European Film Star Postcards

Handsome French multi-talent Pierre Jourdan (1932 - 2007) was the less known younger brother of Hollywood star Louis Jourdan. He started out as a child actor in the 1940’s, but found his niche in the 1960’s as a a director, producer and sometimes editor of film and TV adaptations of operas and classic stage plays.

French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 109. Photo: Vog.

Handsome Teenager
Pierre Jourdan was born as Pierre Gendre in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France in 1932. he was a student of Alfred Corteau at l’Ecole Normale de Musique. As a boy, he made his film debut in La femme que j'ai le plus aimée/The Woman I've Loved Most (1942, Robert Vernay) starring Arletty. He had also small parts in films like Le mariage de Chiffon/The Wedding of Chiffon (1942, Claude Autant-Lara), Le Bienfaiteur/The Benefactor (1942, Henri Decoin) starring Raimu, and Untel père et fils/Immortal France (1943, Julien Duvivier) with Raimu and Michèle Morgan. The handsome teenager starred opposite Edwige Feuillère in Lucrèce (1943, Léo Joannon). After the war followed leading parts in films like Les maris de Léontine/Leontine's Husbands (1947, René Le Hénaff) and the crime film Mystère à Shanghai/Mystery in Shanghai (1950, Roger Blanc). In 1950 his his older brother Louis Jourdan, who had s successful Hollywood career, invited him to come to America. There he worked with director Joseph Mankiewicz and others, but life in the USA did not satisfy him and he returned to France. In the next years he played in the crime comedy Le crime du Bouif/The Crime of Bouif (1952, André Cerf) and had also small parts in two interesting films by director Claude Autant-Lara, Le rouge et le noir/The Red and the Black (1954) and Le Joueur/The Gambler (1958), but he never became a star like his brother. Pierre's career would take another direction.

French postcard by Editions O.P, Paris, no. 196. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

Underplayed or Forgotten Operas
Pierre Jourdan was mainly a man of the theatre, whose career showed multiple facets. He made his stage debut in 1952 in the lead role of the operetta Trois Valses (Three Waltzes) at the théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique with Germaine Roger. He was engaged by George de Cuevas to produce new ballets and to discover new talent for his Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. He met Jean Cocteau with whom he created a grand ballet spectacle for the marriage of Grace Kelly and Rainier III, Prince of Monaco in 1956. He also became the assistant of Gabriel Dussurget, the director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music. Between 1968 and 1977 Jourdan realised a dozen film and video adaptations of operas and classic stage plays, including Phèdre (1968) with Marie Bell, Norma (1974) starring Montserrat Caballé, and Aïda (1977). A highlight was his documentary I Am a Dancer (1972), which shows the dedication of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev by combining scenes of classroom warmup with segments of stunning performances in four ballets. In 1982 Jourdan collaborated with Peter Brook on La Tragédie de Carmen based on the opera of Georges Bizet. He also produced the series Le magicien d’Aix (1986, The Magician of Aix) about the history of the Aix-en-Provence Festival with Gabriel Dussurget and the major stage names that were discovered at Aix. In 1988 Jourdan founded the Théâtre Français de la Musique and L'association pour le Théâtre Impérial, promoting French operas that had been underplayed or forgotten. He also directed many TV films based on stage plays and operas, including Manon Lescaut (1990), Médée (1996) and Pelléas et Mélisande (1999). Pierre Jourdan died of cancer in Senlis, France, in 2007.

Louis Jourdan. French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 39. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Wikipedia, CITWF (Complete Index to World Film Since 1895) and IMDb. See also: http://www.theatre-imperial.com/. Thanks to Melanie Young (Msymsed@Flickr) for her research on Pierre Jourdan's date of birth!

The silent 'swashbuckler' Le Bossu/The Hunchback (1925) by Jean Kemm was the third of at least twelve screen adaptations of the popular French novel Le Bossu by Paul Féval (1817–1887).

Gaston Jacquet in Le Bossu (1925). French postcard by Films Jacques Haïk. Photo: Combier Mâcon.

Swashbuckler Novel
This historical adventure novel was first published in serial parts in Paris in 1858. The novel is one of a number of works such as Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844) which helped define the genre of ‘swashbuckler’ novel, known in French as a ‘roman de cape et d'épée’. Féval’s son, Paul Féval Fils borrowed his father's hero Chevalier Henri de Lagardère for his own series of Lagardère novels. For the film, he also co-wrote the scenario. The story deals with the wealthy aristocrat de Lagardère (played by Gaston Jacquet), who wants to avenge the death of his friend the Duc de Nevers (Jean Lorette). The Duke was killed in a treacherous duel by the Prince of Gonzague (Marcel Vibert) many years ago. The Prince was jealous of the other man's riches, and after killing him, Gonzague also married de Nevers’ widow, Aurore (Claude France). De Lagardère steals Irène, the child of Nevers and Aurore, and several years after, he returns pretending to be the deformed hunchback of the Rue Quincampoix. He unmasks Gonzague and holds Irène's (Nilda Duplessy) hand in return.

French postcard by Films Jacques Haïk. Photo: Combier Mâcon. Caption: 'Une fête au Palais-Royal'. (A party at the Royal Palace)

Gaston Jacquet and Nilda Duplessy in Le Bossu (1925). French postcard by Films Jacques Haïk, no. 120. Photo: Combier Mâcon.

French Resistance
Le Bossu (1925) was probably the first production of French film pioneer Jacques Haïk (1883 – 1950). Haïk had been an active French film distributor during the early sound era. He had introduced the Charlie Chaplin films in France and was the inventor of his French name Charlot. He later created the Olympia, and built film studios in the Paris suburbs of Courbevoie and La Garenne. He also opened several prestige cinemas in France, including Le Grand Rex (1932) in Paris, the biggest cinema of Europe. The postcards that were produced to promote Le Bossu show that the film was presented in Haïk's Olympia ('in exclusivity'), but also in the Ciné Max Linder and the Mozart-Palace, both in Paris. Ciné Max Linder opened in 1912 as Kosmorama. In 1914 actor-director Max Linder bought the cinema and renamed it after himself. Today, the cinema still exists, though it has been completely modernized. The Mozart-Palace existed between 1913 and 1954. It is now a supermarket. After Le Bossu, Jacques Haïk would continue to produce dozens of French films until the Second World War. During the war, the Jewish and anti-Nazi Haïk joined the Forces Françaises Libres (French resistance) and became its representative in the Arab world. After the war he returned to France and tried to recover his property and films that had all been confiscated by the Germans. Five years later he died.

French postcard by Films Jacques Haïk. Photo: Combier Mâcon. Jacques Arna aka Arna (Cocardasse) and Louis Pré fils (Passepoil) were the comic sidekicks in Le Bossu (1925). Louis Pré fils (1884 - 1970) was a French actor, who acted mainly in supporting parts in French cinema, during the 1920’s and 1930’s. He peaked in the early 1920’s in such films als Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921), Vingt ans après/Twenty Years Later (1922) and Le Bossu (1925). Jacques Arna only acted in a handful of French silent films, including Vingt ans après (1922), Le Bossu (1925) and La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928). Arna was also an historian, a graphologist and an opera singer.

French postcard by Editions Cinématographiques Jacques Haïk, no. 6. Photo: publicity still of Marcel Vibert as the Prince de Gonzague. Caption: 'Gonzague a trahi de Nevers... Le Bossu ne trahira vos espérances'. (Gonzague has betrayed de nevers, but Le Bossu will not betray your expectations.)

Marcel Vibert, Hypolyte Paulet, Le Bossu

French postcard by Editions Cinématographiques Jacques Haïk, no. 8. Photo: publicity still of Marcel Vibert as the Prince de Gonzague and Hypolyte Paulet as de Peyrolles. Caption: 'Monsieur de Peyrolles est l'homme des mauvais conseils ne l'écoutez pas et ... un bon conseil: voyez Le Bossu'. (Mr. de Peyrolles is the man of bad advice. Don't listen to him and ... a good advice: see Le Bossu.)

French postcard by Editions Cinématographiques Jacques Haïk, no. 13. Photo: publicity still of Lagardère (Gaston Jacquet ). Caption: 'Les Etablissements Jacques Haïk ont fait tourner pour vous Le Bossu... et Lagardère fera tourner toutes les têtes.' (Les Etablissements Jacques Haïk will 'turn' (film) Le Bossu for you... and Lagardère will turn everybody's head.)

Film Versions
Le Bossu (1925) was not the first screen adaptation of Féval’s adventure novel. The original film version was the silent short Le Bossu (1912, André Heuzé) starring Henry Krauss and Yvette Andréyor. Krauss repeated his interpretation in Le Bossu (1923) opposite Claude Mérelle and Edouard de Max. Before the 1925 Le Bossu was re-filmed nine times. Ten years after the original silent version, René Sti made the first sound version Le Bossu (1935) with Robert Vidalin as Henri de Lagardère, Josseline Gaël as Aurore de Caylus and Samson Fainsilber as Monsieur de Peyrolles. In 1943 followed a Mexican version El jorobado (1943, Jaime Salvador) and a year later a new French version Le Bossu (1944, Jean Delannoy) starring Pierre Blanchard as Henri de Lagardère. In 1955 came another Latin-American version, the Argentine production El juramento de Lagardere (1955, León Klimovsky). Probably the best known version is Le Bossu (1959, André Hunebelle) starring Jean Marais and Bourvil. The mini-series Lagardère (1967, Jean-Pierre Decourt) featured Jean Piat, Sacha Pitoëff and Jacques Dufilho. Thirty years later Lagardère returned to the cinema in the lush Le Bossu/On Guard (1997, Philippe de Broca). Among the cast were such French stars as Daniel Auteuil as Lagardère, Fabrice Luchini as Gonzague, and Vincent Perez as De Nevers. The most recent adaptation was the TV film Lagardère (2003, Henri Helman) with Bruno Wolkowitch.

Trailer of Le Bossu (1959, André Hunebelle). Source: Ibena65 (YouTube).

Trailer of Le Bossu (1997, Philippe de Broca). Source: Cinemaetcie (YouTube).

Sources: Les indépendants du premier siècle (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Wanda Treumann (1889 – 1926) belonged to the most popular stars of the German cinema before the first World War. Together with Viggo Larsen she also produced many films in the 1910's, in which she often played the female lead.

German postcard by NPG, no. 544. Photo A. Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Wolff, Berlin, no. F 7. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by NPG, no. 259. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 210. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin.

Fully Independent
Wanda Treumann was born in Koclo (Koclin), Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia), Germany (now Koclin, Slaskie, Poland) in 1889 (some sources say 1888). Nothing is known about her youth, but afterwards she moved from Leipzig to Berlin with her husband Karl Treumann. In Berlin she took theater lessons with Emanuel Reicher. She debuted on stage at the Trianon Theater in 1910 and performed as stage actress on various Berlin stages, such as das Neue Theater and the Königgrätzer Theater. When performing at the Berliner Lustspielhaus, Wanda Treumann was discovered by the Danish actor and film pioneer Viggo Larsen. He introduced her to the cinema, where she would be his partner for years. From 1910 on, Treumann and Larsen performed together in films by the Vitascope-Gesellschaft such as the successful Sensation film Der Eid des Stephan Huller/The oath of Stephan Huller (1912, Viggo Larsen). Many of these films were produced by Jules Greenbaum, scripted by Max Mack, and directed by either Walter Schmidthassler or Larsen himself. In 1912, together with Larsen and her husband, she founded her own production company Treumann-Larsen Film GmbH in Berlin. Officially, Wanda Treumann’s husband was indicated as owner of the firm. As she said herself in Lichtbild-Theater, no. 41, 1912: "Then we – my master and partner in film, Mr. Oberregisseur Viggo Larsen and me – became fully independent. And so we are now: for the production of our new 'Treumann-Larsen-series', we develop the negatives ourselves which we shoot in our own film studio with our own cast and crew."

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 1523. Photo: Gerlach & Co., Berlin.

German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 87/1. Photo: Karl Schenker / Messter Film, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 87/4. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin/Messter Film.

German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 153/5. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

Treumann-Larsen Film GmbH
From 1912 on, Wanda Treumann produced more than 20 films.Directors at Treumann-Larsen Film were a.o. Rosa Porten and Franz Eckstein. Distribution was taken care of by the Deutsche Kinematographen-Gesellschaft in Cologne. Examples of their films are Die Sumpfblume/The marsh flower (1913, Viggo Larsen), Der Zirkusteufel/The Circus Devil (1913, Viggo Larsen), and Die Ahnfrau/The ancestress (1914, Viggo Larsen). After the outbreak of the First World War, production at Treumann-Larsen seems to have stopped. Larsen and Treumann performed in some films by the Messter Film company. From 1917 on, production at Treumann-Larsen was reactivated, with productions such as Wanda’s Trick (1918) and the four-part series film Die Frau mit den 10 Masken/The woman with 10 masks (1921, Siegfried Dessauer) with Johannes Riemann. From the late 1910's on, Larsen solely focused on producing, leaving the male leads to such actors as Eugen Burg and Oscar Marion. When he left the company around 1921, Wanda Treumann continued on her own as producer and actress, keeping the name of the company. In 1921 she gave a guest performance as a witch in the Circus Busch in Hamburg. According to our sources, Die tugendhafte Tänzerin/The virtuous dancer (1922, Robert Misch) was the last film in which Treumann performed and which was produced by the Treumann-Larsen Film GmbH. All in all Wanda Treumann acted in over 80 films and (co-)produced some 24 films. About her death not much is known, but IMDb mentions 1926 as the year she passed away.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 85/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin/Messter-Film.

German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 85/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Messter Film, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 153/4. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 208. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Elfgiva@web.de (IMDb), Filmportal.de (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

During the 1930’s and 1950’s, Reda Caire (1908 – 1963) was a popular operetta singer in France. He also appeared in six French films.

French postcard by EPC, no. 28. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

The King Of The Music Hall
Reda Caire (sometimes written as Réda Caire or Reda-Caire) was born as Joseph Antoine Edouard Gandour in Cairo, Egypt in 1908. His father was Gandhour Bey, an Egyptian government official and his mother an heir to the Berner-Renoz de Walden family, one of the oldest aristocratic families of Belgium. So, Gandhour had the title of count to his disposition. His stage name was inspired by his Egyptian origins: Reda is an Egyptian first name and Caire is the French form for his hometown. In 1928, the 20-years old appeared for the first time with an operetta troupe on stage in Lyon, France. In 1930 he moved to Paris, where he became very popular. He had two hit records in 1934 with Je voudrais un petit bateau (I would like a small boat) and Les beaux dimanches de printemps (The beautiful Sundays of spring). These successes made him the king of the music hall, alongside Maurice Chevalier. Caire even surpassed him in popularity, and would remain popular until the late 1950’s. During the 1930’s, he started to appear in the cinema. He first performed as a singer in the comedy Le club des aristocrates/The club of aristocrats (1937, Pierre Colombier) with Jules Berry. Among his other films were Si tu reviens/If you return (1937, Jacques Daniel-Norman), Prince de mon cœur/Prince of my heart (1938, Jacques Daniel-Norman) with Colette Darfeuil and Claude May, and Vous seule que j’aime/You alone I love (1939, Henri Fescourt).

French postcard by Viny, no. 93. Photo: Max Pardon.

French postcard, no. 78. Photo: Arnal.

Dazzling Prince Danilo
Throughout his career, Reda Caire never abandoned the operetta world, where he had started his career. He was a dazzling Prince Danilo in La Veuve Joyeuse (The Merry Widow) by Franz Lehár, and also devoted himself to a modern repertoire. Shortly before World War II, he starred in Balalaika (1938) by Bernard Grun and George Posford at the Théâtre Mogador, Paris. At the outbreak of war, the Odeon of Marseille (a Mecca for the French operetta) asked him to perform in Destination inconnue (Destination Unknown), a work of one of his favorite authors, Gaston Gabaroche. During the war, he was accused of being Jewish. However, he could continue his career and also appeared in the film Six petites filles en blanc/Six Girls in White (1943, Yvan Noé) with Janine Darcey and Jean Murat. It was his sixth and final film. After the war he continued his musical career. In the early 1960’s he had another hit record with the chanson Temps du tango (Tango Time), which was especially written for him by Jean-Paul Caussimon and Léo Ferré. Reda Caire died of a heart-attack in Clermont-Ferrand, France in 1963. He was 58. A few months before, he had given his final recital at the Théâtre du Gymnase à Marseille. He is buried in the village of Saint-Zacharie, where the main square was later named after him, the Square Reda Caire. He was gay, though closeted.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 142. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Reda Caire sings Quand un petit oiseau (When a little bird) in 1938. Source: Lys Gauty (YouTube).

Sources: Du temps des cerises aux feuilles mortes (French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Italia Vitaliani (1866 - 1938) was an acclaimed Italian stage actress and artistic director. She occasionally performed in films.

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for the classic play La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn) by Carlo Goldoni. Postcard mailed in Barcelona, Spain, early 20th century. The handwritten text translates as: "Do you know this great artist? Your amigo, Casteles"

A Perfect Gentleman
Itaia Vitaliani was born in Turin in 1866. Her father was the brilliant actor Vitaliano Vitaliani, pupil of Claudio Leigheb, and her mother Elisa Duse was a sister of the father of Eleonora Duse. When she was only 13, Italia debuted on screen within the Compagnia Bellotti Bon e Marini, directed by her uncle Cesare Vitaliani, who was actor, playwright and artistic director. Among her brothers and sisters Evangelina would also become film actress. In 1883 Italia became a member of the Compagnia Nazionale directed by Pierina Giagnone, and the following year she moved to the Compagnia of Cesare Rossi, in which also her cousin Eleonora performed. In 1892 Italia Vitaliani became 'capocomico', the artistic director, but also administrator of the company. She was one of the first women to perform this profession in Italy, and she did so well that people called her 'a perfect gentleman'. In 1893 she is mentioned as a representant of the ‘new school of acting’ which also included her cousin Eleonora, Emma and Irma Grammatica, and Virginia Reiter. Vitaliani was a serious rival of her cousin Eleonora; both a liking for the modern repertory and the ‘natural’ performance. Italia toured capitals but also small towns, staging Mary Stuart, Hedda Gabler, Elisabeth of England, always with the woman at the centre. In the 1890's she did a tour in Russia and Romania. She also traveled to Spain and South America, where she was an acclaimed actress. In 1907 she founded a theatre company with her cousin Carlo Duse (1866 - 1937), whom she married. They performed repertory by Émile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Alexandre Dumas, Maxim Gorki, but also by Carlo Duse himself. In 1914 their company performed at the Politeama Garibaldi and in 1919 they performed for months at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. Playwright Roberto Bracco wrote: "The art of Italia Vitaliani is made of such subtle intentions, so humanely intimate, so exquisitely precious, that one cannot exactly judge her, if one is not gifted of an equally fine aesthetic perception".

Italian postcard. Sent by mail in Rome, Monteverde, early 20th century.

Italian postcard. Mailed in Italy in 1902: Handwritten: 'Affetuosi saluti' (Affectionate greetings).

Hidden Frailty
Italia Vitaliani occasionally performed in films. She made her screen debut with the title role in the drama Fedra/Phèdre/Phaedra (1909-1910), based on Jean Racine’s famous stage play Phèdre. It was produced by Film d’Arte Italiana - not by Cines as IMDb claims - and was distributed by Pathé Frères, but the film was probably never shown in Italy. In 1914 she starred in Fiore reciso/Cut flowers, together with her husband Carlo Duse. Vitaliani had minor parts in the four-part historical adventure film Il ponte dei sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (1921, Domenico Gaido), starring Luciano Albertini and Antonietta Calderari, and in Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii/The Last Days of Pompeii (1926, Carmine Gallone, Amleto Palermi) with Victor Varconi and Rina De Liguoro. IMDb does not mention her title role in the Milano Film melodrama La Madre/The Mother (1917, Giuseppe Sterni). The film was based on the play La Mare (1907, The Sea) by the Catalan writer Santiago Rusiñol, which Vitaliani had performed with great success all over Spain in 1907. Actually, Vitaliani had been a regular performer of Rusiñol’s plays around the 1900's, to great acclaim in Spain, in particular in Barcelona. Quite recently, the film La Madre was rediscovered at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands. In La Madre, Giuseppe Sterni played the protagonist, a poor village boy with artist’s aspirations. His mother runs a bakery but she understands her son wants something else. On invitation of another young artist, he goes to live in the city and starts a career as a painter. His female model and her mother are ‘gold-diggers’, and when his mother visits her son, she chases them, to the son’s chagrin. His fellow artist makes him clear though that his mother is his best model. And indeed, the portrait of his mother is a success on the art exhibition and brings him fame and fortune. When the son returns to the village and is welcomed as the acclaimed artist, his mother dies of joy when he reaches her house. At the Enciclopedia delle donne, Maria Procino writes: “Behind her rigor and head strong character, Vitaliani’s frailty was hidden, ready to take over. So the actress balanced between moments of enthusiasm and moments of deeply felt insecurity and mistrust.” In 1920 she replaced Luigi Rasi as director of the Royal Acting School in Florence, and in 1924-1926 she managed the Royal School of Santa Cecilia. After that she started touring again, being restless. She finally retired from screen and stage because of nervous exhaustion, becoming a misanthropist. In Milano she lived alone and forgotten. Only thanks to a honorary committee dedicated to her, consisting of actors, writers and friends, she managed to survive her worst moments. She returned a last time onto the stage on 16 June 1929 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. Italia Vitaliani died in Milan in, 1938. She was 72. Whoever asked her whether she would write her recollections, she answered: “I promise, I’ll never write them”.

Italian postcard by Alterocca Terni, no. 3143. Sent by mail on 27-8-1904 in Salles d'Aude, France. Handwritten: 'Sincères remerciements. Amitiés, Louise.' (Sincere thanks. Regards, Louise.)

NB
The film Fiore reciso is oddly enough not listed in the reference books Il cinema muto italiano by Aldo Bernardini&Vittorio Martinelli, but it is mentioned in Bernardini’s Archivio del cinema italiano. The encyclopedia Treccani mentions Duse’s part in it, but not that of Vitaliani. IMDb mentions as director for Phèdre/PhaedraOreste Gherardini and as co-actors Carlo Duse en Ciro Galvani, but we could not find any confirmation for that in our other sources. Massimo Scaglione mentions that Vitaliani acted in I rintocchi dell’Ave Maria/The chimes of the Ave Maria, La catena della felicità/The chain of happiness, Fiore reciso, Madre and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii. Scaglione does not mention Phèdre/Phaedra, nor Il ponte dei sospiri. Finally, Vitaliani’s husband is not to be confounded with his nephew, the later film actor Carlo Duse (1899 - 1956).

Italian postcard by NPG, no. 643. Photo: Sciutto. Gigi Sciutto was a famous Genovese photographer in the early 1900's. He supposedly shot the first film footage on Genova around 1897.

Sources: Maria Procino (Enciclopedia delle donne) (Italian), Massimo Scaglione (Il cinema Torino: pochi divi ma tanti comprimari) (Italian), Margarida Casacuberta (Santiago Rusiñol: Vida, Literatura I Mite), Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (French), Treccani.it (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

1930’s ‘Girl of Today’ Ursula Grabley (1908 - 1977) was a German actress appeared in more than 60 films and TV productions and also in many stage plays. In 1939 her successful film career was interrupted by a dispute with Nazi Minister Joseph Goebbels.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6525. Photo: Verleih Leopold Hauk.

Pageboy Haircut
Ursula Margarete Marie Feodora Grabley was born in Woltersdorf near Berlin in 1908. She was the daughter of the physician Dr. Paul Ludwig Grabley and his wife Johanna Elisabeth née Rohrbeck. She received private lessons and attended 'Mädchenpensionate' (girl boarding schools) in Weimar and Wolfenbüttel. In Hamburg, she had lessons in modern dance at the School of Rudolf von Laban. Grabley had her first stage experience at the Hamburger Kammerspiele, a private theatre in Hamburg. There she met actor Viktor de Kowa, who became her husband in 1926. From 1927, they worked at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Here Grabley celebrated her first success as a soubrette in the comedy Jill und Jim (Jill and Jim). After this success followed appearances in noted Berlin theaters as the der Komischen Oper (Comic Opera), the Deutsches Theater and the Theater under den Linden. Her pageboy haircut and confident-boyish behavior corresponded with the image of the ‘Girl of Today’ in 1930. Ursula Grabley received many film offers, both for leading and supporting roles. In 1929 she had made her film debut in the silent circus film Katharina Knie (1929, Karl Grune) featuring Carmen Boni. Grabley mostly appeared in comedies, often as the girl next door. She co-starred with Harry Liedtke in ...und das ist die Hauptsache!?/That's All That Matters!? (1931, Joe May), with Conrad Veidt in the comic action film Der schwarze Husar/The Black Hussar (1932, Gerhard Lamprecht), and with Brigitte Helm in Der Läufer von Marathon/The Marathon Runner (1933, Ewald André Dupont). She played the lead as a criminal secretary in the crime film Kampf um Blond/Battle for Blonde (1933, Jaap Speyer). Other popular films were the Marika Rökk musical Heisses Blut/Hot blood (1936, Georg Jacoby), and the musical Hurra! Ich bin Papa!/Hurrah! I'm a Papa (1939, Kurt Hoffmann) starring Heinz Rühmann.

German card. Photo: Bavaria. Publicity still for IA in Oberbayern/1A in Upper Bavaria (1937, Frans Seitz). Caption: "Ein lustiger Zeitvertreib für Ursula Grabley und Georg Bauer in dem film IA in Oberbayern". (A fun pastime for Ursula Grabley and Georg Bauer in the film IA in Oberbayern/1A in Upper Bavaria).

Resolute Mothers
In 1939, Ursula Grabley had a dispute with Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. After that she did not receive any more film roles, and for years, she was forced to work in the theatre. At the end of the war period she got roles again in films like Solistin Anna Alt/Soloist Anna Alt (1944, Werner Klingler) with Anneliese Uhlig, and the poetic romance Unter den brücken/Under the bridges (1944, Helmut Käutner) with Hannelore Schroth and Carl Raddatz. However, she first had to play in the propaganda film Das Leben geht weiter/Life goes on (1945, Wolfgang Liebeneiner) with Gustav Knuth, which was never finished. After the war, Grabley lived in Hamburg, where she co-founded the cabaret Rendezvous. She gave guest performances in 'Kammerspiele', with Willy Maertens at the Thalia Theater and at the Jungen Theater. In the cinema of the 1950’s, she portrayed resolute mothers. Films include Vatertag/Father’s Day (1955, Hans Richter) with Grethe Weiser, and Die Nacht vor der Premiere/The night before the premiere (1959, Georg Jacoby) starring Marika Rökk. Later she was known from the television series Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1969-1972), Der Alte/The Old Fox (1977), Tatort (1975) and Derrick (1977). She also worked as a voice actor and dubbed Lucille Ball and Paulette Godard in German. While on a stage tour with Die Katze auf dem heissen Blechdach (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) by Tennessee Williams, Ursula Grabley died after suffering a stroke in Brilon, Germany in 1977. She was married to Viktor de Kowa till 1941. Her second husband was Edgar Heyl.

Ursula Grabley and Anny Ondra in a scene from Ein Mädel vom Ballett/A Girl from the Chorus (1937, Carl Lamac). Source: OndraLamac (YouTube).

Sources: Film-Zeit.de (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos) (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Yvonne Arnaud (1890 – 1958) was a French-born actress, singer and pianist, whose warmth, humour and talent gave her an unrivalled position on the English stage for forty-six years. She was one of the players in the Aldwych farces in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but also had dramatic roles. During the 1930’s and 1940’s she played in several British films and she continued to act into the 1950’s.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 378A. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

Charming French Accent
Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was born in 1890 in Bordeaux, France. She was the daughter of Felix Leon Paul Arnaud, a colonel in the French army, and his wife, Antoinette de Montegu. She was raised in Paris and entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 9, studying piano under Alphonse Duvernoy and other teachers. In 1905, she won the conservatory's Premier Prix for piano. Beginning that year, at age 12, until 1911, she performed with leading orchestras throughout Europe and USA, under conductors such as Édouard Colonne, Willem Mengelberg, Gustav Mahler and Alexander Siloti. In 1911 she decided to try the stage instead of the concert hall and obtained an engagement at London's Adelphi Theatre. She was understudy to Elsie Spain in the role of Princess Mathilde in The Quaker Girl. She next played the leading role of Suzanne in the musical The Girl in the Taxi (1912), earning popularity with her vivacity and charming French accent. This was followed by roles in more musical comedies, farces and operettas, including as Noisette in Mam'selle Tralala (1914), two revivals of The Girl in the Taxi (1913 and 1915), and Phrynette in L'Enfant Prodigue, in which she also played the piano. She also had a lead in Kissing Time (1919). However, an operation damaged her vocal cords, and so she switched from musicals to plays, beginning with the role of Louise Allington in the farce Tons of Money, which ran for nearly two years at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 1922. Arnaud’s success in this play led to her appearance in some of the Aldwych farces by Ben Travers, including Marguerite in A Cuckoo in the Nest (1925), as well as in other comic roles, such as Mrs. Pepys in J.B. Fagan's And So to Bed (1926) and the title Role in Fagan's The Improper Duchess (1931). In 1927 she travelled to New York where she repeated the Mrs. Pepys part on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.

Winifred Shotter and Ralph Lynn. British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.

Mon Oncle
Yvonne Arnaud also appeared in British films, beginning with the role of Pauline in Desire (1920, George Edwardes-Hall), opposite Dennis Neilson-Terry. In 1929–1930, she played the role of Elma Melton in the stage version and then the film version of Canaries Sometimes Sing (1930, Tom Walls). That year she co-starred with Walls in the film comedy On Approval (1930, Tom Walls) also featuring Winifred Shotter and Robertson Hare, and in Tons of Money (1930, Tom Walls) starring Ralph Lynn. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, Arnaud made more films, including film versions of some of the successful plays in which she had starred, such as A Cuckoo in the Nest (1933, Tom Walls) and Lady in Danger (1934, Tom Walls). She also appeared in some dramatic parts, including some Shakespearean roles. In 1940, she played a lead role in the war film Neutral Port (1940, Marcel Varnel) with music hall performer Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, and Phyllis Calvert. She continued to act on stage as well into the 1950’s. She also occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career, for example, with the Hallé Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli in Manchester in 1948. She was also the soloist at the premiere of Franz Reizenstein's pastiche Concerto Popolare at the 1956 Hoffnung Festival. In 1958 she played a small part as the housekeeper in the classic French comedy Mon Oncle/My Uncle (1959, Jacques Tati). Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. Yvonne Arnaud was married the actor Hugh McLellan, since 1920. She was also godmother to the writer Oriel Malet, and was the subject of Malet's book Marraine: a portrait of my godmother (1961). For many years Yvonne Arnaud lived in Guildford, England, and died at the National Hospital in Holborn, in 1958, never recovering from a cerebral haemorrhage. She was 67. In 1965 the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was opened in Guilford.

Scene from Princess Charming (1934, Maurice Elvey) with George Grossmith Jnr. and Yvonne Arnaud. Source: GalleryDreams (YouTube).

Trailer Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati). Source: NuovoCinemaGiornico(YouTube).

Sources: Robert Sharp (BritMovie), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

German actor Bruno Decarli (1877 - 1950) had a short, but intensive career in the silent cinema.

German postcard, no. 862. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1584. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3024. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.

Odyssey in the Bavarian Alps
Bruno Decarli was born in Dresden, Germany in 1877. He was the son of the chamber singer Eduard Decarli (actually Eduard Schmidt). Bruno made his theater debut in 1895 in Meiningen. A year later, he went to Zurich, then he came over Gera, Dresden and Berlin to the Leipzig City Theatre in 1908. He would continue to work there till the beginning of World War I. In 1915 Max Reinhardt engaged him for the Deutsche Theater in Berlin. The following year, Decarli began his film work. Among his first silent films were the drama Die Nixenkönigin/The mermaid queen (1916, Louis Neher) with Rita Sacchetto, Der Mann im Spiegel /The Man in the Mirror (1916, Conrad Wiene, Robert Wiene), and Das Leben ein Traum/The life a dream (1916, Robert Wiene) with Emil Jannings. He worked for director Robert Wiene at the Messter Studio in such films as Furcht/Fear (1917, Robert Wiene) with Conrad Veidt. He played mostly leading roles in dramas, thrillers and melodramas. Several times he had the stars Mia May and Henny Porten as his partner. With May he appeared in films by her husband like Die Silhouette des Teufels/The silhouette of the devil (1917, Joe May). With Porten, he co-starred in the Honoré de Balzac adaptation Das Maskenfest des Lebens/The masquerade of life (1918, Rudolf Biebrach) and Die Heimkehr des Odysseus/The Homecoming of Odysseus (1918, Rudolf Biebrach). This delightful comedy takes as its inspiration the famous Penelope episode from Homer's Odyssey and transplants it to the present-day Bavarian Alps. Although the situations are played as comedy, the echo of real-life circumstances with men missing in action or held in prisoner-of-war camps during World War I resonated with audiences. Josepha (Porten), who must fend for herself in the absence of her husband (Decarli), yet who always remains faithful to him, can be seen as a kind of model for contemporary women, encouraging them to follow her example.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8977. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

Nazi Propaganda
At the end of World War I, Bruno Decarli had his own film series. He often worked for director Richard Eichberg as in Jettatore (1919) with Lee Parry and Violetta Napierska. One of his best known productions was the adventure serial Die Herrin der Welt/Mistress of the World (1919, Joseph Klein, Joe May) starring Mia May. Another popular film in which he appeared was the two-part Fridericus Rex (1922, Arzén von Cserépy) featuring Otto Gebühr. That year he also appeared in the Dutch production De bruut/The brute (1922, Theo Frenkel) with Willem van der Veer and Adolphe Engers. In the Alexandre Dumas père adaptation Der Mann mit der eisernen Maske/The Man with the Iron Mask (1923, Max Glass), he co-starred with Albert Bassermann. Interesting is also the comedy Ein Glas Wasser/One Glass of Water (1923, Ludwig Berger) with Mady Christians. In these years, Decarli was also active as a director and producer. One of his productions was Brigantenrache/Brigands revenge (1922, Reinhard Bruck) starring Asta Nielsen. In 1923 Decarli returned to the stage. He played almost exclusively at the Saxon State theaters in Dresden, until all German theatres closed in the summer of 1944. He did little film work. In 1940 he had a small part in the Zarah Leander vehicle Das Herz der Königin/The Heart of a Queen (1940, He had his last film role in a Nazi propaganda and anti-British production. After 1945, he remained unemployed. Bruno Decarli died in 1950 in Tiverton, Great-Britain, at the home of his eldest daughter. He was 73.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1582. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin.

German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 217/1. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Stefi-Line), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

On 22 April, Danish singer, actress and TV-icon Vivi Bach (1939) has passed away. Originally, she became known as ‘the first Danish teenager of Denmark' and 'the Danish Brigitte Bardot’. Although not a very talented actress she appeared in 48 films between 1958 and 1974. The German speaking public remembers her best for the legendary TV show Wünsch dir Was (1969 - 1972), which she co-hosted with husband Dietmar Schönherr and which attracted sometimes 30 million viewers. Vivi Bach was 73.

German postcard by Friedrich W. Sander Verlag, Minden/Westf. Sent by mail in 1965. Photo: Constantin / Roman Stempka. Publicity still for Wenn die Musik spielt am Wörthersee/When the music plays at the Wörthersee (1962, Hans Grimm).

The First Danish Teenager
Vivi Bach (or Vivienne Bach) was born Vivi Bak in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1939. She was the pretty daughter of a baker and as a child she was already interested in singing and dancing. She started out as a hairstylist but ended it to pursue a model career, with great success. She followed singing and acting classes, and went on tour as the singer of a band. She was briefly known as ‘the first Danish teenager’. Later she performed small stage roles in Copenhagen. She made her film debut in the comedy Krudt og klunker/Gunpowder and tassels (1958, Annelise Hovmand). Although she proved to be not the biggest talent as an actress, a handful Danish films followed, including Seksdagesløbet/Six Day Race (1958, Jørgen Roos), Pigen og vandpytten/The girl and the puddle (1958, Bent Christensen), and Pigen i søgelyset/The girl in the spotlight (1959, Bent Christensen, Anker Sørensen). These Danish films were moderately succesful in Scandinavia, but had little impact abroad.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/276. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/309. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/277. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

Good Girl Roles
From 1959 on Vivi Bach also appeared in German films like Gitarren klingen leise durch die Nacht/Guitars Sound Quietly Through the Night (1959, Hans Deppe), Immer die Mädchen/Always the Girls (1959, Fritz Rémond), and Die Abenteuer des Grafen Bobby/The Adventures of Count Bobby (1961, Géza von Cziffra) with Peter Alexander. With her blonde hair and innocent looks, she was a natural for ‘good girl’ roles. She sang in many Schlagerfilms such as Schlagerparade (1960, Franz Marischka), Schlager-Raketen (1960, Erik Ode), and Schlagerparade 1961 (1961, Franz Marischka). She was also seen in international pictures, such as Death Drums Along the River (1963, Lawrence Huntington) with Richard Todd, and the Spaghettiwestern Le Pistole non discutono/Bullets Don't Argue (1964, Mario Caiano) with Rod Cameron as sherriff Pat Garrett and Horst Frank as his adversary Billy the Kid.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/274. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/275. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

German postcard by ISV, no. K 22, mailed in 1972. Photo: E. Schneider.

Schlager Career
Vivi Bach started her singing career in Germany with a duet with Schlager star Rex Gildo in 1960. She was contracted by Philips and recorded till 1964 eleven records with them. A big hit was her duet with Gerhard Wendland, Hey Vivi - Hey Gerhard (the German version of the US hit Hey Paula). She founded her own film company and produced Das Rätsel der roten Quaste/The Riddle of the Red Tassel (1963, Hubert Frank), which did not become a success. However, her leading man, Dietmar Schönherr, would become her husband in 1965. Vivi Bach married three times. Her first husband was the Austrian Heinz Sebeck and the second the Danish singer and actor Otto Brandenburg. With Schönherr she made films like Ein Ferienbett mit 100 PS/A Holiday Sleeper with 100 HP (1965, Wolfgang Becker), Blonde Fracht für Sansibar/Mozambique (1965, Robert Lynn), and the Golden Globe nominated Ski Fever (1966, Curt Siodmak). After her cinema career faded out in the late 1960’s, Bach kept herself busy as a television host. With the series Gala-Abend der Schallplatte she became a darling of the German speaking public. Bach and Schönherr were the co-hosts of the very popular Austrian-German-Swiss game show Wünsch Dir Was/Wish Yourself Something (1968 - 1972). In a 1971 show a candidate nearly drowned in a staged car accident. She worked not only as a host but as a TV producer too, like for the Personality Show Vivat Vivi (1973). In the 1970's she visited Denmark regularly to perform in films and record Danish records. In 1976 she made her last record, a duet with Dietmar Schönherr, the campy Molotow Cocktail Party, after which she retired. Since then Vivi Bach worked as a painter, illustrator and author of children’s books and lived with her husband on Ibiza. She was 73, when she died in her sleep in their Ibiza home.

Vivi Bach sings Darling Bye Bye, a German version of the Brenda Lee song Anybody but me. Source: Scaasifun (YouTube).

Rex Gildo & Vivi Bach sing In Ko-Ko-Kopenhagen in Am Sonntag will mein Süsser mit mir segeln gehn/On Sunday my sweet wants to go sailing with me (1961, Franz Marischka). Source: Fritz 51166 (YouTube).

Sources: Matt Blake (The Wild Eye), Sofie J. (Dans Mon Café), T-online (German), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Handsome and athletic Georges Marchal (1920 - 1997) was one of the most popular romantic heroes of the French cinema of the 1950’s. Like Jean Marais, he starred in many swashbucklers and other costume dramas in France and Italy. Later he acted in several films by his close friend Luis Buñuel.

French photo. Photo: Studio Harcourt, Paris.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 112. Photo: Roger Carlet.

French postcard, no. 9. Photo: Gaumont.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 7. Photo: Industrie Photographique.

The Typical Jeune Premier
Georges Marchal was born as Georges Louis Lucot in Nancy, France, in 1920. His family moved to Paris, where he attended secondary school. As an adolescent, he dreamed of becoming a dancer and took classes in ballet and acrobatics. After a chance meeting with Maurice Escande, he changed his mind and aspired to become an actor. First came many odd jobs, like courier, docker at the Les Halles market, and assistant at the Medrano circus. Then he enrolled in an acting course, and was hired at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal for the play Permission de détente (Permission to Relax) by Yves Mirande. At 20, he joined the Comédie-Française to play in the classic dramas Iphigénie (Iphigenia) by Jean Racine and Psyché (Psyche) by Molière. He soon also played in boulevard comedies. His film career started with the comedy Fausse alerte/The French Way (1940, Jacques de Baroncelli, Bernard Dalban) starring Josephine Baker, which was only released in 1945. During the Occupation days he was noted in Lumière d'été/Summer Light (1943, Jean Grémillon) opposite Madeleine Renaud, and Vautrin/Vautrin The Thief (1943, Pierre Billon) with Michel Simon. After the war he co-starred in Au grand balcon/The Grand Terrace (1949, Henri Decoin) with Pierre Fresnay, about the heroic pilots who struggled, suffered and often died to carry the mail. He became the typical Jeune Premier of the French post-war cinema and posed as a rival of Jean Marais although he didn’t reach the same level. In 1951, he assumed the title role in Il naufrago del Pacifico/Robinson Crusoe (1951, Jeff Musso), and for Sacha Guitry, he played the young Louis XIV in the star-studded Si Versailles m'était conté/Affairs of Versailles (1953, Sacha Guitry). In 1951, he married actress Dany Robin. Both were young, beautiful, and adored. They preserved their privacy in a house of Montfort l'Amaury. Together they made six films, including La Voyageuse Inattendue/The Unexpected Voyager (1949, Jean Stelli), based on an old script by Billy Wilder, and the comedy Jupiter (1952, Gilles Grangier). Georges’ talent as a stuntman did wonders for his parts in such costume films and swashbucklers as Messalina (1952, Carmine Gallone) with Maria Félix, Teodora, imperatrice di Bisanzio/Theodora, Slave Empress (1954, Riccardo Freda) with Gianna Maria Cannale, and Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1953, André Hunebelle) in which he featured as D'Artagnan.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 219. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 172. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 375. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard, no. 27. Photo: Industrie Photographique.

Death Knell
The arrival of the Nouvelle Vague (the New Wave of young French directors in the late 1950's) with their animosity against the Cinéma de Papa (the popular French cinema of the 1940's and 1950's) seemed a death knell for Georges Marchal. He moved to Italy where he continued his career. With his muscular body, he was an ideal hero for the peplum. He appeared in a dozen of these Italian sword and sandal epics, including Nel Segno Di Roma/Sheba and the Gladiator (1958, Guido Brignone - and uncredited Riccardo Freda and Michelangelo Antonioni) with Anita Ekberg, Le Legioni di Cleopatra/Legions of the Nile (1959, Vittorio Cottafavi) with Linda Cristal, and Sergio Leone's first solo directorial effort, Il colosso di Rodi/The Colossus of Rhodes (1961, Sergio Leone) with Rory Calhoun. Marchal was a close friend of Luis Buñuel and also one of his preferred actors. Marchal starred in four of his films: Cela s'appelle l'aurore/That is the Dawn (1955) with Lucia Bosé, La mort en ce jardin/Death in the Garden (1956) with Simone Signoret, Belle de jour/Beauty of the Day (1967) with Catherine Deneuve, and La voie lactee/The Milky Way (1969) with Laurent Terzieff. Other interesting films in which he appeared were the anthology film Guerre secrète/The Dirty Game (1965, Terence Young, Christian Jaque, Carlo Lizzani, Werner Klinger) with Robert Ryan, the Romanian historical epic Dacii/The Dacians (1967, Sergiu Nicolaescu) with Pierre Brice, Faustine et le bel été/Faustine and the Beautiful Summer (1972, Nina Companeez) and Les Enfants du placard/The Closet Children (1977, Benoît Jacquot) with Lou Castel. During the 1970’s he focussed on television and appeared in Quentin Durward (1971, Gilles Grangier), as Philip IV the Fair in Les Rois maudits/The Accursed Kings (1972, Claude Barma), Gaston Phébus (1977, Bernard Borderie), and Les grandes familles/The Great Families (1988, Edouard Molinaro) with Michel Piccoli. He played a seductive older man in three TV-films based on the legendary Claudine novels by Colette, Claudine à Paris/Claudine in Paris (1978), Claudine en ménage/Pauline Engaged (1978) and Claudine s'en va/Claudine Goes (1978), all starring Marie-Hélène Breillat and directed by Edouard Molinaro. He also played Claude Jade's father in the fine mini-series L'Île aux trente cercueils/The Island of Thirty Coffins (1979, Marcel Cravenne). He retired in 1989. His last film appearance had been as General Keller in L'Honneur d'un capitaine/A Captain’s Honour (1982, Pierre Schoendoerffer) about the French army's behavior in Algeria. Georges Marchal died in 1997 in Maurens, France, following a long illness. He was married with Dany Robin from 1951 till their much publicized divorce in 1969. He remarried in 1983 with Michele Heyberger.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 175. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 185. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 523 presented by Les Carbones Korès. Photo: Ch. Vandamme.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 297. Photo: Charles VanDamme, Paris.

Swashbuckling in Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1953). Source: Henk de Vos (YouTube).

German trailer for Il colosso di Rodi/The Colossus of Rhodes (1961). Source: Hilkenny1978 (YouTube).

Trailer for La voie lactee/The Milky Way (1969). Source: Mark Thimijan (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Pablo Montoya (IMDb), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

German-born, British stage and screen actress Dolly Haas (1910 - 1994) was popular in the 1930’s as a vivacious, red-haired gamine often wearing trousers in German and British films. Although she got a 3-year contract with Columbia and she worked with Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood, Dolly's American career mainly took place on and Off Broadway.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6565/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7186/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Lothar Stark-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8157/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Walther Jaeger, Berlin.

Singing and Dancing Doll
Dolly Haas was born Dorothy Clara Louise Haas (some sources write Hass) in 1910 in Hamburg, Germany. She was British: her grandfather was a Dane who lived in England and married an Englishwoman. Her father, Charles Oswald Haas, a bookseller and friend of Sir Henry Wood, had married the Austrian Margarete Maria née Hansen and settled in Hamburg. At six, Dolly started with ballet lessons, and she had her first public dance performance in a production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat). From 1917 until 1927, Dolly attended the progressive lyceum of Dr. Löwenberg. After her graduation she went to Berlin where Erik Charell gave her a large supporting role in his stage production of Mikado. In 1930 the famous Max Reinhardt, offered her an engagement in his stage production Wie werde ich reich und glücklich (How Do I Become Rich and Happy)(1930, Erich Engel). That same year she made her film debut as a department doll who comes to life in Eine Stunde Glück/One Summer of Happiness (1930, Wilhelm (William) Dieterle). Her second film was Dolly macht Karriere/Dolly's Way to Stardom (1930), the directorial debut of Anatole Litvak. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Dolly's Career top-bills the delightful Dolly Haas in the title role. It's a harmless little story about a starry-eyed chorus girl who hopes to become a big star and also keep her virtue, and of the various antagonists who try to prevent her from doing either. The film is highlighted by a number of elaborate dance sequences, gracefully performed by Haas and cleverly choreographed by Ernst Matray." The film title seemed prophetic for her future.

Dolly Haas in So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht

Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, Z., no. B 168. Photo: Filma, Amsterdam. Publicity still for So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (1932).

Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 426. Photo: publicity still for So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (1932, Fritz Kortner) with Haas and Willi Forst.

Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 449. Photo: Dolly Haas, Willi Forst and Oskar Sima in So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7538/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Hisa-Film. Publicity still for Die Kleine Schwindlerin/The Little Crook (1933, Johannes Meyer) with Harald Paulsen.

Delicate and Lovely Child-Woman
Dolly Haas continued her stage career as a dancer, singer and streetwise girl. In her films she often embodied a delicate and lovely child-woman who is superior to her male partners because of her wit and energy. Popular comedies with her were Der brave Sünder/The Upright Sinner (1931, Fritz Kortner) with Max Pallenberg and Heinz Rühmann, So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (1932, Fritz Kortner) with Willi Forst and Oskar Sima, and Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße/Scampolo (1932, Hans Steinhoff) with Karl Ludwig Diehl. She regularly acted in 'Hosenrolle’ (roles in trousers), such as in Liebeskommando/Love's Command (1931, Géza von Bolváry) with Gustav Fröhlich. Dolly played a girl who masquerades as her brother in order to join the military academy. Anti-semitic protests followed the premiere of Das hässliche Mädchen/The Ugly Girl (1933, Hermann Kosterlitz). It came to riots against her Jewish co-star Max Hansen . The names of Jewish director Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster) and writer Felix Joachimson (later Felix Jackson) were taken off the credits. IMDb: "This was the last film that Henry Koster directed in Berlin before having to leave due to Nazis. He left Berlin, having knocked out an SS officer, one day before filming was finished on the movie. The Nazis removed his name from the credits and substituted the name of Hasse Preiss, the lyricist."

Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 514.

Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 430.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7397/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Walter Lichtenstein / Projectograph-Film. Publicity still for So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (1932, Fritz Kortner) with Haas and Willi Forst. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Girls Will Be Boys
After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Dolly Haas and her first husband, the director Hans Brahm (later John Brahm), moved to England. There, she again donned trousers for Girls Will Be Boys (1934, Marcel Varnel). It involved her getting work at the all-male estate of a mysogynistic duke (Cyril Maude). Only when she is saved from drowning while swimming in the nude, her gender is revealed. She played in two more British films, including Broken Blossoms (1936, John Brahm) a remake of the silent masterpiece. First, D.W. Griffith the director of the silent version had been hired. The Guardian related in its 1994 obituary of Haas what happened: "while Dolly was contracted to play the Lillian Gish role of the Cockney waif, the director was rehearsing Ariane Borg, an unknown protegee of his. When the producers refused to use Borg, Griffith left to be replaced by Brahm. Delicately lovely, Haas, who researched the role by visiting Limehouse to watch slum children at play, was the saving grace of the film." Her last British picture, before going to the US with her husband, was Spy Of Napoleon (1937), in which she was a dancer who believes herself to be Louis Napoleon's illegitimate daughter. In 1936 Haas signed a 3-year contract with Columbia and went to Hollywood, but after an 18-month wait for the right role, she left for New York.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7537/1, 1932-1933.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6481. Photo: Hugo Ingel Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 766. Photo: Atelier Yva, Berlin.

Broadway
Dolly Haas became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1940 and made her New York stage debut in Erwin Piscator's production of the Chinese fantasy The Circle of Chalk (1941). She had met famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld when the artist was on assignment to draw a sketch of a summer theater company for The New York Times. In 1942 they married and three years later heir daughter Nina was born. Ar that time Dolly had a successful career on and Off Broadway and she appeared a.o. with John Gielgud and Lilian Gish in a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoievsky's Crime and Punishment (1947, Theodore Komisarjevsky) at the National Theatre. She was also in the Off Broadway productions of The Threepenny Opera and Brecht on Brecht. Her only major movie role - after a 17-year absence on the screen - was in the high-profile I Confess (1953, Alfred Hitchcock). She and O. E. Hasse played an artist couple whose emigration to the US ends in tragedy. The Guardian: "she was superb as the doomed wife of the killer protected by priest Montgomery Clift's confessional vows." Thereafter she sporadically appeared on television. In 1983, the Berlin International Film Festival dedicated a retrospective to her work. Her last screen appearance was in the documentary Dolly, Lotte und Maria/Dolly, Lotte and Maria (1987, Rosa von Praunheim) with Lotte Goslar, and Maria Ley Piscator. Mel Gussow wrote about Haas and her husband in The New York Times: "For many decades the two were an elegant couple on the aisle at all Broadway opening nights, watching the actors and actresses whom Mr. Hirschfeld would sketch for The New York Times." They remained happily married until her death in 1994 at 84. Dolly Haas' ashes were scattered in the English Channel off Alderney, where her sister lived and died.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6350/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8324/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Lindner.

Sources: Mel Gussow (The New York Times), The Guardian, Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, German Continental Strangers (Dartmouth.edu), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Italian actor Bruto Castellani (1881 - 1933) was the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the silent era. He was the noble strong man in such historical epics as Quo Vadis? (1913) and (1924), and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (1926).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 665. Photo: publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1924, Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby), produced by the Unione Cinematografica Italiana.

Good Giant
Bruto Castellani was born in Rome in 1881. Het started with small parts in silent films for the Cines company like the historical drama Santa Cecilia/Saint Cecilia (1911, Enrique Santos). He had his breakthrough as the noble strong man Ursus in the historical drama Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). This story of the persecution of the Christians by the Emperor Nero was based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. At the London gala premiere in the Albert Hall, the king and queen congratulated Castellani with his performance. He next performed as the good giant in such epic films as Cajus Julius Caesar/Julius Caesar (1914, Enrico Guazzoni) starring Amleto Novelli, Fabiola (1918, Enrico Guazzoni) with Elena Sangro, Messalina/The Fall of an Empress (1923, Enrico Guazzoni), the 1924 version of Quo Vadis? (1924, Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby) with Emil Jannings as Nero, and the 1926 version of Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (1926, Carmine Gallone, Amleto Palermi).

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). Helped by Acte, Nero's former mistress, Ursus (Bruto Castellani) subtracts Lygia (Lea Giunchi) from the orgy of the imperial banquet, where the drunken Roman Vinicius tried to rape her.

Bruto Castellani and Augusto Mastripietri in Quo vadis? (1913)

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). Christian strong man Ursus (Bruto Castellani) orders the treacherous Greek philosopher Chilon (Augusto Mastripietri) to come along.

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) finds back Lygia at the catacombs of Ostriano. Left of Lygia is St. Peter (Giovanni Gizzi), right of her protector Ursus. Vinicius plots to abduct Lygia, with the help of the Greek Chilo (Augusto Mastripietri) and a gladiator.

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). Lygia saves Vinicius from the hands of Ursus (Bruto Castellani). Ursus, protector of Lygia, has just killed a gladiator who had been charged by Vinicius to kill Ursus while he himself planned to abduct Licia.

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). The Giant Ursus awaits the bull in the circus. After his long captivity Ursus is almost blinded when he enters the arena. Then a wild bull enters the arena on which back Lygia is bound. Ursus will kill the bull with his bare hands, much to the Delight of the audience and the emperor.

Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (1913, Enrico Guazzoni). Ursus and Vinicius implore the audience and emperor Nero to grace the Christian Lygia, after Ursus has killed the bull on which back Lygia had been bound. The audience raves because of Ursus' tour de force. Vinicius has stripped his cloth to show his scars from the wars, while Ursus holds up Lygia. All around Nero hold their thumbs up for grace, even if this sign seems to have been a 19th century invention and historically incorrect.

Bad Pirate
Bruto Castellani performed as well in adventure films set in modern times. His rival strong man Bartolomeo Pagano had done the same after his success as Maciste in Cabiria (1914). Catellani appeared in 'modern' films like Una tragedia al cinematografo/Cinema Tragedy at Carnival Time (1913, Enrico Guazzoni) and Il misteri del castello di Monroe/The Secret of Monroe Castle (1914, Augusto Genina), both starring diva Pina Menichelli. Next to good guys, Castellani played one memorable baddy: the pirate Gothar in the naval battle scene in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925, Fred Niblo), shot near Livorno in 1924. His last film was La bella corsara/The Beautiful Corsair (1928, Wladimiro De Liguoro) featuring Rina De Liguoro. In 1928, Castellani withdrew from the cinema and became a civil servant. Bruto Castellani died in 1933 in Rome.

Emil Jannings as Nero in Quo Vadis? (1924). Italian postcard Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 668. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. On the backside is an ink stamp for the Politeama Cesare Rossi, Fano.

Elena Sangro as Empress Poppea in Quo Vadis? (1924). Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 663. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del muto italiano) and IMDb

Darkly handsome Gérard Lanvin (1950) is a César Award-winning French actor and screenwriter. In the last decade he appeared in several popular French comedies and gangster films.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

A Kind of European Sex Symbol
Gérard Raymond Lanvain was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France in 1950. He quit his studies when he was 17 to become an actor. Between 1968 and 1970, he attended acting courses by François Florent at the Cours Florent. During the 1970’s he works in the then fashionable theatre-café, Café de la Gare. He made his film debut as an extra in the hilarious comedy L'Aile ou la Cuisse/The Wing or the Thigh (1976, Claude Zidi) with Louis de Funès and Coluche as the editors of an internationally known restaurant guide, who are waging a war against a fast food entrepreneur. Coluche then asked Lanvin as the white knight for his historical satire Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine/You Won't Have Alsace-Lorraine (1977, Coluche). Lanvin co-starred with Nathalie Baye in the drama Une semaine de vacances/A Week's Vacation (1980, Bertrand Tavernier), which was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. He played a jazz musician in the moody comedy-drama Extérieur, nuit/Exterior Night (1980, Jacques Bral) with Christine Boisson and André Dussollier. With these romantic films, the darkly handsome Lanvin became a kind of European sex symbol. In 1982, he received the Prix Jean Gabin for his role as a manipulated advertising executive in Une étrange affaire/Strange Affair (1981, Pierre Granier-Deferre) opposite Michel Piccoli as his new manager. James Travers at Films de France: “A strange film indeed. By adopting the style if not the substance of a traditional French thriller, this film explores the competing pressures of family and work in modern society. The story should be familiar to anyone who works for a medium-sized company, where certain employees are prepared, or expected, to ditch their home life to advance their careers. Fortunately, the story is told in such an unusual way, with such complex characters, that it appears anything but anodyne.”

Catherine Deneuve. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 568.

Seemingly Conventional Screen Lover
Gérard Lanvin then appeared in the crime thriller Le Choix des armes/Choice of Arms (1981, Alain Corneau), starring Yves Montand, Gérard Dépardieu and Catherine Deneuve. In 1983, he co-starred again with Michel Piccoli in the French-Yugoslav science-fiction thriller Le Prix du Danger/The price of the Danger (1983, Yves Boisset) about a popular television game show where everyday men or women volunteer to be hunted by professional killers. James Travers: “Whilst it may lack the coherence and sophistication of many of Yves Boisset’s previous thrillers, Le Prix du danger does achieve an effective and satisfying mix of modern film noir thriller and black comedy. The action sequences are pacy and well choreographed whilst the acerbic humour gets across the film’s dark political subtext with impact, in spite of its blatant lack of subtlety. The film benefits from a strong cast.” A triumph was the urban comedy Marche à l'ombre/Walking in the shadow (1984, Michel Blanc) with more than 6,000,000 spectators. James Travers: “The film’s strength lies in the amazing Blanc-Lanvin double act, the two contrasting actors playing off each other to great effect: Blanc the inept yet surprisingly successful Don Juan, Lanvin the seemingly conventional screen lover who fails to get lucky (despite oozing sex appeal by the bucket load).” Then followed for Lanvin some years in which he seemed to be looking for the right part. In 1992 he starred in La Belle Histoire/The Beautiful Story (1992, Claude Lelouch) as a gypsy called Jesus. Three years later he won a César Award for Best Actor for his role as a shady hotel manager in Le Fils préféré/The Favourite Son (1995, Nicole Garcia). That year, he also portrayed a homeless man who gets shelter of a prostitute in the erotic drama Mon Homme/My Man (1995, Bertrand Blier). It was entered into the 46th Berlin International Film Festival where his co-star Anouk Grinberg won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Gérard Lanvin, Bernard Giraudeau, Les Spécialistes

French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the série acteurs, no. 3. Publicity still for Les Spécialistes/The Specialists (1985, Patrice Leconte) with Bernard Giraudeau.

Wildly Successful
During the 2000’s, Gérard Lanvin returned to the big screen with popular comedies. In 2001, he received the César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the romantic comedy of manners Le Goût des autres/The Taste of Others (2000, Agnes Jaoui). Jason Clark at AllMovie: “debut filmmaker Jaoui (who also plays one of the featured roles) finds the quirks in many of her characters in unusual ways, which sets her work apart from cruder efforts. More than anything, Others tries to find the root of human interaction and its subsequent effects, at times in a manner audiences might not be willing to accept, but mostly in an interesting, entertaining fashion.” The film won the César for Best Film, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Lanvin then starred in such popular comedies as Le Boulet/Dead Weight (2002, Alain Berbérian, Frédéric Forestier) with Benoît Poelvoorde, Trois zeros/Three Zeros (2002, Fabien Onteniente) with Samuel LeBihan, and Camping (2006, Fabien Onteniente) starring Frank Dubosc. Lanvin had a supporting part in the gangster biopic L'Instinct de Mort/Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2007, Jean-François Richet), which starred Vincent Cassel as larger-than-life outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who thrived on his status as French Public Enemy Number 1. It was the premier instalment in a two-part series of features, and Lanvin also appeared as Mesrine’s leftist spokesman in the second feature, L'ennemi Public No. 1/Mesrine: Public Enemy # 1 (2008, Jean-François Richet). In France this saga was wildly successful in the cinemas, and has been referred to as the French version of Scarface with Al Pacino. Also popular were the action-thriller À bout portant/Point Blank (2010, Fred Cavayé) starring Gilles Lellouche, and Les Lyonnais/A Gang Story (2011, Olivier Marchal) about a 1970’s gang which operated around Lyon. In 2013, he can be seen in the crime drama Colt 45 (2013, Fabrice du Welz). Gérard Lanvin is married to former actress and singer Jennifer. They have two children, singer Manu Lanvin and deejay Léo Lanvin.

Trailer for Extérieur, nuit/Exterior Night (1980). Source: Turguiefroide (YouTube).

Trailer for Passionnément/Passionately (2000, Bruno Nuytten) with Charlotte Gainsbourg. Source: Forever CLG (YouTube).

Trailer for Les Lyonnais/A Gang Story (2011). Source: abcscope (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Jason Clark (AllMovie), AlloCiné (French), AllMovie, Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.

Afro-German actress Toxi (1946) starred as a child in a successful drama about racism. As a young adult, she appeared under her real name Elfi Fiegert in a few more films and on TV.

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 378. Photo: Lilo / FONO / Allianz-Film.

Brown Babies
Toxi was born as Elfi (or Elfie) in 1946. Her father was an African American G.I. and student, who soon after her birth was sent off to Korea. So her German mother had to bring her baby to an orphanage. There she was discovered and adopted by the Fiegert family, and renamed Elfi Fiegert. In 1952, after a mass audition held in Munich, the then 5-years old Elfi was selected for the lead in Toxi (1952, Robert A. Stemmle). She played an Afro-German girl who comes to live at the house of a middle-class German family, and thus confronts them with their own racism. The film's release came as the first wave of children born to black Allied serviceman and white German mothers (the ‘brown babies’) entered school. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “At the time the film was made, there were over 3000 children living in Germany who'd been fathered by African American GIs. Referred to as ‘mischlings,’ these children were often treated as outcasts because of their illegitimacy and skin color.” Publicity for the film emphasized the similarities between Elfi Fiegert’s own story and that of Toxi. Elfi was even credited as Toxi. The light entertainment film had a happy end and was the eighth most popular release at the West German box office in 1952. Hal Erickson: ”By concentrating on a highly fictionalized plotline, Toxi tends to ignore the thousands of other mischlings whose lives are far more complex and tragic than that of the film's central character.”

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 395. Photo: Lilo / FONO / Allianz-Film.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 593. Photo: Lilo / FONO / Allianz-Film.

Aloha, Aloha, Lailani
Three years later, Toxi starred again in the less successful Der dunkle Stern/The Dark Star (1955, Hermann Kugelstadt). She played again a black occupation child, but the film was not a sequel to Toxi. Her co-stars in this film drama were Ilse Steppat and Viktor Staal. Then her film career was interrupted for eight years. As a young adult, Toxi returned to the cinema in the Austrian comedy Unsere tollen Tanten in der Südsee/Our Mad Aunts in the Southsea (1963, Rolf Olsen). Günther Philipp, Gus Backus and Udo Jürgens were the stars of the Tolle Tante films, a series of cross-dressing farces peppered with popular schlagers. This third and final episode took place in the Southsea, although the film was shot at the Canary Islands, Spain. Toxi, now credited as Elfi Fiegert, played the island girl Lailani and sang the song Aloha, Aloha, Lailani. That same year she also appeared in Das Haus in Montevideo/The House in Montevideo (1963, Helmut Kaütner). In this comedy Heinz Rühmann starred as a stiff German professor who inherits a villa in Montevideo, Uruguay. Toxi, this time credited as Toxi Fiegert, played the supporting part of the villa’s exotic attendant Belinda. It was hard for her to find acting jobs and mostly she worked as a secretary in Munich. In their study Not So Plain as Black and White, Patricia M. Mazón and Reinhild Steingröver cite an agent who bluntly said to Elfi: “There is just no demand in Germany for an actress like you.“ Her final screen appearance was again eight years later in two episodes of the popular TV series Salto Mortale (1971, Michael Braun). Thereafter Elfi Fiegert retired from show business.

Opening scene from Toxi (1952). Source: Dantesvalley (YouTube).

Short scene from Toxi (1952). Source: Dantesvalley (YouTube).

Closing scene from Toxi (1952). Source: Dantesvalley (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Patricia M. Mazón and Reinhild Steingröver (Not So Plain as Black and White), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Rik Battaglia (1927) became notorious in Germany as ‘The Man Who Shot Winnetou.‘ The Italian actor made nearly 100 film appearances between 1954 and 1999, and played the bad guy in dozens of peplums, eurowesterns and war films.

Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 86.

Sailor
Rik Battaglia was born as Caterino Bertaglia in Corbola, Italy, in 1927 (IMDb) or 1930 (Wikipedia). Battaglia has never met his father and has seen his mother only rarely. He was raised by his grandmother. At 17, he was working as a sailor on a freighter between Corfu and the Black Sea. He was discovered by a talent scout in a bar and producer Carlo Ponti hired him on the spot. In his first film, La donna del fiume/The River Girl (1954, Mario Soldati), he played a cigarette smuggler who has a tempestuous love affair with a young Sophia Loren (Ponti’s wife) in hot pants. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The first half of the film plays for laughs, while the second half evolves into a lachrymose soap opera. Through it all, Sophia Loren looks like a million lire - and she even gets to sing and dance!" The film was an obvious attempt to recapture the success of Riso Amaro/Bitter Rice (1949, Giuseppe De Santis) with Silvana Mangano. After the success of the film, Battaglia attended a drama school for two years. Another attempt to cash in on Riso Amaro was La risaia/The Rice Girl (1956, Raffaello Matarazzo), in which Battaglia appeared in the same kind of role opposite another sexy beauty, Elsa Martinelli. He played supporting parts in the peplums (Sandal and sword epics) La Gerusalemme liberate/The Mighty Crusaders (1958, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) with Francisco Rabal and Sylva Koscina, Annibale/Hannibal (1959, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer) starring Victor Mature, and Giulio Cesare, il conquistatore delle Gallie/Caesar the Conqueror (1962, Tanio Boccia). In Germany he appeared as a slave merchant in the Liane-sequel Liane, die weiße Sklavin/ Jungle Girl and the Slaver (1957, Hermann Leitner) with Marion Michael, and he was seen in the Hollywood adventure Raw Wind in Eden (1958, Richard Wilson) with Esther Williams and Jeff Chandler.

German postcard by Netter's Starverlag, Berlin.

Obscure Peplums
Rik Battaglia made one of his best films with La giornata balorda/A Crazy Day (1961 Mauro Bolognini) opposite Jean Sorel and Lea Massari. Pier Paolo Pasolini co-wrote the screenplay for this black-and-white film about the lower class of Rome, based on a novel by Alberto Moravia. One of his biggest flops was the biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1962, Robert Aldrich) with Stewart Granger and Pier Angeli. He appeared in several obscure peplums and such adventure films as Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem/Sandokan the Great (1963, Umberto Lenzi) with bodybuilder Steve Reeves. He moved to Germany where he played in the Karl May westerns Old Shatterhand (1964, Hugo Fregonese), Der Schut/The Shoot (1964, Robert Siodmak), Der Schatz der Azteken/The Treasure of the Aztecs (1965, Robert Siodmak), Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes/Pyramid of the Sun God (1965, Robert Siodmak), Winnetou - 3. Teil/The Desperado Trail (1965, Harald Reinl) and Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten/ Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death (1968, Harald Reinl), all starring Lex Barker; Das Vermächtnis des Inka/Legacy of the Incas (1965, Georg Marischka) with Guy Madison, and Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Thunder at the Border (1966, Alfred Vohrer), with Pierre Brice. He was also the co-star of Freddy Quinn in the Schlager western Freddy und das Lied der Prärie/In the Wild West (1964, Sobey Martin). Battaglia had a German fan base in those years. That changed abruptly when he became Winnetou’s murderer in Winnetou - 3. Teil/The Desperado Trail (1965). Spaghettiwestern.net: "Previous to the film's release, production company Rialto hinted that Winnetou would be killed in the movie, which led to spontaneous protests organized by the children's magazines. Battaglia was booed at the premiere and later confessed that people continued complaining about his vile act for years, even though several films (all presented as prequels) had been made with Brice as Winnetou in the meantime. When (director Harald) Reinl asked him again for a Winnetou movie, he allegedly answered: Only if I don't have to kill the hero!".

American trailer for Der Schut/The Shoot (1964). Source: Something Weird (YouTube).

German trailer for Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Thunder at the Border (1966). Source: Rialto Film (YouTube).

Spaghetti Westerns
Rik Battaglia returned to Italy to play in spaghetti westerns like Spara, Gringo, spara/Shoot, Gringo... Shoot! (1968, Bruno Corbucci) and Black Jack (1968, Gianfranco Baldanello). The best of these was Sergio Leone's epic Giù la testa/Duck, You Sucker!/A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), which failed to gain any substantial recognition from the critics at the time of its premiere, especially compared to the maestro's other films. Leone only won a David di Donatello for Best Director, but the film has received a more favorable reception since then. Keith Phibbs at AllMovie: "A fantastic opening pitting Rod Steiger's earthy bandito against a stagecoach filled with rich bigots begins the film on a fantastic note that Leone has difficulty sustaining. But what the film loses in momentum, it gains in complexity. Pairing Steiger's character with James Coburn's nearly disillusioned Irish revolutionary expands the scope of the film in ways other than the geographical. While other political spaghetti Westerns simply pitted the haves against the have-nots, Duck, You Sucker! (named after a 'popular' American catchphrase known only to Leone), attempts to portray the full scope of revolution. That the director includes chilling scenes of wholesale massacre on the part of the ruling class would seem to betray his sympathies, but he also portrays the impact of revolutionary activity on those who rebel. (...) Though it includes too many awkwardly paced passages to qualify as anyone's favorite Leone film, the film's disastrous financial performance in America granted it an undeserved obscurity. The strange (even by his own standards) score by Ennio Morricone alone makes it worth seeking out." Battaglia then featured as Captain Smollett in Treasure Island (1972, John Hough), one of the many film versions of the classic adventure by Robert Louis Stevenson, with Orson Welles as Long John Silver. In 1974 he appeared in the Agatha Christie adaptation Ein Unbekannter rechnet ab/Ten Little Indians (1974, Peter Collinson) which also starred Richard Attenborough and Gert Frobe. He also appeared in the Sergio Leone (co-)produced western Un genio, due compari, un pollo/The Genius (1975, Damiano Damiani) starring Terence Hill. He mixed roles in such sexploitation films as Suor Emanuelle/Sister Emanuelle (1977, Giuseppe Vari) with Laura Gemser with parts in mafia-dramas like Il prefetto di ferro/The Iron Prefect (1977, Pasquale Squitteri) starring Giuliano Gemma and Claudia Cardinale, and an occasional spaghetti western like Mannaja/A Man Called Blade (1977, Sergio Martino) with John Steiner. Alternate names he used for his films were Rick Austin, Riccardo Battaglia and Rick Battaglia. His last feature film was Buck ai confini del cielo/Buck at the Edge of Heaven (1991, Tonino Ricci) with John Savage. He retired in 1999. In 1995, Rik Battaglia was awarded with the Scharlih, the oldest award associated with Karl May.

American trailer of Giù la testa/A Fistful of Dynamite (1971). Source: Mr. Spaghetti Western (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Keith Phibbs (AllMovie), Tom B. (Westerns all...Italiana), Sebastian Haselbeck (Spaghettiwestern.net), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Classic beauty Anneliese Uhlig (1918) was an elegant and enchanting femme fatale of Ufa crime films of the 1940’s, who unwillingly bewitched Joseph Goebbels. After the war the German actress worked also internationally as a journalist, theatre producer and university teacher and became an American citizen.

German Postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3784/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Civirani.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 232. Photo: Baumann.

Crime Films
Anneliese Uhlig was born into an artistic family. Her mother was the opera singer Margarethe Maschmann, her father the stage actor Kurt Uhlig. After acting lessons at the Peter-Reimann-Akademie she made her film debut with Manege (1937, Carmine Gallone), followed by Stimme des Blutes/The Voice of Blood (1937, Carmine Gallone), both starring Attila Hörbiger and Lucie Höflich. In the same year she also made her stage debut in a successful production of Der Richter von Zalamea (El alcalde de Zalamea/The Judge of Alamea) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca at the Schillertheater in Berlin. The beautiful actress soon became a popular leading lady in crime films like Der Vorhang fällt/The Curtain Falls (1939, Georg Jacoby), Kriminalkommissar Eyck/Detective superintendent Eyck (1939, Milo Harbich) co-starring with Paul Klinger, and Golowin geht durch die Stadt/Golowin Goes Through Town (1940, Robert A. Stemmle). Next she played a nurse between two lieutenants in the propaganda film Blutsbrüderschaft/Blood Brotherhood (1940, Philipp Lothar Mayring). She also performed for the German troops in Holland, France, Poland and Russia. After a conflict with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels she left for Italy in 1942 where she took part in five Italian films, including Don Cesare di Bazan/Don Cesar of Bazan (1942, Riccardo Freda) with Gino Cervi, and La Fornarina (1944, Enrico Guazzoni) with Lida Baarová. She also worked as a translator for Mussolini family. She returned to Germany in 1944 and continued her film career with Der Majoratsherr/The Heir (1944, Hans Deppe) with Willy Birgel, the marriage drama Solistin Anna Alt/Soloist Anna Alt (1945, Werner Klingler) and the romantic comedy Das Mädchen Juanita/The Girl Juanita (1945, Wolfgang Staudte). The last film could not be finished in 1945 because of the end of World War II. Later, it was edited with material from the archives and released in West Germany in 1952.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1623/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Sandau.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2950/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Sandau.

American Nationality
After the war Anneliese Uhlig married American lieutenant and art historian Douglas B. Tucker and worked as a director and producer for the US Special Servicein Salzburg. From 1946 to 1967 she was a foreign correspondent in Italy, Austria and the USA. She also wrote political articles for different German and American newspapers. In 1948 she moved to the USA where she later got the American nationality. In the 1950's she appeared again in German films like Solange Du da bist/As Long As You Are There (1953, Harald Braun) starring Maria Schell and O.W. Fischer, and Dany, bitte schreiben Sie/Dany, Please Write (1956, Eduard von Borsody) featuring Sonja Ziemann. After that she took another break from the cinema and worked as a newspaper editor and theatre producer in Alexandria, Virginia, and as a university teacher in Bangkok. She continued her acting career in Germany in the 1970’s and appeared on stage and TV. To her TV films belong the Wilkie Collins adaptation Der Monddiamant/The Moonstone (1974, Wilhelm Semmelroth) with Paul Dahlke and Theo Lingen, Es gibt noch Haselnusssträucher/Hazels (1983, Vojtech Jasny) with Heinz Rühmann and Katharina Böhm, and Coming Home (1998, Giles Foster) with Peter O’Tooleand Joanna Lumley. Anneliese Uhlig has a son and lives in Santa Cruz, California.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Zeitschrift für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Licensed by Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Terra-Sandau.

Small German card by Ross. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, no. T 655. Photo: Lilo.

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

French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 90. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Today is the birthday of French actress and singer Danielle Darrieux (1917), an enduringly beautiful, international leading lady. From her film debut in 1931 on she progressed from playing pouty teens to worldy sophisticates. In the early 1950’s she starred in three classic films by Max Ophüls, and she played the mother of Catherine Deneuve in five films!

Happy 96, mme. Darrieux.

Tommy Kent (1942) was a German rock and roll singer and film actor of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. He later became an architect and a painter.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 55.

German publicity card by Polydor.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 674. Retail price: 10 Pfg. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Alfa / Gloria. Publicity still for O sole mio - Ich komme wieder.../O sole mio (1960, Paul Martin).

Susie Darlin'
Tommy Kent was born as Guntram Kühbeck in München (Munich), Germany in 1942. Guntram was the son of a doctor, who had an interest in music. In the mid-1950’s he discovered the American Rock ‘n roll hits of Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent and Pat Boone, which he heard on AFN Radio (American Forces Network) and tried to sing himself. To pay for his architecture study he performed as a singer in clubs. From 1958 on he had music lessons from opera singer Baron von Versibe. In 1958 he was discovered by the songwriters Walter Brandin and Hans R. Beier. They helped him to contact the successful record label Polydor in Hamburg, where he could make a test recording. Later that year producer Bert Kaempfert recorded his first single, a cover version of Robin Luke’s hit Susie Darlin'. Together with Kaempfert, Kühbeck came up with his alias, Tommy Kent. His first single became in a short time a hit and in June 1959 it reached the #4 position of the German box office charts. Soon followed a contract with Polydor, more singles like Baby Doll and Ich brauche du dazu (I Need You For That) and appearances on TV shows. Susie Darlin’ sold over one million copies. During his career, Tommy Kent would sell more than four million records.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 471. Photo: Polydor.

German postcard, no. 11.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4672. Photo: Erwin Schneider / Ufa.

German-language Rock and Roll
After Peter Kraus and Ted Herold, Tommy Kent advanced into one of the most successful German-language rock and roll artists. His repertory consisted mainly of cover versions of American hits. He appeared in schlagerfilms like Der Schleier fiel/The Veil Fell (1960, Paul May) with Vera Tschechowa, and O sole mio (1960, Paul Martin) with Senta Berger. In the early 1960’s Kent’s record sales became less than those of his first singles. The cooperation with Kaempfert stopped when Kaempfert didn’t release Tommy’s version of Corinna, Corinna. He instead released a version by singer Peter Beil, which then became a big hit. From 1962 till 1964 Kent had a contract with Ariola, and later with Metronome. There he had his last hit with the self composed beat-schlager Sag endlich ja (Finally Say Yes). In 1966 Metronome ended their contract with Kent but his schlager career was not yet finished. For a small label he sang under several pseudonyms (including Elliott Beach and Rainer Marc) imitations of international hits. He also performed in clubs at the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. In the early 1970’s he tried a comeback as Tommy Kent, but his single Elisa flopped.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 566. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1249. Photo: Erwin Schneider / Kolibri.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 158.

Architect and Painter
Tommy Kent changed back into Guntram Kühbeck and started a career as an architect around 1979. He was successful with his designs for the Spanish consulate in München and an elderly home in Los Angeles. As Tommy Kent-Kühbeck he also became known as a painter with exhibitions in New York and other cities. He had his own gallery in Pfronten im Allgäu. In 1981 in the middle of the rock and roll revival he returned as a singer and recorded his final single,Donner, Blitz und Rock 'n Roll (Thunder, Lightning and Rock and Roll. He also returned to the cinema in the children’s film Kleiner Mann was tun?/What to Do, Little Man? (1982, Uschi Madeisky, Klaus Werner) with Heidi Brühl. Today Tommy Kent-Kühbeck paints in his studios in München and on the Spanish island Menorca. As an artist he was awarded the Narrhaller Orden 2008.

Tommy Kent sings Susie Darlin`. Source: blizzard jens (YouTube).

Tommy Kent sings Alle Nächte (1960). Source: Candytje10 (YouTube).

Tommy Kent's 1980 version of Corinna, Corinma. Source: Candytje10 (YouTube).

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

French actor Pierre Brasseur (1905 - 1972), who appeared in some 150 films and TV productions, was renowned for playing charming and flamboyant characters. He is best known as 19th century actor Frédérick Lemaître in Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (1945) and as Docteur Génessier in the horror film Les Yeux sans visage/Eyes Without a Face (1960). Brasseur was also a poet and playwright.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 98. Photo: Star.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 125. Photo: Sam Lévin.

A Kind Of Gigolo
Pierre Brasseur was born Pierre-Albert Espinasse in Paris in 1905. He was the son of actor Georges Espinasse and actress Germaine Brasseur while the latter was married to Albert Brasseur. His grandfather, Jules Brasseur, was an actor as well. Pierre failed the entrance exam at the Conservatory, and followed acting classes from Harry Baur and Fernand Ledoux at the conservatoire Maubel. In 1920, he made his first stage appearance. In the 1920’s, he mixed with the artists and poets of Montparnasse in Paris, where he developed a particular interest in surrealism. He started his film career in the silent cinema with small parts in productions like Jean Renoir’s film debut Une vie sans joie/Backbiters (1924, Albert Dieudonné, Jean Renoir), and Madame Sans-Gêne (1924, Léonce Perret) starring Gloria Swanson. He had a bigger role in the war film Feu!/Fire! (1927, Jacques de Baroncelli) starring Dolly Davis and Charles Vanel. That year, Brasseur performed the spoken role of the Narrator in the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. After the advent of sound, his film career accelerated. He first had a supporting part in the comedy Un trou dans le mur/A Hole in the Wall (1930, René Barberis) with Jean Murat. This was the first film made at Joinville by Paramount Pictures. Other early sound films were Mon ami Victor/My friend Victor (1931, André Berthomieu), Le vainqueur/The winner (1932, Hans Hinrich, Paul Martin) and Quick (1932, André Daven, Robert Siodmak) with Lilian Harvey. These productions were alternative language versions of American or German pictures, and Brasseur starred in a dozen of these mostly run-of-the mill productions, often as a kind of gigolo. His other films of the 1930’s include the comedy Un oiseau rare/A rare bird (1935, Richard Pottier), the Colette adaptation Claudine à l'école/Claudine at School (1937, Serge de Poligny) and most notably Le quai des brumes/Port of Shadows (1938, Marcel Carné) starring Jean Gabin. In the meanwhile he also played many stage roles and also wrote many plays himself, including L'Ancre noire (1927, The black anchor), Un ange passe (1943, An angel passes), and L'Enfant de Poméranie (1945, The Child of Pomerania).

French postcard by PC Editions, Paris, no. 48. Photo: Fox-Film.

Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Editions), Brussels, no. 99. Photo: Studio Cayet. Jo Cayet (1907 - 1987) was a famous Brussels based photographer.

Children of Paradise
At the start of the Second World War, Pierre Brasseur returned to the stage, and went on tour with his theatre company. In the cinema, he played a beautiful part as an alcoholic in Lumière d'été/Summer light (1943, Jean Grémillon), with Madeleine Renaud. His best known role would be that of actor Frédérick Lemaître in the romantic drama Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (1945, Marcel Carné). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Set in the Parisian theatrical world of the 1840's, Jacques Prévert's screenplay concerns four men in love with the mysterious Garance (Arletty). Each loves Garance in his own fashion, but only the intentions of sensitive mime-actor Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault) are entirely honorable; as a result, it is he who suffers most, hurdling one obstacle after another in pursuit of an evidently unattainable goal. In the stylized fashion of 19th-century French drama, many grand passions are spent during the film's totally absorbing 195 minutes. The film was produced under overwhelmingly difficult circumstances during the Nazi occupation of France, and many of the participants/creators were members of the Maquis, so the movie's existence itself is somewhat miraculous. Children of Paradise has gone on to become one of the great romantic classics of international cinema.” After the war, Brasseur starred in Carné’s far less successful Les portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (1946, Marcel Carné). He also appeared in Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (1949, André Cayatte) starring Serge Reggiani and Anouk Aimée as actors in a film version of Romeo and Juliet. Other highlights were the Jean-Paul Sartre adaptation Les mains sales/Dirty hands (1951, Fernand Rivers, Simone Berriau), and Le plaisir/The pleasure (1952), three Guy de Maupassant stories directed by Max Ophüls. His stage career remained equally distinguished. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the title role in Kean (1953), a biography of the famous English actor, expressly for Brasseur. He played an old drunkard in love with a beautiful young girl (Dany Carrel) in the prize winning Porte des Lilas (1957, René Clair). In the drama La Legge/The Law (1959, Jules Dassin), he co-starred with Gina Lollobrigida.

French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 619. Photo: Films Tobis.

East-German postcard VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.623, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: publicity still for Les bonnes causes/Don't Tempt the Devil (1963, Christian-Jaque).

Eyes Without a Face
Pierre Brasseur’s film career, began a new phase with La Tete contre les Murs/Head Against the Wall (1959, Georges Franju), the first feature film directed by Georges Franju. The following year, he starred as the sinister Docteur Génessier in Franju’s classic horror film Les Yeux sans visage/Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju) with Alida Valli as his assistant. James Travers at Films de France: “Criticism in the press ranged from enthusiastic approval to outright disgust. There is next to no explicit horror in the film (and certainly nothing like the gore offered by Hammer and Bava), yet the sequence in which Pierre Brasseur occupies himself with the removal of a human face from a living donor has become one of the most notorious in film history. Les Yeux sans visage differs from virtually all other films in the fantasy-horror genre. It doesn’t set out to shock us with gruesome images or insult our intelligence with an implausible plot or fantastic characters. Everything it shows us is frighteningly plausible, but presented to us in a dreamlike manner which, if anything, softens the horror of the situation.” That year Brasseur also co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale in Il bell'Antonio/Bell’Antonio (1960, Mauro Bolognini). He worked again with Franju at Pleins feux sur l'assassin/Spotlight on a Murderer (1961, Georges Franju) with Pascale Audret. In 1966, he was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur, and a year later Commandeur (Commander) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1967. He continued to work steadily and notable are his portrayal of a cruel dictator in Goto, l'île d'amour/Goto, Island of Love (1969, Walerian Borowczyk) and his final feature La più bella serata della mia vita/The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life (1972, Ettore Scola) with Alberto Sordi. That year his colourful memoirs were published: Ma Vie en Vrac (My Life as a Whole). In 1972, while shooting La più bella serata della mia vita, Pierre Brasseur died of a heart attack in Brunico (Bruneck), Italy. He was 66. Brasseur had been married twice. His wives were actress Odette Joyeux (1935 – 1945) and pianist Lina Magrini (1947 – 1961). Since 1967 his partner was actress and singer Catherine Sauvage. The family tradition of using the name Brasseur was continued by his son, actor Claude Brasseur and his grandson Alexandre Brasseur, who is a film actor as well.

Trailer Le quai des brumes/Port of Shadows (1938). Source: BFI Trailer (YouTube).

Scene from Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (1945). Source: Movieclips (YouTube).

Trailer Les Yeux sans visage/Eyes Without a Face (1960). Source: La Chambre Verte (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Forgotten diva Maly Delschaft (1898 – 1995) began her career in the theatre and then became a star in the German silent cinema. During the Nazi era, she appeared mainly in supporting roles. After the Second World War, she worked in East Germany for the state-controlled DEFA studio.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1920/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1898/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Manassé, Vienna.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2051/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Manassé, Wien (Vienna).

The Typical Berlin Girl
Maly Delschaft was born as Martha Amalia Delschaft in Hamburg, the German Empire in 1898. She was the daughter of the plasterer Hermann Friedrich Julius Delschaft and his wife Ida Caroline Christine born Hillermann. In 1907, the 8-years old played a boy's role at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg in a stage adaptation of Anna Karenina. After acting lessons by Carl Wagner and Franz Kreidemann during the First World War, she debuted in 1917 at the Stadttheater Bremen (City Theatre Bremen). In the same year, she played her first leading role in Friedrich Schiller’s drama Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love). After a stint in Breslau (Wroclaw) in 1919, she moved to Berlin in the early 1920’s. There she played at various theaters including the Berliner Theater and in silent films. She made her feature film debut in Der Liebling Der Frauen/The favorite of the women (1921, Carl Wilhelm) with Harald Paulsen. Her first important film role was as the niece of hotel doorman Emil Jannings in the masterpiece Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau). Also important for her breakthrough was another silent classic, Variété/Variety (1925, Ewald André Dupont), in which she played Jannings’ wife. After that she was one of the stars of the German silent cinema. In many films she played the typical Berlin girl, but her only really memorable role was as a raped teacher in the Tendenz film about the abortion paragraph § 218, Kreuzzug des Weibes/The Wife's Crusade (1926, Martin Berger) with Conrad Veidt. There was no follow-up. Originally, the role of Lola-Lola in Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg) was planned for her, but in the end the part went to Marlene Dietrich.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1389/1, 1927-1928. Photo: National.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3653/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3027/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Helvetia Film, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4384/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

16 DEFA films
After the arrival of sound, Maly Delschaft’s played some leading parts in films but soon her film roles got smaller and smaller. She focused on a stage career and in 1933-1934 she worked at the Kabarett der Komiker. From 1934 till 1936 she performed at the Komischen Oper, the Volksbühne and at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz. During the war years, she had success in the lead role of the farce Der rote Unterrock (1941, The red petticoat). She also went on tour to perform it for the troops in occupied France. After 1945, Delschaft played in 16 DEFA films. In the prestige project Familie Benthin/The Benthin Family (1950, Slátan Dudow, Kurt Maetzig, Richard Groschopp), she played a mother who lived in West-Germany while her family fared better in East-Germany. In both Die Sonnenbrucks/The Sonnenbrucks (1951, Georg C. Klaren) and Das Beil von Wandsbek/The Axe of Wandsbek (1952, Falk Harnack), she portrayed a stubborn Nazi. From 1954 until the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 she worked for the Volksbühne in East-Berlin. After that, she lived in West-Berlin but hardly received any role offers. Her last film was Zwei unter Millionen/Two among millions (1961, Victor Vicas, Wieland Liebske) starring Hardy Krüger. After that she only appeared in small TV parts and a role at the Hansa Theater in Berlin. In 1970 she was awarded the Filmband in Gold (Lifetime Achievement Award for Film). Maly Delschaft died in 1995 in Berlin. Germany. She left her personal archive to the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf.

Belgian postcard by NV Cacao en Chocolade Kivou, Vilvoorde.

German postcard by VEB-Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. A 308 b4/731. Photo: Franz Radocay. Card from Delschaft's DEFA years.

Beautiful clip made by Hankoegal for the song You Forgot To Answer by Nico from her album The End. Video footage is from Kreuzzug des Weibes/The Wife's Crusade (1926). Source: Hankoegal (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Volker Wachter (DEFA Sternstunden) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), CineGraph (German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

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Happy birthday, Danielle Darrieux!

Tommy Kent

Pierre Brasseur

Maly Delschaft

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