European Film Star Postcards

Last Sunday, we visited the International Collector's Fair in the city of Utrecht. Twice each year, Ivo and I go hunting in the huge halls of the Fair for new, interesting film star postcards. And once again, we found some rarities and curiosities, which we like to share with you. Last Tuesday, my choice of finds was on show at EFSP, and today follows a post with Ivo's selection of his new treasures.

Belgian postcard by Société Gama-Film, Brussels. Photo: Richard Oswald Film. Publicity still for Lady Hamilton (Richard Oswald, 1921).

German director Richard Oswald made this silent film version of the dramatic story of Lady Emma Hamilton's rise and fall in European society during the 1700s and early 1800s, including her romantic love story with the British Admiral Lord Nelson. Liane Haid starred as Lady Hamilton, Conrad Veidt played Lord Nelson, and Werner Krauss Lord William Hamilton. The film was based on two novels by Heinrich Vollrath Schumacher.

Italian postcard by Danese, Roma, no. 5. Photo: Vere Films. Publicity still for I cento giorni di Napoleone/The Hundred Days of Napoleon (Roberto Danesi, Archita Valente, 1914).

'The Hundred Days' marked the period between Napoleon Bonaparte's return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days). Napoleon returned to Paris with the intention of reversing the fate of the conflict against the Russian-Anglo-Prussian coalitioned powers that had defeated him in Leipzig. On 22 June 1815, defeated again in Waterloo, he abdicated definitively. Napoleon died in exile on the isolated Atlantic island of St. Helena, on 5 May 1821.

Belgian postcard by Anvers Palace. Photo: Rina De Liguoro in Messalina (Enrico Guazzoni, 1924).

Rina De Liguoro (1892-1966) had her breakthrough with the epic Messalina (1924). It was the start of a prolific career in Italian silent cinema in the 1920s with Quo vadis? (1924) and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii (1926).

German postcard by Ross Verlag / W.J. Mörlins, Berlin, no. 437/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Karl Schenker. Publicity still for a stage production of the opera Die Gezeichneten with Josef Mann as Aviano.

Die Gezeichneten (The Branded or The Stigmatized) was an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker with a German-language libretto by the composer. Josef Mann (1883-1921) was an Austrian tenor. During his short life, he was seen as one of the greatest opera stars of his era.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 328. Photo: Zimler.

Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi(1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films.

Brigitte Helm. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6032/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Willy Fritsch. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9172/3, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Amphitryon/Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935).

Marlene Dietrich. British postcard in Art Photo, no. 34. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Michèle Morgan. French postcard by Editions P.I., La Garenne-Colombes, no. 133. Photo: GIBE.

Suzy Carrier. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 140. Photo: Ch. Vandamme / Les Mirages.

Fons Exelmans in Wij, heren van Zichem (1969–1972)

Belgian postcard by Best, Antwerp. Photo: Humo. Publicity still for the TV series Wij, heren van Zichem/We, Gentlemen of Zichem (Maurits Balfoort, 1969-1972) with Fons Exelmans as Lewie.

Wij, heren van Zichem/We, Gentlemen of Zichem (Maurits Balfoort, 1969-1972) was a hugely popular Flemish TV drama series, a soap avant-la-lettre. The series was produced by the BRT (nowadays the VRT), and elaborates on the adventures of the blond rascal Lewie (a Dutch derivative of Louis), played by Fons Exelmans.

British postcard by Brent Walker Film Distributors LTD. Poster for What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi, 1966).

In Woody Allen's directorial debut, he re-edited the Japanese spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi/International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Senkichi Taniguchi, 1965), the fourth installment of five films in the Kokusai himitsu keisatsu series, and completely changed the tone of the film into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.

Source: Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs.

Margarete Slezak (1901–1953) was an Austrian singer and actress, who appeared in several films between 1928 and 1953. She was the sister of Walter Slezak.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2807/1, 1939-1940. Photo: K.L. Haenchen.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 2797/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Harcourt.

Soprano voice

Margarete Slezak was born in 1901 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). She was the daughter of the opera singer and film comedian Leo Slezak and actress Elsa (née Wertheim) Slezak. Her brother was the actor Walter Slezak.

Her father trained her soprano voice and had her learn several instruments such as violin and saxophone. When she was ten years old she sang at the choir of the church in Tegernsee, Bavaria.

Her first engagement took her to the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin from 1930 to 1933 and soon she became a popular opera singer. From 1935 to 1943 she was a member of the ensemble of the Städtischen Opernhauses Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Slezak also appeared in several films. Her debut was the silent film Das Mädel aus der Hödrichsmühle/The girl from the Hödrich mill (Herr Stumfekl, 1928). Among her sound films are the comedy Ich heirate meine Frau/ I Marry My Wife (Johannes Riemann, 1934) with Lil Dagover, and the crime film Der Vorhang fällt/The Curtain Falls (Georg Jacoby, 1939) starring Anneliese Uhlig.

After the Second World War, Slezak appeared in South America and Southeastern Europe. She also sang in Berlin at the Theater des Westens, at the Staatsoper Berlin and in the Wintergarden.

After her father's death in 1946, she managed the Slezak house in Rottach-Egern, where she lived with her husband, the singer Peter Winter. The book Mein Lebensmärchen (My Life's Fairy Tale), which she published in 1947, is a record of her father's memoirs, which she collected in his last months and published on his behalf after his death.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3411/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tita Binz.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3411/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Harcourt.

One of the last Rubble Films

After the war, Margarete Slezak played a supporting role in the West German sports film Derby (Roger von Norman, 1949) starring Hannelore Schroth and Willy Fritsch. With Fritsch, she also appeared in the historical comedy König für eine Nacht/King for One Night (Paul May, 1950).

Then followed a part in the romantic comedy Des Lebens Überfluss/Abundance of Life (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1950) one of the last of the Trümmerfilme (Rubble films) made in the immediate post-war years. It updates a story by Ludwig Tieck to modern-day Hamburg, addressing the shortage of housing in the heavily bombed city.

During the 1950s she played supporting parts in operetta films like Die Csardasfürstin/The Csardas Princess (Georg Jacoby, 1950) starring Marika Rökk and Johannes Heesters, and Die Blume von Hawaii/The Flower of Hawaii (Géza von Cziffra, 1953) featuring Maria Litto.

Her final film was the circus film Keine Angst vor großen Tieren/Not Afraid of Big Animals (Ulrich Erfurth, 1953) starring Heinz Rühmann.

Margarete Slezak died in 1953 in Rottach-Egern, West Germany. After her death her biography Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm (The apple does not fall far from the tribe) was published.

Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Lindner.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3510/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Harcourt.

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

Celebrated German opera singer Willi Domgraf Fassbaender (1897–1978) was one of the leading lyric baritones of the inter-war period. He was particularly associated with Mozart and Italian roles. During the 1930s, ‘the Italian baritone’ starred in a number of musical films, which helped his shining international reputation.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7290/1, 1932-1933 (sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1935). Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Beautiful Voice

Willi Domgraf Fassbaender (also written as Willy Domgraf(-)Fassb(a)ender) was born in Aachen, Germany, in 1897.

Initially, he intended to become a conductor and musicologist for church music, but eventually he studied singing with Julius Stückgold. He had a beautiful voice and used it with fine musicianship.

He began his career as an oratorio and concert singer, but the director of the Stadttheater Aachen encouraged him to appear in opera and operetta. In 1922 he made his debut in Aachen as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.

In the following year, Leo Blech engaged him to the Deutsche Oper Berlin where the young singer continued his vocal studies with Paul Bruns. Due to strong competition, Domgraf-Fassbaender changed to the opera house in Düsseldorf, completing his studies with the famous Giuseppe Borgatti in Milan.

It was in Düsseldorf where he gained experience in an extensive repertoire: Figaro, Count Almaviva, Rigoletto, Wolfram, Papageno, Don Giovanni, et cetera. In 1927 he joined the company of the State Opera in Stuttgart, where he became one of its most popular singers.

It was Richard Tauber (his partner in La Bohème and Carmen) who recommended him to go back to Berlin. General manager Heinz Tietjen, who was to become his mentor, contracted him to the Berlin State Opera, where he gained quickly a reputation as ‘the Italian baritone’.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 152/1. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Theodor Körner (Carl Boese, 1932).

Heydays of the German Film Musical

Willi Domgraf Fassbaender was an accomplished singer-actor, and his shining international reputation was helped by his starring in a number of musical films. In 1932, at the heydays of the German film musical, he made his film debut in Der Sieger/The Winner (Hans Hinrich, Paul Martin, 1932) with Hans Albers.

An adaptation of Friedrich Smetana’s opera Die Verkaufte Braut/The Bartered Bride (Max Ophüls, 1932) with the beautiful Jarmila Novotnàin the title role, gained world-wide success. He sang the role of Hans, which was originally meant for a tenor.

That same year he also appeared in the short film Goethe-Gedenkfilm - 1. Der Werdegang/Goethe Memorial Film, part 1 (Fritz Wendhausen, 1932), and in Theodor Körner (Carl Boese, 1932) with Dorothea Wieck.

Next he starred in Ich will Dich Liebe lehren/I Will Teach You to Love (Heinz Hilpert, 1933). He insisted on also playing in the alternate French version, L’homme qui ne sait pas dire non/The Man Who Doesn't Know to Say No, but his accent was so bad that this version was never released.

After the rise to power of the Nazis, he became a party member of the NSDAP in May 1933. The following years he was the star of Aufforderung zum Tanz/Invitation to the Dance (Rudolf van der Noss, 1933), Starke Herzen/Strong Hearts (Herbert Maisch, 1937), Ein Lied von Liebe/A Song of Love (Jürgen von Alten, 1938) in which he starred with his wife Sabine Peters, and Lauter Liebe/Pure Love (Heinz Rühmann, 1940) with Hertha Feiler.

Lissi Arna and Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender in Theodor Körner (1932)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 152/4. Photo: Aafa Film. Publicity still for Theodor Körner (Carl Boese, 1932) with Lizzy Arna.

Mozart

Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender’s devotion to modern works was quite remarkable (including operas by Malipiero, Wellesz, Schoeck), but his career was dominated by his Italian parts and Mozart.

Fritz Busch invited him to the Glyndebourne Festival, where he sang the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro as well as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in the 1934, 1935 and 1939 series. In 1937 he was chosen by Arturo Toscanini to sing Papageno in Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1942 he received the title of ‘Kammersänger'. After World War II, he performed mostly in Vienna, Munich, Hannover, and Nuremberg. At the Vienna State Opera, he sang Wolfram, Papageno and Ford.

His last film appearance was as Figaro in the DEFA production of Figaros Hochzeit/The Marriage of Figaro (Georg Wildhagen, 1949) with Angelika Hauffand Sabine Peters.

After 1951 Domgraf-Fassbaender worked as an outstanding stage director. In 1954 he went to the Conservatory of Nuremberg, where he led the opera school and taught a vocal class.

Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender died in 1978, in Nuremberg. His only daughter, from his marriage with Sabine Peters, was mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender (1939), who studied exclusively with her father and was to become a celebrated mezzo.

167 Willi Domgraf Fassbaender_Haus Neueburg (Film Album 2; 167)

German collectors card by Ross, Haus Neueburg Film Album 2, no. 167. Photo: Schneider. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Flickr).

211 Willi Domgraf Fassbaender & Maria Elsner_Haus Neueburg (Film Album 2; 211)

With Maria Elsner in a stage production. German collectors card by Ross, Haus Neueburg Film Album 2, no. 211. Photo: Schneider. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Flickr).

Sources: Andrea Suhm-Binder (subito – cantabile), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German and English), Filmportal.de, and IMDb.

Abel Gance’s epic film Napoléon (1927) is one of the masterpieces of the European silent cinema. Gance tells the story of the French general's youth and early military career in a massive, six-hour biopic. The film's legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates wide screen panoramas with complex multiple-image montages projected simultaneously on three screens. And Albert Dieudonne was perfectly cast as Napoleon Bonaparte.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 84/1, 1925-1935. Photo: Ufa. Albert Dieudonné as the title character in Abel Gance’s epic film Napoléon (1927).

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 456. Photo: Vladimir Roudenko as the young Napoléon in Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927).

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazines, no. 459. Photo: Gina Manès as Josephine de Beauharnais in Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927).

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 460. Photo: Nicolas Koline as Tristan Fleuri in Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927).

A chronology of great triumph and defeat

Napoléon (1927) begins in Brienne-le-Château with youthful Napoleon (Vladimir Roudenko) attending military school where he manages a snowball fight like a military campaign, yet he suffers the insults of other boys.

The film continues a decade later with scenes of the French Revolution and Napoleon's (Albert Dieudonné) presence at the periphery as a young army lieutenant. He returns to visit his family home in Corsica but politics shift against him and put him in mortal danger. He flees, taking his family to France.

Serving as an officer of artillery in the Siege of Toulon, Napoleon's genius for leadership is rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general. Jealous revolutionaries imprison Napoleon but then the political tide turns against the Revolution's own leaders. Napoleon leaves prison, forming plans to invade Italy.

He falls in love with the beautiful Joséphine de Beauharnais (Gina Manès). The emergency government charges him with the task of protecting the National Assembly. Succeeding in this he is promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Interior, and he marries Joséphine. He takes control of the army which protects the French–Italian border, and propels it to victory in an invasion of Italy.

Many innovative techniques were used to make the film, including fast cutting, extensive close-ups, a wide variety of hand-held camera shots, location shooting, point of view shots, multiple-camera setups, multiple exposure, superimposition, underwater camera, kaleidoscopic images, film tinting, split screen and mosaic shots, multi-screen projection, and other visual effects.

Director, writer and producer Abel Gance planned for Napoléon to be the first of six films about Napoleon's career, a chronology of great triumph and defeat ending in Napoleon's death in exile on the island of Saint Helena. After the difficulties encountered in making the first film, Gance realised that the costs involved would make the full project impossible.

Napoléon was first released in a gala at the Palais Garnier (then the home of the Paris Opera) on 7 April 1927. Napoléon had been screened in only eight European cities when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to it, but after screening it in London, it was cut drastically in length, and only the central panel of the three-screen Polyvision sequences was retained before it was put on limited release in the United States. There, the film was indifferently received at a time when talkies were just starting to appear.

The film was restored in 1981 after twenty years' work by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 461. Photo: Edmond Van Daële as Robespierre in Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927).

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 473. Photo: publicity still for Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927), with Abel Gance himself as Saint Just.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 474. Photo: Lipnitzky. Publicity still for Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927), with Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon. The postcard is a pastiche of the famous portrait of Bonaparte at Arcole, 1796, by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros. See more.

French postcard. Photo Choumoff. Albert Dieudonné as Napoleon. The retro of the card makes publicity for Dieudonné in a stage version 'Bonaparte' at the Theatre de la Renaissance.

Director/actor Abel Gance on the cover of the French film journal Mon Ciné, no. 253, V, 23 December 1926. Gance is groomed as the character he played in Napoléon (1927), that of Saint-Just, one of the leading men of the French Terror.

Sources: Michael Brooke (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Handsome English actor Warwick Ward (1889–1967) appeared in 64 British, American, German as well as French films between 1919 and 1933. These included such silent masterpieces as Madame Sans-Gene (1925) and Varieté/Variety (1925). He also produced 19 British films between 1931 and 1958.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 535.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1583/1, 1927-1928. Photo: UFA.

Villainous

Warwick Manson Ward was born in St. Ives, England, in 1889 (some sources say 1891). He made his stage debut in 1907, and had soon success in classical roles.

During the early 1920s he appeared in several silent British films. His film debut was the sports drama The Silver Lining (A.E Coleby, 1919). The following year he played in the Emily Brönte adaptation Wuthering Heights (A.V. Bramble, 1920) starring Milton Rosmer as Heathcliff and Colette Brettel as Cathy.

He appeared with Victor McLaglen in The Call of the Road (A.E. Coleby, 1920) and in Corinthian Jack (W. Courtney Rowden, 1921), with Henry Ainley in Build Thy House (Fred Goodwins, 1920), and with Milton Rosmer and Evelyn Brent in the drama Demos (Denison Clift, 1921), which is considered now to be lost.

That year he also appeared in Belphegor the Mountebank (Bert Wynne, 1921), a British silent film starring Milton Rosmer. It was based on the play Belphegor, the mountebank: or, Woman's constancy (ca. 1850) by Charles Webb about a nobleman who is forced to take up the life of a travelling showman. Another lost film is the drama Tell Your Children (Donald Crisp, 1922) for which Alfred Hitchcock is credited as the title designer.

That year Ward also appeared in the British-Dutch action film Bulldog Brummond (Oscar Apfel, 1922). Hal Erickson writes at AllMovie: “Filmed in England, this first movie version of the stage melodrama Bulldog Drummond featured a miscast Carlyle Blackwell in the title role. Captain Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, the soldier of fortune created by ‘Sapper’ (H.C. McNeile), was a combination old-school-tie British gentleman and brutish fascist. Blackwell could handle the ‘gentleman’ part, but wasn't quite up to the tough, two-fisted aspects of the character. Still, the story itself is a good one: Bored by inactivity, Drummond advertises for ‘adventure’ in the Times, and gets adventure aplenty when he becomes involved with a plot to kidnap an industrialist. The film's tension highlight was the scene in which the villainous Lakington (Warwick Ward) taunts a bound Drummond by fondling unconscious heroine Phyllis Benton (Evelyn Greeley)”.

Ward then starred opposite Violet Hopson in the sports films The Lady Owner (Walter West, 1923) and The Great Turf Mystery (Walter West, 1924), oppositeLillian Hall-Davis in the crime drama The Hotel Mouse (Fred Paul, 1923) and opposite Betty Blythe in Southern Love/A Woman's Secret (Herbert Wilcox, 1924). The latter was based on the poem The Spanish Student by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the young gypsy Dolores, who escapes from an arranged marriage and makes a living as a dancer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3312/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Badekow, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3312/2, 1928-1929. Signed in 1931. Photo: Atelier Badekow, Berlin.

In Europe’s Film Capital

Warwick Ward moved to France to appear opposite Hollywood diva Gloria Swanson in Madame Sans-Gene (Léonce Perret, 1925), a silent Famous Players-Lasky production by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor. Swanson made this romantic comedy/costume drama while on an extended vacation. She helped to secure many of the filming locations (Chateau Fontainebleau, for example) herself. Soon she became involved with her interpreter Henri de la Falaise, a Marquis, although he was not very wealthy. He later became her third husband. Before her death, Swanson yearned to see this film. She considered it as her best work, but sadly the film is lost.

After this Paris adventure, Ward moved to Europe’s film capital at the time, Berlin. There he played in another silent classic, Varieté/Variety (Ewald Andre Dupont, 1925), based on the novel Der Eid des Stephan Huller (The Oath of Stephan Huller, 1923) by Felix Hollaender. The film tells the story of a carnival concessionaire (Emil Jannings), his alluring girlfriend (Lya de Putti), and the handsome acrobat (Warwick Ward) who comes between them.

Feeling doubly impotent because he himself had been a famous aerialist before suffering a crippling accident, Jannings fantasises about killing his rival - and, finally, does so. The trapeze scenes were set in the Berlin Wintergarten theatre and camera man Karl Freund let the camera swing from long shot to close-up, like the acrobats. The results astounded international audiences.

Ward stayed in Germany for such silent films as Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer/The Wooing of Eve (Max Mack, 1926) with Ossi Oswalda, the UFA adventure film Die Frauengasse von Algier/Streets of Algiers (Wolfgang Hoffmann-Harnisch, 1927) with Maria Jacobini and Camilla Horn, and Die berühmte Frau/The Famous Woman (Robert Wiene, 1927) with Lily Damita.

One of his best late silent films is the circus melodrama Die Todesschleife/Looping the Loop (Arthur Robison, 1928) starring Werner Krauss as a clown with Ward (again) as the handsome acrobat who steals the clown’s pretty girl (Jenny Jugo).

Another masterpiece was Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna/The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna (Hanns Schwarz, 1929) starring Brigitte Helm and Franz (Francis) Lederer. Meanwhile Ward also continued to make silent films in France and Great-Britain.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4291/1, 1927-1928. Photo: UFA.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 6164. Photo: F.P.S. Verleih: Philipp & Co.

The Dancing Years

After the arrival of the sound film in Germany, Warwick Ward had to return to Great Britain. There he appeared opposite Pola Negri in the late silent film-with-sound-effects The Way of Lost Souls (Paul Czinner, 1929).

He reunited with Lya de Putti for the British sound drama The Informer (Arthur Robison, 1929). Hungarian De Putti's voice was dubbed – not with an Irish accent, as the character called for, but, for some reason, with an upper-class English accent. The film was based on the novel The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty which was again adapted in 1935 by John Ford.

In the British musical comedy A Man of Mayfair (Louis Mercanton, 1931), Ward starred with Jack Buchanan, and in The Loves of Ariane (Paul Czinner, 1931) his co-star was Elisabeth Bergner. He appeared in a few more supporting parts, such as in the English version of the German world success F.P.1/ F. P. 1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1933) starring Conrad Veidt.

But his acting days were over. A few years earlier, Ward had started to produce films, and in the following years he would produce such British comedies as Save a Little Sunshine (Norman Lee, 1938) starring Dave Willis and Patricia Kirkwood, about a man who buys a share in a hotel after he is sacked from his job. The film was made by Welwyn Studios, an affiliate of ABC Pictures, at their Welwyn Garden City Studio.

He also produced a further film with Willis and Kirkwood, Me and My Pal (Thomas Bentley, 1939). During the war years he produced for Welwyn such crime thrillers as Suspected Person (Lawrence Huntington) with Patricia Roc. After the war he returned to comedies, which he now produced for Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC).

Among them are Quiet Weekend (Harold French, 1946) with Derek Farr, and The Dancing Years (Harold French, 1950) starring Dennis Price.

Warwick Ward continued to produce films till 1958. He died in 1967 in Welwyn Garden City, near London, at the age of 78.

Belgium brochure by Patria editions, Antwerp for Varieté (Ewald André Dupont, 1925) with Lya de Putti on the cover.

Conrad Veidt. British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 167. Photo: Gaumont-British Pictures.

Dennis Price. Dutch postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

Ed. G. Vettori published thousands of film star postcards during the 1920s. The Italian publisher, based in Bologna, made black and white postcards of both film stills and studio portraits and the subjects were national film actors but also international stars. For this post we chose both cards with famous Hollywood stars like Rudolph Valentino as well as with less know Italian actors like Nerio Bernardi and Renzo Ricci.

Ermete Novelli. Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 46. Photo: Trevisani, Bologna.

Renzo Ricci. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 49.

Francesca Bertini. Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 136.

Ileana Leonidoff. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 147.

Vera Vergani. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 265.

Maria Jacobini. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 346. Sent by mail in 1926. Photo: Maria Jacobini in Onestà del Peccato/The Wife He Neglected (Augusto Genina, 1918).

Nerio Bernardi. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 342.

Pina Menichelli in Il padrone delle ferriere (1919)

Pina Menichelli. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 492. Photo: publicity still for Il padrone delle ferriere/The Owner of the Ironworks (Eugenio Perego, 1919).

Ramon Novarro holding a sketch for Scaramouche

Ramon Novarro. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 932. Photo: the Mexican-American actor holding a sketch for the period piece Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923), in which Novarro had the title role. The film, produced by Metro Pictures, was based on a novel by Rafaele Sabatini, and co-starred Alice Terry and Lewis Stone.

Rina de Liguoro. Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 941. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for Quello che non muore/What does not die (Wladimiro De Liguoro, 1926).

Alda Borelli. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 1057. Photo: Zambini, Parma.

Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 2000. Photo: Lucy Sangermano and Luigi Cimara acted twice together, in ...E dopo? (Febo Mari, 1918) and La rupe tarpea (Gaston Ravel, 1920).

Emilio Ghione. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2011. Emilio Ghione as Za-la-Mort.

Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (1926)

Rudolph Valentino. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 2093. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).

Rina De Liguoro & Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova

Rina De Liguoro& Ivan Mozzhukhin. Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 3522. Photo: publicity still for Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Jean Hersholt (1886-1956) was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he appeared in 75 silent films and 65 sound films and directed four films. He was best known for his villain role in Erich von Stroheim's classic Greed (1924) and as Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi (1937). For 17 years he starred on American radio in Dr. Christian.

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 360.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7244/1, 1932-1933, distributed in Italy by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932).

The slimiest and most monstrous of movie villains

Jean Buron Hersholt (sources differ about his middle name) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1886. His father was a cigar salesman and his mother a singing girl. He graduated from the Copenhagen Art School.

His first three short films were made for the Nordisk Film Kompagni in Denmark in 1906. These were Professorens Morgenavis/Professor's morning newspaper (Louis Halberstadt, Viggo Larsen, 1906) with Max Freitag, Konfirmanden/Confirmand (Louis Halberstadt, 1906) and En ny hat til Madammen/A New Hat for Madam (Viggo Larsen, 1906).

He emigrated to the US in 1913, and the remainder of his films were made in America. He was an extra in early silent films Westerns like The Disciple (William S. Hart, 1915), Hell's Hinges (Charles Swickard, William S. Hart and Clifford Smith, 1916) and The Aryan (William S. Hart, 1916), both starring William S. Hart and produced by Thomas H. Ince. He played a priest in the silent Western The Soul Herder (John Ford, 1917) featuring Harry Carey.

By the 1920s his roles were substantial feature pieces, but most of these were as villains. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Hersholt was firmly entrenched as the slimiest and most monstrous of movie villains.”

He had one of his first leading roles as the servant in the silent drama The Servant in the House (Jack Conway, 1921) based on a 1908 Broadway play, The Servant in the House by Charles Rann Kennedy. The film was already shot in 1918 by the historic Triangle Film Corporation, but by 1920, Triangle had gone out of business. The film had a limited release in mid-1920 and was acquired by a different distributor in late 1920 for re-release in 1921. Then followed supporting parts in films like the drama Jazzmania (Robert Z. Leonard, 1923) starring Mae Murray.

Hersholt's best-remembered silent film is Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924) based on the 1899 Frank Norris novel McTeague. It stars Gibson Gowland as Dr. John McTeague, ZaSu Pitts as Trina Sieppe, his wife, and Hersholt as McTeague's friend and eventual enemy Marcus Schouler. Greed was one of the few films of its time to be shot entirely on location, with Von Stroheim shooting approximately 85 hours of footage before editing. Two months alone were spent shooting in Death Valley for the film's final sequence, and many of the cast and crew became ill.

According to William McPeak at IMDb, Hersholt endured the heat like a veteran but required a hospital stay after sweating away 27 pounds. Von Stroheim used sophisticated filming techniques such as deep-focus cinematography and montage editing. He considered Greed to be a Greek tragedy, in which environment and heredity controlled the characters' fates and reduced them to primitive bête humaines (human beasts). Greed was a critical and financial failure upon its initial release, but by the 1950s it began to be regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

In the silent drama Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925), Hersholt co-starred with Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Other silent films were My Old Dutch (Laurence Trimble, 1926), the crime drama The Old Soak (Edward Sloman, 1926) and Alias the Deacon (Edward Sloman, 1927).

Ernst Lubitsch directed him in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) as the tutor of Ramón Novarro. Though now considered a classic by many film historians, it was far from a unanimous critical success during its original theatrical run.

In the silent romantic-comedy 13 Washington Square (Melville W. Brown, 1928) he starred with Alice Joyce and ZaSu Pitts, and in The Secret Hour (Rowland V. Lee, 1928) with Pola Negri. He was directed by legendary D.W. Griffith in the comedy The Battle of the Sexes (1928) a remake by Griffith of an earlier film he directed in 1914, which starred Lillian Gish. The film was released as both a silent film, and in a sound version using the Movietone sound-on-film system. He then starred in the part-talkie drama The Younger Generation (1929) directed by Frank Capra.

Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 372.

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

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

A camera friendly presence

Jean Hersholt’s first all mono sound film was The Climax (Renaud Hoffman, 1930) with Kathryn Crawford as a young Italian girl who wants to become a great opera singer. Despite his Danish accent, Hersholt had a pleasant, mellow voice and a camera friendly presence that ensured him continued success.

He co-starred in the action-adventure The Third Alarm (Emory Johnson, 1930) with Anita Louise and produced and released by Tiffany Pictures, a faltering B movie silent studio that tried to become a major.

For United Artists he co-starred with Lupe Velez in Hell Harbor (Henry King, 1930) and for MGM with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable in Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (Robert Z. Leonard, 1931). He supported Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy in The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932), and Marie Dressler and Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933).

He played Senf, the porter, in Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932), also with Greta Garbo, and reunited with Clark Gable in Men in White (Ryszard Bolesławski, 1934).

In The Country Doctor (Henry King, 1936), starring the Canadian Dionne quintuplets, Hersholt portrayed Dr. John Luke, a character based on Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, the obstetrician who delivered and cared for the Dionne quintuplets. Two sequels followed.

Hersholt wanted to do the role on radio, but could not get the rights. He decided to create his own doctor character for radio, and since he was a Hans Christian Andersen enthusiast, he borrowed that name for his character of the philosophical Dr. Paul Christian who practised in the Midwest town of River's End with the assistance of Nurse Judy Price.

Dr. Christian was introduced on CBS in 1937. The radio series became a popular long-running hit, continuing on CBS until 6 January 1954, with Hersholt so strongly identified with the role that he received mail asking for medical advice. Various spin-offs were produced, as Hersholt co-wrote a Dr. Christian novel and made a series of six family films as Christian from 1939 to 1941, for instance Dr. Christian Meets the Women in 1940. In 1956, his Dr. Christian character made the transition to television, scripted by Gene Roddenberry, with Macdonald Carey as his nephew.

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 360a.

Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather

Jean Hersholt’s best remembered film role is possibly Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather in Heidi (Allan Dwan, 1937), a film version of the 1880 children's book written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. The film was a success and Temple enjoyed her third year in a row as number one box office draw.

Later films include the mystery Mr. Moto in Danger Island (I. Leeds, 1939), starring Peter Lorre.

In 1939, Jean Hersholt helped form the Motion Picture Relief Fund to support industry employees with medical care when they were down on their luck. The fund was used to create the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, and it led to the creation in 1956 of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award given to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry”.

From 1945 till 1949, Hersholt was the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During his long career in the cinema, his roles ranged from early silent villains to secondary parts in which his mild Danish accent and pleasant voice suited him to depict a succession of benevolent fathers, doctors, professors, and European noblemen.

Hersholt's last role was in Run for Cover (Nicholas Ray, 1955) with James Cagney and Viveca Lindfors.

Jean Hersholt translated over 160 of Andersen's fairy tales into the English language. These were published in 1949 in six volumes as The Complete Andersen. His large collection of Hans Christian Andersen books is now in the Library of Congress.

Hersholt was lauded with three Academy Awards for his own charity work, and in 1948, he was knighted by King Christian X of Denmark.

In 1914, Hersholt had married his wife Vita. They had two sons, Jean Hersholt Jr. and Allan Hersholt. He was the paternal half-uncle of the late actor Leslie Nielsen and former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Erik Nielsen.

In 1956, Jean Hersholt died of cancer in Hollywood at the age of 69. He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His grave is marked with a statue of Klods-Hans (Clumsy Hans), a Hans Christian Andersen character who left home to find his way in the world — much as Hersholt himself had done.

The last fight scene in Greed (1924). Source: Cinema History (YouTube).

Trailer Grand Hotel (1932). Source: Old School Trailers (YouTube).

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

French-German actor Ivan Desny (1922-2002) was a cosmopolitan film star with a truly European film career that spanned four decades. In the years after the war he appeared in British, French, Italian and German films before he became one of the protagonists of the Neue Deutsche Welle - the German New Wave of the 1970s.

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German postcard by UFA/Film-Foto (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. CK-151. Photo: Arthur Grimm / UFA.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H. Minden/Westf., no. 1719. Photo: Gamma / Union / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Lola Montez (Max Ophüls, 1955) with Martine Carol.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3021. Photo: Michaelis / Carlton Film / NF. Publicity still for Rosen für Bettina/Ballerina (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1956).

Blackmailing Social Climber

Ivan Desny was born as Ivan Nikolai Desnitzky in Peking (now Beijing), China, in 1922. He was the son of a Russian diplomat and a Swedish mother. As a child he lived in in Teheran, Washington, Paris and Brisbane.

It was his bad luck to be in Paris when the Nazis marched in. He spent the war in a German labor camp along with thousands of other Russian expatriates.

After the war he broke up his law studies and followed acting classes in Paris. He made his stage debut at the famous boulevard theatre Théâtre de la Michodièreunder Pierre Fresnay.

He drifted into French films, first as an extra and as a costume and set designer, then as the leading man in the lost film La fleur de l'âge/The Flower of Youth (Marcel Carné, 1947) with Anouk Aimée and Arletty. The shooting of the film started several times, and was halted for censorship reasons (the project was banned by the Ministry of Justice) and harsh shooting conditions, and finally it was abandoned. All material was inexplicably lost in the 1950s.

Desny then appeared in Bonheur en location/Happiness on Location (Jean Wall, 1949), and soon started an international career.

In London he appeared as the blackmailing social climber Emile l'Angelier in Madeleine (David Lean, 1950) with Ann Todd. In France he starred in La putain respectueuse/The Respectful Prostitute (Charles Brabant, Marcello Pagliero, 1952), based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre, and in Italy in La signora senza camelie/The Lady Without Camelias (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953) with Lucia Bosé.

Then he went to Germany to appear as a Russian Army officer in Berlin after the war in Weg ohne Umkehr/No Way Back (Victor Vicas, Beate von Molo, 1953). The film won two German film awards and a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 393.

Ivan Desny in Herr über Leben und Tod (1955)

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Wanne-Eickel, no. A 1321. Photo: Inter West-Gloria / Looschen. Publicity still for Herr über Leben und Tod/Master Over Life and Death (Victor Vicas, 1955).

Elisabeth Müller and Ivan Desny in André und Ursula (1955)

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1364. Photo: Rotary / Deutsche London / Schlawe. Publicity still for André und Ursula/Andre and Ursula (Werner Jacobs, 1955) with Elisabeth Müller.

Cosmopolitan Ladykiller

In the following years, Ivan Desny became popular as a cosmopolitan ladykiller with his goatee and a foreign accent. He starred opposite Maria Schell in Herr über Leben und Tod/Master Over Life and Death (Victor Vicas, 1955), opposite Elisabeth Müller in André und Ursula/ André and Ursula (Werner Jacobs, 1955), and opposite Sonja Ziemann in Mädchen ohne Grenzen/A Girl Without Boundaries (Géza von Radványi, 1955).

He also appeared in the masterpiece Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955) with Martine Carol.

Then he played leading parts in two hits by Falk Harnack, Anastasia – die letzte Zarentochter/Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (1956) and Wie ein Sturmwind/Tempestuous Love (1957). His partner in both films was Lilli Palmer. He also appeared in the Hollywood version of Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956) starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner.

Other films in which he played were Une Vie/One Life (Alexandre Astruc, 1958) starring Maria Schell and Pascale Petit, Le miroir à deux faces/The Mirror Has Two Faces (André Cayatte, 1958) with Michèle Morgan and Bourvil, and the crime film Heiße Ware/Hot Stuff (Paul May, 1959) with Margit Saad.

He also appeared in Hollywood productions like the award winning Song Without End (Charles Vidor, 1960) about the affairs of composer Franz Liszt played by Dirk Bogarde, and the Disney film Bon Voyage! (James Neilson, 1962) about the one-of-a-lifetime vacation in Paris of Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1540. Photo: Rotary / Deutsche London / Schluwe. Publicity still for André und Ursula/Andre and Ursula (Werner Jacobs, 1955).

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 Lilli Palmer.

Ivan Desny and Magali Noel in O.S.S. 117 n'est pas mort (1957)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2531. Photo: Deutsche Cosmopol-Film. Publicity still for O.S.S. 117 n'est pas mort/O.S.S. 117 Is Not Dead (Jean Sacha, 1957) with Magali Noël.

Neue Deutsche Welle

During the decline of the German cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, Ivan Desny focused on stage and television work. In the theatres he often appeared with Nadja Tiller.

Meanwhile he showed up in small roles in such international pictures as La bataille de San Sebastian/The Battle of San Sebastian/Guns for San Sebastian (Henri Verneuil, 1968) with Anthony Quinnand Charles Bronson, Mayerling (Terence Young, 1968) with Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve, and Little Mother (Radley Metzger, 1973), based on the life story of Evita Peron.

In the early years of the popular Krimi TV-series Tatort (1971-1973), he regularly appeared as the mysterious Mr. Sievers, the brain after many criminal activities, who seemed untouchable.

Then he was discovered by the young directors of the Neue Deutsche Welle. Rainer Werner Fassbindergave him a part in Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (1973) and in his masterpieces Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) starring Hanna Schygulla, and Lola (1981) starring Barbara Sukowa. Desny also had a part in Fassbinder’s monumental TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980).

Klaus Lemke cast him in his TV film Sylvie (1973), and Wim Wenders engaged him for Falsche Bewegung/False Movement (1975).

Other films in which he appeared were the Sci-Fi film Who? (Jack Gold, 1973) with b>Elliott Gould

, the thriller Touch Me Not (Douglas Fithian, 1974) with Lee Remick, Paper Tiger (Ken Annakin, 1975) with David Niven, Die Eroberung der Zitadelle/The Conquest of the Citadel (Bernhard Wicki, 1977), Bloodline (Terence Young, 1979) with Audrey Hepburn, and Malou (Jeanine Meerapfel, 1980) with Ingrid Caven.

In 1980 the Frenchman Desny was awarded the German award Filmband in Gold for his longtime and outstanding attributions to the German cinema. Among his later films were Flügel und Fesseln/The Future of Emily (Helma Sanders-Brahms, 1985) with Brigitte Fosseyand Hildegard Knef, the Anton Checkhov adaptation Hôtel de France (Patrice Chéreau, 1987), and the thriller Quicker Than the Eye (Nicolas Gessner, 1989) with Ben Gazzara.

He also appeared in the biography God afton, Herr Wallenberg - En Passionshistoria från verkligheten/Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (Kjell Grede, 1990) starring Stellan Skarsgård as the mysterious WW II hero Raoul Wallenberg, La Désenchantée/The Disenchanted (Benoit Jacquot, 1990), and André Téchiné’s dramas J'embrasse pas/I Don't Kiss (1991) with Emmanuelle Béart, and Les Voleurs/Thieves (1996) with Catherine Deneuve.

In 2002 Desny got a lot of criticism for appearing in a magazine article as a healed cancer patient (which he wasn’t) and for advertising a controversial and in Germany forbidden anti-cancer compound, Galavit, as a miracle cure.

That same year Ivan Desny died of pneumonia in Ascona, Switzerland. He had appeared in over 150 films.

Ivan Desny in Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter (1956)

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. S 588. Photo: Alfu / Corona / Deutsche London / Grimm. Publicity still for Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter/Anastasia (Falk Harnack, 1956). Ivan Desny, who appears here as the real-life Gleb Botkin (son of the Imperial family's doctor, who was shot along with them in 1918), also appears as the fictional Prince Paul Von Haraldsberg in the Ingrid Bergman film Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3305. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / NF-Film. Spanjersberg was the Dutch licency holder for Ufa/Film-Foto (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof). Publicity still for Wie ein Sturmwind/Tempestuous Love (Falk Harnack, 1957) with Susanne Cramer.

Senta Berger and Ivan Desny in Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes (1962)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3012, 1967 Photo: publicity still for Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1962) with Senta Berger.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 13. Photo: Inter West-Gloria / List / Looschen.

German photo.

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Hilde Zemann, München (Munich).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Deutsches-Filmhaus.de (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Otto Mellies (1931) is a German actor and voice actor. For the DEFA, he appeared in several films during the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the German voice of Paul Newman.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2247, 1965. Photo: Schwarzer.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2927, 1967. Photo: Balinski.

Nathan the Wise

Otto Ewald Ernst Mellies was born in 1931 in Schlawe (some sources say in nearby Stolp), Germany (now Slawno, Poland). His father was a hairdressing foreman.

A large part of his family died just before the end of the war (His mother, a sister an three of her children were murdered). He and his older brother, the later actor Eberhard Mellies, had to take care for themselves. The 14 years-old Otto worked as a caretaker for horses of Russian soldiers.

From 1947 to 1949, he attended the Staatliche Schauspielschule Schwerin (State Drama School in Schwerin) and followed lessons by director Lucie Höflich. His first employer in 1949 was the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin. His debut role was that of the student in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust.

He then played in Neustrelitz, Stralsund, Rostock and Erfurt. At the Stralsund Theater, Mellies debuted in 1951 in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s classic play Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise) in the role of the Temple Lord.

In 1956, theatre director Wolfgang Langhoff brought him to the Deutsches Theater, one of the most prominent companies in Berlin. He belonged to the ensemble for 50 years.

At the Deutsches Theater, he appeared in Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Jean-Paul Sartre's Die Fliegen/Les Mouches/The Flies and August Strindberg's Gespenstersonate/Spöksonaten/The Ghost Sonata. He repeatedly played under the direction of Jürgen Gosch and Thomas Langhoff.

He is best known as Nathan the Wise in the production of Friedo Solter. Lessing's Nathan the Wise was the showpiece with which the Deutsches Theater was reopened in 1945.

Since then, the play ran and ran, only the main actors changed: Paul Wegener, Eduard von Winterstein, Wolfgang Heinz - and from 1987 on Otto Mellies.

Otto Mellies performed Nathan in a black coat, black suit and white shirt. Under the black Kippa, he showed a bleak face with a three-day-beard. He has appeared thus in this role 325 times till 2005.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1617, 1961. Photo: Paszkowiak.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2225, 1965. Photo: Schwarz.

Intrigue and Love

Since 1955, Otto Mellies is also working for the cinema. His debut film was the DEFA production Sommerliebe/Summer Love (Franz Barrenstein, 1955).

In 1960 he was awarded the Heinrich Greif Prize First Class for his role as Ferdinand in Kabale and Liebe/Intrigue and Love (Martin Hellberg, 1959).

Other popular films are the Jacques Offenbach-Operetta film Die schöne Lurette/Beautiful Lurette (Gottfried Kolditz, 1960) and the literature adaptation Minna von Barnhelm oder das Soldatenglück (Martin Hellberg, 1962).

In addition, Mellies works as a voice actor. After the death of Gert Günther Hoffmann he became the German voice of Paul Newman. In addition, he dubbed such actors as Christopher Lee, Michael Gambon, Maximilian Schell, Albert Finney, and Raf Vallone and also participated in numerous radio plays.

In 2012 he was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Halt auf freier Strecke/Stopped on Track (Andreas Dresen, 2011).

Halt auf freier Strecke is a drama about a 44 years-old Berlin family man (played by Milan Peschel), who is slowly dying from a brain tumor. Mellies played Peschel's father. The film won several awards.

Since 2015, Mellies moderates the radio show Abschied ist ein leises Wort (Farewell is a quiet word).
The program commemorates recently deceased celebrities or public figures.

Otto Mellies lives in Berlin-Bohnsdorf, is married to former singer Luise and has two children.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2608, 1966. Photo: Gerbeth.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 64/69, 1969. Photo: Winkler.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 202/70, 1970. Photo: Peters.

Sources: Christian Eger (Mitteldeutsche Zeitung - German), Ines Walk (Film-zeit.de – German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Enrico Viarisio (1897-1967) was an Italian stage and screen actor, and cabaretier. In the sentimental comedies and white-telephone cinema of the 1930s, Viarisio was a constant figure, with his moustache and his black, shining hair combed to the back.

Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 66.

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 131.

Adventurous debut

Enrico Viarisio, born in Turin in 1897. Equipped with a fine and elegant humour, the 19-years-old Viarisio was discovered by actress and stage company director Paola Pezzaglia, who offered him his first theatrical engagement as in December 1916.

He debuted in an adventurous way: as the leading actor had missed the company’s rehearsals, Viarisio had to play all the important male parts. He then specialised in light entertainment and music-hall.

From the 1930s he has also worked in cinema, establishing himself as one of the most famous comical actors of sound cinema even if he was almost always relegated to secondary roles or antagonists.

Viarisio thus played opposite Elsa de Giorgi in L’impiegata di papà (Alessandro Blasetti, 1933), opposite Elsa Merlini and Vittorio De Sica in Paprika (Carl Boese, 1933) and Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (Nunzio Malasomma 1936), and again opposite Vittorio De Sica in Tempo massimo/Full Speed (Mario Mattoli, 1934) and L’uomo che sorride/The Man Who Smiles (Mario Mattoli, 1936).

Viarisio would act in many comedies by Mario Mattoli. By the later 1930s Viarisio had the male leads in comedies such as Musica in piazza/Music on the square (Mario Mattoli, 1937) with Milly and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeo/The last days of Pompeo (Mario Mattoli 1937). Wikipedia: "Often he remained in the limits of the genre, but in some cases showed admirable creativity in his performances, keeping them fresh and memorable."

He also appeared in Il destino in tasca/Destiny in your pocket (Gennaro Righelli, 1938) with Vanna Vanni, Due milioni per un sorriso (Mario Soldati, Carlo Borghesio, 1939) with Elsa de Giorgi, L’eredità in corsa/The heritage on the run (Oreste Biancoli, 1939) with Antonio Gandusio, and L'amore si fa cosí/Love goes this way (Carlo Ludovico Bragalia 1939) with Colette Darfeuil.

In the early 1940s he played in Le sorprese del vagone letto (Gian Paolo Rosmino, 1940) with Clara Calamai, and Finalmente soli/Alone at last (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1942) – a kind of Italian variation on René Clair’s Un chapeau de paille d’Italie/The Ialian Straw Hat (1928), with a likewise frenetic protagonist.

Viarisio less frequently acted in dramatic films such as Cavalleria/Cavalry (Goffredo Alessandrini 1936), starring Amedeo Nazzari and Elisa Cegani. In Alessandro Blasetti’s proto-neorealist film Quatro passi fra le nuvole/Four Steps in the Clouds (1942) Viarisio is a streetwise travelling salesman like the protagonist Gino Cervi. In these dramas he didn’t have the lead, but was more often a comical sidekick.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 144. Tirrenia, Photo: Gneme. 1940s. Famous were Viarisio's words in Prima comunione/First Communion (Alessandro Balsetti, 1950). When he, the man from the trolleybus was told: Aren't you ashamed to travel with that bowler hat?, he responded: And you, aren't you ashamed to travel with that face?!

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 267. Photo: Vaselli.

Oh-la-la, it’s a goody!

Enrico Viarisio was an elegant and slim character, recognizable by his perpetually pomaded hair and well-groomed mustache. He often played characters of noble decadence or the invading and sometimes annoying bon-vivant, even if basically an honest man. He was often mistaken for his colleague Giuseppe Porelli.

Until the end of the war Viarisio acted in some 44 Italian sound films. After the war his production slowed down, but in 1950 he played in four films, including the bitter-sweet comedy Prima comunione by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Aldo Fabrizi.

The 1950s were as fruitful for Viarisio as the 1930s. He continued his career onstage in revue shows, supporting such artists as Wanda Osiris, Olga Villi and Isa Barzizza. During the 1950s he also played in dozens of genre films, as well as some auteur films including I vitelloni (1953) by Federico Fellini with Viarisio as Moraldo's father, Stazione Termini/Terminal Station(1953) by Vittorio De Sica, Carosello napoletano/Neapolitan Carousel (Ettore Giannini 1954), and La ragazza del palio/The Love Specialist (Luigi Zampa 1957) with Diana Dors.

Afterwards Viarisio participated in numerous Musicarelli (Italian teen musicals) alongside famous pop stars (or singers who later became famous), like Mina, Bobby Solo, Gianni Morandiand Rita Pavone.

His most famous characterization of that period was that of the commercials shot for Alemagna sweets with Lia Zoppelli and Alberto Lionello, aired between 1957 till 1965 in Carosello, which always ended with the slogan "Ullallà, è una cuccagna!" (Oh-la-la, it’s a goody!).

Viarisio's last film part was as a general in Lina Wertmuller's Non stuzzicate la zanzara/Don't Sting the Mosquito (1966), with Rita Pavoneand a young Giancarlo Giannini.

Enrico Viarisio died in 1967 in Rome. He was 69. He was married to Giuditta Marchetti.

Elsa Merlini, Vittorio De Sica and Enrico Viarisio in Non ti conosco più

Italian postcard. Istituto Romano di Arti Grafiche Tumminelli & Co., Roma. Enrico Viarisio, Elsa Merlini and Vittorio De Sica in the Italian comedy Non ti conosco più (Nunzio Malasomma, 1936). The film was promoted as a return for Elsa Merlini, "gay, sentimental and malicious".

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 379.

Carosella Allemagna. Source: Video Babele (YouTube).

Source: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

The German silent film Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922) is based on William Shakespeare's classic stage play of jealousy and deceit. Werner Krauss plays the treacherous Iago, who plans to ruin the life of Othello (Emil Jannings) by provoking him to jealousy.

Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss in Othello (1922)

French postcard by Edition de la Cinématographie-Française, Paris. Photo: G.P.C. Publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922) with Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss.

French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Photo: publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

Ica von Lenkeffy and Theodor Loos in Othello (1922)

French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Photo: publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922) with Theodor Loos and Ica von Lenkeffy.

Bitter jealousy

As Venice welcomes their victorious general, Othello the Moor (Emil Jannings ), back to the city, some of them are waiting for Othello to choose his new lieutenant, while others are busy courting the popular Desdemona (Ica von Lenkeffy), the daughter of a Senator.

Othello chooses the loyal Cassio (Theodor Loos) as his lieutenant, arousing bitter jealousy in Iago (Werner Krauss), another soldier, who vows to scheme against his general. That same night, Othello elopes with Desdemona. Othello is soon sent to Cyprus to repel a Turkish invasion, and he arranges for Iago and his wife to bring Desdemona with them to Cyprus.

When Iago's wife learns of a treasured handkerchief that Othello gave to Desdemona, this provides Iago with an idea that he hopes will destroy Othello by provoking him to jealousy.

How can a filmmaker possibly retain the beauty of Shakespeare's prose without congesting the film with endless title cards? A non-dialogue Shakespeare film seems like a contradiction in terms, so very few silent adaptations of his plays have stood the test of time.

This German production of Othello (1922) has fared better than most, due largely to the combined talents of the actors Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss, and Russian-born director Dimitri Buchowetzki.

Wes Connors at IMDb: "The production is nicely staged, with everyone finding their marks. Its costumes and sets are very well designed. The adaptation is faithful enough to Shakespeare's envious storyline. But, watching two overly grand old actors is the film's main calling card, presently."

French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Photo: publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

Emil Jannings and Ica von Lenkeffy in Othello (1922)

French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française. Photo: Grandes Productions Cinématographiques (G.P.C.). Photo: publicity still for Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

German actress and singer Else Elster (1910-1998) appeared in over forty films during the Weimar and Nazi eras.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6755/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Else Elster and Willy Fritsch in Der Frechdachs (1932)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6742/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der Frechdachs/The Cheeky Devil (Carl Boese, Heinz Hille, 1932) with Willy Fritsch.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6690. Photo: Renaissance Film / Verleih: Hugo Engel. Publicity still for Flucht nach Nizza/Escape to Nice (James Bauer, 1933).

Ridiculing China and the Chinese People

Else Elster was born in 1910 (some sources say 1912) in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland).

She was trained by actress Ilka Grüning in Berlin and attended the Musikhochschule (music academy) in Vienna. Already before her exams she made her film debut in the musical Die blonde Nachtigall/The Blonde Nightingale (Johannes Meyer, 1930) as the daughter of Gustav Schubert (Ernst Behmer).

Despite starring in her film debut, she was primarily used as a second lead and supporting player in her next films like the hilarious comedy Der Herr auf Bestellung/Gentleman for Hire (Géza von Bolváry, 1930), the operetta Viktoria und ihr Husar /Victoria and Her Hussar (Richard Oswald, 1931) and the musical comedy Wochenend im Paradies/Weekend in Paradise (Robert Land, 1931) with Otto Wallburg and Claire Rommer.

The year 1932 was a very busy one for Else Elster. She took part in eight films, including Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers/The Secret of the Blue Room (Erich Engels, 1932), the comedy Der Frechdachs/The Cheeky Devil (Carl Boese, Heinz Hille, 1932) starring Willy Fritsch, and the thriller Tod über Shanghai/Death Over Shanghai (Rolf Randolf, 1932) starring Gerda Maurus.

The Chinese Ministry of Education requested that the German government have Tod über Shanghai/Death Over Shanghai (Rolf Randolf, 1932) destroyed because they had received reports that it "ridiculed China and the Chinese people".

That year, Elster also made her theatre debut and in the following years she impersonated many roles on stage. Like many other young actresses in the Third Reich, she was one of the celebrities with whom Adolf Hitler liked to show himself. She was one of the first TV announcers of the television station Paul Nipkow.

Her later films included the comedy Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen/Must We Get Divorced? (Hans Behrendt, 1933) with Aribert Mog and Iván Petrovich, the romantic comedy Krach im Hinterhaus/Trouble Backstairs (Veit Harlan, 1935) starring Henny Porten, and the historical romance Drei Mäderl um Schubert/Three Girls for Schubert (E.W. Emo, 1936) with Paul Hörbiger as composer Franz Schubert.

German cigarette card in the series Unsere Bunten Filmbilder by Ross Verlag for Cigarettenfabrik Josetti, Berlin, no. 153. Photo: Alex Binder.

German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Caid Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 323. Photo: Schulz and Wuellner / Ross-Verlag.

Her lover's execution

During the Second World War, Else Elster entered into a relationship with the Berlin police chief Wolf Heinrich Graf von Helldorf, who had joined the Stauffenberg group. Personal family records show that Elster marked the date of her lover's execution (15 August 1944) with a cross in her diary.

The farewell letter of Count Helldorf is still owned by the family and can be seen as a copy in the House of Resistance in Berlin. Already weeks before the execution she had to appear again and again for nightly Gestapo interrogations. In fact, she did not know anything about Count Helldorf's resistance plans.

Elster was pregnant by Helldorf and their daughter later was named Christa. After the war, Else Elster's filmmaking was practically over because of her close association with the Nazi regime and especially with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and also because her role in the notorious Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß (Veit Harlan, 1940) as the mistress of the title figure.

She only appeared in one more film, Nichts als Zufälle/Nothing but Coincidences (E.W. Emo, 1949) starring Theo Lingen. Nevertheless, she continued to work as a stage actress, cabaret artist and singer, but without her former success.

Later she married the gynecologist dr. Erhard Schlaegel and moved with him in his villa in Günzburg. Her husband brought two children into the marriage and in 1950, Else Schlaegel gave birth to her son Wolf Wilhelm Schlaegel. Together with her husband, she worked for the next few years in the gynaecological clinic.

In 1996, Erhard Schlaegel died shortly after the birth of his grandchild. Else Schlaegel lived for another two years in an apartment in Günzburg, before she died in 1998. Both spouses are buried in the family grave of the family Schlaegel in the Günzburger cemetery. Her son Wolf Wilhelm Schlaegel became a specialist in rehabilitation and now lives with his family in his parents' home in Günzburg. He granted the museum House of Resistance in Berlin an insight into his mother's personal files.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5705/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Schneider.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9119/1, 1935-1936. Photo: UFA.

Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis / Sandau.

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

One of the most renowned Italian postcard publishers was B.F.F. edit. Full name was Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini and the second F in the abbreviation came from Firenze, Florence in English, where the firm was located. Ballerini & Fratini started to publish film and film star postcards in the early 1920s when the Italian cinema was still booming. In the later 1920s, after the Italian film industry had collapsed, B.F.F. focused on international stars. Later they distributed in Italy star postcards from the French publisher Europe and the German Ross Verlag. In the 1930s, Italian film stars were popular again and till the end of the 1950s, B.F.F. issued thousands of star postcards. If the numbering on the postcards is chronological, we dare to question. However, Ballerini & Fratini still exists today and is still located in Florence.

Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still of Pola Negri in Good and Naughty (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926).

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 204. Photo Scoffone. Italia Almirante Manzini as Violante in the film L'Arzigogolo (Mario Almirante 1924), adaptation of the play by Sem Benelli.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 270. Photo: Alba Film. Publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: The arrest in the laguna.

Greta Nissen and William Collier in The Wanderer (1925)

Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 458. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still of Greta Nissen and William Collier in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Oreste Bilancia. Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 536. Photo Scoffone.

Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, no. 764. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still ofGloria Swanson in Zazà (Allan Dwan, 1923).

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in A Woman of Affairs (1928)

French postcard by Europe, no. 388, distributed in Italy by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: James Manatt / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in A Woman of Affairs (Clarence Brown, 1928).

Ivan Mozzhukhin. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5253/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Der weiße Teufel/The White Devil (Alexandre Volkoff, 1930). On the back of the card: Vendita esclusiva Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (125).

Doris Duranti. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 2092. Photo: Venturini, Roma.

Lilia Silvi. Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2112. Photo: Bragaglia.

Antonella Lualdi. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2800. Photo: Dear Film / C.I.F.

Vittorio Gassman. Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (BFF), no. 2962. Photo: Columbia / CEIAD.

Sandra Milo. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3353. Photo: Cines.

Alida Valli. Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4240. Photo: I.C.I. / Vaselli.

Massimo Serato. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4242-A. Photo: Bragaglia.

Clara Calamai. Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 4273. Photo: Bragaglia.

Fosco Giachetti. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4423. Photo: Scalera Film / Pesce.

Sources: Garbo Forever and Virgilio (Italian).

André Nox (1869-1946) was a French actor who worked in the cinema from 1916 till 1940. During the silent era he starred in French and German films. After the sound film was introduced he mainly played supporting parts.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 20.

French postcard. Photo: V. Henry.

The perfect interpreter of poignant dramas

André Nox was born as Abraham André Nonnes-Lopes in 1869 in Paris, France. He was sometimes credited as André Nonnez. He came from a family of Jewish notables, and was the nephew of dramaturge and author Georges de Porto-Riche.

After his studies, he worked in finance before joining the army at the very beginning of the First World War. Demobilised in 1916, when he was about fifty, he abandoned his business to try a career in cinema which was booming at the time.

He made his cinema debut for Les Films Succès in the short silent film Sous les phares/Under the lights (1916), directed by André Hugon. He next starred in the silent Western Les chacals/The Jackals (André Hugon, 1917), also starring Louis Paglieri and Musidora.

For Huron, he also appeared in Vertige/Vertigo (André Hugon, 1917) starring Régine Marco, the crime film Requins/Sharks (André Hugon, 1917) starring Charles Krauss, Johannes, fils de Johannes/Johannes, Son of Johannes (André Huron, Louis Paglieri, 1918) with Musidora, and La Fugitive/The Fugitive (André Hugon, 1920) starring Marie-Louise Derval.

He signed a contract with Gaumont and acted in Léon Poirier's Âme de Orient/Soul of the Orient (1919), filmed in Nice with Madeleine Sève, Charles Dullin and the very young Josette Day. Then he played in Poirier’s Le Penseur/The Thinker (Leon Poirier, 1920), a philosophical drama based on an idea of Edmond Fleg, with Marguerite Madys and Armand Tallier.

Pascal Donald at CinéArtistes calls it “certainly his best role (…) With his pepper and salt hair often shaggy, his face with powerful features and his dark eyes, he is the perfect interpreter of poignant dramas.”

For Germaine Dulac, Nox appeared in her La mort du soleil/The Death of the Sun (1922). He played a musician in Le quinzième prélude de Chopin/The fifteenth prelude of Chopin (Victor Tourjanski, 1922).

In 1925, he appeared opposite Conrad Veidt in the French silent historical film Le comte Kostia/Count Kostia (Jacques Rober, 1925), set in Tsarist Russia. He had a supporting part in the drama La femme nue/The Nude Woman (Léonce Perret, 1926) starring Iván Petrovich, Louise Lagrange and Nita Naldi, and based on a play by Henry Bataille.

In Germany, he appeared with Carmen Boni, Werner Krauss and S.Z. Szakall in the silent film Der fidele Bauer/The Merry Farmer (Franz Seitz, 1927), based on the 1907 operetta of the same title, and in Die Hölle der Jungfrauen/The Hell of Virgins (Robert Dinesen, 1928) with Werner Krauss and Elizza La Porta.

Back in France, he appeared with Betty Balfour and Jaque Catelain in the drama Le diable au Coeur/Little Devil May Care (Marcel L'Herbier, 1928). One of his best films is Verdun, visions d'histoire/Verdun, Historical Visions (Léon Poirier, 1928), a dramatic re-enactment of the battle of Verdun during World War I, as seen by both French and German sides. In Germany he also made the silent drama S.O.S. Schiff in Not/Ship in Distress (Carmine Gallone, 1929) starring Liane Haid, Alphons Frylandand Gina Manès.

French postcard. Photo: Gaumont.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 551. Photo: André Nox as L'aumonier (The chaplain) in Léon Poirier's silent film Verdun, visions d'histoire/Verdun, historical visions (1928).

Hedy Lamarr's father in Extase

André Nox could make the step to sound films. He played Hedy Lamarr’s father in Extase/Ecstasy (Gustav Machatý, 1933), which became a sensation because of a daring sex scene.

In 1933 he had a part in the French-German Science Fiction film Le tunnel/The Tunnel (Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt, 1933), starring Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud and Robert Le Vigan. It was the French language version of the German film Der Tunnel, with a different cast and some changes to the plot. Both were followed in 1935 by an English version.

Such Multiple-language versions were common in the years immediately following the introduction of sound, before the practice of dubbing had come to dominate international releases. Germany and France made a significant number of films together at this time.

The film is an adaptation of Bernhard Kellermann's 1913 novel Der Tunnel about the construction of a vast tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean connecting Europe and America. The film's Jewish director Kurt Bernhardt had fled Germany following the Nazi takeover, but returned briefly to shoot exterior scenes after being granted special permission by the German government.

Nox also appeared in the drama L'Appel du Silence/The Call of Silence (Léon Poirier, 1936), with Jean Yonnel as the Catholic missionary Charles de Foucauld, who traveled the Sahara and was killed by local bandits.

A success was Un grand amour de Beethoven/The Life and Loves of Beethoven (Abel Gance, 1936) a lyrical biography of the classical composer played by Harry Baur. Nox reunited with director-writer Marcel L’Herbier for the dramas Nuits de feu/Nights of Fire (Marcel L'Herbier, 1937), starring Gaby Morlay and La citadelle du silence/The Citadel of Silence (Marcel L'Herbier, 1937), starring Annabella.

He also had a supporting part in the war film J'accuse!/I Accuse (Abel Gance, 1938) starring Victor Francen. It is a remake of the 1919 film of the same name, which was also directed by Abel Gance.

Nox also appeared with Dita Parlo and Erich von Stroheim in the French historical drama Ultimatum (Robert Wiene, Robert Siodmak, 1938). With his friend Léon Poirier, André Nox made in Equatorial Africa what turned out to be his final film, Brazza ou l'épopée du Congo/Brazza or the epic of Congo (Léon Poirier, 1940).

On his return from Africa, France was at war. The defeat in June 1940 and the rise of anti-Semitism forced Nox to withdraw to Brittany.

André Nox died on 25 February 1946, a few months after the liberation. He did not get the time to return to the cinema. Nox was 76. His son was the actor Pierre Nonnez-Lopès (1898-1978), known as Pierre Nay.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 445. Photo: R. Tomatis. Publicity still for La Possession/Ownership (Léonce Perret, 1929).

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 195. Photo: Francesca Bertini and André Nox in La Possession (Léonce Perret 1929).

Sources: Pascal Donald (CinéArtistes – French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

German actress Karin Hardt (1910-1992) made her cinema debut as a pure and disarmingly natural backfisch, looking for happiness. Her impressive career with many film, theatre and television appearances lasted for six decades.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1133/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7438/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7340/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8377/2, 1934-1935. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9457/2, 1935-1936. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

Disarmingly Natural

Karin Therese Meta Hardt was born in Altona (now Hamburg), Germany in 1910. She was a daughter of a merchant.

She had private acting lessons with Alex Otto and soon had theatre engagements in Mönchengladbach, Rheydt and Altenburg.

In 1931 she made her film debut in Vater geht auf Reisen/father Goes To Travel (Carl Boese, 1931) with Lissi Arna.

She was then discovered by director Erich Waschneck, who cast her in Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1932), which became her breakthrough.

She was the pure and disarmingly natural backfisch, who in a girly way angled for happiness.

Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, no. 146. Photo: Filma, Amsterdam. Still from Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (1932).

Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem. Publicity still for Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck, 1932).

Dutch postcard by JosPe. Photo: still from Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag. Published for Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater G.m.b.H, Stuttgart. Photo: Terra-Film.

Naive, Blonde Competitor

In the following years Karin Hardt became a beloved star.

Karin Hardt and Erich Waschneck married in 1933, and he would go on to direct her in some of their best films, including An heiligen Wassern/Sacred Waters (1932) and Abel mit der Mundharmonika/Abel with the Mouth Organ (1933).

Among her best known films in the following years belong Ein gewisser Herr Gran/A Certain Mr. Gran (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1933) next to Hans Albers,Die blonde Christel/Blonde Christel (Frans Seitz, 1933), and Barcarole (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1935).

In the second half of the 1930s followed Die Umwege des schönen Karl/The Diversions of Handsome Karl (Carl Froelich, 1938) with Heinz Rühmann, and Menschen vom Variete/Vaudeville People (Josef von Báky, 1939) as the naive, blonde competitor of La Jana.

During the war years her engagements became less, but Karin Hardt appeared for example in films like Kameraden/Comrades (Hans Schweikart, 1941) with Willy Birgel, Das Hochzeitshotel/The Marriage Hotel (Carl Boese, 1944), and Via Mala (Josef von Báky, 1944-1948) as the daughter of Carl Wery.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7047/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Fanal / Terra Produktion.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1285/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / UFA.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3311/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / UFA.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: H.G. Film.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3491/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick / Terra.

David Bowie

After the war Karin Hardt was again regularly seen in the cinema. Erich Waschneck directed her in the comedy Danke es geht mir gut/Thanks, I’m alright (1948).

She appeared as the the queen in the fairytale film Dornröschen/Sleeping Beauty (Fritz Genschow, 1955), next to Horst Buchholz in Endstation Liebe/Last Stop Love (Georg Tressler, 1957), and with Kirk Douglasin Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961).

She mainly appeared in the theatre, in Berlin, Hamburg, Aachen and in Köln (Cologne). From the 1960s on she was also often seen on television, in TV-series like Bei uns zu Haus/At Our Home (1963), Der Forellenhof/The Trout Farm (1965) and Die Unternehmungen des Herrn Hans/The Enterprises of Mr. Hans (Charles Kerremans, 1976).

Hardt also appeared in the film Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo/Just a Gigolo (David Hemmings, 1979) with David Bowie. In 1983 she was awarded with the Filmband in Gold for her continuing attributions to the German cinema.

Then she had a great comeback in the popular serial Die Schwarzwaldklinik/The Black Forest Clinic (1985-1986).

Karin Hardt died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1992 in Berlin. She was married twice. First to Erich Waschneck from 1933 till his death in 1970, and then to Rolf von Goth.

Dutch postcard by Jospé, Arnhem, no. 349. Photo: Filma. Dutch censorship mark at the right.

Dutch postcard (with Dutch censorship mark on the right) by Jospé, Arnhem. Photo: Theodor Loos (Baumeister Engelhardt) and Karin Hardt (Christa) in Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (Erich Waschneck 1932), presented here as 8 Mädchen im Boot. The film was remade in the Netherlands in 1958 as Jenny (Willy van Hemert, 1958).

Dutch postcard by City Film, no. 604. Photo: Karin Hardt in the film Schön ist es verliebt zu sein/It's Great to Be in Love (Walter Janssen, 1933-1934).

Karin Hardt in Der Abenteurer von Paris (1936).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9683/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Randolf / Terra. Publicity still for Der Abenteurer von Paris/The Paris Adventure (Karl Heinz Martin, 1936).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9945/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Tobis Europa / Slavia. Publicity still for Port Arthur (Nicolas Farkas, 1936).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German), Schwarzwald-TV-Klinik (German), and IMDb.

Gabrielle Réjane (1856-1920) was a successful French stage actress and early silent film actress. She is most famous for her role of Catherine, in Sardou's play Madame Sans-Gene (1893), which she filmed twice.

French postcard by S.I.P., 34e serie, no. 9. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard, no. 1342. Photo Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in 1905.

French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1874. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in 1911.

French postcard by S.I.P.. Photo Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Vaudeville.

An emotional actress of rare gifts

Gabrielle Réjane was born as Gabrielle-Charlotte Reju in 1856 in Paris. She was the daughter of an actor.

She became a pupil of Régnier at the Conservatoire, and took the second prize for comedy in 1874. Her debut was the next year, during which she played a number of light — especially soubrette — parts.

Her first great success was in Henri Meilhac's Ma camarade (1883), in which she expressed her emotional sympathy to gain great audience appeal. She soon became known as an emotional actress of rare gifts, notably in Décor, Germinie Lacerteux, Ma cousine, Amoureuse and Lysistrata.

In 1892 a pregnant Réjane married Paul Porel, the director of the Théâtre du Vaudeville, but the marriage dissolved in 1905. Their only child was a daughter Germaine.

In 1893 she appeared in Paris, and soon thereafter in London and New York, in her most famous role as Catherine in Victorien Sardou's Madame Sans-Gêne. Her performances in the play made her as well known in England and the United States as in Paris, and in later years she appeared in characteristic parts in both countries, being particularly successful in Zaza and La Passerelle.

Gabrielle Réjane, Victorien Sardou, Paul Porel, Signing the contract for Madame Sans Gene (1993)

French postcard by Raphael Tuck & Fils, Editeurs, Paris, Série 200. Photo: publicity still for the stage play Madame Sans-Gêne. Caption: Victorien Sardou, madame Réjane and Léon Porel signing the contract for Madame Sans-Gêne.

French postcard by Raphael Tuck & Fils, Editeurs, Paris, Série 200. Photo: publicity still for the stage play Madame Sans-Gêne.

French postcard by Raphael Tuck & Fils, Editeurs, Paris, Série 200. Photo: publicity still for the stage play Madame Sans-Gêne.

French vivacity and animated expression

In 1906, Gabrielle Réjane opened the Théâtre Réjane, where she continued to act as well as manage the theatre.

Along with Sarah Bernhardt, she served as the model for the character of the actress Berma in Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time (A la Recherche du Temps Perdu).

The French vivacity and animated expression that was Réjane's trademark made her unrivalled in the parts which she had made her own.

She appeared in several short films during the early years of cinema, including an experimental 1908 sound film for Gaumont. She made two short and silent film adaptations of her greatest success, Madame Sans-Gêne (Clément Maurice, 1900) and Madame Sans-Gêne (André Calmettes, Henri Desfontaines 1911).

Her other films included Britannicus (André Calmettes, 1908) with Jean Mounet-Sully, the propaganda film Alsace (Henri Pouctal, 1916), and Miarka, la fille à l'ourse/Gypsy Passion (Louis Mercanton, 1920) starring Desdemona Mazza and Ivor Novello.

French postcard by S.I.P., no. 2. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by S.I.P., 75th Series, no. 4. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by S.I.P., 85th Series, no. 7. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by S.I.P., no. 118/19. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

The Marseillaise on the tomb of her son

In Alsace (Henri Pouctal, 1916), a film that luckily still survives, Gabrielle Réjane reprised the role Gaston Leroux had written for her as stage play, with which she had been very successful in early 1913 at her own theatre.

Two families, one, French, one German, rival each other in the contested province of the Alsace. The French son (Albert Dieudonné) falls in love with the daughter of the Germans, Marguerite (Francesca Flory), but his mother (Réjane) tries to prevent the marriage plans.

When he falls ill, she gives in. When war breaks out, he must choose between his German fiancee and his French mother. Both women are fanatics and plotters, the man instead is weak. He is beaten up by a German mob and dies in his mother's arms.

When the film premiered at the Paris Gaumont-Palace, it was a massive success, especially for the final image of Réjane posing as the Marseillaise on the tomb of her son.

The full film, a tinted version found and restored by the Dutch EYE Filmmuseum, and containing English intertitles, can be watched on European Film Gateway

Gabrielle Réjane was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour three months before her death. She died in Paris in 1920 and was buried there in the Cimetière de Passy.

French postcard. Photo Reutlinger, Paris, No. 86/19. S.I.P. Mailed in 1904.

French postcard by S.I.P. Photo Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in 1906.

French postcard by S.I.P., for Vins Désiles. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by M.J.S. Caption: Vaudeville.

French [?] postcard, Series 129.

French postcard, no. 27. Caption: Hennequeville - La Villa de Madame Réjane. L.L.

Sources: Kit and Morgan Benson (Find A Grave), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Glamorous English film actress Sally Gray (1915-2006) appeared in many musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The hazel-eyed blonde Gray was seen as ‘a British rival to Ginger Rogers.’ After a break from performing, she emerged in the mid-1940s as a sultry beauty who starred in a series of moody dramas and suspenseful thrillers. Later she became Constance Vera Browne, Baroness Oranmore and Browne.

British autograph card. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Private dance lessons by Fred Astaire

Sally Gray was born Constance Vera Stevens in Holloway, London, in 1915. Gray was the daughter of Charles Stevens, who drove a motor cab, and his wife, Gertrude Grace. Her mother was a ballet dancer and her grandmother a "principal boy" in the 1870s. Her father died when Gray was young.

As a child, she trained at Fay Compton's School of Dramatic Art, and began acting on stage at the age of 10. Gray made her professional stage debut at the age of twelve in All God's Chillun at the Globe Theatre in London, playing an African boy. When she was 14, Gray appeared in a minstrel show at the Gate Theatre in London.

She made her film debut under the name of Constance Stevens with a bit part in the comedy School for Scandal (Thorold Dickinson, Maurice Elvey, 1930) starring Basil Gill and Madeleine Carroll. The now as lost considered film is the only feature-length film shot using the unsuccessful Raycol colour process.

Sally then went back to school for two years, training again at Fay Compton’s School of Dramatic Art, during which time she performed in cabarets. She appeared in The Gay Divorce (1933) on stage with Fred Astaire. Astaire gave her private dance lessons.

The agent John Gliddon, who had discovered Vivien Leigh, saw the 18 years-old Gray in the musical Jill Darling (1934) and signed her. Gray returned to films in 1935, with a small part in the historical drama The Dictator (Victor Saville, 1935), starring Clive Brook. She could also be seen in the comedy Cross Currents (Adrian Brunel, 1935), the musical Radio Pirates (Ivar Campbell, 1935), the comedy Lucky Days (Reginald Denham, 1935) with Chili Bouchier, and the crime film Checkmate (George Pearson, 1935).

She returned on stage and was spotted by multi-talented actor-producer Stanley Lupino, who fell in love with her. Lupino was part of a theatrical dynasty that went back to 1634, and he was the father of the actress Ida Lupino. Gray had the female lead in his comedy Cheer Up (Leo Mittler, 1936) starring Stanley Lupino.

She also had leads in the musical drama Calling the Tune (Reginald Denham, Thorold Dickinson, 1936), the thriller Cafe Colette (Paul L. Stein, 1937) with Paul Cavanagh, and the musical Saturday Night Revue (Norman Lee, 1937) with Billy Milton. In 1936 she was earning an impressive £150 a week.

Gray had support roles in the thriller Lightning Conductor (Maurice Elvey, 1937), the musical Over She Goes (Graham Cutts, 1937) with Lupino, The Edgar Wallace thriller Mr. Reeder in Room 13 (Norman Lee, 1937), and the musical Hold My Hand (Thornton Freeland, 1938) with Lupino. Gray was the female lead in the drama Sword of Honour (Maurice Elvey, 1938), the RKO production The Saint in London (John Paddy Carstairs, 1939) with George Sanders as Simon Templar, the musical comedy The Lambeth Walk (Albert de Courville, 1939) with Lupino Lane, Stanley Lupino’s nephew.

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 1261. Photo: Pinebrook LTD.

British autograph card.

The death of her lover, mentor and friend

During the war years, Sally Gray continued her career smoothly. She played a non-musical role in the thriller A Window in London (Herbert Mason, 1940), starring Michael Redgrave. According to Tom Vallance in The Independent, “she was convincing in her offbeat role as an illusionist's wife in a neatly constructed thriller”.

Then she played Miss America in the comedy Olympic Honeymoon (Alfred J. Goulding, 1940) with Claude Hulbert, and had the female lead in another British RKO production, The Saint's Vacation (Leslie Fenton, 1941), this time with Hugh Sinclair as Simon Templar.

She had a sensitive role in the romantic melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1941). Tom Vallance: “Particularly remembered for its theme music, Richard Addinsell's "The Warsaw Concerto", the story of a Polish pianist (Anton Walbrook) who joins an air squadron against the wishes of his girlfriend (Gray), loses his memory after being wounded in the Battle of Britain, but regains it (and is reunited with his sweetheart) when he starts playing the concerto, had great appeal for wartime audiences.”

The same year she appeared in Lady Behave, London's first major musical since the Second World War began. Stanley Lupino, who had cancer, had written the musical and co-starred. The show had to close after a month because of Lupino's illness. Gray returned to the stage to star in My Sister Eileen (1942) with Coral Browne.

Lupino died, leaving Gray £10,000. Gray had a nervous breakdown, resulting in her retirement for a number of years. Lupino had been not only her lover, but her mentor and friend.

She returned to the screen in 1946 and made her strongest bid for stardom in a series of melodramas. Tom Vallance again in The Independent: “Her husky voice was particularly attractive, and distinctively different from other stars of the time.”

She appeared in the hospital thriller Green for Danger (Sidney Gilliat, 1946) with Alastair Sim and Trevor Howard, the drama Carnival (Stanley Haynes 1946) with Michael Wilding and Stanley Holloway, the stylish, brutal Film Noir They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947) with Trevor Howard, and the drama The Mark of Cain (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1947), starring Eric Portman.

Gray then made the thriller Silent Dust (Lance Comfort, 1948) and the Film Noir Obsession (Edward Dmytryk 1949). Ronald Bergan in The Guardian: “Arguably Gray's best and meatiest role came in the McCarthyist exile Edward Dmytryk's Obsession (1949), as the cheating wife of psychiatrist Robert Newton, who plans a slow death for her latest lover.”

Her final film was the spy thriller Escape Route (Seymour Friedman, Peter Graham Scott, 1952) with ageing American tough guy George Raft as an FBI agent in England. RKO executives, impressed with Gray, authorised producer William Sistrom to offer her a long-term contract if she would move to the United States. However, she declined the offer and instead retired in 1952 after getting married.

In 1951, Gray had married The 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, an Anglo-Irish peer. They lived in a castle in County Mayo, Ireland. The couple kept the marriage secret until the 1953 coronation, at which she appeared with her husband. The final phase of Gray's life found her very much in the upper class, and she led a comfortable life, preferring not to talk about her acting career.

In the early 1960s the couple returned to England and settled in a flat in Eaton Place, Belgravia, London. Gray tended assiduously to her gardening in later years. After 51 years of marriage, her husband died in 2002 at the age of 100. The couple had no children. Sally Gray died in 2006 in London, England. She was 91.

British autograph card.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Two years ago, we did this post on postcards for short silent films made before World War I by the French studio Pathé Frères. We loved these very old French cards and recently we found some new ones. They were distributed by Pathé theatres in France, and the films were produced by the studio between 1905 and 1908.

Pathé film factories at Joinville-le-Pont

French postcard by F. Testard, Paris, no. 4078. Photo: E.M.

Panorama of the Marne river with the Pathé film factories and the Polangis quarter, at Joinville-le-Pont near Paris. It is here that Pathé produced and developed its celluloid. In contrast to other film companies, Pathé produced its own raw film stock. In its early decades the film studios of Pathé were in Vincennes and Montreuil, but in the early 1920s it would open a studio in Joinville too.

French postcard by Eden Cinema Pathé, Nice. Photo: publicity still for Les petits vagabonds/Young Tramps (Pathé Frères, Lucien Nonguet, 1905).

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for L'inspection du capitaine/Captain's Inspection (Pathé Frères, 1905).

After inspection, the soldiers lie down for a well-earned nap. A drunkard enters the room and disturbs the soldiers who throw him out. He keeps coming back and they finally decide to throw water on him, but the captain gets the shower.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Le fils du diable/The Devil's Son (Pathé Frères, Charles Lucien Lépine, 1906), with André Deed, and cinematography by Segundo De Chomón.

The Devil's son is down in the dumps, so Sganarelle suggests that a trip to Paris would be just the thing to perk him up. Mom and Dad wave bye-bye as he toddles off in his touring car with his native guide.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for La course des sergents de ville/The Policemen's Race (Pathé Frères, Ferdinand Zecca, 1907), scripted by André Heuzé.

A policeman spots a dog stealing a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, and gives chase. Soon several more policemen have joined the pursuit. But the chase does not turn out as the policemen expect.

French postcard by Eden Cinema Pathé, Nice. Photo: publicity still for Les Forbans/The Pirates (Pathé Frères, 1907).

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Les chiens policiers de la ville de Paris/The Police Dogs of Paris (Pathé Frères, 1907).

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Monsieur et Madame font du tandem/Jollygoods Go Tandeming (Pathé Frères, 1908).

A couple decides, after having dined, to go out on their tandem bicycle. They start well, but in speeding over a bridge they upset two pedestrians, who make a high dive into the water. From this point they enter into a ride of destruction and catastrophe.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Madame l'avocate/Lady Barrister (Pathé Frères, 1908).

A woman attorney is so taken up with her studies in law that she finds no time to bother with household duties. Her henpecked husband has to take care of the baby, clean the house, do the cooking. When things do not run very smoothly, she decides to take a hand in the domestic affairs herself. It all ends in chaos.

French postcard by Eden Cinema Pathé, Nice. Photo: publicity still for Excursion dans la lune/An Excursion to the Moon (Pathé Frères, Segundo de Chomón, 1908), sets by Vincent Lorant-Heilbronn.

Georges Méliès' best-known film, Le voyage dans la lune/A Trip to the Moon (1902), is inspired by Jules Verne's De la terre à la lune/From the Earth to the Moon and H.G. Wells'First Men on the Moon. In 1908, Segundo de Chomón made Excursion dans la lune/An Excursion to the Moon, an imitation of Méliès' work, which is preserved with the original Pathé Frères stencil color.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Samson moderne/A Modern Samson (Pathé Frères, 1908).

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

French postcard by Cinema Pathé Frères. Photo: publicity still for Concours de bébés/The Baby Show (Pathé Frères, 1908).

Having much pride in the beauty of her little charge, a fussy governess enters her mistress baby to compete in a baby show. But the baby's elder sister, being whipped by the governess, resolves to even matters, and when the fond nurse-girl lays the infant in the basket and leaves the scene for a moment the little girl takes the baby out and puts a dog in instead.

French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: publicity still for Les démenageurs ont soif/Thirsty Moving Men (Pathé Frères, 1908).

Four thirsty movers empty the wine bottles they discover in a basket, after which chaos and destruction starts. The movers destroy and lose most luggage underway, so the owners can only give the drunken movers a good spanking and go and get new furniture.

Sources: Fondation Jerome Seydoux Pathé (French) and IMDb.

German film actress and singer Marion Michael (1940-2007) was a one hit wonder as Liane, the jungle girl. As the female Tarzan, the blonde beauty became an icon of the German cinema. Her postcards were even more popular in Germany than Maria Schell's cards.

German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. CK-48. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Arca-Film.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/158. Photo: UFA.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1009. Photo: UFA.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-71. Photo: Stempha / Cinepress / Arca Film.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. C.D. 16.

Topless Goddess

Marion Michael was born as Marion Ilonka Michaela Delonge in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1940. Her father was a doctor.

The last months of the war she spent together with her mother and her four-year older brother on Hiddensee, a small island in the Baltic Sea.

After the war, the family moved to Berlin and Marion attended the secondary school. Already as a ten-year-old, she made her stage debut in a small theatre and was taught classical dance in the ballet school of Tatjana Gsovsky.

When she was only 15, she was selected out of allegedly 12,000 entries for the lead in Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald/Liane, Jungle Goddess (Eduard von Borsody, 1956). This adventure film was largely shot on location in Africa.

The story is about a girl who is discovered in the African jungle by an expedition group which includes Hardy Krüger. A tribe adores her as a goddess. It turns out that she is Liane, the long lost granddaughter of a rich shipowner in Hamburg.

Her dark hair was dyed blonde and she was promoted as the 'German Brigitte Bardot'. Michael appeared topless during the first half of the film and this was part of the success of the film. However, she was acceptable for family audiences as the nature child with no obvious erotic suggestiveness.

The film was a huge box office hit, and producer Gero Wecker offered her a seven-year-contract.The press loved her and photographers paid much money to take her picture exclusively. Her postcards were even more popular in Germany thanMaria Schell's postcards. As a 18-years-old, she owned a sports car.

Unfortunately this success of her debut film would not be matched by any of her later films.

Marion Michael in Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald (1956)

German promotion card. Photo: Arca Film / NF. Publicity still for Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald/Liane, Jungle Goddess (Eduard von Borsody, 1956).

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 116.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2787.

German postcard, no. 542. Photo: Arca.

German postcard.

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3865. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Stempka-Cinepress / Arca.

Car Accident

Marion Michael played next in the comedy Der tolle Bomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Rolf Thiele, 1957) opposite Hans Albers. The film is an adaptation of the 1923 novel of the same title by Josef Winckler which was based on a real historical Westphalian aristocrat of the nineteenth century.

Then followed the sequel Liane, die weiße Sklavin/Jungle Girl and the Slaver (Hermann Leitner, 1957), now opposite Adrian Hoven. Set in North Africa, this story concerns Arab slave traders who abduct Liane and members of her tribe. Later, the two Liane films were edited together and re-marketed as Liane – die Tochter des Dschungels/Liane - The Daughter of the Jungle.

In order to break away from the Liane image, Marion Michael took dance and acting lessons and then played successfully opposite Christian Wolff in melodrama Es war die erste Liebe/First Love (Fritz Stapenhorst, 1958) in which a Catholic theology student falls in love with a country girl.

During the shooting of the crime film Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs on Monte Carlo (Georg Jacoby, 1960) with Eddie Constantine, she had a car accident that left her face temporarily scarred.

She recovered and returned to acting in Schlußakkord/Festival (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1960), the Schlagerfilm Davon träumen alle Mädchen/That's What All The Girls Dream About (Thomas Engel, 1961), and Jack und Jenny/Jack and Jenny (Victor Vicas, 1963) with Senta Berger and Ivan Desny.

French postcard. Michael on promotion tour in Paris.

German autograph card.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. V 122. Photo: Dieter-Eberhard Schmidt, Berlin.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3536/159. Sent by mail in 1959. Photo: Stempka Cinepress / Arca Film / UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof).

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 285. Offered by Honig, Gent, Belgium. Photo: Archiv Filmpress Zürich.

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), no. FK 3762. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Haenchen / Arca-NF.

Unusual step

The following decade, Marion Michael mainly worked for theatre and TV. For six years she worked at the Städtischen Bühnen Köln. In 1970, she got a son, Benjamin, from an American director, lived in a commune and did some street theatre.

Michael suffered a severe depression after a short marriage to actor Marcel Werner ended, and retired from acting in 1976. For a while she worked as a saleswoman.

In 1979 she took the unusual step of moving from West to East Germany, where she worked as a synchronisation assistant for TV.

Only occasionally she acted in TV-films such as In Hassliebe Lola/In Hate love Lola (Lothar Lambert, 1995) and Blond bis aufs Blut/Blonde Till Blood (Lothar Lambert, 1997).

In 1996 her life became the topic of a TV musical, Liane (Horst Königstein, 1996). She played a small role in the production. The film was nominated for the Adolf Grimme award and the Prix Europa 1997.

In her later years, she remained a well known German film icon. With her second husband, Freimut Patzner, she lived in an old house in Oderbruch.

In 2007 Marion Michael died of heart failure in a hospital in Gartz an der Oder. It was four days before her 67th birthday.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (licency holders for UFA postcards in the Netherlands), no. 4267. Photo: ARCA / Cinepress. Publcity still for Es war die erste Liebe/First Love (Fritz Stapenhorst, 1958) with Christian Wolff.

Marion Michael and Christian Wolff in Es war die erste Liebe (1958)

Dutch postcard. no. 85. Photo: publicity still for Es war die erste Liebe/It was first love (Fritz Stapenhorst, Veit Harlan, 1958).

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 111. Photo: Krippendorff, Berlin.

German postcard by UFA, Berlin, no. CK 72. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Stempka / Arca Film.

German postcard by UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. CK-40. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Eberhardt Schmidt / UFA / Arca-Film.

Jungle Dance from Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald/Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956). Source: MollyWhippie (YouTube).

Sources: Christian Koehl (Variety), Filmportal.de (German), Stephanie D'Heil (Steffi-line.de - German), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Some of our most beautiful Italian postcards were published by Ed. A. Traldi. Traldi operated in Milan from 1902 on. The publisher concentrated on view cards of Europe and the Middle East. They are also known for a series published that focused on dogs. But we are most interested in the postcard portraits of European stage and film performers, and the cards with stills of silent films of the 1920s, often distributed by Pittaluga Films. After World War II, Ed. A. Traldi returned as Vetta Traldi with pin-up postcards and with the Divi del Cinema series.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 9. Photo: Pittaluga. Publicity still of Elena Sangro as Cinzia and René [Raoul] Mayllard as prince Otis [Ortis] in the Fert production Maciste imperatore/Emperor Maciste (Guido Brignone, 1924).

Maciste imperatore (1924) was part of the popular Maciste series of films starring Bartolomeo Pagano as the strongman Maciste. In the kingdom of Sindagna, the prince regent Stanos tries with all means to dispose of the legitime heir to the throne, prince Ortis. When Maciste and his companion Saetta happen to be in the chaotic empire, they set things straight for the poor, weak prince. Maciste is proclaimed emperor of Sindagna after getting rid of the regent and his puppet ruler, restores peace, and arranges that the prince can also be united with his beloved one. The plot line comes close Mussolini's take over of Italy, 'helping' the weak king Victor Emmanuel III and 'restoring order'.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 323. Photo: Fontana.

Considering her profile, it is not hard to imagine why critics and artists of the early 20th century compared stage and film diva Lyda Borelli (1887-1959) to the heroines of Aubrey Beardsley.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 409. Photo: Pinto, Roma.

Pina Menichelli(1890-1984) was one of the Italian divas of the silent era. After starting her film career at the Roman Cines company in 1913, she was catapulted into stardom by Giovanni Pastrone's Dannunzian film Il Fuoco (1915). Because of her femme fatale, men devouring type and her extreme and sudden gestures she was nicknamed Notre Dame des Spasmes. Menichelli did however know how to play also in restrained ways, as her masterpiece Tigre Reale (Pastrone 1916) showed.

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

Polish singer and actress Helena Makowska aka Elena Makowska (1893-1964) was a beautiful diva of the Italian silent cinema in the 1910s. During the 1920s, she moved to Berlin and also became a star of the German cinema.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 738. Photo: publicity still of Rina De Liguoro dying in the final scene of Messalina (Enrico Guazzoni, 1924).

For diva Rina De Liguoro, the epic Messalina (1924) was the start of a prolific career in Italian silent cinema in the 1920s, with films like Quo vadis? (1924) and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii (1926). In the late 1920s she also performed in Germany and France, e.g. in Casanova (1927).

Italian postcard by Ed. Traldi, Milano, no. 795. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino.

Diomira Jacobini (1899-1959) was one of the stars of the Italian silent cinema. She was the younger sister of diva Maria Jacobini, in whose shadow she always stayed. Diomira appeared in some 55 films in Italy, Germany and Denmark.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Westi SAIC. Publicity still for La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone, 1925) with Emilio Ghione as the Prince of Santafé.

The highly successful film La cavalcata ardente (1925) was a melodrama set against the background of the conquest of Naples by Garibaldi's volunteers. Soava Gallone plays an aristocratic forced into marriage with an old prince (Emilio Ghione) but secretly in love with a patriot (Gabriel de Gravone).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Soc. A. Stefano Pittaluga, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926), with Franz Sala as the devil Barbariccia.

Franz Sala aka Francesco Sala (1886-1952) was a prolific actor of the Italian silent cinema, mostly playing the evil antagonist.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste. Caption: "The Inhabitants of the Underworld."

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 819. Photo: Pittaluga Films, Torino. Publicity still for Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lions' Cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni is an Italian silent adventure film directed by Guido Brignone for the Cinès-Pittaluga studio. In the script, written by Brignone, Maciste is sent to Africa by a circus showman to capture some lions. Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni was the penultimate film of the silent series, followed by Il gigante delle Dolomiti/The Giant of the Dolomites (Guido Brignone, 1927).

Italian postcard in the series Divi del Cinema by Vetta Traldi, Milano, no. 7.

Lucia Bosé (1931) is an Italian actress, known for her films from the 1950s for directors Giuseppe De Santis and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Italian postcard in the series Divi del Cinema, no. 33, by Vetta Traldi, Milano.

Sultry, glamorous blonde Venetia Stevenson (1938) was a British-born Hollywood starlet of the late 1950s.

Anna Maria Ferrero. Italian postcard by Vetta Traldi, Milano in the Divi del Cinema series, no. 51. Sent by mail in 1955.

Anita Ekberg. Italian postcard by Vetta Traldi, Milano in the Divi del Cinema series, no. 139 bis.

Mamie Van Doren. Italian postcard in the series Divi del Cinema by Vetta Traldi, Milano, no 232.

Sources: The Cabinet Card Gallery and Wikipedia.

Soprano voice

One of the last Rubble Films

Beautiful Voice

Heydays of the German Film Musical

Mozart

A chronology of great triumph and defeat

Villainous

In Europe’s Film Capital

The Dancing Years

The slimiest and most monstrous of movie villains

A camera friendly presence

Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather

Blackmailing Social Climber

Cosmopolitan Ladykiller

Neue Deutsche Welle

Nathan the Wise

Intrigue and Love

Adventurous debut

Oh-la-la, it’s a goody!

Bitter jealousy

Ridiculing China and the Chinese People

Her lover's execution

The perfect interpreter of poignant dramas

Hedy Lamarr's father in Extase

Disarmingly Natural

Naive, Blonde Competitor

David Bowie

An emotional actress of rare gifts

French vivacity and animated expression

The Marseillaise on the tomb of her son

Private dance lessons by Fred Astaire

The death of her lover, mentor and friend

Topless Goddess

Car Accident

Unusual step

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