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Kate Winslet

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Vivacious Kate Winslet (1975) is often seen as the best English-speaking film actress of her generation. The English actress and singer was the youngest person to acquire six Academy Award nominations, and won the Oscar for The Reader (2008).

Kate Winslet
Belgian postcard by P Magazine, no. 37 in the series 'De mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (the 100 most beautiful women of the century). Photo: Sante D'Orazio / Outline.

Kate Winslet
British postcard.

Heavenly Creatures


Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born Reading, England, in 1975. She is the second of four children of stage actors Sally Anne (née Bridges) and Roger John Winslet. Winslet began studying drama at the age of 11. The following year, she appeared in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs cereal, in which she danced opposite the Honey Monster.

Winslet's acting career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science fiction serial Dark Season (Colin Cant, 1991). On the set, Winslet met Stephen Tredre, who was working as an assistant director. They would have a four-and-a-half-year relationship, and remained close after their separation in 1995. He died of bone cancer during the opening week of Titanic, causing her to miss the film's Los Angeles premiere to attend his funeral in London.

Her role in Dark Season was followed by appearances in the made-for-TV film Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (Diarmuid Lawrence, 1992), the sitcom Get Back (Graeme Harper, 1992), and an episode of the medical drama Casualty (Tom Cotter, 1993).

She made her film debut in the New Zealand drama film Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994). Winslet auditioned for the part of Juliet Hulme, an obsessive teenager in 1950s New Zealand who assists in the murder of the mother of her best friend, Pauline Parker (played by Melanie Lynskey). Winslet won the role over 175 other girls. The film included Winslet's singing debut, and her a cappella version of Sono Andati, an aria from La Bohème, was featured on the film's soundtrack.

The film opened to strong critical acclaim at the 51st Venice International Film Festival in 1994 and became one of the best-received films of the year. Winslet was awarded an Empire Award and a London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year.

Subsequently she played the second leading role of Marianne Dashwood in the Jane Austen adaptation Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995) featuring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. The film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a worldwide box office total of $135 million and various awards for Winslet. She won both a BAFTA and a Screen Actors' Guild Award, and was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

In 1996, Winslet starred in Michael Winterbottom's Jude, based on the Victorian novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. She played Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings who falls in love with her cousin (Christopher Eccleston).

She then played Ophelia, Hamlet's drowned lover, in Kenneth Branagh's all star-cast film version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1996).

In mid-1996, Winslet began filming James Cameron's Titanic (1997), alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. She was cast as the passionate, rosy-cheeked aristocrat Rose DeWitt Bukater, who survives the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. Against expectations, Titanic (1997) became the highest-grossing film in the world at the time and transformed Winslet into a commercial movie star.

Young girls the world over both idolized and identified with Winslet. Despite the enormous success of Titanic, Winslet next starred in two low-budget art-house films, Hideous Kinky (Gillies MacKinnon, 1998), and Holy Smoke! (Jane Campion, 1999).

In 1997, on the set of Hideous Kinky, Winslet met film director Jim Threapleton, whom she married in 1998. They have a daughter, Mia Honey Threapleton (2000). Winslet and Threapleton divorced in 2001.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic (1997)
Vintage postcard. Photo: publicity still for Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


Since 2000, Kate Winslet's performances have continued to draw positive comments from film critics. She appeared in the period piece Quills (Philip Kaufman, 2000) with Geoffrey Rush and Joaquin Phoenix, inspired by the life and work of the Marquis de Sade. The actress was the first big name to back the film project, accepting the role of a chambermaid in the asylum and the courier of the Marquis' manuscripts to the underground publishers. Well received by critics, the film garnered numerous accolades for Winslet.

In Enigma (Michael Apted, 2001), she played a young woman who finds herself falling for a brilliant young World War II code breaker (Dougray Scott). She was five months pregnant at the time of the shoot, forcing some tricky camera work.

In the same year she appeared in Iris (Richard Eyre, 2001), portraying novelist Iris Murdoch. Winslet shared her role with Judi Dench, with both actresses portraying Murdoch at different phases of her life. Subsequently, each of them was nominated for an Academy Award the following year, earning Winslet her third nomination.

Also in 2001, she voiced the character Belle in the animation film Christmas Carol: The Movie, based on the Charles Dickens classic novel. For the film, Winslet recorded the song What If, which was a Europe-wide top ten hit.

Winslet began a relationship with director Sam Mendes in 2001, and she married him in 2003 on the island of Anguilla. Their son, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, was born in 2003 in New York City. In 2010, Winslet and Mendes announced their separation and divorced in 2011.

In the drama The Life of David Gale (Alan Parker, 2003), she played an ambitious journalist who interviews a death-sentenced professor (Kevin Spacey) in his final weeks before execution.

Next, Winslet appeared with Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004). In this neo-surrealistic indie-drama, she played Clementine Kruczynski, a chatty, spontaneous and somewhat neurotic woman, who decides to have all memories of her ex-boyfriend erased from her mind. The film was a critical and financial success and Winslet received rave reviews and her fourth Academy Award-nomination.

Finding Neverland (Marc Forster, 2004), is the story of Scottish writer J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet), whose sons inspired him to pen the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. The film received favourable reviews and became Winslet's highest-grossing film since Titanic.

Kate Winslet
British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd, London, no. SFC 3312.

Kate Winslet
British postcard by Anabas, Essex, no. AP647, 1998.

The Reader


In 2005, Kate Winslet played a satirical version of herself in an episode of the comedy series Extras by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. While dressed as a nun, she was portrayed giving phone sex tips to the romantically challenged character of Maggie. Her performance in the episode led to her first nomination for an Emmy Award.

In the musical romantic comedy Romance & Cigarettes (John Turturro, 2005), she played the slut Tula, and again Winslet was praised for her performance. In Todd Field's Little Children (2006), she played a bored housewife who has a torrid affair with a married neighbour (Patrick Wilson). Both her performance and the film received rave reviews. Again she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and at 31, became the youngest actress to ever garner five Oscar nominations.

Commercial successes were Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy The Holiday (2006), also starring Cameron Diaz, and the CG-animated Flushed Away (2006), in which she voiced Rita, a scavenging sewer rat who helps Roddy (Hugh Jackman) escape from the city of Ratropolis and return to his luxurious Kensington origins.

In 2007, Winslet reunited with Leonardo DiCaprio to film Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by her husband at the time, Sam Mendes. Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for the film. Winslet was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance, her seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.

Then she starred in the film adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's 1995 novel The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008) featuring Ralph Fiennes and David Kross in supporting roles. Employing a German accent, Winslet portrayed a former Nazi concentration camp guard who has an affair with a teenager (Kross) who, as an adult, witnesses her war crimes trial. While the film garnered mixed reviews in general. The following year, she earned her sixth Academy Award nomination and went on to win the Best Actress award, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, a Screen Actors' Guild Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2011, Kate Winslet headlined in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, based on James M. Cain's 1941 novel and directed by Todd Haynes. She portrayed a self-sacrificing mother during the Great Depression who finds herself separated from her husband and falling in love with a new man (Guy Pearce), all the while trying to earn her narcissistic daughter's (Evan Rachel Wood) love and respect. This time, Winslet won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Roman Polanski's Carnage (2011) premiered at the 68th Venice Film Festival. The black comedy follows two sets of parents who meet up to talk after their children have been in a fight that day at school. Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz co-starred in the film.

In 2012, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In Jason Reitman's big screen adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel Labor Day (2013), she starred with Josh Brolin and Tobey Maguire. Winslet received favourable reviews for her portrayal of Adele, a mentally fragile, repressed single mom of a 13-year-old son who gives shelter to an escaped prisoner during a long summer week-end. For her performance, Winslet earned her tenth Golden Globe nomination.

Next she appeared in the science fiction film Divergent (Neil Burger, 2014), as the bad antagonist Jeanine Matthews. It became one of the biggest commercial successes of her career. This year, Winslet also appeared alongside Matthias Schoenaerts in Alan Rickman's period drama A Little Chaos (2014) about rival landscape gardeners commissioned by Louis XIV to create a fountain at Versailles.

Next she can be seen in the crime-thriller Triple Nine (John Hillcoat, 2015), the sequel in the Divergent series: Insurgent (Robert Schwentke, 2015) and in The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 2015).

Since 2012, Kate Winslet is married to Ned Rocknroll, a nephew of Richard Branson. The couple has a son, Bear Blaze Winslet. They live in West Sussex.


Kate Winslet sings What If. Official Music Video. Source: Chris Horton Productions (YouTube).


Trailer for The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008). Source: Associated Press (YouTube).

Sources: Tom Ryan (Encyclopedia of British Film), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Pier Angeli

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Before she was 20 Pier Angeli (1932-1971) had starred with Vittorio de Sica in two Italian box office hits and was discovered by Hollywood. There she would win a Golden Globe, have an affair with James Dean, and there she would die before she was 40.

Pier Angeli
French postcard, no. 108.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 103. Photo: MGM.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard.

Pier Angeli
French postcard by Edition du Globe (E.D.U.G.), no. 93.

A Light Touch of Innocence


Anna Maria Pierangeli was born in 1932, in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. Her twin sister is the actress Marisa Pavan.

When she was only 16 she made her film debut in an uncredited part in a short Italian film. The following year she played with Vittorio de Sica in Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (Léonide Moguy, 1950).

At AllMovie, Hal Erickson writes: "Domani e Troppo Tardi is the first of two Leonide Moguy films dealing with the travails of post-war Italian life; the second was Domani e un altro Giorno. The story concerns the efforts to provide a proper sex education for youngsters. Progressive schoolteachers Landi (Vittorio De Sica) and Anna (Lois Maxwell) have a profound influence on two of their young students, Mirella (Anna Maria Pierangeli) and Franco (Gino Leuri). The two kids are enamored of one another, and decide to experiment with some of the knowledge they've gleaned in the classroom... with devastating results."

Soon Anna Maria Pierangeli would be discovered by Hollywood, and she changed her professional name in Pier Angeli. MGM launched her in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951). Enthusiastic reviews for her eloquent and understated performance compared her to Greta Garbo. She received an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe.

With Stewart Granger she played in The Light Touch (Richard Brooks, 1952). She indeed brought a light touch of innocence to the film, but her next films, like the musical The Story of Three Loves (Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt, 1953), and Flame and the Flesh (Richard Brooks, 1954) with Lana Turner, were respectable but unexciting.

Pier Angeli and Gino Leurini in Domani è troppo tardi (1950)
Italian postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (Léonide Moguy, 1950) with Gino Leurini.

Pier Angeli and John Ericson in Teresa
Belgian postcard, offered by RI RI Demaret, no. 1051. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951) with John Ericson.

Pier Angeli, James Dean
With James Dean. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2346. Photo: Keystone.

Pier Angeli
British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 133. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Sombrero (Norman Foster, 1953).

Pier Angeli
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 520, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1954.

Pier Angeli
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 549. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 1182. Photo: MGM.

The Angry Silence


Pier Angeli had a relationship with James Dean but in 1954, under pressure from her domineering mother, she married Catholic singer Vic Damone. The marriage lasted only four years and was followed by highly publicized court battles for the custody of their one son, Perry Farinola.

MGM discovered another European ingénue, Leslie Caron, and they loaned Pier out to other studios. At Warner Bros., she made The Silver Chalice (Victor Saville, 1954) which was only remarkable for the debut of Paul Newman.

For Paramount, she should have had the role of Anna Magnani's daughter in The Rose Tattoo (Daniel Mann, 1955), but motherhood interfered. The role went to her twin sister, Marisa Pavan, who was nominated for an Oscar for it.

Pier returned to her old form in the biography of boxer Rocky Graziano, Somebody Up There Likes Me (Robert Wise, 1956) as Paul Newman's long-suffering wife.

During the 1960s she worked in Europe. She did a strong performance in the kitchen sink drama The Angry Silence (Guy Green, 1960) opposite Richard Attenborough, but few of her other films during that period were notable.

She was reunited with Stewart Granger for the sword and sandal epic Sodom and Gomorrah (Robert Aldrich, 1962) and she played a brief role in Battle of the Bulge (Ken Annakin, 1965) starring Henry Fonda .

Her final appearance was in the low-budget Sci-Fi opus Octaman (Harry Essex, 1971) opposite Kerwin Mathews.

She married a second time to composer Armando Trovaioli in 1962. They had a son, Andrew, but the couple divorced in 1969.

It seemed as if her acting career might revive when she was picked to play a role in The Godfather, (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) but she died soon before filming.

On 10 September 1971 Pier Angeli was found dead of an accidental barbiturate overdose in her house in Beverly Hills. She was only 39 years old.

Pier Angeli
Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 18.

Pier Angeli
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 370. Photo: M.G.M.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Pier Angeli
Indonesian postcard.

Pier Angeli
French postcard. Photo: MGM.

Pier Angeli
Dutch postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for The Vintage (Jeffrey Hayden, 1957)

Pier Angeli
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 57.

Pier Angeli
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 57.

Pier Angeli
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/48.


Scene from Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (1950). Source: coralieshy (YouTube).

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

La Cuccagna (1917)

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The Italian diva Hesperia was the star of the silent drama La Cuccagna/The Bonanza (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917). The film was an adaptation of Emile Zola's La curée. Hesperia is Renata/Renée, second wife of the cunning and wealthy Saccard, who married young Renata for her money. She has an affair with Saccard's son Max, played by Alberto Collo. In the end money triumphs over love, just as in Zola's novel.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5070. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Renata and Massimo love each other." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Alberto Collo.

Hesperia in La cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5071. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Saccard surprises Renata and Max Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917). On this postcard the father (Claudio Nicola at left) looks not much older than the son (Alberto Collo at right).

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5072. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Massimo and Luisa are betrothed. The jealousy of Renata." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5073. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Renata and Massimo at the ball of Bianca Muller." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Alberto Collo.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5074. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Saccard cannot pay the bills of his wife anymore." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperiaand Claudio Nicola.

Money triumphs over Love


Hesperia (1885-1959), was one of the divas of the Italian silent screen. She often worked with director Baldassarre Negroni, who later became her husband.

La Cuccagna was a liberal adaptation of Emile Zola's La curée, cutting Zola's socialist critique on bourgeois building speculation and nouveau riche under the Second Empire, and keeping the Phaedra-like, private intrigue of a triangular affair.

Hesperia is Renata/Renée, second wife of the cunning and wealthy Saccard (Claudio Nicola), originally Aristide Rougon, who married young Renata for her money, with Saccard's sister Sidonie as intermediate.

Years after, his son from his first marriage, Max/Massimo (Alberto Collo), develops an affair with his stepmother Renata - an affair which Saccard initially tolerates in exchange for Renata's inheritance. They claim to have an open marriage.

In the end money triumphs instead of love, just as in Zola's novel. Massimo is married to young Luisa (Diana d'Amore), the daughter of rich banker Mareuil (Ignazio Lupi), when Saccard claims he cannot pay Renata's bills anymore.

Renata is so shocked Massimo leaves her for wealth and youth she first maddens, then develops meningitis and dies.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5076. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Massimo had been raised in a provincial college." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia, Alberto Collo and Claudio Nicola.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5077. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Renata had turned Massimo in un 'viveur'." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Claudio Nicola, Hesperia and Alberto Colla.

Ida Carloni Talli in La cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5078. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Sidonia hosted meetings between her female and her male customers." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Ida Carloni Talli as Sidonia.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5079. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Renata and Massimo agree to elope." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Alberto Collo.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5080. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "The nocturnal meetings of Massimo and Renata." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Alberto Collo.

How true are her heartbeats


In the Italian film journal La vita cinematografica (22/28.2.1917), Pier da Castello regretted the loss of the social critique but praised Hesperia's performance:

"How naively she smiles, how heartily she laughs, how she knows to be tender, languid and mischievous!

How true are her heartbeats and her worries, how pathetic are her despairs, how sad and bitter her tears.

How true and human is her desperate rage! Hesperia does not act. She lives her part, defies every confrontation and surpasses any expectation.

Whoever sees her in La cuccagna must connect her with the female sovereigns of the gesture, among the silent actresses who unsurpassable know to express any emotion."

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5081. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "Renata has heard about the wedding between Massimo and Luisa." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia and Alberto Colla.

La Cuccagna
Italian postcard by IPA CT. V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 5082. Photo: Tiber Film. Caption: "At the Half Lent ball. All is lost for Renata." Postcard for La Cuccagna (Baldassarre Negroni, 1917), starring Hesperia.

Source: Vittorio Martinelli (Il Cinema Muto Italiano - Italian) and IMDb.

Owen Nares

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British actor Owen Nares (1888-1943) was the heartthrob actor of his generation, both in films and on stage in the West End. The later 1910s and early 1920s were his golden period and he romanced such British film stars as Isobel Elsom and Lilian Hall-Davis. During the 1930s he became a character actor. Besides his acting career, he was the author of Myself, and Some Others (1925).

Owen Nares
British postcard in the Famous Cinema Star Series by J. Beagles & Co., London. Photo: Elliott & Fry.

Blessed with good looks and a debonair manner


Owen Ramsay Nares was born in Maiden Erlegh, England in 1888. He was educated at Reading School.

Nares was encouraged by his mother to become an actor, and in 1908 he received his training from actress Rosina Filippi. The following year, he was playing bit parts in West End productions.

Blessed with good looks and a debonair manner, his reputation the as a matinee idol grew in the following years. In 1915, he played Thomas Armstrong in Edward Sheldon's Romance at the Lyric Theatre, and in 1917, he starred with Lily Elsie at the Palace Theatre in the musical comedy Pamela.

His delicate health strengthened the touch of romanticism which surrounded him. The silent production His Choice (Hubert von Herkomer, 1913) was the first of the 25 silent films in which Nares appeared.

His film debut was followed by Danny Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman (Walter Waller, 1914) with Thomas Meighan and Gladys Cooper, the drama Milestones (Thomas Bentley, 1916) with Isobel Elsom, the romance Just a Girl (Alexander Butler, 1916) featuring Daisy Burrell, and The Labour Leader (Thomas Bentley, 1917) with Fay Compton.

During the early 1920s he acted as the handsome male lead opposite such popular film actresses as Isobel Elsom in the romantic drama For Her Father's Sake (Alexander Butler, 1921) and Lillian Hall-Davis in the romance Brown Sugar (Fred Paul, 1922) and in The Faithful Heart (Fred Paul, 1922).

His stage career also continued to flourish. He appeared opposite Meggie Albanesi in The First and the Last for a long-run during the 1920s. Nares continued to star in popular West End shows, almost without pause, until 1926, when he then took a break and set off with his own company for a tour of South Africa.

Owen Nares
British postcard by John Waddington Ltd., Leeds / London. Photo: publicity still for the stage production of Diplomacy in the New Theatre, Cardiff. Sent by mail in 1924.

Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Owen Nares
British postcard by S.C. Allen & Company, Ltd., Belfast and London for Wyndham's Theatre, London. Photo: publicity still for the play The Calendar (1931) with Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton and Owen Nares.

Owen Nares
British postcard in the Famous Cinema Star Series by J. Beagles & Co., London. Photo: Elliott & Fry.

Still much in demand


With the advent of the sound film, Owen Nares’ considerable stage experience meant that he was still much in demand and starred in several early sound films. The first was the comedy The Middle Watch (Norman Walker, 1930) with Jacqueline Logan. It was made by British International Pictures at its Elstree Studios.

He appeared with Edna Best in the crime-drama Loose Ends (Norman Walker, 1930). A big hit was the musical Sunshine Susie (Victor Saville, 1931) starring Renate Müller, Jack Hulbert and Nares. The film established Müller as a star in Britain. An alternate German-language version, Die Privatsekretärin, was made, also starring Renate Müller but without Nares.

The Impassive Footman (Basil Dean, 1932)was a low-budget ‘quota quickie’ in which he co-starred with Betty Stockfeld. This drama was made at Ealing Studios and was also released under the alternative title Woman in Bondage.

Nares co-starred with Winifred Shotter in the musical The Love Contract (Herbert Selpin, 1932). He appeared opposite Jessie Matthews in the comedy There Goes the Bride (Albert de Courville, 1932). He was, however, too mature to be the handsome star he had been a decade earlier.

In the last six films he made, he played supporting roles. Remarkable is the comedy-drama The Private Life of Don Juan (Alexander Korda, 1934) starring Douglas Fairbanks in his final film role as the aging Don Juan. In the musical The Show Goes On (Basil Dean, 1937), he was the co-star of Gracie Fields.

His final film was The Prime Minister (Thorold Dickinson, 1941) about the life and times of novelist Benjamin Disraeli (John Gielgud), who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

In 1942, Nares appeared in a revival of Robert E. Sherwood’s The Petrified Forrest, and afterwards he went on tour with the play to Northern England and Wales.

During a tour through Wales in 1943, he visited Brecon, and the birthplace of actress Sarah Siddons. While he was in the very room where Siddons had been born, Nares had a heart attack and died shortly afterwards in 1943. He was 54.

Since 1910, Owen Nares was married to Anglo-Italian actress Marie Pollini. The couple had two sons, David and Geoffrey Nares. During the war, Geoffrey died in Egypt in 1942.

Owen Nares
British postcard by Beagles & Co., no. 157e. Photo: Reville Studios.

Owen Nares
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 84. Photo: Foolsham & Banfield.

Owen Nares
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 84c. Photo: Janet Jevons.

Sources: Bridget Clarke (St. John’s Wood Memories), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Annie van Ees

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Dutch stage and film actress Annie van Ees (1893-1970) was famous for her cross dressing role as Boefje (Little Rascal). She played Boefje 1500 times on stage and in 1939 in the film version by Douglas Sirk. It was her only film. She was also known as Annie van der Lugt Melsert-Van Ees through her marriage to noted stage director Cor van der Lugt Melsert.

Annie van Ees
Dutch postcard by Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag (The Hague).

Annie van Ees, Boefje
Dutch postcard by Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. Photo: Willem Coret. Still for the stage version of Boefje.

Fashionable ladies and boys


Johanna Martina 'Annie' van Ees was born in Leiden in 1893. She was born into a family with five children. Her brothers, Henri van Ees and Jan van Ees, also became actors.

From early on, she knew that she wanted to be an actress, and she attended an acting school. At 17, she made her stage debuut in the play Schakels/Links by Herman Heijermans.

She joined the theatre company Het Tooneel and appeared in plays like ‘t Cafétje/The Small Café (1912) by Tristan Bernard.

Later, she was discovered by the famous stage director Cor van der Lugt Melsert and she joined his renowned company Nederlandsch Tooneel. In 1919 the two married, and they would have one son, Cor jr.

From 1922 till 1938, Annie worked for the theatre company Vereenigd Rotterdamsch-Hofstad Tooneel. She played fashionable ladies, young girls and even boys.

In 1923 she played thus the title role in the play that made her famous, Boefje/Little Rascal based on the novel by M.J. Brusse. She would appear more than 1500 times in this play.

She also performed regularly in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). Another success was Leontientje, which premiered in 1926.

With her brother Jan van Ees, she appeared in the plays Men trouwt geen meisjes zonder geld (Without Money One Doesn’t Marry Girls) (1929) by István Zagon, Mélo (1930) by Henry Bernstein and, De keizer van Amerika (The Apple Cart) (1930) by George Bernhard Shaw.

Cor van der Lugt Melsert, Annie van Ees, Boefje
Dutch postcard by N.V. Vereenigd Rotterdamsch Hofstadtoneel, Rotterdam. Photo: Willem Coret. Still for the stage version of Boefje.

Annie van Ees, Jan van Ees, Anton Roemer, Cor van der Lugt Melsert in Boefje
Dutch postcard by Vereenigd Rotterdamsch Hofstadtooneel. Photo: Willem Coret, The Hague. Publicity still for the stage play Boefje (1922). Caption: "Jan in the brother house".

Annie van Ees and Cor van der Lugt Melsert in Boefje (1922)
Dutch postcard by Vereenigd Rotterdamsch Hofstadtooneel. Photo: Coret, The Hague. Publicity still for the stage play Boefje (1922). Caption: "Jan with Mr. Halma in the courtroom".

Grande Dame


During the 1930s, Annie van Ees became one of the grande dames of the Dutch stage. After she left the Vereenigd Rotterdamsch-Hofstad Tooneel, she was offered the lead role in the film version of Boefje/Wilton's Zoo (Detlef Sierck aka Douglas Sirk, 1939).

At 45, Annie played twelve year old Jan Grovers a.k.a. Boefje, who spends more time in the alleys of Rotterdam than with his family. Occasionally he looks after his tree younger sisters, all of whom are called Mientje. Together with his best friend and partner in crime Pietje Puk (Guus Brox) he plans to travel to America to get rich. When a local clergyman (Albert van Dalsum) takes pity on the boy and tries to teach him good manners, Boefje at first rebels. However, once he is sent to a strict boarding school, he takes an interest in music, specifically the pipe organ.

Douglas Sirk wrote the scenario himself together with Carl Zuckmayer, the script writer of Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) and several other classics.

Annie played the cigar smoking street kid now with a shortcut, but Sirk later told that he would have preferred to work with real children.

Later, Annie van Ees appeared on stage in the title role of Madame Bovary (1942), and in 1950 she retired from the theatre.

In 1970, one year after the death of her husband, Annie van Ees died in Morges, Switzerland. She was 76. In the city of Heerhugowaard a garden is named after her, and in Rotterdam she is honoured with the 'Annie van Eesstraat'(Annie van Ees street).

The film version of Boefje was actually chosen to compete in the very first Cannes Film Festival that was to be held in September of 1939, but the festival was cancelled when the war broke out.

However, during the 55th edition held in 2002 it was decided to screen the 7 nominated films from 1939, pitting Boefje against The Wizard of Oz, Goodbye Mr. Chips and others. The award eventually went to Cecil B. DeMille's Union Pacific.

Jan van Ees
Annie's brother, Jan van Ees. Dutch postcard by Uitgave Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. Photo: Willem Coret.

Annie van Ees
Dutch postcard. Photo: Willem Coret, Den Haag (The Hague).

Annie van Ees in Boefje
Dutch postcard by NV Vereenigd Rotterdamsch Hofstadtooneel. Photo: Coret, The Hague. Annie van Ees-van der Lugt Melsert in the stage play Boefje.

Sources: Chip Douglas (IMDb), Guido Franken (Neerlands Filmdoek - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Bud Spencer

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Huge Italian actor Bud Spencer (1929) with his trademark black beard was the popular star of many Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget action films of the late 1960s and 1970s. In 18 films he co-starred with his long time film partner Terence Hill. In his youth, Spencer (then: Carlo Pedersoli) was also the first Italian to swim 100 m in less than a minute. He also has a degree in law, and he has registered several patents.

Bud Spencer
German autograph card by BRAVO.

Bud Spencer, Terence Hill
With Terence Hill. German autograph card by BRAVO.

Bud Spencer
Italian postcard. Promotional card for Io Sto Con Gli Ippopotami/I'm for the Hippopotamus (Italo Zingarelli, 1979).

Bitten By the Acting Bug


Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli in Santa Lucia, a historical part of the city of Naples, in 1929.

He was educated as an attorney and holds a Juris Doctor degree, but Carlo was bitten by the acting bug. His first film role was that of a member of the Praetorian guard in the MGM epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn Leroy, 1951), shot in Italy.

During the 1950s, he appeared in minor parts in various films made for the Italian market, including Un eroe dei nostri tempi/A Hero of Our Times (Mario Monicelli, 1955) with Alberto Sordi.

Pedersoli was also a successful swimmer. In 1950, he was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute (59.5 s). In the 1951 Mediterranean Games, he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event.

He participated in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final).

As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954, with S.S. Lazio. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.

He appeared in some more Italian films such as Annibale/Hannibal (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1959) starring Victor Mature, but his film career stayed minor league.

Bud Spencer
Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.

Mario Girotti (Terence Hill)
Terence Hill. Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.

God Forgives... I Don't!


In 1967 Carlo Pedersoli changed his screen name to Bud Spencer. Reportedly he chose this pseudonym to pay homage to Hollywood star Spencer Tracy as well as his favourite Czech American beer, Budweiser. Other sources report that he found it funny to call himself ‘Bud’ despite his weight and his height at 1.94 m.

With Terence Hill a.k.a. Mario Girotti, he appeared in the Spaghetti Western Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967).

Their pairing was a coincidence while a foot injury had forced lead actor Peter Martell (Pietro Martellanza) off the picture. Terence Hill took over the part of the pistolero Cat Stevens, and the rest is history.

Their dual outings made both stars famous, particularly in Europe. At IMDb, reviewer Benjamin Gauss calls it one of their best films: “Although the movie has many gags and humorous parts, God Forgives... I Don't! is not one of the usual Spencer/Hill comedies, but a pretty brutal and rather serious Spaghetti Western”. However, it wasn’t their first film together, because both had also appeared in Annibale/Hannibal (1959).

After the success of Dio perdona... Io no! followed such westerns as I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967) with Eli Wallach, and La collina degli stivali/Boot Hill (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1969) with Woody Strode.

Then they played two brothers in Lo chiamavano Trinità.../They Call Me Trinity (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1970), a comedic spoof of the Spaghetti Western genre. The enormous success lead to the sequel ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (Enzo Barboni, 1971) with Harry Carey Jr.

Most of these films have alternate titles, depending upon the country and distributor. Some have longer Italian versions that were edited for release abroad. Hill and Spencer also appeared together in other action genres, such as in the pirate adventure Il corsaro nero/Blackie the Pirate (Lorenzo Gicca Palli, 1971), the action film ...Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!/Watch Out, We're Mad (Marcello Fondato, 1974) with Donald Pleasence, and another actioner I due superpiedi quasi piatti/Crime Busters (Enzo Barboni, 1977).

Practically all of Spencer's roles have him playing a bearded, balding, and brawny omnipotent who usually ends a fist fight by striking a hammer-like blow on the top of his opponent's head.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in Trinity is still my name (1971)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity is still my name (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1971) with Terence Hill.

Bud Spencer
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 53189.

Bud Spencer and Baldwin Dakile in Piedone l'africano  (1978)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43 157. Photo: publicity still for Piedone l'africano/The knock-out cop (Steno, 1978) with Baldwin Dakile.

Extralarge


Bud Spencer also appeared solo in many films. He played in the Spaghetti Westerns Oggi a me... domani a te!/Today It's Me (Tonino Cervi, 1968) starring Brett Halsey aka Montgomery Ford, and Un esercito di cinque uomini/The Five Man Army (Don Taylor, Italo Zingarelli, 1969) with Peter Graves.

He made a rare entry in the horror genre in 4 mosche di velluto grigio/4 Flies on Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971) with Mimsy Farmer. Then Spencer played a dramatic role as a man innocently kept in prison in Torino nera/Black Turin (Carlo Lizzani, 1972) with Françoise Fabian as his wife.

Later films include the action-packed potboilers Piedone lo sbirro/Piedone, the cop (Steno, 1973), and Lo chiamavano Bulldozer/They Call Him Bulldozer (Michele Lupo, 1978) with Raimund Harmstorf. Spencer also wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his films.

His feature film career slowed down after 1983, shifting more toward television. He also became a jet airplane and helicopter pilot in 1972. He established Mistral Air in 1984, an air-mail company that also transported pilgrims. He later sold it to Poste Italiane to buy a textile mill that produced clothes for children. He also has registered several patents.

In the 1990s he acted on TV in the comic action series Extralarge (Enzo G. Castellari, 1990-1993) and Noi siamo angeli/We Are Angels (Ruggero Deodato, 1997), both with Philip Michael Thomas, best known from the 1980s TV hit Miami Vice.

His final film with Terence Hill was Botte di Natale/Troublemakers (Terence Hill, 1994).

In 2005, Pedersoli entered politics, unsuccessfully standing as regional counsellor in Lazio for the centre-right Forza Italia party. That same year he was awarded with the Caimano d'oro (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. Two years later, he received swim and water polo coach diplomas from the Italian Swimming Federation's president Paolo Barelli.

Bud Spencer continues to appear on TV. Recently he could be seen in the Italian Giallo-comedy television series I delitti del cuoco/Recipe for Crime (Alessandro Capone, 2010) and in an episode of the American comedy series Ninja the Mission Force(2013) .

Since 1960, Carlo Pedersoli is married to Maria Amato. They have three children: Giuseppe (1961), Christine (1962) and Diamante (1972).


Trailer of I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (1968). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).


Trailer of ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (1971). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).


Trailer of Non c'è due senza quattro/Double Trouble (1984, Enzo Barboni). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Klaus Collignon

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Germany was a frontrunner of film star postcards in colour. During the 1950s and 1960s, Klaus Collignon was one of the photographers whose colour studio portraits were often used for postcards by such German publishers as UFA and WS-Druck. He made highly polished portraits of the Italian sex goddesses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, but also wonderful pictures of the innocent-looking German stars of the Heimatfilms like Sonja Ziemann.

Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren. German Postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 13. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 97. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Sonja Ziemann
Sonja Ziemann. French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. CK-238. P.I. was the French licency holder for UFA, Berlin-Tempelhof. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

La Loren


Klaus Collignon is most known for his highly polished studio portraits, which were used in international magazines like the German Neue Illustrierte and the French Paris Match, and for many postcards.

They are still often used today. An example is the recently published biography of Sophia Loren, Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow - My Life (2014), which contains a photo of her by the German photographer.

But Collignon was also a still photographer who worked on film sets, e.g. on the set of the popular German Western Der Schatz im Silbersee/The Treasure of the Silver Lake (Harald Reinl, 1962) and Sophia Loren's film Madame sans gêne (Christian Jacque, 1961)

On the site Flash Projects there is another wonderful picture of La Loren, at which Collignon captures her in a quiet moment on a set. Unaware of the camera, Loren absent-mindedly plays with her shoe under the table.

The style of this sweet image reveals the developing appetite in the 1960s for portraits of stars that were unposed and more realistic, depicting not only the subject’s public persona but also revealing their character outside of the public eye.

Klaus Collignon obviously was a master of both styles.

Mylène Demongeot
Mylène Demongeot. German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 150. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

Ulla Jacobsson
Ulla Jacobsson. German postcard by Universum-film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Templehof, nr. CK-247. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Christine Kaufmann
Christine Kaufmann. German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 302. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg. German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Mara Lane
Mara Lane. German postcard by UFA, no. CK-200. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

Leni Riefenstahl's sister-in-law


But who was Klaus Collignon? It is not easy to find online information about him. But his pictures on the net lead to bits of information that give an indication of his life and career.

During the Second World War, Klaus Collignon was a war correspondent and cameraman. At the historical photo community V like Vintage, there is a 1942 photo of Collignon filming military action in the harbour of La Spezia in Italy.

On the same site, there is a photo he made of three young women on a sailing boat. One of them was Ilse Riefenstahl-Rehtmeyer, who had just divorced Leni Riefenstahl’s brother Heinz.

Klaus and Ilse married in 1943. After the war, they divorced but Ilse always kept his name.

In 2003, Ilse Collignon published the memoir Liebe Leni about her first husband Heinz Riefenstahl and his sister Leni, who she described as a ruthless careerist unscrupulously using her close Nazi contacts to enforce her will.

Klaus married his second wife, Rosemarie, and in 1951, their son Stefan Colin Collignon was born in Munich. Stefan is now professor of political economy at St Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa and president of the Scientific Committee of Centro Europa Ricerche (CER), Rome.

During the 1960s, Collignon once worked again as a cinematographer. He did the camera work for the short black and white film Vor der Kamera/Before the camera (Eberhard Hauff, 1964). According to bothIMDb and Filmportal.de, it was his only film credit.

If you have more information about Klaus Collignon, please let us know.

Susanne Cramer
Susanne Cramer. German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 77. Photo: Collignon.

Gustav 'Bubi' Scholz
Gustav 'Bubi' Scholz. German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 342. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

Barbara Rütting
Barbara Rütting. German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-168. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

Liselotte Pulver
Liselotte Pulver. German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 42. Photo: Collignon.

Horst Buchholz
Horst Buchholz. German postcard by UFA (Universal-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-145. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA. Top and bottom sides of the postcard were cut off.

Marianne Koch
Marianne Koch. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/187. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Check out our other posts on film star photographers. See the links at right under the caption 'The Photographers'.

Sources: Ilse Collignon (Liebe Leni), V like Vintage, Flash projects, The International Who's Who, Filmportal.de, and IMDb.

Michèle Alfa

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Michèle Alfa (1911-1987) was one of the most beloved stars of the French cinema during the Second World War.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Greff Editeur, Paris, no. 57. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 98. Photo: Pathé.

A future on stage


Michèle Alfa was born as Josephine Blanche Alfreda Bassignot in Gujan Mestras, France, in 1911. Her stage name Alfa is short for one of her first names, Alfreda.

At the age of 15, she became smitten with the theatre when she attended the play Felix by Henri Bernstein at the Théâtre du Gymnase (Theatre Gymnasium). The play’s star was the popular Gaby Morlay.

When Alfa was refused permission to enter the Conservatoire, she tried to commit suicide. She was sure her future had to be on stage. Wisely, she applied for lessons from Raymond Rouleau.

At 20, she began with a stage tour of France. She participated in good plays including L'Héritière, a French adaptation of the play The Heiress by Louis Ducreux, Mademoiselle de Panama (Miss Panama) by Marcel Achard , La Machine à écrire (The Typewriter) by Jean Cocteau, and Huis Clos (Locked) by Jean Paul Sartre.

From 1932 on, she also appeared in films. Her debut, La Belle Aventure/The beautiful adventure (Reinhold Schünzel, Roger Le Bon, 1932) was the alternate-language version of the German comedy Das Schöne Abenteuer (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932), both starring Käthe von Nagy.

Her first leading lady part was in the dramatic comedy Lumières de Paris/Lights of Paris (Richard Pottier, 1938) opposite singer Tino Rossi. She also played the leading lady opposite Charles Boyer in Le Corsaire/The Corsican (Marc Allégret, 1939), but this film was never finished because of the Second World War.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 79. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 98. Photo: Pathé.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by EPC (Editions et Publications Cinematographiques), no. 216. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Mistress of Goebbels' Nephew


Under the Occupation of France by the Nazis, Michèle Alfa became the mistress of Bernhardt Rademecker. This nephew of Josef Goebbels was appointed at the Propagandastaffel as head of the Paris theatres. Alfa knew him from before the war, when he had been a jazz trumpeter in Pigalle. During the war years, he would protect Jews like the actor Henry Murray, father of Anouk Aimée.

In the cinema, Alfa starred in 13 films, both comedies and dramas. These included L'homme qui vendit son âme/The Man Who Sold His Soul to the Devil (Jean-Paul Paulin, 1943) with André Luguet, and L'ange de la nuit/Angel of the night (André Berthomieu, 1943), in which she offers herself for a soldier (Jean-Louis Barrault) who returns blind from the war.

Her strange, sometimes sad face, her blonde hair and her talent, made her a darling of the public. Very popular was the two-parter Le comte de Monte Cristo/The Count of Monte Cristo (Robert Vernay, 1943), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas. Alfa played Mercedes the fiancée of Edmond Dantes (Pierre Richard-Willm).

James Travers at French Films Site: “The Monte Cristo story has been adapted so many times for cinema (28 versions between 1907 à 1971) that some of the best adaptations have been almost overlooked. Vernay's film certainly deserves a higher profile than it has enjoyed to date, even if it lacks the star names which make some of the other versions more saleable.”

After the war Michèle Alfa starred in only four more films, including the drama Sombre dimanche/Gloomy Sunday (Jacqueline Audry, 1948). Her final film was the ensemble comedy Agence matrimonial/Matrimonial Agency (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1952). She continued to appear on stage till the mid-1960s.

From 1942 to 1946, Alfa was married to actor Paul Meurisse. In 1959, she married her second husband, corporate director Philippe Plouffe. Michèle Alfa died in 1987 in Le Vésinet, a suburb of Paris. She was 76.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 129. Photo: Pathé-Cinema.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 57. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Michèle Alfa
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 129. Photo: Star.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes – French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Robert Donat

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Graceful and handsome Robert Donat (1905-1958) was the personification of an English gentleman who was neither haughty nor common. That made him something of a novelty in British films of the 1930s. Despite his Oscar-winning performance as Mr. Chips, he preferred to work in England and in the 1940s and 1950s he mainly appeared in the theatre.

Robert Donat
British postcard by Art Photo, no. 37-2. Photo: London Film Productions.

Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat in Knight Without Armour
British postcard by Art Photo, no. 125. Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat in the London Films production Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937). This historical drama set during the Russian Revolution and the Civil War was produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Bíró adapted by Frances Marion from the 1933 novel of the same title by James Hilton.

Robert Donat
British postcard, no. 50. Photo: London Film Productions.

Vocal Embarrassment


Friedrich Robert Donath was born in 1905 in Manchester, England, to Ernst Emil Donath, a Polish clerk, and his wife Rose Alice née Green.

Robert's pleasant voice and somewhat neutral English accent were carefully honed as a boy because he had a stammer and took elocution lessons starting at age 11 to overcome the impediment. It was not too surprising that freedom from such a vocal embarrassment was encouragement to act.

His other handicap, acute asthma, did not deter him. At the age of 16 he began performing Shakespeare and other classic roles in a number of repertory and touring companies throughout Britain.

In 1924 he joined Sir Frank Benson's repertory company, and later he was with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre.

His work was finally noticed by director-producer Alexander Korda, who gave him a three-year film contract.

Robert Donat
Vintage postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

Robert Donat
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1055. Photo: London Films. Publicity still for The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935).

Top Draw


Robert Donat made his his film debut in Men of Tomorrow (Zoltan Korda, Leontine Sagan, 1932).

His first great screen success came with The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933), playing Anne Boleyn's lover, Thomas Culpeper.

Donat's style of acting, whether comic or dramatic, was usually reserved, with the subtleties of face and voice being his talents to complement the role. A top draw in Britain, he went to Hollywood for The Count of Monte Cristo (Rowland V. Lee, 1934).

Later Hollywood usually had to shoot in England if it wanted him badly enough. And that was not a problem after the box office reception given The 39 Steps (1935), the big hit for Alfred Hitchcock.

There was a hint of whimsy in Donat's face that worked especially well with the sophisticated comedic elements that crept into several of his dramatic roles. His portrayal of individualist Canadian Richard Hannay - which registered with North Americans both above and below the 49th parallel - in The 39 Steps was the first of such popular characters.

His most successful films included also The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935), The Citadel (King Vidor, 1938), for which he received his first Oscar nomination, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Sam Wood, 1939) opposite Greer Garson.

As Mr. Chips he is best known: the shy schoolmaster who blooms under love and becomes an institution for generations of schoolboys. As Brian McFarlane writes in the Encyclopaedia of British Cinema: "Class-ridden and sentimental perhaps, it remains extraordinarily touching in his Oscar-winning performance, and it ushers in the Donat of the post-war years."

Robert Donat
British postcard, no. 139. Photo: London Films.

Robert Donat
British postcard, no. 139 A. Photo: London Films.

Robert Donat
French postcard for Editions P.I., Paris, no. 235. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Major Theatre Star


Alfred Hitchcock attempted to land Robert Donat for three other roles, Sabotage and Secret Agent in 1936 and Rebecca in 1940, but supposedly illness, commitments, and more illness, respectively, kept Donat from accepting each.

Hollywood would be treated in kind, for Donat was more dedicated to stage work. He was a major theatre star, noted for his performances on the British stage in G.B. Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (1938) and Heartbreak House (1942), Much Ado About Nothing (1946), and especially as Thomas Becket in T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral at the Old Vic Theatre (1952).

He lobbied hard to be cast in two film roles, neither of which he gained. He wanted to play the Chorus in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944), but the role went to Leslie Banks, and he longed desperately to be cast against type as Bill Sikes in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), but Lean thought him wrong for the part and cast Robert Newton instead.

Robert Donat
Vintage postcard by A.S. 'Ars'. Photo: E. & G.R., no. 2317.

Robert Donat
Vintage postcard by A.S. 'Ars'. Photo: Em.G.R., no. 2466.

Robert Donat
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1372/1, 1937-1938. Photo: London Film Prod.

Suburban Worm


Robert Donat suffered from chronic asthma which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only twenty films. Just six more films were allotted Donat after the war and into the 1950s, all but one British productions.

He played the suburban worm who thrives during the war in the comedy Perfect Strangers (Alexander Korda, 1945), the charismatic 'turn' - Parnell in Captain Boycott (Frank Launder, 1947), and in The Winslow Boy (Anthony Asquith, 1948), the supercilious defence counsel who warms to the spectacle of unassailable right.

He also starred, directed and co-wrote The Cure for Love (1950) and starred in The Magic Box (John Boulting, 1952), a well-crafted and delightful, fictionalized salute to the history of the British film industry.

By 1955, all of Donat's acting efforts required a bottle of oxygen kept off stage and at the ready as his health continued to turn toward the worse. Donat's final role was the mandarin Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Mark Robson, 1958) opposite Ingrid Bergman. His fragility was poignantly obvious on screen, and he died shortly after the film was finished, aged 53 in London, England.

His biographer Kenneth Barrow writes in Mr Chips: The Life of Robert Donat (1985) on the cause of his death: "Perhaps the asthma had weakened him but, in fact, it was discovered he had a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the primary cause of death."

Robert Donat was married twice, first to Ella Annesley Voysey (1929-1946), with whom he had three children, and subsequently to British actress Renée Asherson (1953-1958). His nephew is the actor Peter Donat.

Robert Donat received a posthumous Special Citation from the USA National Board of Review and was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Robert Donat's career should have gone on, yet it was filled with many notable film memories just the same.

Robert Donat
Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Trailer of The Count of Monte Christo (1934). Source: Weild1977 (YouTube).

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), David Absalom (British Pictures), William McPeak (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

La statua di carne (1921)

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La statua di carne/The statue of flesh (1921) is a silent Italian film directed by Mario Almirante. The stars are his wife, diva Italia Almirante Manzini and Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent. Italia Almirante plays a beautiful, worldly femme fatale, who falls in love with a man who has drunk all the cups of life. He finds in her, the memory of a dead woman he previously loved and to which the woman looks like a drop of water. He uses her as a statue of flesh.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 213. Italia Almirante, Bianca Renieri, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). After a wild night of slumming to chase the bad experience of his infidel upper-class girlfriend, count Paolo di Santa Flora (Manetti) with his rotund friend (Bilancia) meet early in the morning a group of lower-class girls going to work. Among them Maria (Almirante) and her friend (Renieri). The girls adopt the men, thinking they are poor artists, and offer them breakfast.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 215. Oreste Bilancia, Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). After their first meeting, Paolo continues the charade to stay close to Maria. He pretends to be a poor artist. His friend knows why.

Different versions


La statua di carne/The statue of flesh was based on a stage play by Theobald Ciconi, which was adapted by Luciano Doria. The 1862 play had already been brought twice to the screen. The earlier film versions date from 1912 and 1919.

In 1943 director Camillo Mastrocinque implemented a new, naturalistic film edition of the play, La statua vivente/The Living Statue. The leads were played byFosco Giachetti and Laura Solari.

A restored version of 67 minutes of La statua di carne (1921) was presented to the Pordenone Silent Film Festival of 1991. Another version of 75 minutes was presented by the Bologna Cinematheque at the Cinema Ritrovato festival 2010. Originally, the film was about 80 minutes.

Italia Almirante, Oreste Bilancia and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 220. Bianca Renieri, Italia Almirante Manzini, Oreste Bilancia and Lido Manetti in the film La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Rich but bored Count Paolo (Manetti) and his equally well-to-do friend (Bilancia) pretend to be quite penniless, in order to stay close to the girls of the flower making atelier, in particular Maria (Almirante) and her friend (Renieri). The men even assist in the shop. From the extreme right to the left, this picture shows Manetti, Bilancia, Almirante and Renieri working in the shop.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 104. Photo: La Fotominio. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Maria secretly visits Paolo's apartment next-door and brings him flowers.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no number. Photo: La Fotominio. Oreste Bilancia and Bianca Renieri in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Paolo's friend reveals to Maria's friend he is not a poor bum but a wealthy aristocrat.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 243. Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Poor Maria is deeply in love with Paolo, at first unknowing he is a count who pretends to be a poor artist. She will die of tuberculosis, in the hands of Paolo.

The four main stars


Italia Almirante Manzini (1890-1941) was one of the divas of the Italian silent cinema. She starred in the classic epic Cabiria (1914).

Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent (1899-1928) was an Italian actor who first had a prolific career in Italian silent cinema. Brought to America as a young leading man, he died before living up to his promise.

Bianca Renieri (?-1985) had a short but fruitful career in Italian silent cinema in the early 1920s. She worked as a supporting actress and antagonist opposite Francesca Bertini in La ferita (1920), Maddalena Ferat (1920), and Ultimo sogno (1924). Opposite Italia Almirante Manzini , she also appeared in I tre amanti (1921), Marthù che visto il diavolo (1921) and La maschera del male (1922). She also acted in films with Linda Pini and Diomira Jacobini, in the propaganda film Il grido dell'aquila (Mario Volpe 1923) and the Za-la-mort crime film Quale dei due? (Emilio Ghione, 1922). Her last part was the female lead in Contessina (Arturo Gallea, 1925).

Oreste Bilancia (1881-1945) was an Italian stage and film actor, who was highly active in Italian silent and sound cinema and German late silent film. He mostly worked as supporting actor, but occasionally he played the lead.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 94. Photo: La Fotominio. Italia Almirante and Lido Manetti in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Count Paolo's first night back in society after Maria's death provides him with a shock. He meets an elegant masked lady, Noemi Keller, the toast of the town. She agrees to cheer him up. In a room in the theatre she takes off her mask and proves to be the spitting image of Maria.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 250. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Rich, mundane and femme fatale Noemi Keller considers the offer done to her by count Paolo: to live in a splendid villa and in recompense sit in front of him one hour every day.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 47. Photo: Fotominio. Italia Almirante and Alberto Collo in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Noemi Keller's old flame begs her to give up her charade for Paolo, sitting each day like a statue in front of him, as she is the spitting image of his lost love Maria. But Naomi cannot give up, as she is developing a crush for Paolo.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Italia Almirante in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Noemi considers whether she should stop the charade for Paolo.

La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 99. Italia Almirante and Alberto Collo in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante 1921). Noemi Keller's old flame tries her to give up her golden cage and get back to society life, but she refuses.

Italia Almirante, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in La statua di carne
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 49. Photo: Fotominio. Italia Almirante Manzini, Lido Manetti and Oreste Bilancia in the closing scene of La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921). Paolo has fought a duel with Noemi's former lover. Noemi's goes berserk when seeing the duel and throws herself in Paolo's arms. He then finally recognizes her as herself and not anymore as the lookalike, and opens his heart to her too. Diplomatically, Paolo's friend takes the doctor away, leaving the couple to themselves.

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Zanny Petersen

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Zanny Petersen (1892-1976) was a Danish stage actress, who also starred in the Danish silent cinema. Between 1912 and 1917, she appeared in 40 films for Nordisk Film.

Zanny Petersen
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1768. Photo: Nordisk Film.

A Trip to Mars


Zanny Christiane Petersen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1892. She was the daughter of master painter Herman Petersen and Minna Petersen.

From 1911 Zanny Petersen studied at Det kongelige Teaters elevskole (the Royal Theatre School) and debuted at Det kongelige Teater (the Royal Theatre) in 1913 as Agnes in Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s comedy Elverhøj/The Elves’ Hill, considered the first Danish national play. In 1913-1914, she joined Det ny Teater (the New Theatre), and continued to act on stage until 1922, when she married and quitted her career.

During her theatre education, Petersen also worked as an extra at Nordisk Film and thus developed her film career. Probably her first substantial role was in Haevnen er sød/Revenge is Sweet (William Augustinus, 1911).

From 1911 to 1917, Zanny Petersen performed in over 40 films for Nordisk, including big productions such as Pax Aeterna/Peace on Earth (Holger-Madsen, 1917) and Himmelskibet/A Trip to Mars (Holger-Madsen, 1918) starring Gunnar Tolnaes.

She first worked under direction of directors like August Blom and Eduard Schnedder-Sørensen, and later on mainly with Holger-Madsen.

Lilly Jacobson and Gunnar Tolnaes in Himmelskibet
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.2152. Publicity still for the science-fiction film Himmelskibet/ Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918). From left to right Alf Blütecher as Dr. Krafft, Zanny Petersen as Corona Planetaros, Lilly Jacobsson as Marya, Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros, and Nicolai Neiiendam as professor Planetaros, father of Corona and Avanti.

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

The Opium Smoker


When starting to act at Nordisk, Zanny Petersen was only 17. So she often played the innocent young girls and daughters of the protagonists. She appeared opposite male stars like Carlo Wieth in Ekspeditricen/Saleslady (August Blom, 1911) and Valdemar Psilander in Lydia (Holger-Madsen, 1918).

Sometimes she was the female protagonist herself as in Opiumsdrømmen/The Opium Smoker (Holger-Madsen, 1917).

In September 1917 the worsening economic situation caused by the First World War forced Nordisk to end their contract with some 50 actors, including Zanny Petersen.

Together with actors Philip Bech and Alf Blütecher she went to court and won on the basis of unfair dismissal. Nordisk had to pay her indemnities at the height of her salary for the remaining years of the contract.

In addition to Nordisk, Petersen also acted at Kinografen and Filmfabriken Danmark. New films for Nordisk she had made before her break continued to be released in 1918 and even 1919, the last one being Hendes Helt/Completely for her (Holger-Madsen, 1919).

In 1922 Petersen married doctor Poul Jacob Ernst. In the mid-1930s amidst a Christian revival, they focused on helping their fellow men, including prisoners. Because of this calling Petersen completely stopped her career: "Movie Time, fame and all that went along with it, well, it was just theatre, menial theatre."

Zanny Petersen died in 1976 in Copenhagen and lies buried at the Old Cemetery in Frederiksberg.

Gunnar Tolnaes, Zanny Petersen
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1662. Photo: Nordisk. With Gunnar Tolnaes.

Source: Danish Film Institute, Wikipedia (Danish) and IMDb.

Laura Antonelli

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Beautiful and sexy Italian film actress Laura Antonelli (1941) appeared in 45 films between 1965 and 1991.

Laura Antonelli
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. C.P.C.S. C. da 43.142.

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs


Laura Antonelli was born Laura Antonaz in 1941 in Pola (now Pula, Croatia), which at the time was the capital of the Italian province of Istria. She moved with her family first to Genoa and then to Venice, before they all eventually settled in Naples.

She had a childhood interest in education, and as a teenager she became proficient at gymnastics. Setting aside ambitions to make a career in mathematics, she graduated as a gymnastics instructor. She moved to Rome, where she became a secondary school gym teacher and was able to meet people in the entertainment industry, who helped her find modelling jobs.

Antonelli's earliest engagements included Italian advertisements for Coca Cola and appearances on the TV show Carosello (1957-1977). In 1965, she made her first, uncredited film appearance in Le sedicenni/16 Year Olds (Luigi Petrini, 1965).

Her 'American' debut came was in Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (Mario Bava, 1966), an Italian-American coproduction starring Vincent Price. Two versions of the film were made, Italian and American. The American version was re-written, re-scored and re-edited without the participation of Mario Bava. The film was not particularly successful. According to Wikipedia it is considered by many critics to be director Bava's worst film yet it was his commercially most successful film in Italy.

Vincent Price's Goldfoot is the only character who appears in both versions. American distributor Samuel Z. Arkoff said the film's commercial reception was hurt by the refusal of Laura Antonelli to take her clothes off. Arkoff claimed she was originally willing to, but then his nephew, Ted Rusoff, who was sent to supervise the film, developed a crush on her and persuaded her not to do it.

Other roles for Antonelli followed. She appeared in a number of sexy films such as the erotic drama Venere in pelliccia/Venus in Furs (Massimo Dallamano, 1969) and Il merlo maschio/The Male Blackbird (Pasquale Festa Campanile, 1971) about a frustrated cello player (Lando Buzzanca), who exposes his wife (Antonelli) in a reworking of the renowned photograph by Man Ray.

In 1971, she also appeared opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo in the successful French comedy Les Mariés de l'an Deux/The Married Couple of the Year Two (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1971) and the two stars also privately had a long-time affair. She did more French films with Belmondo, such as the black comedy Dr. Popaul (Claude Chabrol, 1972).

Laura Antonelli
Italian postcard by Playboy edizioni Italiana, no. 2, 1982. Photo: Roberto Rocchi.

L'Innocente (1976)
Laura Antonelli in L'innocente/The Innocent (1976). Photo: collection Véronique@Flickr.

Sexual awakening


In 1973, Laura Antonelli had her breakthrough with the comedy Malizia/Malicious (Salvatore Samperi, 1973) for which she won the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award, Nastro d'Argento in 1974. The film is about the parallel desire of a widower and his three teenage sons for their new housekeeper. The film challenged sexual taboos by presenting and mixing such themes as a 14 years old boy (Alessandro Momo) who blackmails the housekeeper into eventually tolerating his increasingly aggressive physical sexual harassment.

In the same year, she also had a huge commercial success with the anthology comedy Sessomatto/How Funny Can Sex Be? (Dino Risi, 1973). From then on, she played leading roles in some major films.

In Luchino Visconti's last film, L'innocente/The Innocent (1976) she played the wife of Giancarlo Giannini. Based on a novel by Gabriele d'Annunzio, the film is set amongst the aristocracy of 19th-century Italy. Wealthy Tullio (Giannini) thinks nothing of squiring his mistress (Jennifer O'Neill) in full view of his friends and the public. But when Giannini's cast-off wife (Antonelli) begins an affair with a young novelist, it is too much for the philandering aristocrat.

In the romance Mogliamante/Wifemistress (Marco Vicario, 1977) with Marcello Mastroianni, she played a repressed wife experiencing a sexual awakening. Later she appeared in Passione d'Amore/Passion of Love (Ettore Scola, 1981). Antonelli's final role was in the sequel Malizia 2000/Malice 2000 (Salvatore Samperi, 1991).

In 1991, cocaine was found during a police raid on Antonelli's home. She was subsequently convicted of possession and dealing and sentenced to house arrest. She spent ten years appealing the conviction which was eventually overturned. In 2006 the Italian court of appeals ruled in the favour of Antonelli and ordered to pay the former actress 108,000 euros.


Trailer L'innocente/The Innocent (1976). Source: Pierre Marascia (YouTube).

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

Alma Taylor

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Blue-eyed, round-faced Alma Taylor (1895-1974) was a British actress, who peeked in the British silent cinema of the 1910s and 1920s. In 1915 readers of Pictures and Picturegoers voted her most popular British performer, beating even Charlie Chaplin. Taylor acted in over 150 films, among which some prestigious examples like Shadow of Egypt (Sidney Morgan, 1924), filmed on location in Egypt.

Alma Taylor
British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic Series.

Alma Taylor
British postcard by Beagles in the Famous Cinema Star Series, no. 150 C. Photo: Elliott & Fry.

Hepworth' favourite


Alma Taylor was born in London, Great Britain, in 1895. According to Anthony Slide, brunette, blue-eyed she was the Hepworth actress 'par excellence'. Beginning as a child in 1907, Alma Taylor already acted with producer Cecil Hepworth, playing tragic young girls in his short silent films.

The photogenic brunette then co-starred with Chrissie White in Hepworth's 'Tilly the Tomboy' comedy series (1910-1915) about two naughty schoolgirls.

Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "The other Tilly girl was Chrissie White and each in her own way would come to personify the typical British silent screen heroine: innocuous, well-mannered, and invariably dressed for comfort."
Taylor would appear in 75 or more short and long subjects by Hepworth, such as the Charles Dickens adaptations Oliver Twist (Thomas Bentley, 1912) as Nancy, David Copperfield (Thomas Bentley, 1913) and The Old Curiosity Shop (Thomas Bentley, 1913).

In those days, everyone helped out at the studios, so both Alma and Chrissie helped in the processing rooms when the weather was too poor to shoot.

During the First World War and soon after Taylor contributed to the war effort by acting in such propaganda films like The Nature of the Beast (Cecil Hepworth, 1919).

Taylor clearly was the producer's favourite, and remained devoted to him for decades. In 1923, she starred opposite Ralph Forbes in the rather old-fashioned British countryside drama Comin' Thro the Rye (Cecil Hepworth, 1923), a remake of an earlier version by Hepworth.

Taylor played her usual heroine, suffering nobly and at great length after losing her man to another woman.

Alma Taylor
British postcard. Photo: Hepworth.

Alma Taylor
British postcard. Photo: Hepworth.

Alma Taylor
British postcard. Photo: Hepworth.

Britain's top star


After a temporal absence from the screen, Cecil Hepworth re-launched Alma Taylor in his last film, The House of Marney (Cecil Hepworth, 1926), with John Longden.

In 1924, the Daily News named Alma Taylor, along with Betty Balfour, 'Britain's top star'. Taylor only starred in four non-Hepworth films: The Shadow of Egypt (Sidney Morgan, 1924) with Joan Morgan, Quinneys (Maurice Elvey, 1927), A South Sea Bubble (T. Hays Hunter, 1928) with Ivor Novello, and Two Little Drummer Boys (G.B.Samuelson, 1928).

In the late silent era, she did some German films, including her part of Mrs. Barrymore in Der Hund von Baskerville/The Hound of the Baskervilles (Richard Oswald, 1929). This film was considered lost for a long time, but it was rediscovered in 2009.

With the coming of sound, however, Taylor's career dwindled and she had to be satisfied with minor, matronly roles, in s small number of films. These included Bachelor's Baby (Harry Hughes, 1932), Things Are Looking Up (Albert de Courville, 1935), Lilacs in the Spring (Herbert Wilcox, 1954), and Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (Frank Launder, 1957).

Uncredited, she played a box office woman in Hitchcock's second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956).

Probably her last part was the uncredited role of an old lady in the Titanic-drama by Rank, A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958).

Alma Taylor died in London, in 1974. She was the wife of film producer and director Walter West (1885-1958). In the late 1910s and early 1920s, West was the regular director of Violet Hopson, first with his company Broadwest (1914-1921) and then for Hopson's own company.

Alma Taylor
British postcard by Hepworth Films, no. D6-1.

Alma Taylor in Coming Thro' the Rye
British postcard by TIC. Photo: Hepworth. Publicity still for Comin' Thro the Rye (Cecil Hepworth, 1923).

Alma Taylor
British postcard by Beagles in the Famous Cinema Star Series, no. 150A.

Sources: Anthony Slide (Encyclopedia of British Film), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Hepworthfilm, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gerard Decaux

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Today a post on another forgotten photographer whose pictures are on many film star postcards, Gerard Decaux. This French glamour photographer was very busy during the 1950s and 1960s.

Martine Carol
Martine Carol. German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-2. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gerard Decaux / UFA.

Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. Photo: Gerard Decaux / UFA.

Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/392. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Miss Freckles


We could find only a bit of information about Gerard Decaux on the net, but many of his pictures are retraceable. The French photographer made glamorous photos of French but also German, Italian and American celebrities for dozens of record sleeves, star postcards and magazines like CinéMonde and Paris Match.

His celebrity photos were distributed by international news agencies like Camera Press in London. On the net we found such a picture, he made of Miss Freckles. This was a nickname for half Norwegian, half Spanish cabaret star Vida Bendix. Bendix had appeared in the BBC show Cafe Continental and in the Spanish film Minutos antes/Minutes before (José Luis Gamboa, 1956).

Miss Freckles suddenly became news when she had been left a fortune after a lieutenant-commander Martin Solomon died mysteriously in his room in Madrid. The flip side of the press photo mentions that Solomon and Bendix were married in March 1956, a fact which was known only to a few people.

Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/228. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Jean Marais
Jean Marais. German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-27. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gerard Decaux / UFA.

Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/345. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Jean-Pierre Cassel
Jean-Pierre Cassel. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/393. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Yves Montand
Yves Montand. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/394. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Saint Tropez Blues


Another wonderful photo by Gerard Decaux I found on the net is a 1965 picture of American film star Kim Novak with a Kodak Instamatic before her beautiful face. Decaux visited Montmartre with her and he clicked when she was photographing the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. Wonderful.

Auction sites show that Decaux was also active as a fashion photographer, e.g. one of Marie-Helene Ariaud, photo model for Chanel, looking in a mirror. He also made wonderful street photos, e.g. a series at the Gare du Lyon, which was auctioned in 2013.

IMDb mentions that Gerard Decaux once appeared in a film, Saint Tropez Blues (1961), written and directed by Marcel Moussy. The film starred singer Marie Laforêt. Decaux also photographed her for a sleeve of one of her records and for the postcard below.

I really like Decaux' more wild and imaginative pictures like the one of the Kessler Twins: jumping and laughing in white bikinis in the open air. The picture was used by Polydor for the sleeve of their EP Roulette and for the German Krüger postcard here below.

Another crazy star photo is the one of American actress Yvette Mimieux climbing in a tree, which was also used by Krüger for a postcard. There are so many Krüger postcards with pictures by Gerard Decaux. Enjoy them!

Marie Laforêt
Marie Laforêt. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/344. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Mimieux. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/370. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

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

Susanne Cramer
Susanne Cramer. German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft) Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-63. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gerard Decaux / UFA.

Claudia Mori
Claudia Mori. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/342. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Yvonne Monlaur
Yvonne Monlaur. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/395. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Catherine Franck
Catherine Franck. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/339. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Mireille Darc
Mireille Darc. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/197. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Mylène Demongeot
Mylène Demongeot. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/326. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

Check out our other posts on film star photographers. See the links at right under the caption 'The Photographers'.

Sources: Artnet, Encyclopédisque, eBay, and IMDb.

Roger Hanin (1925-2015)

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Yesterday, French actor and director Roger Hanin passed away, following a respiratory distress. Since 1953, he appeared in more than 100 French and foreign films, often playing tough guys in crime films. But he was best loved in France as TV Commissioner Navarro.

Roger Hanin
French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 1048 A. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Série noire


Roger Hanin was born as Roger Paul Lévy in 1925 in Algiers, then France, now Algeria, to Jewish parents. He went to Paris to follow a study pharmacy.

However, he quickly turned to acting, taking small roles in the theatre. His film debut was a small part in Le chemin de Damas/The Road to Damascus (Max Glass, 1952) with Michel Simon.

Then he played a bodyguard in the French crime film La môme vert-de-gris/Poison Ivy (1953). It was French director Bernard Borderie's first film, which made American-born actor Eddie Constantine a big star in Europe. The screenplay is based the on the 1937 Lemmy Caution thriller Poison Ivy by Peter Cheyney, which had been in 1945 the first title published in Marcel Duhamel's Série noire. The story involves FBI agent Caution investigating gold smuggling activity in Casablanca.

More parts in crime dramas followed, such as in Série noire (Pierre Foucaud, 1955) with Henri Vidal, and Gas-oil/Hi-Jack Highway (Gilles Grangier 1955), starring Jean Gabin and Jeanne Moreau.

Hanin also played a supporting role in the drama Celui qui doit mourir/He Who Must Die (Jules Dassin, 1957), based on the novel Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis.

Roger Hanin (1925-2015)
French collector's card by Biscottes Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Short tribute for Roger Hanin. Source: Mourn for You (YouTube)

Eurospy films


Roger Hanin also appeared in the Nouvelle Vague classic À bout de soufflé/Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) about a wandering criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg). It was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor.

Another classic in which Hanin had a supporting part was Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) featuring Alain Delon.

He started to play leading roles but in less interesting French films. In Italy, he co-starred in the comedy La marcia su Roma/March on Rome (Dino Risi, 1962), opposite Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi.

With Claude Chabrol, Hanin co-wrote the scripts for the Eurospy films Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche/Code Name: Tiger (Claude Chabrol, 1964) and Le Tigre se parfume à la dynamite/Our Agent Tiger (Claude Chabrol, 1965), both featuring Hanin in the starring role of secret agent Le Tigre (the tiger). The films were an attempt to create a French franchise equal to James Bond.

It was not a success and soon Hanin returned to supporting parts as in The Brides of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1966) starring Christopher Lee, Le clair de terre/Earth Light (Guy Gilles, 1970) and the Hollywood Western The Revengers (Daniel Mann, 1972) starring William Holden. In Italy, he appeared opposite Alain Delon in Ducio Tessari's action film Big Guns - Tony Arzenta (1973).

He started to direct films himself, such as Le protecteur/The Protector (Roger Hanin, 1974) with Bruno Cremer. In total he made 10 films and series, for the cinema and TV. His film Train d'enfer/Hell Train (Roger Hanin, 1985) was entered into the 14th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize. In 1977, he founded the theatre festival of Pau.

He kept appearing in well-known films, such as in Les misérables (Robert Hossein, 1982) and often collaborated with director Alexandre Arcady such as at the Jewish mafia drama Le grand pardon/Day of Atonement (Alexandre Arcady, 1982) and the sequel Le Grand Pardon II/Day of Atonement (Alexandre Arcady, 1992).

In France, he is probably best known from TV as commissioner Navarro in the police series Navarro (1989–2006) and the sequel Brigade Navarro (2007-2009). In France the series was a colossal success. After shooting the final episode of Navarro he retired.

From 1959 till her death in 2002, Roger Hanin was married to producer Christine Gouze-Rénal. They often worked together on films. His brother-in-law was former President of France, the late François Mitterrand. Hanin was 89.


Roger Hanin and Enrico Macias sing Les Filles de Mon Pays. Source: Aranjmalar (YouTube).


French trailer for Le Grand Pardon II/Day of Atonement (Alexandre Arcady, 1992). Source: guiri47 (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Sotinel (Le Monde - French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Josette Day

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French film actress Josette Day (1914-1978) is best known as Belle in Jran Cocteau's unforgettable classic La belle et la bête/Beauty and the Beast (1946). She started her film career as a child and played during the 1930s and 1940s many leading parts in French films. In 1950 she ended her successful acting career, when she was only 36.

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 11. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 15. Photo: Star.

Seven Films in a Year


Josette Day was born as Josette Noëlle Andrée Claire Dagory in Paris, in 1914.

At the age of five, she began her film career in Ames d'orient/Souls of the Orient (Léon Poirier, 1919). Till 1922 she made three films under her real name, Josette Dagory.

She also performed as a dancer, including a stint in the Paris Opera. An injury curtailed her career in dance when she was only 9 years old.

She did not return to the screen until she was an adult but then her film career soon took off. The sound film was recently introduced. As Josette Dagory she played the female lead in Serments/Oaths (Henri Fescourt, 1931) and Un bouquet de flirts/A bouquet of flirtations (Charles de Rochefort, 1931).

Then she changed her name to ‘Day’. Throughout the thirties she made numerous films, sometimes as many as seven in a year. Among her early sound films were the romantic comedy Allo Berlin? Ici Paris/Here's Berlin (Julien Duvivier, 1932), Coralie et Cie/Coralie and Company (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1933) starring Francoise Rosay, and Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole/The Merry Monarch (Alexis Granowsky, 1933).

Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole/The Merry Monarch was a Tobis production, that was made in a German, a French and an English version. In all three alternate language versions she was the leading lady opposite the famous Emil Jannings.

Later films were Les filles de la concierge/The Daughters of the Caretaker (Jacques Tourneur, 1934), Lucrèce Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia (Abel Gance, 1935) starring Edwige Feuillère, Ménilmontant (René Guissart, 1936), and L'homme du jour/The Man of the Hour (Julien Duvivier, 1937).

Josette Day
French (?) postcard by A.L.I., no. 39.

Josette Day
French postcard, no. PC 122.

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinematographiques. Photo: Studio Arnal, Paris.

Josette Day
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1009. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Classic French Fairytale


In 1939, Josette Day met Marcel Pagnol and they had an affair. Pagnol was a famous French author, producer and director who owned his own film studio. Some sources say they were married, but on 2 July 1978, the French news paper Le Monde ran a correction of its obit of the day before. The union of Josette Day and Marcel Pagnol"was never consecrated by a marriage."

Her first great role was as Patricia Amoretti in his production La Fille du puisatier/The Well-Diggers Daughter (Marcel Pagnol, 1940) with Raimu and Fernandel. The couple also made Monsieur Brotonneau/Mr. Brotonneau (Alexander Esway, 1939) starring Raimu, La prière aux étoiles/The Prayer to the Stars (Marcel Pagnol, 1941) and Arlette et l'amour/Arlette and Love (Robert Vernay, 1943).

Day left Pagnol in 1944. Most of her films seem forgotten through the passage of time, except for one film for which she will always be remembered in the history of French cinema.

In 1946, she played Belle in the classic French fairy-tale La belle et la bête/Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, René Clément, 1946) opposite Jean Marais as the Beast.

At French Film Site, James Travers reviews: “This is one of the most important films in the history of cinema. By pushing film technology to its creative limits and avoiding sentimentality, Jean Cocteau succeeds in creating a film that is both visually entrancing and emotionally rewarding, whilst re-telling a familiar tale in a fresh and innovative way. (…) Of course, Cocteau is well-served by some great acting talent, in the form of Jean Marais and Josette Day as the lead characters.”

Two years after La belle et la bête she also appeared opposite Marais in Cocteau’s Les parents terrible/The Terrible Parents (1948), and she also appeared in his lost film Coriolan (Jean Cocteau, 1950).

Other interesting films were La révoltée/Stolen Affections (Marcel L’Herbier, 1948) with Victor Francen, and Swiss Tour/Four Days Leave (Leopold Lindtberg, 1950) with Cornell Wilde and Simone Signoret.

She was only 36 years old when she suddenly ended her career. She retired to marry a wealthy Belgian businessman, Maurice Solvay, whom she had hidden from the Nazis during World War II. She was only seen once in another film, as herself in the comedy L'amour, Madame/Love, Madame (Gilles Grangier, 1952) with Arletty and François Périer.

The last years of her life she devoted herself to charitable work. In 1960 her husvand had died. Josette Day died in 1978 in Paris. She was 63.
But was she really dead? 17 years later, Micheline Weill, an American woman living in a Philadelphia row house begged to differ to differ. In the Philadelphia Inquirer, she proclaimed: "I Am Alive" in lilting French. True? The writer, Leonard W. Boasberg, ends his article thus: "One thing is certain, if anything is certain in this world: She is not lying. She truly believes herself to be Josette Day. Possibly, her friend Tom Brady says, she is just a sweet and charming but confused old woman. On the other hand, he adds, if it seems almost too good to be true that she is Josette Day, that doesn't mean it isn't true."

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 138. Photo: Star.

Josette Day
French postcard by Viny, no. 55. Photo: Star.

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 138. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.

Josette Day
French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 11. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.


Trailer for La Belle et la bête (1946). Source: Criterion Trailers (YouTube)

Sources: James Travers (French Film Site), Bob Hufford (Find A Grave), Frankfob2 (IMDb), Leonard W. Boasberg (Philadelphia Inquirer), Lenin Imports, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Die Puppe (1919)

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The German silent film Die Puppe/The Doll (1919) is a charming romantic fantasy directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The splendidly original film is loosely based on the short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, which also inspired the ballet Coppélia.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 635/4 1919-1924. Photo: Union. Publicity still for Die Puppe/The Doll (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919) with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig.

A special service for bachelors, widowers and misogynists


In the opening shot of Die Puppe/The Doll,Ernst Lubitsch sets up a doll's house against a stylised backdrop. A close-up of this model then dissolves into a full-sized version of the same stylised setting, from which emerge actors dressed as dolls. From this point onward, the entire film is staged on highly stylised sets.

The old Baron von Chanterelle (Max Kronert) has no family except for his gormless nephew Lancelot (Hermann Thimig). He wants to preserve his family line, so he forces Lancelot to choose one of the village maidens to wed.

Lancelot flees to a monastery to escape the forty eager maidens. The Baron offers his nephew a dowry of 300,000 francs to get married. But Lancelot is afraid of women.

The prior (Jacob Tiedtke) shows him an advertisement from the doll-maker Hilarius (Victor Janson), who offers a special service 'for bachelors, widowers and misogynists': a life-size clockwork girl! Lancelot decides to marry the mechanical bride, collect the dowry, then stash the doll in the attic.

Hilarius has just finished making a replica of his pretty daughter Ossi (Ossi Oswalda). The clockwork girl has a control panel on her back and a crank to wind her up.

The doll-maker's young apprentice (Gerhard Ritterband) accidentally breaks the arm of the doll and convinces the real Ossi to mimic the doll. Lancelot buys her, thinking she is a doll, and takes her back to the monastery, where they are wed.


Ernst Lubitsch and Ossi Oswalda. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 337/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

An extremely kinky performance


Ernst Lubitsch once wrote to his biographer Herman G. Weinberg that he considered Die Puppe and Die Austernprinzessin/The Oyster Princess (1919) as his most outstanding comedies produced in Germany before he departed for Hollywood to make Rosita (1923).

Die Puppe/The Doll features, according to F Gwynplaine MacIntyre at IMDb, 'an extremely kinky performance' by Ossi Oswalda: "In a frilly outfit with a short skirt, Ossi is very pretty as both the mechanical girl and the real one. There is some surprisingly good double-exposure in a couple of camera set-ups when the real Ossi and the mechanical one are onscreen simultaneously. Brilliant camerawork throughout by the great Theodor Sparkuhl."

The great charm of Die Puppe is its mood of fairy-tale unreality. The coachman's horses are played by men in pantomime-horse costumes. A cat and a rooster are played by cut-out figures. The moon has a human face.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre at IMDb: "I enjoyed a bizarre scene in which an entire roomful of mechanical girls dance for Lancelot. The sequences of Ossi (the real one) dancing stiffly while pretending to be a clockwork girl remind me of the sequence in Metropolis when the female robot takes her first awkward steps. The Doll is an absolute delight from beginning to end, a film that the entire family will enjoy."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 635/5 1919-1924. Photo: Union. Publicity still for Die Puppe/The Doll (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919) with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig.

Sources: F Gwynplaine MacIntyre (IMDb), Will Gilbert (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Luigi Serventi

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Luigi Serventi (1885-1976) was a star of the Italian silent cinema, often cast opposite such divas as Pina Menichelli. After his Italian career he continued to appear in films in Germany and Czechoslovakia during the 1920s.

Luigi Serventi
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna.

Specialized in romantic roles


Luigi Serventi aka Gigi Serventi was born in Rome in 1885. He came from a Roman bourgeois family.

He started his stage acting career in 1911, entering the theatre company of Vittoria Lepanto. Afterwards he moved over to the companies of Ermete Novelli and Ettore Berti.

In 1914 he abandoned the stage to fully dedicate himself to film acting, first as an extra at the Latium Film company. Later, he worked for other production companies, such as Pasquali, Cines, Milano, Itala, etc.

He was the male lead in successful films such as Il vetturale del Moncenisio/The Courier of Moncenisio (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916) with Lina Millefleurs, Il Re, le Torri e gli Alfieri/The king, the Towers and the Ensigns (Ivo Illuminati, 1917), a rare, lost futurist film with Giorgina Dentice di Frasso, Il padrone delle ferriere/The owner of the ironworks (Eugenio Perego, 1919) with Amleto Novelli and Pina Menichelli, and Il romanzo di un giovane povero/The romance of a poor young man (1920) with again Menichelli.

Serventi confirmed himself as one the male stars of Italian cinema in the silent era. He specialized in romantic roles, and in a period of five years he acted together with many of the female stars of the Italian cinema.

With Mercedes Brignone, he co-starred in Vizio atavico/Ancestral vice (Baldassarre Negroni, 1914), La dote del burattinaio/The Puppet's Dowry (Baldassarre Negroni, 1914), Lo spettro bianco a Saint Moritz/The white specter in Saint Moritz (Alfredo Robert, 1914), and Mezzanotte/Midnight (Augusto Genina, 1915).

He also co-starred with Hesperia in Per la felicità degli altri/The Penalty of Beauty(Baldassarre Negroni, 1914) and Dopo il veglione/After the New Year's Eve (Augusto Genina, 1914), with Bianca Virginia Camagni in Non è tutto oro/It is not all gold (1914), with Gemma Stagno Belllincioni in Cavalleria rusticana (Ugo Falena, 1916) and with Leda Gys in La Bohème (Amleto Palermi, 1918).

Most famously Serventi co-starred with the diva Pina Menichelli. They acted together in two films directed by Augusto Genina, La parola che uccide/The word that kills (Augusto Genina, 1914) and Il mistero del castello di Monroe/The Munroe Manor Mystery (Augusto Genina, 1914), and later in five by Eugenio Perego and one by Amleto Palermi, the Octave Feuillet adaptation Il romanzo di un giovane povero/The romance of a poor young man (1920).

In 1914-1915 Augusto Genina directed Serventi in eight films and during the 1920s in two more. Other directors with whom Serventi frequently worked were Baldassarre Negroni (1914-1915), Ugo Falena (1916-1917) and Eugenio Perego (191-1920).

Occasionally, Serventi tried his luck with film direction. He co-directed with Lucio D’AmbraLe mogli e le arance/The wives and the oranges (1917), and solo he did Suprema bellezza/Supreme beauty (1921). In both films he also played the male lead.

Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Romanzo di un giovane povero
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori Bolognam no. . Publicity still of Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il romanzo di un giovane povero/The romance of a poor young man (1920). The proud Margherita (Menichelli), daughter of the rich Laroque, falls in love with her father's administrator, Massimo Odiot (Serventi), but she fears he is only after her money. The real vulture, however, is a corrupt count, to whom Margharita is betrothed, unknowing of the man's plans. When Massimo and Margherita are accidentally locked into an old tower, and she treats him cruelly, Massimo sacrifices himself and jumps from the tower, to get help. When afterwards he gets hold of a fortune, nothing can prevent anymore the marriage between the two.

Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il romanzo di un giovane povero
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori Bologna, no. 1052. Publicity still of Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il romanzo di un giovane povero/The romance of a poor young man (1920).

Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il romanzo di un giovane povero
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori Bologna, no. 1038. Publicity still of Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il romanzo di un giovane povero/The romance of a poor young man (1920).

German aristocrats


Because of the crisis in the Italian film industry, Luigi Serventi emigrated to Germany in 1922.

In Berlin he met the same public acclaim, when he appeared in several films, opposite female stars emigrated to Berlin like him, such as Lucy Doraine, Maria Jacobini and Diana Karenne.

His first German film was Sterbende Volker/Dying people (Robert Reinert, 1922), which had an all-star cast that included Fritz Kortner, Helena Makowska, Aud Egede Nissen, Otto Gebühr, Gustavo Serena and Paul Wegener.

In Germany, he often played aristocrats, as in Bohème - Künstlerliebe/Bohème - artists love (Gennaro Righelli, 1923), Der Geldteufel/The Money Devil (Heinz Goldberg, 1923), Finale der Liebe/Finale of Love (Felix Basch, 1925), and Die Ausgestoßenen/Caught in Berlin's Underworld (Martin Berger, 1927).

Serventi also acted in Czechoslovakia in the films Muz bez srdce/The Man Without a Heart (1923) and Vyznavaci slunce/The Sun Disciples (Václav Binovec, 1926), and Erotikon/Seduction (Gustav Machatý, 1929) starring Ita Rina. In Austria he starred in Lebende Ware/Living goods (Robert Wohlmuth, 1929).

Yet, Serventi was also called back to Italy to act in films such as Voglio tradire mio marito/I Want to Betray My Husband (Mario Camerini, 1925) with Linda Pini and Alberto Collo, Il gigante delle Dolomiti/The Giant of the Dolomites (Guido Brignone, 1927) with Bartolomeo Pagano in his final Maciste film, and Il cantastorie di Venezia/The Storyteller of Venice (Atto Retti-Marsani, 1929).

When sound cinema set in, Serventi’s career started to fade way. His last true film part was in Berge in Flammen/Mountains on Fire (Luis Trenker, Karl Hartl, 1931) with Luis Trenker and Lissi Arna. One of the series of popular Mountain films of the era, it was shot on location in the Dolomites.

In the same year Serventi settled in Kitzbühel, Austria, and remained there for many years. Only at a very high age he returned to Italy.

Luigi Serventi died in Rome, in 1976.

Luigi Serventi
Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. 'Bettini', Roma , no. 187. Photo: Bettini, Roma.

Luigi Serventi
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 220. Photo: Civirani, Roma.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

Marlene Dietrich

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Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) was the first German actress who became successful in Hollywood. Throughout her long career, she constantly re-invented herself. In 1920s Berlin, she started as a cabaret singer, chorus girl and film actress. In the 1930s, she became a Hollywood star, then a World War II frontline entertainer, and finally she was an international stage show performer from the 1950s till the 1970s. Now we remember her as one of the icons of the 20th century.

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5582/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.

Marlene Dietrich
French postcard by Europe, no. 2060. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marlene Dietrich
French postcard by Editions P.I., presented by NV Victoria, Brussels, no. 219. Photo: Universal International.

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 501. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930).

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 545. Photo: Paramount.

Chorus Girl


Marie Magdalene Dietrich was born in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany, in 1901. She was the younger of two daughters of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine née Felsing.

Her mother was from a well-to-do Berlin family who owned a clock making firm and her father was a police lieutenant. He died in 1911. His best friend, Eduard von Losch, an aristocrat first lieutenant in the Grenadiers courted Wilhelmina and eventually married her in 1916. He was killed on the Russian front in 1918.

The young Marie Magdalene and her elder sister, Elisabeth, were brought up strictly in an upper-middle-class Prussian home. It would be this influence which would shape her acting career and her life as a citizen in years to come.

Dietrich attended school in Berlin and Dessau from 1907 to 1919. She studied violin and became interested in theatre and poetry as a teenager. Her dreams of becoming a concert violinist were cut short when she injured her wrist.

In 1921, she auditioned unsuccessfully for Max Reinhardt's drama academy, but she soon found herself working in his theatres as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas.

The next year she played a part in the silent film So sind die Männer/The Little Napoleon (Georg Jacoby, 1922). On the set of another film, Tragödie der Liebe/The Tragedy of Love (Joe May, 1923), she met production assistant Rudolf Sieber. They were married in 1923. Her only child, daughter Maria Elisabeth Sieber, later billed as actress Maria Riva, was born in 1924.

Throughout the 1920s Marlene continued to work on stage and in films both in Berlin and Vienna. She attracted most attention in stage musicals and revues, such as Broadway and Es Liegt in der Luft/It's in the Air.

By the late 1920s, she was also playing leading parts in such films as Café Elektric/Cafe Electric (Gustav Ucicky, 1927) with Willi Forst, Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame/I Kiss Your Hand Madame (Robert Land, 1929) with Harry Liedtke, and Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt/The Woman One Longs For (Kurt/Curtis Bernhardt, 1929) opposite Fritz Kortner.

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6673/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Don English / Paramount. Publicity still for Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marlene Dietrich in Song of Songs
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5968/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich in the film The Song of Songs (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933).

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7789/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich in the film The Song of Songs (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933).

Marlene Dietrich and Gavin Gordon in The Scarlet Empress (1934)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8709/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934) with Gavin Gordon.

Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8995/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Devil Is a Woman (Josef von Sternberg, 1935).

Lola-Lola


In 1929 Marlene Dietrich played her breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer who causes the downfall of Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings), a hitherto respected schoolmaster, in the Ufa production Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930).

Josef von Sternberg thereafter took credit for having ‘discovered’ her. The film is also noteworthy for introducing her signature song Falling in Love Again. On the strength of Der blaue Engel's success, and with encouragement and promotion from Von Sternberg, Dietrich then moved to Hollywood. She left her husband and daughter behind.

Paramount sought to market her as a German answer to MGM's Swedish sensation Greta Garbo. Her first American film, Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) opposite Gary Cooper earned her her only Oscar nomination.

Between 1930 and 1935 she was the star of six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount: Morocco (1930); Dishonored (1931), about a spy who betrays her country for love of a worthless man (Victor McLaglen); Shanghai Express (1932), a melodrama in which she is a China Coast prostitute who offers herself to a warlord (Warner Oland) to save the life of a former lover (Clive Brook); Blonde Venus (1932), a mother-love soap opera;, The Scarlet Empress (1934), an opulent and visually stunning melodrama about a lascivious Catherine the Great; and The Devil Is A Woman (1935), an erotic tale about a soldier-corrupting vamp in turn-of-the-century Seville.

Wikipedia describes how Von Sternberg worked very effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous femme fatale: "He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress – she, in turn, was willing to trust him and follow his sometimes imperious direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted. A crucial part of the overall effect was created by Von Sternberg's exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect — the use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted blinds (as for example in Shanghai Express) — which, when combined with scrupulous attention to all aspects of set design and costumes, make this series of films among the most visually stylish in cinema history."

Because it displayed her beauty most effectively, The Devil Is a Woman was her particular favourite. But after the dismal failure of The Devil Is A Woman, Paramount fired Von Sternberg, and the star and director would never work together again.

Marlene Dietrich, Blonde Venus
French postcard by EDUG, no. 1073. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Blonde Venus (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marlene Dietrich
French postcard by Europe, no. 58. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marlene Dietrich
Dutch postcard, no. 294. Photo: Paramount.

Marlene Dietrich
Dutch postcard, no. 326. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1934. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Marlene Dietrich
British postcard by Film-Kurier Series, London, no. 19. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Publicity still for The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934).

Box Office Poison


Without Von Sternberg, Marlene Dietrich made her first comedy, Desire (Frank Borzage, 1936). It was a satire about an urbane jewel thief (Dietrich) who steals a choice necklace from a Parisian jeweller and, in efforts to keep it, becomes involved with a hayseed Detroit engineer (Gary Cooper).

Although Dietrich's salary in the mid 1930s was enormous, she was never listed among the top ten box-office attractions, and depression-era audiences often felt she was preposterously exotic. She was even labelled 'box office poison' after Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937) proved an expensive flop.

In 1939, her stardom revived when she played the freewheeling saloon entertainer Frenchie in the comic Western Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939) opposite James Stewart. Hollywood's attempt to make her more 'ordinary' worked. The film also introduced another favourite song, The Boys in the Back Room.

She played a similar role with John Wayne in The Spoilers (Ray Enright, 1942).

In December 1941, the US had entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She toured the US from January 1942 to September 1943 and it is said that she sold more war bonds than any other star. During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945, she sang and performed the singing saw for Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria, Italy, England and France.

For musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers, she recorded a number of songs in German, including the ballad Lili Marleen. The troops loved her.

In 1947, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the US for her wartime work. In 1950, the French state conferred the title of Chevalier de la Légion d' Honneur (knight of the Legion of Honour) on her, in 1971 she was named Officier by President Pompidou and in 1989 Commandeur by President Mitterrand.

Marlene Dietrich and Dickie Moore in Blonde Venus
British postcard, distributed in the Netherlands by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, no. 136e. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Blonde Venus (Josef von Sternberg, 1932) with Dickie Moore.

Marlene Dietrich
British-Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, no. B 351. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934) with Marlene Dietrich as Catherine the Great, the notorious empress of Russia.

Marlene Dietrich
French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 3. Photo: London Film Productions. Publicity still for Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937).

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9906/4, 1935-1936. Photo: London Film Productions. Marlene Dietrich in the film Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937).

Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat in Knight Without Armour
British postcard by Art Photo Postcard, no. 125. Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat in the London Films production Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937).

Body-hugging Dresses and careful stage lighting


From the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, Marlene Dietrich worked almost exclusively as a highly-paid cabaret artist, performing live in large theatres in major cities worldwide. Her costumes (body-hugging dresses covered with thousands of crystals as well as a swansdown coat), body-sculpting undergarments, careful stage lighting helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image well into old age.

She never fully regained her former screen glory, but she continued performing in films for distinguished directors. Her successful film roles included an exotic gypsy in Golden Earrings (Mitchell Leisen, 1947), with Ray Milland, an ex-Nazi cafe singer in A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948), a famous singer and murderer in Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950), an aging bandit queen in Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, 1952), the wife of a suspected murderer in Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957), a cynical brothel-keeper in Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958), and the aristocratic widow of a prominent Nazi general in Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961).

Dietrich's show business career largely ended in 1975, when she broke her leg during a stage performance in Sydney, Australia. Her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer in 1976. Her final on-camera film appearance was a small role in Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo/Just a Gigolo (David Hemmings, 1979), starring David Bowie.

Dietrich withdrew to her apartment in Paris. She spent the final 11 years of her life mostly bedridden, allowing only a select few — including family and employees — to enter the apartment. During this time, she was a prolific letter-writer and phone-caller. Her autobiography, Nehmt nur mein Leben/Marlene, was published in 1979.

In 1982, she agreed to participate in a documentary film about her life, Marlene (1984), but refused to be filmed. The film's director, Maximilian Schell, was only allowed to record her voice. He used his interviews with her as the basis for the film, set to a collage of film clips from her career. The final film won several European film prizes and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 1984. Newsweek named it "a unique film, perhaps the most fascinating and affecting documentary ever made about a great movie star".

In 1992, Marlene Dietrich died of renal failure at the age of 90 in Paris. Ten years after her death, Berlin - the city of Dietrich's birth which she shunned for most of her life - declared her an honorary citizen.

In a 1992 obituary The New York Timeswrote: "In her films and record-breaking cabaret performances, Miss Dietrich artfully projected cool sophistication, self-mockery and infinite experience. Her sexuality was audacious, her wit was insolent and her manner was ageless. With a world-weary charm and a diaphanous gown showing off her celebrated legs, she was the quintessential cabaret entertainer of Weimar-era Germany."

Marlene Dietrich
French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 219.

Marlene Dietrich
British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. W 340. Photo: Paramount.

Marlene Dietrich and Ronald Colman in Kismet
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C 156. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Kismet (William Dieterle, 1944) with Ronald Colman.

Marlene Dietrich
American postcard by Quantity Postcards, Oakland, no. 3372.

Marlene Dietrich
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 2.192, 1964.


Marlene Dietrich sings Falling in love again in the English version of Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930). Source: EdmundusRex (YouTube).

Sources: James Naremore (Senses of Cinema), Wikipedia, The New York Times, Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin, and IMDb.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)

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Last Saturday, dashingly handsome French actor Louis Jourdan died in California, aged 93. Jourdan played lead roles in several Hollywood films in which he often was type casted as the elegant European lover. He is best known for the nine Oscars winning musical Gigi (1958) with Leslie Caron. In the 1980s he could broaden his range with character roles like the eccentric villain opposite James Bond in Octopussy (1983).

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

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 46. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 76. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Louis Jourdan
Collectors card.

The Most Handsome French Actor of His Era


Louis Jourdan was born as Louis Gendre in Marseille, France, in 1921 (some sources say 1919 or 1920). His parents, Yvonne Jourdan and Henry Gendre, managed a string of hotels in Cannes, Nice, and Marseille. One of his two brothers was actor-director Pierre Jourdan.

Louis was educated in France, Britain, and Turkey, and in 1938 he received his dramatic training with René Simon at the Écôle Dramatique in Paris. The following year he was discovered by a talent scout and debuted on-screen in Le Corsaire (Marc Allégret, 1939) with Charles Boyer.

He went on to play dashing young leads in French romantic comedies and dramas, such as La comédie du bonheur/The Comedy of Happiness (Marcel L’Herbier, 1940) with Michel Simon and Hollywood legend Ramon Novarro, and Premier rendez-vous/Her First Affair (Henri Decoin, 1941) starring Danielle Darrieux.

Following the German occupation of France during World War II, Jourdan continued to make films, including L’Arlésienne (Marc Allégret, 1942) with Raimu and Gaby Morlay, and Les petites du quai aux fleurs/The Girls of the Quai aux Fleurs (Marc Allégret, 1944) with Micheline Presle, with whom he was briefly married.

After refusing to participate in Nazi propaganda films, his budding film career was cut short. When his hotelier father was arrested by the Gestapo, Jourdan and his brothers joined the French résistance, and helped publish and distribute a newspaper for the underground. After the 1944 liberation of France by the Allies, Jourdan married for a second time. This time with his childhood sweetheart Berthe Frederique, with whom he later would have a son.

Shortly after the liberation, he was seen in leading roles in Félicie Nanteuil (Marc Allégret, 1945) with Micheline Presle and Claude Dauphin, and La Vie de Bohème/La Bohème/The Bohemian Life (Marcel L’Herbier, 1945), with María Denis. These were actually films which were already shot during the war. Jourdan was the stand-out, and he became known as the most handsome French actor of his era.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 45. Photo: Star.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 135. Photo: Star.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 138. Photo: Star.

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Editions Continental, no. 118 A. Photo: Continental Film.

Louis Jourdan
French postcard by Edition Chantal, Rueil, no. 67. Photo: Discina.

R.I.P. Louis Jourdan (1921-2015)
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 91. Photo: Gray Film. Publicity still for L'Arlésienne (Marc Allégret, 1942).

Louis Jourdan
French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. 141. Photo: Star.

Louis Jourdan
French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. 43. Photo: Star.

Object of Secret Longings


In 1946, Louis Jourdan accepted an offer from Hollywood producer David O. Selznick to appear in the crime drama The Paradine Case (Alfred Hitchcock, 1947) starring Gregory Peck and Alida Valli.

He remained in the US and went on to star in a number of Hollywood films, including No Minor Vices (Lewis Milestone, 1948) with Dana Andrews and Lilli Palmer, Anne of the Indies (Jacques Tourneur, 1951) with Jean Peters and Debra Paget, the comedy The Happy Time (Richard Fleischer, 1952) with Charles Boyer, and Three Coins in the Fountain (Jean Negulesco, 1954) with Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire.

His Hollywood career was hampered by the limitations of the roles he was offered, most of which featured him as an old-fashioned European lover à la Charles Boyer. While he was memorable as the object of Joan Fontaine's secret longings in Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948), he went on to play similar roles opposite Jennifer Jones in Madame Bovary (Vincente Minnelli, 1949) and Grace Kelly in The Swan (Charles Vidor, 1956).

In 1954 Jourdan made his Broadway debut in the lead role of Michel in The Immoralist. It was a success. He returned to Broadway for a short run in 1955 and that year he was a hit on television too as Inspector Beaumont in the series Paris Precinct (1955).

He also appeared in European productions, like the Boccaccio adaptation Decameron Nights (Hugo Fregonese, 1953) with Joan Fontaine, Rue de l'Estrapade/Françoise Steps Out (Jacques Becker, 1953) with Daniel Gélin and Anne Vernon, La mariée est trop belle/The Bride is Too Beautiful (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1956) opposite Brigitte Bardot, and Escapade (Ralph Habib, 1957) with Dany Carrel.

However, he is best remembered for the musical Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958), based on the Colette novel. He played a French playboy in his late 30s who seduced Leslie Caron the moment she came of legal age, while Maurice Chevalier sang Thank Heaven for Little Girls. The film earned nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In 1982, he played the Chevalier role in Gigi on stage, at the age of 63.

Louis Jourdan
Belgian collectors card by Fotoprim, Brussels, A 8. Photo: Universal International. Publicity photo for Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948).

Louis Jourdan and Debra Paget in Anne of the Indies (1951)
Vintage postcard, no. 552. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Anne of the Indies (Jacques Tourneur, 1951) with Debra Paget.

Louis Jourdan
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 60. Photo: Studio Carlet Ciné.

Louis Jourdan
French postcard, no. 79. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Louis Jourdan
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2887. Photo: Union-Film. Publicity still for Escapade (Ralph Habib, 1957).

Louis Jourdan and Ann Margret in Made in Paris (1966)
Italian postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Publicity still for Made in Paris (Boris Sagal, 1966) with Ann-Margret.

Eccentric Villains


During the 1960s and 1970s Louis Jourdan kept travelling between Hollywood and Europe. He starred in films like Le comte de Monte Cristo/The Count of Monte Cristo (Claude Autant-Lara, 1961) with Yvonne Furneaux, The V.I.P.s (Anthony Asquith, 1963) with Elizabeth Taylor, the TV film Run a Crooked Mile (Gene Levitt, 1969) with Mary Tyler Moore, a TV version of The Count of Monte-Cristo (David Greene, 1975), the BBC production Count Dracula (Mike Newell, 1977), and he was the narrator of the hit comedy Irma la Douce (Billy Wilder, 1963).

In 1981 Louis Jourdan found his only son dead in his Beverly Hills home. Louis Henry, 29, had suffered from depression and had apparently taken an overdose of drugs. The police labelled it a suicide, even though it may have been an accidental overdose.

The next year Louis Jourdan turned to playing eccentric villains, as Dr. Anton Arcane in the campy Sci-Fi film Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 1982) and its sequel The Return of Swamp Thing (Jim Wynorski, 1989).

In 1983, he was cast as the very charming and sophisticated villain Kamal Khan in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983, John Glen) with Roger Moore.

In 1984, he played the role of Baron Pierre de Coubertin in the Emmy Award winning TV film The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (Alvin Rakoff, 1984). After shooting Year of the Comet (1992, Peter Yates) he retired, and moved to the south of France.

Louis Jourdan lived - part-time in the greater Los Angeles area and part-time in the South of France - with his wife for more than sixty years, Berthe Frederique. In July 2010, Jourdan was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur. Berthe died in 2014, and last Saturday, Jourdan passed away at his home in Beverly Hills at the age of 93.


Trailer for Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948). Source: Xaatt (YouTube).


Trailer for The Swan (1956). Source: Jimusnr (YouTube).


Trailer for Gigi (1958). Source: Webothlovesoup (YouTube).


Trailer for for Made in Paris (1966). Source: Movieclips (YouTube).


Trailer for Octopussy (1983). Source: Chigawa's channel (YouTube).

Sources: Ephraim Katz (The Film Encyclopedia), Ohad Rosen (IMDb), Yahoo Movies, Filmreference.com, NNDB, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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