European Film Star Postcards

Russian-Lithuanian actress Elisabeth Pinajeff (1900-1995) starred in 33 German and French films in the 1920's and 1930's. She was married to famous photographer Alex Binder. In the 1950's she was involved in a notorious scandal involving erotic ballets with underaged girls, the 'Ballets roses' scandal.

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

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 951/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Kiesel, Berlin.

Real Russian Actors

About the birth of Elisabeth Pinajeff or Elisabeth Pinajewa, our sources state different dates and locations. While Philippe Pellettier at the French website Ciné-Artistes indicates that she was born 4 April 1900 in Wilna (Vilnius), then part of the Russian Empire and now Lithuania, his German colleague Thomas Staedeli of the Cyranos website writes instead that she was born 17 April 1900 in Jekaterinoslaw, now Dnipropetrowsk in Ukraine. (She probably was born in Vilnius, and grew up in Dnipropetrowsk).

However, Pinajeff was the daughter of architect Serge Pinajeff and countess Anna Popov. In the 1910s she did her studies in Kharkiv (Charkow), in Ukraine, and attended dramatic classes too.

She supposedly played in two silent Russian films, but which ones is unknown. At age 19 she married an engineer. When her husband got a job in Germany, she moved there with him.

Her film career chance came in 1921, when Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer advertised in a newspaper that he was looking for authentic Russians to play in his first German film Die Gezeichneten/Love One Another (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1921). Elisabeth Pinajeff got a small part in the film and not the female lead, as Philippe Pellettier writes. The leading lady was countess Polina Piechovska, while the male lead was played by Vladimir Gajdarov.

Subsequently, Pinajeff contributed to many silent German films, often as a classy seductress. She already had the second female lead in one of her next German films, Königsliebchen/Darling of the King (Heinz Schall, 1924), opposite Ruth Weyher and Bruno Kastner.

In the mid-1920s Elisabeth Pinajeff often was the second actress after the female star, and so she was destined to play the rival, as in Die Brigantin von New York (Hans Werckmeister, 1924) with Lotte Neumann, and in Herrn Philip Collins Abenteuer/Mr Philip Collins Adventure (Johannes Guter, 1925) with Georg Alexander and Ossi Oswalda.

In 1926 she had the female lead in the aristocratic drama Spitze'/Have an eye (Holger-Madsen, 1926) opposite Olaf Fönss. She played the dancer Beatrice opposite Luciano Albertini in the adventure film Rinaldo Rinaldini (Max Obal, 1926-1927).

Pinajeff co-starred with Alphons Fryland in Gern habe ich die Frauen gekusst/Gladly I have kissed the women (Bruno Rahn, 1926), and she was one of the three models in Die drei Mannequins/The Three Mannequins (Jaap Speyer, 1926).

Next, she played opposite Maly Delschaft in Die Kleine und ihr Kavalier/The Little One and her Gentleman (Richard Lowenstein, 1926), opposite Livio Pavanelli and Hans Albers in Die lachende Ehemann/The laughing husband (Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1926), with Xenia Desni in Ein rheinisches Mädchen beim rheinischen Wein/An Honest Girl with an Honest Wine (Johannes Guter, 1927), and with Liane Haid in Die Dollarprinzessin und ihre sechs Freier/The Dollar Princess and Her Six Lovers (Felix Basch, 1927).

In the late 1920s, Pinajeff starred in the Austrian productions Wem gehört meine Frau/To Whom Belongs My Wife (Hans Otto Lowenstein, 1928) and Mitternachtswalzer/Midnight Waltz (Heinz Paul, 1928), both with André Mattoni, and in the Anglo-German-Hungarian co-production Der fesche Husar (Geza von Bolvary, 1928) with Evelyn Holt.

Pinajeff’s last silent film was Mutterliebe (Georg Jacoby, 1929), starring Henny Portenand Gustav Diessl.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1679/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2075/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Alex Binder

Elisabeth Pinajeff's first part in a sound film was in Ruhiges Heim mit Küchenbenützung/Das Mädel der Filmoperette (Carl Wilhelm, 1929). This was not a large part, but in her following sound film Tingel-Tangel (Jaap Speyer, 1930), Pinajeff had the female lead opposite Ernö Verebes.

Her other German sound films were Schatten der Unterwelt/Shadows of the Underworld (Harry Piel, 1931), Die Vier vom Bob 13/The Four of the Bob 13 (Johannes Guter, 1932), and Madame hat Ausgang/Madame has exit (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931), starring Liane Haid.

All three films were multi-linguals and were shot in French versions too, and Pinajeff played in all the French versions as well. Madame hat Ausgang became L’amoureuse aventure (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931) starring Marie Glory and Albert Préjean.

Schatten der Unterwelt became Ombres des bas fonds (Harry Piel, 1931). Die Vier vom Bob 13 became L’amour en vitesse (Johannes Guter, Claude Heymann 1932) and starred Dolly Davis.

According to Ciné-Artistes and other sources, Pinajeff had met Austrian photographer Alex Binder in 1929. Binder had the biggest photo studio in Europe in the 1920s and by 1929 he lived in Paris. Pinajeff became first his model, then his wife. Problematic with this information, however, is that the postcard above with a picture by Binder was already produced in 1927-1928 and that Binder died in February 1929 in Berlin. So of this info is right, they must have met earlier.

Under the name of Lily Dorell, Pinajeff played a small part as Dolly Croquette in Vacances conjugales/Conjugal holidays (Edmond Gréville, 1933) and a substantial part in Le triangle de feu/The Triangle of Fire (Edmond Gréville, Johannes Guter, 1933).

After some years of ’radio silence’, Pinajeff had a last bit part in La tragédie impériale/Rasputin (Marcel L’Herbier, 1937), a film about Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin (Harry Baur) and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas. Then Pinajeff retired from the film business and dedicated herself to painting.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3153/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3440/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Ballets Roses scandal

Elisabeth Pinajeff's star rose within the Parisian mundane circles and thus she seems to have had an easy time during the war years.

In 1950 she became the lady friend of André Le Troquer, a high placed lawyer and politician. He had been a war hero in 1914-1918 and had lost an arm there. He had also been the defender of Léon Blum during 'Vichy’ and he was Chair of the National Assembly in 1954-1955 and 1956-1958.

The couple surrounded themselves by everyone who counted in political, artistic and intellectual circles. Thanks to her connections, Pinajeff painted famous personalities such as the British Queen and the wife of president Coty. She exhibited her paintings with some success at the Salon des femmes peintres et sculpteurs(the salon for female painters und sculptors) as well as at the Galerie André Weill in Paris.

Then in January 1959 a huge scandal exploded. Le Troquer, Pinajeff and some twenty other persons were involved in the so-called 'Ballets Roses scandal'. Pinajeff supposedly had organised erotic ballets with under aged girls for an elite audience. Some of the mothers of the girls had consented to this, hoping for career perspectives for their children.

The couple got away with it quite mildly because of Le Troquer’s high age and his war record, but both their careers were over. Rumour has it that the whole affair was concocted by the Gaulists to discredit the socialist Le Troquer.

Elisabeth Pinajeff withdrew to a small house in Villemoison-sur-Orge, near Paris. There she died in 1995, virtually forgotten.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3409/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3772/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Philippe Pellettier (Ciné-Artistes), Wikipedia, Wikipedia (French), IMDb, and IMDb,

Today a special post on the Italian silent film La seconda moglie/The second wife (Amleto Palermi, 1922), based on the melodrama The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. Star is the fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli, the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. Her leading man is Livio Pavanelli.

Italian postcard. Photo: Rinascimento Film, Roma. Caption: "Sir George starts to doubt the stability of the Primrose Restaurant." Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Alfredo Martinelli.

Italian postcard. Photo: Rinascimento Film, Roma. Caption: "The idea of becoming nun gives a shiver to Eliana's soul." Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Orietta Claudi.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio 78. Postcard with Orietta Claudi and Pina Menichelli in La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922).

A mundane beauty

Lord Aubrey Tanqueray (Livio Pavanelli) loses his wife, a woman of rigid habits who had managed to perfectly organize his life up to his station, but she has left him sentimentally unsatisfied. Left alone, Tanqueray sends his daughter to a religious college and leads a grey and recluse life.

Years go by. The man gets tired of his solitude and starts to frequent the London society. He meets Paula (Pina Menichelli), a mundane beauty, falls in love with her and marries her.

Though the woman has decided to abandon her once so liberal life and shows she's eager to convert, she doesn't manage to bond with Eliana (Orietta Claudi), now a girl in full blossom, who despises of the intruder.

In an attempt to solve the situation, Tanqueray decides to send the girl to Paris. Here Elina meets captain Ardale (Alfredo Menichelli), falls in love with him, and returned, home, presents him as her fiancé. But Paula recognizes in Ardale one of her ex-lovers. She confesses to Eliana her guilt in deterring the girl to unite her life with an adventurer and makes an end to her life by a gun shot.

The play from which the film was adapted, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray by Arthur Wing Pinero, had already been the vehicle for stage actresses such as Eleonora Duse, Virigina Reiter and Italia Vitaliani, and afterwards Maria Melato and Emma Grammatica.

Though the film, released in 1923, was received with mixed reviews, it was one of Pina Menichelli's most popular films, both in Italy and abroad.

Pina Menichelli, Livio Pavanelli in La seconda moglie

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio 78. Postcard with Pina Menichelli in La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922).

Italian postcard. Photo: Rinascimento Film, Roma. Caption: "That monotonous and grey life awoke in the rebel a whole lost world." Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Pina Menichelli.

Pina Menichelli and Livio Pavanelli in La seconda moglie

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Pina Menichelli and Livio Pavanelli.

Orietta Claudi

Orietta Claudi (?-?), who played Eliana, had a relatively short career in Italian silent cinema of the early 1920s. She mostly played the young family girl opposite the mundane divas such as Pina Menichelli, Italia Almirante Manzini and Maria Jacobini.

She probably debuted in L'Innamorata (Gennaro Righelli, 1920), starring Almirante Manzini. Claudi's character had her real first name Orietta (or was Orietta not the real name of Claudi?).

After Stelle (Riccardo Cassano, 1920) and Il supplizio del silenzio (Eugenio Perego, 1920), Claudi acted opposite Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La casa di vetro (Gennaro Righelli, 1920).

In the very successful drama Amore rosso (Gennaro Righelli, 1921), Claudi played the rival of Jacobini in winning the love of Lido Manetti.

After Il cielo (André Habay, 1921) starring director Habay as a pilot who risks getting blind and Claudi as his British fiancée, she acted as the hostile daughter Eliana opposite Pina Menichelli and Livio Pavanelli in La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922).

Claudi's last parts were in Il sogno d'amore (Gennaro Righelli, 1922) with Almirante Manzini, and La gerla di papà Martin (Mario Bonnard, 1923) with Gianna Terribili Gonzales.

Italian postcard. Caption: "Paola: No! Forgive me... We will really be good friends..." Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Pina Menichelli and Orietta Claudi.

Pina Menichelli, Livio Pavanelli and Orietta Claudi in La seconda moglie

Italian postcard. Photo: Rinascimento Film, Roma. Caption: "Eliana: Oh, had I only been nicer to her!" Postcard for the Italian silent film La seconda moglie/The second wife (Amleto Palermi, 1922) with Pina Menichelli, Livio Pavanelli and Orietta Claudi.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Italian - Il cinema muto italiano, 1921-1922) and IMDb.

Elegant, funny and beautiful singer Lily Fayol (1914-1999) had her heyday in France before and after the war. She sang successfully a repertoire that ranged from Fernandel to Mistinguett. Lily Fayol also appeared in several (TV) films.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 72. Offered by S.A. Victoria, Bruxelles (Brussels). Photo: Star, Paris.

The American Rythm

Lily Fayol was born in Allevard, France, in 1914. She started her artistic career shortly before World War II.

In the 1940s she had her biggest successes with songs like Fifine, Les trois bandits de Napoli (The Three Bandits of Naples), and (Qui c'est qui fait glou-glou, c'est) La bouteille ((Who is making that gurgling sound, it is) The Bottle).

After the war, she had a huge hit with Le Rythme Américain (The American Rythm) in 1945. Her other popular songs included La guitare à Chiquita (Chiquita’s Guitar), and Le gros Bill (Big Bill).

In 1946, she made her film debut with a small part in Monsieur Grégoire s'évade/Mr. Gregoire Runs Away (Jacques Daniel-Norman, 1946) featuring Bernard Blier.

Three years later she starred opposite Tino Rossi in Marlène (Pierre de Hérain, 1949).

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 171. Photo: Star, Paris.

French postcard by Studio Star, Paris.

Queen for Six Days

In 1950, Lili Fayol was the star at the Theâtre du Châtelet in the operetta Annie du Far West (Wild West Annie) opposite Marcel Merkes.

She also appeared in such films as La Tournée des Grands-Ducs/The Tour Grand Dukes (André Pellenc, 1953) starring Raymond Bussières.

Married to the cycling champion Maurice Roux, she was the Reine des six jours (Queen for Six Days) at the Vélodrome d'hiver (Winter Velodrome). She retired and worked for years in the hotel business.

In 1977, she made a cinema come-back with the film La nuit, tous les chats sont gris/At Night All Cats Are Gray (Gérard Zingg, 1977) starring Gérard Depardieu.

Other films followed like the political comedy La Gueule de l'autre/The Other One's Mug (Pierre Tchernia, 1979) and the action comedy Le Guignolo/The Guignolo (Georges Lautner, 1980) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Fayol also appeared several times on television, such as in the TV film Un beau petit milliard/A beautiful small billion (Pierre Tchernia, 1992) with Michel Galabru. Lili Fayol died in St. Raphaël, France, in 1999.

French card. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.

Sources: AlloCiné (French), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Anastasiya Vertinskaya (1944) is a popular Russian actress. She became a national celebrity with her roles as Assol in Alye parusa/Scarlet Sails (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1961) and as Ophelia in Gamlet/Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, 1964).

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 4176, 1963. Retail price: 8 Kop.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress, Berlin, no. 2.207. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Schwarz.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress, Berlin, no. 3187. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Balinski.

Emotional Trauma

Anastasiya Alexandrovna Vertinskaya (Russian: Анастасия Александровна Вертинская) was born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia), in 1944.

Her father, Aleksandr Vertinsky, was a famous Russian actor, singer and songwriter, who returned from his emigration in China to Moscow during the Second World War. Her mother, Lidiya Vertinskaya (née Lidia Vladimirovna Tsirgvava), was also a Russian émigré who was born into a Georgian-Russian family in Kharbin.

Young Anastasiya (or Anastasia) and her sister Marianna, who would become an actress too, were brought up in a multi-lingual family where they enjoyed an intellectually stimulating environment, and the highly cultural atmosphere of their parents circle.

Anastasia Vertinskaya was fond of her father, who invested much of his talent and energy in his daughter's education. Her famous father died when she was 14.

She suffered from an emotional trauma that casted an influence on her most important film roles, which she played at the age of 15 to 19.

Russian postcard, no. 4176, 1967. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A 07454. Photo: Photostudio Dinamo. This postcard was printed in an edition of 10.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. M 17432 31, 1967. Photo: G. Vajlja. This postcard was printed in an edition of 150.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

Instant Celebrity

As a schoolgirl of 15, Anastasiya Vertinskaya made her film debut starring in Alye parusa/Scarlet Sails (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1961). The film is based on Alexander Grin (or: Green)'s 1923 adventure novel of the same name.

She portrayed love-torn village girl Assol. As a child, she encounters an old man who claims to be a wizard and promises the girl that one day a prince will come on a ship with scarlet sails to carry her away. The villagers scoff but Assol believes her dream will come true one day, and yes....

This film made her an instant celebrity in the Soviet Union. Alongside Vertinskaya, the film employed many of the present and future stars of the Soviet cinema, including Vasily Lanovoy, Ivan Pereverzev, Sergey Martinson, and Oleg Anofriev.

The next year she co-starred as Guttieres, a young woman in love with an amphibian man in Chelovek-Amfibiya/The Amphibian Man (Gennadi Kazansky, Vladimir Chebotaryov, 1962). The successful film was based on the Alexander Belyayev's book of the same name.

In the same year the actress joined the troupe of the Pushkin Theatre in Moscow. This meant that from then on she had to continuously tour the country with the then popular so-called ‘theatre brigades’.

Vertinskaya shot to international fame starring in another dramatic role as Ophelia opposite Innokenti Smoktunovsky in Gamlet/Hamlet (1964) - a well-known adaptation of the Shakespearean play, directed by Grigori Kozintsev.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A 11231, 1966. Photo: G. Vajlja. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, nr. A 10674, 1967. This postcard was printed in an edition of 200.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, nr. M 27929, 1968. This postcard was printed in an edition of 185.000 cards. Retail price: 8 kop.

People's Artist of the RSFSR

Anastasiya Vertinskaya attended the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre College. Among her fellow students was Nikita Mikhalkov: they fell in love and married in 1966, only to be divorced three years later.

She graduated in 1967 and a year later she began to work at the Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow. From 1980, she was engaged at the Moscow Art Theatre. Her most acclaimed stage appearances were in plays by Anton Chekhov, as Nina in The Seagull and as Elena in Uncle Vanya.

In a theatrical experiment by director Anatoli Efros at Taganka, she appeared in two roles: as Prospero and Ariel in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. In 1989 she portrayed her father, Aleksandr Vertinsky, in a show that she also wrote and directed to mark the centennial birthday anniversary of her father.

While still in the Shchepkin College, Vertinskaya got a role of petite Princess Lisa Bolkonsky in the epic adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Voyna i mir/War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1967). According to Wikipedia, it was her highly sensual, touchingly naïve portrayal that added this character a new, humane dimension.

In the cinema she also played supporting roles as Kitty in Anna Karenina (Aleksandr Zarkhi, 1967), and as one of the lovers in Vlyublyonnye/Tenderness (Elyer Ishmukhamedov, 1969).

Other notable films were Ne goryuy/Don't Grieve (Georgi Daneliya, 1969), Sluchay s Polyninym/The Polunin Case (Aleksei Sakharov, 1970), Ten/Shadow (Nadezhda Kosheverova, 1971) based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen, Bezymyannaya zvezda/An Unnamed Star (Mikhail Kozakov, 1978), and the Mark Twain adaptation Novye priklyucheniya yanki pri dvore korolya Artura/New Adventures of a Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (Viktor Gres, 1988).

Outside of her film career she taught acting in Oxford and in the European film school in Switzerland; she also held a master class at the Comédie-Française (Théâtre de la Républic) and at the Chekhov's school in Paris.

She was designated People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in 1978. She is also a recipient of the Order of Honour (2005) and the Order of Friendship (2010) of the Russian Federation.

Since 1991 Anastasiya Vertinskaya has been running the Charitable Foundation for Actors, which supports such cultural landmarks as the home of Boris Pasternak and the museum of Anton Chekhov as well as many other cultural projects and individual actors and filmmakers.

During the 1990s, she completed restoration of her father's historic recordings for a CD release. Her most recent films are Zazda strasti/Thirst of passion (Andrey Kharitonov, 1991), Master i Margarita/Master and Margareth (Yuri Kara, 1994), and Bremenskie muzykanty/The Bremen Town Musicians (Aleksandr Abdulov, 2001), based on the fairy tale by the brothers Grimm.

Anastasiya Vertinskaya was married to film director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov. Their son, Stepan Mikhalkov (1967), is also a filmmaker. She also has a daughter, Manana (1969), with actor Mikhail Kozakov.

Anastasiya Vertinskaya lives and works in Moscow. In 2010 Vertinskaya published a book of poetry she'd been working on for five years. She's also involved in her son Stepan Mikhalkov's restaurant business in Moscow, her passion for culinary art being well known.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no 1574, 1972. This postcard was printed in an edition of 200.000 cards. Retail price: 5 Kop.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Peoples.ru (Russian), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Astrea (?-?) was the enigmatic female ‘forzuta’ of Italian silent cinema. She had a short film career and made only four films in 1919 and 1920.

Italian postcard, no. 388. Photo: Fontana.

Goddess of Justice

Nothing is known about Astrea’s dates of birth and death, nor her original name. Some say she was a Venetian countess originally, others claim she came from the circus, the last name of Barbieri is mentioned.

Amongst the various male forzuti or strongmen of Italian cinema of the late 1910s there were few female versions, but most have stayed unknown till recently, e.g. Linda Albertini, Ethel Joyce, Gisa-Liana Doria and Piera Bouvier.

Thanks to a print at the Milanese film archive of the film Justitia, Astrea WAS known, though her biography has remained as misty as the London fog.

Astrea’s name refers to a goddess of Justice in Greek mythology, who in the so-called Iron Age left Earth as it had become too criminal and debauched.

The film Astrea (so Justice returned to Earth) was a sturdy and sportive female athlete, defender of the weak and the fighter of crime, helped by her comical sidekick Polidor (Ferdinando Guillaume).

In her short career Astrea only made four films, all within the athletic-acrobatic genre of Italian silent film, but here combining it with comedy too.

Italian postcard, no. 252. Photo: Bettini, Roma.

Feeding her enemies bit by bit to the pigs

Astrea first acted in a rather heavy anti-Austrian propaganda film, La riscossa delle maschere/The rescue of the masks (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1919, though IMDb writes the director was Gustavo Zaremba de Jaracewski), co-starring Gian Paolo Rosmino.

In the film all Italian masks are reanimated by Astrea to rescue the Italians from the Austrians. The film was made after the defeat at Caporetto and was supposed to boost morale, but according to IMDb it was released after the war ended.

Astrea behaves like a real killer, drowning spies, feeding her enemies bit by bit to the pigs, with a violence and sadism unknown to her male competitors, mostly good-hearted giants.

In her next film Justitia (1920) the tone was much milder. The film was directed by Ferdinando Guillaume, while Astrea, Guillaume’s relatives and he himself acted in the film.

Astrea plays a double role of well-groomed and dressed princess, who cliché-like, is as well a retributive yet also big-hearted avenger, who protects a lovers’ couple hunted by the usual bad guys.

While the Italian press praised her as strong, athletic and lady-like at the same time, the British journal The Bioscope called her ‘a herculean woman with the defiance of a Houdini, a female knight roaming the world to set wrong situations right with the force of her muscles.'

Anyway, Justitia had a wide international distribution and was a big success, partly under the title 'Astrea'. With actor-director Ferdinando Guillaume, Astrea did two more films, L’ultima fiaba/The last fairy tale (1920) and I creatori dell’impossibile/The creators of the impossible (1922), presumably lost.

Vittorio Martinelli writes that the latter was a rather far-fetched farce, ‘so Countess B. retreated to the shadows, silently, leaving her crown of the queen of muscles, not permitting anybody to touch her privacy’.

NB. A French print titled 'Astrea' was found recently and shown at the 2010 Bologna festival Il Cinema Ritrovato; it might be L’ultima fiaba.

Sources: Alberto Farassino/Tatti Sanguineti (Gli uomini forti - Italian), Michele Giordano (Giganti buoni - Italian), and IMDb.

Austrian actress Gerda Maurus (1903-1968) was a star of the silent screen. With her protruded cheek bones and her forceful look she bewitched many men, including her director Fritz Lang and Nazi Minister Joseph Goebbels.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 727, 1925-1926. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3569/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Fritz Lang Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4254/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4874/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fritz Lang Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5463/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

Fritz Lang

Gerda Maurus was born as Gertrud Maria Pfiel in Breitenfurt, Austria, in 1903. She grew up in Wien (Vienna).

In 1918, the only 15 years old Gerda had her first engagement at one of the theatres of Vienna. As a stage actress she worked at the Volkstheater in München (Munich), in Nürnberg (Neurenberg) and from 1926 on at the Deutschen Theater in Berlin.

There she was discovered by director Fritz Lang, who choose her for the female leading role of a Russian spy in his next thriller, Spione/Spies (1928).

Spione was Lang’s first independent production. The years-ahead-of-its-time plotline involves Russian espionage activity in London. The mastermind is Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge), a supposedly respectable carnival sideshow entertainer. Heading the good guys is Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch), with the help of defecting Russian spy Sonya, played by Gerda Maurus.

The film moves swiftly to several potential climaxes, each one more exciting than its predecessor. According to Hal Erickson of AllMovie, “Haghi's ultimate demise is a superbly staged Pirandellian vignette. Anticipating Citizen Kane by a dozen years, director Lang dispenses with all transitional dissolves and fade-outs, flat-cutting territory from one scene to another”.

Gerda fascinated him thus that Lang finished his relationship with his partner and wife, Thea von Harbou, who had co-scripted Spione with him.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8667/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Cserepy-Normation-Film / NDLS.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5718. Photo: Förster / E. Schneider.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8061/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8250/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Pan Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8250/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Pan Film.

Countdown Before Blast-off

For Gerda Maurus her film debut was also her breakthrough. Her next film was the science-fiction film Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929), again with Willy Fritsch and again directed by Fritz Lang.

Frau im Mond is one of the first major films to dwell upon the possibility of space travel. Hal Erickson writes that it is, “like many of its modern-day counterparts, more successful on a special-effects level than it is in terms of character development”.

Among the many prescient aspects of the film is its use of a countdown before blast-off and its depiction of the effects of centrifugal force upon the lunar passengers. Willy Ley, later a leading light of the U.S. space program, served as technical adviser. Reportedly, Adolf Hitler was so overwhelmed by Frau im Mond that he used the rocket depicted in the film as the prototype for the dreaded V1 and V2 assault missiles.

In Frau im Mond Maurus joined the extra-terrestrial expedition in search of gold on the moon. And again she was a huge success.

The arrival of sound did certainly not finish Maurus’ film career. She starred as a film diva in the intricate murder mystery Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier/The Shot in The Talker Studio (Alfred Zeisler, 1930) set in the Ufa film studio in Babelsberg.

In Der Weisse Dämon/White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) she featured as a drug-addicted opera star, opposite Hans Albersand Peter Lorre.

During the Nazi period, the actress had a close contact with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. After Fritz Lang had emigrated in 1933, she reportedly often visited his salon. Her charms did not only turn Goebbels on but also the communist dramatist Friedrich Wolf.

In 1937 she married Robert A. Stemmle, who directed her in the film Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (1937). They would have a daughter, Philine, born in 1943.

Maurus appeared in more popular films like Der Dschungel ruft/The Call of the Jungle (Harry Piel, 1936), Grenzfeuer/Boundary Fire (Alois Johannes Lippl, 1939) and Die gute Sieben/The Lucky Seven (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1940), but none of these films came near to the great successes of her first films with Fritz Lang.

She concentrated on stage work and performed in Berlin, Wien, München and Düsseldorf. After 1945 Maurus played in only two more German pictures: the comedies Die Freunde meiner Frau/My Wife’s Friends (Hans Deppe, 1949) and Die kleine Stadt will schlafen gehen/The Little Town Wants To Sleep (Hans H. König, 1953).

Later she appeared in the TV-plays Wir sind noch einmal davongekommen/The Skin of our Teeth (Karl-Heinz Stroux, 1951) and one year later in Vor Sonnenuntergang/Before Sunrise (Karl-Heinz Stroux, 1962). Her last TV appearance was in a supporting part in Das Käthchen von Heilbronn/Cathy of Heibronn (1968), an adaptation of the classic play by Heinrich von Kleist.

Gerda Maurus died in 1968 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater / Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Böhm-Willott, Berlin. Collection: Miss Mertens.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5881/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Hegewald Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 612. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

The great Rudolf Klein-Rogge in the climax scene of Spione (1928). Source: Manferot (YouTube).

Launch of the rocket scene from Frau im Mond (1929). Source: Manferot (YouTube).

Landing of the rocket scene from Frau im Mond (1929). Source: Manferot (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Ukrainian-born actor Gregori Chmara (1882-1970) has sometimes been referred to as the Ivan Mozzhukhin of the German cinema. He is best remembered as the star of Robert Wiene's expressionistic classic Raskolnikow (1923) and as Asta Nielsen's co-star and lover in the 1920s.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1005/1, 1927-1928. Photo: A. Schein.

The Duse of the silent film

Gregori Chmara, a.k.a. Grigori Chmara, Grigori Khamara and Grégory Chmara, was born in Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), in 1882 (according to IMDb in 1893).

In 1910 he debuted at the Moscow Art Theatre, getting lead roles from 1912 on.

He made his film debut in the Russian production Sverchok na pechi (Boris Sushkevich, Aleksandr Uralsky, 1915), an adaptation of Charles Dickens'The Cricket on the Hearth. Chmara played opposite Maria Ouspenskaya and Michail Chekhov, a nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov, and both pupils of innovative theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski.

Chmara next played in Yevgeni Bauer's Koroleva ekrana/Queen of the Screen (1916) and some films of Joseph Soiffer.

After the Russian revolution, he moved to Germany, probably around 1921. Chmara became a popular star in Berlin with his gypsy songs, accompanying himself on the guitar. During one of these music nights he conquered Asta Nielsen, the Duse of the silent film. They became lovers, and stayed together for years without ever marrying.

In 1922 Nielsen provided Chmara his first German film role in Der Absturz/Downfall (Ludwig Wolff, 1923), a film produced by Nielsen herself. It was the start of a very productive period in Chmara's career.

In the expressionistic classic Rasknolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923), he played the title role, surrounded by an all-Russian cast. The film was an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

In I.N.R.I./Crown of Thorns (Robert Wiene, 1923), he played Jesus opposite Asta Nielsen as Maria Magdalena and Henny Portenas Mary. (Remarkable casting: Nielsen & Porten were rival stars in the 1910s.)

After this, seven more films followed with Asta Nielsen, culminating in a small part in Die freudlose Gasse/The Joyless Street (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925). Chmara then did not appear in films for a few years.

When he restarted in 1928 it was not opposite Nielsen anymore. This could be the result of a boycott against Nielsen in 1925-1927 because of her critique of the film industry. The right wing reaction against Die freudlose Gasse might have been another motive for his absence. Hugo Bettauer, the author of the novel on which Die freudlose Gasse was based, was murdered during the shooting of the film. Several countries forbade the film. Critics of the left heralded it instead.

When exactly Nielsen and Chmara did split is unknown. After 1927 Nielsen returned to the stage where she successfully acted for years, apart from her only sound film, Unmögliche Liebe/Crown of Thorns (Erich Waschneck, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1005/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Oertel, Berlin. Publicity still for Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Rasputin

In 1928 Gregori Chmara appeared in three German films. In the historical drama Dornenweg einer Fürstin/The Difficult Path of a Princess (Nikolai Larin, Boris Nevolin, 1929), he played Rasputin, the Russian mystic largely responsible for the 1917 collapse of the Romanov dynasty.

Chmara did one film in Poland, the crime mystery Mocny czlowiek/A Strong Man (Henryk Szaro, 1929), in which he had the leading role, and then he moved back to Germany to start making sound films.

He played in both the French and the German version of L'homme qui assassina/Der Mann der den Mord beging/The Man Who Committed the Murder (Curtis Bernhardt, 1930) starring Conrad Veidt.

Films followed like the comedy Peter Voss, der Millionendieb/Peter Voss, the Thief of Millions (Ewald André Dupont, 1932) starring Willi Forst, and Der Diamant des Zaren/The Diamond of the Czar (Max Neufeld, 1932) with Liane Haid.

In the same period, Chmara travelled around with the so-called Group of Prague, which consisted of fled Russian actors. In 1929 for instance they performed in Raskolnikow in Belgrade.

In 1933 Chmara met Lila Kedrova in Paris, during one of his theatre tours and she became his new lover until 1940. He introduced her to the Stanislavski Method. Chmara himself though was handicapped because he refused to learn French, and he thus survived singing in Russian cabarets.

In 1940 he met Vera Volmane, a Russian film journalist, and they became a couple. During and after the war she wrote sketches for him and adaptations of plays. Because of his strong accent Chmara's roles in post-war cinema and theatre were limited to exotic characters, though he also played the classic Russian and Scandinavian authors on stage.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1005/3, 1927-1928. Photo: A. Schein. Publicity still for Hedda Gabler (Franz Eckstein, 1925).

The Stanislavski Method

In post-war cinema, Gregori Chmara had small roles or even bit parts, from Un ami viendra ce soir/A Friend Will Come Tonight (Raymond Bernard, 1946) and Jo-la-Romance (Gilles Grangier, 1949) starring Georges Guétary to the Sartre adaptation Les mains sales/Dirty Hands (Fernand Rivers, Simone Berriau, 1951).

He played Elena's domestic in Elena et les hommes/Paris Does Strange Things (Jean Renoir, 1956) with Ingrid Bergman. He also had a bit part in the Swiss film Die Vier im Jeep/Four in a Jeep (Leopold Lindtberg, 1951), a drama about post-war Vienna, that won the Golden Bear at the first Berlin International Film Festival.

In the 1950s, Chmara was considered as one of the true heirs and pupils of Stanislavski. He gave acting lessons, e.g. to Pierre Brice.

Chmara had occasionally small film roles during the 1960's. These films included Arsène Lupin contre Arsene Lupin/Arsene Lupin vs. Arsene Lupin (Edouard Molinaro, 1962). His last role was a return to Raskolnikow, when he had a small role in Crime et châtiment/Crime and Punishment (Stellio Lorenzi, 1971), a French TV-version of Dostoyevsky's classic novel.

Before it aired, Gregory Chmara died in Paris in 1970. In 1979 Vera Volmane and film critic Charles Ford published Grégory Chmara, l'homme expressif. In 1980 Volmane and Ford introduced the Prix Grégory Chmara, for the best theatre or film actor and actress in a certain role of that year.

A tipsy Prince Cernuwicz played by Gregori Chmara in Der Mann, der den Mord beging/The Man Who Committed the Murder (1930), with Heinrich George and Conrad Veidt. Source: Parysia 77 (YouTube).

Another scene from Der Mann, der den Mord beging/The Man Who Committed the Murder (1930) with Gregori Chmara, Heinrich George and Conrad Veidt. Source: Parysia 77 (YouTube).

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia (Danish) and Russie-europe (French).

German actress Hanne Brinkmann (1895-1984) appeared in 24 silent films between 1914 and 1929. During the First World War, she was a popular comedian who had her own film series.

German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2237. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.

German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, nr. 501/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Mädel von nebenan (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Hella Moja in the foreground of the boat and Hanne Brinkmann in the background.

The girl next-door

Hanne or Hanna Brinkmann was born as Johanna Marie Luise Elisabeth Brinkmann in Hanover, Germany, in 1895.

Under her birth name, she started her career in 1913 on stage at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria.

After the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to Germany. In Berlin, she made her film debut in Lache, Bajazzo!/Laugh Pagliacci! (Richard Oswald, 1914).

Soon she played bigger roles in films like Das Mädel von nebenan/The girl next-door (Otto Rippert, 1917) starring Hella Moja, and Baroneßchen auf Strafurlaub/Little Baroness on criminal holiday (Otto Rippert, 1918) with Hans Albers.

During the war, Brinkmann developed into a popular comedian and in 1918, she starred in her own short-lived 'Hanne' series, especially tailored to her talents. The director of the series was actor-director was Reinhold Schünzel, who had already acted with her in Die ledige Frau/The unmarried woman (Rudolf del Zopp, 1917).

Schünzel and Brinkmann married in 1919. A year later, she played a small part in her husband’s historical film Katharina die Große/Catherine the Great (Reinhold Schünzel, 1920) starring Lucie Höflich, Fritz Kortner and Fritz Delius. The film was an epic portrayal of the life of Catherine the Great of Russia, for which 4,000 extras and 500 horses were used.

German postcard by NPG, no. 807. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 357/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

Mother and child

In the early 1920s, Hanne Brinkmann temporarily withdrew from show business to devote herself to the education of her daughter Anne Marie, who was born in 1922.

In 1924, Brinkmann returned to the screen and played a supporting part in the drama Mutter und Kind/Mother and Child (Carl Froelich, 1924) starring Henny Porten, Friedrich Kayßler and Wilhelm Dieterle. It was remade in 1934 as a sound film of the same title also starring Porten.

Brinkmann only played supporting parts from then on. One of her best known films was the historical drama Die Weber/The Weavers (Friedrich Zelnik a.k.a. Frederic Zelnik, 1927) starring Paul Wegener, an adaptation of the 1892 play by Gerhart Hauptmann based on a historical event. During the 1840s a group of Silesian weavers stage an uprising due to their concerns about the Industrial Revolution's impact of their lives.

In 1929 Brinkmann appeared opposite Georg Alexander in her last film, Was ist los mit Nanette?/What's up with Nanette? (Holger Madsen, 1929), and then retired from the cinema.

Later she divorced from Reinhold Schünzel, who emigrated in 1937 with their daughter to the US. Hanne Brinkmann died in 1984 in München (Munich), Germany.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 2239. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.

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

Polish singer and actress Helena Makowska (1893-1964) or Elena Malowska was a beautiful diva of the Italian silent cinema in the 1910s. She played the title role in the Ambrosio production La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917), based on a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio. The IPA produced for this silent drama a series of sepia postcards.

Gioconda 1. Helena Makowska as the model Gioconda Dianti

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3654, Censura S. Prefetti, Terni, 18-4-1917. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: 'The model Gioconda Dianti.' At the Forum Romanum, Rome. Helena Makowska in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3872, V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: "On the banks of the sweet Tuscan coast the sculptor Lucio Settala, his wife Silvia and their daughter Beata live. The latter has befriended the Little Siren, a strange beggar girl."Umberto Mozzato as Settala, Mercedes Brignone as his wife, Linda Pini as 'Sirenetta' in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3654, V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: "Lucio Settala in the happy intimacy of the family."Umberto Mozzato as Settala and Mercedes Brignone as his wife Silvia in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3880, V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: "The first encounter of Lucio Settala with Gioconda Dianti at the Fine Arts exhibition." Centre, Umberto Mozzato as Settala, right Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3661, Censura S. Prefetti, Terni, 18-4-1917. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: "Banquet in honour of Gioconda Dianti." In the back, centre, Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Seductive mistress

Famous sculptor Lucio Settala (Umberto Mozzato) lives on the Tuscan coast with his wife Silvia, daughter Beata and a beggar girl whom Beata befriends, la Sirenetta (Linda Pini).

At a Fine Arts exhibition, Lucio encounters the beautiful femme fatale Gioconda Dianti (Helena Makowska). She becomes his model for a statue of a female nude in an ecstatic pose.

More and more, Lucio falls in love with her and neglects his wife and child. Instead of his angelic wife (Mercedes Brignone), keeper of family values, he prefers his seductive mistress, the inspiration to his art. His wife suffers in silence.

At the convent of St. Mark, a monk tells Lucio and Gioconda the legend of an Egyptian mummy come to life (again played by Makowska) who becomes the voluptuous courtesan of the Pharaoh. When the people rebel against the Pharaoh’s spoiling of her, she shows herself just dressed in transparent veils to the rebels.

Silvia guards her husband’s abandoned studio, placing fresh flowers there. In the climax of the story, Silvia tries to regain her husband and struggles with the rival. In a moment of anger, Gioconda throws the statue on Silvia for which she has posed.

In order to save the masterpiece of her husband, Silvia sacrifices both her hands, reduced to stumps. His wife’s tragedy awakens the blinded infidel, who returns to the family hearth.

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3663, Censura S. Prefetti, Terni, 18-4-1917. Photo: Ambrosio. Caption: 'Lucio Settala presents maestro Lorenzo Gaddi the model Gioconda Dianti.'Umberto Mozzato as the sculptor Lucio Settala and Helena Makowska as the model in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3877. Photo: Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Caption: "Sculptor Lucio Settala feels his love for his model Gioconda Dianti is ever expanding."Umberto Mozzato as Lucio Settala and Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3876. Photo: Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Caption: "Lucio Settala is madly in love with his model Gioconda Dianti."Umberto Mozzato as Lucio Settala and Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3881. Photo: Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Caption: "And at home Lucio Settala didn't find rest nor peace." Standing right, Settala (Umberto Mozzato), sitting at the table his wife Silvia (Mercedes Brignone), and sitting on the (fore-)ground la Sirenetta (Linda Pini) in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3662. Photo: Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Caption: "Every night at the same hour, Gioconda Dianti, at the feet of the statue awaited the return of Lucio Settala."Helena Makowska as the model Gioconda Dianti in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Mixed feelings

In 1916 Eleuterio Rodolfi directed La Gioconda for the Ambrosio film studio. He had written the script himself and had based it on the homonymous play by Gabriele D’Annunzio.

The film premiered in Rome on 24 January 1917.

While the play by D’Annunzio, written in 1898 and first performed in 1899, was received rather coolly at its premiere, the film was received with more mixed feelings.

While the Turin based journal La vita cinematografica thought Helena Makowska had a perfect body but a wooden expression, the Naples based journal La Cine-Fono, already a few months before the first public screening, wrote appraisal for its adaptation of D'Annunzio's play (considered very suitable to be filmed because of its theatricality), but also lauded the actor's performances of Makowska, Mozzato and Brignone.

La Gioconda is now considered a lost film.

Gioconda 10. Mercedes Brignone and Umberto Mozzato in La Gioconda

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3670. Photo: Film della Soc. Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni, 5-10-1916. Caption: "And the heroic wife, who knew very well what was going on, suffered and waited in silence."Mercedes Brignone and Umberto Mozzato in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3662. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. ensura Terni, 18-4-1917. Caption: "The monk of the convent of St. Mark told the story of the golden scarabee."Helena Makowska as the model Gioconda Dianti but also as the Egyptian courtesan in the legend told, and left in the image Umberto Mozzato as the artist Lucio Settala in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3873. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Censura S. Prefett., Terni, 18-4-1917. Caption: "The resurrected mummy told the monk, refugee in the desert, the story of her ancient life: She had been a voluptuous courtesan who lived in the times of the great Pharaon."Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3879. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Censura S. Prefett., Terni, 5-10-1916. Caption: "... in order to satisfy the mad caprice of the courtesan..."Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3662. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Censura S. Prefett., Terni, 5-10-1916. Caption: "... he started to anger his subjects..."Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3874. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Caption: "At last the populace rebelled and invaded the palace furiously...! But the courtesan appeared to the rebels dressed only in veils!"Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3871. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Caption: "Sivia Settala deposes flowers in the studio of her husband, constating with great sadness, that he is ever more absent."Mercedes Brignone as Silvia Settala inLa Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Gioconda 18. Mercedes Brignone, La Gioconda

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3660. Photo: IPA CT. Censura Terni 18-4-1917. Caption: "Struck by grief, Silvia Settala falls on her knees, hiding her stumps in the folds of her clothes."Mercedes Brignone as Silvia Settala inLa Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1916 - Italian), Matilde Tortora (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Sweet 'little angel'Régine Dumien (1914-1979) was a popular child star of the French silent cinema of the early 1920s.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 111. Photo: Studio Rahma.

French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by Editions A.N., Paris, no. 101. Photo: Sartony.

To Be Or Not To Be

Régina France Dumien was born in Paris, France, in 1914. Six years later, she already made her film debut in the title role of Petit ange/Little Angel (Luitz-Morat, Pierre Régnier, 1920). Her role and the film were a huge success.

Famous film critic Louis Delluc wrote in the journal Paris-Midi (30-12-1920): "This pleasant film comedy represents the intelligent assimilation of the average American cinema. A detailed technique, a funny idea and ingeniously developed, a frank, lively, precise drawing, with taste, movement, and simplicity."

The following year, the 6-year-old Régine had a small part in a film by the famous avant-garde director Germaine Dulac, La mort du soleil/The Death of the Sun (1921) starring André Nox.

She then appeared with Rita Jolivet and Gabriel Signoret in the Film d’Art production Roger la Honte/Roger the Shame (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1922). That year she also appeared in the popular film serial Mysteries of Paris/Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) in the role of the young Fleur-de-Marie, played as an adult by Huguette Duflos.

She played the title role of La loupiote (Georges Hatot, 1922), written by Arthur Bernède and Aristide Bruant. In the Pathé Frères drama Être ou ne pas être/To Be of Not To Be (René Leprince, 1922), she starred opposite Léon Mathot and Renée Sylvaire.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 130.

Régine Dumien_Comoedia (Nos Artistes dans leur Loge; 18)

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 18. Photo: Comoedia. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Performing Arts / Artes Escénicas).

Pathé Baby

In 1923 Régine Dumien featured in the sequel to her first film: Petit ange et son pantin/Little Angel and her Puppet (Luitz-Morat, 1923).

That same year the now 9-years-old star could be seen in the Pathé Baby shorts La Tartine/Bread and Jam (1923) and Le Bon Oncle/The Good Uncle (1923) about an uncle who enjoys a beautiful siesta after lunch, but then has to cope with Régine's frolics.

In 1924 she appeared in four films: L'ombre du bonheur/The Shadow of Happiness (Gaston Roudès, 1924) with France Dhélia,Le chemin de Roseland/The Road of Roseland (Maurice Gleize, 1924), La joueuse d'orgue/The Organ Player (Charles Burguet, 1924), and Grand-mère/Grandmother (Albert-Francis Bertoni, 1924) with Constant Rémy.

This would also be her last film. Why stopped her film career then, when she was only 10 years old? The only further information on Régine Dumien that I could find on the web is that she died in 1979, in Villepinte, France, at the age of 64.

Renée Sylvaire. French postcard. Photo: Eclair.

France Dhélia. French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 122.

Sources: Henri Bousquet (De Pathé Frères à Pathé Cinéma), Grahame L. Newnham (Pathe Film), and IMDb.

Charles Martinelli (1882-1954) was a French actor, who became famous for his interpretation of Porthos in Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921).

French postcard by Editions Filma, no. 123. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Charles Martinelli as Porthos.

Silent Super-Serial

Charles Martinelli, whose real name was Charles Martinet, was born in Paris in 1882.

He started out as actor and singer, performing Panurge by Massenet and playing in Boubouroche by Georges Courteline. For then years he was the Chair of the Union des Artistes Français.

According to IMDb his first film part was in Le petit poucet/Tom Thumb (Robert Boudrioz, 1920), produced by Abel Gance. The year 1920 might be a mistake though, as the French magazine Cinéa of July 1922 announced that Martinelli would start to play the ogre while Christiane Delval played Tom Thumb. It also remarked that Martinelli was already known from his part of Porthos in Les trois mousquetaires (1921).

Indeed, it seems that Martinelli had his real breakthrough with the French historical adventure film Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921), directed by Henri Diamant-Berger and adapted from Alexandre Dumas père’s classic novel, published in 1844.

The script by Auguste Macquet follows the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas père very faithfully. Martinelli played the good-hearted, rotund Porthos, opposite Aimé Simon-Girard as D’Artagnan, Henri Rollan as Athos, Pierre de Guingand as Aramis, Edouard de Max as Richelieu, Pierrette Madd as Constance, Claude Merelle as Mylady De Winter, and Armand Bernard as Planchet.

Les trois mousquetaires had the gigantic budget of 2.5 million French francs. It has wonderful performances, great looking sets (partly filmed on locations as the Chenonceau castle, Chartres and the Pérouges citadel), and authentic recreations of 17th century costumes. Responsible for sets and costumes was the French reputed architect and designer Robert Mallet-Stevens.
The film was divided into one-hour chapters, designed to be released as a serial in consecutive weeks over a three-month period. This silent super-serial was produced by Pathé Frères.

Parallel to Diamant-Berger’s version, Fred Niblo shot a rival version in the US starring Douglas Fairbanks as D’Artagnan, The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921). Though entertaining, it was much more loosely adapted. The success of Les trois mousquetaires was aided by an arrangement with United Artists that kept Fairbanks’s The Three Musketeers from being distributed in France and much of Europe.

All copies of the 1921 version were thought to be destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War, but in 1995 a print was rediscovered, and remastered into a new version. It was already the second adaptation of the famous adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas père, after a first adaptation in 1913, but it wouldn’t be the last either.

In 1933 Henri Diamant-Berger made a new, sound version of Les trois mousquetaires. While Thomy Bourdelle now played Porthos, Aimé Simon-Girard starred again as D' Artagnan, Henri Rollan returned as Athos, and Henry Baudin also reprised his role as Le comte de Rochefort.

The succes of the 1921 version pushed Pathé in filming Dumas’ sequel Vingt ans après as well, which was released in 1922 and was again directed by Diamant-Berger. Martinelli remained as Porthos, and Rolland, Guingand and Bernard returned, but D’Artagnan was played by Jean Yonnel.

French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921). The four musketeers were played by Aimé Simon-Girard (D'Artagnan), Henri Rollan (Athos), Pierre de Guingand (Aramis) and Charles Martinelli (Porthos).

French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921).

Mad Scientist

Charles Martinelli remained attached to Diamant-Berger’s films in 1921-1923, mostly comedies. He had the lead in the adaptation of the play Boubouroche (1921). Before, he had already starred in the play on stage.

He also acted in Diamant-Berger’s Le mauvais garçon (1923), Gonzague (1923), Jim Bougne, boxeur (1923), L’accordeur (1923) and L’affaire de la rue de Lourcine (1923), all starring Maurice Chevalier, and Le roi de la vitesse (1923), starring Pierre de Guingand.

In those films, several of the actors of Les trois mousquetaires and Vingts ans après returned, including Pierrette Madd, Marguerite Moreno and Louis Préfils. They were joined by popular vaudeville comedians like Georges Milton and Florelle, who started their film careers here.

Martinelli then did three comedies with Robert Saidreau: Ma tante d’Honfleur (1923), A la gare (1923, released 1925) and Le fil à la patte (1923), all with Armand Bernard.

In 1924 Martinelli played the mad scientist in the classic Paris qui dort (René Clair, 1924). In this mad cap science fiction film all the Parisians are in a state of Sleeping Beauty-like sleep. A few odd outsiders are awake, including the man on the Eiffel Tower, played by Henri Rollan, and a pilot (Albert Préjean) and his passengers. Préjean had started his career in Diamant-Berger’s Les trois mousquetaires and had become a regular of his comedies as well. Paris qui dort was also produced by Henri Diamant-Berger’s company, Films Diamant.

After that Martinelli did one last film in the silent era, playing Farigoule in La Tournée Farigoule (Marcel Manchez, 1926), with Madeleine Guitty and Jane Pierson.

In the sound era Martinelli played in three films of the 1930s. He was the head of police in G.W. Pabst’s Don Quichotte (1932, released 1933), starring Feodor Chaliapine as Don Quichotte and Dorville as Sancho Panza.

He played the emperor in the Franco-German coproduction Tambour battant (André Becler, Arthur Robison, 1933), starring Georges Rigaud, Josseline Gaël and Françoise Rosay.

His last part was in the comedy Un fichu métier (Pierre-Jean Ducis, 1938), starring Lucien Baroux.

Charles Martinelli died in Paris in 1954.

Since 1908 he was married to Germaine Jobert,who was a highly acclaimed concert singer during the interbellum years. Their son, Jean Martinelli, was born in 1909. For 21 years, he was a sociétaire of the Comédie Française, and afterwards he had an excellent career in private theatres, film and television. He died in 1983.

French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still for Vingt ans après/The Return of the Musketeers (1922, Henri Diamant-Berger). Collection: Didier Hanson. The four musketeers were played by Jean Yonnel (D'Artagnan), Henri Rollan (Athos), Pierre de Guingand (Aramis) and Charles Martinelli (Porthos).

French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still for Vingt ans après/The Return of the Musketeers (1922, Henri Diamant-Berger). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Cineressources (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

This weekend I watched the Italian mini-series Le Ragazze dello Swing/The swing girls (Maurizio Zaccaro, 2010) . It is based on the Trio Lescano story, about three Dutch sisters singing Italian swing and jazz during the Musolini era. The wonderful series featured Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt as Alessandra and Dutch actresses Lotte Verbeek as Giuditta and Elise Schaap as Caterinetta. The songs were not performed by the actresses but by the group The Blue Dolls. Wow, how it swinged. And now I can't get their hit 'Tullipan' out of my head: Tulli-Tulli-Tullipan...

Caterinetta Lescano. Italian postcard by Aser, Roma, no. N 0012.

The Sunday Sisters

Trio Lescano was a trio of Dutch sisters singing Italian swing: Alexandra (1910-1987), Judith (several sources say Judik) (1913-2007), and Kitty Leschan (1919-1965), whose names were Italianized into Alessandra, Giuditta and Caterinetta (Caterina) Lescano.

The three girls were born in Gouda (Alexandra) and The Hague. Their parents were August Alexander Leschan, a Budapest-born contortionist, and Eva de Leeuw (1892-1985), a Dutch Jewish operetta singer. They grew up in the Netherlands, where two of them worked with their mother as acrobats under the name 'The Sunday Sisters'.

They arrived in Italy in 1935, and started to dance in a variety show. They were discovered by Carlo Prato, artistic director of the Turin department of the EIAR radio (later the RAI). Soon they became known as background vocalists under the name of Trio Lescano.

They made their first record in 1936 for Parlophone, ‘Guarany Guarana’. The next year they became part of the popular Cetra Orchestra, directed by Pippo Barzizza. In 1938 they had their breakthrough with the song ‘E arrivato l’Ambasciatore’.

That year, they also made their film debut with an appearance in the drama L'argine/The Dyke (Corrado D'Errico, 1938) starring Luisa Ferida and Gino Cervi. In 1942, they also appeared in Pazzo d'amore/Crazy Love (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1942) starring Renato Rascel.

The Trio Lescano's style was based on sophisticated vocal virtuosity - a technique called ‘vocalese’ - on swing and jazz harmonisations. Their greatest hits include ‘Signorine Grandi Firme’, ‘Maramao perché sei morto’, ‘Ma le gambe’, ‘Pippo non lo sa’, ‘Camminando sotto la pioggia’, ‘La famiglia canterina’, ‘C’è un’orchestra sincopata’, Il pinguino innamorato’, and 'Ciribiribin'.

And of course 'Tullipan', a cover of Tulip Time by the Andrews Sisters, which sold more than 350.000 records in Italy.

Caterinetta Lescano. Italian postcard by Aser, Roma, no. N 0019. Photo: E.I.A.R. / Romeo.

The three graces of the microphone

In 1941 the Lescano sisters became Italian citizens. This made big news on the Italian papers, who had invented for them such definitions as ‘the three graces of the microphone’, ‘the century's sensation’ and 'the sisters who materialize the mystery of the heavenly trinity’.

Even Benito Mussolini, passing by their balcony one day, reportedly recognized them and stopped to greet them. But just a year later, their golden period ended. In 1942, the radio bosses sent the three sisters away because their mother was Jewish.

A year later North Italy was occupied by the Germans. According to Allessandra, the Lescano sisters were arrested on suspicion of espionage. The accusation was that their songs contained encoded messages for the enemy.

Immediately after the war, their comeback was not very successful so they decided to try their luck elsewhere. Caterinetta left the trio and tried a solo career. In 1947, the two other sisters left for Argentina, where they toured for several years. Caterinetta was replaced by the Italian singer Maria Bria. Their artistic career in Latin America continued until the mid-fifties. Then, the ladies took up ordinary jobs and split up.

They were rediscovered after the Dutch documentary film Tulip Time: The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano (Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis, 2008), which premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2008.

In 2010, the Italian television produced the mini-series Le Ragazze dello Swing/The swing girls (Maurizio Zaccaro, 2010) based on the Lescano story. It featured Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt as Alessandra and Dutch actresses Lotte Verbeek as Giuditta and Elise Schaap as Caterinetta. The mother of the Lescano girls was played by Sylvia Kristel, in her final role.

The actresses did not sing themselves, the songs were performed by the group The Blue Dolls. Outside Italy, the series was released on DVD.

Trio Lescano sings Ultimissime (1938) by Ansaldo, with the orchestra of Pipo Barzizza. Source: Kaatjeaster (YouTube).

Trio Lescano sings Oh! Mama. Clip from Tulip Time: The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano. Source: Kaatjeaster (YouTube).

Scene from Le Ragazze dello Swing/The swing girls (Maurizio Zaccaro, 2010). Source: Distratta80 (YouTube).

The Blue Dolls sing Maramao Perchè Sei Morto?. Source: The Blue Dolls (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

Brazilian born French actress and screenwriter Véra Clouzot (1913-1960) only appeared in three films. Despite her very short career, she starred in such unforgettable classics as Le Salaire de la Peur/The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques/Diabolique (1955). All her films were directed by her husband, French master of suspense Henri-Georges Clouzot.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 492. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Coup de Foudre

Véra (also Vera) Clouzot was born as Véra Gibson-Amado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1913.

She was the daughter of one of Brazil's most notorious political figures, Gilberto Amado. Amado was a congressman, writer, journalist and lawyer, and the ex-President of the United Nations' International Law Committee. In 1915, he shot to death fellow writer and poet Aníbal Teóphilo in an official ceremony at the Jornal do Commercio for disagreeing with his opinions on literature. Amado was acquitted.

His daughter met in 1941 the French actor Léo Lapara. He was a member of the theatre company of Louis Jouvet, which happened to be on tour in Rio de Janeiro. They married shortly after and she then joined the company for a tour in South America that lasted for nearly four years.

After the Second World War they returned to France and Vera settled in Paris. Louis Jouvet took over the direction of the Theatre Athenée and he continued to give Véra small roles.

In 1947, Lapara played a role in the film Quai des Orfevres/Quay of the Goldsmiths (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947). When Véra met the director on the set it was a ‘coup de foudre’: love at first sight. Clouzot hired her as a script girl for his next film Miquette et sa mere/Miquette (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1949) starring Louis Jouvet. Vera divorced Lapara, and in 1950 she married Clouzot.

French postcard by Cinédis. Clouzot is coiffed as her character in Le Salaire de la Peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953).

The French Hitchcock

Véra Clouzot would play the female lead in her husband's next film, Le Salaire de la Peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953).

Her co-stars in this magnificent thriller (#166 in IMDb’s Top 250) were Charles Vanel and Yves Montand. They played Frenchmen stranded in South-America, who are hired to transport an urgent nitro-glycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.

Véra Clouzot did her own stunts in the film, which included getting on a moving truck and being pushed away to the ground.

IMDb reviewer Dennis Littrell writes about her performance: “Véra Clouzot plays Linda who first appears scrubbing the floor in an open-air bistro. She is rather extraordinary herself, finely made up and creamy white like a star of the silent film era. She grovels a lot, especially for Mario (Montand). She provides the counter-point, the contrast for the testosterone action of the movie.”

At AllMovie, Hal Erickson adds about the film: “The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations. The second half -- the drive itself -- is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses.”

Le Salaire de la Peur was the winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival and made Henri-Georges Clouzot known as ‘the French Hitchcock’.

Yves Montand. German postcard by Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, nr. FK 658. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris. Publicity still for Le salaire de la peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953).

Diabolique

Véra Clouzot’s most famous film is undoubtedly her next, Les Diaboliques/Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955).

This horror thriller (#179 in IMDb’s Top 250) was an adaptation of a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, on whose novel D'Entre Les Morts (Among the Deaths) Alfred Hitchcock later based Vertigo (1958).

Clouzot played the long-suffering invalid wife of a cruel headmaster (Paul Meurisse). She conspires with his mistress (Simone Signoret) to kill him. After the murder is committed, his body disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.

Véra Clouzot then appeared in a supporting part in her husband’s next film, Les espions/The Spies (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1957), starring Curd Jürgens and Peter Ustinov. She played a mute mental patient in this parody of espionage and political ideology set in a nursing home. It would be the last film in which she could be seen.

However she contributed to another film of her husband. She co-wrote the screenplay for La vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960). In this film Brigitte Bardot played a girl on trial for the murder of her lover.

In 1960 Véra Clouzot suddenly died of a heart attack in Paris. A morbid detail was that her character in Les Diaboliques had died the same way. Véra Clouzot was only 47.

In 1977 Hollywood remade Le Salaire de la Peur as Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) and two decades later followed a Hollywood remake of Les Diaboliques, Diabolique (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1996) with Sharon Stone as the mistress and Isabelle Adjani in Véra Clouzot’s role. Both remakes could not stand in the shadow of the original versions.

German postcard by Film und Bild, Berlin, no. A 816. Photo: Lucienne Chevert / Unifrance film.

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

The exotic French actress and dancer Stacia Napierkowska (1886-1945) was a fascinating star of the silent film era. Between 1908 and 1926 she appeared in 86 films, and is best remembered as the seductive but cruel Queen Antinéa in the classic fantasy L’Atlantide/Missing Husbands (1921).

French postcard in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma by A.N., Paris, no. 50. Photo: Sobol.

French postcard by MvB, no. 3016. Mailed in 1908.

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 207. Photo: Comoedia.

Indescribable Enthusiasm

Stacia Napierkowska was born Renée Claire Angèle Élisabeth Napierkowski in Paris, France, in 1886 (some sources say 1891; and in the magazine Mon Ciné (no. 17, 1922) she even declared to be born in 1896). Her parents were Polish.

Like Mistinguett, she debuted as a dancer in the revues of the Folies-Bergère. Then she danced in a revival of Lysistrata by Maurice Donnay at the Bouffes-Parisiens. Albert Carré director of the Opéra Comique spotted her and engaged her for the production Fêtes Romaines (Roman Holiday), which he presented at the Théâtre Antique d'Orange.

Her performance, but especially her statuesque body and her beauty, triggered an indescribable enthusiasm from thousands of spectators. The public’s fascination for her would endure for twenty years.

In 1908, when she was already a star dancer at the Opéra Comique, Napierkowska made her film debut in L'empreinte ou la main rouge/The mark or The Red Hand (Paul Henri Burguet, 1908) with Max Dearly and Mistinguett. Philippe Pelletier at Ciné Artistes writes that “her perfect physique, her long black hair and dark eyes were quickly put to use to interpret exotic roles for productions of the Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres (Film Society of Authors and Men of Letters) directed by Albert Capellani”.

Here she often inserted dances into her performances as in Dans l'Hellade/In Hellas (Charles Decroix, 1909), Cléopâtre/Cleopatra (Ferdinand Zecca, Henri Andréani, 1910) where she is a messenger who is poisoned and dances a dance of death, and Le pain des petits oiseaux/The Bread of Little Birds (Albert Capellani, 1911), in which she becomes a dance star.

Several internet sources like Philippe Pelletier at Ciné-Artistes state that Stacia performed Queen Semiramis in Le sérail en dix volets/Sémiramis (Camille Morlhon, 1910), but that is incorrect - existing film copies show that the role was played by Yvonne Mirval. Stacia instead was a very voluptuous - and again dancing - Esmeralda in an early silent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris/ The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Albert Capellani, 1911), opposite Henry Krauss as Quasimodo.

French postcard, 1904. Mailed in 1908.

French postcard by MvB, no. 3016.

French postcard by Pathé Frères. Photo: A. Bert.

American Censors

Max Linder, always looking for pretty women, engaged Stacia Napierkowska as his partner in several short comedies like Max lance la mode/Max Sets the Fashion (René Leprince, Max Linder, 1912). In Spain she did a dance tour and appeared in the film Max toréador (Max Linder, 1913).

Stacia Napierkowska then set course to the United States with The Captive. This ballet captured the American public, but not the censors. In 1913, she was arrested during a performance in New York City which was declared indecent. After returning to France, Napierkowska stated in the New York Times (27 April 1913): "Really, I have not brought away a single pleasant memory from the United States" and "What a narrow-minded people they are -- how utterly impervious to any beautiful impression!"

In France her successful film career continued. She appeared as Marfa Koutiloff in the popular serial Les Vampires/The Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915) starring the equally exotic Musidora.

Then she went immediately to Rome to star in Lo stratagemma di Stasià/Stacia’s Stratagem (Ugo Falena, 1915) and a score of other Italian short films during the early years of World War I.

In Rome, she tried to convince her close friend, journalist Germaine Dulac, to start making films. Dulac finally agreed on condition that Stacia would participate in her second film, the adventure Venus Victrix/In the storm of life (Germaine Dulac, 1917).

Napierkowska also directed a short silent film herself, L'Héritière de la manade/The Heiress of the Manade (Stacia Napierkowska, 1917). Then she then took a break from the cinema and ballet to rest.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 229. Sent by mail in 1928. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.

French postcard by Editions Filma in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no. 14. Photo: Films Eclipse.

French postcard for the Louis Aubert production L'Atlantide (1921) by Jacques Feyder, based on the novel by Pierre Benoit. The card depicts the French captain Morhange (Jean Angelo) received by the mysterious and cruel desert queen Antinéa (Stacia Napierkowska). The sets were by Manuel Orazi.

Queen of Atlantis

Stacia Napierkowska is probably best known for her role as Antinéa, Queen of Atlantis, in the fantasy film L'Atlantide/Missing Husbands (Jacques Feyder, 1921). The director approached her for this part in 1919.

IMDb cites director Jacques Feyder about this meeting: "Miss Napierkowska was an extraordinary dancer. I had seen her at a dance festival where she, as slim as a flower stalk, had been enthusiastically applauded by a crowd of Parisians admirers. A year later, having to choose actors for L'Atlantide, I proposed her for the leading part of Antinéa and the producer agreed; so, in a cold December afternoon, she was in my office, all wrapped in a fur coat, to sign the contract. I thought I did not remember so a plump face but my doubt vanished in a moment because I was too happy for having her in my film, and she left the office without having put off her coat. The first costume rehearsal was an ugly surprise for me: during last year she had gained a thirty pounds of weight at least. Of course there was nothing to do but hoping that a hard work and the burning sun of Sahara could get my Antinéa a little less fat. It happened just the opposite: the air of the desert whetted her appetite more and more. The dresser complained for having to enlarge the costumes almost every day. Our headquarters were at Touggourt, in a hotel where the food was simply delicious, and because of it my most important occupations were to take away as much bread as possible from her table and tell her dreadful tales about the terrible effects of cream pastry when eaten under the tropical sun".

Despite an exuberance of boas, ostrich feathers and leopard skins, the filmmaker struggled to hide the overweight of his Diva during the shooting in 1920. Finally, she would not dance in the film and merely played the vamp with her eyes. However, L'Atlantide/Atlantis became a great success and turned Stacia Napierkowska into one of the legends of the silent cinema.

Napierkowska made a few more films. Her last screen role was Salomé in Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926) starring Léon Mathot. After that she retired. Philippe Pelletier writes that she “then quickly sank into oblivion.”

Stacia Napierkowska died in 1945 in her hometown Paris.

Scene from Les Vampires/The Vampires (1915). Source: cidvale (YouTube).

Scene from L'Atlantide/Missing Husbands (1921). Source: astique 333 (YouTube).

Sources: Philippe Pelletier (Ciné Artistes) (French), Mon Ciné (Virtual History), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Beautiful silent film actress Carmen Cartellieri (1891-1953) was a star of many Austrian dramas and melodramas of the early 1920s.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 315. Photo: Residenz-Atelier, Vienna.

Kill Her!

Carmen Cartellieri was born as Franziska Ottilia Cartellieri in Prossnitz, Austria-Hungary (now Prostejov, Czech Republic) in 1891. She was the daughter of an engineer and grew up in Innsbruck and other places.

At the age of 16 she got married to chemist, painter, inventor and for a while film director Mano Ziffer-Teschenbruk, and in the early 1910s their daughter was born.

Carmen stayed a hausfrau till 1918, when Tyrolean director and script writer Cornelius Hintner discovered her by accident. He offered her a part in the Hungarian film Az összeesküvök/The conspirators (Emil Justitz, 1919), for which he had written the script.

After her six more Hungarian films under the stage name Carmen Teschen, the political situation caused her to move from Budapest to Vienna. There she appeared in Hintner's Anjula, das Zigeunermädchen/Anjula, the Gypsy Girl (Cornelius Hintner, 1919) and Die Würghand/The Strangling Hand (Cornelius Hintner, 1920).

The Viennese public liked her and she was chosen as 'the most beautiful actress of Vienna'. Next she starred in Carmen lernt Schifahren/Carmen Learns To Ski (Mano Ziffer-Teschenbruk, 1920), directed by her husband and produced by her own newly established film company.

For Cartellieri-Film, the actress subsequently played in Der weisse Tod/The White Death (1921), Das Drama in den Dolomiten/The Tragedy in the Dolomites (Cornelius Hintner, 1921), Parema - Das Wesen aus der Sternenwelt/Parema, Creature from the Starworld (Mano Ziffer-Teschenbruk, 1922), Die gelbe Gefahr/The Yellow Danger (1922), and Die Sünde der Inge Lars/The Sin of Inge Lars (Mano Ziffer-Teschenbruk, 1922).

In the meantime she also played in one German film shot in Berlin, Büsse der Leidenschaft (Paul von Woringen, 1920), as well as in the Austrian production Der tote Hochzeitsgast/The Dead Wedding Guest (1921) by Max Neufeld, a film director with whom she would frequently collaborate.

After Cartellieri-Film stopped, Cartellieri continued to work at other minor Austrian companies: Töte sie!/Kill Her! (Cornelius Hintner, 1922), Die Sportlady/The Sporting Lady (Cornelius Hintner, 1922), Die Menschen nennen es Liebe/People Call It Love (Mano Ziffer-Teschenbruk, 1922) with Fred Louis Lerch, Die Frauen des Harry Bricourt/The Wives of Harry Bricourt (Richard Arvay, 1922) starring Anton Tiller, Eines Vaters Söhne/Son of a Father (Paul Garbagni, 1923) with Olaf Fjord, Fiat Lux (Wilhelm Thiele, 1923) opposite Hella Moja, Was ist Liebe...?/What is Love...? (Leopold Niernberger, 1924), Die Geheimnis der Schrift/The secret of the Writing (Dezsö Kertész, 1924) with Erika Glässner, and Die Tragödie einer Frau/The Tragedy of a Woman (Dezsö Kertész, 1924) with Max Landa.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 989. Photo: Residenz Atelier, Wien.

Yugoslavian postcard by Jos. Caklovic, Zagreb, no. 26. Photo: Pan-Film, Zagreb.

The Hands of Orlac

In 1924 Carmen Cartellieri played in the expresionistic horror classic Orlacs Hande/The Hands of Orlac by reputed director Robert Wiene. Conrad Veidt featured as a famous pianist whose hands have been replaced by those of a murderer.

The Austrian-German coproduction was shot in Vienna, but for Cartellieri it did not result in a one way ticket to Babelsberg. She basically remained in Vienna to act in Austrian films, until the end of the silent era.

Sometimes she worked with renowned directors such as Max Neufeld in Der Balletherzog (1926) co-starring Werner Pittschau, and again with Wiene in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight Of The Rose (1925), based on the opera by Richard Strauss and written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the opera's librettist.

During the 1920s she also worked in the theatre. She often appeared at the Ronacher theater in Vienna, but she was also seen in the 1926 Pantomime Der Todesring (The Ring of Death).

Cartellieri acted in a handful of films in Munich for the Emelka company, such as Die Hölle von Montmartre/The Hell of Montmartre (Willy Reiber, Frans Seitz, 1927), where she played oposite Suzy Vernon, and she made one more film in Berlin, Madame wagt einen Seitensprung/Madame Ventures an Affair (Hans Otto Löwenstein, 1927) with Xenia Desni.

Then the era of the silent cinema was over and so was Cartellieri's film career. But she retired with a bang, while her ler last appearance was a plum role in the Mayerling drama Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg/The Destiny of the Von Habsburgs (1928).

Little is known about her later life. Carmen Cartellieri died in Vienna in 1953.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 687. Photo: Residenz-Atelier / Hugo Engel-Filmproduktion. Publicity still for Die Familie ohne Moral/The family without morals (Max Neufeld, 1927). Collection: Didier Hanson.

DVD trailer of Orlacs Hände/The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924). Source: Kino International (YouTube).

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

Today's film special is about a typical European phenomenon: Angélique. The feisty heroin of the romantic adventure novels by Anne and Serge Colon was the subject of five popular films of the 1960s. Michèle Mercier played the 'Marquise of the Angels', and she was surrounded by a dozen of hunky co-stars, including Giuliano Gemma, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Samy Frey, Jean-Claude Pascal and of course Robert Hossein as Angélique's husband, the scarred Joffrey De Peyrac.

Michèle Mercier. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 25/71, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.

Robert Hossein. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 32/71. Retail price: 0,20 M.

An Overnight Success

The Angélique phenomenon started as a series of 13 French historical adventure books by Anne and Serge Golon. In fact, Anne Golon is the author and her husband Serge did much of the historical research.

The first novel, Angélique, the Marquise of the Angels, was published in 1957. The book was an overnight success.

Heroin Angélique de Sancé de Monteloup is a lusciously beautiful 17th Century woman, fifth child of an impoverished country nobleman in the Poitou marshlands in the west of France.

Wikipedia gives a bit ironic summary of the successive books: "she marries at a young age the romantic and talented Count of Toulouse; gets her domestic bliss destroyed when King Louis XIV has her husband executed on trumped up charges; descends into the underworld of Paris; emerges and through a turbulent second marriage gets admittance to the court in Versailles; loses her second husband in war, just as she had started to truly love him, and subsequently refuses to become the King's mistress; finds that her first husband is after all alive and is hiding somewhere in the Mediterranean; sets out on a highly risky search, gets captured by pirates, sold into slavery in Crete, taken into the harem of the King of Morocco, stabs the King when he tries to have sex with her, and stages a daring escape" etc.

Robert Hossein, Michèle Mercier. Romanian mini-card.

Michèle Mercier and Sami Frey in Angelique et le roy, 1966

Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Angélique et le roy/Angelique and the King (Bernard Borderie, 1966) with Michèle Mercier and Samy Frey.

Unique flair for historical costume dramas

Some of the Angélique novels were adapted into a series of 5 popular films:

Angélique, Marquise des Anges/Angélique (1964).
Merveilleuse Angelique/Angelique: The Road to Versailles (1965).
Angélique et le roy/Angelique and the King (1966).
Indomptable Angelique/Untamable Angelique (1967).
Angélique et le sultan/Angelique and the Sultan (1968).

According to James Travers at French Film Site, Angélique, Marquise des Anges/Angélique is notably the best of the series: "the adventures of a beautiful 17th century marquise, Angélique, played magnificently by Michèle Mercier. Although rarely seen outside of continental Europe, these films were very successful in France in the 1960s and display that country's unique flair for historical costume dramas."

The films were a joint production of France, Italy and Germany. Director of the whole series of films was Bernard Borderie and the main stars were Michèle Mercier as Angélique Sancé de Monteloup and Robert Hossein as Jeoffrey de Peyrac.

Other characters were played by Jean Rochefort as Desgrez, Giuliano Gemma as Angelique's childhood friend Nicolas Merlot, Jacques Toja as King Louis XIV, Claude Giraud as Angélique's second husband Philippe de Plessis-Bellières, Jean-Louis Trintignant as the poet Claude le Petit, Samy Frey as Bachtiary Bey, Estella Blain as the evil Madame De Montespan, Fred Williams as Ràkóczi, and in the final film Jean-Claude Pascal as Sultan Osman Ferradji.

Michèle Mercier. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 35/71, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Publicity still for Indomptable Angelique/Untamable Angelique (Bernard Borderie, 1967) with Robert Hossein.

New Hope

The first 10 books have been adapted into English while numbers 11-13 have not. For those English readers, who have waited over thirty-five years to read the conclusion of the Angélique series, there is new hope.

According to Wikipedia, Anne Golon has announced that she will re-publish the Angélique books, restoring the lacunae missing from her original manuscripts because of professional editing.

She plans to title this version L'Integrale (complete works). Anne Golon explained that there is much material that has never been published and which will tie into two later, and still unwritten, books in the series.

These two books will follow the original series: Royaume de France (Kingdom of France), and a fifteenth and final volume, as yet untitled, to complete the series.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 277. Photo: publicity still for Angelique et le sultan/Angelique and the Sultan (Bernard Borderie, 1968) with Robert Hossein.

Michèle Mercier, Jean-Claude Pascal, Angélique et le sultan.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Angelique et le sultan/Angelique and the sultan (Bernard Borderie, 1968) with Michèle Mercier and Jean-Claude Pascal.

A Turkish Angélique

The Angélique films were popular all over Europe. They were also very popular in Central Europe where the postcards used for this post were published, by Progress in East-Germany and by Acin in Romania.

During the 1970s, all the kids at my school were exited to see the Angélique films when they were shown on Dutch television. Romance, adventure, and a tiny bit of nudity. We loved it.

To my surprise, two Turkish Angélique films exist as well: Anjelik Osmanli saraylarinda/Angélique in the Ottoman Palaces (Ülkü Erakalin, 1967) and Anjelik ve Deli Ibrahim/Angelique and Deli Ibrahim (Süha Dogan, 1968), both starring Sevda Ferdag as Anjelik 'Angélique de Peyrac'. The first film gets a 7,9 rating at IMDb.

In 2013, a remake of Angélique, marquise des anges went in premiere: Angélique (Ariel Zeitoun, 2013). Nora Arnezeder played Angelique and Gérard Lanvin Joffrey de Peyrac.

At IMDb, the film received a poor rating of only 5,6, but Polish reviewer Malgga liked it 'very, very much': "A beautiful, engaging and immensely romantic rendition of the 'Beauty and the Beast' fairy tale motive".

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Angelique et le sultan/Angelique and the sultan (Bernard Borderie, 1968) with Michèle Mercier.

Sources: James Travers (French Film Site), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Today is the 79th birthday of Alain Delon (1935). The French film star was a breathtakingly good-looking parasite in the sun drenched thriller Plein soleil/Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960). The 'male Brigitte Bardot' proved to be a magnificent actor in masterpieces as Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) and L'Eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962). Unforgettable was his part as the calm, psychopathic hoodlum in Le Samouraï/The Godson (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), staring into the camera like a cat assessing a mouse. Bon anniversaire, monsieur Delon!

French postcard by St. Anne, Marseille. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1383. Photo: Unifrance Film / Ufa.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken / 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3918. Photo: N.V. Meteor Film / Speva / Play Art Prod. Publicity still for Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958) with Romy Schneider.

Dutch postcard, no. AX 3981. Photo: Sam Lévin / Speva / Play Art Prod / Meteor Film. Publicity still for Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1004. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1252. Photo: Sam Lévin / Ufa.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 852. Photo: Sam Lévin.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1967. retail price: 0,20 MDN.Photo: publicity still for Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2529, 1965. retail price: 0,20 MDN.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 6176.

French postcard by Mexichrome, no. 13. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 469. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1161, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane. Photo: Pierre Manciet.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 936, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Ind. Graf., Barcelona, no. 463, 1967.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 60/77, 1977. retail price: 0,20 M.

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. STAR 40.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3453. Photo: Michel Ginfray.

Wanna more? Join the birthday bash at the Alain Delon group at Flickr.

We received concerned mails from all over the world about the Moscow Cinema Museum (Musei Kino). On 27 October 2014, the entire professional staff of the museum - 22 employees, including all curators, archivists and film programmers - resigned their posts. It was impossible for them to continue their work under the new leadership of the Museum. On 1 July 2014, the Ministry for Culture had chosen not to extend the contract of Naum Kleiman, one of the founders of the Moscow Cinema Museum and its director for over 25 years. Kleiman is also the world's leading Eisenstein scholar, director of the Eisenstein-Centre and winner of the Jean Mitry Award in 1994. Instead, a new director was appointed: Larisa Solonitsyna, editor in chief of the newspaper SK News, the official publication of the Association of Filmmakers of the Russian Federation. Reportedly, this was a very unhappy match. Since then, the work of the Museum is paralyzed, current matters are not being solved, partners are renouncing further cooperation. Kleiman and the museum staff received solidarity from all over the world, including an open letter to Dmitri Medvedev about Russian film heritage from documentary maker Mark Cousins, actress Tilda Swinton and Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux on Thursday 30 October. The staff also received a proposal from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, which is planning to create a cinema department. This museum proposes to make the Moscow Cinema Museum a part of its structure: a big developing museum association under its aegis, what gives the Moscow Cinema Museum a possibility to obtain its autonomous building with exhibitions and film programs. The Moscow Cinema Museum summons their museum colleagues, researchers, filmmakers and film-lovers all over the world to support this initiative by sending a comment of support to pr_museikino@mail.ru or help.cinemamuseum@gmail.com. We hope Mr. Kleiman and his staff can continue their good work. This post is a salute to them and to the Russian film heritage. The classic Russian and Soviet postcards are from Didier Hanson's wonderful collection and from ours.

Vladimir Maksimov, Vera Kholodnaya, Vitold Polonsky, Ivan Khudoleyev, Ossip Runitsch, Petr Cardynin, Ivan Mozzhukin

A Who is Who of the Russian silent cinema. In a circle from left: actor Vladimir Maksimov (with bear), actress Vera Kholodnaya, actor Vitold Polonsky, actor Ivan Khudoleyev, actor Ivan Mozzhukin, director Petr Cardynin and actor Ossip Runitsch. Russian postcard, no. 108. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Ivan Mozzhukhin. Small Russian collectors card, no. 316.

Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard, no. 24, 1918. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Ossip Runitsch. Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Karalli. Vintage postcard.

Vera Malinowskaja. Russian postcard by Roznak, Moscow, series no. 4, no. A 2400, 1927. Published in an edition of 25,000 cards.

Sergei Bondarchuk. Soviet postcard by Molot, no. 34, 1959. This postcard was printed in an edition of 75.000 cards. Retail price: 75 K.

Vladimir Ivashov. Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. M 78052, 1962. Retail price: 8 kop.

Nikita Mikhalkov. Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 4896, 1967. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

Lyudmila Savelyeva. Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A 08351, 1969. This postcard was printed in an edition of 500,000 cards. Retail price was 6 kop. Photo: publicity still for Voyna i mir/War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1965-1967).

Oleg Yankovsky. Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, nr. 2114221, 1977. This postcard was printed in an edition of 186.000 cards. The price was 6 kop.

Sources: BFI, Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Italian) and Wikipedia.

Swiss Schlagersinger and actor Vico Torriani (1920-1998) was also a popular TV showmaster and an author of cookbooks. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he starred in a dozen German film musicals and comedies. The favourite Son of Switzerland sold more than twenty million records.

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. FT-31. Photo: Zeyn Film / Deutsche Film Hansa / Lilo. Publicity still for Träume von der Südsee/Dreams of the South Seas (Harald Philipp, 1957).

Belgian Collector's card, no. 71.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/52. Photo: Teldec / Bulanda.

A Heart Full of Music

Ludovico Oxens (Vico) Torriani was born in Genève (Geneva), Switzerland, in 1920. He was the son of Italian Vittorio Torriani, a riding and ski instructor, and his wife Clara Helena, born Bensegger.

Vico grew up in St. Moritz and after finishing school he studied for pastry cook, cook and later for waiter. As a 15 year old he already gave concerts. As a soldier during WW II he learned himself to play the guitar and the accordion.

In 1945 (some sources say 1946) he won a talent contest and he started singing on the Swiss radio and in night clubs everywhere in Europe. His first hit in Switzerland was Silberfäden (Silver Threads) in 1949.

In 1951 followed his first big success in Germany with Addio, donna grazia. From then on he recorded many records in English, French, Italian and German (and even in Retoroman).

In the 1950s he was seen in several Schlagerfilms and other film musicals. Among his most popular films were the ice skating film Der bunte Traum/The Colourful Dream (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) with Vera Molnar, Gitarren der Liebe/Guitars of Love(Werner Jacobs, 1954), Ein Herz voll Musik/A Heart Full of Music (Robert A. Stemmle, 1955) – his first leading role, Santa Lucia (Werner Jacob, 1956s) with Eva Kerbler and Karin Dor, and Der Stern von Santa Clara/The Star of Santa Clara (Werner Jacobs, 1958).

From 1952 on he also appeared on television. In 1958 he was a contestant for the German song contest, but never reached the Eurovision Song Contest. From 1959 on he got his own shows, first in Switzerland and later in Germany for example Grüezi, Vico, Hotel Victoria and the Vico-Torriani-Show.

Torriani also sang and played on stage in operettas and musicals during the 1950s and 1960s.

German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 549. Photo: Lantin / Constantin-Film. Meine Frau macht Dummheiten/My Wife is Acting Silly (Géza von Bolváry, 1952).

Belgian postcard by DRC Holland, no. 3500. Licency holder for Ufa. Photo: Czerwonski / HD-Film / NF.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3700. Dutch licency holder for Ufa. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC-Zeyn / Gloria Film.

Vico Torriani, Elma Karlova, Annunzio Mantovani,

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

German postcard by Teldec Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten G.m.b.H. Photo: Teldeck / Zeyn Film / DFH / Lilo.

O sole mio

In the early 1960s, Vico Torriani starred in more German entertainment films like O sole mio (Paul Martin, 1960) with Senta Berger, and Robert und Bertram/Robert and Bertram (Hans Deppe, 1961) with comedian Willy Millowitsch.

In 1964 his career as a film actor and a recording artist was finished. From 1967 till 1970 he worked as a showmaster on German television.

In the 1970s he made a successful come-back as a singer of folk songs. His La Pastorella was a big hit in 1976. In 1977 he reappeared as an actor now on TV in the Krimi series Tatort starring Hansjörg Felmy.

Between 1978 and 1983 Torriani again hosted a restaurant in Basel, but meanwhile he also kept touring as a singer. In 1982 his song Caprifischer (Fishermen of Capri) became the winner of the TV show Die schönsten Melodien der Welt (The Most Beautiful Melodies in the World).

In 1995 he was awarded the Bambi Lifetime-Awardtogether with Caterina Valente and Helmut Zacharias. He kept making guest-appearances on TV shows till the end of his life.

Vico Torriani died from cancer in 1998 in his home in Agno (Tessin), Switzerland. He and his wife Evelyne had a daughter, Nicole, and a son, Reto.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 22.Photo: Ringpress.

German postcard by Schumann-Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Peter Schaeffers (Schaeffers-Archiv).

Vico Torriani sings Antonella in Der Stern von Santa Clara (Werner Jacobs, 1958) with Gerlinde Locker. Source:Fritz51265 (YouTube).

Vico Torriani sings Jedes Mädchen hat seinen Amigo in Der Stern von Santa Clara (Werner Jacobs, 1958). Source: Fritz51265 (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), Gabriela Schöb (Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz - German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Today, my former colleague Jan-Hein Bal takes leave as the stills librarian of EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam due to retirement. For 41 years, Jan-Hein worked for The Netherlands Filmmuseum and later for EYE. So for this special occasion, we 're-issue' a post with his favourite film postcards in the series The Choice of....

Jan-Hein Bal: "I'm no film collector, only of information on subjects like Saul Bass, 70mm, Amsterdam cinema buildings etc. My largest collection are memories of thousands of movies I saw. I am Amsterdam EYE Filmmuseum stills librarian with over half a million stills, including tens of thousands of postcards, mostly published by Ross. About 1500 are digitized including 500 portraits but further scans are only produced on request and visible in our library only. This selection includes no portraits but a very different choice." Double click at the pictures to see them in full view.

Bambi. Dutch postcard by Rembrandt Uitg. Mij. Amsterdam. Publicity still for Bambi (James Agar e.a., 1942). Caption: "Hij kan warempel al lopen! roept konijn Stamper" ("He can even walk already! shouts rabbit Stamper").

Jan-Hein Bal: "One of several Dutch postcards from Bambi, my first cinema experience in 1957 aged eight. I always vividly remembered Bambi on ice, the realistic forest fire and the impressive scenery, unequalled until The Lion King. Half a century later on second viewing, I was excited by the multi plane camera depth effect."

The Longest Day. German postcard by Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede, no. 56574, 1994 (reprint). Photo: Sam Shaw, News Productions, Baulmes-Stroud. Caption: "THE LONGEST DAY, Dar[r]yl Zanuck, Normandie, 1964".

"I am in charge of the Amsterdam EYE Filmmuseum's stills collection and love location shots with filmmakers, like this postcard reproduction with producer Zanuck and CinemaScope camera circa 1962 (not 1964) at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy. Sam Shaw was only a visitor as Vincent Rossell was stills photographer. This was in 1963 my first widescreen cinema experience and is half a century later still my favorite black-and-widescreen film, with its exciting aerial and tracking shots. Curiously this best-bw-photography-Oscar winner was colorized later and long unavailable in bw until the DVD. I visited several French locations, saw its composer Maurice Jarre and actress Irina Demick at festivals and interviewed its actor Arnold Gelderman (German soldier opposite Demick)."

Rita Moreno in West Side Story. Dutch postcard. Photo: publicity still of West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961). Collection: Amsterdam EYE Filmmuseum.

"One of several large size A5 postcards from my favorite musical with its impressive music, ballet, design and social issues. No quick cuts and no nervous camera movements but dancers performing their exciting choreography in long shots and long takes. Besides Bridge on the River Kwai I saw it more often than anything else but never watch my DVD as it is the only film from my youth which was always in distribution. Thanks to the Amsterdam EYE Filmmuseum it can be seen on 70mm again."

Human Rights 1789-1989. Dutch postcard by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, no. A277. Poster design: Saul Bass.

"I always admired Saul Bass for his brilliant movie title sequences and already visited the Amsterdam Filmmuseum's retrospective in 1969. When I later became involved in the museum's poster collection his printed art added a whole new dimension and I bought many of his vintage posters for their already impressive but uneven collection. This postcard reproduction shows one of his Human Rights poster designs. Not film related? Wrong, because Bass secretly used it again from his own 1956 poster for the Bette Davis movie Storm Center."

Amsterdam Vondelpark. German postcard by Kunstanstalt Lautz & Balzar, Darmstadt, no. D15388. Sent by mail in 1905.

"This Amsterdam Vondelpark renaissance palace from 1881, seen on countless vintage postcards like this, was Filmmuseum between 1974 and 2012, almost identical to my long career. Here I discovered Die Nibelungen and Metropolis etc. in total silence because it was not yet fully understood that silents too had music. Many architectural details disappeared long ago but the building's middle stairs will return during its change as a broadcasting studio after 2013."

Metropolis. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 71-4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927).

"One of several Ross postcards from my favorite Fritz Lang movie, favorite silent SF, and favorite silent movie design, with the incredible Babel sequence, flood, tunnels, skyscrapers, factory, laboratory etc."

Gold Diggers of 1933. Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen Amsterdam. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Golddiggers of 1933 (Mervyn Leroy, 1933).

"One of several Dutch postcards from this musical. Besides design I also love dance sequences like those of Astaire-Rogers, Gene Kelly, Bollywood, The Red Shoes, Saura's Carmen, White Nights, Billy Elliot, Mao's Last Dancer etc. Busby Berkeley's choreographies like this postcard are almost a combination of dance and design."

Cinerama. American postcard by Shorecolor New York, circa 1952.

"Many decades I only knew Cinerama from my favorite Amsterdam Bellevue Cinerama 70mm cinema but in 2011 I finally experienced 3-strip projection at the Bradford widescreenfestival with This is Cinerama, seen on this vintage postcard. The closure of the Bellevue cinema in Amsterdam in 2005 triggered my Amsterdam 70mm cinema history website 70mm.nl and I even became a cinema projectionist during the final 35mm years."

War and Peace. Russian postcard by Sovexportfilm. Publicity still for Voyna i mir/War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1965-1966). Caption: "VOINA I MIR, WAR AND PEACE, GUERRE ET PAIX, GUERRA Y PAZ".

"Since a festival in an East Berlin cinema I investigate Soviet widescreen history, including the world's largest and most successful 70mm production which continued until 1989. This is one of several postcards from their most ambitious 70mm film. The dance, fire and battle scenes have many impressive tracking shots and giant crane shots."

Femme Fatale. Caption: "FEMME FATALE, een film van Inge Calame van Alphen". Photo: Ecco Productie, Orlow Seunke.

"This is my favorite Dutch short fiction film, a sound movie from 1987 without dialogue and resembling silent slapsticks with Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd etc. It was shot in my home town Alkmaar seen on this postcard, and as a projectionist I was allowed by producer Orlow Seunke a private 35mm screening for a scouting group during an excursion to my Alkmaar arthouse cinema."

All the postcards in this post are from the collection of EYE. Watch the Vondelpark postcard closely: during the 1980s, Jan-Hein used to work in the library at the left part of the Filmmuseum on the ground floor, I worked under the centre roof at the poster collection. Jan-Hein, thanks for all the good work you did all these years and enjoy your party today. Cheers!