European Film Star Postcards

Beautiful and distinguished Danielle Godet (1927-2009) had everything for a great career in the cinema, but she lacked the right film parts to live up to her many capacities. In secondary roles the charming French actress continued to work on stage, television and in 45 films.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 345. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

The Idol

Danielle Gabrielle Rose Godet was born in Paris in 1927. She was the daughter of an industrialist and a stay-at-home mother, passionate about piano and classical music.

Danielle inherited her artistic flair from her mother. The little girl studied and piano and dance, going as far as to win a first prize at the Léopold Belland dance contest. But it was the call of the cinema she was actually going to heed.

She made her film debut by chance, as the small village in which Danielle and her parents spent their summer holidays of 1943 harboured the shooting of L'homme sans nom/The Man without a name (Léon Mathot, 1943). Extras were needed and the pretty sixteen-year old was noticed and hired as one.

Later, she took drama lessons with Maria Ventura and Jean Martinelli. Famous French director René Clair tested her for the female lead in his Le silence est d'or//Man About Town (1947) but all she was given was a bit as a spectator. Marcelle Derrien played the role opposite Maurice Chevalier instead.

The same mishap occurred to her two years later when, after being considered by Henri-Georges Clouzot for Manon (1949), the part went to Cécile Aubry.

In 1947, though, she starred alongside another beginner named Yves Montand in the boxing film, L'idole/The Idol (Alexandre Esway, 1948).

Then she made an impression in the cinema opposite François Périer in La souricière/Sorceror (Henri Calef, 1950). In this noir thriller, Godet showed that she could be given other roles than the ingénues she had played until then.

That year she also appeared in the British adventure film The Elusive Pimpernel (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1950) starring David Niven as the British aristocrat who goes in disguise to France to rescue people from The Terror of the guillotine.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 448. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 199. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Artistic Fall

From then on, Danielle Godet's screen career started to falter. Guy Bellinger at IMDb: “Godet's artistic fall started and despite her efforts to find worthwhile roles, never ended. In the batch, there are a few unpretentious but entertaining French or Spanish B movies.”

She appeared in the musical comedy Nous irons à Monte Carlo/We Will All Go to Monte Carlo (Jean Boyer, 1951) which was one of the first films with Audrey Hepburn before Hollywood.

She played Constance who conquered the heart of D'Artagnan (Georges Marchal) in the all star Les 3 Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Bernard Borderie, 1953).

She was the romantic interest of Eddie Constantine in the crime comedy Votre dévoué Blake/Yours Truly, Blake (Jean Laviron, Jerome Epstein, 1954), and appeared with another French film heavy, Frank Villard, in the thriller Rapt au deuxième bureau/Operation Abduction (Jean Stelli, 1958).

In Spain, she appeared in the thriller Cuatro en la frontera/Four at the border (Antonio Santillán, 1958), and Muerte al amanecer/Death at dawn (Josep Maria Forn, 1959).

On stage, she had success in the boulevard comedy La brune que voilà (There is the Brunette), by Robert Lamoureux.

In the early 1960s, she played in the war drama Les honneurs de la guerre/The Honors of War (Jean Dewever, 1961) and the adventure film Le capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1961) starring Jean Marais. However, her film roles diminished during that decade.

On stage she starred in Les hommes préfèrent les blondes (Gentlemen prefer blondes) (1962) by Anita Loos, and several other plays.

A noteworthy later film is Un bellissimo novembre/That Splendid November (Mauro Bolognini, 1969) with Gina Lollobrigida.

She regularly worked for TV, including three times with director Juan Luis Buñuel, son of maestro Luis Bunuel. She appeared in his Photos de famille/Family pictures (Juan Luis Buñuel, 1978) an episode of the series Les héritiers/The Heirs, Le mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Juan Luis Buñuel, 1980), an episode of the Fantômas TV series starring Helmut Berger, and Un homme ordinaire/An ordinary man (Juan Luis Buñuel, 1981), an episode of the series De bien étranges affaires/Very strange business.

Two years later, she made her final screen appearance in the TV series La route inconnue/The unknown road (1983). After that she retired from show business.

In 2009, Danielle Godet died of cancer in her hometown Paris. She was 81.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 555. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Marlène Pilaete (L’Encinémathèque) (French), Le Figaro (French), Pure People (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Valdemar Psilander (1884-1917) was the most popular star of the Danish cinema of the 1910s. Psilander took the German, Russian and Hungarian audiences by storm. At Nordisk he would play in six years 83 films.

German postcard by MMB, no. 452. Photo: F.J. Wesselsky. The card has on the back Dutch publicity for J. Bijloos, Eau de Cologne.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1450. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid/The man without a future (Holger-Madsen, 1916).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1553. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid/The man without a future (Holger-Madsen, 1916). The German title was Prinz im Exil.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1617. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid/The man without a future (Holger-Madsen, 1916).

German postcard by Photochemie Berlin, no. K. 1850. Photo: Nordisk. Still for Das zweite Ich/Lykken/The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).

German postcard by Photochemie Berlin, no. K. 1916. Still for Das zweite Ich/Lykken/The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Ebba Thomsen.

German postcard by Photochemie Berlin, no. K. 1921. Photo: Nordisk. Still
for Das zweite Ich/Lykken/The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).

Kneeling and Begging

Valdemar Psilander was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1884. His family originated from Greece (one of his ancestors was named Psilandros), and later lived in Sweden.

Already at the age of 16, he played small parts on stage. Eventually he got leads as a stage actor, but in 1910 he decided to finish his stage career and move over to the burgeoning cinema.

Psilander debuted in the fall of 1910 for the small company Regia Art Film, with the title role in the Oscar Wilde adaptation Dorian Grays Portræt/The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Axel Strøm, 1910) with Clara Wieth(credited as Clara Pontoppidan) co-starring.

Shortly thereafter he was engaged by Nordisk Film. There he rose to stardom thanks to his role in the successful film Ved faenglets port/The Temptations of the Big City (August Blom, 1911) again opposite Clara Wieth. It was his first production at Nordisk, and he became the company's highest paid actor.

In spite of his imposing size and posture, we see him often vulnerable in this film: kneeling to mothers and girlfriends, begging for mercy for his behaviour. Striking is his habit of looking directly towards the spectator, as if he is begging the spectator as well.

Psilander took the German, Russian and Hungarian audiences by storm. The next six years, he would play in 83 films for Nordisk. Even when the film had a mediocre screenplay, it was - at least in the public's eyes - an attraction simply because of the charismatic star.

Danish postcard. Photo: Nordisk.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1922. Photo: Nordisk.

Austrian postcard by BKWI, no. 2. Photo: Projektograph Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna, distributor of Nordisk Films Co., Copenhagen. Valdemar Psilander and Ellen Aggerholm in Højt Spil/A dash for liberty (August Blom, 1913).

Austrian postcard by BKWI, no. 3. Photo: Projektograph Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna, distributor of Nordisk Films Co, Copenhagen. Publicity still for Gæstespillet/One Life, One Love (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1913) with Else Fröhlich.

Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Vienna, 1916. Publicity still for Gæstespillet/One Life, One Love (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1913) with Else Fröhlich.

German postcard by Photochemie. no. K. 1851. Photo: Nordisk Films.

Hungarian postcard by Rubens, Budapest. Photo: Strelisky, 1914. Hungarion caption on the back of the card reads 'The world famous star at the Royal Orfeum in Budapest.'

Asta Nielsen

In the same year, 1911, Valdemar Psilander played opposite the new female star of the Danish cinema, Asta Nielsen, in Den sorte drom/The Black Dream, (Urban Gad, 1911). Director Urban Gad had also directed Nielsen in her film debut Afgrunden/Abyss, (Urban Gad, 1910), and he would soon marry his diva.

In Den sorte drom Psilander again showed his character's vulnerability, this time using humour (clumsy mistakes). Asta Nielsen made another film with Psilander, Balletdanserinden/Ballet Dancer (August Blom, 1911), and then left with Gad for Berlin. She would have a prolific career there.

Valdemar Psilander remained in Denmark and continued to appear in such films as Et drama paa havet/The Great Ocean Disaster (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1912), Den sorte Kansler/The Black Chancellor (August Blom, 1912), Evangeliemandens Liv/A Preacher's Life (Holger-Madsen, 1915), Pro Patria (August Blom, 1916), and Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).

Before and during the First World War, the Danish company Nordisk gained enormously - thanks to Psilander's success. Psilander earned 100.000 Danish crowns in 1915. In comparison, his colleague Olaf Fönss only gained 14.000 crowns that year.

In 1916 Nordisk however refused him when he called for a raise to 250.000 Danish crowns, so he quitted at the end of 1916. Psilander founded his own production company Psilander-Film. But before it had really started, he suddenly died.

Only 32 years old, Valdemar Psilander passed away in 1917. At the peak of his career. Some say he died of a cardiac affliction, others say it was suicide.

Valdemar Psilander had been married to actress Edith Buemann. She afterwards said that he had been on drugs and was warned by doctors not to combine this with alcohol. Yet another version, more apt to his film roles, was that a Russian rival in love had come from St. Petersburg to shoot him.

After Valdemar Psilander's death, Nordisk still had so many of his films on the shelves that they continued to release new films with him until 1920.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1852. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1853. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Gudrun Houlberg in Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1854. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Gudrun Houlberg in Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1912. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander in Lydia (Holger Madsen, 1918).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1932. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander in Lydia (Holger-Madsen, 1918).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1939. Photo: Nordisk Films. Alma Hinding and Valdemar Psilander in Das geheimnis des Sphinx, German release title for the Danish silent film Sfinxens Hemmelighed/The Secret of the Sphinx (Robert Dinesen, 1918).

Valdemar Psilander and Else Fröhlich in Um das Bild des Königs

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1930. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Else Fröhlich in Rytterstatuen/For the king's statue (A.W. Sandberg, 1919). Its German release title was Um das Bild des Königs.

Valdemar Psilander in Um das Bild des Königs

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1943. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Rytterstatuen (A.W. Sandberg, 1919). Its German release title was Um das Bild des Königs (For the king's statue). The woman left of him is probably Augusta Blad, who played the mother of Psilander's character.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1944. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Rytterstatuen/For the king's statue (A.W. Sandberg, 1919).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1945. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander in Hans store Chance/Jernaktierne/His Big Breakthrough (Hjalmar Davidsen, 1919), released in Germany as Panik. The actress left might be Johanne Blom Fritz-Petersen.

Sources: Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish), Schiave bianche allo specchio. Le origini del cinema in Scandinavia 1896-1918, Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), and IMDb.

Last Sunday, 24 August 2014, Richard Attenborough (1923-2014) passed away at the age of 90. In honour of this great English actor, film director and producer, this film special is on his film Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992), which featured Robert Downey Jr. as Charles Spencer Chaplin. All the postcards are from a series of French postcards to promote the film, published by Editions Mercuri.

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 813. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 814. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 815. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).

Haunted by a sense of loss

Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992) is the biography of British comedian Charlie Chaplin, filmmaker extraordinaire.

It was produced and directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Robert Downey, Jr., Paul Rhys as Charlie's brother Sydney Chaplin, John Thaw as the British music-hall impresario Fred Karno, Marisa Tomei as film star Mabel Normand, and Penelope Ann Miller as Chaplin's frequent co-star Edna Purviance.

It also features Chaplin's real-life daughter, Geraldine Chaplin in the role of her own paternal grandmother, the mentally ill Hannah Chaplin.

The film was adapted by William Boyd, Bryan Forbes and William Goldman from the books My Autobiography by Chaplin and Chaplin: His Life and Art by film critic David Robinson.

The film is structured around lengthy flashbacks as the elderly Charlie Chaplin, now living in Switzerland, recollects moments from his life during a conversation with the editor of his autobiography (played by Anthony Hopkins).

Chaplin's recollections begin with his childhood of extreme poverty, from which he escapes by immersing himself in the world of the London music halls, after which he relocates to the United States.

While his screen characters were extremely hilarious, Chaplin shows that the man behind 'The Little Tramp' was constantly haunted by a sense of loss.

Highlighted works such as The Gold Rush (1925) and The Great Dictator (1940) illustrate significant turning points in Chaplin's prolific filmography.

There are references to his many romantic episodes, his professional collaboration with early Hollywood film producer Mack Sennett (Dan Aykroyd) and friendship with Douglas Fairbanks (Kevin Kline), and to J. Edgar Hoover (Kevin Dunn) whose US Federal Bureau of Investigation accused Chaplin of communist sympathies and forced him to leave the USA.

The film ends with Chaplin returning to the United States to accept an Honorary Award at the 1972 Academy Awards ceremony.

Richard Attenborough's director's cut was 147 minutes, 12 minutes longer than the version shown in cinemas. Attenborough later said that the cuts damaged the film.

Michael DeZeburia at IMDb: "Robert Downey Jr., first of all, portrays Chaplin with amazing accuracy. Some parts of this performance are particularly memorable, such as his invention of the famous tramp's walk just after having feverishly picked out the outfit, the astonishingly accurate depiction of Charlie as an old man, and of course, the many parts of the film that involve parts of his life where he was working on his own films."

Lisa Kropiewnicki at AllMovie: "The film is a thoughtful mixture of melancholy and humor, juxtaposing Chaplin's private loneliness and loss with his professional comedic talents and fortitude. Spanning a period of nearly 80 years in the actor's life, the film has been criticized for trying to cover too much narrative ground, but given the enormity of Chaplin's contribution to his art and the personal obstacles he overcame, this is an enjoyable, emotional, and authentic film."

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 816. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 817. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992) with Dan Aykroyd as Mack Sennett and Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin, between Sennett's Bathing Beauties.

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 819. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).

Sources: Lisa Kropiewnicki (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

German actor Thomas Fritsch (1944) was a teen idol of the early 1960s. The son of ‘Sunny boy’ Willy Fritsch made several light entertainment films and recorded popular Schlagers. He also appeared on stage and TV and as a voice actor he dubbed many Hollywood blockbusters in German.

German postcard by ISV, no. K 26. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

German postcard by ISV, no. K 27. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

I Learned It from Father

Thomas Fritsch was born in Dresden, Germany in 1944. He is the son of the legendary Ufa star Willy Fritsch and the dancer and actress Dinah Grace (aka Ilse Schmidt). He has a brother, Michael.

When the war ended, the family fled to Hamburg. Actor and director Gustaf Gründgens advised the 16-year-old Thomas to become an actor. So after high school, Fritsch studied with Eduard Marks, the head of the drama class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (University of Music and Theatre) in Hamburg. He also took singing and ballet lessons.

In 1960 he was discovered for the screen and made his debut in Das gibt's doch zweimal/That can be done twice (1960) with Gus Backus and his father Willy Fritsch.

He played the son of Lilli Palmer in the Austrian comedy Julia, Du bist zauberhaft/Adorable Julia (Alfred Weidenmann, 1962), which was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.

Other well-known films are Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett/Black-White-Red Four Poster (Rolf Thiele, 1962) with Daliah Lavi, and Das große Liebesspiel/And So to Bed (Alfred Weidenmann, 1963) with Lilli Palmer.

Thomas was also the singer of Schlagers as Dreamy Girl. The teenager idol appeared on many covers of the popular German youth magazine Bravo. Weekly, he received 2.000 letters from his mostly female fans.

Together with his famous father he co-starred in Das hab ich von Papa gelernt/I Learned It from Father (Axel von Ambesser, 1964). But in the following years, his film career went downhill and the dream of a Hollywood career became a deception.

German postcard by Kolibri, no. 2007.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 842. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

The voice of Scar

After his days as a teen idol were over, Thomas Fritsch focused on a stage career. In 1964, he already had made his stage debut in G.B. Shaw's Candida at the Stadttheater Heidelberg. In 1965, the Frankfurter Kleinen Theater am Zoo engaged him and later followed engagements at other stage companies in Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg.

On TV, he was seen in many series including episodes of popular Krimi series like Der Kommissar (1970-1975) and Derrick (1974-1989).

From the 1990 on, Fritsch was a busy voice actor, who dubbed many American actors for the German versions of their films. Among the films he gave his voice to are such blockbusters as The Three Musketeers (Stephen Herek, 1993), Die Hard with a Vengeance (John McTiernan, 1995), Titanic (James Cameron, 1997), Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003), Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005) and The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008).

One of his best remembered dubs was the voice of Scar in the German version of The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, 1994). Since then, he has voiced many other animated animals in such hits as Ice Age (Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha, 2002), Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, 2003) and Ice Age: The Meltdown (Carlos Saldanha, 2006).

Fritsch also gave his voice to such hit series as The Nanny (1993–1999) and South Park (2003).

He also can be seen in recent films like the Edgar Wallace satire Der Wixxer/The Trixxer (Tobi Baumann, 2004) as the Earl of Cockwood, and the fantasy Mara und der Feuerbringer/Mara and the fire bringer (Tommy Krappweis, 2014).

Thomas Fritsch lives in Munich, Germany and on the Greek isle of Mykonos.

Most of the sources don't have more information about Fritsch's private life than that he is an active animal rights activist and that he loved his mother. For those readers who might think his song Schau mich bi has a deeper meaning: the confirmed bachelor denied in 1991 firmly he's gay.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. AX 5758. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/371. Photo: Polygram / Yüksel.

German German promotion card. Photo: Hans J. Hoffmann, Frankfurt.

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-Line)(German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Elegant French actress Arlette Marchal (1902-1984) started her career in 1920 as a mannequin, and from the 1950s on she dedicated herself to her fashion enterprise. In between Marchal starred in 41 European and American films.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 176. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5060. Photo: Paramount.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 330. Photo: Zimbler.

The Queen of Naples

Arlette Marchal was born Lucienne Marie Marchal in Paris in 1902.

She started her career as a mannequin at the fashion salon Jenny in 1920. A year later, she won a beauty contest in Aix-les-Bains.

Head of the jury was film director Leonce Perret. This resulted in film offers in melodramas, costume dramas and comedies.

Often she played classy ladies in films like Mon p'tit/My Little One (René Plaissette, 1922), Un coquin/A Rascal (Giuseppe Guarino, 1923) with Iván Petrovich, and Un drame au Carlton Club/A Tragedy at the Carlton Club (Giuseppe Guarino, 1924).

Then Marchal started to perform in films abroad. First she played in the Franco-Austrian production Das Bildnis/L'Image (Jacques Feyder, 1924), based on a novel by Jules Romains. She became good friends with Jacques Feyder and his wife Françoise Rosay.

Next she played in the French production Terreur/Terror (Gérard Bourgeois, Edward José, 1924) with American serial queen Pearl White in the female lead.

In Vienna she played with Maria Cordain the British-Austrian epic Die Sklavenkönigin/The Slave Queen (Michael Kertesz, the later Michael Curtiz, 1924).

This was followed by the French super-production Madame Sans-Gêne (Léonce Perret, 1924). Marchal played the Queen of Naples opposite Gloria Swanson, who played the title role.

In 1925 Marchal was in Britain for Venetian Lovers (Walter Niebuhr, Frank A. Tilley, 1925). Then she played in the French production La chatelaine du Liban/Milady of Liban (Marco de Gastyne, 1926), again with Iván Petrovich.

In the meantime, Gloria Swanson had convinced Marchal to come over to Hollywood, which she did. Marchal also met and fell in love with director Marcel de Sano. The two married in 1928.

Austrian postcard by Iris verlag, no. 353. Photo: Zimbler.

French postcard by Europe, no. 173. Photo: Société des Cinéromans.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Ciné-Cartes, Paris, 1. Photo: Film Aubert.

Belle of the Paradise Bar

From 1926 on, Arlette Marchal performed in various American productions such as Born to the West (John Waters, 1926) in which Jack Holt had the male lead and she was Belle of the Paradise Bar.

This was followed by The Cat's Pajamas (William Wellman, 1926) starring Betty Bronson and Ricardo Cortez, Diplomacy (Marshall Neilan, 1926), Forlon River (John Waters, 1926) again with Holt, and Blonde or Brunette (Richard Rosson, 1926) with Adolphe Menjou and Greta Nissen.

In 1927 Marchal played in one French film, the horror film Le manoir de la peur/The Manor House of Fear (Alfred Machin, 1927), after which she continued in Hollywood with a modest role in William Wellman's super production Wings (1927) about pilots in World War One (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen) and their girl friends (Clara Bow, Jobyna Ralston).

Marchal played again with Bow in Hula (Victor Fleming, 1927) and with Menjou in A Gentleman of Paris (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927).

After The Spotlight (Frank Tuttle, 1927) with Esther Ralston, Marchal returned to Europe. No doubt because of the introduction of sound in the American cinema and her French accent.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1704/1, 1927-1928. Photo: FaNaMet.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2024/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount.

Vintage postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The Russian Tsarina

Back in Europe, Arlette Marchel first made a film in Austria, Die Frau von gestern und morgen/The Woman of Yesterday and Tomorrow (Heinz Paul, 1927), and an Ufa production in Berlin, Die Dame mit der Maske/The Lady with the Mask (Wilhelm Thiele, 1928).

She made her two last silent films in France: La femme revee/An Ideal Woman (Jean Durand, 1928) and Figaro (Gaston Ravel, Tony Lekain, 1929).

Then sound film also set in in France and Marchal continued her career there. Between 1931 and 1934 she played parts in films, though less frequently.

For instance, she appeared as the Duchess in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Don Quichotte (1933) starring Feodor Chaliapin. Marchal played both in the German and the French version of this multilingual.

Other roles were a.o. in Boudoir diplomatique/The Boudoir Diplomat (Marcel de Sano, 1931) with Ivan Petrovich, La poule/The Hen (René Guissart, 1932), Le petit roi/The Little King (Julien Duvivier, 1933) with Marie Glory, Toboggan (Henri Decoin, 1934), and La marche nuptiale/Wedding March (Mario Bonnard, 1935) with Madeleine Renaud.

In 1936, however, a terrible car accident killed Marcel De Sano. It proved to have been suicide, as De Sano was found with a rubber pipe in his mouth.

Marchal and De Sano had become estranged, and he had an affair with Jeanette McDonald, whose European career he took care of. Marchal was so shocked by his death that she shut herself up for over two years.

Then she retook her film work and she also began to appear on stage. Her film roles became scarce. In 1939 she made two films: Entente cordiale/Cordial agreement (Marcel L'Herbier, 1939) with Gaby Morlay, and La loi du nord/The Law of the North (Jacques Feyder, 1939) starring Michèle Morgan.

During the war she appeared in two more films. She had a minor role in Le journal tombe a cinq heures/The newspaper falls at five o'clock (Georges Lacombe, 1942) and she played the Russian tsarina in the Leo Tolstoy adaptation Le père Serge/Father Serge (Lucien Ganier-Raymond, 1945).

After the war, Marchal played once more the aristocrat in The Elusive Pimpernel/The Fighting Pimpernel (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1950), starring David Niven.

Her last film role was in the comedy ...Sans laisser d'adresse/Without leaving of address (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1951) with Bernard Blier.

In 1960, she did one last stage role in Tovaritch, directed by Jacques Deval at the Theatre de Paris.

From the 1940s on, Marchal had dedicated herself mostly to her fashion enterprise.

In 1976 she became Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Arlette Marchal died in 1984 in Paris.

French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, Paris, no. 142. Photo: P. Abers.

French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 305. Publicity still for Figaro (1929) with Tony d'Algy.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine (EC), no. 20.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), CineArtistes.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Suave and sophisticated French actor Charles Boyer (1899-1978) began his career in French silent films. In 1936 he became an international star with his role in Mayerling opposite Danielle Darrieux. His long career earned him the title of 'the last of the cinema's great lovers'.

French postcard by EC (Editions Chantal), Paris, no. 21.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 653. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

French postcard by EC (Editions Chantal), Paris, no. 21. Photo: Ufa.

Italian postcard by Edizione ELAH in the series Artisti del Cinema, no. 100. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Tovarich (Anatole Litvak, 1937).

French postcard by Viny, no. 118. Photo: United Artists.

British postcard by Art Photo Postcard, no. 63.

Shy Small-town Boy

Charles Boyer was born in Figeac in the French Pyrenees in 1899 to Maurice and Louise Boyer. He was just a shy small-town boy who discovered the cinema at the age of eleven.

Working as a hospital orderly during the First World War, he started to come out of himself performing comic sketches for the soldiers there. Boyer began a philosophy studies at the Sorbonne while waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory.

In 1920, he replaced the leading man in a stage production, and he scored an immediate hit. In the 1920s he became a popular ladies' man on the stage who also appeared in silent films. His first film was L’homme du large/Man of the Sea (Marcel L'Herbier, 1920).

Nearly a decade later followed productions like La Barcarolle d'amour (Carl Froelich, Henry Roussel, 1929) with Annabella, and Le Capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Alberto Cavalcanti, Henry Wulschleger, 1929) starring Pierre Blanchar.

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 1258. Photo: RKO Radio.

Italian postcard by C.C.M., no. 4. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, no. P 143. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Caravan (Erik Charell, 1934).

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 176. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948) with Ingrid Bergman.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948) with Ingrid Bergman.

Small card. Photo: MGM. Photo: still from Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) with Ingrid Bergman.

Suave and Sophisticated Beyond A Woman's Wildest Dreams

In 1929 Charles Boyer was signed by MGM, but nothing came from this first Hollywood stay. But with the coming of sound, his deep voice made him a romantic star: suave and sophisticated beyond a woman's wildest dreams.

Back in Europe, he starred in productions like Tumultes (Robert Siodmak, 1932) and La Bataille (Nicholas Farkas, Victor Tourjansky, 1933) again opposite Annabella.

In 1934, after starring in a French adaptation of Ferenc Molnár’s bittersweet fantasy play Liliom directed by Fritz Lang, he eventually decided to return to the USA.

He played his first major Hollywood role opposite Loretta Young in Caravan, the American version of the romantic musical Caravane (Erik Charell, 1934). He also played the lead in the French version, now opposite Annabella.

He continued to make European films such as the offbeat romance Le Bonheur/Happiness (Marcel L'Herbier, 1935) with Gaby Morlay.

His role in the French historical love-drama Mayerling (Anatole Litvak, 1936) opposite Danielle Darrieuxmade him an international star.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie adds: "Transforming this grim story into a tender, moving romance was quite an undertaking, but the end result was worth it: Mayerling was a huge international hit, and the winner of several industry awards, including the New York film critics''best foreign picture' prize."

French postcard by Edition Chantal, Paris, no. 21 A. Photo: M.G.M.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 218. Photo: United Artists.

French postcard by P.C., Paris, no. 127. Photo: Ufa.

Dutch postcard by J. Sieding NV, Amsterdam. Photo: Universal-International.

British postcard in the "Film Partners" Series, London, no. P 268. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Publicity photo for Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939) with Irene Dunne.

Declarations of Love

In the following years Charles Boyer whispered declarations of love to Marlene Dietrichin The Garden of Allah (Richard Boleslawski, 1936), Jean Arthur in History Is Made at Night (Frank Borzage, 1937), Greta Garboin Conquest (Clarence Brown, 1937), and Irene Dunne in the classic tearjerker Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939).

One of his most famous roles was Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run, in Algiers (John Cromwell, 1938) an English-language remake of the French film hit Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937) with Jean Gabin.

In 1942 Boyer became a naturalized citizen of the United States. After World War II, he continued his international career in films and on television, Broadway and the London stage.

During his career he was nominated four times for the Academy Award: for his parts in Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) and Fanny (Joshua Logan, 1961), but he never won.

From 1952 till 1956 he moved into TV as one of the pioneering producers and stars of Four Star Playhouse.

Onscreen, he continued to shine with older roles in Hollywood productions and European films like Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953) and Stavisky (Alain Resnais, 1974). The latter role won him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the Cannes Film Festival Special Tribute. In 1948, France had already made him a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.

Boyer's distinguished career would last longer than other romantic leading men, and earned him the title of 'the last of the cinema's great lovers'. In real life Charles Boyer was faithfully married for 44 years to British actress Pat Paterson whom he had met at a dinner party in 1934. In 1978, two days after his wife died from cancer, and two days before his own 79th birthday, he committed suicide.

Hungarian postcard by Sztár Filmkepei, Bolt. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox.

French postcard by Viny, no. 50.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 112. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).

Charles Boyer's first scene in his first film, L'Homme du Large (1920). Source: Briyanshu (YouTube).

Charles Boyer sings C'est La Vie in Algiers (1938). Source: deidzoeb (YouTube).

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

Austrian actor, theatre impresario and director Peter Weck (1930) appeared in more than 100 films. With his natural acting style in costume dramas and Heimatfilms, he became the Wiener Goldjungen (the Golden Boy from Vienna).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/108. Photo: Bavariafilm. Publicity still for Junge Leute brauchen Liebe/Young People Need Love (Géza von Cziffra, 1961).

Star Maker

Peter Weck was born in Wien (Vienna), Austria, in 1930. At the age of 9, he became a member of the famous Wiener Sängerknaben (Vienna Boy's Choir), where he sang as a soprano soloist till 1940.

From 1949 to 1951, he studied piano, clarinet and bassoon at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (Academy for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna). He stopped his musical studies and instead decided to become an actor. In 1953, he graduated at the Max Reinhardt Seminar of the same academy in Vienna.

After his stage debut in 1953 as Truffaldino in Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters at the Stadtheater Klagenfurt. During the 1950s, he also performed in Munich, Hamburg and Vienna. From 1959 till 1970, he played at the renowned Burgtheater in Vienna, where he also worked as a director. Between 1965 and 1976, he also worked for the Schauspielhaus in Zurich.

Like Romy Schneiderhe was discovered for the cinema by star maker Ernst Marischka. In 1954 he made his film debut in Bruder Martin/Brother Martin (Axel von Ambesser, 1954) with Paul Hörbiger.

Weck was often seen in uniform in costume dramas. Refreshingly natural and without pathos he performed such roles as Prince Heinrich von Oranien in Mädchenjahre einer Königin/The Story of Vickie (Ernst Marischka, 1954), and archduke Carl-Ludwig in Sissi (Ernst Marischka, 1955).

He also appeared in many Heimatfilms of the 1950s like Und der Himmel lacht dazu/And Love Laughs at it (Robert A. Stemmle, 1954), and Die Wirtin zur goldenen Krone/The Innkeeper of the Golden Crown (Theo Lingen, 1955).

In Die liebe Familie/Dear Family (Helmut Weiss, 1957), he combined boyish charm with energy and common sense. This unusual quality for a jeune premier made him soon the beloved Wiener Goldjungen of the German speaking entertainment cinema.

Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in 1964.

Dutch postcard.

Darling

Peter Weck intensified his film work in the 1960s, and he became a darling of the female public as the sympathetic Filou in Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961) at the side of Conny Froboess.

Peter and Conny were co-stars in a series of Schlagerfilms: Wenn das mein großer Bruder wüßte/When My Big Brother Knew (Erik Ode, 1959), Meine Nichte tut das nicht/My Niece Doesn't Do That (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1960), Junge Leute brauchen Liebe/Young People Need Love (Géza von Cziffra, 1961), Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961), Der Traum von Lieschen Müller/The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (Helmut Käutner, 1961), Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (Géza von Cziffra, 1962), Mariandls Heimkehr/Mariandl's Return (Werner Jacobs, 1962), and Ist Geraldine ein Engel?/Is Geraldine an Angel? (Steve Previn, 1963).

Stephanie D'heil writes at her website Steffi-line, that the media reported about a relationship between the two young stars, and they even suggested that they were engaged.

But in 1966 Peter Weck met former model Ingrid Muttone in the cafeteria of the Burgtheater. In 1967, she became his wife and they would have two children, Barbara and Philipp Daniel.

Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers, Amsterdam, no. WPS 168. Photo: Centrafilm. Publicity still for Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961).

Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4899. Photo: Hafbo Film. Publicity still for Junge Leute brauchen Liebe/Young People Need Love (Géza von Cziffra, 1961).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1314. Photo: Sascha-Gloria/Ufa.

Pater Familias

One of Peter Weck’s best roles was in The Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963) opposite Romy Schneider. He played a Jewish man who became so desperate after the Austrian Anschluss in 1938 that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window.

Later Weck worked in light entertainment films by directors like Franz Antel, Franz Josef Gottlieb, Harald Reinl, and especially Harald Vock.

In 1971 he became very popular as the partner of Fritz Eckhardt in the TV series Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne/When Fathers and Sons. Another popular series was Ich heirate eine Familie/I Married a Family (1983), which he directed, and in which he also performed the role of the pater familias. The series won the Goldene Kamera award twice, in 1985 and 1986.

From 1983 till 1992 he also worked as the impresario of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. During this period, the theatre was the location for some important premieres such as the German versions of the musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats (1983) - which was a huge success, Freudiana (1990) - which he also directed, and Elisabeth (1992). The latter, about the life of Austrian empress Elisabeth (Sissi), was performed in Vienna till 1998, without a break.

In 1993 Weck received the Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Austria's highest decoration for scientists and artists. Many other awards and honours followed.

His last film appearance was in 1999 in the remarkable WWII love story Aimée & Jaguar (Max Färberböck, 1999). But Peter Weck is still working for TV, both as an actor and a director.

Since 1998, Peter Weck is the grandfather of Timon. In 2010, he published his memoirs War's das?: Erinnerungen (Was that it? Memories). Two years later, in 2012, his wife, Ingrid Weck, passed away.

His most recent screen role was in Erinnern/Recall (Michael Riebl, 2013), an episode of the Austrian crime series Schnell ermittelt/Fast Forward (2009-2013). Peter Weck lives in Vienna.

Dutch postcard by SYBA, no. 461. Promotional card for Centrafilm, Den Haag. Publicity still for Die Försterchristel/The Forester's Daughter (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1962).

Scene from Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961). Source: fritz51263 (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line), Prisma (German), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (1909-1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer. Helpmann appeared in many films, including the two Powell and Pressburger ballet films The Red Shoes (1948), for which he was the choreographer, and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

British postcard. Photo: Gordon Anthony. Publicity still for the Sadler's Wells ballet production The Rake's Progress.

British postcard, no. 1226. Photo: Gordon Anthony. Publicity still for the ballet production The Prospect Before Us with Robert Helpmann as Mr. O' Reilly. Part of a collection of portraits of Robert Helpmann on stage.

The Red Shoes

Robert Helpmann was born Robert Murray Helpman (spelt with one n) in Mount Gambier, South Australia, in 1909. His parents were James Murray Helpman a Victorian-born stock and station agent, and his wife Mary, née Gardiner. He had a younger sister Sheila Mary Helpman, and a younger brother Max, or Maxwell Gardiner Helpman, who both later became actors.

‘Bobby’ was dark-haired, pale, and had large dark eyes. He was educated at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, but left school at 14. From childhood, Helpmann had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s. His mother—herself stage - struck from an early age — was to be a driving force in his career.

Helpmann was taught ballet by Nora Stewart. According to Wikipedia, she taught him the moves and dances of a girl because she had no prior experience teaching boys. He first danced solo at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide in The Ugly Duckling in 1922. In 1926 he joined as a student the touring dance company of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The introduction came via his father, who was on a business trip to Melbourne, where he met Pavlova who was dancing there.

His professional career began in 1927 when he joined the British J. C. Williamson Ltd as the principal dancer in Frasquita for its Australasian tour. In Britain, he went on to become the principal dancer at the Sadler’s Wells ballet (now the Royal Ballet) from 1933 to 1950. During the 1930s some of the ballets in which he danced were televised by the BBC, including Job (1936) in the important role of Satan.

In 1937 he created an enduring partnership with Margot Fonteyn. They were a popular pair, particularly during World War II, and danced a large classical repertoire.

In the 1940s, as he passed his peak as a dancer, Helpmann turned to production and to acting. He produced his own ballets — Comus (1942), Hamlet (1942), The Birds (1942), Miracle in the Gorbals (1944), Caravan (1946), and Adam Zero (1946).

The highpoint of Helpmann's career as a dancer was the Sadler's Wells Ballet tour of the United States in 1949, with Fonteyn and Helpmann dancing the leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty. The production caused a sensation, which made the names of both the Royal Ballet and its two principals; public and press alike referred to them affectionately as Bobby and Margot. Although Helpmann was past his best as a dancer, the tour opened doors for him in the United States as an actor and director.

In 1942 he played the Dutch Quisling in the Powell/Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1942). The film follows the fortunes of six British airmen shot down over Holland as they try to make their way to the coast and back to England.

He then played the Bishop of Ely in the Shakespeare adaptation Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944).

Helpmann then played the principal dancer role of Ivan Boleslawsky in the first British ballet film The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948). For this very successful film he was also the choreographer. The team followed it up with another ballet film, The Tales of Hoffmann (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1951).

He later played the Chinese Prince Tuan in 55 Days at Peking (Nicholas Ray, Guy Green, 1963). On stage, he performed roles from Shakespeare at the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Old Vic theatre company in London, playing the title role in Hamlet two years after having danced the same part. In 1963, he directed the world tour of Margot Fonteyn.

Robert Helpmann and Margot Fonteyn in Hamlet

British postcard, no. 163. Photo: Tunbridge - Sedgwick. Publicity still for the ballet production Hamlet with Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann as Ophelia and Hamlet, c. 1942.

Robert Helpmann and Julia Farron in The Rake's Progress

British postcard by Ward Gallery, no. 601. Photo: Merlyn Severn. Publicity still for the ballet production The Rake's Progress with Robert Helpmann and Julia Farron.

Gay and Flamboyant

In 1965 Robert Helpmann returned to Australia to become co-director of the Australian Ballet, bringing with him an international theatrical reputation and connections with dancers, choreographers and companies across the world. He created a series of important choreographic works and led the company on several international tours.

Since he was gay and flamboyant, his arrival in very conservative Australia caused some consternation, according to Wikipedia. Australians were proud of his international fame, but not sure what to make of him personally.

Helpmann joined Dame Peggy van Praagh at the helm of the fledgling company, as her co-director until 1974 and sole director until 1976. He choreographed ballets including Yugen (1965), Elektra (1967, revised from the original version created for the Royal Ballet in 1963), Sun Music (1968), Perisynthyon (1974) and produced and directed The Merry Widow (1975).

He continued to appear in films. One of his most recognized screen roles is the sinister Child Catcher in the family classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes, 1968).

Another family film he starred in was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (William Sterling, 1972), in which he portrayed the Mad Hatter opposite the young Fiona Fullerton as Alice.

And for The Australian Ballet he co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev the ballet-film Don Quixote (1973), in which he also played the title role.

In 1938, Helpmann had met a young Oxford undergraduate while fulfilling an invitation to dance at the university. He was immediately drawn to the handsome and intelligent Michael Benthall, and the pair formed a relationship that was to last for 36 years until Benthall's death in 1974. The couple lived and often worked together quite openly for the time.

Although devastated by the loss of his longtime companion and collaborator, ‘Sir Bobby’ continued to act, direct and produce. Among his later films is the Australian horror film Patrick (Richard Franklin, 1978), with Susan Penhaligon. He made various guest appearances in ballets in Australia and abroad.

At 77, Robert Helpmann died in Sydney in 1986. In 1964 he had been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1965 he was named ‘Australian of the Year’ and in 1968 he was appointed a Knight Bachelor (KBE).

British postcard. Photo: Gordon Anthony. Publicity still for the Sadler's Wells ballet production Orpheus and Eurydice (1941) with Robert Helpmann as Orpheus.

British postcard. Photo: Gordon Anthony. Publicity still for the Sadler's Wells ballet production Comus (1942) with Robert Helpmann in the title role.

Sources: Christopher Sexton (Australian Dictionary of Biography), Steve Crook (IMDb), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

An interesting aspect of the European silent cinema is the contribution by dancers. Their delicate gestures and expressive movements were often a visual delight among the theatrical bombast of the grand gesticulations in the early films. Their exotic and sometimes suggestive dances were welcome intermissions in many dreary productions but also in the side programmes of the bigger cinemas. Some of these dancers would become legendary stars of the European Cinema, like trained dancer and former Ziegfeld Follies girl Louise Brooks, Leni Riefenstahl - who was trained by noted modern dance pioneer Mary Wigman, and former revue dancer Lilian Harvey. Many others were soon forgotten. Their expressive postcards have survived and are now collected by such admirers as Didier Hanson. Today a tribute to these forgotten artists who once danced in the silent European cinema.

Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste. Vintage postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Expressionistic dancer and film actress Anita Berber (1899–1928) challenged many taboos during the Weimar period. With her drug and booze addiction and her bisexual affairs, she epitomized the decadence of 1920s Berlin. Her charcoaled eyes, her black lipstick and bright red, bobbed hair were featured on a famous portrait of her by Otto Dix and in silent films by Richard Oswald and Fritz Lang.

Hans Joachim von Seewitz in Maskerade by Moskowsky. German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1226. Photo: Hans Holdt, München.

Joachim von Seewitz (1891-1966) was a German 'Ausdruckstänzer' (Expressionist dancer). In the 1920s and 1930s, he celebrated world successes and was well known to international audiences. In 1934, Von Seewitz was a member and soloist of the Berlin Florence-Ballett which performed in the major variety shows and in the new Ufa movie palaces.

Yo Larte and partner. German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 2223. Photo: Hof photograph Franz Greiner, München. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Dancer Yo Larte appeared in three silent German films directed by graphic designer, author and film director Edmund Edel. She played opposite Emil Jannings in Aus Mangel an Beweisen/Presumed Innocent (Edmund Edel, 1916) and was one of the victims of Ernst Lubitsch in Doktor Satansohn/Doctor Satan Son (Edmund Edel, 1916). She also had a part in Im Joche des Schicksals/In the yokes of Destiny (Edmund Edel, 1916). Edel made also posters for her dance productions.

Lisa Kresse. Vintage postcard.

German dancer and actress Lisa Kresse appeared in some remarkable silent film productions. These included feature films like Narr und Tod/Fool and death (Rudolf Stiaßny, 1920), Das Geheimnis des Buddha/The secret of the Buddha (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1920), and Der Einäugige/The one-eyed (Josef Coenen, 1921). As a dancer she posed for photographs by Hugo Erfurth.

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

Austrian dancer Lucy Kieselhausen (1900 – 1926 or 1927) had a successful career on the German stages and appeared in three silent films. Only in her twenties, she died by a tragic accident in her bathroom.

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

During the 1920s, Maria Leeser formed a popular ballet team with Hasso Holm in Germany.

Jean Börlin. Vintage postcard. Photo: Ferdy Flodin, 1919. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Swedish choreographer and dancer Jean Börlin (1893–1930) started as one of the most outstanding dancers of the Stockholm Opera and after meeting Mikhail Fokine, he became an international ballet star. He also appeared in three silent classics of the French cinema: Entr'acte (René Clair, 1924), L'inhumaine/The New Enchantment (Marcel L'Herbier, 1924) and Le voyage imaginaire/The Imaginary Voyage (René Clair, 1926).

Iraïl Gadescov. German postcard, no. 1529. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Iraïl Gadescov was the exotic stage name of the Dutch dancer Richard Vogelesang (1894-1970), who enjoyed an international career. During the 1920s he often performed together with German dancer Magda Bauer. In 1921, Gadescov danced in the German silent film Die Diktatur der Liebe. 1. Die böse Lust/The dictatorship of love I - The evil desire (Willy Zeyn, 1921), credited as Jrail Godescou.

Albertina Rasch. German postcard, no. 7492. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Albertina Rasch (1891-1967) was an Austrian-American dancer and choreographer. Rasch studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911. She formed her own dance troupe, starred in a number of Ziegfeld productions, appeared at the Moulin Rouge, performed with Josephine Baker, toured with Sarah Bernhardt, and opened a Manhattan dance studio (where Bill Robinson taught tap). She also appeared in a number of films, including the Austtrian films Zigeunerliebe/Gypsy Love (Thomas E. Walsh, 1922) and Frauenopfer/Dolores (Leo de Valery, 1923). Later she adapted her classical training and techniques for the Broadway theatre and films like The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934) and Marie Antoinette (W.S. van Dyke, 1938).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Today's film special is about the Italian drama Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966), a film from my youth. I saw it a the local youth film club: on six Wednesday afternoons, we, school kids, went without our parents to a real cinema. Normally we saw an animation film or a Jerry Lewis comedy, but that one afternoon we saw a heart-breaking drama. At the end of the film, the whole under aged audience was in tears. Incompreso - a sweet memory.

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966) with Stefano Colagrande. Caption: "Questo è il solo film che andro a vedere. James Bond" (This is the only movie I'll go to see. James Bond).

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966) with John Sharp. Caption: "Questo è il solo film che andro a vedere. James Bond" (This is the only movie I'll go to see. James Bond).

At the end when tragedy strikes

In the Italian Coming-of-Age drama Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966), Anthony Quayle plays John Duncombe, the UK Consul General in Florence, Italy.

Duncombe becomes a widower when his two sons, Andrew and Miles, are still young kids. Andrew (Stefano Colagrande), the eldest, reacts with adult maturity to the loss of his mother, looking after little Miles (Simone Giannozzi).

Andrew's brave front convinces his father that he is unaffected by his mother's death. Playmate and protector of his little brother, the boy takes all the blame when their mischief goes wrong.

Their father is often absent, both physically and emotionally, especially towards Andrew. At the end when tragedy strikes, Duncombe finally recognize his son's true qualities.

Incompreso was an adaptation of the book Misunderstood (1869) written by the English novelist Florence Montgomery.

The film earned director Luigi Comencini his first David di Donatello award and a nomination for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966) with Stefano Colagrande and Simone Giannozzi in forground and with Anthony Quayle. Caption: "Questo è il solo film che andro a vedere. James Bond" (This is the only movie I'll go to see. James Bond).

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for Incompreso/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1966) with Stefano Colagrande at right and Simone Giannozzi in the middle. Caption: "Questo è il solo film che andro a vedere. James Bond" (This is the only movie I'll go to see. James Bond).

At Thursday 4 September 2014, Iconic Soviet-era actor Donatas Banionis (1924-2014) has died in Vilnius at the age of 90. The Lithuanian actor is best known in the West as Kris Kelvin, the lead role of Andrei Tarkovsky's legendary Science-Fiction film Solyaris/Solaris (1972). In another role he inspired Vladimir Putin to become a KGB spy.

Soviet-Russian postcard.

Russian James Bond

Donatas Banionis was born in Lithuania's central city of Kaunas, in 1924. His mother, Blazhaitite-Banionene Ona, was a homemaker. His father, Juozas Banionis, was a tailor who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, was wounded in the Russian Civil War, then became a political prisoner, and briefly emigrated to Brazil during the 1920s. Young Banionis was raised with his elder sister during the years of Lithuanian independence before WWII.

After visiting the Kaunas School of Crafts, Banionis began his acting career at the age of 17 at the Drama Theatre of Panevėžys, where his first teacher was Juozas Miltinis.

In 1959, he started to act in films. He made his film debut in the Lithuanian film Adomas nori buti zmogumi/Adam Wants To Be A Human (Vytautas Zalakevicius, 1959). His performance of the farmer Vaitkus in Niekas nenorėjo mirti/Nobody Wanted to Die (Vytautas Žalakevičius, 1965) won him the award for best actor at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Soon he was a highly requested actor, with many parts in prestigious national and international productions.

He played Ladeinikov, a James Bond-like intelligence agent in in the Soviet spy film Myortvyy sezon/Dead Season (Savva Kulish, 1966). This role reportedly inspired Vladimir Putin in his choice to become a KGB officer. When years later, Banionis met the Russian president at the Kremlin, the actor asked if it was true that his character influenced his choice of profession. Putin laughed and said, “Yes, I suppose you can say that.”

Banionis had a supporting part in Mikhail Kalatozov’s Italo-Russian production Krasnaja palatka/The Red Tent (1969), The film is based on the story of Roald Amundsen's (Sean Connery) expedition to rescue Umberto Nobile (Peter Finch) and the other survivors of the crash of the Airship Italia.

He also played the title roles of Francisco Goya of the USSR-GDR coproduction Goya – oder der arge Weg der Erkenntnis/Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (Konrad Wolf, 1971), and Ludwig van Beethoven in the DEFA-production Beethoven - Tage aus einem Leben/Beethoven-Days in a Life (Horst Seemann, 1976).

Sean Connery. French postcard by PSG, no. 454, offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Lynx.

The Planet Solaris

Donatas Banionis played a supporting part in Grigori Kozintsev’s drama Korol Lir/King Lear (1971), based on William Shakespeare's play King Lear. The film featured the Estonian actor Jüri Järvet, who would play again opposite Banionis in his most well-known film part.

Banionis played Kris Kelvin in Andrei Tarkovsky’s remarkable Science-Fiction film Solyaris/Solaris (1972), based on Stanislaw Lem’s novel.

Kelvin, a psychologist, is sent to a space station placed in the orbit around the planet Solaris, where the two surviving scientists of five (three committed suicide) tell him that the ocean of the planet is capable to fulfil their wishes. Kelvin meets his dead wife Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), tries to kill this phantom but fails to do so, and she becomes more and more real, even if lacking a memory. The phantoms prove to be the products of the planet, communicating with the humans.

In the end Kelvin returns to Earth. Or is this Earth also a simulation? Tarkovsky thus stressed the limits of knowledge, the reality behind reality, and the subjectivity of perception.

The film premiered at the 1972 Cannes film festival, won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. It premiered in the Soviet Union in 1973.

In 2002 a remake of the film was made by Steven Soderbergh, Solaris, starring George Clooney. Dreading the making of this remake, in 2002 Salman Rushdie praised Tarkovsky’s original as an “exploration of the unreliability of reality and the power of the human unconscious, the great examination of the limits of rationalism and the perverse power of even the most ill-fated love”.

Natalya Bondarchuck. Postcard. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.

People's Actor of the USSR

About Donatas Banionis' later career, Steve Shelokhonov writes at IMDb: “Donatas Banionis constituted the link between cinema of the past and contemporary Lithuanian film. He showed reserved and convincing work in the role of 'The old man' in Kiemas/Courtyard (Valdas Navasaitis, 1999), a reflective film about a Lithuanian father and his family's depressing fate in the Soviet Union of the 1970s.

He worked with director Aleksandr Buravskiy in Leningrad/Attack on Leningrad (2006), a film about the historic siege during the Second World War. Here his acting partners were e.g. Gabriel Byrne, Mira Sorvino, Aleksandr Abdulov, Kirill Lavrov, and Mikhail Efremov.”

During his 65 years of acting Banionis played over 50 roles in film and on television, and over 100 stage parts, mainly at the Panevezys Juozas Miltinis' Drama Theatre, which was frequented by Donatas' fans from all over the former Soviet Union. He also acted in Vilnius at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.

Banionis was designated People's Actor of the USSR (1974), and People's actor of the Lithuanian Republic (1973). He was Chevalier of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

On 4 September 2014, Donatas Banionis passed away in a hospital in Vilnius (though Shelokhonov at IMDb states it was in his hometown Panevėžys). He died of a stroke he suffered two days earlier. Banionis was 90 years old. He had been married to Ona Konkuleviciute and they had two children.

President Putin expressed his condolences in a message to Banionis’s son Raimundas: “Russians sincerely share your deep sorrow. “We all remembered and loved Donatas Banionis, valued his talent, amazing acting technique and personal charisma, and his inimitable theatrical and cinematic works.”

A scene from Solyaris/Solaris (1972). Source: PurpleGardenWalls (YouTube).

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), FRERL, The Daily Beast, Wikipedia (English and Dutch), IMDb.

Yugoslav actress Elma Karlowa (1932-1994) was a star of the German popular cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s. After a personal crisis she returned to the screen in more serious films by directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 47. Photo: Werler / Prisma-Film.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 1645. Photo: Berolina / Herzog-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Der fröhliche Wanderer/The Happy Wanderer (Hans Quest, 1955).

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3446. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Werler / Delos Film / Prisma.

Lover or Vamp

Elma Karlowa was born as Selma-Karolina Karlowac in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), in 1932.

She started her acting career in Yugoslavia, and played as Selma Karlovac leading parts in the Yugoslavian films Ciganka/The Gypsy Girl (Vojislav Nanovic, 1953) and the comedy Opstinsko dete/Municipal Child (Mladomir 'Purisa' Djordjevic, 1953).

The postwar German film was often situated in Istria on the Adriatic coast, and so Elma Karlowa was selected for the lead role in the entertainment film Einmal kehr' ich wieder - Dalmatinische Hochzeit/Once I´ll return - Dalmatian Wedding (Géza von Bolváry, 1953) starring Paul Dahlke.

From then on she continued her career in Germany. Her brown eyes and distinctive southern accent predestined her for the roles of lover or vamp in films like Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954) starring Paul Henreid, the film operetta Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Werner Jacobs, 1956) and in Emmerich Kalman's film biography, Der Czardas-König/The Csardas Princess (Harald Philipp, 1958) starring Gerhard Riedmann.

Karlowa played in the 1950s and early 1960s, mainly in the silly musicals and comedies of that period. She made one serious production in Yugoslavia, the war film Kapetan Lesi/Captain Lechi (Zivorad 'Zika' Mitrovic, 1958).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 214/57. Photo: Neue Emelka / Willy Zeyn-produktion, no. 277.

Vico Torriani, Elma Karlova, Annunzio Mantovani,

East-German postcard by Progress Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 282, 1957. Photo: Neue Emelka/Willy-Zeyn-Produktion. Publicity still for Gitarren der Liebe/Guitars of Love (Werner Jacobs, 1954) with Vico Torriani and Annunzio Mantovani.

German card by WS-Drück, Wasnne/Eickel. Photo: Carlton-NF-Brùnjes.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 1624. Photo: Mondial / Gloria-Film / Lilo. Publicity still for Rosenmontag/Rose Monday (Willy Birgel, 1955).

Weight Problems

Toward the end of the post-war boom in film roles, Elma Karlowa received only a few more film offers in Germany. She was struggling with weight problems and psychological difficulties. She fell into a depression, and even tried to kill herself with sleeping pills.

After a period outside of the film business, she played a supporting part in the Vladimir Nabokov adaptation King, Queen, Knave (Jerzy Skolimowsky, 1972) starring Gina Lollobrigida and David Niven.

After a few detours to soft porn like Junge Mädchen mögen's heiß, Hausfrauen noch heißer/Sex Clinic ´74 (Eberhard Schroder, 1973), she received another serious role in Angst essen Seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974).

She was also seen in supporting parts in Fassbinder´s (TV-)films Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973), Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974), Faustrecht der Freiheit/Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975), Bolwieser (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977) and Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980).

International productions in which she played were Crime and Passion (Ivan Passer, 1976) starring Omar Sharif, and Fedora (Billy Wilder, 1978) starring William Holden and Hildegard Knef.

She last appeared on TV in the popular Krimi series Tatort (1978-1994).

Elma Karlowa died in 1994 in Munich, Germany.

German postcard. Photo: Berolina Film / Herzog.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 528. Photo: Corona-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa / Lilo. Publicity still for Menschen, Tiere, Sensationen/Rivalen der Manege/Bimbo the Great (Harald Philipp, 1958).

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eckel, no. 156. Photo: Theo Huszar.

Elma Karlowa and Waltraut Haas sing Der Mann von dem ich träume in Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Werner Jacobs, 1956). Source: musipokus (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D´heil (Steffi-line), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Beautiful Bella Darvi (1926–1971) was a French and American actress of Polish-Jewish origins. She is better known for her jet-set affairs than for her films. During the early 1950s he was the mistress of Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. This connection both created and finished her short Hollywood career. Later she appeared in European films, but made more headlines with her gambling and suicide attempts.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 820. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.

The French doll with the impact of TNT

Bella Darvi was born Bayla Wegier in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1926 (some sources say 1928). Her parents were Chaym Wegier, a baker, and his wife, Chaya (née Zygelbaum). She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques, and Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura.

A year after her birth the Wegier family moved to France. There she had a happy childhood until the French occupation by the Germans. During World War II, Bella was jailed in 1943. After her liberation she went to her family in Perigueux, but she found their house burned down. Happily most of her family had escaped, only her brother Robert died in a concentration camp.

She went to work as a nurse. In 1950, she married a rich businessman, Alban Cavalade and travelled with him to Monaco. They frequented the gambling spots on the Riviera, in Deauville and Biarritz and she had a highly active social life, which revolved around automobile and fashion shows in Cannes, Deauville, and Enghien.

At a Paris fashion show in 1951, she was spotted by Virginia Fox, the wife of Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. Virginia introduced her to Darryl, who invited her to come to Hollywood. In 1952, she divorced Cavalade, and moved into Zanuck's beach house at Santa Monica.

In 1953, she did a screen-test with Zanuck in CinemaScope and signed a contract at 20th Century Fox. Zanuck changed her name to Bella Darvi, Darvi a combination of the first names of Zanuck and his wife. The press heralded the beautiful Brunette with her angular features as the 'French doll with the impact of TNT'. "She's got zip, zoom, and zowie and in parlez-vous she's ravissante, chi-chi, and trés élégante."

She made her feature debut as Richard Widmark's love interest in the Cold War drama Hell and High Water (Sam Fuller, 1954). The film was made to showcase CinemaScope being used in the confined sets of a submarine. Hell and High Water did excellent box office in the United States and abroad, particularly in Germany. Darvi won a Golden Globe for her role.

She is probably best known for her next role, the seductive Babylonian courtesan Nefer, in The Egyptian (Michael Curtiz, 1954). Marilyn Monroe coveted the role of Nefer, only to discover that it was earmarked for Darvi. Next she was the love interest of Kirk Douglas in The Racers (Henry Hathaway, 1955).

Eventually, Bella had become Zanuck's mistress, although she reportedly dated other men including Robert Stack and Brad Dexter. When Virginia Fox was told about the affair by her daughter Susan, she threw Darvi out of the house. Darvi decided that her Hollywood career was over and bought a one-way-ticket to France.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 605. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.

Gambling and drinking habits

Darryl Zanuck left his wife for Bella Darvi, and he withdrew from the studio. Zanuck followed Darvi to France where he concentrated on independent producing.

Darvi continued her film career in the French cinema. She co-starred with Eddie Constantine in the French-Italian crime film Je suis un sentimental/Headlines of Destruction (John Berry, 1955).

In 1955, Zanuck left Darvi when he discovered that she was bisexual, according to Wikipedia. Darvi later publicly dated women, as well as extremely wealthy men. Her love life was always juicy fodder for the tabloids, but she was unable to establish a permanent relationship or to curb her gambling and drinking habits. At one point her gambling was so out of control that she was forced to pawn her jewels, furs, clothing, furniture and two poodles to make ends meet.

Her European films were mostly mediocre. They include Raffles sur la ville/Sinners of Paris (Pierre Chenal, 1957) with Charles Vanel, Le gorille vous salue bien/The Mask of the Gorilla (Bernard Borderie, 1958) starring Lino Ventura, and Le pain des Jules/Jules' Breadwinner (Jacques Séverac, 1960) with Henri Vilbert.

She also played in Italian director Damiano Damiani’s feature film debut, the crime-drama Il rossetto/Lipstick (Damiano Damiani, 1960) with Pierre Brice.

In 1960, Darvi married Claude Rouas, a restaurant waiter, in Las Vegas. The marriage was annulled less than a year later.

After several failed suicide attempts, she was put in a clinic on the Riviera in 1968. Zanuck was still paying off her debts when she was ill and financially ruined.

Her final films were the comedy Le bourgeois gentil mec/The bourgeois nice guy (Raoul André, 1969) starring Jean Lefebvre, and the erotic comedy Les Petites Filles modèles/Good Little Girls (Jean-Claude Roy, 1971), a pastiche of Countess de Ségur's novel Les Petites Filles modèles.

In 1971, Bella Darvi took her life in a small apartment in Monte Carlo by opening the gas jets on her stove. It happened on the same day that Pier Angeli also took her own life. According to IMDb, Darryl F. Zanuck had ignored her final plea. Darvi’s body was not discovered for ten days. She was only 44.

At IMDb, Gary Brumburgh writes that her abilities were limited: "Not only was she hampered by an ever-so-slight crossed-eyed appearance, she had a trace of a lisp which, combined with a foreign accent, made her speech appear slurred and difficult to understand."

In recent years however, Bella Darvi was also praised by some critics, including Camille Paglia, who described her performance in The Egyptian (1954) as ‘hypnotic’.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 443. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.

Source: Philippe Pelletier (Les Gens du Cinéma) (French), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Find A Grave, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Chic and elegant Micheline Presle (1922) gained world-wide attention for Le diable au corps/Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara, 1947). She played a Red Cross nurse who has an adulterous love affair with Gérard Philippe during the First World War. Over her long career the French actress has made more than one hundred and fifty films

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. no. 22. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris. no. 44. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris. no. 118. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. no. 22. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.

Most Promising Actress

Micheline Presle (sometimes Presles or Prelle) was born as Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne in Paris in 1922. She was the daughter of a businessman and took acting classes as a teen.

Her film debut was La Fessée/The Buttock (Pierre Caron, 1937) with Albert Préjean. In 1938 she was awarded with the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti for the most promising actress.

She took the name of Presle after her character's name Jacqueline Presle in Jeune fille en détresse/Girls in Distress (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1939).

In the 1930s and the war years Presle often played the lively young and naive girl. Examples are La nuit fantastique/Fantastic Night (Marcel L'Herbier, 1942) and Falbalas/Paris Frills (Jacques Becker, 1944) with Raymond Rouleau.

Presle became a 'vedette' of the French cinema. After the war she played more serious roles as the streetwise young woman, such as the prostitute in Boule de suif/Angel and Sinner (Christian-Jaque, 1946), the adultress in Le diable au corps/Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara, 1947), and the ethereal woman coming back from the dead in Les jeux sont faits/Second Chance (Jean Delannoy, 1947).

At the same time she also played the female lead of Helene/Jone in the major Franco-Italian epic Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/Sins of Pompei (1950) by Paolo Moffa and Marcel L'Herbier, in whose films she was often performing during the 1940s.

At the summit of her French career, Presle went to the US. She was offered a contract by 20th Century Fox and she worked in Hollywood under the name Prelle. She was first cast in Under my skin (Jean Negulesco, 1950) with John Garfield, and then in American Guerrilla in the Philipines (Fritz Lang, 1950) with Tyrone Power.

She was married to actor-turned-producer William Marshall (1950-54), who directed her in The Adventures of Captain Fabian (William Marshall, 1951), opposite Errol Flynn. The film flopped, Presle disliked Hollywood, divorced Marshall, and returned to France.

French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 5. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Edition du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 163. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 637B. Photo: Discina, Paris.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 637A. Photo: Discina, Paris.

French postcard by Collection Chantal, Paris. no. 637. Photo: Discina, Paris.

Blind Date

Back in France, Micheline Presle played in many films, such as Si Versailles m'était conté/Royal Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1953), Napoléon (Sacha Guitry, 1955), La mariée est trop belle/Her Bridal Night (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1956) opposite young Brigitte Bardot, and Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958) with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider.

Presle also performed in Italy in Casa Ricordi/House Ricordi (Carmine Gallone, 1954), Beatrice Cenci/Castle of the Banned Lovers (Riccardo Freda, 1956) and she had a smaller part in Villa Borghese/It Happened in the Park (Gianni Franciolini, Vittorio de Sica, 1953).

In 1959 she played opposite Hardy Kruger in Blind Date (Joseph Losey, 1959) and in 1962 Presle returned to Hollywood to play in the Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee vehicle If a Man Answers (Henry Levin, 1962), and subsequently in The Prize (Mark Robson, 1963) with Paul Newman.

During the 1960s she played in such popular films as Philippe de Broca's Le roi de coeur/The King of Hearts (1965), but also in the art films L'Assassino/The Assassin (Elio Petri, 1961), La Religieuse/The Nun (Jacques Rivette, 1965), Peau d'ane (Jacques Demy, 1970), I Want to Go Home (Alain Resnais, 1989), and Mignon è partita/Mignon Has Come to Stay (Francesca Archibugi, 1989).

From the early 1960s on, Presle also played in several French TV series, such as the long running comedy Les saintes chéries (1965-1970). She has appeared frequently on the stage as well.

Since the 1990s Presle has performed regularly in films. She was very visible in the films of her daughter, Tonie Marshall, as in Pas très catholique/Something Fishy (Tonie Marshall, 1994) and France boutique (Tonie Marshall, 2003).

Recently, Micheline Presle was seen in Thelma, Louise et Chantal (Benoît Pétré, 2010) starring Jane Birkin, and in the short family drama Je montrerai mes seins/I show my tits (Eduardo Sosa Soria, 2013).

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. no. 40. Photo: Charles Vandamme, Les Mirages.

French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil. no. 68. Photo: Védis Films.

French postcard, no. 13. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Edit. O.P., Paris. no. 53. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris. no. 619. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.

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

Today, German actor and television host Joachim Fuchsberger passed away. He died of organ failure at his German home in Grünwald near Munich. Fuchsberger has starred in around 90 films, and was the presenter of more than 500 TV programmes. He became one of the biggest stars of German mainstream cinema with the Edgar Wallace films of the 1960s. He always played one of the good guys, often an inspector from Scotland Yard. 'Blacky' Fuchsberger was 87.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3981. Photo: Lars Looschen / Ufa.

German postcard, no. 10 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Letzte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965, Harald Reinl).

Blacky

Joachim ‘Blacky’ Fuchsberger was born in 1927 in Zuffenhausen, today a district of Stuttgart, Germany. He went to secondary school in Heidelberg but was then drafted for the Reich Labour Service and became a parachutist at the Eastern front at the end of the war.

After British war captivity, In 1946 he worked as a coal miner for the British in Recklinghausen. His nickname Blacky, which has been incessantly used by the media, hails from that time. Fuchsberger worked in several jobs as mechanic and conferencier.

In 1950 he began his career in the media, first as a radio announcer at the Bayerischen Rundfunk (Bavarian radio) it kicked off of an unexpected career. From 1953 on, he appeared in several supporting roles in films like Geh mach dein Fensterl auf/Go Open Your Window (Anton Kutter, 1953).

Fuchsberger had his breakthrough in the 08/15 trilogy (Paul May, 1954-1955) based on Hans Hellmut Kirst's novels. His part as Wehrmacht private Asch was followed by several other parts in war films, including U47 - Kapitänleutnant Prien/U-47 Lt. Commander Prien (Harald Reinl, 1958).

Fuchsberger also often appeared as the young lover. The attractive actor did many women's hearts beat faster in light entertainment films like Symphonie in Gold/Symphony in Gold (Franz Antel, 1956), Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal/The twins from the Zillertal (Harald Reinl, 1957) with Isa and Jutta Günther, and Mein Schatz ist aus Tirol/My treasure is from Tirol (Hans Quest, 1958) with Marianne Hold.

In 1959 he starred in Der Frosch mit der Maske/Face of the Frog (Harald Reinl, 1959), playing amateur detective Richard Gordon. More than 3.2 million visitors saw the thriller based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, in the cinema.

This surprising success laid the foundation for 12 other film adaptations of Edgar Wallace mysteries, including Die toten Augen von London/Dead Eyes of London (Alfred Vohrer, 1962) with Karin Baal, Das Gasthaus an der Themse/The Inn on the River (Alfred Vohrer, 1962) with Klaus Kinski, and Der Hexer/The Wizard (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Sophie Hardy.

Joachim Fuchsberger, Der Letzte Mohikaner

German postcard, no. 32 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Letzte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965).

Joachim Fuchsberger, Ricardo Rodriguez, Der Letzte Mohikaner

German postcard, no. 20 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Letzte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965) with Ricardo Rodriguez.

Joachim Fuchsberger, Marie France in Der Letzte Mohikaner

German postcard, no. 44 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Letzte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965) with Marie France.

A Mountain of Debt

Joachim Fuchsberger appeared also in several other European genre films, such as Horror pictures like The Face of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1965), starring Christopher Lee, and Euro-Westerns like Der Letzte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (Harald Reinl, 1965) based on the James Fenimore Cooper novel The Last of the Mohicans.

In the English-speaking world, he is sometimes credited as Akim Berg or Berger. From time to time, he has appeared in international productions which gained distribution beyond Germany, notably the drama Io la conoscevo bene/I Knew Her Well (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965) featuring Stefania Sandrelli, and the warfilm Himmelfahrtskommando El Alamein/Commandos (Armando Crispino, 1968), starring American leading man Lee Van Cleef.

In the late 1960s Fuchsberger co-founded a real estate company that went bankrupt in a short time. At 42, he had lost his entire fortune, had to sell his villa and sat on a mountain of debt. With the help of his wife, former actress Gundula Korte, good friends and tireless work, he managed to discharge the debt and to start a new existence.

German postcard by Univerum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4056. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Arca-Cinepress. Publicity still for Liebe kann wie Gift sein/Love can be like poison (Veit Harlan, 1958).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 166/70, 1970

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Constantin, Rialto, Vogelmann. Publicity still for Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel/Who Killed Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972).

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Studio Karl Bayer, Garmisch.

Unplanned Adventure

When the quality of the films of the Edgar Wallace series dropped significantly at the beginning of the 1970s, Joachim Fuchsberger starred in comedies like Das fliegende Klassenzimmer/The Flying Classroom (Werner Jacobs, 1973), based on Erich Kästner's novel, before putting his acting career into hiatus.

In 1972 he published his first book Unplanned Adventure, and in the same year he was the stadium announcer at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. During the closing ceremony, it was suspected that a hijacked passenger aircraft was on its way to the stadium. Fuchsberger, fearing a panic, decided against evacuation. This decision was vindicated when the original suspicion turned out to have been false.

From 1973 on, Fuchsberger exclusively worked as a TV quiz show and talk show host. Only in the late 1990s he started to reappear in television films.

He married twice: from 1951 till 1953 he was married to Schlager singer Gitta Lind. Since 1954 he has been married to Gundula Korte. Their son, Thomas (1957-2010), was a composer.

In 2004 Joachim Fuchsberger rejected an offer to make a cameo appearance on Der Wixxer/The Trixxer (Tobi Baumann, 2004), considering it a bad parody on his own 1960s Edgar Wallace films. After he received a DVD of the film, he saw and liked the film and agreed to play Lord Dickham in its sequel Neues vom Wixxer/The Wexxer (Cyrill Boss, Philipp Stennert, 2007). It was the first theatrical film he made within 34 years.

Fuchsberger lived in Munich, Germany, but also some months of the year near Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. He produced the film series Terra Australis (1988-2003) about his ‘second home country’ and was awarded Honorary Ambassador of Tourism by Tasmania`s Prime Minister in 1999. In 2005, he also was awarded the Bavarian Television Prize for his life's work.

Joachim Fuchsberger died of organ failure at his German home in Grünwald near Munich.

Trailer of Der Frosch mit der Maske/Face of the Frog (1959). Source: R6dw6c (YouTube).

German trailer of The Face of Fu Manchu (1965). Source: tornhill1 (YouTube).

Trailer of Neues vom Wixxer/The Wexxer (2007). Source: PhilDecker07 (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line) (German), Filmportal.de, Hal Erickson (All Movie Guide), Wikipedia, Laif, and IMDb.

Hungarian stage and film actor Oscar Beregi, Sr. (1876-1965) appeared in 27 European and American films between 1916 and 1953. He is best remembered as Dr. Baum in Fritz Lang’s Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933).

Hungarian postcard by S.S.Bpt., no. 235.

An attack on the aristocracy

Oscar Beregi, Sr. was born Beregi Oszkár or Oszkár Beregi (according to Wikipedia) or as Berger Oszkár (according to IMDb) in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, in 1876.

In the 1910s, he was the leading actor of the National Theatre in Budapest, and would later perform in plays in Vienna and Berlin.

The sources differ about Beregi’s film debut in 1916. Was it with the lead role in the silent Hungarian production Mire megvénülünk/The time we get old (Ödön Uher ifj., 1916) or with the male lead in Hófehérke/Snowwhite (Márton Garas, 1916) with Ica von Lenkeffy?

A year later he starred in the drama A Gólyakalifa/The Stork Caliph (Korda Sándor a.k.a. Alexander Korda, 1917), co-starring Gyula Bartos and Judit Bánky. It was the second film made by the legendary director-producer for his newly established Corvin Film company. Korda pulled off what was considered a literary coup by persuading the author Mihály Babits to allow him to film a version of his 1916 novel of the same name.

Two years later, Beregi appeared in another drama by Korda, Ave Caesar! (Alexander Korda, 1919) with Gábor Rajnay and María Corda. The film tells the story of a debauched Habsburg Prince, who sends out one of his aide-de-camps to bring him back a gypsy girl.

Ave Caesar! was considered as an attack on the aristocracy. It was made by Korda for the state-owned film industry during the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Once the regime fell later that year Korda was arrested and eventually compelled to leave Hungary as part of the White Terror.

Beregi also worked with another Hungarian who would later become famous in Hollywood, Mihaly Kertész (later known as Michael Curtiz), on the drama Jön az öcsém/My Brother is Coming (Mihaly Kertész, 1919) with Lucy Doraine.

Like many other Hungarian film makers, Oscar Beregi, Sr. fled with his family the Béla-Kun-Regime and moved to Austria. There he appeared as Cesare Borgia in Meriota, die Tänzerin/Neriota – the dancer (Julius Herska, 1922) opposite Maria Mindzenty as Meriota and Nora Gregor as Lucrezia Borgia.

Later he played Amenmeses opposite María Corda in the epic Die Sklavenkönigin/The Moon of Israel (Mihaly Kertész, 1924), produced by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky and Arnold Pressburger. The script was written by Ladislaus Vajda, based on H. Rider Haggard's novel Moon of Israel, which in its turn was inspired by the Biblical story of the Exodus.

Shooting took place in Vienna with about 5,000 extras, in the studios of Sascha-Film, and outdoors on the Laaer Berg. Vienna was touted as 'the Hollywood of Europe,' and the film brought Kertész to the attention of the American studio head Jack Warner. Warner invited Kertész to Hollywood in 1926, where he rapidly became Michael Curtiz and made a career with the Warner Studios.

Die Sklavenkönigin was entirely lost for many years, but in 2005 the film was restored and re-copied by the Filmarchiv Austria and presented in the Wiener Metro Kino.

Beregi then starred in the drama Der Fluch/The Curse (Robert Land, 1924). The film marked the screen debut of Lilian Harvey as a young Jewish women in an Eastern European shtetl, who struggles to reconcile her aspirations with her duty to her family. As her lifestyle grows wilder, her mother is shocked by her immoral behaviour and commits suicide by drowning - repeating ‘the curse’ which has haunted the family for centuries.

He also starred in Austrian-Polish coproduction Ssanin (Friedrich Feher, 1924) with Magda Sonja, and the Jewish production Jiskor (Sidney M. Goldin, 1924) with Maurice Schwartz and Dagny Servaes.

German postcard by NPG. Photo: Mátrai, Budapest.

Hungarian postcard. Photo: Mátrai, Budapest.

A menace to public health and safety

From 1926 on, Oscar Beregi, Sr. appeared in several Hollywood films, including the romantic comedies The Love Thief (John McDermott, 1926) and Butterflies in the Rain (Edward Sloman, 1926), with Laura La Plante.

He also had a supporting part in the silent drama The Flaming Forest (Reginald Barker, 1926) starring Antonio Moreno and Renée Adorée. The film is remarkable while a two-strip Technicolor sequence was shot for the climactic blaze sequence of the film.

When the sound film was introduced in Hollywood, Beregi’s possibilities as an actor were limited and he returned to Europe. He appeared there in several Hungarian films, but he is best remembered for his performance as Dr. Baum in Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse/The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933).

This German crime film is a sound sequel to Lang's silent film Dr. Mabuse der Spieler/Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922) and features Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Dr. Mabuse who is in an insane asylum where he is found frantically writing his crime plans. When Mabuse's criminal plans begin to be implemented, Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) tries to find the solution with clues from the gangster Thomas, the institutionalized Hofmeister and Professor Baum (Beregi) who becomes obsessed with Dr. Mabuse.

According to Wikipedia, the film was scheduled for release on 24 March 1933 at the UFA-Palast am Zoo, but Adolf Hitler came to power at the end of January 1933 and on 14 March, Hitler established the new Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. By 30 March, the Ministry of Propaganda banned Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse as a menace to public health and safety. Goebbels stated that he would not accept the film as it "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence".

On the French release, The New York Times wrote that "It is the French version of Fritz Lang's production, Le Testament du Dr. Mabuse (Dr. Mabuse's Will). It is a hallucinating and horrifying story, depicted with great power and the extraordinary beauty of photography that Lang has led his admirers to expect."

During the Third Reich he lived in Budapest. Because of the anti-Semitic laws of 1939, he was only allowed to work as a stage actor in Omike, and he just barely escaped the Holocaust.

In the late 1940s, he emigrated to the US where he played a supporting role in the Oscar-winning film Call Me Madam (Walter Lang, 1953) starring Ethel Merman.

Oscar Beregi, Sr. died in 1965 in Hollywood, California. He was the father of actor Oscar Beregi, Jr., who also worked as a film and TV actor in Hollywood.

German postcard by NPG, no. 1275 Photo: Angelo, Budapest, 1918.

Sources: Daniel Rudolf (Ralph’s Cinema Trek), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Last year, the Geoffrey Donaldson Instituut (GDI) in Noord-Scharwoude, the Netherlands, opened its doors. The GDI promotes research of film production, film screening and film culture in the Netherlands. At the moment, you can visit a small, delightful exhibition 'Bert Haanstra - schilder, tekenaar, fotograaf', about the Oscar winning Dutch director (on view till 16 October 2014). GDI also produced a beautiful new book on Haanstra, written by Hans Schoots. Chairman of the board of GDI is film historian Egbert Barten, whose postcard collection is permanently on view at EFSP. Today, a choice from his latest postcard acquisitions.

Lilian Harvey. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7142/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Leni Riefenstahl. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4803/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Bebe Daniels. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4811/1, 1929-1930. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Ferdinand Marian. German serie-card by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 869, series, no 2, 1943. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Lilian Harvey and Wolf Albach-Retty in Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag (1932). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 709. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag/Two Hearts Beat as One (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932). Collection: Egbert Barten.

Frances Dee and Maurice Chevalier in The Playboy of Paris (1930). Dutch postcard, no. 93, Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Playboy of Paris (Ludwig Berger, 1930). Collection: Egbert Barten.

Lilian Harvey. Dutch postcard, no. 672. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Kristina Söderbaum. Dutch postcard. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Luis Trenker. German postcard by Ross-Verlag. Photo: Binder. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Lilian Harvey. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 628. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Source: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (Dutch).

This week's film special is about a silent Danish Science Fiction film about a trip to Mars! On the German postcards by Photochemie in this post, the film is called Das Himmelschiff, but the original Danish title is Himmelskibet. This translates as 'the airship', but the English release titles are A Trip to Mars and 400 Million Miles from Earth. Himmelskibet was made in 1918 by Holger-Madsen for the successful Nordisk Films Kompagni. The stars were Gunnar Tolnaes as space ship captain Avanti Planetaros, and Lilly Jacobsson as Marya, the Martian leader's daughter.

Lilly Jacobson, Gunnar Tolnaes and Alf Blütecher in Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2148. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Lilly Jacobsson as Marya, Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros, and Alf Blütecher as his friend Dr. Krafft.

Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson in Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2149. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Lilly Jacobsson and Gunnar Tolnaes.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2150. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Lilly Jacobsson and Gunnar Tolnaes.

A Trip to Mars

Himmelskibet/A Trip to Mars (Holger Madsen, 1918) is one of the first Space Operas. The story was based on Sophus Michaëlis' novel Himmelskibet and adapted by the author himself and Ole Olsen. Frederik Fuglsang and Louis Larsen were the cinematographers. Production Designer was Carlo Jacobsen and Art Director Axel Bruun.

Himmelskibet concerns Captain Avanti Planetaros (Gunnar Tolnaes) and his trip with his space ship Excelsior to Mars. On Mars, Avanti finds a race of white-robed, mystic vegetarians, and he enlists the services of Marya (Lilly Jacobsson), the daughter of the local High Priest and leader (Philip Bech).

Among the cast are also Zanny Petersen as Corona, Avanti's Sister, Nicolai Neiiendam as their father, the Astronomer Professor Planetaros, Alf Blütecher as Avanti's Friend Dr. Krafft, and Nils Asther in an uncredited bit part as a Martian.

On Mars, Avanti converts to pacifism and returns to Earth to spread the message. Before long, peace breaks out all over the planet and a well-placed bolt of lightning quickly wipes out the only resistance to this creed.

Freeman Williams writes at his Bad Movie Report about the social context of the film, the first World War, in which the film was produced: "Himmelskibet was released in February of 1918, nine months before the cease fire with Germany was signed, which meant that for its entire shooting schedule, one of the most horrific wars yet seen was raging on with no signs of letting up. (...)

Given that, the tenor of the story is perfectly understandable, and Himmelskibet works better perhaps as a parable than it does as a science fiction or cautionary tale."Bad Movie Report rates the film as: 'Teetering on the brink of greatness. A good time' and adds 'Sweet movie. And save us, Space Hippies!'

Lilly Jacobson and Gunnar Tolnaes in Himmelskibet

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2152. Photo: Nordisk. Still from Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger Madsen, 1918) with from left to right Alf Blütecher as Dr. Krafft, Zanny Petersen as Corona Planetaros, Lilly Jacobsson as Marya, Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros, and Nicolai Neiiendam as professor Planetaros, father of Corona and Avanti.

Lilly Jacobson, Gunnar Tolnaes, Das Himmelschiff

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2153. Photo: Nordisk. Still from Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger Madsen, 1918) with Lilly Jacobsson and Gunnar Tolnaes.

Gunnar Tolnaes, Zanny Petersen and Nicolai Neiiendam in Himmelskibet/ Das Himmelschiff

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2156. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for the science-fiction film Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes, as captain Avanti Planetaros, Zanny Petersen as his sister Corona, and Nicolai Neiiendam as their father, the astronomer professor Planetaros.

A True Oddity

Rhys Hughes at VideoVista rates Himmelskibet/A Trip to Mars (Holger-Madsen, 1918) among the Top 10 of Early Fantasy Films: "A true oddity this and a film that initially seems ahead of its time in many ways. (...)

Despite the flower power trappings, the beads and robes and consumption of lentils, Himmelskibet is really a reaction to the outbreak of WWI rather than an accurate prediction of the 1960s' alternative culture. Less surprisingly, perhaps, it stands alone as an example of early Danish fantasy cinema."
After Himmelskibet (1918), Denmark did not make another science fiction film until Reptilicus (Sidney W. Pink, 1962) starring Bent Mejding and Ann Smyrner.

Himmelskibet was believed to be by and large a lost film for many years, until the Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish Film Institute) located a fairly complete copy and set to restoring it. In 2006, nearly ninety years after its initial appearance, Himmelskibet (1918) was re-released on DVD by the Danish Film Institute.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2158. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes.

Gunnar Tolnaes in Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2161. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros, Philip Bech as the Martian leader, Lilly Jacobsson as Marya, the Martian leader's daughter, Alf Blütecher (kneeling) as Avanti Planetaros' friend Dr. Krafft and Nils Asther as the fallen Martian.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2162. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros and Nicolai Neiiendam as his father, the astronomer professor Planetaros.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2164. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for the science-fiction film Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes.

The restored Himmelskibet/A trip to Mars (1918). Source: Sebastian Castillo (YouTube).

Sources: Rhys Hughes (VideoVista), Freeman Williams (The Bad Movie Report), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Glamorous English actress Joan Collins (1933) is one of the great survivors of the cinema. She began in the early 1950s as a voluptuous starlet of British film. 20th Century Fox brought her to Hollywood as their answer to Elizabeth Taylor. In the 1970s she was the ‘Queen of the B-pictures’, but in the 1980s Joan became the highest-paid TV star, thanks to Dynasty.

German postcard by FHAK.

Canadian postcard in the Fan Club Postcard Series, no. 2.

Italian postcard by Ed. Ris. Rotalfoto S.p.A., Milano (Milan) in the series Artisti di Sempre, no. 295.

German postcard.

Perennial Starlet

Joan Henrietta Collins was born in Paddington, London, in 1933 (some sources say 1931 or 1935). She was the daughter of Elsa (née Bessant), a dance teacher and nightclub hostess, and Joseph William Collins, an agent whose clients would later included Shirley Bassey, The Beatlesand Tom Jones. She has one sister, the author Jackie Collins, and a brother, real estate agent Bill Collins.

Joan was educated at the Francis Holland School and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). In 1951, she made her feature debut in a small role as a beauty contestant in the comedy Lady Godiva Rides Again (Frank Launder, 1951). The next year she left RADA and starred in the crime drama Cosh Boy (Lewis Gilbert, 1952), and appeared as a juvenile delinquent in I Believe in You (Basil Dearden, Michael Relph, 1952).

The Rank Organisation then took an interest in Collins and gave her a contract. Rank set about moulding Joan into their idea of a well-groomed film star. They entrusted her to Cornel Lucas, their top stills photographer. Lucas, who was married to Belinda Lee at the time, produced the first really glamorous photographs of Joan. Collins was a popular magazine pin-up in the UK throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.

The Rank Organisation also cast Joan in a succession of undistinguished films, plus the interesting thriller The Good Die Young (Lewis Gilbert, 1954) in which she starred opposite Laurence Harvey. Rank loaned her out to Howard Hawks, who was making Land Of The Pharaohs (1955) in Rome. Joan played the star role as a scheming, unscrupulous Egyptian Princess.

This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts, in particular Girl on the Red Velvet Swing (Richard Fleischer, 1955) and the grim western The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more.

In the 1960s she was perilously close to ‘perennial starlet’ status, but she made notable guest appearances on American TV series as Batman (1967), Mission: Impossible (1969), and Star Trek (1967).

By the 1970s she was the uncrowned queen of European B-pictures like the thriller Revenge (Sidney Hayers, 1971), the SF-mystery Quest for Love (Ralph Thomas, 1971) and the horror film Dark Places (Don Sharp, 1973) with Christopher Lee.

Then she starred in the film versions of her sister Jackie Collins' racy novels The Stud (Quentin Masters, 1978) with Oliver Tobias, and The Bitch (Gerry O'Hara, 1979). Both films were smash hits in England, but also despised by the international critics.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 773. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

British collectors card. Publicity still for Turn The Key Softly (Jack Lee, 1953).

Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, Beograd, no. 160.

The British Open

Early, Joan Collins had developed a reputation for being adventurous and gamesome in her private life. In Hollywood she was affectionately known as ‘The British Open’ because of her liberal lifestyle.

She first married Irish actor Maxwell Reed in 1952, and the couple divorced in 1956. In 1959, she embarked on an affair with an as-then-unknown Warren Beatty, four years her junior, which would last for two years.

In 1963 she married actor Anthony Newley. They had two children, a daughter Tara Newley and a son, Alexander Newley. Collins and Newley divorced in 1970.

In 1972 she married her third husband Ron Kass, who had been the president of Apple Records when The Beatles reigned. During their marriage Collins had her third and final child, daughter Katyana Kass.

In 1981, Collins was offered a role in the then-struggling new prime time soap opera Dynasty (1981-1989) playing Alexis, the vengeful ex-wife of tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe). The role successfully relaunched Collins as a powerful sex symbol and icon of independence.

Her performance is generally credited as one factor in the fledgling show's subsequent rise to a hit rivaling Dallas. In 1985, Dynasty was the #1 show in the U.S., and Collins became the highest-paid TV actress at the time.

As Alexis, Collins was nominated six times for a Golden Globe Award, winning once in 1983. Delighting the audience in attendance at the ceremony, Joan thanked Sophia Loren for turning down the part of Alexis.

Collins' marriage to Kass ended in divorce in 1983, although they remained very close until his death from cancer in 1986. At the height of Dynasty's popularity in 1985, Collins married Swedish singer Peter Holm. They were divorced two years later.

With Dynasty at the height of its success, Collins began producing and starred in two CBS miniseries, Sins (Douglas Hickox, 1986) with Timothy Dalton and Jean-Pierre Aumont, and Monte Carlo (Anthony Page, 1986) with George Hamilton.

She also appeared on the cover of and in a twelve-page layout shot by George Hurrell for Playboy magazine at the age of 49. She remained with Dynasty until its 1989 cancellation.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, no. S 789. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Opposite Sex (1956) (David Miller, 1956).

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 561. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / International Press.

British postcard by L.D. LTD., London, in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, no. 60. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Pearl Slaghoople

Joan Collins left Los Angeles and returned to London where she lived with art dealer Robin Hurlstone for over a decade. In the 1990s she made several guest star appearances on TV series such as Roseanne (1993), The Nanny (1996) and Will & Grace (2000).

In the meantime she starred in British films like Decadence (Steven Berkoff, 1994) and In the Bleak Midwinter (Kenneth Branagh, 1995). In 1994 she launched her exercise video Joan Collins Personal Workout, at the age of 60.

She also appeared successfully in stage plays by Noel Coward. In 1990, she played Amanda in a revival of Coward's Private Lives in the West End. The following year she appeared in Coward's Tonight at 8:30 and played eight different women in a series of one-act plays written by Coward. In 1992, she made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Coward's Private Lives.

She also appeared in films including The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Brian Levant, 2000) as Pearl Slaghoople, and the Dutch comedy Ellis in Glamourland/Alice in Glamourland (Pieter Kramer, 2004).

In 2002, Collins married theatrical company manager Percy Gibson, a man 32 years her junior. He directed her in An Evening With Joan Collins (2006), a one-woman show in which she detailed the highs and lows of her roller coaster career and life.

Joan Collins has also established herself as an author. In addition to her bestselling novels, including Prime Time, Love & Desire & Hate, Infamous, Star Quality, and Misfortune's Daughters, she has written five lifestyle books and memoirs. To date she has sold over 50 million copies of her novels which have been translated into 30 languages. She also writes occasionally columns for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Harper's Bazaar.

In 1997, Collins was granted the title of OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her contribution to the arts and ongoing charity work.

Recently, Joan Collins appeared in the TV film Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (Andy Wilson, 2009) and the short film Fetish (Matthew J. Pellowski, 2010).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 155.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Trailer for Empire of the Ants (1977). Source: sideshowcarny (YouTube).

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

German character actor Albert Lieven (1906–1971) fled from Nazi Germany to Great Britain. During WW II, he appeared in several British films, often cast as the humourless military. Till the 1970s, he appeared in German and British films and on television.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8349/1, 1934-1935. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

The impetuous young man

Albert Lieven was born Albert Fritz Liévin in Hohenstein, Germany (now Olsztynek, Poland) in 1906. His father, Dr. Walter Liévin, was a renowned lung specialist, and his family produced more noted physicians.

Albert grew up in East Prussia. He first acted on stage at the Hoftheater in Gera in 1928, and later in the ensemble cast at the Preussische Staatstheater in Berlin.

He started his screen career as a dashing young ensign in the German comedy Annemarie, die Braut der Kompanie/Bride of the Company (Carl Boese, 1932) featuring Lucie Englisch.

It was followed by the musical comedy Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht/I by Day, You by Night (Ludwig Berger, 1932) starring Käthe von Nagy and Willy Fritsch.

During the next four years he appeared as the impetuous young man or romantic lead in another fifteen films, including in the melodrama Reifende Jugend/The growing youth (Carl Froelich, 1933) with Heinrich George, and a German film adaptation of the cross-dressing farce Charley's Aunt, Charleys Tante (Robert A. Stemmle, 1934) with Fritz Rasp and Paul Kemp.

In 1936, owing to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and his wife being Jewish, he emigrated over France to Britain (according to Wikipedia his wife was Tatjana Lieven; IMDb mistakenly mentions Petra Peters– but she was born in 1925).

His first stage role in the West End was as Prince Ernest of Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha in Laurence Housman’s play Victoria Regina in 1937. In the screen adaptation, Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937), his part was played by Walter Rilla. Lieven only had a bit part in this historical film, starring Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria.

On the London stage, he also appeared in the comedy Rake's Progress and the drama The Deacon and the Jewess, which were both entirely televised by the BBC in 1939. Lieven also featured in BBC foreign service radio broadcasts as a newsreader and reporter.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9035/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Terra-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8843/1, 1934-1935. Photo: Badal Filmproduktion. Publicity still for Fräulein Liselott/Miss Liselott (Johannes Guter, 1934) with Magda Schneider.

The Nazi villain or snarling Prussian

During World War II, Albert Lieven stayed in Great Britain. From 1939 to 1951 he was affiliated with the Rank Organization as a character actor. In the year 1940, he was credited in seven British films.

In many films he played the Nazi villain or snarling Prussian, such as a concentration camp guard in the war thriller Night Train to Munich (Carol Reed, 1940) with Margaret Lockwood and Rex Harrison.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “His characters weren't all Nazis, though many of them behaved as though their first words as infants had been ‘Sieg heil.’”

His best known films of the war period include the romantic drama The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943) with Roger Livesey, and the psychological melodrama The Seventh Veil (Compton Bennett, 1945) with James Mason and Ann Todd.

In 1948, Lieven performed on Broadway in Terrence Rattigan’s play Winslow Boy, and next did some international tours.

In 1951 (or 1952 – the sources differ), he returned to Germany, and there he also appeared on TV and in many films. The first was Die Dubarry/Madame Dubarry (Georg Wildhagen, Reinhold Schünzel, 1951) with Sari Barabas and Willy Fritsch.

Other German films were the crime film Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr/The Confession of Ina Kahr (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1954) featuringElisabeth Müller, and the war drama Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955) with Curd Jürgens.

He also continued to appear in both British films as well as in Hollywood productions. The best known is the all-star adventure film The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961), in which he once again played a German commandant, and the war film The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963).

On TV he was often seen in German crime series, based on the popular novels by Francis Durbridge.

His final film appearance was in the nostalgic German comedy Die Feuerzangenbowle/The Hot Wine Punch (Helmut Käutner, 1970) with Walter Giller.

In 1971, Albert Lieven died of cancer at home in Farnham near London, England. He was 65. Lieven was married five times, to Anne-Marie Schäfer-Röhrig Tatjana (Tania) Silbermann, Valerie White, Susan Shaw and Petra Peters. All marriages ended in a divorce. He had a son from his second marriage and a daughter, Anna Lieven, from his marriage with British film star Susan Shaw. His grandson is the Newcastle and England rugby player Toby Flood.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8348/1, 1934-1935. Photo: Lindner / Hisa Film.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, A 585. Photo: Europa-Film / Von Mindszenty. Publicity still for Klettermaxe/Corry Bell (Kurt Hoffmann, 1952).

Sources: Hans-Michael Bock and Tim Bergfelder (The Concise Cinegraph - German), Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line - German), Peter Ritter (Ostpreussen - German), Richard Kay (MailOnline), Wikipedia, and IMDb.