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Charles Dullin

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Charles Dullin (1885-1949) was a French actor, theatre manager and director. He was an important figure of the French non-commercial theatre of the first half of the 20th century. He also appeared in many classics of the French silent cinema.

Charles Dullin in Le joueur d'échecs (1927)
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 349. Photo: publicity still for Le joueur d'échecs/The Chess Player (Raymond Bernard, 1927).

The Stage As Vocation


Charles Dullin was born in Yenne, Savoie in 1885. He was the youngest of a family of 19 children, a family devoted to traditional values.

Destined for a clerical career, Dullin knew his vocation was with the stage and at age 18, he traveled from Lyon to Paris, where he lived in the artist’s housing complex Le Bateau-Lavoir, together with artists such as Max Jacob, Mac Orlan, Harry Baur, Henri Matisse and Georges Braque. Like other artists, poverty, hunger, disease and money problems were normal to him.

After working at the Théâtre des Gobelinsand the Lapin agilehe shifted to the Théâtre de l'Odéon in 1906. His first role there was in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, directed by André Antoine.

In 1908 he created his own company, then moved in 1910 to the Théâtre des Arts, directed by Jacques Rouché, where his role of Smerdjakov in The Brothers Karamazov (dir. Jacques Copeau) furthered him fame.

When in 1913, Copeau opened the Vieux-Colombier theatre in the former Athenaeum-Saint-Germain, Dullin became his right hand, with Louis Jouvet as one of the principal actors. After the First World War he traveled with Copeau to New York, then worked with Firmin Gémier.

Les Trois Mousquetaires, 4

Les Trois Mousquetaires, 13
Two French postcards by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photos: stills from Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père, and produced by Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Full Houses


In 1921 Charles Dullin opened his Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris, where he pursued the lessons of Copeau, i.e. respect for the text, and the creation of stage actors. He staged modern playwrights like Luigi Pirandello and Marcel Achard, but also classic authors like William Shakespeare and Aristophanes.

While some shows were given to almost empty auditoria, plays like L’Avare by Molière (1922) and Volpone by Ben Johnson (1928; adapted by Jules Romains and Stefan Zweig) drew full houses. In 1927 Dullin joined the Cartel des Quatre, together with three other theatre managers: Louis Jouvet, Georges Pitoëff and Gaston Baty, who wanted to save the non-commercial theatre.

Between 1940 and 1947 Dullin was managing director of the Theatre de la Cité, the former Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, rebaptised during the war because of Bernhardt’s Jewish’ descent. It was here that Dullin staged Jean-Paul Sartre’s Les Mouches/The Flies in 1943, despite German censorship.

Because of his work during the war, Dullin was criticized afterwards. In 1947 he left the – debt-ridden - Theatre de la Cité and joined the Theatre de Montparnasse of his ex-pupil from l’ Atelier, Marguerite Jamois.

From the late 1930s on, Dullin was active in the movement of the 'decentralised popular theatre'. Among Dullin’s pupils were Antonin Artaud, Madeleine Robinson, Jean-Louis Barrault, Jean Marais, Roger Blin, Alain Cuny, Roland Petit, and Marcel Marceau.

Pierre Blanchar in Le joueur d'échecs
Pierre Blanchar. French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Le joueur d’échecs/The Chess Player (Raymond Bernard, 1927).

A Skilful, Intelligent and Malicious French King


All this theatre activity did not stop Charles Dullin acting in various films in the 1910s to the 1940s. After a bit part in the short Orgie romaine/Roman Orgy (Louis Feuillade, 1911), Dullin played in Âmes d’orient/Souls of The Orient (Léon Poirier, 1919-1922), Le secret de Rosette Lambert/The Secret of Rosette Lambert (Raymond Bernard, 1920), and the comedy L’Homme qui vendît son âme au diable/The Man Who Sold His Soul To The Devil (Pierre Caron, 1920).

In 1921 he appeared as Father Joseph in the 12 episodes serial Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921), starring Aimé Simon-Girard.

But he had his breakthrough in the silent cinema with the lead of Louis XI in the epic film Le miracle des loups/Miracle of the Wolves (Raymond Bernard, 1924), which contained spectacular battle scenes shot at Carcassonne. Dullin plays a skilful, intelligent and malicious French king who one by one manages to unite the different parts of France still occupied by the Burgundians and others.

His next role was that of Baron van Kempelen in Le joueur d’échecs/The Chess Player (Raymond Bernard, 1927), starring Pierre Blanchar and Edith Jéhanne. Dullin plays an 18th century Austrian diplomat who supposedly has invented an automaton that plays chess. Inside a Polish resistance fighter (Blanchar) is hidden. The story was based on a real Baron van Kempelen and his chess-playing automaton with the shape of a Turk.

Dullin then played the title role in Maldone/Misdeal (Jean Grémillon, 1928) opposite his wife, Marcelle Charles Dullin. The former runaway Maldone, now a well to do, cannot forget the attractive gypsy he met while wandering. When they meet again, he hits the road once more.

Dullin’s last silent role was in the German-French horror film Cagliostro (Richard Oswald, 1929), in which Hans Stüwe played Cagliostro.

In the sound era Dullin performed in Les Misérables (Raymond Bernard, 1934) starring Harry Baur; in L’affaire du courrier de Lyon/Courier of Lyons (Claude Autant-Lara, Maurice Lehmann, 1937), starring Pierre Blanchar; Mademoiselle docteur/Spies from Salonika (G.W. Pabst, 1937) starring Dita Parlo; and Volpone (Maurice Tourneur, 1941) starring, again, Harry Baur.

After the war, Dullin played in two more interesting films: the fantasy Les jeux sont faits/Second Chance (Jean Delannoy, 1947), written by Jean-Paul Sartre and starring Micheline Presle, and the excellent crime drama Quai des Orfèvres/Quay of the Goldsmiths (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947), starring Louis Jouvet.

Charles Dullin died in Paris in 1949. He was 64.

Charles Dullin
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 937. Photo: Pathé Natan. Charles Dullin as the evil Thénardier in the film Les Misérables (Raymond Bernard, 1934), starring Harry Baur as Jean Valjean, and adapated from the often filmed novel by Victor Hugo.

Sources: Wikipedia (French, English and Dutch) and IMDb.

Marina Berti

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Italian actress Marina Berti (1924-2002) is a forgotten diva from the postwar Italian cinema. She was a popular starlet of Italian and Hollywood films in the 1940s and early 1950s – sometimes credited as Maureen Melrose.

Marina Berti
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano (Milan), no. 981. Photo: ENIC.

Marina Berti
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2608. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, 1951).

English Skills


In 1924, Marina Berti was born as Elena Maureen Bertolini in London, Great Britain, to Italian parents. She returned to Italy with her family in 1936. Her first, uncredited screen appearance was in the Anna Magnani film La Fuggitiva/The Fugitive (Piero Ballerini, 1941).

In 1942 she was the female lead in Giacomo l'idealista/Giacomo the Idealist (Alberto Lattuada, 1943), an early melodrama in which she starred opposite Massimo Serato. She had another success opposite Amedeo Nazzariin La donna della montagna/The Mountain Woman (Renato Castellani, 1943), before the Italian film industry collapsed in the later stages of the war.

La storia di una capinera/The History of a Sparrow (Gennaro Righelli, 1943), for instance, was shot in 1943 but not released until 1945. It was on this film she met actor Emilio Giordana, aka Claudio Gora, who she married the following year. Subsequently they had three children who all went on to become actors, Andrea, Carlo and Marina Giordana.

Her romantic interest in La porta del cielo/The Gate of Heaven (Vittorio De Sica, 1945) was handsome Massimo Girotti, and the following year the beautiful couple starred together again in Preludio d'amore/Love Prelude (Giovanno Paolucci, 1946) with Vittorio Gassman. 45 years later, they would be reunited in Dall'altra parte del mondo/From the Other Side of the World (Arnaldo Catinari, 1992).

Born in London, Berti's English skills enabled her to appear also in Hollywood productions shot in Cinecittà such as the historical adventure Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949) opposite Tyrone Power, the crime drama Deported (Robert Siodmak, 1950) with Märta Torén, and the historical epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951) with Deborah Kerr.

She did appear in one film shot in America, the comedy Up Front (Alexander Hall, 1951), based on the popular wartime cartoons Lowbrow G.I.s Willie and Joe. She didn’t endear herself to the Hollywood machine when she refused to appear in a skimpy bathing suit for PR photos, and her popularity never took off in the US.

Marina Berti
Belgian card by Cine Metro, no. 1. Photo: Unitalia Films.

Marina Berti
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano (Milan), no. 384. Photo: Atlantisfilm.

Amen


During her career of more than sixty years, Marina Berti appeared in nearly 100 films and TV series. During the 1950s, the nature of her roles began to change, from being a girlish love interest in films like Il testimone/The Testimony (Pietro Germi, 1946) to more of a character actress.

Most of her Italian films in this period were no big successes and in the popular Hollywood epics Ben Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963), which were partly shot in Italy, she just had uncredited parts (her part as the Queen of Tarsus in Cleopatra even ended on the cutting floor).

In the 1960s she played supporting parts in popular films like Madame Sans-Gêne (Christian-Jaque, 1962) starring Sophia Loren, and Made in Italy (Nanni Loy, 1965). Occasionally she was the leading leady, for instance in the war film Face in the Rain (Irvin Kershner, 1963) with Rory Calhoun.

She was very active in genre films such as the Peplum Il tiranno di Siracusa/The Tyrant of Syracuse (Curtis Bernhardt, 1962), the gothic horror Un angelo per Satana/An Angel for Satan (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1966) starring Barbara Steele, the Spaghetti Western Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola/A Man, a Horse, a Gun (Luigi Vanzi, 1967), and the Giallos Qualcuno ha tradito/Every Man Is My Enemy (Franco Prosperi, 1967) with Robert Webber, and La polizia chiede aiuto/The Police Want Help (Massimo Dallamano, 1974) with Mario Adorf.

Her husband Claudio Gora directed her in three films, Il Cielo è rosso/The Sky Is Red (1950), Febbre di vivere/Eager to Live (1953), and the Spaghetti Western L’odio è il mio Dio/Hate Is My God (1969).

As the Italian film industry declined in the 1970s, she was more regularly found on television. She acted in such popular TV mini-series as L’Odissea/The Adventures of Ulysses (Franco Rossi, Mario Bava a.o., 1968), Moses the Lawgiver (Gianfranco De Bosio, 1974), Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977) and L’edera/The ivy (Fabrizio Costa, 1992).

Her later films include the drama La posta in gioco/The Stakes (Sergio Nasca, 1988) and Ostinato destino/Obstinate destiny (Gianfranco Albano, 1992) starring Monica Bellucci. Her last film appearance was a small part in the war drama Amen (Costa-Gavras, 2002).

Marina Berti died in 2002 in Rome, Italy, following an extended illness. She was 78. Her husband Claudio Gora had died in 1998.

Marina Berti
Italian photo card.

Marina Berti in Abdulla the Great (1955)
Belgian collectors card by Merbotex, Brussels for Ciné British Palace, Temse, no. 66. Photo: Universal Film. Publicity still for Up Front (Alexander Hall, 1951).

Source: Matt Blake (The Wild Eye), Jason Buchanan (AllMovie), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ernst Verebes

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Hungarian actor Ernst (or Ernö) Verebes (1902-1971) was a popular and elegant matinee idol of the German cinema in the silent and early sound period. Sadly his career was broken by the Nazis.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1483/1, 1926-1927. Photo: Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1782/2, 1926-1927. Photo: Alex Binder.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3507/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Ernst (Ernö) Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3568/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Felsom-Film. Publicity still for Der fesche Husar (Geza von Bolvary, 1929).

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5874/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Milan Kaufmann, Zagreb.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6146/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Aafa Film.

Hungary


Ernst Verebes was born as Ernö Verebes in New York in 1902. In 1914 his family returned to Hungary and there his film career began with Mire megvénülünk/The Seventh Veil (Ödön Uher ifj., 1917) and the Charles Dickens adaptation Twist Olivér/Oliver Twist (Márton Garas, 1919).

In the 1920s he appeared in such Hungarian films as A hetedik Fatyol (János Vanicsek, 1922), A Pál-utcai fiúk (Béla Balogh, 1924) based on a novel by Ferenc Molnár, and Holnap kezdödik az élet (Antal Forgács, 1924) with Maria Corda.

From 1925 on he became established as Ernst Verebes in the German film industry. He appeared in such films as Der Mann im Sattel/The Man in the Saddle (Manfred Noa, 1925), Gräfin Mariza/Countess Mariza (Hans Steinhoff, 1925), and Qualen der Nacht/Torments of the Night (Kurt Bernhardt/Curtis Bernhardt, 1926) with Claire Rommer.

Guy Bellinger at IMDb writes: "he was one of those manly actors, both well-built and charming, at ease as well in a military uniform as in a tuxedo and top hat, that German ladies loved to see on a big screen." Many more films followed, including Bigamie/Bigamy (Jaap Speyer, 1927) starring Heinrich George, Der Geisterzug/Ghost Train (Géza von Bolvary, 1927), Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927) with Harry Liedtke.

Verebes appeared as a count opposite Lya Mara in Der Zigeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron (Friedrich Zelnik aka Frederic Zelnik, 1927), and starred in Das Land ohne Frauen/Bride Number 68 (Carmine Gallone, 1929). Incidentally he also made Hungarian films like A Pál-utcai fúk/Paul Street Boys (Bela Balogh, 1929), based on a novel by Ferenc Molnar.

Maria Paudler and Ernst Verebes in Der Bettelstudent (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 91/4. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck, 1927) with Maria Paudler.

Ernst Verebes
Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 369.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3693/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Badekow, Berlin.

Ernst Verebes
Belgian postcard. by S.A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvo[o]rde, Belgium. For either a late silent or early sound film.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6647/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

Margarete Schlegel and Ernst Verebes in Das blaue vom Himmel (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7394/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Das blaue vom Himmel/The Blue from the Sky (Victor Janson, 1932) with Margarete Schlegel.

Germany and Hollywood


The German public acclaimed Ernst Verebes, especially in roles in uniform, such as the dashing hussar lieutenant in Der Tanzhusar/The Dancing Hussar (Fred Sauer, 1931) with Gretl Theimer. In the early 1930s he appeared in a whole string of German films including Va Banque (Erich Waschneck, 1930) starring Lil Dagover, Viktoria und ihr Husar/Victoria and Her Hussar (Richard Oswald, 1931), Die verliebte Firma/The Company's in Love (Max Ophüls, 1932), and Es wird schon wieder besser/Things Are Getting Better Already (Kurt Gerron, 1932) starring Dolly Haas and Heinz Rühmann.

Verebes was not desired by the Nazis and he moved to Austria where he appeared in Katharina die Letzte/Catherine the Last (Henry Koster, 1935) featuring Franciska Gaál. After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-Germany in 1936 Verebes decided to flee again and to take refuge in the US.

His career resumed there two years later but his matinee idol years were over. Verebes, now named Ernö again, first found a few acceptable supporting roles, mainly as the German or SS officer in office. He was seen in such films as A Desperate Adventure (John H. Auer, 1938) starring Ramon Novarro, Balalaika (Reinhold Schünzel, 1939), and The Hitler Gang (John Farrow, 1944). He is particularly memorable in a non military part, as the stage manager in Ernst Lubitsch's classic To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942).

After World War Two, he was only given bit parts to play. Guy Bellinger at IMDb: "a far cry from the star status he benefited from only one or two decades earlier. The strange thing is that, whatever the type a film he was in, he was most of the time cast as a ... waiter! For years on, in at least fifteen movies, he would serve drinks to actors and actresses lucky enough to have something interesting to play. Sure there were variants, Ernö Verebes could be a bartender, a head waiter, a wine steward or the captain of waiters but the former popular and elegant star understandably tired of unceasingly repeating the same ancillary gestures, he who had been a count, a hussar and a Don Juan."

Verebes decided to retire in 1953, only 51. His last bit part was in Houdini (George Marshall, 1953) starring Tony Curtis. Ernö Verebes died forgotten in 1971 in Los Angeles, at the age of 68.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1742/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Zelnik Film.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1955/1, 1927-1928. Photo: FPS.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3175/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3175/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3419/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Atelier Manassé, Wien.

Ernst Verebes
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7309/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Glogau, Wien (Vienna).

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

I promessi sposi (1941)

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I promessi sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941) is sometimes called the Italian Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). It's a lavishly produced historical love story, set against a turbulent social background of war. Stars of the film are Gino Cervi and Dina Sassoli. The latter was found after a well publicised competition for the lead role, yes, just like how David O. Selznick found Vivien Leigh for Gone With the Wind.

Gino Cervi in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 2. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Gino Cervias Renzo Tramaglino.

Dina Sassoli in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 2. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941) with Dina Sassoli as Lucia Mondella.

Giacomo Moschini in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 3. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Giacomo Moschini as doctor Azzeccagarbugli.

Luis Hurtado in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 4. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Luis Hurtado as Padre Cristoforo.

Enrico Glori in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 5. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Enrico Glori as Don Rodrigo.

A Love Story Jeopardised


Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) is to Italian literature what Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is to Russian literature. This Italian historical novel, set in Lombardy, Italy, in the seventeenth century, belongs to the most famous and widely read books of the Italian language.

The two betrothed are Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella. Their love story is jeopardised by Don Rodrigo, the lord of the domain, who is infatuated with Lucia. His 'bravi' menace the local priest Don Abbondio to refuse Renzo and Luciana to marry, with some legal excuse. On behalf of the couple the godly brother Don Cristoforo visits Don Rodrigo to mediate in the affair but is brutally kicked out. Lucia goes to a convent where the scheming nun of Monza plots with Don Rodrigo. Renzo searches for Lucia and while in Milan visits the fraudulent lawyer doctor Azzeccagarbugli to get his papers right. The character called l'Innominato or 'the unnamed' is sent by Don Rodrigo to abduct the girl and give her once and for all to Don Rodrigo, but in a startling change of heart, inspired by a visit of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, he undergoes a religious conversion and does the right thing by liberating her. Brother Cristoforo frees her also from her vow of chastity she had made in the hope of being relinquished from the clutches of the Innominato. In the meantime the Great Plague of Milan breaks out. Renzo meets again Don Cristoforo who helps the dying masses and discovers Don Rodrigo is one of the victims. Rodrigo dies, the Plague stops and Renzo and Lucia return to their village, where they can finally marry.

Manzoni's novel has been filmed several times, including an early silent version by the Ambrosio company, I promessi sposi/The Betrothed (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1913), about which we earlier did a post on EFSP. Nine years later followed another silent adaptation: I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922).

Our post today is about the first sound version, I promessi sposi (Mario Camerinni, 1941) with the English title The Spirit and the Flesh. This production was a lavish affair for its time. After the Camerini adaptation followed a Spanish-Italian version I Promessi Sposi (Mario Maffei, 1964), starring Gil Vidal and Maria Silva as Renzo and Lucia.

There were also various television versions. In 1967 Nino Castelnuovo starred as Renzo in the TV series I promessi sposi (Sandro Bolchi, 1967). Later followed a 9-hour adaptation for Italian TV I promessi sposi (Salvatore Nocita, 1989), which featured an all-star cast including Danny QuinnAlberto SordiFranco NeroF. Murray AbrahamBurt LancasterHelmut BergerValentina Cortese and Fernando Rey. Finally there was the TV film Renzo e Lucia/Renzo and Lucia (Francesca Archibugi, 2004) with Stefania Sandrellias Agnese, Laura Morante as the Nun of Monza and Gottfried John as the Innominato.

Armando Falconi in I promesi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 6. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Armando Falconi as Don Abbondio.

Franco Scandurra in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 8. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Franco Scandurra as Count Attilio.

Carlo Ninchi in I Promessi Sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 9. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941) with Carlo Ninchi as L'Innominato.

Ruggero Ruggeri in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 10. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Ruggero Ruggeri as Cardinal Federigo Borromeo.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 1. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Don Abbondio (Armando Falconi) menaced by the 'bravi', hired by Don Rodrigo.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 3. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Don Abbondio (Armando Falconi) warns Perpetua (Ines Zacconi) to take the menace seriously and keep her mouth shut.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 4. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Left to right Dina Sassoli as Lucia, Gino Cervi as Renzo, on the back Gilda Marchiò as Agnese, and Luis Hurtado as Padre Cristoforo.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 6. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Don Rodrigo (Enrico Glori) chases Padre Cristoforo (Luis Hurtado) from his house. He refuses to allow Renzo and Lucia to marry, because he wants Lucia for himself.

An Outbreak of Pestilence and a Miracle


I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (1941) was directed by Mario Camerini, who began his long career already in the silent era. He is probably best known for his Telefoni Bianchi films of the 1930s, the typical Italian sophisticated 'white telephone' comedies, starring Vittorio De Sica. Camerini later directed the enjoyable international film version of Ulisse/Ulysses (Mario Camerini, 1954) with Kirk Douglas and Silvana Mangano.

Camerini did a good job on I Promessi Sposi. The director himself wrote the screenplay and according to Mario Gauci at IMDb, Camerini brought the elaborate plot "meticulously to life and the good performances enhance the film's every mood through romance, drama, comedy and action."

However, contemporary reviews complained that the film was compromised by a too-condensed second half, although the film's length is nearly 2 hours. There are numerous characters and the story is set in several cities over a period of years, covers court intrigues, the persecution of two lovers, the renunciation of love, an outbreak of pestilence and culminates in a miracle. It's all set against a turbulent social background of war that makes the film a kind of Italian Gone with the Wind.

Leading man is Gino Cervi, now best-known as the Communist antagonist to Fernandel's Don Camillo in the popular comedy series of the 1950s. Here he is a young and handsome hero, worlds apart from mayor Peppone.

The female lead was played by Dina Sassoli. The film's producers had organised a competition to select the lead actress which was modelled on the hunt for Scarlett O'Hara by the American producer David O. Selznick for Gone With the Wind. The film made a star of Sassoli and she would have a long career.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 7. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Don Abbondio (Armando Falconi) refuses to marry Renzo (Gino Cervi) and Lucia (Dina Sassoli).

Gino Cervi and Dina Sassoli in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 8. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Dina Sassoli (Lucia), Luis Hurtado (Fra' Cristoforo), Gino Cervi (Renzo), and Gilda Marchiò (Agnese, Lucia's mother).

Dina Sassoli in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 9. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Dina Sassoli as Lucia Mondella and Eva Maltagliati as the Nun of Monza.

Gino Cervi
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 10. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941) with Gino Cervi as Renzo.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 11. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Enzo Biliotti as Antonio Ferrer and Gino Cervi as Renzo. Antonio Ferrer is a sweet talking Spanish chancellor in Milan, making false promises on 'bread and justice'.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 13. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). The abduction of Lucia (Dina Sassoli).

Dina Sassoli in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 14. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Dina Sassoli as Lucia Mondella. Lucia avowes chastity to the Madonna if she can be saved from the evil menacing her.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 16. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). The Innominato (Carlo Ninchi) lets Lucia (Dina Sassoli) go.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 17. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Ruggero Ruggeri as Cardinal Federigo Borromeo.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 18. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). The Great Plague of Milan.

I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 19. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Luis Hurtado as Padre Cristoforo and Gino Cervi as Renzo Tramaglino during the Plague in Milan.

Dina Sassoli in I promessi sposi (1941)
Italian postcard by S.A. Grafitalia, Milano (Milan), no. 20. Photo: Film Lux. Publicity still for I Promessi Sposi/The Spirit and the Flesh (Mario Camerini, 1941). Dina Sassoli as Lucia Mondella.

Sources: Gerald A. DeLuca (IMDb), Mario Gauci (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Sabina Sesselmann

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German actress Sabina (also: Sabine) Sesselmann (1936-1998) was the beautiful blonde leading lady of some 22 European films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Next to her short but successful acting career, she was the cover girl of many popular magazines at the time.

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 753. Photo: Kolibri / Otfried Schmidt.

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 1112. Photo: Cinelux / Deutsche Cosmopol-Film (DCF) / Haenchen. Publicity still for Der Schatz im Toplitzsee/The Treasure in Toplitz Lake (Franz Antel, 1959).

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), no. CK-285. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Sam Lévin / UFA.

Criminology Student Posing as a Prostitute


Sabina Traude Sesselmann was born in München (Munich), Germany in 1936. She was the daughter of a merchant. For a few years, she studied art history in Berlin, and then worked as a model to pay for ballet lessons and her training at the Reinhardt-school to become an actor.

She received her first engagement at the Lübecker Theater in 1957. That year she also did her first film appearance as a fairy godmother in the children’s film Aufruhr im Schlaraffenland/Trouble in the Land of Milk and Honey (Otto Meyer, 1957).

In quick succession she stood in various productions for the camera, such as Liebe kann wie Gift sein/Love Can Be Poison (Veit Harlan, 1958) opposite Joachim Fuchsberger, and the World War II-film U47 - Kapitänleutnant Prien/U-47 Lt. Commander Prien (Harald Reinl, 1958) as the wife of the title figure played by Dieter Eppler.

Her breakthrough role was that of a criminology student who poses as a prostitute to conduct first-hand research on her thesis paper, and then saves a victim of a racket in the crime drama Madeleine Tel. 13 62 11/ Naked in the Night (Kurt Meisel, 1958) starring Eva Bartok.

The following year she played a supporting part in the excellent war drama Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959) starring Karlheinz Böhm and Christian Wolff. She also appeared in the Schlager musical Freddy, die Gitarre und das Meer/Freddy, the Guitar and the Sea (Wolfgang Schleif, 1959) with Freddy Quinn.

As Sabina Selman she played the female lead in the French Swashbuckler Le Bossu/The Hunchback (André Hunebelle, 1959) starring Jean Marais and Bourvil. And that same year she was Joachim Hansen’s fiancée in the Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee/The Treasure of Toplitzsee (Franz Antel, 1959).

Sabina Sesselmann in Le Bossu (1959)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1598. Photo: publicity still for Le Bossu/The Yokel (André Hunebelle, 1959).

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4416. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Arca / Cinepress.

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4050. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Arca / Cinepress. Publicity still for Liebe kann wie Gift sein (Veit Harlan, 1958).

Trite to the Point of Silliness


In the 1960s, Sabina Sesselmann continued to play in German language productions. She was the star of the Swiss comedy Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone/The Man in the Black Derby (Karl Suter, 1960) with Gustav Knuth. She appeared opposite Hannes Messemer in the German crime drama Die Brücke des Schicksals/The Bridge of Destiny (Michael Kehlmann, 1960).

Often she played in such Edgar Wallace thrillers as Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen/The Devil's Daffodil (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1961) and Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern/The Door with Seven Locks (Alfred Vohrer, 1962) with Heinz Drache. The first one was a German-British coproduction that was made in two alternative language versions.

She also appeared in the American crime movie Information Received (Robert Lynn, 1961). The next year she starred with Adrian Hoven in the popular TV series Alarm für Dora X (Mohr von Chamier, 1962).

After that, she appeared in only two more films: the Austrian comedy Rote Lippen soll man küssen/Red Lips Should Be Kissed (Franz Antel, 1963) starring Johanna Matz and Peter Weck, and the drama Ein Sarg aus Hongkong/Coffin from Hong Kong (Manfred R. Köhler, 1964) with Heinz Drache.

At IMDb, Quanche comments: “this was one of a whole series of relatively low budget German noir/espionage/thriller type films made in the early to mid sixties. Although the scripting of these films is often trite to the point of silliness, they are generally well acted, and usually set (though not filmed) someplace other than Germany, usually London or the U.S.”

In 1964, Sabina Sesselmann secretly married Mercedes dealer Ernst Henne Jr., the son of legendary motor racer and multi-millionaire Ernst Jakob Henne. After that, she retired more or less from the public.

Five years later she played a guest-role in the TV series Luftsprünge/Jumps in the Air (Hermann Leitner, Ernst Schmucker, 1969) with Luis Trenker and Toni Sailer. And in 1996, she did one final appearance in an episode of the popular Krimi series SOKO 5113 (1978-).

Two years later, Sabina Sesselmann passed away in Tutzing. At 61, she had succumbed to cancer.

Sabina Sesselmann
Vintage postcard.

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 166.

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 837. Photo: Cinelux / Dt. Cosmopol / Grimm. Publicity still for Morgen wirst du um mich weinen/Black Triangle (Alfred Braun, 1959).

Sabina Sesselmann
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4486. Photo: Ufa / Grimm.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), AllMovie, Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: New from GDI

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In the Dutch village of Noord-Scharwoude is a small but dynamic Filmmuseum, the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI). Director is our friend Egbert Barten who always shares his new postcard acquisitions with EFSP. His latest acquisition is a collection of postcards of female stars from the early 1960s. In colour or in black and white, from European and Hollywood stars, published in the Netherlands and in Germany - and one in Italy. Many were sent by mail to a film fan in the village of Helden in the south of the Netherlands. We selected 12 postcards to give an impression which film actresses dazzled a Dutch film fan in 1962.

Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden/Westf. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sabine Sinjen
Sabine Sinjen. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4788. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Kim Novak
Kim Novak. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/26. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1963. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood. Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Publicity still for Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Doris Day
Doris Day. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4240. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman. German postcard by ISV, no. H 21. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Françoise Arnoul
Françoise Arnoul. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3318. Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4982. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida. Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 93. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Conny Froboess in Mariandl (1961)
Conny Froboess. Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4892. Photo: Centrafilm. Publicity still for Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale. Dutch postcard. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor. German postcard by ISV, no. B 23. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Thanks, Egbert!

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.

Jessie Matthews

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Saucer-eyed, long-legged Jessie Matthews (1907-1981) was a gamine, graceful dancer, with a sweet, pure-toned singing voice, and waif-like sex appeal. She embodied 1930s style. For most of the decade, she was the most popular musical star in England, and ranked on a par with Fred Astaire, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers. She was a favourite of Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, all of whom gave her some of their very best work. Her personal life was blighted by relationship breakdowns and her struggles against ill-health and insecurity.

Jessie Matthews
British postcard in the Film-Kurier series, London, no. 138a. Sent by mail in Great-Britain in 1937. Photo: Gaumont British.

Jessie Matthews
British collectors card by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 9. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Dancing on the Ceiling


Jessie Margaret Matthews was born in Soho, London, in 1907, in relative poverty. She was the seventh of sixteen children (of whom eleven survived) of a fruit-and-vegetable seller. Matthews enjoyed dancing from an early age, and elocution lessons created her distinctive ‘plummy’ accent.

Aged 12, she debuted on stage as a child dancer in Bluebell in Fairyland (1919) by Seymour Hicks, at the Metropolitan Music Hall in London. She made her West End debut at 16 in Irving Berlin's Music Box Revue.

Her first film appearance was in the silent film The Beloved Vagabond (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1923). More fleeting dancing roles in silent films followed. Matthews was in the chorus of Charlot Review (1926) in London, and went with the show to New York, where she was also understudy to the star, Gertrude Lawrence. When Lawrence fell ill, Matthews took over the role and was given great reviews.

Matthews was acclaimed in the United Kingdom as a dancer and as the first performer of numerous popular songs of the 1920s and 1930s, including A Room with a View and London Calling! by Noël Coward and Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love by Cole Porter. In London, she was in Ever Green (1930), a musical by Rodgers and Hart that was partly inspired by the life of music hall star Marie Lloyd.

At its time Ever Green was the most expensive musical ever mounted on a London stage. It featured the hit song Dancing on the Ceiling. Matthews co-starred with Sonnie Hale (then husband of Evelyn Laye) which led to a scandalous divorce action, Matthews cited as the ‘other woman’. The scandal should have kept Matthews off the screen but the talkies needed musical stars and Matthews clicked big-time in films like Out of the Blue (Gene Gerrard, J.O.C. Orton, 1931), There Goes the Bride (Albert de Courville, 1932) opposite Owen Nares, and The Man from Toronto (Sinclair Hill, 1933).

Jessie Matthews
British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph series, no. 66-S. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Jessie Matthews
Vintage postcard.

Dancing With Airy Grace and Fluidity


Jessie Matthews’ fame reached its initial height with her breakthrough film performance as Susie Dean, dancing with airy grace and fluidity, in the film of J.B. Priestley's novel, The Good Companions (1933), for Victor Saville, her most sympathetic director.

The film is about three musicians (including John Gielgud in his first film and Edmund Gwenn) joining together to save a failing concert party, the Dinky Doos.

At IMDb, Bensonj reviews: “Jessie Matthews' ability and magnetism are so evident there's just no question that when the right person finally sees her perform her star quality will be instantly recognized. This was never more true than in The Good Companions, where Matthews' vitality, youth, sex appeal and talent absolutely light up the film! Like every aspect of this film, the romance between Gielgud and Matthews is remarkable to behold. She's so strong willed, so incandescent, Gielgud seems almost afraid to burn his fingers, yet dares to hold his own. As with only the finest fairy tale fantasies, this is absolutely grounded in the real world, filled with sharp, rich characterizations and the details of its time and place.”

She then appeared in Friday the Thirteenth (Victor Saville, 1933) opposite Sonnie Hale, and the flop Waltzes from Vienna (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934) about the lives of Johann Strauss the elder (Edmund Gwenn) and younger (Esmond Knight).

Jessie Matthews
British postcard, no. 159b. Photo: Gaumont British.

Jessie Matthews
British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 159. Photo: Gaumont-British Pictures.

Sonnie Hale and Jessie Matthews. jpg
British postcard in the Film Partners series, London, no. P 196. Photo: Gaumont British.

Gender-swapping Musical Comedy


That same year, Jessie Matthews’ biggest film triumph followed: the film version of Evergreen (Victor Saville, 1934) with Sonnie Hale and Betty Balfour. At IMDb, bbrntwist reviews: “This is an utterly charming and delightful film, derived from the London production of a Rodgers and Hart musical. (...) Matthews is a sheer delight, reminding me of Joan Collins, Julie Andrews, Jane Wyatt and Jennifer Jones, all rolled into one.”

The film opened in the USA at Radio City Music Hall, New York, and Matthews was labelled ‘The Dancing Divinity’, although attempts to co-star her and Fred Astaire in a film never materialised. Her British studio (Gaumont British) was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, which resulted in offers for her to work in Hollywood being repeatedly rejected.

Evergreen (1934) featured the newly composed song Over My Shoulder which would become Matthews' personal theme song, later giving its title to her 1974 autobiography and to a 21st-century musical stage show of her life.

Next came the gender-swapping musical comedy First A Girl (Victor Saville, 1935). It was later remade as Victor, Victoria (Blake Edwards, 1982) starring Julie Andrews. Like all of Matthews major 1930s films, it was produced by Gaumont British, which surrounded her with the best available talent.

Other, weaker films were directed by Sonnie Hale, including Head over Heels (Sonnie Hale, 1937) with Louis Borel, and Sailing Along (Sonnie Hale, 1938) with Roland Young. In Climbing High (Carol Reed, 1938), Matthews costarred with Michael Redgrave. During the shooting, Matthews and Carol Reed had a brief affair.

Her only US film role was a cameo in the all-star fundraiser Forever and a Day (René Clair, 1943). Roger Phillip Mellor writes in the Encyclopedia of British Cinema: “For most of the 1930s, Matthews was the most popular female film star in England: the image of her in Sailing Along (Sonnie Hale, 1938), in a white evening gown, with a gentleman's black top hat and walking cane, performing Souvenir of Love in Lime Grove's art deco luxury sets, indelibly incarnates 1930s style.”

Jessie Matthews
British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 711a. Photo: Gaumont British.

Jessie Matthews
British postcard by Real Photogravure. Photo: Gaumont British.

Nice Middle-class Doctor's Wife


Jessie Matthews’ distinctive warbling voice and round cheeks made her a familiar and much-loved personality to British theatre and film audiences at the beginning of World War II, but her popularity waned in the 1940s after several years' absence from the screen followed by an unsatisfactory thriller, Candles at Nine (John Harlow, 1944).

Post-war audiences associated her with a world of hectic pre-war luxury that was now seen as obsolete in austerity-era Britain. After a few false starts as a straight actress she played Tom Thumb's mother in the children's film Tom Thumb (George Pal, 1958).

During the 1960s she found new fame when she took over the leading role of Mary Dale in the hugely popular BBC radio show, The Dales, formerly Mrs Dale's Diary. The title character was a nice middle-class doctor's wife, Mary, and her husband Jim who lived at Virginia Lodge in the Middlesex suburb of Parkwood Hill.

Live theatre and variety shows remained the mainstay of Matthews' work through the 1950s and 1960s, with successful tours of Australia and South Africa interspersed with periods of less glamorous but welcome work in British provincial theatre and pantomimes.

Matthews was awarded an OBE in 1970 and became a stalwart nostalgia feature of TV variety shows such as The Night Of A Thousand Stars and The Good Old Days. She returned to the stage in 1973 in an acclaimed performance in Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. Her television appearances also included one-off guest roles in the popular BBC series Angels (1976) and an episode of the ITV mystery anthology Tales of the Unexpected (1980).

She was perfectly cast as Aunt Bessie in the mini-series Edward and Mrs. Simpson (Waris Hussein, 1978) starring Edward Fox. The following year she took her one-woman stage show to Los Angeles and won the United States Drama Logue Award 1979 for the year's best performance in concert. Her last film role was in the horror comedy The Hound of the Baskervilles (Paul Morrissey, 1978) starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Jessie Matthews was married three times. In 1926 she married actor Henry Lytton, Jr. They divorced in 1929. The second marriage was to Sonnie Hale (1931-1944); the third to military officer, Lt. Brian Lewis (1945-1959). All of her marriages ended in divorce and were marred by affairs and a series of unsuccessful pregnancies. With Hale she had one adopted daughter, Catherine Hale-Monro. Jessie Matthews had suffered from periods of ill-health throughout her life and eventually died of cancer in 1981 in Eastcote, England. She was 74.

At British Pictures, David Absalom remembers: “Her films were fluff, but unlike her musical-comedy rivals (Gracie Fields and George Formby), she had grace and glamour. Her costumes were carefully designed to show off as much of her body as the censor would allow, and her dancing can best be described as a high-class bump and grind act. No other star had that fluidity of movement and that joie de vivre.”


Scene from The Good Companions (1933) with John Gielgud, Max Miller and Jessie Matthews. Source: Art Deco Chap (YouTube).


Jessie Matthews sings Over My Shoulder in Evergreen (1934). Source: Other-Pete (YouTube).


Scene from Gangway (1937). Source: Guggle 86 (YouTube).


Trailer Tom Thumb (1958). Source: Video Detective (YouTube).

Sources: Roger Phillip Mellor (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), David Absalom (British Pictures), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Michael Thornton (Daily Mail), Pete Lambert (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Madeleine Sologne

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French stage and film actress Madeleine Sologne (1912-1995) was a popular star in the late 1930s and 1940s. She became the symbol for a generation when she appeared as a modern Isolde in Jean Cocteau’s L'Éternel Retour/The Eternal Return (1941). She and her film partner Jean Marais became the ideal couple of the European cinema of the 1940s. Girls did their hair in the long, blond Sologne fashion. But in 1948 the actress retired.

Madeleine Sologne
Czech postcard by Ceskoslevenske filmové nakladatelstvi, Praha, no. 15.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 45. Photo: Roger Carlet.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 120 (?). Photo: Roger Carlet.

The world Will Tremble


Madeleine Sologne was born as Madeleine Vouillon in the village La Ferte-Imbault in the region Sologne, France in 1912. She was the daughter of a poor tailor and she left her village after the death of her father.

At 16, she became an apprentice of Caroline Reboux, a famous hat designer in Paris. Next she opened her own millinery shop. In 1936, she married cinematographer Alain Douarinou. She also became the model of painter Mojzesz Kisling, who encouraged her to take acting lessons, with Julien Bertheau and Jacques Baumer.

Her first theatrical experience was in the play in Boccace, conte 19/Boccaccio tale 19 by Julien Luchaire. She made her film debut with a small role in the collective Popular Front propaganda film, La vie est à nous/Life is ours (Jean Renoir, Jean Boyer a.o., 1936). She continued to play small parts such as in Les gens du voyage/People Who Travel (Jacques Feyder, 1938).

In 1939, she rose to star status in Le monde tremblera/The world will tremble (Richard Pottier, 1939) next to Claude Dauphin and Erich von Stroheim. The screenplay, based on an obscure book, was written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and tells about a machine that can tell you how many years, days, hours and minutes you have left to live.

She then appeared as the partner of Fernandel in the comedy Raphaël le tatoué/Raphael tattooed (Christian-Jaque, 1939), and her brown hair suited her well when she played a gypsy in Le Danube bleu/The Blue Danube (Emil E. Reinert, Alfred Rode, 1939) at the side of José Noguéro.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard, no. 74. Photo: Roger Carlet.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 120. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions Publications Cinématographiques, no. 238.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil (S.O.), no. 62. Photo: Ind.ie Ciném.que.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions Chantal, Ruell-Malmaison, no. 79. Photo: A. Paulvé.

The Eternal Return


The German invasion in 1940 slowed down French film production, but the following year Madeleine Sologne starred in Fièvres/Fever (Jean Delannoy, 1941). In this film she played the wife of Tino Rossi, consumed by jealousy and dying of grief at her husband's infidelity. Another success was Le loup des Malveneur/The Wolf of Malveneur (Guillaume Radot, 1943) with Pierre Renoir.

Then the highlight of Sologne’s career came with the powerful romantic tragedy L'Éternel Retour/The Eternal Return (Jean Delannoy, 1943). The story, written by Jean Cocteau, is a modern update of the Tristan and Isolde legend. As the modern Tristan and Isolde, newcomer Jean Marais and Sologne are a stunningly handsome couple.

Sologne as blond Natalie had dyed her brown hair blond for the occasion, with a long falling lock à la Veronica Lake. The two lovers, symbolising the youth living under the yoke of the Nazi occupation, became mythical in the eyes of a generation.

In her obituary of Sologne in the British newspaper The Independent, Ginette Vincendeau writes: “The film is typical of the strong escapist trend in the cinema of the time which took its roots in history or legend - as did other films, such as Marcel Carné's Les Visiteurs du soir (1942) and Les Enfants du paradis (1943-45) - but paradoxically Sologne's success in it was due to her modern appearance.”

Both Sologne's smooth blond hairstyle and Marais' patterned jersey sweater, designed by the couturier Marcel Rochas (as were Sologne's clothes), were widely copied. Young girls did their hair ‘in the Madeleine Sologne fashion’.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions Greff, Paris, no. 200. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 209. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 210. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

Madeleine Sologne
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 120. Photo: Cinéma Pathé.

Swan Song


Her powerful mythical character in L'Éternel Retour/The Eternal Return (1943) and its popularity became paradoxically Madeleine Sologne’s swansong. After the war she returned in the lesser-known but fascinating La Foire aux chimères/Devil and the Angel (Pierre Chenal, 1946) co-starring Erich von Stroheim.

In a melodramatic reprise of Charles Chaplin's City Lights story of 1931, Sologne plays a beautiful blind woman whose disfigured benefactor (Von Stroheim) goes mad and kills himself when she recovers her sight and leaves him.

Neither this nor her following films ever attained the popular or critical success of L'Eternel retour. After some minor roles, the actress retired in 1948.

During the 1950s she only appeared on stage, such as in La forêt pétrifiée/The Petrified Forest by Robert Emmet Sherwood, then in Aux quatre coins/The four corners by Jean Marsan and L'homme traqué/The hunted man by Francis Carco. She returned incidentally to the cinema, a last time for a small role in the crime drama Le Temps des loups/The Time of the Wolves (Sergio Gobbi, 1969) starring Robert Hossein.

She divorced Alain Douarinou and then married production manager Leopold Schlosberg. She regularly appeared on TV. After her second husband’s death in 1976, she returned to the region of her birth, Sologne. In 1995, Madeleine Sologne died in a nursing home in Vierzon, France. She was 82.


Scene from La Foire aux chimères/Devil and the Angel (Pierre Chenal, 1946) with Erich von Stroheim (no subtitles). Source: Richard Francomac (YouTube).


Scene from Fièvres/Fever (Jean Delannoy, 1941) with Tino Rossi. (No subtitles). Source: Jm Veynois (YouTube).


Another scene from Fièvres/Fever (Jean Delannoy, 1941) with Tino Rossi. (No subtitles). Source: Jm Veynois (YouTube).


Scene from L'Éternel Retour/The Eternal Return (1943) (No subtitles). Source: jean claude Deroudilhe (YouTube).

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes), Ginette Vincendeau (The Independent), Lenin Imports, Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Gérard Blain

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French actor Gérard Blain (1930-2000) looked like a cross between Alain Delon and James Dean. With his starring role in Le Beau Serge (1958) he became an icon of the Nouvelle vague. Blain was constantly in revolt against conformism. The handsome rebel appeared in 60 films between 1944 and 2000, and he also directed nine films.

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

Gérard Blain
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 836. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Gérard Blain
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 978. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Pretty Little Mouth


Gérard Ernest Zéphirin Blain was born in Paris, France in 1930. He was very young when his father, chief architect of the city of Paris, left the family home. The relations of Gerard with his mother and his sister became confrontational. At 13, he left school without even having the primary school certificate and began an eventful life among street children in the Paris of the Occupation.

This unhappy childhood would later become a recurring theme of his own films, including the highly autobiographical Un enfant dans la foule/A Child in the crowd (Gérard Blain, 1976).

He made his film debut with an uncredited bit part in Le Carrefour des enfants perdus/Children of Chaos (Leo Joannon, 1944) at the age of 13. In the following years he continued to work as an extra in Le Bal des passants/The ball of passers-by (Guillaume Radot, 1944), a melodrama about abortion starring Annie Ducaux, and the classic Les enfants du paradis/Children of the Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1944) with Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault.

In 1944, he had a brief stay in the FFI (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur), the French resistance. After the war, he lead a chaotic life and in 1953, he again began to play in such films as Les fruits sauvages/Wild Fruit (Hervé Bromberger, 1954), opposite his first wife Estella Blain, and Avant le deluge/Before the Deluge (André Cayatte, 1954) starring Marina Vlady.

Looking like a cross between Alain Delon and James Dean, he was noted for his ‘pretty little mouth.’ Finally director Julien Duvivier gave him his first substantial role in the thriller Voici le temps des assassins/Deadlier Than the Male (Julien Duvivier, 1956) as the son of Jean Gabin. It became his breakthrough in the cinema. Blain was 26 at the time.

Gérard Blain
French postcard by Editions d'Art Yvon, Paris, no. 210. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Gérard Blain
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1732. Photo: Cineriz. Publicity still fort Via Margutta/Run with the Devil (Mario Camerini, 1960).

The Innocence of the Outsider


Gérard Blain met the directors of the Nouvelle Vague (the French New Wave) – Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol – who were born in the same year as he was. Quickly he became one of the faces of the Nouvelle Vague. Another Nouvelle Vague director, Francois Truffaut, engaged Blain for his second short film, Les Mistons/The Kids (Francois Truffaut, 1957), in which his co-star was his second wife, Bernadette Lafont. They played two lovers who are spied on by 5 kids, les mistons.

In 1958, Chabrol made him a Nouvelle Vague icon with his starring roles in Le Beau Serge/Beautiful Serge (Claude Chabrol, 1958) and Les Cousins/The Cousins (Claude Chabrol, 1958). His antagonist in both films was another face of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Claude Brialy.

At Films de France, James Travers writes: “Le Beau Serge brings together three of the actors who would become closely associated with the French New Wave: Jean-Claude Brialy, Gérard Blain and Bernadette Lafont. Whilst each of these actors gives a very credible performance, it is unquestionably Blain who has the greatest impact. Watching Blain in this film, it is hard not to recall James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). There is vitality and depth to his portrayal that makes him stand out from the film like a character in a children’s pop-up book, yet there is also wild quality that makes it difficult for us to sympathise with him. (Another feature of Chabrol’s cinema is its objectivity - we rarely, if ever, form any emotional attachment with the protagonists.) Blain’s bestial, child-like Serge makes a startling contrast with Brialy’s civilised man-of-the-world François - the difference in acting styles helps to emphasise the enormous gulf that exists between the two characters.”

About Les Cousins/The Cousins (1958), Travers writes: “Both of the two central characters, Charles and Paul, are played admirably by Gérard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy. Blain manages to capture the innocence of the outsider and offers a sympathetic and memorable performance”.

Gérard Blain also worked with Godard at the short film Charlotte et son Jules/Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Later Jean-Pierre Mocky directed him in Les vierges/The Virgins (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1962).

In Italy he also appeared regularly in films, including Giovani mariti/Young Husbands (Mauro Bolognini, 1958) with Isabelle Corey, I delfini/Silver Spoon Set (Francesco Maselli, 1960) opposite Claudia Cardinale, and the war drama Il gobbo/The Hunchback (Carlo Lizzani, 1961) with Anna-Maria Ferrero.

Gérard Blain
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 62. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Gérard Blain
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 124. Photo: UFA.

Gérard Blain and Gordana Miletic in Lo Sgarro (1962)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 2858, 1967. Photo: publicity still for Lo sgarro (Silvio Siano, 1962) with Gordana Miletic.

A Rebel Actor


In the early 1960s, Gérard Blain went to Hollywood to play alongside John Wayne in Hatari! (Howard Hawks, 1962). Blain was unable to adapt to the American star system, refused to sign a contract and returned to France. His ideas on cinema were against conformism. Blain was a rebel actor, morally uncompromising, constantly in revolt against his time.

He played less and smaller parts, but he continued to act in interesting films such as La Musica/The Music (Marguerite Duras, Paul Seban, 1966) with Delphine Seyrig, and Un homme de trop/Shock Troops (Costa Gravas, 1967) starring Charles Vanel.

He finally could express himself completely with his own film Les Amis/The Friends (Gérard Blain, 1971). His directorial début won the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival. He next directed himself and his two year old son Régis in Le pelican/The Pelican (Gérard Blain, 1974). It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Blain was a film purist, preferring amateurs to professional actors, against any artificial effect. His films are deeply influenced by director Robert Bresson, whom he admired. His directorial career produced a dozen films, two of which were selected for the Cannes Film Festival, but he never managed to get a real popular success.

According to French Wikipedia, Gérard Blain is considered by some as a ‘right-wing anarchist’ because of his unconventional ethics. At the Cannes Film Festival 1987, he created a controversy with the film Pierre et Djemila/Peter and Djemila (Gérard Blain, 1987), written with Michel Marmin and Mohamed Bouchibi.

While he directed he also continued to play in films by other directors. Among these films are Der amerikanische Freund/The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977), the crime film Poussière d'ange/Angel Dust (Edouard Niermans, 1987) starring Bernard Giraudeau, and his final film Bandits d'amour/Love Bandits (Pierre Le Bret, 2001).

At 70, Gérard Blain died of cancer in his hometown Paris in 2000. He had been married four times: he married and quickly divorced Micheline Estellat aka actress Estella Blain (1953-1956), actress Bernadette Lafont (1957-1959), and Monique Sobieski (1960-?). His fourth and final marriage was with Marie-Hélène Bauret (1985-2000) (his death). He had five sons from these marriages, of whom two died young. The others, Paul, Régis and Pierre, all worked with him on his films.


Trailer Les Cousins (1958). (No subtitles). Source: Eurekaentertainment (YouTube).


Trailer Le Beau Serge (1958). (No subtitles). Source: Gaumont (YouTube).


Trailer L'Oro di Roma (1961). (No subtitles). Source: EuroCineChannel-1 (YouTube).


Trailer Hatari! (1962). Source: ParamountmoviesDigital (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Corentin Palanchini (AlloCiné) (French), Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes) (French), Cinememorial (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Gustav Diessl

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Austrian film and stage actor Gustav Diessl (1899-1948) was the hero of the first Mountain film, Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929). This film and others by prolific director G.W. Pabst made him at the time an unusual sex symbol: the mature, quiet, somewhat difficult man who attracts women almost against his will. Under the Nazi regime he was often cast as an exotic villain or a mysterious foreigner.

Gustav Diessl in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4485/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Hans Casparius, Berlin. Publicity still for Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü/The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst, 1929).

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5598/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9795/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Bodal Film der Terra.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3091/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.

Jack the Ripper


Gustav Diessl was born Gustav Karl Balthasar in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). He was the son of a classical scholar and studied art, painting and sculpture at the Kunstgewerbeschule (art school) in Vienna. In 1916, he worked as an extra on different stages in Vienna but he was soon recruited into the army for World War I. During his military service, he was held prisoner for a year.

After the war, Diessl started training as a stage designer but he left to pursue a professional acting career. He played for a touring company and in 1921 had his first fixed engagement at the Neue Wiener Bühne (New Viennese Stage). That same year he appeared in his film debut In Banne der Kralle/In the Spell of the Claw (Carl Froelich, 1921).

The next years he made several films, including the silent films Vineta (Werner Funck, 1923) with Evi Eva, the Austrian-Polish co-production Ssanin/Sanin (Friedrich Feher, Boris Nevolin, 1924) starring Magda Sonja, and Die Rache der Pharaonen/The revenge of the Pharaohs (Hans Theyer, 1924) with Suzy Vernon.

He moved to Berlin where he worked with the prolific director Georg Wilhelm Pabst on Abgründe/Crisis (G. W. Pabst, 1928) opposite Brigitte Helm, and a year later he played Jack the Ripper in Die Büchse der Pandora/Pandora's Box (G. W. Pabst, 1929) with Louise Brooks.

That same year he had his breakthrough with Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü/The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst, 1929) opposite Leni Riefenstahl. It was the first Mountain film, a genre that became very popular in Germany.

Diessl was now a huge star with an unusual kind of sex-appeal. He was the prototype of the mature, quiet, somewhat difficult man who attracts women almost against his will. Very popular was Die Drei um Edith/Three around Edith (Erich Waschneck, 1929) in which he starred opposite Camilla Horn and Jack Trevor.

His first German sound film was the anti-war drama Westfront 1918 (G.W. Pabst, 1930) with Fritz Kampers. In the meantime, Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü had made Diessl also famous in the US and he had received an invitation by MGM to come to work in Hollywood.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5450/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Schrecker, Berlin.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4485/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

Gustav Diessl and Dita Parlo in Menschen hinter Gittern (1930)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5792/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Menschen hinter Gittern (Pál Fejös, 1930) with Dita Parlo. This was the German language version of The Big House (1930). Pál Fejös or Paul Fejos was a Hungarian-born, multi-lingual director, who worked at MGM at the time. He was assigned to direct both German- and French-language 'parallel versions' of The Big House, using different actors but the same costumes and sets at MGM.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7420/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

Demonic Chinese Villain


After making only one American film, Menschen hinter Gittern/Men Behind Bars (1931, Pál Fejös) – the German language version of The Big House (1930, George W. Hill), with Heinrich George in Wallace Beery's role, Gustav Diessl returned to Germany. He immediately started working again.

He appeared in such early sound films as Hans in allen Gassen/Hans in all alleys (Carl Froelich, 1930) with Hans Albers, the French Paramount production Les nuits de Port Said/The Nights of Port Said (Leo Mittler, 1932), and the fantasy film Die Herrin von Atlantis/Mistress of Atlantis (G.W. Pabst, 1932), in which he was the only colonial soldier who could resist the temptations of the seductive mistress of the title, played by Brigitte Helm.

The adventure film S.O.S. Eisberg/SOS Iceberg (Arnold Fanck, 1933), starring Diessl and Riefenstahl again, and the mountain film Weiße Majestät/White Majesty (August Kern, Anton Kutter, 1933) with Hertha Thiele, tried to continue the success of Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü/The White Hell of Piz Palu.

During the 1930s, Diessl remained in demand as a sinister villain or difficult to cast foreigner. Already in 1931 he had portrayed a demonic Chinese villain in the exotic drama Das gelbe Haus des King-Fu/The yellow house of King-Fu (Karl Grune, 1931), and he had played a gangster in the highly successful Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse/The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933) featuring Rudolf Klein-Rogge.

In the Nazi era, he was shown more frequently as a foreigner. First he appeared in the German-Italian co-production Die Liebe des Maharadscha/The love of the Maharajah (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1936) as an in Italy exiled Maharajah, who falls for a piano player (Italian diva Isa Miranda) because she resembles his deceased wife.

That same year Diessl joined the melodrama Der Weg nach Shanghai/Moscow Shanghai (Paul Wegener, 1936) as a Russian captain, who in the revolutionary turmoil falls in love with a beautiful singer (Pola Negri). He again played a Russian in the revolution melodrama Starke Herzen/Strong Hearts (Herbert Maisch, 1937).

Then he appeared as an adventurer who falls in love with the wife of a Maharajah (La Jana) in the exotic two parter, Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur (Richard Eichberg, 1938) and Das indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Richard Eichberg, 1938). In 1940, he played a rich Brazilian, again opposite La Jana, in the crime film Stern von Rio/Star of Rio (Karl Anton, 1940).

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2547/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Ufa.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3909/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3433/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.

Gustav Diessl
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.

Two Strokes


After his first short-lived marriage with Irmgard Amalie Wettach had ended, Gustav Diessl had lived with actress Camilla Horn for a couple of years. In 1937, during the filming of Starke Herzen/Strong Hearts he met the famous opera singer and actress Maria Cebotari. They fell in love and because of him Cebatori got divorced. They married in 1938 and stayed together for the rest of his life.

During the 1940s, Diessl knew to remain popular, and he played in such films as Komödianten/The Comedians (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1941), and the anti-Slovenian propaganda film Menschen im Sturm/People in the Storm (Fritz Peter Buch, 1941) with Olga Tschechova.

Between 1940 and 1944, he worked almost exclusively in Italy. He appeared in such films as Senza cielo/Without Sky (Alfredo Guarini, 1940) with Isa Miranda, La donna del peccato/The woman of the sin (Harry Hasso, 1942) with Viveca Lindfors, and Maria Malibran (Guido Brignone, 1943) featuring Cebotari.

In 1944 he made again German films such as the Ibsen adaptation Nora (Harald Braun, 1944) with Luise Ullrich. Diessl’s last film role before the end of the Second World War was that of the Prussian Lieutenant Ferdinand von Schill in Veit Harlan's Kolberg (Veit Harlan, 1944).

Diessl appeared in one more film, as a prosecutor in G.W. Pabst's in Austria produced film Der Prozess/The Trial (G.W. Pabst, 1948) about anti-Semitism. Shortly after making this film, Gustav Diessl suddenly had two strokes.

Diessl, who was only 49, passed away in his home-town Vienna. Maria Cebotari died only one year later of liver cancer. They had two sons, who were adopted by the pianist Clifford Curzon and his wife Lucille Wallace-Curzon. One of Diessl’s sons lives today in England and the other one in New Zealand.

After the death of Diessl two of his older films finally were shown in the cinemas. Starke Herzen/Strong Heart was already completed in 1937, but it had been banned because its 'too moderate anti-Communism', and the crime film Ruf an das Gewissen/Call to the conscience (Karl Anton, 1949) with Karl Ludwig Diehl, which was filmed just before the end of the war and was completed by the DEFA after the war.


First part of Abwege/The Devious Path (1928). Source: Classic TV Lovers (YouTube). This G.W. Pabst production was know by many titles, both in Europe (where it was alternately released as Abwege and Begierde) and the U.S. (where it was shipped out as Byways, Crisis and Desire). Brigitte Helm stars as Irene, the wife of self-absorbed Robert (Gustav Diessl). Feeling neglected, Irene strays from the marital nest, leading to a series of horrendous suppositions and misunderstandings.


The official trailer of Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929). Source: TomislavTube (YouTube).


The beginning of Der Dämon des Himalaya/Demon of the Himalayas (1935). Source: cp mediaload (YouTube). The idea for this Swiss film came from Professor Dr. Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth. Director was the Hungarian Marton Endre, later in Hollywood well known as Andrew Marton.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rudi Polt (IMDb), The Androom Archives, Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Mères françaises (1917)

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Today's film special is about the French war propaganda film Mères françaises/French Mothers (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) with a series of postcards from Italy. Star of the film was the legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was 72 at the time, but had not lost her immense star power yet.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: From every corner of France men departed to do their own duty.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 5747. Photo: publicity still for Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: The bells are hammering.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: Mme D'Urbex is head nurse in a hospital in Reims.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: I am Mme D'Urbex, I confirm my son was here.

The Summer of 1914


Mères françaises/French Mothers (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) is a melodrama situated in the summer of 1914, just before the outburst of the 'great war', World War I. French mother Madame Jeanne d'Urbex (Sarah Bernhardt) lives with her husband, a retired army officer (George Deneubourg), and son Robert (Jean Angelo) at their château in the village of Mercurey in eastern France.

Jeanne is the godmother of Marie Lebroux (Louise Lagrange), the daughter of a couple who manage a farm on their estate with their son Victor and an adopted orphan, Noret (Jean Signoret).

Father Lebroux shares the pacifist views of the village schoolmaster, Guinot (Gabriel Signoret), and is equally certain that another war is impossible. But when Austro-Hungary declares war on Serbia, it isn't long before the whole of Europe is drawn into a long and bloody conflict.

With their sons, husbands and brothers away fighting for the glory of France, the womenfolk must do their duty back home - gathering in the harvest and tending to the war wounded. Madame d'Urbex is employed as a matron at Reims hospital when she learns that her son has been gravely wounded.

Determined to see him, she risks her own life by venturing close to the enemy lines, but Robert dies before she can reach him. Not long afterwards, she learns that her husband has also been killed in action.

When Guinot returns to his home village, he is blind and, out of a sense of duty, Marie feels bound to marry him. Realising that it is Noret she really loves, Guinot gives her up and urges her to marry Noret instead, insisting that the engagement takes place before Noret returns to the front. Guinot himself will return a - blinded - schoolmaster, beloved by the children and by Mme D'Urbex.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 5742. Sarah Bernhardt in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: At night, at the appointment, Jeanne d'Urbex stood in front of the statue of her holy patroness.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex and Gabriel Signoret as Guinot in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: Who is near me?

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex, Gabriel Signoret as Guinot and Louise Lagrange as Marie in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: Sorrowful bethrothal.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex and Louise Lagrange as Marie in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: Tell your son I will remain his fiancée.

The most famous actress in the history of the world


Mères françaises/French Mothers (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) was financed by the French War Ministry and intended primarily for the US market to show what World War I meant for Europe. There are many views of actual trenches, munition depots and infantry revetments. When Sarah Bernhardt plays her climactic scene standing before the statue of Joan of Arc before the Cathedral of Rheims, we can see the actual damage to the cathedral that was caused by German artillery fire.

James Travers at Le Film Guide: "as a propaganda film it is both surprisingly honest and remarkably effective. Instead of justifying the war, or even glorifying those who are actively caught up in its brutal carnage, it confines itself to the duty of the female sex, urging stoicism and resilience through a period of almost unimaginable personal anguish."

It was a vehicle for 'the most famous actress in the history of the world', French vedette Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). 'The Divine Sarah' had made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and since then, she was also highly in demand in both Americas. Bernhardt became one of the first film stars and even at the age of 72, she starred in Mères Françaises.

A few years earlier, Sarah Bernhardt's right leg had to be amputated above the knee, after gangrene had set in. It was the result of an old injury. Wearing a long frock to conceal her amputation, she played the entire film by turns either sitting down or carefully standing near something to lean on. We never see her walking. Despite this handicap, Bernhardt put her own safety on risk during the shooting of the exterior scenes near Reims, within twenty kilometres of the enemy lines near the Marne.

Her male co-star was Gabriel Signoret (1878-1937) as the blind schoolmaster Guinot. Signoret played in some 85 films, mostly silent ones. In Mères Françaises his brother Jean Signoret also plays an important part as his rival in love, Noret.

The other co-star was Louise Lagrange (1898-1979), a French screen actress who had a fruitful career in French silent and sound cinema from the Pathé short Cendrillon (1907) onwards. In the early 1920s Lagrange played in the US opposite Rudolph Valentino, while in turn Ricardo Cortez and Ivan Petrovich where her partners in later 1920s French films. In 1933 she became the wife of film director Maurice Tourneur and quitted film acting, apart from just a few, small parts in postwar films.

Despite her excellent co-stars, reviewers think it was Sarah Bernhardt who carried the film. F Gwynplaine MacIntyre at IMDb: "the remnants of her faded beauty are still there, and this film gives some glimpses of the talent that had dazzled theatregoers thirty years earlier."James Travers: "her vitality is still very much in evidence, and her charismatic presence redeems what would otherwise have been a dull and pedestrian wartime melodrama."

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Gabriel Signoret as the blind schoolmaster Guinot, Jean Signoret as Noret and Louise Lagrange as Marie in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: My dear friends, I cannot accept your sacrifice.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex and Gabriel Signoret as Guinot in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: The schoolmaster returns to his class, which henceforth will be his reason to live.

Mères françaises (1917)
Italian postcard. Sarah Bernhardt as Mme D'Urbex and Gabriel Signoret as Guinot in Mères françaises (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). Caption: The schoolmaster.


Scene from Mères françaises (1917). Source: Cinéma et Histoire (YouTube).

Source: James Travers (Le Film Guide), F Gwynplaine MacIntyre (IMDb) and IMDb.

Otto Waalkes

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Frisian comedian and actor Otto Waalkes (1948) became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films. Many of his sketches have become classics in Germany, and several of his phrases and jokes have become public catchphrases. His perhaps most famous trademark are the Ottifanten (Ottiphants), elephant-like comic characters of his own design.

Otto Waalkes
German promotion card by Rüssl Räckords, Hamburg / Edel. Promotion card for the DVD Otto- Das Orginal.

Ottiphants


Otto Gerhard Waalkes, often simply called Otto, was born in 1948 in Emden, Germany. He was the second son of the master painter Karl Waalkes and his wife Adele, born Lüpkes. Otto got his first guitar when he was 12, and during his high school years, he played in a rock & roll band called the Rustlers, who gave their first public performance in 1964.

In 1970 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg, living in a huge apartment-sharing community that counted 14 other residents, among them Udo Lindenberg and Marius Müller-Westernhagen. During his performances with The Rustlers, Waalkes' stage banter and the introductions to his songs proved to be far more popular than the music itself, so before long Waalkes put together a solo program that focused on comedy.

He designed the Ottifanten (Ottiphants), elephant-like comic characters, which would become his most famous trademark. The Ottifanten featured on the cover of his first album, Otto (1973). In the course of his career, he released more than ten comedy albums in Germany, most of them going platinum with more than 500,000 copies sold.

A 1973 TV show called Otto Show was Waalkes' breakthrough. Christian Genzel at AllMusic: “Waalkes' persona is essentially a child in a man's body; his jokes are often intentionally juvenile and silly, often building on numerous puns (in the tradition of his idol, German comedian Heinz Erhardt) and spinning absurd situations into even more absurd territory.”

After a series of popular stand-up live programs on television, Waalkes was ready for the big screen. His first film was the romantic comedy Otto - Der Film (Xaver Schwarzenberger, Otto Waalkes, 1985) bulking of slapstick, verbal jokes, absurdities, satirical side gags and visual ideas. It won the Golden Screen and also a Bambi award and became the most successful German film of all time with 14 million viewers.

Unfortunately, most of Otto's later films were not really up to the standard he set with his first film. These included Otto - Der Neue Film/Otto, the new film (Xaver Schwarzenberger, Otto Waalkes, 1987), Otto - Der Außerfriesische/Otto, The Extra Frisian (Marijan Vajda, Otto Waalkes, 1989) and Otto - Der Liebesfilm/Otto, the love film (Bernd Eilert, Otto Waalkes, 1992). In the 1990s followed several years of little media attention.

Otto Waalkes
German promotion card by Rüssl Musikverlag, Hamburg.

Otto Waalkes
German promotion card by Rüssl Musikverlag, Hamburg / Polydor.

The experiment worked


In the new century Otto Waalkes successfully returned to the cinema with 7 Zwerge/7 Dwarfs (Sven Unterwaldt, 2004), a hilarious parody on Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs with Punkrock-Icon Nina Hagen as the evil queen and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snow White. The dwarfs were played by several popular, younger comedians.

The experiment worked and the film drew almost seven million viewers in German cinemas. It re-established Waalkes' popularity with an older and newer generation of fans. The sequel 7 Zwerge - Der Wald ist nicht genug/7 Dwarves: The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006) was another box-office hit.

Waalkes also worked as a voice actor, providing the German voices of Mushu in Disney's Mulan (Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook, 1998) and Sid the Sloth in Ice Age (Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha, 2002) and its sequels. His recent films include Otto's Eleven (Sven Unterwaldt, 2010) with Mirco Nontschew, and the family film Hilfe, ich hab meine Lehrerin geschrumpft/Help, I Shrunk My Teacher (Sven Unterwaldt, 2015), in which Waalkes had a supporting part.

Otto Waalkes was married twice. From 1987 till 1999, he was married to Manuela Ebelt, with whom he has a son, Benjamin Waalkes. His second wife, from 2000 till 2012, was actress Eva Hassmann, who co-starred with him in Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm. He shares a close friendship with tennis player Steffi Graf, who also appeared as herself in the film Otto – Der Außerfriesische.

Otto Waalkes continues to be a popular and respected figure in Germany's comedy scene.


Trailer Otto - Der Film (1985). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).


Trailer Otto's Eleven (2010). Source: Nichts mehr verpassen! (YouTube).

Sources: Christian Genzel (AllMusic), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: From the Small to the Big Screen

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There are many examples of film stars who became TV stars. Think Joan Collins in Dynasty (1981–1989) or more recently Gérard Dépardieu in Marseille (2016), the first French original production for Netflix. The other way around, the jump seems to be more difficult. So today at EFSP 12 postcards of dazzling TV stars who transferred successfully to the big screen.

Clint Eastwood in Rawhide (1959–1966)
British postcard by D. Constance Ltd, London, no. 106. Photo: Reisfeld / Ufa. Publicity still for the TV series Rawhide (1959–1966).

Before he rose to fame as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Clint Eastwood (1930) was a TV star as Rowdy Yates in the Western series Rawhide (1959–1966).

Roger Moore as Ivanhoe
Belgian postcard by S. Best (SB), Antwerpen. Photo: still for Ivanhoe (1958-1959).

Roger Moore (1927) will always be remembered as the guy who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, but he was also our favourite Ivanhoe, Saint and Persuader on TV.

Patrick McGoohan
Spanish postcard by Oscar Color, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 612.

Though born in America, Irish actor Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009) rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. In 1959, he was named Best TV Actor of the Year in Britain. Shortly thereafter, he was chosen for the starring role in Secret Agent/Danger Man (1960), which proved to be an immense success for three years and allowed the British to break into the burgeoning American television market for the first time. McGoohan starred in, directed, produced, and wrote many of the episodes of the TV series The Prisoner (1967) about the efforts of a secret agent, who resigned early in his career, to clear his name. His aim was to escape from a fancifully beautiful but psychologically brutal prison for people who know too much. The series was as popular as it was surreal and allegorical and its mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to desert England for more than 20 years to seek relative anonymity in Hollywood, where he appeared in films like Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Scanners (1981) and Braveheart (1995).

The Flying Nun
Dutch postcard, no. 24.

Before she won two Oscars, Sally Field starred as the 90-pound novice Sister Bertrille, whose large headgear, enables her to fly in any stiff breeze in The Flying Nun (1967-1970), a sweet American TV series about the misadventures of Bertrille and her convent San Tanco in Puerto Rico.

The Avengers, Diana Rigg
French postcard by Universal Collections, 2002. Photo: Canal+ Image UK Ltd.

Diana Rigg (1938) played Emma Peel in The Avengers (1961-1969), a delicious, quirky Spy-Fi television series set in cold war Britain. In one hour episodes, The Avengers focused on the adventures of eccentric, suave British agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) working for the 'Ministry' and his investigative partner Emma Peel, who combined self-assuredness with superior fighting skills, intelligence, and a contemporary fashion sense. Later Diana Rigg played the bride of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and starred in many other films.

Dora van der Groen (1927-2015)
Belgian postcard by Best, Antwerpen, no 34. Photo: Humo. Publicity still for the TV series Wij, heren van Zichem/We, gentlemen from Zichem (Maurits Balfoort, 1969).

Belgian actress and theatre director Dora van der Groen (1927-2015) played Melanie in the Belgian TV series Wij, heren van Zichem/We, gentlemen from Zichem (1969), which was very popular at the time in the Lowlands. Later she starred with Kees Brusse in the Dutch film classic Dokter Pulder zaait papavers/Doctor Pulder Sows Poppies (1975) and appeared in more than 120 films and television shows till 2003.

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 19, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (1969).

Floris (1969) was the start of the successful careers of director Paul Verhoeven, scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman and of course Rutger Hauer. Hauer played the exiled knight Floris van Rosemondt in this Dutch TV series full of intrigues, mysteries and adventures.

Marthe Keller and Louis Velle in La Demoiselle d'Avignon (1972)
French postcard by Editions Atlas, Evreux, no. 6441 904. Photo: publicity still for the TV series La demoiselle d'Avignon/The lady of Avignon (1972).

Beautiful Swiss actress Marthe Keller (1945) appeared in several French, Italian and German films but she became a star when she played a beautiful princess in the TV series La demoiselle d'Avignon/The lady of Avignon (Michel Wyn, 1972). She then seemed to make it big in Hollywood with an award winning role in Marathon Man (1976) and a much-publicised affair with Al Pacino. But the failure of Fedora (1978) halted a major international film career. She continued to act in European productions, and since 1999 she has a new career as an opera director.

Michel Strogoff, Raimund Harmstorf
Vintage postcard. Photo: publicity still for the TV series Michael Strogoff: Der Kurier des Zaren/Michel Strogoff (1975).

German actor Raimund Harmstorf(1939-1998) became famous as the protagonist of the German TV mini series Der Seewolf/The Sea-Wolf (1971), based on Jack London's classic novel. Later on, he starred successfully in another German TV series Michael Strogoff: Der Kurier des Zaren/Michel Strogoff (1975), based on Jules Verne's adventure novel. Harmstorf was unforgettable as the handsome hero with a secret mission in an old Russia threatened by Cossacks and frozen rivers, wearing woolly hats and serious faces. Both series were sold to many countries. Harmstorf then became a star of the Eurowestern but his life ended as a tragedy.

Til Schweiger
German postcard. Photo: Volker Corell.

Handsome actor, director, and producer Til Schweiger (1963) first appeared onscreen in the popular German TV series Lindenstraße (1989-1992). Since then, no other German actor has drawn more people to the cinemas.

Katja Schuurman
Dutch postcard in the GTST-verzamelkaarten series by RTL4, no. 10. Photo: Govert de Roos. Publicity still for Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden/GTST (1994-1999).

Sexy and exotic Katja Schuurman (1975) was - as Jessica Harmsen in the daily TV series Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden/GTST (1994-1999) - one of the first soap stars of the Netherlands. She showed durability as a TV host and as an actress in many TV series and films.

Rowan Atkinson
Dutch postcard by Interstat, Amsterdam. Photo: Polygram / CPL.

Funny English actor and screenwriter Rowan Atkinson (1955) is best known for his much-loved historical sitcom Blackadder (1983-1989) and for the series around the clumsy, face-pulling Mr. Bean (1990-1995). The black-haired, bug-eyed, and weak-chinned comedian had also success in the cinema with Bean (1997), the sequel Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) and with his James Bond parody Johnny English (2003).

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.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

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Thin Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and heavyset American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) were a comedy double act during the early classical Hollywood era. They became well known during the late 1920s through the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy. After the war, they were still very popular in Europe, where they made their final, little known film. Starting today, the exhibition Laurel and Hardy in Europe can be seen in the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute in Noord-Scharwoude, The Netherlands.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 491.

Stan Laurel
Dutch postcard, no. 86. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Putting Pants on Philip


Prior to their being teamed up, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy both had well established film careers. Stan Laurel had appeared in over 50 films and Oliver Hardy had been in more than 250 productions.

Stan Laurel was born in 1890 as Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, England into a theatrical family. His father Arthur Joseph Jefferson was a theatrical entrepreneur and theatre owner in northern England and Scotland who, together with his wife, was a major force in the industry. He made his stage debut in  the Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow one month short of his 16th birthday. In 1909, Laurel was employed by Britain's leading comedy impresario Fred Karno as a supporting actor, and as an understudy for Charlie Chaplin.

In 1912, Jefferson left England with the Fred Karno Troupe to tour the United States. He had expected the tour to be merely a pleasant interval before returning to London; however, he emigrated to the U.S. during the trip. In 1917, Stan Jefferson made his film debut with his first wife Mae Dahlberg in Nuts in May.

From then on he began using the name Stan Laurel. In 1931, he changed his name legally. With his early silent films, he experienced only modest success. It was difficult for producers, writers, and directors to write for his character, with American audiences knowing him either as a 'nutty burglar' or as a Charlie Chaplin imitator.

Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia, in 1892. As a boy, he was a gifted singer, and by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. By his late teens, Hardy operated a cinema in Milledgeville, Georgia, the Palace Theater, financed in part by his mother. In 1913, he began working as a comic actor with Lubin Motion Pictures in Jacksonville. For his stage name he took his father's first name calling himself Oliver Norvell Hardy while offscreen his nicknames were Ollie and Babe. Hardy was billed as Babe Hardy in his first film, Outwitting Dad(Arthur Hotaling, 1914).

Between 1914 and 1916, Hardy made 177 shorts as Babe with the Vim Comedy Company that were released up to the end of 1917. He showed versatility in playing heroes, villains and even female characters, Hardy was in demand for roles as a supporting actor, comic villain or second banana. For 10 years he memorably assisted star comic and Charlie Chaplin imitator Billy West, Jimmy Aubrey, Larry Semon, and Charley Chase.

The two comedians first worked together as cast members on the film The Lucky Dog (Jesse Robbins, 1921). Though they appear in scenes together, they play independent of each other and not as the comedic team that they would later become. In fact, they did not see each other for another 2 or 3 years. In 1926, both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio, and then they appeared again in a silent short film together.

Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in the silent short film Putting Pants on Philip (Clyde Bruckman, 1927). Laurel plays Philip, a young Scot newly arrived in the United States, in full kilted splendor, suffering mishaps involving the kilt. His uncle, played by Hardy, is shown trying to put trousers on him. The idea for the film was Stan Laurel's and was based on a story recounted by a friend while Laurel worked in music hall.

Although Putting Pants on Philip was their first 'official film as a team, the iconic Stan and Ollie characters and costumes had yet to become a permanent fixture. Their first appearance as the Stan and Ollie characters was in The Second Hundred Years (Fred Guiol, 1927). The film was supervised by Leo McCarey, who suggested that the performers be teamed permanently. They became a huge hit as a comedy team, and after several years of two-reelers, Roach decided to star them in features. Their first feature-length starring roles were in Pardon Us (James Parrott, 1931).

Laurel and Hardy
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Kes Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 221, 1951. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Dutch postcard by Forte.

Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!


Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy remained with the Roach studio until 1940. Here, they starred in such classics as Sons of the Desert (1933) with Charlie ChaseBabes in Toyland (Gus Meins, Charley Rogers, 1934), Way Out West (James W. Horne, 1937),  Block-Heads (John G. Blystone, 1938) and A Chump at Oxford (Alfred J. Goulding).

A popular routine the team performed was a 'tit-for-tat' fight with an adversary. This could be with their wives or with a neighbor. Laurel and Hardy would accidentally damage someone's property, with the injured party retaliating by ruining something belonging to them. After calmly surveying the damage, they would find something else to vandalize, and conflict would escalate until both sides were simultaneously destroying items in front of each other. The catchphrase most used by them is: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"

Wikipedia: "The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual with slapstick used for emphasis. They often had physical arguments with each other (in character), which were quite complex and involved cartoon violence, and their characters preclude them from making any real progress in the simplest endeavors. Much of their comedy involves milking a joke, where a simple idea provides a basis from which to build multiple gags without following a defined narrative."

From 1941 to 1945, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in eight B movie comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Their work became more production-line and less popular during the war years. Their last Hollywood movie together was The Bullfighters (Malcolm St. Clair, 1945). From then on, they concentrated on performing in stage shows and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland and Scotland.

In post-World War II Europe, Laurel and Hardy were enjoying a new popularity with audiences that had been unable to see their films during wartime. As a result of this, the pair received an offer from a French-Italian cinematic consortium to star in a film to be produced in France for $1.5 million, a large budget for the era.

The  French/Italian co-production, called Atoll K/Utopia (Léo Joannon, 1951), would be their final film together. The film co-stars French singer/actress Suzy Delair as nightclub singer Chérie Lamour and was directed by Léo Joannon, with uncredited co-direction by blacklisted U.S. director John Berry. The production of the film was riddles with problems and critical reaction was overwhelmingly poor.

As a team Laurel and Hardy had appeared in 107 films, with the pair starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances that included the Galaxy of Stars promotional film of 1936. Hardy appeared without Laurel in a few features, such as Zenobia (Gordon Douglas, 1939) with Harry Langdon, The Fighting Kentuckian (George Waggner, 1949) in a semi-comedic role as a frontiersman alongside John Wayne and Riding High (Frank Capra, 1950), in a cameo role.

In 1954 the pair made one American television appearance when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. In 1960 Stan Laurel was given a special Oscar "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". He died five years later. Oliver Hardy had died in 1957.

Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations and home videos. And now there is this little exhibition in Noord-Scharwoude.

056 Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy_Cigaretten-Bilderdienst (Bunte Filmblider; 56)
German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Greilingen Zigaretten, no. 56. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Flickr).


American trailer for Atoll K/Utopia (1951). Source: Inter-Pathé Trailer (YouTube).

Source: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gunnar Tolnaes

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Norwegian-born actor Gunnar Tolnaes (1879-1940) conquered the Danish film market in the middle of the 1910s. His most famous performance was an Indian prince in the Danish Orientalist melodrama Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (1917). It was so popular that it had a Danish sequel in 1919, and a German sequel in 1921. During the 1920s Tolnaes alternated acting in Danish films with roles in German productions, until the end of the silent era.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Verlag W.J. Mörlins, Berlin / Vertrieb Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 9001/3. Photo: Karl Schenker.

Gunnar Tolnaes
Vintage postcard by ABC, no. 375/1.

Gunnar Tolnaes
Vintage postcard by ABC, no. 375/3.

Gunnar Tolnaes
Vintage postcard by ABC, no. 375/4.

Gunnar Tolnaess
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot. Photo: Nordisk. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Super Power


Gunnar Tolnaes (Tolnæs) was born in Christiana (now Oslo), Norway, in 1879. His parents were Ole Gundersen Tolnæs and Helene Andresen (Braathu).

He studied law and later medicine. He made his stage début in 1906, and was an company member of the Nationaltheatret in Oslo between 1908 and 1916.

In 1913, he started his film career for the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern AB in Stockholm and worked there with legendary director Victor Sjöström. They made the silent dramas Halvblod/Half Breed (Victor Sjöström, 1915) with Karin Molander, Gatans barn/Children of the Streets (Victor Sjöström, 1914) starring Lili Beck, and En av de många/One of the Many (Victor Sjöström, 1915).

He also worked with the other great director of the silent Swedish cinema, Mauritz Stiller. They made Bröderna/Brothers (Mauritz Stiller, 1914) with Carlo Wieth, and När konstnärer älska/When Artists Love (1915, Mauritz Stiller), with Lili Beck.

Then Tolnaes moved to Denmark, where he was offered a contract at the Nordisk studio. He was immediately successful with Doktor X/Doctor X (1915) directed by Robert Dinesen.

Gunnar Tolnaes in Der Narr seiner Liebe
German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1913. Photo: Nordisk Films. Gunnar Tolnaes in Pjerrot (Hjalmar Davidsen, 1917), with Ulla Nielsen as The Child.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1920. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Pjerrot (Hjalmar Davidsen, 1917).

Gunnar Tolnaes in Der Mann ohne Gnade
German postcard by Photochemie, no. K.2372. Photo: Nordisk Films. Gunnar Tolnaes in Den Retfærdiges Hustru (A.W. Sandberg, 1917), co-starring Else Frölich.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2995. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife (1917).

Gunnar Tolnaes, Lilly Jacobson
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife (1917) with Lilly Jacobson.

Indian Prince


The studio heads at Nordisk hoped that Gunnar Tolnaes would become as popular as their biggest star, Valdemar Psilander.

Tolnaes had his most famous performance for Nordisk in the Orientalist melodrama Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru I/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife I (Robert Dinesen, 1917). He starred as an Indian prince and Lilly Jacobson was his love interest.

The film was so popular that it had a sequel in 1919, directed by August Blom and again starring Tolnaes and Jacobson. In 1921 the German studio PAGU would produce another sequel Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadschas - 3. Teil/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife III (Max Mack, 1921) in which Aud Egede Nissen replaced Jacobson.

The Danish film industry was an international superpower in the 1910s and the Nordisk productions were the most successful of them all - especially in Germany. Among Tolnaes' successes were Den retfærdiges hustru/The Righteous Wife (A.W. Sandberg, 1917) with Else Frölich, Den mystiske tjener/The mysterious servant (A.W. Sandberg, 1917) and the science-fiction film Himmelskibet/400 Million Miles from Earth (Holger Madsen, 1918).

Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson in Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2149. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Lilly Jacobson as Marya, the Martian leader's daughter, and Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros.

Gunnar Tolnaes in Himmelskibet (1918)
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2160. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Himmelskibet/Das Himmelschiff (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Gunnar Tolnaes as Avanti Planetaros.

Clara Wieth and Gunnar Tolnaes in Stodderprinsessen (1920)
Latvian postcard, no. 14. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Stodderprinsessen/The Rags Princess (A.W. Sandberg, 1920) with Clara Wieth.

Gunnar Tolnaes in Little Dorrit
Finnish postcard, no. 433. The postcard carries a stamp of the Finnish film inspection office. Photo: publicity still for the Charles Dickens adaptation Lille Dorritt/Little Dorrit (A.W. Sandberg, 1924), starring Karina Bell as Little Dorrit and Gunnar Tolnaes as Arthur Clennam.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1931. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Kærlighedsøen/Love Lake (A.W. Sandberg, 1924).

Less Success


In the 1920s, Gunnar Tolnaes worked often with famous Danish director A.W. Sandberg.

He appeared among others in his Stodderprinsessen/The Rags Princess (A.W. Sandberg, 1920) with Clara Pontoppidan aka Clara Wieth, Kan disse ojne lyve?/Can these eyes lie? (A.W. Sandberg, 1921), Min ven privatdetektiven/My Friend the Private Detective (A.W. Sandberg, 1924), and the Charles Dickens adaptation Lille Dorrit/Little Dorrit (A.W. Sandberg, 1924) with Karina Bell.

The Danish film industry gradually lost its supremacy in Europe, and Gunnar Tolnaes' films also had less success. He alternated acting in Danish films with roles in German films, and continued to do so until the end of the silent era.

His first German film had been Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadschas - 3. Teil/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife III (Max Mack, 1921). After this success he appeared in productions like Sturmflut des Lebens/Storm Surge of Life (Paul L. Stein, 1921) with Charlotte Ander, Die Flucht in die Ehe/The Flight Into Marriage (Artur Retzbach, 1922), and Wilhelm (later: William) Dieterle's Geschlecht in Fesseln/Sex in Chains (1928).

His last film was Der Narr seiner Liebe/Fool For Love (1929), directed by actress Olga Tschechova. Gunnar Tolnaes would never make a sound film. He died in 1940 in Oslo, aged 60. He is buried with his family at Vestre gravlund.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1474. Photo: Nordisk.

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1567. Photo: Nordisk.

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

Gunnar Tolnaes
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1668. Photo: Nordisk.

Gunnar Tolnaes in Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha (1926)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1277/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deutsch-Nordische Film Union. Publicity still for Maharadjahens yndlingshustru III/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (A.W. Sandberg, 1926).

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

Dany Carrel

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

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les carbones Korès (Carboplane), no. 665. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 268. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 386. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 436. Photo: Sam Lévin.

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

Saucy Girls


Dany Carrel was born as Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles du Chaxel in Tourane, French Indochina (now Da Nang, Vietnam), in 1932. She was the child of French customs agent Aimé Chazelles of Chaxel and native Kam. Only many years later she would learn of this heritage. Aimé had a legitimate wife back in Europe and still produced two children with Kam (Yvonne and her sister Alice). He died soon after, and Yvonne was shipped to France to meet a godmother that placed her in a religious institution.

After some acting classes Dany got an entry in the cinema. She made her film début in Dortoir des grandes/Inside a Girls' Dormitory (Henri Decoin, 1953), starring Jean Marais and Françoise Arnoul.

Decoin proposed to change her name, suggesting Carrel as a medical book written by a doctor named Alexis Carrel was lying on his desk. Yvonne, tired of being nicknamed Vovonne ou Vonette, chose herself the Dany part, a diminutive that couldn’t be played with or distorted.

For the next few years, Dany Carrel could be seen in minor melodramas and light comedies, often playing saucy girls from the working-class neighbourhood, but never with a really mean streak.

Quickly, she got the main female starring roles in lower-budgeted pictures, and she also co-starred with such acting giants as Gérard Philipe in Les grandes manoeuvres/The Grand Manoeuvre (René Clair, 1954) and Pot-Bouille/Lovers of Paris (Julien Duvivier, 1957), or Jean Gabin in Des gens sans importance/People of No Importance (Henri Verneuil, 1956).

Dany was a big revelation to the public in Portes des Lilas/Gate of Lilacs (René Clair, 1957), opposite Pierre Brasseur. Sometimes tricked by wanna-be bad boys, Dany always retained her intelligence and never played dumb.

Dany Carrel, Gérard Philipe and Danièle Darrieux in Pot-Bouille (1957)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1294, 1960. Photo: publicity still for Pot-Bouille/Lovers of Paris (Julien Duvivier, 1957) with Gérard Philipe and Danielle Darrieux.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carbopane', no. 922. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1030. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 810. Photo: Sam Lévin.

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

Damsel in Distress


Then Dany Carrel began a phase of international projects, such as the German-French co-production Die Gans von Sedan/Without Trumpet or Drum (Helmut Käutner, 1959) with Hardy Krüger, and the Hollywood production The Enemy General (George Sherman, 1960) starring Van Johnson.

In 1960 she appeared also in two interesting horror films, Il mulino delle donne di pietra/Mill of the Stone Women (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960) and The Hands of Orlac (Edmond T. Gréville, 1960). The Franco-Italian co-production Il mulino delle donne di pietra, starring Pierre Brice, has effective macabre touches. Dany makes for a very believable damsel in distress, and also gets to reveal a bit more of herself when she’s tied down on a table and menaced by a mad doctor.

A couple of times Dany appeared ‘nude’ on screen, but in the early 1960s nude usually meant a sideway glimpse at a naked breast. In The Hands of Orlac, which was simultaneously filmed in a French version, Les mains d’Orlac, she starred with Mel Ferrer and Christopher Lee.

For the first half of the 1960s, she was seen in several gangster pictures, with serious or comedic plots. She co-starred with some of the great comedians of that era, including Louis de Funès in Une souris chez les hommes/A Mouse with the Men (Jacques Poitrenaud, 1964), and Jean Lefebvre in Un idiot à Paris/Idiot in Paris (Serge Korber, 1967).

She got a good supporting part in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La prisonnière/Woman in Chains (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968) starring Romy Schneider. Dany played a nude model sweating it out when only wearing a see-through raincoat under harsh lights for a fetish photo session.

Then she began to slow down on film roles. After the heist film Trois milliards sans ascenseur/3000 Million Without an Elevator (Roger Pigaut, 1972) she mainly appeared in TV roles. In the early 1980s she returned to the screen in comedies like Faut s'les faire!... Ces légionnaires/Let Them Do It!... These legionnaires (Alain Nauroy, 1981) with Henri Garcin.

In 1991 she published her book L’annamite/The Vietnamese, recalling her youth. She supervised the TV adaptation L’annamite (Thierry Chabert, 1995), in which actress Gaëlle Le Fur played the Yvonne/Dany role, and Dany Carrel herself appeared as the adult Dany. That same year, she could also be seen in the play Laisse parler ta mère/Let Your Mother Talk.

At Cult Sirens, the webmaster concludes in his excellent profile on her: "One of a kind in the looks department in French cinema of the fifties and part of the list of actress who began to push the boundaries of frank eroticism on the big screen, Dany Carrel is often remembered for her bob haircut of dark reddish hair, exquisite cheekbones and friendly manners, always being able to save a movie from tedium from her mere presence."

Dany Carrel
German postcard by ISV, no. M 7. Photo: Les Films Morceau / Europa-Film.

Dany Carrel
Belgian collectors card by Merbotex, Brussels for Palace, Izegem, no. 23. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Carrel
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Korès (Carboplane), no. 1064.

Dany Carrel
Italian postcard, no. 3.

Dany Carrel
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


Trailer for The Hands of Orlac (1960). Source: Sinister Cinema (YouTube).

Sources: Cult Sirens, Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Pierre Fresnay

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One of the most important French stage and film actors of his era was Pierre Fresnay (1897-1975). He abandoned a career with the Comédie-Française for the challenge of the cinema, and appeared in more than sixty films. His best known films include Marius (1931), Hitchcock's first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), and Renoir’s epic La Grande Illusion (1937). From WW I he returned as a hero, but after WW II he was detained in prison while allegations of collaboration were investigated.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by EC, no. 94. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

La Grande Illusion
Italian programme card for Il Cinema Ritrovata 2012. Photo: publicity still for La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) with Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Viny, no. 86. Photo: Vedis-Film. Publicity still for Les trois valses/Three Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1938).

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 35. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Marius


Pierre Fresnay was born Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach in Paris, France in 1897. He was the son of Jean Henri Laudenbach, professor philosophy, and Désirée Claire Dietz.

At 14, Pierre made his stage debut. His uncle, the actor Claude Garry encouraged him to pursue a career in theatre and film, and arranged a small role for him in L’Aigrette by Dario Niccodemi at the Theatre Rejane. This was against the wishes of his parents who had hoped Pierre might pursue a university career. On this occasion he chose his first stage name, Pierre Vernet.

In 1914, he entered the Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation (National Conservatory of Music and Declamation in Paris), in a class with Mounet Paul and Georges Berr. Only 19, he was hired by the prestigious Comédie-Française as a pensionnaire (contract player). He had his first major theater role in Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (The Game of Love and Chance) in 1915.

That same year he made his silent film debut with a small role in the patriotic drama France d'abord/First France (Henri Pouctal, 1915) with André Luguet. World War I was raging, and in 1917 he enlisted as a soldier in the French Army. After the war, he returned to his career as a hero.

Throughout the 1920s, Fresnay appeared in many popular stage productions. He became a sociétaire (life member) of the Comédie-Française four years before he resigned in 1927. During the next 10 years he worked in England and the United States as well as in France. He was outstanding in the title roles in Cyrano de Bergerac (1928) and Don Juan (London, 1934). He had his greatest stage success in the title role of Marcel Pagnol’s Marius (1929). The play ran for over 500 performances.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard, no. H 3. Photo: Jim.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Collection Chantal, Paris, no. 4. Photo: Védis Films. Publicity still for Les trois valses/Three Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1938).

Pierre Fresnay in Les trois valses (1938)
French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil (S.O.), no. 94A. Photo: Védis Films. Publicity still for Les trois valses/Three Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1938).

Pierre Fresnay in Les trois valses (1938)
French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil (S.O.), no. 94. Photo: Védis Films. Publicity still for Les trois valses/Three Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1938).

A Breath of Fresh Air


Pierre Fresnay’s first great screen role was also as Marius in the film adaptation of Pagnol’s play, Marius (Alexander Korda, 1931). At Le Film Guide, James Travers writes: “Marius offered an unembellished slice of life in the southern French port which came as a breath of fresh air to audiences of the time. What was so refreshing about the film was its total lack of artifice. The story it tells is a simple one which anyone who saw it could relate to. It deals with everyday themes - the rift between parents and their grown-up children, the pains and practicalities of falling in love, the difficulty of reconciling personal ambitions with the emotional need for love and stability.”

The part established Fresnay’s reputation as a cinema actor and made him an instant matinee idol. He played Marius again in the next two parts of Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy, Fanny (1932, Marc Allégret) featuring Orane Demazis, and César (1936, Marcel Pagnol) starring Raimu.

In 1934, he played Armand Duval in La Dame aux Camelias/Lady of the Camelias (Fernand Rivers, Abel Gance, 1934) at the side of Yvonne Printemps. The two married that same year. They appeared in eight films together, including the film operetta Trois Valses/Three Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1938).

Fresnay also appeared as the first-reel murder victim in Alfred Hitchcock's first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934) with Leslie Banks and Peter Lorre.

A highpoint in his film career was his appearance as the young French officer opposite Erich von Stroheim in the anti-war epic La Grande Illusion/Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937). James Travers: “One of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema history, La Grande illusion is a film of enduring popularity and one of the most powerful anti-war films of the Twentieth century. It stands beside Jean Renoir’s other triumph, La Regle du jeu, as one of the all-time great French films.”

With the collaboration of an unknown script writer, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Fresnay directed his one and only film Le Duel/The Duel (Pierre Fresnay, 1939), starring Yvonne Printemps. According to James Travers,Le Duel“was a mediocre effort which was soon forgotten with the outbreak of World War Two”.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard, no. 94. Photo: Films Derby. Publicity still for Le puritain/The Puritan (Jeff Musso, 1938).

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Erpé, no. 625. Photo: C.F.C.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 7. Photo: C.P.L.F.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 150. Photo: Pathé Cinema.

Subversive and Immoral Overtones


Under the Nazi occupation of France, Pierre Fresnay worked for the Franco-German film company Continental, which was closely vetted by the Germans.

Fresnay appeared in a number of high quality productions, including a number of films written or directed by his close friend Henri-Georges Clouzot. These included the comedy thriller Le Dernier des Six/The Last One of the Six (Georges Lacombe, 1941), where Fresnay played the part of the cool (but patient) Commissioner Wens.

He reprised the role for Clouzot’s directoral debut, L’Assassin habite au 21/The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1942) with the bubbling Suzy Delair as Wens’ girlfriend.

Fresnay later also starred in Clouzot’s most controversial film Le Corbeau/The Raven (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943), which created such an uproar that its director was temporarily banned from making films.

James Travers at Le Film Guide: “The film was banned after the war because of its perceived subversive and immoral overtones. The story was based on a real-life case which took place in the French town of Tulle in the 1920’s. The film is an excellent suspense thriller, easily in the league of Clouzot’s subsequent films of this genre (Le Salaire de la peur/The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques/Diabolique (1954)).”

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 205. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard by A. Noyer, no. 1291. Photo: Raymond Voinquel, Paris.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard, no. 94. Photo: C.P.L.F.

Pierre Fresnay
French postcard, no. 153.

I Am An Actor


After the war, Pierre Fresnay was detained in prison while allegations of collaboration were investigated. After being held for six weeks, he was released as a result of a lack of evidence. Despite Fresnay’s declarations that he worked in films to help save the French film industry in a period of crisis, the move damaged his popularity with the public. For the remainder of his film career, he would appear mainly in lesser roles in comparatively minor films.

There are some exceptions. In 1947 he played Vincent de Paul (namesake of the Vincent de Paul Society) in Monsieur Vincent (Maurice Cloche, 1947), for which he won the Volpi cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival. Monsieur Vincent was the first French language film to win an Academy Award (in 1948).

Another success was Dieu a besoin des homes/God Needs Men (Jean Delannoy, 1950) with Madeleine Robinson, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award, the British Oscar. Fresnay also portrayed Nobel Peace Prizelaureate Albert Schweitzer in Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer/It Is Midnight Dr. Schweitzer (André Haguet, 1952).

In 1954, he published his memoirs, Je suis comédien (I am an actor). His last film was the comedy Les Vieux de la vieille/The Old Chaps (Gilles Grangier, 1960) with Jean Gabin. Throughout his career, he had maintained that he was a stage actor first and a film actor second. The cinema had clearly less appeal to him.

Pierre Fresnay continued to perform regularly on stage through to the 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1970s, he appeared in a few films for television. From then on, he co-directed with Yvonne Printemps the Théâtre de la Michodièrein Paris until his death in 1975.

Pierre Fresnay died of respiratory problems at the age of 77 at Neuilly-sur-Seine and is interred there side by side with Printemps in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery. Before marrying Printemps he had married and divorced actresses Rachel Berendt (1917-1920) and Berthe Dovy (1923–1929). Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest"I think my name is to be pronounced fray-nay. At least, it is the way I pronounce it."


French trailer for the DVD Marseille Trilogy after the restaurayion in 2016. Source: Digital Ciné (YouTube).


Trailer for La Grande Illusion/Grand Illusion (1937). Source: Danios 12345 (YouTube).


Trailer for Le Corbeau/The Raven (1943). Source: Dyran (YouTube).


French trailer for Monsieur Vincent (1947). Source: Lionsgate VOD (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Le Film Guide), Christian Grenier (L’encinémathèque - French), Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes - French), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), AlloCiné (French), Encyclopedia Brittanica, Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.

New episode unveiled of Floris (1969)

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Nearly 47 years after the broadcast of the twelfth and final episode of the legendary TV series Floris, a hitherto unknown thirteenth episode premiered last Friday. The premiere happened at Doornenburg castle, one of the locations of the Dutch television series. Floris started three of the most successful careers in the history of the Dutch cinema. It's directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Gerard Soeteman and starring the young Rutger Hauer. Hauer, now 72, was present at the belated premiere.

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 4, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Rutger Haueras Floris van Rosemondt.

Hans Culeman in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 5 (?), 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Hans Culeman as Maarten van Rossum.

Hans Boskamp in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 7, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Hans Boskamp as Lange Pier.

Hans Boskamp in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 10, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Hans Boskamp as Lange Pier.

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 14, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Unforgettable screen debut


I was able to lay my hands on some vintage collectors cards of Floris (1969). These small cards, produced in 1970, are quite rare these days, and therefor my series is not complete yet.

The Dutch television series, set in the Middle Ages, is the favourite series for many of my generation in the Netherlands and also in Belgium. At the time, all kinds of merchandise was produced for the kids and of course they are a cult now.

In the series, blonde, athletic and the then incredibly young Rutger Hauer made his screen debut as the exiled knight Floris van Rosemondt. His performance is unforgettable, Hauer is the ultimate knight.

With his Indian friend Sindala (Jos Bergman), Floris tries to get his birth right papers back from Maarten van Rossem (Hans Culeman), an evil lord.

During their quest they get help from Wolter van Oldenstein (Ton Vos), a noble man who offers them a place in his castle. They also meet the imposing pirate Lange Pier (Hans Boskamp).

Apart from Sindala and Floris, all the characters are based on historical figures. Scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman did an amazingly inventive job and it is one of the reasons why many adults love to see this children's series too.

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 17, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 19, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Rutger Hauer and Jos Bergman in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 23, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 26, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Caption: Soldaat van Gelre (Soldier Van Gelre).

Ton Vos in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 29 (?), 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Ton Vos als Wolter van Oldenstein.

In the best Robin Hood style


In 1967, the success of television series like the British Ivanhoe (1958-1959) with Roger Moore, the French Thierry La Fronde/Thierry the Sling (1963-1966) with Jean-Claude Drouot, and the Flemish Johan en de Alverman (1965) with Frank Aendenboom inspired Carel Enkelaar, manager of NTS Television to make a similar series, set in the Netherlands.

Hanne Aboe Derwort highly recommends the series at IMDb: "One of the first Middle Age series ever, the stories of the adventures of Floris in medieval Holland are also among the most funny tv-series ever.

The budget was very low, which can be seen, but the interaction between the actors is nothing less but wonderful. Floris and his trusty companion Sindala is in best Robin Hood style, but with the addition of Eastern magic to the sword fighting skills and sheer strength (and luck) of our hero. (...)

The fact that the series is in b/w actually helps, no need to mess around with anything when somebody's wounded. If you can locate the tapes, watch it."

Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 30, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Jacco van Renesse in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 31, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Caption: Vaandrig Rogier (Ensign-bearer Rogier). Rogier was played by Jacco van Renesse.

Jos Bergman and Rutger Hauer in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 38, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 39, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Caption: Kanonnier van Van Rossum (Gunner of Van Rossum).

Rutger Hauer and Jos Bergman in Floris (1969)
Dutch collectors card, no. 50, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Publicity still for the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

The most popular TV series in the Netherlands


In 1969, Floris was the most popular TV series in the Netherlands. The series had many reruns through the years.

Floris has also been shown in East Germany (as Floris - Der Mann mit dem Schwert) and Scotland dubbed in English. In the UK, the series aired on Yorkshire Television in 1970 as The Adventures of Floris. None of the English dubbed episodes survive.

1975 saw a German remake of the series, Floris von Rosenmund (Ferry Radax, 1975), again starring Rutger Hauer, but with German actor Derval de Faria as Sindala. This version put much more emphasis on the comedic aspects of the stories.

The series also lead to the film Floris (Jean van de Velde, 2004) which features Michiel Huisman (known for his role in Game of Thrones) as the grandson of the original Floris. Some of the footage from the 1969 series with Hauer and Bergman is included. Rutger Hauer was originally asked to play the father of young Floris, but he declined.

A thirteenth episode of the series, entitled Het gericht/Targeting was never finished for several reasons. The raw footage was owned by the writer of the series, Gerard Soeteman. To get a full episode, there are now between the images black and white drawings assembled by artist Gerrit Stapel, who previously has made the Floris comics together with Soeteman. In addition to the thirteenth episode, a documentary about the legendary series was presented last Friday, in which both Verhoeven and Soeteman provide insight into the development of Floris.


Episode Het brandende water (The burning water). Sorry, no subtitles. Source: eikcid (YouTube).


Dutch TV documentary in the series Andere tijden (Other times). Sorry, no subtitles. Source: 192TVideo (YouTube).

Source: Hanne Aboe Derwort (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Heli Finkenzeller

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German stage and film actress Heli Finkenzeller (1914-1991) had her greatest successes in popular Ufa comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. After the war she often played mother roles.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 125, Photo: Bavaria Filmkunst.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 216, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. K 1417. Photo: Tobis / Star-Foto-Atelier.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3648/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.

Box-office Hits


Helene Finkenzeller was born in München (Munich), Germany in 1914 (according to some sources in 1911). She grew up in Munich where her parents ran a family business which sold office furniture. As a kid she was already interested in everything connected to the theatre and she wanted to become an opera singer.

After finishing school she attended a conservatory, but she soon realised that her voice was too weak for the opera stage. Instead she took acting classes from Otto Falkenberg at his newly established drama school in Munich. In 1934 she joined the Münchner Kammerspielen (Munich Chamber Plays) and for the next two years she performed there with such actors as Ferdinand Marian, Elizabeth Flickenschild, and her later husband Will Dohm.

In 1935 she made her first film appearance in a supporting part in the Ufa comedy Ehestreik/Matrimonial Strike (Georg Jacoby, 1935) with Paul Richter. She played her first lead for the Ufa in the comedy Weiberregiment/Petticoat Government (Karl Ritter, 1936).

Finkenzeller appeared with star comedian Heinz Rühmann in Der Mustergatte/Model Husband (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937).

The box office hits Opernball/Opera Ball (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1939) with Paul Hörbiger, Kohlhiesels Töchter/Kohlhiesels daughters (Kurt Hoffmann, 1943) in which she played the double roles of Veronika and Annamirl Kohlhöfer, and especially Das Bad auf der Tenne/The bathroom in the barn (Volker von Collande, 1943) with her husband Will Dohm made her known to a large audience and she became one of Germany’s most popular film stars.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9490/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Atelier Anton Sahm, München.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Bieber, Berlin / Ross Verlag.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Bavaria / Ross Verlag.

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

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3434/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Haenchen.

Big World Allure


After the Second World War, Heli Finkenzeller continued her film career, often in mother roles. Thus she played the wife of Heinz Rühmann in Briefträger Müller/Postman Müller (John Reinhardt, 1953) and Emil’s mother in Emil und die Detektive/Emil and the Detectives (Robert A. Stemmle, 1954) based on the classic children’s book by Erich Kästner.

In the German-Dutch coproduction Ciske - Ein Kind braucht Liebe/Ciske – A Child Needs Love (Wolfgang Staudte, 1955) with Kees Brusse, she was the aunt of the title figure. She was also seen in another Dutch-German coproduction Jenny (Alfred Bittins, Willy van Hemert, 1959) featuring Ellen van Hemert.

On stage, she appeared in the musical Gigi at the Theater des Westens (Theatre of the West) in Berlin, and in many plays. She also can be heard on records with songs and texts.

From the early 1960s on, the former Ufa star played mainly on stage and in many TV films and series, such as Unser Pauker/Our Crammer (Otto Meyer, 1965) with Georg Thomalla, the comedy Meine Schwiegersöhne und ich/My sons-in-law and I (Rudolf Jugert, 1969) opposite Hans Söhnker, the Krimi Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1974) starring Erik Ode, Das Traumschiff/The Dream Boat (Fritz Umgelter, 1981), Der Gerichtsvollzieher/The Bailiff (Peter Weck, 1981) and finally, three years before her death in Lorentz & Söhne/Lorentz and Sons (Claus Peter Witt, 1988).

In between, she played in one final film, the black comedy Satansbraten/Satan’s Brew (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976). Heli Finkenzeller and Will Dohm had a daughter, actress Gaby Dohm (1943) who is well known in the German language countries. After Will Dohm’s death in 1948, Heli remarried in 1950 to film producer Alfred Bittin. They stayed together till his death in 1971.

Heli Finkenzeller died from cancer in 1991 in her hometown Munich. She was 76. The German weekly Der Spiegel wrote in an obituary: “Her type was much in demand at the UFA: charm with distance, elegance without any wickedness. She even had big world allure, but on a small Pan-German scale. It made Heli Finkenzeller in the middle of the thirties a star in light entertainment films.”

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3958/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3746/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Heli Finkenzeller in Briefträger Müller (1953)
German postcard by Film und Bild, Berlin, no. A 916. Photo: Berolina / Herzog-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Briefträger Müller/Mailman Mueller (John Reinhardt, 1953).

Heli Finkenzeller and Wolfgang Lukschy
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1235. Photo: Berolina / Herzog-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Emil und die Detektive/Emil and the Detectives (Robert A. Stemmle, 1954) with Wolfgang Lukschy.

Heli Finkenzeller
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Christian Pantel, Hamburg.


Heli Finkenzeller sings Heute möchte ich, with Theo Lingen and Marte Harellin Opernball/Opera Ball (1939). Source: BD 130 (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D’Heil (Steffi-Line) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Der Spiegel (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: Film actors flying in from around the world

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I like this German postcard, 'Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt'. The caption translates as 'Film actors from around the world'. Photos of film stars posing glamorously in front of airplanes was a well known phenomenon in the 1950s, that 'Golden Age Of Travel'. Famous is a series created by Air France. But how was it really to fly during the 1950s? Dangerous, I guess, smoky, boozy, boring and very, very expensive.

Filmschauspeieler aus aller Welt
German postcard by Kunst und Film Verlag H. Lukow, Hannover, no. L2/1042.

Married in 1954


Who are these film stars on this postcard, posing on the stairs of an airplane or standing nearby? And from which side of the world were they coming?

The pictured film actors are from top left to down right:
Linda Darnell (USA), Tyrone Power (USA),  Elizabeth Taylor (UK/USA),
Robert Taylor (USA) and his wife Ursula Thiess (Germany), Gina Lollobrigida (Italy) and her husband, the  physician Milko Škofič (Slovenia), Audrey Hepburn (UK) and husband Mel Ferrer (USA),
Mona Baptiste (Trinidad), Mara Lane (UK/Austria) and Gloria DeHaven (USA).

So this curious postcard must date from the mid 1950s. Ursula Thiess and Robert Taylor married in 1954, and Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer also became a couple in 1954.

Below I selected 10 dazzling pictures of these 'Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt' for you. When there was no postcard of a film actor in our collection available (yes, we try to specialise in European stars), I selected an image from that wonderful picture source Flickr. As an extra, I added a postcard with an Air France picture.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by ISV, no. B 28. Photo: MGM.

Italian actress and photojournalist Gina Lollobrigida (1927), was one of Europe’s most prominent film stars of the 1950s. ‘La Lollo’ was the first European sex symbol of the post war years and she paved the way into Hollywood for her younger colleagues Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale.

Linda Darnell
Collection: Playboy75UK @ Flickr.

American film actress Linda Darnell (1923-1965) progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theatre and film as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s and early 1950s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Tyrone Power
German postcard by Wilhelm Schulze-Witteborg Grafischer Betrieb, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Beloved Hollywood star Tyrone Power (1914-1958) may have been all-American, but he sure loved European ladies - he was married to both French Annabella and half-Dutch Linda Christian. 'Ty' was one of the great romantic film stars.

Elizabeth Taylor
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/20.

British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. She began her career as a child star, and as an adult she became known for her acting talent and beauty. 'Liz' had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences.

1943 ROBERT TAYLOR
Collection: Maria @ Flickr. Photo: Robert Taylor in 1943.

American film actor Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was one of the most popular leading men of his time. Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). Taylor married actress Ursula Thiess in 1954, and they had two children. He died of lung cancer at the age of 57.

Ursula Thiess
Mexican collectors card, no. 160. Photo: publicity still for The Iron Glove (1954).

German film star Ursula Thiess (1924–2010) was dubbed by Life magazine as the ‘most beautiful woman in the world’. Howard Hughes offered her a long-term contract to RKO, but five years later she gave up her acting career after marrying Robert Taylor. The glamorous, luscious looking actress had only starred in a handful of Hollywood movies.

Audrey Hepburn
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-5. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Paramount Film.

Elegant, talented and funny Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was a Belgian-born, British-Dutch actress and humanitarian. After a start in the European cinema she became one of the most successful Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 1960s.

mel ferrer & audrey hepburn
Collection: Fred Baby @ Flickr. Photo: Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn.

Mel Ferrer (1917-2008) was an American actor, film director, and film producer. He made his screen acting debut in Lost Boundaries (1949), and is best remembered for his roles as the injured puppeteer in the musical Lili (1953), as the villainous Marquis de Maynes in Scaramouche (1952) and as Prince Andrei in War and Peace (1956), co-starring with his then-wife, Audrey Hepburn.

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

British-Austrian actress Mara Lane (1930) was considered one of the most beautiful models in Great Britain during the early 1950s. She appeared in more than 30 English and German language films of the 1950s and early 1960s, but seems completely forgotten now.

Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016)
British postcard in the Celebrity Autographs Series, no. 192. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for So This Is Paris (Richard Quine, 1954).

Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016) was an American musical actress, with mostly supporting roles or leading lady in B movies. In Hollywood, she started as a child star then worked as a juvenile actress and finially became a leading-lady. During her long and varied career she would also perform as nightclub singer, as stage actress in Broadway and the West End and as a TV actress and hostess.

Jacques Brel
French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, Star 134. Photo: Air France / Distribution VU. Caption: Jacques Brel, 20 Novembre 1964.

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.



Source: John Brownlee (Terminal Velocity), IMDb and Wikipedia.
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