Imported from the USA: Olive Moorefield

March 26, 2017, 10:00 pm

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During the 1950s and 1960s, American singer and actress Olive Moorefield (1932) worked in Austria and West Germany. She starred on stage in musicals and operas, acted in several films, including Monpti (1957) with Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz, and Onkel Toms Hütte/Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1964), and she appeared in television shows.


German postcard by Ufa. Photo: Vogelmann / NDF / Herzog-film. Publicity still for Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 172. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).

Very unusual

Olive Moorefield was born in 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She had seven siblings. After attending the Pennsylvania College, she took singing and acting lessons. In October 1952 she debuted on Broadway in New York in the play My Darlin 'Aida.

Moorefield went on extensive European tour and settled down in 1953 in Vienna, Austria. There she received a commitment at the Vienna Volksoper. At the time, this was very unusual in Europe for a black artist. She celebrated her first success with the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate. Initially, she played the supporting role of Bianca, but later also the leading role of the Kate. Many other productions would follow in the next two decades and Moorefield became very popular among Viennese audiences.

Soon also parts in films followed. Moorefield first appeared as a singer in such Austrian films as the drama Das Licht der Liebe/The Light of Love (Robert A. Stemmle, 1954) with Paula Wessely, the comedy Liebe, die den Kopf verliert/Love that loses its head (Thomas Engel, 1956) starringPaul Hubschmid and the musical Scherben bringen Glück/Seven Years Hard Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1957) with Adrian Hoven.

She made several records and did not shy away from pop music. In Germany, she also appeared again as a singer in light entertainment as Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/To be a great lady for once (Erik Ode, 1957) and Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).

Her first bigger part was in the melancholic romantic comedy-drama Monpti/Love from Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957), starring Romy Schneider and Horst Bucholz, then Germany's biggest stars, as the young lovers. She also had a supporting part in Der schwarze Blitz/The black flash (Hans Grimm, 1958), featuring ski champion Toni Sailer.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. T 875. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 181. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2644. Photo: CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Arthur Grimm. Publicity still for Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/To be a great lady for once (Erik Ode, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. I 254. Photo: Grimm / CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa. Publicity still for Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/Once a great lady (Erik Ode, 1957).

Before Mandingo and Drum there was Uncle Tom's Cabin

Olive Moorefield had her first leading role in the cinema in the Austrian comedy Skandal um Dodo/Scandal around Dodo (Eduard von Borsody, 1959) opposite Harald Juhnke. After that she returned to guest parts as a singer in Riviera-Story/Riviera Story (Wolfgang Becker, 1961) with Ulla Jacobsson, and Straße der Verheißung/Street of Temptation (Imo Moszkowicz, 1962) starring Mario Adorf.

She had another another leading role in Onkel Toms Hütte/Uncle Tom's Cabin (Géza von Radványi, 1965). The film is based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel of the same name. In the pre-Civil War South, a sadistic plantation-owner (Herbert Lom) brutalises his slaves to the point of them having no other choice but to rebel. Always obedient, peaceful and honest old slave Tom (John Kitzmiller) plays a central role in this tragedy. Moorefield played the slave Cassy.

Jugu Abraham atIMDb: "While the film is true to Harriet Beecher Stowe's story, the director's implicit comparison of the past and present America (skyscraper skyline shown during the credits) is interesting. Eartha Kitt's song at the end is unforgettable. The film is distinctly European (the director is Hungarian) in style and the story and songs could merit a re-release." Actually, there was a curious American re-release in 1976,Uncle Tom's Cabin (Al Adamson, 1976), edited from the 1965 film but with new scenes added. It was promoted with the tagline 'Before Mandingo and Drum there was Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

In the following decade, Moorefield did not return to the cinema, but she kept appearing in the German-speaking theatre and on TV. She was Bess in the Vienna production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which was also televised. I

n 1969 Olive Moorefield married Dr. Kurt Mach, with whom she has a son, Oliver Mach. She gradually withdrew from the limelight into private life. In later years, her name (now Olive Moorefield-Mach) reappeared on the administrative side at music festivals.


Olive Moorefield sings Bongo Rock in Das alte Försterhaus (1956). Source: fritz51203 (YouTube).


Olive Moorefield sings Etwas leise Musik in Der schwarze Blitz/The black flash (1958) with Oliver Grimm. Source: fritz51203 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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Mathias Wieman

March 27, 2017, 10:00 pm

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German actor Mathias Wieman (1902-1969) starred in more than 50 films was and made Staatsschauspieler, the highest honour attainable by an actor in Germany. But a few years later he was classified as ‘persona non grata’ by Joseph Goebbels, which reduced his stage and film performances at the height of his career. After the war he became a popular supporting actor in films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 89/3, 1925-1935. Photo: Terra Film. Publicity still for Königin Luise/Queen Louise (Karl Grune, 1927) with Mady Christians.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 219. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.

Leni Riefenstahl

Mathias Wieman was born Carl Heinrich Franz Mathias Wieman in Osnabrück in 1902. He was the only son of Carl Philipp Anton Wieman and his wife Louise.

Raised in Osnabrück, Wiesbaden and Berlin, where he studied four terms of philosophy, history of art and languages, Wieman wanted to become an airplane designer and flier.

He started his acting career at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt. His debut role was Moritz Stiefel in Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening).

In the early 1920s, he was a member of the Holtorf-Truppe, a stock theatre group that included future director Veit Harlan. His fellow stage actors included his future wife, Erika Meingast, Marlene Dietrich, and Max Schreck (the vampire in Nosferatu).

Later he began working in silent films, including Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin/Mata Hari: the Red Dancer (Friedrich Feher, 1927), Feme (Richard Oswald, 1927), Königin Luise/Queen Louise (Karl Grune, 1927) opposite Mady Christians, and Das Land ohne Frauen/Bride Number 68 (Carmine Gallone, 1929) starring Conrad Veidt.

In 1930, along with Leni Riefenstahl, he appeared in the mountain film Stürme über dem Mont Blanc/Avalanche (Arnold Fanck, 1930), and in 1932 he played the male lead in Riefenstahl's Das Blaue Licht/The Blue Light (Béla Balázs, Leni Riefenstahl, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1894/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3723/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3948/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.

Actor of the State and Persona non grata

During the 1930s, at the height of his film career, Mathias Wieman acted in such productions as Mensch ohne Namen/The Man Without a Name (Gustav Ucicky, 1932), Die Herrin von Atlantis/L’ Atlantide/Queen of Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932) with Brigitte Helm, Die Gräfin von Monte Christo/The Countess of Monte Cristo (Karl Hartl, 1932), and Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen/Tales of Miss Hoffmann (Carl Lamac, 1933) with Anny Ondra,

After the rise of the Nazis he acted in Der Schimmelreiter/The Rider of the White Horse (Hans Deppe, Curt Oertel, 1934), Viktoria (Carl Hoffmann, 1935) with Luise Ullrich, Patrioten/Patriots (Karl Ritter, 1937), and Togger (Jürgen von Alten, 1937) with Paul Hartmann.

He had an international success with his appearance in Die ewige Maske/The Eternal Mask (Werner Hochbaum, 1935). The film was in 1937 nominated for an award at the Venice Film Festival, and awarded with the American National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Film.

Also in 1937, Wieman was made Staatsschauspieler, an honorary title bestowed by the German government and the highest honour attainable by an actor in Germany. In 1936 Wieman had produced the Frankenburger Würfelspiel of the Nazi playwright Eberhard Wolfgang Möller in association with the 1936 Summer Olympics and the inauguration of the Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne, and also played the Black Knight.

However, Wieman was eventually classed as ‘persona non grata’ by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda who was responsible for film production in Germany.This reduced Wieman’s activity. He took part in a few films like Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941), Das andere Ich/The other I (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941), Paracelsus (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1943) starring Werner Krauss, Träumerei/Dreaming (Harald Braun, 1944) opposite Hilde Krahl, and Wie sagen wir es unseren Kindern/How Do We Tell Our Children (Hans Deppe, 1945).

After the failed 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Mathias and his wife Erika helped the family of Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg. This assistance, at great risk to themselves, is detailed by Charlotte von der Schulenburg in the book Courageous Hearts: Women and the Anti-Hitler Plot of 1944.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3306/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3435/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3571/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Binz.

Alfred Nobel

After World War II, Mathias Wieman was able to work more intensively in the film business again, normally in supporting roles. To his fairly well-known work belongs Herz der Welt/The Alfred Nobel Story (Harald Braun, 1952) in which Wieman portrayed Dr. Alfred Nobel, Solange du da bist/As Long as You're Near Me (Harald Braun, 1953), Der letzte Sommer/The Last Summer (Harald Braun, 1954), and Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Ulrich Erfurth, 1955).

He appeared opposite Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Girl and the Legend (Josef von Báky, 1957), and opposite Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini's La Paura/Fear (Roberto Rossellini, 1954).

Two of these films were in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: Herz Der Welt in 1952, and Solange Du Da Bist in 1954.

He also made many records of classic stories where he would narrate the story accompanied by orchestral music. On stage, Wieman appeared in countless productions, including Goethe's Faust, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, and Im Dickicht der Städte (In The Jungle of Cities) by Bertolt Brecht.

After the war Mathias Wieman and his wife Erika Meingast moved to Switzerland. In 1969 he died of cancer in Zurich, soon followed by his wife. The couple had no children.


East-German postcard by VEB Volkskunstverlag Reichenbach i.V., no. G 704, 1956. Photo: NDF / Schorchtfilm. Publicity still for Herz der Welt/The Alfred Nobel Story (Harald Braun, 1952).


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3078. Photo: Filmex NV. Publicity still for Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Girl and the Legend (Josef von Báky, 1957) with Romy Schneider and Mathias Wieman.

Sources: Dieter Svensson (Mathias Wieman Site), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Ada Reeve

March 28, 2017, 10:00 pm

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British stage and film actress Ada Reeve (1874-1966) was much loved on three continents. She was one of the most popular British singing comediennes of her time, and considered to be a headliner in variety and vaudeville. She was endowed with a softness of voice and delicacy of performance that quite set her apart from virtually all of her more raucous contemporaries in the music halls and popularised many memorable songs.


British postcard by the Philco Publishing Co., London, no. 3050 A. Photo: Bassano.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4167. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield.

The Family Meal Ticket

Ada Reeve was born as Adelaide Mary Isaacs in London, England, in 1874. She was the first of many children of minor actor Charles Reeves and dancer Harriet Saunders.

‘Little Ada Reeves’ made her first stage appearance at just four years old in the pantomime Red Riding Hood at the Pavilion Theatre in London in 1878. A series of pantomime and dramatic roles followed. Her talent, even at so early an age was obvious and Ada soon became the family meal ticket.

As a teenager, it became apparent that musical comedy was Ada's particular talent and she began working as a music hall performer under the name Ada Reeve. She soon became firmly established as one of the principal light comedy artistes and sang many songs which attained great popularity.

Her She Was a Clergyman’s Daughter was a seemingly innocent, but actually risqué music hall song about a clergyman's daughter who was not as naive or charitable as she would have you imagine.

Reeve performed the song in a demure costume of a flounced dress and bonnet, letting the audience in on the racy innuendos of the song through knowing winks and gestures.


British postcard in the Smart Novels Series by Dover Street Studios.


British postcard. Sent by mail in 1905.

Gaiety Girl

In 1894, Ada Reeve married actor Bert Gilbert and returned to mainstream theatre, first touring as Haidee in Don Juan.

Later that year she became one of George Edwardes famous Gaiety girls and made her West End Debut as Bessie Brent in The Shop Girl. She neglected to tell Edwardes that she was pregnant when offered the part, and had to leave midway through the run of 546 performances as her condition became more delicate.

She returned in All Abroad at the Criterion Theatre (1895), and as the title character in the hit The Girl from Paris (1896) at the Duke of York's Theatre.

She and her husband then toured Australia. However, the marriage with Gilbert had turned sour, with Reeve claiming extreme cruelty and petitioning for divorce while still in Australia. On the return sea journey to England, Reeve was forced to appeal to the captain of the ship for protection from him.

Once in England, the couple separated, and the divorce was finalised in 1900. Ada Reeve settled in London with her two daughters, Bessie Adelaide Hazlewood (1895) and Lillian Mary "Goody" Hazlewood (1897).


British postcard by Davidson Bros. in the Glossyphoto Series, no. 1285.


British postcard in The Star Series by G.D.&D., London.

Variety and Vaudeville

In 1898, Reeve played the role of Madame Celeste in Milord, Sir Smith, followed by the role of Cleopatra in The Great Caesar in 1899.

Later that year, she created the role of Lady Holyrood in the hit musical comedy Florodora at the Lyric Theatre. In 1900-1901, she again toured Australia, in Florodora.

Reeve joined the cast of the hit musical San Toy in 1901, and later took over the title role from Marie Tempest.

Reeve remarried in 1902 to manager and actor Wilfred Cotton. Under his management, she played Miss Ventnor in The Medal and the Maid (1903) and the title role in Winnie Brooke, Widow (1904). In 1906 and 1909, she toured South Africa with her husband, becoming very popular.

Over the following years, Reeve played in variety shows in England and enjoyed extensive foreign tours, including South Africa and the US in 1911, South Africa in 1913, Australia in 1914, Australia and South Africa in 1918, South Africa in 1920, Australia from 1922 to 1924, and in 1926 and 1929, the last time playing in vaudeville.


British postcard in the Valentine Series. Photo: Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin). Possibly this was a publicity still for the stage musical San Toy. Reeve joined the cast of this hit musical in 1901, playing Dudley and later taking over the title role from Marie Tempest.


British postcard in the Milton Photolette Series, no. 42 by Woolstone Bros., London. Sent by mail in 1908.

Take It For A Fact

Ada Reeve was absent from England from 1929 to 1935. Both of her daughters, Bessie and Goody, had in the meantime settled in Australia, where both married and had children. Goody became a well known radio personality, while Bessie died of an illness in 1954.

Upon Ada's return to England, she appeared in cabarets, revues and variety. Her next dramatic role was in 1940 in the musical Black Velvet.

During the 1940s and 1950s she would appear between stage performances in nine films. The first was the fantasy They Came to a City (Basil Dearden, 1945) starring Googie Withers. In this film she repeated her stage performance as charwoman Mrs. Batley in J.B. Priestley's play They Came To A City.

However, her first film appearance had been some 25 years earlier, in the silent film Comradeship (Maurice Elvey, 1919), a war drama starring Lily Elsie.

Her other film roles included supporting parts in the romantic comedy Dear Mr. Prohack (Thornton Freeland, 1949) with Cecil Parker, the Film Noir Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950) starring Richard Widmark, and I Believe in You (Basil Dearden, Michael Relph, 1952) with Celia Johnson.

At the age of 80, she retired from the stage but made two more films, the last of which was at the age of 83, in the comedy A Passionate Stranger (Muriel Box, 1957) with Ralph Richardson. She also appeared on TV in episodes of Lilli Palmer Theatre (1956) and Nicholas Nickleby (1957).

Ada Reeve died in London, in 1966, at the age of 92. She could look back on a career that had spanned almost eighty years from her first childhood performance on stage to her last veteran appearance on film. Her autobiography was published as Take It For A Fact.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 7428 D. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Publicity still for the stage play Butterflies with Iris Hoey, Stella St. Audrie, C. Hayden Coffin, John Bardsley, Ada Reeve and Louis Bradfield. Butterflies is a musical play in three acts by William J. Locke, lyrics by T.H. Read and music by J.A. Robertson. Produced at the Apollo Theatre, London in 1908.


British postcard, 1954. Caption: Me on my 80th Birthday. With best wishes, Ada Reeve.

Sources: Don Gillan (Stage Beauty), Martina Lipton (It’s Behind You), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017)

March 29, 2017, 10:00 pm

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On 28 March 2017, German actress Christine Kaufmann passed away. Only seven, she made her film debut in an adaptation of Im weißen Rößl/The White Horse Inn (1952). As an adult, Kaufmann moved to Hollywood and married Tony Curtis. Later she appeared in films by Werner Schroeter and Rainer Werner Fassbinder and became 'Germany's most beautiful grandmother'. Christine Kaufmann was 72.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/60.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-321. Photo: Klaus Collignon / Ufa.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 157.


German autograph card by Home Shopping Europe.

Lolita

Christine Maria Kaufmann was born in Lengdorf, Styria in what is now Austria, in 1945. Her father was a German Luftwaffe officer and her mother a French doctor who gave up her practice to help further Christine's career.

She grew up in München (Munich) and trained as a ballerina at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and later at the Staatsopernballett (Munich Opera). She started her film career at the age of seven with a small role in the musical Im weißen Rößl/White Horse Inn (Willi Forst, 1952).

The film which brought her fame was Rosen-Resli/Rose-Girl Resli (Harald Reinl, 1954), when she was only nine. The film was a gigantic success in post-war Germany and she moved millions of Germans to tears.

Soon she appeared in such films as Der schweigende Engel/The Silent Angel (Harald Reinl, 1954), Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh'n/When the Alpine Roses Bloom (Hans Deppe, Richard Häussler, 1955) with Hertha Feiler, and Ein Herz schlägt für Erika/A Heart Beats for Erika (Harald Reinl, 1956) with Grethe Weiser.

She gained international recognition when she played alongside Carla Gravina in Primo Amore/First Love (Mario Camerini, 1958), and with Steve Reeves in the Peplum Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard, Sergio Leone, 1959).

Kaufmann c-starred with Kirk Douglas in Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961). She won the Golden Globe that year as the Most Promising Newcomer for her role. The press of the period was less concerned with Kaufmann's histrionic skills than with the revealing bikini which she wore in her early scenes.

That year she also appeared opposite Gert Fröbe in the interesting thriller Via Mala (Paul May, 1961), and with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Un nommé La Rocca/A Man Names Rocca (Jean Becker, 1961).

The following year she appeared in the uneven escape film Escape from East Berlin (Robert Siodmak, 1962) opposite Don Murray, but she turned down the title role of Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) which went to Sue Lyon.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Wego / NF/ Michaelis. Publicity still for Ein Herz schlägt für Erika/A Heart beats for Erika (Harald Reinl, 1956).


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen. Retail price: 10 Pfg. Photo: Lantin / Panorama Film.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2986. Photo: Erwin Schneider.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1436.


German postcard, no. 10. Photo: Melodie.

Beauty

Christine Kaufmann was 17 when she met Tony Curtis on the set of the big budget epic Taras Bulba (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) in Argentina. Curtis divorced his wife Janet Leigh and married Kaufmann in 1963. They appeared together in the frothy Universal comedy Wild and Wonderful (Michael Anderson, 1964). She briefly retired from films to give birth to two daughters, Alexandra (1964) and Allegra (1966). The pair divorced in 1968.

Kaufmann resumed her career in Germany, which she had interrupted during her marriage. The TV mini-series Wie ein Blitz/Like A Flash (Rolf von Sydow, 1960) became a huge success. On TV she also appeared in Krimis like Der Kommissar (1972) and Derrick (1977).

For the cinema she often worked with director Werner Schroeter and his star Magdalena Montezuma in such films as Der Tod der Maria Malibran/The Death of Maria Malibran (1971), Willow Springs (1973), Goldflocken/Gold Flakes (1976) and Tag der Idioten/Day of the Idiots (1981) with Carole Bouquet. She also acted in several films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder like the TV film Welt am Draht/World on Wire (1973), Lili Marleen (1981) and Lola (1981).

Other international films were the Giallo Enigma rosso/Virgin Killer (Alberto Negrin, 1978) with Fabio Testi, the cult favourite Bagdad Café/Out of Rosenheim (Percy Adlon, 1987), and the comedy Haider lebt - 1. April 2021/Haider Lives - a April 2021 (Peter Kern, 2002).

In 1995, after posing nude for Playboy Magazine at the age of 54, she was nicknamed 'Germany's most beautiful grandmother'. In later years, Christine Kaufmann regularly appeared in TV series and also had her own line of cosmetics. She wrote several books about beauty and health, as well as two autobiographies.

Christine Kaufmann died on 28 March 2017 in Munich, Germany from leukaemia. She was 72. After her marriage to Tony Curtis, Kaufmann was married to Kaufmann married the television director Achim Lenz (1974-76), musician and actor Reno Eckstein (1979-1982) and illustrator Klaus Zey (1997-2011).


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


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/61.


German postcard by Starpostkarten-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 1013. Photo: Lothar Winkler.


German postcard by Kolibri Fotokarte, Minden/Westf., no. 2396. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Monsieur Cognac/Wild and Wonderful (Michael Anderson, 1964).


Scene of Taras Bulba (1962). Source: GSMovieMoments (YouTube).

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

Musidora

March 30, 2017, 10:00 pm

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This afternoon a new book on the early cinema is launched at EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Women in Silent Cinema. Histories of Fame and Fate by Dutch film historian Annette Förster. This wonderful book (yes, I've already read it) offers comprehensive accounts of the professional itineraries of three women in the international silent cinema: Dutch stage and film actress Adriënne Solser, French actress and filmmaker Musidora and Canadian-born actress and filmmaker Nell Shipman. EFSP congratulates the author!

With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin and exotic wardrobes, French actress Musidora (1889-1957) created an unforgettable vamp persona. She is best known for her roles in the Louis Feuillade serials Les Vampires (1915-1916) as Irma Vep, the voluptuous, amoral villainess, and in Judex (1917) as Marie Verdier. At a time when many women in the film industry were relegated to acting, Musidora also achieved some success as a producer and director. Later she became a journalist and wrote about cinema.


French postcard by Editions Gordon & Cie., Vincennes (Seine).


French postcard by Editions Sid, Paris, no. 8039. Photo: G.I. Manuel Frères.

Gift of the Muses

Musidora was born Jeanne Roques in Paris, France in 1889. She was raised by a feminist mother and socialist father.

She began her career in the arts at an early age, writing her first novel at the age of fifteen and acting on the stage with the likes of Colette, one of her lifelong friends. She performed in revues at French music halls and cabarets, such as the Folies Bergère, Concert Mayol, and La Cigale. Jeanne adopted the stage name Musidora (Greek for "gift of the muses"), after the heroine in Théophile Gautier's novel Fortunio.

She made her film debut already around 1909, but in 1914, she started to appear regularly in short silent films like Les miseres de l'aiguille/The misery of the needle (Raphael Clamour, 1914). She starred in a few silent films by Gaston Ravel, including La bouquetière des Catalans/The Flower Girl of Catalonia (Gaston Ravel, 1914) and Le trophée du Zouave/The Zouave trophy (Gaston Ravel, 1915).

She also began to work with the highly successful film director Louis Feuillade, and appeared in a dozen of his short silent films for Gaumont, including Severo Torelli (Louis Feuillade, 1914), Tu n'épouseras jamais un avocet/You will never marry a lawyer (Louis Feuillade, 1914) featuring Marcel Lévesque, Le calvaire/The Calvary (Louis Feuillade, 1914) with René Navarre, and Les noces d'argent/Silver Wedding (Louis Feuillade, 1915) with Édouard Mathé.

Musidora then appeared in his hugely successful serial Les Vampires/The Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915-1916) as cabaret singer Irma Vep (an anagram of ‘vampire’) opposite Édouard Mathé as crusading journalist Philippe Guerande. Les Vampires was not actually about vampires, but about a criminal gang-cum-secret society inspired by the exploits of the real-life Bonnot Gang.

Musidora’s mystique was accentuated in Les Vampires by her large, dark eyes and wearing a black leotard, hood and tights. Besides playing a leading role in the Vampires' crimes, Irma Vep also spends two episodes under the hypnotic control of Moreno, a rival criminal who makes her his lover and induces her to assassinate the Grand Vampire. The series used gadgets like poison rings, poison fountain pens, cabinets with fake back panels etc. It was an immediate success with French cinema-goers and ran in 10 installments until 1916.

After the Les Vampires serial, Musidora starred as Diana Monti in Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917), another popular Feuillade serial filmed in 1916 but delayed for release until 1917 because of World War I. Judex is a twelve part serial following the adventures of the masked vigilante Judex (René Cresté) as he fights against criminals led by the corrupt banker Favrauxom. Les Vampires and Judex have been lauded by critics like André Bazin as the birth of avant-garde cinema and cited by filmmakers as Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel as being extremely influential in their desires to become directors.


French postcard by Maury's International Attraction Circuit. Photo: publicity still for Severo Torelli (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Severo Torelli was a French silent feature, produced by Gaumont and based on a 1883 play by François Coppée. Fernand Herrmann played the title role and the female lead was for Renée Carl (Dona Pia). Musidora played Portia.


Musidora as Irma Vep in Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915-1916). Collection: The Island of Cinema @ Flickr.

The most deserving girl of France

Musidora also starred in films by other directors, like in Le pied qui étreint (Jacques Feyder, 1916) - a funny send-up of the Feuillade's serials, the silent adventure film Les chacals/The Jackals (André Hugon, 1917), starring André Nox, La jeune fille la plus méritante de France/The most deserving girl of France (Germaine Dulac, 1918), and Mademoiselle Chiffon (André Hugon, 1919), with Suzanne Munte.

Apart from her acting career, she became a film producer and director under the tutelage of her mentor, Louis Feuillade. Her first film was an adaptation of a novel by her friend Colette, La vagabonda/The Vagabond (Musidora, Eugenio Perego, 1918). Between the late 1910s and early 1920s, she directed ten films, all of which are lost with the exception of two: the tragic romance Soleil et ombre/Sol y sombre/Sun and Shadow (Jaime De Lasuen, Musidora, 1922) and La terre des taureaux/La tierra de los toros/The Land of the Bulls (Musidora, 1924), both of which were filmed in Spain, starring the Cordoban mounted bullfighter Antonio Cañero.

In Italy, she produced and directed La Flamme Cachée/The Hidden Flame (Roger Lion, Musidora, 1918) based on another work by Colette. At a time when many women in the film industry were relegated to acting, Musidora achieved a degree of success as a producer and director.

Annette Förster writes in an article at Women Film Pioneers Project: “While her films were favorably reviewed in the press, Musidora as producer reputedly only lost money on them. It remains unclear whether this was due to the terms of her contract, as she claimed in a 1946 interview with Renee Sylvaire, or to the fact that the films failed at the box office.”

Her final film role was as Delilah in the drama Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926) After her career as an actress was over, she focused on writing and producing. Her last film was an homage to her mentor Feuillade entitled La Magique Image/The Magic Image (1950), which she both directed and starred in.

Late in her life she would occasionally work in the ticket booth of the Cinematheque Francaise. Few patrons realised that the older woman in the foyer might be starring in the film they were watching.

At 68, Musidora died in Paris, France in 1957 and was laid to rest in the Cimetière de Bois-le-Roi. Musidora was married to Dr. Clément Marot from 1927 till 1944. The union produced one child, Clément Marot Jr.


French postcard, no. 5035. Caption: Rêverie. -LL. Several online sources identified this bathing beauty as Musidora, but we're not sure. Rêverie translates as Daydream, LL possibly refers to Les Landes, the department in southwestern France with its beautiful beaches.


French collectors card in the series 'Portrait de Stars; L'encyclopédie du Cinéma' by Edito Service, 1992. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Française. Caption: Musidora, 1915, France.

Sources: Annette Förster (Women Film Pioneers Project), Bobb Edwards (Find A Grave), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Wanna Be Marilyn

March 31, 2017, 10:00 pm

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At 5 March, there was a carte blanche guest post by my friend, collector Carla Bosch (a.k.a. Meiter). She did a wonderful post on her collection of Marilyn Monroe postcards, Collecting Marilyn. While researching her post, Carla discovered many Marilyn wannabes:

"In my list of favourite old Marilyn cards, I said it would be a nice idea to make a list with Marilyn wannabes, lookalikes, or clones. Bob thought this a nice idea too, so I set to work. I did not realise what kind of trouble I brought upon myself. There are people who wanted to look like her, people who were compared to her, but didn't want to.  Even now famous people try to imitate Marilyn.

There are many lists to be found on the internet with Marilyn wannabes. Some of those surprised me: for example Mariah Carey. She is not one who first comes to mind when you think of Marilyn. I read Mariah bought Marilyn's white baby grand piano and named one of her children after her. Okay, that does not make her Marilyn yet. And then I saw a picture with Mariah Carey imitating Marilyn Monroe when she climbs out of the swimming pool in Something's gotta give. I was dumbfounded: Mariah is Marilyn.

Another actress whom I thought a surprise is Michelle Williams. To be honest, I only knew her as the wife of Heath Ledger in Broke Back Mountain and his fiance in real life. But then I saw her in My Week with Marilyn. I was impressed. I have respect for Michelle as an actress since that movie. 

I also came across socialite Paris Hilton. She thinks she is the iconic blonde of this century, like Marilyn Monroe was of her century. Hmm. Paris thinks she is a lot of things: a singer, a dj, a business woman, even an actress, but Marilyn.....? No way.

There are many photo shoots with famous actresses posing as Marilyn Monroe. Famous is Lindsay Lohan posing nude as Marilyn Monroe in her last sitting. Bert Stern took those world famous pictures all over again. I am not impressed by Lindsay Lohan. But another comparison entered my mind: Marilyn and Lindsay both had / have trouble dealing with the film industry resulting in on and off addictions to drugs and alcohol. Lindsay said she has no intention to follow Marilyn Monroe or Heath Ledger. Yes, the same Heath Ledger as Michelle Williams' fiance, Hollywood is a small world.

Other photo shoots I found were with Scarlett Johansson, Mira Sorvino, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani. Even Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman posed as Marilyn. One of the most famous Marilyn imitators is Madonna. I will come to her later, because I actually have cards of Madonna in my collection. 

Let it suffice that many people want to look like Marilyn Monroe and try to build a career around her image. I decided to restrict the list to cards I have in my collection:

1. Mamie van Doren

German postcard by Bild und Ton, Postkartenverlag P. Weizmann, no. 546. Collection: Meiter.

When Marilyn Monroe rose to fame in the fifties, the 'blonde bombshell' was born. Every film studio wanted to have their own blonde bombshell. Mamie van Doren, Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe: 'The Three M's' were the most famous. Mamie van Doren was promoted as 'the next Marilyn' by Universal Studios. She starred in some movies and acquired a reputation as 'bad girl'. She became famous for her tight sweaters, swimming suits, and low-cut cleavage. She even spent a short time in prison because her naked back could be seen in a shower scene in Girls Town (1959). After her career she could still cash in on her sex bomb image (indirectly Marilyn's) and published an autobiography, posed with Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson for Vanity Fair, and now and again appeared in TV programmes and (low budget) films. Mamie is still alive and kicking. She maintains, together with her 5th husband, her website where various merchandise can be obtained.

2. Jayne Mansfield

French postcard by Edition A La Carte. Photo: Filmhistorisches Bildarchiv Peter W. Engelmeier. Collection: Meiter.

Jayne Mansfield was also known as 'The Poor Man's Monroe'. In 1956 Mamie van Doren turned down a role in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (by the way, I possess a paperback which is called Will Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe by Pete Martin...with 43 luscious pictures which clearly prove that NOTHING could spoil Marilyn) and was replaced by rival-blonde Jayne Mansfield. The card I have chosen of her is a modern one: Jayne Mansfield and Tom Ewell in The Girl Can't Help It, 1956. The comparison is obvious: Jayne looks like a spitting image of Marilyn. Tom Ewell played with Marilyn in The Seven Year Itch in 1955. Jayne auditioned for a role in The Seven Year Itch, but was rejected. For The Girl Can't Help It, Fox promoted Mansfield as “Marilyn Monroe king-sized”. She was never able to get rid of this image, a sexy woman with little brains. Marilyn's hips were considered too broad to pursue a modelling career. Jayne Mansfield's breasts were too emphatically promoted to be considered a serious actress. A pity: both had more potential than breasts and hips.

3. Diana Dors

British postcard. Photo: Rank. Collection: Meiter.

Diana Dors was referred to as 'the English Marilyn Monroe'. She did not like that comparison. She wanted to be appreciated and remembered for her acting career. Marilyn wanted the same thing. Yet, Diana Dors is not only remembered because of her film career. (I somewhere read she played in some of the worst films ever made). She is also remembered because of her tumultuous private life: her three marriages, numerous affairs, and the sex parties she hosted. Marilyn was an icon when she was alive, Britain realised 'their' Diana was one after she died. Yet, Marilyn was trendsetter as a bombshell: Marilyn led, others followed. Mamie van Doren, Barbara Nichols, Cleo Moore, Jayne Mansfield, Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes), Sandra Dorne, Diana Dors, and many other actresses: they all copied Marilyn's clothes, her hair-do, make-up styles, her poses. All 'clones' struggled to be taken seriously as actresses and they all had their moment of fame. Later on, however, most of them had difficulties maintaining this status and often did not get rid of the sex bomb image.

4. Jester Naefe

German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, no. 1954. Photo: publicity still for Die goldene Brücke/The Golden Bridge (Paul Verhoeven, 1956). Collection: Meiter.

Jester Naefe was called 'The German Marilyn Monroe'. Gregory Peck called her one of the most attractive and beautiful women in the world. I think she looks like the young Marilyn. Before Marilyn started to dye her hair blonde, she was a redhead. There is a German postcard which I do not have in my possession, but which is on EFSP; it looks like this card, but then Jester is …. a redhead, a young Marilyn. Jester Naefe did not have to dye her hair. She made a career as an actress, but had to give it up because of her disease multiple sclerosis. She died after an aggressive progression of it. I think that is why I have a weak spot for Jester: I have m.s. too. Or is that too personal?

5. Brigitte Bardot

French postcard by Edition du Globe, no. 316. Collection: Meiter.

The French answer to MM was BB. She was one of the few European actresses who were popular in the United States. The term 'sex kitten' was for the first time used to describe Brigitte Bardot. Later on, this term was used to describe other sexually provocative actresses. I saw an interview with BB in which she talks about Marilyn. She has only positive things to say about her: she thought Marilyn was beautiful, sexy, funny, but also vulnerable. She said Marilyn was misunderstood and being exploited. And this combination eventually killed her. The postcard I chose is one with a young Brigitte Bardot. The picture was taken by Sam Levin. Levin contributed to BB's sensual image in the beginning of her career. I think this is such an example: a very young Brigitte looking coyly, yet also cheeky in the camera. And this might be armchair psychology, but I think Brigitte Bardot realised in time how devastating the influence of the film world could be. She herself attempted suicide in 1960, and after first announcing she would retire, made her last film in 1973 when she was 39. Sensible girl.

6. Jeanne Moreau

German postcard by Universum-Film AG, no. FK 1015. Collection: Meiter.

A 'misfit' in this list is Jeanne Moreau. There is nothing to connect Moreau and Monroe. Moreau is one of France's most accomplished actresses. At the start of her career she appeared in some B-movies and was not considered photogenic, because she refused to wear make up. No make up? Marilyn could not go without. Yet, I picked Jeanne Moreau, because I chose a postcard of her in my first list as one of my favourites. It reminds me of a picture that Marilyn had taken as 'prom-photo'. When I went through my cards looking for Marilyn lookalikes I came across another card of Jeanne: again I was struck by the resemblance to a young Marilyn. And again: I know there could not be two more different actresses and I cannot find any similarities, apart from being both actresses. So Moreau is absolutely not a wannabe lookalike of Monroe, yet those postcards! They do remind me very much of Marilyn.

7. Grace Kelly

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 278. Collection: Meiter.

Once upon a time there was a prince: Rainier, Prince of Monaco. Monaco was in a poor state and Rainier was considered to be a spoilt playboy prince who loved fast cars and pretty women. However, he decided to modernise the country and did so with the help of his friend, the rich Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. When Monaco became prosperous again, Aristotle decided it was time for Rainier to marry. Preferably a glamorous American actress: this would create a bond with one of the most powerful countries and wealthy industries in the world. Onassis suggested.... Marilyn Monroe. They sent her a letter. Marilyn found it an amusing idea and referred to Rainier as “Prince Reindeer”. She declined the proposal, because she had just started dating Arthur Miller and wanted to be respected as an actress. That is the reason why Grace Kelly has to be in this list. Marilyn was not a princess, Grace Kelly was. The day Grace married Rainier, Marilyn sent her a telegram to congratulate her that she “had found a way out of this business”. Apparently this was not the way Marilyn had in mind.

And now for the more modern cards and stars. As I said, I don't have too many of those, but here are two:

8. Kylie Minogue

British postcard by Heroes, no. SPC1069. Collection: Meiter.

Australian singer Kylie Minogue is not one to imitate or who wants to look like Marilyn. She was, however, one of the artists who imitated Marilyn and playbacked (nobody could match Marilyn singing, so Kylie had to playback) Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend on the little Marilyn Monroe's tribute show at the celebration of Fox Sudios, Australia. Her latest album Kiss Me Once has pictures that do remind of Marilyn. On the deluxe version, there is a picture of Kylie Minogue posing on the beach. She is dressed in a pink fifties-style dress, wearing a blonde wig. She posted the picture on Instagram with the hashtag 'Mr. President'... There are more pictures of Kylie looking like Marilyn. Yet, I do not have the impression it was all predetermined. Kylie Minogue just resembles Marilyn Monroe unintentionally and unwillingly.

9. Madonna

Italian postcard by Modric Editoria D'Arte, no. MX 022. Marilyn Monroe as Lilian Russell. Collection: Meiter.

Madonna, however, is quite a different story. She grew up idolising Marilyn and built her entire career round her image. She blonded her hair, drew a beauty spot near her mouth, and as a publicity stunt she even dated John F. Kennedy Jr. She re-enacted Marilyn's Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend in the clip for Material Girl, imitating her hairstyle, mannerisms and outfits. In fact, Madonna's entire Blond Ambition Tour was built round Marilyn's range of appearances. As this postcard shows Madonna is a different Marilyn: compared to Marilyn, Madonna is crude. One of Marilyn's best known scenes is when she stands above a subway grating and her dress goes up. This was a box office hit. Madonna tried to match this image by using rude language, making provocative video clips, spreading her legs when posing for advertisements. Yes, they are both icons in their own way. And it probably has something to do with the zeitgeist, but Madonna is a rather vulgar version of Marilyn and is still overshadowed by her.

10. Marilyn as Lillian Russell

Italian postcard by Modric Editoria D'Arte, no. MX 022. Marilyn Monroe as Lilian Russell. Collection: Meiter.

Finally: Marilyn was / is imitated by admirers, lookalikes, wannabes, and parasites. Yet Marilyn herself imitated astonishingly well too. In 1957 Richard Avedon made a photo shoot with her. Marilyn imitated 5 famous sexy women: Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Theda Bara, Marlene Dietrich, and Lillian Russell. The only postcard I have in my possession is the one with Marilyn as Lillian Russell (I doubt whether there are postcards of the other imitations).

Lillian Russell was a famous actress and singer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She starred in operettas, burlesques, even a few motion pictures. She was also known for her beauty and social life. When she was older she became a popular lecturer, a campaigner for women's suffrage, and contributor to the passage of the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924 (which would indirectly led to her death in 1922). All I can say is that I don't know Lillian, but from the pictures I have seen, she was a very attractive woman with an expressive face. Marilyn makes a perfect Lillian Russell. There was more to Marilyn than just Marilyn Monroe.

And that is my list. Again, I loved the reading and searching for information. I came across postcards in my collection I did not realise were there. They remain a treasure. My treasure. Pff, enough!"

Thank you very much, Carla, for this delicious fun post!

Imported from the USA: Tina Louise

April 1, 2017, 10:00 pm

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American actress, singer, and author Tina Louise (1934) began her career on stage during mid-1950s and became a popular pin-up model, before landing her breakthrough role in the film drama God's Little Acre (1958). She received the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year and landed starring roles in Hollywood movies, like The Trap (1959), The Hangman (1959), and For Those Who Think Young (1964), and several Italian films. She is now best remembered for the TV comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964-1967).


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor. Photo: publicity still for The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959).

It's Time for Tina

Tina Louise was born Tina Blacker in 1934 in New York City. An only child, she was raised by her mother, Betty Horn (born Myers) Blacker, a fashion model. Tina's father, Joseph Blacker, was a candy store owner in Brooklyn and later an accountant.

Only two years old, Tina got her first role, after being seen in an ad for her father's candy store. She played numerous roles until she decided it was best to focus on school work. The name ‘Louise’ was allegedly added during her senior year in high school when she mentioned to her drama teacher that she was the only girl in the class without a middle name. He selected the name ‘Louise’ and it stuck.

Tina Louise attended Miami University in Ohio. By the age of 17, she began studying acting, singing and dancing. She studied acting under Sanford Meisner at the prestigious Neighbourhood Playhouse in Manhattan.

Her acting debut came in 1952 in the Bette Davis musical revue Two's Company, followed by roles in other Broadway productions, such as John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953) with Harry Belafonte, The Fifth Season (1953), and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955).

She appeared in such early live television dramas as Studio One (1956), Producers' Showcase (1956), and Appointment with Adventure. In 1957, she appeared on Broadway in the hit musical Li'l Abner, based on the famous comic strip character created by Al Capp. Her album, It's Time for Tina, was released that year, with songs such as Embraceable You and I'm in the Mood for Love.

During her early acting years, she was offered modelling jobs, including as a rising starlet, who along with Jayne Mansfield, was a product advocate in the 1958 Frederick's of Hollywood catalogue, and appeared on the cover of several pinup magazines such as Adam, Sir! and Modern Man. Her later pictorials for Playboy (May 1958; April 1959) were arranged by Columbia Pictures studio in an effort to further promote the young actress.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 997. Presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959).

Viva l'Italia!

In 1958, Tina Louise made her Hollywood film debut in God's Little Acre (Anthony Mann, 1958), based on Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel of the same name. The film was an entry in the Venice Film Festival.

She became an in-demand leading lady for major stars like Robert Taylor in The Hangman (Michael Curtiz, 1959), Richard Widmark in The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959), and Robert Ryan in Day of the Outlaw (André de Toth, 1959).

She often played sombre roles quite unlike the glamorous pin-up photographs she had become famous for in the late 1950s. She turned down roles in Li'l Abner and Operation Petticoat taking roles in the Italian cinema.

She starred opposite Rossano Brazzi and Sylva Koscina in the historical drama L'assedio di Siracusa/Siege of Syracuse (Pietro Francisci, 1960), about the Roman Siege of Syracuse, which took place between 214 and 212 B.C., during the Second Punic War with Carthage.

Among her other notable Italian film credits was the historical epic Viva l'Italia!/Garibaldi (1960), directed by Roberto Rossellini, that concerned Italy's historic national hero Garibaldi's (Renzo Ricci) efforts to unify the Italian states in 1860.

When Louise returned to the United States, she began studying with Lee Strasberg and eventually became a member of the Actors Studio. She appeared in a 1962 episode of The Real McCoys, the Walter Brennan sitcom, and in the beach party film For Those Who Think Young (Leslie H. Martinson, 1964), with Bob Denver, prior to the development of Gilligan's Island.

In 1964, she co-starred with Carol Burnett in the Broadway musical Fade Out – Fade In. She left the musical to portray movie star Ginger Grant on the situation comedy Gilligan's Island (1964-1967), after the part was turned down by Jayne Mansfield. The role did make Louise a pop icon of the era, and one of the greatest of television's all-time sex symbols.

However, Louise was unhappy with the role and worried that it would typecast her. After the series ended in 1967, she continued to work in film and made numerous guest appearances in various television series. She appeared in the Matt Helm spy spoof The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1969) with Dean Martin and Elke Sommer. Louise played a doomed suburban housewife in the original The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1975), and both the film and her performance were well received.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/63.

Grittier roles

Tina Louise attempted to shed her comedic image by assaying grittier roles, including a guest appearance as a heroin addict in an episode of the TV series Kojak (1974), as well as a co-starring role as an Southern prison guard in the women-in-prison TV movie Nightmare in Badham County (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1976). Her other television films of the period included Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (Sam ‘O Steen, 1976), SST: Death Flight (David Lowell Rich, 1977), and Friendships, Secrets and Lies (Marlene Laird, Ann Zane Shanks, 1979).

She played J.R. Ewing's secretary on the first season of the legendary soap opera Dallas (1978–1979). Her character was finally killed off. In France, she appeared in the crime film Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984) with Lee Marvin and Miou-Miou. In the fall of 1984, she replaced Jo Ann Pflug as Taylor Chapin on the syndicated soap opera Rituals after Pflug refused to do love scenes with co-star George Lazenby due to her religious beliefs. After a few months, however, Louise did not renew her own contract and the character was written out.

She later made cameo appearances on the network daytime soaps Santa Barbara and All My Children. Louise declined to participate in any of the three reunion television films for Gilligan's Island. Despite maintaining an adequate career after the show's run, she kept claiming that the show actually ruined her career. The role of Ginger was recast with Judith Baldwin and Constance Forslund.

Although she did not appear in these television movies, she made brief walk-on appearances on a few talk shows and specials for Gilligan's Island reunions, including Good Morning America (1982), The Late Show (1988) and the TV Land award show (2004) with the other surviving cast members.

Wikipedia: “In the 1990s, she was reunited with costars Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson in an episode of Roseanne. She did not reunite with them for the television film Surviving Gilligan's Island (2001), co-produced by Wells. She was portrayed by Kristen Dalton in the television film. Her relations with series star Denver were rumoured to be strained, but in 2005, she wrote a brief, affectionate memorial to him in the year-end farewell issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Later film roles included a co-starring appearance in the Robert Altman comedy O.C. and Stiggs (1987) as well as the award winning satire Johnny Suede (Tom DiCillo, 1992) starring Brad Pitt, and the Australian comedy Welcome to Woop Woop (Stephan Elliott, 1997) starring Johnathon Schaech and Rod Taylor. In 2014 she appeared in the horror film Late Phases by Spanish director Adrián García Bogliano, in which a blind war veteran becomes the victim of a werewolf attack.

From 1966 to 1974, Tina Louise was married to radio and TV announcer/interviewer Les Crane, with whom she has one daughter, Caprice Crane (born 1970), who became an MTV producer and a novelist. Tina Louise now resides in New York City. She has written three books including Sunday: A Memoir (1997) and the children’s books When I Grow Up (2007) and What Does a Bee Do? (2009).


Tina Louise dances in L'assedio di Siracusa/Siege of Syracuse (1960). Source: galesayers (YouTube).


Trailer Late Phases (2014). Source: Light Movies (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Maruschka Detmers

April 2, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Gorgeous Dutch actress Maruschka Detmers (1962) moved to France as a teenager, where she captured the attention of director Jean-Luc Godard, and made her dramatic debut in his Prénom Carmen (1983). Other noteworthy films include Hanna's War (1988) and The Mambo Kings (1992), but she is best known for her role in Diavolo in corpo/Devil in the Flesh (1986).


French postcard in the Le jour se lève series by Editions Humour à la carte, Paris, no. ST-19. Photo: Jean-Pierre Larcher.

Godard

Maruschka Detmers was born in 1962 in Schoonebeek, The Netherlands. Her father was a veterinarian. As a 17-year-old, she moved to Paris to work there as an au pair and take acting lessons.

In Paris, she was discovered by the French film director Jean-Luc Godard, after which she played the female lead in his film Prénom Carmen/First Name - Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard, 1983), very loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen. Prénom Carmen tells the parallel stories of a quartet rehearsing Beethoven and a group of young people robbing a bank, supposedly to get the funds to make a film.

Louis Schwartz at AllMovie: “The film is a meditation on the difficulties of youth in the 1980s, the relations between cinema and capital, and how to film the human body. Godard fills the film with carefully composed shots of bodies playing music, making love, and acting violently. His attention to bodies in First Name: Carmen makes the film's images very close to sculptures, particularly those of Rodin.” At the Venice International Film Festival, Godard was awarded the Golden Lion for his film.

In 1985, Detmers was nominated for the César for Best Supporting Actress (Meilleure actrice dans un second rôle) for La pirate/The Pirate (Jacques Doillon, 1984) starring Jane Birkin.

The following year, Detmers starred in the Italian erotic drama Diavolo in corpo/Devil in the Flesh (1986) directed by Marco Bellocchio. An adaptation of Raymond Radiguet’s novel Le Diable au corps, the film stars Federico Pitzalis as a high school student who falls in love with an older woman (Detmers). The film caused a fuss because of a darkly-lit but explicit fellatio-scene of which the authenticity later was disputed. The film was released in the United States in both R and X-rated versions.

Also controversial was Marco Ferreri’s satirical comedy Y'a Bon Les Blancs/Um, Good, De White Folks (1988), in which members of a European humanitarian organization in African end up being eaten by cannibals.

More commercial was her leading role as Hannah Senesh, a real-life Hungarian Jew who became a martyr to the cause of freedom during WW II, in Hanna's War (Menahem Golan, 1988), produced by the Cannon Group. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “The script, based on Hannah's diaries (as edited by Yoel Palgi), surprisingly downplays heroics in favor of sensationalism; the prison scenes could just as well have been lifted from a Linda Blair"babes behind bars" picture. Even so, Detmers is excellent in the title role, while Ellen Burstyn is likewise superb as Hannah's mother.”


French trailer La pirate/The Pirate (1984). Source: imineo Bandes Annonces (YouTube).

Genuine feeling and sensitivity

Maruschka Detmers continued her career in French, Italian and American productions. In the romantic comedy Deux/Two (Claude Zidi, 1988), she played opposite Gérard Depardieu. James Travers at Films de France: “Most of the weaknesses in the script are well-concealed by Zidi’s focused and expressive direction, and by the well-judged performances by Depardieu and Detmers. The two actors bring genuine feeling and sensitivity to their portrayals.”

Other French films include Comedie d'ete/Summer Interlude (Daniel Vigne, 1989), and Le brasier (Eric Barbier, 1991) with Jean-Marc Barr and Thierry Fortineau. The latter, a drama about the social struggles of a mining area in the 1930s, was a commercial disaster, selling less than 40,000 tickets in the Paris region. However, Detmers fell in love with co-star Thierry Fortineau and from their relationship daughter Jade Fortineau was born in 1991.

Detmers’s best known American film is the musical drama The Mambo Kings (Arne Glimcher, 1992), starring Antonio Banderas and Armand Assante. It is an adaptation of Oscar Hijuelos's 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, but underperformed at the box office.

Later Detmers mostly worked in the French cinema. Her later films include Te quiero (Manuel Poirier, 2001) with Sergi López, the drama Le Père Goriot/Father Goriot (Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, 2004), based on the novel by Honoré de Balzac and featuring Charles Aznavour, and the teen comedy Nos 18 ans/School's Out (Frédéric Berthe, 2008).

In Germany she appeared opposite Tom Schilling in the comedy Robert Zimmermann wundert sich über die Liebe/Robert Zimmermann Is Tangled Up in Love (Leander Haussmann, 2008) about a Spring-Autumn romance. Finally, she made her Dutch film debut in the comedy-drama Ventoux (Nicole van Kilsdonk, 2015). However, she now mostly works for French television, including a part in the hit series Marseille (Thomas Gilou, Florent-Emilio Siri, 2016), starring Gérard Depardieu.

Maruschka Detmers lives in Paris. Her daughter Jade Fortineau is now also an actress.


Trailer The Mambo Kings (1992). Source: Video Detective (YouTube).


Trailer Robert Zimmermann wundert sich über die Liebe/Robert Zimmermann Is Tangled Up in Love (2008). Source: Snoozercat (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Louis Schwartz (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), AllMovie, Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

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Lucien Baroux

April 3, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Comic French actor Lucien Baroux (1888-1968) started in the theatre as a stage manager. After the First World War he appeared in many operettas and comedies. From the 1930s on, he also had a long career in the French cinema.


French postcard by PC, no. 139. Photo: Ufa.


French postcard by SERP, no. 63. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

A Flair for Comedy

Lucien Baroux was born Marcel Lucien Ducros in Toulouse, France, in 1888. At his birth, he bore the name of his mother Camille Julie Ducros, because his father was unknown. Three years later, his mother married with Jules Etienne Barou who, recognised and legitimised him and the little Marcel was now called Barou.

He started his career in the theatre as a stage manager, but also appeared as an extra in many silent films of the 1910s, such as Britannicus (Camille de Morlhon, 1912).

He was a soldier during the First World War. After the war he resumed his activities as stage manager but he also launched a formidable career as an actor in both the theatre and the cinema.

He had his breakthrough when he replaced an ill actor in Souris d'hôtel. He showed a flair for comedy and became popular in musical comedies and operettas. He performed at the Théâtre Michel, and for seven years at Bouffes-Parisiens.

He also participated in the Karsenty tour for Molière’s L'École des femmes (The School for Wives) with Pierre Dux and Huguette Hue. He appeared in several popular operettas and created such unforgettable roles as Jacques Cocardier in J'adore ça (1925), Captain Harris in Passionément (1926), Dumontel in Déshabillez-vous! (1928), and Jim in Brummell (1931).


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 823. Photo: Paramount.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris. no. 84. Photo: Paramount.

Humour and Fantasy

With his humour and fantasy, Lucien Baroux became a popular film character actor after the introduction of the sound film. He appeared as Laurent XVII in the film La Mascotte/The Mascot (Léon Mathot, 1935) and returned in the role in the 1956 recording of La Mascotte.

Among his other films of the 1930s are Tout pour l'amour/Everything for Love (Henri-Georges Clouzot, Joe May, 1933) with Jan Kiepura, and Derrière la façade/Behind the facade (Georges Lacombe, Yves Mirande, 1939).

Until 1962, he appeared in more than 80 films, including Valse brillante/Brilliant Waltz (Jean Boyer, 1949) with Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura, and Napoléon (Sacha Guitry, 1955).

His final film was Le Diable et les Dix Commandements/The Devil and the Ten Commandments (Julien Duvivier, 1962) in which he made a picturesque tandem with Michel Simon.

In 1964, Lucien Baroux took part in the complete recording of Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) by Molière on L'Encyclopédie Sonore Hachette. He played Monsieur Diafoirus opposite Michel Galabru.

Lucien Baroux died in 1968 in Hossegro, France.


French postcard by EPC. no. 132.


French postcard, no. 84.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.

Odette Joyeux

April 4, 2017, 10:00 pm

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French actress Odette Joyeux (1914-2000) was highly popular in the 1940s. She was a star in several films by Claude Autant-Lara and Marc Allégret.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 46. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 86. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

The Curtain Rises

Odette Joyeux was born in Paris in 1914. She studied the school of the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris.

She started her career in film with a bit part in Une femme a menti/A Woman has Lied (Charles de Rochefort, 1930) starring Paul Capellani.

In the same period she began her stage career under the direction of Louis Jouvet in Jean Giraudoux’ play Intermezzo (1933).

After years of small film parts and a major part in Marc Allégret’s Lac des dames/Ladies Lake (1934), her first notable film was Entrée des artistes/The Curtain Rises (Marc Allégret, 1938). She plays Cecilia, student at the Drama School run by prof. Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). She hunts for François (Claude Dauphin), her former boyfriend, who now loves Isabella (Janine Darcey). Cecilia commits suicide incriminating François, but at the end a testimony saves him.

In 1935 Odette Joyeux married actor Pierre Brasseur and became the mother of actor Claude Brasseur (1936). In 1945 she divorced Brasseur.


French postcard by Editions E.C. Paris, no. 96. Photo: Industrie Cinématographique. Publicity still for Douce/Love Story (Claude Autant-Lara, 1943).


French postcard by Collection Chantal, Paris, no. 11. Photo: Industrie Cinématographique. Publicity still for Douce/Love Story (Claude Autant-Lara, 1943).


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 11A. Photo: Industrie Cinématographique. Publicity still for Douce/Love Story (Claude Autant-Lara, 1943).

Douce

During the 1940s Odette Joyeux established herself as one of France's most popular cinema actresses with such films as Le Mariage de Chiffon/Chiffon's Wedding (Claude Autant-Lara, 1942). Joyeux played an eccentric, unadapted young aristocrat, whose mother plans to remarry with a noble officer, while she herself plans to marry her uncle, a penniless aviation pioneer.

Claude Autant-Lara again cast Joyeux as the protagonist in Douce/Love Story (1943). In this period piece governess Irène (Madeleine Robinson) has an affair with director Fabien (Roger Pigaut), who is also the secret idol of Douce de Bonafé (Joyeux), Irène’s pupil. When Fabien discovers Irène wants to marry Douce’s father, an aristocratic widower, he elopes with Douce, to her immense joy. Cameraman of the film was Philippe Agostini, with whom Joyeux eventually would marry. French Wikipedia considers Douce Autant-Lara’s best film.

Joyeux played another important lead in the period piece Le baron fantôme/The Phantom Baron (Serge de Poligny, 1943), costarring Jany Holt and Alain Cuny. The film's costumes are designed by Christian Dior and the dialogues written by Jean Cocteau; the latter also played the title role.

In 1944 followed Les Petites au quai aux fleurs/The Girls From the Quai Aux Fleurs (Marc Allégret, 1944), with a script by Marcel Achard and Jean Aurenche, music by Jacques Ibert, and photography by Henri Alekan.

In 1945 Joyeux again starred in a film by Autant-Lara, scripted by Aurenche, shot by Agostini, and with costumes by Dior: Sylvie et le fantôme/Sylvia and the Phantom, released in 1946. Sylvie (Joyeux) is infatuated with the portrait of a man who killed himself for love and she believes in his ghost. Her father, a ruined baron (Pierre Larquey), arranges a man to play the ghost, but the situation becomes mixed up when three 'ghosts' turn up: the actor (Louis Salou), an escaped prisoner (François Périer), and the real ghost (Jacques Tati).

In Leçon de conduit/A Lesson How To Behave (Gilles Grangier, 1946) Joyeux plays the arrogant Micheline, abducted by Jacques (Gilbert Gil), who wants to teach her a lesson. Things run out of hand though when real gangsters abduct the bitchy girl looking for ransom.

Until the end of the 1940s, Joyeux continued to play female leading roles in French films, including Messieurs Ludovic/Three men named Ludovic (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1946), Pour une nuit d’amour/Passionnelle (Edmond T. Gréville, 1947), Scandale/Scandal (René Le Hénaff, 1948), and Orage d’été/Summer Storm (Jean Gehret, 1949).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 77. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.


French postcard, no. 171. Photo: Studio Carlet Ainé.

Her Bridal Night

From the early 1950s on, Odette Joyeux's film appearances became smaller and scarce, though she did a few television performances.

She wrote various novels, stage plays, essays on Nicéphore Niepce and on dance, and two juvenile fiction books on the ballet world she knew so well herself: L'Âge heureux (Le journal de Delphine), which was adapted for television, and Côté jardin.

In 1956 she adapted her novel La mariée est trop belle for the cinema, with Philippe Agostini as her co-scriptwriter. La mariée est trop belle/Her Bridal Night (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1956) starred Brigitte Bardotas a country girl who becomes a top model in Paris, and costarred Micheline Presle and Louis Jourdan.

With Philippe Agostini she also collaborated at the script for his debut as a director: Le Naïf aux quarante enfants/The Innocent with Forty Children (1957), based on the novel by Paul Guth. In 1958 Joyeux married with Agostini, with whom she lived together until her death.

In 1989 Odette Joyeux was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and Officer in 1998, while in 1994 she was made Officer in the Orde national du Mérite. Odette Joyeux died in in 2000 in Grimaud, France, because of a brain stroke. She was 85.


Vintage postcard.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 131. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions P.I. Paris, no. 165. Offered by Les Carbones Korès. Photo: Sam Lévin.

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

Ungarische Rhapsodie (1928)

April 5, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Willy Fritsch, Dita Parlo and Lil Dagover play a love triangle in the wonderful Film Operetta Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928). Many well known names in the cast and the crew supported them in this marvellous production form the heydays of the Ufa under production-manager Erich Pommer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/1. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch.


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


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935), Bild no. 189, Gruppe 41. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928).

Hot Flirtation

The silent Ufa romantic drama Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) is set during harvest time on the plains of Hungary, in Mezohegyes.

A young and handsome Willy Fritsch stars as the Hussar Franz, Lieutenant Count von Turoczy, who is brooding about his future. Though born into an aristocratic family, his father drank away the family fortune.

He also must deal with the army regulation that an officer must have forty-five thousand crowns before he can take a wife. Franz loves charming Marika (Dita Parlo) a commoner whose father works as the estate manager for the wealthy Baron Barsody. But Marika just wants to love someone who works with her on the field, and rejects him.

When Baron Barsody's beautiful wife, Camilla (Lil Dagover) visits the estate, Franz begins a hot flirtation with her at the harvest festival. Turoczy is betrayed by a jealous gypsy, and now the husband's anger threatens him.

Marika recognises the danger to her lover and saves her beloved Hussar. Of course, they love and live happily ever after.

Ungarische Rhapsodie has several well-known supporting actors in its cast, like Fritz Greiner as Marika’s father, Erich Kaiser-Titz as General Hoffmann, Leopold Kramer as Baron Barsody, Harry Hardt as Oberleutnant Barany, Italian actor Osvaldo Valenti as the ensign, and Paul Hörbiger as a waiter.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/3, 1925-1935. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo.

A definite Ernst Lubitsch feel

Austrian director Hanns Schwarz (1888–1945) specialised in the genre of the ‘Film Operetta’, that was already very popular in the silent (!) era.

Examples are Die Csardasfürstin (1927) with Liane Haid and Die Wundebare Lüge Der Nina Petrovna/The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (1929) with Brigitte Helm and Franz Lederer.

His Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (1928) is also a delicious example of his craft. Overseer-3 at IMDb: “With a definite Ernst Lubitsch feel, this romantic and sexy German silent should be much better known. Starring a devilishly handsome young Willy Fritsch as an impoverished soldier lusting after a forbidden love, a devastatingly beautiful Dita Parlo (famous from Grand Illusion, but here with long dark hair instead of blonde) as his sensible lady love, and a kittenish Lil Dagover, playing the bored wife of an aristocrat who comes between them, and directed by Hanns Schwartz, this film is highly recommended for all romantics.”

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien at IMDb: "The most remarkable aspect of this film which perhaps lingers too long on Hungarian picturesqueness, is the important German cast that starred in the film. In addition to the skillful Herr Schwarz direction with its attentiveness to love and lust we have a screenplay written by another important German director, Herr Joe May, who directed films so important for the silent cinema history as Heimkehr (1928) and Asphalt (1929).”

Another important figure behind the film was Erich Pommer, Ufa’s production manager who helped to create an incredible amount of unforgettable classics for the studio during the Weimar period. Both Pommer, script-writers Joe May and Hans Székely, and the Jewish Schwarz had to flee after the rise of the Nazis. Sadly, the German cinema would never fully recover from the immense artistic brain drain that happened in 1933. It also broke so many interesting careers in the cinema, like these of Pommer, Schwarz, May and Székely.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/5. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Lil Dagover.


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3965/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Osvaldo Valenti. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Source: Overseer-3 (IMDb), Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien (IMDb), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Luciano Albertini

April 6, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Tonight, we are in Berlin at the Zeughauskino for a special screening in the series Wiederentdeckt (Rediscovered). Film historian Ivo Blom, who often contributes to this blog, will introduce there one of the most spectacular films of the silent cinema, Der Unüberwindliche/The Invincible (Max Obal, 1928). Star is Italian 'forzuto' Luciano Albertini (1882-1945), one of the famous strongmen and daredevils of the silent film. The former circus artist first worked as film actor and producer in Italy and later moved to Berlin, where his Latin appeal made many admirers swoon. He also filmed for Universal in the USA.


American postcard by A.G.F. Photo: Photocine.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 524/4, 1919-1924. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 577/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus-Film. Publicity still for Der Sieg des Maharadscha/The victory of the Maharajah (Joseph Delmont, 1923).


Vintage collectors card from the German album Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst, I (Oskar Kalbus, 1935). Photo: Luciano Albertini in the German silent film Der Mann auf dem Kometen (Alfred Halm, 1925).
Der Mann auf dem Kometen is set in Berlin and this image combines two moments in the film. Towards the end of the film Luciano uses a ladder to save a baby put on an old factory chimney pipe which is about to be exploded. The background of this picture is used for another scene in the film. The church is a typical example of Wilhelminian architecture, the site may be somewhere in the old Stadmitte of Berlin where most Albertini films were shot when filmed in Berlin. The sign of Problem Moslem refers to a cigarette brand.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 798/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus Film, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1815/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. On this postcard Albertini wears the attire for the film Rinaldo Rinaldini (Max Obal, 1927).

Flying Trapeze

Luciano Albertini was born as Francesco Vespignani in Lugo di Romagna, Italy, in 1882. In his youth, he already showed a passion for sports, joining the gymnastics club in Forlí and later in Bologna. After his studies he ended up in France, where he retook his lessons in physical exercise at the Ecole Péchin in Lyon.

He entered the Circus Busch and in 1905 he married circus artist Domenica Meirone in Marseille. He took the stage name of Luciano Albertini and created a number on the flying trapeze with 8 persons: Les Albertini. His speciality was a stunt, the ‘death spiral’.

When he returned to Italy, he started his film career in historical epics as Spartaco/Spartacus (Giovanni Enrico Vidali, 1913). At IMDb, Michael Elliott reviews: "The second adaptation of Raffaello Giovagnoli's novel comes at a time when Italy really started pumping out their epic films with the longer running times, expensive sets and lavish production values. This film really doesn't stray too far from the source as we have our hero Spartacus being sold as a slave only to rise up and battle the evil Crassus. These Italian movies are certainly a far cry from the American ones coming out at the same time and this one here has so much going for it that I'm sure even the most jaded silent-hater would have to respect what's on display here."

Albertini also appeared opposite film diva Francesca Bertina in Assunta Spina (Francesca Bertini, Gustavo Serena, 1915). The First World War broke out and Albertini joined the navy. He still kept one foot to the ground though, and he worked at the film company Società Anonima Ambrosio of Turin.

His breakthrough was the circus film La spirale della morte/The Death Spiral (Filippo Castamagna, Domenico Gambino, 1917). Afterwards he worked for the studios Pasquali and Latina Ars, both also in Turin. At Pasquali he started the successful Sansone (Samson) series, with Sansone contro i Filistei/Sansone Against the Philistines (Domenico Gaido, 1918).

Luciano Albertini's finest moment came when he founded his own company Albertini Film, that released its first films in 1919. Until 1921 Albertini Film produced three series: the Sansone films, the Lilliput series with the children Arnold (Patata) and Varada (they were not Albertini’s children although the promotion pretended so), and the Sansonette series with Linda Albertini, his so-called wife, but her true identity remains a mystery. Albertini also produced Il mostro di Frankenstein/The Monster of Frankenstein (Eugenio Testa, 1920), in which he himself personified Baron Frankenstein.

His best Italian film was not one of his Sansone films but the costume drama Il Ponte dei Sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (Domenico Gaido, 1921), a swashbuckler set in Venice. Albertini played Rolando Candiani, son of the Doge of Venice, who is falsely accused of murder by his enemies. One plots to become Doge himself, another wants to steal the beautiful Leonora, Rolando's fiancée, a third is a courtesan rejected by Rolando. On the day of his marriage Rolando is arrested, trialled and passes the Bridge of Sighs before entering lifetime imprisonment. His father is dethroned as Doge, blinded and reduced to a wandering beggar. But with the help of the courageous and good-hearted bandit Scalabrino (Garaveo Onorato), Rolando manages to escape and take revenge...


Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Postcard for the four-part serial Il Ponte dei Sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (Domenico Gaido, 1921), starring Luciano Albertini, and set in Venice. Caption: The young and very brave son of Doge Candiano, Rolando, is pushed into prison by halberds.


Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Luciano Albertini as Rolando in the four part serial film Il ponte dei sospiri/The Bridge of Sighs (Domenico Gaido, 1921). On his right side Carolina White (Leonora) and Bonaventura Ibanez (her father Dandolo).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 196. Photo: Luciano Albertini in Julot, der Apache/Julot, the Apache (Joseph Delmont, Hertha von Walther, 1921), released in France as Julot l'apache but also as Le roi de Paris.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 577/2. Photo L. Klaude, Berlin /Phoebus Film. From his arrival in 1921, until 1924, all of Albertini's films were distributed by Phoebus and produced by his own Albertini-Film. This is a card for Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923).
In this film Albertini plays an Argentine farmer whose reckless deeds at the Devil's Canyon convinces an Italian circus director to engage him and his wife (Lya de Putti). The wife becomes enamoured with a womanising count and elopes with him. Years after, Luciano has become a dockworker in Naples (as depicted on this card) and saves a child, unknowing it is the child of Lya's and the count. The count is fed up with Lya. She runs into Luciano and begs him to go back with her to Argentine. Back there he finds out she has a child and recognises it as the girl he once saved. Galloping towards the Devil's Canyon, his horse is cleverer than he and holds back. Lya gallops behind him but she falls down a cliff, so Luciano rescues her and they reunite.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 578/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Leo Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus Film. Publicity still for Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) with Lya de Putti. The card depicts the final scene: Luciano has just saved Lya from falling down the Devil's Canyon and reconciles with her after his refusal to acknowledge her illegal child and his failed attempt to suicide.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 578/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Leo Klaude, Berlin / Phoebus Film. Publicity still for Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) with Lya de Putti.


German postcard. Photo: Luciano Albertini in Der Sieg des Maharadscha/The victory of the Maharajah (Joseph Delmont, 1923).

Berlin Entourage

The crisis in the Italian cinema forced Luciano Albertini and his Albertini Film to move to Germany in 1921. They were well received by producer Jacob Karol, who specialised in adventure and circus films. Their first film was Der König der Manege/The King of the Circus Ring (Joseph Delmont, 1921). He continued with a series of films directed by Delmont and produced by himself: Der eiserne Faust/The Iron Fist (1921), Julot der Apache/Julot the Apache (1921), Der Todesleiter/The Death Ladder (1921), and Der Man aus Stahl/The Steel Man (1922).

Albertini-Film became part of the new production and distribution company Phoebus-Film till 1924. Phoebus also owned two major cinemas in Berlin and specialised in hosting Italian directors and actors, such as Gennaro Righelli, Nunzio Malasomma and Carlo Aldini.

Linda Albertini returned to Italy after one year and four films, because Luciano had an affair with another woman. Within his Berlin entourage remained his regular cameraman Eduardo Lamberti and Angelo Rossi, who worked as his double but also as the double of such other Italian ‘giants’ working in Germany as Carlo Aldini and Domenico Gambino. Matias Bleckmann writes in his book on Harry Piel, that Piel's stuntman Hermann Stetza also worked for Albertini as a double.

Albertini starred in popular German films directed by Nunzio Malasomma – another Italian immigrant working in Berlin - and Max Obal. Albertini also directed and produced himself once in Die Schlucht des Todes/The Ravine of Death (Luciano Albertini, Albert-Francis Bertoni, Max Obal, 1923) opposite vamp Lya de Putti. With Nunzio Malasomma, Albertini did Mister Radio (1924), Der König und die kleine Mädchen/The King and the Little Girls (1925), and Eine Minute vor 12/One Minute to Twelve (1925).

Max Obal directed the most Albertini films: Die heimkehr des Odysseus/The Return of Odysseus (1922), Rinaldo Rinaldini (1927) starring opposite Hans Albers, Der grösste Gauner des Jahrhunderts/The Biggest Crook of the Century (1927), Der Unüberwindliche/The Invincible (1928) with Vivian Gibson, Tempo! Tempo! (1929) with Hilda Rosch, and Jagd nach der Million/The Hunt for a Million (1930) with Gretl Berndt. Most of Albertini's later films were distributed by Aafa-Film. According to some sources, Albertini also appeared in the Soviet classic Arsenal/January Uprising in Kiev (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1928). But this is probably a fable.


Small Spanish collector's card, series A, no. 10. Editor unknown. The Spanish text on the back talks of Albertini's qualities, and particularly mentions his film Julot der Apache. The portrait on this card seems based on the Ross card here below.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin SW, no. 524/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Albertini Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin SW, no. 524/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Albertini Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin SW, no. 524/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Albertini Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 577/8. Photo Krause, Berlin / Phoebus Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 798/1, 1925-1926. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 798/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus Film, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Asylum

In Berlin, Luciano Albertini lived in grand style, visiting restaurants with his friends and crew. He lived in a villa in the outskirts, in the workman’s quarter Siemensstadt. Albertini had several affairs in Berlin, including one with actress Annie Gorilowa. At the Sportpalast, he and Marlene Dietrich were the big attractions.

His only setback had been his collaboration with Universal Studios to the American 15 part-serial The Iron Man (Jay Marchant, 1924), as he proved not to be the protagonist. Instead he had been forced to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge to a race boat, while he often had his stuntmen doing this.

In 1930, the tide changed for Albertini. The talkies, his age (he was 50 now), the saturation of the acrobatic genre contributed, but his alcoholism really finished him. Although Angelo Rossi, his double, and Lamberti, his ex-cameraman who had opened a restaurant in the Friedrichstrasse, helped him, Albertini went down all the way. He performed in one last film: Es geht um alle/It Involves Everything (Max Nosseck, 1932) with Ernö Verebes.

When he showed aggression against a doorman he was put in an asylum and was diagnosed with dementia. In the late 1930s he returned to Italy, living in Bologna where a Father Marella took care of him.

His disease lead him to Villa Flora in Bologna and finally to the mental asylum San Gaetano in Budrio near Bologna. Luciano Albertini died here, in 1945.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1287/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini-Produktion GmbH.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1387/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini Produktion GmbH.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1387/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Albertini Produktion GmbH.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1816/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3032/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin. This picture was also used for the cover of the magazine Film-Woche, no. 17, 1929, to announce Albertini's film Tempo! Tempo! (Max Obal, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3032/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3594/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Aafa Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3621/1, 1928-1929.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4624/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa-Film.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli/Mario Quargnolo (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del muto italiano), Matias Bleckmann (Harry Piel. Ein Kino-Mythos und seine Zeit - German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Michael Elliott (IMDb), Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Pál Jávor

April 7, 2017, 10:00 pm

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The effortlessly suave Romanian-born actor Pál Jávor (1902-1959) was one of the first stars of the Hungarian sound cinema. His glamorous and highly successful stage and film career was broken, first by the German invasion of Hungary and again by the Communist government after the war. He moved to Hollywood where he only could play bit parts.


Hungarian postcard by Rakosi Kiado, Budapest, no. 514. Photo: Rozgcnyi.

Idolising Danish silent films

Pál Jávor (sometimes credited as Paul Javor) was born Pál Jermann in Arad, Austria-Hungary (now Romania), in 1902. He was the lovechild of Pál Jermann, a 53-year-old cashier and Katalin Spannenberg, a 17-year-old servant. His parents, who only married after his birth, had 3 children to care for, which made life hard for the family, who often moved.

His mother later opened a grocery store in Arad's Kossuth street. Jávor was a student in a state operated gymnasium, but often played truant to see movies in the town's two theatres. From very early on, he wanted to break away from his homeland, and from the simple life his mother wished for him.

During World War I, he ran away to serve on the front as a courier. He was caught and transported back months later by military police. In 1918, after working as a junior reporter for the Aradi Hírlap, he set out to emigrate to Denmark, so he could act in the Danish films he idolised. As the state offered free train tickets to anyone who wished to leave the country, he willingly chose self-banishment from Romania, but his ticket was revoked in Budapest.

Jávor, now seeking to gain fame in the Hungarian capital, went to study at the Academy of Drama. Living in great poverty, and expelled from the Academy for unknown reasons, he earned his degree in the Actor's Guild school, in 1922. Jávor acted in various theatres in Budapest, Székesfehérvár and several other small towns, but his dissolute lifestyle made him hard to work with.

After being banned from the Guild in 1926, he acted in small roles around the country, and later in Budapest, helped by mentors from the theatrical world, and slowly waking the interest of the critics. He was a member of the Vígszínház, the Comedy Theatre of Budapest, between 1930–1935, and the National Theatre between 1935-1944.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3543/1.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3804/1.

Suave and charming

In 1929, Pál Jávor finally got the opportunity to appear in the cinema. He then starred in Csak egy kislány van a világon/The Only Girl in the World (Béla Gaál, 1929) opposite Márta Eggerth, also in her film debut. It was to be the last Hungarian silent film, but, ironically, this was also the first one to feature sound.

The film’s technicians got hold of the technology by the last days of shooting. This allowed Jávor to sing a song in one of the scenes, which, combined with his charm and temperament made him a star of the country's waking film industry. D. Lewis at IMDb: “Despite some slow passages and ellipses in the story caused by missing footage, Csak egy kislány van a világon is an inspired effort with some genuinely great things in it. Director Gaál would go, with considerable success, into comedies in the 1930s, but would end his days, regrettably, in either the Dachau Concentration Camp or at the hands of Nazis on a Budapest street, depending on which account one accepts.”

Jávor took the lead role in the first Hungarian sound film, the comedy Kék Bálvány/A blue idol (Lajos Lázár, 1931) with Oscar Beregi Sr. Then followed a smaller part in the second Hungarian sound film, the comedy Hyppolit, a lakáj/Hyppolit, the Butler (István Székely aka Steve Sekely, 1931) starring Gyula Csortos and Gyula Kabos, which became a huge box office hit.

Director Istvan Szekeley left Hungary in 1938 to relocate in Hollywood, where he continued to work under the name of Steve Sekely. Hyppolit, a lakáj was shown again in Hungarian cinemas in 1945, 1956 and 1972, and later also returned several times on TV.

After this success, the suave and charming Jávor quickly became an idol of the 1930s, appearing in numerous films, but he also remained popular on stage. However, the sudden fame weighed heavily on the young actor, leading to him returning to alcohol. His frequent clashes with colleagues and journalists, resulted in numerous scandals.

His life was eased when he met and Olga Landesmann, a widow with two children. After their marriage in 1934, she provided him with a home and family. Among his best known films of that period are the drama Marika (Viktor Gertler, 1938), and the comedy A Noszty fiú esete Tóth Marival/I Married for Love (Steve Sekely (as István Székely), 1938).

There is also a German-language version of the latter, Ihr Leibhusar/Her personal Hussar (Hubert Marischka, 1938), in which he co-stars with Magda Schneider and Paul Kemp. He appeared in more foreign films, including the Austrian-German production Donauschiffer/Danube boat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1940) with Hilde Krahl, and the Italian Inferno giallo/Yellow Hell (Géza von Radványi, 1942) with Fosco Giachetti.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3817/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.


German postcard by Filmbolt. Photo: Hunnia Film.

Target of the Gestapo

After 1940, World War II slowly became part of life for Hungarian citizens and the theatre world alike, working conditions became increasingly harsher, which Pál Jávor could hardly bear. Being anxious about the regulation of the theatre, and the defaming of fellow actors, he often clashed with superiors. Charged with making unlawful political comments, he became the target of the Gestapo.

After hiding in Balatonfüred and Agárd, he returned to Budapest, thinking that the danger of arrest was over. After another quarrel with the Actor's Guild's manager, the Guild suspended him from practising the profession, and also banned his films. After the German invasion of Hungary, Pál Jávor was arrested by Arrow party members. Jávor was first held in the prison of Sopronkőhida under dire conditions, then transported to Germany.

After being liberated by Allied forces, he awaited for the end of the war in Tann and Pfarrkirchen in Austria. His confinement lasted over 9 months, about which he wrote a recollection published in 1946. After the war Jávor found that the theatre world had largely rejected him, offering him only a few roles.

The intellectual and cultural cleansing of the new Communist government left him virtually no possibilities. In, 1946, Jávor made a successful tour of Romania, and then travelled to the United States. After arriving in the United States, he was met with great acclaim by the emigrant community, but despite this, he could only arrange small comedic and musical shows, which he found humiliating.

Slowly sinking into depression and reaching again for alcohol, the quality of his shows also sank, emptying audience seats. While he thought about returning home, he received no encouraging news from Hungary, and the increasingly tense political situation also forced him to remain in the States. He travelled to Hollywood to seek film roles, but his lack of English left him few possibilities, like the role of Antonio Scotti in the film The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951), starring Mario Lanza. The castings were humiliating and the small roles degrading.

Jávor joined a touring group, performing Hungarian hit songs and oldies. Later he also worked part-time as a gatekeeper and computer operator. During his 11 years in the US, Jávor met numerous difficulties, but he later also remembered joyful moments: he wrote numerous articles in American-Hungarian papers, and with his journalist ID he could visit cinemas for free. Through a voluntary detoxification cure, he gave up his alcohol-addiction, and befriended several emigrant artists living in America, including Sándor Márai.

In 1956, touring Israel with an occasional group, he learnt that he could finally go home. In 1957, he returned to Budapest, awaited by friends, and jobs in the Jókai and Petőfi theatres. However, the years of hardships laid still fresh on Jávor, and several critics found his acting lacking. But his still living legend carried him on, making several successful appearances, and he also was offered a film deal.

But his health could not tolerate the highly intensive life, and after a seizure in 1958, he was transported to a hospital which he never left. While spending over one year in bed, the National Theatre re-hired him, and he was often visited by old friends, also resolving some grudges of the past. But his state worsened, and Pál Jávor died in 1959. He was 57. His burial was a theatrical ceremony, his coffin followed by tens of thousands of fans to the Farkasréti Cemetery.


Hungarian postcard by Filmbolt. Photo: Müvelödés Film. Publicity still for Néma kolostor/Silent Monastery (Endre Rodríguez, 1941).


Hungarian postcard by Rakosi Kiado, Budapest, no. 602. Photo: Angelo.

Sources: D. Lewis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Imported from the USA: Eddie Polo

April 8, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Eddie Polo (1875–1961) was an Austro-American actor of the silent era. His nickname was 'Hercules of the Screen'. Polo played adventurers and cowboys in American serials and films. During the late 1920s, he was a popular action star in the German silent cinema.


British postcard. Photo: Trans-Atlantic Film Co. Ltd. In the 1910s Trans-Atlantic was the European distributor for Universal.


Dutch postcard by HAP Film, Den Haag. Photo: BenS Film.


German postcard by Filmhaus Bruckmann & Co. Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt a./Main.

Parachuting off the Eiffel Tower

Eddie Polo was born Edward W. Wyman or Weimer in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. His brother was the acrobat, actor and makeup artist Sam Polo. Eddie was the catchman in the trapeze act The Flying Cordovas with his brother. He was the first man to parachute off the Eiffel Tower, and he later set an altitude record for parachuting from a plane.

Polo moved to the USA. In 1913, he started his film career as a stuntman at Universal. Studio head Carl Laemmle spotted the beefy novice at work and had him cast opposite serial queen Grace Cunard in the adventure-mystery serial The Broken Coin (Francis Ford, 1915).

Polo quickly shot to serial stardom himself, billed (reportedly at his insistence) as 'The Hercules of the Screen' in such epics as The Gray Ghost (Stuart Paton, 1917). Like most serials they were short on plot and long on action, with Polo always doing his own spectacular stunts.

As Cyclone Smith, he became a popular Western hero in s film series that started with A Prisoner for Life (John Francis Dillon, 1919) with Eileen Sedgwick as Cyclone's wife. He directed himself in The Vanishing Dagger (Eddie Polo, 1920).

In 1925 he quit Universal and formed his own production company, ignoring the fact that he was the oldest action star in Hollywood and that his popularity was plummeting. His self-produced films were flops.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1343/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Germania Film Verleih.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3356/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4469/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Boston Film.

Popular in Germany

During the late 1920s, Eddie Polo was an action star in the German silent cinema. His German career started with Die Eule - 1. Die tollen Launen eines Millionärs/The Owl - 1. The mad whims of a millionaire (Eddie Polo, 1927) with Erich Kaiser-Titz and Hans Adalbert Schlettow.

One of his best known German films is the adventure film Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins/On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight (Fred Stranz, 1929) with Lydia Potechina. The film takes its name from the 1912 song of the same name, which refers to the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. The film was made by the German subsidiary of the Hollywood studio Universal Pictures.

Also interesting is the silent thriller Der Teufelsreporter/The Daredevil Reporter (Ernst Laemmle, 1929) with Gritta Ley and Maria Forescu. It was the first credited screenplay by Billy Wilder.

His acting career as a leading man ended with the coming of sound. During the sound era, he appeared with another action star of the silent cinema, Luciano Albertini, in supporting roles in the comedy thriller Es geht um alles/All is at Stake (Max Nosseck, 1932), starring Claire Rommer and Ernő Verebes. The roles became smaller and smaller and his final film appearance was an uncredited bit part as a waiter in Two Sisters from Boston (Henry Koster, 1946) with Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson.

Bobb Edwards at Find a Grave: "Largely unemployed after the 1930s, but with his ego undiminished, Polo spent his last years trying to get a movie made of his life story." After his acting career ended, Polo worked as a makeup artist. In 1961, he died from a heart attack while dining in a restaurant in Hollywood, California .

Eddie Polo was married to Alice Finch and to Pearl Grant. He was the father of actress Malvina Polo (1903-2000), best remembered as the mentally handicapped girl preyed upon for rape in Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922).


British postcard in the Pictures" Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 155.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 162.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5871/1. Photo: Transocean-Film Co., Berlin / Freulich.

Sources: Bobb Edwards (Finda Grave), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Heather Angel

April 9, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Flower-like British-American actress Heather Angel (1909-1986) was in high demand both in British films and in Hollywood throughout the 1930s. In 1937, she began playing Phyllis Clavering in the popular serial about Bulldog Drummond. After the war she mainly worked for television.


British postcard by Milton Postcards, no. 72. Photo: Fox Films.


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 12. Photo: possibly a publicity still for The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1931).

Hitchcock

Heather Grace Angel was born in Headington, Oxford, England, in 1909. She was brought up on a farm near Banbury, and was the younger of two sisters. Her mother was born Mary Letitia Stock, and her father was Andrea Angel, an Oxford University chemistry lecturer who was killed in the Silvertown explosion in 1917 and posthumously awarded the Edward Medal.

Angel was trained at the London Polytechnic of Dramatic Arts. She made her professional debut at age 17, at the Old Vic in 1926 and later appeared with touring companies. Her Broadway debut came in December 1937, in Love of Women at the Golden Theatre. She also appeared in The Wookey (1941–1942).

Angel appeared in many British films before going to Hollywood. Heather was 20 years old when she landed a bit part for Bulldog Drummond (1929). Although she didn't know it at the time, she would become a staple of that particular series eight years hence. She made her real film debut in City of Song (Carmine Gallone, 1931) with Jan Kiepura.

She had a leading role in Night in Montmartre (Leslie S. Hiscott, 1931), and followed this success with The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1932), based on the Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1933, she was signed to a Hollywood contract by Fox Studios, appearing in a handful of quality productions like Berkeley Square (Frank Lloyd, 1933) with Leslie Howard. Over the next few years, she played strong roles in such films as The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Stuart Walker, 1935) starring Claude Rains, The Three Musketeers (Rowland V. Lee, 1935), The Informer (John Ford, 1935) opposite Victor McLaglen, and The Last of the Mohicans (George B. Seitz, 1936).

Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series got off to a start with Bulldog Drummond Escapes (James Hogan, 1937). Up-and-coming Ray Milland stars as soldier-of-fortune Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, who on this occasion comes to the aid of pretty heiress Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel).

After the popular series ended, Angel was cast as Kitty Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940), starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, and as the maid, Ethel, in Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941) with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Angel was the leading lady in Time to Kill (Herbert I. Leeds, 1942), the first screen version of Raymond Chandler's The High Window. In Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), she played the near-comatose and half-mad woman with the dead baby, one of the eight passengers of a lifeboat lost at sea after a U-boat attack.


British postcard in the Film Stars and Their Pets series by Valentine's Postcards, no. 5843L.


British postcard in the Film Stars and Their Pets series by Valentine's Postcards, no. 7113 L, ca. 1934.

Disney

In 1944, Heather Angel filed a Petition for Naturalization as a citizen of the United States. Her film appearances in the years after the war were few. In fact, she wasn't seen again on the silver screen until The Saxon Charm (Claude Binyon, 1948).

Later she returned to Hollywood to provide voices for the Walt Disney animated films Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951) and Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953).

From 1964 until 1965, she played a continuing role in the television soap opera Peyton Place. After that role, she played Miss Faversham, a nanny and female friend of Sebastian Cabot's character of Giles French in the situation comedy Family Affair (1966-1971).

Her last screen appearance was in the TV mini-series Backstairs at the White House (Michael O'Herlihy, 1979) when she played President Harry Truman's mother-in-law.

In 1934, Heather Angel had married actor Ralph Forbes. After their divorce in 1937, Angel married Robert B. Sinclair, a film and television director in 1944. She lived quietly in her later years, working very occasionally. On 4 January 1970, an intruder broke into their Montecito, California home. When Sinclair attempted to protect Angel, the prowler killed Sinclair in Angel's presence, then fled. The prowler turned out to be a University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) graduate student, Billy McCoy Hunter. He was allegedly found with a knife and pistol when arrested. Wikipedia mentions that the incident is believed to have been a failed burglary.

Some sources mention her former co-star Henry Wilcoxon as her third husband, but according to Wikipedia they were only lifelong friends. In 1986, Heather Angel died from cancer in Santa Barbara, California, and was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery. She was 77.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 123. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Berkeley Square (Frank Lloyd, 1933) with Leslie Howard.

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

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Hella Moja

April 10, 2017, 10:00 pm

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During the First World War and the following years Hella Moja (1890-1951) was one of the most popular stars of the German silent cinema. There even was a Hella Moja series and in 1918 the actress founded her own film company.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 78/3. Photo: Decla / Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 78/6. Photo: Decla / Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 165/3. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Moja Film.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1376. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1053/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Short Silent Melodramas

According to IMDb, Hella Moja was born Helene Schwerdtfeger in Königsberg in Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), in 1890. However, the sources differ about her origins. Wikipedia and Thomas Staedeli at Cyranos write that she was born either as Helene Morawski or as Helene Schwerdtfeger, in  Ciemin-Zab., Russia. Filmportal.de gives as her full birth name Helene Gertrud Schwerdtfeger.

Hella appeared early in her career in the Teatr Artystyczny in Warsaw. Then she went to Berlin and worked as a translator Polish and Russian, and as a writer for the Deutsche Presse-Korrespondenzin Hannover, the Ullstein-Verlagand the Scherl-Verlag.

She followed acting classes with Emmanuel Reicher and Frieda Richard and debuted on the Berlin stage in 1913 at the Lessingtheater. She was spotted for the cinema by film star Alwin Neuss, who at the time worked as a director for the Decla-Film studio.

Hella Moja appeared in his silent film Der Weg der Tränen/The Way of the Tears (Alwin Neuss, 1916) based on a script by Ruth Goetz.

She also worked for pioneer studios like Messter, Union and Terra-Film, and excelled in short silent melodramas like Die weiße Rose/The White Rose (Franz Hofer, 1915) opposite Erna Morena, Der Schwur der Renate Rabenau/The Vow of Renate Rabenau (Otto Rippert, 1916), Der Fremde/The Stranger (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Werner Krauss and Das verwunschene Schloss/The Enchanted Castle (Otto Rippert, 1918) again with Krauss, often playing a countess or a damsel.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 78/2. Photo Karl Schenker, Berlin / Decla Film.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 134/1. Photo: Decla / Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 134/3. Photo: Decla / Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 134/4. Photo: Decla / Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 165/5. Photo: Decla / Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 210/1. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin / Hella Moja Film.

Theatrical Acting Style

In 1918 Hella Moja founded her own film company, the Hella Moja Filmgesellschaft, which would produce 16 films. Her first production was Wundersam ist das Märchen der Liebe/Wondrous is the Fairy Tale of Love (Leo Connard, 1918) with Ernst Hofmann, for which the critics especially praised her acting.

Another successful production was Die Augen von Jade/The Eyes of Jade (Iwa Raffay, 1918). In Figaros Hochzeit/The Marriage of Figaro (Max Mack, 1920) based on the play by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, she was again impressive as Cherubino - Figaros page opposite Alexander Moissi as Figaro.

Other films in which she appeared were Abgrund der Seele/The Abyss of Souls (Urban Gad, 1920), Gräfin Walewska/Countess Walewska (Otto Rippert, 1920) and Der Mann um Mitternacht/The Man at Midnight (Holger Madsen, 1924) with Olaf Fjord.

From the mid-1920s on, her theatrical acting style in films like U 9 Weddigen/U Boat 9 (Heinz Paul, 1927) with Gerd Briesewas deemed old fashioned. Moja quit acting and focused on script writing.

During the Nazi period she got additional problems while she could not prove to be Aryan. In 1934 she changed her name in Helka Moroff, and co-wrote the script for Die Vier Musketiere/The Four Musketeers (Heinz Paul, 1934) starring Hans Brausewetter and Käthe Haack.

In 1938 she was expelled from the Reichsschrifttumskammer (RSK) with the excuse that she did odd jobs next to scriptwriting. From 1942 till 1951 the former silent film star worked as a prompter at the Stadttheater Kielunder the name Hella Sewa.

In 1951 Hella Moja committed suicide. She had been married to Erich Morawsky and film director Heinz Paul.


German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 501/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Mädel von nebenan/The Girl-next-door (Otto Rippert, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 501/3. Photo: Decla. Hella Moja and Theodor Loos(far left) in the German silent film Die das Glück suchen/Those Searching for Happiness (1917). Odd is that this title does not appear in the databases Filmportal.de and IMDb. By looking at the serial numbers of the Film Sterne series the film must be from 1917.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 511/1. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Die Tochter der Gräfin Stachowska/The Daughter of Countess Stachowska (Otto Rippert, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 544/2. Photo: Hella Moja-Film GmbH Publicity still for Wundersam ist das Märchen der Liebe/Wonderful is the Fairy-Tale of Love (Leo Connard, 1918) with Hella Moja and Ernst Hofmann.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1651. Photo: Berliner Illustrations Gesellschaft.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1926. Photo: Eberth / Decla-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 298/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander & Labisch / Hella Moja Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag / W.J. Mörlins, Berlin, no. 320/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 459/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Karl Schenker.

Sources: Gabriele Hansch/Gerlinde Waz (Filmportal.de) (German); Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Deutsches Filminstitut (German), Wikipedia (German), BFI Film & TV Database, and IMDb.

Wanda Capodaglio

April 11, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Wanda Capodaglio (1889-1980) was an Italian stage, screen and television actress. She appeared in 30 films between 1914 and 1970.


Italian postcard by Ediz. Stab. Capecchi, Livorno. Photo: Capecchi, Livorno.


Italian postcard, no. 33. Photo Serenissima, Bologna.

Unusual physiognomy and great dramatic talent

Wanda Capodaglio was born in 1889 in Asti, Italy. She was the daughter of Tullio Capodaglio and Ida Pecorini. She came from an artist family and had five brothers, among them the well-known Ruggero Capodaglio, the later husband of Anna Gramatica.

Already as a child Wanda acted on stage - for the first time in 1898 in the Teatro Valle in Rome, as Totò in the first Italian staging of Zazà by Berton & Simon.

In 1905, she signed a contract for the role of ’amorosa’ and supporting actress at the Compagnia Picello, directed by Enrico Paladini. Three seasons later, the small actress with her unusual physiognomy and great dramatic talent became the first lady of the Paladini-Gina Favre company, where she stole the show of the main actors in Buffoni by M. Zamaçois.

Capodaglio then moved on to the ensemble of Irma Gramatica. There she acted for a year in e.g. La trilogia di Dorina by Rovetta and La moglie ideale by Marco Praga. Subsequently, she had engagements with the the companies Rodolfi-Nipoti-Spani (1910), with Luigi Zoncada-Isa Severi (1911), and with Antonio Gandusio-Lyda Borelli-Ugo Piperno (1912-1915), where she acted in two new plays.

In 1914, at the Teatro Valle in Rome, she played La Rondine in Il ferro by Gabriele D'Annunzio , and Nené in Il giglio nero by Fausto Maria Martini. She also acted in reprisals of Demi-monde by Alexandre Dumas fils and Marcia nuziale by Henri Bataille.


Italian postcard. Photo: Mario Nunes-Vais.


Italian postcard.

The Naked Truth

In 1914 Wanda Capodaglio had her first role on screen in La donna nuda/The Naked Truth (Carmine Gallone, 1914). It was probably her only silent film part, in an adaptation of the play La femme nue by Henri Bataille. The Roman Cines company let all the actors act in the same sets and costumes as on stage.

In La donna nuda, Capodaglio plays the wealthy and flirtatious Princess of Chabran, the rival of Lolotte, played by Italian diva Lyda Borelli. The princess steals Lolotte’s husband, the painter Pierre Bernier (Lamberto Picasso). Lolotte goes into a hysterical fit and begs the princess on her knees to leave her husband alone, but the princess sees the man as only a nice toy.

Sisto Sallusti claims in the Enciclopedia Treccani that Capodaglio also was Suzanne Lechatelier in another Bataille adaptation starring Borelli, La Marcia nuziale (Carmine Gallone, 1915). However, Vittorio Martinelli shows in his Il cinema muto Italiano, vol. 1915, II with a photo that Leda Gys played this role.

It is rather Wanda’s brother Ruggero Capodaglio who acted in various films in the later 1910s. He also played a minor part in La donna nuda.


Italian postcard by Ediz. Stab. Capecchi, Livorno, no. 179.


Italian postcard by Ediz. Stab. Capecchi, Livorno, no. 189.

Peak in her stage career 

In the years 1915-1918 Wanda Capodaglio was one the star actresses of Ruggero Ruggeri’s stage company. After an intermezzo at again Irma Gramatica’s company, the peak in her stage career followed.

Capodaglio became in 1919-1924 the undisputed first lady in the company of Uberto Palmarini, which successfully staged plays by Anton Chekhov and Lenormand. Palmarini’s ‘temps morts’ in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (staged in 1922) hurt the Italian audience that was used to vivacious French theatre, but Wanda didn’t care about the whispers and comments.

Capodaglio also played Matilda Spina opposite Alda Borelli in Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV (1922). In 1924 Capodaglio joined the Virgilio Talli-Romano Calò-Enrico Olivieri company where she played in another Chekhov play, The Seagull (1924), which was a fiasco though, despite her acting.

In the following year she founded with Marcello Gordia her own theatre group, which staged plays by Luigi Pirandello, Nikolai N. Ewreinov and Ferenc Molnár. In 1928-1931 she acted at her own Capodaglio-Palmarini company. Here her interpretation in Topaze by Marcel Pagnol gave her much acclaim.

In the early 1930s, during a break, she met the Italo-German actor Alexander Moissi. Her husband Pio Campa (they were married in 1919) convinced her to do a national tour in 1933-1935 with Moissi, who had never performed in Italy (Wikipedia erroneously mentions a tour abroad). Moissi was gravely ill and thrilled by the tour and the possibility to improve his health. The tour was successful but also demanding. Moissi died in 1935 of a pneumonia.

After a break, Capodaglio celebrated a triumphant return to the stage in 1937 with the Compagnia Nazionale alongside Annibale Betrone, Luigi Carini and her husband Pio Campa. From 1939 onwards, she taught at the Accademia nazionale d'arte drammatica for many years and thus came into contact with many later stars of the Italian film and the stage, such as Vittorio Gassman, Monica Vitti,Gian Maria Volonté, and in particular Rossella Falk. In the late 1940s Capodaglio would act in modern plays by e.g. Eugene O’Neill, Gabriel Garcia Lorca and Graham Greene.


Italian publicity still. Wanda Capodaglio in V. Bompiani's stage play Delirio del personaggio, performed from 3 March 1939 at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan by the group of Bella Starace-Sainati.

Return to the screen

Wanda Capodaglio returned the screen at the beginning of the Second World War. First, she appeared in Piccolo Hotel (Piero Ballerini, 1939), starring Emma Gramatica.

She was a lady-in-waiting in Carmine Gallone’s period piece Regina di Navarra (1940) with Elsa Merlini and Gino Cervi, Signora Camilla in the comedy Avanti c’è posto (Mario Bonnard, 1942) with Aldo Fabrizi, and the aunt of Mariella Lotti in Acque di primavera (Nunzio Malasomma,  1942). Then followed films like Gelosia (F.M. Poggioli,  1942) with Luisa Ferida, In due si soffre meglio (Nunzio Malasomma, 1943), and Resurrezione (Flavio Calzavara, 1944) with Doris Duranti.

After the war she still played minor parts in film, of which her most important one was the older woman, La Signora, who shelters Marcello’s Mastroianni’s anti-fascist Ugo in Carlo Lizzani’s Cronache di poveri amanti (1954), based on Vasco Pratellini’s classic novel. It is in the old lady’s house that Ugo meets Gesuina (Anna Maria Ferrero), falls in love and marries her.

Occasionally Capodaglio would still perform on stage as in Giorgio Strehler’s staging of Coriolanus (1957). In 1963 Capodaglio received the Premio R. Simoni for her whole stage career at the Teatro Romano in Verona.

From the early 1930s, Capodaglio acted in radio prose plays, first for EIAR and after the war at RAI, both in classic stage plays as in purposefully written radio plays. From the mid-1950s onwards, she also acted in plays on television until her retirement at the end of the 1960s. Memorable was her role as Aunt Betsy opposite a very young Giancarlo Giannini in David Copperfield (1966).

Between 1968 and 1970 she did her last roles on stage, screen and television. On film it was as the title character of the Grandmother in Mario Monicelli's Toh, è morta la nonna/Oh, Grandmother's Dead (1970). The film was a financial disaster, but Monicelli himself liked its fixed framing like in silent cinema.

Wanda Capodaglio died in 1980 in Castelfranco di Sopra, near Arezzo, where she had a villa for a long time.


The scene from La donna nuda with Borelli’s fit is integrated in Peter Delpeut’s compilation film Diva dolorosa (1999). (from 11:41 to 14:10). Source: Michel Holla (YouTube).


Trailer of Avanti c'è posto (1942). Source: ripleysfilm (YouTube).


Wanda Capodaglio and Giancarlo Giannini in the TV-version of David Copperfield. Source: 1961taranto (YouTube).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto Italiano - Italian), Sisto Sallusti (Enciclopedia Treccani - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian, German and English) and IMDb.

Le petit poucet (1905)

April 12, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Le petit poucet/Tom Thumb (1905), produced by Pathé, is a film adaptation of Charles Perrault's famous story of 1697. The French silent film was worldwide released. In Spanish speaking countries it was called Pulgarito, and in the US Hop o'my thumb. 


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: The family of Tom Thumb.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: Tom Thumb slipping under the stool of his father.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: They went into a deep forest.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: From the top of a tree he saw a small glow.

Who was the director of Le petit poucet? 

The Spanish film scholar Juan-Gabriel Tharrats claimed that it was the Spanish trick filmer Segundo de Chomón, who worked for Pathé in those years.

French Wikipedia claims that Le petit poucet (1905) was made by Vincent Lorant-Heilbronn.

The Fondation Jerôme Seydoux, keeper of the Pathé heritage, lists a 1905 version of Le petit poucet with no director nor actors at all, but also a 1909 version directed by Segundo de Chomón.

But for which version did Croissant publishers produce the beautiful hand coloured postcards in this post?

If you watch the video below, which is credited to be made by Segundo de Chomón in 1909, the story of the film is completely different to the tale on the postcards.

So the postcards must have been produced for the 1905 version, which was directed by Vincent Lorant-Heilbronn. Probably.



French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: Your husband is in big danger.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: They were put to bed early.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: Ah! There they are, our fellows.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: He fell on his knees asking for mercy.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Caption: He put all his family at ease.


Le petit poucet. Source: Gen Xavier (Internet Archive).

Sources: Fondation Jerome Seydoux (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Larisa Luzhina

April 13, 2017, 10:00 pm

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Russian actress Larisa Luzhina (1939) was a star of the Soviet cinema. She was a People's Artist of the RSFSR.


Russian postcard, no. 14187, 1966. This postcard was printed in an edition of 200.000 cards. Photo: B. Vilennina.

Starvation

Larisa Anatolievna Luzhina (Russian: Лари́са Анато́льевна Лу́жина) was born in 1939 in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, now Saint Petersburg in Russia. Her parents were Anatoly Luzhin and Evgenia Luzhina.

During the Siege of Leningrad, her older sister died of starvation. Larisa and her mother survived the blockade.

After the war, the Luzhin family settled in Tallinn, where Larisa started practicing in the school drama club, directed by Ivan Danilovich Rossomahin, actor of the Russian Drama Theatre. It was then that she decided to become an actress.

After school, Larissa tried to enter the Leningrad Institute of theatre, music and film, but she failed the exam. By accident, she found work in the cinema in 1959. Larissa’s home was opposite the pavilions of the Tallinn film studio. On the street she was invited to play the small part of a cabaret singer in the crime drama Kutsumata külalised/The Wedding Crashers (Igor Yeltsov, 1959).

After the film's release, director Herbert Rappaport of Lenfilm Studio suggested her for a major role in his romantic drama Vihmas ja päikeses/In the rain and in the sun (Herbert Rappaport, 1960), which marked the beginning of her professional film career.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1749, 1962. Photo: Nowak.


Russian postcard, no. 4522, 1966. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

Fame and popularity

Larisa Lushina played the lead in Na semi vetrakh/Seven Winds (Stanislav Rostotskiy, 1962). She was recommended for the part by the famous director Sergey Gerasimov, who had met her on a course. This role brought the young actress then fame and popularity.

Another success was the two-part war film Tishina/Silence (Vladimir Basov, 1963) with Vitali Konyayev, and based on the 1962 eponymous novel by Yuri Bondarev. The film won the main prize of the All-Union Film Festival.

She appeared opposite Yevgeni Urbansky in the drama Bolshaya ruda/The Big Ore (Vasiliy Ordynskiy, 1964). Then followed the sports drama Vertical (Stanislav Govorukhin, Boris Durov, 1967) about a group of climbers who are surprised by a cyclone.

Luzhina played a nurse, who returns from the front in the romantic drama Lyubov Serafima Frolova/Love of Serafim Frolov (Semyon Tumanov, 1968). In East-Germany, she played in the TV thriller Der Nachfolger/The Successor (Ingrid Sander, 1965) with Host Drinda.

In the GDR Luzhina starred in a total of six films, including two TV series. It was in the GDR she first played the roles of Marya Nikolaevna in Spring Waters (1968) and Varvara Pavlovna in Adelsnest/Nobles nest (Hans-Erich Korbschmitt, 1969), based on the classic novels of Ivan Turgenev. The German public loved her work, and she was recognized as the most popular actress in the GDR. She was awarded the National Prize of Germany and other awards.


Russian postcard, no. 71-2216, 1970. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards.


Russian postcard, no. 4899, 1970. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards.

The first man who flew around the Earth

During the 1970s, Larisa Luzhina played in such popular films as the drama Gonshchiki/Racers (Igor Maslennikov, 1973) with Oleg Yankovskiy, the family comedy Kysh i Dvaportfelya/Goaway and Twobriefcases (Eduard Gavrilov, 1974), and the drama Ispolnenie zhelaniy/Fulfilment of the Wishes (Svetlana Druzhinina, 1975) with Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy.

She also starred in Tak nachinalas legenda/So the Legend Began (Boris Grigorev, 1976), a biopic of Yuri Gagarin (Oleg Orlov), the first man who flew around the Earth. Luzhina played Gagarin’s mother.

In Poland, Larisa Luzhina appeared in the historical film Jarosław Dąbrowski (Bohdan Poreba, 1976). Other popular films include Syshchik/The Detective (Vladimir Fokin, 1980), the romantic drama S lyubimymi ne rasstavaytes/Don’t Leave Your Lovers (Pavel Arsyonov, 1980) and the crime drama Srok davnosti/Time Barred (Leonid Agranovich, 1983).

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Luzhina did not receive many film offers. In recent years, she played several roles in television series. Her most recent feature film is May (Marat Rafikov, Ilya Rubinshteyn, 2007). Luzhina is an active supporter of president Putin.

She was married four times. Her husbands were operator Alexei Chardynin, cameraman Valery Shuvalov, actor Vladimir Gusakov, and administrator Vyacheslav Matveev. She has a son with Valery Shuvalov, Paul V. Shuvalov, who is a sound engineer for Mosfilm. Larissa Luzhina lives in Moscow.


Russian postcard, no. 106/77 1977.

Sources: Wikipedia (Russian and English), and IMDb.

Julie Delpy

April 14, 2017, 10:00 pm

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French actress Julie Delpy (1969) made her first film appearance at 14 in Détective (1985) by Jean-Luc Godard. Since then, she starred in many European films by directors as Bertrand Tavernier, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski and such Hollywood movies as the cult hit Before Sunrise (1995). Later she started to write and direct her own films.


French postcard in the Le jour se lève series by Editions Humour à la carte, Paris, no. ST-167. Photo: Jean-Pierre Larcher.

Three Colours

Julie Delpy was born in Paris, France, in 1969 to Albert Delpy, a theatre director, and Marie Pillet, an actress in feature films and the avant-garde theater. Julie was an only child. Growing up in Paris, France, she was exposed to the arts and made her first short film at age 12, and wrote her first screenplay at 16.

Two years later, she made her film debut in Jean-Luc Godard's Détective (1985). She was excellent next to Michel Piccoli and Juliette Binoche in Mauvais Sang/Bad Blood (1986), director Leos Carax's second film. The film played at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival before being nominated for 3 César Awards (including one for Delpy) and winning the Prix Louis-Delluc.

Delpy then starred in the title role in Bertrand Tavernier's La Passion Béatrice (1987). For her performance, she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. She used the money she earned to pay for her first trip to New York City. She also appeared in King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard, 1987), a sardonic parody and adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, and in the Spanish drama La noche oscura/The Dark Night (Carlos Saura, 1989) in which she appeared as the Virgin Mary.

Delpy became an international celebrity after starring in Europa Europa (1990) directed by Agnieszka Holland. In the film, she plays a young pro-Nazi who falls in love with the hero, Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider), not knowing that he is Jewish.

From 1990 till 1995, she studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She saved the money she earned with acting jobs to help pay her studies. She played leads in Voyager (Volker Schlöndorf, 1991) with Sam Shepard, and Warszawa. Année 5703/Warsaw. Year 5703 (Przemyslaw Skwirczynski, 1992) with Lambert Wilson and Hanna Schygulla.

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski became a mentor to her in 1993, and he cast her in his Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994), the second film of his Three Colors Trilogy. Delpy also appeared briefly in the other two films in the same role. She also starred in several American productions, including Disney’s The Three Musketeers (Stephen Herek, 1993), and Killing Zoe (Roger Avary, 1993), opposite Eric Stoltz. She wrote and directed the short film Blah Blah Blah (1995), which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.


Trailer Europa Europa (1990). Source: Movieclips Trailer Vault (YouTube).


Trailer Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994). Source: Danios12345 (YouTube).

Before

Julie Delpy is best known for Richard Linklater's ‘Before’ series, alongside Ethan Hawke. The series started in 1995 with Before Sunrise, for which she wrote much of her own dialogue. The film received glowing reviews and was considered one of the most significant films of the 1990s' independent film movement.

The success of Before Sunrise led to the casting of Delpy in the American horror comedy An American Werewolf in Paris (Anthony Waller, 1997). Delpy reprised her Before Sunrise character, Céline, in the sequels Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013). Both were also well received and Before Sunset earned Delpy, who co-wrote the script, her first Academy Award nomination for Writing Adapted Screenplay.

In 2001, she became a United States citizen, but she still keeps her French citizenship. She made her feature length directorial debut with Looking for Jimmy (2002) which she also wrote and produced. Delpy is also a musical artist. She released a self-titled album, Julie Delpy in 2003.

Delpy directed, wrote, edited, and co-produced the original score for 2 Days in Paris (2007), co-starring Adam Goldberg. The film also features Delpy's real-life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents. In 2012 she released 2 Days in New York, a sequel to 2 Days in Paris. The film starred Delpy and actor Chris Rock.

Her son Leo was born in 2009. Father is her boyfriend Marc Streitenfeld. Julie Delpy is a resident of Los Angeles. She has been nominated for three César Awards, and two Academy Awards.


Trailer Before Sunrise (1995). Source: pamfilyam (YouTube).


Trailer 2 Days in Paris (2007). Source: Movieclips Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: Matt Dicker (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.