent them to ballet classes at the age of six, and they joined the Leipzig Opera's child ballet program at age 11. In 1952, their parents used a visitor's visa to escape to West Germany, where the 18-year-old twins performed at the Palladium in Düsseldorf.

Soon followed parts in such featherlight entertainment films like Solang' es hübsche Mädchen gibt/Beautiful Girls (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1955) with Georg Thomalla, the operetta Der bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Werner Jacobs, 1955) and another operetta  Der Graf von Luxemburg/The Count of Luxemburg (Werner Jacobs, 1957) with Gerhard Riedmann.

Between 1955 and 1960, they also performed at the famous Lido variety hall at the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and they also appeared in French musical films as La garçonne (Jacqueline Audry, 1957) with Fernand Gravey, Tabarin (Richard Pottier, 1958) starring Michel Piccoli, and the anthology film La française et l'amour/Love and the Frenchwoman (Henri Verneuil a.o., 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

A year later, the twins represented West Germany at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. They finished in 8th place with 'Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n' (Tonight we want to go dancing).

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).

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 398. Photo: Polydor / Seitz / Constantin / Looschen.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Netter's Star Verlag, Berlin.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 305. Photo: Defir.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 734. Photo: Polydor / Klaus Collignon.

Playboy


Alice & Ellen Kessler moved to Italy in 1960. There they had already appeared as themselves in Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina/The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959) featuring American sex symbol Mamie van Doren.

Gradually they got more serious roles in such films as the adventure film Gli Invasori/Erik the Conqueror (Mario Bava, 1961) starring Cameron Mitchell and Sodom and Gomorrah (Robert Aldrich, 1962) starring Stewart Granger.

In the USA, they were not as popular, but in 1963 they appeared on the cover of Life Magazine and during the 1960s they often worked for TV and in Las Vegas.

During the following decades they worked mostly for TV in Europe. At the age of 40, they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. That issue became reportedly the fastest-selling Italian Playboy up until that point.

They moved back to Germany in 1986 and currently live in Munich. They received the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (highest German order) in 1987 and the Premio Capo Circe for their achievements in German-Italian understanding.

Most recently, Alice and Ellen Kessler played in the episode Das Dorf/The Village (Justus von Dohnányi, 2011) of the popular German Krimi series Tatort. They live in Grünwald.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2964.

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by Graphima, Berlin.

Alice and Ellen Kessler in Vier Mädel aus der Wachau (1957)
German collectors card by Druckerei Hanns Uhrig, Frankfurt a.M. Photo: Cosmos / NF / Wanke. Alice and Ellen Kessler in Vier Mädel aus der Wachau/Four girls from the Wachau (Franz Antel, 1957).

Alice & Ellen Kessler
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 495.


The Kessler Twins and Peter Alexander perform Ich spiel mit dir (1962). Source: Fritz51251 (YouTube).


The Kessler Twins sing Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. Source: Joao Velado (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Agnes Ayres

0
0
Agnes Ayres (1898-1940) was an American silent film actress. After her debut with Chaplin at Essanay and acting for Fox, Ayres had her breakthrough as Lady Diana Mayo in The Sheik (1921) featuring Rudolph Valentino. Important parts for Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount followed such as in The Affairs of Anatol (1921) and the epic The Ten Commandments (1923). After a dip in the mid-1920s, she made a comeback in The Son of the Sheik (1926), but the arrival of sound cinema finished her career.

Agnes Ayres
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 874/1. Photo: Paramount.

Agnes Ayres
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1a.

Agnes Ayres
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 874/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Paramount.

The O. Henry Girl


Agnes Ayres was born as Agnes Eyre Henkel in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1898, to Solon and Emma (née Slack) Henkel. She had an older brother, Solon William Henkel, who was a decade her senior.

She began her career in 1914 in Chicago, where she was studying at school. During a studio tour, she was noticed by an Essanay Studios staff director and cast as an extra in a crowd scene. She appeared in His New Job (Charles Chaplin, 1915) with Charlie Chaplin. More bit parts and extra roles followed in Essanay productions.

After moving to Manhattan with her mother she pursued a career in acting. Her first big break came at Vitagraph when Ayres was spotted by actress Alice Joyce. Joyce noticed the physical resemblance the two shared. Ayres was cast as Joyce's character's sister in Richard the Brazen (Perry N. Vekroff, 1917).

I the following years, Agnes Ayres was nicknamed 'The O. Henry Girl' because she appeared in so many two-reel films based on O. Henry short stories for Vitagraph.

In 1920, Ayres was signed by Paramount Pictures. Her career began to gain momentum when Paramount founder Jesse Lasky began to take an interest in her. Lasky gave her a starring role in the Civil War drama Held by the Enemy (Donald Crisp, 1920).

It was during this time that Ayres married, and quickly divorced, Captain Frank P. Schuker, an army officer whom she had wed during World War I. She had also begun a romance with Jesse Lasky.

In 1921, Ayres shot to stardom when she was cast as Lady Diana Mayo, an English heiress in the romantic melodrama The Sheik (George Melford, 1921). The film was a box-office hit and helped propel 'Latin lover'Rudolph Valentino to stardom. Ayres later reprised her role as Lady Diana in the sequel Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926), which premiered nationwide after Valentino's death in August 1926.

Following the release of The Sheik, she went on to have major roles in many other films. Lasky lobbied for parts for her in several Cecil B. DeMille productions. She starred in the comedy-drama The Affairs of Anatol (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921) starring Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson, Forbidden Fruit (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921), and the epic The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1923). In the latter, Ayres appeared briefly as 'the Outcast' in the film's closing Nativity tableau.

Agnes Ayres
French postcard. Photo: Paramount.

Agnes Ayres
French postcard in the Les vedettes de l'écran series by Editions Filma, no. 93. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Agnes Ayres
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 99.

A waning career


By 1923, Agnes Ayres' career began to wane following the end of her relationship with Jesse Lasky. She married Mexican diplomat S. Manuel Reachi in 1924. The couple had a daughter before divorcing in 1927.

Ayres lost her fortune and real estate holdings in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. That same year, she also appeared in her last major role in the sound film The Donovan Affair (Frank Capra, 1929), starring Jack Holt and Dorothy Revier. Nothing much came of it. To earn money, she left acting and played the vaudeville circuit.

She returned to acting in 1936, confident that she could make a comeback with a small part in Souls at Sea (Henry Hathaway, 1937), starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. However, she was unable to secure starring roles. Somewhat overweight, Ayres appeared in mostly uncredited bit parts at MGM, where she had a stock-player contract. In 1937, she finally retired from acting for good.

After her retirement, she wanted to start a real-estate business in Beverly Hills, California. However, Ayres became despondent and was eventually committed to a sanatorium. In 1939, she also lost custody of her daughter to Reachi.

Agnes Ayres died from a cerebral hemorrhage on Christmas Day 1940, at her Hollywood home. She was only 42, and had been ill for several weeks. Ayres is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In 1960, Ayres was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the film industry.

Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3373/2. Photo: United Artists. Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926), retaking a scene from the original Paramount production The Sheik (George Melford, 1921).

Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in Son of the Sheik (1926)
French postcard in a series by Shampoing Butywave. Photo: Allied Artists. Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926). Despite the card telling the lady in question is Vilma Bánky, it is Agnes Ayres. Ayres and Valentino play the parents of the leading character, who is also played by Valentino. Actually the parents are the former protagonists of the earlier film The Sheik, now grown older.

Agnes Ayres
Vintage postcard, country and editor unknown, no. 67.

Agnes Ayres
British postcard in the Famous Filmstar series for the Continental Nuss, J.M.H., Laren, Holland. Picture: Frank Godefroy. Paramount.

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

Jenny (1958)

0
0
The romantic comedy Jenny (1958) was the first Dutch film in colour. The film was directed by Willy van Hemert and his daughter Ellen played the title role. At the same time a German language version of Jenny was directed by Alfred Bittins, which featured Gisela Fritsch and was released a year later. The Dutch version was a popular success, but Van Hemert would never direct another feature film again.

Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3195. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Maxim Hamel in Jenny (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3750. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Maxim Hamel in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Getting pregnant while training for a rowing contest


Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958) is a remake of the German film Acht Mädels Im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1932) with Karin Hardt.

The 1958 version, Jenny, was a Dutch/German co-production and an alternate language version was being shot at the same time with German actors. The German version of Jenny was co-directed by Alfred Bittins, featured Gisela Fritsch and was released a year later.

Willy van Hemert asked his daughter Ellen for the title role in the Dutch version. Ellen van Hemert plays the 18 year old Jenny who gets pregnant during her busy training schedule for a rowing contest. Her boyfriend Ed (Maxim Hamel) fancies himself rather a swinging jet-setter and is therefore quite unprepared for fatherhood.  He leaves her. She must make a difficult decision, but everything comes to good ends.

Handsome Maxim Hamel was one the few Dutch film stars of the 1950s and 1960s. He also played the German version, Jenny (Alfred Bittins, Willy van Hemert, 1959) with Gisela Fritsch. Later,Van Hemert also directed him in the TV films Claudia (Willy van Hemert, 1959) with Kitty Janssen, and Marguerite Gautier (Willy van Hemert, 1963) as Armand Duval opposite Andrea Domburg.

The cast also featured well known Dutch film actors like Kees Brusse and Andrea Domburg, as well as the orchestra of Max Woiski and popular Dutch singer Corry Brokken. Brokken sang the song Weet je nog? (Do you remember?) by Willy van Hemert and Jos Cleber in the film.

In 1956 Corry Brokken represented the Netherlands for the first time at the Eurovision Song Contest. Her song Voorgoed Voorbij (Over For Good) did not win. That year the results of the jury were secret; only the winner was announced.

The following year she won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Net als Toen (Like It Used To Be), which was also composed by Willy van Hemer). And in 1958 she represented the Netherlands again with Heel de Wereld (The Whole World), but this time she came no further than a shared last - 9th - place with Luxembourg.

As noted by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book 'The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History', Corry is the only singer ever to have finished both first and last in the contest. Jenny was her only film.


Corry Brokken in Jenny (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3540. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms / Hajo Spörr. Corry Brokken in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3191. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Why no follow-up?


Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958) attracted more than half a million visitors (569,043 visitors in total). However, both Willy van Hemert and his daughter Ellen never made another film. Ellen only made some television films in the early 1960s and worked on stage. Why was there no follow-up despite the film's box office success?

Is Jenny a bad film? Chip Douglas at IMDb: "Critics weren't kind to Jenny, saying that the Dutch films in general couldn't compete with Bert Haanstra's documentary features that were all the rage at the time."

And yes, the German script is indeed poor, but Jenny is as throughly Dutch as Haanstra's films are. It contains beautiful images of the bridges and canal houses of Amsterdam, of the Bosbaan where the rowing contest is situated and the Amstel river. Van Hemert introduced the colour in the film in an original way, by letting Jenny row under a bridge in black and white and let her row away in colour.

On 2 October  1951, Willy van Hemert had directed and written the very first television drama broadcast in the Netherlands: De toverspiegel/The Magic Mirror (1951). He wanted to move to the cinema and saw Jenny as a stepping stone to get over with so he could go on to do his own projects. Unfortunately for him, his production partner Jan Kemps died shortly after both Jenny's were completed and this never happened.

Van Hemert subsequently returned to television. In the following decades he became one of the most renowned Dutch directors of television drama and made such popular Dutch TV series as De Kleine Waarheid/The little truth (1970-1972) with Willeke AlbertiBartje (1972-1973), and Dagboek van een Herdershond/Diary of a Shepherd Dog (1978-1980). He never got to helm another feature film though, but his son Ruud van Hemert later would make up for him and directed such popular film comedies as Schatjes/Army Brats (1984) and Mama is boos/Hitting the Fan! (1986).

The Netherlands Film Museum (now Eye) decided to preserve Jenny in 2001, because the original colours threatened to discolour. This version premiered in February 2002 and won a prize. In 2007 the film was released on DVD, in a limited edition.

Ellen van Hemert
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3190. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Ellen van Hemert
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3192. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3194. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms. Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).


Eye uploaded the full restored version of Jenny on YouTube. Enjoy!

The Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) starts next week. From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht will once again be the capital of the Dutch cinema. During the festival, EFSP will provide you daily with postcards of Dutch films and stars. So check out our Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival!

Sources: Chip Douglas (IMDb), MovieMeter (Dutch), Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

Rock Hudson

0
0
Rock Hudson (1925–1985) was a popular Hollywood star in the 1950s and 1960s. The tall and handsome actor  was teamed up in romantic comedies with Doris Day, but he also starred in dramatic roles in Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Giant (1956), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In later years, he starred on TV in the mystery series McMillan & Wife (1971-1977) and the soap opera Dynasty (1984-1985). Hudson, secretly gay, became in 1985 the first major celebrity who died from an AIDS-related illness.

Rock Hudson in  Come September (1961)
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/131. Photo: Terb Agency / UFA. Rock Hudson in Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961).

Rock Hudson in A Farewell to Arms (1957)
German postcard by ISV, no. A 74. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Rock Hudson in A Farewell to Arms (Charles Vidor, 1957).

Rock Hudson
Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 65. Photo: Warner Bros.

Rock Hudson in The Last Sunset (1961)
German postcard by UFA, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 416. Photo: Terb Agency / UFA. Rock Hudson in The Last Sunset (Robert Aldrich, 1961).

Rock Hudson
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 199.

"You big dumb bastard, don't stay there like a tree!"


Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. in 1925 in Winnetka, Illinois at Sarah A. Jarman Memorial Hospital. He was the only child of Katherine (née Wood), a homemaker and later telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer Sr., an auto mechanic.

During the Great Depression, Hudson's father lost his job and abandoned the family. Hudson's parents divorced when he was four years old. Several years later, in 1932, his mother married Wallace Fitzgerald, a former Marine Corps officer whom he despised. Fitzgerald adopted his stepson without his consent, whose legal name then became Roy Fitzgerald. That marriage eventually ended in a bitter divorce and produced no children.

Hudson attended New Trier High School in Winnetka. He sang in the school glee club, and later was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands, and worked as a golf caddy. At some point during his teenage years, he worked as an usher in a cinema and developed an interest in acting. He tried out for a number of school plays, but failed to win any roles because he could not remember his lines, a problem that continued to occur through his early acting career.

He graduated from high school in 1943, and the following year enlisted in the United States Navy, during World War II. After training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he departed San Francisco aboard the troop transport SS Lew Wallace, with orders to report to Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit 2, then located on Samar, Philippines, as an aircraft mechanic. In 1946, he returned to San Francisco aboard an aircraft carrier, and was discharged the same year.

Hudson then moved to Los Angeles to live with his biological father, who had remarried, and to pursue an acting career. Initially he worked at odd jobs, including as a truck driver. He applied to the University of Southern California's dramatics program, but was rejected due to poor grades. After he sent talent scout Henry Willson a picture of himself in 1947, Willson took him on as a client,  let him cap his teeth and changed the young actor's name to Rock Hudson, combining the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River. Later in his life Hudson admitted that he hated the name.

Rock Hudson made his acting debut at Warner Bros. with an uncredited part as a pilot in the World War II aviation war film Fighter Squadron (Raoul Walsh, 1948), starring Edmond O'Brien and Robert Stack. According to Wikipedia, Hudson was under personal contract to director Raoul Walsh, who rode him unmercifully, saying "You big dumb bastard, don’t just get in the center of the camera and stay there like a tree, move!" It took 38 takes to get a good version of Hudson's one line, "You’ve got to get a bigger blackboard."

Hudson was signed to a long-term contract by Universal Studios. There he was further coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing, and horseback riding. He began to be featured in film magazines where, being photogenic, he was promoted. His first film at Universal was the Film Noir Undertow (William Castle, 1949), starring Scott Brady. It gave him his first screen credit.

Several small parts followed. He played an American Indian in the Western Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950), starring James Stewart and Shelley Winters, an Arab in the action-adventure The Desert Hawk (Fred de Cordova, 1950) with Yvonne De Carlo, and supported the Nelson family in the comedy Here Come the Nelsons (Fred de Cordova, 1951).

Hudson was billed third in the Film Noir The Fat Man (William Castle, 1951), but back down the cast list for the romantic war drama Bright Victory (Mark Robson, 1951). Reportedly, he had a good part as a boxer in Iron Man (Joseph Pevney, 1951), starring Jeff Chandler, and as a gambler in the great Western Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952), starring James Stewart.

Rock Hudson
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 113. Photo: Universal International.

Rock Hudson
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 309. Photo: R.K.O.

Rock Hudson
Belgian postcard, no. 27. Photo: Universal International.

Rock Hudson
Belgian postcard, no. 28. Photo: Universal International.

Rock Hudson
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Int. Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. 1174.

Soaring to being the most popular actor in American cinemas in 1957


Rock Hudson was promoted to leading man for the adventure film Scarlet Angel (Sidney Salkow, 1952), opposite Yvonne De Carlo, who had starred in his earlier films The Desert Hawk (Fred de Cordova, 1950) and Tomahawk (George Sherman, 1951). He then co-starred with Piper Laurie in the comedy Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952), directed by Douglas Sirk. In the Western Horizons West (Budd Boetticher, 1952), Hudson supported Robert Ryan, but he was the star again for another pair of Westerns, The Lawless Breed (Raoul Walsh, 1953) and Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953). In 1953 he also appeared in a Camel commercial which showed him on the set of Seminole.

He and Yvonne De Carlo were borrowed by RKO for Sea Devils (Raoul Walsh, 1953), an adventure set during the Napoleonic Wars. Back at Universal he played Harun al-Rashid in the 'Eastern'The Golden Blade (Nathan Juran, 1953). There was the 3-D Technicolor Western Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953), with Donna Reed, and the adventure film Back to God's Country (Joseph Pevney, 1953) with Steve Cochran. Hudson had the title role in Taza, Son of Cochise (Douglas Sirk, 1954), produced by Ross Hunter.

Hudson was by now firmly established as a leading man in B adventure films. What turned him into a star was Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954), co-starring Jane Wyman and produced by Ross Hunter. The film received positive reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year. Magnificent Obsession made over $5 million at the box office. For millions of female filmgoers, Hudson with his towering, sculpted frame, his deep, sensuous voice and thick black hair, was the ideal leading man.

Hudson went back to adventure films with Bengal Brigade (Laslo Benedek, 1954), set during the Indian Mutiny, and Captain Lightfoot (Douglas Sirk, 1955), produced by Hunter. In 1954, exhibitors voted Hudson the 17th most popular star in the country. Hunter used him again in two melodramas, One Desire (Jerry Hopper, 1955) with Anne Baxter, and All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955), which reunited him with Jane Wyman. Never Say Goodbye (Jerry Hopper, 1956) with Cornell Borchers, and loosely based on the play 'Come Prima Meglio Di Prima' by Luigi Pirandello was more drama.

While his career developed, Hudson and his agent Henry Willson kept the actor's personal life out of the headlines. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson's secret homosexuality. Willson stalled this by disclosing information about two of his other clients. Willson provided information about Rory Calhoun's years in prison and the arrest of Tab Hunter at a gay party in 1950. Soon after the Confidential incident, Hudson married Willson's secretary Phyllis Gates. Gates filed for divorce after three years in April 1958, citing mental cruelty. Hudson did not contest the divorce and Gates received alimony of $250 a week for 10 years. Gates never remarried.

Rock Hudson's popularity soared with George Stevens' Western drama Giant (1956). The film is an epic portrayal of a powerful Texas ranching family challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil. Stevens gave Hudson a choice between Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to play his leading lady, Leslie. Hudson chose Taylor. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote that "George Stevens takes three hours and seventeen minutes to put his story across. That's a heap of time to go on about Texas, but Mr. Stevens has made a heap of film. (...) Giant, for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year's top-film award." Hudson and his co-star James Dean were both nominated for Oscars in the Best Actor category.

Another hit was the melodrama Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1957), co-starring Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, and produced by Albert Zugsmith. Sirk also directed Hudson in the war film Battle Hymn (Douglas Sirk, 1957), produced by Ross Hunter. Hudson played Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War. These films propelled Hudson to be voted the most popular actor in American cinemas in 1957.

Hudson was borrowed by MGM to appear in Richard Brooks'Something of Value (1957), a box office disappointment. So too was his next film, a remake of A Farewell to Arms (Charles Vidor, 1957). A Farewell to Arms received negative reviews, failed at the box office and became the last production by David O. Selznick.

Hudson was reunited with the producer, director and two stars of Written on the Wind in The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1958), at Universal. He then made the adventure film Twilight for the Gods (Joseph Pevney, 1958) and the melodrama This Earth Is Mine (Henry King, 1959) with Jean Simmons.

Rock Hudson
Spanish card, no. 5164. Photo: Arch. Bermejo.

Rock Hudson
German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 105. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Something of Value (Richard Brooks, 1957).

Rock Hudson
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1332.

Donna Reed and Rock Hudson in Gun Fury (1953)
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1631. Photo: Columbia. Donna Reed and Rock Hudson in Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953).

Rock Hudson
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 3385. Sent by mail in 1958. Photo: Universal Film, Inc.

One of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood


Ross Hunter teamed Rock Hudson with Doris Day in the bedroom comedy, Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959), which was a massive hit. Hudson was voted the most popular star in the country for 1959, and would be the second most popular for the next three years. Less popular was a Western, The Last Sunset (Robert Aldrich, 1961), co-starring Kirk Douglas. Hudson then made two hugely popular comedies: Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961) with Gina Lollobrigida, and Lover Come Back (Delbert Mann, 1961) again with Doris Day.

He made two dramas: The Spiral Road (Robert Mulligan, 1962) was a medical adventure story, and A Gathering of Eagles (Delbert Mann, 1963), a military story. Hudson was still voted the third most popular star in 1963. He went back to comedy for Man's Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks, 1964), and more popularly, Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 1964), this third and final film with Doris Day. Along with Cary Grant, Hudson was regarded as one of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood, and made the 'Top 10 Stars of the Year' list a record-setting eight times from 1957–1964.

His next film, Strange Bedfellows (Melvin Frank, 1965), with Gina Lollobrigida, was a box office disappointment. So too was A Very Special Favor (Michael Gordon, 1965) with Leslie Caron, despite having the same writer and director as Pillow Talk. That year he was voted the 11th most popular star in the country, and he would never beat that rank again.

Hudson tried a thriller, Blindfold (Philip Dunne, 1966). He worked outside his usual range on the Science-Fiction thriller Seconds (1966), directed by John Frankenheimer. The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson's performance is often regarded as one of his best. He also tried his hand in the action genre with the World War Two film Tobruk (Arthur Hiller, 1967).

After the Italian comedy Ruba al prossimo tuo/A Fine Pair (Francesco Maselli, 1968) with Claudia Cardinale he starred in the action thriller Ice Station Zebra (John Sturges, 1968) at MGM, a role which he had actively sought and remained his personal favourite. The Cold War era suspense and espionage film  was a hit but struggled to recoup its escalating production costs.

Rock Hudson dabbled in Westerns, appearing opposite John Wayne in The Undefeated (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1969). He grew a moustache and sideburns for his role in The Undefeated. Afterwards he decided to retain that look throughout the 1970s.

He co-starred opposite Julie Andrews in the musical, Darling Lili (Blake Edwards, 1970). Edwards suffered continual interference from Paramount executives while making Darling Lili, and it was eventually edited by the studio largely without his input. Edwards later claimed Darling Lili was budgeted at $11.5 million but ended up costing $16 million. He said half the cost was due to second unit filming in Ireland and he had pleaded with Paramount not to shoot in Europe due to the weather, but the studio insisted. The film was reasonably popular but it became notorious for its huge costs.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rock Hudson starred in a number of TV movies and series. His most successful television series was McMillan & Wife opposite Susan Saint James, which ran from 1971 to 1977. Hudson played police commissioner Stewart 'Mac' McMillan, with Saint James as his wife Sally, and their on-screen chemistry helped to make the show a hit.

During the series' run Hudson appeared in Showdown (George Seaton, 1973), a Western with Dean Martin, and the horror-Science Fiction film Embryo (Ralph Nelson, 1976). Hudson took a risk and surprised many by making a successful foray into live theatre late in his career, the most acclaimed of his efforts being 'I Do! I Do!' in 1974. In 1977 he toured 13 cities as King Arthur in the musical 'Camelot'.

After McMillan & Wife ended, Hudson made a disaster film for New World Pictures, Avalanche (Corey Allen, 1978) with Robert Forster and Mia Farrow, and two miniseries, Wheels (Jerry London, 1978) based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, and The Martian Chronicles (Michael Anderson, 1980), based on Ray Bradbury's novel. He was also one of several faded stars in the enjoyable British mystery film The Mirror Crack'd (1980), based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel 'The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side' (1962).

Rock Hudson
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. 38. Photo: Universal International.

Rock Hudson
French-German postcard by Editions P.I., Paris / UFA, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3997. Photo: Universal.

Rock Hudson
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 596.

Rock Hudson in The Spiral Road (1962)
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1882. Photo: Universal. Rock Hudson in The Spiral Road (Robert Mulligan, 1962).

Rock Hudson
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2170.

Rock Hudson
German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2323. Photo: Universal International.

Giving AIDS a face


In the early 1980s, following years of heavy drinking and smoking, Rock Hudson began having health problems which resulted in a heart attack in November 1981. Emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery sidelined Hudson and his new TV show The Devlin Connection for a year, and the show was cancelled in December 1982 soon after it had first aired. Hudson recovered from the heart surgery but continued to smoke.

He nevertheless continued to work with appearances in several TV movies such as World War III (David Greene, Boris Sagal, 1982). He was in ill health while filming the action-drama film The Ambassador (J. Lee Thompson, 1984 ) in Israel during the winter months from late 1983 to early 1984. He reportedly did not get along with his co-star Robert Mitchum, who had a serious drinking problem and often clashed off camera with Hudson and other cast and crew members.

From December 1984 to April 1985, Hudson appeared in a recurring role on the ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as Daniel Reece, a wealthy horse breeder and a potential love interest for Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans), as well as the biological father of the character Sammy Jo Carrington (Heather Locklear). While Hudson had long been known to have difficulty memorising lines, which resulted in his use of cue cards, it was his speech itself that began to visibly deteriorate on Dynasty. He was originally slated to appear for the duration of the show's second half of its fifth season; however, because of his progressing ill health, his character was abruptly written out of the show and died off screen.

Unknown to the public, Hudson was diagnosed with HIV in June 1984, just three years after the emergence of the first cluster of symptomatic patients in the U.S., and only one year after the initial identification by scientists of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Over the next several months, Hudson kept his illness a secret and continued to work while, at the same time, travelling to France and other countries seeking a cure – or at least treatment to slow the progress of the disease.

On 16 July 1985, Hudson joined his old friend Doris Day for a Hollywood press conference announcing the launch of her new TV cable show Doris Day's Best Friends in which Hudson was videotaped visiting Day's ranch in Carmel, California, a few days earlier. He appeared gaunt and his speech was nearly incoherent; during the segment, Hudson did very little speaking, with most of it consisting of Day and Hudson walking around as Day's recording of 'My Buddy' played in the background, with Hudson noting he had quickly tired out. His appearance was enough of a shock that the reunion was broadcast repeatedly over national news shows that night and for days to come. Media outlets speculated on Hudson's health.

Two days later, Hudson travelled to Paris, France, for another round of treatment. After Hudson collapsed in his room at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on 21 July, his publicist, Dale Olson, released a statement claiming that Hudson had inoperable liver cancer. Olson denied reports that Hudson had AIDS, but, four days later, Hudson's French publicist Yanou Collart confirmed that Hudson did in fact have AIDS. He was among the first mainstream celebrities to have been diagnosed with the disease.

In October 1985, Rock Hudson died in his sleep from AIDS-related complications at his home in Beverly Hills at age 59, less than seven weeks before what would have been his 60th birthday. Hudson requested that no funeral be held. His body was cremated hours after his death and his ashes were scattered in the channel between Wilmington and Santa Catalina Island.

The disclosure of Hudson's AIDS diagnosis provoked widespread public discussion of his homosexual identity. In Logical Family: A Memoir, gay author Armistead Maupin, who was a friend of Hudson's, writes he was the first person to confirm to the press that Hudson was gay in 1985, effectively outing him. Maupin explains that he said it to Randy Shilts of the San Francisco Chronicle, and that he was annoyed that producer Ross Hunter, who was gay himself, denied it.

In August 1985 People published a story that discussed his disease in the context of his sexuality. The largely sympathetic article featured comments from famous show business colleagues such as Angie Dickinson, Robert Stack, and Mamie Van Doren, who claimed they knew about Hudson's homosexuality and expressed their support for him. At that time, People had a circulation of more than 2.8 million, and, as a result of this and other stories, Hudson's homosexuality became fully public.

Hudson's revelation had an immediate impact on the visibility of AIDS, and on the funding of medical research related to the disease. Rock Hudson had given AIDS a face. After his death his long-time lover Marc Christian successfully sued his estate, again calling attention to the homosexuality Rock had hidden from most throughout his career.

Rock Hudson
Israelian postcard by Editions de Luxe, no. 116.

Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson in Come September (1961)
Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 424. Photo: Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson in Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961).

Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson in Come September (1961)
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/129. Photo: Terb Agency / UFA. Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson in Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961).

Rock Hudson
West-German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/260.

Rock Hudson
South-African postcard by East-West Publishers, Cape Town, no. 272.

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Marie Ventura

0
0
Marie or Maria Ventura (1888-1954) was a Romanian-French actress and theatre director. She became well known in the silent cinema with her role in the popular serial Les misérables (1912). From 1919 till 1941, she worked at the Comédie-Française. In 1938, she directed 'Iphigénie' by Racine, becoming the first women to direct a play at the Comédie-Française.

Maria Ventura
French postcard, no. 12. Photo: Félix.

Marie Ventura
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 50. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

A dazzling Salome


Marie Ventura was born Aristida Maria Ventura in 1888 (IMDb states 1890) in Bucharest, Roumania. She studied at the 'Dramatic Art Conservatory' of Bucharest in 1901.

After her graduation, she moved to France and was a pupil of Mounet-Sully. Then, at the Conservatoire (the Dramatic Art Conservatory of Paris), she studied with Silvain in whose class she won two first prizes in 1905.

The following years, she acted in plays at the Boulevard Theatres and at the Odéon, then led by Antoine. She triumphed in particular in 'Antar' by Chekri Ghanem.

Ventura also appeared in several early silent French films. One of her first was the short Le roman d'un jeune homme riche/The story of a young rich man (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1909), produced by Éclair.

Other Éclair productions were L'ensorceleuse/The sorcerer (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1910) and Hérodiade/Herodias (Georges Hatot, Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1910) based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert. In the latter she played Salome, who dazzles King Herod (Karlmos) with her dance, and claims the head of John the Baptist. The production was shot on location in Tunisia, and was an international success.

She moved to Pathé Frères, where she starred as Isabelle de la Croye, a young Burgundian countess in the period drama Quentin Durward (Adrien Caillard, 1912) featuring René Alexandre. She also appeared for Pathé in La fin de Robespierre/The End of Robespierre (Albert Capellani, 1912) with Georges Saillard and Charles de Rochefort, Le fils de Charles Quint/The Son of Charles Quint (Adrien Caillard, 1912) with Léon Bernard and Paul Capellani, and as Nini in Nini l'assommeur/Nini the stunner (N.N., 1912)

Marie Ventura
French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix. Caption: Mlle Ventura de l'Odéon (Miss Ventura of the Odeon).

Marie Ventura, Pathe Felix
French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

Elegant, with a dramatic temperament and a harmonious voice


Marie Ventura was best known for her role as Fantine Thénardier in the popular Pathé serial Les misérables (Albert Capellani, 1912-1913), based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Henry Krauss starred as Jean Valjean, and Henri Étiévant played his antagonist Javert.

Marie Ventura also starred in an early version of Zaza (Adrien Caillard, 1913), but then the First World War started and probably ended her promising film career.

From 1919 to 1941 Marie Ventura worked at the Comédie-Française. Elegant, with a dramatic temperament and a harmonious voice, she embodied the heroines of Pierre Wolff (Le Voile déchiré/The Torn Veil), Henry Bataille (Maman Colibri/Mom Colibri), Alexandre Dumas fils (La Princesse Georges/The Princess George), Henry Bernstein (Le Secret/The Secret), while playing with great fire the great classical tragedies (Phèdre/Phaedrus, Le Cid/The Cid, Andromaque/Andromache) and romantic dramas (Hernani).

She also interpreted the Repertory, from Molière to Alfred Musset, and created the most contemporary pieces. In 1938, she directed 'Iphigénie' by Jean Racine, becoming the first women to direct a play at the Comédie-Française. She made frequent trips to Roumania and helped to create cultural links between France and her native country.

In the autumn of 1940, after the Nazis had invaded France, Marie Ventura was questioned personally by Jacques Copeau, the Provisionary Administrator of the Comédie-Française, about her origins. She managed to convince Copeau who decided she could remain to work on 'L'Impromptu de Versailles' (The Impromptu of Versailles) by Molière.

But in December 1941, under German pressure, the actress had to retire. After the Liberation, she was reintegrated at the Comédie Française. She then founded a drama class and played on the Boulevards, including in Jean Anouilh's plays 'Colombe' (1950) and 'La Valse des toréadors' (The Waltz of the Toreadors, 1951).

In 1951, she returned for once to the screen in Gibier de potence/Gigolo (Roger Richebé, 1951), starring Arletty and Georges Marchal.

Marie Ventura died in 1954 in Paris. She was 66.

Marie Ventura
French postcard by Editions Sid, no. 8046. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris. The costume on the card refers to a stage play set in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, but it is unclear which one.

Maria Ventura
French postcard by Editions Sid, no. 8041. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.

Sources: Comédie Française (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Carice van Houten

0
0
The Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) starts today. From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht is once again the capital of the Dutch cinema. Like every autumn, EFSP provides you during the festival daily with postcards of Dutch films and stars from the past. The NFF opens with Instinct (2019), the directing debut of actress Halina Reijn, in which Carice van Houten plays the leading role. She plays the character Nicoline, a psychologist in a TBS clinic who becomes entangled in a power game with a client who is about to go on unaccompanied leave for the first time. Van Houten also has been nominated this year for an Emmy Award for best guest role in Game of Thrones (2012-2019). She can only be seen in one episode in the last season of the series. Yet she is nominated with her interpretation of the character Melisandre. So we start this year's Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival with Carice.

Carice van Houten in Game of Thrones
American postcard by Home Box Office, 2019. Photo: HBO. Carice van Houten in the TV series Game of Thrones (2012-2019).

A Girl named Carice


Carice Anouk van Houten was born in Leiderdorp, The Netherlands in 1976. Her parents are Margje Stasse, who is on board of the Dutch educational TV, and the late Theodore van Houten, a writer and film historian. Carice is the older sister of actress and singer Jelka van Houten.

She is named after the daughter of the English composer, Sir Edward Elgar, due to the fact that Carice's father was investigating the secret of Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'.

She attended the St. Bonifatius College (high school) in Utrecht. Van Houten studied briefly at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts but continued her professional education after one year at the Kleinkunstacademie in Amsterdam.

Her first leading role in the television film Suzy Q (Martin van Koolhoven, 1999) won her the Golden Calf - the Dutch Oscar - for Best Acting in a Television Drama.

Two years later, she won the Golden Calf for Best Actress for her role as a cat who transforms into a human woman in Minoes/Undercover Kitty (Vincent Bal, 2001), based on the children's novel 'Minoes' by Annie M.G. Schmidt.

She then appeared in several stage plays and in such Dutch films as the drama De Passievrucht/Father's Affair (Maarten Treurniet, 2003) with Peter Paul Muller and Halina Reijn, and the children's film Lepel/Spoon (Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen, 2005). For her stage acting, she won the Pisuisse Award and the Top Naeff Award.

Carice van Houten
Carice van Houten. Photo by Victor Bergen-Henegouwen in Volkskrant Magazine, no. 378, 2007.

Five Golden Calves


Carice van Houten gained international recognition for her role as Rachel Stein in Zwartboek/Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, 2006), the most commercially successful Dutch film to date. Rachel is a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance during World War II after tragedy befalls her in an encounter with the Nazis. For her performance, she won her second Golden Calf for Best Actress at the Netherlands Film Festival.

The Dutch romantic comedy Alles is Liefde/Love is All (Joram Lürsen, 2007) gained her further critical acclaim and was another box office hit in The Netherlands.

Carice's first English spoken film was the psychological thriller Dorothy Mills (2008) by French director Agnès Merlet. In 2008, Van Houten also had a role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the action thriller Body of Lies (Ridley Scott, 2008), but her scenes did not make the final cut of the film.

She was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for the historical thriller Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008), starring Tom Cruise. The film is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country.

In 2009, Van Houten appeared opposite Barry Atsma in the Dutch drama Komt een vrouw bij de dokter/Stricken (Reinout Oerlemans, 2009), based on the novel of the same name by Kluun. She also starred in the Science Fiction thriller Repo Men (Miguel Sapochnik, 2009) with Jude Law.

Van Houten won her fourth Golden Calf Award for Best Actress for De gelukkige huisvrouw/The Happy Housewife (Antoinette Beumer, 2010), in which she played Lea, a housewife who has trouble adjusting to the birth of her son. Then she played South-African poet Ingrid Jonker in Black Butterflies (Paul van der Oest, 2011) with Rutger Hauer. For this role, she won her fifth Golden Calf and also the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2012, Carice and her sister Jelka van Houten starred in the comedy Jackie (Antoinette Beumer, 2012) as twin sisters from the Netherlands who embark on a road trip across the United States on a mission to help their prickly biological mother (Holly Hunter) receive physical therapy.

Carice van Houten in De gelukkige huisvrouw (2010)
Dutch postcard. Photo: Carice van Houten in De gelukkige huisvrouw/The Happy Housewife (Antoinette Beumer, 2010).

Carice van Houten in Game of Thrones
American postcard by Home Box Office, 2019. Photo: HBO. Carice van Houten in the TV series Game of Thrones (2012-2019).

The Red Priestess Lady Melisandre


Since 2012, Carice van Houten received international recognition for her role as the Red Priestess, Lady Melisandre on the HBO television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). For this highly popular series, she has been nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

On 2012, she also released an album, 'See you on the ice'. In 2013, she published a book with fellow Dutch actress Halina Reijn, called 'Anti Glamour', a parody style guide and a celebration of their friendship.

That year, she appeared in the biographical thriller The Fifth Estate (Bill Condon, 2013), about the news-leaking website WikiLeaks. Benedict Cumberbatch played its editor-in-chief and founder Julian Assange.

She voiced the character Annika Van Houten (Milhouse's cousin) in Let's Go Fly a Coot (Chris Clements, 2015), an episode of The Simpsons. She co-starred in the dark Western Brimstone (Martin van Koolhoven, 2016), opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington. It was her fourth collaboration with director Martin Koolhoven.

Van Houten also played the role of German film director/propagandist Leni Riefenstahl in the biopic Race (Stephen Hopkins, 2016), about African-American athlete Jesse Owens (played by Jason Sudeikis), who won a record-breaking four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Van Houten is in a relationship with Australian actor Guy Pearce. In 2016, she gave birth to their son, Monte Pearce. She previously dated German actor Sebastian Koch, whom she met on the set of Zwartboek/Black Book (2006).

Her most recent film in the cinemas was the disappointing crime thriller Domino (2019), directed by Brian De Palma and also starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Guy Pearce.

Carice van Houten can next be seen in The Glass Room (Julius Sevcik, 2019), a love story about the relationship between two women set in an iconic modernist house in Czechoslovakia, which was built by celebrity architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. And the Swedish-Japanese-American dramatic thriller film Lost Girls and Love Hotels (William Olsson, 2017-2019?) starring Alexandra Daddario, is yet still unreleased.


Official Trailer Black Book (2006). Source: Sony Pictures Classics (YouTube).


Official Dutch trailer for Instinct (2019). Source: September Film Distribution (YouTube).

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Frits van Dongen

0
0
Today is the second day of the 2019 Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) in Utrecht. In our Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival (UDFSPF), we present you Frits van Dongen (1901-1975), the second Dutch Hollywood star. The handsome, deep-voiced leading man started his film career in the Netherlands, and in the mid-1930s he became a matinee idol in the German cinema. From 1940 on, he worked in the USA, billed as Philip Dorn. A freak accident caused him to retire in 1955.

Frits van Dongen in Der Tiger von Eschnapur (1938)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. A 1290, 1937-1938. Photo: Tobis / Eichberg-Film. Publicity still for Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938).

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1639/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Atelier Willott, Berlin.

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1759/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1982/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2679/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tobis / Quick. Probably for Die Reise nach Tilsit/The Trip to Tilsit (Veit Harlan, 1939).

Tempestuous Tropical Romance


Frits van Dongen was born as Hein van der Niet in Scheveningen, The Netherlands, in 1901. He was the son of shoemaker Leendert van der Niet and maid-servant Femia Schijf.

At the age of 14, Hein made his amateur stage debut. At 20, he married Cornelia Twilt whom he had met at the amateur stage company. Seven months later he became a father. He earned his money as a shoemaker but in 1923 he became a professional actor.

Under the stage name Frits van Dongen he worked for the well-known Dutch theatre company De Haeghe-spelers from 1926 on. After a second son in 1926, his marriage did not go well.

In 1929 he made a tour through the Dutch colonies. Reportedly Van Dongen had several affairs and in 1930 he and his wife divorced. A few months later, during another tour through the West Indies, he met the young actress Marianne van Dam. Two years later they married.

In 1921, he had already made his film debut as an extra in the Dutch silent film De zwarte tulp/The Black Tulip (Maurits Binger, 1921), but his film career really started with a leading part in the fisher drama Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope(Alex Benno, Louis Saalborn, 1934). This was the third film adaptation of the most famous Dutch stage play, written by Herman Heijermans, and Van Dongen was praised for his natural acting style.

Soon more Dutch films followed. Van Dongen starred in the musical Op stap/On the Road (Ernst Winar, 1935) starring Fien de la Mar, the comedy De big van het regiment/The Regiment’s Mascot(Max Nosseck, Jan Teunissen, 1936), another comedy De Kribbebijter/The Grumbler (Hermann Kosterlitz aka Henry Koster, Ernst Winar, 1935) and the tempestuous tropical romance Rubber (Gerard Rutten, Johan de Meester, 1936) with Enny Meunier.

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

Fien de la Mar, Frits van Dongen in Op stap (1935)
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / Nationaal Film. Frits van Dongen and Fien de la Mar in Op stap/On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935).

Frits van Dongen, Cruys Voorbergh, Matthieu van Eysden, Adolphe Engers, and Johan Kaart in De Big van het regiment (1935)
Dutch postcard by N.V. Monopole Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still for De Big van het Regiment/The Darling of the Regiment(Max Nosseck, 1935) with Cruys Voorbergh, Piet te Nuyl, Matthieu van Eysden, Hansje Andriesen, Frits van Dongen, Adolphe Engers, Johan Kaart, Jan C. de Vos jr. and Jan van Ees. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Frits van Dongen, Cruys Voorbergh, Hansje Andriesen, Piet te Nuyl, De Big van het Regiment
Dutch vintage postcard by N.V. Monopole Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Frits van Dongen, Cruys Voorbergh, Hansje Andriesen and Piet te Nuyl in De Big van het Regiment/The Darling of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dolly Mollinger and Frits van Dongen in De kribbebijter
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. Photo: Holfi Film / Petrus Verheijen. Dolly Mollinger and Frits van Dongen in De Kribbebijter/The Cross-Patch (Hermann Kosterlitz aka Henry Koster, 1935).

Exotic Extravaganza


In 1936 the German film studio Tobis offered Frits van Dongen a contract. He travelled to Berlin.

In Berlin, he appeared in Immer wenn ich glücklich bin/Waltz Melodies (Karl Lamac, 1936) with Márta Eggerth.

The famous director Richard Eichberg gave him the leading part of Maharaja Chandra in the monumental two-part adventure Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur - Das Indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Richard Eichberg, 1938). This exotic extravaganza would be his breakthrough.

The suddenly popular matinee idol appeared next in the mystery melodrama Verwehte Spuren/Covered Tracks (Veit Harlan, 1938) with Kristina Söderbaum, and Der Hampelmann/The Jumping Jack (Karl Heinz Martin, 1938) with Hilde Krahl.

He also starred with Kristina Söderbaum in the psychological drama Die Reise nach Tilsit/The Trip to Tilsit (Veit Harlan, 1939), based on the novel by Hermann Sudermann, which was already filmed in a silent version as Sunrise (1927) by F.W. Murnau.

Van Dongen was now top of the bill in Berlin, but he disliked the Nazi regime so much that he decided to leave Germany.

Marta Eggerth and Frits van Dongen in Immer wenn ich glücklich bin..! (1938)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1535/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Projectograph-Film. Marta Eggerth and Frits van Dongen in Immer wenn ich glücklich bin..!/Waltz Melodies (Karel Lamac, 1938).

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1982/2, 1937-1938. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Frits van Dongen and Kitty Jantzen in Das indische Grabmal (1938)
Latvian postcard by E&B, Riga, no. 2704. Photo: Tobis-Cinema. Frits van Dongen and Kitty Jantzen in Das indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Richard Eichberg, 1938).

Frits van Dongen in Der Tiger von Eschnapur (1938)
German postcard by the journal Das Programm von Heute, with permission of Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938).

Frits van Dongen, Kristina Söderbaum
Italian postcard by Pizzi e Pizio, Milano. Photo: Majestic-Tobis / Mander S.A. Noleggio Film. Frits van Dongen and Kristina Söderbaum in Die Reise nach Tilsit/The Trip to Tilsit (Veit Harlan, 1939).

Continental lovers, Anti-Nazi Germans or Refugees


In 1939, Frits van Dongen moved to America just before World War II broke out. Director Henry Koster had invited him to come to Hollywood and gave him introductions.

Between 1940 and 1951 he acted in dozens of MGM productions under the name Philip Dorn. He started with the low-budget anti-Nazi film Enemy Agent (Lew Landers, 1940). During the war years, 10 of his 15 films were also such propaganda films.

He was usually cast as Continental lovers, anti-Nazi Germans or refugees. His notable films include Escape (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940) starring Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor, Ziegfeld Girl (Robert Z. Leonard, 1941) with Judy Garland, and Underground (Vincent Sherman, 1941).

Dorn also appeared in Tarzan's Secret Treasure (Richard Thorpe, 1941) starring Johnny Weissmuller, Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) with Greer Garson, the melodrama Reunion in France (Jules Dassin, 1942) opposite Joan Crawford, Blonde Fever (Richard Whorf, 1944) with Gloria Grahame, and Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944) with Humphrey Bogart.

In between films he did tours for the army with the Freedoms War Bond Show. Having long suffered from phlebitis, he had the first of a series of strokes in 1945. Over the next few years he went on to have a heart attack and to require brain surgery.

He couldn’t work for a period, but in 1947 he appeared on Broadway in The Big Two at the side of Claire Trevor. He began playing more mature film roles in the late 1940s, notably as a tyrannical symphony conductor in I've Always Loved You (Frank Borzage, 1946) and as Papa in I Remember Mama (George Stevens, 1948) with Irene Dunne as Mama.

Frits van Dongen (Philip Dorn)
Belgian postcard, editor unknown. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Frits van Dongen
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 231. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Frits van Dongen
British postcard by Picturegoer Series, no. W 63. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

Frits van Dongen
Belgian postcard, no. 3036. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

Frits van Dongen in I've Always Loved You (1946)
Belgian postcard. Photo: Republic Pictures. Frits van Dongen in I've Always Loved You (Frank Borzage, 1946).

Salto Mortale


When his MGM contract ended in 1952, Frits van Dongen returned to Europe and acted in German films like the drama Hinter Klostermauern/The Unholy Intruders (Harald Reinl, 1952) with Olga Tschechova, the romance Der Träumende Mund/Dreaming Lips (Josef von Baky, 1953) starring Maria Schell, and the circus romance Salto Mortale (Victor Tourjansky, 1953).

He did not succeed in making a really successful come-back in Germany, and in 1954-1955 he appeared opposite former Dutch film star Lily Bouwmeester on the Dutch stages in the comedy play 'Het Hemelbed'(The Four-poster) by Jan de Hartog.

When he was visiting his birth town Scheveningen in 1955, he was the victim of a freak accident. While he walked along a building site, a plank fell on his head. A brain injury eventually ruined his speaking ability; and Van Dongen had to retire.

He lived the last two decades of his life confined to his comfortable California home. Frits van Dongen died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, USA, in 1975. He was 73. Van Dongen was still married to Marianne van Dam. He had divorced his Jewish wife in 1937 but they remarried in 1939 and would stay together in California till his death.

In 2002 a biography was published in the Netherlands: 'Nederlands eerste Hollywood-ster, Hein van der Niet alias Frits van Dongen alias Philip Dorn' (The First Dutch Hollywood Star, Hein van der Niet aka Frits van Dongen aka Philip Dorn), by Hans Toonen.

Frits van Dongen
German autograph card by Gevaert.

Frits van Dongen in Türme des Schweigens (1952)
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 664. Photo: Allegro / Herzog-Film / Bayer. Frits van Dongen in Türme des Schweigens/Towers of silence (Hans Bertram, 1952).

Frits van Dongen
German postcard by VEB Volkskunstverlag Reichenbach, no. G 711. Photo: Komet-Film. Publicity still for Salto mortale (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953).

Frits van Dongen in Salto mortale
German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, no. 746. Photo: Komet / Panorama / Ewald. Frits van Dongen in Salto mortale (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953), Van Dongen's last film.

Frits van Dongen (Philip Dorn)
German postcard by F.J. Rüdel Postkarten-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf. Photo: Venus / Delta / National.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Henk van Gelder (Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland - Dutch), Mariska Graveland (De Filmkrant - Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Sylvia Kristel

0
0
From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht is once again the capital of the Dutch cinema while hosting the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). In EFSP's Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival, we present you today Sylvia Kristel (1952-2012). The Dutch actress will always be remembered as Emmanuelle, thanks to the massive soft-porn hit of the 1970s. Emmanuelle’s sexual adventures attracted 500 million people to the cinema.

Sylvia Kristel
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Sylvia Kristel in Emmanuelle (1974)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Although the back side is in the style of the Casa Filmului Acin cards, this postcard is probably a fake card while Acin never published nudity. A curiosity. Photo: publicity still for Emmanuelle (Just Jaeckin, 1974).

Tufty-haired Tomboy


Sylvia Kristel was born in Utrecht, Netherlands, in 1952. She was the daughter of Piet and Jean-Nicholas Kristel, who ran a hotel in Utrecht. Sylvia and her sister, Marianne, were brought up in Room 21. Unless the hotel was full, and they were shifted, often in the middle of the night, to Room 22 which was like a cupboard.

Her parents divorced when she was 14 years old after her father left home for another woman. She had to go to a strict Catholic boarding school and she learned to speak English, French, German and Italian.

Kristel began modelling when she was 17, and in 1973 she won the Miss TV Europe contest in London. However her future was not on television but in the cinema. Her film career had started a year earlier with a part in the Dutch thriller Niet voor de poesen/Because of the cats (Fons Rademakers, 1972). She also played supporting parts in the Dutch films Naakt over de schutting/Naked Over the Fence (Frans Weisz,1973) starring Rijk de Gooijer, and Frank en Eva/Living Apart Together (Pim de la Parra, 1973) with Willeke van Ammelrooy.

Winning the TV Europe contest lead to a casting audition in Paris for the title character in the softcore film Emmanuelle (Just Jaeckin, 1974) with Alain Cuny. The film was based on Emmanuelle Arsan's autobiographical novel. Although her tufty-haired tomboy appearance was far from the long-locked Eurasian the casting agents and the book's author had imagined, director Just Jaeckin was intrigued by her mix of the sensual and the pure. With her role, she gained overnight controversy and international success and notoriety.

Brian Donaldson in The Herald: “In the early Seventies, eroticism was making genuine inroads to the mainstream, with Don't Look Now's ongoing debate over whether Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie actually had intercourse, and the controversial Last Tango In Paris with Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. When Emmanuelle came along, it blurred the line between soft-core and the mainstream, and by having a largely plotless tale interspersed with random segments of masturbation, consensual sex and rape plus a scene of a Thai stripper doing unmentionable things with lit cigarettes. Despite some problems in France where for the first six months, the movie was deemed suitable only for porno cinemas rather than respectable film theatres, the first Emmanuelle was an international sensation.”

Forty years later, Emmanuelle remains one of the most successful French films ever produced. In total some 500 million people around the world paid to see the sexual adventures of the liberated Frenchwoman.

Sylvia Kristel
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 623.

Sylvia Kristel
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Although the back side is in the style of the Casa Filmului Acin cards, this postcard is probably also a fake card like the one above. Romanian postcard collector Véronique 3 at Flickr called it a 'dissident postcard'. We like that! Photo: publicity still for Emmanuelle (Just Jaeckin, 1974).

Typecast as Emmanuelle


Sylvia Kristel also appeared in the sequel Emmanuelle: L'antivierge/ Emmanuelle - The Joys of a Woman (Francis Giacobetti, 1976) and other erotic films like La Marge/The Margin (Walerian Borowczyk, 1976) with Joe Dallesandro.

She also appeared in prestigious non-erotic films, such as Une femme fidèle/A Faithful Woman (Roger Vadim, 1976), Claude Chabrol’s Alice ou le dernière fugue/Alice, or the Last Escapade (1977) with Charles Vanel, and the crime comedy René la canne/Rene the Cane (Francis Girod, 1977) featuring Gérard Depardieu.

But the Emmanuelle franchise proved to be far more profitable for producers and so she appeared in part 3, Goodbye Emmanuelle/Emmanuelle 3 (François Leterrier, 1980), and later followed parts 4, 5, 6 and finally in the early 1990s part 7. So, Kristel found herself typecast as Emmanuelle.

She continued to play roles that capitalised upon that image – title roles in an adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover (Just Jaeckin, 1981) and in a nudity filled biopic of World War I spy Mata Hari (Curtis Harrington, 1985).

Her Emmanuelle image followed her to the United States where she played an immigrant maid who seduces a 15-year-old boy (Eric Brown), in the controversial sex comedy Private Lessons (Alan Myerson, 1981). Other American film appearances were a part as a stewardess in The Concorde... Airport '79/Airport '79 (David Lowell Rich, 1979) with Alain Delon as the captain, and a brief comic turn in the Get Smart revival film The Nude Bomb (Clive Donner, 1980). Although Private Lessons was one of the highest grossing independent films of 1981 ($50,000,000 worldwide), Kristel saw none of the profits.

She continued to appear in films and over the years, she received good reviews for some of her Dutch films, including Pastorale 1943 (Wim Verstappen, 1978), the Knut Hamsun adaptation Mysteries/Evil Mysteries (Paul de Lussanet, 1980) with Rutger Hauer, and Lijmen/Het been/The Publishers (Robbe de Hert, 2000).

In 2006, Kristel received an award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for directing the animated short film Topor and Me. After not having acted for eight years, Kristel played a part in the Croatian-French film Two Sunny Days (Ognjen Svilicic, 2010) and in the same year she played the mother of the Dutch Trio Lescano in the Italian TV film Le ragazze dello swing/The Swing Girls (Maurizio Zaccaro, 2010).

Sylvia Kristel
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

No Bitterness Or Regret


During her turbulent life, Sylvia Kristel had a string of lovers, including Roger Vadim and Warren Beatty.

Her first major relationship was with Belgian author Hugo Claus, twenty-seven years her senior with whom she had a son, Arthur (1975). She left him for British actor Ian McShane, whom she met on the set of the film The Fifth Musketeer (Ken Annakin, 1979).

They moved in together in Los Angeles where he had promised to help her launch her American career. However their five year affair would lead to no significant career break for Kristel. About two years into the relationship she began using cocaine. This proved to be her downfall, though at the time she thought of it as a necessary fuel to stay in swing.

Since McShane, she has been married twice, first only five months to American businessman Alan Turner (1982) and then five years to film producer Phillippe Blot (1986-1991). She spent a decade with Belgian radio producer Fred De Vree before he died.

A heavy smoker from the age of eleven, Kristel was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001 and underwent three courses of chemotherapy, and surgery after it spread to her lung. In June 2012, Sylvia Kristel suffered a stroke and was hospitalised in life threatening condition.

In her autobiography Nue/Undressing Emmanuelle: A Memoir (2006/2007), she tells about her addictions, and her quest for a father figure. Carole Cadwalladr reviewed the book for The Observer: “it is, all in all, a strangely gripping tale. There's no bitterness or regret, and although there's a Francophone quality to the writing - the use of the present tense, short chapters and liberally sprinkled pensees - it gives the book a reflective edge that lifts it above the kind of celeb memoir commissioned here in Britain.”

On 17 October 2012, Sylvia Kristel died in her sleep from esophageal and lung cancer. She was survived by her son, Arthur Claus, and her younger sister, Marianne.


British theatrical trailer for Niet voor de poesen/Because of the Cats (1973). Source: Sicky33 (YouTube).


American theatrical trailer for Emmanuelle (1974). Source: Robatsea2009 (YouTube).

Sources: Carole Cadwalladr (The Observer), Brian Donaldson (The Herald), Film Reference, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ery Bos

0
0
From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht is once again the capital of the Dutch cinema while hosting the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). EFSP presents you another post in the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. Sweet and elegant Ery Bos (1908-2005) was a Dutch-German actress, who had a short but productive film career in the early German sound film. In only three years, from 1932 till 1934, she took part in a dozen films of the Weimar cinema, before the Jewish actress had to flee Nazi Germany.

Ery Bos in Schuß im Morgengrauen (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6835/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Ery Bos in Schuß im Morgengrauen/A Shot at Dawn (Alfred Zeisler, 1932).

Ery Bos
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7644/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Jacobi.

Ery Bos
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7919/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Yva, Berlin.

Solo Dancer and choreographer


Erika Bos was born in Berlin, Germany in 1908 (some sources say 1910). She was the daughter of the internationally renowned Dutch composer and pianist Coenraad V. Bos and singer Elsa Stein.

At the age of 10, she already had dance classes and as a 13-year-old she performed in a production by Leni Riefenstahl in Berlin. She first attended public attention as a solo dancer in the 1920s and at 17 she was already a solo dancer in the city of Dortmund.

 At the end of 1925 she was in the Amsterdam Central Theater with a dance performance under the guidance of her father. In 1928, Bos was solo dancer and choreographer at the Opera Graz. The following year. she was again both solo dancer and choreographer at the Stadstheater Augsburg, and then followed an engagement in 1931 at the Stadstheater Bremen, again as solo dancer and choreographer.

The beautiful dancer also followed speaking lessons by Ilka Grüning. In Graz she played in 'Die Dreigroschenoper' (The Threepenny Opera) by Bertolt Brecht, later she joined Josef Jarno 's company in Vienna.

In the early 1930s she played with Fritz Rotter in Berlin. There she was noticed by the film director Alfred Zeisler of the major German film studio Ufa. Ery made her film debut in a lead role in his crime film Schuß im Morgengrauen/Shot at Dawn (Alfred Zeisler, 1932) opposite Peter Lorre.

Her other films that year were Liebe in Uniform/Love in Uniform (Georg Jacoby, 1932) and Unmögliche Liebe/Crown of Thorns (Ery Grünfeld, 1932) in which she appeared as a daughter of Asta Nielsen. In the early 1930s, Ery Bos would play in 12 films.

Ery Bos
German collectors card in the 'Der Künstlerische Tanz' series by Eckstein-Halpaus, Dresden, group 2, no. 102. Photo: Robertson.

Ery Bos
Austrian collectors card by Bensdorp, Wien, Serie G, no. 324. Photo: Ross / Gnom Tonfilm.

Ery Bos
German collectors card by Salem Zigaretten in the series Bunte Filmbilder, no. 269 (in a series of 275). Photo: Dührkoop / Ross Verlag.

Escaping the holocaust


After Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had gained power in January 1933, the assignments of Ery Bos gradually dried up. In 1933, she played parts in Roman einer Nacht/Story of a Night (Carl Boese, 1933) and Der Zarewitsch/The Czarevitch (Victor Janson, 1933) starring Márta Eggerth.

Her final films were Mit dir durch dick und dünn/With you through thick and thin (Frans Seitz, 1934), Du bist entzückend, Rosmarie!/You are adorable, Rosmarie! (Hans von Wolzogen, 1934), Jede Frau hat ein Geheimnis/Every Woman Has a Secret (Max Obal, 1934) with Karin Hardt, and Grüß' mir die Lore noch einmal/Greet Lore again for me (Carl Heinz Wolff, 1934).

On stage she played in the season 1934-1935 at the Berliner Komödie. Then the Jewish actress  fled the country, escaping the holocaust. In London, Ery Bos married the Jewish businessman Herbert Grünfeld in 1938.

In 1941 Erika and her husband crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Canada. In 1947, Herbert Grünfeld founded his successful company Metallurg Inc. op, a precursor to the current Dutch-American conglomerate AMG. The couple settled in the very prosperous New York suburb of Chappaqua.

Ery Grünfeld would never make another film. In 1958 she became an American citizen. In 2005, Erika Grünfeld died in Chappaqua (some sources say New Castle) in the state of New York at the age of 96.

Ery Bos
Dutch postcard. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Ery Bos
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8282/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Gnom-Tonfilm. Publicity still for Das Lied vom Glück/The Song of Happiness (Carl Boese, 1933). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Ery Bos
Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 529.

Ery Bos
German postcard, no. 4236. Photo: Gerstenberg (earlier Dührkoop).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rate Your Music, Wikipedia (German and Dutch), and IMDb.

Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969)

0
0
EFSP continues its Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival, shadowing the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) (27 September – 5 October). Today we have a film special on the Dutch-German thriller Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969), which premiered at the Filmweek Arnhem, the first Dutch Film Festival. This series of rare cards was published by Galeries Modernes, a Dutch department store chain, to promote both the festival and the film. Interesting credit is the name of one of the film's scriptwriters: Martin Scorsese.

Dieter Geissler in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969)
Dutch card by Galeries Modernes for Filmweek Arnhem. Photo: Scorpio / Centrafilm. Dieter Geissler in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969).

A little hole in the wall


In 1968, German actor-producer Dieter Geissler had a job for the young Martin Scorsese who was in Amsterdam and had recently filmed some scenes here for his debut Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968). Geissler asked the 25-year-old Marty to refine his Dutch Peeping Tom script, which he wanted to produce in the Netherlands.

A painting falls off the wall in a rented room in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969). The tenant, Nils (Dieter Geissler), a doctorate student in medicine, looks through the little hole in the wall to what happens in his neighbours room.

What he sees makes him forget his textbooks quickly. It's not just the sex that generates his curiosity. Soon he witnesses events that point towards a crime. As he becomes more and more entangled in the web of mystery, his fiancee, Marina (Alexandra Stewart), a young journalist, receives an assignment to report a murder case.

Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions is the first Dutch English spoken film, and the first German-Dutch co-production since the Second World War, in which Germany had occupied the Netherlands. It was called Besessen: das Loch in der Wand in Germany and quite a box office hit there. The sexy thriller was sold to 64 countries.

Dieter Geissler later (co-)produced such films as Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1973), Die unendliche Geschichte/The NeverEnding Story (Wolfgang Petersen, 1984) and Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999).

Another remarkable credit of the film was the composer of the score: Alfred Hitchcock buff François Truffaut recommended composer Bernard Herrmann to director Pim de la Parra, and the famous old maestro indeed wrote the score for this little thriller.

Marijke Boonstra in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969)
Dutch card by Galeries Modernes for Filmweek Arnhem. Photo: Scorpio / Centrafilm. Marijke Boonstra in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969). Marijke Boonstra(1949) also appeared in the Scorpio productions Blue Movie (Wim Verstappen, 1971) and VD (Wim Verstappen, 1972).

Tom van Beek in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969)
Dutch card by Galeries Modernes for Filmweek Arnhem. Photo: Scorpio / Centrafilm. Tom van Beek in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969). Tom van Beek (1931-2002) later also appeared in such films as A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977) and Soldaat van Oranje/Soldier of Orange (Paul Verhoeven, 1977).

A sex and psycho-suspense mystery


Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions was written and directed by Pim de la Parra (1940), a young Surinamese-Dutch film director and producer. Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions, was his feature debut and he described his film as a 'sex and psycho-suspense mystery'.

Between 1967 and 1976, De la Parra made a series of films with his companion, Dutch film director Wim Verstappen under their independent production company Scorpio Films.

Their next film, Blue Movie (Wim Verstappen, 1971) starring Hugo Metsers, created a sensation. It was one of the most erotic films of its time, showing nudity with a realism that confounded critics and censorship authorities. The film became a huge box office hit in The Netherlands and was exported successfully.

Their later films included Frank en Eva/Living Apart Together (Pim de la Parra,1973) starring Willeke van Ammelrooy, Alicia (Wim Verstappen, 1974), Dakota (Wim Verstappen, 1975) with Kees Brusse, and Mijn Nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra/My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie (Pim de la Parra, 1975). In 1976, Pim de la Parra directed Wan Pipel/One People, the first  feature film from Suriname.

Filmweek Arnhem, where Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions was presented in 1969, was the first international film festival in the Netherlands. It was organised once every two years from 1955 by the Dutch Cinema Association. In the years following the first edition of Arnhem Film Week, several film festivals were established in the Netherlands. In 1983, Film Week Arnhem - which was biennial - was organised for the last time.

Galeries Modernes published the cards in this post to promote both the festival and the film. This department store chain in the Netherlands originated from the Grand Bazar Français. The last branches were closed in 1984, a year after the Filmweek Arnhem had stopped.

Dieter Geissler in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969)
Dutch card by Galeries Modernes for Filmweek Arnhem. Photo: Scorpio / Centrafilm. Dieter Geissler in Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (Pim de la Parra, 1969).


The original trailer in high definition of Bezeten - Het gat in de muur/Obsessions (1969). Source: HD Retro Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: Eye, Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Jopie Koopman

0
0
From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht is once again the capital of the Dutch cinema while hosting the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). In EFSP's Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival, we present you Jopie Koopman (1910-1979), one of the stars of the Dutch cinema of the 1930s. The pretty cabaret artist sang and played in several revues and early sound films.

Jopie Koopman, Bleeke Bet
Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Jopie Koopman in Bleeke Bet/Bleak Beth (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Fien de la Mar & Jopie Koopman in Bleeke Bet
Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Fien de la Marand Jopie Koopman in Bleeke Bet (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934).

Chorus Girl in the revue


Johanna Bernardina (Jopie) Koopman was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1910, as the daughter of Johan Koopman en Anna Maria Petronella Eengelberd. Jopie Koopman is regularly confused on with her niece of the same name Johanna Bernardina Jeanne (Jopie) Koopman (1908-1981), the first Miss Holland in 1929.

At the end of the 1920s Jopie and her younger sister Jeanne tried to enter the amusement business as chorus girls. Jopie made her stage debut in 1927 with the Stappers Revue, followed by other revues including one with legendary Dutch cabaret star Louis Davids.

From 1930 till 1933 she performed in Paris, London and Berlin with the Berlin artists Eric and Peppy Hollander. In their act, she sang and played the violin.

With her good looks and singing talent, she was ideal for new Dutch sound cinema. In 1934 she made her first film appearance in t Bleeke Bet/Bleak Beth (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934) as a young girl from the Jordaan, the old heart of Amsterdam.

Her co-star and love interest in the film was Johan Heesters, who later would become a huge star in Germany as Johannes Heesters. The film was a huge success, and it meant a breakthrough for Jopie.

That same year she also appeared in the comedy Malle gevallen/Silly Situations (Jaap Speyer, 1934) based on a novel by Hans Martin. Jopie had a nice part with a lot of songs and had well known co-stars like Johan Kaart, Roland Varno and Louis Borel.

Jopie Koopman also made some successful records with the popular singer Willy Derby, including two duets from the Dutch musical De Jantjes/The Tars. She also appeared often for the Dutch radio in popular shows.

Annie van Duyn, Jopie Koopman and Enny Meunier in Malle gevallen
Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 13. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen (1934).

Louis Borel and Jopie Koopman in Malle gevallen
Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 5. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for Malle gevallen (1934).

War Drama


In 1935 Jopie Koopman appeared in the musical Op Stap/On the Road (Ernst Winar, 1935). The film was written by Jacques van Tol, a well-known songwriter at the time, who was married to Jopie’s sister, Jeanne Koopman. The other stars of this film were Louis Davids and his sister Henriëtte 'Heintje' Davids, and Dutch diva Fien de la Mar as the glamorous film star Bella Ramona.

Again Jopie sang some songs in the film, including a duet with her fiance in the film, played by Frits van Dongen - the later Hollywood star Philip Dorn.

She also appeared as the piano teacher Nora in the war comedy De Big van het Regiment/The Mascot of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935) and in 't Was een april/It was 1 April (Detlev Sierk aka Douglas Sirk, 1936). This comedy, which is believed lost, was an alternate language version of Sirk’s directorial debut, the German comedy April, April! (1935) with Lina Carstens.

In 1936, Jopie Koopman's film career came to an abrupt end. Filmgoers had become bored with the Dutch film musicals, so Koopman returned to the stage.

In 1940 Jopie performed in the show 'Kommt und lacht!' of the Kabaret Der Prominenten, a theatre group with German artists who had fled the Nazi regime. Their leader was songwriter Willy Rosen.

Her last film was the war drama Niet tevergeefs/But Not in Vain (Edmond T. Gréville, 1948) with Matthieu van Eysden and John van Dreelen. She also had a small part in the alternate-language version, But Not in Vain (Edmond T. Gréville, 1948), starring Raymond Lovell and Carol van Derman.

After a short first marriage with the Jewish musician Henri Albert van der Kruk (1939-1944), she married in 1946 Jacobus Johannes ter Linden, the director of the City cinema in Amsterdam. Their daughter Mirjam ter Linden was born in 1950.

Jopie Koopman retired to focus on her family. Later, she only incidentally appeared on TV or in the theatre.

In 1979, Jopie Koopman died in Amsterdam, at the age of 69.

Henriëtte Davids, Adolphe Engers and Jopie Koopman in Op stap (1935)
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / Nationaal Film. Henriëtte Davids, Adolphe Engers and Jopie Koopman in Op stap/On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935).

Henriëtte Davids and Jopie Koopman in Op stap (1935)
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / Nationaal Film. Henriëtte Davids and Jopie Koopman in Op stap/On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935).

Hansje Andriesen and Jopie Koopman in De Big van het regiment (1935)
Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Hansje Andriesen and Jopie Koopman in De Big van het regimentt/The Darling of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935).

Sources: Astrid de Beer (Huygens Ing - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch), IMDb, and Gé Joosten.

Eduard Verkade

0
0
Today is the seventh day of the 2019 Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) in Utrecht. In our Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival (UDFSPF), we present you Eduard Verkade (1878-1961). He was one of the actor-directors who revolutionised the Dutch theatre in the first decades of the 20th century. Verkade broke with the histrionics and the historic realism of the preceding period. As an actor he was especially renowned for his numerous solo-performances of 'Macbeth' and 'Hamlet'. He also starred in Dutch films of the 1910s, 1920s and the 1930s.

Eduard Verkade
Dutch postcard. Series 'Hollandsche kunstenaars' [Dutch artists], I. Nederlandsche Uitgevers Mij., Den Haag, 1920. Photo: Henri Berssenbrugge.

Eduard Verkade
Dutch postcard, 1st series, no. 1, 1908/9.

Eduard Verkade as Lanseloet
Dutch postcard, 1st series, no. 4, 1908/9. Photo: Eduard Verkade as Lanseloet in a stage production by Die Haghespelers of the medieval play 'Lanseloet van Denemerken' (Lancelot of Denmark).

Eduard Verkade
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag.

Biscuits and Chocolate


Eduard Rutger Verkade was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1878.

He studied in 1894 at the Finsbury College near Londen. His studies were meant for a managerial job at his father’s famous biscuits and chocolate factory in the Netherlands, Verkade. In London he attended many theatre performances and in 1904 he decided for a stage career.

In 1908 he started his own theatre group, Die Haghespelers. This theatre company would exist till 1936 and staged a.o. William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and 'Macbeth', which would become the most famous roles of Eduard Verkade.

He also acted in classic plays by Joost van den Vondel, Maurice Maeterlinck, and in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 'The Brothers Karamazov'.

In the meantime he would work as the artistic director of numerous theatre companies and as a director he was an important innovator. In the 1930s he would also be the theatre critic for the prolific Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer.

Eduard Verkade as Hamlet
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, The Hague. Eduard Verkade as Hamlet in the play by William Shakespeare.

Eduard Verkade in Hamlet
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in his stage role as Hamlet.

Eduard Verkade as MacBeth
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag (The Hague). Eduard Verkade as MacBeth in the play by William Shakespeare.

Eduard Verkade in MacBeth
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in his stage role as MacBeth.

Devil in Amsterdam


Eduard Verkade starred in several Dutch films. In the silent film De duivel in Amsterdam/The Devil in Amsterdam (Theo Frenkel, 1919), based on the play Az ördög (The Devil, 1907) by Ferenc Molnár, he played the devil. His co-star was another legend of the Dutch stage, Louis Bouwmeester. Sadly, the film is considered as lost.

In another silent film, the Alexandre Dumas adaptation De zwarte tulp/The Black Tulip (Maurits Binger, Frank Richardson, 1921), he played the historical politician Cornelis de Witt.

His biggest film hit was the Dutch film version of G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion (Ludwig Berger, 1937), in which he played the role of Pickering.

The star was Dutch diva Lily Bouwmeester, and soon he played in two more films with her: Veertig jaren/Forty Years (Edmond T. Gréville, 1938) and Ergens in Nederland/Somewhere in the Netherlands (Ludwig Berger, 1940).

In Ergens in Nederland/Somewhere in the Netherlands also appeared the author Jan de Hertog and the 'Dutch diva'Fien de la Mar. The film was just ready for release when the Netherlands were conquered by the Nazis, who forbade its exhibition.

Eduard Verkade, De Duivel
Dutch postcard. Photo: Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade as the Devil in the stage play De Duivel (Az Ördög/The Devil) by Ferenc Molnár.

Eduard Verkade in De Garde-Luitenant
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in the stage play De garde-luitenant (The guard lieutenant).

Eduard Verkade in De garde-luitenant
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in the stage play De garde-luitenant (The guard lieutenant).

Eduard Verkade
Dutch postcard, 1926. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade as Manson in the stage play 'De dienstknecht in het huis' (The Servant in the House) by Charles Rann Kennedy.

Dangerous sentiments


During WW II, Eduard Verkade refused to join the Kulturkammer (the Nazi Ministry of Culture), which held under close scrutiny all artistic practices.

He was considered suspect because of his ‘dangerous’ pro-English sentiments. He saw in William Shakespeare's plays a powerful vehicle for anti-German - or, more generally, anti-war - protest.

He was also the organiser of many 'black evenings’ - clandestine theatre performances held at people's private homes, with the residents, their family and neighbours as the audience.

His house was a hiding place for many people, including the poet Adriaan Roland Holst.

In 1947 Eduard Verkade retired, and in 1961 he died in Breukelen, The Netherlands. He was 82.

Verkade was married four times. His wives were Johanna van Wulfften Palthe (1902-1910; two sons and a daughter); Maria Magdalena Müller (a.k.a. actress Enny Vrede)(1910-1919; a daughter and a son); Marie Cramer (a.k.a. author and illustrator Rie Cramer) (1922-1933); and Eline Françoise Cartier van Dissel (1935-1961). Eduard Verkade also had a son (1921) with Henriette Jacoba Maria Carolina Croes.

Eduard Verkade in De Faun
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in the stage play De faun (The Faun). In the season of 1923/1924, De Haghespelers in 't Voorhout played De Faun/The Faun (1911) by American-born British playwright and novelist Edward Knoblock, with Verkade as prince Silvani. Knoblock wrote many screenplays, including Douglas Fairbanks'Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922), though he was uncredited, and The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921).

Eduard Verkade
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade in his stage role as Fyodor Karamazov in 'The Karamazov Brothers', the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Eduard Verkade as Feodor Karamazov
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag. Eduard Verkade as Fyodor Karamazov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s stage play The Brothers Karamazov.

Sources: H.H.J. de Leeuwe (Huygens ING - Dutch), Ruud van Capelleveen (Abolute Facts - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Alfred Machin

0
0
From 27 September till 5 October, Utrecht is once again the capital of the Dutch cinema while hosting the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). In the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival, EFSP presents you a special post: our subject is a French film-maker from the early days of the film, who was acvtive in the Netherlands. Alfred Machin (1877-1929) was not only extremely productive, but his work from the 1910s also testifies of a progressive vision. Georges Sadoul called him the 'first European filmmaker'. Among other things, he was known for the wild and other animals that he had shown in his films. One of his panthers hurt him at the belly during shooting, causing his health to decline and in 1929 Machin died in Nice.

Alfred Machin and his panther Mimir
Alfred Machin and his panther Mimir. Postcard, editor nor nationality known.

Little Moritz
Little Moritz. French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Maurice Schwartz (1890-1960) was an international popular Pathé comedian in 1910-1912, known as Little Moritz. He came from the German music-hall and worked for Pathé's Comica studio in Nice.

Taking hazardous risks for films with wild animals


Alfred Machin was born as Eugène Alfred Jean Baptiste Machin in Blendecques, France, in 1877.

Machin was working as a press photographer for L'Illustration when he was recruited by the Pathé brothers to make films. In 1907, they sent him to Africa, where, in 1907-1908 and again in 1908-1909, he shot various documentaries. Some of these were re-edited in 1910-1911 into a feature-length documentary.

His films with wild animals, for which he took hazardous risks, had great success. Almost immediately after his return from Africa, he was sent to the Netherlands in the fall of 1909 to make documentaries about Dutch life, such as Une journée à l'île de Marken (Alfred Machin, 1909), Coiffures et types de Hollande (Alfred Machin, 1909), and Comment se fait le fromage de Hollande (Alfred Machin, 1909).

For a period he worked at the Pathé branch of Nice, the subdepartments Comica and Nizza, where he made comedies with Little Moritz, Fouinard (Georges Vinter), Babylas (Louis-Jacques Boucot), and others. He also shot a drama in Belgium which was set in Holland, Le Moulin maudit/The Mill (Alfred Machin, 1909). It was a foretelling of his future working territories.

The trip to the low countries was followed by a series of fiction films in 1911-1912 for Pathé's newly founded Hollandsche Film, partly shot at the picturesque village of Volendam. While the first film shot was L'Ame des moulins/The souls of the mills (Alfred Machin, 1912), to please Dutch audiences the first film released in the Netherlands was L'Or qui brûle/Het vervloekte geld/Fire at Sea (Alfred Machin, 1911), starring Dutch stage actor Louis Bouwmeester.

Louis Bouwmeester was almost the only Dutch actor in Machin's Dutch films. The director had brought a group of Pathé actors with him, including Jacques Vandenne, Germaine Dury, Germaine Lecuyer (his future wife), and little Maurice Mathieu.

Louis Bouwmeester
Dutch postcard from 1910 showing Louis Bouwmeester as Shylock.

Jacques Vandenne
Jacques Vandenne. French postcard, no. 13. Photo: Cliché Sartony. In 1911 Vandenne followed Alfred Machin to the Netherlands where he acted in a series of dramatic shorts produced by Pathé's local Dutch company Hollandsche Film and filmed in and around the picturesque village of Volendam, exploiting the local surroundings and clichés.

In L'Or qui brûle/Het vervloekte geld (Alfred Machin, 1911), he was the crooked shipowner Snijders opposite the 'monstre sacré' of the Dutch stage, Louis Bouwmeester, as the old sailor Verhoff. In Le Calvaire du mousse/Het lijden van den scheepsjongen (Alfred Machin, 1912), he played the drunken skipper who abuses the small cabin boy.

Vandenne also appeared in the historical film La Revolte des gueux/De strijd der geuzen/The Revolt of the Peasants (Alfred Machin, 1912), L'Âme des moulins/De molens die juichen en weenen (Alfred Machin, 1912), and La Vengeance du pêcheur Willink/Visserswraak (Alfred Machin, 1913).

A picturesque drama in the flower fields of the Netherlands


Apart from the rural dramas involving millers and fishermen, shot in Volendam, Marken and other picturesque places, Alfred Machin also staged a few comedies such as La peinture et les cochon/Paint and pigs (Alfred Machin, 1912) and several historical and modern dramas. He made three dramas with the actor Léon Mathot, including La dramatique passion d'Algabert et d'Élisabeth de Rodembourg/Dramatic Passion of Algabert and Elisberth of Rodembourg(Alfred Machin, 1912) and Le secret de l'acier/Joachim Goëthal et le secret de l'acier/Joachim Goethal en het geheim van het staal (Alfred Machin, 1912).

In Belgium, Machin then took the management over of the early film studio that Pathé had started there in 1908. Machin established his Belge Cinéma Films on the Karreveld domain in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. The equipment included a mini zoo with exotic animals, including his own leopard Mimir. Mimir starred e.g. in Saïda a enlevé Manneken-Pis/Saïda has kidnapped the Manneken Pis (Alfred Machin, 1913), also with a young Fernand Gravey (then still Fernand Mertens).

During short stays in France, Machin made films with famous comedians such as Little Moritz, Fouinard and Babylas. He shot vaudeville with Belgian actors such as Arthur Devère and Fernand Crommelynck. His two major Belgian productions were Le Diamant noir/De zwarte diamant/The Black Diamond (Alfred Machin, 1913) and La fille de Delft/La Tulipe d'or/Het geheim van Delft/Loyalty (Alfred Machin, 1914).

The plot of Le secret de Delft starts in the flower fields of the Netherlands, and deals with a boy and girl separated when she leaves for the city of Brussels. She becomes a famous dancer and shuns him when he visits her. When her balloon drops and she becomes blind, her then-fiancé drops her too, but her childhood love takes her in once more. The first part of the film starred two then-child actors, Fernand Gravey and Blanche Montel, who eventually would become film stars.

Le Diamant noir stars a young Albert Dieudonné, the star of Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927), as a baron's secretary unjustly accused of theft. The culprit is an animal, a pet magpie, while Mimir had a small part as the panther who attacks Albert in the jungle.

Léon Mathot
Léon Mathot. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Ecran series by Editions Filma, no. 55. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Blanche Montel
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 56. When she was only 11, Blanche Montel was already engaged by Machin to play a young Dutch girl in La fille de Delft (1913-1914), shot at the Belgium Pathé studio of Chateau Karreveld at Molenbeek-Saint-Jean near Brussels.

A marvelously stencil-colored production about a fictitious air war


On the eve of the First World War, Alfred Machin shot the premonitory Maudite soit la guerre, a marvelously stencil-colored production about a fictitious air war. It was a prestigious production, with collapsing balloons spitting fire, while on the ground a windmill was blown up during an assault.

When the violence of arms also broke out in reality, Machin started working for the Service cinématographique des Armées, a new service of the French army in which the four major film houses participated. More than 60 films from this period can certainly be attributed to him.

After the war, he returned to the Nice area. He became director of the Pathé studio and took it over in 1921. Les Studios Machin was a family business in which his wife Germaine Lécuyer and his son Claude (Clo-Clo) also participated. He again focused on animal comedies, a time-intensive niche in which he excelled. Three of his films, including Bêtes ... comme les homme/sAnimals As Stupid As Men (Alfred Machin, Henry Wulschleger, 1922), had only animals as actors. The French public was not entirely enthusiastic, but it earned him the necessary attention in America.


In 1996, when preparing his dissertation on Jean Desmet and the early Dutch film distribution and cinema exhibition, Ivo Blom met Mme Lili Debs-Justet, daughter of Louis Justet, the owner of the Dutch branch of Pathé and the Theater Pathé cinema in Amsterdam. While she was about 90 when Ivo met her, she recalled how as a young girl she had been photographed with Machin, his leopard and a young lion in an Amsterdam park. That may well have caused a stir.

Mme Lili Debs-Justet also remarked how Machin was a documentary-maker in the first place and cherished his African adventures most. Indeed, when in the Netherlands in Fall 1911, he gave a glaring interview about his daredevil adventures to Dutch journalist Jan Feith. Then again, to the average non-Dutch filmgoer, the quaint Volendam scenery may have looked just as exotic as any African scene.

Alfred Machin passed away in 1929 in Nice, France. He was 52. With Germaine Lecuyer, he had three children: Freddy Machin (1913-1974), Ginette Machin (1918-1951), and Claude Machin (1921-1978).


Chasse à la panthère (Alfred Machin, 1909). Source: CINEMATEKfilms (YouTube).


Le diamant noir (Alfred Machin, 1913). Source: CINEMATEKfilms (YouTube).


Trailer Maudite soit la guerre (Alfred Machin, 1914). Source: CINEMATEKfilms (YouTube).

Sources: Eric de Kuyper (Alfred Machin Cinéaste/ Film-maker, 1995). Jan Feith (Algemeen Handelsblad, 16-11-1911 - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Jackie Coogan

0
0
Today, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto starts and EFSP will follow the festival from 5 till 12 October. The Silent Film Festival in Pordenone is the main festival in its kind and this year's edition is the 38th. The first film which will be screened at the Teatro Verdi, the main festival venue for film screenings, is The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921). 

So EFSP starts with a post on Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in the film, John Leslie 'Jackie' Coogan (1914-1984). As a child actor he also played the title role in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922) and several other silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester in the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966). In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings ($56 to $75 million adjusted for 2019 dollars) and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, widely known as 'the Coogan Act'.

Jackie Coogan
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 29. Photo: Evans, L.A.

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

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

Jackie Coogan in My Boy (1921)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 662/2. Photo: Terra-Verleih. Jackie Coogan in My Boy (Albert Austin, Victor Heerman, 1921). The wealthy lady is Mathilde Brundage, who plays the boy's grandmother.

Jackie Coogan in My Boy (1921)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 662/4. Photo: Terra-Verleih. Jackie Coogan and Mathilde Brundage in My Boy (Albert Austin, Victor Heerman, 1921). The old man is Claude Gillingwater, who plays Captain Bill.

The Kid


Jackie Coogan was born as John Leslie Coogan in 1914 in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan Jr. and Lillian Rita (Dolliver) Coogan. His father was a dancer and actor, and his mother had been a child star. Jackie's younger brother, Robert Coogan, also would become an actor.

His parents put Jackie on stage as part of their act when he was just 16 months old. His film debut was an uncredited role as a baby in the successful silent film Skinner's Baby (Harry Beaumont, 1917), starring Bryant Washburn.

Charlie Chaplin discovered him in the Orpheum Theatre, a vaudeville house in Los Angeles, on the stage doing the shimmy, a dance popular at the time.

Jackie Coogan was a natural mimic and delighted Chaplin with his abilities. Chaplin cast him in a small role in A Day's Pleasure (Charles Chaplin, 1919) to test Jackie. It proved that he had a screen presence.

Coogan then was the Tramp's irascible companion in The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921). Charlie raises the kid and then loses Jackie. The film was very successful.

The following year Jackie played the title role in Oliver Twist (1922), directed by Frank Lloyd. By 1923, when he made Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923), he was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He would leave First National for MGM where they put him into Long Live the King (Victor Schertzinger, 1923).

Coogan was one of the first stars to be heavily merchandised. Peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines were among the Coogan-themed merchandise on sale.

Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (1922)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 725/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Transocean-Film Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922).

Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (1922)
British postcard presented with The Penny Magazine. Photo: First National. Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922).

Jackie Coogan in Trouble (1922)
French postcard by Imp. Lison for Cinéma du Brun-Pain, 1923. Photo: Gaumont / Sol Lesser. Jackie Coogan in Trouble (Albert Austin, 1922).

Jackie Coogan in Daddy (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 669/6. Photo: Transocean Film Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923). Postcard sent in the former Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia).

Jackie Coogan in Daddy (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 701/3. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923).

Jackie Coogan in Daddy (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 701/4. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in Daddy (E. Mason Hopper, 1923).

A Children's Cruisade


The photo in Berlin above was taken during Coogan's  European tour in 1924. According to Wikipedia, Coogan, working with Near East relief, toured across the United States and Europe in 1924 on a 'Children's Crusade' as part of his fundraising drive.

His fundraising provided more than $1 million in clothing, food, and other contributions for Armenian and Greek children displaced during World War I (worth $15 million in 2019 dollars).

He was honoured by officials in the United States, Greece, and Rome, where he had an audience with Pope Pius XI.

In addition, the tour promoted Coogan's film A Boy of Flanders, which, oddly enough, takes place in the Netherlands and not in Belgium (of which Flanders is a part). Coogan was also dressed up in typical Volendam (Dutch) folklorist outfit. In The Netherlands the film was therefore baptised 'Een Hollandsche jongen' (A Dutch Boy).

According to the newspapers, on September 1924 Coogan docked in Southampton and then visited London, Paris, Rome, and Athens. After ten days of holidays early October in Semmering (Austria), the trip continued to Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin.

Attempts to have him visit Amsterdam as well failed. After a return to Paris, he took the ship back to the US on 4 November, as he had to work from 28 October on the film sets again.

Coogan was tutored until the age of 10, when he entered Urban Military Academy and other prep schools. He attended several colleges, as well as the University of Southern California.

By 1927, at the age of 13, Coogan had grown up on the screen and his career was starting to go through a downturn. His popular film career would end with the classic tales of Tom Sawyer (John Cromwell, 1930) and Huckleberry Finn (Norman Taurog, 1931) with Junior Durkin. In 1932, he dropped out of Santa Clara University because of poor grades.

Jackie Coogan in Berlin
Jackie Coogan in Berlin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 923/1. Photo: C. Fernstädt, Berlin. The man at the far left is Coogan's father, John Henry Coogan Jr.

Jackie Coogan Les Vedettes de Cinéma
Jackie Coogan on board of SS Leviathan in 1924. French postcard by A.N. in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, Paris, no. 88. Photo: Rol. On 4 November 1924, Jackie Coogan went back to the US on the SS Leviathan, after his European tour of September-October that year, visiting London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin.

Jackie Coogan
Hungarian postcard by FMSI, no. 84. Photo: Mûvèsz Film. In 1924 Coogan visited Budapest during his grand European tour. The photo refers to Coogan's outfit in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924). Mûvèsz Film may have been the Hungarian distributor of that film.

Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 669/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924).

Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 680/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin. Jackie Coogan in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924).

Jackie Coogan
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 726/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co., Berlin.

The Coogan Act

In 1935, 20-year-old Coogan was the sole survivor of a car crash in the California mountains. The accident killed his father; his best friend, 19-year-old actor Junior Durkin; their ranch foreman, Charles Jones; and actor and writer Robert J. Horner. The party was returning from a day of dove hunting over the border in Mexico in early May. With his father at the wheel, the car was forced off the mountain highway near Pine Valley by an oncoming vehicle and rolled down an embankment. Jackie would later call it the single saddest day of his life.

As a child star, Jackie Coogan earned an estimated $3 to $4 million (now $56 to $75 million). When he turned 21 in 1935, his fortune was believed to be well intact. His assets had been conservatively managed by his father, who had died in the car accident five months earlier.

However, Coogan found that the entire amount had been spent by his mother and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, on fur coats, diamonds and other jewelry, and expensive cars. Bernstein had been a financial adviser for the family and married Coogan's mother in late 1936. Coogan's mother and stepfather claimed Jackie enjoyed himself and simply thought he was playing before the camera. She insisted, "No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything", and claimed he "was a bad boy".

Coogan sued them in 1938, but after his legal expenses, he received just $126,000 of the $250,000 remaining of his earnings.

Because of the public uproar, in 1939 the California Legislature passed the Child Actors Bill, also known as 'the Coogan Act', which would set up a trust fund for any child actor and protect his earnings. It required that a child actor's employer set aside 15% of the earnings in a trust (called a Coogan account), and specified the actor's schooling, work hours, and time off.

When Jackie Coogan fell on hard times and asked Charlie Chaplin for assistance, Chaplin handed him $1,000 without hesitating.

Although he eventually reconciled with his mother and stepfather after the lawsuit over his earnings, things were never the same, and his advice to future child stars was "stay away from mothers."

In 1938, Jackie Coogan appeared with then-wife Betty Grable in the musical comedy College Swing (Raoul Walsh, 1938) starring George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye and Bob Hope. It was followed by supporting roles in Million Dollar Legs (Nick Grinde, 1939) and Sky Patrol (Howard Bretherton, 1939).

In 1940, Coogan played the role of a playboy Broadway producer in the 'Society Girl' program on CBS radio. He also starred in his own radio programme, 'Forever Ernest' (1946), on CBS.

Coogan enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, he requested a transfer to Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. Graduating the Advanced Glider School with the Glider Pilot aeronautical rating and the rank of Flight Officer, he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group.

In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on 5 March 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles (160 km) behind Japanese lines in the Burma Campaign.

Jackie Coogan in Long Live the King (1923)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 822/1. Photo: British-American-Films A.-G. (Bafag). Jackie Coogan in Long Live the King (Victor Schertzinger, 1923).

Jackie Coogan in Old Clothes (1925)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 822/2. Photo: British-American-Films A.-G. (Bafag). Jackie Coogan in Old Clothes (Edward F. Cline, 1925).

Jackie Coogan in The Rag Man (1925)
Italian postcard, no. 413. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Pictures. Jackie Coogan and Max Davidson in The Rag Man (Edward F. Cline, 1925).

Jackie Coogan
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3256/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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).

Jackie Coogan
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Uncle Fester


After the war, Jackie Coogan returned to acting, but he was unable to restart his career. He worked in B-films, mostly in bit parts and usually playing the heavy.

During the 1950s, he started to appear on television. From 1952 to 1953, he played Stoney Crockett on the syndicated series Cowboy G-Men. In Denmark, he directed and starred in the thriller Flugten til Danmark/Escape from Terror (George Coogan, Jackie Coogan, 1955)

Coogan guest-starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. He appeared too, as Corbett, in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws (1960-1962) with Barton MacLane. He had a regular role in the NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel (1962-1963).

Coogan finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964–1966). When he was cast as Uncle Fester, Coogan was 50 years old and nearly broke. After the series ended in 1966, he never lacked work again, with numerous television and film appearances.

In the cinema, Coogan appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy (Boris Sagal, 1965) and in A Fine Madness (Irvin Kershner, 1966) with Sean Connery.

On TV, he appeared four times on Perry Mason (1966). He was a guest several times on The Red Skelton Show and appeared twice on The Brady Bunch. He also played as Jeannie's uncle, Suleiman – Maharajah of Basenji in I Dream of Jeannie (1969).

He continued to appear in TV series and feature films until his death. His final appearance was in the horror film The Prey (Edwin Brown, 1983).

Coogan was married four times, and had four children. His first three marriages to actresses were short-lived. He and Betty Grable were engaged in 1935 and married in 1937, and they divorced less than two years later in 1939. Eighteen months later in 1941, he married Flower Parry. They had one son, John Anthony Coogan in 1942. They divorced in 1943. Coogan married his third wife, Ann McCormack in 1946. They had a daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan, born in 1948. They divorced in 1951.

Dorothea Odetta Hanson, also known as dancer Dorothea 'Dodie' Lamphere, became Coogan's fourth wife in 1952 and they were together over thirty years, until his death. She died in 1999. They had two children together, a daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan (1953) and a son, Christopher Fenton Coogan (1967), who died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs in 1990.

After suffering from heart and kidney ailments, Jackie Coogan succumbed to heart failure in 1984, at age 69, in Santa Monica, California. He had previously suffered several strokes and had been undergoing kidney dialysis when his blood pressure dropped. Coogan was taken to Santa Monica Hospital, where he died from cardiac arrest. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

In 1972, Charles Chaplin returned to the U.S. after two decades of exile. He would receive the Handel Medallion in New York City and a special lifetime achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Coogan was one of several people to greet Chaplin when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. After greeting the other members of the party with perfunctory handshakes, Chaplin, recognised Coogan (whom he hadn't seen in decades), warmly embraced him, saying, "You know, I think I would rather see you than anybody else." Chaplin later told Coogan's wife, "You must never forget that your husband is a genius."

Jackie Coogan in The Bugle Call (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3530/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jackie Coogan in The Bugle Call (Edward Sedgwick, 1927).

Jackie Coogan and Robert Coogan
Jackie Coogan and his little brother Robert Coogan. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6397/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

Jackie Coogan
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9594/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb),  Wikipedia and IMDb.
Viewing all 4108 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images

Vimeo 10.7.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.7.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

HANGAD

HANGAD

MAKAKAALAM

MAKAKAALAM

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Vimeo 10.6.1 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.1 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Re:

Re:

Re:

Re: