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The Celebrity Autograph Series

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Personally, I don't like autographs on my film star postcards. They often don't improve the image, and I don't feel closer to an actor when he or she has signed my postcard. But I know legions of fans think differently. So several publishers created postcards with a printed autograph of the film star. One of the best known series is the British Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD. in London, which consisted all through the 1950s.

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

Richard Burton
Richard Burton. British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait series by Celebrity Publishers, London, no. 79.

Debra Paget
Debra Paget. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 105. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Prince Valiant (Henry Hathaway, 1954).

Corinne Calvet
Corinne Calvet. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 172. Photo: Universal-International.

Margaret Lockwood
Margaret Lockwood. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 183. Photo: Republic. Publicity still for Trouble in the Glen (Herbert Wilcox, 1954).

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

Mara Corday
Mara Corday. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers, London, no. 220. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for Man Without a Star (King Vidor, 1955).

Maureen Swanson
Maureen Swanson. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 266. Photo: Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Robbery Under Arms (Jack Lee, 1957).

Stanley Baker
Stanley Baker. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD, London, no. 267. Photo: Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Hell Drivers (Cy Endfield, 1957).

Ray Danton
Ray Danton. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 279. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for The Night Runner (Abner Biberman, 1957).

Michael Craig in Campbell's Kingdom (1957)
Michael Craig. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers London, no. 298. Photo: Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Campbell's Kingdom (Ralph Thomas, 1957).

Anne Heywood
Anne Heywood. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, London, no. 335. Photo: Rank. Publicity still for Floods of Fear (Charles Crichton, 1958).

I.M. Richard Attenborough (1923-2014)
Richard Attenborough. British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 377.

Adam Faith
Adam Faith. British postcard by Celebrity Autographs, no. 384. Photo: publicity still for Never Let Go (John Guillermin, 1960).

This is for now our last weekly post on British film star postcard series. Next week, we'll continue with posts on German series.

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


Peter Bosse

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Actor, presenter and journalist Peter Bosse (1931) was a popular child star of the German cinema in the 1930s. The boy with his cheeky face made 28 films.

Peter Bosse
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9574/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.

Peter Bosse
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9845/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.

Peter Bosse
German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1276/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Manassée-Ricoll, Wien / Mondial.

Opera


Peter Bosse was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1931 as the son of silent film actress Hilde Maroff.

After some performances on the children's radio with Ilse Obrig, he entered the film business. He made his debut as the son of the great opera singer Beniamino Gigli in Vergiß mein nicht/Forget Me Not (Augusto Genina, 1935).

The next year he became a popular child star with Schloß Vogelöd/Vogelöd Castle (Max Obal, 1936) with Carola Höhn, and as the small Peter in Schlußakkord/Final Accord (Detlev Sierck/Douglas Sirk, 1936) with Willy Birgel and Lil Dagover.

Another popular film was Das Gäßchen zum Paradies/Paradise Road (Martin Fric, 1936) with Hans Moser, in which Peter won the hearts of the public as a little orphan.

Till the outbreak of the war followed more films, including Solo per te/Only for Thee (Carmine Gallone, 1937) with opera singers Beniamino Gigli and Michael Bohnen, Frauenliebe - Frauenleid (Augusto Genina, 1937) with Magda Schneider, Mutterlied/Mother Song (Carmine Gallone, 1938) - again as the son of Beniamino Gigli, Asszony a valszuton/Die Frau am Scheidewege/The woman at the crossroads(Josef von Báky, 1938) with Ewald Balser and Magda Schneider, and Robert und Bertram/Robert and Bertram (Hans H. Zerlett, 1939).

Peter Bosse, Magda Schneider
With Magda Schneider. German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Cine-Allianz.

Peter Bosse
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Europa.

Peter Bosse
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1859/1, 1938-1939. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.

Radio


Peter Bosse’s film career ended when WW II started. The Nazi’s didn’t permit him to act in films anymore on 'account of racial and ideological reasons' according to Wikipedia.

After the war he followed acting classes and started to work as a stage actor at the Schiffbauerdammtheater in Berlin.

Later he switched to the radio and worked for the Berliner Rundfunk. He acted for many radio plays and worked also as a presenter.

He played a few small roles in East German films like the DEFA productions Der Prozeß wird vertagt/The Process is Adjourned (Herbert Ballmann, 1958) with Gisela Uhlen, and the adventure film Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy/The dream of the captain Loy (Kurt Maetzig, 1961).

He also worked for the DDR television as the host of the long running child show Unser Sandmännchen/Our Little Sandman (1958-).

In the 1990s he founded the radio station 50 plus (now Spreeradio), for which he was a presenter and the programme director. So Peter Bosse finished his career where it started, on the radio.

Peter Bosse
German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1859/2, 1937-1938. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.

Peter Bosse
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2122/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.

Peter Bosse
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Joerger.

Peter Bosse in Das Gäßchen zum Paradies (1936)
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for Das Gäßchen zum Paradies/Paradise Road (Martin Fric, 1936).

Peter Bosse
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Cine-Allianz.

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

Johnston Forbes-Robertson

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Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937) was a British actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era, and also played Hamlet a few times on the screen.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet
British postcard by Beagles Photocards, no. 781. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as Hamlet. Sent by mail in 1913.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson
British postcard by Rotary Photo, EC, no. 105 A. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith.

Forbes-Robertson
British postcard in the Fine Art Post Cards Series by Shurey's Publications. Photo: Langfier.

Highly successful Romantic style of acting


Johnston Forbes-Robertson was born in London in 1853. He was the eldest of the eleven children of theatre critic and journalist John Forbes-Robertson and his wife Frances.

One of his sisters, Frances, and three of his brothers, Ian, Norman and John, also became actors. He was the brother-in-law of famed actress Maxine Elliott, the uncle of economist Roy Harrod, and great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married actor Ralph Richardson.

While intending to become an artist, he trained for three years at the Royal Academy, but reluctantly and for financial needs he began a theatrical career, when dramatist William Gorman Wills offered him a role in his play Mary Queen of Scots.

His many performances led him into travel to the U.S., work with Sir Henry Irving, and moving in the highest aristocratic and cultural circles.

In 1895 he took over the management of the Lyceum Theatre, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as leading lady. Here he gave memorable performances as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo, and produced himself Maurice Maeterlinck’s Pelléas and Mélisande, in which his Romantic style of acting was highly successful.

Forbes-Robertson
British postcard, dated 17-7-1903. Photo: Lafayette, London, no. 2014.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet
British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 179 G. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Publicity still for a stage production of Hamlet.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet
British postcard by Beagles Photocards, no. 179 J. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Publicity still for a stage production of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson
British postcard by F.H.L., no. 1419.

One of the most individual and refined of English actors


Forbes-Robertson was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors, noted for his ascetic features but even more for his fine elocution.

George Bernard Shaw praised him and wrote especially for him the part of Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra, which premiered in March 1899 at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle. Later, Shaw considered him the greatest Hamlet he had ever seen.

Forbes-Robertson played opposite Gertrude Elliott as Cleopatra, both were part of Mrs. Patrick Campbell's company. Other notable roles were Othello, and Leontes in The Winter's Tale. 

Forbes-Robertson did not play Hamlet until he was 44 years old, but after his success in this part he continued playing it until 1916, including a surviving silent film, Hamlet (Hay Plumb, 1913).

Highly successful was also his lead in Jerome K. Jerome’s The Passing of the Third Floor Back, which he performed on Broadway in 1908. It was filmed in 1916, and released two years later, The Passing of the Third Floor Back (Herbert Brenon, 1918).

Bob Lipton in his review at IMDb: "The actors are a bit over the top in their performances - except, interestingly, for Forbes-Robertson - but 1918, with the First World War raging, was certainly good moment for a serious, spiritual play."

Forbes-Robertson as Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra
British postcard by J. Beagles & Co., London, no. 179 V. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Forbes-Robertson as Julius Caesar in G.B. Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra (1899).

Forbes-Robertson as Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra
British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 105 K. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Forbes-Robertson as Julius Caesar in G.B. Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra (1899).

Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott in Caesar and Cleopatra
British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 105 M. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Forbes-Robertson as Julius Caesar and Gertrude Elliott as Cleopatra in G.B. Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra (1899).

Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott in Caesar and Cleopatra
British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 105 T. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott in G.B. Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra (1899).

A Player Under Three Reigns


In the 1880s, Johnston Forbes-Robertson acted in plays with the gifted actress Mary Anderson. He asked her hand in marriage, but she kindly turned him down, though they remained friends.

Later he and actress Beatrice Campbell enjoyed a brief affair during the time she starred with him in a series of Shakespearean plays in the mid-1890s.

In 1900, at age 47, he married American-born actress Gertrude Elliott (1874–1950), sister of Maxine Elliott, with whom he had four daughters. Their second daughter Jean Forbes-Robertson became an accomplished actress. Through her he is the grandfather of actress Joanna Van Gyseghem.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was knighted in 1913 at the age of 60, at which point he retired from acting. He returned to the stage, however, for a farewell tour of the US in 1914-1915, making his last appearance onstage at the Sanders Theatre in Boston with a performance of Hamlet.

In the last years of his life he produced plays by George Bernard Shaw and Jerome K. Jerome. His literary works include: The Life and Life-Work of Samuel Phelps (actor and theatre manager) as well as his own autobiography Johnston Forbes-Robertson: A Player Under Three Reigns (1925).

In 1937, Johnston Forbes-Robertson died at St. Margaret's Bay, near Dover, Kent, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London. He was 84.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Shylock
British postcard in the Real Photographic Series by Davidson Brothers, London, no. 2216. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as "Shylock". Sent by mail in 1908.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice
British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 179 U. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Publicity still for a stage production of The Merchant of Venice with Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Shylock. Sent by mail in 1913.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Getrude Elliott in The Light That Failed (1903)
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 1632 A. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Publicity still for the stage production of The Light That Failed (1903). Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as Dick Helder (sic), Gertrude Lawrence as Maisie, "Maisie, my Maisie".

The play The Light That Failed by George Fleming was based on the novel of the same name by-English author Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1891. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan and Port Said. It follows the life of Dick Heldar, an artist and painter who goes blind, and his unrequited love for his childhood playmate, Maisie. The first stage production starred Forbes-Robertson, Elliott, and Sydney Valentine. It was performed in the West End from February to April 1903 and moved on to Broadway in November, making the story more famous. In 1916, it was made into a silent film by Paramount, starring Ronald Colman as Heldar, and also with Muriel Angelus, Ida Lupino, and Walter Huston.

House of Forbes Robertson
London, Bedford Square, Bloomsbury. House of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937).

Sources: Bob Lipton (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
See Forbes-Robertson play Hamlet: YouTube and YouTube.
Hear Forbes-Robertson reciting Hamlet: Britannica, also YouTube (these are recordings from 1928, when the actor was 75).

Bernard Giraudeau

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French actor Bernard Giraudeau (1947-2010) was with his bright blue eyes one of the most attractive but also talented stars of the French cinema. For his roles, he was twice nominated for the French Oscar, Le César. Giraudeau also worked as film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer.

Bernard Giraudeau
French autograph card.

Bernard Giraudeau
French postcard in the Acteurs Français series by Les Editions Gil, no. 5.

Passion of Love


Bernard René Giraudeau was born in 1947 in La Rochelle, France.

In 1963 the 15-years-old enlisted in the French navy as a trainee engineer, qualifying as the first in his class a year later. He completed two around the world cruises before his service ended. He served on the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc in 1964–1965 and 1965–1966, and subsequently on the frigate Duquesne and the aircraft carrier Clemenceau before leaving the navy to try his luck as an actor.

He studied acting at the CNSAD (Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique). Giraudeau first appeared on film in the Franco-Italian crime film Deux hommes dans la ville/Two men in Town (José Giovanni, 1973) starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. He played a kidnapper in Revolver (Sergio Sollima, 1973) with Oliver Reed.

Two years later he had a supporting part in another crime drama by José Giovanni, Le Gitan/The Gypsy (José Giovanni, 1975), starring Alain Delon and Annie Girardot.

In 1977, he played the male lead in Bilitis (1977) directed by photographer David Hamilton with a music score by Francis Lai. The erotic and romantic coming-of-age drama starred Patti D'Arbanville as Bilitis. The film was shot in the soft-focus schmaltz style that was common of David Hamilton's at the time very popular photography.

Giraudeau also co-starred with Jodie Foster in the French film Moi, fleur bleue/Stop Calling Me Baby! (Eric le Hung, 1977). He co-starred again with Alain Delon in the futuristic war film Le Toubib/The Medic (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1979), and appeared in the hit comedy Boum/The Party (Claude Pinoteau, 1980) with Sophie Marceau in her film debut.

Then followed his breakthrough as a handsome dashing officer who falls desperately in love with an ugly but passionate woman (Valeria d’Obici) in the Italian drama Passione d'amore/Passion of Love (Ettore Scola, 1981). The film was entered into the 1981 Cannes Film Festival and served as the inspiration for the 1994 Broadway musical Passion by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

Soon followed leading roles in international films like the French-Swiss drama Hecate (Daniel Schmid, 1982) with Lauren Hutton, the French-Canadian crime film Le Ruffian/The Ruffian (José Giovanni, 1983) also starring Lino Ventura and Claudia Cardinale, and the French drama L'année des méduses/The Year of the Jellyfish (Christopher Frank, 1985) with Valérie Kaprisky.

Another box-office hit in France was the buddy-action film Les Spécialistes/The Specialists (Patrice Leconte, 1985). in which he co-starred with Gérard Lanvin. DB Dumonteil at IMDb: “A deft, energetic buddy movie interspersed with unexpected twists, suspenseful chases and stunts and a sharp humor into the bargain. Everything you could wish for to spend a comfortable evening in front of the telly without reservations. (…) One shouldn't forget the two main actors which contribute in making the film a little winner. Gérard Lanvin and Bernard Giraudeau are on top form.”

Bernard Giraudeau in Rue barbare (1984)
French autograph card. Photo: Luc Roux, Première. Publicity still for Rue barbare/Barbarous Street (Gilles Béhat, 1984).

Gérard Lanvin, Bernard Giraudeau, Les Spécialistes
French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the série acteurs, no. 3. Publicity still for Les Spécialistes/The Specialists (1985, Patrice Leconte) with Gérard Lanvin.

Water Drops on Burning Rocks


In 1987, Bernard Giraudeau made his first film as director the TV film La Face de l'ogre/The Face of the Monster (1988), though he continued to work as an actor.

He co-starred with Isabelle Huppert in the romance Après l'amour/Love After Love (Diane Kurys, 1992). In the drama Le Fils préferé/The Favourite Son (Nicole Garcia, 1994), he played the brother of Gérard Lanvin and Jean-Marc Barr.

Giraudeau appeared in the lauded historical drama Ridicule (Patrice Leconte, 1996), set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received several César awards, but Giraudeau was only nominated for a Cesar as best Supporting Actor.

He played Molière in another historical film, Marquise (Véra Belmont, 1997) with Sophie Marceau and Lambert Wilson. In Italy he appeared in the drama Marianna Ucrìa (Roberto Faenza, 1997).

Back in France he starred in François Ozon’s drama Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes/Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000), based on a German play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Tropfen auf heisse Steine, written when he was 19 years old. Elbert Ventura at AllMovie: “The movie has an undercurrent of absurdist humor, but its laughs are muffled for the most part, with the exception being an out-of-left-field dance number that injects some needed energy into the dour, claustrophobic story. Beautifully structured and meticulously filmed, Water Drops on Burning Rocks is clearly the work of an intelligent filmmaker.”

Also interesting is Une affaire de goût/A Question of Taste (Bernard Rapp, 2000). The film tells about the growing dependency between a rich CEO (Giraudeau) and a handsome young waiter (Jean-Pierre Lorit) whom the CEO hires at an astronomical sum to serve as a personal food taster. David Anderson at Bunched Undies: “A Matter of Taste is a well-executed film: excellent production, nicely photographed and well-acted. But by the time it’s over, like the principle characters, you may find yourself feeling a bit empty.” The film received 5 César Award nominations, including nominations for Best Film and for Giraudeau as Best Actor.

Bernard Giraudeau
French postcard in the Collection 9.1/2 series by Editions Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. ST-63. Sent by mail in 2000.

The Hook


As a writer, Bernard Giraudeau wrote the text of books of photography and published children's stories (Contes d'Humahuaca, 2002) and several novels. He was also the reader on the French audio books of the Harry Potter series.

Since 1976, he was married to actress and author Anny Duperey, whom he had met while acting in the same play. They acted together on-screen in several productions, including the crime drama Le grand pardon/Grand Pardon (Alexandre Arcady, 1982), Meurtres à domicile/Evil in the house (Marc Lobet, 1982), La face de l'ogre (Bernard Giraudeau, 1988), and Contre l'oubli/Against Oblivion (Bernard Giraudeau a.o., 1991). They divorced in 1993.

From 1996 to his death, he was the companion of Tohra Mahdavi. Giraudeau and Duperey had two children: son Gaël and daughter Sara. Sara Giraudeau achieved success as an actress.

In 2000 Bernard Giraudeau suffered a cancer which led to the removal of his left kidney, with a subsequent metastasis in 2005 affecting his lungs. He said that the cancer led him to re-evaluate his life and understand himself better.

He devoted some of his time to the support of cancer victims through the Institut Curie and the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Paris.

His later films included La petite Lili/Little Lili (Claude Miller, 2003), featuring Ludivine Sagnier, the comedy Ce jour-là/That Day (Raúl Ruiz, 2003), and the thriller Je suis un assassin/The Hook (Thomas Vincent, 2004) with François Cluzet and Karin Viard.

In 2010, Bernard Giraudeau died of his cancer in a Paris hospital. He was 63.


Trailer Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes/Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000). Source: Accent Film Entertainment (YouTube).


French trailer Une affaire de goût/A Question of Taste (2000). Source: jajuvabie (YouTube).

Sources: David Anderson (Bunched Undies), DB Dumonteil (IMDb), Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Wera Frydtberg

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German film, television and stage actress Wera Frydtberg (1926–2008) was a star of the German cinema of the 1950s. She appeared in leading roles in Ich denke oft an Piroschka/I Often Think of Piroschka (1955) and Wir Wunderkinder/Aren't We Wonderful? (1958).

Wera Frydtberg
West-German postcard by Netter's Starverlag, Berlin, no. A 1201. Photo: Kopp-Filmverleih. Publicity still for Das Kreuz am Jägersteig/The Hunter's Cross (Hermann Kugelstadt, 1954).

Johanna von Koczian, Hansjörg Felmy, Wera Frydtberg
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5338. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1960. Photo: HAFBO-film. Publicity still for Wir Wunderkinder/Aren't We Wonderful? (Kurt Hoffmann, 1958) with Johanna von Koczian and Hansjörg Felmy.

The Sinner


Wera Frydtberg was born as Wera Friedberg in 1926 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Her father was a physician.

She studied acting with professor Neugebauer in Vienna. She made her theatrical debut in 1949 and became prominent in the Wirtschaftwunder cinema of the 1950s.

She made her film debut in a supporting part in the melodramatic Film Noir Die Sünderin/The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1951). In her role as a prostitute, leading star Hildegard Knefcreated a sensation with a brief nude scene.

The film drew the criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. Contrary to common believe in later years, at the time of the release the nude scene was not the main issue for the protests but the depiction of prostitution, euthanasia and suicide as a good or even logical way to act. The opposition reached the degree of banning the film and scandalising it which paradoxically made it one of the landmarks in the history of the German cinema.

In the following years, Frydtberg played supporting parts in several comedies and had a guest role in the American-German TV series Flash Gordon (1954) featuring Steve Holland as the space hero.

Frydtberg had her first leading role in the Heimatfilm Das Forsthaus in Tirol/The Forest House in Tyrol (Hermann Kugelstadt, 1955) opposite Helmuth Schneider.

Very popular was the charming and melancholic comedy Ich denke oft an Piroschka/I Often Think of Piroschka (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955), in which she co-starred with Liselotte Pulver as Piroschka and Gunnar Möller.

During a train journey, the writer Andreas nostalgically recalls a holiday trip he had made thirty years before in 1920s Hungary to the Lake Balaton area. While there he had enjoyed his first true romance with the daughter of the local stationmaster. The film is in the Heimatfilm tradition which was at its height when the film was released.

Other notable films with Frydtberg include the comedy Der Pauker/The Crammer (Axel von Ambesser, 1958), starring Heinz Rühmann, and Wir Wunderkinder/Aren't We Wonderful? (Kurt Hoffmann, 1958), with Johanna von Koczian and Hansjörg Felmy. The latter recounts the lives of two schoolmates, Hans Boeckel and Bruno Tiches from the fictional town of Neustadt an der Nitze, against the backdrop of German history in the first half of the 20th century.

Eleanor Mannikka at AllMovie: “A biting and effective semi-experimental film about Nazism in Germany, director Kurt Hoffmann tells the story in a long flashback, starting in 1913 and playing out like a silent movie on a small screen.” The film received numerous awards. Most notably, it won the Golden Globe for Best International Picture in 1960.

Wera Frydtberg in Sie (1954)
German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 984. Photo: Filmaufbau / Herzog-Film / Czerwonski. Publicity still for Sie/She (Rolf Thiele, 1954).

Wera Frydtberg
German postcard by Netter's Starverlag, Berlin, no. A 1205. Photo: Herzog Filmverleih. Publicity still for Sie/She (Rolf Thiele, 1954).

The Land of Smiles


During the 1960s, Wera Frydtberg focused more on TV and appeared in operetta adaptations as Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (Kurt Wilhelm, 1960) and Das Land des Lächelns/The Land of Smiles (Kurt Wilhelm, 1961).

During her career, she also appeared extensively on stage in Vienna at the Akademie-Theater, the Kosmos-Theater and till 1962 at the Theater in der Josefstadt. In Germany she played guest parts at the Renaissance-Theater in Berlin, the Komödie Berlin, at the Kleine Komödie in Munich, at the Komödie Düsseldorf, at the Theater Die Kleine Freiheit in Munich and at the Schlosspark-Spielen Wiesbaden.

In the cinema, she appeared in such mediocre fare as the Austrian Schlagerfilm Sing, aber spiel nicht mit mir/Sing but don’t play with me (Kurt Nachmann, 1963) with Adrian Hoven.

More interesting was the drama Das Glück läuft hinterher/Happiness is running afterwards (Peter Beauvais, 1963), which follows the life of several different people in 1960s in Germany for a few days.

She guest-starred in popular Krimi series like Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1972-1973) and Ein Fall für zwei/A case for two (1982).

Her final feature film was the comedy Mein Onkel Theodor oder Wie man viel Geld im Schlaf verdient/My uncle Theodor (Gustav Ehmck, 1975) with Gert Fröbe and Barbara Rütting. Her last screen appearance was in the Krimi series München 7/Munich 7 (2006).

Wera Frydtberg died 2008 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany at the age of 81. She was married to American immigrant and officer Otto Urbach till his death in 1976. They had one daughter, historian Karina Urbach.

Wera Frydtberg
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 34/327, 1957. Photo: Real-Film. Publicity still for Die tolle Lola/The great Lola (Hans Deppe, 1954).

Wera Frydtberg
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1061, 1965.

Sources: Eleanor Mannikka (AllMovie), Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line - German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Lilli Palmer

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German actress and author Lilli Palmer (1914–1986) appeared in French, British, American and German films. The charming and elegant film star won such prestigious awards as the Coppa Volpi in Italy, the Deutscher Filmpreis, and she was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.

Lilli Palmer
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-41. Photo: Arthur Grimm.

Lilli Palmer
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-136. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann.

Lilli Palmer
German collectors card by Lux.

Lilli Palmer
German postcard by ISV, no. M 1. Photo: Europa-Film / List.

Lilli Palmer
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Singing and Dancing Duo


Lilli Palmer was born Lilli Marie Peiser in Posen, Germany (now Poznań, Poland) in 1914.

She was one of three daughters born to Dr. Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish surgeon, and Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish stage actress. Of her two sisters, older sister Irene Prador became an actress and singer in her own right.

When Lilli was four her family moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg. In addition to her native German, she grew up becoming fluent in French and English as well.

She studied drama from Ilka Grüning and Lucie Höflich in Berlin. There she made her stage debut at the Rose-Theater in 1932 and later appeared at the Hessischen Landestheater in Darmstadt, where she mainly played in comedies and as a soubrette in operettas.

Her first film was the French-German Ufa-production Les riveaux de la piste/Spoiling the Game (Serge de Poligny, 1932) starring Albert Préjean, in which she played a bit part.

After the Nazi takeover in 1933 her family fled to Paris. There Lilli and her sister Irene performed in cabarets as the singing and dancing duo Les Sœurs Viennoises.

Lilli attracted the attention of British talent scouts and was offered a contract by the Gaumont Film Company. She took her surname Palmer from an English actress she admired.

At Gaumont, she started co-starring in the B-mystery drama Crime Unlimited (Ralph Ince, 1935) opposite Esmond Knight and continued to appear in British films for the next decade.

She played a supporting part as a maid in Alfred Hitchcock’s espionage comedy Secret Agent (1936) and she rose to stardom in Britain with the action film The Great Barrier (Geoffrey Barkas, Milton Rosmer, 1937) about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Another success was the war film Thunder Rock (Roy Boulting, 1942), which starred Michael Redgrave as an anti-fascist journalist who retreats to Canada. Despite these film roles it was her stage career on which she concentrated during her British period.

Lilli Palmer
British postcard by Art Card, no. 80. Photo: Gaumont-British. This card dates from the years Palmer played in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), a Gaumont-British production, and The Great Barrier (Geoffrey Barkas, Milton Rosmer, 1937).

Lilli Palmer
British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, no. C 288. Photo: Gaumont British.

Lilli Palmer
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 440. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Lilli Palmer
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 1071 b. Photo: Cannons.

Lilli Palmer
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Casa Edite. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 2105. Photo: Warner Bros. Warner produced Cloak and Dagger (Fritz Lang, 1946) and other Hollywood productions with Lilli Palmer.

Sexy Rexy


In 1943, Lilli Palmer married actor Rex Harrison and the following year, their son was born, the later writer and director Carey Harrison. Palmer and Harrison starred together in the romantic drama The Rake's Progress (Sidney Gilliat, 1945).

That same year the family moved to Hollywood. Palmer signed with Warner Brothers and appeared in several films, starting with Cloak and Dagger (Fritz Lang, 1946) opposite Gary Cooper. She also appeared in the classic boxing film Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) starring John Garfield.

During their marriage, Rex Harrison had many affairs, including one with starlet Carole Landis, who committed suicide in 1948 in the wake of their failed relationship. The scandal nearly caused the end of the film careers of both Palmer and her ’Sexy Rexy’, as Harrison was known in the tabloids.

Palmer took the high road and came off the better for it in the public’s eye. She appeared in stage plays as well hosted her own television series, the (short-lived) The Lilli Palmer Show (1953).

Together with Harrison she performed on Broadway where they had a hit with the play Bell, Book and Candle. Later they also starred together in the film version of The Four Poster (Irving Reis, 1952), which was based on the award-winning Broadway play of the same name, written by Jan de Hartog.

Palmer won the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) for Best Actress in 1953 for The Four Poster. She eventually called it quits, however, with both Harrison and Hollywood. She divorced from Harrison in 1956.

Lilli Palmer
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1979. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Fono Film / Ufa.

Lilli Palmer
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. A 1065 A. Photo: Paramount.

Ivan Desny and Lilli Palmer in Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter (1956)
German postcard by Ufa, Wanne-Eickel, no. 393. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / NF-Film. Publicity still for Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter/Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (Falk Harnack, 1956) with Ivan Desny.

Carlos Thompson and Lilli Palmer
With Carlos Thompson. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4061. Photo: Joachim C. Jung / Ufa.

Lilli Palmer in Eine Frau die weiss was Sie will (1958)
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. A 1587. Photo: Gabriele / Bavaria / Schorcht. Publicity still for Eine Frau die weiss was Sie will/Mother of Pearl (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1958).

Argentine Matinee Idol


Lilli Palmer returned to Germany in 1954. Her first role in a German film was the part of a ringmaster in Kurt Hoffmann's Feuerwerk/Fireworks (1954) with Romy Schneider.

She often played in so-called ‘problem films’ and won the Deutscher Filmpreis for Best Actress for her performances in Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk, (Rolf Hansen, 1955) and in Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter/Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (Falk Harnack, 1956).

When Palmer filmed Zwischen Zeit und Ewigkeit/Between Time and Eternity (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1956), she fell in love with her co-star, Argentine matinee idol Carlos Thompson. They married a year later.

During the following decades she continued to play both leading and supporting parts in Europe and the US. She starred opposite William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor (George Seaton, 1962), a spy thriller based on fact, and opposite Robert Taylor in another true World War II story, Disney's Miracle of the White Stallions (Arthur Hiller, 1963).

She also played roles in many television productions, including in episodes of such popular Krimi series as Der Kommissar/The Inspector (1971) and Derrick (1974). In 1974 she also starred with John Mills in the British series The Zoo Gang (Sidney Hayers, John Hough, 1974), about a group of former underground freedom fighters from World War II.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "The final decade and a half played out rather routinely with supporting roles in such films as diverse as Oedipus the King (1968), De Sade (1969), and The Boys from Brazil (1978)." She enjoyed one of her last roles in the acclaimed miniseries Peter the Great (Marvin J. Chomsky, Lawrence Schiller, 1986) starring Maximilian Schell. It earned her another Golden Globe Award nomination.

A talented writer, Palmer published a successful memoir, Dicke Lilli – gutes Kind (1974)/Change Lobsters and Dance (1975). She also wrote a full-length work of fiction presented as a novel rather than a memoir, Der rote Rabe (1977)/The Red Raven (1978). Four novels followed, while she also had success as a painter.

In 1974 she was awarded the Großes Verdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), and in 1978, she won the Filmband in Gold for her long-time, exceptional work in German cinema.

Lilli Palmer was still married to Carlos Thompson when she died in Los Angeles from cancer in 1986. She was 71. Thompson committed suicide four years later back in his native Argentina.

Lilli Palmer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 223, 1957. Photo: NDF / Schorcht. Publicity still for Feuerwerk/Fireworks (Kurt Hoffmann, 1954).

Gérard Philipe and Lilli Palmer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress-Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1271. Photo: Progress. Publicity still of Gérard Philipe and Lilli Palmer in Montparnasse 19/The Lovers of Montparnasse (Jacques Becker, Max Ophüls 1958), a biopic on the last year of painter Amedeo Modigliani.

Lilli Palmer in Frau Warrens Gewerbe (1960)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1304, 1960. Photo: publicity still for Frau Warrens Gewerbe/Mrs. Warren's Profession (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1960).

Lilli Palmer, Johanna Matz
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 1306, 1960. Photo: publicity still for Frau Warrens Gewerbe/Mrs. Warren's Profession (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1960) with Johanna Matz.

Jean Sorel, Lilli Palmer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress, Berlin, no. 1897, 1964. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Julia, du bist Zauberhaft/Adorable Julia (Alfred Weidenmann, 1962) with Jean Sorel.

Lilli Palmer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2993, 1967. Photo: Steffen.

Fernandel, Lilli Palmer
German postcard by Progress, no. 2994, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: publicity still for Le voyage du père/Father's Trip (Denys de La Patellière, 1966) with Fernandel.


Trailer of Mädchen in Uniform (1958) with Romy Schneider. Source: 3DollarBillCinema (YouTube).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (1918)

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The title of the silent German drama Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918) refers to a line by Cicero, retaken by Friedrich Schiller in the closing lines of his play Die Braut von Messina. Worse than a (self-chosen) death, both claim, is guilt.

Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 532/4. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 532/5. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

One of the most prolific writers for the German silent film


German actress, writer and producer Hedda Vernon (1866-?) appeared in more than 60 films of the early silent period. During the 1910s she was such a popular film star that she got her own Hedda-Vernon serial. One of these productions was Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld was scripted by German scriptwriter Ruth Goetz, "one of the most prolific writers for film in Germany in the period 1916–1927, with about sixty-five titles including original scripts and adaptations credited to her name", as Mila Ganeva writes on the website Women Film Pioneers project.

Ganeva: "Ruth Goetz was the only woman featured in this special 1918 issue of the Berlin-based trade magazine Kinematograph edited by E.A. Dupont and devoted to the invisible work of scenarists. A year earlier, one of her scripts had been included as a model for aspiring writers in one of the first manuals compiled by Wilhelm Adler. The film based on this script, Noemi, die blonde Jüdin/Noemi, the Blond Jewess (1917), was directed by Hubert Moest and served primarily as a star vehicle for actress Hedda Vernon."

Director Hubert Moest was Hedda Vernon's husband from 1913 to 1920. After having acted together from 1913 on, he directed her in many films at the Eiko studio in the years 1914-1919.

In 1917-1918 many postcards for Vernon's films were released: Die Verworfenen, Die Narbe am Knie, Noemi, die blonde Jüdin (all 1917), and Puppchen, Fesseln, Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld, Mochy, Das Todesgeheimnis and Wo ein Wille, ist ein Weg (all 1918). All these films were directed by Moest.

Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 532/6. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 532/7. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 532/8. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon in Der Übel größtes aber ist die Schuld (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Source: Women Film Pioneers Project; Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line.de - German), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ross Verlag in colour

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Ross Verlag published a series of postcards for Great Britain without the Ross Verlag name on the cards. Instead, they had the word 'Foreign' in one corner of the photo on the card. These were all hand-tinted colour postcards with a gloss finish. Although the Ross Verlag number was still visible on the front of these cards, they also usually had another number on the back in the stamp box. Besides these cards for the British market, Ross Verlag also published several hand-coloured postcards for the continental market.

Liane Haid in Die Csardasfürstin (1927)
Liane Haid. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1732/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die Csardasfürstin/The Csardas Princess (Hanns Schwarz, 1927). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Karina Bell
Karina Bell. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2094/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Harry Piel in Panik (1928)
Harry Piel. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3343/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Panik/Panic (Harry Piel, 1928).

Adolphe Menjou and Kathryn Carver in Service for Ladies (1927)
Adolphe Menjou and Kathryn Carver. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3384/1. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Service for Ladies (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927).

Vilma Banky
Vilma Banky. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3482/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Collection: Joanna.

Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovich in The Garden of Allah (1927)
Alice Terry and Iván Petrovich. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3538/1. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Garden of Allah (Rex Ingram, 1927).

Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello. British postcard, no. 3865/1. Photo: FPS. At the backside: Real Hand-coloured Photograph.

Greta Nissen and Charles Farrell in Fazil (1928)
Greta Nissen and Charles Farrell. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3917/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928).

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

Clive Brook
Clive Brook. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4010/1. Photo: Defina / First National Pictures.

Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4811/1, 1929-1930. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Betty Amann and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Der Weisse Teufel (1930)
Betty Amann and Ivan Mozzhukhin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4871/1, 1930. Photo: Michael Powell / Ufa. Publicity still for Der Weisse Teufel/The White Devil (Alexandre Volkoff, 1930).

Gretl Theimer
Gretl Theimer. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5575/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Balázs.

Source: Mark Goffee (Ross Verlag Movie Star Postcards).

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


Angelo Ferrari

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Italian actor Angelo Ferrari (1897-1945) appeared in nearly 200 films. He started his career in Italian silent films and later got a strong foothold in the German cinema.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1447/1, 1926-1928. Photo: Schlosser & Wenisch. Signed: 'Sinceramente [Sincerely], Angelo Ferrari. 1926.'

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1447/3, 1926-1928. Photo: Oertel, Berlin. Signed: 'Gentile signorina Susi Schuurmann, Angelo Ferrari. 1926.'

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3342/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3435/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Love-is-stronger-than-death Story


Angelo Ferrari was born in  Fara Gera d’Adda in Lombardia, Italy in 1897. In 1913 and 1914, the young Ferrari became roll skate champion in Italy.

Thomas Staedeli at Cyranos: "Ferrari was spotted by the actress Diana Karenne". She provided the role of a prince for him in the silent film Sofia di Kravonia (Ernesto Maria Pasquali, 1916).

In the late 1910s, he continued with Italian silent films like La serata d'onore di Buffalo/The Gala Night for Buffalo (Carlo Campogalliani, 1916) and Il veliero della morte/The Veil of Death (Carlo Campogalliani, 1917). These films were all produced by the pioneering production company Pasquali Film.

After doing military service between 1916 and 1918, Ferrari worked with well-known director Augusto Genina on I tre sentimentali/The Three Sentimentals (1920), L'incatenata/The Chained Woman (1921) and Un punto nero/The Black Point (1922).

Ferrari starred with diva Francesca Bertini inthe drama La donna nuda/The Naked Woman (1922), based on a play by Henry Bataille. The film was directed by Roberto RobertiSergio Leone’s father,

With another Italian diva, Rina De Liguoro, he appeared in Savitri Satyavan (Giorgio Mannini, 1923). This was the first international co-production of India. The love-is-stronger-than-death story sees Savitri (De Liguoro), the daughter of King Ashwapati and a goddess, fall for Satyavan (Ferrari) who is destined to die within a year. He is killed by a tree and his soul is gathered by the god Yama (Gianna Terribili-Gonzales) but he returns to life and there is a happy ending for the lovers. Some nudity and other 'erotic' images were removed in India to satisfy the censors.

Francesca Bertini and Angelo Ferrari in La donna nuda (1922)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 107. Photo: La Fotominio. Publicity still for La donna nuda/The naked woman (Roberto Roberti, 1922) with Francesca Bertini.

Francesca Bertini in La donna nuda
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 115. Photo: La Fotominio. Publicity still for La donna nuda/The naked woman (Roberto Roberti, 1922) with Francesca Bertini.

Cirano di Bergerac (1923)
Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac/Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), based on Edmond Rostand's famous play Cyrano de Bergerac. Caption: the nice phrases of Christian he learned from Cyrano have conquered and seduced Roxane. Linda Moglia played Roxanne.

Angelo Ferrari and Margarete Lanner in In Treue stark (1926)
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 740. Photo: Treuhand-Film / Mondial A.G. Publicity still for In Treue stark/In faithful strong (Heinrich Brandt, 1926) with Margarete Lanner.

Francesca Bertini and Angelo Ferrari in Mein Leben für das Deine
Italian postcard, no. 338. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Francesca Bertini and Angelo Ferrari in Mein Leben für das Deine/Odette (Luitz-Morat, 1928), based on Victorien Sardou's play Odette, and released in Italy under the same title. Bertini had already played in 1916 in an Italian version of Odette and would do it again in the sound era in a French version of Odette (1935).

France, Germany, Italy


Angelo Ferrari appeared with Geneviève Félix in the French production L'engrenage/The gear (Maurice Kéroul, Max Reichmann, 1923) before gaining a foothold in the German film business.

His breakthrough role in Germany was as an elegant count in the drama Die grüne Manuela/The Green Manuela (Ewald André Dupont, 1923). The film's plot bears a number of similarities to Carmen. Lucie Labass played a gypsy dancer, who becomes involved with Spanish smugglers. It was the first time director Dupont worked with the cinematographer Werner Brandes and the art director Alfred Junge who were to become important collaborators with him.

In the silent German cinema, Ferrari acted in successful films like Prater (Peter Paul Felner, 1924) with Henny Porten, Die Motorbraut/The Motor Bride (Richard Eichberg, 1925) with Lee Parry, and the Kammerspiel Eifersucht/Jealousy (Karl Grune, 1925) opposite Lya de Putti.

He returned to Italy for another hit, Cirano di Bergerac/Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1925), a film version of Edmond Rostand's famous play. He played the handsome Christian, who is eager to declare his love for the fair Roxanne (Linda Moglia), but he doesn't have the gift for words that Cyrano (Pierre Magnier) does.

In Germany he then appeared in dozens of films including Rosen aus dem Süden/Roses From the South (Carl Froelich, 1926) opposite Henny Porten, Orientexpress/Orient Express (Wilhelm Thiele, 1927 with Lil Dagover, and the comedy Kopf hoch, Charly!/Heads Up, Charley (Willi Wolff, 1927) with Marlene Dietrich in a supporting role.

Later followed Die Sünderin/The Sinner (Mario Bonnard, 1927) featuring Elisabeth Pinajeff, the German-Italian drama Villa Falconieri (Richard Oswald, 1928) with Maria Jacobini, and the war drama Richthofen (Peter Joseph, 1929). In his German films, Ferrari often played roles such as an officer, a marquis or a prince.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1376/1, 1927-1928.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3630/1, 1928-1929.

Angelo Ferrari
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5002. Photo: HPF / Micheluzzi-Verleih.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4064/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Schrecker, Berlin.

The Age of the Talkies


Angelo Ferrari’s first sound film was La donna di una notte/The Woman of One Night (Marcel L’Herbier, 1930) featuring the diva of the silent Italian cinema Francesca Bertini. It was an alternate language version of La femme d'une nuit (Marcel L’Herbier, 1930), also starring Bertini.

Because La donna di una notte was edited without his consent, director L'Herbier asked for his name to be removed from the credits. It was still released in Rome and Milan for Christmas of 1931 with his name still appearing.

In the age of the talkies, Ferrari continued to play in well-known German pictures like Barcarole (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1935), Fridericus (Johannes Meyer, 1936), Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes War/The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (Karl Hartl, 1937) starring Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann, and Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937) featuring Pola Negri.

But his parts had become smaller because of his lack of the German language. During the 1940s, Ferrari appeared in more than 50 German films, mostly in small, sometimes even uncredited parts. Some of his films were finished and released after the end of war. The comedy Verlobte Leute/Engaged People, directed by Karl Anton and starring Axel von Ambesser, was filmed in 1945, but had its premiere in 1950 as Das Dementi in East-Germany.

Angelo Ferrari was already five years dead by then. After a stroke, he had died in Niederlehme, Germany in 1945, briefly before the end of World War II. He was 47. (Our sources differ about the details of his death. English Wikipedia e.g. writes that he died in Berlin in 1954, at the age of 66).

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3116/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3116/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4848/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Ahrlé, Berlin.

Angelo Ferrari
German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Oertel, Berlin.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Janiss Garza (AllMovie), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

Gina Lollobrigida

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

Gina Lollobrigida
I.F.P.A. postcard, no. 15.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by Terra-Color, no. F 130. Photo: Morris, Rome.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by Ufa, no. CK 67. Photo: Raymond Vainquel. Publicity still for Trapeze (Carol Reed, 1956).

Gina Lollobrigida
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 10. Photo: publicity still for Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jean Delannoy, 1956).

Gina Lollobrigida
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto in the Artisti di Sempre series, no. 294.

The most beautiful toddler of Italy


Luigina Lollobrigida was born in the picturesque Italian mountain village Subiaco in 1927, as one of four daughters of a furniture manufacturer. At the age of 3, Luigina was already selected as the most beautiful toddler of Italy and in her youth she started to model.

She became an art student and made her film debut in an uncredited bit role in the adventure film Aquila nera/The Black Eagle Returns (Riccardo Freda, 1946) starring Rossano Brazzi.

In 1947, she entered the Miss Italia pageant and came in third. The contest was won by Lucia Boséand second was Gianna Maria Canale. Both also became film actresses, though not nearly as successful as Lollobrigida.

Gina Lollobrigida was discovered by director Mario Costa who gave her a small part as a girlfriend of Adina (Nelly Corradi) in the opera adaptation L’elisir d’amore/Elixir of Love (Mario Costa, 1946).

Lollobrigida started to model as Diana Loris for the Fotoromanzi, the popular Italian photo novels.

She got her first bigger film part in another opera film, Pagliacci/Love of a Clown - Pagliacci (Mario Costa, 1948), co-starring with one of the greatest Italian baritones, Tito Gobbi. The film, based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci recounts the tragedy of Canio (Afro Poli), the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a Commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda (Lollobrigida), and her lover,
Silvio (Gobbi).

When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio (also Gobbi), another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage, Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. Lollobrigida's singing in this film was dubbed.

Gina Lollobrigida
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 29 F. Offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Fanfan la Tulipe/Fan-Fan the Tulip (Christian Jacque, 1952).

Gina Lollobrigida
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 325. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Les belles de nuit/Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952).

Gina Lollobrigida in Pane, amore e fantasia (1953)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 1748. Photo: publicity still for Pane, amore e fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953).

Gina Lollobrigida in Pane, amore e fantasia (1953)
Yugoslavian postcard by NPO, no. G5. Photo: pubicity still for Pane, amore e fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953).

Gina Lollobrigida in La provinciale (1953)
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 187. Photo: Ponti / De Laurentiis. Publicity still for La provinciale/The Wayward Wife (Mario Soldati, 1953).

Miss Italia


Gina Lollobtrigida's first major success as a leading lady was in Miss Italia/My Beautiful Daughter (Duilio Coletti, 1950), a backstage drama set at a beauty contest.

It was followed by the delightful comedy Vita da cani/A Dog's Life (Mario Monicelli, Steno, 1950) with Aldo Fabrizi, and the award winning crime drama La città si difende/Four Ways Out (Pietro Germi, 1951), based on a script by Federico Fellini.

In France she co-starred with Gérard Philipe in the hugely entertaining melange of swash-buckling adventure, comedy and romance Fanfan la Tulipe/Fan-Fan the Tulip (Christian Jacque, 1952) and in Les Belles de Nuit/Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952).

James Travers at Films de France: "As French matinee idol Gérard Philipe is propelled through history and cardboard Freudian dreamscapes, into the arms of such beauties as Martine Carol and Gina Lollobrigida, (director René) Clair appears to have all but lost his tenuous grip on reality (the scene with the dinosaur confirms it) - but who cares? This is a film which, like Clair’s earlier comic masterpieces, is intended to distract and entertain, and it does that marvellously and unashamedly."

Gina Lollobrigida had her definitive breakthrough with the huge global hit Pane, amore e fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953), in which she starred with Vittorio De Sica.

This romantic comedy was nominated in the U.S. for an Oscar, and Lollobrigida herself received in Great Britain a nomination at BAFTA. The success led to three sequels, including Pane, amore e gelosia/Bread, Love and Jealousy (Luigi Comencini, 1954).

Her first American film was Beat the Devil (John Huston, 1953). She was at her best as Humphrey Bogart's wife in this odd but endearing noiresque comedy.

Next she earned her nickname ‘The World's Most Beautiful Woman’ for her signature film La donna più bella del mondo (Robert Z. Leonard, 1956), in which she played the legendary actress Lina Cavalieri.

For her role in this film she received the first David di Donatello for Best Actress. Her earthy looks and short 'tossed salad' hairdo were quite influential, and in fact there's a type of curly lettuce named 'Lollo' in honour of her cute hairdo. (In France 'Lollo's' were a nickname for breasts).

Gina Lollobrigida
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 29 F. Offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Happy birthday, Gina Lollobrigida!
French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 360. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Gina Lollobrigida
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, no. 354. Photo: Herbert Fried / Ufa. Publicity still for Notre Dame de Paris (1956).

Gina Lollobrigida in Notre-Dame de Paris (1956)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2/72. Photo: publicity still for Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jean Delannoy, 1956).

Gina Lollobrigida in Notre-Dame de Paris (1956)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 56/72. Photo: publicity still for Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jean Delannoy, 1956).

Esmeralda


Gina Lollobrigida made another Hollywood appearance in the circus melodrama Trapeze (Carol Reed, 1956) between Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

Next she starred as Esmeralda in Notre Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jean Delannoy, 1956) opposite Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo.

In 1959 she lured Yul Brynner in the Biblical epic Solomon and Sheba (King Vidor, 1959).

One of her most popular Hollywood films was Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961), in which she played the never-contented mistress of Rock Hudson. For this lightweight comedy she won the Golden Globe as 'World Film Favorite'.

She co-starred again with Hudson in Strange Bedfellows (Melvin Frank, 1965) and in 1968 she starred in the enjoyable screwball comedy Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (Melvin Frank, 1968), for which she was again nominated for a Golden Globe and won a David di Donatello award, the Italian Oscar.

On TV, Gina Lollobrigida was seen in the mini series Le Avventure di Pinocchio/The Adventures of Pinocchio (Luigi Comencini, 1972).

She retired from acting in the mid-1970s, but has occasionally returned for the camera, including in a regular role in the American soap opera Falcon Crest (1984).

She has used her celebrity to sell cosmetics, published two books of her photography, Italia (My Italy, 1973) and Wonder of Innocence (1994), and created sculptures.

In the mid-1970s she wrote, directed and produced Ritratto di Fidel/Portrait of Fidel, a very personal 50-minute documentary about Fidel Castro that included a rare interview with the Cuban dictator, fuelling persistent rumours that a romance was sparked.

In 1986, she was the head of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival, and in 1999 she ran for a seat in the European Union Parliament, stressing humanitarian issues, but she lost the election.

Now virtually retired, Gina Lollobrigida has not made a film appearance since XXL (Ariel Zeitoun, 1997) with Gérard Depardieu.

Gina Lollobrigida was married once, to Slovenian physician Milko Skofic, in 1949. Skofic gave up his practise to become her manager. They had one child, Milko Skofic, Jr., born in 1957, and the couple divorced in 1971. In 1993 her grandson Dimitri was born.

Lollobrigida has lived since 1949 at her home ranch and gardens in Sicily. The property contains her personal museum. In addition, she regularly stays at her house on Via Appia Antica in Rome and at a villa in Monte Carlo. Since 2009 Lollobrigida has not allowed visitors to her home. In 2013, Lollobrigida sold her jewelry collection through Sotheby's. She donated nearly $5 million to benefit stem cell therapy.

Next to her Golden Globe, Lollobrigida has won 6 David di Donatello, 2 Nastro d'Argento, and 6 Bambi Awards. In 1985 she was nominated as an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang for her achievements in sculpture and in photography. In 1992 she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by president François Mitterrand.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof (Ufa), no. CK-157. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Camerapress.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/135. Photo: Universal / Ufa.

Gina Lollobrigida, Rock Hudson
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/129. Photo: Terb Agency / Ufa. Publicity still for Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961) with Rock Hudson.

Gina Lollobrigida and Andrea Balestri in Le avventure di Pinocchio (1972)
Italian postcard by Edizioni Panini, Modena (EPM). Photo: Sampaolofilm / Cinepat. Publicity still for Le avventure di Pinocchio/The Adventures of Pinocchio (Luigi Comencini, 1972) with Andrea Balestri. Caption: The Fairy and the boy Pinocchio.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/56. Photo: Farabola.

Sources: James Travers (Film de France), NNDB, Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie), kd haisch (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Elsa De Giorgi

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Italian stage and screen actress Elsa De Giorgi (1914-1997) worked also as a director and set designer and was a successful novelist. She had a prolific career in the Italian cinema under Mussolini, and after the war she worked on stage with Luchino Visconti and Giorgi Strehler and in films by Pier Paolo Pasolini. But she is now best remembered for her extramarital affair with author Italo Calvino.

Elsa De Giorgi
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1938. Photo: Tirrenia Film.

Elsa De Giorgi
Italian postcard by Fotoluxardo, Roma. Publicity card for Melloni textiles, Bologna.

Ancient provincial aristocracy


Elsa De Giorgi was born Elsa Giorgi Alberti in 1914 in Pesaro. Her family was of ancient provincial aristocracy, the Giorgi Alberti’s, nobles of Bevagna and Camerino, patricians of Spoleto.

At the age of almost 18, she participated in a photographic competition. She was discovered by film director Mario Camerini, who offered her the role of the protagonist in T'amerò sempre/I will always love you (1933). In this film, a girl (De Giorgi) gives birth to a daughter but the father, a playboy (Mino Doro), has dumped her. Years after, they meet again, but there is also the girl’s colleague, an accountant (Nino Besozzi).

After this film debut, titles followed like the comedy L'impiegata di papà/Dad's clerk (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934) with Memo Benassi, the drama Porto/Port (Amleto Palermi, 1934) with Irma Grammatica and Camillo Pilotto, and Teresa Confalonieri/Loyalty of Love (Guido Brignone, 1934) with Marta Abba.

In the Luigi Pirandello adaptation Ma non è una cosa seria/But It's Nothing Serious (Mario Camerini, 1937) and La mazurca di papà/Daddy's mazurca (Oreste Biancoli 1938), she co-starred with Vittorio De Sica, and in La signora Paradiso (Enrico Guazzoni 1937), she had the lead role opposite Mino Doro and Memo Benassi.

Towards and during the war, De Giorgi often played in period pieces. This started with the lead role as Desirée Clary, Napoleon’s beloved in La sposa dei re/The Bride of the Kings (Duilio Coletti 1938) with Augusto Marcacci as Napoleon Bonaparte.

Other historical films with her are Il fornaretto di Venezia/The Fornaretto of Venice (Duilio Coletti, 1939) starring Roberto Villa as the unjustly accused, Capitan Fracassa/Captain Fracasse (Duilio Coletti, 1940) with Giorgio Costantini and Osvaldo Valenti, Fra' Diavolo/The Adventures of Fra Diavolo (Luigi Zampa, 1942) with Enzo Fiermonte, and La locandiera/The Innkeeper (Luigi Chiarini, 1944) starring Luisa Ferida.

In several of the wartime films De Giorgi was not allowed to have her own voice, and it was mainly Lydia Simoneschi who dubbed her.

Elsa De Giorgi
Italian postcard by Stab. Angeli, Terni, Ditta Terzoli, Roma, no. 333 Photo: Gneme.

Notorious Love Letters


Elsa De Giorgi had a prolific career in the Italian cinema under Mussolini, but her anti-fascism (notable is her description in her book I coetanei of her quarrel with Fascist minister Alessandro Pavolini) did not make her love acting in the regime’s films. Instead, she preferred working for the theatre.

In the post-war era, she would mostly perform on stage with directors such as Giorgio Strehler and Luchino Visconti. In 1949 Visconti called her to be Helen of Troy in his staging of William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida at the Boboli gardens in Florence, during the Maggio Musicale. In 1957 she played Madame Roland in Giacobini by Federico Zardi, staged at the Teatro Piccolo in Milan by Giorgio Strehler.

She was married to resistance fighter and war hero, Count Sandrino Contini Bonacossi, who was the wealthy son of a renowned art merchant. In the second half of the 1950s and during her marriage with the Florentine aristocrat, she had a relationship with the writer Italo Calvino, described in her book Ho visto partire il tuo treno (I've Seen Your Train Leaving, 1992).

In 1955 she published I coetanei, a public diary with many references to the partisan struggle (with a tribute to her husband Sandrino) and to the Roman cinema of the period around the war. It won her the Premio Viareggio but it also lead to her relationship with Calvino, who was text editor for her book.

In the early sixties, she collaborated as theatre critic to the Roman paper Il Pensiero Nazionale.

She had a small part in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s short film La ricotta (1963). In 1975, she interpreted Ms. Maggi, one of the narrators of Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma/Salò, or the 120 days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975).

Her final screen credit was in the Alberto Sordi comedy Assolto per aver commesso il fatto/Acquitted for Having Committed the Deed(Alberto Sordi, 1993) in which she appeared briefly as a countess. Elsa De Giorgi died in Rome in 1997. She was 83.

In 2004, fragments were published of the some 400 (love) letters, which Italo Calvino wrote to her in the years of their affair (1955-1958) and which were kept by the University of Pavia. De Giorgi had sold the love letters to the archive in 1994, with the condition that they would not be opened for the following 25 years.

Still, a journalist could not wait and published excerpts in the Corriere della Sera, proving thus that the restrained, ironic writer had been a wildly passionate lover. Calvino’s widow, Chichita Calvino, was not amused and tried to prevent further publications. It also sparked a fierce debate between left and right on culture & politics and ownership of the media.

Furthermore, it became clear that Sandrino Contini Bonacossi, Elsa’s husband, who had suddenly disappeared in 1955 and was suspected of financial malversations, had instead left because he could not stand the triangular affair anymore. Afterwards he would divorce De Giorgi and disinherit her. Possibly this was the reason why De Giorgi eventually sold the letters in 1994.

In 1975, Sandrino Contini Bonacossi hung himself in New York. This seems to have no connection with De Giorgi’s affair with Calvino. In her book L'eredità Contini-Bonacossi, De Giorgi reconstructed the mysterious affair of clandestine export of art works, which had her husband as the main victim.

After his affair with Elsa De Giorgi, Italo Calvino wrote several novels with aristocrats in the title, such as The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, and The Nonexistent Knight. De Giorgi claimed that the titles refer to her unfortunate husband and to her affair of Calvino, but this has been contested. While Elsa’s career dwindled, Calvino’s fame grew.

Italo Calvino died in 1985, twelve years before Elsa De Giorgi. After her death in 1997, the university of Pavia also acquired the 6000 volumes library of De Giorgi and her husband.

Elsa De Giorgi
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1939.

Elsa De Giorgi
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1940. Photo: Venturini.

Sources: John Hooper (The Guardian), Biblioteca universitaria di Pavia (Italian), Frankfurter Algemeine (German), Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.

Christel Bodenstein

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German film and television actress Christel Bodenstein (1938) appeared in many East German (GDR) productions and is best known for her leading role as the beautiful but haughty princess in the fairy-tale film Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (1957).

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1582, 1961.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2250, 1965. Photo: DEWAG / Herbst / Mücke.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2252, 1965. Photo: DEWAG / Herbst / Mücke.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1893, 1963. Photo: DEFA / Blümel.

The Singing Ringing Tree


Christel Bodenstein was born Christa Bodenstein in 1938 in Munich, Germany. In 1949, she moved to Leipzig in the GDR with her mother. She attended the ballet school of the Leipzig Opera and the State Ballet School, Berlin. In 1955, she graduated there and became a ballet dancer at the Landestheater Halle.

The then 17-year-old met DEFA director Kurt Maetzig at the Ostseestrand. He suggested her to do screen test for the part of Annegret in his DEFA film Schlösser und Katen/Castles and Cottages (1957), but she did not get the role. Instead actress Karla Runkehl was chosen to play Annegret.

Despite this failure, Bodenstein studied until 1959 at the Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam. She made her film debut as student Hannelore Ulrich in the satire Das Hauptmann von Köln/The Captain from Cologne (Slatan Dudow, 1956) starring Rolf Ludwig, followed by the fairy-tale film Das tapfere Schneiderlein/The Brave Little Tailor (Helmut Spieß, 1956) with Kurt Schmidtchen. The film was the first of 19 adaptations of Grimm fairy tales, which the East German studio DEFA realised until 1990.

Bodenstein’s breakthrough was another fairy-tale film by the DEFA, Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957). The story, written by Anne Geelhaar, was based on a variation of Hurleburlebutz by the Grimm Brothers. Bodenstein played a beautiful but selfish and haughty princess who rejects the proposal of a wealthy prince (Eckart Dux).

After its release in East Germany, the film sold almost 6 million tickets in the country of about 17 million. Das singende, klingende Bäumchen was then purchased by the BBC and cut into three parts to create a mini-series which was shown many times during the 1960s and 1970s.

Other popular successes were the DEFA musical Maibowle/The Punch Bowl (Günter Reisch, 1959) and its sequel Silvesterpunsch/New Year's Eve Punch (Günter Reisch, 1960), in which she costarred with Erich Franz, Friedel Nowack and Erika Dunkelmann. In these films, she could show off her dancing talent.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme, Potsdam-Babelsberg, no. 72, 1956. Photo: DEFA / Wenzel.

Christel Bodenstein in Das singende, klingende Bäumchen (1957)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 4213/447, 1957. Photo: DEFA / Wunsch. Publicity still for Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957).

Christel Bodenstein in Das singende, klingende Bäumchen (1957)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 4219/463, 1958. Photo: DEFA / Wunsch. Publicity still for Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957).

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 659, 1958. Photo: Jochen Diestelmann.

One of the great romantic couples of the GDR


In 1960, Christel Bodenstein was voted the most popular actress of the GDR by the youth magazine Neues Leben. Through her popularity, she became a member of the DEFA ensemble from 1959 to 1973 and she worked with renowned film directors such as Frank Vogel, Herbert Ballmann and Martin Hellberg.

Bodenstein married director Konrad Wolf in 1960 and they had a son Mirko in 1961. In the 1960s, she appeared in some musicals and revue films such as Revue um Mitternacht/Midnight Review (Gottfried Kolditz, 1962) alongside Manfred Krug. Bodenstein and Krug reunited in Beschreibung eines Sommers/Description of a summer (Ralf Kirsten, 1963). The film made them one of the great romantic couples of the GDR.

This was followed by the fairy-tale film Der kleine Prinz/The Little Prince (Konrad Wolf, 1966) based on the story by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Bodenstein played the prince and Eberhard Esche the pilot.

In the 1970s, good and interesting film roles for the DEFA and the television of the GDR failed to materialise. She decided to return to the stage. From 1973 to 1976 she performed as a chanson singer, and was a temporary guest actress at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam.

In 1976, she started to work for the small theatre Das Ei at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin. After the Wende, the German reunification of 1990, she worked as an assistant director and in 1994 she became a director at Berlin’s Friedrichstadtpalast. Since then, her productions included a Claire Waldorff revue and the revue Sommernachtsträume/Summer nights dreams (1995).

Bodenstein and Wolf divorced in 1978. Her second marriage is to the actor and playwright Hasso von Lenski. In 2016, Christel Bodenstein returned to the screen in a new TV version of Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Wolfgang Eißler, 2016), now with Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen as the princess and with Bodenstein in a supporting part as a herbalist.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1658, 1962.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1817, 1963. Photo: Karin Blasig.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2333, 1966. Photo: Karin Blasig.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 3312, 1968. Photo: Karin Blasig.

Christel Bodenstein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 55/69, 1969. Photo: Klaus D. Schwarz.

Sources: Ines Walk (Film-Zeit.de – German), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Willy Millowitsch

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Willy Millowitsch (1909-1999) was a popular German stage and TV actor and the director of the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne. From 1949 on, he appeared in many West-German and Austrian films.

Willy Millowitsch
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 417. Photo: Millowitsch Theater.

A long family tradition


Willy Millowitsch was born in Cologne in the Rhineland region in Germany, in 1909. His parents were Peter and Käthe Millowitsch and came from a long family tradition of engagement with the theatre which can be traced back to 1792. It was not until 1895 however, that Millowitsch's grandfather stopped using puppets and resorted to real actors instead.

Millowitsch was interested in theatre at an early age, and took to the stage for the first time in 1922 at just 13. According to IMDb, he had intended to become an engineer, but he quit school without a degree to pursue his acting career full-time.

At first, he worked under the auspices of his father who had to give up his theatre after the inflation hit. This forced them to go on tour in and around Cologne until they got a permanent theatre in 1936, the now famous Volkstheater Millowitsch, which Willy took over from his father in 1940.

In 1933, he had his first film appearances in two short film comedies, So leben wir alle Tage/That’s how we always live (Hasso Preiß, 1933) and Wenn Männer kochen/When men cook (Hasso Preiß, 1933).

In 1939 he married his first wife Lini Lüttgen, but they got divorced soon after. During World War II, the theatre was damaged, but not severely, and by October 1945 it was fully restored, owing to the support of mayor and later German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who proclaimed that the people need something to laugh about again.

Consequently, in the time from 1945 to 1949 there were daily performances in the theatre. It was during this time that he met his second wife, Gerda Millowitsch, formerly Feldhoff. They remained married till his death.

Willy Millowitsch in Der Fronthahn
German postcard by Netter's Starverlag, Berlin. Photo: publicity still for the play Der Fronthahn/The Front Rooster.

A relaxed lifestyle and genial humour


In 1949, when the post-war theatre euphoria died down, Willy Millowitsch focused on his film and television career. In 1949 he played a supporting part in the West-German crime film Gesucht wird Majora/Search for Majora (Hermann Pfeiffer, 1949) starring Lotte Koch.

Next, he appeared in the drama Madonna in Ketten/Madonna in Chains (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1949), starring Lotte Koch, Karin Hardt and Elisabeth Flickenschildt. He also appeared in one of the last Harry Piel adventure films, Der Tiger Akbar/Tiger’s Claw (Harry Piel, 1951). Many more films were to follow.

He did not content himself just transferring from one medium to the other, but brought the theatre with him. In 1953 the Kölsch (Cologne dialect) play Der Etappenhase (The stage hare) was broadcast on the TV channel WDR, the first live broadcast of a theatrical performance with real audience in German television history.

Despite bitter criticism of the entry of low 'folk culture' into television by the director of the NDR channel, Adolf Grimme, it was an instant success. This remains one of Millowitsch's most popular plays and has been performed more than 1,000 times. Der Etappenhase was so popular that just six weeks later it was broadcast again, live from the Volkstheater. In 1957, it was made into a film, Der Etappenhase (Wolfgang Becker, 1957), but with Beppo Brem in the leading role and Millowitsch in a supporting part.

Millowitsch continued to put on television plays that were instant successes, gaining national popularity. It is in great part Millowitsch's achievement to have popularised Kölsch throughout Germany. People were now associating the Rhinelander with a relaxed lifestyle and genial humour. Theatres from other dialectal areas scrambled to catch up with him and soon the dialect theatre became an important part of the German television landscape.

With the success of these plays on television, interest in theatre gradually increased and by the 1960s flocks of people took to the theatre again to witness performance of Millowitsch's popular plays first hand. Until the beginning of the 1960s, Millowitsch had to rent out his theatre now and again, but with the arrival of the new crowds Millowitsch could afford to concentrate his career on theatre from then on. He renovated the theatre in 1967 and the Volkstheater once again became a focal point of local culture, and many young dialect artists started their careers there.

Willy Millowitsch
German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3484. Photo: Polydor / Schellen.

Who the devil were those people?


In the early 1960s, Willy Millowitsch had also moved on from supporting to starring parts in films. He was the title figure in the West German comedy Der wahre Jakob/The True Jacob (Rudolf Schündler, 1960) and his co-stars were Renate Ewert and Jane Tilden. The film was a remake of the popular German comedy Der wahre Jakob/True Jacob (Hans Steihoff, 1931), starring Ralph Arthur Roberts.

Next Millowitsch starred in Willy, der Privatdetektiv/Willy the Private Detective (Rudolf Schündler, 1960) with Renate Mannhardt and Rudolf Platte, Der Hochtourist/The high-season tourist (Ulrich Erfurth, 1961) with Claude Farell, and Robert und Bertram/Robert und Bertram (Hans Deppe, 1961) opposite Vico Torrianiand Trude Herr.

The latter comedy was inspired by the characters in Gustav Raeder's 1856 play Robert and Bertram, updated to the modern era. Two vagabonds, Robert and Bertram, are hired by a shoe company to walk 500 kilometres to test their new product.

Millowitsch also appeared in the film operettas Die Fledermaus/The Bat (Géza von Cziffra, 1962), starring Peter Alexander, Marianne Koch and Marika Rökk, and Der Zigeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron (Kurt Wilhelm, 1962) with Carlos Thompson and Heidi Brühl.

Throughout the 1970s, Willy Millowitsch stuck mostly to the folk theatre. With his son Peter Millowitsch, he appeared in the Roy Black vehicle Alter Kahn und junge Liebe/Old Barge, Young Love (Werner Jacobs, 1973).

At the end of the 1980s he returned to television and took the title role in a detective series as Kommissar Klefisch, whom he played until 1996. He played a small part in the Hollywood comedy National Lampoon's European Vacation (Amy Heckerling, 1985) with Chevy Chase. His single line was "Wer zum Teufel waren die Leute?" (Who the devil were those people?).

Aside from his theatrical merits, he also wrote classic popular folk songs, such as Schnaps, das war sein letztes Wort and Wir sind alle kleine Sünderlein. He also embraced political causes and in 1992 he participated in the important anti-Nazi campaign, Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander! (Kölsch, meaning: Move your butts and pipe up!), which culminated in a major concert by local acts attended by 100,000 people at Cologne's Chlodwigplatz.

In 1989, the city of Cologne conferred honorary citizenship on to Millowitsch, which is a very exclusive honour in Germany. In 1995, he retired from performing for health reasons. He celebrated his 90th birthday on 8 January 1999, with 18,000 fans at a sold-out event at the Köln arena and told people all he wanted for his birthday was to stay healthy.

However, Willy Millowitsch died of heart failure on 20 September that year. Two of his four children, Peter Millowitsch, who is now the director of the Volkstheater, and Mariele Millowitsch have continued the family tradition and have both become successful actors. The city of Cologne has named a square near the Millowitsch theatre Willy-Millowitsch-Platz in his honour.

Willy Millowitsch
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 418. Photo: Millowitsch Theater.

Willy Millowitsch
German autograph card by Papagayo Photo: Augl.

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

Lorenzaccio (1918)

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The Italian silent film Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918) was a production by Lux-Artis.  Based on a story by Alfred de Musset, the film tells the story of Lorenzo de Medici. Actress Irene Saffo Momo played the title role.

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Photo: Lux-Artis. Publicity still for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), starring countess Irene Saffo Momo, in the middle on this card. Caption: I will think of the retro of this medal!... The card depicts the opening scene of the film, in which Lorenzaccio tells the artist Benvenuto Cellini (Camillo Talamo) who has to leave Florence on instigation of duke Alessandro (on the right, Camillo De Rossi), he will take care of it, confirming his own corruption and Cellini's integrity. This scene was suppressed in Alfred De Musset's play, even if it was in his manuscript.

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, Lux-Artis 1918), starring Irene Saffo Momo, here on the right. Caption: Do you have an enemy, Master? (In a fake duel Lorenzaccio exposes his murderous intentions.)

Covered in blood


In Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), young Lorenzo de Medici (Irene Saffo Momo), nicknamed Lorenzaccio, vows to restore the republic at Florence, but it is his own cousin Alessandro de' Medici (Camillo De Rossi), Duke of Florence, who rules as tyrant, helped by the Pope and the army of Emperor Charles V, who are the real powers.

Lorenzaccio becomes a loyal servant to the Duke, helps him in his debaucheries, abducting a girl under her brother's nose. Later the duke has set his eyes on the pious and married marchioness Cibo (Lia Monesi-Passaro), who is warned by her brother-in-law, the cardinal Cibo (Alberto Castelli), but she has decided to sacrifice herself and try to mould the duke in the right direction by offering herself.

Meanwhile Luisa Strozzi (Sara Long), member of the rival family to the Medici's, has an involuntary affair with marquis Giuliano Salvati (Luigi Saltamerendo), a man in the duke's circle.

In Lorenzaccio's palace, his uncle Bindo Altoviti and Venturi, a gentleman, wish to know from Lorenzaccio whether he will join their conspiracy against the duke. But when the duke, as suggested by his cousin, offers them a promotion and privileges, despite their republican talk, they immediately accept. This confirms Lorenzaccio the power of corruption.

Covered in blood, Pietro Strozzi appears to his father, the Republican Filippo (Ferdinando Del Re), and Lorenzo, saying he has killed Salviati because of his sister. When Alessandro serves as a - half naked - model for a portrait by Tebaldo Freccia (Adolfo Quintini), Lorenzaccio steals his coat of mail which always protected him and throws it in a well. Lorenzo has a mock duel with his aid, but becomes totally outrageous, predicting his murderous act.

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Photo: Lux-Artis. Publicity still for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), starring Irene Saffo Momo. Caption: Father, destiny has wanted that I filthed my hands with impure blood! (Probably here Luisa Strozzi confesses her father Filippo she has been raped by Salviati.)

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Photo: Lux-Artis. Publicity still for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), with Irene Saffo Momo, here on the right. Caption: When the vermilion dawn has been conquered by the sun of the Ideal one, then in the ugly half-sleep the right one will awake... You wait! (Lorenzaccio warns Strozzi of his plan to murder the duke.)

Lorenzo's real intentions


The duke orders the arrest of Pietro, and his father, powerless, unmasks Lorenzo's real intentions. He can only leave for Florence, Lorenzaccio tells him. Strozzi's daughter dies before him, he finally wants to revenge himself but is struck down.

Pietro is freed and learns of his sister Luisa's death. The duke is pleased with Luisa's death, misses his coat of arms and has set his eyes on his young aunt Catherine. The night he proposes to kill his cousin, Lorenzaccio warns noblemen to prepare for revolt, but none of them believe he'll do it.

The cardinal warns the duke of Lorenzaccio, but he dismisses his warnings and follows his cousin to his bedroom, where Lorenzaccio kills him.

Lorenzaccio flees to Venice with Filippo Strozzi, but refuses his Republic ideals, accepts his fate and is murdered. The masterminding Cardinal Cibo appoints the docile Cosimo de' Medici to duke, on behalf of Pope Paul III and Emperor Charles V.

Since opponents to the tyrant's regime fail to use Alessandro's death as a way to overthrow the dukedom and establish a republic, Lorenzo's action does not appear to aid the people's welfare.

Written soon after the July Revolution of 1830, at the start of the July Monarchy, when King Louis Philippe substituted King Charles X of France, the play contains many cynical comments on the lack of true republican sentiments in the face of violent overthrow. While the original play was only intended to be read and not staged, it has been staged since, first bySarah Bernhardt as a star vehicle for herself in 1896, and later with Gérard Philippe in the title role in the 1950s in Paris, a production which reached Broadway in the French version presented by the Théâtre national populaire and directed by Jean Vilar in 1958 for 7 performances.

Bernhardt's example of an actress playing the title role was followed many times after. The play's plot also served for several Italian film adaptations; after the 1918 one also Lorenzino de' Medici (Guido Brignone, 1935) and again for Lorenzaccio (Raffaello Pacini, 1954) with Giorgio Albertazzi as protagonist.

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), starring Irene Saffo Momo. Caption: His Highness amuses himself.

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918), starring Irene Saffo Momo. Caption: Tomorrow my enemies will know the power of the Medici...!

Lorenzaccio
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Lorenzaccio (Giuseppe De Liguoro, 1918).

Source: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano 1918), Wikipedia (Italian, English and German), and IMDb.

Lux

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Lux soap is now a global brand developed by Unilever, but it started as 'Sunlight Flakes' laundry soap in 1899. A year later, the name changed to 'Lux', the Latin word for 'light' and suggestive of 'luxury'. In 1925, it became the first mass-market toilet soap in the world. Since then, the brand concentrated on building its association with the increasingly popular film world, focusing more on film stars and their roles rather than on the product. In 1929, advertising featured 26 of the biggest female stars of the day, creating a huge impact among the filmgoers. Another example is this series of German film star collectors cards, produced in the 1950s with stars of the German cinema. These collectors cards have a printed autograph and are a bit smaller than normal postcards.

Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer. German collectors card by Lux.

Johannes Heesters
Johannes Heesters. German collectors card by Lux.

Nadja Tiller
Nadja Tiller. German collectors card by Lux.

O.W. Fischer
O.W. Fischer. German collectors card by Lux.

Nadja Tiller
Nadja Tiller. German collectors card by Lux.

Liselotte Pulver
Liselotte Pulver. German collectors card by Lux.

Heinz Rühmann
Heinz Rühmann. German collectors card by Lux.

Marianne Hold
Marianne Hold. German collectors card by Lux.

Gustav Fröhlich
Gustav Fröhlich. German collectors card by Lux.

Sonja Ziemann
Sonja Ziemann. German collectors card by Lux.

Germaine Damar
Germaine Damar. German collectors card by Lux.

Hardy Krüger
Hardy Krüger. German collectors card by Lux.

Marianne Koch
Marianne Koch. German collectors card by Lux.

Jester Naefe
Jester Naefe. German collectors card by Lux.

Source: Wikipedia.

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


Iya Savvina

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Soviet film actress Iya Savvina (1936-2011) was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1990. She appeared in 30 films following her star turn as Anna Sergeyevna in Iosif Kheifets's Dama s sobachkoy/The Lady with the Little Dog (1960).

Iya Savvina
Soviet postcard, no M-59012, 1967.

A long lost classic of Soviet cinema


Iya Sergeyevna Savvina (Russian: Ия Серге́евна Саввина) was born in 1936 in in Voronezh, Russia, Soviet Union (now Russia). She was not a professionally trained actress.

In 1958, she graduated from the Department of Journalism of the Moscow State University. While a student, Savvina was active in student drama club of the university. There she was spotted by casting directors from Lenfilm studios and made her film debut in Leningrad.

She had her breakthrough as Anna Sergeyevna opposite Aleksey Batalov in Dama s sobachkoy/The Lady with the Little Dog (Iosif Kheifets, 1960), based on the story by Anton Chekhov. The film was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

Next she starred in the drama Krotkaya (Aleksandr Borisov, 1960), based on the short story A Gentle Being by Fyodor Dostoevsky. From 1960 till 1977, Savvina was a member of the Mossoveta theatre in Moscow.

In the cinema, she played the leading role in Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy, kotoraya lyubila, da ne vyshla zamuzh/The Story of Asya Klyachina (Andrei Konchalovsky,1966). Shown briefly in 1967 under the title Asya's Happiness, it was not released widely until 1987 when it was hailed (by Michail Gorbachev as a long lost classic of Soviet cinema.

Savvina played Dolly in Anna Karenina (Aleksandr Zarkhi, 1967) based on the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. The film, starring Tatiana Samoilova as Anna Karenina and Vasili Lanovoy as Vronsky, was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France.

Savvina then played another supporting part in the war film Sluzhili dva tovarishcha/Two Comrades Were Serving (Yevgeni Karelov, 1968) starring Oleg Yankovsky. The film tells about the Russian civil war, in particular, the battle for the Crimean peninsula.

Iya Savvina and Vladimir Vysotskiy in Sluzhili dva tovarishcha (1968)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Sluzhili dva tovarishcha/Two Comrades Were Serving (Yevgeni Karelov, 1968) with Vladimir Vysotskiy.

Iya Savvina in Syuzhet dlya nebolshogo rasskaza (1969)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Syuzhet dlya nebolshogo rasskaza/Subject for a Short Story (Sergei Yutkevich, 1969).

Iya Savvina in Mesyats avgust (1972)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Mesyats avgust/The month of August (Vadim Mikhaylov, 1972).

Iya Savvina in Oblaka (1973)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Oblaka/Clouds (Boris Stepanov, 1973).

People's Actress of the USSR


In Russia, Iya Savvina is also known for providing the voice of the Piglet in the Soviet animation version of Winnie-the-Pooh. Vinni-Pukh/Winnie-the-Pooh (Fyodor Khitruk, 1969). The short film is based on chapter one in the book series by A. A. Milne. It is the first part of a trilogy, along with two sequels: Vinni-Pukh idyot v gosti/Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit (Fyodor Khitruk, 1971) and Vinni-Pukh i den zabot/Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day (Fyodor Khitruk, 1972).

Savvina was a prominent actress by then, and director Fyodor Khitruk invited her merely to review his initial work, because he knew that Savvina was a big fan of the Winnie-the-Pooh story. Her records had to be sped up to change the tone of her voice (the same technique was used for the main character).

Then, she reunited with director Andrei Konchalovsly for the musical romantic drama Romans o vlyublyonnykh/A Lover's Romance (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1974). Since 1977, Iya Savvina worked for the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). She made her best known stage appearances in Anton Chekhov's classic plays. She shone as Anfisa in Tri Sestry (The Three Sisters), and as Sharlotta in Vishnevy sad (The Cherry Orchard).

Savvina was also a notable memoirist and cinema scholar who wrote about her colleagues Faina Ranevskaya, Mikhail Ulyanov, Lyubov Orlova and others. Her later films include the comedy Garazh/The Garage (Eldar Ryazanov, 1980), the fantasy Slyozy kapali/Tears Were Falling (Georgiy Daneliya, 1982), a modern interpretation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, and the drama Chastnaya zhizn/Private Life (Yuli Raizman, 1982), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1982.

Her final film was Slushaya tishinu/Listen to the silence (Aleksandr Kasatkin, 2007). In 1990, Savvina was designated People's Actress of the USSR. She was awarded the State Prize of the USSR twice (1983, 1990), and received numerous awards from the Soviet and Russian government.

In 2011, Iya Savvina passed away in Moscow. She was 75. Savvina had been married to Vsevolod Shestakov, a prominent geologist and amateur stage actor. Their son Sergey was born in 1957 with the Down syndrome, yet became a professional graphical artist and Russian-English translator. Savvina and Shestakov divorced in 1974. In August 2011, two weeks before her death of skin cancer, Iya married her long-time companion, Anatoly Vasilyev, with whom she had a relationship for more than 30 years.

Iya Savvina, Elena Koreneva and Evgeniy Kindinov in Romans o vlyublyonnykh (1974)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Romans o vlyublyonnykh/A Lover's Romance (Andrey Konchalovskiy, 1974) with Elena Koreneva and Evgeniy Kindinov.

Iya Savvina andin Dnevnik direktora shkoly (1975)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Dnevnik direktora shkoly/Diary of a School Director (Boris Frumin, 1975) with Oleg Borisov.

Iya Savvina, Sergei Nagorny and Aleksandr Kalyagin in Smyatenie chuvstv (1978)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Smyatenie chuvstv/Confusion of feelings (Pavel Arsyonov, 1978) with Sergei Nagorny and Aleksandr Kalyagin.

Iya Savvina in Chuzhaya (1979)
Soviet collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Chuzhaya/Alien (Vladimir Shredel, 1979).

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gusti Huber

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Gusti Huber (1914-1993) was an Austrian stage and film actress. She was a popular actress in the cinema of Nazi-Germany. In 1946 she moved with her American husband to the US and continued her career on Broadway. She played Anne Frank's mother in the Pulitzer Prize winning play The Diary of Anne Frank and later also in the film version.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3605/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2235/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Bavaria Filmkunst.

Land of Love


Auguste ‘Gusti’ Huber was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria in 1914. She studied at the Academy for Music and Representative Art in Vienna.

During her studies she began her acting career in 1929 at the Deutsches Volkstheater. She joined the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, where she played more than 180 roles in a five-year period.

In 1935, she had her first film role in the Austrian drama Tanzmusik/Dance Music (Johann Alexander Hübler-Kahla, 1935), starring Liane Haid. Her debut was followed by the German drama Savoy-Hotel 217 (Gustav Ucicky, 1936) with Hans Albers and Brigitte Horney.

One year later she achieved her career breakthrough in the film adaptation of Unentschuldigte Stunde/The Unexcused Hour (E.W. Emo, 1937) as the daughter of Hans Moser and Dagny Servaes.

That year she also appeared opposite Albert Matterstock in the romance Land der Liebe/Land of Love (Reinhold Schünzel, 1937). Although Schünzel was Jewish he had been allowed to continue directing films in Germany after the Nazi takeover. However, this film faced objections from the censors and from Joseph Goebbels. It was briefly shown and then disappeared from cinemas. It was Schünzel's final German film as director, and he went into exile shortly afterwards.

Among Huber’s better-known films were also Kleiner Mann - ganz gross!/Little man - very big! (Robert A. Stemmle, 1938) with Viktor de Kowa, the comedy Marguerite : 3 (Theo Lingen, 1939), and Herz - modern möbliert/Heart - modernly furnished (Theo Lingen, 1940).

During the war, she starred in a few films including Jenny und der Herr im Frack/Jenny as Detective (Paul Martin, 1941) with Johannes Heesters, and Gabriele Dambrone (Hans Steinhoff, 1943) with Siegfried Breuer. During this period she worked mostly at the famous Burgtheater in Vienna.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1092/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Witt / Tobis / Rota.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1656/1, 1938-1939. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2880/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tobis.

The first Austrian actress to be cleared by the American military government


After the liberation of Austria in World War II, Gusti Huber joined a company entertaining American troops. She met and married Joseph Besch, a United States Army captain and former newspaperman. Around 1946, the couple moved to the United States. Besch boasted that his wife was "the first Austrian actress to be cleared by the American military government".

She acted only occasionally thereafter. In 1952, she made her American debut on Broadway in Flight Into Egypt, the story of an Austrian refugee family struggling to get to America, directed by Elia Kazan.

On TV she appeared in episodes of such series as Suspense (1952) and The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen (1959). Most notably were her roles on Broadway such as Margot Wendice in Dial M for Murder, and Anne Frank's mother, Edith in the Pulitzer Prize winning play The Diary of Anne Frank, adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

Her last film was The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959), in which she reprised her Broadway role. This caused controversy in some circles as Huber was rumoured to have been too close to the National Socialists, but Garson Kanin who had staged the Broadway play reportedly stood by the casting.

Ellen Feldman at American Heritage: “In Vienna before the war she [Huber] had refused to work with a Jewish actor and director [if so, Huber did work under the Nazis with the Jewish director Reinhold Schünzel, EFSP], and in Germany during the war she had continued to make movies under the Third Reich. But Huber was a Broadway star and [the charges against her] never ... gained traction.”

The Diary of Anne Frank won three Academy Awards in 1960. After retiring from acting in 1961, Huber lectured in New York area high schools on the legacy of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in a garret in Amsterdam and who died in a concentration camp shortly before the end of World War II.

In 1993, Gusti Huber passed away at her home in Mount Kisco, N.Y. The cause was heart failure. She was 78. Huber was married twice. Her first husband was Gotfrid Köchert, an Austrian racing driver, who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. They had two children, Bibiana Maria (1942-1996), who, known as Bibi Besch, was a successful actress during the 1970s and 1980s, and Christiana Barbara (1939-2004). Her second husband, Joseph Besch, adopted Huber's daughters, who took his surname. Besch and Huber had two more children, Drea and Andrew. Actress Samantha Mathis, Bibi's daughter, is one of Gusti Huber’s grandchildren.

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3075/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wien-Film / Bavaria Film-Kunst. Publicity still for So gefällst Du mir/I like you that way (Hans Thimig, 1941).

Gusti Huber
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3851/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.

Gusti Huber in Ich liebe vier Frauen
German postcard, no. 68252. Photo: Dietrich. Publicity still for the play Ich liebe vier Frauen/I love four women.

Sources: Ellen Feldman (American Heritage), Marvine Howe (The New York Times), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Lilian Braithwaite

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Beautiful English actress Lilian Braithwaite (1873-1948) worked primarily on the stage, but she also appeared in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s Downhill (1927).

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard by Davidson Bros. in the Glossyphoto Series, no. 1159. Photo: R.W. Thomas.

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard in the Glossyphoto series by Davidson Bros, London, Series 1469.

Lilian Braithwaite
German postcard by AL 259. Photo: Histed. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1906.

The second most beautiful woman in London


Dame Florence Lilian Braithwaite DBE was born in Ramsgate, Kent in 1873. She was the daughter of Rev. John M. Braithwaite (vicar of St. Michaels, Maidstone) and his wife Elizabeth (née Powell). Lilian was educated at Croydon High School.

She first acted with amateur companies. Her first professional London appearance was in As You Like It in 1900. Lilian Braithwaite responded to the assertion of critic James Agate that she was "the second most beautiful woman in London", by replying, "I shall long cherish that, coming from our second-best theatre critic."

Braithwaite appeared also in several silent films. She started in productions like the drama The World's Desire (Sidney Morgan, 1915). In the crime film Justice (Maurice Elvey, 1917), she co-starred with Gerald du Maurier, and in the Charles Dickens adaptation Dombey and Son (Maurice Elvey, 1917) with Mary Odette.

The drama Because (Sidney Morgan, 1918) is about a father who locks his daughter up when she refuses to marry the man he has chosen as her husband. She then co-starred with C. Aubrey Smith in Castles in Spain (Horace Lisle Lucoque, 1920). She also worked with Betty Balfour on the drama Mary Find the Gold (George Pearson, 1921).

However, Lilian Braithwaite's best known film role was as schoolboy Ivor Novello’s mother in Downhill (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927). The film is based on the play, Down Hill, written by Novello and Constance Collier under the combined alias David L'Estrange. Hitchcock's emerging style is well demonstrated in this film. He experimented with dream sequences by shooting them in super impositions and blurred images. He also played with shadow and light in much the same way as directors of German expressionist films of the time.

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic series, no. 218 O.

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard by J. Beagles & Co., London, no. 27 B.

Comedy was her greatest asset


During the 1930s, Lilian Braithwaite played supporting parts in sound films such as the musical comedy A Man of Mayfair (Louis Mercanton, 1931) starring Jack Buchanan, the crime film The Chinese Puzzle (Guy Newall, 1932) with Elizabeth Allan, and the drama Moscow Nights (Anthony Asquith, 1935) starring Laurence Olivier and Harry Baur.

Her greatest triumph was on stage as the alcoholic mother in Noël Coward's groundbreaking drama The Vortex. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First World War. The son's cocaine habit is seen by many critics as a metaphor for homosexuality, then taboo in Britain. Despite, or because of, its controversial content for the time, the play was Coward's first great commercial success.

Braithwaite proved that comedy was her greatest asset in a long succession of drawing-room dramas and light comedies, culminating in the long running stage hit Arsenic and Old Lace (1942-1946), a a farcical black comedy by the American playwright Joseph Kesselring.

During the Second World War she served as chairman and chief organiser of the hospital division of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), for services to the stage, on 1 January 1943.

After the war she appeared in her final film, the melodrama A Man About the House (Leslie Arliss, 1947), starring Dulcie Gray and Kieran Moore.

Braithwaite was married to actor-manager Gerald Lawrence. The couple divorced in 1905. She and Lawrence had a daughter, Joyce Carey, who later became a film and television actress. Lilian Braitwaite died in 1948 in London at the age of 75.

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard in the Yes or No series.

Lilian Braithwaite
British postcard in the "Yes or No?" series. Photo: R.W. Thomas (see above).

Sources: Stage Beauty, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar

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Dutch comedians Willy Walden (1905-2003) and Piet Muyselaar (1899-1978), aka the ladies Snip & Snap, were the stars of the Sleeswijk Revue which filled the biggest theatres of the Netherlands between 1937 and 1977. The duo also starred together on TV and in the film Sterren stralen overal/Stars Twinkle Everywhere (1953).

Willy Walden
Willy Walden. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Handelsonderneming Triëm, Utrecht. Photo: Decca. Caption: Juffrouw Snap.

Piet Muyselaar
Piet Muyselaar. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Handelsonderneming Triëm, Utrecht. Photo: Decca.

Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar
Dutch postcard by L. Nieweg, Amersfoort. Photo: W. Schuurman, Den Haag.

Bouwmeester Revue


Willy Walden was born as Herman Jan Jacob Kaldewaaij in Amsterdam in 1905. His brother would also become an artist, known as Gerard Walden.

During his youth, Willy was a good friend of the later film star Johan(nes) Heesters. In the 1920s they would appear together in a revue.

Willy Walden made his stage debut in 1927 with the Stapperrevue, in Hallo Parijs (Hello Paris). The stars were singer-comedian Louis Davidsand the chansonniére Louisette. For the next years he often performed together with Davids. During the 1930s, he also performed with another great Dutch comedian of this era, Lou Bandy.

In 1935 he joined the Bouwmeester Revue, famous for its luxurious and spectacular outfits. Star of these revues was the clown Johan Buziau. One of the extras was Piet Muyselaar.

Piet Muyselaar was born in 1899 in Zaandam. He started his stage career at the Henvo-revues in Amsterdam. These revues, under the direction of Henk Voogd (HenVo), were small but popular. After a few years, Muyselaar was discovered by Louis Bouwmeester Jr., the director of the Bouwmeester-revues. He engaged Muyselaar reportedly while 'he could wear a tuxedo so well'.

Piet Muyselaar was indeed a true gentleman. He started as an extra, but soon his singing talents were discovered. In 1936 he appeared in the revue De lachende komedianten (The laughing comedians), next to Johan Buziau. Another extra was the comedian Willy Walden.

Willy Walden
Willy Walden. Dutch collectors card.

Piet Muyselaar
Piet Muyselaar. Dutch promocard.

Drag Act


In 1937 Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar were brought together as a comic duo by chance. The radio show De Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein/The Colourful Tuesday Night Train was the most popular Dutch radio program of the era. The show presented amusement and cabaret, and was created by the young revue producer René Sleeswijk.

One legendary night, Sleeswijk had engaged Louis Davids, but the famous entertainer fell ill. Sleeswijk asked Muyselaar and Walden to appear together as a replacement. He also suggested them to do the sketch Juffrouw Snip en Juffrouw Snap/Miss Snip and Miss Snap, written by Davids and Jacques van Tol.

At first, Walden and Muyselaar didn’t like to do a drag act and thought the humor was silly, but finally they agreed to do it. Their crosstalks on stage were mostly improvisations. The radio public loved it, and two stars were born. Snip (Walden) & Snap (Muyselaar) became a Dutch phenomenon and the act would endure for four decades.

The first revue with the ladies Snip and Snap was a promotour for radio broadcaster AVRO. After a year this show evolved into the Snip & Snap Revue, under the direction of René Sleeswijk. In 1938, Snip & Snap made their first recordings, including Ja, meneer (Yes, Sir), a parody on the popular Zarah Leander song, and Snap je dat nou, juffrouw Snip (Do You Understand that, miss Snip).

During the Second World War, the revues were continued, like most of the Dutch theatre activities. Piet Muyselaar was married to revue actress Serah van der Heijm. She was Jewish and during the war the couple divorced formally. Serah was hidden in the house of Piet Muyselaar and survived thus the holocaust. After the war the couple remarried.

Willy Walden en Piet Muyselaar
Dutch postcard by S. Oppelaar, Den Haag. On the flip side is written: Snip en Snap Amasitia Brabant feest 15 jaar bestaan (Snip & Snap Amasitia Brabant party 15 year jubilee). However, I'm not sure if this information is correct. Probably Amasitia is misspelled and must be Amicitia, a venue in Landsmeer. And I also wonder if the artists are really Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar or imitators. It the caption refers to the 15 year jubilee of Snip & Snap, the picture is probably taken in 1952.

Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar
Dutch postcard by S. Oppelaar, Den Haag. Are the artists really Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar or Snip and Snap imitators?

Piet Muyselaar and Willy Walden
Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in 1955. Publicity still for the Snip and Snap revue Hollandse Nieuwe/Dutch Newest in Carré, Amsterdam.

Lots of feathers, glitter and glam


In the post-war years, the Snip & Snap revue became immensely popular in the Netherlands. For the Netherlands (our country is small and calvinistic), those revues were incredible spectacles with beautiful showgirls, an orchestra, big sets and lots of feathers, glitter and glam.

Willy Walden developed into a great comedian with superb mimicry and perfect timing. Muyselaar was perfect as his distinguished sidekick who could also sing well.

They starred in a popular film, Sterren stralen overal/Stars Twinkle Everywhere (Gerard Rutten, 1953) with Johan Kaart. The subject was the then actual item of Dutch emigration to Canada and Australia. For the comic interludes, producer Rudi Meyer engaged Walden and Muyselaar and also the complete cast of the Snip & Snap revue. The film became a success with more than 1 million visitors. (More than one tenth of the Dutch population in 1953!).

The following year, the Snip & Snap Revue was broadcasted on Dutch television. This would become a popular tradition. In 1977 Walden and Muyselaar performed for the last time together. Piet Muyselaar died a half year later, at age 78.

Willy Walden was married twice. His second wife was the Danish actress Aase Rasmussen who often appeared in the Snip & Snap revues. Willy and Aase presented the radio show Raad een lied (of niet)/Guess the Song (or Not) till 1987. Then they retired after their 500th show.

Willy Walden wrote his memoirs, published as Ja, dat was revue (Yes, that was revue). He died in 2003 in Bennekom, two weeks before his 98th birthday.

Willy Walden en Piet Muyselaar
Dutch promocard, ca. 1980.

Willy Walden
Willy Walden. Dutch autograph card.


Promo for the DVD Snip en Snap Proficiat. Source: Source 1 Media (YouTube).

Source: Aart Laferte (Aart Laferte’s Sentimental Journey - Dutch), Coen Verbraak (Vrij Nederland - Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

Jan Spitzer

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East-German actor Jan Spitzer (1947) was a star of the DEFA in the late 1960s. He also worked as a pop singer and as a stage and voice actor.

Jan Spitzer
Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 192/70. Photo: Karin Blasig.

A farewell to his class and his family


Jan Spitzer was born in 1947 in Sangerhausen, Germany. He loved pop music and formed in 1963 of the amateur band The Sounds, which covered songs by The Beatlesand The Rolling Stones.

Between 1965 and 1968 he studied acting at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ in Berlin. As a student, he made his film debut in the anti-war film Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968) with Rolf Ludwig. Spitzer played the leading role of a seventeen year-old Munich boy, who decides in 1914 that he will not take part in the First World War. This means a farewell to his class and his family.

He then appeared in the historical comedy Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir/Maiden, I like you (Günter Reisch, 1969) with Wolfgang Kieling and Monika Gabriel.

In 1970 he released the pop single, Wer bist du? (Who are you?) and in the next years he recorded more songs. He did not like the Schlager genre, so in 1975 he decided to focus on his acting career.

His first bigger role was in the family film Philipp, der Kleine/Little Philipp (Herrmann Zschoche, 1978) as the father of a little boy who wishes to be taller in order to be noticed by the others. Then he comes across a magical flute.

In the meanwhile, Spitzer worked for television and could be seen in several TV series and TV movies like Im Schlaraffenland/In the land of Cockaigne (Kurt Jung-Alsen, 1975) with Erwin Geschonneck and Katharina Thalbach, which was shown in cinema in other East-European countries. He also appeared in the Eastern Blauvogel/Bluebird (Ulrich Weiß, 1979). And he played Friedrich Engels in the TV series Marx und Engels - Stationen ihres Lebens/Marx and Engels – Stations of their lives (1978-1980) with Jürgen Reuter as Karl Marx.

Jan Spitzer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3246, 1968. Photo: DEFA / Ebert. Publicity still for Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968).

Jan Spitzer
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3270, 1968. Photo: DEFA / Ebert. Publicity still for Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968).

The German voice of Rutger Hauer


Jan Spitzer played a supporting part in the film Bürgschaft für ein Jahr/Guarantee for one year (Herrmann Zschoche, 1981) with Kathrin Sass as a divorced woman in her late twenties who will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced, due to many years of willful neglect. Sass won the Silver Bear for her role at the Berlin Filmfestival.

Spitzer played a leading role in the Soviet-East-German co-production Dve strochki melkim shriftom/Two Lines in Small Font (Vitaliy Melnikov, 1981). He also appeared in the Czech fantasy film Carovné dedictví/Magical heritage (Zdenek Zelenka, 1986) and in the Eastern Präriejäger in Mexiko: Benito Juarez/Bounty hunter in Mexico: Benito Juarez (Hans Knötzsch, 1988) starring Gojko Mitic.

On TV, he guest-starred in the popular Krimi series Polizeiruf 110/Police Call 110 (1984-1991). After the Wende, Spitzer mostly worked for television but also narrated video games and was the German voice of James Remar, Chris Cooper, Jon Voight, Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin in international films.

His most recent feature film is the drama Mutterseelenallein/All Alone (Bernd Böhlich, 2005) about a mother (Katrin Sass) who is confronted with her son being suspected of having murdered a girl on a garbage dump. Spitzer played her ex-husband.

Jan Spitzer is also a stage actor and he had engagements in Altenburg, Halle, Schwerin, at the Deutschen Theater in Berlin, at the Volkstheater in Munich and the Berliner Ensemble.

Jan Spitzer in Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir (1969)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 51/69. Photo: DEFA / Kreuss. Publicity still for Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir/Maiden, I like you (Günter Reisch, 1969).

Jan Spitzer in Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir (1969)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 97/69. Photo: DEFA / Karin Blasig. Publicity still for Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir/Maiden, I like you (Günter Reisch, 1969).


Jan Spitzer sings Mädchen aus Berlin (Girl from Berlin) in an East German TV show in 1969. Source: Thyrathron (YouTube).

Sources: Deutsche Mugge.de (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
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