European Film Star Postcards

Austrian silent film star Mia May (1884-1980) was one of the first divas of the German cinema. During and after the First World War, she became the subject of countless early film star postcards. The rather matronly but graceful actress starred in many silent films of her husband, producer-writer-director Joe May. Her only daughter, the lovely Eva May, committed suicide after a promising film career of her own.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 71/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / May Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 259/3, 1919-1921. Sent by mail in Germany in 1921. Photo: Becker & Maass / May Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 429/2 Gr, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / May Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 450/5, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Riess.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 450/6, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess / May Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 634/1. Photo: May Film. Mia May and Michael Bohnen in Die Herrin der Welt/Mistress of the World (Joe May and others, 1919).

Popular screen escapism

Mia May was born as Maria Pfleger in Vienna, Austria, in 1884. From the age of 14, she performed on stage under the pseudonym of Herma Angelot.

In 1902 she married Julius Otto Mandl, who lived off the interest of a fortune, inherited from his parents. After their marriage she took a break for some years and we probably never would have seen or heard from her if her husband hadn't lost his whole fortune by speculating unsuccessfully.

For this reason Mia accepted an engagement in Hamburg, where she took part in the operetta Clo-Clo/Clou-Clou. She assumed a new moniker and Mia May sounded good on a marquee. Her husband Julius Mandl followed suit and renamed himself Joe May.

For the long intervals of the operetta Joe made some short films with the actors of Clo-Clo. This paved the way for a new career. In his first film as a director for Continental-Filmkunst GmbH, In der Tiefe des Schachtes/In the Depths of the Shaft (Joe May, 1912), Joe gave his wife the leading part of the beautiful Else.

After that Mia May also played in films by other producers, but her most succesful productions were made by her husband. Their popular screen escapism included Arme Eva Maria/Poor Eva Maria (Joe May, 1916) with Harry Liedtke, and the Joe Deebs detective films featuring Max Landa.

In 1916 she starred in the first film of the Mia May series, Die Sünde der Helga Arndt/The Sin of Helga Arndt (Joe May, 1916). It made Mia a diva of the German cinema, and as Hans J. Wollstein writes at AllMovie: "Mia May rivaled Henny Porten and the great Asta Nielsen in popularity."

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 105/5, 1916-1919. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / May Film.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 105/6, 1916-1919. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / May Film.

German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 106/1, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 106/2, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 106/3, 1916-1919. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 106/6, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 258/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass phot. / May Film.

Veritas Vincit

Mia May starred in such films as Hilde Warren und der Tod/Hilde Warren and Death (Joe May, 1917) opposite the later director Fritz Lang as The Dead, and in such popular serials as Die Herrin der Welt/Mistress of the World (Joe May, Joseph Klein, 1919-1920).

The Medieval costume on the postcard immediately above perhaps refers to Veritas vincit (Joe May, 1919), a trilogy in three epochs: Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.

In the historical episodes untruthful antagonists decide upon the tragic destiny of Mia's characters, but in modern times Truth conquers at last when Mia in the end confesses the truth, saving her love played by Johannes Riemann, and defying society. The film was a huge success.

Mia did not only act in the films of her husband, but she also sometimes co-wrote and cut them. At times she also managed May Film.

Mia May and Hans Mierendorff in Ein einsam Grab (1916)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 93/1. Photo: May-Film. Publicity still for Ein einsam Grab/A lonely grave (Karl Gerhardt, 1916) with Hans Mierendorff.

Mia May in Die Liebe der Hetty Raymond (1917)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 503/4. Photo: May-Film. Publicity still for Die Liebe der Hetty Raymond/The Love of Hetty Raymond (Joe May, 1917).

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 516/2. Photo: May Film. Mia May and Bruno Kastner in the German silent film Ein Lichtstrahl im Dunkel/A Ray of Light in the Dark (Joe May, 1917).

Mia May and Bruno Kastner in Hilde Warren und der Tod (1917)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 516/3, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film. Publicity still for Hilde Warren und der Tod/Hilde Warren and Death (Joe May, 1917) with Bruno Kastner.

Mia May and Bruno Kastner in Der Schwarze Chauffeur (1917)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 516/8. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass. Publicity still for Der Schwarze Chauffeur/The Black Chauffeur (Joe May, 1917) with Bruno Kastner.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 527/3. Phoyto: May Film. Mia May in Wogen des Schicksals/Waves of fate (Joe May, 1918).

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 528/5. Photo:May Film. Publicity still for Fünf Minuten zu spät/Five Minutes Too Late (Uwe Jens Krafft, 1918).

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 566/1. Photo: May-Film. Publicity still for Veritas vincit (Joe May, 1919). Caption: Veritas vincit. Der grosse Prunkfilm. Szenenbild aus dem I. Teil. Helena, die Tochter des Flavius. (Helena, Flavius' daughter).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 634/15 Photo: May Film. Mia May and Henry Sze in Die Herrin der Welt/Mistress of the World (Joe May and others, 1919).

Tragic Suicide

Mia May incidentally acted in films made by other directors. Examples are Die Platonische Ehe/Platonic Marriage (Paul Leni, 1919) with Georg Alexander, and Das Wandernde Bild/The Wandering Image (Fritz Lang, 1920) opposite Rudolf Klein-Rogge.

In the twenties her daughter Eva May debuted and took over the leading parts. Mia only played smaller parts in big productions like the two-part adventure epic Das Indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Joe May, 1921).

This mammoth undertaking starred the hypnotic Conrad Veidt, Danish matinee idol Olaf Fönss, and Lya de Putti. The screenplay was written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang.

After Eva's tragic suicide in 1924 Mia retired. In 1933 Mia and Joe, who was Jewish, fled the Nazis. In Hollywood Joe directed several action films for Universal. In 1949 they briefly owned a restaurant, Blue Danube, in West-Hollywood.

Mia May never filmed again. She died in 1980 in Los Angeles.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 105/4, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 229/2, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 230/2, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 231/1, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Becker & Maass.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 329/1, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 429/1, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 429/4, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 532/6, 1919-1924. Photo: Binder / May Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 533/3, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 533/4, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film / Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 653/1, 1919-1924. Photo: May-Film. Mia May in Tragödie der Liebe/Tragedy of Love (Joe May, 1923).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 2001/4. Photo: Becker & Maass / May Film.

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de and IMDb.

Italian film star postcards are among our favourites. Exquisite are the sepia postcards by Roman publisher Edizione Sociéta Anonima Italiana Bettini. The photos for the cartoline were made by Cavaliere Dottore Riccardo Bettini, who stemmed from a family of photographers. The fine fleur of Italian silent cinema flocked to his studio and were immortalised by his photo camera.

Lyda Borelli. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 118.

Olga Benetti. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 206.

Diana Karenne. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 8149.

Maria Jacobini. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 145.

A Family of Photographers

Dr. Carlo Napoleone Bettini, born in 1819 in Bologna, was forced to emigrate for his political beliefs to Egypt, where he worked as a photographer by applying the lessons he had learned in Paris from 1853 on, just for pleasure. In 1859, he was able to return to Italy when the political conditions changed at the beginning of the Second Italian War of Independence.

In Livorno, he opened “Studio Felsineo". Some of his portraits of general Giuseppe Garibaldi are preserved now at the Museo del Risorgimento in Bologna. Bettini participated in the first National Exhibition of Florence in 1861 and around 1866 he became co-holder of the photo studio of C.B. Simelli in Rome.

Flanked by his son Ugo Bettini, born in Bologna in 1843, Carloopened in 1866 another branch in Livorno,which became the main plant. Shortly after, Carlo left the entire business to his son. Ugo was a photo-chemical expert, who would become well known in the community of national photographers due to the success of his technical treatises. Ugo was a board member of the Italian Photographic Society, founded in Florence in 1889.

At the late 1890s, the Lumière brothers had some of their 'views in Livorno shot by Bettini and 'his colleague Felicetti. The two operators, albeit with a still shot, treated the subject in a totally different way. Despite the attribution to Bettini (official photographer of the event) in the contemporary sources, some believe that Bettini was the Lumière operator present in Livorno, because Bettini never seems to have minded shooting film.

Francesca Bertini. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 108.

Leda Gys. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 112.

Tullio Carminati. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 128.

Astrea. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc, Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 252.

The World of Culture

From the early 20th century, Ugo’s son, Cav. Dott. Riccardo Bettini, born in Livorno in 1878, started to keep up the family name in photography. He had a degree in chemistry. In 1908 Riccardo moved the studio to Rome, to Via del Mortaro 19. This had been the headquarters of the well known photo artist Henri Le Lieure. Riccardo took over the vast photo archive of Le Lieure, from his former days in Turin and Rome.

Bettini inherited the clientèle of Le Lieure: the aristocracy, the world of culture and that of politics. They came to Studio Le Lieure for photo portraits of themselves. Bettini participated in the International Exhibition of Photography in Dresden in 1909, was awarded an honorary diploma in 1911 at the Exhibition of Turin and that of Rome, and participated in the Third Italian Photographic Congress, held in Rome in 1911.

In the years between c. 1910-1930, Riccardo Bettini shared an art studio with Anton Giulio Bragaglia in Rome ("Fotoritratti d’Arte Bettini Bragaglia"). In 1924 he founded the “Società anonima Ritratto Bettini" to preserve and make known his powerful historical archive consisting of over 80.000 negatives.

The surviving core of the Bettini collection (some 3000 glass negatives) was purchased in 1954 (some say 1958) by the City of Rome when Riccardo Bettini settled in Argentine. Bettini's collection is now hosted by the Archivio Fotografico Comunale.

Lyda Borelli. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 161.

Olga Benetti. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 165.

Maria Melato. Italian postcard by Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 186.

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

Sources: Fotografi-in-italia-1839-1939 (Italian) and Il Museo di Roma racconta la città (Italian).

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.

Ernst Reicher (1885-1936) was a German stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter and producer, famous for his Stuart Webbs detective films.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1325.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1821. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1822. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.3076. Photo: Stuart Webbs Films / Zander und Labisch.

The Invention of Stuart Webbs

Ernst Reicher, born in Berlin in 1885, was the son of actor and director Emanuel Reicher. He attended the Landerziehungsheim Dr. Lietz in Ilsenburg, a boarding school on a pedagogical reform base, deliberately situated in the countryside. Afterwards Reicher attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, led by his father.

After further training in Italy and London, he debuted in 1909 at the Munich Kammerspiele. In 1910 he played in Rixdorf, in 1911 at the Neues Theater in Frankfurt and in 1912 in Berlin.

In Berlin, he met film director Joe May under whose direction he acted with his father in Heimat und Fremde/Home and away (Joe May, 1913) and thus became known. Shortly thereafter, he played in the musician's biopic Richard Wagner (Carl Froehlich, 1913) the part of King Ludwig II. of Bavaria.

Reichers own directorial debut was the film Das Werk/The work (1913). At the end of 1913 Ernst Reicher invented the character of the detective Stuart Webbs. In this role he stood before the camera for twelve years and established in the German area the genre of the detective film, starting with Der geheimnisvolle Villa/The Black Triangle (Joe May, 1914) for Continental Art Film GmbH, which had sets by future director Paul Leni.

The most popular of the Stuart Webbs films was Das Panzergewölbe/The armored vaults (Joe May, 1914), of which Lupu Pick made a remake starring Reicher in 1926. Co-actors of Reicher in those years were e.g. Max Landa, Lupu Pick and Werner Krauss.

After arguing with the Continental Art Film GmbH, Reicher and May formed their own production company in 1914 called Stuart Webbs Film Company and opened a studio at Berlin Weissensee. Already in 1915 May withdrew and launched his own Joe Deebs detective series with Max Landa in the lead and later on Harry Liedtke.

German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 47/41. Photo: Schenker. Caption: Ernst Reicher, der Detektiv Stuart Webbs.

German postcard, no. 8897.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 1607. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Serious Car Accident

Stuart Webbs was a gentleman-detective based on the model of Sherlock Holmes, who smartly and elegantly solved even the most difficult cases. Throughout the First World War, this fictional character was popular with German audiences. Only from 1918 Ernst Reicher turned to other topics.

Reicher's most elaborate production was the epic film Das Buch Esther/The Book Esther (Uwe Jenns Kraft, Ernst Reicher, 1919), with Stella Harf as the tile role and himself as King Ahasverus. Harf had the female lead in several of Reicher’s films of the late 1910s. In 1919, Reicher moved the seat of his film company to Munich.

At the beginning of the 1920s Reicher suffered a serious car accident in which he had a skull fracture and a spinal fracture, causing a gap in his career between 1921 and 1923. Reicher continued to produce films with his own company till 1923 and occasionally afterwards. Apart from the gap in 1922 he steadily continued his screen acting until 1931, the early years of German sound film.

In the mid-1920s he acted in his last Stuart Webbs adventures, now shot at the Munich Emelka studios and often directed by Max Obal. By the end of the decade - and the dawn of German sound cinema - Reicher's star descended. In the early 1930s he had only small parts, his last German part being a minister in Rasputin (Adolph Trotz, 1931/1932) starring Conrad Veidt.

After the Nazis took over, the Jew Reicher emigrated to Prague in 1933, where he fell into oblivion. His last, tiny role in the remake Le Golem/The Golem (Julien Duvivier, 1936) was cut from the final version. On 1 May 1936 he was found dead in a Prague hotel room, "in a small narrow little room, located in a road that was far from the stages of glory". He was 50. In the 1920s he was married to actress Stella Harf. His half-brother Frank Reicher (1875-1965) and his sister Hedwiga Reicher (1884-1971) have also worked as actor.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 91/1. Photo: Webbs Film / Karl Schenker, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 91/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Webbs Film.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 91/4. Photo: Webbs Film / Karl Schenker, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 94/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Webbs Film.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 176/1. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Webbs Film.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 176/2. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Alba Film.

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

German actress Maria Landrock (1923-1992) was a successful Ufa star during the Third Reich. After the war, her film career was over and she became a voice actress, who dubbed films with Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2756/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tobis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2991/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Haenchen.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3309/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.

SS Troop Support Performer

Maria Johanna Elisabeth Landrock was born in Berlin-Köpenick in 1923. She studied at the Staatlichen Schauspielschule (State Drama School) in Berlin and in the following period she received several engagements at local theatres.

In 1939 she made her film debut as a replacement for the ill Kristina Söderbaum in the adventure comedy Pedro soll hängen/Pedro should hang (Veit Harlan, 1939) starring Gustav Knuth and Heinrich George.

When the lengthy production finally reached the cinema in 1941, Maria Landrock had already played another leading role in Aus erster Ehe/From the first marriage (Paul Verhoeven, 1940) with Franziska Kinz and Ferdinand Marian.

She also had starred with Willy Fritsch in Die keusche Geliebte/The chaste lover (Viktor Tourjansky, 1940).

She became a successful film actress and appeared opposite Emil Jannings in the comedy Altes Herz wird wieder jung/Old heart becomes young again (Erich Engel, 1943), and with Viktor de Kowa in Ein glücklicher Mensch/A Happy Man (Paul Verhoeven, 1943).

On 18 July 1944, she performed at a SS troop support in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3696/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3652/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.

Voice Actor

After 1945, Maria Landrock’s film roles were rare and small such as an uncredited bit role in the international production Decision Before Dawn (Anatole Litvak, 1951) starring Richard Basehart.

She was also rarely seen on television. Among her few appearances were supporting roles in an episode of Die fünfte Kolonne/The fifth column (1967) and in two episodes of the popular Krimi series Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1970-1972). Her last TV series was in an episode of another Krimi series, Derrick (1982).

From 1949 till her death, Landrock mainly worked as a voice actor involved in the synchronisation of foreign films. She was the German voice of such international colleagues as Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Jeanne Moreau and Viveca Lindfors.

Maria Landrock died in 1992 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She was 68.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute. Photo: Ufa / Baumann.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3461/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Baumann.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3309/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.

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

In the late 1950s Sir Cliff Richard (1940) became known as 'Britain's answer to Elvis Presley'. The ‘Cliff Richard musical’ was the number one cinema box office attraction in Britain for both 1962 and 1963. The singer and film actor, represented the United Kingdom twice at the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1968 and 1973, but never won.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/165. Photo: Camera Press / UFA.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 34.

Big Dutch postcard.

German postcard by ISV, no. T 16. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1972.

German postcard by ISV, no. T 17.

Rock 'n Roll

Cliff Richard was born Harry Roger Webb in Lucknow, British India, in 1940. He was the son of Rodger Oscar, a train driver of Indian Rail, and Dorothy Marie (born Dazely) Webb. Following India's independence, the family moved to Britain.

In 1957 Harry Webb became interested in skiffle and formed the Quintones vocal group. Later he sang in the Dick Teague Skiffle Group, and then became lead singer of a rock and roll group, The Drifters. In 1958, the group adopted the name Cliff Richard and the Drifters.

The handsome singer burst onto the rock 'n roll world in 1958 with his debut single Move It, originally the B-side. The single went to no. 2 on the UK charts. Music critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler wrote that it was 'the first genuine British rock classic'.

Cliff adopted an Elvis Presley-like dress and hairstyle. In performance he struck a pose of rock attitude, rarely smiling or looking at the audience or camera. His late 1958 and early 1959 follow-up singles, High Class Baby and Livin' Lovin' Doll, were followed by Mean Streak which carried a rocker's sense of speed and passion, and Living Doll by Lionel Bart.

Living Doll (1958) became the first of fourteen #1 singles in the UK for Cliff. Living Doll triggered also a softer, more relaxed, sound. By that time The Drifters' lineup had changed with the arrival of Jet Harris, Tony Meehan, Hank Marvin, and Bruce Welch. The group was obliged to change its name after legal complications with the American soul group The Drifters and the new name was The Shadows. Their subsequent hits, the no. 1's Travellin' Light and I Love You cemented Cliff's status as a mainstream pop entertainer.

Dutch postcard, sent by mail in 1963. Photo: Columbia.

Dutch postcard.

The Shadows. Dutch postcard by Syba, Enkhuizen, no. 22.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 6122.

Conversion to Christianity

In 1964 Cliff Richard announced his conversion to Christianity. Initially, he believed that he should quit rock 'n roll, feeling he could no longer be the rocker who had been called a 'crude exhibitionist' and 'too sexy for TV' and a threat to parents' daughters. He re-emerged, performing with Christian groups and recording some Christian material.

Cliff still recorded secular songs with the Shadows, but devoted a lot of his time to Christian work, including appearances with the Billy Graham crusades. He never married and claims to have observed a celibate lifestyle since his conversion. This and the softening of his music led to his having more of a pop than a rock image.

After the Shadows split in 1968, Richard continued to record solo. Twice Cliff Richard represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1968 and in 1973. In 1968 he sang Congratulations by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. It lost by just one point to Spain's La La La by Massiel. According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest — The Official History, this was the closest yet result in the contest and Richard locked himself in the toilet to avoid the nerves of the voting.

In May 2008 a Reuters news report claimed that voting in the competition had been fixed by the host country's dictator leader, Francisco Franco, to ensure that the Spanish entry won, allowing them to host the contest the following year. In particular, it is claimed that Spanish television executives offered to buy programmes in exchange for votes. This has not been proved beyond doubt, but it is thought to be likely. Eurovision later ended voting by national juries in a bid to eradicate such scams.

Nevertheless, Congratulations was a huge hit throughout Europe and yet another no. 1. In 1973 he sang the British entry Power to All Our Friends. This time the song finished third, close behind Luxembourg's Tu Te Reconnaîtras by Anne-Marie David and Spain's Eres Tú by Mocedades. Richard had taken Valium in order to overcome his nerves and his manager was almost unable to wake him for the performance.

German postcard by ISV, no. T 12.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam.

Big German postcard by ISV, no. HX 103.

Spanish postcard, no. 4. Photo: British Pathe. Publicity still for The Young Ones (Sidney J. Furie, 1961).

Spanish postcard, no. 18. Photo: British Pathe. Publicity still for The Young Ones (Sidney J. Furie, 1961).

Straight Acting

Cliff Richard’s first film was Serious Charge (Terence Young, 1959), followed by Expresso Bongo (Val Guest, 1959).

In 1961 he filmed The Young Ones (Sidney J. Furie, 1961) and the title track gave him another no. 1 with more than one million sales. The film was an enormous success in the many countries where it was released.

The follow-up Summer Holiday (Peter Yates, 1963) featured a slimmed-down Richard with visible dancing skills. At the premiere, huge crowds prevented him reaching the cinema on time. These films created their own genre, known as the 'Cliff Richard musical'. Cliff was the number one cinema box office attraction in Britain for both 1962 and 1963.

His next film, Wonderful Life (Sidney J. Furie, 1964) was not as successful as his other teen musicals. In 1966, Richard and the Shadows appeared as marionettes in the film Thunderbirds Are GO (Gerry Anderson, 1966).

His first straight acting role took place in Two a Penny (James F. Collier, 1968), in which he played a young man who gets involved in drug dealing while questioning his life after his girlfriend changes her attitude. His other films were Finders Keepers (Sidney Hayers, 1966) and Take Me High (David Askey, 1973).

As with the other existing rock acts in Britain, Richard's career was affected by the sudden advent of The Beatles and the Mersey sound in 1963 and 1964. However, his popularity was established enough to allow him to weather the storm and continue to have hits in the charts throughout the 1960s, albeit not at the level that he had enjoyed before.

German postcard by Krüger. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1965. Photo: Columbia.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5465.

Big Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 125.

Vintage postcard.

Repackaged

In 1976 the decision was made to repackage Cliff Richard as a 'rock' artist. That year he produced the landmark album I'm Nearly Famous, which included the successful but controversial guitar-driven track Devil Woman (Richard's first true hit in the United States) and the ballad Miss You Nights. His fans were excited that he was getting back into the heavier rock in which he had begun his career.

In 1979, Richard teamed up with the producer Bruce Welch for the pop hit single We Don't Talk Anymore, which hit no. 1 in the UK and no. 7 in the US. Bryan Ferry added the backing vocals to the song. It was his first time at the top of the UK singles chart in over ten years, and the song would become his biggest-selling single ever.

In 1987 Cliff Richard again reached again number one in the UK with Mistletoe and Wine. The popular TV sitcom The Young Ones took its name from Richard's 1962 film, and also made references to the singer. In 1986, Richard teamed up with the cast to re-record his smash hit Living Doll for the charity Comic Relief. Along with the song, the recording contained comedy dialogue between Richard and The Young Ones. This release went also to no. 1.

In 1995 Cliff Richard was knighted, the first rock star to be honoured so. In 1999, controversy arose regarding radio stations refusing to play his releases when EMI, Richard's label since 1958, refused to release his latest song, Millennium Prayer. Richard took it to an independent label, Papillon, which released the charity recording (in aid of Children's Promise). The single went on to top the UK chart for three weeks, his fourteenth no.1, and the third highest-selling single of his career.

Cliff and The Shadows reunited and started a Final Reunion tour in the autumn of 2009. In October 2010, Cliff did six concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The Bold As Brass concerts ran across the week of his 70th birthday and also coincided with the release of his eponymous album. In October 2015, Richard performed on tour to mark his 75th birthday.

During the nearly 60 years in which he has now been active, Cliff Richard reportedly sold over 250 million records. He is the only singer in the history of music to have a #1 hit in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Cliff Richard divides his time between living in Barbados and at a vineyard property in Portugal.

Trailer for The Young Ones Trailer (1961). Source: HollywoodTeenMovies (YouTube).

Trailer for Summer Holiday (1963). Source: Kevin Allen (YouTube).

Cliff Richard sings Congratulations at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968. Source: escbelgium3 | 1956 - 1979 (YouTube).

Cliff Richard sings Power to All Our Friends at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973. Source: Euroencyclopedic (YouTube).

Sources: Official Cliff Richard Website, IMDb, Wikipedia and Eurovision Song Contest official site.

Irma Gramatica (1867-1962) was an Italian stage and screen actress, known for her qualities but also her temper.

Italian postcard, no. 48. Photo: Sciutto, Genoa.

Enormous potential

Irma Gramatica, originally Maria Francesca Gramatica, was born in 1867 in Fiume, Italy (now Rijeka, Croatia). She had two sisters, both actresses as well: Emma and Anna. Though born Maria Francesca, she was called Irma from her childhood, as in Carnia, Friuli, where she was raised all Mariafrancesca’s were called Irma. She was the daughter of Domenico Gramatica and the Hungarian Cristina Bradil, respectively a prompter and a seamstress in the company of Luigi Monti.

Already at the age of five years she debuted on stage in the drama Cause ed effetti by Paolo Ferrari and immediately showed enormous potential. In her girlhood she starred alongside the great players of the time such as Cesare Rossi, Jacinta Pezzana, Flavio Andò and Eleonora Duse, supporting them in Fedora by Victorien Sardou.

She joined them in a major tour through South America, where the first symptoms of imbalance began to appear. Irma indeed tried to commit suicide by eating exotic fruit contaminated by yellow fever. The reason is unknown but seems linked to difficulties related to a great inner pain, not to sentimental origins.

At seventeen she married the actor Arnaldo Cottin and they had a son the following year. With Cottin she returned to Argentina two years after, but during the tour, the child, left back in Italy, died, and the incident led to the separation of Gramatica and her husband. While remaining in Argentina, Irma contracted meningitis from which she was saved, but anaemic and weakened by an intense nervous breakdown she suffered a deep depression, beginning to perceive her existence as an unbearable burden.

After her return to Italy, she became First Young Actress in the company of Italia Vitaliani and Vittorio Salsilli in 1892, and in 1895 First Actress, under the guidance of Napoleone Mozzidolfi and directed by Alessandro Marchetti. Under the guidance of V. Valli she perfected her outstanding temperament, suitable for a very wide repertoire.

Italian postcard by T.C.R., no. 1. Photo: Varischi & Artico Co., Milano.

Italian postcard by T.C.R., no. 2. Photo: Varischi & Artico Co., Milano.

Grumpy and irritable character

Irma Gramatica proved to be sensitive both to the new theatre as well as the romantic authors of the 19th century. After leaving Eleonora Duse’s company, Irma entered that of Ermete Zacconi, an actor whom the same Gramatica said "had absolute influence on the conduct of my artistic faculties."

From here began her great successes that led to the birth of the famous stage company Talli-Gramatica-Calabresi. Irma was the first Nennele in Come le foglie by Giuseppe Giacosa, Lisa in Dal tuo al mio by Giovanni Verga, Paolina in Sperduti nel buio by Roberto Bracco and especially Mila di Codro in La figlia di Jorio, which Gabriele D'Annunzio had written especially for Duse but who, because of illness could not perform it on stage.

Irma had a grumpy and irritable character, and had as she called itself a severe nature. She always tried to be approached as little as possible, admitting to detest interviews, feeling a real phobia for them and almost always rejecting them.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s she was active as film actress at the new Cinecittà studios, sometimes paired with her sister Emma as in Sissignora/Yes, Madam! (Fernando Maria Poggioli, 1941) and Sorelle Materassi/The Materassi sisters (Fernando Maria Poggioli, 1944).

Her young co-actors in those years were e.g. Laura Adani, Clara Calamai,Maria Denis, Maria Mercader and Anneliese Uhlig. Irma also played the widow Pescatore in the Italian version of Il fu Mattia Pascal (Pierre Chenal, 1937), starringPierre Blanchar. Immediately after the war she had an important part in the refugees film Lo sconosciuto di San MarinoUnknown Men of San Marino (Michał Waszyński, 1946), for which Cesare Zavattini had written the script. Her last part was in Incantesimo tragico/Tragic Spell (Mario Sequi 1951), a period drama about a cursed treasure, set in the Maremma region.

Irma Grammatica died in Villa Giuseppina at Tavarnuzze in 1962.

Italian postcard, no. 512. Photo: Sciutto, Genoa.

Sources: (Italian) and IMDb.

Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. Her breakthrough film was the drama La signora di tutti (1934), the only Italian film of the great director Max Ophüls. Isa Miranda played her future self: a glamorous and famous film star who is everybody's woman... Her haunting beauty drives men mad.

Isa Miranda in La signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda.

Isa Miranda and Memo Benassi in La signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda and Memo Benassi.

Italian postcard. by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda and Memo Benassi.

Attracting Men Like Moths to a Flame

Isa Miranda plays Gabriella Murge, aka famous film star Gaby Doriot, a woman who attracts men like moths, destroying themselves or others.

The film opens with a panorama of the film studio where after a frantic search her agent finds her after an attempted suicide.

On the operation table Gaby relives her life. At school, a married music teacher commits suicide, after telling her he can't live without her. Though she has done nothing, she is punished for his act by her stern father (Lamberto Picasso).

At a party of Roberto Nanni (Enrico/ Federico Benfer), son of wealthy businessman Leonardo Nanni, Roberto and Gaby fall in love. Roberto's handicapped mother Alma (Tatiana Pavlova), fearful of Gaby's reputation, eventually loves her and adopts her as aid.

While Roberto is away, Leonardo (Memo Benassi) falls in love with Gaby and takes her to the opera. Fate strikes when Leonardo declares Gaby his love in front of his villa, while a desperate Alma falls down the stairs in her wheelchair, killing herself.

Nelly Corradi in La Signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Nelly Corradi, Lamberto Picasso and Maria Puccini. Caption: Film prescelta per la II Biennale Cinematograficia di Venezia. (Film selected for the second Venice Film Festival).

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1913 - XXII. Photo: Novella-Film. Enrico Benfer and Isa Miranda in La signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, 1934).

Enrico Benfer and Nelly Corradi in La Signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934 - XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Enrico Benfer and Nelly Corradi.

Haunted by the memory

After a seemingly endless trip to forget the disaster, during which Leonardo ignores business troubles, Gaby is haunted by the memory of the house when they return and flees hysterically.

Leonardo is charged with embezzlement and sentenced to prison, while Gaby becomes a big movie star. Once released, Leonardo is stunned by the multiplication of images of Gaby in a cinema foyer, during the premiere of her new film.

Chased for his poor attire, he is run over by a car. To avoid scandal, Gaby's entourage calls in Roberto to exonerate her. Gaby realises she has loved Roberto all along, but is too late, as Roberto married her more modest sister Anna (Nelly Corradi).

"We'll still be together in the film", Roberto says. Gaby realises she will stay lonesome despite wealth and stardom and commits suicide. The flashback ends with doctors declaring her death and the printing presses stopping to print her film poster.

At AllMovie, Hal Erickson writes that La Signora di Tutti can be regarded as a dress rehearsal for Ophüls' masterpiece Lola Montes (1955): "though it comes nowhere near the brilliance of that later classic (...), but Ophuls' basic premise--that fame and celebrity are ultimately hollow entities--is not to be taken lightly. The director's fabled camera techniques help smooth over some of the rougher and more ludicrous passages."

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda.

Isa Miranda, Memo Benassi and Tatiana Pavlova in La signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, no. 1934 - XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Isa Miranda, Tatiana Pavlova and Memo Benassi.

Isa Miranda and Enrico Benfer in La signora di tutti (1934)

Italian postcard. by Rizzoli, Milano, 1934-XII. Photo: Novella-Film. Publicity still for La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) with Enrico Benfer and Isa Miranda.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie). Wikipedia (English), IMDb and the film itself.

Popular stage and screen comedian Claude Hulbert (1900-1964) starred in several minor British films of the 1930s. He was called 'the king of the posh idiots'. Hulbert also scripted a few films, composed some soundtracks, and was a successful radio broadcaster.

British postcard in the Famous Radio Stars series by Valentine's, no. 7122 M.

Silly-ass

Claude Noel Hulbert was born in London in 1900 as the son of a doctor. Like his elder brother Jack Hulbert he studied at Cambridge University and was a member of the Footlights comedy club, but didn't take a degree.

He made his professional debut in 1920 and joined his sister-in-law Cicely Courtneidge at the music halls. In the 1920s he started to perform on stage supporting the Aldwych farceurs. He had a hit with the George and Ira Gershwin musical Primrose in 1924 and spent the rest of the decade in musical comedy such as in another Gershwin musical Oh Kay! (1927).

Apart from an uncredited part in the silent Hitchcock film Champagne (Alfred Hitchcock, 1928), Hulbert’s film career really began in the sound era. From 1930 on, he largely abandoned the stage to concentrate on his film and broadcasting career. His screen roles as a silly-ass got bigger by the years.

Hulbert began by supporting Ralph Lynn in Aldwych comedies before he got his first lead in the minor comedy Their Night Out (1933), which costarred Renee Houston and Binnie Barnes. In that year, Hulbert did various films for British International Pictures, often as co-star.

He had the male lead in the comedy Big Business (Cyril Gardner, 1934), co-scripted by Gardner and Hulbert, and produced by Warner and First National. Occasionally Hulbert worked with his brother. In 1934, he wrote the song My Hat’s on the Side of My Head for Jack Hulbert’s song and dance comedy Jack Ahoy!

In 1935 Claude Hulbert had a supporting role in Bulldog Jack (Walter Forde 1935) starring his brother Jack and Fay Wray. This Gaumont International production was a crime film with scenes at the British Museum and the London Underground. And in 1940 Claude would write the song Conga for Jack Hulbert’s film Under Your Hat (Maurice Elvey, 1940).

British postcard, no. 114. Photo: British International Pictures.

Upperclass Twit

David Absolom observes: "Claude Hulbert had a face for comedy - long, wide eyed, and jug eared. That coupled with his sweet demeanour made him the king of the posh idiots." In 1935 he played the lead of Henry Pennyfeather in Hello Sweetheart (Monty Banks, 1935), a comedy co-starring Gregory Ratoff and Jane Carr.

It was a comedy about a naive farmer who looses all to perfidious grifters who convince him to invest in their film and halfway dump him. The farmer though manages to finish the film himself, turning it into a comedy and creating a big success. It is said to have been his most successful solo film of the mid-1930s, but it is now sadly a lost film.

Wikipedia writes: ‘like most of Hulbert's starring comedies, however, its ambition was strictly small-scale; it seemed that British studios simply didn't see him as a major star.’ His budgets were always limited too, reducing most of his output to a kind of B-movies.

Still, Hulbert had interesting partners in his films, such as Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Laura LaPlante in Man of the Moment (Monty Banks, 1935). Hulbert’s film career got a boost with Wolf's Clothing (Andrew Marton, 1936), in which he starred as the upper-clas twit Ambrose Girling who is a lookalike of a notorious assassin. Hulbert’s female costar was Lilli Palmer, in one of her first roles in Britain.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 878. Photo: British International Pictures (B.I.P.).

Bumbling Bridegroom

After some minor parts in comedies, Claude Hulbert had a long series of leads in the late 1930s while he also started to expand his genre repertory, such as the adventure film Hail and Farewell (Ralph Ince, 1936) about sailors on leave, and the crime story The Vulture (Ralph Ince, 1937) about a detective capturing jewel thieves in Chinatown. However, even these films had comical aspects.

Most other leads of Hulbert were in comedies, like Olympic Honeymoon/Honeymoon-Merry-Go-Round (Alfred J. Goulding, 1940), ‘where he played a bumbling bridegroom who unintentionally becomes an ice-hockey star' (Wikipedia). After the war broke out, Hulbert played in war comedies too, like Sailors Three (Walter Forde, 1940), about three sailors who accidentally get aboard a nazi ship.

In 1941 Hulbert became a popular side-kick for comic actor Will Hay in The Ghost of St Michael's (Marcel Varnel, 1941) in which Hay hunts a killer ghost in Scotland. It took two years for Hulbert’s subsequent role as co-star in the crime story The Dummy Talks (Oswald Mitchell, 1943), starring debuting actor Jack Warner.

In the same year Hulbert was Hay’s sidekick again in the dark comedy My Learned Friend (Basil Dearden, Will Hay, 1943), about a seedy lawyer threatened by a vengeful escaped convict. In the late 1940s Hulbert continued to play in film but his appearances became scarcer and smaller. As a film actor Claude Hulbert was less of a leading man than his brother. Wikipedia states: "His films were, at best, modest and moderate, sadly lacking in budget, ambition and spark."

Hulbert resumed his stage work, scoring notable hits in the Hulbert Follies and Panama Hattie. He also excelled as a radio broadcaster, often in partnership with his wife, actress Enid Trevor, whom he had married in 1924. In 1964, Claude Hulbert died in a hospital in Sydney, during a world cruise taken for the sake of his health.

British photo card by Radio Pictorial.

Sources: David Absalom (British Pictures), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Today is the final day of the Domitor 2016 conference in Stockholm. This international conference for film historians bulks of interesting lectures, panels, round tables and screenings, all on the early cinema. The film programme includes early shorts made before World War I by the French studio Pathé Frères. So especially for our favourite film historian who does a presentation today in Stockholm, EFSP presents 12 dazzling but very old postcards of early Pathé shorts.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3573. Photo: Film Pathé.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3672. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Un drame à Venise/Venetian Tragedy (Lucien Nonguet, 1906). Sent by mail in 1917.

In this early Pathé Frères production, one of the rich palaces of Venice is the setting for a drama of smouldering love and hate. In the Middle Ages, an important lord is not loved by his wife. Despite the sumptuous wealth her husband surrounds her with, the noble dame can only think about a young and handsome Romeo. The lover is surprised by the husband, who kills him and Romeo ends in a canal. The noble lady escapes her death when her husband is stopped by her miraculous beauty... The film is partly in colour.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for Samson moderne (N.N., 1908).

On the fairground an unknown young man manages to conquer the wrestling champion. When after a series of adventures he is imprisoned he breaks down the walls like a modern Samson. Returned home his wife celebrates him with wine but is jealous of his force, so like a modern Delila she cuts his hair off in his sleep. Awakened, the man has lost his hair and his strength.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for La légende de Polichinelle (Albert Capellani, 1907). With Max Linder as Polichinelle.

Polichinelle is an automaton in love with a cute doll in the same shop. When the doll is sold, a fairy helps Polichinelle following her and after a series of wild adventures he arrives at the house of the buyer just in time to save the doll from being burned.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé frères. Publicity still for Un crocodile cambrioleur (N.N., 1908).

Two burglars are interrupted in their job, so one hides underneath a crocodile skin. The old professor sees the dead animal moving and alarmed he leaves to find his gun. The 'reptile' flees but is hunted by the professor and his shotgun. An ever growing multitude follows the crocodile on the street. Finally the thief mounts a pipe and frightens a family taking tea, profiting from their flight to steal valuable objects, and exiting the same way as he came. Meanwhile, the mass outside shows up while our man takes off his skin. The professor shoots and all are surprised when they find just the skin and the thief gone.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for L'ange du village (N.N., 1908).

A young girl who begs for money to help her deadly sick mother, witnesses her mother's death and goes berserk. Everywhere she goes she sees beggars whom she gives money: even in a river. She wanders fields and woods. Suddenly she sees her mother with her arms spread... and falls dead on the road.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon.Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for L'Espionne (N.N., 1906). With Louis Pagliéri.

Vera, daughter of a Cossack loves a young tartar who is the enemy of her father. She betrays her father to save the life of her lover, but loses her own life instead.

Cendrillon (Pathé frères, Albert Capellani 1907)

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for the fairy tale film Cendrillon, ou la Pantoufle Merveilleuse/Cinderella, or the Marvellous Slipper (Albert Capellani, 1907).

Louise Lagrange played Cinderella in this production by Ferdinand Zecca for Pathé Frères. It was adapted from the Charles Perrault fairy tale.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for Le tour du monde d'un policier (Charles Lépine, 1906). Special effects by Segundo de Chomón.

Georges Vinter plays a police detective who has many adventures as he travels to Suez, Bombay, Yokohama, and the U.S.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for Rêve des marmitons (Segundo de Chomón, 1905). Special effects by Segundo de Chomón.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3666. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Albert Capellani, 1908). Caption: L'infante coiffée d'une peau d'âne (The princess wears a donkey skin).

Le Gateau de Peau d'ane or The Cake of Donkey Skin

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3666. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Albert Capellani, 1908). Caption: Le Gateau de Peau d'ane (The Cake of Donkey Skin).

The early Pathé production Peau d'ane/Donkey Skin (1908, Albert Capellani) was based on a fairytale by Charles Perrault (1697). The actors are unknown.

Source: Fondation Jerome Seydoux Pathé (French).

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.

Italian singer Gigliola Cinquetti (1947) won the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 with Non ho l'età. She was only 16 at the time, and it was her first of several international hits. During her long career she also worked as a TV-journalist and she appeared in a dozen of films.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 399. Photo: G. Neucevelle.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 398. Photo: G. Neucevelle / Disques Festival.

French postcard by PSG, no. 1029. Photo: Gérard Neuvecelle.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 285.

First Ever Victory

Gigliola Cinquetti was born in Verona, Italy in 1947.

In the autumn of 1963 she appeared at the Festival di Castrocaro and won with the song Le strade di notte (The Streets of the Night). In 1964, she won the Festival di Sanremo singing Non ho l'età (I'm Not Old Enough), with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri.

Her victory enabled her to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 with the same song, and she went on to claim her country's first ever victory in the event. Her song became an international success, even entering the UK Singles Chart, traditionally unusual for Italian material. Non ho l'età sold over three million copies, and was awarded a platinum disc in August 1964.

That year she also appeared in the film comedy Canzoni bulli e pupe/Lyrics, Guys and Dolls (Carlo Infascelli, 1964) with the comedians Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia playing an adman and a mad scientist who have found a way to interfere with TV broadcasts in order to promote a plumcake. The following year she appeared in another musicarello (Italian musical with a lot of contemporary hit songs), Questi pazzi, pazzi italiani/These crazy, crazy Italians (Tullio Piacentini, 1965) also with Petula Clark.

In 1966, she recorded Dio, come ti amo (God, How I Love You), which became another worldwide hit. She also continued to appear in the cinema. She played a small part in the family comedy Testa di rapa/Blockhead (Giancarlo Zagni, 1966) featuring Folco Lulli, and she had the lead in the romantic drama Dio, come ti amo!/How Do I Love You? (Miguel Iglesias, 1966), an Italian-Spanish coproduction co-starring Mark Damon.

On TV she appeared in such musical comedies as Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye youth! (Antonello Falqui, 1968) with Nino Castelnuovo. In the cinema she starred with Little Tony in Il professor Matusa e i suoi hippies/Professor Matusa and his Hippies (Luigi de Maria, 1968). Among her hit songs from these years are Piccola Cittá (1967), La Pioggia (1969), Amarti e Poi Morire, Le Bateau Mouche (1971), and Je Suis Timide (1972).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1212.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1200.

Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5908.

French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 1030. Photo: Giancolombo / Disques Festival.

Italian postcard by CGD.

German autograph card by CBS.

Political Firestorm

Gigliola Cinquetti returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. She performed the song Sì (Yes), again representing Italy. She finished second behind Waterloo, sung by Sweden's ABBA. At All Music, Dave Thompson writes that she ran into a political firestorm in her homeland: “Italy was about to go to the polls for a referendum on the legalization of divorce. It was feared that the song's title, translating as Yes, would be construed as a commentary upon the debate and might even act as a subliminal message to voters.”

The live telecast of her song was even banned in her home country by Italy’s national broadcaster RAI. The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month. An English language version of the song, Go (Before You Break My Heart), reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974.

One of her other songs, Alle Porte del Sole (1973), was re-recorded in English as Door of the Sun and Italian by Al Martino, two years after its initial release. It reached #17 on Billboard's Hot 100in the United States. Cinquetti's own English version of the song was released as a single by CBS Records in August 1974, with her original 1973 Italian version on the B-side.

Cinquetti went on to co-host the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 with Toto Cutugno, who had brought the event to Italy with his victory in Zagreb the previous year - the country's first win in the contest since her own twenty-six years earlier. During her career she had more than 10 Top 20 hits in Italy.

In the 1990s she became a professional journalist and TV presenter. She is a supporter of the center-left Italian Democratic Party (PD) led by Walter Veltroni. In 1999 she played a small role in the Italian sit-com Commesse/Shopgirls (Giorgio Capitani, 1999). Her last film role was a small part as a mother superior in the adventure film I cavalieri che fecero l'impresa/The Knights Who Made the Enterprise (Pupi Avati, 2001) starring Raoul Bova, Edward Furlong and Thomas Kretschman.

From 1979 on, Gigliola Cinquetti has been married to Luciano Teodori and they have two sons: Giovanni and Costantino. Nowadays, she hosts the current affairs programme Italia Rai on RAI International, and remains a well-known and much-loved public figure in Italy.

Gigliola Cinquetti sings Non ho l'età at the Eurovision Song Contest 1964. Source: 1947dave (YouTube).

Gigliola Cinquetti sings Anema e Core in the film Dio, come ti amo!/How Do I Love You? (1966). Source: Odaizon (YouTube).

Gigliola Cinquetti sings Legendado in Dio Come Te Amo (1966). Source: Claudio Santana (YiouTube).

Gigliola Cinquetti sings Si at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974. Source: escbelgium3 | 1956 - 1979 (YouTube).

Sources: Dave Thompson (All Music Guide), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Siegfried Rauch (1932) is a popular German film and television actor. In the 1970s he appeared in several international films. He has been an actor for over 45 years, in approximately 200 productions.

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Chris Nowotny, München.

German promotion card by Süd Golf, Wolfratshausen.

Steve McQueen's rival

Siegfried Rauch was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, in 1932. Rauch studied drama at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Additionally, he attended private drama lessons. Since 1958, he has performed at different theatres, beginning with Bremen (until 1962), and followed by Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.

In 1956, he started his film career in the Heimatfilms Die Geierwally/Vulture Wally (Frantisek Cáp, 1956), starring Barbara Rütting and Carl Möhner, and Der Jäger von Fall/The Hunter of Fall (Gustav Ucicky, 1956), featuring Rudolf Lenz.

During the 1960s, he appeared in European coproductions like the Eurospy film Kommissar X - Drei gelbe Katzen/Death is Nimble, Death is Quick (Rudolf Zehetgruber, Gianfranco Parolini, 1966), starring Tony Kendall and Brad Harris. It is the second of seven films, loosely based on the Kommissar X #73 detective novel from the Pabel Moewig publishing house.

Another Eurospy film in which he played a supporting part was Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod/Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1967) starring Lex Barker and Maria Perschy. Rauch also appeared in the thriller Im Banne des Unheimlichen/The Zombie Walks (Alfred Vohrer, 1968) starring Joachim Fuchsberger. It is part of the series of German screen adaptations of Edgar Wallace's thriller novels.

In the 1970s Rauch often worked in Hollywood. He appeared opposite George C. Scott in the war epic Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970) as Captain Steiger. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. In Le Mans (Lee H. Katzin, 1971), Rauch played the race driver Erich Stahler who is Steve McQueen's rival. Other Hollywood productions in which Rauch appeared were the war film The Eagle Has Landed (John Sturges, 1976) with Michael Caine, and Escape to Athena (George P. Cosmatos, 1979), starring Roger Moore and David Niven.

In Samuel Fuller's World War II war film The Big Red One (1980), Rauch played a German army sergeant, the opposite of Lee Marvin's character, who experiences the same events as Marvin only from a German perspective. Mark Deming at AllMovie: “Unfortunately, Fuller was forced by his producers to work with a scaled-down budget, and he did not have final cut on the film; after his first rough cut ran nearly four-and-a-half hours, the studio took over editing on the project, and Fuller was vocally unhappy with the final results. In 2003, critic and film historian Richard Schickel initiated an effort to restore The Big Red One to a form that more closely resembled Fuller's original vision.“ Schickel's reconstruction received enthusiastic reviews when it went into limited release in the fall of 2004.

German autograph card.

Maria Schell and Siegfried Rauch in Die glückliche Familie (1987-1991)

German autograph card. Publicity still for the TV series Die glückliche Familie/The Happy Family (1987-1991) with Maria Schell.

Siegfried Rauch in Das Traumschiff (1997-2013)

German autograph card by 2DF. Photo: ZDF / Dirk Bartling. Publicity still for the TV series Das Traumschiff/The Dream Boat (1997-2013).

It Can't Always Be Caviar

Siegfried Rauch continued to work in the German cinema and also on TV. Her played in a new version of the Heimatfilm Der Jäger von Fall/The Hunter of Fall (Harald Reinl, 1974).

His most famous leading act on German television was Thomas Lieven in the mini-series Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein/It Can't Always Be Caviar (Thomas Engel, 1977), based on the international bestseller by Johannes Mario Simmel. The series is unique for providing a little cooking show at the end of each episode. The book also includes recipes because Thomas Lieven is an accomplished amateur cook. The 13 episodes were very popular in Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, and have since attained cult-status.

Rauch’s various other roles on television established his career as an actor in Germany. Since 1997, Rauch has continuously appeared in Das Traumschiff/The Dreamboat (1997-2013), one of the most-watched television series in Germany. He also appeared in other long-running hit-series like Die Landärztin/The Country Doctor (2006-2011), the Das Traumschiff spin-off Kreuzfahrt ins Glück/Cruise to Happiness (2007-2013) and Der Bergdoktor/Mountain Medic (2008-2016, 96 episodes).

Internationally he appeared in films like the science fiction-horror film Contamination (Luigi Cozzi, 1980) starring Ian McCulloch, the action film Der Stein des Todes/Perahera, Death Stone (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1985) and another actioner Feuer, Eis und Dynamit/Fire, Ice and Dynamite (Willy Bogner, 1990), starring Roger Moore.

Siegfried Rauch, also known as ‘Sigi’, currently lives near on his farm near Weilheim in the Bavarian Alps. Rauch is married to Karin and has two sons, Jakob and Benedikt, and one grandchild. Steve McQueen was the Godfather of his son Jakob.

Trailer Kommissar X - Drei gelbe Katzen/Death is Nimble, Death is Quick (1966). Source: Italo-Cinema Trailer (YouTube).

Trailer for Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod/Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (1967). Source: Italo-Cinema Trailer (YouTube).

Trailer Le Mans (1971). Source: Umbrella Entertainment (YouTube).

Trailer The Big Red One (1980). Source: Video Detective (YouTube).

Sources: Mark Deming (AllMovie), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

French singer, actress and astrologer Françoise Hardy (1944) was the original Yé-yé girl with her trademark jeans and leather jacket. She was one of the most popular French music stars of the 1960s, and occasionally appeared in international films. She represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1963, and placed 6th. Nowadays, Françoise Hardy is still an icon of fashion, music and style, and she continues to record albums.

French postcard by Editions Publistar, no. 788. Photo: Nisak.

French postcard by E.D.U.G. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 283. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 313. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Publistar, no. 858. Photo: Pierre Spitzer / Disques Vogue.

Ultimate Girl-next-door Made Good

Françoise Madeleine Hardy was born in 1944 in Paris. She grew up with her younger sister Michèle Hardy in the 9th arrondissement. Their unmarried mother worked as an assistant accountant. The introvert Françoise was sent to La Bruyère, a rather strict convent school for girls. The tall, thin girl with long legs grew up to be an extremely studious and pious student who found it difficult to overcome her shyness.

On her sixteenth birthday, she received a guitar from her mostly absent father as a reward for passing her baccalaureate. She started to write her own songs in her free time, inspired by the music she heard on the radio. Françoise was a passionate music fan, listening to Georges Guétary’s operettas from an early age, before progressing to French chanson stars Charles Trenet and Cora Vaucaire.

She enrolled at the Petit Conservatoire de Mireille (a legendary 1960s singing school) and at the Political Science Faculty at the Sorbonne. In late 1961 she answered a newspaper advertisement looking for young singers, and Hardy signed her first contract with the record label Vogue at the age of 17. With her shy temperament, her soft voice and her quiet natural beauty, Françoise Hardy was the ultimate girl-next-door made good.

In April 1962, her first record Oh Oh Chéri appeared, written by Johnny Hallyday's habitual writing duo, and three of Françoise’s own compositions including Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles (All the boys and girls).

This last track greatly impressed Daniel Filipacchi, presenter of Radio Europe’s cult music show Salut les Copains, who went on to play the song almost non-stop. It became a phenomenal box office hit, riding the wave of the Yé-yé(or Yeah-yeah - the French rock and roll craze), with two million sales.

She first appeared on television in 1962 during an interlude in a programme reporting the results of a presidential referendum. The shy Hardy suddenly found herself at the very forefront of the French music scene.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. ?103. Photo: Vogue.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 5543.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (SPARO). Photo: Vogue.

German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Pierre Spitzer.

Modern Young Trend-setter

Françoise Hardy soon began to appear on the cover of all the top music magazines of the day. During a photo shoot for the magazine Salut les copains, she fell in love with photographer Jean-Marie Perier. Like a Pygmalion, he transformed the young singer from a shy, gauche-looking schoolgirl into a modern young trend-setter.

She made her first film appearance opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant in the comedy Château en Suède/Nutty, Naughty Chateau (Roger Vadim, 1963) based on a novel by Françoise Sagan. According to RFI Musique, "Françoise’s role in the film earned her much acclaim, and many critics declared that a great acting career lay ahead of her".

In the following years, she appeared in an uncredited appearance in the final scene of What's New Pussycat? (Clive Donner, Richard Talmadge, 1965) starring Peter O'Toole, in the leading role of the crime drama Une Balle au Cœur/Devil at My Heels (Jean-Daniel Pollet, 1965) opposite Samy Frey, in a scene from the Nouvelle Vague masterpiece Masculin, féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) with Jean-Pierre Léaud, and in Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966) starring James Garner. Other films in which she appeared include Les colombes/The Doves (Jean-Claude Lord, 1972) and the TV musical Émilie jolie (Jean-Christophe Averty, 1980) with Georges Brassens.

Her songs are featured on many film soundtracks. Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles for instance plays during the British film Metroland (Philip Saville, 1997), during The Dreamers (Bernardo Betrtolucci, 2003), and during The Statement (Norman Jewison, 2003) and another song L'Amitié (1965) plays during the end credits of Les Invasions barbares/The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand, 2003) which won the Academy Awardfor Best Foreign Language Film. Le temps de l'amour can be heard on the soundtracks of Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) and Trainyard Dogs (Ryan Prince, 2016).

French postcard by Publistar, no. 1362. Photo: Jean-Marie Perier.

French postcard by Starcolor, Marseille, no. 951. Photo: Patrick de Mervellec.

French postcard by Starcolor, Marseille, no. 972. Photo: Jean-Marie Perier.

French postcard by Publistar, Paris, no. 1134. Photo: Jean-Marie Perier.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 132.

Sheer Force of the Emotion

Françoise Hardy was not really interested in anything other than her singing career, and it went smoothly. In 1963 her début album had been released to general critical acclaim. That year she also came fifth for Monaco (!) in the Eurovision Song Contestwith L'amour s'en va (Love Goes Away), and she was awarded the Grand Prix Du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy.

The following year she set off on an extensive European tour which included an appearance in Italy at the famous San Remo Festival. Here she performed Parla mi di te (Tell me about you). She sings in French, English, Italian, Spanish, and German. In spite of the fact that Hardy's voice was neither extremely powerful nor strikingly unusual, the singer would continue to woo audiences throughout her career with her exceptional lyrics and the sheer force of the emotion which she put into her performances.

In 1981, she married her long-time companion, actor/singer Jacques Dutronc, with whom she had had a son, Thomas Dutronc, in 1973. In 1994, she collaborated with the British pop group Blur for their La Comedie version of To The End, and in 2000, she made a comeback with the album Clair Obscur. Her son played guitar and her husband sang the duet Puisque Vous Partez En Voyage (Till You Leave on a Voyage). Iggy Pop and Étienne Daho also took part.

Françoise Hardy continues her successful career of more than 50 years. In 2010, she released a new album of original material, La Pluie sans parapluie (Rain without an umbrella). In 2012, Hardy marked her 50-year career by publishing her 27th album and the book L'Amour fou. In 2015, after two years of silence, a second book was published under the title Avis non-autorisé... (Unauthorized opinion). In this book, she reflects on old age, her interests and her annoyances. She lives near Paris and although Dutronc lives in Monticello, Corsica, they remain married.

Françoise Hardy sings Tous les garçons et les filles. Source: keaneperson (YouTube). This hilarious and dizzy-making clip was produced by Claude Lelouch in 1963 for Scopitone.

Françoise Hardy sings L'amour s'en va at the Eurovision Contest of 1963. Source: Joao Velada (YouTube).

Francoise Hardy sings Comment te dire adieu (How to say farewell) in 1968. Source: Etoile Matutine (YouTube). This hit song was written by Serge Gainsbourg.

Scene from What's New Pussycat (1965) with Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider and Peter Sellers. Source: Rocco And Fratelli (YouTube).

Sources: Warren Silbert (Françoise Hardy - All Over the World), Frankenstein (Commencement - French), Radio France Internationale (French), Official Françoise Hardy website (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Doe-eyed French actress Juliette Mayniel (1936) appeared in 35 films and TV films between 1958 and 1978. Her film career made a jump start with two masterpieces, Claude Chabrol’s Les Cousins (1959) and the horror film Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960).

French postcard by E.D.U.G. (Editions du Globe), no. 45. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1019. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Silver Bear

Juliette Mayniel was born in Saint Hippolyte, France in 1936.

Her first film appearance was an uncredited bit role in the comedy Premier mai/First of May (Luis Saslavsky, 1958) starring Yves Montand, but she had her breakthrough with her second film, the classic Nouvelle Vague film Les Cousins/The Cousins (Claude Chabrol, 1959). She is the girl between the two cousins, Jean-Claude Brialyand Gérard Blain. The film was an immediate success and remains one of Chabrol’s most striking films.

Next Mayniel had unwillingly her face removed by a mad doctor (Pierre Brasseur) in the masterpiece Les Yeux Sans Visage/Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960). Hal Erickson at AllMovie calls the film ‘an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film’: “Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic.”

James Travers adds at Le Film Guide: “Les Yeux sans visage differs from virtually all other films in the fantasy-horror genre. It doesn’t set out to shock us with gruesome images or insult our intelligence with an implausible plot or fantastic characters. Everything it shows us is frighteningly plausible, but presented to us in a dreamlike manner which, if anything, softens the horror of the situation. Crucially, it is not evil which provides the stimulus for the horror, but love, the love of a father determined to give his daughter back her life. In the end, it is the film’s haunting poetry, not its horror connotations, which have the deepest impact on the spectator.”

In the compelling WW II drama Kirmes/The Fair (Wolfgang Staudte, 1960) a young German soldier (Götz George) who had often been ordered to execute women and children deserts the army during WW II and tries to find a hiding place in his native village. He is sheltered by a priest and a young French woman (Mayniel) with whom he falls in love. At the 10th Berlin International Film Festival, Mayniel won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her role.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1019A, presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 835. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1014. Photo: Noa.

East-German starcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.003, 1964. Photo: publicity still for Kirmes/The Fair (Wolfgang Staudte, 1960).

Peplum and Giallo

Juliette Mayniel had a small part in Les Godelureaux/The Wise Guys (Claude Chabrol, 1961), a Nouvelle Vague drama about a trio of youths (including Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernadette Lafont) looking to debunk hypocrisy wherever they find it. In Italy, she appeared in the Peplum La Guerra di Troia/The Trojan Horse (Giorgio Ferroni, 1962), a retelling of the final year of the siege of Troy from the point of view of Aeneas (Steve Reeves). Bruce Eder at AllMovie calls it: “one of the best examples of Italy's sword-and-sandal genre”.

She was reunited with director Claude Chabrol for Ophelia (1962), a curious, modern version of Hamlet, co-starring André Jocelyn and Alida Valli, and for Landru/Bluebeard (Claude Chabrol, 1963), a black comedy based on the dastardly deeds of serial killer Henri-Desire Landru (Charles Denner), who wined, dined, scammed, and dismembered over 10 women (including Danielle Darrieux and Michèle Morgan) during WW I.

Juliette Mayniel was married to Robert Auboyneau till 1964. From 1964 until 1968 she was the partner of actor Vittorio Gassman. They have a son, actor Alessandro Gassman. During this period Mayniel didn’t work in the cinema.

In 1968 she returned as Circe in the Italian TV series L'odissea/The Odyssee (Franco Rossi, Piero Schivazappa, Mario Bava, 1968) based on Homer and starring Bekim Fehmiu and Irene Papas. She then appeared in the drama Scusi, Facciamo L'Amore?/Listen, Let's Make Love? (Vittorio Caprioli, 1968) about a young gigolo (Pierre Clementi). In Quella Piccola Differenza/That Little Difference (Duccio Tessari, 1970) she was the wife of a virile macho (Pino Caruso) who changes in three days in a woman.

Mayniel played the female lead in the Bud Spencercomedy Piedone Lo Sbirro/A Fistful of Hell (Steno, 1973) and in the soft sex comedy Peccati in Famiglia/Sins in the Family (Bruno Gaburro, 1975) opposite Michele Placido. On TV she appeared in Un anno di scuola/A Year of School (Franco Giraldi, 1977) with Mario Adorf, and in the mini-series Madame Bovary (Daniele D'Anza, 1978) with Carla Gravina as the heroin of Gustave Flaubert’s novel.

Her last film roles were a supporting part in the Giallo thriller Solamente Nero/The Blood Stained Shadow (Antonio Bido, 1978) with Stefania Casini and Massimo Serato, and eight years later another small part in Molly O (Gino Bortoloni, 1986). As herself, Juliette Mayniel appeared in the TV documentaries Portrait de Vittorio Gassman/Portrait of Vittorio Gassman (Pierre Laforêt, 1979) and Di padre in figlio/From Father To Son (Alessandro Gassman, Vittorio Gassman, 1982).

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1060. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G. (Editions du Globe), no. 72. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sources: James Travers (Le Film Guide), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), John Conomos (Senses of Cinema), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Italian strongman Ausonia and the French actors Gina Relly and Edouard Mathé were the stars of the French silent film Mes p'tits/Le calvaire d’un saltimbanque (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923), produced by the Marseille based Lauréa Films company. The film evolves in the circus milieu, as many other European silent films.

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923) with Ausonia (Mario Guaita).

Gina Relly. French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: Gilbert René, Paris.

Mario Guaita aka Ausonia. French postcard by Cinématographes Méric.

Marseille

Athletic muscleman Mario Guaita aka Ausonia (1881-1956) was an Italian actor, director, producer and scriptwriter in the silent era. He had his international breakthrough with Spartaco (Enrico Vidali, 1913) and became a major actor in the Italian forzuto (strong man) genre.

In the early 1920s Ausonia moved to Marseille. In the French harbour city, he made a few films including Mes p'tits (1923) and he ran a cinema. Mes p'tits evolves in the circus and fairground milieu and was scripted by Ausonia's wife Renée Deliot aka de Liot.

Gina Relly (1891-1985) was a mesmerising actress of the French silent cinema. She starred opposite Léon Mathot in the beautiful French film serial L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921).

Édouard Mathé (1886-1934) was an extremely popular French actor, in particular in the silent crime serials by Louis Feuillade. He was the protagonist of the crime serial Les Vampires (1915-1916) and also appeared in Feuillade's serials Judex (1916-1917), La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919), Vendémiaire (1918-1919) and Barrabas (1919).

Ausonia, Relly and Mathé also starred together in the film La course à l’amour/Love on the run (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1924), again made in Marseille by Lauréa Films.

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923) with Gina Relly.

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923) with Gina Relly and Edouard Mathé.

An anonymous letter

In Mes p'tits the circus artist Ausonia (Ausonia - Mario Guaita) lives with his two children in the circus Rancy. (The film was shot at the existing circus Rancy). Ausonia is a widower after his young wife fell from a trapeze. Only his children prevent him from committing suicide. All of the circus crew like Ausonia because of his strength and goodness. Wanda the amazon (Jane Rollette) is even in love with him and shows this indirectly by her affection to his children, but Ausonia is too deep in mourning to notice.

When the circus manager dies, his wife absolves the circus and all artists are on the street. In a nearby village Ausonia discovers a fairground booth of wrestlers and becomes the centre of attention, alas not only of the audience but also of the manager (Huguette Sandry), the widow of a wrestler. Ausonia instead is enamoured by her daughter Paulette (Gina Relly), whom the widow has promised to a jealous man, her cousin Frederick (Edouard Mathé).

What the others don’t know is that Paulette is secretly married to a young man from a rich British family. She confesses her secret to Ausonia and tells him also she is pregnant. Ausonia promises to help her, but because of the jealousy of Frederick and the widow, he is fired and once more on the streets.

Ausonia has odd jobs as carrier in the food halls, but when his little girl gets sick they head for the sea. Here he sees the booth of Paulette’s mother again but cannot reach Paulette. He finds an anonymous letter, though, asking to send the letter a.s.a.p. to someone else. He arrives at a villa where two men quarrel and one draws a gun. While the culprit flees, Ausonia helps the victim who seems to be dying and Ausonia is arrested for murder.

His children are brought to the countryside, to his mother, who dies when she reads about her son’s arrest. The children are on the street, on their own. Meanwhile Paulette, who had thrown the letter, is locked up by Frederick, who discovered her secret marriage and who afterwards shot her English husband.

Ausonia manages to escape from prison, returns to his natal village to discover, to his despair, that the house is empty, his mother dead and his children on the streets. He meets a small acrobatic guy (Riri Fortoul) and they form a duo. They travel the small fairgrounds, while he keeps looking for his children. His fate turns when he meets Wanda again, who has become a big music hall star, enlists Ausonia for the music-hall and hires detectives to help him.

When in a dance hall defending Wanda, Ausonia gets in a fight, and disgusted he leaves the city. By chance he manages to trace and find his children in the countryside, who are starving of hunger. He also discovers a villa where Frederick keeps Paulette locked up and the husband who survived the gunshot and now tries to free Paulette. After a fierce fight, Ausonia conquers Frederick and has him arrested, gives Paulette back to her husband and marries Wanda, thus giving the children a new mother.

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923) with Gina Relly.

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923) with Ausonia (Mario Guaita).

French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo: publicity still for Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923). The girl up right is Jane Rollette, who plays Wanda the amazon, in love with the leading character played by Mario Guaita / Ausonia.

Sources: Ciné Ressources (French), IMDb and the film copy.

Versatile English-American actress Geraldine Chaplin (1944) is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin. Her breakthrough was her role as Omar Shariff’s wife in David Lean’s classic Doctor Zhivago (1965). She became an internationally respected actress with her appearances in several films by Robert Altman and her starring roles in nine films by her former partner, Spanish director Carlos Saura.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 498.

Haunting Blue Eyes

Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1944. She was the fourth child of legendary actor/director Sir Charles Chaplin, and the first of eight children with his fourth and last wife, Oona O'Neill (daughter of famous playwright Eugene O'Neill and author Agnes Boulton).

Among her brothers and sisters are Christopher Chaplin, Eugene Chaplin, Michael Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin, and Victoria Chaplin. She is also the half sister of Sydney Chaplin, Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Norman Chaplin.

She spent her first eight years in Hollywood, but then moved with her family to Switzerland when her father was persecuted by the U.S. government for his political beliefs. There she was educated at a boarding school and became fluent in French and Spanish. The latter she later demonstrated in many Spanish films.

When Chaplin was eight years old, she appeared uncredited in the opening scene of her father's film Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952). Later she attended the Royal Ballet Academy in London. When her dream of becoming a ballet dancer ended, she followed her father into the acting profession. She would play a small role in her father's last film, A Countess From Hong Kong (Charles Chaplin, 1967) starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren.

British director David Lean had discovered her earlier while she was dancing in Paris and he chose her to play Tonya Gromeko, the main character's wife in his film Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965). Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif).

At AllMovie, Sandra Brennan describes her as many people remember her from this film: a “diminutive, willowy, and offbeat beauty with haunting blue eyes”. The film received five Oscars, and Chaplin was nominated for a Golden Globe as Most Promising Female Newcomer.

Geraldine Chaplin, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago (1965)

American postcard. Photo: MGM. Photo: publicity stills for Dr. Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.

Hungarian collectors card by Atheneum, 1974.

Long Romance

Much of Doctor Zhivago was shot in Spain and it was there that Geraldine Chaplin began a long romance with Spanish director Carlos Saura. A year later she worked for the first time with him at Peppermint Frappé (Carlos Saura, 1967), in which she played a double role.

Chaplin starred in eight more films by Saura, including Ana y los Lobos/Anna And The Wolves (Carlos Saura, 1972), the powerful psychological drama Cría cuervos/Raise Ravens (Carlos Saura, 1976) as the mother of Ana Torrent, Elisa, vida mía/Elisa, My Life (Carlos Saura, 1977) as the daughter of Fernando Rey, and Mama Cumple Cien Años/Mama Turns a Hundred (Carlos Saura, 1979).

She has subsequently worked with some of Europe's finest directors. She played the Queen in Richard Lester's adaptation of Alexandre Dumas classic The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) and the sequel The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1975) featuring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay.

She played a pirate opposite Bernadette Lafont in the experimental film Noroit/Northwind (Jacques Rivette, 1976). In France she also appeared in Mais Ou Est Donc Ornicar (Bertrand van Effenterre, 1979) and in Le Voyage en Douce/Travels on the Sky (Michel Deville, 1980) as the sister of Dominique Sanda.

During the 1970s, Chaplin also appeared in several films of American director of Robert Altman, such as Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) and A Wedding (1978). For her role as the chatty, shallow BBC reporter Opal in his Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) she was once more nominated for a Golden Globe, this time as Best Supporting Actress. She received a BAFTA nomination for her role in Welcome to L.A. (1976), directed by Alan Rudolph, a protege and assistant director of Robert Altman.

Geraldine Chaplin in The Three Musketeers (1973)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 65/75. Photo: Cinerama. Publicity still for The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) with Chaplin as Queen Anna.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for the TV film The House of Mirth (Adrian Hall, 1981).

Best Supporting Actress

Geraldine Chaplin liked to play character parts and appeared in such successful productions as the Agatha Christie mystery The Mirror Crack'd (Guy Hamilton, 1980) with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, the French epic Les Uns et les autres/Bolero (Claude Lelouch, 1981) with Robert Hossein, La Vie Est Un Roman/Life Is a Bed of Roses (Alain Resnais, 1983) with Vittorio Gassman, and Heartburn (Nora Ephron, 1986) starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

In 1992, she played the role of her own grandmother, Hannah Chaplin, in the biographical film about her father, Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992). It resulted in her third Golden Globe Nomination, as Best Supporting Actress. In the film, she is also briefly depicted as an eight-year-old girl in a scene set in September 1952. Another highlight was her part as Winona Ryder's mother in The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993).

In addition to her busy film career, Chaplin also appeared on-stage and in television miniseries such as Gulliver's Travels (Charles Sturridge, 1996), as Mother Theresa in Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor (Kevin Connor, 1997), and Mary, Mother of Jesus (Kevin Connor, 1999) with Pernilla August and Christian Bale. William Brailsford of The Washington Times noted about her portrayal of Mother Theresa: "Miss Chaplin gives a convincing performance as Mother Teresa, imitating her soft voice and her awkward yet charming mannerisms and re-creating that aura of piety that surrounded the 'saint of the gutters'. This remarkable actress has us in the palm of her hands early on, and she never lets go."

Nowadays, Geraldine Chaplin is still very active in the cinema. Among her more recent films are the Spanish-Mexican horror film El Orfanato/The Orphanage (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007), produced by Guillermo del Toro, the Italian bittersweet romantic drama Parlami d'amore/Let's Talk About Love (Silvio Muccino, 2008) and the horror film The Wolfman (Joe Johnston, 2010) starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins.

In 2014, Chaplin was awarded as Best Actress at the Havana Film Festival for her part as an old lesbian in the Dominican drama Dólares de Arena/Sand Dollars (Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán, 2014). She also appeared alongside Salma Hayek in the French drama Americano (Mathieu Demy, 2011), and with Jane Fonda in the French-German comedy Et si on vivait tous ensemble?/All Together (Stéphane Robelin, 2011). She also reunited with director Juan Antonio Bayona for the award winning disaster drama Lo Imposible/The Impossible (2012) starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, and she will return in his upcoming Spanish-British fantasy drama A Monster Calls (2016) featuring Liam Neeson as the Monster.

Geraldine Chaplin and Carlos Saura had a twelve-year relationship. Later, Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla became her longtime companion. They married in 2006. She has two children, Shane (1974), by Saura, and Oona (1986), by Castilla. Oona is also an actress, best known for playing the role of Talisa Maegyr in HBO's hit series Game of Thrones. Geraldine Chaplin lives much of her time in Miami, Florida at her home next to the beach. In addition to her home in Miami, she also lives alternately between Madrid and Switzerland.

Trailer Doctor Zhivago (1965). Source: ccorujo (YouTube).

Trailer Cría cuervos/Raise Ravens (1976). Source: hbh2046 (YouTube).

Trailer Chaplin (1992). Source: prgwbtd (YouTube).

Trailer Sand Dollars (2014). Source: OfficialBGP (YouTube).

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Gloria Bond (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Oh-la-la! The French woman has an international reputation of being risqué: French mademoiselles are more sensual, more naughty than our girls-next-door. Hollywood sustained that image with countless sexy parts for French actresses. But the French cinema did even more to keep the dream alive. Even in the 1930s, French films showed already brief glimpses of nudity and during the 1950s, Martine Carol and Françoise Arnoul paved the way for the rise of sex kitten Brigitte Bardot, the new look of French femininity. Here are 12 fabulous black and white postcards of French actresses of the 1950s, all photographed by Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 357. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Sex symbol Martine Carol (1920–1967) was one of the most beautiful women of the French cinema. During the early 1950s, she was a top box office draw as an elegant blonde seductress. Her private life was filled with turmoil including a suicide attempt, drug abuse, a kidnapping, and a mysterious death.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin.

French actress, writer and director Cécile Aubry (1928-2010) was often seen as the predecessor of Brigitte Bardot as the French cinema's sex goddess. Her acting career was successful but brief: during the late 1940s through the mid-1950s.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 617. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.

Pretty and petite actress Françoise Arnoul(1931) was in the early 1950s presented as the new French sex symbol but soon she would be overshadowed by the spectacular Brigitte Bardot. But, Arnoul had enough talent and range to forge a decent film career for herself.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3441. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.

Sexy French actress Nadine Tallier (1932) played various film roles from the late 1940s till the early 1960s. In 1962, she married banker Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild and then retired.

Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Belgian actress Dominique Wilms(1932) was the glamorous and sexy femme fatale of many French action films of the 1950s and 1960s, often opposite Eddie Constantine.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 3543. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.

French starlet Dany Carrel (1932) with her bob haircut of dark reddish hair, a pair of incredible oriental eyes, and friendly manners, was a welcome breath of sexy exoticism in the French cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Dany played good-willed flirtatious girls in many melodramas and comedies, alongside top directors and stars.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 732. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Beautiful Noëlle Adam(1933) was a French dancer and actress. She frequently co-starred with comic star Louis de De Funes.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 599. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1956.

Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European cinema. She was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 727. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French sex kitten Agnès Laurent (1938-2010) featured in a dozen European sex comedies in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 892. Offered by les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French brunette Dominique Boschero (1934) is famous among cult film fans for her roles in dozens of Italian giallos and spaghetti westerns. The gorgeous actress appeared in a surprisingly large amount of films from the mid-1950s to the mid 1980s.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1744.

Gorgeous French actress Dany Saval (1942) was the lithe and lovely leading lady in both fluffy comedies and thrillers of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 937. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Entrancing, luscious-lipped French actress Michèle Mercier (1939) will always be remembered as seductive Angélique, ‘the Marquise of the Angels’.

Au revoir!

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.

Today starts the 30th edition of Cinema Ritrovata. Till 2 July we're in Bologna, Italy, to attend the festival. One of the programme sections is 100 YEARS AGO: A SELECTION FROM 1916. Included is the Swedish production Vingarne/Wings (Mauritz Stiller, 1916), starring Lars Hanson (1886-1965). The highly successful Swedish actor is dearly remembered for his roles in several classic films of the silent era, which he made in Scandinavia as well as in Hollywood. The American silent film Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926), starring Hanson, John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, will also be shown at Cinema Ritrovato.

Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga (1924). Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1286. Photo: Goodwin, 1924.

British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3971/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.

Shakespearean Actor

Lars Mauritz Hanson was born in Göteborg, Sweden in 1886. He studied drama in Helsinki, Finland and at the Dramatens elevskola in Stockholm. He began his career on the stages of Sweden as a Shakespearean actor, appearing in such classics as Othello and Hamlet. In 1906, he joined the prominent Stockholm Royal Dramatic Theatre.

In 1915, Hanson made his film debut in Dolken/The Dagger (Mauritz Stiller, 1915). He worked again with Stiller on Vingarne/The Wings (Mauritz Stiller, 1916). The story is that of a conniving countess (played by Lili Bech) coming between a sculptor, Claude Zoret (Egil Eide), and his model and suggested lover, Mikaël (Lars Hanson), ultimately leading to Zoret's death in a raging storm at the base of a statue of Mikaël as the mythological Icarus. Vingarne is notable for its innovative use of a framing story and telling the plot primarily through the use of flashbacks.

His popularity as a leading man in his homeland grew with ensuing roles in films like Balettprimadonnan/Anjala the Dancer (Mauritz Stiller, 1916), Therèse (Victor Sjöström, 1917), Tösen från Stormyrtorpet/The Girl From Stormycroft (Victor Sjöström, 1917) and Sången om den eldröda blomman/Song of the Scarlet Flower (Mauritz Stiller, 1919).

A highlight was the sophisticated comedy Erotikon/Seduction (Mauritz Stiller, 1920). The story revolves around an entomology professor (Anders de Wahl) obsessed with the sexual life of bugs, and his easygoing wife (Tora Teje) who is courted by two suitors (Lars Hanson and Vilhelm Bryde). The film became a commercial success in Sweden in 1920 and was sold to 45 markets abroad.

In Synnöva Solbakken/The Girl of Solbakken (John W. Brunius, 1919) and Fiskebyn/The Fishing Village (Mauritz Stiller, 1920), Hanson starred opposite the wife of influential director Gustaf Molander, Karin Molander. They fell in love, and in 1922, Hanson and Molander were married. The couple remained together until Hanson's death in 1965.

Lars Hanson in Sången om den eldröda blomman (1919)

Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 993. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Publicity still for Sången om den eldröda blomman/Flame of Life (Mauritz Stiller, 1919).

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstforlag, Stockholm. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Lars Hanson and Gull Cronvall in Ett farligt frieri/A Dangerous Proposal (Rune Carlsten 1919). The story deals with Tore, a smallholder's son (Hanson), in love with Aslaug, a farmer's daughter (Cronvall) whose father Knut (Theodor Blich) has ambitious plans to marry her to the son of the wealthiest farmer around. Even after Knut and Aslaug's brothers have beaten Tore black and blue, he persists in visiting Aslaug, even climbing a giant wall of rock...

Karin Molander, Lars Hanson in Synnöve solbakken

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 127. Photo: Skandiafilm. Still for Synnöva Solbakken/The Girl of Solbakken (1919) with Karin Molander. Sent by mail in Norway in 1920.

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 134. Photo: Skandia-Film. Publicity still for Synnöve Solbakken (John W. Brunius, 1919), starring Lars Hanson and Karin Molander, and adapted from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's novel (1857).

Master of Disguise

Lars Hanson was one of the greatest actors in Swedish theatre, starring in plays by William Shakespeare and Eugene O’Neill. He was a master of disguise for his many roles, building his body with implants in his shoes and several layers of clothing, starving himself, and bruise his face with a shoe brush.

While already a well established popular film actor in Sweden and much of continental Europe, Lars Hanson gained greater international recognition for his role as the title character in Gösta Berlings saga/The Story of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).

The film is an adaptation of a book written by the famous Swedish author Selma Lagerloff. It tells the epic story of Gösta, a alcoholic minister who is expelled from the priesthood for his habit, but the bigger problem with his parish is his truthfulness.

Gösta gets a new job in Värmland, a state managed by the people of Ekeby. Gösta's strong personality and his special charm with women bring him many problems. Two powerful families, full of hypocrisy, lies and adultery, rule two estates in Värmland and they surround Gösta with intrigue and problems.

At the end of the film he gets his redemption from the hand of Elisabeth. This was a role by Greta Garbo in her first major screen appearance.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Trianon.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 403. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Roma. Lars Hanson as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in the MGM period piece The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjöström, 1926), set in the era of the Puritans.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5404. Photo: Metro Goldwyn.

Liability in American films

At the request of American actress Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson went to Hollywood in 1926 (the same year as Garbo went to the USA) to star opposite Gish in the film version of The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjöström, 1926). Producer Louis B. Mayer was reluctant on using Gish, fearing opposition from church groups. The film was announced as "It's a real 'A' picture", taking advantage of the 'A' for Adultery. The film made a profit of $296,000.

Next Hanson was paired with Greta Garbo in MGM's box-office hit Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1927), which also starred Garbo's offscreen lover John Gilbert, and in The Divine Woman (Victor Sjöström, 1928). The plot of the latter is loosely based on the early life of the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Sadly, the film is considered lost, only some segments survive.

Sjöström also directed Hanson in a performance opposite Lillian Gish in The Wind (1928), one of the last silent films released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At its time the film was simultaneously panned and hailed by American critics, and its late release at the dawn of the sound era contributed to a net loss for the production. However, the film had significant critical and considerable commercial success in Europe. The Wind is now considered one of the great masterpieces of the silent era.

Seeing that his heavy Swedish accent might be a liability in American films, Lars Hanson returned to Europe. He starred in the aptly titled German war drama Heimkehr/Homecoming (Joe May, 1928) He co-starred with Gustav Fröhlich as two prisoners of war who are bloodbrothers but then Fröhlich falls in love with Hanson's wife (Dita Parlo).

Hanson continued to appear in Swedish films like the war film Första divisionen/First Division (Hasse Ekman, 1941) and Det brinner en eld/There Burned a Flame (Gustav Molander, 1943). His last performance was in the film Dårskapens hus/The Nuthouse (Hasse Ekman, 1951).

Lars Hanson died in Stockholm, Sweden in 1965. He passed away after a short illness at the age of 78.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 363.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3971/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.

Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1192. Photo: Ferd. Flodin, Stockholm.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

We're at the 30th edition of Cinema Ritrovata. Till 2 July we'll stay in Bologna, Italy, to attend the festival and blog about the stars of the festival. A highlight of the programme section UNIVERSAL PICTURES: THE LAEMMLE JUNIOR YEARS is the horror classic Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931). It made a star of Hungarian actor Béla Lugosi (1882–1956), who played the vampire Count Dracula. Lugosi had already started his film career in the silent Hungarian cinema and also appeared in German silent films. In the last phase of his career, he became the star of several of Ed Wood's low budget epics and other poverty row shockers.

Hungarian postcard. Photo: Atelier Angelo, Budapest. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Béla Lugosi was born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in 1882, the youngest of the four children of Paula de Vojnich and István Blaskó, a banker. His hometown was Lugos, in Austria–Hungary (now Lugoj in Romania), near the western border of Transylvania. Later he would base his last name on this town.

At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school. He began his acting career probably in 1901 or 1902. His earliest known performances are small roles in plays and operettas in provincial theaters in the 1903–1904 season. He moved on to Shakespeare plays and played several major roles. In 1911 he moved to Budapest, where he worked for the National Theatre of Hungary in the period 1913–1919. Although Lugosi would later claim that he 'became the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theater', most of his roles were small or supporting parts.

During World War I, he served as an infantry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916. There he rose to the rank of captain in the ski patrol and was awarded a medal for being wounded at the Russian front. In 1917, Lugosi married Ilona Szmick. The couple divorced in 1920, reputedly over political differences with her parents.

In 1917 he made his film debut in Az ezredes/The Colonel (Mihály Kertész a.k.a. Michael Curtiz, 1917). In the next two years, Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary, credited as Arisztid Olt, including Nászdal/The Wedding March (Alfréd Deésy, 1917) and Lulu (Michael Curtiz, 1918). After the collapse of Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, leftists and trade unionists became vulnerable. Due to his participation in the formation of an actors’ union, Lugosi was proscribed from acting and so had to leave his homeland.

He first went to Vienna, Austria, and then settled in Berlin, where he continued acting. In Germany, he appeared in 17 films, including Der Fluch der Menschheit/The Curse of Man (Richard Eichberg, 1920), Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan/Dance on the Volcano (Richard Eichberg, 1920), Hypnose/Hypnosis (Richard Eichberg, 1920) and Ihre Hoheit die Tänzerin/Her Highness the Dancer (Richard Eichberg, 1922), all with Lee Parry and Violetta Napierska.

Der Januskopf/The Head of Janus (F.W. Murnau, 1920) was an uncredited and apparently lost version of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which featured Conrad Veidt. Well received films were also the Karl May adaptations Die Teufelsanbeter/The Devil Worshippers (Marie Luise Droop, 1920), Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses/On the Brink of Paradise (Josef Stein, 1920), and Die Todeskarawane/The Caravan of Death (Josef Stein, 1920), starring Carl de Vogt as Kara Ben Nemsi and also with the ill-fated Jewish actress Dora Gerson. Lugosi then left Germany as a crewman aboard a merchant ship. He had decided to emigrate to the United States.

Violetta Napierska. French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 277.

Lee Parry. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 458/1, 1919-1924 (at the backside of the card is hand written: 1920). Photo: Alex Binder.

Dracula

On his arrival in America in 1921, Béla Lugosi worked for some time as a labourer, then entered the theatre in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. With fellow Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. In 1922, he acted in his first Broadway play, The Red Poppy. Three more parts came in 1925–1926, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy The Devil in the Cheese.

His first American film role came in the melodrama The Silent Command (J. Gordon Edwards, 1923) with Edmund Lowe. Several more silent roles followed, as villains or continental types, all in productions made in the New York area. In the summer of 1927, Lugosi was approached to star as a sophisticated vampire in a Broadway production of Dracula (1927-1928) adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel. The Horace Liveright production was successful, running 261 performances before touring.

Lugosi declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen in 1928, and in 1931, he was naturalized. Lugosi was soon called to Hollywood for character parts in early talkies, such as Prisoners (William A Seiter, 1929) and The Thirteenth Chair (Tod Browning, 1929). He took his place in Hollywood society and scandal in 1929 when he married wealthy San Francisco widow Beatrice Weeks, but she filed for divorce four months later. Weeks cited actress Clara Bow as the ‘other woman’.

Despite his critically acclaimed performance on stage, Lugosi was not Universal Pictures’ first choice for the role of Dracula when the company optioned the rights to the Deane play and began production in 1930. A persistent rumour asserts that director Tod Browning's long-time collaborator, Lon Chaney, was Universal's first choice for the role, and that Lugosi was chosen only due to Chaney's death shortly before production.

Wikipedia notes that this is questionable, because Browning was only a last-minute choice as director for Dracula after the death of the original director, Paul Leni. Lugosi appeared in Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931) with minimal make-up, using his natural, heavily accented voice. With the instant and worldwide success of the film, Universal Studios had found their new horror star. As his son Bela Lugosi Jr. writes on his father’s official website: “His slicked hair, clean-shaven and handsome face, burning eyes, and courtly manner are the appearance of what Dracula will forever be.”

Jack Oakie, Clara Bow, Maurice Chevalier

Clara Bow with Maurice Chevalier and Jack Oakie. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5749/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Paramount on Parade (Dorothy Arzner a.o., 1930).

British postcard in the Picturegoer series. Photo: Universal. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Son of Frankenstein

In 1933 Béla Lugosi married 19-year-old Lillian Arch, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. All seemed to go well. He appeared as Dr. Mirakle in Murders in the Rue Morgue (Robert Florey, 1932), as Sayer of Law in Island of the Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932) opposite Charles Laughton, and as Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee, 1939) all for Universal, and as Murder Legendre in the independent White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932).

Five films at Universal — The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934), The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935), The Invisible Ray (Lambert Hillyer, 1936), Son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee, 1939), Black Friday (Arthur Lubin, 1940) plus minor cameo performances in Gift of Gab (Karl Freund, 1934) and two at RKO Pictures, You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940) and The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945) — paired Lugosi with Boris Karloff.

Despite the relative size of their roles, Lugosi inevitably got second billing, below Karloff. Lugosi himself perpetrated the myth that he had quit the role of the monster in Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), which is untrue. Originally, director Robert Florey wanted him to play Dr. Frankenstein, but producer Carl Laemmle Jr. didn't want Lugosi in that role, so he was relocated to the monster part. Lugosi was unhappy with playing the clodding, mute monster under heavy make-up and complained. He had filmed some screen-tests with Florey, but Laemmle Jr. didn't like what he saw and fired both Florey and Lugosi.

In interviews, Boris Karloff suggested that Lugosi was initially mistrustful of him when they acted together, believing that the Englishman would attempt to upstage him. When this proved not to be the case, Lugosi settled down and they worked together amicably. Through his association with Dracula, Béla Lugosi found himself typecast as a horror villain. His accent, while a part of his image, limited the roles he could play. He attempted to break type by auditioning for other roles, and he did play the elegant, somewhat hot-tempered Gen. Nicholas Strenovsky-Petronovich in International House (A. Edward Sutherland, 1933). Universal tried to give Lugosi more heroic roles, as in The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, and a romantic role in the adventure serial The Return of Chandu (Ray Taylor, 1934), but his typecasting problem was too entrenched for those roles to help.

Lugosi, experienced a severe career decline despite his popularity with audiences. A number of factors worked against Lugosi's career in the mid-1930s. Universal changed management in 1936, and because of a British ban on horror films, dropped them from their production schedule; Lugosi found himself consigned to Universal's non-horror B-film unit, at times in small roles where he was obviously used for ‘name value’ only. He accepted leading roles in low-budget thrillers from independent producers like Nat Levine, Sol Lesser, and Sam Katzman. The exposure helped Lugosi financially but not artistically. Lugosi tried to keep busy with stage work, but had to borrow money from the Actors' Fund to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi, was born in 1938. It illustrates why he helped to organize the Screen Actors Guild in the 1930s.

Greta Garbo. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 295. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Hollywood's Poverty Row

Béla Lugosi’s career was given a second chance by Universal's Son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee, 1939), when he played the character role of Ygor, who uses the Monster for his own revenge, in heavy makeup and beard. The same year he played a straight character role as a stern commissar in Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939), starring Greta Garbo.

This small but prestigious role could have been a turning point for the actor, but within the year he was back on Hollywood's Poverty Row, playing leads for Sam Katzman. These horror, comedy and mystery B-films were released by Monogram Pictures. At Universal, he often received star billing for what amounted to a supporting part. Ostensibly due to injuries received during military service, Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica, for which he was treated with opiates. The growth of his dependence on morphine and methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of screen offers.

In 1943, he finally played the role of Frankenstein's monster in Universal's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (Roy William Neill, 1943) opposite Lon Chaney Jr. He also came to recreate the role of Dracula a second and last time on film in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton, 1948). It was his last ‘A’ movie.

For the remainder of his life he appeared in obscure, low-budget features. While in England to play a six-month tour of Dracula in 1951, he co-starred in a lowbrow film comedy, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire/Vampire over London (John Gillin, 1951). Late in his life, Bela Lugosi again received star billing when fan Ed Wood, nicknamed ‘Worst Director of All Time’, offered him roles in his films, such as Glen or Glenda (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1953) and as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in Bride of the Monster (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1955).

During post-production of the latter, Lugosi decided to seek treatment for his drug addiction. Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film, The Black Sleep (Reginald Le Borg, 1956), which was released in the summer of 1956 through United Artists with a promotional campaign that included several personal appearances. To his disappointment, however, his role in this film was of a mute, with no dialogue.

Béla Lugosi and his wife Lilian had divorced in 1953. Béla was jealous over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to Brian Donlevy on the sets and studios for Donlevy's radio and television series Dangerous Assignment. Lillian eventually did marry Donlevy, in 1966. In 1955 Lugosi married fan Hope Lininger, his fifth wife. A year later, Lugosi died of a heart attack in 1956, while lying on a couch in his Los Angeles home. He was 73.

Lugosi was buried wearing one of the Dracula Cape costumes, per the request of his son. Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (Edward D. Wood Jr, 1959.) with a few minutes of silent footage of Lugosi in his Dracula cape was released posthumously. In 1994, Lugosi was played by Martin Landau in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), for which Landau received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Johnny Depp, who starred as Wood in the film, purchased Lugosi's Los Angeles home.

Mirror scene from Dracula (1931). Source: Son of Jack 3 (YouTube).

Trailer for White Zombie (1932). Source: Sinister Cinema (YouTube).

Trailer for Mark of the Vampire (1935). Source: Sinister Cinema (YouTube).

Trailer for Bride of the Monster (1955). Source: Captain Bijou (YouTube).

Source: Bela Lugosi, Jr. (Official Bela Lugosi website), Michael Brooke (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

We're at the 30th edition of Cinema Ritrovata. Till 2 July we'll stay in Bologna, Italy, to blog about the stars of the festival. In the programme section ITALIA 1916: WOMEN AND WAR a fragment of Oltre la Vita, oltre la morte (Ernesto Maria Pasquali, 1916) will be presented. This fragment was recently preserved at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Torino (Turin). This is interesting while there are just a few still existing films with Diana Karenne (1888-1940), one of the divas of the silent Italian cinema. Between 1916 and 1920, Karenne fascinated European audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and with her primadonna behaviour.

Italian postcard by Photo Vettori, Bologna.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 448.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 41.

Gypsy Passion

Diana Karenne was born as Leucadia Konstantia in 1888 in Kiev in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Some sources mention the former Prussian cities Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) or Stettin (now Szczeczin, Poland) as her birthplace.

Her brother was film producer Gregor Rabinovitch, who worked in the German film industry during the 1920s and early 1930s.

In 1915 she landed in Turin in Italy where she got acquainted with producer Ernesto Maria Pasquali.

He launched her in Passione tzigana/Gypsy Passion (Umberto Paradisi, 1916).

Immediately she became a star, and between 1916 and 1922 she played leads in many successful films.

Italian postcard. Vettori, Bologna, no. 551.

Italian postcard by Esci, S.A., no. 558 Photo: San Marco Films.

Italian postcard, no. 355.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 567. Photo: Distr. SA San Marco Films.

Maud, don't play with my passion

Quite soon, Diana Karenne managed to write and direct her own films, and she even designed her own film posters.

Il romanzo di Maud/Maud's Romance (1917) was the second film Karenne directed herself, after Lea (Diana Karenne, Salvatore Aversano, 1916). She also played the lead in both films.

Il romanzo di Maud, based on the French novel Les demi-vierges (1895) by Marcel Prévost, tells the tale of the free-spirited Maud de Vouvres. Maud's lover is an opportunistic and dubious gentleman, Giuliano di Suberceaux. When their relationship has an impasse, Maud sees new perspectives in Massimo, a provincial enamored with her.

Giuliano doesn't give up and forces her to see him in secret. When Maud en Massimo are married, Giuliano tells poor Massimo the truth, but Maud denies all and chases him away. When Giuliano menaces to kill himself, she coldly responds that she doesn't care.

When Massimo forces her to tell, Maud admits her former love but states Massimo is now her only love. Massimo, though, abandons her, unable to forgive her.

The film was heavily censored in Italy. After its first release, it always circulated as Les demi-vierges, in particular abroad.

Italian postcard by Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino. "Maud, don't play with my passion", her lover Giuliano implores her in Il romanzo di Maud (1917).

Italian postcard by Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino. "One step further and I throw myself from the window", Maud (Diana Karenne) says in Il romanzo di Maud (1917).

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: still of Diana Karenne in Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot (1917).

Italian postcard for Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot(1917).

Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Diana Karenne in the Italian silent film Zoya or Zoja (Giulio Antamoro, 1920), a Tiber Film production. The man left might be Mario Parpagnoli.

Pierrot

Diana Karenne also directed herself in Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot (1917).

She also continued to play in films by other directors, such as Redenzione (Carmine Gallone, 1919), Zoya (Giulio Antamoro, 1920) with André Habay,Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920) with Carmen Boni, and Smarrita (Giulio Antamoro, 1921).

Inspired by the first film superstar Asta Nielsen, Karenne played women who opposed society.

Between 1916 and 1920 Karenne fascinated audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and her primadonna behaviour. Critics didn't accept her transgressive characters but the public flocked to see her films.

Diana Karenne & Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/2. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still of Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927). This scene was shot near the Venice cemetery Isola di San Michele.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/6. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still of Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 928. Photo: Société des Cineromans / Micheluzzi-Verleih / Cine Alliance Film. Publicity still for Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Italian postcard by S.A.G. Leoni, no. 134. Photo: publicity still of Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne in Le collier de la Reine (1929)

Spanish postcard by PD / Imp. Cinematorgaphicas Dümmatzen, no. 32. Photo: publicity still for Le collier de la Reine/The Queen's Necklace (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1929).

Casanova's Major Lover

In 1921, when things went bad for the Italian film industry, Diana Karenne moved to Paris and later to Berlin.

In Germany she had major roles such as the title role in Marie Antoinette (Rudolf Meinert, 1922), and as one of Casanova's lovers in the visually splendid Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1926) starring Ivan Mozzhukhin.

Other directors of her films were Robert Wiene (Das Spiel mit dem Feuer/Playing With Fire (1921)), Richard Oswald (Die Frau von vierzig Jahren/A Forty Years Old Woman (1925)), Yakov Protazananov (L'ombre de péché/The Shadow of Sin (1923)), and Gaston Ravel (Le collier de la reine/The Queen's Necklace (1929)).

When sound film arrived, Diana Karenne retired from the film business. She withdrew with her husband to the German city of Aachen, only reappearing once in a bit part in Manon Lescaut (Carmine Gallone, 1940), an Italian production derived from the work of Abbé Prévost, starring Alida Valli and Vittorio de Sica.

Karenne was also a painter, musician and poet. In July 1940 she was heavily injured by allied bombing of Aachen and she remained in coma for three months, never regaining consciousness. Diana Karenne died in October 1940.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Marlène Pilaete (CinéArtistes.Com), Vittorio Martinelli, (Le dive del silenzio), Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1917), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

One of the programme sections at Cinema Ritrovata 2016 is JACQUES BECKER – THE VERY IDEA OF FREEDOM. Becker is the director of such classics as Casque d'or (1952), starring Simone Signoret and Italian-born French singer and actor Serge Reggiani (1922-2004). After his breakthrough in Marcel Carné’s Les portes de la nuit/The Doors of the Night (1946), Reggiani went on to perform in 80 films including Le Doulos (1962), and Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963). In the 1960s he began a second career as a singer of chansons.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 142. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 5, presented by Biscuits Chocolats Victoria, Bruxelles. Photo: Pathé Cinema.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 360. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Revelation

Sergio Reggiani was born in Reggio Emilia, a town in northern Italy, in 1922. His father, a highly visible anti-fascist, fled his Mussolini-dictated homeland due to his fervent political activities and to protect his family. Serge moved to France with his parents at the age of eight. He learned to speak fluent French and developed an interest in athletics, particularly boxing, but went an entirely different route altogether by following in his father's footsteps as a hair stylist.

In 1937, Reggiani's career path changed yet again when he was accepted into the Conservatoire des Arts Cinematographiques. After graduation, he landed a few minor roles in both films and theatre and enrolled at the prestigious Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique in 1939 wherein he won numerous acting awards.

He was discovered by Jean Cocteau and appeared in a wartime production of Les Parents terribles/The Terrible Parents. In the cinema he made a remarkable debut in Voyageur De La Toussaint/Traveller of The Toussaint (Louis Daquin, 1943) with Jean Desailly. His next film was Le carrefour des enfants perdus/Children of Chaos (Léo Joannon, 1944).

DbDumonteil writes at IMDb: “The movie was another Serge Reggiani's tour de force after his brilliant debut in Daquin's Voyageur De La Toussaint. Even if Feuillade's Wunderkind René Daryis the star of the film - and he is quite effective as a demobilised officer (and an ex-boarder of Belle Ile) -, Reggiani steals every scene he is in predating the rebels without a cause who would appear in the American cinema of the fifties. His not-so-good-looking face, his sunken features in spite of his young age, his rebellious swagger made him the revelation of those dark years, because he looked the part so much.”

During the filming of Le carrefour des enfants perdus, he met and subsequently married actress Janine Darcey. They had two children: Stephan (1946) and Carine (1951). During World War II, he left Paris to join the French resistance. Though he earned a reputation for himself in the Paris theatre world, Reggiani was more interested in film-making and would thereafter focus his attention toward the big screen.

He starred in the classic Les portes de la nuit/The Gates of the Night (Marcel Carné, 1946). After obtaining French citizenship in 1948, he went on to secure a name for himself in the French cinema with roles in Manon (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1949) with Cécile Aubry, Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (André Cayatte, 1949) opposite Anouk Aimée, La ronde (Max Ophüls, 1950) and Casque d'or (Jacques Becker, 1952) featuring Simone Signoret, who became a close friend.

Following his divorce from Janine Darcey, he married actress Annie Noël in 1958 and they had three children: Celia (1958), Simon (1961) and Maria (1963).

Belgian collectors card by Merbotex, Bruxelles / Kursaal, Bertrix, no. 34. Photo: Vainquel.

Serge Reggiani in Les amants de Vérone (1949)

French collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (André Cayatte, 1949).

Anouk Aimée and Serge Reggiani in Les amants de Vérone (1949)

French collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (André Cayatte, 1949) with Anouk Aimée.

French postcard.

True Vocation

After a promising start Serge Reggiani had never quite reached the peak with his acting career. In 1959, he seemed to have found his true vocation when he introduced a distinctive singing talent on the radio. That same year he also had a triumph in the theatre with his performance in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play Les Séquestrés d'Altona.

In the cinema he was busy in two more classics: the thriller Le doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) staring Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the historical epic Il gattopardo/The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) starring Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon.

But in 1965 he finally could launch a musical career with the help of Simone Signoret and her husband Yves Montand and later with great assistance of the French diva Barbara. At the age of 43, he released his award-winning debut album and it proved to be such a major hit with both the French public and the critics that singing became a prime career.

As an actor he knew how to ‘perform’ a song, provoking sometimes laughter but mainly emotion. The deep voiced Reggiani became one of the most acclaimed performers of French chanson and although he was in his 40s, his bad-boy rugged image made him popular with both young and older listeners. A second album produced in 1967, plus a left-wing concert with Jacques Brel, clenched his popularity with the younger politically left generation of the late 1960s.

He began to extend himself internationally while continuing a healthy album output. Reggiani’s best known songs include Les loups sont entrés dans Paris (The Wolves Have Entered Paris) and Sarah (La femme qui est dans mon lit) (The Woman Who Is In My Bed), the latter written by Georges Moustaki. However, one of his regular songwriters throughout his career was Boris Vian (Le Déserteur, Arthur où t'as mis le corps, La Java des bombes atomiques). His new young fans identified with his left-wing ideals and anti militarism, most notably during the 1968 student revolts in France.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1457.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 465. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French card, no. 10.

French postcard by La Roue Tourne, Paris.

Depression and Alcoholism

During the 1970s Serge Reggiani played supporting parts in several interesting films, such as Touche pas à la femme blanche/Don’t Touch the White Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1974) featuring Catherine Deneuve, Vincent, François, Paul... et les autres/ Vincent, François, Paul... and the Others (Claude Sautet, 1974) with Yves Montand, and La terrazza/The Terrace (Ettore Scola, 1980) with Vittorio Gassman.

With age Reggiani became more and more acclaimed as one of the best interpreters of the French chanson also bringing the poetry of Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Prévert closer to his audience. Children Stephan and Carine actively developed their own singing careers and Reggiani performed on the concert stage with them in encouragement but with lacklustre results. Son Stephan, completely overshadowed by his father, took this extremely hard and in 1980 committed suicide at the family home in Mougins. He was only 33.

Devastated, Reggiani withdrew from the music scene for a while to recover from his grief. For many years, he struggled with depression and alcoholism. Divorced from his second wife in 1973, he met actress Noëlle Adam in the 1980s and they lived in partnership for over 20 years, she becoming a lasting source of strength for him in dealing with his personal tragedies.

In 1985 the French government paid tribute to Reggiani's singing and acting careers with the prestigious Legion of Honor award. His later years would be more or less spent in seclusion, finding one last passion in painting. He displayed his works at his first exhibition in 1989. After performing in concert to mark the 25th anniversary of his singing career, Reggiani found the strength to return to the French music scene. In 1995, at age 70+, he successfully recorded and was welcomed back to the concert stage with great applause.

Though his acting career had calmed down a great deal, he did star in De force avec d'autres/Forced To Be With Others (1993), a film written and directed by his son Simon Reggiani that also featured Noëlle Adam. In 1998 he appeared in his final feature film El pianist/The Pianist (Mario Gas, 1998).

Reggiani and Adam married in 2003. His last concert was held as late as in the year of his death, in spring of 2004. Serge Reggiani died at his Paris home of a heart attack at the age of 82.

All of Reggiani's children inherited their father's artistic talents and have worked in the field of entertainment. Son Simon is a well-known director/writer/actor; daughters Carine and Celia work in music (the former is a singer-turned songwriter, the latter a musician); daughter Maria is a film editor; and grandson Nicolas has followed in the family footsteps as well. He launched a career as a singer performing songs covered by his late father, Stephan, Serge's oldest son.

Scene from Casque d'or (Jacques Becker, 1952) featuring Simone Signoret. Source: Little Ice Age (YouTube).

Trailer for Il Gattopardo (1963). Source: Blondinka Inoz (YouTube).

Serge Reggiani sings Sarah. Source: José Ramón San Juan (YouTube).

Serge Reggiani sings Madame (1969). Source: diverseclipuri (YouTube).

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