European Film Star Postcards

Geneviève Félix (1901-?) was a French actress who had a brief but successful career in the silent cinema. After being a regular actress of Georges Champavert and Jean Kemm, she starred in the Victor Hugo adaptation La dame de Monsoreau (1925).

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 12.

Muse of Montmartre

Geneviève Félix was born in Paris in 1901. In her teens she was crowned Muse de Montmartre, a kind of beauty queen contest linked to French nationalism and republicanism. This probably gave her an introduction to the cinema.

In 1917 she debuted in the film Le ballon rouge/The Red Balloon, in which she played with Charles Lamy. She also appeared in a short production by the Eclipse company, La phalène bleue/The blue phalène (Georges Champavert, 1917).

Georges Champavert became her regular director in the late 1910s and their films include L’oeil de Saint-Yves/Saint Yves's eye (1919), Les deux jarretières/Both garters (1919), and Le passé renait/The Past Returns (1919). She also appeared in La chimère/The fancy (Lucien Lehmann, 1919) with Edmond Van Daële, and L’engrenage/The gearing (Louis Feuillade, 1919) with René Cresté.

In the early 1920s, Félix became the favourite actress of director Jean Kemm, who directed her in Miss Rovel (1920), Micheline (1921), La ferme du choquart/The farm of Voquart (1921), Hantise/Obsession (1922), and L’absolution/The forgiveness (1922) with Pierre Blanchard. In 1923 Félix had become such a celebrated star that she was hired to endorse Crème Simon, a French heritage skincare brand founded by Joseph Simon in 1860.

In the mid-1920s, Félix played in various films by Georges Monca and Maurice Kéroul, such as L’ironie du sort/The irony of fate (Georges Monca, 1924), the Austrian film Die Geliebte des Mörders/The Lover of the Murderer (Maurice Kéroul, Max Reichmann, 1923), the crime film La double existence de Lord Samsey/The double existence of Lord Samsey (Maurice Kéroul, Georges Monca, 1924) in which Félix played the Lord in travesty, Altemer le cynique/Altemer, the Cynic (Georges Monca, 1924), Autour d’un berceau/Around a cradle (Maurice Kéroul, Georges Monca, 1924), and a remake of Louis Feuillade’s L’engrenage/The gearing (1925), this time directed by Kéroul and Reichmann.

French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 97.

French postcard by A.N., Paris. In the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 42.

Innocently imprisoned for murder

In 1924 Geneviève Félix played in the four-part crime serial La porteuse de pain/The Bread Peddler (René Le Somptier, 1924), starring Suzanne Desprès as Jeanne. Félix played Jeanne's daughter Lucie, who has been innocently imprisoned for murder, evaded and has become bread peddler. Lucien (Jacques Guilhène), son of the victim, loves Lucie, ignoring her identity, while Mary, the daughter of the real murderer (Germaine Rouer), has set her eyes on Lucien.

Obviously, director Le Somptier liked Félix, because she got the lead in his subsequent film, the prestigious production La dame de Monsoreau/The Lady of Monsoreau (René Le Somptier, 1925), adapted from Victor Hugo’s novel. Félix plays Diane de Meridor, who is married but has an affair with Louis de Bussy. The story is set against the background of the religious and political factions in the France of king Henry III. Félix’s co-stars in the film were Rolla Norman (Bussy) and Gina Manès (Mme de Saint-Luc).

Félix’ last silent film was Grand-mère/Grandmother (Albert-Francis Bertoni, 1925), starring Sylvio de Pedrelli and child star Régine Dumien. After that Félix was not seen in the cinema for years.

In 1932 she returned with the short sound film Arrêtez-moi/Stop Me! (Christian Matras, Charles-Félix Tavano, 1932), and she had a small part as the mother superior in another Dumas adaptation: Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1933), which had Aimé Simon-Girard as D’Artagnan and Blanche Montel as Constance.

Here our bio stops. We could not find any information on internet about Geneviève Félix’s whereabouts after the early 1930s, nor the date or place of her death. If you've more information, please let us know.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 234. Poto: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.

French postcard by Editions La Fayette in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series, no. 107. Photo Comoedia.

Sources: Jean-Pascal Constantin (Les Gens du Cinéma - French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

From the middle of the 1920s on, charming Willy Fritsch (1901-1973) replaced Bruno Kastner and Harry Liedtke as the darling of the female cinema goers in Germany. Fritsch became the immensely popular ‘Sunny Boy’ of the Ufa operettas of the 1930s and 1940s, and with his frequent co-star Lilian Harvey he formed the 'dream team of the German cinema'.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5504/1. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7870/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6746/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8469/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8473/3, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6418/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin / Ufa.

Sunny Nature

Willy (sometimes credited as Willi) Fritsch was born as Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch in Kattowitz in German Silesia (now Katowice, Poland), in 1901. He was the son of Lothar Fritsch, a farmer and machine manufacturer, and his wife Anni (née Bauckmann).

In 1912 he moved with his family to Berlin, where he planned to become a mechanic. In 1919 he took up acting lessons from the actor Gustav Sczimek.

Fritsch debuted with a small role at Max Reinhardt's famous Deutsches Theater. There and at the affiliated Kammerspiele (Chamber theatre) he was cast in smaller stage roles, and played young lovers and comic parts. In 1922, he joined the Max Reinhardt Ensembleon its tour through Scandinavia.

From 1921 on, Fritsch began to appear as a supporting player in films, like the sound experiment Miss Venus (Ludwig Czerny, 1921).

In 1923, he auditioned for the leading role of a blind artist in the melodrama Seine Frau, die Unbekannte/His Mysterious Adventure (Benjamin Christensen, 1923), which was then re-written in order to fit his rather sunny nature.

Jenny Jugo and Willy Fritsch in Die Carmen von St. Pauli (1928)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3585/1. Photo: Jenny Jugo and Willy Fritsch in Die Carmen von St. Pauli/Docks of Hamburg (Erich Waschneck, 1928).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3586/1. Photo: Ufa.

Mady Christians & Willy Fritsch in Ein Walzertraum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 48/1. Photo: Ufa. Mady Christians and Willy Fritsch in Ein Walzertraum/The Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), based on the Oscar Strauss operetta.

Xenia Desni, Willy Fritsch, Ein Walzertraum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 48/5. Photo: Ufa. Xenia Desniand Willy Fritsch in the German silent film Ein Walzertraum/The Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 978. Photo: Eichberg Film / Verleih E. Welt & Co. Publicity still for Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926), one of the rare Eichberg productions in which Fritsch played.

Fritz Lang

Willy Fritsch convincingly played the would-be son of an aristocrat in Der Farmer aus Texas/The Farmer from Texas (Joe May, 1925), which made him the new star of the production company Ufa.

Next he starred as the dashing Lieutenant Niki in Ein Walzertraum/A Waltz-Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), which turned out to be a significant success in the USA. At AllMovie, Janiss Garza writes: "This UFA silent, based on an old operetta, is far more light-hearted and spirited than the moody, heavy-handed fare that generally came out of Germany."

Ufa intervened when United Artists offered Fritsch a contract. His next films, Der Prinz und die Tänzerin/The Prince and the Dancer (Richard Eichberg, 1926) and Der letzte Walzer/The Last Waltz (Arthur Robison, 1927) basically followed the formula of Ein Walzertraum.

Fritsch only occasionally altered his now well-established film image in Spione/Spies (1928) and Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929), both directed by Fritz Lang.

Hal Erickson notes at AllMovie: "Spies (Spione) was the first independent production of German 'thriller' director Fritz Lang. The years-ahead-of-its-time plotline involves Russian espionage activity in London. The mastermind is Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge), a supposedly respectable carnival sideshow entertainer. Heading the good guys is Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch), with the help of defecting Russian spy Sonya (Gerda Maurus). The film moves swiftly to several potential climaxes, each one more exciting than its predecessor. Haghi's ultimate demise is a superbly staged Pirandellian vignette. Anticipating Citizen Kane by a dozen years, director Lang dispenses with all transitional dissolves and fade-outs, flat-cutting territory from one scene to another."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/2. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5510/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for the early sound film Einbrecher/Burglar (Hanns Schwarz, 1930), in which Fritsch is a burglar who gets an affair with a rich and neglected industrial's wife (Lilian Harvey).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5858/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Im Geheimdienst/In the Employ of the Secret Service (Gustav Ucicky, 1931).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5858/4, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Im Geheimdienst/In Secret Service (Gustav von Ucicky, 1931), a spy film set in Russia in World War One.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6048/1, 1931. Photo: Ufa Willy Fritsch as the Russian czar Alexander I and his double, in Der Kongress tanzt (Erik Charell, 1931).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/6. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931). Erich Pommer-Produktion, Ufa.

Lilian Harvey

Willy Fritsch took singing lessons in order to prepare himself for the sound film Melodie des Herzens/Melody of the Heart (Hanns Schwarz, 1929) with Dita Parlo.

His breakthrough came after being paired with Lilian Harvey in Liebeswalzer/The Love Waltz (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930) and the two were also engaged privately. Liebeswalzer established Harvey and Fritsch as the immensely popular 'dream team of the German cinema'.

Their next films such as Hokuspokus/Hocuspokus (Gustav Ucicky, 1930), the historical romance Der Kongress tanzt/Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931), Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932) - co-written by Billy Wilder, and especially Die Drei von der Tankstelle/Three Good Friends (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930), were huge international box-office hits.

Fritsch and Harvey appeared together in twelve films. Each of these films featured several songs, which became popular hits and were also released on records, and thereby further added to the popularity of the two stars.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "If a poll had ever been conducted amongst fans of international musical-comedy star Lillian Harvey, the actress's most popular vehicle would probably have been Die Drei von Der Tankstelle (Three From the Gas Station) - with Congress Dances running a very close second. The story opens as three debt-ridden young men pool what is left of their savings to open a roadside service station. Their most frequent customer is the wealthy, winsome Ms. Harvey, who frequently shows up fetchingly clad in hiking shorts. Each of the young men falls in love with the girl, unbeknownst to the other two. Which one will she choose? Most likely, the one who sings the best - and that would be Lillian Harvey's frequent screen vis-a-vis Willy Fritsch."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still of Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst in the musical comedy Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 192/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Walzerkrieg/Waltz Time in Vienna (Ludwig Berger, 1933). Collection: Egbert Barten.

Rose Barsony and Willy Fritsch in Walzerkrieg (1933)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 192/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Walzerkrieg (Ludwig Berger, 1933) with Rose Barsony.

Willy Fritsch in Des jungen Dessauers gross Liebe

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8300/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch as Fürst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau in Des jungen Dessauers grosse Liebe (Arthur Robison, 1933).

Heli Finkenzeller and Willy Fritsch in Boccaccio (1936)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9677/1, 1935 - 1936. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Boccaccio (Herbert Maisch, 1936) with Heli Finkenzeller.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3844/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa. From Tatiana.

Character Actor

Willy Fritsch had a long-term contract with Ufa and was paid a monthly salary of 20.000 Reichsmark per month, which was doubled during the 1930s.

Eschewing his trademark sunny boy persona, Fritsch proved his range as a character actor in films like Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht/I by Day, You by Night (Ludwig Berger, 1932) co-starring Käthe von Nagy, Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Walzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933) opposite Renate Müller, and the satirical romp Amphitryon/Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935) with Paul Kemp.

Fritsch managed to survive the Hitler era without any loss of prestige. After the end of the war, he relocated to Hamburg. He spoofed his own image as the romantic lover in Film ohne Titel/Film Without a Title (Rudolf Jugert, 1947), and excelled as the comical conférencier in Herrliche Zeiten/Fun Times (Erik Ode, Günter Neumann, 1949).

Although still in high demand, Fritsch didn't find satisfying roles in West-Germany's post-war cinema. He continued to appear on stage and in films until the early 1960s. He remained a popular figure, partly due to his work as the host of nostalgic radio shows.

Since 1937, he was married to dancer and actress Dinah Grace until her death in 1963. They had two sons, Michael and Thomas. After his wife's death he decided to retire.

With his son Thomas Fritsch he starred in his final film, Das hab ich von Papa gelernt/I Learned It from Daddy (Axel von Ambesser, 1964). In 1963 he had published his memoir … das kommt nicht wieder/That will never come back, and in 1965 he was honoured with the Filmband in Gold, for his long and important work for the German film.

Willy Fritsch died of heart failure in 1973 in Hamburg, Germany. He was 72.

Scenes with Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (1926), the silent film in which they first appeared together. Source: SittichFan (YouTube).

Willy Fritsch tells Lilian Harvey that she is too good for an afternoon love affair with Heinz Rühmann in Einbrecher (1930). Source: Taylormayes (YouTube).

Scene from Einbrecher (1930) with Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, Heinz Rühmann and Kurt Gerron. He sings: Ich lass mir meinen Körper schwarz bepinseln. Composer: Friedrich Holländer. Source: SittichFan (YouTube).

Willy Fritsch sings the title song in Wenn der weisse Flieder wieder blüht/When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (Hans Deppe, 1953) with Magda Schneider and Romy Schneider. Source: fritz51213 (YouTube).

Willy and Thomas Fritsch in Das hab ich von Papa gelernt (1964). Source: SittichFan (YouTube).

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

Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement (2004) is a French romantic war film, co-written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiance who might have been killed during World War I. It was based on a novel of the same name, written by Sebastien Japrisot, first published in 1991.

Audrey Tautou in Un long dimanche de fiancailles (2004)

Manech's Marrying Mathilde

Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement (2004) tells the romantic story of Mathilde (Audrey Tautou), a young woman who relentless searches for her fiance Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) during World War I.

Near the Somme, five French soldiers are convicted of self-mutilation in order to escape military service. They are condemned to face near certain death in the no man's land between the French and German trench lines. It appears that all of them were killed in a subsequent battle.

Mathilde, the fiancee of one of the soldiers, refuses to give up hope and begins to uncover clues as to what actually took place on the battlefield. Her task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. She is all the while driven by the constant reminder of what her fiance had carved into one of the bells of the church near their home, MMM for Manech's Marrying Mathilde (actually in French: Manech aime Mathilde = Manech Loves Mathilde).

With the help of a private investigator, she attempts to find out what happened to her fiance. Along the way, she discovers the brutally corrupt system used by the French government to deal with those who tried to escape the front. She also discovers the stories of the other men who were sentenced to the no man's land as a punishment.

The story is told both from the point of view of the fiancee in Paris and the French countryside—mostly Brittany—of the 1920s, and through flashbacks to the battlefield.

Eventually Mathilde finds out her fiance is alive, but he suffers from amnesia. He fails to identify even his adoptive mother. Seeing Mathilde, Manech seems to be oblivious of her. However, he still expresses concern for her when he notices her polio stricken legs, asking her "does it hurt when you walk ?" as he did when they first met. At this, Mathilde sits on the garden chair silently watching Manech with tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

Gaspard Ulliel in Un long dimanche de fiancailles (2004)

Jean-Paul Rouve in Un long dimanche de fiancailles (2004)

A visual tour de force

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had a surprise smash with Amélie (2001), featuring the expressive Audrey Tatou as a whimsical and charming girl-woman in search of love. In his follow-up film, Un long dimanche de fiancailles, Jeunet crafted a moving, often penetrating drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath.

Audrey Tatou returned and plays pretty but frail Mathilde, a loner separated from her peers by her disability. She becomes closest friends with Maneche, the son of a lighthouse keeper. Late adolescence brings love and lust, commitment and an engagement. And when Maneche does not return from the war, Mathilde searches fervently for him, steely faithful in a moving and believable way.

Ralph Michael Stein at IMDb: "her search takes her to cities and battlefields. With resort to a child's employment of magical thinking she frequently whispers tests about what will happen in immediate, ordinary circumstances with one result 'proving' for her that Manech is still alive. Tatou makes this self-deception appealing and infinitely sad."

At AllMovie, Derek Armstrong reviews: "Jean-Pierre Jeunet's most sophisticated achievement to date, if not actually his best film, A Very Long Engagement marks the first instance of the director's trademark techniques applied to a story of historical consequence. In addition to possessing Jeunet's usual busy narration and array of interconnected characters, it's also a visual tour de force."

Un long dimanche de fiancailles was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. The film received five Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscar. Marion Cotillard won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress and Gaspard Ulliel the César for Most Promising Actor.

Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet at the set of Un long dimanche de fiancailles (2004)

French postcard by Warner Bros, France / Tapioca Films / TF1 Films Production. Poster by Laurent Lufroy. Photo: Bruno Calvo. Publicity still for Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004). Audrey Tautou and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet at the set.

Trailer. Source: Geschiedenis Beleven (YouTube).

Sources: Derek Armstrong (AllMovie), Ralph Michael Stein (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Jenny Hasselqvist (1894-1978) was a Swedish ballet dancer and actress who starred in silent Swedish films by Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjöström. She also worked in Germany with Ernst Lubitsch and became well-known all over Europe. With the rise of the sound film she concluded her film career.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 143. Swedish actress Jenny Hasselqvist aka Jenny Hasselquist.

Vintage postcard. Photo: Henry B. Goodwin, 1918. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

Prima Donna

Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselqvist (or Hasselquist) was born in 1894 in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was a member of parliament. From 1906 on, Jenny attended the Swedish Opera's ballet school and from 1910, she performed with the Royal Ballet.

In 1913, famous Russian choreographer Michel Fokine noticed her talents and ensured she obtained solo parts in La Sylphide and Cleopatra. She had a brilliant success and became a prima ballerina at the Royal Ballet in 1915.

In 1916, Hasselqvist made her film debut in Balettprimadonnan/Anjala the Dancer, directed by the legendary Mauritz Stiller. She got the title role because it required a professional dancer. At IMDb, ‘Herr Graf’ Ferdinand Von Galitzien highly recommends the film of which now only some fragments remain. ‘Genuine Stiller’, he calls the tale of a gypsy dancer (Hasselquist) who is discovered accidentally by a violin player (Lars Hanson). Von Galitzien about the film’s ending: “a thrilling sequence with our heroine running wild through a snowy landscape trying to avoid a calamity between the men that are fighting for her love (…), a lyrical and beautiful ending wherein Nature (Swedish style) is also an important dramatic character.”

Hasselqvist continued to dance. In 1919, she retired from the Royal Ballet, and became from 1919 till 1921 a star of Les ballets Anglais in Paris. Wikipedia: “A talented dancer, she had a flair for the modern idiom.” She also pursued a career in the silent cinema. With Mauritz Stiller, she made Johan/ Rapids of Life (Mauritz Stiller, 1921) with Mathias Taube and De landsflyktige/The Emigrants (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).

Then she worked with the other great director of the Swedish silent cinema, Victor Sjöström at Vem dömer/Love’s Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922) with Gösta Ekman, and Eld ombord/Fire on Board (Victor Sjöström, 1923) opposite British actor Matheson Lang and Victor Sjöström himself.

One of her best known films is Gösta Berlings saga/The Atonement of Gosta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924) starring Lars Hanson and the young Greta Garbo. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “The Atonement of Gosta Berling is an excellent representation of the Swedish silent cinema. Long, complex, and elaborately produced, the film nonetheless never loses sight of the human elements which motivate the story.”

Hasselqvist also worked with Gustaf Molander at the Selma Lagerlöf adaptations Ingmarsarvet/The Ingmar Inheritance (Gustaf Molander, 1925) and Till österland/To the Orient (Gustaf Molander, 1926), with Lars Hanson and Ivan Hedqvist.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 832/1, 1919-1924. Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 642/2,1919-1924. Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Jenny Hasselquist and Aud Egede Nissen. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sumurun

Jenny Hasselqvist also worked in Germany. In 1920, Ernst Lubitsch offered her the title role in his film version of Max Reinhardt's stage pantomime Sumurun/One Arabian Night (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), opposite Ernst Lubitsch himself and Pola Negri. Hasselqvist played the favourite slave girl of a tyrannical sheik (Paul Wegener), who falls in love with a cloth merchant (Harry Liedtke). The film was huge international success and she became well-known in Europe.

In Germany she also played in Das brennende Geheimnis/The Burning Secret (Rochus Gliese, 1923) and Die Perücke/The Wig (Berthold Viertel, 1925) as the wife of Otto Gebühr. About the latter Gwynplaine writes at IMDb: “It's been ten years since I seen Berthold Viertel's compelling film Die Perucke (or the Wig) at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival back in 1997. But of all the films I seen throughout that eventful week (including some impressive silents from China...) I would have to say that Die Perucke was the most impressive. The story concerns a man in the 1920s who, while visiting an antique shop, discovers an old powdered wig. While trying the wig on he is instantly whisked back to the 1700's & becomes the nobleman who originally wore the wig.”

Hasselqvist’s later German films include Brennende Grenze/Aftermath (Erich Waschneck, 1927) and Schuldig/Guilty (Johannes Meyer, 1928) with Suzy Vernon. With the rise of the sound film she concluded her film career. Her final film was the Paramount production Den farliga leken (Gustaf Bergman, 1931), an alternative language version of The Laughing Lady (Victor Schertzinger, 1929) with Ruth Chatterton.

Hasselqvist had starred in 20 films, but the voice was not her medium. During her film career, she had appeared as a guest dancer in many of Europe's leading theatres including the Coliseum in London, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. From the mid-1930s on, she had her own ballet school in Stockholm, and in the early 1950s, she also taught at the Stockholm Opera's ballet school. In between she incidentally returned to act on stage.

At the age of 83, Jenny Hasselqvist died in 1978 in Täby, near Stockholm. She was married with artist, painter and ceramist Wilhelm Kage (1918-1922) and with garden architect Gösta Reuterswärd (1923-1927).

Short dance fragment of Jenny Hasselquist performing Die weiße Rose (The White Rose), from the German 'health and efficiency' film Wege Zu Kraft und Schonheit/Paths to the Power & Beauty (1925). Source: John Hall (YouTube).

Homage to Lars Hanson and Jenny Hasselqvist in 1924, with Cristal um tango sung by Francisco Alves. Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).

Sources: Ferdinand Von Galitzien (IMDb), Gwynplaine (IMDb), Bengt Forslund (The Swedish Film Database - Swedish), Wikipedia (English and Swedish) and IMDb.

German-American director Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) had the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director. His films were promoted as having ‘the Lubitsch touch.’ In the 1910s, he had started out as an actor and director in the silent cinema of the Weimar republic. In Berlin, he made his first masterpieces with stars like Ossi Oswalda, Henny Porten and Pola Negri. Today on EFSP, twelve dazzling postcards with the Lubitsch Touch.

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

German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1983. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Der Blusen-König (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917) starring Ernst Lubitsch himself. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2012. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Prinz Sami/Prince Sami (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918), again with Ernst Lubitsch in the leading role. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke in Madame DuBarry (1919)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 627/2. Photo: Union. Publicity still for Madame DuBarry (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919) with Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke.

Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig in Die Puppe

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

Lotte Neumann in Lubitsch's Romeo und Julia im Schnee

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 636/1. Photo: Maxim Film production. Publicity still for the comedy Romeo und Julia im Schnee/Romeo and Juliet in the Snow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920). The man on the left dressed as antique hero could be Julius Falkenstein as Paris. The others are from left to right Jakob Tiedtke (Herr Capulethofer), Marga Köhler (his wife), Lotte Neumann (Julia) and Gustav von Wangenheim (Romeo Montekugerl).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 645/8. Photo: Union Film. Henny Porten in the drama Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 642/7. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Pola Negri. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/10. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) with Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer.

Jack Buchanan, Jeanette MacDonald, Cacoa van Houten

Dutch-Belgian promotion card for Cacao Van Houten, no. 11 and 12. Printed by N.V. Ned Reclamefabriek. This card was part of a series of promo cards for a quiz by Van Houten Chocolate. The public had to go to stores to guess which film star was on the photo in the shop window. There were 24 photos. At the right Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald in Monte Carlo (Ernst Lubitsch, 1930).

Maurice Chevalier & Miriam Hopkins in The Smiling Lieutenant

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5976/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931) with Maurice Chevalier and Miriam Hopkins.

Roland Young, Genevieve Tobin, Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier in One Hour With You

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6732/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for One Hour with You (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) with Roland Young, Genevieve Tobin, Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

Dark-haired German-American actress Betty Amann (1905-1990) started her film career in Hollywood, but director Joe May and producer Erich Pommer discovered her for the German cinema. Her typical role was the immoral and alluring femme fatale who seduces and corrupts men.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4147/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7357/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Paramount.

British postcard.

The Kick-off

Betty Amann was born Philippine Amann in Pirmasens, Germany, in 1905. Together with her German-American parents, she moved to the United States at an early age.

By her own account, she studied painting at the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York before she was discovered for the stage and won small parts at the May Palace Theater.

She started her film career with the romantic movie The Kick-off (Wesley Ruggles, 1926). Under the nickname Bee Amann, she starred as a farmer's daughteropposite Tom Tyler in the western Trail of the Horse Thieves (Robert De Lacey, 1929) for the low-budget studio Film Booking Offices of America (FBO).

She returned to Germany and arrived in Berlin in the wake of Louise Brooks. Director Joe May and Ufa-producer Erich Pommer gave her a screentest, and then offered her a leading role in Asphalt (Joe May, 1929). In this masterpiece of the German silent cinema she played a femme fatale thief who corrupts true-blue policeman Gustav Fröhlich. It was Pommer who gave her the pseudonym Betty.

In her next film, Der Sträfling aus Stambul/The Convict From Stambul (Gustav Ucicky, 1929), she was the co-star of Heinrich Georgeand Paul Hörbiger. Soon, more films followed.

Betty Amann and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Der Weisse Teufel (1930)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4871/1, 1929-1930 with Ivan Mozzhukhin. Photo: Ufa.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6016. Photo: Lux-Film.

German postcard. Photo: Cicero Film / Distribution Deutsche Tonfilme. The 'fine fleur' of late silent German cinema stars, united for a photo for an early sound film company. Standing left to right: Francis/Franz Lederer, Walter Rilla, Theodor Loos, Camilla Horn, Fritz Rasp and Walter Janssen, Sitting left to right: Paul Heidemann, Charlotte Susa, Betty Amann, Olga Tschechowa, Maria Paudler and Jack Trevor. Publicity for the early sound comedy Die grosse Sehnsucht/The Great Longing (Stefan Szekely/Steve Sekely, 1930), in which all acted, mostly as themselves - only Loos and Horn played characters. The plot was an excuse for 35 stars to debut in a talking picture.

Mosjoukine

Betty Amann was the leading lady of the Ufa production Der Weisse Teufel/The White Devil (Alexandre Volkoff, 1929), based on a novel by Leo Tolstoy.

With great style and visual flare Alexandre Volkoff directed this film that represented the European silent tradition at it's finest and most dynamic. Russian émigré Ivan Mozzhukhin, the great star of the French silent cinema aka ‘Mosjoukine’, features as a fiery Caucasian captain Hadscht Murat.

Der Weisse Teufel was his first film to include a synchronised soundtrack: existing of an effective score by Michael Lewin and others, some sequences of singing and whistling, and a range of sound effects, but no dialogue.

The later director Michael Powell was apparently the stills photographer on the film and therefore may be the maker of the photo used for the postcard above.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5325/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Silva-Film. Publicity still for O alte Burschenherrlichkeit/Oh Those Glorious Old Student Days (Rolf Randolf, 1930) with Werner Fuetterer.

Hans Albers and Betty Amann in Hans in allen Gassen (1930)

French postcard by Europe, no. 2331. Photo: Bild und Ton GmbH. Publicity still for Hans in allen Gassen/Hans-of-all-trades (Carl Froelich, 1930) with Hans Albers.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6782. Photo: Verleih Hugo Engel Film. Still for Der Grosse Bluff/The Big Bluff (Georg Jacoby, 1933).

Rich and Strange

When the sound film arrived Betty Amann kept working in Germany. In the crime film Hans in allen Gassen/Hans in All Alleys (Carl Froelich, 1930), she co-starred with Hans Albers as an alluring stranger who turns out to be a murderess.

From 1931 on she also worked in England. For Alfred Hitchcock she played a trickster in the romantic comedy Rich and Strange (Alfred Hitchcock, 1931). In 1933 she emigrated to Great-Britain.

One of her last roles in a German film was in Schleppzug M 17/Tugboat M 17 (Heinrich George, Werner Hochbaum, 1933) as a prostitute and thief who seduces a family man.

By 1938, she was married to the lawyer David B. Stillman and took up permanent residence in the United States, where she shot the western In Old Mexico (Edward D. Venturini, 1938) with William Boyd. One year later, she could be seen in Nancy Drew… Reporter (William Clemens, 1939), a movie which was part of the Nancy Drew series starring Bonita Granville.

Her last role was one of Gale Sondergaard's harbour prostitutes in the bizarre treasure hunter movie Isle of Forgotten Sins (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1943).

In 1987 Betty Amann was awarded the Filmband in Gold for her attributions to the German cinema. She died in 1990 in Westport, USA.

A scene from Asphalt (1929). Source: Golden Silents (YouTube).

Another scene from Asphalt (1929). Source: Saskia (YouTube).

A scene from Der Weisse Teufel/The White Devil (1929), including a vintage soundtrack made the same year to fit the film with sound. Source: Golden Silents (YouTube).

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Thomas Hamilton (IMDb), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Belgian born actress Ève Francis (1886-1980) was the star of the French impressionist cinema, in particular of the films by Germaine Dulac and Louis Delluc. Less known is that she was an active assistant director too.

French postcard, no. 413. Photo: Sartony.

373 (VII-1914). Ève Francis (Le Théâtre; 373)

Cover of the magazine Le Théâtre, no. 373, 1914. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona @ Flickr.

French postcard by Ed. Filma. Photo: P. Apers.

Germaine Dulac and Louis Delluc

Ève Francis was born Eva Louise François in St. Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium in 1886. After completing her secondary education in Belgium, she embarked on a career as an actress and began working in the theatre in Paris in 1913.

The following year she was introduced to the author Paul Claudel who chose her for the leading role in the first Paris production of his play L'Otage (The Hostage). Although only a few performances were given, the play was well-received in literary and artistic circles and her reputation was established. She became for a long period Claudel's muse and interpreter, and in later years she described him as the most extraordinary person she had known and the dominant influence in her life.

In 1914 she also made her film début in the silent short La dame blonde/The Blonde Lady (Charles Maudru, 1914) with Henry Roussel. Roussel next directed her in his own film Un homme passa/A Man Passed (Henry Roussel, 1916).

In 1917 Francis played in Le roi de la mer/The King of the Sea (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1917), but she also appeared in her first film with female film director Germaine Dulac: Ames de fous/Fools' Hearts (1917). Dulac apparently liked Francis, as she gave Francis leading roles in Le bonheur des autres/The Happiness of Others (Germaine Dulac, 1918) and La fête espagnole/Spanish Fiesta (Germaine Dulac, 1920).

Francis had one of her greatest successes in Marcel L'Herbier's El Dorado (1921) in which she played the ill-fated cabaret dancer Sibilla opposite Jaque Catelain. Francis became the epitomized actress of the French art film scene. She only played in the so-called Impressionist French silent films by Dulac, L'Herbier and later by Louis Delluc.

Francis had met the young novelist, poet and playwright Delluc during the war. She had introduced him to the American cinema in 1916, and Delluc was smitten. He became an innovating film critic and later a prominent film director. They married in 1918. In the next five years Delluc shot seven films, all with his wife. Two of these films remain among the immortal masterpieces of the French cinema: Fièvre/Fever (Louis Delluc, 1921) and La Femme de nulle part/The Woman from Nowhere (Louis Delluc, 1922).

Gilles Delluc writes at Les Indépendants du premier siècle: "True films, shot in natural surroundings, without gesticulations and spectacular events. The characters are shown in an impressionnistic way, intimist, often with a correlation between past and present, dream and reality. All this was a revolutionnary for the time."

Louis Delluc's last film, L'Inondation/The Flood (1923) was shot in the Rhone valley. The weather was cold and rainy, and Delluc developed a severe case of galloping consumption. He died at 33, in the span of a few weeks.

After this tragedy, Francis returned to Dulac in 1924 for Ame’d’artiste/Heart of an Actress (Germaine Dulac, 1924) starring Ivan Petrovich and Nicolas Koline, followed by Antoinette Sabatier (Germaine Dulac, 1926).

Ivan Petrovich. French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 581.

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

Marcel L'Herbier and Paul Claudel

After her role in Antoinette Sabatier, Ève Francis did not appear in films anymore for years. When she returned in the sound era, it was foremost as assistant-director of Marcel L’Herbier. He had been another representant of the Impressionist cinema in the 1920s, but he was now working in a more conventional style.

Francis assisted Marcel L’Herbier with eleven films, including L’épervier/The Casting Net (1933) starring a young and very handsome Charles Boyer, Le scandale/The Scandal (1933) with Gaby Morlay, Le bonheur/Happiness (1934), La route impériale/The Imperial Road (1935) with Käthe von Nagy, Veille d’armes/Sacrifice of Honour (1935) with Annabella, La porte du large/The Great Temptation (1936) with Victor Francen, La citadelle du silence/The Citadel of Silence (1937) with Annabella, and La brigade sauvage/Savage Brigade (1939) with Charles Vanel.

Francis did also act in Club de femmes/Women's Club (Jacques Deval, 1936), Forfaiture/The Cheat (Marcel L'Herbier, 1937) with Sessue Hayakawa, La mode revée/The Ideal fashion (Marcel L'Herbier, 1939) with Gaby Morlay, La brigade sauvage/Savage Brigade (Marcel L'Herbier, 1939), La comédie du bonheur/Comedy of Happiness (Marcel L'Herbier, 1940), and the Italian version of the latter: Ecco la felicità/Here Comes Happiness (Marcel L'Herbier, 1940) both starring Michel Simonand Ramon Novarro.

In the postwar era, Francis gave support to the growing network of film societies in France (ciné-clubs), a project which Louis Delluc had first promulgated in 1920. She also did some television work in the late 1960s. She published two books: Temps héroïques: théâtre, cinéma (Heroic Times: Theater, Cinema) (1949), with a preface by Paul Claudel and her portrait of Louis Delluc. She recorded her recollections of Claudel himself in Un autre Claudel (Another Claudel) (1973).

In her late eighties, she had two final film roles in La chair de l’orchidée/Flesh of the Orchid (Patrice Chéreau, 1974) starring Charlotte Rampling, and Adieu, poulet/The French Detective (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1975) with Lino Ventura.

Ève Francis died in 1980 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 94.

Elements of the stage production of L'homme à la rose (1921) by Henry Bataille. Source: ben77114gaut (YouTube).

Excerpts from El Dorado (1921). Source: Iconauta (YouTube).

Fièvre/Fever (Louis Delluc, 1921). Source: Cinema History (YouTube).

Sources: Gilles Delluc (Les Indépendants du Premier Siècle), Daniel Chocron (CineArtistes.com - French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Recently my good friend and mentor gerda mentink (1941-2015), formerly the cultural motor of the Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, suddenly died. In loving memory of her, I share these beautiful postcards of the silent classic Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926) with you. Together with gerda, I made an exhibition on Murnau for the Nederlands Filmmuseum (now Eye Film Institute) in 1990. For the poster we used an image of Faust. gerda, rest in peace.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/4. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Gösta Ekman and Emil Jannings in Faust (1926). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/6. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Gösta Ekman in Faust (1926). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Faust

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/2. Photo: Ufa. Still with Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings and Camilla Horn in Faust (1926). Collection: Didier Hanson.

A Dizzying Trip

Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage/Faust (1926) still is one of my favourite films. It is an overwhelming spectacle of unparalleled camera work and beautiful scenery.

Faust is one of the highlights of the silent European cinema and the last in a series of classics directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau for the Ufa studios in Babelsberg.

In 1926, Faust was the most expensive European film ever. Filming took six months and a cost of 2 million. You can see why, there are many spectacular scenes.

Wonderful is the scene where Mephisto takes Faust flying along on his magic cloak for a dizzying trip. In an enchanting, seemingly endless camera movement we follow Mephisto and his victim over nocturnal landscapes, narrowly skimming along spiers and peaks. This kind of prospects were never seen before in the cinema.

Faust showed what was possible in the Ufa studios in Babelsberg. The set was built in a studio of 20 by 35 meters. The camera was added with a motor as a sort of rail-roller coaster. The scenery and camera movement give us the feeling that the camera flies.

Emil Jannings and Yvette Guilbert in Faust

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/2. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe in Faust (1926).

Camilla Horn and Gösta Ekman in Faust (1928)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/3. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926) with Camilla Horn and Gösta Ekman.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/5. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Gösta Ekman as the young Faust in Faust (1926).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/7. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926) with Camilla Horn.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/8. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Camilla Horn as Gretchen for Faust (1926).

Evil Tempter

The title figure Faust is played by the Swedish star Gösta Ekman. With his boyish good looks, Ekman was able to captivate his audiences, of both sexes.

The innocent girl Gretchen was played by a young and inexperienced dancer, the ethereally blonde Camilla Horn. Her film debut would be the start of a long and impressive career.

Gretchen’s aunt Marthe was portrayed by the legendary French actress Yvette Guilbert.

And then there was Emil Jannings, who had worked with Murnau before at Der Letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (F. W. Murnau, 1924) and at Herr Tartüff/Tartuffe (F.W. Murnau, 1925). He now played the plum role of the demon Mephistoteles. Jannings is hilarious as the evil tempter and draws all attention to himself.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/3. Photo: ParUfaMet / Ufa. Still with Camilla Horn as Gretchen for Faust (1926).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/6. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Camilla Horn and Gösta Ekman.

Camilla Horn and Frieda Richard in Faust (1926)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/7. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926) with Camilla Horn and Frieda Richard.

Wilhelm Dieterle and Camilla Horn in Faust

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/8. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Wilhelm Dieterle and Camilla Horn.

Light and Dark

The theme of the film is the struggle between light and dark. Faust opens with a prologue in heaven with the metaphysical battle between the devil and the archangel.

We see a blinding entanglement of light and dark areas that try to push each other away. Mephisto has a bet with the archangel that he can corrupt an honest man's soul and destroy in him what is divine.

Later the demon wraps the town with his dark cloak. He sends black smoke into the streets and thus poisons the inhabitants with the plague.

The old and learned alchemist Faust can’t do anything against the misery of the plague. Deeply disappointed, he sells his soul to Mephisto to relive his youth. Mephisto loads Faust with power and wealth, but despite this all he fails to destroy the divine in Faust’s soul.

Faust’s love for Gretchen triumphs over all. The film ends with the rotating beams of the sun that link to hope and redemption.

Restored Deluxe Edition DVD Trailer of Faust (1926). Source: Kino International (YouTube).

The magic carpet ride from Faust, scored at Dartington International Summer Festival. Source: Andrew Fingers (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Last Saturday, Dutch singer and actress Yoka Berretty passed away. She started her career as a glamorous starlet in Italian films. Back in the Netherlands she appeared in several films and TV productions. A national sensation was the satiric TV show Zo is het toevallig ook nog eens een keer (1963-1966). Later, Berretty played leading parts in three films by director and publicist Theo van Gogh, who was assasinated in 2004. She was 87.

Postcard by Forronia.

Italian films

Yoka Berretty was born as Johanna Ernistina Petrusa Meijeringh in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1928.

After secondary school, she attended acting classes at the Actor's Studio in New York, at the Théatre de Poche with Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux in Paris, and in Rome.

Yoka started her career with bit and supporting parts in the Italian films Angela (Edoardo Anton, Dennis O’Keefe, 1955) featuring Mara Lane, the hit Pane, amore e.../Scandal in Sorrento (Dino Risi, 1955) starring Vittorio de Sicaand Sophia Loren, the hilarious farce La banda degli onesti/The Band of Honest Men (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956) starring the comedians Totò and Peppino De Filippo, and the drama Gli occhi senza luce/The Eyes Without Light (Flavio Calzavara, 1956) with Milly Vitale.

She returned to The Netherlands, where she worked on stage for theatre companies like Nederlandse Comedie, Ensemble, Centrum, Amsterdams Volkstoneel and Theaterunie. She also appeared on radio and television.

Incidentally, Berretty played small roles in international film productions such as the war drama The Last Blitzkrieg (Arthur Dreifuss, 1959) starring Van Johnson and the Knut Hamsun adaptation Das Letzte Kapitel/The Last Chapter (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1961) with Hansjörg Felmy.

Yoka Berretty as Erica in a hilarious scene from Pane, amore e.../Scandal in Sorrento (Dino Risi, 1955) starring Vittorio de Sicaand Sophia Loren. Source: Rosanna Molignini Brockstedt (YouTube).

Yoka sings Een op de valreep (one for the road) in 1960. Recognize the picture? Source: Disco82 (YouTube).

TV Personality

Yoka Berretty became a well known TV personality in The Netherlands. In 1959, she was the organizer and co-presenter of the first TV benefit action show Redt een Kind/Save A Child for child refugees from Algeria. A national sensation was the satiric TV show Zo is het toevallig ook nog eens een keer (1963-1966), based on the BBC programme That Was the Week That Was.

She also played parts in the prestigious Dutch films Makkers staakt uw wild geraas/That Joyous Eve (Fons Rademakers, 1960) as the wife of Guus Oster, and opposite Rob de Vries in De Overval/The Silent Raid (Paul Rotha, 1962) about the Dutch resistance in the Second World War.

Her later films were VD (Wim Verstappen, 1972) with Kees Brusse, Rufus (Samuel Meyering, 1975) starring Rijk de Gooyer, the German-Dutch coproduction Charlotte (Frans Weisz, 1981) starring Birgit Doll and Derek Jacobi, the thriller De Prooi/The Prey (Vivian Pieters, 1985) and Advocaat van de Hanen/Punk Lawyer (Gerrit van Elst, 1996) with Pierre Bokma.

In the 1990s, Berretty played leading parts in three films by director and publicist Theo van Gogh, who was assasinated in 2004: Eva (1992), Au!/Ouch! (1997) and In het belang van de staat/In the Interests of the State (1997) starring Marlies Heuer.

The last times she appeared for the cameras was on television in the popular crime series Baantjer (2000), and in the short film Anderland (2003).

Yoka Berretty was married twice. Her first marriage was with Dominique Berretty, a famed Magnum-photographer whose surname she adopted. Later she was married to publisher Andreas Landshoff, the son of German film actress Ruth Hellberg. Yoka Berretty is the mother of Yolante Berretty, and of director Benjamin Landshoff, in whose TV series Erwassus/Once upon a time (1997), she appeared.

Last week Yoka Berretty made a fall from a staircase in her house in Amsterdam, and on 28 November 2015, she died in a hospital from complications. Her daughter declared that her mother had lead "a beautiful, intense and full life."

De Overval/The Silent Raid (Paul Rotha, 1962). Full movie, no subtitles. Source: kitekat112 (YouTube).

Yoka Berretty sings the title song of the satiric TV programme Zo is het toevallig ook nog eens een keer (1963-1966). Source: Toenwaskwaliteit nogheelgewoon (YouTube).

Source: Beeld en Geluid Wiki (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch), Trouw (Dutch), NOS (Dutch) and IMDb.

Hungarian film actress (Gräfin) Agnes Esterhazy (1891-1956) worked mainly in the silent cinema of Austria and Germany. The countess appeared in more than 30 films between 1920 and 1943.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1743/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3155/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1015/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1015/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3705/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4251/3, 1929-1930. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin.

Vienna - Munich - Berlin

Agnes Esterhazy was born Agnes Gräfin Josika von Branyitska in Klausenburg/Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania), in 1891 (some sources say 1898). She was a real countess, the daughter of Count Josika von Branyitska and his wife.

In Budapest she took acting classes from singer/actress Ilka Pálmay and worked for the Városi Színház (the Municipal theater). She made her first film appearance in the Hungarian film A szerelem mindent legyőz/Love Surrenders Everything (László Márkus, 1920).

In 1923 she was invited by Sascha-Film to come to Vienna. There she made the Arthur Schnitzler adaptation Der Junge Medardus/Young Medardus (1923), directed by Mihaly Kertész, the later Michael Curtiz. This was a historical film about a young man from Vienna who wants to fight against the Napoleon troops.

Then Esterhazy left for Munich and soon moved further to Berlin, the European film capital at the time. In Berlin she appeared for Trianon-Film in Zwei Menschen/Two People (Hanns Schwarz, 1924) opposite Olaf Ford, and Nanon (Hanns Schwarz, 1924) with Harry Liedtke.

She appeared in such silent classics as Die freudlose Gasse/The Joyless Street (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925) starring Asta Nielsen and the young Greta Garbo, and the horror film Der Student von Prag/The Man Who Cheated Life (Henrik Galeen, 1926) featuring Conrad Veidt.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1122/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1813/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Kiesel, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4073/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Ernst Schneider.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3434/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3705/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Ernst Schneider.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4869/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Gudenberg, Berlin.

Supporting and Leading Parts

Agnes Esterhazy played many supporting parts in silent German films of the 1920s and eventually she also appeared in leading parts in such films as Die Spielerin/The Player (Graham Cutts, 1927), and Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jakob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927), both with Harry Liedtke.

Under the direction of Karl Grune she appeared in the historical drama Marquis d'Eon, der Spion der Pompadour/Marquis d'Eon, the Spy of Pompadour (Karl Grune, 1928) with Liane Haid.

But with the arrival of the sound film, her film career practically ended. She appeared in a few early sound films such as the comedy Die Garde-Diva (Curt Blachnitzky, 1929) with Georg Alexander, and Liebe und Champagner/Love and Champagne (Robert Land, 1930) with Iván Petrovich, but then she retired from the cinema.

The following decade she worked on stage, especially in Ostrau. In 1943 she appeared for one last time in a film, in Gabriele Dambrone (Hans Steinhoff, 1943) with Gusti Huber. She was married to actor Fritz Schulz.

Agnes Esterhazy died in Budapest, Hungary (some sources say: München (Munich), Germany), in 1956.

Agnes Esterhazy and Harry Liedtke in Der Bettelstudent (1927)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 91/1. Photo: Aafa. Publicity still for Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927) with Harry Liedtke.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 91/5. Photo: Aafa. Publicity still for Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 776/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 776/4, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1614/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Kiesel, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1813/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Kiesel, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1425/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balàzs, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3434/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4949/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Gudenburg. Collection: Didier Hanson.

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

Das Mirakel (The Miracle) is a German play written by Karl Vollmöller in 1911. That same year Max Reinhardt staged a spectacle-pantomime in Berlin in 1911. Later, three films were made. But for which film or stage version of Das Mirakel were the postcards in this post created?

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1494. Photo: Hugo Erfurt, Dresden. Publicity still for The Miracle (1912) with Maria Carmi.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 7758. Publicity still for The Miracle (1912) with Maria Carmi. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Maria Carmi. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 7268. Publicity still for The Miracle. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Spectacle-pantomime

Das Mirakel (The Miracle) first appeared as a spectacle-pantomime in Germany in 1911. Later in 1911, the play also opened in London and played to huge audiences at the Olympia, the London exhibition hall.

Das Mirakel re-tells an old legend about a nun in the Middle Ages who runs away from her convent with a knight. She has several adventures, eventually leading to her being accused of witchcraft. During her absence, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the convent's chapel comes to life and takes the nun's place in the convent, until her safe return. Then she becomes a statue again.

The play's stage director was Max Reinhardt, the Austrian theatrical genius, whose inspired use of lighting, mechanical effects and spectacle (particularly crowds) startled audiences across Europe. He told the story of Das Mirakel without words in a cathedral setting. 1,000 performers and 500 choristers and 25 horses filled out the epic drama, supported by a wonderful array of stage mechanics, ingenious theatrical effects and music of the great composer Engelbert Humperdink played by an orchestra of 2,000. For many the spectacular Das Mirakel was a theatrical event like no other.

Das Mirakel launched the career of Italian silent film star and stage actress Maria Carmi (1880-1957), who interpreted the virgin Mary. With her aristocratic air, her severe looks but also her sweet undertones, Carmi was the cinematic translation of the 19th century Primadonna. Later she became Princess Norina Matchabelli and was co-founder of the perfume company Prince Matchabelli.

In 1924, Das Mirakel was revived on Broadway, after a tour of Detroit, Milwaukee and Dallas. The New York version, which opened 16 January 1924 at the Century Theatre was produced by Morris Gest, and starred Rosamond Pinchot as the Nun, and Lady Diana Cooper and Maria Carmi alternating nightly in the role of the Madonna.

Max Reinhardt. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8615. Photo: Hofphot. E. Bieber, Hamburg. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Maria Carmi. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 8578. Photo: Becker & Maass. Publicity still for Das Mirakel/The Miracle. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8858. Photo: Willinger. German postcard for either the stage play Das Mirakel (1911) or the Austrian-British film Das Mirakel/The Miracle (1912). The postcard shows Ernst Matray as the Evil Genius and probably Florence Winston as Megildis, the nun who has escaped the convent and now has a baby.

A full-length, hand-coloured film

Das Mirakel/The Miracle was adapted to three different film versions. The original authorised version, The Miracle (1912), was a full-length, hand-coloured film, which was shot in Austria in 1912 but was a British production. The exteriors were photographed in the grounds of Kreuzenstein Castle and at the cathedral of Perchtoldsdorf, Vienna.

The Miracle (1912) was produced by Joseph Menchen and (probably) directed by French actor, stage director and film director Michel Carré, who also wrote the screenplay. IMDb wrongly suggests the film is called Das Mirakel and was directed by wildlife filmmaker Cherry Kearton and by Max Reinhardt himself. Reinhardt had little to do with the film’s actual production.

The stars were Maria Carmi as The Madonna, Ernst Matray as Spielmann (the minstrel), and Florence Winston as the Nun. The Hungarian Matray was an acclaimed stage actor, who had been playing with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater since 1907.

Instead the British Florence Winston was an unknown actress. In the stage version her role had been played by someone else. According to Luke McKernan at his site The Bioscope, Winston's only claim to fame was that she was the wife of William Jeapes, one of the film's cinematographers, together with his brother Harold. The two brothers were known as newsreel cinematographers.William Jeapes ran the popular British newsreel Topical Budget, but nothing is known about whether they had any previous experience of fiction film making.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8556. Photo: Willinger. Publicity still for either the stage play Das Mirakel (1911) or the Austrian-British film Das Mirakel/The Miracle (1912).

British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 7701 C. Photo: Hoppe, London. Publicity still of the London stage production of Das Mirakel/The Miracle (Max Reinhardt, 1912) with Maria Carmi as the Madonna. Here she has just cured the lame.

Maria Carmi. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 8594. Photo: Becker & Maass.

Multimedia experience

The Miracle (Michel Carré, 1912) was not intended to be shown as an ordinary film in the usual way, but was designed by Joseph Menchen to be shown as part of a 'Lyricscope play'. This was an unusual (if not unique) spectacular theatrical presentation which - in its most elaborate and complete expression - included: the projected colour film, a full-sized symphony orchestra and chorus, live sound effects such as church bells and crowd noises, stage sets around the projection screen which changed during the performance, and live (non-speaking) actors and dancers in medieval costume.

Joseph Menchen was a London-based American inventor, film projectionist and owner of a New York theatrical lighting business. He later became a literary agent for film scripts. The various component parts of his production of Das Mirakel varied somewhat according to local conditions.

The world premiere took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21 December 1912. It was released in Germany in August 1914 and premiered at the Circus Busch.

In 1912 an unauthorised German version was also filmed, titled Das Mirakel. It was directed by Mime Misu for Continental-Kunstfilm in Germany. Mime Misu was a Romanian who had come to prominence in German cinema following the success of his dramatisation of the tragic story of the sinking of the ‘Titanic’, In Nacht und Eis/In night and ice (1912). Misu has not only directed the film, but acts in it as well, alongside Lore Giesen and Ernst Rückert. The production was the subject of various copyright legal actions in the UK and the USA, resulting in seven different titles shared between the two films.

In 1959 the play was adapted to film a third time by Warner Brothers, again titled The Miracle, directed by Irving Rapper.

The first film version, The Miracle (Michel Carré, 1912) was considered lost for a long time. A tinted print was discovered and saved in recent times at the CNC in Bois d'Arcy. At the time, The Miracle was a prestigious production, but nowadays it fails to capture this. This is because of its antiquated style, even for 1912, but also because of the lack of the multimedia experience around its original showings.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 8500. Photo: Hänse Hermann. Publicity still for Das Mirakel/The Miracle with Mary Dietrich. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 8634. Photo: Hänse Hermann. Publicity still for Das Mirakel/The Miracle with Mary Dietrich. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Maria Carmi. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, no. 7267. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, no. 8579. Photo: Becker & Maass. Publicity still for Das Mirakel/The Miracle with Maria Carmi as the Madonna.

Sources: Luke McKernan (The Bioscope), Wikipedia and IMDb,

Vanessa Redgrave (1937) is one of the great actresses of her generation. She started her career in the late 1950s and went on to win the Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Tony awards. On screen, she has starred in more than 80 films; including such classics as Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Blowup (1966), Julia (1977), Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Atonement (2007). On-screen and off, she represents forward-thinking women both, essaying non-conforming free-thinkers like dazzling modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan in Isadora (1968) and a 19th century American feminist in The Bostonians (1984), while earning her share of controversy for her outspoken political activism.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43 072.

Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 275.

Laertes Has A Daughter

Vanessa Redgrave was born in Greenwich, London in 1937 into an acting dynasty. Her grandparents were actor Roy Redgrave and actress Daisy Scudamore. Vanessa was the daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and the older sister of Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave. Laurence Olivier announced her birth in a curtain speech to the audience at a performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic: "Ladies and gentlemen, tonight a great actress has been born; Laertes (played by Michael Redgrave) has a daughter."

She was educated at The Alice Ottley School, Worcester and Queen's Gate School, London. In 1954 she started to train for the stage at the Central School for Speech and Drama in London. She first appeared in the West End in 1958, and a year later she became a member of the acclaimed Stratford-Upon-Avon Theatre Company.

In 1960, Redgrave had her first starring role in Robert Bolt's The Tiger and the Horse, in which she co-starred with her father. Redgrave rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and on Broadway, winning both the Tony and Olivier Awards.

She made her film debut in the old-fashioned hospital drama Behind the Mask (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1958), in which she played the onscreen daughter of Michael Redgrave. Redgrave would not venture into films again for another eight years, but in 1966 she became a key figure in the 1960s revolution in British film, appearing for New Wave directors, Karel Reisz and her husband, Tony Richardson. She had her first starring role in the seminal Swinging Sixties comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (Karel Reisz, 1966) in which she played the long-suffering ex-wife of a half-mad eccentric artist (David Warner). For her role she earned an Oscar nomination, a Cannes award, a Golden Globenomination and a BAFTA Film Awardnomination.

Redgrave followed Morgan up by playing a mysterious, willowy model in the stylish Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966). TCM: “Both pictures helped solidify Redgrave's screen persona as a modern, intelligent woman whose cool and impassive exterior masked a range of conflicting emotions and passions.” For her husband, she starred in The Sailor from Gibraltar (Tony Richardson, 1967), the short and arty Red and Blue (Tony Richardson, 1967), and The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tony Richardson, 1968).

Other highlights of Redgrave's early film career include the role of Guinevere in the Hollywood adaptation of the Lerner and Loewestage musical Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967) with Richard Harris and Franco Nero, and her spirited portrayal of modern dance innovator Isadora Duncan in Isadora (Karel Reisz, 1968), for which she won a National Society of Film Critics Awardfor Best Actress, a second Prize for the Best Female Performance at the Cannes film festival, along with a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination in 1969.

She also appeared in various historical roles – ranging from Andromache in The Trojan Women (Mihalis Kakogiannis, 1971), to the tragic Mary Stuart in Mary, Queen of Scots (Charles Jarrott, 1971). She had also been offered the role of Margaret More in the Oscar-laden story of Sir Thomas More's defiance of Henry VIII, A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966), but she had to turn it down due to her stage commitments. She opted for the cameo role of Anne Boleyn instead, and refused to accept any money for this part. Susannah York was cast as Margaret More.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1446, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: publicity still for Behind the Mask (Brian Desmond-Hurst, 1958).

Source of Controversy

Both Vanessa Redgrave and her sister Lynn were nominated for the 1967 Best Actress Academy Award. Vanessa was nominated for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) and Lynn for Georgy Girl (Silvio Narizzano, 1966). They both lost to Elizabeth Taylor, who won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966). That same year, Redgrave was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to drama.

Thirty years later, she allegedly refused the D.B.E. (Dame of the order of the British Empire) in 1999. Since the 1960s, Redgrave has supported a range of political causes, including opposition to the Vietnam War, nuclear disarmament, aid for Bosnian Muslims and other victims of war, and freedom for Soviet Jews. In 1993 she was awarded the Sakharov medal by Sakharov's widow, Yelena Bonner).

In 1977, Redgrave funded and narrated a documentary film on the Palestinian people and the activities of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. That same year she starred in the film Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977), based on playwright Lillian Hellman's own friendship with a woman who later enlists her in a fight against the growing tide of Nazism in Europe. Her co-star in the film was Jane Fonda playing Hellman.

When Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar in 1978, for her role in Julia, members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, burned effigies of Redgrave and picketed the Academy Awards ceremony to protest against both Redgrave and her support of the Palestinian cause. Despite the protests Redgrave's performance in Julia garnered an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. However, the controversy had a chilling effect on her career.

In 1980, Redgrave made her American television debut in the Arthur Miller-scripted TV movie Playing for Time (Daniel Mann, 1980) as concentration camp survivor Fania Fénelon who during her internment participated in an all-female orchestra. The decision to cast Redgrave as Fénelon was, however, a source of controversy. In light of Redgrave's support for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), even Fénelon objected to her casting. However, Redgrave won the Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in 1981 for this part.

Her opposition to Stalinism led her to join the Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP), which advocated the dissolution of capitalism and the British monarchy. She ran four times for a seat in the British Parliament as a candidate. In 2004, Vanessa Redgrave and her brother Corin launched the Peace and Progress Party, which campaigned against the Iraq War and for human rights. However, a year later Redgrave left the party.

French postcard by Travelling Editions, Paris, no. CP 51, 1987.

More Impressive With Age

In the next decades Vanessa Redgrave balanced turns in big budget productions such as crime boss Max in Mission: Impossible (Brian de Palma, 1996) and a doomed earthling in the summer blockbuster Deep Impact (Mimi Leder, 1998) with stellar performances in smaller, independent films. These included suffragist Olive Chancellor in The Bostonians (James Ivory, 1984), a fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination); transsexual tennis player Renée Richards in Second Serve (Anthony Page, 1986); and literary agent Peggy Ramsay in the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987).

In the next decade followed roles as Mrs. Wilcox in Howards End (James Ivory, 1992); Oscar Wilde’s mother in Wilde (Brian Gilbert, 1997); Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway (Marleen Gorris, 1997); Dr. Sonia Wick in Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999); and a small part in the Friedrich Dürrenmatt adaptation The Pledge (Sean Penn, 2001). These roles proved that she has grown only more impressive with age.

Her performance as a lesbian grieving the loss of her longtime partner in the HBO series If These Walls Could Talk 2 (Jane Andersen a.o., 2000) earned her a Golden Globe, as well as an Emmy Award. In 2003 she won the Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. With this award, she became the sixteenth performer to win the Triple Crown of acting: the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Julia (1977), the Tony for Best Actress-Play in Long Day's Journey into Night (2003), and two Emmys for Playing for Time (1980) and If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000).

Vanessa Redgrave was also the first actress to win the Best Actress award twice at the Cannes Film Festival. She won for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (Karel Reisz, 1966) and Isadora (Karel Reisz, 1968).

At IMDb, Dale O’Connor writes: “Her rich auburn hair was long, her physique lean, her countenance inscrutable. Three decades later a Redgrave who takes the pictures has hair that is short, the auburn shade muted. The physique is still lean and it is strong from the work it has taken to keep it that way. And the countenance is a lot easier to read. Add expertise with body language and a superb sense of timing and here is a comedienne who should still be carrying films when she is in her 90’s.”

German postcard, no. 17026.

Miscarriage

Vanessa Redgrave married twice. She was married to director Tony Richardson from 1962 till 1967, and they had two children, actresses Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson. In her 1967 divorce from Richardson she named Jeanne Moreau as co-respondent on grounds of adultery.

Redgrave met the Italian actor Franco Neroduring the shooting of Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967). They had a son Carlo Gabriel Nero (né Carlo Sparanero), now a writer and film director. After filming Mary, Queen of Scots (Charles Jarrott, 1971), The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) and The Trojan Women (Michael Cacoyannis, 1971), Vanessa Redgrave suffered a miscarriage. The boy would have been her and Franco Nero's second child. Redgrave and Nero separated.

She was then in a long-term relationship with former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton, with whom she had starred in Mary, Queen of Scots (Charles Jarrott, 1971). Since 2006 she is married to her old flame Franco Nero. Her daughter Natasha Richardson tragically passed away in 2009 as the result of a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant, Quebec. After the death of her daughter, Redgrave subsequently dropped out of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010) in which she had a supporting role. Eileen Atkins replaced her.

In the space of just 14 months, she also lost her younger brother and sister, Corin Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, who died within a month of one another. In October 2010 she returned to the Broadway stage to star in Driving Miss Daisy opposite James Earl Jones. The show received rave reviews. In a poll of ‘industry experts’ and readers conducted by the magazine The Stage in 2010, Redgrave was ranked as the ninth greatest stage actor of all time.

In the cinema she was seen in Letters to Juliet (Gary Winick, 2010) opposite her husband Franco Nero. She also had small roles in the Romanian film Eva (Adrian Popovici, 2010), Julian Schnabel's Palestinian drama Miral (2010), and the Bosnia-set political drama, The Whistleblower (Larysa Kondracki, 2010).

Redgrave played leading lady roles in two historical films, Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes, 2010) in which Redgrave played Volumnia opposite Fiennes and Gerard Butler; and Anonymous (Roland Emmerich, 2011), a political thriller about who actually wrote the plays of William Shakespeare - Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford - set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Redgrave), and the Essex Rebellion against her.

Recently, Vanessa Redgrave played supporting parts in such popular films as the American historical drama film The Butler (Lee Daniels, 2013) starring Forest Whitaker and grossing over $176 million worldwide, and the American biographical sports and true crime drama Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014) starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. At the moment of writing this post, her newest film The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan, 2016) about a woman keeping a diary of her extended stay at a mental hospital, is in post-production.

Trailer Blow-up (1966). Source: withlotsabutta (YouTube).

Trailer Julia (1977). Source: Wanessa Lima (YouTube).

Trailer Mrs Dalloway (1997). Source: mostern (YouTube).

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopaedia of British Cinema), Dale O'Connor (IMDb), TCM, Wikipedia and IMDb.

On Wednesday 2 December 2015, Italian actor Gabriele Ferzetti passed away, aged 90. He had more than 160 credits to his name across film, television and stage. His career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, when he worked with such directors as Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone and John Huston.

Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 2818. Photo: DEAR Film. Publicity still for Puccini (Carmine Gallone, 1953).

Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 3191. Photo: Titanus Film.

Giacomo Puccini

Gabriele Ferzetti was born Pasquale Ferzetti in Rome, Italy in 1925. He studied at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in Rome but was expelled after accepting a screen test for his first film. At the age of 17, Ferzetti made his screen debut in the romantic drama Via delle Cinque Lune/Street of the Five Moons (Luigi Chiarini, 1942) featuring Andrea Checchi. That year he also appeared in La contessa Castiglione/The Countess of Castiglione (Flavio Calzavara, 1942) starring Doris Duranti.

He then took a break from film acting and made a succession of theatrical appearances until 1948, when he had a small uncredited role in I miserabili/Les Misérables (Riccardo Freda, 1948). He appeared as Claudio in Fabiola/The Fighting Gladiator (Alessandro Blasetti, 1949), an antiquity drama, set in Rome. The film starring Michèle Morgan, was warmly received.

His first leading role followed in the film Lo Zappatore/The Peasant (Rate Furlan, 1950). The film focused on the life of peasants and farm workers during the depression of the 1930s. During the 1950s, film roles came in abundance for Ferzetti. In quick succession, he began starring in films, from the crime comedy Benvenuto, reverendo!/Welcome Reverend (Aldo Fabrizi, 1950) with Massimo Girotti, to Luis Trenker's war film Barriera a Settentrione/Mountain Smugglers (1950), and to Curzio Malaparte's drama Il Cristo proibito/The Forbidden Christ (1951) with Raf Vallone.

He portrayed the composer Giacomo Puccini twice: in the biopic Puccini (Carmine Gallone, 1953) and in Casa Ricordi/House of Ricordi (Carmine Gallone, 1954) alongside Roland Alexandre as Gioacchino Rossini. The film was based on the early history of the famous Italian music publishing house Casa Ricordi.

In 1953, Ferzetti starred in La Provinciale/The Wayward Wife (Mario Soldati, 1953), a Cannes Film Festival nominee for best film. In this film he played the role of a professor who falls in love with a glamorous star (Gina Lollobrigida). Ferzetti's performance garnered him an award from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists and cemented his status as a leading actor in Italy by appearing alongside La Lollobrigida. He appeared next in the opera adaptation Vestire gli ignudi/Clothe the naked (Marcello Pagliero, 1954), with Pierre Brasseur, and in Camilla (Luciano Emmer, 1954).

Then, Ferzetti starred as a downbeat, struggling artist alongside Eleonora Rossi Drago in Michelangelo Antonioni's Le amiche/The Girlfriends (1955). Robert Firshing at AllMovie: "Le Amiche, based on a 1949 article published in La Bella Estate (Tra donne sole (Among single women) by Cesare Pavese), is perhaps Michelangelo Antonioni's first great film. Juggling 10 characters with great aplomb, Antonioni and co-screenwriters Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Alba De Cespedes have created a rich, interlocking narrative which manages to rise above mere melodrama through careful attention to the ebb and flow of interpersonal relationships and a keen sense of balance."

Another major film was Donatella (Mario Monicelli, 1956) starring Elsa Martinelli. The film was screened at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival. Among his other films are the French historical comedy Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon/The Great Deception (Jacqueline Audry, 1959), and the exciting Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1959) featuring Victor Mature, and set during the Roman Empire.

Italian postcard in the Divi del Cinema Series by Vetta Traldi, Milano, no. 92. Photo: publicity still for Le avventure di Giacomo Casanova/The Loves of Casanova (Steno, 1955).

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 138.

Vintage postcard, no. 3083.

Michelangelo Antonioni

Gabriele Ferzetti made his international breakthrough in Michelangelo Antonioni's controversial L'avventura/The Adventure (1960). He starred as a restless, oversexed playboy alongside Lea Massari and Monica Vitti. This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director as a major international talent. It also would be Ferzetti's most acclaimed role.

After a series of romantic performances, he acquired a reputation in Italy as an elegant, debonair and a somewhat aristocrat-looking leading man. In 1966, he starred as Lot in John Huston's biblical epic, The Bible: In the Beginning, based on Book of Genesis. He also made his television debut by appearing in two episodes of the cult series I Spy (Robert Butler, 1966).

In 1968, he appeared in Sergio Leone's celebrated western epic C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West. He played Morton, the railroad baron, opposite Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. Then he appeared in the James Bond feature On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 1969), perhaps his best known role internationally. He co-starred as distinguished organised crime boss Marc-Ange Draco, the father of Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). He promises James Bond (George Lazenby) a handsome dowry for marrying his daughter. However, the two fall in love and marry anyway. Despite speaking good English, Ferzetti’s lines were dubbed by British actor David de Keyser due to Ferzetti's strong Italian accent.

In 1970, he starred in the political thriller L’aveu/The Confession (Costa-Gavras, 1970) opposite Yves Montand and Simone Signoret. The film, based on the book by Lise London, explores the mental tortures facing the vice-minister of the Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia when he is imprisoned. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Art-house audiences are familiar with Ferzetti for his role in the cult classic Il portiere di notte/The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974) about the Holocaust. He starred alongside Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling and played the psychiatrist Hans, one of his most notable roles. Nathan Southern at AllMovie: "On a global scale, Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter sharply divided critics upon release. Reviewers generally fell into two camps - the Euro critics, who almost unanimously hailed it as a masterpiece - and the über-P.C. American commentators, such as Pauline Kael, who referred to it in the New Yorker as 'proof that women can make junk just as well as men.'Roger Ebert even went so far as to blast the film, damning it 'as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering.' Brushing these criticisms aside for a second, The Night Porter, over three decades later, feels strongest in retrospect because Cavani manages - in two hours - to deeply engrave one of the most credible portraits of sadomasochistic bondage ever committed to celluloid, outside of Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. Cavani uses the Nazi mystique to climb deeply into the womb of sadomasochism, exposing the inner sicknesses and depravity inherent in S & M - so deeply that the viewing experience becomes palpable, sweat-inducing, and wickedly uncomfortable."

Ferzetti then appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in the historical war film Inchon (Terence Young, 1982), in Il Quartetto Basileus/Basileus Quartet (Fabio Carpi, 1982) and alongside Kathleen Turner in Giulia e Giulia/Julia and Julia (Peter Del Monte, 1987). But his film career declined during the 1980s, and he mainly appeared in TV films and mini-series.

His only role of major note in the 1990s was the Duke of Venice in the William Shakespeare adaptation Othello (Oliver Parker, 1995) starring Laurence Fishburne. His most notable role since then was Nono in the popular French TV series Une famille formidable/A great family, in which he appeared in 11 episodes between 1996 and 2007. Later, he appeared in the lavish, sprawling drama Io sono l'amore/I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, 2009) and the comedy 18 anni dopo/18 Years Later (Edoardo Leo, 2010) featuring Marco Bonini.

Official French trailer for Le Amiche (1955). Source: Fury Prod. (YouTube).

Criterion Trailer 98: L'Avventura. Source: Criterion Trailers (YouTube).

Official Trailer for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Source: Movieclips Trailer Vault (YouTube).

Sources: Robert Firsching (AllMovie), Nathan Southern (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American actress Dorothy Hyson (1914–1996) led a successful stage and film career in London. Noted for her great beauty and striking looks, the songwriters Rogers and Hart dedicated their song, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, to her. She was a byword for theatrical West End glamour, but also worked as a cryptographer for the secret service during the war.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 785a. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

The comedienne of the future

Dorothy Hyson was born Dorothy Wardell Heisen in Chicago, Illinois, in 1914. She was the daughter of adorable Dorothy Dickson, the toast of Broadway and her husband, Carl Hyson, celebrated exponent of ballroom dancing in an era when it was all the rage.

As a child, young Dorothy appeared in the silent Hollywood film Paying the Piper (George Fitzmaurice, 1921) which starred her mother. That same year, the family moved to London where her parents went to work at the West End.

She made her London stage debut at the age of 12 at the Savoy Theatre in J.M. Barrie's Quality Street. The following year, she acted in Daisy Ashford's The Young Visitors. Leading critic James Agate wrote: "I think in Dorothy Hyson we may have the comedienne of the future".

In 1933, Ivor Novello, impressed by her charm and beauty, offered her the role of Gladys Cooper's daughter in his play, Flies in the Sun. Later successes included Maxwell Anderson's comedy, Saturday's Children and Touch Wood, in which she co-starred with Flora Robson.

She made her film debut in the British historical comedy Soldiers of the King (Maurice Elvey, 1933) starring Cicely Courtneidge. Then she co-starred in the British horror film The Ghoul (T. Hayes Hunter, 1933), starring Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, and Ralph Richardson, making his film debut. An Egyptologist (Karloff of course) returns from the dead to take revenge on those who have violated his tomb. The film was popular in the UK but performed disappointingly in the US. Subsequently, it disappeared and was considered to be a lost film over the next 31 years.

Hyson also appeared in British films like the musical That's a Good Girl (Jack Buchanan, 1933), the Aldwych farce Turkey Time (Tom Walls, 1933) starring Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn, and the musical Sing As We Go (Basil Dean, 1934) starring Gracie Fields.

However, acting in films by day and on stage at night brought on a nervous breakdown. She brought her film career to a temporary halt. In 1935, she appeared at the West End in the play, The Ringmaster, with Laurence Olivier. And at the age of 20, she married the British film actor Robert Douglas.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 785. Photo: Gainsborough.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 846. Photo: Mannell.

Secret codebreaking

In 1940, Dorothy Hyson starred with George Formby in the film Spare a Copper (John Paddy Carstairs, 1940), a combination of musical comedy and war film. Formby plays a bumbling War Reservist police officer called George Carter who aspires to become a member of the flying squad. The film is set in Merseyside where the battleship HMS Hercules is being built.

She also co-starred with Robert Morley in You Will Remember (Jack Raymond, 1941).

During World War II, Hyson worked as a cryptographer at the secret codebreaking establishment Bletchley Park. Though married to actor Robert Douglas at the time, she was visited there by actor and director Anthony Quayle and the two fell in love.

After the war, she returned to the West End. She joined John Gielgud’s Haymarket Company in 1945. Her final screen appearance was opposite Margaret Rutherford in the TV Movie The Importance of Being Earnest (1946) based on the play by Oscar Wilde.

After divorcing Douglas, she married Quayle in 1947. Then she soon retired from the stage to concentrate on bringing up their children. They had two daughters, actress Jenny Quayle and Rosanna Rosanna Astley-Quayle, and a son, designer Christopher Quayle. Hyson was a renowned hostess in London and numbered among her close friends, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Noel Coward and John Gielgud.

Dorothy Hyson was widowed in 1989. She died from a stroke in England, in 1996, a year after the death of her mother, who died at age 102. Wikipedia writes that it is not known whether Hyson ever relinquished her American citizenship and/or became a British subject.

Dorothy Hyson sings Sun In My Eyes in Turkey Time (1933). Source: gallerydreams (YouTube).

George Formby sings On The Beat in Spare a Copper (1940). Source: mkcwebmaster (YouTube).

Sources: Adam Benedick (The Independent), Patrick Newley (IMDb), Dave Miller (Flickr), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Charming Austrian actor Willi Forst (1903-1980) was a darling of the German-speaking public. He was also one of the most significant directors, producers, and writers of the Wiener Filme, the light Viennese musical comedies of the 1930s.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7050/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8478/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Boston-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1661/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3149/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 519, 1941-1944. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

Marlene Dietrich

Willi (also written as Willy) Forst was born as Wilhelm Anton Frohs in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), in 1903.

At age 16, he began his career as an actor on the provincial stages in the Austria–Hungary and the German Empire, and appeared as a featured performer in the post World War I operetta theatres of Vienna and Berlin.

He also worked with famous directors like Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt. He made his film debut in the Austrian film Der Wegweiser/The Signpost (Hans Kottow, 1920).

His first major screen roles were opposite Marlene Dietrich in the silent films Café Elektric/Cafe Electric (Gustav Ucicky, 1927) and Gefahren der Brautzeit/Dangers of the Engagement Period (Fred Sauer, 1929).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5762/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5762/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6069/2 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7050/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

Greman postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8257/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Cine-Allianz.

Velvety Voice

Willi Forst made his sound and singing film debut in Atlantik/Titanic (Ewald André Dupont, 1929) and soon became known for his distinctive velvety voice and 'charming Viennese' characters.

After Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt/Two Hearts in Waltz Time (Géza von Bolváry, 1930), he played six more times under the direction of Géza von Bolváry.

Most of these successes were written by Walter Reisch, and so were also Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932) with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, and Der Prinz von Arkadien/The Prince from Arcadien (Karl Hartl, 1932) with Liane Haid.

Forst considered the best learning experience for his future role as director, So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/Unforgettable Girl (1933) directed by expressionist film actor-turned-director Fritz Kortner.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7032/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/4, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8258/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Cine Allianz. Publicity still for the romantic comedy Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin/Her Excellency, the Salesgirl (Karl Hartl, 1933) with Liane Haid.

Magda Schneider and Willi Forst in Ich Kenn Dich Nicht Und Liebe Dich (1934)

British postcard. Photo: publicity still for Ich Kenn Dich Nicht Und Liebe Dich/I Don't Know You, But I Love You (Géza von Bolváry, 1934).

Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 449. Photo: Dolly Haas, Willi Forst and Oskar Sima in So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht (1932).

Bel Ami

Willi Forst developed the genre of the Wiener Filme with writer Walter Reisch in the 1930s, beginning with the Franz Schubert melodrama Leise flehen meine Lieder/Lover Divine (Willi Forst, 1933).

He followed it with the hit Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934), which launched his fame as a significant director and made an instant star of Paula Wessely.

For Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935), he lured Pola Negriback from Hollywood.

From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Recordslabel owned by Carl Lindström AG.

He founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film, in 1937. His best known film would be the elegant satire Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939) based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant. He also played the title role, which would be his alter ego from then on.

Dutch Postcard by City Film, no. 151.

Dutch Postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 429. Photo: Filma.

Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 984. Photo: Remaco.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5700/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Super-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7701/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Tonal - Universal. Publicity still for Brennendes Geheimnis/The Burning Secret (Robert Siodmak, 1933).

Wiener Filme

Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Willi Forst was much courted by the Nazis. He succeeded in avoiding overt political statements, concentrating entirely on the light entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war.

During the seven year period of National Socialist rulein Austria, he only made four films, none of them political. His most important work was his Wien-Film trilogy: Operette/Operetta (Willi Forst, 1940), Wiener Blut/Vienna Blood (Willi Forst, 1942), and Wiener Mädeln/Vienna Beauties (Willi Forst, begun in 1944, but not completed until 1949).

After the war he had comparatively little success, with the exception of the film Die Sünderin/The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1951) starring Hildegard Knef and Gustav Fröhlich. The frank treatment of social and sexual mores in Germany during and after the war ánd a modest nude scene of Knef created a furor at the release, but the film went on to attract an audience of seven million people.

Willi Forst's last film was the comedy Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume/Vienna, City of My Dreams (Willi Forst, 1957), with Adrian Hoven and Erika Remberg.

Then Willi Forst retired from the film world, acknowledging that his style was no longer in demand. After the death of his wife in 1973 he lived a reclusive life in the Swiss canton of Tessin. He died of cancer in Vienna in 1980 and is buried in Neustift am Walde.

At Senses of Cinema, professor Robert von Dassanowsky writes that Forst is "one of Austrian and Central European cinema's greatest filmmakers and influential industry figures, whose lack of presence in the international film 'canon' of important directors today is one more casualty from the negligence that has greeted Austrian cinema since the collapse of its commercial film industry in the 1960's."

Spanish collector's card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.

Dutch postcard by JSA, no. 232. Photo: Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg. [Baron] Wolff von Gudenberg (1890-1961) was a noted and fashionable photographer in the 1920s and 1930s.

French postcard by Europe, no. 989. Photo: Mercure Film.

French postcard by Europe, no. 1073. Photo: Mercure Film.

Sources: Robert von Dassanowsky (Senses of Cinema), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

In the early 1910s, French actress Renée Sylvaire was one of the regular actresses of the company Éclair. She played in over 60 silent films between 1909 and 1923.

French postcard. Photo: Eclair.

American Scandal

When Renée Sylvaire was born is unknown. She began her career when onereelers still ruled in film. Her first known film role was in Rédemption/John Farley's Redemption (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1909), where she played opposite Charles Krauss, one of the regulars of the Éclair company.

The plot of this film is not far afield from the scandal of American star Evelyn Nesbit's real life, in which her husband murdered famed architect Stanford White in retaliation for his presumed affair with Nesbit.

After this debut it took some time before Sylvaire could continue at Éclair, as in 1910 the company focused on classic plays with mainly acclaimed stage actors.

Instead she played at Pathé in such short films as Une petite femme bien douce/A Sweet Little French Lady (Georges Denola, 1910) with Mistinguett, and Philémon et Baucis (Georges Denola, 1911) with Romuald Joubé.

In 1911, she returned to Éclair to play in such shorts as La fleur des neiges/The Snow Flower (1911), and Le grand-pere/The Grandfather (1911), and her first feature film La dame de chez Maxim's/Girl from Maxim's (1912), an adaptation of the Georges Feydeau comedy. All these films were made under the solid direction of Emile Chautard. The script for La dame de chez Maxim's was written by Maurice Tourneur, who would later direct her in several films.

Mistinguett French postcard, no. 176. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Romuald Joubé. French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 117.

The enormously productive year 1913

1913 was an enormously productive year for Renée Sylvaire. She played in the onereeler La malédiction/The Curse (Emile Chautard, 1913), and the two-reelers Le chemin du coeur/The Way of the Heart (1913) with Charles Krauss,L’assaut de la terre/The Assault of the Earth, Le trésor des Baux/Baux's Treasure, Sacrifice, two episodes of the serial Destin tragique/Tragic Destiny, La maison du glacier/The House of the Ice-cream Maker (all directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset in 1913), La bergère d’Ivry (Maurice Tourneur, known to be his earliest surviving film, 1913) about the plight of an orphan girl, and the horrifying Le système du docteur Gourdon et du professeur Plume/The Lunatics (Maurice Tourneur, 1913), adapted from a one-act Grand Guignol play based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The System of Dr. Tarr and professor Fether.

Sylvaire played the female lead in the threereelers Mathilde (Emile Chautard, 1913) after the novel by Eugène Sue, La gueuse (unknown director, 1913), and Le chiffonier de Paris/The Ragman of Paris (Emile Chautard, 1913). She also had major roles in the threereelers La justicière/The Female Leader (Gérard Bourgeois, Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1913) opposite Josette Andriot, and Le coeur d’une gosse/The heart of a Street Urchin, (Emile Chautard, 1913).

Sylvaire also played in the four-reelers Jack (André Liabel, 1913), an adaptation of Alphonse Daudet’s novel featuring Villeneuve, and La fiancée maudite/The Accursed Fiancé (Emile Chautard, 1913) with Josette Andriot. Finally Sylvaire also played in two films of which the length is unknown, Val d'enfer/Hell Valley (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1913) and in another Feydeau adaptation La duchesse des Folies-Bergères/The Duchess of the Folies-Bergères (Emil Chautard, 1913, ).

Next to the above mentioned titles from the Éclair filmography published in 1992, IMDb lists five other short 1913 films with Sylvaire. These are Trompe-la-Mort/Mistaken Death (Charles Krauss, 1913) based on a novel by Honoré de Balzac, Soeurette (Maurice Tourneur, 1913) with Pauline Polaire, Les ruses de l'amour/The Tricks of Love (Maurice Tourneur, 1913), L’auberge sanglante/The Inn of Blood (Emile Chautard, 1913), and La nièce d’Amérique/The American Niece (Gérard Bourgeois, 1913). Harry Waldman’s study of Maurice Tourneur also mentions Le dernier pardon (Maurice Tourneur, 1913). A total of 23 (short) films - all done in 1913!

French postcard by Europe, no. 189. Photo: Film Aubert. Publicity still of Huguette Duflos and Léon Mathot in Yasmina (André Hugon, 1927).

Grand Guignol

In 1914, Renée Sylvaire continued her fruitful and busy career at Éclair. She alternated major or minor film roles with leading roles. She was the female star of the two-reeler comedy Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme/Miss Josette, My Wife (André Liabel, 1914) and of the threereeler drama Le corso rouge/The Red Procession (Charles Krauss, Maurice Tourneur, 1914). She could also be seen a.o. in the fourreeler (feature-length) comedy set in a circus milieu Le friquet (Maurice Tourneur, 1914), starring Pauline Polaire; the threereeler Le puits mitoyen/The Secret of the Well (Maurice Tourneur, 1914) with Henry Roussel; and the tworeeler comedy L’idée de Françoise/Francis' Idea (Emil Chautard, 1914).

Figures de cire/Wax Figures (Maurice Tourneur, 1914) was another Grand Guignol-story based on Le système du docteur Gourdon et du professeur Plume. It was the forerunner of Paul Leni’s classic Waxworks/Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924). In May 1914, Maurice Tourneur left for the US to work at the Éclair studio’s in Fort Lee, thus robbing Sylvaire of an innovative director. When the First World War broke out and production at Éclair was reduced to mostly short comedies and non-fiction, Sylvaire also played less roles.

In 1915 she only played in the third sequel of the Protéa adventure serial: La course à la mort/The Death Race (Joseph Faivre, supervised by Gérard Bourgeois, 1915) with Josette Andriot and the future director Jacques Feyder. In 1916 followed only the threereeler Un coup de feu dans la nuit/A Shot in the Night (Gérard Bourgeois, 1916). Then she appeared in Le mort invisible/The Invisible Death (Adolphe Candé, 1917), the fourth part of the Protéa series: Les mystères du Chateau Malmort/The Mysteries of the Castle of Malmort (Gérard Bourgeois, 1917), and L’âpre lutte/The Fierce Struggle (Jacques de Féraudy, Robert Boudrioz, 1917).

Sylvaire had been an actress at the Theatre du Renaissance, but was now engaged at the Theatre du Grand Guignol. In 1918 Sylvaire still played in one more film by Éclair La distance/The Distance (Robert Boudrio, 1918). Then she left Éclair as the company was falling apart. When the fifth Protéa sequel came out in early 1919, the last film released by Éclair, Josette Andriot had another co-star. In 1918 Sylvaire played for Pathé in La route du devoir/The Journey of Duty (Georges Monca, 1918) with Charles Prince, and Le boudoir japonais/The Japanese Boudoir (Georges Monca, 1918) and had a lead in Le fils naturel/The Natural Son (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1918), after Alexandre Dumas fils.

The following year she played in L’impasse Messidor/The Messidor Cul-de-sac (Camille de Morlhon, 1919), Le sang des immortelles/The Blood of the Immortals (André Liabel, 1919), and La gloire douloureuse/The Painful Glory (Maurice Landais, 1919). The next years Sylvaire played the lead in Les femmes des autres/Other Men's Wifes (Pierre Marodon, 1920), Des fleurs sur la mer/Flowers on the Sea (André Liabel, 1922) and Etre ou ne pas être/To Be or Not To Be (René Leprince, 1922) with Léon Mathot.

In 1923 she still had substantial roles in Le château des fantômes/The Haunted Castle (Pierre Marodon, 1923), and L'ile sans amour/The Island Without Love (Jean Legrand, 1923). Her last known role was a small part in the spectacular production Koenigsmark/The Secret Spring (Léonce Perret, 1923). This film featured a whole new generation of film stars: Huguette Duflos,Jaque Catelain, Iván Petrovich, etc.

The film career of Renée Sylvaire halted here and there is no information about her later life. About her stage career is not much known either. Happily several films with Renée Sylvaire have shown up over the last decades. In the Desmet Collection of the Eye Film Institute were found a.o. Le coeur et les yeux, Amours et science, and La bergère d’Ivry. A few years ago also Maurice Tourneur’s Le friquet showed up and has been restored since.

Whoever has more information about Renée Sylvaire, please mail us.

Jaque Catelain. French postcard by A.N., Paris. in the Les vedettes de Cinema series, no. 68. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

Iván Petrovich. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5031/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien.

Sources: Filmography Éclair (Griffithiana 44/45, 1992); Harry Waldman (Maurice Tourneur. The life and films), and IMDb.

Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) was Britain's number one box office draw of the 1950s, gaining the title of ‘The Matinee Idol of the Odeon’. In the 1960s, he abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts in films by Joseph Losey, John Schlesinger, Luchino Visconti, Liliane Cavani and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Bogarde made a total of 63 films between 1939 and 1991.

British autograph card. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Mexican card, no. 356. Photo: Rank.

British Greetings card, no. E. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoturist, Beograd / Studio Sombor, no. 191.

Dirk Bogarde in A Tale of Two Cities (1958)

British postcard. Photo: Rank. Publicity still for A Tale of Two Cities (Ralph Thomas, 1958).

A dark and violent sexuality

Dirk Bogarde was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde in London in 1921. He was of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde was the art editor of London newspaper The Timesand his mother Margaret Niven was a former actress. He attended the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow and London's University College School, before majoring in commercial art at Chelsea Polytechnic.

Derek dropped out of his commercial art course and became a drama student, though his acting talent at that time was unpromising. In the late 1930s he went to work as a commercial artist and a scene designer. His London West End acting debut was in 1939 as Derek Bogaerde in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. That same year he appeared as an extra in the George Formby film Come on George! (Anthony Kimmins, 1939).

In 1940, nineteen-years old Derek joined the Queen’s Royal Regiment and served as an officer with the Air Photographic Intelligence Unit, where he eventually attained the rank of major and during his five years of active service was honoured on seven occasions. After the war his agent renamed him Dirk Bogarde, and in 1947 he appeared in Power Without Glory at the New Lindsay Theatre, a performance that was praised by Noel Coward, who urged him to continue his acting career.

His good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor. After several films for Gainsborough, none of them making much impact, his first lead came when Wessex Filmsgave him a part in the proposed Stewart Granger film Esther Waters (Ian Dalrymple, Peter Proud, 1948). When Granger dropped out, Bogarde took over the lead.

Rank subsequently signed him to a long-term contract and he appeared in a variety of parts during the 14 years he was under contract to this studio. He came to prominence playing the charismatic young hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in Ealing's The Blue Lamp (Basil Dearden, 1949). Bogarde brought a dark and violent sexuality to the role that came near to unbalancing the film's sober intentions. It was the first of the intense neurotics and attractive villains that Bogarde would often play, such as the murderer, who befriends a young boy, he played in Hunted (Charles Crichton, 1952).

His role as a medical student in Doctor in the House (Ralph Thomas, 1954) made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s. A staggering 17 million people saw the film in its first year. The next years he reprised his role in Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955) co-starring Brigitte Bardot, and Doctor at Large (Ralph Thomas, 1957) co-starring the later Bond girl Shirley Eaton.

He played a neurotic criminal opposite Alexis Smith in The Sleeping Tiger (1954), Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey. In Cast a Dark Shadow (Lewis Gilbert, 1955), he was a man who marries women for money and then murders them. Other interesting films were The Spanish Gardener (Philip Leacock, 1956); A Tale of Two Cities (Ralph Thomas, 1958), a faithful retelling of Charles Dickens' classic; The Doctor's Dilemma (Anthony Asquith, 1959), based on a play by George Bernard Shaw; and Libel (Anthony Asquith, 1959), in which he played two separate roles opposite Olivia de Havilland.

British postcard by Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 789. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 547. Photo: Associated British.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 290. Photo: British Lion.

Vintage minicard, no. 172. Photo: Eagle Lion.

British card. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Victim

After leaving the Rank Organisation, Dirk Bogarde went to Hollywood. There he played Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt in Song Without End (Charles Vidor, George Cukor, 1960), and an unfrocked priest who falls in love with cabaret entertainer Ava Gardnerduring the Spanish Civil War in The Angel Wore Red (Nunnally Johnson, 1960). Both were big-budgeted films, but hampered by poor scripts, and neither fared well. Bogarde decided to avoid Hollywood productions in the future.

He abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts. First he starred in the landmark film Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961). He played Melville Farr, a prominent and secretly homosexual lawyer who fights the blackmailers of a young man with whom he had a relationship. The young man commits suicide after being arrested for embezzlement, rather than to ruin the attorney's reputation. In the process of exposing the ring of extortionists, Bogarde's character puts at risk his successful legal career and marriage in order to see that justice is served.

Victim was the first mainstream British film to treat the subject of homosexuality seriously and the film helped lead to a change in English law decriminalising homosexuality. Acting in Victim was a very brave move of Bogarde in the years before the decriminalisation of male homosexuality with the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.

Privately he had a long-term relationship with his manager, Anthony Forwood since 1939. Forwood was a former husband of the actress Glynis Johns and the father of her only child, actor Gareth Forwood. They lived together, first in Amersham, England, then in France. According to Wikipedia, Bogarde's refusal to enter into a marriage of convenience in order to cover up his homosexuality was probably a major reason for his failure to become a star in Hollywood, together with the critical and commercial failure of Song Without End.

In Europe he played classic roles in more complex, art house films such as the decadent valet Hugo Barrett in The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963) written by Harold Pinter; television reporter Robert Gold in Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965) starring Julie Christie; Stephen, a bored Oxford University professor in Accident (Joseph Losey, 1967) also written by Pinter; German industrialist Frederick Bruckman in La caduta degli dei/The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969); the Nazi ex-concentration camp guard obsessed with one of his previous inmates (Charlotte Rampling) in the chilling and highly controversial Il portiere di notte/The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974), and, most notably, in Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) as Gustav von Aschenbach, a dying composer obsessed with a beautiful boy in a city ravaged by cholera.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 913. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

British postcard. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by Celebrity Publishers, London, no. 51. Photo: Cornel Lucas / Rank.

Yugoslavian postcard by ZK, no. 4236. Photo: Rank.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 863.

Second Career

During the 1960s and 1970s, Dirk Bogarde played opposite renowned stars, yet several of the films were of uneven quality. In the campy The Singer Not the Song (Roy Ward Baker, 1961), he was a Mexican bandit co-starring with John Mills as a priest. In H.M.S. Defiant (Lewis Gilbert, 1962), he played sadistic Lieutenant Scott-Padget opposite Sir Alec Guinness. In I Could Go On Singing (Ronald Neame, 1963), he co-starred with Judy Garland in her final screen role.

In King & Country (Joseph Losey, 1964) he played an army lawyer reluctantly defending deserter Tom Courtenay. Losey's Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, 1966) was a campy spy send-up in which he co-starred as archvillain Gabriel opposite Monica Vittiand Terence Stamp. Our Mother's House (Jack Clayton, 1967) was an off-beat film in which he played an estranged father of seven children. In The Fixer (John Frankenheimer, 1968), based on Bernard Malamud's novel, he co-starred with Alan Bates; in Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough, 1969), his co-stars were Sir John Gielgudand Sir Laurence Olivier, and in Le Serpent/The Serpent (Henri Verneuil, 1973) he appeared with Henry Fonda and Yul Brynner.

In 1977, Bogarde embarked on his second career as an author. Starting with a first volume A Postillion Struck by Lightning (1977), he wrote a series of autobiographical volumes, novels and book reviews. While in his autobiographical works Bogarde carefully avoids direct discussion of homosexuality, he does discuss his relationship with his partner, particularly his care of him during the latter's long terminal illness. According to Wikipedia, the writer Bogarde displayed a witty, elegant, highly literate and thoughtful style.

Among his later films were the art house hit Providence (Alain Resnais, 1977) co-starring Sir John Gielgud; the all-star blockbuster A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977), and the Vladimir Nabokov adaptation Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978). His final film role was in Daddy Nostalgie/These Foolish Things (Bertrand Tavernier, 1991) co-starring Jane Birkinas his daughter. Bogarde's controversial film choices later in his career led him to have something of a cult following.

Formerly a heavy smoker, Bogarde suffered a minor stroke in November 1987 while Anthony Forwood was dying of liver cancer and Parkinson's disease. Never afraid of voicing his opinion, after witnessing Forwood's protracted death he became active in promoting voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients in Britain and toured the UK giving lectures and answering questions from live audiences on the subject.

Dirk Bogarde died in London from a heart attack in 1999, aged 78. He was nominated six times as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts(BAFTA), winning twice, for The Servant in 1963, and for Darling in 1965. He also received the London Film Critics Circle Lifetime Awardin 1991. He was knighted in 1992 for services to acting, and was the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including St Andrews and Sussex. In the Encyclopedia of British Cinema, Brian McFarlane writes about Bogarde: "he was the British film actor and star par excellence, sometimes making bricks out of straw but also making impressive houses out of bricks."

Trailer for Victim (1961). Source: Night Of The Trailers (YouTube).

Trailer Doctor In Distress (1963). Source: Trailers Galore! (YouTube).

Trailer for The Servant (1963). Source: Carlos ESNAOLA (YouTube).

Trailer for Darling (1965). Source: Classic British film (YouTube).

Trailer for Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (1971). Source: Movieclips Trailer Vault (YouTube).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), Patricia Juliana Smith (glbtq), David Absalom (British Pictures), Clive Saunders (BritMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The Swedish silent film Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) was based on a short story and play by Selma Lagerlöf. The stars were Renée Björling, Ivan Hedqvist himself and Ragnar Widestedt.

Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/1. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).

Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/?. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).The lady on the left is Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson, who plays Teodor's mother.

A pack of worthless shares

The story of Dunungen (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) is set in the 19th century. Star of the film is pretty Swedish film and stage actress Renée Björling (1888-1975). She peaked in the Swedish silent cinema, but later she also played small parts in the films of Ingmar Bergman.

In Duningen, Björling plays the baker's daughter Anne-Marie Ehringer, called Dunungen. Ragnar Widestedt plays the mayor's son Mauritz Fristedt, who has deeply fallen in love with Dunungen.

The mayor applauds the engagement of his son when Mauritz in exchange promises to try to foist on Uncle Theodore (Ivan Hedqvist) a pack of worthless shares that the father wants to get rid of. It is to the rich old bachelor uncle Theodore Mauritz and Dunungen will go on their engagement trip.

Dunungen gets attached to old Uncle Theodore and when Mauritz brings out the worthless shares and proposes Theodore a purchase, Dunungen prevents the deal.

The film was Ivan Hedqvist's directorial debut and Renée Björling's film debut in a larger context. Weyler Hildebrand made a remake of Dunungen in 1941 with cinematographer Julius Jaenzon who also had filmed this version of 1919.

Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/10. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).

Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/12. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).

Source: Wikipedia (Swedish) and IMDb.

Marisa Allasio (1936) was a glamorous starlet who appeared in nearly twenty pictures in the 1950s. She was nicknamed ‘The Italian Jayne Mansfield’. In 1958 her career stopped abruptly when she married and became a countess.

Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 1.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. 714.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. R. 107.

Italian postcard by SA Poligrafica Sammarinese, no. 020-d.

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-174. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: G.B. Poletto / UFA.

Miss Lido

Marisa Allasio was born Maria Luisa Lucia Allasio in Turin in 1936. She was the daughter of Federico Allasio, road contractor, goalkeeper of the Torino soccer team ánd coach of many Italian soccer teams, and his wife Lucia Rocchietti.

At 14, she was crowned Miss Lido, winning her first and only beauty contest. When Italian magazines published pin-up art of 'Miss Lido,' she was transferred to a public school.

At 16, Marisa made her film debut in a bit part in the melodrama Perdonami!/Forgive me (Mario Costa, 1952) starring Raf ValloneandAntonella Lualdi. She talked her parents into enrolling her in Rome’s Academy of Dramatic Arts.

The following years she appeared in Italian film productions like the soccer film Gli eroi della domenica/The Sunday Heroes (Mario Camerini, 1953) starring Raf Valloneand Marcello Mastroianni,Cuore di mamma/Mother's Heart (Luigi Capuano, 1954), and Ragazze d'oggi/Girls of Today (Luigi Zampa, 1955).

She also had an uncredited part in the international epic War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956) based on the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy and starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer.

Yugoslavian postcard.

Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 213.

Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 300.

Mike Bongiorno and Marisa Allasio in Ragazze d'oggi (1955)

Italian postcard. Publicity still for Ragazze d'oggi/Girls of Today (Luigi Zampa, 1955) with Mike Bongiorno.

With Maurizio Arena. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1355, 1960. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.

Renato Salvatori, Marisa Allasio, Maurizio Arena

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1356, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Poveri ma belli/Poor But Beautiful (Dino Risi, 1957) with Renato Salvatori and Maurizio Arena.

Bikini Girl

Marisa Allasio had her breakthrough as Giovanna in the comedy Poveri ma belli/Poor But Beautiful (Dino Risi, 1956) opposite Renato Salvatori and Maurizio Arena and the sequel Belle ma povere/Poor Girl, Pretty Girl (Dino Risi, 1957).

Her part wins her national notoriety when the Pope condemns posters advertising it as 'overly exciting.' The posters are seized by Italian police. Despite this scandal she became popular as ‘la ragazza bella’, with her amazing curves clad in a bikini.

She appeared as the main attraction in comedies like Marisa la civetta/Marisa (Mauro Bolognini, 1957) again with Renato Salvatori, Camping (Franco Zeffirelli, 1957), Susanna tutta panna/Susanna, you whipped cream (Steno, 1957), and Venezia, la luna e tu/Venice, the Moon and You (Dino Risi, 1958) with Alberto Sordi.

As a pin-up she became hugely popular. In 1957 she was on the cover of Modern Man Quarterly Fall 1957, and an international breakthrough seemed only a matter of time. She appeared in the German-Italian coproduction Nackt, wie Gott sie schuf/Naked Like God Created Her (Hans Schott-Schöbinger, 1958), and the American-Italian Mario Lanza vehicle Seven Hills of Rome (Roy Rowland, 1958). But that would be her final film.

In 1958 she married Conte Pierfrancesco Calvi. Her husband is the 7th count of Bèrgolo, Head of the Calvi di Bèrgolo Family, since 1977. His mother was a daughter of H.R.M. Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy, King of Albania and Emperor of Ethiopia, and H.R.H. Elena Petrovich-Njegosch, Princess of Montenegro. He was 27; she was 22. The private ceremony was attended by only two other persons. Both families were reported opposed to the marriage.

Today the count and his wife are still married and have two children, Carlo Georgio (1959), and Anda Federica a.k.a. Yolanda (1962). The Italian New Wave group Diaframma dedicated a song to her, called Marisa Allasio. It’s on their album 3 Volte Lacrime (1986).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1354, 1960. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.

Yugoslavian postcard by 3K, no. 3918.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 144. Photo: Titanus / Constantin.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4182. Photo: Unitalia Film.

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. PK 3914. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: G. Poletto / Ufa. (The name of the actress is misspelled on the postcard).

Sources: Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

That guy... who was in that film... Know what I mean? You saw the film, forgot the leads, but kept remembering that odd face of the boss, neighbour, uncle. These funny characters were superbly played by little-known supporting actors. Today EFSP brings a salute to 12 of these great character actors.

Marcel Levesque in La nouvelle mission de Judex

French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gerschel / Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).

Marcel Lévesque (1877-1962) was a French actor and scriptwriter who excelled in French silent and sound comedies but also played memorable parts in the crime serials by Feuillade and in Renoir’s Le crime de M. Lange.

Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 202. Photo: Negativi Alba Film. Publicity still for L'arzigogolo (Mario Almirante, 1924).

Stage and film actor Oreste Bilancia (1881-1945) was highly active in Italian silent and sound cinema and also in the late silent cinema of the Weimar republic. He mostly worked as a supporting actor, but occasionally he played the main character.

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 5. Sent by mail in 1923. Photo: Comoedia.

Félicien Tramel (1880-1948) was a French singer and actor. He made more than 30 78’s at Odeon with such hits as T'en fais pas Bouboule (Do not worry Bouboule) and Y me faut mon patelin (I miss my hometown). Between 1911 and 1947 he played in dozens of films. In a series of silent and sound comedies he starred as the character Alfred Bicard or le Bouif.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 522. Photo: Sascha-Film, Wien (Vienna). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German actor Hermann Picha (1865-1936) played character roles in many classics of the Weimar cinema, such as Fritz Lang's Der müde Tod/Destiny (1921), F.W. Murnau's Herr Tartüff/Tartuffe (1925), and Der Hauptmann von Köpenick/The Captain from Koepenick (Siegfried Dessauer, 1926).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 592. Photo: Verleih E. Weill & Co. / National. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Hungarian actor and film director Julius von Szöreghy (1883-1943) was one of the busiest supporting actors of the German and Austrian cinema in the second half of the 1920s.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 396. Photo: publicity still for The Merry Widow (Erich Von Stroheim, 1925).

American character actor Roy d'Arcy played his most famous role in Erich Von Stroheim’s classic The Merry Widow (1925), starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert.

Dutch postcard, no. 238. Photo: Remaco-Film. At the rop right is a censorship stamp, necessary in the Netherlands for all film photos at the time.

German stage and screen actor Felix Bressart (1892–1949) had to flee Germany after the Nazis seized to power. He continued his film career in Austria and later in the US, where he became a popular character actor for MGM.

Dutch postcard by City Film, no. 619. Photo: publicity still for Frühlingsstimmen/Voices of Springtime (1933, Pál Fejös).

Cute, chubby-jowled Hungarian actor Szöke Szakáll (1883-1955) started his film career in the German and Austrian silent cinema. From 1940 on, he became known as S.Z. Sakall in Hollywood. He was memorable as Carl, the waiter in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) and played many more supporting roles in comedies and musicals, often as a lovable somewhat befuddled uncle, businessman or neighborhood eccentric.

Italian postcard by ASER, Roma, no. 97. Photo: Pesce.

Italian film actor Claudio Ermelli (1892-1964) played bit parts and character roles in more than 115 films, from 1915 to 1962.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 96. Photo: Pesce.

Italian character actor Paolo Stoppa (1906–1988) is best known for his stage work with director Luchino Visconti. In a career of more than 50 years, he also appeared in such cinema classics as Miracolo a Milano (1951), Il Gattopardo (1962) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Dutch postcard, no. KF 50. Photo: Republic Pictures.

American character actor George 'Gabby' Hayes (1885-1969) was one of the colourful sidekicks to the leading men in the Hollywood Westerns of the 1930s and 1940s. His grizzled codger was so popular that Hayes landed repeatedly on the annual list of Top Ten Western Box-office Stars.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin. Photo: Rolf Lantin / Constantin-Film.

German character actor Rudolf Platte (1904-1984) played both cheerfully talkative and reserved and shy, but loving people in more than 200 films. After his death, the media hailed him as Berlin’s ‘last true folk actor’.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Sent by mail in 1969. Photo: Herbert Joeks in Pipo de clown.

Frail singer and character actor Herbert Joeks (1915-1993) appeared in several Dutch films and TV series. He became an icon for generations of Dutch kids as the fearful Indian Klukkluk in the TV-series Pipo de Clown (1958-1980).

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.