European Film Star Postcards

French film actor and operetta singer Aimé Simon-Girard (1889-1950) mostly played in French costume films of the 1920s and 1930s. He is best known as D'Artagnan in the twelve part silent serial Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père.

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 300. Photo: Comoedia. The card top right on the photo is from Les Trois Mousquetaires (Henri Diamant-Berger 1921), see it also below.

Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan in Les Trois Mousquetaires (1921)

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine no. 19. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan in Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921).

French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 278. Photo: Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan in Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921).

Aimé Simon-Girard in Les trois mousquetaires (1921)

French postcard by Editions Filma in the series Les Vedettes de l'Écran, no. 119. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan in Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921).

D'Artagnan

Aimé Simon-Girard was born as Aimé Max Simon in Paris in 1889 as the son of the tenor Nicholas Simon-Max and the soprano Juliette Simon-Girard. Thanks to his artistic parents he first pursued a career as operetta singer, and with success. Soon he became a star in the Parisian theatres with the name Simon-Girard.

On the eve of the First World War, he started in film, playing opposite Gabriel de Gravonein La maison du baigneur/The house of the swimmer (Adrien Caillard, 1913). The following year he met the man who would launch him into cinema stardom: Henri Diamant-Berger. They made one short film together, Loin des yeux, près du coeur/Absence makes the heart grow fonder (1914), but during the war Simon-Girard mostly continued working on stage.

In 1921, though, his old friend gave him the leading part of D'Artagnan in the twelve part silent serial Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921). It was not the first film adaptation of the novel by Alexandre Dumas père but a very popular one. For Simon-Girard it was his breakthrough role in the cinema. He played opposite such actors as Henri Rollan (Athos), Charles Martinelli (Porthos), Pierre de Guingand (Aramis), Claude Mérelle (Mylady de Winter), Jeanne Desclos (Anne of Austria), Édouard de Max (Richelieu) and Charles Dullin (Le Père Joseph).

Soon cinema veteran Louis Feuillade asked him for another twelve part serial: Le fils du flibustier/The Son of the Pirate (1922), with Georges Biscot, Sandra Milowanoff and a debuting Gaby Morlay.

In 1923 Simon-Girard directed a short himself, La belle Henriette/The Beautiful Henriette, with Germaine Webb. By now Simon-Girard was type-casted as a period piece actor, as in Vert galant/Courteous green (René Leprince, 1924), an eight part serial on the life of the French King Henri IV, followed by two other eight-part serials in costume: Fanfan-la-Tulipe (René Leprince, 1925) which was reshot in 1952 with Gérard Philipe, and Mylord l’arsouille/The ruffian Mylord (René Leprince, 1925). His costars in these three serials were Claude Mérelle, Joë Hamman, Claude France, Maria Dalbaicin, Pierre de Guingand and Simone Vaudry.

In the late 1920s, Aimé Simon-Girard played in La grande amie/The great friend (Max de Rieux, 1927), and in the comedy Les transatlantiques/Deckchairs (Pierre Colombier, 1928) about an American family visiting France.

Pierre de Guingand and Aimé Simon-Girard in Les trois mousquetaires

French postcard, no. 133. Pierre de Guingand as Aramis and Aimé-Simon Girard as D'Artagnan in Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1921).

Sandra Milovanoff and Aimé Simon-Girard in Le fils du flibustier (1922)

French Postcard, no. 171. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Le fils du flibustier/The Son of the Pirate (Louis Feuillade, 1922) with Sandra Milowanoff. Collection: Didier Hanson.

French postcard. Photo: Studio Fémina. Aimé Simon-Girard and Germaine Webb in the musical stage comedy Epouse-la by Pierre Veber, music by Hirchmann, at the Theatre Fémina, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Paris.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 442. Photo: Sartony.

French postcard by P.C., Paris, no. 26.

Tired of Period Pieces

Because of his fine voice, the passage to sound cinema was not a real obstacle for Aimé Simon-Girard. He debuted in sound film with Les quatre vagabonds/The Four Vagabonds (1931), directed by Lupu Pick, the Rumanian master of German Kammerspielfilm. Simon-Girard wrote the French dialogue and adaptation of Les quatre vagabonds. He plays Pierre who suspects one of four young vagabonds has murdered the suitor of his beloved Marie (Simone Bourday).

Next, Simon-Girard resurrected D’Artagnan once more in the sound version of Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1932), again directed by Henri Diamant-Berger, but this time with Blanche Montel as Constance, Harry Baur as Tréville, Edith Meyra as Mylady de Winter, and Andrée Lafayette as Anna of Austria, the French queen.

Tired of the period pieces, Simon-Girard henceforth focused on the stage. In 1934, he also recorded songs like L’amour en fleurs (the French version of Gracie Fields’ Love in bloom) and Cocktails pour deux (Cocktails For two), with artists such as Django Reinhardt, being part of the orchestra of Michel Warlop.

Incidentally Simon-Girard returned to the set to play a reporter in Arsène Lupin, detective (1937), which had Jules Berry in the title role, while Simon-Girard played the title role (a small one) in the Fernandel comedy François premier/Francis the First (Christian Jaque, 1937).

He also played king Henri IV twice in Les perles de la couronne/The Pearls of the Crown (Sacha Guitry, 1937) and in the comedy Alexis gentleman chauffeur (Max de Vaucorbeil, René Guissart, 1938). Simon-Girard‘s last parts were in Le cavalier noir/The black rider (Gilles Grangier. 1944) starring Georges Guétary, and the two-part film Mandrin (René Jayet, 1947), starring José Noguéro.

Aimé Simon-Girard died in Paris in 1950. All in all, he had acted in some 20 films and serials between 1921 and 1948.

French postcard. Photo: Radio 46 / André Gardé. Collection: Didier Hanson.

French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: still from Les Trois Mousquetaires (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père, and produced by Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Aimé Simon-Girard sings Cocktails Pour Deux (1934). Source: Bibi1944 (YouTube).

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

German singer Cornelia - Conny - Froboess (1943) was an immensely popular teen idol in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the 1970s she transformed into a respected stage actress.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 116. Photo: Hafbofilm, Amsterdam.

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

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Sent by mail in 1962.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/72. Photo: Winkler / Sascha-Film / Constantin / Werner Press. Publicity card for Electrola.

German postcard by Ufa, no. CK-298. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Arthur Grimm / UFA.

Germany's first post-war child star

Cornelia 'Conny' Froboess was born in Wriezen a.d. Oder, in Brandenburg, eastern Germany, in 1943. Her mother Margaretha was sent there when her homeplace Berlin was bombed during the war.

Her father was the composer Gerhard Froboess. In 1951, his composition Pack die Badehose ein (Pack Your Swimsuit, 1951) made his 7-year-old daughter Germany's first post-war child star.

Pack die Badehose ein is a cheery tune about a group of children going to swim at the Wannsee near Berlin on a hot summer's day. The song was originally composed for the Schöneberger Sängerknaben, but their manager refused the song. And so ‘Die kleine Cornelia’ (Little Cornelia) performed the song for the RIAS-radio show Mach mit live at the Berlin Titania-Palast. Her stage debut was a huge success.

The same year Die kleine Cornelia made her (uncredited) first film appearance in Sündige Grenze/Illegal Border (Robert A. Stemmle, 1951) with Dieter Borsche, about a band of juvenile smugglers. In the next years many other films followed, such as Lass die Sonne Wieder Scheinen/Let the Sun Shine (Hubert Marischka, 1955) with Hans Holt.

She released more singles over the next couple of years and as she grew Die kleine Cornelia recorded as Conny and then as Conny Froboess.

Conny Froboess in Lass die Sonne wieder scheinen (1955)

West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1555. Photo: Lucerna / Atlantic / Looschen. Publicity still for Lass die Sonne wieder scheinen/Let the Sun Shine (Hubert Marischka, 1955).

Conny Froboess and Hans Holt in Lass die Sonne Wieder Scheinen (1955)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1578. Photo: Lucerna / Atlantic-Film. Publicity still for Lass die Sonne Wieder Scheinen/Let the Sun Shine (Hubert Marischka, 1955) with Hans Holt.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Schönbrunn / Constantin-Film.

Dutch Postcard by N.V. v.h. Weenenk & Snel, Baarn, no. 1060.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden/Westf., no. 511. Photo: H.P. / Union / Ewald. Publicity still for Hula Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959).

Conny Froboess in Hula-Hopp, Conny (1959)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no 557. Photo: H.P. / Union / Ewald. Publicity still for Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959).

German postcard by Bartoschek-Verlag, Stuttgart Bad Canstatt, no. 1693. Photo: H.P.-Film / Union / Haenchen. Publicity still for Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959).

Dutch postcard. Photo: Publicity still for Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959).

Teen Idol

In 1958, after the Rock and Roll wave had hit Germany, Cornelia Froboess recorded Paul Anka’s Diana. The song became no. 2 in the German hit parade and Cornelia became teen idol Conny. The name change signified a shift towards a more hip, Americanised image for the teenager.

Bruce Eder at AllMusic: "Froboess -- who was still a teenager and, thus, a natural fit for the new music -- began doing occasional rhythm numbers that incorporated a livelier, quasi-rock & roll beat into her music, roughly akin to what Connie Francis was doing in America and Petula Clark was doing in England and France at around the same time."

Other hits followed like I love You Baby (1958), Blue jean boy (1958), and Lady Sunshine und Mister Moon (1962). These hits cemented her position and saw the singer become an idol for German teens. Her star would rise even more with a string of popular Schlager films in which she performed her hits.

In Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz-Paul, 1959) with Rex Gildo, she performed songs like Holiday in Honolulu, Die Boys und Girls von heute and of course Diana. Gildo was also her co-star in Ja, so ein Mädchen mit sechzehn (Hans Grimm, 1959) in which she sang the title song and also Little Girl and Such das Glück des Lebens.

Another frequent co-star was Peter Weck. They appeared together in such films as the remake Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961). Probably the best of their films together was Der Traum von Lieschen Müller/The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (Helmut Kautner, 1961), in which Sonja Ziemann played the leading role.

Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in 1964. Conny with Peter Weck.

Dutch postcard. Conny with Peter Weck.

Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4899. Photo: Hafbo Film. Publicity still for Junge Leute brauchen Liebe/Young People Need Love (Géza von Cziffra, 1961) with Peter Weck.

Conny Froboess and Rudolf Prack in Mariandl (1961)

Dutch postcard by N.V. v.h. Weenenk & Snel, Baarn. Photo: publicity still for Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961). The man on the postcard is not the mentioned Günther Philipp but Rudolf Prack.

Günther Philipp, Conny Froboess and Peter Weck in Mariandl (1961)

Dutch postcard by N.V. v.h. Weenenk & Snel, Baarn, no. 762. Photo: publicity still for Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961) with Günther Philipp and Peter Weck.

Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers, Amsterdam, no. WPS 168. Photo: Centrafilm. Publicity still for Mariandl (Werner Jacobs, 1961).

When Conny and Peter Do It Together

In her films Conny Froboess often portrayed a spontaneous 'Berliner Göre' (Brat from Berlin) who craves for independence from her strict parents.

Her comedy with 'the German Elvis', Peter Kraus, Wenn die Conny mit dem Peter/When Conny and Peter Do It Together (Fritz Umgelter, 1958), made them 'The dream couple of the German show world'.

Their Conny und Peter machen Musik/Conny and Peter Are Making Music (Werner Jacobs, 1960) was even the biggest box office hit of that year. Jan Onderwater at IMDb: "Despite too simple story and so-so directing, a jolly and entertaining Schlager film, due to cast that makes the best of it, but it could have done with one or two Schlagers more (was Papa Froboess out of material?)."

Despite these commercial successes Conny and Peter only made these two Schlagerfilms together.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Hafbo. Publicity still for Ja, so ein Mädchen mit sechzehn/Yeah, Such A Sixteen Year Old Girl (Hans Grimm, 1959).

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 112. Photo: HAFBO. Publicity still from Conny und Peter machen Musik (Werner Jacobs, 1960).

Conny Froboess, Rex Gildo, Peter Krauss, Rolf Pinegger

German postcard by ISV, no. E 13. Photo: Constantin / Grimm. Conny with Rex Gildo (left), Peter Krauss (right), and Rolf Pinegger.

Vintage card, with far left Rex Gildo.

Dutch postcard, no. 761, with Peter Krauss.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4489. Photo: Hafbo. Publicity still for Conny und Peter machen Musik (Werner Jacobs, 1960) with Peter Krauss.

The Eurovision Song Contest

In 1962 Conny Froboess' song Zwei kleine Italiener (Two Little Italians) was Germany's entry at The Eurovision Song Contest. At the 1962 Deutsche Schlager-Festpielen, the German preliminaries, she had narrowly beaten Swedish singer Siw Malmkvist into second place.

In Luxembourg at the pan-European final, Conny finished disappointingly sixth but the song became her only no. 1 hit in Germany. It stayed there for five weeks and was awarded a gold disc. Conny also recorded the song in Dutch, English and Italian. Zwei kleine Italiener – penned by Christian Bruhn and Georg Buschor– went on to sell over a million copies internationally and is considered an evergreen of German pop.

That same year she appeared in Jean Renoir's war comedy Le caporal épinglé/The Elusive Corporal (1962), starring Jean-Pierre Cassel as a corporal who during WWII tries to escape from German prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the French border. Her role in the film was small, but the film was prestigious.

In the mid-1960s, she branched out from Schlager films to doing filmed operetta, including a version of Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (Géza von Cziffra, 1962) with Peter Weck. Jan Onderwater at IMDb: "The plot of the operetta was changed to fit into 90 minutes, but maybe also for the original being unacceptably corny; but it is all to no avail. Von Cziffra directed without imagination and spirit and he is hopelessly inadequate in using the Ultrascope format. The result is a dull film."

She also made two comedies with Peter Alexander, Der Musterknabe/The model boy (Werner Jacobs, 1963) and Hilfe, meine Braut klaut/Help, My Bride Steals (Werner Jacobs, 1964) in which she played a kleptomaniac. The Beatles now topped the charts and Conny Froboess had lost her interest in music. She had been taking acting lessons since the late 1950s, and she decided to focus on acting.

Public and critical acclaim for her role in the TV film Wahn oder der Teufel in Boston/Delusion or the devil in Boston (Gerhard Klingenberg, 1965), based on a play by Lion Feuchtwanger, proved decisive. German magazine HörZu wrote surprised: "Television has won a young talented actress. Fraulein Froboess will probably have to decide now - for Conny or Cornelia."

From then on, she would strive to become a respected stage and TV actress and she would go on to portray the heroins of several classic plays. Credited as Cornelia Froboess...

German postcard by ISV, no. H 48.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, Maxicolor no. 126. Photo: Hafbo. Publicity still for Junge Leute brauchen Liebe/Young People Need Love (Géza von Cziffra, 1961).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/97. Photo: Bavariafilm.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. CK 365. Ca. 1962. Photo: Ufa, Berlin.

Conny Froboess and Adelheid Seeck in Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder (1961)

Dutch postcard. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder/My husband, the economic miracle (Ulrich Erfurth, 1961) with Adelheid Seeck.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

From 1972 to 2001 Cornelia Froboess was a permanent ensemble member at the renowned Kammerspiele in Munich, and since 2001 at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel. A hugely popular success was her role as Eliza Doolittle in the stage musical My Fair Lady at Munich’s Theater am Gärtnerplatz.

Froboess also worked regularly for television, but she made only a few more feature films. With director Kurt Hoffmann, she made the romantic comedy Rheinsberg (1967), based on a novel by Kurt Tucholsky. She won the Ernst Lubitsch prize for her role, and in 1968 she won a Golden Camera for the title role in the film Mathilde Möhring (Claus Peter Witt, 1968), based on a play by Theodor Fontane. A complete failure was her comedy with showmaster Rudi Carrell, Crazy - total verrückt (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1973)

Remarkable was her role in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s excellent drama Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982). It was the third and last film in the trilogy that included Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) and Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981). and was one of the last films Fassbinder made before his sudden death.

Froboess played Henriette, girlfriend of a sports journalist (Hilmar Thate) who by chance meets mysterious, former Ufa star Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech) and becomes intrigued by her. Henriette is curious about what will happen between them.

On stage, she played in 1988 Marthe Schwerdtlein in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust I, a performance that was also released as film: Faust – Vom Himmel durch die Welt zur Hölle/Faust - the film (Dieter Dorn, 1988) starring Helmut Griem. On stage, she appeared in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm in 1976, and played Ellida in Henrik Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea in 1990. At the Salzburg Festival 2004, she played Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. The same year she played the title role in Bertolt Brecht's play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children).

In the film Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Thomas Jahn, 1997), she played the mother of a man suffering of terminal cancer, played by Til Schweiger. The film was an unexpected smash hit. Later film appearances include a role as a grandmother in Villa Henriette (Peter Payer, 2004), the family film Ostwind/Stormwind (Katja von Garnier, 2013) and its sequels Ostwind 2 (Katja von Garnier, 2015) and Ostwind 3: Aufbruch nach Ora (Katja von Garnier, 2017).

She also appears regularly on TV as a guest star in such popular Krimi series as SOKO 5113 (2009), Der Alte/The Old Fox (1980-2010) and Tatort/Crime Scene (2000-2016). At the time of writing this bio, she is working on the TV comedy Ein Lächeln nachts um vier/A smile at four at night (Jan Ruzicka, 2018) with August Wittgenstein and Tilo Prückner. It shows the durability of her talent.

Since 1967 Cornelia Froboess is married to Austrian theatre director and manager Hellmuth Matiasek. They have two children, Agnes (1968) and Kaspar (1970). The family lives in Inntal near Wendelstein mountain in the Bavarian Alps in South Germany.

Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 25. With Fred Bertelmann. Photo: probably a publicity still for Wenn das mein großer Bruder wüßte/When my big brother knew that (Erik Ode, 1959)

Dutch postcard.

Dutch postcard by N.V. v.h. Weenenk & Snel, Baarn. Sent by mail in 1961.

German promotion card by Electrola. Photo: Studio Berneis, München.

Cornelia Froboess sings Diana in Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959). Source: Liebhaberaltermusik (YouTube).

Another clip of Hula-Hopp, Conny (Heinz Paul, 1959). Froboess sings Holiday in Honolulu with Rex Gildo at the piano. Source: eukryptos (YouTube).

Conny Froboess sings Wo ist der Mann? in Der Traum von Lieschen Müller/The Dream of Lieschen Muelle (Helmut Kautner, 1961). Source: scaasifun (YouTube).

Conny Froboess sings Zwei kleine Italiener (1962) in several films. Source: FRitz12345 (YouTube).

Sources: Jan Onderwater (IMDb), Bruce Eder (AllMusic), Filmportal.de, Ready steady girls, Die Krimi Home Page (German), IMDb and Wikipedia.

Jean Toulout (1887-1962) was a French stage and screen actor, director and scriptwriter. He was married to the actress Yvette Andreyor between 1917 and 1926. From 1913 on, he had an intense career in the French silent cinema.

French postcard by Editions-Cinémagazine.

A jealous, evil husband

Jean Joseph Charles Toulout was born in Paris in 1887. This biography is largely based on Toulout’s filmography while no real bio has been published online about him. According to Wikipedia, Toulout started to act on stage around 1907, when he played in the Victor Hugo play Marion Delorme at the Comédie Française.

One year after, he was acting at the Théàtre des Arts, so if he ever was a member of the Comédie Française, then it was not for long. In 1911 he travelled around with Firmin Gémier’s wandering stage company, but around 1913 he settled in Paris playing in André Antoine’s 1913 stage production of Paul Lindau’s The Prosecutor Hallers.

In 1912, Toulout debuted in the French cinema. Soon, his film career would become much more intense than his stage career. All-in all he would act in some 100 films within four decades.

Toulout started his screen career in short films by Abel Gance for Gance’s company Le film français. These included Il y a des pieds au plafond/There are feet on the ceiling, Le Nègre blanc/The White Negro, La Digue/The Dyke, Le Masque d’horreur/The Mask of Horror, all made in 1912. Soon, he also played various parts for Gaumont, Pathé and smaller companies. These films included La Maison des lions/The House of the Lions (Louis Feuillade, 1912), L’Homme qui assassina/The man who assassinated (Henri Andréani, 1913) and Les Enfants d'Édouard/The Children of Édouard (Henri Andréani, 1914).

In L’homme qui assassina, he is the evil, adulterous Lord Falkland [!], who presses his equally adulterous but goodhearted wife (Mlle Michelle) to either say goodbye to her child or publicly confess her sin, but her lover (Firmin Gémier) kills the husband and is even acquitted by the local Turkish commissionary (Adolphe Candé), who is very understanding in these matters.

Toulout didn’t act on screen in 1915, possibly because he was in the army during the First World War. From later 1916, he was back on track in several Gaumont films by Louis Feuillade and others. When he played in L’Autre/The Other (Louis Feuillade, 1917), he met the actress Yvette Andreyor, famous for her parts in Feuillade’s serials Fantomas and Judex. They married in 1917. Toulout and Andreyor would perform together in various films until their divorce in 1926.

Toulout was the evil antagonist of Emmy Lynn in La Dixième Symphonie/The Tenth Symphony (Abel Gance, 1918), blackmailing her for having accidentally killed his sister. She risks to wreck her new marriage with a composer (Séverin-Mars) but also the life of the composer’s daughter (Elizabeth Nizan). Luckily for the others he doesn’t kill them, only himself. As Wikipedia writes, “Gance's mastery of lighting, composition and editing was accompanied by a range of literary and artistic references which some critics found pretentious and alienating.”

He would be reunited with Emmy Lynn in La faute d’Odette Marchal/The fault of Odette Maréchal (Henri Roussel, 1920), and also - again as a jealous, evil husband - with Séverin-Mars in Jacques Landauze (1920) by André Hugon. With Hugon, Toulout would do several films in the 1920s and 1930s: including Le Roi de Camargue/The King of Camargue (1921), La Rue du pavé d'amour/The Pavement of Love (1923), and the first French sound film, Les Trois masques/The Three Masks (1929), shot at the London Elstree studios in only 15 days.

French postcard in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma by Editions Filma, no. 28. Photo: Agence Générale Cinématographique.

A night in a haunted house

Jean Toulout also acted in films by Pierre Bressol, such as Le Mystère de la villa Mortain/The mystery of Villa Mortain (1919), and La Mission du docteur Klivers/The Mission of Doctor Klivers (1919), by Jacques Robert, Henri Fescourt, Armand du Plessis, and by Germaine Dulac, such as La fète espagnole/Spanish Fiesta (1920), and La belle dame sans-merci/The beautiful lady without mercy (1920). In La belle dame sans-merci he is a local count who finds a playful femme fatale he brought home is wrecking his whole family.

In Chantelouve (Georges Monca, 1921), he was once more the jealous husband who threatens to kill his wife (Yvette Andreyor). In La conquête des Gaules (Yan B. Dyl, Marcel Yonnet, 1923) he is a film director who tries to film Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul (modern France and Belgium) with only modest means. In Le Crime de Monique/The Crime of Monique (Robert Péguy, 1923) Yvette Andreyor is accused of killing her brutal violent husband (Toulout, of course).

Toulout also acted in Abel Gance’s hilarious comedy Au secours!/Help!(1924), starring Max Linder as a man who takes a bet to stay a night in a haunted house. When Max Linder returned to France after working in the US, he bet his friend Abel Gance - known for making big spectacles - that he couldn't make a film in less than three days. Gance accepted the bet, and this film is the result.

Toulout masterfully performed the persistent commissioner Javert in Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925), opposite Gabriel Gabrio as Jean Valjean. When a restored version was shown at the Giornate del Cinema Muto festival in Pordenone in October 2015, Peter Walsh wrote on his blog Burnt Retina: “Gabriel Gabrio as Jean Valjean was a towering presence on screen, and his redemptive arc, and gradual aging were shown in a convincing way. Jean Toulout as Javert was also superb, at times overpowered by some of the mightiest brows and mutton chops I’ve seen in a long time. The climax of his personal crisis, and collapse of his moral world was incredibly striking, with extreme close-ups capturing a bristling performance.”

After smaller parts as in Antoinette Sabrier (Germaine Dulac, 1927), in which Toulout would be paired with Gabrio again, Toulout left the set in 1928 and returned to the stage for Le Carnaval de l'amour at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin.

In 1929, however, Toulout was back on the screen as Mr de Villefort in the late silent film Monte Christo (Henri Fescourt, 1929) – the last big silent French production. He also appeared in the first French sound film Les Trois masques/The Three Masks (André Hugon, 1930) as a Corsican whose son (François Rozet) makes a girl (Renée Heribel) pregnant, after which her brothers take revenge during the carnival.

Toulout had the lead in the Henry Bataille adaptation La Tendresse/Tenderness (André Hugon, 1930) as a famous, older academic who discovers his much younger wife (Marcelle Chantal) isn’t as much in love with him as he is with her. When he gravely falls ill he however discovers she still gave the best of her life to him.

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 325. Photo: Comoedia.

Fathers, judges, doctors, officers, and aristocrats

In 1930, Jean Toulout also tried his luck in film direction. Together with Joe Francis, he directed Le Tampon du Capiston (Joe Francis, Jean Toulout, 1930), a comical operetta film on an old spinster (Hélène Hallier), a captain’s sister, who wants to marry the captain’s aide (Rellys) who presumably has inherited a fortune.

In the same year, Toulout also wrote the scripts for two other films, both directed by André Hugon:La Femme et le Rossignol/Nightingale Girl (1930) and Lévy & Cie (1930), the first film of a series of four featuring Salomon and Moïse Lévy. In 1931 Toulout also scripted Moritz macht sein Glück, a German film by Dutch director Jaap Speijer.

The collaboration with Hugon continued when Toulout scripted and starred in Le Marchand de sable (André Hugon, 1931), while he had a supporting part in Hugon’s La Croix du Sud (André Hugon, 1931). The collaboration with Hugon would last till well into the mid-1940s with Le Faiseur (1936), Monsieur Bégonia (1937), La Rue sans joie (1938), Le Héros de la Marne (1938), La Sévillane (1943), and Le Chant de l'exilé (1943).

All through the 1930s Toulout had a steady, intense career as actor, but in 1934 he also directed his second film, La Reine du Biarritz, in which he himself had only a small part. Alice Field played Elenita de Sierra Mirador, who is the toast of Biarritz. For her, a young groom leaves his wife, and a forty-year-old inflamed suddenly deceives his young wife. But Elenita watched by her mother resigns herself to becoming honest and returns to her husband.

Otherwise Toulout had mostly supporting parts, as in Le petit roi/The Little King (1933) by Julien Duvivier, Fédora (Louis Gasnier, 1934), Les Nuits moscovites/Moscow Nights (Alexis Granowsky, 1934), and Le Bonheur/Happiness (Marcel L’Herbier, 1934). He played the jealous, shooting husband again in Le Vertige/Vertigo (Paul Schiller, 1935), again opposite Alice Field.

Toulout was the judge who forces Henri Garat and Lilian Harvey to marry on the spot in Les Gais lurons (Jacques Natanson, Paul Martin), the French version of Martin’s Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (1936). He is also the prosecutor in La Danseuse rouge/The Red Dancer (Jean-Paul Paulin, 1937), a courtroom drama starring Vera Korène, inspired by Mata Hari’s trial.

Toulout continued to act minor film parts in the late 1930s, during the war years and the late 1940s. Continuously, he played fathers, judges, doctors, officers, aristocrats. But he didn’t have major parts anymore. Memorable were his roles in Édouard et Caroline (Jacques Becker, 1951), starring Daniel Gélin and Anne Vernon, and – again, as a judge - in Obsession (Jean Delannoy, 1952) with Michèle Morgan and Raf Vallone.

Toulout also worked as voice actor in France. He dubbed Donald Crisp in How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941, released in France in 1946), and Nigel Bruce in Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952). In the late 1950s, Toulout also acted on television.

Jean Toulout died in Paris in 1962. He was 75.

Sources: Peter Walsh (Burnt Retina), CinéArtistes (French), Wikipedia (English, French and Italian), and IMDb.

German singer and actress Magda Schneider (1909-1996) is best known as the mother of film star Romy Schneider, but in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, she herself starred in some 40 films. First she appeared on the screen as a charming Wiener mädel (girl from Vienna) and after the war she often played the understanding mother or aunt.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6561/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6817/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Studio Lenné, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7099/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Casparius, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7099/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Casparius, Berlin.

Otto Wallburg and Magda Schneider in Marion, das gehört sich nicht (1933)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7415/1, 1932-1933. Photo: IF. Publicity still for Marion, das gehört sich nicht/Marion, That's Not Nice (E.W. Emo, 1933) with Otto Wallburg.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7930/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

Soubrette

Magdalena Schneider was born in 1909 in Augsburg, Germany. She was the daughter of a plumber, Xaverius Schneider and his wife Maria Meier-Hörmann.

After visiting a Catholic girl’s school Magda studied stenography and office management at a business school and worked as a steno typist for a grain merchant. In her leisure time she studied singing at the Leopold-Mozart-Konservatorium Augsburg and followed ballet classes at the Stadtheater of her native town.

As a soubrette she made her debut in the operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) and played several parts in comedies in the Stadttheater of Augsburg and later also in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in München (Munich). There she was discovered by director Ernst Marischka, who invited her to work for the Theater an der Wien.

In 1930 she made her first film appearance in Boykott/Boycott (Robert Land, 1930) with Lil Dagover. Two years later she launched her film career after a film test at the Ufa studio.

She could be seen singing and dancing in such films as Zwei in einem Auto/Two in a Car (Joe May, 1932) with Kurt Gerron, Das Testament des Cornelius Gulden/The Testament of Cornelius Gulden (E.W. Emo, 1932) with Georg Alexander and Theo Lingen, Das Lied einer Nacht/Tell Me Tonight (Anatole Litvak, 1932) at the side of the star tenor Jan Kiepura, and eventually the poetic masterpiece Liebelei/Flirtation (Max Ophüls, 1933) co-starring Paul Hörbiger.

Liebelei, based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler, was one of her best films in which she could unfold her whole acting talent. 25 years later, her role in Liebelei was played by her daughter, Romy Schneider, in the film Christine (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1958).

Fritz Schulz and Magda Schneider in Das Lied einer Nacht (1932)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 146/1. Photo: Cine-Allianz-Film der Ufa. Publicity still of Fritz Schulz and Magda Schneider in Das Lied einer Nacht/The Song of Night (Anatole Litvak, 1932).

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 441. Sent by mail in 1933. Photo: City Film.

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 397. Photo: City Film. Publicity still for Ein bißchen Liebe für Dich/A Bit of Love (Max Neufeld, 1932) with Georg Alexander.

Dutch Postcard for Glück über Nacht/Happiness Over Night (Max Neufeld, 1932) with Hermann Thimig. Photo: City-Film. Notice the modern furniture & set design.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8843/1, 1934-1935. Photo: Badal Filmproduktion. Publicity still for Fräulein Liselott/Miss Liselott (Johannes Guter, 1934) with Albert Lieven.

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

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

Wolf Albach-Retty

During the production of the film Kind, ich freu mich auf dein Kommen/Child, I please me about your arrival (Kurt Gerron, 1933), Magda Schneider met her first husband, actor Wolf Albach-Retty.

They appeared in eight films together, including G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald/Tales from Vienna Woods (Georg Jacoby, 1934), and Rendezvous in Wien/Rendezvous in Vienna (Victor Janson, 1936).

The couple married in 1937 and would have two children, Rosemarie Magdalena, called Romy (1938-1982), and Wolfgang Dieter (1941), later a surgeon. The couple divorced in 1945 (some sources say 1946, others 1949).

Other films in which Magda appeared during the 1930s and 1940s were Eva (Johannes Riemann, 1935) with Heinz Rühmann, Frauenliebe – Frauenleid/Woman’s Love – Woman’s Sorrow (Augusto Genina, 1937) with Iván Petrovich, and Liebeskomödie/Love’s Comedy (Theo Lingen, 1942).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1597/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Sandau, Berlin. With Wolf Albach-Retty.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3640/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3826/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film. From Tatiana.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3826/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Wesel / Berlin-Film.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. W 88. Photo: Berlin Film / Wesel.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 151, 1941-1944. Photo: Wesel / Berlin-Film.

Ambitious Mother

After the Second World War, Magda Schneider found that film offers were scarce, and she mainly appeared in guest roles on stage.

The first post-war film in which she was seen was Ein Mann gehört ins Haus/A man belongs in the house1>(Hubert Marischka, 1948), that was already filmed in 1945.

In the 1950s, she got more film offers, but she decided to focus herself on the film career of her daughter Romy Schneider. Mother and daughter appeared together in Romy's film debut Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht/When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (Hans Deppe, 1953), Mädchenjahre einer Königin/The Story of Vickie (Ernst Marischka, 1954), Die Deutschmeister/A March for the Emperor (Ernst Marischka, 1955), Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Legend of Robinson Crusoe (Josef von Báky, 1956), and Die Halbzarte/Eva (Rolf Thiele, 1958).

Best known of course is the Sissi Trilogy (Ernst Marischka, 1955-1957), based on the life of Elisabeth of Bavaria. Romy Schneider starred in the title role and Magda Schneider played the role of her mother, Princess Ludovika of Bavaria.

In 1953 Magda married Hans Herbert Blatzheim, a Cologne restaurant owner, who died in 1968. Her last appearance for the cameras was in the TV series Drei Frauen im Haus/Three Women in the House (1968) and the sequel Vier Frauen im Haus/Four Women in the House (1969).

In 1982, Magda married cinematographer Horst Fehlhaber. That same year she was awarded the Filmband in Gold. In the last years of her life Magda Schneider had to bear the tragic deaths of her grandson David in 1981 and of her daughter Romy in 1982.

Magda Schneider passed away in 1996 in Berchtesgaden, Germany. She was 87.

Lithuanian postcard by Izd. IRA, Riga.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Melior. Sent by mail in 1957. Photo: publicity still for Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht/When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (Hans Deppe, 1953) with Romy Schneider.

Romy Schneider and Magda Schneider in Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (1956)

Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 3092. Photo: Filmex NV. Publicity still for Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin/Sissi: The Young Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1956) with Romy Schneider.

Romy Schneider and Magda Schneider in Venice

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. The photo was made during the shooting of Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin/Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957) with Romy Schneider.

Final scene of Liebelei (Max Ophüls, 1933). Source: BD130.

German trailer for Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (Ernst Marischka, 1956). Source: UweundPiaFan (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-Line - German), Wikipedia, Filmportal.de (German), Fippi2000 (IMDb) and IMDb.

Every year in early autumn, the Dutch film industry and public gather at the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). For ten days, Utrecht is the capital of the Dutch cinema. During the festival, EFSP provides you daily with postcards of Dutch films and stars from the past. Today we start with Dutch cabaret and revue artist Louis Davids (1883-1939), who appeared in twenty Dutch films, both silent and sound pictures. He is widely considered one of the Netherlands biggest names in performing arts ever and many of his songs are evergreens in The Netherlands.

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 582. Photo: Godfried de Groot.

Wonder Child

Louis Davids was born as Simon David in 1883 in Rotterdam's notorious Zandstraat quarter into a poor Jewish family. He was the son of the comedian and cafe owner Levie David and Francina Terveen. Both parents were performing artists and their children Louis, his older brother Hakkie and younger sisters Rika and Heintje started their entertainment career at a young age.

5 years old, Louis sang in mini-costume and high hat at all the state fairs with his brother Hakkie playing the piano. Newspapers called little Louis a ‘Wonder child’ or ‘Miniature Comedian’ and he was very successful. A big chance came a few years later. Only seven, he got a contract at Tivoli Theater in Rotterdam, where he performed under the name Louis Davids Jr.

Later he performed with his sister Rika on fairs and in coffee houses and music halls and he became a versatile artist. After an argument with his father, the 13-years-old left for England to be an assistant to the magician Akimoto. A year later, his father brought his son home, penniless but with a lot more experience in variety theatre. Together with his sister Rika he managed to secure a job outside of the fairs, working at the famous theatre Pschorr.

Brother and sister Davids moved to Amsterdam to work with by the variety director Frits van Haarlem at the Carré circus theatre where they had plenty of success in creating revues after English fashion. In the cafe-chantant Victoria in the Nes (a street in the old centre of Amsterdam) they performed songs like Een reisje langs den Rijn (A trip along the Rhine). During that time, the Nes and the artists who performed there were not really highly rated. Louis therefore hopes to return to Frits van Haarlem.

After Rika married English magician John Weil and moved to England, Louis formed a new duo with his youngest sister Henriëtte (Heintje). The second Davids duo was also a success. Heintje’s husband, Philip Pinkhof, wrote texts for the duo. In 1906, Davids married Rebecca Kokernoot with whom he had a daughter, Kitty. He was unhappy in his marriage.

Louis’ breakthrough was Koning 'Kziezoowat in Amsterdam/King Sissiwat in Amsterdam (1906). This was the first major revue in the Netherlands, written by Louis Davids and Frits van Haarlem, and with Davids in the leading role. For this revue four short films with Louis and Heintje Davids were produced by Frits van Haarlem, which became parts of the revue.

In 1909 Davids furthered his success by working with theatre director Henri ter Hall in the revue Doe er een deksel op (Make it a cover). The performances took place in Rotterdam, his birthplace. Rika was back and Heintje had a characteristic role. As with the previous revue, it was especially up to local events and the surprise element was the key to its success.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 803, 1925-1926. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

He, She and the Piano

While on tour Louis Davids met British dancer Margie Morris who had moved to the Netherlands in 1913. Louis and Maggie formed the duo ‘He, She and the Piano’, where Maggie would take on the role as pianist and composer. They wrote dozens of songs together, he the text, she the music.

The charming Morris led him from the comic repertoire towards more mature songs. Margie encouraged Louis' artistic talents and helped him develop his own style. Thanks to the influence of English and American music in her compositions, the level of Louis’s songs increased. Their innovating, a bit jazz-like repertoire soon became known across the country. Davids and Morris also starred in countless revue such as Loop naar den Duivel (Walk to the Devil) in 1915, for which they wrote We gaan naar Zandvoort aan de zee (We go to Zandvoort by the sea), now a Dutch evergreen.

They also started to appear in the Dutch cinema. Their silent films include Amerikaansche meisjes/American Girls (Maurits Binger, Louis Davids, 1918) with Lola Cornero and Beppie de Vries, and De duivel in Amsterdam/The Devil in Amsterdam (Theo Frenkel, 1919) with Eduard Verkade and Louis Bouwmeester.

A famous stage musical from this period, for which they wrote several classic songs, is De Jantjes (The Tars) written by Herman Bouber and Davids in 1920. This hugely successful stage play was also released as a silent film, De Jantjes/The Tars (Maurits Binger, B.E. Doxat-Pratt, 1922) starring Beppie de Vries and Johan Elsensohn, and as a sound film, De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Bouber, Davids and Morris also wrote the stage musicals Bleeke Bet/Bleak Beth (1917) and Oranje Hein/Orange Hein (1918), all situated in the Jordaan. Davids also appeared in other silent films such as the Herman Heijermans adaptation Schakels/Links (Maurits Binger, 1920) with Jan van Dommelen, Adelqui Migliar and Annie Bos, and Menschenwee/People woe (Theo Frenkel, 1921) with Willem van der Veer and Coen Hissink.

Davids celebrated his 25th anniversary as an artist in 1919 in Rotterdam's Pschorr theatre. After his jubilee Louis travelled with Margie, Rika and Heintje to India for a year and a half. In 1922 Margie Morris left him because of his countless infidelities. The couple had never married but they had a son together, Louis. His wife Betsy refused to divorce Louis, so they remained officially married until his death. Both Louis’s children would never have a good relationship with their father in their mature lives.

Jan van Ees, Willy Costello, Johan Kaart jr.

Dutch postcard by Hollandia Film Prod. / Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: publicity still for De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Jan van Ees, Willy Costello and Johan Kaart jr. as the three 'Jantjes'.

Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still of a set built for Bleeke Bet (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934), a street in the old neighbourhood De Jordaan in Amsterdam. Set designer was Hans Ledersteger.

The Little Man

Between 1922 and 1926, Louis Davids was the director of the Casino Variété in Rotterdam, but the job of director did not hold his attention for long. In 1929, Davids appeared in the revue Lach en vergeet (Laugh and Forget) with the song which would probably become his most popular title De kleine man (The Little Man). It was written by Jacques van Tol, with whom Davids would work closely until his death in 1939, but Van Tol would be working anonymously.

Despite he was born in Rotterdam, Louis Davids was a popular performer of the ‘Jordaan repertoire’. The Jordaan is a 17th century-built working class neighbourhood in the heart of Amsterdam. Davids also appeared in typical ‘Jordaan films’, a genre based on the popular plays by Herman Bouber and Davids and Morris, such as Bleeke Bet/Bleak Beth (Alex Benno, 1923) with Alida van Gijtenbeek and Jan van Dommelen, and Oranje Hein/Orange Hein (Alex Benno, 1925), starring Johan Elsensohn and Aaf Bouber.

Davids made the transition to sound film in the short Hollandsch Hollywood/Dutch Hollywood (Ernst Winar, 1933), also with Heintje Davids and Fien de la Mar. After the enormous success of the sound version of De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934), he made one more film, Op stap/On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935), co-starring Fien de la Mar and Frits van Dongen (a.k.a. Philip Dorn). In this musical Davids sang several songs, including his evergreen Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent (When you are born for a nickel).

At the time, Davids was especially renowned for his work for the Scheveningen Kurhaus Cabaret in the summers from 1931 till 1938. There Davids founded the careers of Dutch cabaret stars like Wim Kan, Corry Vonk, and Wim Sonneveld. In 1937 Davids had to give up his cabaret work at the Kurhaus due to his asthma. That year, he was named Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

In 1939, Louis Davids died in Amsterdam, only 55. (Some sources, like IMDb, mention cancer as the cause, other sources mention a heart attack or his asthma as the cause). During the Second World War, Rika and Harkie Davids both were murdered in 1943 in Sobibor concentration camp. Heintje knew to survive the Nazis. After the war she continued to perform and keep the repertoire of her brother alive. Today, Louis Davids’s songs are still popular. They can be heard on the soundtrack of films like Rooie Sien/Red Sien (Frans Weisz, 1975) featuring Willeke Alberti, and TV series like Moeder, ik wil bij de revue/Mother, I want to join the revue (Rita Horst, 2012) with Egbert Jan Weeber.

Heintje Davids and Sylvain Poons sing Omdat ik zoveel van je hou (Beacause I love you so much) in De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Source: Pieter de Groot (YouTube).

Louis Davids sings Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent (When you are born for a nickel) in Op stap/On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935). Source: brassens66 (YouTube).

Sources: Heintje Davids, Johan Luger, H.P. van den Aardweg (Louis Davids, Een kleine man die je nooit vergeet – Dutch), M.E.H.N. Mout (Huygens.nl - Dutch), Een leven lang theater (Dutch), Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

During the Netherlands Film Festival, EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. One of the classics of the Dutch cinema is the comedy Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958). The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. With 2,6 million visitors it is the second biggest box office hit in the history of the Dutch cinema.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3796. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Hans Kaart.

Dutch postcard by A. de Herder, Rotterdam. The Arena Cinema was located at the Kruiskade, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The presented film was the Dutch comedy Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958), starring Hans Kaart.

Classic Dutch Comedy

Fanfare (1958) is a classic Dutch comedy film of the 1950s directed by Bert Haanstra. The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.

Fanfare belongs to the milestones of Dutch film history. With over 2,6 million cinema visitors it is the second most successful Dutch film of all time, only surpassed by Paul Verhoeven's Turks Fruit/Turkish Delight (1973) with Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven.

Fanfare was filmed in the village of Giethoorn, in the film the fictional place of Brederwiede, a typical 1950s village, with canals instead of roads.

The scenario was written by director Bert Haanstra and journalist/author Jan Blokker. The music was composed by Jan Mul and was performed by the Concertgebouworkest.

The story: after a fight between the two leading musicians (Hans Kaart and Bernard Droog) the brass band in a small village splits up into two separate bands. They both want to win a contest and will do anything to prevent the other band from winning it.

There is also a love story: the young policeman (Wim van den Heuvel) and the girl (Ineke Brinkman) are both children of one of the band leaders.

At the end of the film, the two rival brass bands end up on a music tournament. The two pieces of music of the rival brass bands are combined by a planned coincidence. Haanstra filmed this competition on a meadow in Diever. He used musicians of various corps from the Diever region as a figurant.

The film was Bert Haanstra's feature film debut and is unique in the Dutch cinema. The cost was 450 thousand guilders, but the film raised 1.2 million guilders.

Dutch postcard van Leer's Fotodrukind. N.V., no. 659, sent in 1960. This the brassband which performed in Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958).

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3792. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Andrea Domburg.

Ineke Brinkman

Dutch actress and film actress Ineke Brinkman (1934) was active in the Netherlands and Norway. She studied acting with actor Bernard Droog and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1954, she made her stage debut in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams. In 1958 she played a role in the popular film Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Hans Kaart, Bernard Droog, Andrea Domburg and Wim van den Heuvel.

After a fight the brass band (in Dutch: fanfare) in the small village of Giethoorn splits up into two separate bands. They both want to win a contest and will do anything to prevent the other band from winning it.

In 1960 Brinkman received a prize for her role in the play Five Finger Exercise by Peter Shaffer. Brinkman married a Norwegian in 1958 and soon she moved to Norway. There she went to direct amateur plays and acted at the National Theater and Det norske teatret in Oslo.

In 1977 she founded a cabaret which still exists. She returned in 1984 to the Netherlands for a short time and appeared on TV in the comedy series Schoppentroef/Spades trump (Bram van Erkel a.o., 1984) with Gerard Cox and she also acted in a stage production.

Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1920. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3794. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958)Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1920. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.

Wim van den Heuvel

Dutch actor Wim van den Heuvel (1928) was the Jeune Premier of the classic Dutch feature film Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958). He played police officer Douwe, who is in love with Marije (Ineke Brinkman).

Fanfare made him well known in the Netherlands and he appeared in many TV plays and series. On stage he performed at the theatre companies Puck, Ensemble, De Nederlandse Comedie, Toneelgroep Centrum, De Haagse Comedie and Het Nationale Toneel.

Films in which he appeared are Kermis in de regen/Fair in the Rain (Kees Brusse, 1962), Ongewijde aarde/Unconsecrated Earth (Jef van der Heijden, 1967) with Ton Lensink, and Minoes/Miss Minoes (Vincent Bal, 2001) starring Carice van Houten.

Wim van den Heuvel was married to actress Karin Haage and since 1972 to actress Guusje Westermann. The actor André van den Heuvel is his brother.

Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1932. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.

Trailer Fanfare (1958). Source: indebioscoop (YouTube).

Impressions of the shooting of Fanfare. Source: PunterRadio1 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb

Every year in early autumn, the Dutch film industry and public gather at the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). Also this year, EFSP presents its own Unofficial Netherlands Film Star Postcards Festival from 20 to 29 September. Today in the spotlight: little Henkie Klein (1921-ca. 1993), who was a child actor in German and Dutch films of the silent era. He was called the 'Dutch Jackie Coogan'.

Dutch postcard by B. Brouwer, Amsterdam. Photo: Bernard Eilers, Amsterdam. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dream World

Henkie Klein (sometimes written as Klyn or Kleinman) was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1921. He was the son of film director Henk Kleinman(n). Some sources say Kleinman senior was Dutch, other sources say he was German born.

Kleinman sr. was the producer and co-director of the German-Dutch film Die Fahrt ins Verderben/Op hoop van zegen (Henk Kleinman, James Bauer, 1924). This was the second film version of Op hoop van zegen/On hope of blessing, a classic Dutch fisher drama written by Herman Heijermans in 1900.

The success of the production lead to another film based on a play by Heijermans, Die vom Schicksal Verfolgten/Droomkoninkje/Little Dream King (Henk Kleinman, 1926) with Wilhelm Dieterle (aka William Dieterle) and Aud Egede Nissen. Little Henkie played the lead of a boy born with a clubfoot who creates his own dream world.

A year earlier Henkie had made his film debut as the Berlin street boy Bolleken in Goldjunge/Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht/Golden Boy (Henk Kleinman, 1925) with Grete Reinwald and Carl Auen. Both films are now presumed missing.

Dutch postcard printed by B. Brouwer, Amsterdam. Photo: Bernard F. Eilers.

Glimpse

At the age of 9, Henkie Klein played in the melodrama Zeemansvrouwen/Seamen's Wives (Henk Kleinman, 1930), based on a play by Herman Bouber, author of popular plays like De Jantjes/The Tars and Bleeke Bet/Pale Beth. Zeemansvrouwen should have been the first Dutch sound film with some songs. Possibly because of a lack of money, it became the last Dutch silent feature film.

The prints have been restored by the former Dutch Filmmuseum (now Eye Institute) and reviewer rohitnnn writes at IMDb: "Some of the shots in the film are truly exquisite, and though the story is almost entirely predictable, the film is eminently watchable as it shows us a glimpse of the society in a country that otherwise remains at the periphery of European cinema."

Zeemansvrouwen/Seamen's Wives was one of the most popular films of that year in the Amsterdam cinemas, but Henkie would only act in one more film by his father, Hollands jeugd/Dutch Youth (Henk Kleinman, 1934). There is little know about this production. Kleinman senior also directed two other films, Zelfkant/Fag-end (Henk Kleinman, 1931), a short promotion film for the association for Help for Uninhabited, and the short Oudjes/Oldies (Henk Kleinman, 1936) with Louis van Dommelen, Riek Kloppenburg and August Kiehl.

In 1934, Dutch film weekly Het Weekblad Cinema en Theater published a small article about Henkie: "In the last few years, we did not hear much of the young Dutch film star Henkie Klein. After his outstanding role in the Dutch film Droomkoninkje, he completely disappeared. This is probably because his father, director Henk Kleinman, does not get any more films to direct. Henkie visits the primary school in Amsterdam. He has almost become a Henk now."

In Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, Henk van Gelder wrote in 2003 about what happened to Henk Kleinman senior. Documents from film historian Egbert Barten show that Kleinman joined the NSB in 1934 and the Reichsfilmkammer in 1937 to be able to work in Germany. During the war he worked - again as Henk Kleinmann - in Germany for a small bureau that selected suitable German films for The Netherlands. He died in 1944 (other sources say 1945) without making another film in Germany. His train was bombed by allied forces and he died in a hospital in Berlin.

An what happened to his son Henkie? Van Gelder cites theatre historian Piet Hein Honig who said that Henk Klein passed away circa 1993. Van Gelder contacted Henkie's daughter, but she just gave him information about her grandfather.

In 2003, Zeemansvrouwen/Seamen's Wives was studied by lip readers and new film texts by Lodewijk de Boer were dubbed by actors like Huib Broos, Jeroen Krabbé, Nelly Frijda en Bram van der Vlugt. Henny Vrienten composed a new musical score for this film experiment. That same year, this final sound version was screened during the Biënnale in the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.

Dutch postcard printed by B. Brouwer, Amsterdam. Photo: Bernard F. Eilers.

Sources: Henk van Gelder (NRC Handelsblad - Dutch), Peter Bosma (Dutch), Mariska Graveland (De Filmkrant - Dutch), Rohitnnn (IMDb), Dutch Film Angle, Wikipedia and IMDb.

During the Netherlands Film Festival, EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. Today's spotlight is on Dutch stage and film actress Theo Mann-Bouwmeester (1850-1939), born in a famous Dutch stage family and sister of Louis Bouwmeester. Inspired by Sarah Bernhardt, she had her breakthrough in 1880. From then on she was known for her wide repertoire, from classical tragedies to contemporary pieces. ’The Grand Dame of the Dutch stage’ also appeared in several Dutch silent films often directed by her son Theo Frenkel Sr. In 1926 she said farewell to the stage after playing her most famous role, Liane Orland in Henry Bataille's The Child of Love, in 67 cities.

Theo Mann Bouwmeester in Het kind van de liefde

Dutch postcard by Koninkl. Nederl. Boek- en Kunsthandel M.M. Couvée, Den Haag (The Hague). Photo: publicity still for the stage production of Het kind van de liefde (L'Enfant de l'amour/The Child of Love) by Henry Bataille.

Passionate, loving and suffering women

Theodora Antonia Louisa Cornelia Bouwmeester was born in Zutphen, The Netherlands, in 1850. She was the daughter of the actors Louis Frederik Johannes Rosenveldt and Louisa Francina Maria Bouwmeester, who happened to be on tour when their daughter was born. ‘Doortje’ was born into the most important Dutch actors family and the legendary Louis Bouwmeester was her elder brother.

Doortje made her debut as a six-year-old in the stage company of her father. She continued to play small stage parts and at 17 she married musician Maurice Frenkel, with whom she would have four sons.

At 23 however, she was a widow and she decided to continue earning the money for her family as an actress. Initially, her stage career was not remarkable while she performed in melodramas and farces. In 1880, she saw a stage performance by Sarah Bernhardt in Amsterdam and ‘la divine Sarah’ became her great source of inspiration.

That same year, Theo Bouwmeester experienced her breakthrough to the main public with the title role in the French comedy Froufrou by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and in the following years she became the grand Dame of the Dutch theatre. She was the Dutch performer in excellence of passionate, loving and suffering women – especially in great roles as Marguerite Gauthier, Maria Stuart and La Tosca.

She had a wide repertoire, from classical tragedies to contemporary pieces. From 1885 on, she was connected to the prestigious Koninklijke Vereeniging Het Nederlandsch Toneel (The Royal Dutch Theatre). In 1920, she participated in an actors strike and this would trigger the end of her career. In 1926, she said farewell in one of her popular roles, Liane Orland in Henry Bataille's Het kind van de liefde (The Child of Love).

Directed by her son

Theo Mann-Bouwmeester played in five silent films of which four were directed by her son, Theo Frenkel Sr. In her first film, Koning Oedipous/King Oedipus (1912), she played Queen Jocasta opposite her bother Louis Bouwmeester in the title role.

Six years later, her son directed her and her brother Louis Bouwmeester in Pro domo (Theo Frenkel, 1918) also with their niece Lily Bouwmeester. She had a supporting part in Helleveeg/The She-Devil (Theo Frenkel, 1920) featuring Mien Duymaer van Twist.

When her son started his own film company in Germany, she appeared in his Judith (Theo Frenkel, 1923) with Helena Makowkska. Her last film was Frauenmoral/Women's Morals (Theo Frenkel, 1923), again starring Helena Makowkska and Oscar Marion.

Theo Mann-Bouwmeester was married three times and thus performed under different names. Chronologically, she performed as Doortje Bouwmeester, Doortje Frenkel-Bouwmeester, Théo Brondgeest-Bouwmeester and Théo Bouwmeester) but she is best known under the name she used during her last marriage with the musician and composer Gottfried Mann.

Since 1950, the Theo d'Or prize has been awarded to the best female lead in the Dutch stage season every year. Another award named after her is the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester ring. This ring designed by Jan Eisenloeffe was donated to her by admirers in 1911. In 1934, Mann-Bouwmeester donated the ring to Else Mauhs, who was the most outstanding Dutch actress in her eyes. After that, the Theo Mann-Bouwmeesterring was worn by the Dutch actresses Caro van Eyck, Annet Nieuwenhuijzen, Anne Wil Blankers, Ariane Schluter and since 2017 by Halina Reijn.

Theo Mann Bouwmeester had four sons from her first marriage to Maurits Frenkel, including actor and film director Theo Frenkel sr. Actor Theo Frenkel Jr. was her grandson. There were many tragedies in her life, including the early deaths of her eldest and youngest sons. Her third son, Louis, died in 1900 at the age of 31.

Dutch postcard by Koninkl. Nederl. Boek- en Kunsthandel M.M. Couvée, Den Haag (The Hague). Photo: publicity still for the stage production of Het kind van de liefde (The Child of Love). It was a scene from the third act.

Sources: HHJ de Leeuwe (Huygens.ing – Dutch), Piet Hein Honig (Acteurs – en Kleinkunstenaars-Lexicon – Dutch), Een levenlang theater (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Every year in early autumn, the Dutch film industry and public gather at the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). Also this year, EFSP presents its own Unofficial Netherlands Film Star Postcards Festival from 20 to 29 September. Coen Hissink (1878-1942) was a Dutch stage and screen actor who acted in many silent films by Theo Frenkel Sr. First in the Netherlands in such films as Levensschaduwen (1916), Het proces Begeer (1918) and Menschenwee (1921) and afterwards in Berlin in Alexandra (1922) and other films. He also played in various silent Hollandia films. In the 1930s he acted in Dutch sound films. Hissink died in concentration camp Neuengamme.

Dutch postcard. Coen Hissink as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. This postcard may date c. 1907-1908 when Hissink played Shylock on the Dutch stage.

A Dutch Western

Johan Coenraad ‘Coen’ Hissink was born in 1878 in Kampen, The Netherlands.

After studying at the Toneelschool (Stage School) for a year, he began his acting career in the theatre in 1902. He made his stage debut in the Revue De Nieuwe Haring (The New Herring) and would have a long career on stage in both the Netherlands and Flanders.

He was also known as a writer. In 1910, he published the dissertation Louis Bouwmeester's Shylock-creatie. When legendary Dutch actor Louis Bouwmeester starred as Shylock in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice - his most famous - Hissink sat in the stalls with pen and paper and recorded everything he saw and heard.

Hissink was best known for his stage work, both on and behind the stage. Together with Albert van Dalsum and Eugene Gilhuys, he founded the stage company Het Groot Toneel (The Big Stage) in the Plantage theater in Amsterdam. He also played many classic stage roles, such as Othello in 1918.

Hissink made his film debut in the Dutch Western (!) Een telegram uit Mexico/A Telegram from Mexico (Louis H. Chrispijn sr., 1914), a silent short film produced by Maurits Binger for his film studio Filmfabriek Hollandia. Hissink played the blind father of the Dutch colonist Willem (Willem van der Veer), who gets lost in the revolution in Mexico. The home front waits eagerly for news.

Next followed the silent drama De Vloek van het Testament/The Fatal Woman (Maurits Binger, Louis H. Chrispijn sr., 1915) starring Dutch diva Annie Bos. At the time, it was for the Netherlands a huge production with 48 copies through Europe and 12 copies crossing to America.

Hissink continued to appear in a stream of silent Dutch films. In Fatum (Theo Frenkel, 1915) he again played with the legendary Louis Bouwmeester. Annie Bos was the star in Ontmaskerd/Unmasked (Mime Misu, 1915). Still existing is the seaman’s drama Het wrak van de Noordzee/The Wreck in the North Sea (Theo Frenkel, 1915).

Another relatively large-scale production was Het geheim van Delft/The Secret of Delft (Maurits Binger, 1916). The film required the construction of a 20 metre high ruined lighthouse, and a 15 metre long pier of the coast of Zandvoort. These constructions meant high production costs and the film starred the most famous actors in the Netherlands at that time, including Willem van der Veer, Esther De Boer-van Rijk, Jan van Dommelen and Annie Bos.

Hissink often played supporting parts as the bad guy. He had a rare leading role in the silent crime film Levensschaduwen/Life's Shadows (Theo Frenkel, 1916). He was also one of the leads in another crime film, Het Proces Begeer/The Begeer Case (Theo Frenkel, 1918). He played smaller parts in the silent dramas Pro domo (Theo Frenkel, 1918) with Louis Bouwmeester, Theo Mann-Bouwmeester and Lily Bouwmeester, and Schakels/Connections (Maurits Binger, 1920) based on a play by Herman Heijermans and starring Annie Bos, Jan van Dommelen and Adelqui Migliar.

Esther de Boer van Rijk and Coen Hissink in Op hoop van zegen (1934)

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934) with Esther de Boer van Rijk.

Decadence, homosexuality, prostitution and cocaine

During the 1920s, Coen Hissink continued to appear in such silent films as the British-Dutch silent crime film Bloedgeld/Blood Money (Fred Goodwins, 1921), with Adelqui Migliar, the adventure film De zwarte tulp/Black Tulip (Maurits Binger, Frank Richardson, 1921) based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas père, Menschenwee (Theo Frenkel, 1921) with Louis Davids, and De Bruut/The Brute (Theo Frenkel, 1922) with Willem van der Veer, Erna Morena and Bruno Decarli.

He also appeared in such international films as the German-Dutch co-productions Der Mann im Hintergrund/The Man in the Background (Ernst Winar, 1922) with Adolphe Engers, and Frauenmoral/Women's Morals (Theo Frenkel, 1923) with Olga Engl, Helena Makowska and Theo Mann-Bouwmeester.

His final silent film was De cabaret-prinses/The Cabaret Princess (Theo Frenkel, 1925) with Emmy Arbous.

In 1928, he wrote a volume of short stories about decadence, homosexuality, prostitution and cocaine. For inspiration, he visited a gay club in Berlin where he sniffed cocaine in a toilet. The book about his experiences was titled Cocaïne: Berlijnsch zedenbeeld (Cocaine: Berlin's pictorial image).

He returned to the screen in the sound film Op Hoop van Zegen/Hoping for the best (Alex Benno, Louis Saalborn, 1934) starring Esther de Boer van Rijk and Frits van Dongen (Philip Dorn). The film was based on a 1900 play by Dutch socialist dramatist Herman Heijermans, situated in a fishing village, about the conflict between the fishermen and their employer.

It was the third filming of the play in less than twenty years. The film ends in tragedy with the unsound boat setting out to sea and sinking with all hands and the owner pocketing the insurance money. The film won an award at the Venice Film Festival in 1935 and is known as one of the most successful film productions of the Dutch pre-war cinema.

The success lead to more small roles for Hissink in the film dramas Merijntje Gijzens Jeugd/Merijntje Gijzen's Youth (Kurt Gerron, 1936) after the popular novel of the same title by A.M. de Jong, and the Dutch-French film De Man Zonder Hart/The Man Without Heart (Léo Joannon, Louis de Bree, 1937), starring Louis de Bree and Dolly Mollinger. During the 1930s he also often worked for radio plays.

Hissink’s final film role was in De Laatste Dagen van een Eiland/The Last Days of an Island (Ernst Winar, 1942) with Max Croiset. It was already shot in 1938, but premiered in 1942. The film mixes a documentary that tells about the last days of the island of Urk and its inhabitants, and a story of a young couple.

During the Second World War, Hissink refused to join the Kulturkammer (Culture Room) of the Nazi regime and he joined the Resistance. In 1941, he was caught by the Nazis and sent to the concentration camp Neuengamme in Germany. There Coen Hissink was killed in 1942. He was 64.

Esther de Boer-van Rijk, Coen Hissink, Willem v.d. Veer, Op Hoop van Zegen

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag/M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, Louis Saalborn, 1934) with Esther de Boer van Rijk and Willem van der Veer. Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sources: Piet Hein Honig (Acteurs – en Kleinkunstenaars-Lexicon – Dutch), Eye, Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

Every year in early autumn, the Dutch film industry and public gather at the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). Also this year, EFSP presents its own Unofficial Netherlands Film Star Postcards Festival from 20 to 29 September. Today, a temperamental Hollywood star who was born in the heart of old Amsterdam as Jetje Goudeket. She became successful as the exotic beauty Jetta Goudal (1891-1985) in American films of the silent era. In 1984, Life Magazine called her “the most alluring femme fatale in silent movies, also the smartest, best dressed and feistiest.”

French postcard.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 511.

French postcard, no. 37. Photo: Erka-Prodisco. Erka-Prodisco Films was a French film distribution company. Her name is erroneously written as Jetta Gondal.

A Parisienne from Versailles

Jetta Goudal was born Julie Henriette Goudeket in 1891. She was the daughter of Mozes Goudeket, a wealthy, orthodox Jewish diamond cutter in the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam, and Geertruida Warradijn. Decades later, during World War II, her father and his second wife would be murdered in the concentration camp of Sobibor.

Tall and regal in appearance, Julie began her acting career on stage, traveling across Europe with various theater companies. In 1917 or 1918 (the sources differ about the date), Julie Goudeket left a Europe, ravaged by World War I to settle in New York City.

There she hid her Dutch and Jewish ancestry; she generally described herself as a ‘Parisienne’ and on an information sheet for the Paramount Public Department she later wrote that she was born at Versailles in 1901 as the daughter of Maurice Guillaume Goudal, a lawyer.

Her publicist at one point even claimed that she was the daughter of legendary Dutch spy Mata Hari, but no one took that statement seriously, though. Goudal first appeared on Broadway in the drama The Hero by Gilbert Emery in 1921, using the stage name Jetta (pronounced with a French J) Goudal. Later that year she returned with the melodrama The Elton Charm.

She met film director Sidney Olcott in a box at Carnegie Hall, who encouraged her to venture into film acting. She accepted a bit part in his film Timothy's Quest (Sidney Olcott, 1922) as a tubercular mother with children, in a pathetic scene with a drunken husband. Convinced to move to the West Coast, Goudal appeared in two more Olcott films in the ensuing three years.

French postcard by Europe, no. 461. Photo: Regal Film / United Artists.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5187. Photo: Paramount.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 273.

Different and Distinctive

Jetta Goudal's real film debut came in The Bright Shawl (John S. Robertson, 1923) with Richard Barthelmess. Jetta created quite a stir with her striking, exotic appearance in a secondary role as a Chinese/Peruvian spy. Critics found her "different" and "distinctive."

She quickly earned more praise for her following film work, especially for her performance in Salome of the Tenements (Sidney Olcott, 1925), a film based on the Anzia Yezierska novel about life in New York's Jewish Lower East Side.

Goudal then worked in the Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky co-production of The Spaniard (Raoul Walsh, 1925) opposite Ricardo Cortez– ‘the new Sheik’- in his first starring role.

Her growing fame brought her to the attention of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille. He hired her for what turned out to be some of her (and his) greatest critical successes, including her emotional roles in the highly romantic melodrama The Coming of Amos (Paul Sloane, 1925) starring Rod LaRocque, The Road to Yesterday (Cecil B. DeMille, 1925), the excellent mystery melodrama Three Faces East (Rupert Julian, 1926), the extremely powerful drama White Gold (William K. Howard, 1927) and the lush desert romantic melodrama The Forbidden Woman (Paul L. Stein, 1927) with Victor Varconi.

Unfortunately, the exotic allure and element of mystery that made Goudal so popular on-screen came with a price. She was an unrepentant theatrical ‘grand dame’ and possessed a fierce temper well known to the film community. DeMille later claimed that Goudal was so difficult to work with that he eventually fired her and cancelled their contract.

Goudal filed a lawsuit for breach of contract against him and DeMille Pictures Corporation. Although DeMille claimed her conduct had caused numerous and costly production delays, in a landmark ruling, Goudal won the suit when DeMille was unwilling to provide his studio's financial records to support his claim of financial losses.

British postcard by Real Photograph.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3332/1, 1928-1929. Photo: DPC.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1475/1, 1927-1928. Photo: DPC.

Vamp or Joan of Arc?

Jetta Goudal appeared as a vamp opposite Marion Daviesand Nils Asther in The Cardboard Lover (Robert Z. Leonard, 1928), produced by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies.

In 1929, she starred with Lupe Velez and cowboy star William Boyd in Lady of the Pavements (D.W. Griffith, 1929), a romantic drama set in the time of Napoleon II in Paris.

The next year Jacques Feyder directed Goudal in her only French language film, Le Spectre vert/The Green Spectre (Jacques Feyder, 1930), a made-in-Hollywood, alternate language version of The Unholy Night (1929).

Because of her audaciousness in suing DeMille and her high-profile activism in the Actors Equity's fight for the unionisation of film actors she became known as the Joan of Arc of Equity. However, some of the Hollywood studios refused to employ her and with the arrival of sound her very thick accent left her with limited offers.

At age forty-one, she made her last screen appearance in a talkie, the comedy Business and Pleasure (David Butler, 1932), co-starring with Will Rogers. In 1930, she had married Harold Grieve, an art director and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Along with her husband, she went into interior design and faded from the Hollywood scene. They had no children.

Plagued by health problems (heart condition) in the 1960s, she suffered a serious fall in 1973 which left her virtually an invalid. She told an interviewer in 1985: "I don't like being called a silent star. Who was silent? I was never silent!"

Shortly after, Jetta Goudal died in 1985 in Los Angeles, at age 94. For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3332/2, 1928-1929. Photo: LPG.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3947/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3791/1, 1928-1929. Photo: MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).

Sources: Charles C. Benham (Classic Images), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Operator_99 (Allure), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Every year during the last week of September, Utrecht is the Dutch capital of film. This is the time of the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), and traditionally EFSP organises its own Unofficial Netherlands Film Star Postcard Festival. Today we present Dutch singer, television host and incidental actor Jan Smit (1985). His songs fall under the Dutch genre known as 'Palingsound' (Volendam music). As a child, 'Jantje' Smit had success with his songs in Germany and other European countries. Smit also starred in the film Het Bombardement/The Bombardment (2014).

German autograph card by Koch Universal, Planegg / München.

Best National Singer

Johannes Hendricus Maria (Jan) Smit was born in Volendam, The Netherlands, in 1985. His parents are Gerda and Ruud Smit. He has two sisters, Jenny Smit and pop singer Monique Smit.

As a kid, Jantje sang for four years with the boys choir De zangertjes van Volendam. At the age of ten, he was discovered when the band BZN was looking for a young local talent who could sing a duet with BZN singer Carola Smit (no relation). Jantje was chosen and their number Mama was a great success.

Following this success, he made a solo single record, Ik zing dit lied voor jou alleen (I sing this song for you alone) produced by three BZN members, Jan Keizer, Jack Veerman and Jan Tuijp. This single topped the Dutch charts.

In the following two years, Jantje Smit scored five more hits including Pappie, waar blijf je nou (Daddy, where are you now). Jantje was also successful in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and France. For some time, he often performed in Germany and he recorded ten German albums. In 2001 Smit and his BZN producers received the Dutch export price for the best-selling Dutch act abroad.

At the age of 16, he left school to focus on his musical career. At 17, he changed his choice of music and started to work with the known song writers Cees Tol and Thomas Tol. A few years later he started to write by himself, together with good friend Simon Keizer, who later made name as a singer himself. Together with Nick Schilder, Simon forms a group named Nick & Simon.

In 2005, the daily life of Jan Smit could be followed in the Dutch reality show Gewoon Jan Smit (Just Jan Smit). The program received that year the Golden Televizier Ring, a major television award in The Netherlands. He also started to present TV shows like Muziekfeest op het Plein (Music Party at the Square) and he scored hit after hit with songs like Laura.

The popularity of Smit grew huge in the Netherlands. In 2006, Jan Smit was awarded the Edison Award as Best National Singer for his album Jansmit.com. In September 2006, a second series of Gewoon Jan Smit (Just Jan Smit) aired. In September 2006, C&A clothing store launched the collection J-style named after Jan Smit. Jan seemed to be everywhere.

Dutch autograph card by Volendam Music, Volendam.

German autograph card by Koch Music, Planegg / Munich.

Slashed by both critics and the public

In the following years, Jan Smit continued to score number one hits and to present TV shows. In 2007, he won a TMF Award for Best Dutch Pop Act. In 2009 he released a duet with the Surinamese singer Damaru, Mi Rowsu (A little garden in my heart), which reached the number 1 position in both Suriname and the Netherlands. From 2011 on, he and Cornald Maas are the Dutch commentators for the Eurovision Song Contest, one of Europe’s biggest yearly TV events.

Jan Smit starred in the film Het Bombardement/The Bombardment (Ate de Jong, 2014) with Roos van Erkel and Monic Hendrickx. The film, about the bombing of the city of Rotterdam in 1940 by the Nazis, was slashed by both critics and the public, but Smit was spared, his theme song went to no. 1 at the Dutch charts and the film still attracted more than 100,000 visitors.

Since 2012 Smit presents the TV show De beste zangers van Nederland (The finest singers of the Netherlands). He also founded with his manager Jaap Buijs the record label Vosound Records. Artists who record for this label are his sister Monique Smit, Tim Douwsma and Gerard Joling.

In 2011, he performed three nights at the Amsterdam Arena stadium during the concert series Toppers in Concert. In December 2013 Smit joined the board of soccer club FC Volendam. In 2014, he played a supporting role in the popular TV series Flikken Maastricht/Cops Maastricht (2007-) with Angela Schijf and Victor Reinier.

With the Schlager group KLUBBB3 (including German singers Florian Silbereisen and Fleming Christoff), Smit tried to conquer the German market once more. Their debut album Vorsicht unzensiert! (Attention, not censured) reached number 4 to 6 in Germany, Austria and Belgium and was also recorded in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 2017 the trio was awarded the prize Die Eins der Besten in the category Best Band of the year. Their second album Jetzt Geht's Los Richtig (Now it's time to get it right) entered at no. 1 in Germany, number two in Austria and number three in Switzerland. Their single Life Dances Sirtaki became a no. 1 hit in The Netherlands.

In Germany Smit guest starred in the popular TV series Das Traumschiff/The Dream Boat (2017) with Heide Keller and Sascha Hehn. In 2017, Smit also joined the Dutch vocal band De Toppers, consisting of René Froger, Jeroen van der Boom and Gerard Joling. Since 2005, the band yearly gives a series of hugely successful outdoor concerts in the Amsterdam ArenA stadium. In 2011 and 2013 Smit was a guest artist during Toppers in Concert.

Jan Smit had a relation with actress and presenter Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen from 2007 till 2009. Since 2009, Smit has a relation with Liza Shelf. The two were married in 2011 and they have three children.

German autograph card by Koch Universal, Planegg / München.

German autograph card by Koch Universal, Planegg / München.

Trailer Het Bombardement/The Bombardment (Ate de Jong, 2014). Source: Dutch Film Works (YouTube).

KLUBBB3 performs Das Leben tanzt Sirtaki. Source: ICH FIND SCHLAGER TOLL! (YouTube).

Sources: Athena Dupont (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Dutch), and IMDb.

Yesterday, 26 September 2017, Czech actress Květa Fialová (1929) has passed away. In her country, she was a popular theatre, film and television diva. Internationally she is best known for her role as bar singer Tornado Lou in the Western parody Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera/Lemonade Joe (1964).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 3170, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2.125, 1964. Photo: Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera/Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipský, 1964).

Traumatic Experience

Květa Fialová was born in Veľkých Dravcích (Vel’ké Dravce), Czechoslovakia (now Slovak Republic) in 1929. Her mother was the artist and sculptor Květoslava Fialová and her father the Czech legionary Vlastimil Fiala.

The family lived in Slovakia until 1938, when the nationalists were driven to the Czech Republic. They moved to Zdar and later to Borohrádku. At the end of the war her mother and Kveta were raped by Soviet soldiers, which was the most traumatic experience of her life.

From 1946 till 1950, she studied at the Janáček Academy in Brno. In 1950 she made her film debut with a small part in the drama Veliká prílezitost/The Great Opportunity (K.M. Wallo, 1950). The next years followed supporting roles in Czech films as Stika v rybníce/The Pike in a Fish Pond (Vladimír Cech, 1951), Plavecký mariás/Rivers 1x1 (Václav Wasserman, 1953) and Strakonický dudák/The Strakonice Bagpiper (Karel Stekly, 1955).

Meanwhile Fialová worked at several regional theatres, in the Czech cities of Těšíně (Cieszyn), Opavě (Opava) and Budějovicích (Budejovice), in Germany in Köln (Cologne), and in Slovakia in Martině (Martin). Since 1958 she was engaged at Prague's Divadlo ABC (ABC Theater), which at that time was directed by Jan Werich.

In Prague she had a larger choice of film roles and she appeared in such films as Tenkrát o vánocích/At That Time, at Christmas... (Karel Kachyna, 1958) and Dum na Orechovce/A Suburban Villa (Vladislav Delong, 1959) with Jiri Vala. After the ABC Theatre had merged with the Městskými divadly (Municipal Theatre of Prague) in 1963, she worked there until 1990. In subsequent years, she was a permanent guest actor at the theatre.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 727, 1958. Photo: publicity still for Zlaty pavouk/The Golden Spider (Pavel Blumenfeld, 1957).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2.645, 1966. Photo: Balinski.

Prague Springtime

During her long career, Květa Fialová played many characters in dozens of films. Some of her finest films were made during the Prague Springtime of the early 1960s.

Probably her best known role is that of bar singer Tornado Lou in the wild and funny Western parody Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera/Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipský, 1964) starring Karel Fiala.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Lemonade Joe is a sweet-natured Czechoslovakian spoof of Hollywood westerns. Hero Lemonade Joe (Carl Fiala) is so named because he refuses to drink the ‘hard stuff’ when he saunters into the local saloon. The plot exaggerates all the supposedly standard cowboy clichés, including dance hall girls with golden hearts, masked rustlers, and the sundown showdown. Halfway through, director Oldrich Lipsky (a graduate of Prague's Satirical Theatre) has nowhere further to go and begins repeating himself - then finds that he has to take certain plot threads seriously in order to expedite a happy ending. Nonetheless, the overall cheerfulness and virtuosity of the project won Lemonade Joe plenty of critical praise”.

Reportedly, the film made Fialová a kind of sex symbol in Eastern Europe. In a satire on the pulp novel, Fantom Morrisvillu/The Phantom of Morrisville (Borivoj Zeman, 1966), she played Hannibal’s fiancee. That year she also played a small part in another internationally successful comedy, Ostre sledované vlaky/Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966). The film, based on Bohumil Hrabal's novel of the same name, was the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967. Vaclav Neckar plays a Czech railroad worker during the Nazi occupation, who becomes attracted to the Czech underground.

Another successful satire was Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvím psa pana Foustky/The End of Agent W4C (Václav Vorlícek, 1967), which was a spoof on the James Bond films. Interesting was also the black comedy Vrazda po cesku/Murder Czech Style (Jirí Weiss, 1968).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 16/69. Photo: publicity still for Jarní vody/Spring Waters (Václav Krska, 1968).

Kveta Fialova in Do zbrane kuruci! (1974)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 101/75. Photo: publicity still for Do zbrane kuruci!/To the guns, rebels! (Andrej Lettrich, 1974).

Nick Carter

After the Soviets had violently broken the Prague Springtime, Květa Fialová continued to make films but the results were less interesting than before.

Her better films of the 1970s include the crime film Partie krásného dragouna/The Matches of a Beautiful Dragoon (Jirí Sequens, 1970), the comedy Slamený klobouk/Straw Hat (Oldrich Lipský, 1972), and another genre spoof, Adéla jeste nevecerela/Nick Carter in Prague (Oldrich Lipský, 1978) with Michal Docolomanský as the legendary American detective Nick Carter.

Fialová also appeared in many television films and series, and also often dubbed foreign programs. During the 1980s and 1990s she continued to combine her TV and stage work with appearances in films.

These films include the family comedy S tebou me baví svet/Snowmen with Hearts (Marie Polednáková, 1983), the French-Czech fantasy Une trop bruyante solitude/Too Loud a Solitude (Verá Caïs, 1996) starringPhilippe Noiret, and the comedy Bájecná léta pod psa/Wonderful Years That Sucked (Petr Nikolaev, 1997).

In the new century she kept busy playing grandmothers in TV series and films, including the mild comedy Úcastníci zájezdu/Holiday Makers (Jirí Vejdelek, 2006). One of her last stage triumphs was her leading role in the play Harold and Maude.

Květa Fialová was married twice. After an early marriage at 21, she was married to director Pavla Háši from 1957 until his death in 2009. They had a daughter Zuzana (1962). Fialová was now the grandmother of Dominiky.

Trailer for Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera/Lemonade Joe (1964). Source: filmexporthomevideo (YouTube).

Trailer of Adéla ještě nevečeřela/Nick Carter in Prague (1978). Source: kl1138 (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Milan ‘Gudaulin’ Černý (ČSFD.cz - czech), Wikipedia (Czech), and IMDb.

During the Netherlands Film Festival, EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. Today's subject is Grand German-Dutch actress Adele Sandrock (1863-1937), who had a successful theatrical career all over Europe. In Vienna she had a stormy affair with the famous author Arthur Schnitzler, and enjoyed triumphs as the diva of the modern playwrights. In the 1910s she became one of the first German film stars. After the introduction of sound film, she emerged as a witty comedienne. She excelled as the intimidating elderly dragon, who could also be surprisingly funny and tactful.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7363/1, 1933-1934. Photo: FFG.

Adele Sandrock and Wolf Albach-Retty in Das schöne Abenteuer (1932)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 142/3. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Das schöne Abenteuer/Beautiful Adventure (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932) with Wolf Albach-Retty.

Adele Sandrock in Der Favorit der Kaiserin (1936)

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9448, 1935-1936. Photo: IF. Publicity still for Der Favorit der Kaiserin/The Favorite of the Empress (Werner Hochbaum, 1936).

Tumultuous Private Life

Adele Sandrock was born as Adele Feldern-Förster in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1863 (some sources say 1864). She was the youngest of three children of the German businessman Eduard Othello Sandrock and the Dutch ballet dancer and actress Nan ten Hagen. Her siblings were painter and author Christian Sandrock and actress Wilhelmine Sandrock.

In 1875 the family moved to Berlin. Three years later, Adele was discharged from school, and she tried to become an actress. Only 15, she made her debut in the comedy Mutter und Sohn (Mother and Son) by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer at the Urania theatre in a Berlin suburb.

Later, she asked the Duke of Meiningen in a letter to engage her at the Hoftheater (Court Theatre). She chose a scene from Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) by Friedrich Schiller to show off her talent. The Duchess, a former actress, was so delighted by her acting that Sandrock received a three-year contract.

When the famous actor Joseph Kainz refused to play her lover, she was deeply hurt and left Meiningen after only one year. She played in theatres in Moscow and Budapest, and also worked in Spain and France. In 1889 she moved to Vienna, where she had her breakthrough in the title role of Isabella in The Clemenceau Case by Alexandre Dumas and Armand d'Artois at the Theater an der Wien.

From 1889 to 1895 she played at the Deutschen Volkstheater (German National Theatre) in Vienna. In 1893 she met the poet Arthur Schnitzler and the two had a tempestuous love affair that lasted for two years. In his works Der Reigen (The Dance), Halbzwei (Two and Half) and Haus Delorme (House Delorme), Schnitzler used his memories of Adele Sandrock. Their intimate correspondence was published in book form.

In Vienna, Sandrock became a star and her tumultuous private life and her breach of contracts created some scandals. She became the diva of the 'Wiener Moderne’, the Austrian avant-garde movement. She created a number of major roles for such modern playwrights as Henrik Ibsen (in Rosmersholm) and Arthur Schnitzler (in Das Märchen (Fairy Tale) and Liebelei (Flirtation)).

From 1895 to 1898, she worked with her older sister Wilhelmine at the Hofburgtheater (Court Theatre) and later she went on a European tour. From 1902 to 1905 she worked again at the Deutschen Volkstheater in Vienna, but she could not repeat her previous triumphs. In 1905 she moved to Berlin, where she played at the Deutsches Theater under Max Reinhardt. In 1910 her engagement there ended and there were no new parts or engagements. Her highly theatrical style was regarded as old-fashioned now. It was a period of financial hardships.

German Postcard by Verl. Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 4003. Photo: Photo-Arbeit, München (Munich). Publicity still for a stage production of Hamlet with Adele Sandrock as Queen Gertrude.

Vintage Postcard. Publicity still for a stage production of Medea.

Adele Sandrock and Carola Toelle in Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski (1921)

German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 197. Photo: Maxim-Film. Publicity still with Adele Sandrock and Carola Toelle in Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski/The debt of Count Weronski (Rudolf Biebrach, 1921).

Funny Old Lady

In 1911 Adele Sandrock made her silent film debut for the Messter company in the short film Marianne, ein Weib aus dem Volk/Marianne, a woman from the people, starring Henny Porten. It was followed by parts in such films as Die Beichte einer Verurteilten/The confession of a condemned (Rudolf del Zopp, 1915) and Passionels Tagebuch/Passionels diary (Louis Ralph, 1916) with Emil Jannings.

During World War I, Adele earned a small family income by giving lectures and acting lessons. After the war she worked more and more for the cinema. To her silent films belong Manolescus Memoiren/The Memories of Manolescu (Richard Oswald, 1920) starring Conrad Veidt, Lady Hamilton (Richard Oswald, 1921), and Kinder der Finsternis/Children of the Dark (Ewald André Dupont, 1921).

In 1924 she returned to the Netherlands to film Op hoop van zegen/Die Fahrt ins Verderben (James Bauer, Henk Kleinmann, 1924), a Dutch-German coproduction, based on the play Op hoop van zegen (1900) by Herman Heijermans. Other silent films were Die Waise von Lowood/Orphan of Lowood (Curtis Bernhardt, 1926), Feme (Richard Oswald, 1927), the Schnitzler adaptation Fräulein Else/Miss Else (Paul Czinner, 1929) and Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929) with Carmen Boni.

In 1920 the then 50-plus-Sandrock had also returned to the stage, where she again enjoyed great successes, this time as a funny old lady in such comedies as Liebestrank (Love Poison) by Frank Wedekind and Bunbury by Oscar Wilde. It was her second breakthrough, now as a comedienne. Sandrock developed a unique form of ‘unmodern’ comedy. She was hilarious as the stubborn, old fashioned mother-in-law, or the tyrannical grandmother.

She still also took serious roles in silent films, but when the German sound film was introduced in 1930, she could use her comic talent fully in the cinema. She appeared in box-office hits as Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress Dances (Eric Charell, 1931) starring Lilian Harvey, Der tolle Bomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Georg Asagaroff, 1932), and Die englische Heirat/The English Wedding (Reinhold Schünzel, 1934).

She was a comedian who spoke out for passion. Sandrock even became better known for her film roles than for her stage career, and in 1935 and 1936 she took part in 16 films. Even today people remember her as Juno in Amphitryon (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935). Another classic was her role as a director in Alles hört auf mein Kommando/Everything hears on my command (Georg Zoch, 1935), a title that describes her principal quality. Because of her distinctive deep tinny voice she was called ‘der General’ (the General).

During her career Adele Sandrock acted in more than 140 films. Sandrock remained unmarried all her life. She lived with her sister, Wilhelmine in an apartment in Berlin, where she died in 1937. The cause of her death was the aftermath of an accident in 1936. Her autobiography, Mein Leben (My Life), was published in 1940.

Adele Sandrock in Der Letzte Walzer (1934)

Promotion card by Ufa. Photo: publicity still for Der Letzte Walzer/The Last Waltz (Georg Jacoby, 1934).

Adele Sandrock in Die englische Heirat (1934)

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8881, 1934-1935. Photo: Cine Allianz / Europa. Publicity still for Die englische Heirat/The English marriage (Reinhold Schünzel, 1934).

German coffee commercial Die kluge tante Adele/The Smart Aunt Adele. Source: CoffeeInternational (YouTube).

Scene from Rendezvous in Wien/Rendezvous in Vienna (Victor Janson, 1936) with Leo Slezak. Source: BD130 (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

Last Monday, 25 September 2017, Czech actor Jan Tříska (1936-2017) died, more than a day after falling from Prague's iconic Charles Bridge. After an impressive career in the European cinema, he was forced to leave Communist Czechoslovakia and emigrated to California. There he appeared in such films as The Karate Kid Part III (1989) and Milos Forman's The People vs Larry Flynt (1996), but he later did his most interesting film work in the Czech Republic, such as in Jan Svankmayer’s macabre, bizarre animation film Sílení/Lunacy (2005). Tříska was 80.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 3147, 1968.

A half-wild creature from the African jungle

Jan Triska or Jan Tříska was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), in 1936.

From 1957 on, he performed numerous roles in both the Czech theatre and cinema. He made his film debut in the lead role of the Czech comedy Váhavý strelec/The Hesitant Marksman (Ivo Toman, 1957) with Jaroslav Marvan. With Marvan, he also appeared in the romantic drama Pet z miliónu/Five Out of a Million (Zbynek Brynych, 1959).

In the following years, he mostly played small or supporting roles in Czech films, such as in Tarzanova smrt/The Death of Tarzan (Jaroslav Balík, 1963), a dark comedy about a half-wild creature from the African jungle, which has been identified as a heir of the noble family, set in Germany in the 1930s.

Other example are the comedy Komedie s Klikou/Comedy Around a Door Handle (Václav Krska, 1964), and the war drama Hvezda zvaná Pelynek/A Star Named Wormwood (Martin Fric, 1965), both starring Jirina Bohdalová. Triska also played a small part in the West-German film Das Haus in der Karpfengasse/The House in Karp Lane (Kurt Hoffmann, 1965), starring Jana Brejchová. The film won five German Film Awards.

Triska starred as an acrobat in the circus drama Lidé z maringotek/Life on Wheels (Martin Fric, 1966) and appeared in a leading role in the crime film Martin a cervené sklícko/A New Case for Master Detective Martin (Milan Vosmik, 1967), featuring Jaroslav Vízner. He also played a jewel robber in the crime film Hra bez pravidel/Jewel Robbers are Hunted (Jindrich Polák, 1967) , and a murder suspect in the thriller Ctyri v kruhu/Four in a Circle (Milos Makovec, 1968).

From then he also often worked for TV. In 1970, he co-starred in the fantasy Radúz a Mahulena/Radúz and Mahulena (Petr Weigl, 1970), with Magda Vásáryová, and in the comedy-fantasy Lucie a zazraky/Lucie and the Miracles (Ota Koval, 1970). He co-starred with Jana Brejchova in the screwball comedy Slecna Golem/Miss Golem (Jaroslav Balík, 1972), and had a supporting part in the East-German romantic drama Wie füttert man einen Esel/How to feed a Donkey (Roland Oehme, 1974) with Manfred Krug.

Tříska also played supporting parts in Jiri Menzel’s comedy-drama Na samote u lesa/Seclusion Near a Forest (1976), the award winning West-German film Der Mädchenkrieg/Maiden's War (Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel, 1977) and the East-German satire Ein irrer Duft von frischem Heu/A Terrific Scent of Fresh Hay (Roland Oehme, Karl-Heinz Lotz, 1977).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2696, 1966. Publicity still for Pet miliónu svedku/Five Million Witnesses (Eva Sadková, 1965).

The assassin of Larry Flynt

Jan Tříska left Czechoslovakia in 1977 after signing a human rights manifesto inspired by his close friend, dissident playwright Václav Havel. He emigrated to the United States via Cyprus. He settled in Los Angeles and found work in his fellow Czech Miloš Forman's film Ragtime (1981), in which he played a small role as a special reporter.

That year, he also played Karl Radek in Warren Beatty’s Oscar winner Reds (1981). Other small parts followed in well-known films as the thriller The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah, 1983) starring Rutger Hauer, and 2010 (Peter Hyams, 1984), the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

His most notable Hollywood part was probably that of Milos, the loyal butler and personal assistant to Mr. Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), in The Karate Kid Part III (John G. Avildsen, 1989), starring Ralph Macchio. Tříska’s films were banned from Czechoslovakian cinemas and TV screens until the fall of communism in 1989.

After the anti-communist Velvet Revolution led by Havel, Tříska regularly returned home to appear in stage productions and films. He took a lead role in the comedy Obecná skola/The Elementary School (Jan Sverák, 1991), which was nominated for an Academy Award. He was again remarkable as the assassin of Larry Flynt (Woody Harrelson) in The People vs. Larry Flynt (Milos Forman, 1996).

Tříska also appeared on television, in popular series such as Quantum Leap (1990) and Highlander: The Series (1999), and in the TV film Andersonville (John Frankenheimer, 1996). On stage, he starred as the Devil in a New York Public Theater adaptation of The Master and Margarita. His later films include Hollywood productions such as Apt Pupil (Bryan Singer, 1998) with Ian McKellen, Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998), starring Robert De Niro, and Cahoots (Dirk Benedict, 2001).

From then on, he found his most interesting work in the Czech Republic, such as in the award winning drama Rok dábla/Year of the Devil (Petr Zelenka, 2002) with pop star Jaromir Nohavica, the romantic drama Zelary (Ondrej Trojan, 2003) and the comedy drama Horem pádem/Up and Down (Jan Hrebejk, 2004).

Tříska starred as a mysterious Marquis in Sílení/Lunacy (2005), Jan Svankmajer’s award winning animation film based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe and texts by Marquis De Sade. Craig Butler at AllMovie: “In the lead role, Pavel Liska is quite good; with his haunted, hangdog eyes, he conveys quite well the tortured, confused soul of his character. Even better is Jan Triska as the Marquis; his eyes sparkle with a devilish gleam that is both repellent and mesmerizing, and his braying cackle reveals as much about him as any of the dialogue he spouts."

Most recently, Triska appeared as a grandfather in Po strnisti bos/Barefoot (Jan Sverák, 2017) about a small boy, who is forced to move out of Prague during World War 2 to a small village of Slavonice where he meets the rest of his family. IMDb announces at the moment of writing still a new project in pre-production Na Strese (2018), to be directed by Jirí Mádl. Triska was due to begin work on the new Czech film last Monday. The project has now been postponed.

Prague theatre director Jan Hrušínský confirmed Tříska’s death on Monday. The actor died in Prague’s military hospital overnight due to injuries from the fall on Saturday, the circumstances of which remain unclear. Two passengers on a nearby boat rescued him from the Vltava river, after which he was resuscitated and hospitalised in serious condition. Prior to his identity being revealed, Prague firefighters tweeted that he had jumped from the bridge.

Jan Tříska had two daughters, Karla and Jana, with actress Karla Chadimová, and also had a grandson named Augustin.

Czech trailer for Obecná skola/The Elementary School (1991). Sorry, no subtitles. Source: Jan Svěrák (YouTube).

Trailer for Šílení/Lunacy (2005). Source: Zeitgeist Films (YouTube).

Sources: Craig Butler (AllMovie), Radio Praha, The Guardian, Wikipedia and IMDb.

During the Netherlands Film Festival, EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. Today's subject is Sylvain Poons (1896-1985). This Jewish actor and singer from Amsterdam appeared in many popular Dutch musical films from the 1930s. After the war he sang a famous duet with the then 14-year-old Oetze Verschoor, the sad fisher ballad Zuiderzeeballade. It became an evergreen of the Dutch pop music.

Sylvain Poons and Johan Heesters in Bleeke Bet (1934)

Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Amsterdam. Photo: Maarseveen, Den Haag. Sylvain Poons and Johan Heesters in the Dutch tragicomedy Bleeke Bet (Richard Oswald, Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Productie. Still for De familie van mijn vrouw/My Wife's Family (Jaap Speyer, 1935).

Sylvain Poons and Hansje Andriessen in De big van het regiment (1935)

Dutch postcard by Drukkery Joh. Mulder, Gouda for Victoria Bioscoop. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen / N.V. Monopole Film. Still for De Big van het Regiment/The Darling of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935) with Sylvain Poons and Hansje Andriesen.

Natural Way of Acting

Sylvain Albert Poons was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1896. As the son of the singer Salomon Poons and the actress Elise van Biene, he was destined to become an artist, like his elder sister Fanny Ella, who became known as Fanny Lohoff-Poons.

Sylvain debuted as a stage extra in the season of 1912-1913 for Colnot & Poons, a company named after the two directors of the Plantage Schouwburg (Plantage Theatre): Guus Colnot and Salomon Poons, Sylvain’s father. He played in operettas and variety shows and once in a while he appeared in a ‘serious’ role.

Poons also worked for the early Dutch cinema. He appeared in silent films as Levensschaduwen/ Life's Shadows (Theo Frenkel, 1916), De Duivel/The Devil (Theo Frenkel, 1918), Het Proces Begeer/The Begeer Case (Theo Frenkel, 1918) and Moderne Landhaaien/Modern Land Sharks (Alex Benno, 1926).

Poons was remarked for his natural way of acting. With Henriëtte ‘Heintje’ Davids he played in the early Belgian sound film Jeunes filles en liberté/Young Girls in Freedom (Fritz Kramp, 1933).

Poons also appeared in one of the first Dutch sound films, De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934). This musical film was an enormous box office hit and starred popular Dutch stage stars as Fien de la Mar, Heintje Davids and Louis Davids, Heintje's even more popular brother. In the film, Poons sings a song with Heintje, Omdat ik zoveel van je hou (Because I Love You So). It became a classic duet and the success of De Jantjes created a wave of Dutch sound films.

That same year, Poons appeared as the smart ice-cream man Sally in Bleeke Bet/Pale Beth (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934) with Corry Vonk and Johannes Heesters. Other films in which he appeared were De Familie Van Mijn Vrouw/My Wife’s Family (Jaap Speyer, 1935), De Big Van Het Regiment/The Big of the Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935) with Frits van Dongen a.k.a. Philip Dorn, Kermisgasten/Carnival People (Jaap Speyer, 1936) with Johan Kaart, and Oranje Hein/Orange Hein (Max Nosseck, 1936) with Herman and Aaf Bouber.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn/Hollandia Film Prod. Publicity still for De Jantjes (1934), Sylvain Poons together with Heintje Davids in the background.

Johan Kaart, Suzy Klein, Willy Castello, Henriette Davids, Jan van Ees and Sylvain Poons in De Jantjes

Dutch postcard by Hollandia Film Prod./Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: publicity still for De Jantjes (1934) with Johan Kaart, Suzy Klein, Willy Castello, Heintje Davids, Jan van Ees and Sylvain Poons. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dutch Postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag (The Hague). Publicity still for Bleeke Bet (1934), fourth from left Sylvain Poons.

Aaf Bouber, Sylvain Poons, Corrie Vonk, Fien de la Mar, Jopie Koopman, Mevr. Fischer in Bleeke Bet

Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Amsterdam. Photo: Maarseveen, Den Haag. Clara Vischer-Blaaser, Aaf Bouber, Sylvain Poons, Corry Vonk, Fien de la Mar and Jopie Koopman in the Dutch tragicomedy Bleeke Bet (Richard Oswald, Alex Benno, 1934).

Hiding Place

During the Second World War, Sylvain Poons was a member of the Joodsch Kleinkunstensemble (Jewish Variety Company). They performed in the Hollandse Schouwburg (Dutch Theatre) in Amsterdam, which was renamed Joodsche Schouwburg (Jewish Theatre). When it was no longer save for Jews, he fled into a hiding place.

After the liberation he appeared again in a lot of plays on stage and on TV. For a long time he was a permanent member of the radio actors company.

He also appeared in some films, such as the Belgian-German crime film Le Banquet des Fraudeurs/The Smugglers' Banquet (Henri Storck, 1952) with Françoise Rosay. He also played supporting parts in the Dutch films Vier Jongens en een Jeep/Four Boys and a Jeep (Ernst Winar, 1955) and Fietsen Naar De Maan/Cycling to the Moon (Jef van der Heyden, 1963).

He had a huge hit with his duet De Zuiderzeeballade (The Southern Sea Ballad, 1959), sung with the 14-year-old Oetze Verschoor as an old man and his grandson. The record became gold (more than 100,000 records were sold). Poons also recorded several Jewish songs and classics from his pre-war film musicals, including Sally met de roomijskar from Bleeke Bet (1934) and his classic duet with Heintje Davids from De Jantjes (1934), Omdat ik zoveel van je hou.

In later life, he often played the Jewish schlemiel, like his character Abraham Mossel in the popular TV series De kleine waarheid/The Little White Lie (Willy van Hemert, 1971-1972) starring singer Willeke Alberti in her acting debut.

His final stage play was the comedy Getrouwd of niet? (Black on White) by Ephraim Kishon in 1967/1968, which also marked his 50 years Jubilee in the theatre. In 1973 he had to retire because of bad health.

Later, he was made Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. After the death of his wife Ilse Becker, he lived the last years of his life in an elderly home in Amsterdam. Sylvain Poons died in 1985, 89 years old.

Johan Kaart, Sylvain Poons, Hansje Andriesen, Matthieu van Eysden, and Adolphe Engers in De Big van het regiment (1935)

Dutch postcard by Monopole Film N.V. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still for De Big van het Regiment (Max Nosseck, 1935) with Johan Kaart, Sylvain Poons, Hansje Andriesen, Matthieu van Eysden, and Adolphe Engers. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Loesje Bouwmeester in De familie van mijn vrouw

Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Film. Still for De familie van mijn vrouw (Jaap Speyer, 1935) with Loesje Bouwmeester, Gusta Chrispijn-Mulder, Sylvain Poons and Tilly Perin-Bouwmeester.

Mary Smithuysen, Gusta Chrispijn-Mulder, Sylvain Poons, De familie van mijn vrouw

Dutch postcard by M. B.& Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Loet C. Barnstijn Productie. Publiciry still for De familie van mijn vrouw/My Wife's Family (1935) with Mary Smithuysen and Gusta Chrispijn-Mulder.

Sylvain Poons and Heintje Davids sing Omdat ik zoveel van je hou in De Jantjes (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Source: Pieteroyama (YouTube).

Sylvain Poons sings Draaien, altijd maar draaien in the TV show Top of Flop. Source: Levi1955 (YouTube).

Sources: Muziekencyclopedie.nl (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Every year during the last week of September, Utrecht is the Dutch capital of film. This is the time of the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), and traditionally EFSP organises its own Unofficial Netherlands Film Star Postcard Festival. Today we present one of the most remarkable Dutch films of the 1930s. Dood water/Dead Water (1934) re-enacts the historical closing of the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) between 1927 and 1932. The award winning drama was directed and co-written by Gerard Rutten and starred renowned Dutch stage actor Jan Musch as a doomed fisherman.

Max Croiset and Arnold Marlé in Dood water

Dutch postcard, no. 38996. Photo: Nederlandse Filmgemeenschap, Holland. Publicity still for Dood water/Dead water (1934) with Max Croiset and Arnold Marlé. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dead Water

The social drama Dood water/Dead Water (Gerard Rutten, 1934) opens with a prologue about the Netherlands' everlasting battle against the sea and the history of the Afsluitdijk ('enclosure dam'). It's accompanied by music played by the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest led by conductor Willem Mengelberg.

Dood water/Dead Water tells about a conflict between young and old fishermen in the little village of Volendam about the fishing in the Zuiderzee (the former Southern Sea, now IJsselmeer).

In 1927, the construction of the Afsluitdijk (the enclosure dam which made a lake of the Zuiderzee) was started. In Volendam, there is talk of 'dead water' and people realise that everything will not be like it was.

Fisherman Dirk Brak (Arnold Marlé) encourages his son Jan (Max Croiset) to become a farmer, but his brother-in-law, fisherman Willem de Geus (Jan Musch), wants radical action against the Afsluitdijk while his helper Jaap (Theo de Maal) recognises the opportunities that land reclamation brings.

Jaap becomes a civil servant, an act which makes him a traitor in the eyes of the villagers. Desperately, the old Willem de Geus tries to blow up the dam, but he dies during the explosion. The 30,000-meter-long Afsluitdijk was ready on 28 May 1932.

Dutch poster for Dood water/Dead Water (Gerard Rutten, 1934).

Golden Lion

Dood water/Dead Water was largely shot on location, using natural light. The cameraman was Andor von Barsy, a respected Hungarian-Austrian cinematographer who’d already been successful in the Netherlands with short avant-garde films such as Hoogstraat/High street (Andor von Barsy, 1929) about a Rotterdam shopping street.

At the second edition of the Venice Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica) in 1934, the film won a Golden Lion for Best Cinematography.

Dood water received favourable reviews in the Italian press, and later also in the Netherlands. There was a German spoken version. Totes Wasser, the only Dutch feature film from the 1930s that reached the German cinemas. The film was very well received in Germany. Goebbels reportedly used Totes Wasser as a compulsory teaching material for German film students.

Writing for the British The Spectator, Graham Greene praised the film's documentary prologue as "an exciting piece of pure cinema", and commented that the story which follows "has some of the magnificent drive one felt behind the classic Russian films, behind Earth and The General Line: no tiresome 'message', but a belief in the importance of a human activity truthfully reported". Greene also noted, however, that "the photography is uneven: at moments it is painfully 'arty', deliberately out of focus"

MGM distributed the low-budget production internationally. However, the film was not a commercial success.

Jan Musch. Dutch postcard by REB in the series Portrettengalerij, no. 105.

One of the great stars

The leading actor of Dood water, Jan Musch (1875-1960), was one of the great stars of the Dutch theatre during the first decades of the 20th Century.

In the 1930s, he starred in a few Dutch films, including De Man zonder hart/The Man Without a Heart (Leo Joannon, 1937), and the thriller De spooktrein/The Ghost Train (Carl Lamac, 1939) with Fien de la Mar.

After the war, Gerard Rutten directed successful light entertainment films like Sterren stralen overal/Stars Twinkle Everywhere (Gerard Rutten, 1953), about a struggling taxi driver (Johan Kaart) who dreams of emigrating to Australia, and Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel/The Wondrous life of Willem Parel (Gerard Rutten, 1955) with comedia Wim Sonneveld who has enough of his most popular character, Willem Parel the organ grinder, and tries to get rid of him

Less successful was his De vliegende Hollander/The Flying Dutchman (Gerard Rutten, 1957), about the early life of Dutch aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker. Rutten could only make one more film, Wederzijds (Gerard Rutten, 1963), a documentary about Queen Wilhelmina. He died in 1982 at the age of 79.

Dutch postcard, no. 38993. Photo: Nederlandse Filmgemeenschap, Holland. Publicity still for Dood water/Dead water (1934). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sources: Eye Film, Filmtotaal (Dutch), Movie Meter (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

We're so sad that we can't be in Italy to join Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone this year. The 36th edition starts today and continues till 7 October. EFSP will do a festival post every day on one of the silent stars or the films than can be seen in Pordenone. We wish director Jay Weissberg good luck on his second edition which has a really delightful programme. Our series starts with a post on the closing event of the festival, Ernst Lubitsch's classic The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), featuring Ramón Novarro.

Ramon Novarro in The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg (1927), Lubitsch

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/1. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927).

Ramon Novarro and Jean Hersholt in The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg (1927)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/2. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) with Ramon Novarro and Jean Hersholt.

Ramon Novarro in The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg (1927)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/3. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927).

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

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/6. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) with Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer.

Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/7. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) with Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer.

A Viennese fairy tale

The American silent film The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), also known as The Student Prince, The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg and Old Heidelberg, is a Viennese fairy tale. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production is based on the 1901 play Alt Heidelberg (Old Heidelberg) by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster. The script was written by Hanns Kräly and Karl Heinrich with titles by Marian Ainslee and Ruth Cummings.

MGM's executive producer Irving Thalberg initially planned to have Erich von Stroheim direct this film as a follow-up to the director's commercial success The Merry Widow. Stroheim declined, opting instead to leave MGM and begin work on The Wedding March (1928). Thalberg then tried to attach E.A. Dupont, and then John S. Robertson to the project, but both passed on it. He settled on thirty-four-year-old German émigré Ernst Lubitsch.

Wikipedia serves up the plot in detail: Young Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Philippe De Lacy), heir to the kingdom of Karlsburg, is brought to live with his stern uncle, King Karl VII (Gustav von Seyffertitz). The king immediately dismisses the boy's nanny (Edythe Chapman) without telling the youngster to avoid an emotional farewell. Fortunately, Dr. Friedrich Jüttner (Jean Hersholt), his new tutor, proves to be sympathetic, and they become lifelong friends. Nonetheless, despite the commoners' belief that it must be wonderful to be him, the boy grows up lonely, without playmates his own age.

Upon passing his high school examination in 1901 with the help of Dr. Jüttner, the young prince (Ramon Novarro) is delighted to learn that both he and Jüttner are being sent to Heidelberg, where he will continue his education. When they arrive, Karl's servant is appalled at the rooms provided for the prince and Jüttner at the inn of Ruder (Otis Harlan). When Ruder's niece Kathi (Norma Shearer) stoutly defends the centuries-old family business, Karl is entranced by her, and decides to stay. He is quickly made a member of Corps Saxonia, a student society.

Later that day, Karl tries to kiss Kathi, only to learn that she is engaged. Her family approves of her fiance, but she is not so sure about him. She eventually confesses to Karl that, despite the vast social gulf between them, she has fallen in love with him. Karl feels the same about her and swears that he will let nothing separate them. When he takes her boating, their rower, Johann Kellermann (Bobby Mack), turns his back to them to give them some privacy. Karl jokingly tells him that, when he is king, he will make Kellermann his majordomo.

Then Jüttner receives a letter from the king ordering him to inform Karl that he has selected a princess for him to marry. Jüttner cannot bring himself to destroy his friend's happiness. That same day, however, Prime Minister von Haugk (Edward Connelly) arrives with the news that the king is seriously ill, and that Karl must go home and take up the reins of government. When Karl sees his uncle, he is told of the matrimonial plans. While Karl is still reeling from the shock, the old king dies, followed by Jüttner.

Later, von Haugk presses the new monarch about the marriage. The anguished Karl signs the document for the wedding. Then Kellermann shows up to take the job Karl had offered him. When Karl asks him about Kathi, he learns that she is still waiting for him. He goes to see her one last time. In the last scene, Karl is shown riding through the streets in a carriage with his bride, the princess. One onlooker remarks that it must be wonderful to be king, unaware of Karl's misery.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/9. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927).

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

Ramon Novarro and Bobby Mack in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/11. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) with Ramon Novarro and Bobby Mack.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 98/12. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927).

A scintillating example of the artistry of Ernst Lubitsch

Ramon Novarro was cast as the Student Prince after John Gilbert was considered. Ernst Lubitsch felt that both Novarro and Shearer were miscast, but was unable to override the studio's casting decisions. According to Wikipedia, Lubitsch's insistence on multiple takes and minimal rehearsal time were hard on both leads. Shearer even complained to Thalberg, her fiance, about Lubitsch's penchant for acting out scenes for the actors before they were shot. Thalberg told her that "everyone has a lot to learn from Lubitsch."

The love scene in the beer garden, which is acclaimed as one of the best scenes in the film by modern critics, was allegedly a headache for the director, who had it reshot entirely, but was still unhappy with it. It was rumoured that the love scene in the film was reshot by John M. Stahl, but Lubitsch's assistant on the film, Andrew Marton, denied this.

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg was in production for more than 108 days. The result is a supremely artificial and studio-built film, contrasting the voluminous sets of the Karlsburg Palace with the warmer interiors and exteriors of the Heidelberg taverns and beer gardens. Ernst Lubitsch drove up the budget significantly, infuriating the studio. For instance, he had costume designer Ali Hubert bring thirty-two trunks of wardrobe and props from Europe for use in the film.

Though now considered a classic, it was far from a unanimous critical success during its original theatrical run. In a review for The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote, "Mr. Novarro is natural and earnest, but he is a little too Latin in appearance for the rôle. Norma Shearer is attractive as Kathi. She, however, does not seem to put her soul into the part. She, too, acts well, but, like Mr. Novarro, she does not respond, as other players have done, to Mr. Lubitsch's direction. The ablest acting in this piece of work is done by Jean Hersholt as Dr. Guttner (sic) and Gustav von Seyffertitz as the King. Their efforts in all their scenes reveal their sensitiveness to the direction."

Despite being a popular film with filmgoers, the exorbitant production cost of The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (IMDb estimates it as $1.205.000) kept it from making a profit. The film lost $307,000, according to Wikipedia.

Today many viewers consider it one of Lubitsch's finest silent films. Adrian Banks at Senses of Cinema: "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg is one of Lubitsch’s most surprising, nostalgic and emotionally engaging films. It represents a 'return to Germany' after four years in Hollywood, and can be seen as something of a watershed between his initial works for Warner Bros., then a significantly less important studio than it would soon become, and his extraordinary ten or so year tenure at Paramount."

Greg Carleton at IMDb: "I found this film an absolute delight. All of the leads put in outstanding performances. The romance between Prince Karl (Ramon Novarro) and Kathi (Norma Shearer) is wonderfully presented, and it is truly poignant."Ron Oliver at IMDb: "This wonderful, exuberant, heartbreaking film - one of the last major movies of the Silent Era - is a scintillating example of the artistry of director Ernst Lubitsch. Filled with wry humor & aching pathos, Lubitsch tells a tale which is a persuasive paean to the power of the talkless film." We totally agree.

Ramon Novarro in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3608/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Novarro wears the outfit of The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927) at the end of the film (though it may have been recycled for a later film, as the Ross number suggests).

Trailer The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). Source: TV Movie Trailer (Daily Motion).

Sources: Adrian Banks (Senses of Cinema), Greg Carleton (IMDb), Ron Oliver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

EFSP follows Le Gionate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone this week. One of the films shown is The Butcher Boy (1917) in which Buster Keaton made his film debut - 100 years ago. Director was American silent film actor and comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle (1887-1933), who was himself also one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s. Arbuckle started at the Selig Polyscope and moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd. Arbuckle mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Keaton and Bob Hope. In 1920, he signed a contract with Paramount Pictures for US$1 million. Between November 1921 and April 1922, Arbuckle was the defendant in three widely publicised trials for the rape and manslaughter of starlet Virginia Rappe. Following the trials, his films were banned and he was publicly ostracised. Arbuckle only later worked as a film director under the alias William Goodrich. He was finally able to return to acting, making short two-reel comedies in 1932 for Warner Bros. He died in his sleep of a heart attack in 1933 at age 46, on the same day he signed a contract with Warner Brothers to make a feature film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 799/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus Film.

French postcard by Éditions Filma in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series, no. 80. Photo: Super-Film.

Bowler-hat and pants whose legs were too short

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born in 1887 in Smith Center, Kansas, one of nine children of Mary E. 'Mollie' Gordon and William Goodrich Arbuckle. His family moved to California when he was a year old.

Arbuckle had a wonderful singing voice and was extremely agile. At the age of eight, with his mother's encouragement, he first performed on stage with Frank Bacon's company. Arbuckle enjoyed performing and continued on until his mother's death in 1899 when he was 12.

His father, who had always treated him harshly, now refused to support him and Arbuckle got work doing odd jobs in a hotel. Arbuckle was in the habit of singing while he worked and was overheard by a customer who was a professional singer. The customer invited him to perform in an amateur talent show. He not only won the competition but began a career in vaudeville.

In 1904, Sid Grauman invited Arbuckle to sing illustrated songs in his new Unique Theater in San Francisco. He then joined the Pantages Theatre Group touring the West Coast of the United States and in 1906 played the Orpheum Theater in Portland, Oregon in a vaudeville troupe organised by Leon Errol. Arbuckle became the main act and the group took their show on tour.

In 1908, Arbuckle married Minta Durfee, who later starred in many early comedy films, often with Arbuckle. Arbuckle then joined the Morosco Burbank Stock vaudeville company and went on a tour of China and Japan returning in early 1909.

That year, Arbuckle began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company when he appeared in Ben's Kid (Francis Boggs, 1909). He appeared sporadically in Selig one-reelers until 1913, moved briefly to Universal Pictures.

Then, Arbuckle went to work in producer-director Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops comedies. His character Fatty – he weighed 135 kilogrammes at the height of his career - usually wore bowler-hat and pants whose legs were too short. For the next 3-1/2 years he appeared in hundreds of one-reel comedies, mostly as policemen, but he also played different parts.

He would work with Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, among others, and would learn about the process of making films from Henry Lehrman, who directed many of his pictures. Despite his massive physical size, Arbuckle was remarkably agile and acrobatic. His comedies are noted as rollicking and fast-paced, have many chase scenes, and feature sight gags.

Arbuckle was fond of the ‘pie in the face’, a comedy cliche that has come to symbolise silent-film-era comedy itself. The earliest known custard pie thrown in film was in the Keystone one-reeler A Noise from the Deep (Mack Sennett, 1913). The pie was thrown by Mabel Normand and Arbuckle was the recipient.

Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand in Fatty's Wine Party (1914)

American postcard by Keystone cards, presented with Home Weekly. Photo: Keystone Film. Publicity still for Fatty's Wine Party (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1914) with Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. Caption: A Ticklish Moment.

Fatty Arbuckle in Fatty's Chance Acquaintance (1915)

American postcard by Keystone cards, presented with Home Weekly. Photo: Keystone Film. Publicity still for Fatty's Chance Acquaintance ( Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1915) with Billie Bennett.

A then-unheard-of offer

By 1914 Roscoe Arbuckle had begun directing some of his one-reels. Paramount Pictures made the then-unheard-of offer of US$1,000-a-day plus 25% of all profits and complete artistic control to make films with Arbuckle and Normand.

The next year he had moved up to two-reels, which meant that he would need to sustain the comedy to be successful - as it turned out, he was. Among his films were Fatty Again (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1914), Mabel, Fatty and the Law (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle,1915), Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1915), Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1915), Fatty's Reckless Fling (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1915) with Edgar Kennedy, and many more.

Charles Chaplin assisted Arbuckle in The Knockout (Mack Sennett, 1914); and Harold Lloyd was his co-star in Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1915). He also hired a young performer he met in New York by the name of Buster Keaton.

Keaton's film career would start with Roscoe in The Butcher Boy (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1917). Keaton supported him in at least 14 shorts. The films were so lucrative and popular that in 1918 Paramount offered Arbuckle a three-year, $3 million contract ($48,000,000 in 2016 dollars).

In 1916, Arbuckle had started his own film company, Comique, in partnership with Joseph Schenck. Although Comique produced some of the best short pictures of the silent era, in 1918 Arbuckle transferred his controlling interest in the company to Buster Keaton and accepted Paramount's $3 million offer to make up to 18 feature films over three years.

Roscoe's first feature was the Western comedy The Round-Up (George Melford, 1920) and it was successful. It was soon followed by other features, including Brewster's Millions (Joseph Henabery, 1921) and Gasoline Gus (James Cruze, 1921) with Lila Lee.

French postcard by Edition Paramount, Paris.

Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 865. Photo: Triangle-Keystonefilm.

The Death of Virginia Rappe

On 5 September 1921, Roscoe Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and, drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman and Fred Fishback. The three checked into three rooms at the St. Francis Hotel. They invited several women to their suite.

During the carousing, a 26-year-old starlet named Virginia Rappe was found seriously ill and was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication, and gave her morphine to calm her. Rappe was not hospitalised until two days after the incident.

Virginia Rappe suffered from chronic cystitis, a condition that liquor irritated dramatically. Her heavy drinking habits and the poor quality of the era's bootleg alcohol could leave her in severe physical distress. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, and she was preparing to undergo another.

At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had raped her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence of rape. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis, caused by a ruptured bladder. Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe, and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture. Delmont later made a statement incriminating Arbuckle to the police in an attempt to extort money from Arbuckle's attorneys.

Arbuckle's trial was a major media event; exaggerated and sensationalized stories ran in William Randolph Hearst's nationwide newspaper chain. The resulting scandal destroyed Arbuckle's career and his personal life. In his testimony, Arbuckle denied he had any knowledge of Rappe's illness.

The first trial (14 November-4 December 1921) ended with the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. The second trial (11 January -3 February 1922) also ended in a hung jury; this time the majority had ruled against Roscoe - 10 to 2 for conviction. The third trial (13 March – 12 April 1922) finally ended with an acquittal and a formal statement of apology to Arbuckle for putting him through the ordeal; a dramatic move in American justice.

At the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle owed over $700,000 in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials, and he was forced to sell his house and all of his cars to pay some of the debt. Although he had been cleared of all criminal charges, the scandal had greatly damaged his popularity among the general public. Will H. Hays banned Roscoe Arbuckle from ever working in U.S. movies again. He had also requested that all showings and bookings of Arbuckle films be canceled.

In December of the same year, under public pressure, Hays elected to lift the ban, but Arbuckle was still unable to secure work as an actor. Buster Keaton signed an agreement to give Arbuckle 35 percent of all future profits from his company, Buster Keaton Productions, to ease his financial situation.

In November 1923, Minta Durfee filed for divorce, charging grounds of desertion. The divorce was granted the following January. Arbuckle married Doris Deane in 1925.

Virginia Rappe. Vintage photo. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The magic and youthful spirit of before

Roscoe Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into alcoholism.

Buster Keaton attempted to help Arbuckle by giving him work on his films. Arbuckle wrote the story for a Keaton short called Day Dreams (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton, 1922). Arbuckle allegedly co-directed scenes in Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924), but it is unclear how much of this footage remained in the film's final cut.

In 1925, Carter Dehaven made the short Character Studies (1927) in which Arbuckle appeared alongside Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and Jackie Coogan.

Eventually, Arbuckle was given work as a film director under the alias William Goodrich. Between 1924 and 1932, Arbuckle directed a number of comedy shorts under the pseudonym for Educational Pictures. His films included the Eddie Cantor feature Special Delivery (1927), the Marion Davies vehicle The Red Mill (1927) and Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931) with Louise Brooks.

In 1927, he was also engaged to direct and star a series of comedy shorts for producer Abe Carlos. The films were to be shot in Berlin and distributed internationally, and Arbuckle's wife Doris Deane was to star with him. The films were never produced.

In 1929, Doris Deane sued for divorce and Roscoe married Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail in 1931. In 1932, Arbuckle signed a contract with Warner Bros. to star under his own name in a series of two-reel comedies, to be filmed at the Vitagraph studios in Brooklyn. He started with Hey, Pop! (Alfred J. Goulding, 1932).

Tony Fontana at IMDb: “He completed six shorts and showed the magic and youthful spirit that he had a decade before.” These successful films with Al St. John (Arbuckle's nephew) and Lionel Stander constitute the only recordings of his voice. On 28 June 1933, Arbuckle had finished filming the last of the two-reelers and the next day he was signed by Warner Bros. to make a feature-length film.

That night he went out with friends to celebrate his first wedding anniversary and new Warner contract where he reportedly said: "This is the best day of my life." He suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep. Roscoe Arbuckle was 46.

The Butcher Boy (Roscoe Arbuckle, 1917) with Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. Source: Wm. Thomas Sherman (YouTube).

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

EFSP follows Le Gionate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone this week. One of the festival's programmes is Scandinavia, presenting two films starring Swedish actor Gösta Ekman: Thora van Deken/A Mother's Fight (John W. Brunius, 1920) and Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922). Ekman (1890-1938) was also the first real star of the Swedish theater. His boyish good looks attracted both sexes, helping to create a massive cult following, and elevating him to the status of a living legend. Combined with a beautiful voice, and a powerful stage and screen presence, Ekman was able to captivate his audiences.

Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/9. Photo: Skandia Film. Publicity still for Thora van Deken/A Mother's Fight (John W. Brunius, 1920) with Oscar Johansson, Pauline Brunius, Gösta Ekman and Jessie Wessel.

Gösta Ekman and Jenny Hasselqvist in Vem dömer

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 304. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Jenny Hasselquist in the Swedish silent drama Vem döme/rLove's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/5. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1623/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1926).

German postcard. Ross Verlag No. 3746/2. Terra Film. Gösta Ekman in the German silent film Revolutionshochzeit (A.W. Sandberg, 1928).

Master of Disguise

Gösta Ekman was born as Frans Gösta Viktor Ekman in Stockholm in 1890. He first entered the stage as an extra in 1906, but made his professional stage debut in the renowned Selander Company in 1911.

During his short life he enjoyed a prolific stage career, becoming a star of the Swedish theatre. He won acclaim for his classic portrayals, such as Lionel in Friedrich Schiller’s Maid of Orleans (1914), Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing (1916), and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1919).

Known as a self-taught master of disguise with theatre make-up and costumes, Gösta Ekman was equally convincing as a farmer's son, an 18th Century middle-aged aristocrat, or an 80-year old lunatic. Furthermore, he played in comedies, tragedies, dramas, and operettas. As a result, it was believed that he was capable of being convincing in all genres and as all types of characters.

At different times, he also ran and supervised several private theatres in Stockholm, including the Oscarsteatern, the Vasateatern, and the Konserthusteatern. He was also head of the Gothenburg City Theatre in the 1930s.

At the Vasateatern, which he ran from 1931 to 1935, he both directed and played the lead in several plays, while also producing a large number of productions. As a result, his time at the Vasateatern is considered to be the peak of his stage career.

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 413, mailed in 1916. Photo: Uno Falkengren, Göteborg.

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 21. Photo: Uno Falkengren, Nordiska Kompaniet, 1918.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1274/5, 1927-1928. Photo: H. Natge / Ufa.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5355. Photo: Pan-Film A.G.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4034/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Aafa Film.

The Clown

Gösta Ekman started to appear in films at the dawn of the Swedish film industry, and played an important role in its development.

One of his first film roles was in Victor Sjöström's experimental film Trädgårdsmästaren/The Broken Springrose (Victor Sjöström, 1912).

He also appeared in Den Okända/The Unknown Woman (Mauritz Stiller, 1913), Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922), and Karl XII/Charles XII (John W. Brunius, 1924-1925) made in two parts.

Ekman also starred in Nordisk Studio's most lucrative release of the 1920s, Klovnen/The Clown (1926), directed and co-written by A.W. Sandberg. This was a remake of a 1917 film with the same title, also written and directed by Sandberg.

Later, Gösta Ekman also played the lead in the first Swedish sound film, För hennes skull/For Her Sake (Paul Merzbach, 1930).

Jenny Hasselquist, Ivan Hedqvist, Tore Svennberg and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer

Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstforlag, no. 305. Photo: Skandia Film. Jenny Hasselquist, Ivan Hedqvist, Tore Svennberg and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922). The film is a Renaissance drama where a young woman named Ursula (Hasselquist), who is in love with Bertram, the son (Ekman) of the mayor (Svenberg), is accused of having poisoned her older husband, the sculptor Master Anton (Hedqvist). She has to prove her virginity through a fire test. The film's title reads: Who judges? NB. Nils Asther had a small part in this film. He is man just left of Hasselquist.

Romanian postcard. Photo: Monopol Gloria-Film. Gösta Ekman as the elder Swedish king Charles XII in the prestigious Swedish period piece Karl XII (John W. Brunius, 1925). Caption: The famous fight at Bender aka Tighina [a city in Moldova] in the film Karl XII.

Gösta Ekman and Karina Bell in Klovnen (1926)

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 949. Photo: Nordisk Film / Lux Film Verleih. Publicity still for Klovnen/The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1926) with Karina Bell.

Diomira Jacobini and Gösta Ekman in Revolutionsbryllup

Danish postcard by Alex. Vincent's Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 253. Photo: publicity still for Revolutionshochzeit/Revolutionsbryllup/The Last Night (A.W. Sandberg, 1928) with Diomira Jacobini.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3746/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Terra Film. Publicity still for Revolutionshochzeit/Revolutionsbryllup/The Last Night (A.W. Sandberg, 1928).

The King

Gösta Ekman starred in two films that would gain international recognition.

In F.W. Murnau's silent film classic Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926), he played the title character opposite Emil Jannings as Mephisto.

And in the original version of Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander, 1936), where he played a world famous violinist opposite Ingrid Bergman in her breakout role.

Ekman and Bergman had already acted opposite each other in Swedenhielms/Swedenhielms Family (Gustaf Molander, 1935). They share a couple of wonderful scenes together as their characters have a heart-to-heart conversation on life and love, which are among the most memorable moments in the film.

His best on-screen credit is his double-role in the comedy Kungen kommer/The King Is Coming (Ragnar Hyltén-Cavallius, 1936), where Ekman masterfully plays first the king and then also the king's look-a-like; an actor who is hired by members of the Royal Court to impersonate His Majesty at a private party. Naturally the real king later arrives at the party causing a number of confusions and comic mix-ups.

Ekman co-directed himself in the film En Perfekt gentleman/A Perfect Gentleman (Vilhelm Bryde, 1927), in which he also starred opposite exotic star La Jana.

Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings and Hanna Ralph in Faust (1926)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/1. Photo: Parufamet. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Hanna Ralph and Emil Jannings.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/3. Photo: Parufamet. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Camilla Horn.

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

Camilla Horn and Gösta Ekman in Faust (1926)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/5. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Camilla Horn.

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

Cocaine

Early on, Gösta Ekman was labelled as a workaholic, sacrificing himself for his art and for his love of the theatre. Later, as his fame increased, his workload increased likewise.

During the day, he would rehearse and direct plays. In the evening, he played leading roles in stage plays. Later at night, he would film. This busy schedule left him with relatively little free time. Furthermore, the free time he did have was spent carrying out his duties as the administrative director of the theatres he ran.

In 1926, while filming Faust in Berlin, he was introduced to cocaine by two Scandinavians, who told him that the drug would help him to cope better with his work schedule. Sadly, this began a long-term drug addiction that slowly deteriorated his health and eventually caused his death 12 years later at the age of 47.

In 1914, Gösta Ekman had married Greta Sundström. Their son Hasse Ekman became one of Sweden's most successful film directors in the 1940s and early 1950s. Gösta Ekman's grandson, Gösta Ekman jr., was one of Sweden's finest actors. He passed away in April this year.

German postcard with Romanian imprint by Ross Verlag, no. 1274/3. Photo: H. Natger. Caption: Gösta Ekman in the great film Karl XII (John W. Brunius, 1925). Wikipedia mentions that the film 'because of its long running time of nearly six hours, it was released in two separate parts. The film depicts the life of Charles XII of Sweden (1682-1718) who oversaw the expansion of the Swedish Empire until its defeat at the Battle of Poltava. It was the most expensive production in Swedish history when it was made, and inspired a string of large budget Swedish historical films.'

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4462/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Jaeger (?).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 968. Photo: Nordisk Film / Lux Film Verleih.

DVD trailer for Faust (1926). Source: Kino International (YouTube).

Scene from Klovnen/The Clown (1926). Source: Vintagezelle (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and IMDb.

This week we follow the Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy. One of the programmes is Cineteca Italiana 70, a celebration of the fact that Luigi Comencini and Alberto Lattuada founded the first Italian Cinematheque in 1947: Cineteca di Milano. The programme includes the drama Il Fiacre n. 13/Cab Number 13 (Alberto Capozzi, Gero Zambuto, 1917), one of the most popular films of Polish singer and actress Helena Makowska (1893-1964). She was a beautiful diva of the Italian silent cinema in the 1910s. During the 1920s, she moved to Berlin and became a star of the German cinema. Later, Luigi Comencini directed her in La valigia dei sogni/The Suitcase of Dreams (1953) as the aged actress of the silent era who is visibly moved by seeing herself in Fiacre 13.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 425.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 467.

Italian postcard, no. 30. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 563.

Italian postcard. Photo DM.

Beautiful and a bit Stiff

Helena (also Elena) Makowska was born Helena Woynowiczówna in Krivoy Rog, Russian Empire (now Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine), in 1893. She was the daughter of Ludwik Woyniewicz, a Polish engineer who worked for a Russian-Belgian company, and his wife Stanislawa née Sauret.

At the age of 16, she married lawyer Julian Makowski, but the marriage was a brief intermezzo. In 1912 Makowska went to Milan to take singing lessons. The following year she debuted at the Opera as Amelia in Il ballo in maschera and as Elena in Mefistofele.

Her film debut was in the film Romanticismo (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915). It was based on a famous play by Gerolamo Rovetta, which was already filmed in 1913, and refilmed in 1951.

Makowska is Anna Lamberti, whose husband count Vitaliano Lamberti (Tullio Carminati) would like to join the partizans, but is withheld by his pro-Austrian mother. His indecision has estranged him from his wife, who has an affair with a Polish profugee, Cezky, Vitaliano's secretary. When Vitaliano finally joins the freefighting patriots, he regains his wife's confidence, but her vengeful lover denounces Vitaliano to the police, then commits suicide. Even when warned, Vitaliano stays where he is, is caught and executed.

Romanticismo came out in Italy in September 1915, just a few months after the country had joined the Allied forces against Austria-Hungary and Germany in the First World War (April 1915). It was also Makowska's first film for the Torinese company Ambrosio.

From 1917 on, she switched to other film companies and played Ophelia in Ruggero Ruggeri's Amleto/Hamlet (1917), the seductress Elena in the comedy Addio giovinezza/Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918) with Maria Jacobini, followed by La dame en gris/The Lady in Grey (Gian Paolo Rosmino, 1919).

Makowska would go on to perform in some 40 Italian films until her move to Germany in the early 1920s. The Italian press constantly praised her beauty but found her a bit stiff.

Italian postcard by IPA, no. CT. 750. Photo: Film della Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Still from Romanticismo (1915). Caption: Notte d'angoscia (Night of anguish).

Italian postcard by IPA, no. CT. 3873. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still of Helena Makowska as the Egyptian courtesan in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916, released 1917), based on Gabriele D'Annunzio's play. Caption: The resurrected mummy told the monk, refugee in the desert, the story of her ancient life: She had been a voluptuous courtesan who lived in the times of the great Pharaon.'

Italian postcard by IPA CT, no. 3876. Photo: Film della Società Ambrosio, Torino. Publicity still of Helena Makowska in La Gioconda (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916, released 1917) with Umberto Mozzato as Lucio Settala and Helena Makowska as Gioconda Dianti. Caption: Lucio Settala is madly in love with his model Gioconda Dianti.

Italian postcard for the film Amleto (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917), adapted from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, and starring Ruggero Ruggeri in the title role, and Helena Makowska as Ophelia. Caption: Hamlet: Oh, I am your jester. What else can one ever do down here that is joyous?

Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Photo: Medusa Film. Publicity still for Idillio tragico (Gaston Ravel, 1922), based on a novel by Paul Bourget. Caption: Ely rejects Oliviero, as she has now fallen in love with Pietro di Hautefeuille.

German Prison Camp

In the early 1920s, Helena Makowska moved to Berlin, where she remarried with actor Karl Falkenberg.

Between 1922 and 1927, Makowska played in some 15 films in Berlin and also in three in Warsaw, such as Judith/Frauen im Sumpf (1923) and Frauenmoral/Women's Morals (1923), both directed by Dutch director Theo Frenkel, Taras Bulba (Vladimir Strizevsky, Joseph N. Ermolieff, 1924) with Oscar Marion, the Stuart Webbs-detective Der Schuss im Pavillion/The Shot in the Pavillion (Max Obal, 1925), and Kochanka Szamoty/Szamota's Mistress (Leon Trystan, 1927), her last film in Poland.

After her return to Italy, rumors started to circulate that she had an affair with crown prince Umberto. In the early 1930s she married for the third time, now with an Englishman, Botteril, and returned to Poland, as an opera and operetta singer.

In 1939, immediately after the Germans occupied Poland, she was arrested as a British citizen and in 1940 she was deported to Berlin. After four years of prison camp, she was liberated in occasion of an exchange of prisoners.

In England she joined the theater ensemble of the Polish army, where she performed until the end of the war.

Italian postcard, no. 231.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 127, with Romanian imprint by Editions SARPIC, Bucharest.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. ?, with Romanian imprint by Editions SARPIC, Bucharest.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 35, with Romanian imprint by Editions SARPIC, Bucharest.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 128.

Italian postcard, no. 23. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Italian postcard.

Italian postcard by Ed. Fotocelere, Torino.

Diva of Bygone Days

During her final years, Helena Makowska lived in Italy, where she did bit parts in Fabiola (Alessandro Blasetti, 1948) starring Michèle Morgan and Henri Vidal, and Quo vadis? (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951) with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr.

She appeared in Luigi Comencini's melancholic La valigia dei sogni/The Suitcase of Dreams (1953) as the aged actress of the silent era who is visibly moved by the performances of Lyda Borelli in La Donna Nuda/The Naked Truth (Carmine Gallone, 1914) and of herself in Fiacre 13/Cab Number 13 (Alberto Capozzi, Gero Zambuto, 1917), one of her most popular films.

In the film of Comencini, a modern audience of the 1950s cruelly laughs about the performances of the silent actresses, but the diva of bygone days sheds a tear over so much beauty and emotion.

Her final film appearance was in Arrivederci Firenze/Goodbye Firenze (Rate Furlan, 1958) with Maria-Pia Casilio.

Helena Makowska died in 1964 in Rome, Italy. She was 71. In 1999 director Peter Delpeut included footage of Makowska, Lyda Borelli, Pina Menichelli and other Italian silent film stars in his beautiful compilation film Diva Dolorosa (1999).

Italian postcard, no. 133. Photo: Bettini, Roma.

Italian postcard, no. 29.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Medusa Film / UCI. Publicity still for Rabagas (Gaston Ravel, 1922).