European Film Star Postcards

We're in Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato from 21 - 29 June. One of the highlights for us is a tribute to Austrian actor-turned-director Willi Forst curated by Lukas Foerster. A consummate craftsman, Forst was a versatile filmmaker who excelled in both dramas and comedies. The Festival website: "His films from the 1930s and 1940s, constituting the most accomplished body of work by any director active in Germany during the Nazi era, reveal a profound, almost obsessive love for music. Far from serving as mere background, music permeates every aspect of his work, shaping the plot, influencing the mise-en-scène, and driving the editing. In a Forst film, a single melody can lead to happiness, despair, or even both simultaneously. Remarkably, Forst largely avoided contamination by National Socialist ideology, preserving in his cinema the urbane and sophisticated spirit of the late Weimar Republic while cultivating a darker, more melancholic worldview uniquely his own."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3149/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis. Willi Forstin Bel Ami (Will Forst, 1939).

Willi Forst (1903-1980) was a darling of the German-speaking public. He was also one of the most significant directors, producers, writers and stars of the Wiener Filme, the light Viennese musical comedies of the 1930s. Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939), loosely based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant, would be his best-known film. He also played the title role, which would be his alter ego from then on. Forst was much courted by the Nazis but succeeded in avoiding overt political statements, concentrating on the light entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war.

Hans Jaray in Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933)

Spanish leaflet by Films Selectos, Suplemento Artistico, no. 176, 24.2.1934. Photo: Cine-Allianz. Hans Jaray in the Biopic Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat (Willi Forst, 1933).

Leise flehen meine Lieder (Willi Forst, 1933 was Forst's first film direction, a Biopic about the life of composer and musician Franz Schubert. Leise flehen meine Lieder was so popular throughout Europe that it was reshot in a British version for the English language market as The Unfinished Symphony (Willi Forst, Anthony Asquith, 1934), also with Austrian actor Hans Jaray in the lead. Forst also wrote the scenario. The co-author of the original was Walter Reisch, who in later Hollywood exile would script Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939) and Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944), and work with Billy Wilder.

Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) in the Rembrandt Theater

Dutch photo. Front of the Rembrandt Theatre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On show was Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat (Willi Forst, 1933). A gift from Roloff de Jeu.

Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat took on the love affair between composer Franz Schubert and the Countess Esterhazy. In Lieder, Hans Jaray starred as Schubert, Luise Ullrich, fresh from Max Ophüls’s Liebelei, was Schubert’s innocent love, future comedic superstar Hans Moser was her father, and Marta Eggerth was the seductive Czardas-dancing countess who disrupts the composer’s life. Robert von Dassamowsky in Senses of Cinema: "The orchestration of image, lighting, music and performance in Lieder suggests a unique personal style that had not been previously seen in the new musical film. The style-cum-genre genre was certainly Viennese from its very roots: theatrical and visual values of the Baroque, the near operatic equality of dialogue and music, and the balanced blending of all aspects of the film into a seamless Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art."

German collector card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 103. Photo: Tobis-Sascha-Film / Ross Verlag. Paula Wessely in Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934).

Distinguished stage actress Paula Wessely played her first major film role as Leopoldine Dur in Forst's second film, the Operetta Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934) alongside Adolf Wohlbrück. Maskerade, set in the Viennese high society of about 1900, was a hit that launched Forst's fame as a significant director and made an instant star of Wessely. The exceptional script of this classic example of the Wiener Film was written by Walter Reisch and directed by Willi Forst. Essential to the visual success of the film was the contribution of director of photography Franz Planer, with his lively and beautifully lit compositions. Maskerade received an award for best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and ultimately proved to be so successful internationally that Hollywood 'borrowed' the story for a new, but less welcomed version entitled Escapade (Robert Z. Leonard, 1935) with Luise Rainer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag / Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Cine-Allianz. Pola Negri in Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935).

Willi Forst rapidly developed himself into a four-way talent, as producer, director, writer and actor in German films. For Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935), he lured Pola Negri back from Hollywood. She played a woman who was put on trial for murdering a predatory musician. The title refers to the Polish folk dance. Mazurka gained much popularity in Germany and became one of Adolf Hitler's favourite films. Warner Bros. acquired the U.S. distribution rights but shelved the film in favour of its own scene-by-scene English language remake, Confession (Joe May, 1937), which starred Kay Francis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1523/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Willi Forst-Film. Igo Sym in Serenade (Willi Forst, 1937).

In 1937, Will Forst founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film. His first production was the drama Serenade (Willi Forst, 1937), starring Hilde Krahl, Albert Matterstock and Igo Sym. Forst considered a move to Hollywood the same year, but stayed in Vienna. Following Austria’s annexation to Germany in March 1938, Vienna’s film industry was wholly integrated into the structure and ideology of the Third Reich and given a specific cultural mission – the production of lavish musicals, costume dramas and other 'Vienna style' entertainment films for the Reich and its Axis partners. With strong control from Berlin, the new Viennese mega-studio Wien-Film echoed the concept of the Hollywood studio system more closely than had been normal in previous Austrian cinema development. Many Austrian talents at Ufa in Berlin, including Forst, returned home to participate in this new phase of Vienna’s industry.

Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 1215. Photo: Godfried de Groot.

Austrian actress and singer Lizzi Waldmüller (1904-1945) had her breakthrough to stardom through her role as Rachel in Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939). Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Willi Forst was much courted by the National Socialists but succeeded in avoiding overt political statement, concentrating entirely on the opulent period musical entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand. He changed the brash and ambitious ex-military man of Guy De Maupassant's novel into a likeable bon vivant and charmer in a dress suit. Bel Ami was made on the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War, at a time when Germany's going to war against France was already a very likely prospect. In Nazi Germany, the film industry was closely controlled by the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. While Bel Ami was not conceived as an outright propaganda film, the theme of corruption in the French society and politics - prominently present in the Maupassant original - was well suited to the thrust of Nazi propaganda at the time the film was made.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3169/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wien-Film / Tobis. Trude Marlen in Operette / Operetta (Willi Forst, Karl Hartl, 1940).

Unlike the other directors of Wien-Film, Forst preferred to use relatively untested talent as co-stars, and thus managed to create stardom for several leading ladies: Lizzi Waldmüller, Ilse Werner, and Trude Marlen. Willi Forst directed curly-locked Trude Marlen in Operette / Operetta (Willi Forst, Karl Hartl, 1940), also starring Forst, Maria Holst and Dora Komar. The film was made by Wien-Film. It is the first film in Forst's 'Viennese Trilogy', followed by Wiener Blut / Vienna Blood (1942) and Wiener Mädel / Viennese Girls (1945). The film, a mix of an operetta film and a Wiener Film, portrays the life of Franz Jauner (1832–1900), a leading musical figure in Vienna.

Marte Harell in Frauen sind keine Engel (1943)

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3765/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien-Film. Marte Harell in Frauen sind keine Engel / Women aren't Angels (Willi Forst, 1943).

Forst was an extremely versatile genre filmmaker, who could as easily make a crime film, a contemporary melodrama or a sophisticated comedy. An example is the comedy Frauen sind keine Engel / Women aren't Angels (Willi Forst, 1943) starring Marte Harell, Axel von Ambesser and Margot Hielscher, which was also produced by Wien Film. During the seven-year Nazi rule in Austria, Willi Forst only made six films, none of them political.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 482. Photo: Wesel / Styria / Junge Film Union / Herzog Film. Hildegard Knef in Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950).

Willi Forst had comparatively little success after the war except for the film Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950) starring Hildegard Knef, which became a scandal because of the protests of the Roman Catholic church against its nudity, rare in contemporary German-speaking cinema, but which subsequently attracted an audience of seven million people. The film represented a major shift for Forst, who had previously been known for escapist films, which avoided controversial themes and embraced romanticised settings. Die Sünderin / The Sinner adopted instead a realist perspective, addressing taboo subjects like prostitution and euthanasia, which challenged the moral sensitivities of post-war West German society.

Hildegard Knef in Es geschehen noch Wunder (1951)

German postcard by F.J. Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 81/2. Photo: Junge Film Union / Herzog / Foto Wesel. Hildegard Knef in Es geschehen noch Wunder / Miracles Still Happen (Willi Forst, 1951).

Rebellious, gravel-voiced actress, chanteuse and author Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) was one of the most important film stars of post-war Germany. Despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, Die Sünderin / The Sinner marked a turning point in Knef’s career, after which she appeared in notable Hollywood films such as the War film Decision Before Dawn (Anatole Litvak, 1951) and the romantic adventure film The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Henry King, 1952). Es geschehen noch Wunder / Miracles Still Happen (Willi Forst, 1951) was intended by Forst as a less risqué follow-up to his controversial Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950).

West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden-Westf, no. 2337. Photo: Sascha / Herzog / Michaelis. Günther Philipp in Kaiserjäger / Emperor Hunter (Willi Forst, 1956).

Austrian film actor Gunther Philipp (1918-2003) appeared in 147 mostly German films and TV productions, mainly in comic roles, like as Leutnant der Reserve Otto Schatz in Kaiserjäger / Emperor Hunter (Willi Forst, 1956). The film didn't revitalise Willi Forst's career. The following year, Forst directed his final film, after which he retired from the industry. IMDb cites him saying: "My style is no longer in demand: I go off, a little bit battered, but in proud greatness à la [Greta Garbo]. It is better to go than to be asked to go." Forst is today considered one of Europe's important early sound directors. In his study, Willi Forst. Ein filmkritisches Porträt', Italian film historian Francesco Bono notes that Forst's last film, Wien, die Stadt meiner Träume (1957), is more than a superficial narrative. It is a film that exposes the superficial, fictional image of Vienna promoted by Austrian cinema of the 1950s precisely as an illusion. That Vienna of your dreams exists only in film.'

Sources: Robert von Dassanowsky (Senses of Cinema), Ivo Blom (review 'Willi Forst. Ein filmkritisches Porträt' in TMG Online, 2011), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

A milestone of visual flair and virtuosity in American cinema, the career of Lewis Milestone – a Russian Jewish émigré – bridged silent cinema and the 70mm spectacles of the 1960s. Milestone is the subject of one of the programmes of Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht. Renowned for having one of the most distinctive and eclectic styles of his generation, his popular and dazzlingly original work ranged from the anti-war magnum opus All Quiet on the Western Front to the popular-front musical Hallelujah, I’m a Bum. As dense, dark, and daunting as his films could get, they were often laced with wit, camaraderie, and bravery amid mass atrocities. Yet, he barely survived the Hollywood blacklist, which forced him to drift into mediocre assignments. This programme, covering his silent films up until the blacklist, features new restorations and archive prints, aiming to recover the artistry of a man who fought many battles of humanity in the 20th Century with a sense of wisdom and poetry that can still shake us.

Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 65. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis Jr. in the American WWI, anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.

Emil Jannings and Esther Ralston in Betrayal (1929)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4323/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings and Esther Ralston in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929).

Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (1931)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5909/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (1948)

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).

Taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches

Lewis Milestone was born Lev Milstein in 1895 in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire, now Chisinau, Moldova. ‘Milly’ was the son of a wealthy, distinguished clothing manufacturer. He was raised in Odessa in Ukraine. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early age. Milstein's family discouraged his desire to follow the dramatic arts, and dispatched him to Germany to study engineering.

However, he started his career as a prop man and background artist. To escape being drafted into the Russian army during World War I, he travelled to the US in 1913 with $6.00 in his pocket. He had a succession of odd jobs, such as a dishwasher and a photographer's assistant. Shortly after the US entered World War I in 1917, he joined the Army Signal Corps to make educational short films for U.S. troops. After the war, he acquired American citizenship and legally changed his surname to Milestone.

An acquaintance from the Signal Corps, Jesse D. Hampton, now an independent film producer, secured Milestone an entry-level position as an assistant editor in Hollywood. Milestone quickly worked his way up the ranks to become editor, assistant director and writer. In 1920, he was chosen as general assistant to director Henry King at Pathé Exchange. Milestone's first credited work was as assistant on King's film Dice of Destiny (Henry King, 1920). He worked as editor for director-producer Thomas Ince, was general assistant and co-author on film scripts by William A. Seiter and worked as a gag writer for comedian Harold Lloyd.

These experiences would greatly influence his directing style in the years to come. Milestone directed his first film, Seven Sinners (1925), with Marie Prevost, for Howard Hughes. Two years later, he won his first of two Academy Awards for the comedy Two Arabian Knights (1927) starring William Boyd, Mary Astor, and Louis Wolheim. He received his second Oscar for his masterpiece, the anti-war picture All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

I.S. Mowis at IMDb: “The film, universally praised by reviewers for its eloquence and integrity, also won the Best Picture Academy Award that year. A noted Milestone innovation was the use of cameras mounted on wooden tracks, giving his films a more realistic and fluid, rather than static, look. Other trademarks associated with his pictures were taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches.” Milestone must be credited with a quirky sense of humour: when the producer of All Quiet on the Western Front, Carl Laemmle Jr., demanded a 'happy ending' for the picture, Milestone telephoned, "I've got your happy ending. We'll let the Germans win the war".

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4324/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929). Jannings' final Hollywood film is thought to be lost.

Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 66. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930).

Owen Davis jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Owen Davis Jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930). Owen Davis Jr. played Peter in the film. Croeze-Bosman was a Dutch film distribution company, founded in 1926 as a continuation of the Dutch American Film Co., a subsidiary of Universal.

A history of being ‘difficult’

In the 1930s, Lewis Milestone directed the Screwball comedy The Front Page (1931) with Adolphe Menjou, the melodrama Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford, based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham, the bravura adventure-melodrama The General Died at Dawn (1936), and an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1939) with Lon Chaney Jr. as the childlike Lennie Small and Burgess Meredith as his keeper George Milton.

Milestone was troubled by film directors' declining control within the studio system and supported King Vidor's proposal to organise a filmmakers' cooperative. Supporters for a Screen Directors Guild included Frank Borzage, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian and William Wellman, among others. By 1938, the guild was incorporated, representing 600 directors and assistant directors.

Milestone had a history of being ‘difficult’. He clashed with Howard Hughes, Warner Brothers and a host of studio executives over various contractual and artistic issues. Nonetheless, he remained constantly employed and worked for most of the major studios at one time or another, though never on long-term contracts. In 1949, he was blacklisted for a year because of left-wing affiliations dating back to the 1930s. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was desperately trying to find ‘Communist subversion’ in Hollywood films. Milestone was not required to testify before the HUAC because he began making films abroad, in both Britain and Italy, but these films were not successful.

Milestone's final years as a filmmaker correspond to the decline of the Hollywood movie empire. His last three films were Hollywood productions with large budgets, but he had a bad time on all of them. Gregory Peck re-edited Pork Chop Hill (1959), which he co-produced. Frank Sinatra and his 'Rat Pack' seem to have largely ignored him on the set of Ocean's Eleven (1960). His career ended with the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). He replaced Carol Reed as director after Reed quit because he could not cope with the massive ego of the film's star, Marlon Brando. Milestone didn't find Brando any easier to work with and in the end let him do as he pleased. The result was a hugely expensive box-office failure.

Milestone was then scheduled to direct PT 109 (1963) starring Cliff Robertson and Robert Culp, a film about President John F. Kennedy's wartime adventures, but he was replaced by TV director Leslie H. Martinson. After that, Milestone seems to have given up on films, although he directed a few television series episodes, an experience he did not enjoy. Having suffered a stroke, Lewis Milestone spent the last ten years of his life confined to a wheelchair. He died in 1980, after surgery at the University of California Medical Centre in Los Angeles. He died five days before his 85th birthday. Milestone was married to actress Kendall Lee from 1936 till her death in 1978.

Tullio Carminati in Paris in Spring (1935)

British postcard. Photo: Paramount. Tullio Carminati in Paris in Spring / Paris Love Song (Lewis Milestone, 1935).

Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper in The General Died at Dawn (1936)

British postcard in the Film Partners series, no. P 214. Photo: Paramount. Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper in The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936).

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 176. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).

Belgian postcard, no. 152. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Peter Lawford in Kangaroo (Lewis Milestone, 1952).

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025 is much more than countless film screenings. Today, there are two workshops which include presentations on the British Film Institute (BFI)’s silent antiquity prints with screenings of substantial clips. The workshops have been organised by the members of the University College London research project Museum of Dreamworlds: Prof. Maria Wyke (UCL), Dr. Ivo Blom (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), Dr. Aylin Atacan (UCL) and Bryony Dixon (silent film curator, BFI), in collaboration with Eye Filmmuseum and other partner archives. The project (2023-2027) focuses on the paradoxically close relationship between the modern medium of silent cinema and the distant worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. Film prints and film-related materials from the collection of the British Film Institute are used as a point of departure, and the researchers compare them with relevant films and film-related objects surviving in other archives. The first workshop focuses on martyrs in early silent films with themes like Martyrdom Italian style, Martyrdom American style, and Martyrdom: gender & irreligion. For this post at EFSP, Ivo Blom selected his favourite postcards of silent film martyrs.

Italian postcard by Ed. E. Sborgi, Firenze. Art work by A. Del Senno. 'Çristiani al martirio'.The composition is a mirrored version of Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting 'The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer'.

Still from Quo vadis (1913), used to promote the 1924 version

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, La Fotominio, no. 166. Phoyo: Cines. Still from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), used to promote the 1924 version directed by Gabriellino D'Annunzio and Georg Jacoby for U.C.I. Caption: The spectacles at the Circus Maximus. Depicted are the lions about to attack the Christian martyrs, to the sensation of the Roman public. The arena scenes from the 1913 version were so spectacular that they were re-inserted in various later films on Roman Antiquity. This particular image cites a well-known 19th-century painting: 'The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer' (1883, Walters Art Museum) by the French 'archaeologist' painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Scene from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), adapted from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Caption: The Christians were exposed to the beasts at the circus.

Livio Pavanelli in Fabiola, Sebastian hosting a Christian refugee

Spanish postcard for Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 8, no. 14. Photo: Palatino Film. Livio Pavanelli as St. Sebastiano in Fabiola(Enrico Guazzoni, 1918), hosting the blind Cecilia (Valeria Sanfilippo) on the request of the young Pancrazio (unknown).

Livio Pavanelli and Amleto Novelli in Fabiola (1918)

Spanish postcard for Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 8, no. 16. Photo: Palatino Film. Livio Pavanelli as St. Sebastiano and Amleto Novelli as Fulvio in Fabiola (Enrico Guazzoni, 1918).

The ultimate Antichrist

In the early history of Christianity, Christian martyrs were tortured or killed by stoning, decapitation, crucifixion, death at the stake, or massacre by wild animals in the arena. Initially, martyrdom in Christianity denoted the endurance of sacrifice, hardship and physical privation to honour God, but later the term was applied to refer almost exclusively to Christians who were killed for their faith.

The first Christian martyrs ever were the apostles of Jesus, except for John, who died in exile. The period of early Christianity before the reign of Constantine is considered the ‘era of the martyrs’. The conventional setting of their stories is that of places of secret Eucharistic celebrations mostly at the Roman catacombs and conventionally they would wave palm branches, while early Christians would make secret signs to each other such as an emblem of a fish, even if 19th c. literature and early 20th c. films already indicate these signs were quickly picked up by their persecutors too.

Often in 19th c. literature featuring Christian martyrs such as 'Quo vadis?' by Henryk Sienkiewicz and 'Fabiola by Cardinal Wiseman, personal dealings like rejection and revenge lead to persecution of either the Christian protagonist, as in the martyrdom of saints like Cecilia or Sebastian, or even all Christians in Rome, as in 'Quo vadis?' and 'Fabiola'.

While in novels like 'Quo vadis?', Nero is presented as the ultimate Antichrist and debauched persecutor of the Christians, history has made clear that persecution of the Christians has been much more drastic under later emperors like Diocletian. Yet, in Arrigo Boito’s opera 'Nerone' of 1924, posthumously premiered as Boito already died in 1918, the reputation of Nero as persecutor of the Christians still prevails, and this of course also goes for the 1924 remake of the film Quo vadis/, in which Emil Jannings stars as the ultimate evil emperor, reminding us of the Nero’s of our own times.

According to the Catholic Catechism, the figure of the martyr is antithetical to that of the apostate, that is, the one who has betrayed the faith. Martyrs are honoured as saints or blessed, and through prayers, services and Eucharistic celebrations, their day of death is commemorated. This cult of martyrs is one of the forms of private and public expression of the Christian faith, rooted already in the first communities that had to confront their new doctrines first with the Jewish tradition and then with the Roman imperial tradition. Yet, it is in particular in more recent centuries that martyrdom in Roman Antiquity was presented to show good examples of strength, virtue, persistence, faith and self-denial, to inspire contemporary audiences to behave in the same way.

French postcard by RA, no. 109. Photo: A. Bert. Ida Rubinstein in 'Le Martyr de St. Sebastien' (1911). Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960) was a Russian-Ukrainian ballerina of the Ballets Russes, choreographer, actress and Maecenas from the Belle Epoque. After Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes, she founded her own dance company, the Ballet Ida Rubinstein, and had immediate success with 'Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien' (1911), with music by Claude Debussy, text by Gabriele D'Annunzio, and choreography by Michel Fokine and sets and costumes by Léon Bakst.

British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 3208 A. Photo: W. & D. Downey, London. Publicity for the stage play 'The Sign of the Cross' (Wilson Barrett, 1895), starring Wilson Barrett as Marcus Superbus and Maud Jeffries as Mercia. The Rotary cards on 'The Sign of the Cross' are probably early 1900s. Caption: Mercia: A sign the master has spoken: you cannot harm me now. The play was a huge success in the US and UK and elsewhere and would be turned into two major films in 1914 and in 1932.

Mounet-Sully and others in Polyeucte (Cauterets)

French postcard. Mounet-Sully, Albert Lambert, Louis Delaunay, Louis Ravet and Mlle Lucie Brille in the stage play 'Polyeucte' by Pierre Corneille, staged at the Théâtre de la Nature in Cauterets on 11 or 12 August 1906. Mounet-Sully played Polyeucte, Lambert Severus, and Brille Pauline. The play is based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus.

French postcard by Mazet-Pons, Béziers. A performance in the Arènes de Béziers, France, a theatre in summertime of 'Héliogabale' (1910). The Prayer of the Christians.

French postcard. 'L'Aube Chrétienne', by L'Avant-garde Caennaise. This was a local play, performed at Caen, France, in April 1912. Caption: Combat de Gladiateurs. NB The helmets look more like 16th-century Spanish helmets, while the shirts and shoes don't look very Roman either. This goes to confirm that every century, every decade and every region makes its own vision of Antiquity.

L'orto cristiano, Act III of the opera Nerone by Boito)

Italian postcard by Ed. G. Zoboli, Bologna. Scene from the opera 'Nerone' (1924) by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918). 'Nerone' premiered posthumously at La Scala on May 1, 1924, conducted by Arturo Toscanini in a version of the score completed by Toscanini, Vincenzo Tommasini, and Antonio Smareglia. The role of Nero, originally intended for Francesco Tamagno, was first performed by Aureliano Pertile. Act III: The Christian garden.

Recycling sets and props like ‘Roman’ furniture or fake statuettes

Sometimes these early martyrdoms were presented in art in more chaste versions, as happened during the Counter-Reformation in still Baroque, opulent versions, towards the late 18th century, in more austere versions. Yet, also in more explicit, shocking versions as in late 19th c. academic art, such as Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 'The Return of the Felines', showing the remains of the slaughtered martyrs, or Léon Bonnat’s 'Martyrdom of St. Denis', with the saint looking for his head after his decapitation.

Particularly active in the field of representing early martyrdom was the organisation Maison de la Bonne Presse in Paris, which, in addition to many written texts like its own books and journals, around 1900 released several lantern slides on the martyrdom of saints like Cecilia and Tarcisius. Selections were afterwards also turned into a postcard series. Bonne Presse also made a few films within this genre. Yet, the mainstay of martyrdom in early cinema was produced by French and Italian cinema, in particular by the companies Pathé Frères in Paris and Cines in Rome.

Remarkable in this respect is what today we would indicate as ‘sustainable’, as these early companies often recycled parts of sets as well as props like ‘Roman’ furniture or fake statuettes copied from classical museum objects in various films, or even within multiple sets within the same film. Like in literature, in early cinema too, early martyrdom is often provoked by jealous and vengeful suitors, rejected by the Christian hero or heroin.

In some cases, such as the two leads in 'Quo vadis?', they manage to escape persecution by fleeing from Rome, but both protagonists and secondary characters often perish because of the ‘pagan’ hatred against them and the cold, indifferent attitude of the mob and the elite. Yet, as in the play and later film adaptations of 'The Sign of the Cross', some non-Christian protagonists have a love for their Christian beloved that is stronger than fear of death, and voluntarily select to die with their beloved in the arena.

Such was the urge to insert Christian messages in sources previously not connected with it, that in 1910 the opera/ drama 'Héliogabale' by Emile Sicard had an important element of Christian martyrdom as well.

French postcard in the Collection Artistique de la Maison de la Bonne Presse, Paris. The martyrdom of St. Cecilia, set in Roman Antiquity, was a beloved subject in late 19th and early 20th-century Catholic visuals, including a film by the Roman Cines company, Cines: Santa Cecilia (Enrique Santos, 1911), starring Fernanda Negri Pouget.

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Gloria Film. Scene from Nerone e Agrippina (Mario Caserini, 1914), starring Vittorio Rossi Pianelli as Nerone and Maria Caserini as Agrippina. Caption: Persecution of the Christians in the arena.

Italian postcard by Argentografica. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924), based on the classic novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Nero's human torches in his gardens.

Ramon Novarro, Claire McDowell, May McAvoy and Kathleen Key in Ben-Hur (1925)

French postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Ramon Novarro, Claire McDowell, May McAvoy and Kathleen Key in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 176/12. Photo: Paramount. Elissa Landi in the American epic The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932), based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett.

Workshops 'Silent Antiquity Prints Unique to the British National Film Archive', Wednesday 25 June 2025, 15:00 – 16:30 & 17:00 – 18:30, Aula Seminari, DAMsLab, Piazzetta P. P. Pasolini 5/b, 40122 Bologna.

Once again, Il Cinema Ritrovato offers a selection of classics and rarities made or released in 1925, the year that marked the 30th anniversary of the birth of cinema. The year saw the emergence of future big-name auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, and Josef von Sternberg, whose 1925 debut features will all be showcased in the programme, curated by Oliver Hanley. Alongside undisputed masterpieces such as Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike or Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Master of the House, the programme will feature comparatively lesser-known gems, all with live musical accompaniment. For EFSP, Ivo Blom made a selection of 25 postcards of international films that premiered in 1925.

French postcard, no. 3.59. Andrée Rolane as Cosette in Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925).

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 49. Photo: Ruth Harriet Louise / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tom O'Brien,John Gilbert, and Karl Dane in The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925), released in Italy as Grande Parata / La grande parata.

Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Westi. SAIC. Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in the Italian historical film La cavalcata ardente / The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone 1925).

German postcard with Dutch imprint by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 36/10. Photo: Emelka Konzern. Himansu Rai in Prem Sanyas / Die Leuchte Asiens / The Light of Asia (Franz Osten, Himansu Rai, 1925).

Sergei Eisenstein at the set of Stachka (1925)

Soviet postcard by Izdatelʹstvo 'Planeta' Fabrika Fotopečati, Moscow, no. 32, 1978. This postcard was printed in an edition of 25.000 cards. The price was 8 kop. Caption: Sergei Eisenstein on the set of Stachka / Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925). Scenes from Stachka / Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 133/3. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Messala (Francis X. Bushman) and Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) during the famous chariot race in the American silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925). Mark how the tribunes are empty and the upper part of the circus is missing (it was projected into the film using a hanging model).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3677/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Rudolph Valentino and Louise Dresser in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925).

British postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3658/4, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks is wearing the outfit from Don Q, Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp, 1925).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 440. Photo: Sascha. Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925).

Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) with Lon Chaney.

Mary Pickford in Little Annie Rooney (1925)

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, no. 680. Photo: United Artists. Mary Pickford in Little Annie Rooney (William Beaudine, 1925), released in Italy as Piccola Anna.

Mae Murray and John Gilbert in The Merry Widow

French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma Series, by A.N., Paris, no. 369. Mae Murray (the trema is a mistake) and John Gilbert as the romantic couple, Sally O'Hara and Prince Danilo, inThe Merry Widow (Erich von Stroheim, 1925). The film was a huge success.

Werner Krauss in Die Freudlose Gasse (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Sofar-Film-Produktion. Werner Krauss in Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925).

Lil Dagover in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 25/4. Photo: Ufa. Lil Dagover in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus / The Chronicle of the Gray House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925).

Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Kosar (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar / Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 48/2. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in the German silent film Ein Walzertraum / The Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), based on the Oscar Straus operetta.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 700/1. Photo: Kulturabteilung der UFA. Publicity still for Kampf um die Scholle / Struggle for the Soil (Erich Waschneck, 1925) here probably with Gustav Oberg as Freiherr von Wulfshagen.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 24/9. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit / Ways to Strength and Beauty (Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Caption: Alt-Griechisches Gymnasion (Old Greek Gymnasium). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1006/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Stein. Asta Nielsen in Hedda Gabler (Franz Eckstein, 1925), based on the play by Henrik Ibsen.

French postcard by Editions Jacques Haïk. Photo Combier Mâcon. Gaston Jacquet in Le Bossu / The Duke's Motto (Jean Kemm, 1925).

French postcard. Publicity still for the French rural drama La Brière (Léon Poirier, 1924). Caption: The home of Aoustin (José Davert). In the back are his wife (Jeanne Marie-Laurent) and daughter Théotiste (Laurence Myrga).

Yugoslav postcard by Jos. Caklovic, Zagreb, no. 75. Photo: Mosinger Film, Zagreb. Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant / Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).

British Postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 39A. Photo: Ivor Novello in The Rat (Graham Cutts, 1925).

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa (1925)

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, 397. Photo: SAIC. Lido Manetti and Maria Jacobini in the Italian silent drama La bocca chiusa / The Closed Mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

Bartolomeo Pagano in Maciste all'inferno (1926)

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste in Maciste all'inferno / Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926).

We're still in Italy and enjoy Il Cinema Ritrovato (21 June-29 June 2025). In the section One Hundred Years Ago: 1925, Alfred Hitchcock's debut film will be showcased in the programme. The sensational The Pleasure Garden (1925) tells the story of two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. Glamorous American star Virginia Valli played the lead. The male star was the Scottish actor John Stuart (1898-1979), a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s.

British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C. 237. Photo: Mannell.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54b.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54e.

Instant star

John Stuart was born John Alfred Louden Croall in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1898. He began his stage and screen career directly after World War I service in 'The Black Watch'. He made his film debut in the drama The Lights of Home (Fred Paul, 1920).

Other silent films were the drama If Four Walls Told (Fred Paul, 1922) starring Lillian Hall-Davis, the comedy The School for Scandal (Bertram Phillips, 1923) with Queenie Thomas, and the comedy We Women (W.P. Kellino, 1925).

Stuart was a very popular leading man in British silent films, though it's hard to gauge that popularity since many of his best films of the 1920s, such as A Sporting Double (Arthur Rooke, 1923), Constant Hot Water (George A. Cooper, 1924) and The Tower of London (Maurice Elvey, 1926) with Isobel Elsom, are either inaccessible or non-existent.

He appeared in a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Pleasure Garden (1925) was Hitchcock’s directorial debut. Based on a novel by Oliver Sandys, the film is about two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. Glamorous American star Virginia Valli played the lead. The film was shot in Italy and Germany in 1925 and shown to the British press in March 1926. But it was not officially released in the UK until 1927, after Hitchcock's film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog became a massive hit in February 1927.

Stuart worked several times with director Maurice Elvey. Very popular was their World War I drama Mademoiselle from Armentieres (Maurice Elvey, 1926), featuring Estelle Brody. The film opened in London in September 1926 and was still playing in cinemas around the country until well into 1927. It was reportedly the most profitable British film of 1926 and made an instant star of Brody. The two stars were reunited in the drama Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey, 1927), which skilful use of location is considered to give the film a documentary realism feel very unusual in British films of the period. Brody and Stuart co-starred again in Mademoiselle Parley Voo (Maurice Elvey, 1928), a sequel to Mademoiselle from Armentieres, and equally successful. Both films refer to the popular First World War song Mademoiselle from Armentières.

Lillian Hall-Davis German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1479/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.

Queenie Thomas. British postcard in the series Screen Plays. Photo: Bertram Phillips.

Virginia Valli. British postcard. The frame is similar to those of Beagles and Lilywhite. The name is scratched away but this could be a photo by Autrey.

Number seventeen

John Stuart’s first sound film, Kitty (Victor Saville, 1929) was another successful production. Kitty was initially planned and filmed as a silent, but on its original completion director Saville decided to reshoot the latter part with sound. As no suitable facilities were yet available in Britain, Saville, Estelle Brody and Stuart travelled to New York to shoot the new sequences at RKO Studios. The film was released in the form of a silent which switched to sound after the halfway point.

Stuart’s next film, Atlantic (1929) was one of the first British films made with the soundtrack optically recorded on the film (sound-on-film). Atlantic was directed and produced by Ewald André Dupont. Three versions were made, an English and a German language version, Atlantik, which were shot simultaneously, and later a French version was made. In England, Atlantic was released in both sound and silent prints. The film was originally made as Titanic but after lawsuits it was renamed Atlantic. The White Star Line, which owned the RMS Titanic, was still in operation at the time. The final scene of the film was filmed as a shot of the liner sinking but it was cut at the last minute as it was feared it would upset Titanic survivors.

Then Stuart worked for a second time with Alfred Hitchcock, although indirectly. Elstree Calling (1930) is a lavish musical film revue directed by Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, and Hitchcock at Elstree Studios. It was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues, such as Paramount on Parade (Dorothy Arzner et al, 1930) and The Hollywood Review of 1929 (Charles Reisner, 1929). Stuart was not appearing in the segments directed by Hitchcock.

They really worked together again on Number Seventeen (Alfred Hitchcock, 1932), in which Stuart played the lead. The film is about a group of criminals who committed a jewel robbery and put their money in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel, the film's title being derived from the house's street number. An outsider stumbles onto this plot and intervenes with the help of a neighbour, a police officer's daughter. On its initial release, audiences reacted to Number Seventeen with confusion and disappointment.

Stuart then played Sir Henry Baskerville in the mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1932), based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle and scripted by Edgar Wallace. He was the co-star of Brigitte Helm in The Mistress of Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932), the English language version of the German-French adventure and fantasy film L'Atlantide / Die Herrin von Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932) based on the novel 'L'Atlantide' by Pierre Benoît.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54. Photo: Mills.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54c.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54e.

Quota quickie

John Stuart starred with Benita Hume in the drama Men of Steel (George King, 1932). It was made at Nettlefold Studios under the so-called Quota Quickie system for distribution by United Artists. In 1927, The Cinematograph Films Act was designed to stimulate the declining British film industry. It introduced a requirement for British cinemas to show a quota of British films, for 10 years. The result of the act was the 'quota quickie', a low-cost, poor-quality film commissioned by American distributors operating in the UK purely to satisfy the quota requirements.

During the 1930s Stuart appeared in a lot of these films. Memorable are the drama The Lost Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) with Elizabeth Allan and Jack Hawkins, the comedy This Week of Grace Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) starring Gracie Fields and Henry Kendall, and Anglo-Italian aviation drama The Blue Squadron (George King, 1934) with Esmond Knight.

Stuart co-starred with Fritz Kortner and Nils Asther in Abdul the Damned (Karl Grune, 1935), set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War where the Sultan and the Young Turks battle for power. He also worked often with director George Pearson, like in the thriller The Secret Voice (1936), and appeared in several parts of the long-running Old Mother Riley series. During the war years, Stuart’s parts became smaller or better said, he matured into character parts.

He played a supporting part in the thriller Headline (John Harlow, 1944) with David Farrar as a crime reporter who searches for a mystery woman (Anne Crawford) who has witnessed a murder. Another example is the Gainsborough melodrama Madonna of the Seven Moons (Arthur Crabtree, 1945) starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. In 1946 readers of the Daily Mail voted the film their third most popular British movie from 1939 to 1945. During the following decades, he played government officials and police inspectors in B-films like the mystery The Ringer (Guy Hamilton, 1952) starring Herbert Lom, and the Science Fiction film Four Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher, 1953).

Memorable are the war film Sink the Bismarck! (Lewis Gilbert, 1960) with Kenneth More, the Science Fiction film Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960), and the suspense film Paranoiac (Freddie Francis, 1963) from Hammer Films starring Janette Scott and Oliver Reed. Stuart only played bit roles in these films. His last part was a cameo in Superman (Richard Donner, 1978). In 1979, John Stuart died in London at the age of 81. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. An accomplished writer, John Stuart penned his autobiography, 'Caught in the Act', in 1971. His son, author and journalist Jonathan Croall published 'Forgotten Stars: My Father and the British Silent Film World' (2013) a book about the English screen idols of the 1920s.

British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London, no. 2.

Trailer The Pleasure Garden (1925). Source: BFI films (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

In Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025's tribute to Willi Forst, one of the highlights is the musical Frauen sind keine Engel / Women Are No Angels (1943) starring Marte Harell. Her co-star in this film was Axel von Ambesser (1910-1988) who became one of the best-known actors, directors and writers of post-war Germany.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3688/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wesel / Berlin Film.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3251/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick / Ufa.

Two men with identical names and a shared fate

Axel von Ambesser was born Axel Eugen Alexander von Oesterreich in Hamburg, Germany in 1910. Following the advice of his father, a merchant originally hailing from St. Petersburg, he changed his name to 'Axel von Ambesser'.

Although, not classically trained as an actor, the theatre-crazy Ambesser was given parts at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. He worked from 1930 on as a stage actor in Germany and Austria, often cast as the young hero, charming suitor and comic relief. From 1936 to 1941 he was a company member of the prestigious Deutsche Theater in Berlin.

He made his film debut with a small part in Der Gefangene des Königs/The King's Prisoner (Carl Boese, 1935). In the next years followed successful productions like Salonwagen E 417 / Lounge Car E 417 (Paul Verhoeven, 1939), Das Herz der Königin / The Heart of a Queen (Carl Froelich, 1940) starring Zarah Leander, and Frauen sind keine Engel / Women Are No Angels (Willi Forst, 1943) with Marte Harell.

Das Mädchen Juanita / The Girl Juanita (Wolfgang Staudte, 1945) could not be finished because of the end of World War II. It was edited with material from the archives and released in West Germany in 1952. In 1944 Wolfgang Staudte shot another film with Von Ambesser called Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl / The Man Whose Name Was Stolen. This satire was finished, but didn't pass the censorship and parts of it seemed to be lost in the war.

After the war, Staudte once again undertook to film the story. As he used Von Ambesser again, it is believed that parts of the 1944 film were used, and other sequences were re-shot three years later. Die seltsamen Abenteuer des Herrn Fridolin B. / The Adventures of Fridolin was finally released in March 1948. It is a witty dry comedy about two men with identical names, who for some strange reason have been listed by the official bureaucracy as one. So they obviously have to share each other's fate to some extent. According to Filmportal.de, Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl / The Man Whose Name Was Stolen has been rediscovered, almost 70 years after the film was made.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3820/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Hämmerer / Wien Film.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. 874. Photo: N.W.-luse / Herzog-Film / Sandmann. Axel von Ambesser in Drei, von denen man spricht / Three of which we speak (Axel von Ambesser, 1953).

The German voice of Charlie Chaplin

After the war, Axel von Ambesser was an ensemble member at the Münchner Kammerspiele before he became a freelancing actor in the late 1940s. He also started writing and directing, and in some cases, he directed himself as the lead of his own plays.

In the cinema, he acted in Tanzende Sterne / Dancing Stars (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) and Gustav Adolfs Page / Gustav Adolph's Page (Rolf Hansen, 1960), or was a commentator in Kommen Sie am Ersten / Come on First (Erich Engel, 1951) and Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein / Operation Caviar (Géza von Radványi, 1961) starring O.W. Fischer.

His voice was the ‘German voice’ of Charlie Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947). Von Ambesser also wrote the German translation for this film. In the 1950s he often worked as a writer for stage, cabaret, film and television and was even the ‘most played of the living authors of the German language’. In 1953, he made his debut as a film director with the comedy Drei, von denen man spricht / Three of Which We Speak. He directed hits like Der Pauker / The Crammer (1958) and Der brave Soldat Schwejk / The Good Soldier Schweik (1960) based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek, both starring Heinz Rühmann.

Schwejk won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Other popular films were his Der Gauner und der liebe Gott / The Crook and the Cross (1960) starring Gert Fröbe, Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (1962) starring Liselotte Pulver and the Father-Brown-detective Er kanns nicht lassen / He Can't Stop (1962) again starring Heinz Rühmann. His last work for the cinema was Die fromme Helene / The Pious Helene (1965), for which he worked as a director, writer as well as an actor. From the mid-1960s on, he worked for television.

In the early 1980s, Axel von Ambesser mostly retired from TV but continued to work in the theatre. In 1985, he published his memoirs, and was awarded the Filmband in Gold, for his 'continued outstanding individual contributions to the German film over the years'. Axel von Ambesser died in 1988. He was married to actress Inge von Oesterreich-Ambesser from 1935 till his death. His daughter Gwendolyn von Ambesser works like her father both as a director, author and actress.

Bruni Löbel in Drei, von denen man spricht (1953)

West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 834. Photo: Neue Wiener Filmproduktion / Lux Film / Herzog Film / Lothar Sandmann. Bruni Löbel in Drei, von denen man spricht / Three To Talk About (Axel von Ambesser, 1953).

Gert Fröbe in Der Gauner und der Lieber Gott (1960)

German collector card in the Unsere Bambi-Lieblinge Series by Penny-Bildbände, no. 41. Photo: Gert Fröbe in Der Gauner und der Lieber Gott / The Crook and the Cross (Axel von Ambesser, 1960).

Letícia Román in Heirate mich, Chérie (1964)

German postcard by Kolibri, no. 2264. Photo: Sascha Film / Gloria Film / Gruber. Letícia Román in Heirate mich, Chérie / Marry Me, Cherie (Axel von Ambesser, 1964).

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

We're following the world’s premier festival dedicated to cinematic masterpieces, timeless classics, and hidden gems: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025 in Bologna. As every edition, the programme includes such strands as Documents and Documentaries, Cinemalibero, 1905, Il Cinema Ritrovato Kids and Young, and Recovered and Restored. One of the recovered and restored films is the Italian silent drama La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (1915), starring Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard. Director Mario Caserini adapted a script by Amleto Palermi for his own company, Films Caserini. Cinematography was by Angelo Scalenghe. The film was discovered and restored in the silent film collection of the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Films Caserini. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (Mario Caserini, 1915).

Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte (1915)

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 5. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

The last show of the famous Amazon of the Circus Continental

The Marchioness Servent (Maria Caserini-Gasperini) has two sons, the man of the world and globetrotter Roberto (Mario Bonnard) and Gualtiero (Gian Paolo Rosmino), who has always lived with his mother.

To finish his studies, Gualtiero moves to Rome, where he meets Sarah (Leda Gys), the famous amazon of the Circus Continental. He falls in love with her.

Roberto is sent by his mother to fetch Gualtiero. In Rome, he casually meets Sarah and spends an evening with her, not knowing that the woman is his brother's lover. Gualtiero surprises them and makes a scene. Their mother convinces Gualtiero to leave the city with her.

Roberto, who has stayed in Rome, begins to see Sarah. He also falls in love with her and goes on tour with the circus. Yet, Sarah is soon bored with him and forgets him in the arms of a new conquest. Roberto duels with the new lover but is seriously wounded. Sarah visits him in the hospital with a 'court' of admirers. Roberto, trying to get up, reopens the wound and bleeds to death.

At the Circus Continental, the last show of Sarah's Pantomime of Death takes place. In the act, Sarah is shot with a blank by an assistant during a beast hunt. The shot that goes off is not a blank, and Sarah doesn't rise anymore. Gualtiero has replaced the assistant and killed her for real. The circus audience does not realise the tragedy that has unfolded before their eye and applauds frantically.

Leda Gys and Mario Bonard in La pantomima della morte (1915)

French postcard, no. 7467. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (Mario Caserini, 1915).

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 1. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Burned by the flame of sensuality

La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (1915) was praised by the critic Guêpe in the Neapolitan film journal La Cine-Fono in 1916.

Guêpe also hads some critical comments: "With just the fascination of her beauty, without any of those terrible dramatic switches in which a vulgar adventuress changes into a person of tragedy, Sarah destroys the two young men and the beautiful lives of the marquis of Servent, bringing them only death and destruction, while she is burned by the flame of sensuality with which she imprisons the other two.

It is the destiny of these rather fantasy-like women to die by the hand of those whom they have transformed into their own instruments of lust."

The critic thought Bonnard and Gys, even if well performing, could have done better, but at the same time admits that this conforms to the taste of the audience, which otherwise would be deluded. What starts as a real artwork thus becomes popular drama, in which the close-ups are all for the wonderful shapes of the protagonist, Leda Gys.

Leda Gys (1892-1957) starred in ca. 60 dramas, comedies, action thrillers and even Westerns of the Italian and Spanish silent cinema. Her claim to fame came with the film Christus (1916), shot in Egypt and Palestine, where Gys performed the Madonna. Mario Bonnard, a.k.a. Mario Bonard (1889-1965) was an Italian actor and director, whose rich career spanned from 1909 to the early 1960s.

Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomime della morte (1915)

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 2. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 3. Leda Gys in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, Vol. 1917, II - Italian) Wikipedia (Italian and IMDb. With thanks to Elif Rongen-Kaynakci.

Paula Raymond (1924-2003) was an American model and actress who played the leading lady in numerous films and television series. In 1950, she was put under contract by MGM, where she acted opposite leading men such as Cary Grant and Dick Powell. She is probably best remembered for one of the first atomic monster movies, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she appeared in countless episodes of TV series.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 946. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Paula Raymond and Paul Hubschmid in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Spanish postcard. Paula Raymond and Paul Hubschmid as Paul Christian in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953).

B Film Noirs at Columbia

Paula Raymond was born Paula Ramona Wright in 1924 in San Francisco, California. Her father was a corporate lawyer. She was the niece of Farnsworth Wright, the editor of pulp magazine 'Weird Tales'. After her parents divorced, Raymond and her mother moved to Los Angeles. As a child, Raymond studied ballet, piano, and singing. She was a member of both the San Francisco Opera Company and the San Francisco Children's Opera Company.

By chance, she made her film debut at age 14 during a visit to Los Angeles. She was credited as Paula Rae Wright in the comedy Keep Smiling (Herbert I. Leeds, 1938), starring Jane Withers. Four years later, she graduated from Hollywood High School in 1942. Following graduation, she returned to San Francisco to attend college to study pre-law. Her attorney father wanted his only child to follow in his footsteps.

She also worked with two theatre groups there. Before she became an actress, Raymond was a photographer's model. Her work included posing for the cover of True Confessions magazine. In 1944, she gave up her acting ambitions when she hastily married Marine Captain Floyd Patterson, while he was on leave from the war in the Pacific.

Two years later, they divorced and, to support her young daughter Raeme, Raymond returned to Hollywood to take bit parts under the name of Rae Patterson. Although contracted to Paramount in 1947, she was released without working there. She appeared in films like the musical comedy Variety Girl (George Marshall, 1947) starring Mary Hatcher.

In 1947, she was signed by Columbia, where, as Paula Raymond, she spent two years appearing in B-movies, including the Film Noir Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948), starring Edward G. Robinson, and several Westerns such as Challenge Of The Range (Ray Nazarro, 1949), starring Charles Starrett. She was discovered by George Cukor when she played a guest role on the early TV drama The Million Pound Bank Note (1949). Cukor gave her a minor role in the Spencer Tracy / Katharine Hepburn vehicle Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949).

Vintage postcard, no. 731. Photo: M.G.M.

One of the first atomic monster movies

In 1950, Paula Raymond was put under contract by MGM, where she played opposite Cary Grant in the drama Crisis (Richard Brooks, 1950), and with Robert Taylor in the Western Devil's Doorway (Anthony Mann, 1950).

Ronald Bergan in his obituary of Raymond in The Guardian: "It looked as though Raymond, a striking brunette, might break into real stardom. Certainly in the former, the first feature by Richard Brooks, she is delightfully cool as she accompanies her brain surgeon husband (Grant) to a South American country, where the dictator (José Ferrer) needs an operation. Caught up in a revolution, the couple want to return to New York, where the chic Raymond would rather do some shopping."

After leaving MGM, Raymond appeared in the film for which she is probably best remembered, one of the first atomic monster movies, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953) with Paul Christian aka Paul Hubschmid. In this Science-Fiction cult classic, she appeared as a palaeontologist who links several sea and beach disasters to a prehistoric creature on the loose as a result of an atomic test. She provided a little glamour and romance in a picture where the actors were secondary to Ray Harryhausen's special effects.

Raymond acted in Film Noirs such as City That Never Sleeps (John H. Auer, 1953) with Gig Young, Mala Powers and Marie Windsor. In 1954, she starred as Queen Berengaria in King Richard and the Crusaders (David Butler, 1954), starring Rex Harrison. She also starred in the Western The Gun That Won the West (William Castle, 1955).

Raymond also did some work for Paramount Pictures using the screen name Rae Patterson. By 1955, she had become a 'has-been' by Hollywood standards and Raymond left the industry and worked in several jobs under a variation of her married name. But in 1958, she returned to acting and became part of the television renaissance. In the late 1950s, Raymond appeared in such television shows as Perry Mason (1959-1964, five episodes), Hawaiian Eye (1959-1962, five episodes), M Squad (1958-1960, three episodes) with Lee Marvin, 77 Sunset Strip (1959-1964, four episodes), Peter Gunn (1958) and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1959).

Vintage card. Photo: M.G.M.

A car crash on Sunset Boulevard

During the early 1960s, Paula Raymond played opposite Jack Kelly in an episode from the Western comedy television series Maverick (1961), and opposite Clint Eastwood in an episode of Rawhide (1962).

In 1962, Raymond was driven by her friend, Gloria Beutel in a car on Sunset Boulevard, when Gloria lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. The car overturned several times, and Raymond was pulled just before it exploded. Raymond's nose was severed by the rearview mirror and had to be reconstructed by a plastic surgeon. After a little more than a year of extensive plastic surgery and recovery, she returned to acting.

Raymond was cast in episodes of series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Death Valley Days (1964). In the cinema, she could be seen in the low-budget Horror film Blood of Dracula's Castle (Al Adamson, 1967), and the lurid Western Five Bloody Graves (Al Adamson, 1969), where she was the madame of a travelling brothel.

In 1977, after retiring for some years, she got a role in the daytime soap opera, Days Of Our Lives. After only three appearances, she accidentally tripped on a telephone cord and broke her ankle. She was written out of the show. She moved into business interests, though remaining an actor at heart. Her final film appearance was in the straight-to-video erotic thriller Mind Twister (Fred Olen Ray, 1994) with Telly Savalas.

In 1944, Raymond had married Floyd Leroy Patterson. In 1946, they divorced shortly after the birth of their daughter, Raeme Dorene Patterson. In 1965, she married aircraft executive Harry Leslie Williams, who was 20 years her elder. They divorced a year later. In 1993, Raymond's daughter died. Paula Raymond passed away in 2003, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from a series of respiratory ailments. She was 79 and survived by a granddaughter. Raymond is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. In 1999 she started working on her autobiography 'I Was Born Right, Where Did I Go Wrong or The Misadventures of a Dumb Dame' but she died before it was finished.

Vintage postcard, no. 631. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 315. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Duchess of Idaho (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950).

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) was a two-time Academy Award-winning film actor, director, writer, journalist, and raconteur. He played Batiatus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and had also roles in films like Quo vadis? (1951), Topkapi (1964) and Death on the Nile (1978). Ustinov wrote and directed many acclaimed stage plays and staged operas such as 'The Magic Flute' and 'Don Giovanni'. The Brit became also a Swiss citizen in 1961.

German postcard by L.M. Kartenvertrieb, no. L.M.P. 01915. Photo: Wilhelm W. Reinke.

Peter Ustinov as Nero in Quo Vadis (1951)

American still by MGM. Peter Ustinov as Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951), shot at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, and based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov at the set of Spartacus (1960)

French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 004/8. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov on the set of Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960). Caption: Contrast of eras between the clothing of Laurence Olivier and that of the director and actor Peter Ustinov.

Emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution

Peter Ustinov was born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinow in 1921 in Swiss Cottage, London. He was the son of Nadezhda Leontievna (née Benois) and Jona Freiherr von Ustinow. His father was of one-quarter Polish Jewish, one-half Russian, one-eighth Ethiopian, and one-eighth German descent, while his mother was of one-half Russian, one-quarter Italian, one-eighth French, and one-eighth German ancestry. Ustinov had ancestral connections to Russian nobility as well as to the Ethiopian Royal Family.

His father, also known as "Klop Ustinov", was a pilot in the German Air Force during World War I. In 1919, Jona Freiherr von Ustinow joined his mother and sister in St Petersburg, Russia, where he met his future wife, artist Nadia Benois, who worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet and Opera House in St Petersburg. In 1920, in a modest and discreet ceremony at a Russian-German church in St Petersburg, Ustinov's father married Nadia.

In February 1921, when she was seven months pregnant with Peter, the couple emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution. Young Peter was brought up in a multilingual family. He was fluent in Russian, French, Italian and German, as well as English. He attended Westminster College (1934-1937), took the drama and acting class under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio (1937-1939), and made his stage debut in 1938 at the Stage Theatre Club in Surrey.

He wrote his first play at the age of 19. In 1939, he made his London stage debut in a revue sketch, then had regular performances with the Aylesbury Repertory Company. The following year, he made his film debut in Hullo, Fame! (Andrew Buchanan, 1940) starring Jean Kent. From 1942 to 1946, Ustinov served with the British Army's Royal Sussex Regiment. As a private, he was 'batman' (a personal servant) for lieutenant-colonel David Niven, and the two became lifelong friends.

Peter Ustinov spent most of his service working with the Army Cinema Unit, where he was involved in making recruitment films, wrote plays and appeared in three films as an actor, including a small role as a priest in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1942). He also co-wrote and acted in The Way Ahead / The Immortal Battalion (Carol Reed, 1944), starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 890. Photo: Pilgrim Pictures. Publicity still for Private Angelo (Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov, 1949).

Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov and Leo G. Carroll in We're No Angels (1955)

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 117. Photo: Snark International. Aldo Ray, Leo G. Carroll, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Ustinov in We're No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955).

An autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor

From the 1950s on, Peter Ustinov had a stellar film career as an actor, director, and writer. Producer Sam Zimbalist initially thought that the 30-year-old actor was too young to play Roman emperor Nero in the epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, 1951), based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel. After a whole year of hesitation, Zimbalist received a telegraphic message from Ustinov that he would soon be too old for the role if they waited any longer, as Nero himself had already died at the age of 31.

Ustinov was then finally hired. His portrayal of the autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor was honoured with a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar. Another screen acting gem is his role as the polyglot stable master in Max Ophüls's masterpiece Lola Montès (1955), starring Martine Carol. His other films include Beau Brummell (Curtis Bernhardt, 1954) and We Are No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955) with Humphrey Bogart.

In 1957, he played the leading role of Soviet secret agent Michel Kaminsky in Henri-Georges Clouzot's political thriller Spies at Work. He also wrote and directed theatre plays, in which he also acted. In 1958 he received two Tony Award nominations, for Best Actor (Dramatic) and Best Play Author, for 'Romanoff and Juliet', which parodied the East-West conflict. Ustinov later adapted the play for a 1961 film. In the late 1950s, he also made a comedy record, 'Mock Mozart' and 'Phoney Folk Lor'". He had been performing these as party pieces. Overdubbing allowed Ustinov to sing multiple parts. His producer was George Martin, the future producer of The Beatles.

During the 1960s, Ustinov was awarded two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, one for his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) and one for his role as Arthur Simon Simpson in the Heist film Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964) opposite Melina Mercouri. He received two more Oscar nominations as an actor and writer. In January 1963, the Mirisch Company sued him for damages after he pulled out at the 11th hour to play Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963), which was in production in Rome with his replacement, Peter Sellers. He acted in such films as The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and the comedy Hot Millions (Eric Till, 1968) with Maggie Smith, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which he co-wrote with author Ira Wallach.

He also wrote and directed the brilliant Billy Budd (Peter Ustinov, 1962) in which he played the role of the captain himself oppositeTerence Stamp. It was followed by Lady L (Peter Ustinov, 1965) with Sophia Loren and David Niven. During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi', Ravel's 'L'heure espagnole', Schoenberg's 'Erwartung', and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. In the following decade, he acted in films like Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976) starring Michael York. He played an old man surviving a totalitarian future. He was also the voice of Prince John in Disney's animated film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). He appeared in television plays and shows and won three Emmys: in 1958 for Omnibus: The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1967 for Barefoot in Athens and in 1970 for A Storm in Summer.

Kirk Douglas and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (1960)

Romanian collectors card. Photo: Kirk Douglas and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).

British postcard in the Cinema series. French affiche for Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).

Hercule Poirot

Peter Ustinov's career slowed down a bit in the 1970s, but he made a comeback as Hercule Poirot in the star-studded Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978), based on Agatha Christie's novel. In the 1980s, Ustinov recreated Poirot in several subsequent television movies and theatrical films, including Evil Under the Sun (Guy Hamilton, 1982) and Appointment with Death (Michael Winner, 1988). Ustinov's performance, increasingly based on his own persona, enjoyed great popularity.

He also wrote and directed the British-Yugoslav drama Memed My Hawk (Peter Ustinov, 1984) with Herbert Lom. It is an adaptation of the 1955 Turkish novel 'Memed, My Hawk', the debut novel of Yaşar Kemal, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Memed, My Hawk was produced in Yugoslavia following the Turkish government's refusal of permission to film. Ustinov's cinema work in the 1990s includes his superb performance as Professor Gus Nikolais in the film drama Lorenzo's Oil (George Miller, 1992) opposite Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. This character was partially inspired by Hugo Wolfgang Moser, a research scientist who had been director of the Neurogenetics Research Center at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University.

Ustinov's expertise in dialectic and physical comedy made him a regular guest on talk shows. His witty and multidimensional humour was legendary, and he later published a collection of his jokes and quotations summarizing his wide popularity as a raconteur. He was also an internationally acclaimed TV journalist. In 1984, he unwittingly witnessed the assassination of India's prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was to be interviewed by Ustinov for his three-part BBC series Ustinov's People, but on the way she was murdered by her two bodyguards. Ustinov covered over 100,000 miles and visited more than 30 Russian cities during the making of his well-received BBC television series Russia (1986).

In his autobiographies, 'Dear Me' (1977) and 'My Russia' (1996), Ustinov revealed his observations on his life, career, and his multicultural and multi-ethnic background. He wrote and directed numerous stage plays, successfully presenting them in several countries. His drama, 'Photo Finish', was staged in New York, London and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Ustinov also directed the acclaimed production. The cosmopolitan multi-talent was a UNICEF Special Ambassador from 1968, Chairman of the World Federalist Movement from 1990 and founder of the Peter Ustinov Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions for Children and Young People in 1999. Ustinov served as Rector of Dundee University for six years. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1957 and was knighted in 1990.

From 1971 until he died in 2004, Peter Ustinov's permanent residence was a château in Bursins, Vaud, Switzerland. He died of heart failure in 2004, in a clinic in Genolier, also in Vaud. His funeral service was held at Geneva's historic Cathedral of St. Pierre, and he was laid to rest in the village cemetery of Bursins. Ustinov's first wife was Angela Lansbury's half-sister, Isolde Denham. They were married from 1940 to 1950 when the union ended in divorce. Ustinov and Denham had one child together, Tamara Ustinov. Ustinov and his second wife, Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, had three children: two daughters (Andrea and Pavla Ustinov) and a son, Igor Ustinov. His third wife was French journalist Hélène du Lau d'Allemans, to whom he was married from 1972 until his death. Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb: "His epitaph may be gleaned from his comment, 'I am an international citizen conceived in Russia, born in England, working in Hollywood, living in Switzerland, and touring the World'."

Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in The Comedians (1967)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967).

French postcard in the series Le Monde merveilleux de Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 233. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

British postcard by Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. PN 98.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

On 23 June 2025, Lea Massari (1933) passed away. The Italian actress and singer worked in both Italian and French cinema. She is best remembered for such film classics as Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960) as the missing girl Anna, and Louis Malle's Le Souffle au Coeur (1971) as Clara, the mother of a sexually precocious 14-year-old boy.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 154.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 694.

A sweet girl in love

Lea Massari was born in 1933 in Rome, in the district of Monteverde Vecchio, as Anna Maria Massatani. She was the daughter of a Roman engineer and also of Umbrian descent on her mother's side.

During her childhood, she lived in Spain, France, and Switzerland. Back in Rome, she enrolled at university and attended architecture courses in the early 1950s. In the meantime, she worked as a model and collaborated with the set and costume designer Piero Gherardi, a family friend, who soon introduced her to the world of cinema.

On the set of the film Proibito / Forbidden (1954), where Gherardi worked, director Mario Monicelli noticed her aristocratic and refined features, underlined by her feline gaze and hoarse voice. He convinced her to play a passionate Sardinian girl, alongside Amedeo Nazzari and Mel Ferrer.

On the occasion of her debut on the big screen, at the age of 21, she assumed a stage name in memory of her fiancé Leo, with whom she was supposed to be married, but who died in a tragic accident a few days before the wedding.

The role of the sweet girl in love was repeated in I sogni nel cassetto / Dreams in a Drawer (Renato Castellani, 1957), where she was dubbed by Adriana Asti.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmverleih Starfoto no. 1101. Photo: Rizzoli Film. Lea Massari in I sogni nel cassetto (Renato Castellani, 1957), in East-Germany titled Träume in der Schublade.

A dreamy young woman who suddenly disappears

In the 1960s, Lea Massari acted in several Italian and French productions, playing increasingly challenging roles, mostly as a middle-class woman. She began to gain international notoriety alongside Gabriele Ferzetti and Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's film L'avventura / The Adventure (1960). She played perhaps the most iconic role of the first phase of her career, that of Anna, a dreamy young woman who suddenly disappears during a boating trip in the Mediterranean. L'Avventura was nominated for numerous awards and was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

In the same period, she was in the cast of other important films such as La giornata balorda / From a Roman Balcony (Mauro Bolognini, 1960), Il colosso di Rodi / The Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 1960) alongside Rory Calhoun, and especially Una vita difficile / A Difficult Life (Dino Risi,1961) opposite Alberto Sordi and Franco Fabrizi.

Although uncredited, she is notable in Le quattro giornate di Napoli/The Four Days of Naples (Nanni Loy, 1962), based on a subject by Vasco Pratolini, followed by participation in another war-themed film, La città prigioniera/The Captive City (Joseph Anthony, 1962) with David Niven, Ben Gazzara, and Martin Balsam.

In that period, she received a special David di Donatello award for her performance in I sogni muoiono all'alba / Dreams Die at Dawn (Mario Craveri, Enrico Gras, 1961). The film is set during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and is based on a play by Indro Montanelli.

In 1963, she was proposed for the role of Marcello Mastroianni's wife in 8½ by Federico Fellini, later assigned to Anouk Aimée. It seems that during the audition for this part, the director was not convinced because of inadequate make-up by Gherardi. In the same year she starred with Francisco Rabal in the drama Llanto por un bandido / I cavalieri della vendetta / Weeping for a Bandit (Carlos Saura, 1963).

West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2251. Photo: Unitalia Film, Roma.

A sensational accusation of corruption of minors

Since the early years of her career, Lea Massari was often paired with well-known French actors, such as Jean Sorel in the aforementioned La giornata balorda (Mauro Bolognini, 1960), Alain Delon in the Film Noir L'insoumis / The Unvanquished (Alain Cavalier, 1964), and La prima notte di quiete (Valerio Zurlini, 1972) for which she won the first of her two Nastri d'argento, and Maurice Ronet in Il giardino delle delizie / The Garden of Delights (1967), a debut film by Silvano Agosti which was heavily censored in Italy.

She also appeared with Jean-Louis Trintignant in La course du lièvre à travers les champs / And Hope to Die (René Clément, 1972), Yves Montand in Le fils / The Son (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1973), Philippe Leroy in La linea del fiume / The River Line (Aldo Scavarda, 1976) and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Chi dice donna dice donna / Whoever Days Woman Says Woman (Tonino Cervi, 1976). In 1970, she teamed up with Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider in the controversial Les Choses de la vie / The Things of Life, the first success of director Claude Sautet, for which the Roman actress won the Louis-Delluc award. She would return to work with Piccoli in Le divorcement (Pierre Barouh, 1979).

Much appreciated especially in France, after having dealt with the scabrous theme of incest in Louis Malle's French comedy-drama Le Souffle au Coeur / Murmur of the Heart (1971), where she played probably the most important role of her maturity. It also cost her a sensational accusation in Italy for corruption of minors, which was closed with a full acquittal. The film was screened at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and was a box office success in France. In the United States, it received positive reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1973, she received an Étoile de Cristal as the Best Foreign Actress.

In 1969, she had also starred with Gérard Blain and debutant Teo Teocoli in Gianni Vernuccio's film Paolo e Francesca, released two years later. She appeared in John Frankenheimer's Story of a Love Story (1973), opposite Alan Bates and Dominique Sanda, and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's historical drama Allonsanfàn (1974), opposite Marcello Mastroianni. In 1975, she was called to participate as a juror at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1977, she appeared in the film Antonio Gramsci - I giorni del carcere / Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison (Lino Del Fra, 1977) with Riccardo Cucciolla. It won the Pardo d'oro at the Locarno Festival. In 1979, she received her second Nastro d'argento for the role of Luisa Levi in Cristo si è fermato a Eboli / Christ Stopped at Eboli (Francesco Rosi, 1978), where she played alongside Gian Maria Volonté, whom she herself considered the best colleague she had ever worked with.

Small Romanian collector card.

An actress notoriously disinclined to be a star

Lea Massari has also worked successfully in the theatre, including in William Gibson's 'Due sull'altalena' (Two for the Seesaw) (1960), directed by Arnoldo Foà, and on television, as in Capitan Fracassa / Captain Fracasse (1958), I promessi sposi / The Betrothed (1967), in the role of the Monaca di Monza (the nun of Monza), I fratelli Karamazov / The Brothers Karamazov (1969) and Quaderno proibito / Forbidden notebook (1980).

She was particularly appreciated by audiences and critics was her performance in Anna Karenina (Sandro Bolchi, 1974), which was repeated several times by the RAI. Her last appearance on the small screen was opposite Erland Josephson in Una donna spezzata / A Broken Woman (Marco Leto, 1988), based on the novel 'La femme rompue' by Simone de Beauvoir and scripted by Massari herself.

Passionate about hunting from a young age, following the example and encouragement of her father, she reduced her artistic activity from the early 1980s onward to devote herself decisively to ecological and animal rights campaigns. She appeared again in Giuseppe Bertolucci's film Segreti Segreti / Secrets Secrets (1985) in which she played the painful role of Lina Sastri's suicidal mother.

An actress notoriously disinclined to be a star, shy and reserved, and often forced to live and work abroad partly because of her husband's work, she retired for good in 1990, at the age of 57. After that, she rarely appeared in public and gave few interviews, refusing various invitations to return to the set, such as the one received by Ferzan Özpetek, who wanted her in Cuore sacro / Sacred Heart (2005), in a role then assigned to Lisa Gaston.

Her last film, which had little success, was Viaggio d'amore / Journey of Love (Ottavio Fabbri, 1990), based on a subject by Tonino Guerra, in which she starred alongside Omar Sharif. After retiring from the stage, she moved to Sardinia with her husband, the former Alitalia pilot Carlo Bianchini, whom she had married in 1963. Following a financial crisis, she put her important collection of antique jewellery up for auction in 1994. In addition to her campaigns in defence of animals and against vivisection, which also led her to support various dog pounds, her passion for the guitar and Brazilian music is well known. Lea Massari died on 23 June 2025 at her home in the Parioli district of Rome at the age of 91. She was buried in the Sutri cemetery.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 1066.

Lea Massari in La giornata balorda (1960)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1743, 1962. Lea Massari in La giornata balord a/ A Crazy Day (Mauro Bolognini, 1960).

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Handsome American leading man Guy Madison (1922-1996) appeared in 85 films, on radio, and on television. In the 1940s, he started as a fresh-faced dreamboat. He became a hero to the Baby Boom generation as James Butler Hickock in the television series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958). After the Hickok series ended, Madison became a star of European cinema.

Dutch postcard by PEB.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano. no. N. 17. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures.

Guy Madison in Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958)

American Arcade postcard. Guy Madison in the TV series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958).

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 359. Guy Madison in Red Snow (Harry S. Franklin, Boris Petroff, 1952).

German postcard, no. 8 (1-56). Photo: CCC Produktion / Constantin. Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (Hugo Fregonese, 1964). Caption: "Captain Bradley ist der Anführer eines Siedlertrecks, der nach Westen will." (Captain Bradley leads a group of settlers, who want to go west).

Major heartthrob material

Guy Madison was born in 1922 as Robert Ozell Moseley in Pumpkin Center, California, and was reared in nearby Bakersfield. His father was a machinist on the Santa Fe Railroad. His younger brother, Wayne Mallory, would later become a Western actor too.

As a young man, Robert worked as a telephone lineman but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood in 1944, he reportedly attended a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast and was spotted in the audience by Helen Ainsworth, an assistant to Henry Willson.

Willson was the talent agent for producer David O. Selznick at the time. Selznick wanted an unknown sailor to play a small but prominent part in the Home Front morale-booster Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), and promptly signed Robert Moseley to a contract. Selznick and Willson saw major heartthrob material in the blond, boyishly handsome sailor. They concocted the screen name Guy Madison (the 'guy' girls would like to meet, and Madison from a passing Dolly Madison cake wagon). Later, Willson would do the same for such other handsome film hunks as Rock Hudson (born Roy Scherer), Tab Hunter (Arthur Kelm), and Troy Donahue (Merle Johnson).

Madison filmed his three-minute bowling alley sequence with Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker in Since You Went Away on a weekend pass and returned to duty. The film's release brought an avalanche of fan letters (43,000 pieces) for Madison's lonely, strikingly handsome young sailor, and at war's end, he returned to find himself a star in the making.

Madison was signed by RKO Pictures in 1946 and began appearing in romantic comedies and such dramas as Till the End of Time (Edward Dmytryk, 1946), starring Dorothy McGuire as a war widow, uncertain whether she should or could make a second start with Madison. Despite an initial woodenness to his acting, Madison grew as a performer, studying and working in theatre. However, his career seemed to evaporate by the end of the 1940s.

Dutch postcard. Guy Madison and Shirley Temple on a date, 1944. While on leave from the US Coast Guard, Guy Madison was discovered and got a bit part in Shirley Temple's film Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944). MGM received so much fan mail about Madison they decided to make him a star, including sending him on 'dates' with Temple.

Italian postcard by Picturegoer, London, no. W. 233. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Publicity still for Till the End of Time (Edward Dmytryk, 1946).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 815. Photo: R.K.O. Radio.

American postcard by Vanguard Film, Inc., Culver City, California. Sent by mail in 1946.

Guy Madison in The Charge at Feather River (1953)

West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1092. Photo: Warner Bros. Guy Madison in The Charge at Feather River (Gordon Douglas, 1953).

Numerous beefcake photographs

Guy Madison was the subject of numerous beefcake photographs while building a film persona.

He played leads in a series of programmers, such as the American Civil War film Drums in the Deep South (William Cameron Menzies, 1951), before being cast as legendary U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok in Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, with Andy Devine as the trusty and funny sidekick Jingles.

The show ran on television from 1951 to 1958 and on the radio from 1951 to 1956. Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok made Guy Madison a household name and earned him a new crop of fans, especially among children. Soon, Madison's face appeared on cereal boxes, toys, and other merchandise. Sixteen feature films were released by Monogram Pictures between 1952 and 1955 that consisted of combined episodes of the series.

His popularity as Hickok led to a starring role in the 3-D film The Charge at Feather River (Gordon Douglas, 1953). The film's success gave him a new lease on life in Hollywood. He was cast as a tight-lipped action hero in Westerns like The Command (David Butler, 1954) and The Last Frontier (Anthony Mann, 1955) with Victor Mature.

Guy Madison was also the executive producer of the Western Reprisal! (George Sherman, 1956) in which he played a half-Indian who posed as white.

German postcard by ISV, no. A 46. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 684. Photo: Warner Bros.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 689. Photo: Warner Bros.

West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin., no. A 1280. Photo: Warner Bros.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 424. Photo: Warner Bros.

Karl May

After the Hickok series ended, Guy Madison found work scarce in the USA and travelled to Europe. There he made around 90 films. He first found work in Rome in Peplums like La Schiava di Roma / Slave of Rome (Sergio Grieco, Franco Prosperi, 1961) with Rosanna Podestà, and Rosmunda e Alboino (Carlo Campogalliani, 1961) opposite Jack Palance.

He became a popular star of European cinema after successes as the Karl May Western Old Shatterhand / Apaches' Last Battle (Hugo Fregonese, 1964) opposite Lex Barker. He made a surprising number of popular Spaghetti Westerns in the mid to late 1960s. These included 7 winchester per un massacre / Payment in Blood (Enzo G. Castellari, 1967) with Edd Byrnes, and I lunghi giorni dell'odio / This Man Can't Die (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1968), with Rik Battaglia.

He left Italy in 1970 and temporarily settled in Texas, later returning to Los Angeles. In Hollywood, he appeared mainly in cameo roles, such as in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (Michael Winner, 1976). His last film appearance was in Red River (Richard Michaels, 1988) with James Arness and Ty Hardin. But this TV movie didn't compare with the 1948 classic by Howard Hawks on which it was based.

Later that year, Madison was in a serious auto accident that damaged his lungs. A variety of health problems limited his work in later years, and he died from emphysema in 1996. He was 74.

Guy Madison married his first wife, beautiful and haunted actress Gail Russell, in 1949. Russell's alcoholism helped bring an end to the marriage in 1954. From 1954 to 1964, he was married to model and actress Sheila Connolly, with whom he had four children, Bridget, Dolly, Erin, and Robert. His best friend was actor Rory Calhoun who was later named 'godfather' to Madison's eldest daughter Bridget.

British postcard in "The People' series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P 1124. Photo: Allied Arts.

Italian postcard by S.A. Poligrafica Sammarinese, no. 009u.

Lisa Gastoni and Guy Madison in Il vendicatore mascherato (1964)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 258/69. Photo: Lisa Gastoni and Guy Madison in Il vendicatore mascherato / Gentlemen of the Night (Pino Mercanti, 1964).

German postcard, no. 23 (1-36). Photo: CCC Produktion / Constantin. Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (Hugo Fregonese, 1964). Caption: "Captain Bradley ist der neue Kommandant von Fort Grant." (Captain Bradley is the new commander of Fort Grant).

Trailer Old Shatterhand/Apaches' Last Battle (1964). Source: Cronosmantas (YouTube).

Sources: David Shipman (The Independent), William Grimes (The New York Times), Bridget Madison (Guy Madison Offical Site - now defunct), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Brian J. Walker (Brian's Drive-in Theater), Terry (Gay Influence), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American operatic singer and actor Kenneth Spencer (1911-1964) starred in a few Broadway musicals and musical films in the United States during the 1940s. Frustrated with the racial prejudice he experienced in the United States as a black man, Spencer moved to West Germany in 1950, where he had a successful singing career. He also appeared in several German films. His career was cut short when he died in the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 304 in 1964.

West German postcard by Agfa, no. 527.

West German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 410. Photo: Columbia.

Only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance

Kenneth Lee Spencer was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1911 (according to some sources 1913). He was the son of a steelworker and initially trained as a gardener. Against his father's wishes, he took private vocal lessons while working as a gardener. Eventually, he caught the attention of the tenor Roland Hayes who helped him to get a scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.

After completing his four-year vocal studies in 1938, Spencer tried to get a performing career going but met many obstacles due to racial prejudice in the United States. In 1938 he sang in the Federal Music Project NBC Blue radio opera 'Gettysburg', first at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, then at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1940 he was the understudy for Paul Robeson in the short-lived Broadway musical 'John Henry'. His professional recital debut in 1941 at New York City's Town Hall followed this.

During the early 1940s, Spencer made his first major successes in California as a Hollywood Bowl concert artist and radio performer. This led to his being cast in significant parts in two MGM films in 1943, the musical Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) where he shared the screen with Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, and Louis Armstrong, and the War film Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943) starring Robert Taylor.

Spencer also sang offscreen the commenting ballad in A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone, 1945). He returned to Broadway to portray Joe in the critically acclaimed 1946 revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's 'Show Boat', where he sang 'Ol' Man River'. The revival was highly successful, running almost exactly a year, and this was remarkable at the time for a revival of a play or musical. This was the first American production of 'Show Boat' to receive a full-fledged Broadway cast album, rather than just a studio cast recording.

Despite his popularity, Kenneth Spencer was repeatedly discriminated against as a black man in the USA and was only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance, for example. Through his performances, Spencer supported organisations that worked to improve the legal and social situation of the African-American population, for example in 1941 for the ‘Harlem Committee of the Community Service Society’ and in 1946, already as an established artist, at an event organised by the National Negro Congress.

West German promotion card by Columbia, no. DrW 2886 c.

West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, no. 2226. Photo: H.D. / Europa / Czerwonski. Kenneth Spencer in Mein Bruder Josua / My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956).

Popularity in France and Germany

In 1949 Kenneth Spencer's life changed after performing in Europe for the first time at the International Music Festival in Nice. The European public responded with enthusiasm to his performance and he was soon getting offers to perform all over Europe. It was the first time Spencer experienced a working environment and culture not hindered by racial prejudice.

In Paris, he met the white American journalist Josephine Clarke. However, the two did not marry until they were living in Europe, as marriage between a white woman and a man of colour was a criminal offence in more than half of the US states at the time. In 1953, Spencer became the father of a son. In 1950 he returned to Europe to sing in several radio broadcasts with the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française and perform in several highly lauded concerts in Berlin, including performances with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Spencer was so enamoured with the German public and frustrated with the meagre opportunities he found as a black artist in America that he moved his family to Wuppertal, West Germany in late 1950. Spencer spent the next 14 years in Germany performing in concerts, operas and plays. In 1951, he performed in the French film Les joyeux pélerins/The Merry Pilgrims (Fred Pasquali, 1951) starring Aimé Barelli and his orchestra. He also appeared in a few German films such as Tanzende Sterne/Dancing Stars (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) starring Germaine Damar, An jedem Finger zehn/Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954) and Mein Bruder Josua/My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956) starring Willy A. Kleinau and Ingrid Andree. His final film role was in the West German adventure film Unser Haus in Kamerun/Our House in Cameroon (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) starring Johanna von Koczian and Götz George.

His ability to perform not only Spirituals and classical music but also folk songs in their original languages (French, German, Italian, Russian, Hebrew) won him much popularity in France and post-war Germany. He made many recordings with Columbia Masterworks Records during the 1950s and 1960s which consisted of classical music, spirituals, and folk songs. In 1964, Kenneth Spencer travelled to the United States without his family to support the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with a concert tour.

On the return flight, the Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-8 crashed over Lake Pontchartrain in the Mississippi estuary after a stopover in New Orleans. It happened shortly after take-off on 25 February 1964 at 02:06 local time. All 58 occupants of the aircraft, including Spencer and the French women's rights activist Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux, were killed. The passengers were only recovered from the water weeks later. The final findings of the CAB/NTSB were issued in 1966, indicating that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence from which there was insufficient altitude to recover. Kenneth Spencer was 52.

Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn (1954)

West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1255. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).

West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag G.m.b. H., Minden/Westf., no. 1333. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).

Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Elegant dark-haired beauty Gail Patrick was no conventional heroine and never hesitated to play unsympathetic, scheming, nasty, calculating or haughty characters during her career. But she never really took to a liking to acting. After she left movies, she went into the business world and was notably one of the first women to become a television producer. Raymond Burr, star of the Perry Mason series, once said of her: "Gail is the most fantastic woman I know. She is the closest thing to a dream I’ve met in this business." About her new career as a producer, Gail Patrick allegedly declared: "I’ve never felt self-conscious as a woman dealing with men. I think it’s because the men are concerned, as I am, only with the business at hand. I guess you’d say we meet on a mental level."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9326/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9590/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

The Panther Woman contest

Gail Patrick was born as Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick on the 20th of June 1911 in Birmingham, U.S.A.

After graduating from Howard College, she entered the University of Alabama to become a lawyer. The time she spent there would serve her later in her business career.

While still at school, she entered on a lark a contest sponsored in 1932 by Paramount to find the ideal actress to play the Panther Woman in the movie Island of Lost Souls (1932). She was among the four finalists, but it was eventually Kathleen Burke who was chosen for the part.

However, Gail Patrick was awarded a Paramount contract. A determined woman, she succeeded in convincing the company not to ask her to pose for cheesecake pictures.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1317/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 840.

Cornelia Bullock and Linda Shaw: two defining characters

Gail Patrick made her film debut in a bit part in If I Had a Million (1932) and, gradually, got more important roles.

After having notably played opposite Randolph Scott in Wagon Wheels (1934) or Melvyn Douglas in The Lone Wolf Returns (1935), she got a big break as Cornelia Bullock, Carole Lombard’s frosty and condescending sister, in My Man Godfrey (1936) at Universal.

Another important role was that of cynical and bitchy would-be actress Linda Shaw in R.K.O.’s Stage Door (1937).

Her other films from the end of the 1930s include Her Husband Lies (1937), Mad About Music (1938), as Deanna Durbin’s mother, Dangerous to Know (1938), Wives Under Suspicion (1938) and Disbarred (1939). Her stay at Paramount ended with Grand Jury Secrets (1939).

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2539. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2269/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.

Her career in the 1940s

Gail Patrick then freelanced and appeared in such films as Gallant Sons (1940), Quiet Please, Murder (1942), Women in Bondage (1943), Up in Mabel’s Room (1944), and Brewster’s Millions (1945).

Her most famous film from this period is probably the brilliant Screwball comedy My Favourite Wife (1940), opposite Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.

Patrick ended her movie career at Republic in run-of-the-mill pictures such as The Madonna’s Secret (1946), Rendezvous with Annie (1946), Plainsman at the Lady (1946), and Calendar Girl (1947).

The Inside Story (1948) marked her last appearance on the screen.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2473/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2497. Photo: Paramount.

Perry Mason

Gail Patrick had never been that passionate about acting, so she decided to turn into a businesswoman. In Beverly Hills, she opened a children’s clothing shop called 'The Enchanted Cottage' and ran it for several years. For this achievement, she was named 'Woman of the Year' in 1950 by Woodbury Business College.

From 1957 to 1966, she was executive producer of the successful television series Perry Mason. It was not a facade job: she handled contract negotiation with CBS, was instrumental in the casting of the leading players, reviewed scripts and supervised other aspects of the production.

She was executive consultant on the new Perry Mason series (September 1973 - January 1974), which failed to catch on. Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, who were strongly identified with the Perry Mason and Della Street characters, had been replaced by other actors, and audiences never took to the new casting.

Gail Patrick then retired and concentrated on charitable duties.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 74. Photo: Paramount.

Promotional card issued by Ross Verlag for Turkish chocolate brand Liomel Cikolatasi. Photo: Paramount.

Her four marriages

In 1936, Gail Patrick married Robert Cobb, the owner of the famous Brown Derby restaurant. They divorced in 1940.

Her next husband was Arnold Dean White, a U.S. Navy lieutenant. They married in 1944 but, after she had lost twins at birth in 1945, they divorced in 1946.

In 1947, she remarried to advertising executive Cornwall Jackson, with whom she would form in the 1950s the Paisano production company, alongside Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the Perry Mason character. The couple adopted two children, Thomas and Jennifer, and divorced in 1969.

Her last marriage, to businessman John Velde Jr., occurred in 1974. They stayed married until her death from leukaemia on the 6th of July 1980.

Spanish postcard, Serie 4021, no. 126.

Latvian postcard by Upitis, Riga, no. 389. Photo: Paramount.

Several of Gail Patrick’s achievements

From 1960 to 1962, Gail Patrick was Vice-President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and President of its Hollywood chapter. It was the first time that a woman was given such a leadership position by the Academy.

In 1970, she was named National Honorary Chairman of the American Lung Association’s Christmas Seals campaign. In 1973, she became the first National Chairman of the American Diabetes Association board of directors.

Upon her death, a $1 million bequest from the Gail Patrick Velde trust was given to her sorority, Delta Zeta, at Howard College (now Samford University).

In 2008, in her honour, the fully equipped Gail Patrick Soundstage opened at the Columbia College Hollywood (now California College of ASU), where she once had been a member of the Board of Trustees.

Deanna Durbin, Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall in Mad About Music (1938)

Postcard from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Deanna Durbin, Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall in Mad About Music (Norman Taurog, 1938).

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.

Meg Ryan (1961) is an American film actress. She is best known for her roles as quirky, charismatic women in romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). These blockbusters made her one of Hollywood's most bankable stars during the 1990s. She has also directed a few films since 2015.

Vintage postcard.

British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC 2834.

A faked orgasm in a roadside restaurant

Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1961. She is the daughter of Harry Hyra and Susan Jordan, née Duggan and sister of Dana, Andrew and Annie Hyra. In 1974, the family moved to nearby Bethel, where her father taught maths at a high school. Her mother was a former actress and English teacher. After their mother walked out in 1976, Meg and her siblings grew up with their father.

She graduated from Bethel High School in 1979 and studied Journalism at the University of Connecticut and later communications at New York University. Her mother, who now worked as an acting teacher, got her appearances in television adverts to finance her studies.

After being accepted into the Screen Actors Guild, she decided to perform from then on under the stage name Meg Ryan, her maternal grandmother's maiden name. In 1981, she made her film debut as Candice Bergen's daughter in the drama Rich and Famous (George Cukor, 1981). Then she got the regular role of Betsy in the daytime Soap Opera As the World Turns (1982-1984). Her success as an actress led her to leave college a semester before she planned to graduate.

In 1984, she moved to Hollywood and landed a supporting role in the action film Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. It became a major box office hit, which led to the role of Dennis Quaid's girlfriend in the delicious Science Fiction film Innerspace (Joe Dante, 1987). In real life, the two also got into a relationship and married on Valentine's Day 1991.

In 1989, her big break came with her first leading role in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (Rob Reiner, 1989) opposite comic actor Billy Crystal. The scene in which she fakes an orgasm in a roadside restaurant instantly became a classic. For her role, Ryan received nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award. It also formed the basis of her subsequent film career: most of the major films Ryan would star in were romantic comedies à la When Harry Met Sally....

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in When Harry met Sally... (1989)

British postcard by Odeon Cinemas. Photo: Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in When Harry met Sally... (Rob Reiner, 1989). Caption: Season's Greetings from Harry and Sally, and everyone at Odeon Cinemas. The hit comedy of the year, starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan. When Harry Met Sally..., a new comedy by Rob Reiner. "A clear winner", Jonathan King - The Sun. "Touching, hilarious, honest...There hasn't been a more satisfying film this year" - 20/20. At Odeon Cinemas from Jan 5th.

Vintage autograph card.

Most favourite female movie star of 1999

Meg Ryan played three roles in the comedy Joe Versus the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley, 1990), with Tom Hanks. It was the first film of a successful collaboration between the two actors. The two would go on to successfully star together in the wildly successful Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993). The romantic comedy cashed over 220 million US dollars worldwide, and Meg received a second Golden Globe nomination for her part.

With her role as the wife of Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) in The Doors (Oliver Stone, 1991), Ryan proved she could do more than just romantic comedies. In 1994, she played an alcoholic high-school guidance counsellor in When a Man Loves a Woman (Luis Mandoki, 1994) opposite Andy Garcia. The film and her performance were both well-received by critics. Two years later, Ryan starred as a helicopter pilot in the war drama Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick, 1996) opposite Denzel Washington. In the following year, she was the voice of Anastasia in the animated film Anastasia (Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, 1997), about the Russian Tsar's Romanov family.

Although these films were successful, audiences and critics still appeared to prefer Ryan in romantic films. Big blockbusters were French Kiss (Lawrence Kasdan, 1995) with Kevin Kline, and the fantasy City of Angels (Brad Silberling, 1998) with Nicolas Cage, an American remake of Wim Wenders'Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire (1985). Her biggest hit was You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron, 1998) again with Tom Hanks. It made more than $250 million worldwide. This inspired remake of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940) earned her her third Golden Globe nomination. That year, she was voted 'most favourite female movie star' by the readers of People magazine.

In 2000, Ryan got into a relationship with Russell Crowe on the set of the film Proof of Life (Taylor Hackford, 2000). Almost simultaneously, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid announced they were divorcing. Their divorce became official in 2001. That year, she once again appeared in a romantic comedy, the charming Kate & Leopold (James Mangold, 2001) with Hugh Jackman. At a total gross of $70 million, it would be Ryan's highest-grossing film of the decade. In 2003, Ryan seemed to break with her well-behaved image for good by starring in the erotic thriller In the Cut (Jane Campion, 2003). Ryan appeared nude in a lengthy and rather graphic love scene for the first time in her career. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival but failed with critics and grossed only $23 million in cinemas

In 2008, she played the role of Mary Haines in The Women (Diane English, 2008), a role that Norma Shearer also played in 1939. The Women received a disastrous response from critics but was a commercial success. In 2015, she made her debut as a director with Ithaca (Meg Ryan, 2015), in which she also starred. Eight years later, it was followed by the romantic comedy What Happens Later (Meg Ryan, 2023) with David Duchovny. Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid have a son together, Jack Quaid, born in 1992. In 2006, Ryan adopted a 14-month-old girl from China, Daisy True Ryan. Between 2010 and 2019, she was in a relationship with rock musician John Mellencamp.

Belgian postcard in the 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (The 50 most beautiful women of the century) series by P-Magazine, no. 39. Photo: Outline.

British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC 2934.

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

German photographer Lothar Winkler (1927-2000) made countless star portraits and film stills during the 1950s and 1960s. His photos document the Zeitgeist: the post-war period when the public longed for a perfect world and beautiful appearances. For this post, we selected 20 cards with photos by Winkler.

Caterina Valente and Bill Haley in Hier bin ich - hier bleib' ich (1959)

West German postcard by ISV, no. H 27. Photo: Constantin / Lothar Winkler. Caterina Valente and Bill Haley and the Comets in Hier bin ich - hier bleib' ich / Here I Am, Here I Stay (Werner Jacobs, 1959).

Big German card by ISV, no. EX 26. Photo: Constantin / Rapid / Lothar Winkler. Freddy Quinn in Heimweh nach St. Pauli / Homesick for St. Pauli (Werner Jacobs, 1963).

Claudia Cardinale and John Wayne in Circus World (1964)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Lothar Winkler. Claudia Cardinale and John Wayne in Circus World (Henry Hathaway, 1964).

Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)

Vintage postcard, no. 2175. Photo: Lothar Winkler. Image: Italian lobby card (locandina) by Izaro Films. Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in più / For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965).

Raquel Welch in Le plus vieux métier du monde (1967)

Vintage postcard. Photo: Raquel Welch in Le plus vieux métier du monde / The Oldest Profession in the World (Michael Pfleghar, a.o., 1967).

Photographing actors and singers the way they wanted to see themselves

Lothar Winkler was born in Neuköln, Berlin in 1947. In 1947, Winkler joined the German tabloid newspaper B.Z. as a police reporter. Decades later, journalist Martina lovingly remembered her colleague in the newspaper: "Contacts with underworld king Gerhard Hirschfeld brought him red-hot photos. Including late-night phone calls: 'You, Winkler! We're just breaking into Karstadt. Do you want to take photos?' Lothar wanted to. Sure." Winkler also told her about his first big coup in 1956: "Winkler travelled to Monaco in his VW bus, which was his photo studio. The princely wedding. And stood in the 50th row. Crap. At night, he photographed a drunk man at the casino. Threw the photo into the developer. ‘I thought I was crazy,’ he said in one of the many B.Z. interviews. The drunk was Onassis. Winkler brought the photo to Onassis' yacht. Onassis laughed his head off, collected the negative. And on the day of the wedding, he invited Winkler into his helicopter, from which he rained roses on Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier."

Around that time, Lothar Winkler became the in-house photographer for Bravo magazine. During the 1950s and 1960s, he helped the youth magazine to its first successes with his ‘star cuts’. He was a photographer whom the stars trusted. He became friends with two of the German superstars of the era, Caterina Valente and Freddy Quinn and their careers were closely linked to Winkler's career. He became friends with Valente while shooting on the set of the Schlager film Das einfache Mädchen / The Simple Girl (Werner Jacobs, 1957). The encounter with Valente was another breakthrough for Winkler. Winkler later accompanied Caterina Valente on her tours to America, Mexico, and Japan. Winkler elicited many private details from the singer and actress in his photos: wearing a bobble hat, she sleeps in the passenger seat of a car. Another picture shows her knitting, looking somewhat bemusedly at the camera through her white glasses.

Especially for the photobook 'Meine Freunde, die Stars' (2006), singer and actor Freddy Quinnwrote a letter to his deceased companion: "I like to remember our many journeys together, our worldwide adventures, which you documented with your photos!" Quinn called Winkler one of his few friends. Winkler made the stills for his Schlager films Freddy und der Millionär / Freddy and the millionaire (Paul May, 1961) and Heimweh nach St. Pauli / Homesick for St. Pauli (Werner Peters, 1963). Not only did the German superstars give Winkler access to their lives and work, but the photographer also got up close and personal with many international stars of the 1950s and 1960s. Winkler photographed Jayne Mansfield getting dressed with her children. Winkler met Claudia Cardinale unpacking her suitcase with an unaffected, girlish smile. He photographed Steve McQueen on set during the filming of The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963). Behind the scenes, he depicted a muddied McQueen in costume, in conversation with his wife, Neile McQueen-Adams. Four years later, he photographed Raquel Welch in a lacy Viennese corset on the set of Le plus vieux métier du monde / The Oldest Profession in the World (Michael Pfleghar, a.o., 1967).

Winkler's foray into the rock business is also impressive. He photographed Jimi Hendrix on a children's carousel, Elvis Presley getting out of an aeroplane, and the Motown girl group The Supremes at one of their concerts. Winkler also photographed Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, backstage, smoking, reading, gazing dreamily into the camera. Anna Reimann in Der Spiegel: "But why did Lothar Winkler manage to gain the trust of the big stars? His pictures are a tribute to the stars and their lives: Lothar Winkler photographed actors and singers the way they wanted to see themselves. He staged their ideal world and made it accessible to a wide audience through his publications. Winkler was a photographer who saw his craft as the task of taking beautiful pictures of beautiful people. Winkler never raised questions with his photos; he did not want to criticise. Lothar Winkler's photos are therefore above all, the documentation of a zeitgeist: the post-war longing for a perfect world and beautiful appearances. Today, there are either artistic but distanced portraits of well-known actors and music stars, or the quick, garish snapshot, the main purpose of which is to reveal as many juicy details as possible. There is nothing in between."

As the great era of German cinema drew to a close at the end of the 1960s, Lothar Winkler changed track and started to photograph unknown, naked women for such magazines as Neue Revue, Playboy and Quick. Ingrid Steeger was one of his first models. He also photographed Amanda Lear'as the Lord created her'. Winkler died in 2000 at the age of 73. In 2006, his ex-wife Marianne Winkler, who was married to him from 1959 to 1968, compiled hundreds of photos together with film expert Michael Petzel. She published them in the illustrated book, ‘Meine Freunde, die Stars' (My Friends, the Stars). The book is divided into several chapters: In addition to snapshots from the Berlin Film Festival, photos from the shooting of the Karl May films in Croatia, and a section entitled ‘Stars International’, Winkler's friends Caterina Valente and Freddy Quinn have each been given their own chapter.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen no. 789. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

In the late 1950s, blonde Elke Sommer (1940) was a European sex symbol before conquering Hollywood in the early 1960s. With her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones and sky-high bouffant hairdos, Sommer made 99 film and television appearances between 1959 and 2005. The gorgeous German film star was also one of the most popular pin-up girls of the sixties, and posed twice for Playboy.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 850. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

German actor Thomas Fritsch (1944-2021) was the son of ‘Sunny boy’ Willy Fritsch. Thomas was a teen idol of the early 1960s who made several light entertainment films and recorded popular Schlagers. He also appeared on stage and TV and as a voice actor, he dubbed many Hollywood blockbusters in German.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 737. Photo: Kolibri / Lothar Winkler.

German Stage and film actress Sabine Sinjen (1942-1995) was a teenage star of the 1950s, who became a protagonist of the Neue Deutsche Film in the 1960s.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 582. Photo: Lothar Winkler. Publicity card for Polydor Schalip, which announces the singles 'Sugar Baby / Ich denk' an dich' and 'Come on and Swing / Du passt so gut zu mir'.

German singer and actor Peter Kraus (1939) was a teen idol in the 1950s and was nicknamed ‘the German Elvis’.

German postcard by Starpostkarten-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 701. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

German competitive figure skater Ina Bauer (1941-2014) made her first appearance on the senior level at the 1956 West German Figure Skating Championships in Cologne, where she finished second. In the following years, she won three consecutive West German national titles in 1957, 1958 and 1959. She competed at a total of four European and World Championships, improving her results very quickly along the way. After retiring from competition, she toured with Ice Follies and starred in two films with Austrian alpine skier Toni Sailer: the comedy Ein Stern fällt vom Himmel / A Star Falls from Heaven (Géza von Cziffra, 1961) and Kauf dir einen bunten Luftballon / Buy yourself a colourful balloon (Géza von Cziffra, 1961).

Mario Adorf in Winnetou - 1. Teil (1963)

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, no. 3930. Photo: Rialto / Constantin / Winkler. Mario Adorf in Winnetou - 1. Teil / Apache Gold (Harald Reinl, 1963).

Swiss actor Mario Adorf (1930) is a very active star of European cinema, known for his Mediterranean looks, his dark oily frizzy hair and his imposing figure. He started as a talented newcomer in German films of the 1950s, he hammed his way through the 1960s as a villain in Euro-westerns and action pictures, but he is now best known for his roles in some classics of the Junge Deutsche Film (The Young German Cinema) such as Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1978) and Lola (1981). He appeared in over 200 films and TV films.

Klaus Kinski in Winnetou - 2. Teil (1966)

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 891. Photo: Lothar Winkler. Klaus Kinski in Winnetou - 2. Teil/Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964).

Intense and eccentric Klaus Kinski (1926–1991) was one of the most colourful stars of European cinema. In a film career of over 40 years, the German actor appeared in more than 130 films, including numerous parts as a villain in Edgar Wallace thrillers and Spaghetti Westerns. The talented but tempestuous Kinski is probably best known for his riveting star turns in Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and other films directed by Werner Herzog.

Klaus Kinski and Pierre Brice in Winnetou - 2. Teil (1966)

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 901. Photo: Lothar Winkler. Klaus Kinski and Pierre Brice in Winnetou - 2. Teil/Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964).

Handsome and well-built French actor Pierre Brice(1929-2015) was a Superstar in Germany during the 1960s. For hundreds of thousands of European kids, Brice was the Indian Winnetou, a long-haired saint with a gun. He appeared as the fictional chief of the Mescalero Apache tribe in eleven Euro-Westerns based on the novels by Karl May.

German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Winkler.

French rock legend and film star Johnny Hallyday (1943-2017) was the father of French Rock and Roll. He was a European teen idol in the 1960s with record-breaking crowds and mass hysteria, but he never became popular in the English-speaking market. Later, he concentrated on being an actor and appeared in more than 35 films.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/376. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Austrian actress Maria Perschy (1938-2004) was the sexy leading lady of many European films of the late 1950s before she made a short career in Hollywood in films by John Huston and Howard Hawks. In the 1970s, she appeared in Spanish and Italian low-budget Horror films, and she became a cult figure.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/377. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Danish-German singer Dorthe Kollo or just Dorthe (1947) was a popular Schlager singer in the 1960s. She appeared often on TV in both Denmark and Germany.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/379. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Danish singer and film actress Gitte Hænning (1946) rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s. As Gitte, she became one of the most famous Schlager singers of the German and Danish languages.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/380. Photo: Teldec / Winkler / RCA.

Rita Pavone (1945) was one of the biggest teenage stars in Europe during the 1960s, and one of the few Italian pop stars to gain a foothold in the American market. Pavone also starred in several 'Musicarellos'.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/381. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Attractive Austrian actress Heidelinde Weis (1940-2023) appeared in several European films in the 1960s. She was a respected theatre actress in the German-speaking countries, where she also regularly appears in TV films and series.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/407. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Curvaceous Austrian actress Marisa Mell (1939-1992) became a cult figure of 1960s Italian B-films. Her most famous role is criminal mastermind Eva Kant in Mario Bava’s Diabolik (1968).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/408. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

Croatian singer and actress Dunja Rajter (1946) is a dark-haired beauty who had a successful career in Germany from 1963 on. To film fans she is probably best known for her roles as a squaw in two Winnetou Westerns.

German postcard by Rüdel Verlag, Hamburg. Photo: Lothar Winkler, Berlin.

Rebellious, gravel-voiced actress, chanteuse and author Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) was one of the most important film stars of post-war Germany. She also appeared in foreign films and on Broadway, billed as Hildegard(e) Neff. Her outspokenness often caused unease in a country eager to please. Germany’s sole diva led a roller coaster life full of successes and sufferings.

Sources: Anna Reimann (Spiegel - German), Martina (B.Z. Die Stimme Berlins - German), Hipp-Foto and IMDb.

Suave film, theatre, and television actor Fernando Rey (1917-1994) became the first international Spanish film star He achieved his greatest fame after he turned 50, and is best known for his roles in the films of surrealist director Luis Buñuel like Tristana (1970), Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), and Cet obscur objet du désir / That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). He is also known as the drug lord Alain Charnier in the Hollywood blockbusters The French Connection (1971) and French Connection II (1975). Over half a century, he appeared in more than 150 films.

Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.

Fernando Rey and Amparito Rivelles in Si te hubieses casado conmigo (1948)

Spanish postcard. Fernando Rey and Amparito Rivelles in Si te hubieses casado conmigo / If You Had Married Me (Viktor Tourjansky, 1948).

A brilliant performance as a demotivated and doubtful actor

Fernando Rey was born Fernando Casado D'Arambillet in A Coruña, Spain, in 1917. He was the son of Captain Casado Veiga. Fernando studied architecture, but the Spanish Civil War interrupted his university studies. In 1936, he gained employment as an extra, which was the start of his film career. As his stage name, he chose Fernando Rey. He kept his first name but took his mother's second surname, Rey, a short surname with a clear meaning ('Rey' is Spanish for 'King').

Eight years later, he had his first speaking role as the Duke of Alba in Eugenia de Montijo (José López Rubio, 1944), starring Amparo Rivelles. Four years later, he played Felipe I el Hermoso, King of Spain, in the Spanish blockbuster Locura de amor / The Mad Queen (Juan de Orduña, 1948) with Aurora Bautista and Sara Montiel. This started a prolific career in film, radio, theatre, and television. Rey was also a great dubbing actor in Spanish television. His voice was considered intense and personal, and he became the narrator of important Spanish films including Luis García Berlanga's Bienvenido Mr. Marshall / Welcome Mr. Marshall! (1953) and Ladislao Vajda's Marcelino Pan y Vino / The Miracle of Marcelino (1955).

In 1992, he was the narrator of the re-dubbed version of Orson Welles'Don Quixote. In fact, Rey acted in four different film versions of Don Quixote in different roles, if one also counts the Welles version for which Rey supplied offscreen narration in the final scene. Fernando Rey's brilliant performance in the role of a demotivated and doubtful actor in Juan Antonio Bardem's Cómicos / Comedians (1954), was his first successful lead part. Paradoxically, as he saw himself as the real incarnation of the role, it plunged him into a professional depression, from which he did not emerge until he collaborated with Luis Buñuel several years later.

However, in the short term, Buñuel's disconcerting public remark on Rey's performance in another of Bardem's film, Sonatas (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1959), "I love how this actor plays a corpse", could only increase Rey's apprehensions. Nevertheless, eventually, Rey became Buñuel's preferred actor and closest friend. Rey's first international performance was in the French-Italian film Les bijoutiers du clair de lune / The Night Heaven Fell (Roger Vadim, 1958), with Stephen Boyd, Marina Vlady and Brigitte Bardot.

In 1959, Rey co-starred with Steve Reeves and Christine Kaufmann in the Italian sword and sandal film Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei / The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard, 1959). Rey played in one of the first Euro-Westerns, Tierra brutal / The Savage Guns (Michael Carreras, 1961), starring Richard Basehart. When the popularity of this genre increased during the decade, he appeared in other Westerns, including the political Western Il prezzo del potere / The Price of Power (Tonino Valerii, 1969) with Giuliano Gemma, the bizarre cult classic Vamos a matar, compañeros / Compañeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970) with Franco Nero and Tomas Milian, and two sequels of The Magnificent Seven, Return of the Seven (Burt Kennedy, 1966) and Guns of the Magnificent Seven (Paul Wendkos, 1969).

Spanish postcard.

A Spanish actor who had worked with Buñuel

Fernando Rey became internationally prominent with his work for Orson Welles and Luis Buñuel during the 1960s and 1970s. For Welles, Rey performed in two completed films, Campanadas a medianoche / Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965) and Histoire immortelle / The Immortal Story (Orson Welles, 1968) with Jeanne Moreau. For Bunuel, Rey starred in Viridiana (1961), Tristana (1970) starring Catherine Deneuve, Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) which received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and Cet obscur objet du désir / That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). The latter was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was also nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category, though the film failed to win either.

Rey also played memorably the French villain Alain Charnier in William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) opposite Gene Hackman. Initially, Friedkin intended to cast Francisco Rabal as Charnier, but could not remember his name after seeing him in Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour (1967). He only knew the person he had in mind was a Spanish actor who had worked with Buñuel. Rey was hired after he flew to New York to be met by a surprised Friedkin. Rey's English and French were not perfect, but Friedkin discovered that Rabal spoke neither of them and opted to keep Rey, who reprised the role in the less successful sequel, French Connection II (John Frankenheimer, 1975).

During the 1970s and 1980s, Fernando Rey played in many international co-productions, some of his appearances being cameos. These films include Lewis Gilbert's The Adventurers (1970), Mauro Bolognini's Fatti di gente perbene / Drama of the Rich (1974), Vincente Minnelli's A Matter of Time (1976), Valerio Zurlini's Il deserto dei tartari / The Desert of the Tartars (1976), Robert Altman's Quintet (1979), J. Lee Thompson's Caboblanco (1980) and Frank Perry's Monsignor (1982). In Lina Wertmüller's Academy Award-nominated film, Pasqualino Settebellezze / Seven Beauties (1975), Rey played the role of Pedro the anarchist who, as a friend of the protagonist and fellow prisoner Pasqualino Settebellezze (Giancarlo Giannini), chooses a gruesome suicide, rather than spend another day in a Nazi concentration camp.

One of Rey's greater successes in these years was the Spanish drama Elisa, vida mía / Elisa, My Life (1977), with Geraldine Chaplin and written and directed by Carlos Saura. In later years, Rey preferred to work in Spain, with successes as Padre Nuestro / Our Father (Francisco Regueiro, 1985), El bosque animado / The Enchanted Forest (José Luis Cuerda, 1987) and Al otro lado del túnel / On the Far Side of the Tunnel (Jaime de Armiñán, 1992) as well as his portrayal of Don Quixote, alongside Alfredo Landa as Sancho Panza, in the memorable Mini-Series El Quijote de Miguel de Cervantes / Don Quijote de la Mancha (Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, 1991) for the Spanish National TV. His last appearance on the screen was in a supporting role in the Spanish black comedy El cianuro ... ¿sólo o con leche? / Cyanide ... pure or with milk? (1994).

Many honours came to Fernando Rey in the twilight of his career, during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1971 Rey won the Best Actor Award in the San Sebastián International Film Festival, for his performance in Rafael Gil's La duda / Doubt, based, like Viridiana and Tristana, on a novel by Benito Pérez Galdós. Rey won the Best Actor Award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Elisa, vida mía / Elisa, My Life (Carlos Saura, 1977). In 1988 he again won the Best Actor Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, this time for his performance in two films: Diario de invierno / Winter Diary (Francisco Regueiro, 1988) and El Aire de un Crimen / The Hint of a Crime (Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, 1988). Fernando Rey was also awarded the gold medal of the Spanish Movie Arts and Sciences Academy. In 1960, Rey married the Argentine actress Mabel Karr. They had a son, Fernando Casado Campolongo. Fernando Rey died of bladder cancer in Madrid in 1994.

Pascale Audran, Bulle Ogier, Delphine Seyrig, Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur and Jean-Pierre Cassel in Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1973)

Chinese Postcard. Pascale Audran, Bulle Ogier, Delphine Seyrig, Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, and Jean-Pierre Cassel in Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1973).

Carole Bouquet and Fernando Rey in Cet obscur objet du désir (1977)

German postcard by Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn. Photo: Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin. Carole Bouquet and Fernando Rey in Cet obscur objet du désir / That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

American-Canadian actor Phillips Holmes (1907-1942) was a handsome, blond and blue-eyed leading man. From 1928 to 1938, he starred in 44 films. He had the role of his career in Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1931) and seemed on his way to Hollywood stardom. When the heavily promoted Nana (1934) with Anna Sten bombed, his future turned bleak and he continued in B-films.

French postcard by Cinématograph-Edition, no. 2050. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Nancy Carroll and Phillips Holmes in The Devil's Holiday (1930)

Italian postcard by Cinema Illustrazione, Milano, series II, no. 26. Photo: Paramount. Nancy Carroll and Phillips Holmes in The Devil's Holiday (Edmund Goulding, 1930).

Phillips Holmes and Sylvia Sidney in Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931)

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 574. Phillips Holmes and Sylvia Sidney in Confessions of a Co-Ed (David Burton, Dudley Murphy, 1931). They also played together in An American Tragedy (Josef von Sternberg, 1931).

Phillips Holmes and Anna Sten in Nana (1934)

Hungarian postcard by Globus, Budapest. Photo: United Artists / City Film. Phillips Holmes and Anna Sten in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Playing male innocence and sensitivity, even hypersensitivity

Phillips Holmes was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1907. He was the son of actor couple Taylor Holmes and Edna Phillips. He also had a sister and a younger brother, Ralph Holmes, who also became an actor. They also had Canadian citizenship through their mother. The children were often shunted about to live with various relatives while their parents were on the road.

Phillips attended many different schools growing up and graduated from Newman Prep School in New Jersey. He had his first experiences in the film world as an extra in his father's silent films, in 1918 and 1925. He studied at Trinity College in Cambridge and the University of Grenoble in France. He completed his education in 1928 at Princeton University in New Jersey. An inherent interest in acting led to his stage debut in the Princeton Triangle Show 'Napoleon Passes' (1927) at the Metropolitan Opera House. In it, he played the female lead. While at college he also managed to make his film debut with the silent film Varsity (Frank Tuttle, 1928), starring Charles 'Buddy' Rogers.

As a result, Paramount offered him a contract. He initially worked at the company's Astoria Studios in New York. During this early period, he was also offered a stage role in the theatrical production of 'The Silver Chord'. This combination of film and stage work, and the efforts to prove himself, became too much for him and he suffered a nervous breakdown. A six-week hospitalisation was needed to help him recover. In 1929, he had some good supporting roles, including one in The Wild Party (Dorothy Arzner, 1929), Clara Bow's first sound film. He was the juvenile lead in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Dean, 1929) with Clive Brooks as Holmes, He then got his first leading role in the silent Western Stairs of Sand (Otto Brower, 1929) with Wallace Beery and Jean Arthur. His first leading role in a sound film was in Pointed Heels (A. Edward Sutherland, 1929) with William Powell and Fay Wray.

In the early 1930s, Phillips Holmes became a popular film actor, who received good reviews. He blonded his hair, and in his film roles, he often played male innocence and sensitivity, even hypersensitivity such as in The Devil's Holiday (Edmund Goulding, 1930), with Nancy Carroll. He did not make it laughable, but tender and believable. This film was a financial and artistic success and marked his breakthrough. Holmes and Carroll starred together in two other films, Stolen Heaven (George Abbott, 1931) and Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932).

Soon he was offered important roles. He starred in the detective comedy Grumpy (George Cukor, 1930) with Cyril Maude, and in the drama Man to Man (Allan Dwan, 1930) with Grant Mitchell. In 1931, he had a major role in director Howard Hawks' prison film The Criminal Code, alongside Walter Huston. Like other prison films of the 1930s, The Criminal Code encouraged its viewers to question the contemporary American legal and penal systems.

British postcard in the Autograph Series, London, no. A 10.

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P45, London. Helen Twelvetrees and Phillips Holmes in Her Man (Tay Garnett, 1930). In this pre-code movie, a Havana prostitute (Twelvetrees) with a sadistic "protector" (Ricardo Cortez) falls for a young sailor (Holmes).

Phillips Holmes and Miriam Hopkins in Two Kinds of Women (1932)

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 38. Phillips Holmes and Miriam Hopkins in Two Kinds of Women (William C. de Mille, 1932).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 487a.

Struggling with alcohol and depression

At Paramount, Phillips Holmes acted mainly in melodramas. In 1931, he starred opposite Sylvia Sidney and Frances Dee in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy. It was the most ambitious role of his career and the film became a box-office success. He then played a memorable lead role in one of Ernst Lubitsch's least successful films, the pacifistic drama Broken Lullaby (1932) starring Lionel Barrymore. Holmes had by now shown that he was more than just a handsome young man. He was a quiet actor whose characters often emerged emotionally deeper than the role seemed to demand. However, he never achieved superstar status. In 1932, his contract with Paramount Pictures expired. The popular sports and crime film 70,000 Witnesses (Ralph Murphy, 1932) was the last film he made under his Paramount contract.

He was given a one-year contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He got a leading role in the thriller Night Court (W. S. Van Dyke, 1932) with Walter Huston and it became a box-office success. In 1933, he got a small supporting role in the successful film Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933). He starred with Irene Dunne in The Secret of Madame Blanche (Charles Brabin, 1933) and with Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy in Penthouse (W. S. Van Dyke, 1933). In Men Must Fight (1933), about a war breaking out in the year 1940, he played a young man who enlisted as a pilot. It was a fate that awaited Holmes when World War II broke out. In 1933, Holmes was driving with actress Mae Clarke when he crashed into a parked car. Clarke, who suffered a broken jaw and facial cuts, sued Holmes for US$21,500 (equivalent to $522,246 in 2024), claiming that he had been driving while drunk. Clarke dropped the suit when Holmes agreed to pay her medical expenses.

Phillips Holmes starred in the big-screen film Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934) starring Anna Sten. This version of Émile Zola's 1880 novel and heroine was to be the vehicle for Sten's triumph as Samuel Goldwyn's trained, groomed and heavily promoted answer to Greta Garbo. But the film was a box-office disappointment. In his private life, Holmes struggled with alcohol and depression. His acting talent was best demonstrated in dramatic roles, rather than comedy. But from 1934 he starred in several unsuccessful films and occasionally in unimportant B-movies and comedies in which he had little opportunity to show his acting talent. One of his last really interesting roles was in the drama film Chatterbox (George Nicholls, Jr., 1936) with Anne Shirley. His final American movie was the comedy General Spanky (Fred Newmeyer, Gordon Douglas, 1936), a spin-off of Hal Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, starring George 'Spanky' McFarland.

Holmes ended his film career with two English films, the comedy The Dominant Sex (1937) with Diana Churchill and the comedy-drama Housemaster (1938), both by Irish director Herbert Brenon. He was 31 at the time but with no further film prospects. He went on to act on stage in the United States. On Broadway, he starred in 'Golden Boy' (1938), and with his father and his brother Ralph in 'Journey's End' (1939). He then starred in 'The Animal Kingdom' (1939), 'The Male Animal' (1941) with Celeste Holm and David Wayne, and finally in 'The Philadelphia Story' (1941). Holmes continued his theatre work until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Then he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, following in the footsteps of his brother Ralph who was a pilot officer. After some ground training in Winnipeg, he was sent to Ottawa with several other graduates. Their plane collided with another Air Force plane at Armstrong in northwestern Ontario, near Thunder Bay, in 1942. There were no survivors. Holmes was 35 years old. The funeral mass was held at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York and he is buried in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne. Today, it is believed that Holmes was homosexual. In the early 1930s, he was still living with his family in Los Angeles in the house where he had spent his childhood. Around 1938, he had an affair with the singer and actress Libby Holman, who also had sexual relations with women. He moved in with her, but Holman subsequently married his brother Ralph. Ralph Holmes would commit suicide in his NY apartment from a barbiturate overdose in 1945, three years after Phillips' death. Phillips Holmes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 487.

British postcard, no. 171. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO).

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, no. P38. Phillips Holmes and Miriam Hopkins played together in Two Kinds of Women (William C. de Mille, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6894/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Phillips Holmes and Miriam Hopkins played together in Two Kinds of Women (William C. de Mille, 1932).

Phillips Holmes, Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (1934)

British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Phillips Holmes, Anna Sten and Lionel Atwell in Nana (Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice, 1934).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Polish singer and actress Helena Makowska (1893-1964) was a beautiful diva of the Italian silent cinema in the 1910s. During the 1920s, she moved to Berlin and became a star of the German cinema. Later, Luigi Comencini directed her in La valigia dei sogni / The Suitcase of Dreams (1953) as the aged actress of the silent era who is visibly moved by seeing herself back in Il fiacre no. 13 / Cab Number 13 (1917).

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

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

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

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

Italian postcard. Photo DM.

Beautiful and a bit stiff

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

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

Her film debut was in the film Romanticismo (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915). It was based on a famous play by Gerolamo Rovetta, which was already filmed in 1913 and refilmed in 1951. Makowska is Anna Lamberti, whose husband Count Vitaliano Lamberti (Tullio Carminati) would like to join the partisans, but is withheld by his pro-Austrian mother. His indecision has estranged him from his wife, who has an affair with a Polish refugee, Cezky, Vitaliano's secretary. When Vitaliano finally joins the free-fighting patriots, he regains his wife's confidence, but her vengeful lover denounces Vitaliano to the police, then commits suicide. Even when warned, Vitaliano stays where he is, is caught and executed.

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

From 1917 on, she switched to other film companies and played Ophelia in Ruggero Ruggeri's Amleto / Hamlet (1917), the seductress Elena in the comedy Addio giovinezza / Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918) with Maria Jacobini, followed by La dame en gris / The Lady in Grey (Gian Paolo Rosmino, 1919). Makowska would go on to perform in some 40 Italian films until her move to Germany in the early 1920s. The Italian press constantly praised her beauty but found her a bit stiff.

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

Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, no. 1713. Photo: Film Società Anonima Ambrosio Torino. V. Uff. Rev. St., Terni. Helena Makowska (in the back) and probably Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli in the Italian historical propaganda film Val d'Olivi (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916), based on the novel by Anton Giulio Barrili (1873). Caption: Caught!

Italian postcard by Duplex IPA CT, no. 3887, card no. 2 Photo: Film. Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino. Umberto Mozzato and Helena Makowska in La fiaccola sotto il moggio (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916), based on the eponymous stage play (1905) by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Caption: Tibaldo and Angizia.

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

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

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

Spanish minicard (collector card) by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona. Photo: Ambrosia. Helena Makowska in Il fiacre no. 13 / Cab Number 13 (Alberto Capozzi, Gero Zambuto, 1917), based on the novel 'Le Fiacre Nº 13' (1880) by Xavier de Montépin.

Spanish cromo (collector card) by Chocolat Imperiale, no. 3 of 6. Photo: Gladiator Film / Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Helena Makowska and Angelo Vianello in Folgore (Ugo De Simone, 1918-1919), released in Spain as El Rayo.

Maria Jacobini and Helena Makowska in Addio giovinezza! (1918)

Spanish collector card (cromo) by Chocolate Imperiale, card 5 of 6. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Maria Jacobini and Helena Makowska in Addio giovinezza!/Goodbye Youth! (Augusto Genina, 1918). The Spanish release title was Adios, juventud!

German prison camp

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

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

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

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

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

Italian postcard, no. 231.

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

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

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

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 128.

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

Italian postcard.

Italian postcard by Ed. Fotocelere, Torino.

Diva of bygone days

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

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

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

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

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

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

Italian postcard, no. 29.

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

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

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

Italian postcard.

German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 489/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 758/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 758/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.

Clip from Diva Dolorosa (1999). Source: The Stat (YouTube).

Source: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio) Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

The only career Nelson Eddy (1901-1967) ever considered was singing. The classically trained baritone achieved his greatest popularity through eight films with Jeanette MacDonald, with whom he formed a regular screen couple in the 1930s and 1940s. At the height of his career, he received more fan mail than any other star on the MGM payroll.

Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z., no. 1049. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Sent by mail in 1942.

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Maytime (1937)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1106/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Maytime (Robert Z. Leonard, 1937). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1506/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2942/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2783/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

A record 58 takes before the exasperated test director gave up

Nelson Ackerman Eddy was born in 1901 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He was the son of Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy. His parents were singers, and his grandparents were musicians. Nelson studied singing as a child, and in 1924, he won a competition and was allowed to perform with the Philadelphia Opera Society. The conductor of the Philadelphia Civic Opera, Alexander Smallens, began to train and promote Eddy.

In the late 1920s, Eddy performed with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company and sang a broad repertoire of 28 operatic roles, including 'Le nozze di Figaro'. Eddy also appeared with the Savoy Company, which produced popular operettas by Gilbert & Sullivan. Eddy studied briefly with noted teacher David Bispham, a former Metropolitan Opera singer, and switched after his death to William Vilonat.

Dr. Edouard Lippe coached him and loaned him money in 1927 to study in Dresden and Paris. Dresden was considered an essential training centre for American singers at the time. Eddy turned down an offer of an engagement with a small German opera house and returned to the United States. He gave his first concert recital in 1928 in Philadelphia. When Eddy went on his first tour, he hired Theodore Paxson, who remained his accompanist for four decades.

In 1933, he did 18 encores for an audience in Los Angeles that included an assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. MGM signed him to a seven-year contract, which allowed him three months of concert tours per year. Mayer ordered Eddy to test for his debut in the film Broadway to Hollywood (Willard Mack, Jules White, 1933). The 33-year-old newcomer took a record 58 takes before the exasperated test director gave up.

Despite this failure, Mayer overruled the consensus about Eddy's acting talent, non-existent, and ordered him to be used for a singing sequence in the film only. The producers at MGM didn't know what to do with Eddy and only allowed him to appear for individual songs in his following films. But the audience reacted favourably to this.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 945b. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. W. 543. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in New Moon (1940)

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 328. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in New Moon (Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke, 1940).

Italian postcard by Zincografica, Firenze. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Naughty Marietta (Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke, 1935), released in Italy as Terra senza donne (Land without Women), and based on the operetta 'Naughty Marietta' by Victor Herbert. The film won an Oscar in 1936.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 408. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Sweethearts (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938).

One of the ten best films of 1935

After MGM acting lessons, Nelson Eddy's first real success came as the Yankee scout to Jeanette MacDonald's French princess in the Operetta Naughty Marietta (Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke, 1935). It was a huge box-office hit made on a small budget. The film was nominated for an Oscar, received a Photoplay Award and was voted one of the ten best films of 1935 by the New York Film Critics.

Eddy made six more films with Jeanette MacDonald, including Rose-Marie (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936), and Maytime (Robert Z. Leonard, Edmund Goulding, 1937), which grossed over 4 million US dollars at the box office. Concert appearances became increasingly lucrative for Eddy with his film fame, but he only sang occasionally on the opera stage. His last film with MacDonald was I Married an Angel (W.S. Van Dyke, 1942).

Nelson Eddy also appeared with other leading ladies over the years, such as in Rosalie (W.S. Van Dyke, 1937) with Eleanor Powell and Balalaika (Reinhold Schünzel, 1939), where he appeared alongside Ilona Massey. The Chocolate Soldier (Roy Del Ruth, 1941) was an adaptation of a Viennese operetta by Ferenc Molnár. Eddy appeared in a double role alongside Met singer Risë Stevens. Critics nearly always panned his acting. After the financial failure of I Married an Angel, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald left MGM.

In 1943, Eddy signed a contract with Universal for two films: Phantom of the Opera and Follow the Boys. The musical Phantom of the Opera (Arthur Lubin, 1943), lavishly produced in Technicolour, was based on the well-known novel by Gaston Leroux and songs by Edward Ward. Eddy appeared in it alongside Susanna Foster and Claude Rains but was so dissatisfied with the film afterwards that he abandoned the filming of Follow the Boys, in which he would have appeared again alongside Jeanette MacDonald, and left Universal.

In his home studio, he recorded three-part harmonies (tenor, baritone, & bass) for his role as a multiple-voiced singing whale in the animated Walt Disney feature, 'The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met', the concluding sequence in the animated musical anthology film Make Mine Music (Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, a.o., 1946). Eddy appeared with Ilona Massey in his last film, the musical Western Northwest Outpost (Allan Dwan, 1947), produced by Republic. Nelson Eddy had a large radio following. His theme song was 'Shortnin' Bread'. In 1959, Eddy and MacDonald issued a recording of their film hits, which sold well. In 1953, he had a fairly successful nightclub routine with Gale Sherwood, which ran until he died in 1967. He suffered a fatal stroke while performing in concert. He was interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, now called Hollywood Forever. Nelson Eddy and his wife, Anne Denitz, had no children. He had one child, Jon, with ex-girlfriend Maybelle Marston, born in the early 1930s, and he had a stepson, Sidney Franklin Jr.

German postcard by Ross Verlag no. A 1939/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3761. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Maytime (Robert Z. Leonard, 1937). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in The Girl of the Golden West (1938)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1931/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in The Girl of the Golden West (Robert Z. Leonard, 1938). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2103/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 182. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Ilona Massey and Nelson Eddy in Balalaika (Reinhold Schünzel, 1939).

Belgian collector card by Kwatta Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 216. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nelson Eddy in New Moon (Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke, 1940).

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in New Moon (1940)

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 224. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in New Moon (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940).

Nelson Eddy and Risë Stevens in The Chocolate Soldier (1941)

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 228. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nelson Eddy and Risë Stevens in The Chocolate Soldier (Roy Del Ruth, 1941).

Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z., no. 1063. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Nelson Eddy and lona Massey in Northwest Outpost (1947)

Dutch postcard. Photo: Republic / Centra. Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey in Northwest Outpost (Allan Dwan, 1947).

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

With 100 million records sold, American singer and icon Tina Turner (1939-2023) is one of the best-selling artists ever. She won as many as 12 Grammy Awards, the most prestigious awards in the music industry. The Queen of Rock 'n Roll was also the star of a few films.

French postcard by Ebullitions, no. 1.

Italian freecard by Promocards Kultural for Roma Palazzo della Espozioni, no. PC 2100. Photo: Herb Ritts.

Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Vintage postcard by Superior, no. PC 121. Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller, 1985).

A bad marriage

Anna Mae Bullock, as the singer's real name is, was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, in 1939. As a child, she sang in church choirs and worked as a cotton picker.

She became famous in the 1960s as the female half of the duo Ike & Tina Turner. Ike was her husband. They formed a duo from 1960 to 1976 and celebrated successes with songs like 'River Deep - Mountain High' (1966), 'Proud Mary' (1971) and 'Nutbush City Limits' (1973).

In 1960, their son was born, but it was a bad marriage, in which Ike regularly abused his wife. Behind the scenes, he completely hassled her. 'I was living the life of a dead person,' she said about it in the haunting documentary Tina (2021).

Without Ike, she acted as the Acid Queen in the musical film Tommy (Ken Russell, 1975), which also starred Roger Daltrey and Elton John.

In 1978, the divorce was pronounced. It was agreed that Ike Turner could keep all possessions; Tina only stipulated that she could keep her stage name.

American freecard by Max Racks for Hanes Hosiery, 1996. Photo: Peter Lindbergh. Caption: Hanes - It's all about strength and beauty.

Tina Turner and Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

French postcard by Editions 'Humour à la Carte', Paris, no. ST-34. Tina Turner and Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller, 1985).

A coping process that would last a long time

In 1983, Tina Turner launched her solo career with 'Let's Stay Together'. When People magazine wanted to interview her about the successful start of her solo career, Turner decided to share her abuse story with the world. 'I never knew love,' she told People. 'Nobody ever loved me.' It was a harrowing but mostly brave start to a coping process that would last a long time.

In that decade, she had hits such as 'What's Love Got to Do with It' and 'Private Dancer'. The energy-effervescent global star thrilled stadiums all over the world. Her show in Rio de Janeiro, in 1988, attracted as many as 180 thousand visitors, still one of the busiest concerts ever.

At the time, she was so popular that she also landed a job in Hollywood and played a significant role in the action film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller, 1985) with Mel Gibson. She also signed for the title song 'We don't need another hero', which became a world hit.

In 1988, she scored the no. 1 hit 'Tonight' with David Bowie, followed a short time later by 'The Best' (also known as 'Simply the Best'). In 2008 and 2009, she made her last world tour. After that, she removed herself from the limelight.

In 2013, she married German music producer Erwin Bach, with whom she had been together for many years. In 2018, she was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. That year also saw the premiere of the musical 'Tina' about her life. At the end of her life, when she struggled with health problems, she was not spared suffering. Her eldest son, Craig, ended his life. Her youngest son, Ronnie, died in 2022. Tina Turner died at her home in Küssnacht, Switzerland, after a long illness in 2023.

French postcard by Media Com + Promotion de l'art et de la communication, record 67. Photo: Capitol. Postcard to promote the album 'Private Dancer' (1984).

Dutch postcard by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, no. B 477. Photo: David McGough, 1985 / Sunshine. Caption: Tina Turner and Mick Jagger at Live Aid Concert.

Portuguese postcard.

Sources: Abel Bormans (De Volkskrant - Dutch), RTL Nieuws (Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

The 'Milton Post Cards' were published in Great Britain from around 1900. By 1902, Gustave Woolstone had registered the Milton trademark - the firm operated off Milton Street in the Postcard Mile of the City of London. Milton was the business name of Woolstone Brothers, a company registered by Gustave in 1925 at Aldersgate Street in London. The company made countless topographical and novelty postcards. Milton also published series with British stage actors, such as the Photolette series during the 1900s and the Milton Character Sketches series during the 1910s. In the early 1930s, a series of 'Real Photo Postcards' with portraits of Hollywood stars followed. The company stopped publishing postcards in 1933. We selected 25 Milton postcards from our collections for this post.

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

British postcard by Milton, Woolstone Bros, London E.C. in The Milton Character Sketches series, no. 306, 1. Caption: Billie Burke. A fair Samaritan.

British postcard by Milton, no. 21A. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Joan Crawford.

British postcard by Milton, no. 25 A. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Marlene Dietrich.

British postcard by Milton, no. 27. A. Photo: Universal Pictures. Sally Eilers.

British postcard by Milton, no. 29. A. Photo: First National Films. Kay Francis.

British postcard by Milton, no. 41. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Miriam Hopkins.

British postcard by Milton, no. 44. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Charles Laughton.

British postcard by Milton, no. 47. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Myrna Loy.

British postcard by Milton, no. 53. Photo: Universal Pictures. Douglass Montgomery.

British postcard by Milton, no. 56.B. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Maureen O'Sullivan.

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

British postcard by Milton, no. 77. Photo: Warner Bros / Vitaphone. Ann Dvorak.

British postcard by Milton, no. 87. Photo: Warner Bros & Vitaphone Pictures. Barbara Stanwyck.

British postcard by Milton, no. 88a. Photo: Universal Pictures. Gloria Stuart.

British postcard by Milton Postcard, no. 93. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Robert Young.

British postcard by Milton, no. 99. Photo: Fox Films. Claire Trevor.

British postcard by Milton, no. 95. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO). Charles Boyer.

British postcard by Milton, no. 104. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Elissa Landi.

British postcard by Milton, no. 109. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Elizabeth Allan.

British postcard by Milton, no. 111. Photo: Fox Films. Rochelle Hudson.

British postcard by Milton, no. 137. Photo: Fox Films. Bruce Cabot.

British postcard by Milton, no. 147. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Johnny Weissmuller.

British postcard by Milton, no. 149. Photo: British & Dominions Films. Fay Wray.

British postcard by Milton, no. 152. Photo: First National Films. Errol Flynn.

Sources: Feel Falkirk, rthcards and National Portrait Gallery.

Pat O'Brien (1899-1983) was an American actor of Irish descent. From 1930 on, he starred in around 150 films. He often starred alongside the actor James Cagney. He is best known for his roles in The Front Page (1931), Knute Rockne, All American (1940) and Some Like It Hot (1959).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5909/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

French postcard by Edition Chantal, Rueil-Malmaison, no. 47. Photo: Warner Bros.

The Front Page

William Joseph Patrick O'Brien was born in 1899 to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All four of his grandparents had come from Ireland. As a child, O'Brien served as an altar boy at Gesu Church, while growing up near 13th and Kilbourn Streets in Milwaukee. He attended Marquette Academy with fellow actor Spencer Tracy, who was a lifelong friend. During World War I, O'Brien and Tracy joined the United States Navy. They both attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, but they never went to sea. The war ended before their training had finished. Jack Benny was also at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center at the same time as O'Brien and Tracy.

After the war, O'Brien finished his secondary schooling at Marquette Academy and later attended Marquette University. While still at college, he decided to seek work as an actor. He and Spencer Tracy moved to New York, where they both attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The two struggling young actors shared a small studio apartment and began their careers on stage. O'Brien spent a decade in plays on Broadway and in the New York City area. He made his film debut in the Vitaphone Varieties short film, The Nightingale (1930), produced in New York.

His first starring role was as ace reporter Hildy Johnson in the original version of the screwball comedy The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) with Adolphe Menjou. Based on the 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was nominated for the Oscars for Best Picture, Lewis Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best Actor. Pat O'Brien was the lead in Personal Maid (Monta Bell, Lothar Mendes, 1931), and appeared in the musical Flying High (Charles Reisner, 1931), supporting Bert Lahr. He was Irene Dunne's love interest in Consolation Marriage (Paul Sloane, 1932), then co-starred opposite a young Bette Davis in Hell's House (Howard Higgin, 1932).

O'Brien stayed in leads, going from studio to studio: Scandal for Sale (Russell Mack, 1932), The Strange Case of Clara Deane (Louis J. Gasnier, Max Marcin, 1932), Hollywood Speaks (Edward Buzzell, 1932) and American Madness (Frank Capra, 1932). O'Brien played a heroic pilot in Air Mail (1932), directed by John Ford. At the small Majestic Pictures, he starred in The World Gone Mad (Christy Cabanne, 1933) with Evelyn Brent. In 1933, Warners signed O'Brien to a long-term contract. He would remain with the studio until 1940 when he left after a dispute over the terms of his contract renewal. O'Brien supported Dick Powell in College Coach (William A. Wellman, 1933) and Joan Blondell in I've Got Your Number (Ray Enright, 1934). Here Comes the Navy (Earl Baldwin, 1934) was O'Brien's first film with James Cagney, also under contract to Warners. The two originally met in 1926 and remained friends for almost six decades. After O'Brien's death, Cagney referred to him as his "dearest friend."

O'Brien played the lead, a boxer, in The Personality Kid (Alan Crosland, 1934), supported Dick Powell in Flirtation Walk (1934) and was an auctioneer in I Sell Anything (Robert Florey, 1935). Cagney and O'Brien were reteamed in Devil Dogs of the Air (Lloyd Bacon, 1935). He was a critic in love with Dolores del Río in In Caliente (Lloyd Bacon, 1935) and had the lead in the bio-pic Oil for the Lamps of China (Mervyn LeRoy, 1935), which he called "one of my favourite pictures". He headlined the musical Stars Over Broadway (William Keighley, 1935) and then was back with Cagney for Howard Hawks' adventure drama Ceiling Zero (1935). Cagney later sued Warners for billing O'Brien's name above his. Warners gave him some starring parts: I Married a Doctor (Archie Mayo, 1936), Public Enemy's Wife (Nick Grinde, 1936), China Clipper (Ray Enright, 1936), The Great O'Malley (William Dieterle, 1937), and Slim (Ray Enright, 1937) with Henry Fonda. He was Captain of the Guard (on special leave from the US Army) in San Quentin (1937) opposite Humphrey Bogart, romanced Joan Blondell in Back in Circulation (Lloyd Bacon, 1937) and was a veteran sailor in Submarine D-1 (Lloyd Bacon, 1938). He and Cagney reteamed for the screwball comedy Boy Meets Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1938) with Marie Wilson.

Joan Blondell and Pat O'Brien in I've got Your Number (1934)

British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Joan Blondell and Pat O'Brien in I've Got Your Number (Ray Enright, 1934).

Crack-Up

In the late 1930s, Pat O'Brien and a small group of his actor friends began to meet to converse and exchange opinions and stories. Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky dubbed them the "Irish Mafia," but they preferred to call their social group the "Boys Club." In addition to O'Brien, the original members of the club were James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Allen Jenkins and Frank McHugh, all of whom were Irish-Americans. Later Lynne Overman joined their group and then George Brent, James Dunn, Louis Calhern, Brian Donlevy, Ralph Bellamy, James Gleason and Bert Lahr were also frequent guests.

Pat O'Brien has one of his best-ever roles as the former street kid turned priest in the crime drama Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938) with James Cagney. He went over to Paramount for the drama The Night of Nights (Lewis Milestone, 1939), part of a deal in which Warners bought the rights to The Old Maid from Paramount. He then made the mystery Slightly Honorable (Tay Garnett, 1939) for United Artists. Back at Warner Bros, he was reunited with Cagney for The Fighting 69th (William Keighley, 1940).

O'Brien then made the prison film Castle on the Hudson (Anatole Litvak, 1940) with Ann Sheridan and John Garfield. He co-starred with Garfield and Frances Farmer in Flowing Gold (Alfred E. Green, 1940). O'Brien was then given his best-known role, as the famous University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne, All American (Lloyd Bacon, 1940). In the film, he gave the speech to "win just one for the Gipper," referring to recently deceased football player, George Gipp, portrayed in the film by a young Ronald Reagan. Reagan later used this saying as a slogan for his campaign for president in 1980.

O'Brien was at a career peak. He was considered for the role of Alvin York in the film Sergeant York. From this high point, however, O'Brien left Warner Bros in July 1940. O'Brien signed a contract with 20th Century Fox for two films a year. However, they ended up not using him. He signed with Columbia Pictures to make two films a year. He was in the war film Escape to Glory (John Brahm, 1940), then was idle for a year before making Two Yanks in Trinidad (Gregory Ratoff, 1942) with Brian Donlevy and the war drama Flight Lieutenant (Sidney Salkow, 1942) with Glenn Ford. At Universal, he was in the crime musical Broadway (William A. Seiter, 1942) with George Raft.

Soon he signed a contract with RKO and appeared in several films for that studio. He mostly played authority or military roles such as The Navy Comes Through (A. Edward Sutherland, 1942), and Bombardier (Richard Wallace, 1943). The Iron Major (Ray Enright, 1943) was an attempt to repeat the success of Knute Rockne with O'Brien as Frank Cavanaugh. At Universal he supported Deanna Durbin in Frank Borzage's His Butler's Sister (1943) then it was back to RKO for Marine Raiders (Harold D. Schuster, 1944). With his agent Phil Ryan, O'Brien set up his own production company, Teneen Productions. They signed a deal with Columbia to make a film with O'Brien, Secret Command (A. Edward Sutherland, 1944). For Columbia, he made the Film Noir Perilous Holiday (Edward H. Griffith, 1946). In 1946 he starred in the successful Film Noir Crack-Up (Irving Reis, 1946) with Claire Trevor. He was in a thriller, Riffraff (Ted Tetzlaff, 1947) and another biopic Fighting Father Dunne (Ted Tetzlaff, 1948). He followed it with the fantasy drama The Boy with Green Hair (Joseph Losey, 1948) featuring Dean Stockwell and the Film Noir A Dangerous Profession (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949) with George Raft and Ella Raines.

Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone and Pat 'O Brien in His Butler's Sister (1943)

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. (J. Sleding, Amsterdam. Photo: F.B.O. - M.P.E. / Universal. Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone and Pat 'O Brien in His Butler's Sister (Frank Borzage, 1943).

Some Like It Hot

While working as a Hollywood contract player, Pat O'Brien made occasional appearances on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1946 he collaborated with the contralto Kate Smith on the popular 'Viva America' program for the CBS radio network. In the summer of 1947, he starred with Lynn Bari in Summer Theater, a program "dramatizing episodes in the life of a small-town druggist." O'Brien's film career slowed considerably by the early 1950s, although he still managed to get work in television. In his autobiography, 'The Wind at My Back', he professed to be completely flummoxed about the decline of his career.

His close friend, Spencer Tracy, fought with his studio, MGM, to get roles for O'Brien in his films The People Against O'Hara (John Sturges, 1951) and The Last Hurrah (John Ford, 1958). He still had leads in films like the war film Okinawa (Leigh Jason, 1952), the Film Noir Inside Detroit (Fred F. Sears, 1956) with Dennis O'Keefe and the British crime film Kill Me Tomorrow (Terence Fisher, 1957) with Lois Maxwell.

In 1959 O'Brien appeared in a supporting role in one of his best-known films as a police detective opposite George Raft in the crime comedy Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959), starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. In his later years, O'Brien often worked in television. He was cast in 1956 and 1957 in four episodes of the religion anthology series, Crossroads. In three of the four programs, he played priests. He also performed in two episodes of The Virginian in the mid-1960s. In the 1960–1961 television season, O'Brien played James Harrigan, Sr. in a sitcom titled Harrigan and Son.

O'Brien made numerous appearances on television as himself, including several on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1957, Ralph Edwards profiled O'Brien's life and career for an episode of This Is Your Life. He was also the mystery guest on the game show What's My Line? in 1953 and 1957. From the 1960s through the early 1980s, O'Brien often travelled around the United States as a one-man act and in road shows. He also performed frequently in nightclubs. He had a small role asBurt Reynolds' father in the comedy The End (Burt Reynolds, 1978), opposite Myrna Loy, cast as Reynolds' mother.

The drama Ragtime (Milos Forman, 1981) featured Pat O'Brien's final film appearance as well as his friend James Cagney's. Cagney had not acted in a film for nearly 20 years. In 1982, O'Brien's final filmed performance came in an episode of Happy Days. Near the end of his life, he toured in a stage production of 'On Golden Pond', which he considered "absolutely the best play" he had ever read. O'Brien and his wife, Eloise, had four children: Mavourneen, Sean, Terry, and Brigid. Three of his children were adopted. The youngest, Brigid O'Brien (1946-2016), was his biological child. Eloise O'Brien occasionally appeared on stage with her husband. Pat O'Brien died in 1983, from a heart attack at age 83, following minor prostate surgery. President Ronald Reagan released a White House statement noting his sadness over his old friend's death. The president had called the actor at the hospital just days before his death.

British postcard by Milton's, no. 121. Photo: Warner Bros. & Vitaphone Pictures.

Sources: Bill Takacs (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

In our monthly post on the postcard collection of Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI), we chose again 15 postcards from a big album from the estate of film historians Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul. The blue album, which they probably started somewhere in the 1970s, contains so many interesting postcards that we planned an extra post tomorrow. Today, we focus on Dutch post-war postcards of Hollywood stars. The publishers were such firms as J. Sleeding in Amsterdam (J.S.A.) and Takken in Utrecht.

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

Donna Reed (1921-1986) was an American film and television actress and producer. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her role as Mary Hatch Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). She received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lorene Burke in the war drama From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953). Reed is also known as Donna Stone, a middle-class American mother and housewife in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966).

Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (1945)

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (William A. Seiter, 1945).

Petite and glamorous Sonja Henie (1912-1969) was one of the greatest figure skaters in history, the ‘Pavlova of the ice’. She won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. At the height of her acting career, the Norwegian figure skater and film star was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. She had a shrewd business sense and was immensely successful next with a series of ice revues.

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

American actress Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) was the younger sister of Hollywood star Olivia de Havilland, but Joan made a name for herself with two classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Rebecca (1941) and Suspicion (1942). For the first film, she was nominated for the Oscar, and for the second film, she won the award.

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: M.G.M. / M.P.E.

American film star Joan Crawford (1904-1977) had a career that spanned many decades, studios, and controversies. In her silent films, she made an impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper, and later she matured into a star of psychological melodramas.

Dutch postcard/ Photo: MPEA / Warner Bros.

American actress Joan Leslie (1925-2015) starred in over 30 films. Her breakout role came at the age of 15, when she appeared as the crippled girl Velma in High Sierra (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. In the following years, she starred alongside Gary Cooper in Sergeant York (1941) and James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). After 1956, she appeared in several television series.

Gary Cooper and Loretta Young in Along Came Jones (1945)

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Gary Cooper and Loretta Young in Along Came Jones (Stuart Heisler, 1945).

American screen legend Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is well remembered for his stoic, understated acting style in more than one hundred Westerns, comedies and dramas. He received five Oscar nominations and won twice for his roles as Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941) and as Will Kane in High Noon (1952).

Loretta Young (1913-2000) was probably one of the loveliest female stars from the golden age of Hollywood, with her beautiful eyes, high cheekbones, full lips and radiant smile. She was also regarded as one of the most elegant actresses of her time. Young had a long career at the top. She began to get leading roles at the end of the 1920s and was still given starring parts at the beginning of the 1950s. Afterwards, she was able to extend her success for several years by wisely turning to television.

Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 31. Photo: MPEA.

American actress Marguerite Chapman (1918-1999) began her career as a model. In 1940, she moved to Hollywood and appeared in film and television till 1977.

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. James Stewart and Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946).

American actor James Stewart (1908-1997) is among the most honoured and popular stars in film history. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.

Dutch postcard by MPEA. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Judy Garland (1922-1969) was an American singer, actress, and vaudevillian. During a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for A Star is Born (1954) and received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 3132. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

American actress Betty Hutton (1921-2007) was an energetic, 'blonde bombshell' of the 1940s. She appeared in successful musicals and comedies, including The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), Red, Hot and Blue (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (William A. Seiter, 1945).

Michael O'Shea (1906-1973) was an American actor who appeared on the stage, in feature films, and on television in a career that spanned the 1940s and early 1970s. He was also a comedian, musician, and band leader, and performed on the radio.

Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 3180 Photo: Europa-Columbia.

Glamorous Adele Jergens (1917-2002) was an American film actress of the 1940s and 1950s who was often cast in B-films as blonde floozies and burlesque dancers.

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: W.B. & V.P. / M.P.E.

Japanese-born British-American actress Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020) had a career from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. She is best known for her early screen performances in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and her later award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949).

Dutch postcard by P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-47. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Famous composer Irving Berlin would allegedly have said once, "I’d rather have Alice Faye introduce my songs than anyone else". Henry King, who directed her in three films, stated: "Alice Faye always took direction beautifully without any show of temperament, and when you were done, the character she played came across with a vibrant warmth of personality so many actresses did not possess. I think that was the secret of Alice’s success in pictures. A deep-seated human warmth, so genuine, so real that everybody felt it. It’s truly a gift; you can’t buy it. It’s either there or it isn’t." In the second half of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, Alice Faye was a name to reckon with in the world of Hollywood musicals. Her compelling voice, her remarkable ability to put over a song and her endearing screen persona made her a top star. In the U.S. Quigley’s Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Poll, which was the barometer of the stars’ box-office power, she placed 9th in 1938, 7th in 1939, 13th in 1940, 12th in 1941 and 1943 and 15th in 1944 (in 1942, she had been away from the screen).

Dutch postcard by Korès. Photo: Paramount.

American singer Bing Crosby (1903-1977) was a crooner whose signature song was 'White Christmas'. He often played 'happy-go-lucky fellas' in films which included the 'Road to...' comedies from 1940 to 1962, but he proved that he could act with The Country Girl (1954) opposite Grace Kelly. Crosby was a multi-media entertainer: a star on the radio and in the cinema, with chart-topping recordings. He had 38 no. 1 singles, which surpassed Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. To be continued tomorrow.

Today, the last GDI post on the big blue album from the estate of film historians Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul. The album includes mostly Dutch postcards from the 1920s to the 1950s. So in this final post, you can find Hollywood stars of the 1940s and 1950s, including Elvis, who was very popular in the Netherlands. Next month, we will discover a new album full of vintage postcards from the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Dutch postcard by PEB.

American film star Joan Crawford (1904-1977) had a career that spanned many decades, studios, and controversies. In her silent films, she made an impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper, and later she matured into a star of psychological melodramas.

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 3177. Photo: Filmtrust - Paramount.

American singer Bing Crosby (1903-1977) was a crooner whose signature song was 'White Christmas'. He often played 'happy-go-lucky fellas' in films which included the 'Road to...' comedies from 1940 to 1962, but he proved that he could act with The Country Girl (1954) opposite Grace Kelly. Crosby was a multi-media entertainer: a star on the radio and in the cinema, with chart-topping recordings. He had 38 no. 1 singles, which surpassed Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, no. 3017. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Red-headed and blue-green-eyed operatic singer Jeanette MacDonald (1903-1965) was discovered for the cinema by Ernst Lubitsch, who cast her opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade (1929). Later, the 'Iron Butterfly' co-starred with Nelson Eddy in a string of successful musicals and played opposite Clark Gable in San Francisco (1936).

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Universal / M.P.E.

George Brent (1904-1979) was an Irish-born actor who was mainly active in American cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the favourite leading man of Bette Davis and they were onscreen paired eleven times in such classics as Jezebel (1938) and Dark Victory (1939).

Dutch postcard by P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-51. Photo: Warner Bros.

American actress Joan Leslie (1925-2015) starred in over 30 films. Her breakout role came at the age of 15, when she appeared as the crippled girl Velma in High Sierra (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. In the following years, she starred alongside Gary Cooper in Sergeant York (1941) and James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). After 1956, she appeared in some television series.

Dutch postcard by PEB.

Between 1939 and 1951, American actor Robert Walker (1918-1951) played in about twenty films. He starred in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Strangers on a Train (1949) as the madman who proposes a perfect murder in exchange.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, no. 3023. Photo: Universal- International. Maria Montez in Sudan (John Rawlins, 1945).

Dominican film actress María Montez (1912-1951) gained fame and popularity as a tempestuous Latina beauty in Hollywood movies of the 1940s. In a series of exotic adventures filmed in Technicolor, she starred as Arabian princesses, jungle goddesses, and highborn gypsies, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparkling jewels. Over her career, ‘The Queen of Technicolor’ appeared in 26 films, of which five were made in Europe.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, no. 3095. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Dark-haired and tall John Carroll (1906-1979) was an American actor and singer. Combining a good singing voice and dashing looks, Carroll appeared in over 50 films during his 24-year career. He reached his peak in the 1940s when MGM gave him leading roles in second-rate Westerns and musicals. Incidentally, he worked with famous directors like Howard Hawks, George Cukor and Orson Welles. He was married briefly to exotic leading lady Steffi Duna, and later to one of the first female Hollywood studio executives, Lucille Ryman.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Ann Miller (1923-2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress. She was famed for her speed in tap dancing and her style of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasised her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Miller is best remembered for her work in the classic Hollywood musicals Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 3332. Photo: Europa / Columbia.

Jack Carson (1910-1953) was a tall and beefy character actor who specialised in friendly but frequently untrustworthy types in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s. He would take the double-take and the quizzical look to a higher level.

Dutch postcard by Foto archief Film en Toneel, no. 3240. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organ.

Fresh-faced Patricia Roc (1915-2003) was, between 1943 and 1953, one of Britain's top 10 box office stars. The elegant, well-spoken actress seemed the epitome of the English rose. She had international success in such Gainsborough costume dramas as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and in When the Bough Breaks (1947), in which she played an unmarried mother.

Dutch postcard by MPEA. Photo: RKO.

American actress Anne Shirley (1918-1993) began her career as a child actress, Dawn O'Day, and was the original Alice in Disney's silent animated series Alice in Cartoonland. She became known as Anne Shirley with Anne of Green Gables (1934). For her supporting role in Stella Dallas (1937), she received an Oscar nomination.

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 3138. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Richard Conte (1910-1975) was an American actor who often appeared in Film Noirs and crime dramas of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Two decades later, he returned to the screen as gangster boss Don Barzini in The Godfather (1972).

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 1567. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

American actor Dale Robertson (1923-2013) was best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series Tales of Wells Fargo and railroad owner Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse. He was often presented as a deceptively thoughtful but modest Western hero. Robertson played in over 60 Western films and television shows.

West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 789. Barbara Lang and Elvis Presley.

Beautiful, brassy Barbara Lang (1928–1982) was an American actress and singer. During the 1950s, she was one of the many B-level blondes in Hollywood who were promoted as the new Marilyn Monroe. However, Lang appeared in only three films.

When The Beatles came to America in 1965, there was only one person they wanted to meet: Elvis Presley (1935-1977). Elvis had more multi-platinum album sales than any other performer, with twelve albums selling over 2 million copies.

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI). Our thanks to Egbert Barten.

Margitta Scherr (1943-2020) was a German film and television actress who starred in several lightweight romantic comedies and musicals of the 1960s. Between 1969 and 1972, she also appeared in the popular TV series Salto Mortale.

German postcard by ISV, Sort. 18/6. Photo: F. Schneider.

Margitta Scherr, Christiane Rücker and Manfred Schnelldorfer in Ich kauf mir lieber einen Tirolerhut (1965)

German postcard by Graphima, Berlin. Photo: Marhoffer / Musichouse / Ceres Film. Margitta Scherr, Christiane Rücker and Manfred Schnelldorfer in Ich kauf mir lieber einen Tirolerhut / I'd Rather Buy a Tyrolean Hat (Hans Bilian, 1965).

West German collector card by Penny-Bildbände in the Unsere Bambi-Lieblingee series, no. 13. Andreas Blum, Horst Janson, Gitty Djamal, Gustav Knuth, Margitta Scherr, Hans Jürgen Bäumler and Karla Chadimová in Salto Mortale (Michael Braun, 1969). Caption: The TV series Salto Mortale with Gustav Knuth (centre) was so well received by viewers that it was continued.

One of the most astonishing, convincing displays of talent of recent times

Margitta Ina Scherr was born in 1943 in Chemnitz, Germany. When she was seven, her family moved to München (Munich). She got her first small role at the age of twelve in the film Der Meineidbauer / The Perjured Farmer (Rudolf Jugert, 1956) starring Heidemarie Hatheyer.

She also appeared in two comedies, starring Heinz Erhardt, Vater, Mutter und neun Kinder / Father, Mother and Nine Children (Erich Engels, 1958) and Natürlich die Autofahrer / Of Course, the Motorists (Erich Engels, 1958).

The young actress took acting and ballet lessons and continued to appear in front of the camera. Critics noticed her in the television film Frédéric Chopin und George Sand (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1960) as the composer's stepdaughter. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: ‘The renowned leading actors were nowhere near as intense as the very young Margitta Scherr, who gave one of the most astonishing, convincing displays of talent of recent times.’

Margitta Scherr showed her talent also on the big screen with her first leading role as Carlos Thompson's partner in Der Held meiner Träume / The Hero of My Dreams (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1960).

She played opposite Helmut Griem and Horst Frank in Fabrik der Offiziere / Operation Terror (Frank Wisbar, 1960), she was Luise Ullrich's daughter in Frau Irene Besser / Mrs Irene Besser (John Olden, 1961), and she had Maria Schell and O. W. Fischer as her film parents in Das Riesenrad / The Ferris Wheel (Géza von Radványi, 1961).

Margitta Scherr in Wenn die Musik spielt am Wörthersee (1962)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden / Westf, no. 1642. Photo: Music House / Constantin Film / Stempka. Margitta Scherr in Wenn die Musik spielt am Wörthersee / When the Music Plays on Lake Wörthersee (Hans Grimm, 1962).

West German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 762. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

Fully clothed in Playboy

Margitta Scherr played the title role in the film Operetta Schwarzwaldmädel / The Black Forest Girl (Wilm ten Haaf, 1961). In the same year, Michael Pfleghar directed her for his television show Zu jung um blond zu sein / Too Young to be Blonde (Michael Pfleghar, 1961), which won the Golden Rose of Montreux.

Scherr acted in such light entertainment films as the romantic comedies Die Post geht ab / The Mail Goes Off (Helmuth M. Backhaus, 1962), Holiday in St. Tropez (Ernst Hofbauer, 1964) with Vivi Bach, and Ich kauf mir lieber einen Tirolerhut / I'd Rather Buy a Tyrolean Hat (Hans Billian, 1965) with Manfred Schnelldorfer.

Playboy dedicated a full-page lead photo to Scherr in the cover story ‘The Girls of Germany’ in the November 1964 issue, in which she remained fully clothed. She was the leading lady in the Italian-Spanish-German Eurospy film A 001: operazione Giamaica / Scharfe Schüsse auf Jamaika / Our Man in Jamaica (Ernst Ritter von Theumer, Peter Jacob, 1965) starring Larry Pennell and Brad Harris.

Her last major film role was as Vevi in Das sündige Dorf / The Sinful Village (Werner Jacobs, 1966) with Hans-Jürgen Bäumler. From 1967, Scherr only appeared on television. She had leading roles in Die Glocken von London / The Bells of London (Wilm ten Haaf, 1962), based on Charles Dickens and Boni (Theodor Grädler, 1966) as the Bavarian butcher's daughter Evi, who falls in love with a black man. On stage, she appeared as the title character in the boulevard comedy 'Mary, Mary' in Wuppertal. She also acted in the popular TV series Salto Mortale (1969-1972) with Gustav Knuth. She played the trapeze artist Francis Doria.

After the end of this series, Margitta Scherr ended her career as an actress and retired to private life. She studied foreign languages and then worked for many years as a press officer for international cinema films. She was married to photographer Karl-Heinz Vogelmann from 1962 till their divorce in 1977. They had one son, Alexander Vogelmann. After a long illness, Margitta Scherr died in 2020, surrounded by her family in Munich. She was 77.

German autograph card. Photo: K.H. Vogelmann.

West German autograph card.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.