Alice Terry

December 19, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Claudine Auger (1941-2019)

≪ Previous: Alain Barrière (1935-2019)

Alice Terry (1900–1987) was an American film actress and director, who appeared in almost 40 films between 1916 and 1933. Though a brunette, Terry's trademark look was her blonde hair, for which she wore wigs from 1920 onwards. Her most acclaimed role is the leading lady in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rex Ingram, 1921) starring Rudolph Valentino. Ingram, who married her in 1921, would shoot her in many of his films and often paired her to Ramon Novarro. Terry proved also in films without her husband’s direction she was a legitimate star. In 1923 the couple moved to the French Riviera, where they set up a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy.

French postcard by Europe, no. 535. Photo: Regal Film / United Artists.

Alice Terry and Lewis Stone in The Prisoner of Zenda

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 679/4. Lewis Stone as Rudolph Rassendyll and Alice Terry as Princess Flavia in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 807/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Bafag. With Rex Ingram.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 842/2, 1925-1926. Photo: British-American Film A.G. (Bafag).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3255/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Alice Terry in Lovers? (John M. Stahl, 1927).

Rex and His Queen

Alice Terry was born as Alice Frances Taaffe in 1899 in Vincennes, Indiana, USA.

Alice started as an extra in films at age 15 to help her family financially. She made her film debut in Not My Sister (Charles Giblyn, 1916), opposite Bessie Barriscale and William Desmond Taylor. It was produced by legendary film pioneer Thomas Ince. She worked in "Inceville", Ince's studio, and would appear as an extra as several characters in his pacifist allegorical drama Civilization (Reginald Barker, Thomas H. Ince, 1916). The film was a big-budget spectacle that was compared to both The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915) and the paintings of Jean-François Millet. Civilization was a popular success and was credited by the Democratic National Committee with helping to re-elect Woodrow Wilson as the U.S. President in 1916.

She was shy and was also interested in other motion picture jobs, considering work as a script girl or a cutter behind the camera as preferable to performing in front of it. For two years Alice worked in cutting rooms at Famous-Players-Lasky. This work would help her later on when she worked with Rex Ingram on his films. It was while she was working as an extra on The Devil's Passkey (Erich von Stroheim, 1920) that Alice was first noticed, by director Erich von Stroheim. Sadly, her insecurity caused her to rapidly leave the Universal lot. She never even stopped to pick up her paycheck.

In 1917, she had met director Rex Ingram. Ingram promoted her to small parts in his early Metro Pictures films in the late teens. He also directed her physical transformation, overseeing a program of weight loss and dental repair, and creating “Alice Terry” — both the name and the image — as his protege. He gave her her first significant role in Hearts Are Trumps (Rex Ingram, 1920). It was during preparation for this role that Alice discovered what would become her trademark.

IMDb: 'She was putting on her make-up and saw a blonde wig on the table next to her. She put it on but thought it looked silly. Just then the director Rex Ingram (who was already an admirer, both personally and professionally) walked in and saw her in it. He insisted she wear it in the film. Alice wasn't convinced until she saw the rushes the next day. "When I appeared on the screen, I looked so different, and from that time I never got rid of the wig."' Wikipedia adds that she put on her first blonde wig in Hearts Are Trumps (1920) 'to look different from Francelia Billington, the other actress in the film.'

Ingram and Terry would marry in 1921. It was also in 1921 that Alice would gain acclaim as Marguerite in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), with the blonde wig. Often regarded as one of the first true anti-war films, it had a huge cultural impact and became the top-grossing film of 1921, beating out Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921). The film turned then-little-known actor Rudolph Valentino into a superstar and associated him with the image of the Latin Lover. The film also inspired a tango craze and such fashion fads as gaucho pants.

For her husband, she would continue to play the heroine is such masterpieces as The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922) in which she appeared as Princess Flavia opposite Lewis Stone and the upcoming Ramon Novarroas the bad guy, and Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923), now featuring Ramon Novarro. Both films were smash hits. Heidi Kenaga at Women Film Pioneer's Project: '“Rex and His Queen” were one of the more celebrated director-actress teams of the 1920s, but there are indications that performing was only one dimension of Terry’s contribution to their work together.'

In 1924 and 1925 the marriage between Terry and Ingram was in jeopardy, according to Wikipedia, and in that time period she worked under other directors. Alice worked on five films, and particularly her roles in Any Woman (Henry King, 1925) and Sackcloth and Scarlet (Henry King, 1925), both by Paramount Pictures, proved that Alice was a legitimate star away from her husband. She also would make the Western melodrama The Great Divide (Reginald Barker, 1924) with Conway Tearle and Wallace Beery.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1033/2. Photo: Phoebus Film. Alice Terry in Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923).

Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 409. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn. Alice Terry in Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923).

Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 409. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn.

Ramon Novaro and Alice Terry in Scaramouche (1923)

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 447. Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry in the Metro Pictures production Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923).

Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovich in The Magician (1926)

Italian postcard in the Serie d'Oro by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 245a. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovich in The Magician (Rex Ingram, 1926).

The only Mrs. Rex Ingram

In 1924, Metro would merge into the new MGM and both Rex Ingram and Alice Terry would work there. She would be directed again by Ingram in The Arab (1924), which was filmed in North Africa and owed much to the influence of screen idol Valentino. When they got back together, Terry took on a more behind-the-scenes role. During the making of The Arab (Rex Ingram, 1924) in Tunisia, they met a street child named Kada-Abd-el-Kader, whom they adopted upon learning that he was an orphan. Allegedly, el-Kader misrepresented his age to make himself seem younger to his adoptive parents.

In 1925 Ingram co-directed Ben-Hur, filming parts of it in Italy. The two decided to move to the French Riviera, where they set up a small studio in Nice and started to make films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy. Alice would get her chance to play the wicked woman in Mare Nostrum (Rex Ingram, 1926). Filmed in Italy and Spain, this film was both a critical and financial success for the couple.

Ingram would make his third independent film in Italy when he directed Alice in The Garden of Allah (Rex Ingram, 1927). Later that year, Alice would be reunited with Ramon Novarro in Lovers? (John M. Stahl, 1927), but the film would not be as well received as their earlier films.

When sound came to the screen Alice and Rex retired. Her last film appearance was in the sound film Baroud (1933) starring Pierre Batcheff, which she also co-directed with husband. Alice helped so much that she was named co-director and she directed all the scenes Ingram himself appeared in. Wikipedia: 'Baroud (Rex Ingram, Alice Terry, 1933) highlighted Alice's ability as an all around filmmaker but she never took that further.'

Terry and Ingram retired in the 1930s and took up painting. Once Terry and Ingram moved back to the United States they started having problems with their adopted son, Kada-Abd-el-Kader. According to Wikipedia, He 'began associating with fast women and fast cars throughout the San Fernando Valley.' Terry and Ingram sent him back to Morocco 'to finish school.'Kada-Abd-el-Kader never went back to school, but he later became a tourist guide in Morocco and Algiers. El-Kader would always tell tourists that he was the adopted son of Rex Ingram and Alice Terry

In 1950, Rex Ingram passed away. Terry was open-minded and she invited four of Rex's mistresses to his funeral. Wikipedia quotes her saying: 'Who cares, I'm the only one that can call herself Mrs. Rex Ingram.' A year later, when Columbia released Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951), featuring Eleanor Parker and Anthony Dexter, Alice Terry filed suit against Columbia and the producers because of the way the film "falsely portrayed a clandestine relationship between Valentino and Terry". Columbia settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

In 1960, she was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6628 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Terry was still active in the 1970s. She loved hosting Sunday afternoon parties and going out to dinner in extravagant, floor length mink coats. Alzheimer's put a stop to Terry's parties and fun. Following her death in 1987 in Burbank, California by pneumonia, Alice Terry was interred at Vahalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.

Alice Terry made 29 films, not counting four appearances as an extra. Of these 29, 17 are lost films. Six exist in archives around the world and six survive on video and on television broadcast release.

About her part in Rex Ingram's films, Picture Play commented in a 1924 article, she was set apart by “her unrestrained enthusiasm for her husband, her unqualified praise for his work, with absolutely no mention of her own minor but definite achievements.” Heidi Kenaga gives her at Women Film Pioneer's Project full credit for the films she made with Ingram and cites film historian Anthony Slide: 'although Terry is only given on-screen credit for Baroud— a sound film made after Ingram’s heyday and outside the US studio system — it is possible she also co-directed some parts of Ingram’s motion pictures between 1921 and 1929.'

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 19.

German postcard. by Ross Verlag, no. 1449/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Angelo Photos.

German postcard. by Ross Verlag, no. 1449/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Angelo Photos.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 369/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Fanamet-Film.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 193. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Alice Terry in The Garden of Allah (Rex Ingram, 1927).

Ivan Petrovich and Alice Terry in The Three Passions (1928)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4854/1, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists. Ivan Petrovich and Alice Terry in The Three Passions (Rex Ingram, 1928). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Sources: Heidi Kenaga (Women Film Pioneer's Project), Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Claudine Auger (1941-2019)

December 20, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Cinderella (1950)

≪ Previous: Alice Terry

On 18 December 2019, French actress Claudine Auger (1941) passed away. She is best known as Bond girl Domino in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). At 17, she was Miss France 1958 and she became the first runner-up in the Miss World contest. Later she worked mostly in France and Italy. Claudine Auger was 78.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 608, 1966.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 326. Photo: Sam Levin.

Belgian postcard by Edt. Decker, Brussels, no. A. 101. Offered by Korès.

James Bond

Claudine Auger was born Claudine Oger in Paris, France in 1941.

She attended St. Joan of Arc College. At the age of 16 the well-proportioned brunette earned the title of Miss France 1958 and was also the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest. A year later, she married the 41-year-old writer-director Pierre Gaspard-Huit.

She attended the Paris Drama Conservatory, where she performed dramatic roles. Still at school, Jean Cocteau cast her as a tall ballerina in his final film Le testament d'Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi!/The Testament of Orpheus (1960), about an ageing poet who knows he is dying.

She had her first leading lady role in the satirical Swashbuckler Le Masque de fer/The Iron Mask (Henri Decoin, 1962) opposite Jean Marais as the ageing musketeer D’Artagnan. She also starred opposite Pierre Étaix in his Tati-esque comedy Yoyo (Pierre Étaix, 1965).

On holiday in Nassau, she met writer-producer Kevin McClory. He recommended her for an audition for Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965), the fourth 007 mission featuring Sean Connery. She auditioned for the role of Domino, the mistress of international business executive and agent of the evil SPECTRE organisation Emilio Largo (Adolpho Celi). Domino was originally to be an Italian woman: Dominetta Petacchi.

Auger impressed the producers so much that they re-wrote the part into a French woman, Dominique Derval. Auger later claimed that she related to her character, as she and Domino were involved with older men. Although she took lessons to perfect her English, her voice was eventually dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl. Immediate by-products of Claudine's stardom were a semi-nude Playboy spread and a guest shot on an American TV special starring Danny Thomas and Bob Hope.

Claudine Auger and Sean Connery in Thunderbolt (1966)

Vintage postcard. Photo: P.A. Reuter. Claudine Auger and Sean Connery in Thunderball (Terence Young, 1966).

Sean Connery. Vintage German postcard. Photo: P.A. Reuter.

French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Editions Hazan, Paris, no. 6377, 1993. Photo: Claudine Auger and Sean Connery in Thunderball (Terence Young, 1966).

The Grandfather of the Modern Slasher Film

Thunderball launched Claudine Auger into a successful European film career, but it did little for her otherwise in the United States. In Europe, she reunited with her James Bond director Terence Young for the British-French Spy film Triple Cross (1966) with Christopher Plummer.

Other trendy sixties films in which she starred were the French-Spanish-Italian thriller L'Homme de Marrakesh/That Man George! (Jacques Deray, 1966), the Italian-French-German caper comedy Operazione San Gennaro/Operation San Gennaro (Dino Risi, 1967), the Italian-French sex comedy Le Dolci Signore/Anyone Can Play (Fausto Saraceni, Luigi Zampa, 1967) opposite Ursula Andress, the French satire Jeu De Massacre/The Killing Game (Alain Jessua, 1967) and the Italian fantastic comedy L'Arcidiavolo/The devil in Love (Ettore Scola, 1968) starring Vittorio Gassman.

One of her best films was Ecologia del delitto/Bay Of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971). This Giallo - an Italian genre of bloody horror-thrillers – is often cited as the grandfather of the modern slasher film. The film is known under several Italian titles, including Antefatto and Reazione a catena, the re-issue title. In English the film is also known as Carnage, Twitch of the Death Nerve and Blood Bath

Robert Firsching at AllMovie: “the film's style influenced countless American slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s. Bava also includes a strangulation by telephone cord, a gory axe decapitation, a man speared to a wall, and five other murders. Antefatto was a trendsetting film, and paved the way for literally hundreds of graphically violent imitations.”

Auger is the scheming daughter of a murdered Countess (played by film legend Isa Miranda). Her staged suicide forms the basis of the film's plot.

With two other Bond girls, Barbara Bach and Barbara Bouchet, she appeared in another Giallo, La Tarantola dal ventre nero/Black Belly of the Tarantula (Paolo Cavara, 1972) starring Giancarlo Giannini.

That year she also co-starred with Christopher Mitchum, the son of Robert Mitchum, in the Italian action film Un verano para matar/Summertime Killer (Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, 1972).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3242, 1968.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3243, 1968. Photo: G.B. Poletto and Peter Basch.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 232.

Modern Noir

During the following decades, Claudine Auger kept busy in both the Italian and the French cinema. A classic is the French thriller Flic Story/Cop Story (Jacques Deray, 1975) starring Alain Delon and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

She again worked with Jacques Deray on his modern Noir Un Papillon sur l'Epaule/A butterfly on the shoulder (Jacques Deray, 1978) starring Lino Ventura.

James Travers reviews at Films de France: “In many ways, this is one of Jacques Deray’s most sophisticated and appealing films – the cobweb intrigue is masterfully woven, the detached photography evokes the sense of an unseen deadly threat throughout, and the minimalist script emphasises the feeling of isolation and helplessness of the film’s principal protagonist. It is a satisfying and compelling work, but also a profoundly disturbing one”.

In Italy she appeared in the comedy of errors Viaggio con Anita/Lovers and Liars (Mario Monicelli, 1979) starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini, and the domestic comedy Aragosta a Colazione/Lobster for Breakfast (Giorgio Capitani, 1979).

The French comedy L'Associé/The Associate (René Gainville, 1980), featuring Michel Serrault, lead in 1996 to a less successful American remake with Whoopi Goldberg.

In the UK Auger made Secret Places (Zelda Barron, Judith Lang, 1984) and the British-American production The Summer House (Waris Hussein, 1993) starring Jeanne Moreau.

Her last films were the erotic drama Salt on Our Skin/Desire (Andrew Birkin, 1993) with Greta Scacchi, and the Spanish comedy Los hombres siempre mienten/Men Always Lie (Antonio del Real, 1995). Later she worked incidentally for TV.

After her divorce from Pierre Gaspard-Huit, Claudine Auger was married to businessman Peter Brent until his death in 2008. After a long period of illness, Claudine Auger passed away in Paris on 18 December 2019.

Belgian postcard in the Vedettes series of Victoria Chocolates by S. Best. Anvers (Antwerp) / Rotterdam, no. 2.

Belgian postcard by Edt. Decker, Brussels, no. A. 109.

Trailer for Thunderball (1965). Source: The Cult Box (YouTube).

Trailer for Ecologia del delitto/Bay Of Blood (1971). Source: Utterfright (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Robert Firsching (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Les Gens du Cinéma (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Cinderella (1950)

December 21, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Leopoldo Fregoli

≪ Previous: Claudine Auger (1941-2019)

In the coming holiday season, EFSP will present some new film specials on Disney classics. Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950), produced by Walt Disney and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures, is the twelfth Disney animated feature film. It was the last classic of Disney's 'golden age' and also started a new series of lavishly produced full-length feature films.

French postcard by Editions Superluxe, Paris, no. 15. Picture: Walt Disney Productions. Postcard for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950). Caption: In the carriage of the good fairy, Cinderella goes to the Royal Ball.

French postcard by Editions Superluxe, Paris, no. 19. Picture: Walt Disney Productions. Postcard for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950). Caption: At exactly midnight, the magic effect having ended, Cinderella is in rags in the park.

A classic fairy-tale from 1697

Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950) is an adaptation of Charles Perrault's classic fairy-tale from 1697, and the film remains faithful to its origins.

Cinderella, the beautiful and kind-hearted daughter, sees her world turn upside down when her beloved mother dies, and her pained father remarries another woman, the wicked Lady Tremaine. She has two equally cruel daughters, the jealous Anastasia and Drizella.

But, once more, things will go from bad to worse, when Cinderella's father, too, dies, leaving her all alone in the Lady's clutches to serve as her maid-of-all-work.

When her cruel stepmother prevents the shabby and neglected Cinderella from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother who has quite a few tricks up her sleeve. Will she find peace and her Prince Charming?

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 104/6. Picture: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950).

British postcard in the Disney Archive Collection by The Art Group Ltd., no. 8756. Picture: Disney. Publicity still for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950). Caption: "The mice make Cinderella a dress".

The last product of Disney's 'golden age'

Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950) is seen as both an end and beginning for different eras of the Disney animation studio.

The 1930s and early 1940s produced the most critically acclaimed of the Disney animated films, often groundbreaking and experimental in nature, though several of them were commercial flops.

Walt Disney Productions had suffered from losing connections to the European film markets due to the outbreak of World War II, enduring some box office bombs like Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Bambi (1942). The studio was over $4 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

The rest of the 1940s involved the release of cheaper package films, films consisting of several short films combined into one. Cinderella was arguably the last product of Disney's 'golden age' and was the the first of a new series of lavishly produced full-length feature films.

The Disney animated films of the 1950s were in general less artistic and experimental, more commercial in nature. Most of them were box office hits but their critical evaluation often places them below their predecessors. Made on the cusp between the two eras, Cinderella is representative of both eras.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 104. Picture: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950).

Full of inventive comic touches

Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950) received three Oscar nominations and became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the Disney studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and helped to reverse the studio's fortunes.

Among the artists responsible for the 'look' of Cinderella (1950), was Mary Blair, whose inspired use of colour was greatly admired by Disney. Her elegant French-period backgrounds add tremendously to the quality of the film.

But, most important of all' are the believable characters - from Cinderella, right down to Lucifer, the stepmother's deliciously evil black cat. They bring both life and vibrancy to the often told story, something very difficult to create in an animated film.

Disney gave the mice a big role in the main storyline, and this was the key to providing all the humour and suspense needed to spice up the predictable story. The leading mice, Gus and Jaq are delightful creations and the valiant band of mice are given amusing bits of business.

A highlight is the 'Cinderella Work Song' in which the mice make a dress for the mistreated Cinderella, full of inventive comic touches and accompanied by the intricate blend of song and animation. Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman wrote the songs for Cinderella.

French postcard in the Le Monde Merveilleux de Walt Disney series by Diffusion Hachette, no. 104. Picture: Walt Disney Production. Publicity still for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 104. Picture: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Leopoldo Fregoli

December 22, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Lady and the Tramp (1955)

≪ Previous: Cinderella (1950)

Legendary Italian protean (quick-change) artist Leopoldo Fregoli (1867-1936) was one of the first vaudeville actors who used film in his acts. Fregoli was famous for his rapid transformation acts, in which he did impersonations of famous artistic and political characters.

Italian postcard. Photo: Zaccaria.

Italian postcard, no. 196. Photo C. A. Pini, Bologna.

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903.

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1908.

Italian postcard, no. 86. Photo: Sciutto. Sent by mail in 1912.

Fregoli Syndrome

Leopoldo Luigi Fregoli was born in Rome, Italy in 1867. He was famous in the vaudeville for his rapid transformation acts, in which he did impersonations of famous artistic and political characters.

Originally an amateur entertainer, he took his first steps to professionalism while serving in the Italian army in Abyssinia under General Baldissera in 1890.

He soon conquered the Italian and the European stage. From March to May 1897, he was a huge success at the LondonAlhambra Theatre, in spite of his lack in speaking English.

While he was performing in London, unkind rumours spread that there was more than one Fregoli. He quickly quashed these rumours by inviting journalists and doubters backstage to see him at work: Fregoli had no secrets.

He knew several imitators in his time, including The Great Trickoli and Fregolina, and offered them advice about how to improve their performances. He did several tours in South America and in Italy and performed a full year at the Paris theatre Olympia, often returning there till 1910.

In 1922, Fregoli suddenly stopped his quickchange act while in Brazil, and returned to Italy. Fregoli died in 1936. His tombstone carries the words: 'His last transformation'.

After him the so-called Fregoli syndrome is named. Wikipedia describes it: "The Fregoli delusion or Fregoli syndrome is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise."

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli nell' Eldorado (Fregoli at the Eldorado).

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli nella Notte d'Amore (Fregoli in the Night of Love).

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli Relampago (Spanish for Lightning).

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli Camaleonte (Fregoli Chameleon).

Italian postcard by Garzini & Pezzini, Milano, 1903. This postcard was sent in 1905 within Belgium from Dolhain (Limburg) to Anvers (Antwerp). Double click to see the postcard completely.

Fregoligraph

Leopoldo Fregoli was one of the first vaudeville artists to use film. After a visit to Lyon, Fregoli bought a Cinematographe from the Lumière brothers in 1898. He started to show shorts, named Fregoligraph, as part of his stage act.

As Luke McKernan writes at Who's Who in Victorian Cinema: "The films were no more than records of his various sketches, though he soon learned the possibilities of film trickery and began to employ surprise cuts and reverses."

Among his films were Danza serpentina/Serpentine Dance (Leopoldo Fregoli, 1897), Fregoli trasformista/Fregoli change-artist (Leopoldo Fregoli, 1898), and Dietro le quinte/Backstage (Leopoldo Fregoli, 1898).

In Maestri di musica/Fregoli, the Protean Artiste (Leopoldo Fregoli, 1898), Fregoli impersonated composers like Verdi, Wagner, and Rossini. In Commendator Ermete Novelli: Impressioni dalla critica/Commander Ermete Novelli: Impressions from the critics (Leopoldo Fregoli, 1899), he imitated the Italian actor and later film star Ermete Novelli.

His act was also filmed by the production company of British film pioneer Robert W. Paul, whose Fregoli, the Protean Artiste, in his Impersonation of Famous Composers (1898), was recorded at the Alhambra.

In Georges Méliès'l'Homme-Protée (1899), Fregoli played twenty different characters. Luke Mc Kernan: "His filming was, however, only a brief interlude in an international stage career that lasted many years. Fregoli was a dazzling entertainer whose exuberance and agility are readily apparent from the surviving films."

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome has several of Fregoli's short films in its collection, which therefore belong to the oldest surviving Italian film material. A late echo of Fregoli's transformations can be traced in Giulietta Masina's character's quickchange act in Luci del varietà/Variety Lights (Alberto Lattuada, Federico Fellini, 1950).

Fregoli's memoirs were published by Rizzoli publishers in 1936, the year of his death, as Fregoli raccontato da Fregoli. Le memorie del mago del trasformismo. At age 69, Leopoldo Fragoli died in 1936 in Viareggio, Italy.

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli nella Mimi.

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli repertorio Eccentrico Veglione.

Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milano, 1903. Caption: Fregoli in Eldorado.

Curiosanda in Cineteca (Italian). Source: Turifraska (YouTube).

Sources: Luke McKernan (Who's Who in Victorian Cinema), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Lady and the Tramp (1955)

December 23, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Merry Christmas!

≪ Previous: Leopoldo Fregoli

Walt Disney's animation classic Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955) tells the romantic tale of a pampered uptown cocker spaniel and a streetwise downtown Mutt. It was based on 'Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog,' by Ward Greene. The film offers amongst many other delights one of the most memorable kisses in Hollywood history.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 108. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 108/3. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 108/4. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

When a baby moves in, a dog moves out

The story of Lady and the Tramp opens with a cute little American cocker spaniel puppy named Lady offered as a Christmas gift to 'Darling' by her husband Jim 'Dear'. The owners' names, besides the fact that their faces are rarely shown, accentuate the impression that we're watching the film from the dogs' perspectives.

Lady adores her a refined, upper-middle-class surroundings and receives the requited love of her owners. Six months later, that love hasn't diminished and she is a newly licensed pet. Lady has befriended two local neighbourhood dogs, a Scottish terrier named Jock, and a bloodhound named Trusty, suffering a busted sniffer.

But Lady learns that her owners are expecting a child, and suddenly Lady has been unwittingly pushed aside to make room for a new bundle of joy. The upset Lady meets up with a mongrel dog who calls himself the Tramp. He is obviously from the wrong side of the tracks, and Jock and Trusty take an immediate dislike to the stray and order him out of the yard. As Tramp leaves, he reminds Lady that "when a baby moves in, a dog moves out."

When Darling's snooty Aunt Sarah introduces Si and Am, her sneaky twin Siamese cats into the fold, Lady is certain that she's no longer welcome. The cats wreak all manner of havoc, for which Lady is blamed. After the poor dog is fitted with a muzzle, Lady escapes from the house. The Tramp saves Lady from a pack of other street dogs and helps her remove her muzzle. Then he takes her out on a night on the town, culminating in a romantic spaghetti dinner, courtesy of a pair of dog-loving Italian waiters. But her love with him will have bad consequences.

After many adventures, the film ends at Christmas. Tramp has been adopted into the family, and he and Lady have started their own family, with Lady having given birth to a litter of four puppies: three daughters who look identical to Lady and one son who looks identical to Tramp.

Belgian postcard by Editions Corna. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

French postcard. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

Bow-Wow-Wow! - And - Arf! Arf! Arf!

Lady and the Tramp (1955) would be Disney Studios' 15th animated feature film and the first to be produced in wide-screen Cinema-Scope. During the early 1950s Disney made some excellent animated features such as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp followed those films and proved to be another good film from the studio.

Wikipedia writes that Lady and the Tramp was released to theatres on 22 June 1955 to box office success. "It initially received mixed to negative reviews by film critics, but critical reception for the film has been generally positive in modern times, and the film is now seen as one of the best animated films from Disney." Dave Kehr, writing for The Chicago Tribune gave the film four stars.

Lady and the Tramp is an unpretentious little gem, told from the viewpoint of the animals and against interesting backgrounds with superb animation. The film has a soft look and uses bright colours that give the upper class housing areas a rich gleam. The Peggy Lee music is delightful, especially the 'He's A Tramp' and 'We Are Siamese' songs. Lee also voiced the Darling, Peg and Si & Am characters.

Another highlight is the 'Bella Notte' sequence, with the spaghetti, breadsticks and the drippy candle. Wikipedia notes that Walt Disney was prepared to cut it, thinking that it would not be romantic and that dogs eating spaghetti would look silly.

Animator Frank Thomas was against Walt's decision and animated the entire scene himself without any lay-outs. Walt was impressed by Thomas's work and how he romanticised the scene and kept it in. And when Lady and her Tramp finally share a spaghetti strand, it leads to an accidental kiss, one of the most memorable kisses in Hollywood history. Bow-Wow-Wow! - And - Arf! Arf! Arf!

Belgian postcard by Edicorna / GB, no. 6/3307. Image: Walt Disney productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 108. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

French postcard by Editions Crès, Paris, no. 202, 1964. Caption: The Reunion. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

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

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Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Yvette Lebon

≪ Previous: Lady and the Tramp (1955)

As every year: Gelukkig kerstfeest! Frohe Weihnachten! ¡Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! Buon Natale! Sretan Božić! Καλά Χριστούγεννα! Boldog karácsonyt! Gleðileg jól! Nollaig Shona! Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus! Linksmų Kalėdų! Среќен Божиќ God jul! Wesołych Świąt! Feliz Natal! Crăciun fericit! С Рождеством Срећан Божић veselé Vianoce! Vesel božič! God Jul! Nadolig Llawen! Gëzuar Krishtlindjet! Eguberri! Merry Christmas!

French postcard by Editions Crès, Paris, no. 202, 1964. Caption: The Reunion. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).

German postcard. Ross Verlag, no. 667/1. Photo: Neumann. The Nativity Scene with Henny Porten as Mary in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Esther Williams. German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 190. Photo: Keystone.

Margareta Pislaru. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Sophia Loren. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Rocío Dúrcal. Spanish postcard by Ediciones Tarjet-Fher / Ediciones Mandolina, no. 216. Photo: Epoca Films.

Mireille Darc. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 436.

Patricia Roc. Dutch postcard. Photo: British Lion.

Käthe von Nagy. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7282/1. Photo: Ufa. Released in Italy by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze.

Elizabeth Taylor. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1051. Photo: John Everton / Ufa.

Merry Christmas! Katharine Hepburn in Little Women

Dutch postcard by the Rialto Theatre, Amsterdam, 1934. Photo: Remaco Radio Picture. Publicity still for Little Women (George Cukor, 1933). In the picture are Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, Jean Parker and Spring Byington. The Dutch title of the film and the book by Louise M. Alcott is Onder moeders vleugels.

Lien Deyers. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7058/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Balász, Berlin.

Marta Eggerth. Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 593.

Marta Toren. Dutch postcard, no. 3374. Photo: Universal International / Fotoarchief Film en Toneel.

Robertino. French postcard by Editions Publistar, Marseille, no. 811. Photo: President.

Kermit. Dutch postcard by Interstat, Amsterdam. Photo: The Jim Henson Company.

Dany Robin. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1004. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Romy Schneider& Horst Buchholz. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3572.

Jayne Mansfield. French postcard by Edition a la carte. Photo: Filmhistorisches Bildarchiv Peter W. Engelmeier.

Heintje Simons. German postcard by Modern Times. Photo: Interfoto. Caption: Alles schlampen, ausser mama (All bitches, except mama).

Nadja Tiller. German promotion card for Luxor.

Viggo Larsen in Der Sohn des Hannibal (1918)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 542/1. Photo: Messter-Film. Publicity still of Viggo Larsen in Der Sohn des Hannibal/The Son of Hannibal (Viggo Larsen, 1918).

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Yvette Lebon

December 25, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Frank Sinatra

≪ Previous: Merry Christmas!

French actress Yvette Lebon (1910-2014) appeared in 39 films between 1931 and 1972. Her beautiful eyes made her one of the most attractive faces of the French cinema of the 1930s.

French postcard by unknown editor, no. 601.

French postcard, no. 2. Photo: Carlet.

French postcard, Paris, no. 717. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Erpé, no. 211. Photo: Simson.

French postcard by Editions S.E.R.P, Paris, no. 25. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Love Interest

Yvette Lebon was born as Simone Lebon in Paris in 1910. She was a close relation of stage and film director Sacha Guitry.

Her film career started in 1931 with a small part in the romantic comedy Rive gauche/Left Bank (Alexander Korda, 1931) starring Meg Lemonnier. This was an alternative language version of the Paramount production Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1930) starring Nancy Carroll.

Director Marc Allégret spotted her during an audition and gave her a supporting part in the musical Zouzou/Zou Zou (Marc Allégret, 1934) starring Josephine Baker.

Among Lebon’s other early films were the comedy Le Chéri de sa concierge/The Darling Of Her Caretaker (Giuseppe Guarino, 1934) with the young Fernandel, Divine (Max Ophüls, 1935) and the big hit Marinella (Pierre Caron, 1936) in which she played the love interest of popular singer Tino Rossi.

Her first leading role was in Les Mariages de Mademoiselle Lévy/Miss Levy's marriages (André Hugon, 1936).

The following years she appeared in the historical adventure film Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff (Jacques de Baroncelli, Richard Eichberg, 1936) featuring Adolf Wohlbruck (aka Anton Walbrook), the drama Abus de confiance/Abused Confidence (Henri Decoin, 1937) with Danielle Darrieux and Charles Vanel, and the war drama Gibraltar (Fyodor Otsep, 1938) starring Viviane Romance and Roger Duchesne. Duchesne became her first husband.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 601. Photo: Roger Kahan.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 22. Photo: Star.

French postcard by Erpé, no. 514. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 72. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1083.

103rd Birthday

During the war years Yvette Lebon played in the comedy L'Homme qui cherche la vérité/The Man Who Looks for The Truth (Alexander Esway, 1940) with Raimu, the historical comedy-drama Le destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary/Mlle. Desiree (1942), directed by and starring her relative Sacha Guitry as Napoleon, and another historical film, Paméla (Pierre de Hérain, 1945) with Fernand Graveyand Renée Saint-Cyr.

At the time she was the mistress of journalist and politician Jean Luchaire. With his evening daily Les Nouveaux Temps, Luchaire supported the Vichy regime's Révolution nationale in 1940. In 1946 he was tried and executed.

After the war, Lebon could be seen in Monsieur Grégoire s'évade/Mr. Gregoire Runs Away (Jacques Daniel-Norman, 1946) with Bernard Blier, and Les Amours de Blanche Neige/The Loves Of Snow White (Edi Wieser, 1947).

From the 1950s on, she also performed for the Italian and Spanish cinema. Her international films include the adventure film Il boia di Lilla/Milady and the Musketeers (Vittorio Cottafavi, 1952) in which she played one of her best roles as Milady the Winter opposite Rossano Brazzi, the musical comedy Maruzzella (Luigi Capuano, 1956) featuring Marisa Allasio, and the Peplum Ulisse contro Ercole/Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules (Mario Caiano, 1962) starring Georges Marchal.

Her last appearance was in the film Je, tu, elles.../I, You, They (Peter Foldes, 1972). Yvette Lebon was married twice, first to actor Roger Duchesne and then to Belgian-American producer Nathan ‘Nat’ Wachsberger, till his death in 1992. Wachsberger produced some of the later films she appeared in, including La cavale/On the Lam (Michel Mitrani, 1971) with Juliet Berto.

Their son Patrick Wachsberger is also a producer, and on his resume are Mr. And Mrs. Smith (Doug Liman, 2005) with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Letters to Juliet (Gary Winick, 2010) with Amanda Seyfried and Gael García Bernal.

Yvette Lebon died in 2014 in Cannes, France. Lebon had turned 103 in August 2013, and was France's oldest surviving actress until her death. She is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

French postcard by Viny, no. 69. Photo: Star.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 2. Photo: C.C.F.C.

French postcard, no. 101. Photo: Studio Harcourt, Paris.

Gérard Barray and Yvette Lebon in La máscara de Scaramouche (1963)

East-German postcard by Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 3034, 1968. Photo: publicity still for La máscara de Scaramouche/The Adventures of Scaramouche (Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, 1963).

Sources: Music Man (Movie-Musical-World - French), Les légendes du cinéma (French), L'@ide-Mémoire (French), Wikipedia (English and French), and IMDb.

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Frank Sinatra

December 26, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: The Jungle Book (1967)

≪ Previous: Yvette Lebon

Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was an American singer, actor and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.

Belgian postcard by N.V. Victoria, Brussels, no. 639 / 21. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

French postcard, no. 113.

German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/253.

The idol of the bobby soxers

Francis Albert Sinatra was born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1915.

Sinatra spent much time at his parents' tavern in Hoboken, working on his homework and occasionally singing a song on top of the player piano for spare change. While he never learned how to read music, Sinatra had an impressive understanding of it, and he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music.

He began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra's first vocal hit was the song 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' in 1940. 'Imagination' was Sinatra's first top-10 hit. His fourth chart appearance in 1940 was 'I'll Never Smile Again', topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.

Sinatra made his film debut in 1941, performing in an uncredited sequence in Las Vegas Nights (Ralph Murphy, 1941), singing 'I'll Never Smile Again' with Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers. As his success and popularity grew, Sinatra pushed Dorsey to allow him to record some solo songs.

In 1942, Sinatra recorded 'Night and Day', 'The Night We Called It a Day', 'The Song is You', and 'Lamplighter's Serenade'. He found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the 'bobby soxers'.

In 1945, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast Sinatra opposite Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson in the Technicolor musical Anchors Aweigh (George Sidney, 1945), in which he played a sailor on leave in Hollywood for four days. A major success, it garnered several Academy Award wins and nominations, and the song 'I Fall in Love Too Easily', sung by Sinatra in the film, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Sinatra was awarded a special Oscar for his part in a short film that spoke out against intolerance, The House I Live In (Mervyn LeRoy, 1945). In 1946, he released his debut album, 'The Voice of Frank Sinatra', which reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

British Real Photograph postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 24 D, 1951. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

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

Las Vegas

By the early 1950s, Frank Sinatra's professional career had stalled and he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best known residency performers as part of the Rat Pack.

His career was reborn in 1953 with the success of the film From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953). The film deals with the tribulations of three U.S. Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sinatra won an Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In the following years, Sinatra released several critically lauded albums, including 'In the Wee Small Hours' (1955), 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers!' (1956), 'Come Fly with Me' (1958), 'Only the Lonely' (1958) and 'Nice 'n' Easy' (1960).

Sinatra left Capitol in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records, and released a string of successful albums. In 1965, he recorded the retrospective' September of My Years' and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music. He then released 'Sinatra at the Sands', recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966.

The following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album 'Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim'. It was followed by 1968's 'Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington'.

Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971, but came out of retirement two years later and recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace, and reached success in 1980 with 'New York, New York'. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until shortly before his death in 1998.

Dutch postcard. Photo: MGM.

Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in High Society (1956)

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3020. Photo: MGM. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in High Society (Charles Walters, 1956).

Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong in High Society (1956)

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3024. Photo: MGM. Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong in High Society (Charles Walters, 1956).

A colourful personal life

Frank Sinatra forged a highly successful career as a film actor. After winning an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953), Sinatra starred opposite Doris Day in the musical Young at Heart (Gordon Douglas, 1954) and earned critical praise for his performance as a psychopathic killer posing as an FBI agent opposite Sterling Hayden in the Film Noir Suddenly (Lewis Allen, 1954).

He played a heroin addict in The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), and was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA Award. He appeared in various musicals such as Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955) starring Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, High Society (Charles Walters, 1956) alongside Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, and Pal Joey (George Sidney, 1957) with Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth, winning another Golden Globe for the latter.

Lighter roles alongside 'Rat Pack' buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were lucrative, especially the famed Ocean's Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960). He again received critical acclaim for his performance oppositeLaurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962).

Toward the end of his career, he became associated with playing detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome (Gordon Douglas, 1967), an example of a late-1960s Neo-Noir trend which revived and updated the hard-boiled detective and police dramas of the 1940s. On television, The Frank Sinatra Show began on ABC in 1950, and he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Sinatra was also heavily involved with politics from the mid-1940s, and actively campaigned for presidents such as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. In crime, Sinatra was investigated by the FBI for his alleged relationship with the Mafia. 'Ol' Blue Eyes' led a colourful personal life, and was often involved in turbulent affairs with women.

Sinatra had three children, Nancy (1940), Frank Jr. (1944–2016), and Tina (1948) with his first wife, Nancy Sinatra (née Barbato), to whom he was married from 1939 to 1951. His second marriage to Ava Gardner, from 1951 to 1957, was turbulent with many well-publicised fights and altercations. In 1963 his son Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. The kidnappers told Frank Sr. to call them from pay phones. He paid the $250,000 ransom, Frank Jr. was returned, and the kidnappers were eventually caught. He married Mia Farrow in 1966 and they divorced in 1968. Sinatra finally was married to Barbara Marx from 1976 until his death.

Frank Sinatra died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1998, after a heart attack. He was 82.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 525. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/193. Photo: Terb Agency. Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra, Handprint Ceremony Grauman's Chinese Theatre

American postcard in the Plastichrome Series by Colourpicture, Boston, Mass., no. P67559. Captions: Handprint Ceremony Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Frank Sinatra being immortalized in the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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The Jungle Book (1967)

December 27, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: German Film Actors of the 21th Century

≪ Previous: Frank Sinatra

The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967) was the 19th animated feature by the Disney studio, and the last to be personally supervised by Walt Disney himself.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 109/3. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

French postcard by Editions G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 8/42. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

French postcard by Editions Kroma, Casissargues, no. 6. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

Living in the jungle is the best life there is

It was Walt Disney's lead story man and writer Bill Peet who first suggested making an animated version of Rudyard Kipling's 'Jungle Book'.

In the film version, The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967), baby Mowgli is abandoned in an Indian jungle after an accident. The black panther Bagheera and brings the 'man cub' to a pack of wolves, who taise the baby.

As the boy grows older, the wise Bagheera realises he must be returned to his own kind in the nearby man-village. Baloo the bear however thinks differently, taking the young Mowgli under his wing and teaching him that living in the jungle is the best life there is.

Bagheera realises that Mowgli is in danger, particularly from Shere Khan the tiger who hates all people. When Baloo finally comes around, Mowgli runs off into the jungle where he survives a second encounter with Kaa the snake and finally, with Shere Khan.

It's the sight of a pretty girl however that gets Mowgli to go to the nearby man-village and stay there. Baloo and Bagheera decide to head home, content that Mowgli is safe and happy with his own kind.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 109/1. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 109/3. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 109. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

The first thing I want you to do is not read it

The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967) was the 19th animated feature by the Disney studio, and the last to be personally supervised by Walt Disney himself.

Disappointed by the muted reception to The Sword in the Stone (1963), Walt Disney was determined to come back with a universally well-regarded film. He told his animation crew to "throw away" Rudyard Kipling's book 'The Jungle Book' because the original concept storyboards were too dark and dramatic.

During pre-production, Disney assigned animator Larry Clemmons to head story development on the project. He gave Clemmons a copy of 'The Jungle Book' and told him, "The first thing I want you to do is not read it."

Terry Gilkyson had written a full score initially, but Walt Disney found it also too dark. At the last minute, he threw it away and asked the Sherman brothers to replace it with a more 'fun' score. However, 'Bare Necessities' stayed on at the insistence of others involved in the film, and went on to be nominated for the Academy Award.

The xerographic system, which had been used since 101 Dalmatians (1961), was further refined to combine both Xeroxed cels with hand-inked details. For example, while the basic animation on the village girl at the end of the film was with Xeroxed cels, her mouth was inked by hand. The backgrounds also moved back towards the more traditional look of earlier films.

Ken Anderson storyboarded this scene, the final scene almost at the same time that Richard and Robert Sherman had finished 'My Own Home'. Everything that the Sherman brothers had envisioned while writing the song was up on the storyboards. They brought Anderson up to their office and played him the song and he immediately began to cry.

The film initially became Disney's second highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada, and was also successful during its re-releases. The film was successful throughout the world, becoming Germany's highest-grossing film by number of admissions. The film was the seventh most popular sound film of the twentieth century in the UK with admissions of 19.8 million. The film is France's ninth biggest film of all time in terms of admissions with 14.8 million tickets sold.

Disney later released a live-action adaptation, The Jungle Book (Stephen Sommers, 1994), and an animated sequel, The Jungle Book 2 (Steve Trenbirth, 2003). In 2016, a live-action remake was released, The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau, 2016), with voice and motion capture performances from Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba.

Belgian postcard by Edicorna. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

Belgian postcard by Edicorna, no. 3321. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

French postcard. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

French postcard by MD, no. D 570 4/3. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967).

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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German Film Actors of the 21th Century

December 28, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Jean-Pierre Léaud

≪ Previous: The Jungle Book (1967)

A few weeks ago, we bought a series of photos with signatures of German actors. Postcards of modern stars are scarce, but in Germany the 'autogrammkarte' remains a popular fad. This gives us the chance to do a a post on German film actors, who are working now in Germany and abroad. Some are known internationally, like Sebastian Koch, Moritz Bleibtreu and David Kross. Other, like the young Aaron Altaras, will become known soon, we predict. Don't mail us if you miss someone (Where's Christoph Waltz? Why not Daniël Brühl?). It's not a complete of definitive overview of the German film actors of the 21th Century. It's a glimpse, and in alphabetical order. And yes, we will do a female version in 2020.

German autograph card, 2018.

German autograph card, 2019.

Aaron Altaras (1995) is one of the most promising German actors of his generation. Altaras had his breakthrough as a teenager in the TV film Nicht alle waren Mörder/Not all were murderers (Jo Baier, 2006), with Nadja Uhl and Hannelore Elsner. As a young adult, he appeared in two interesting films. The first was Die Unsichtbaren/The Invisibles (2017) about four young Jews who learned to hide in plain sight in Berlin during the war. The other is the Swiss romantic drama Mario (2018), about two young football players who get caught up between the politics of the game and the politics of love. His next project is the Mini-series Unorthodox (2020).

German autograph card. Photo: Christian Schoppe.

Moritz Bleibtreu (1971) is a German actor, whose notable roles include Manni in Lola rennt/Run Lola Run (1998), Tarek Fahd in the psychological thriller Das Experiment/The Experiment (2001) and Andreas Baader in Der Baader Meinhof Komplex/The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008). More recently, he starred in the comedy Es war einmal in Deutschland.../Bye Bye Germany (2017) and the drama Roads (2019).

German autograph card.

German autograph card.

German actor August Diehl (1976) is primarily known to international audiences as Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) and as Michael "Mike" Krause, Angelina Jolie's boyfriend, in Salt (2010). He also played leading roles in Die Fälscher/The Counterfeiters (2007), Le jeune Karl Marx/The Young Karl Marx (2017), and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019).

German autograph card.

German actor Vinzenz Kiefer (1979) is best known for his role as police detective Alexander Brandt in the Krimi series Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei/Cobra 11 (2009-2015), as well as that of Christian Dassault in the action thriller Jason Bourne (2016) with Matt Damon. Next, he can be seen in the Czech historical action drama Medieval (2019) with Ben Foster and Michael Caine.

German autograph card.

German autograph card. Photo: Mathias Bothor.

Sebastian Koch (1962) is one of Germany s most multi-faceted and successful television and film actors. He is known for roles in the Academy Award-winning film as Leben der Anderen/The Lives of Others (2007), Paul Verhoeven’s Zwartboek/Black Book (2006), Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (2015), and as Otto Düring in the fifth season of the TV series Homeland (2015-2016). Recently he could be seen in Werk ohne Autor/Never Look Away (2018) with Tom Schilling, and in the Television adaptation of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (2019) with John Turturro and Rupert Everett. Announced is the Canadian series Shadowplay (2020), in which he will star with Nina Hoss.

German autograph card.

German autograph card.

German actor David Kross (1990) played Michael Berg in the critically acclaimed film The Reader (2008) with Kate Winslet. Kross has since worked in both German and English speaking films, including Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), Into the White (2012) and Race (2016). A recent success was the German thriller Ballon/Balloon (2018) with Friedrich Mücke. In post-production is the comedy Betonrausch/Concrete Gold (2020), with Frederick Lau.

German autograph card. Photo: Alan Ovaska.

Blue-eyed, blond German actor Friedrich Mücke (1981) appeared in more than twenty films since 2006. Many of his films tackle issues around the former GDR. He had his breakthrough with the adventure comedy Friendship! (2010) with Matthias Schweighöfer. He reunited with Schweighöfer in the comedies What a Man (2010), Russendisko/Russian Disco (2012), and Vaterfreuden/Joy of Fatherhood (2014). He co-starred with David Kross in the thriller Ballon/Balloon (2018).

Christoph M. Ohrt in HeliCops (1998-2001)

German autograph card by SAT. 1, Berlin. Photo: SAT.1 / Trenkel. Christoph M. Ohrt in the TV series HeliCops (1998-2001).

German autograph card.

German actor Christoph M. Ohrt (1960) is best known for his roles in popular TV series like HeliCops - Einsatz über Berlin (1998), and Edel & Starck (2002). He also appeared in German and some international films.

German autograph card.

German autograph card.

Thure Riefenstein (1965) is a German-Serbian born actor, writer and producer who started his career at German Broadway theatres such as the Berliner Ensemble and the Hamburger Schauspielhaus. He is best known for playing strong and enigmatic heroes or villains in international films and TV Series. He worked with Steven Soderbergh in Behind the Candelabra (2013), starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. On television, he guest-starred in the US-Series Leverage (2012) with Timothy Hutton, The Brink (2015) with Tim Robbins, and the Sci-Fi series 12 Monkeys (2018). Next, he can be seen in the British drama Sophie's War (Joshua Sinclair, 2019) with Anja Kruse, Mikael Persbrandt and Claire Bloom.

German autograph card. Photo: Glampool / Uwe Martin.

German actor Max Riemelt (1984) is known for such films as Napola - Elite für den Führer (2004), Die Welle/The Wave (2008) and Freier Fall/Free Fall (2013). He had his international breakthrough as Wolfgang Bogdanow in the Netflix series Sense8 (2015-2018), created by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski. Riemelt is announced in several new films, including the sequel Freier Fall 2/Free Fall 2 (2020).

German autograph card. Photo: Lee Strickland.

Blond, freckled and talented Matthias Schweighöfer (1981) is one of the most successful German actors of his generation. He is also a voice actor, singer, film director, and producer. Schweighöfer made his debut as film director with the romantic comedy What a Man (2010). It was well received by German critics and also a success at the box office. He co-starred with Friedrick Mücke in the buddy film Friendship! (2011). He directed, produced and played the lead role in You Are Wanted (2017), Amazon's first non-English-language TV series. Next, he will play Klaus Barbie in Resistance (2020), starring Jesse Eisenberg.

German autograph card.

German autograph card.

Timmi Trinks (1994) is a German actor, best known for the TV series and feature film Allein gegen die Zeit/Alone Against The Time. His latest film was the horror thriller Heilstätten/The Sanctuary (2018).

German autograph card. Photo: Max Elmar Wischmeyer.

German autograph card. Photo: Vanessa Maas.

Kostja Ullmann (1984) is a German actor, best known for his leading role in the award-winning coming of age drama Sommersturm/Summer Storm (2004) which gained a lot of praise throughout Europe. His later films include Quellen des Lebens/Sources of Life (2013) with Moritz Bleibtreu and Meret Becker, the espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man (2014) starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the comedy Mein Blind Date mit dem Leben/My Blind Date With Life (2017). He is announced for the Norwegian action comedy Børning 3 (2020), and the British drama Resonance (2020), with Pat Vega.

German autograph card.

German autograph card. Photo: Nadine Dilly.

Jo Weil (1977) is a German actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his role of Oliver Sabel in the soap-opera Verbotene Liebe/Forbidden Love. He had played the character for 15 years before trying out other pursuits, including releasing 2 singles, acting in a musical and in several films.

German autograph card.

German actor Tom Wlaschiha (1973) is best known for his role as Jaqen H'ghar in the second, fifth, and sixth seasons of Game of Thrones (2011). He also appeared in films like Resistance (2011) and the TV series Crossing Lines (2013). He recently starred in a new version of the classic series Das Boot (2018). Announced is the Italian comedy L'incredibile storia dell'isola delle rose/The Incredible Story of Rose Island (2020).

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Jean-Pierre Léaud

December 29, 2019, 10:00 pm

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≪ Previous: German Film Actors of the 21th Century

French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud (1944) is best known for playing Antoine Doinel in Les Quatre Cents Coups/The 400 Blows (1959) and François Truffaut's following series of films about that character. He also worked several times with Jean-Luc Godard, and is one of the icons of the French New Wave. He is also known for his staccato diction.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 870. Photo: Studio Vauclair, Paris.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 208/71, 1971. Photo: Linke.

Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun and Bernadette Lafont in La Maman et la Putain (1973)

French postcard by Editions Le Malibran, Paris, no. CF 31. Photo: P. Lhomme. Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun and Bernadette Lafont in La Maman et la Putain (Jean Eustache, 1973).

Becoming Antoine Doinel

Jean-Pierre Léaud was born in Paris in 1944. He was the son of an assistant scriptwriter, Pierre Léaud, and the actress Jacqueline Pierreux.

Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in his debut film Les Quatre Cents Coups/The 400 Blows (1959). To cast the two adolescents, Truffaut published an announcement in the newspaper France-Soir and auditioned several hundred children in September and October 1958. Jean Domarchi, a critic at the film magazine Cahiers du cinéma, recommended Léaud.

Truffaut was immediately captivated by the fourteen-year-old adolescent, who had already appeared with Jean Marais in the Swashbuckler La Tour, prends garde !/The Tower, watch out! (Georges Lampin, 1958). Jean-Pierre Léaud, then in the eighth grade at a private school in Pontigny, was a far from ideal student. He often ran away with the older students on their nights out, but could also be brilliant, generous, and affectionate.

During and following the filming of Les Quatre Cents Coups/The 400 Blows (1959), Truffaut's concern for Léaud extended beyond the film set. He took charge of the difficult adolescent's upbringing after Léaud was expelled from school and kicked out of the home of the retired couple taking care of him. Truffaut subsequently rented a studio apartment for Léaud. Truffaut also hired him for assistant work on La peau douce/The Soft Skin (François Truffaut, 1964) and Mata Hari, Agent H21 (François Truffaut, 1964).

After the short-film Antoine et Colette (François Truffaut, 1962), a segment of the anthology film L'amour à vingt ansLove at 20 (1962), Léaud starred in four more Truffaut films depicting the life of Doinel, spanning a period of 20 years. Those films are Baisers volés/Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut, 1968), Domicile conjugal/Bed and Board (François Truffaut, 1970) and L'amour en fuite/Love on the Run (François Truffaut, 1979), all with Claude Jade as his girlfriend, wife or ex.

He also collaborated with Truffaut on non-Antoine Doinel films like Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent/Two English Girls (François Truffaut, 1971) and La Nuit américaine/Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973) and became the actor most commonly affiliated with him. Although Antoine Doinel is his most familiar character, he often found his performances in other films to be compared to his Doinel character whether there were legitimate similarities or not.

Jean-Pierre Léaud in Les quatre cents coups (1959)

German press photo by Bildarchiv Engelmeier, München. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Les Quatre Cents Coups/The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959).

Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Remy and Claire Maurier in Les quatre cents coups (1959)

German press photo by Bildarchiv Engelmeier, München. Issued for the broadcasting by the ZDF on 8 January 1998. Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Remy and Claire Maurier in Les quatre cents coups/The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959).

German press photo by Tele Bunk ttv, Berlin. Issued for the broadcasting by the ZDF on 8 January 1998. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Les quatre cents coups/The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959).

Jean-Pierre Léaud in Antoine et Colette (1962)

German press photo by Kövesdi Presse Agentur, München (Munich). Used for the German broadcasting by ZDF in 1983. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Antoine et Colette/Antoine and Colette (François Truffaut, 1962).

Jean-Pierre Léaud in Baisers volés (1968)

German press photo by ORF. Used for the German broadcasting of the film in 1994. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Baisers volés/Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut, 1968).

An exciting comeback

Jean-Pierre Léaud is one of the most visible and well-known actors to be associated with the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave film movement and, aside from his work with Truffaut, he collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard on nine films, Jean Eustache, Jacques Rivette and Agnès Varda.

In 1966, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Masculin Féminin (Jean Luc Godard, 1966). He was in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Porcile/Pigsty (1968), in Jerzy Skolimowski’s Dialog 20-40-60/Dialogue 20-40-60 (1968), Brazilian Carlos Diegues'Os herdeiros/The Heirs (1970) and Glauber Rocha's Der Leone have sept cabeças/The Lion Has Seven Heads (1971).

The early 1970s was perhaps the peak of his professional career when he had three critically acclaimed films released: Bernardo Bertolucci's Ultimo tango a Parigi/Last Tango in Paris (1972), Truffaut's La Nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973), and Jean Eustache's La Maman et la Putain/The Mother and the Whore (1973) with Bernadette Lafont. In the Bertolucci film, Léaud appeared in the same film as a hero of his, Marlon Brando, although the two men never met, since all of Léaud's scenes were shot on Saturdays and Brando refused to work on Saturdays.

In 1988, Léaud was nominated for a César Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy Les Keufs/Lady Cops (Josiane Balasko, 1987) and was awarded an Honorary César for lifetime achievement in 2000. He made an exciting comeback in the nineties when several ‘new New Wave’ directors hired Léaud to pay homage to their elders. Among them French film makers such as Olivier Assayas, Danièle Dubroux, Serge Le Péron, Bertrand Bonello and foreigners like Finnish Aki Käurismäki and Taiwanese Tsai Ming-Liang.

In 2016, Léaud received the Honorary Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and in 2017, he won the Lumières Award for Best Actor for his role in the historical drama La Mort de Louis XIV/The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra, 2017). Jean-Pierre Léaud is married to the French actress Brigitte Duvivier.

German press photo.

Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade in Domicile Conjugal (1970)

German press photo by ORF. Released for the broadcasting on 1 October 1994. Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade in Domicile Conjugal (François Truffaut, 1970).

Jean-Pierre Léaud in Domicile Conjugal (1970)

German press photo by Goepfert Arthur, Tessin, Barbengo / Films du Carrosse / Valoria Films, Paris / Fida Cinematografica, Rome. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Domicile Conjugal (François Truffaut, 1970).

Jean-Pierre Léaud and Hiroko Berghauer in Domicile Conjugal (1970)

German press photo by Goepfert Arthur, Tessin, Barbengo / Films du Carrosse / Valoria Films, Paris / Fida Cinematografica, Rome. Jean-Pierre Léaud and Hiroko Berghauer in Domicile Conjugal (François Truffaut, 1970).

German press photo by K.P.A., Düsseldorf. The photo was used for a broadcasting by NDR/RB/SFB Fernsehen III at 27 and 28 December 1972.

Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud in La nuit américaine (1973)

German press photo. Photo: defd / Foto Engelmeier, München. Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud in La nuit américaine/Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973). The press photo was used for the German broadcasting of the film by the ARD on 20 December 1981.

Jean-Pierre Léaud in Umarmungen und andere Sachen (1975)

German press photo. Photo: Felicitas Timpe, München. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Umarmungen und andere Sachen/Embraces (Jochen Richter, 1975). Issued for the broadcasting of the film by the ARD on 4 October 1977.

Anny Duperey, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Sydne Rome in Umarmungen und andere Sachen (1975)

German press photo. Photo: Felicitas Timpe, München. Anny Duperey, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Sydne Rome in Umarmungen und andere Sachen/Embraces (Jochen Richter, 1975).

Jean-Pierre Léaud in L'amour en fuite (1979)

German press photo. Jean-Pierre Léaud in L'amour en fuite/Love on the Run (François Truffaut, 1979).

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Happy New Year!

December 30, 2019, 10:00 pm

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≪ Previous: Jean-Pierre Léaud

All the best for 2020! Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!, as we say in Dutch. Thanks for your friendship in 2019. Special thanks to Ivo, Carla, Marlene, Beth, Didier, Daniël and Egbert, for sharing their postcards and thoughts with EFSP. I hope to meet you all here again in 2020!

Linda Cristal. Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C-35. Photo: Universal International.

Lucia Bosé. Italian postcard by Italfoto, Terni. Photo: Vedeo. 'Buon natale' on the calendar is Italian for 'Happy new year'. But is the year 1952 or 1958?

Jane Fonda. French postcard by EDUG, no. 377. Photo: Sam Levin.

Our Gang. Dutch postcard. Photo: a publicity shot of the Little Rascals a.k.a. Our Gang with Dickie Moore in the middle. Caption: "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" (Happy New Year).

Ingrid Bergman. Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in 1950. Caption: "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar".

Renate Müller. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8243/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

Margareta Pislaru. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Czech postcard by Orbis, no. D107-7. Photo: publicity still for Špalíček/The Czech Year (Jiri Trnka 1947). Caption: radostne vanoce a mnoho uspechu v novem roce (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year).

Dutch postcard by L. & B. -B. Sent by mail in 1925.

↧

Stars who passed away in 2019

December 31, 2019, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Rose Barsony

≪ Previous: Happy New Year!

On the first day of 2020, EFSP remembers these stars of the international cinema we had to say goodbye to in 2019. Thank you, for your films and for your postcards. Rest in Peace.

21 December 2018: Laya Raki (1927-2018)

Austrian postcard by HDH-Verlag (Verlag Hubmann), Wien (Vienna). Photo: Joe Niczky, München (Munich) / Ufa.

On 20 January, Marlene Pilaete infomed us that exotic dancer and film actress Laya Raki has passed away on 21 December 2018. During the 1950s, she was a popular sex symbol in Germany. Raki appeared in revealing outfits in films and on photos, and captured men's attention like no other German showgirl. Later, 'the black-haired volcano' also became an international star with her roles in British films and TV productions. Laya Raki was 91.

19 January: Muriel Pavlow (1921-2019)

Big Italian card by Bromofoto, Milano. Photo: Rank. Publicity still for Doctor at Large (Ralph Thomas, 1957).

British actress Muriel Pavlow passed away at the age of 97. The charming, delicate Pavlow was the quintessential English girl of many British films of the 1950s. She was usually cast as an unselfish bride, wife or girlfriend in thrillers and war films. In several light comedies she provided a nice counterbalance to the hectic goings-on. And, despite her small build, she was also a dominant stage actress.

3 February: Julie Adams (1926-2019)

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1210. Photo: Universal International.

American actress Julie or Julia Adams passed away on 3 February 2019. Adams starred in a number of films in the 1950s. She was best known for the cult film The Creature of the Black Lagoon (1954).

7 February: Albert Finney (1936–2019)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1616, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960).

English actor Albert Finney (1936–2019) was one of the ‘angry young men’ of the Kitchen Sink Theatre and Free Cinema wave. The dynamic, often explosive, stage and screen star was one of the working class and provincial actors that revolutionised British theatre and film in the 1950s and 1960s. Although his early fame was later tempered by long absences from major films, he continued to earn awards and acclaim in a varied five-decade career on stage, films, and television. Albert Finney was 82.

15 February: Bruno Ganz (1941-2019)

German autograph card.

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz established himself in Germany, first as co-founder of the Schaubuhne Theatre company, then as a romantic lead in films. International renown came Ganz' way when he starred in Eric Rohmer's The Marquise of O (1976). Subsequent film roles ranged from Jonathan Harker in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu/Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night (1979) with Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani, to misplaced angel Damiel in Wim Wenders'Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire (1987). He also starred in international features by Franklin J. Schaffner, Jonathan Demme and Francis Ford Coppola, and he played Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Der Untergang/Downfall (2004). Bruno Ganz was 77.

20 February: Chelo Alonso (1933-2019)

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/118.

Former Cuban actress, dancer and sex-symbol Chelo Alonso was a star of the Italian cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In several Peplum epics she played femme fatales with fiery tempers and she did sensual dance scenes, mixing Afro-Cuban rhythms with ‘bump and grind’. Ultimately in the DVD era, the ‘Cuban H-bomb’ became a cult heroine for many international B-film buffs. Chelo Alonso was 85.

21 February: Gus Backus (1937-2019)

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf, no. 1560. Photo: Erwin Schneider.

American Singer and actor Gus Backus (1937-2019) was at the age of 19 a member of the Del-Vikings, the first notable Doo-Wop group with both black and white members which had two Billboard Top Ten Hits. Later, he became virtually the flesh-and-blood embodiment of rock 'n roll in Germany. Between 1959 and 1965 he also appeared in 25 German light entertainment films. Gus Backus was 81.

4 March: Luke Perry (1966-2019)

Italian postcard by Gruppo Editoriale Il Vecchio, Genova. Photo: publicity still for the TV-seriesBeverly Hills 90210.

American producer, director, writer, film and TV actor Luke Perry died on 4 March at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California, from complications of a stroke he suffered a week earlier. Luke had a prolific acting career on TV and in films. He became a household name as Dylan McKay on the hit coming-of-age series Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-1995; 1998-2000). He also starred as Fred Andrews on the drama series Riverdale (2017). He was 52.

7 April: Nadja Regin (1931-2019)

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. I 240. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Constantin. Publicity stll for Die Unschuld vom Lande/The Country Wife (Rudolf Schündler, 1957).

Serbian actress Nadja Regin (1931-2019) started her career in Yugoslav-German co-productions and later she worked in Germany, Austria and New Zealand. In England, she guest-starred in many classic TV series of the 1960s and she appeared opposite Sean Connery in two James Bond films. She was 87.

14 April: Bibi Andersson (1935-2019)

Bibi Andersson in Smultronstället (1957)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 53. Photo: Bibi Andersson in Smultronstället/Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957).

Swedish film actress Bibi Andersson died on Sunday 14 April 2019 at the age of 83. She is best known for her 13 films with director Ingmar Bergman.

21 April: Hannelore Elsner (1942-2019)

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Constantin / Rialto / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Zum Teufel mit der Penne - Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank, 2. Teil/To hell with the pen - The clown of the first bank, Part 2 (Werner Jacobs, 1968).

Grand German actress Hannelore Elsner died from cancer. Elsner started her film career in quickly forgotten light entertainment films, but in later years she starred in films by interesting directors like Edgar Reitz, István Szabó, Dani Levy and Uli Edel. She is best known in Germany for her roles in popular TV series such as Die Schwarzwaldklinik/The Black Forest Hospital (1987-1988) and the Krimi series Die Kommissarin/The Inspectoress (1994-2006).

26 April: Ellen Schwiers (1930-2019)

German postcard by ISV, no. M 2. Photo: Europa-Film / List.

German film and stage actress Ellen Schwiers passed away at the age of 88. The versatile actress often appeared as the dark, passionate woman, enmeshed in her own sensuality or another fate. During her 60 year-career she played in ca. 50 films and 150 television productions, but she also worked as a stage actress, director and intendant.

26 April: Elina Bystritskaya (1928-2019)

Russian postcard, 1966.

Actress Elina Bystritskaya was one of the most beautiful women of the Soviet cinema. She is best known for her role of Axinia in the epic film trilogy of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel Tikhiy Don/And Quiet Flows the Don (1957-1958) by Sergei Gerasimov. She passed away on 26 April 2019 in Moscow. Bystritskaya was 91.

1 May: Alessandra Panaro (1939-2019)

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1649. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus. Alessandra Panaro in Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959).

On Wednesday, 1 May 2019, Alessandra Panaro, an Italian former film actress of the late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away. She is best known for Luchino Visconti's crime drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (1960).

13 May: Doris Day (1922-2019)

Szöke Szakall and Doris Day in Tea for Two (1950)

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 343. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Szöke Szakall in Tea for Two (David Butler, 1950), the first film for which Doris Day received top-billing.

Doris Day (1922-2019) died surrounded by her close friends at her California home at the age of 97. The legendary actress and singer with her blonde hair and blue eyes performed with several big bands before going solo in 1947. In the 1950s, she made a series of popular film musicals, including Calamity Jane (1953) and The Pajama Game (1957). 'Que Será, Será!' became her theme song. With Rock Hudson, she starred in the box office hit Pillow Talk (1959). On TV, she appeared in the sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968-1973).

10 July: Valentina Cortese (1923-2019)

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 243. Photo: MGM. Valentina Cortese in Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949).

On Wednesday 10 July 2019, Italian film and stage actress Valentina Cortese (1923-2019) passed away in Milan. She appeared in more than 100 Italian, French, British and American films and TV series. Cortese was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in François Truffaut’s La nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973). She also worked with such titans of cinema as Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. Valentina Cortese was 96.

19 July: Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

Dutch collectors card, no. 28, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Rutger Hauer in the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).

On Friday, 19 July 2019, Rutger Hauer passed away at his home in Beetsterzwaag, following a short illness. The blonde, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor played everything - from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. During the 1970s, he had his international breakthrough with the Dutch films by Paul Verhoeven and later he became a cult star with Blade Runner (1982), The Hitcher (1986) and Blind Fury (1989). Before that he was the hero of many Dutch kids in the classic TV series Floris (1969), also directed by Paul Verhoeven. Hauer was 75.

28 August: Nancy Holloway (1932-2019)

French postcard by Ministar, no. 838. Photo: Patrick de Mervellec.

American singer and actress Nancy Holloway (1932-2019) sang jazz, pop and soul and was popular during the 1960s in France, where she continued to perform and live. She also appeared in a dozen French films. Though born and raised in America, she's virtually unknown in the United States. Nancy Holloway was 86.

3 September: Carol Lynley (1942-2019)

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N 159.

Blond, blue-eyed American actress Carol Lynley starred in the The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and numerous other films. She was 77. The actress, who had an attractively feline appeal, earned a Golden Globe nomination as a newcomer for Blue Denim (1959) about a naive teenager seeking an illegal abortion. It was a role she originated on Broadway. On Friday 3 September 2019, Lynley died in her sleep in Los Angeles.

1 October: Karel Gott (1939-2019)

Karel Gott in Kdyby tisíc klarinetu (1965)

East-German postcard by Progress Starfoto, no. 2376, 1965. Karel Gott in Kdyby tisíc klarinetu/If a Thousand Clarinets (Ján Rohác, Vladimír Svitácek, 1965).

Schlager singer and actor Karel Gott (1939-2019) was the most successful male singer of the Czech Republic, and also had many successes in the German-speaking countries. He released more than 125 albums during his career, selling over 30 million records worldwide. In the annual national poll Český slavík, ‘the Sinatra of the East’ was thirty-eight times elected as the Most Favourite Male Singer.

4 October: Diahann Carroll (1935-2019)

Vintage postcard, no. 018. Photo: Milton H. Greene.

On 4 October 2019, Diahann Carroll died of cancer, aged 84. She was among the foremost African American actors to break down long-seated prejudices in casting. Carroll was the first black performer to have her own sitcom, Julia, which ran for 86 episodes (1968-1971), and the first to win an Emmy in the category of best actress in a leading role in a comedy series. She also won a Tony for her performance in the Broadway musical 'No Strings', written especially for her by Richard Rodgers, which highlighted an interracial romance without mentioning colour. Her films include Carmen Jones (1954), Porgy and Bess (1959), Paris Blues (1961) and Claudine (1974). And her conniving and glamorous Dominique Deveraux was a match for Joan Collins’ Alexis Colby, doubling the 'nasty in Dynasty (1984-1997).

10 October: Marie-José Nat (1940-2019)

Romanian collectors card.

On 10 October 2019, French actress Marie-José Nat (1940) passed away. She was an acclaimed stage, film and television star, who played glamorous, exotic roles in many films of the 1960s and 1970s. Marie-José Nat was 79.

26 October: Pascale Roberts (1933-2019)

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 813. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French actress Pascale Roberts (1933) had been active in the French cinema and television since 1954. From her femme fatale parts in B-thrillers and comedies in the 1950s, she grew into mother roles. She is best known for her parts in A-films by Costa-Gravas, Yves Boisset and Robert Guédiguian, and for her many appearances on French TV.

2 November: Marie Laforêt (1939-2019)

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 69.

French singer and actress of Armenian descent Marie Laforêt (1939) passed away at the age of 80. After her first appearance in the drama Plein Soleil (René Clément, 1960) opposite Alain Delon, she became very popular and interpreted many roles in the 1960s. As a singer she is best loved for 'Marie douceur, Marie colère', her version of the Rolling Stones hit 'Paint it black'.

28 November: Stefan Danailov (1942-2019)

Russian postcard, 1975.

Bulgarian actor Stefan Danailov (1942-2019) starred in over 100 Bulgarian and foreign films, including the Bulgarian classic At each kilometer(1969) and was seen as 'the Bulgarian Alain Delon'. Danailov was part of the ensemble of the National Theatre from 1979 until his death. Apart from his acting work, Danailov was an MP for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). He was a former Minister of Culture, and was also the BSP Deputy Chairman. 'The legend of Bulgarian cinema' was 76.

14 December: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

Dutch postcard by Hafbo film, no. 162. Still from Une femme est une femme (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961).

On 14 December, the queen of the Nouvelle Vague, film actress, singer and director Anna Karina passed away. French, but Danish-born Karina was the muse of director Jean-Luc Godard and starred in eight of his films. “Today, French cinema has been orphaned. It has lost one of its legends,” culture minister Franck Riester tweeted. Anna Karina was 79.

18 December: Claudine Auger

Belgian postcard by Edt. Decker, Brussels, no. A. 101. Offered by Korès.

On 18 December 2019, French actress Claudine Auger (1941) passed away. She is best known as Bond girl Domino in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). At 17, she was Miss France 1958 and she became the first runner-up in the Miss World contest. Later she worked mostly in France and Italy. Claudine Auger was 78.

19 December: Alain Barrière (1935-2019)

Italian postcard.

French singer and songwriter Alain Barrière passed away on 19 December 2019. He recorded a number of timeless hits in the 1960s which earned their place in French music history. Internationally he is known for participating in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest. At the height of his popularity, he made one venture into film acting.

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Rose Barsony

January 1, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: The AristoCats (1970)

≪ Previous: Stars who passed away in 2019

Hungarian actress, dancer and singer Rose Barsony (1909-1977) appeared in 16 films from 1929 to 1938, and in one more in 1957. The soubrette was a popular star of the operettas by Paul Abraham. She personified the idealised image of the spirited, happily dancing Hungarian in German and Austrian films, until the Nazis forbade the Jewish star to perform any longer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6976/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933).

Rose Barsony and Willy Fritsch in Walzerkrieg (1933)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 192/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Walzerkrieg (Ludwig Berger, 1933) with Rose Barsony and Willy Fritsch.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6567/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7480/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

Soubrette

Rose Barsony - also credited as Rosi Barsony, Rosy Barsony, Rozai Barsony, Rózsi Bársony and Bársony Rózsi - was born as Rose Schustek in Budapest, Hungary in 1909.

She already appeared as a child actress on the stage, but her real career began in 1931 in Berlin with Paul Abraham's operetta 'Viktoria und ihr Husar/Victoria and Her Hussar'. She appeared as a soubrette, a soprano role frequently found in comic operas or operettas; the soubrette usually possesses a flirtatious demeanor and street wise manner.

Another popular operetta by Paul Abraham in which she starred was 'Die Blume von Hawaii/The Flower of Hawaii'.

In 1929 she had made her film debut in her home country with the silent film Mária növér/Sister Mary (Antal Forgács, 1929) starring Werner Pittschau, but especially her German film musicals of the 1930s would enjoy great popularity.

To these films belong Ein toller Einfall/A Mad Idea (Kurt Gerron, 1932), Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Waltzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933) and the operetta Ball im Savoy/Ball at the Savoy (Steve Sekely, 1935) with Gitta Alpár.

Among her other Hungarian films were A ven gazember/The Old Scoundrel (Heinz Hille, 1932) and the comedy Helyet az öregeknek/Room for the Aged (Béla Gaál, 1934) with Szöke Sakall and Ernö Verebes.

Hungarian postcard by Globus, Budapest. Photo: Angelo Photos.

Small German collectors card in the 'Der künstlerische Tanz' series by Eckstein-Halpaus, Dresden, group 12 (Tanz-Artistik), no. 252. Photo: Alex Binder.

Small German collectors card by Eckstein, Dresden. Photo: Becker und Maass.

Austrian postcard Iris Verlag, no. 6586. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Vintage postcard, no. 3928. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Fascist Authorities

After the assumption of power of the National Socialists, Rose Barsony got a special approval to work for the Ufa because of her Jewish origin. From 1935 this special arrangement stopped, and Barsony had to leave Germany.

She went on tour with her husband and stage partner, operatta singer Oszkár Dénes. They performed in Romania, Great Britain and the United States. They went to live and work in Italy, but in 1937 the fascist authorities forbade a Milan production of the operetta 'Zizì' with Barsony and her husband because they were Jewish.

During that period she still could appear in the Hungarian films Viki (Márton Keleti, 1937), 3:1 a szerelem javára/3 to 1 for Love (Johann von Vásáry, 1938) - a film adaptation of the Paul Abraham operetta 'Die Entführte Braut/The Kidnapped Bride', and A harapós férj/Biting Husband (Márton Keleti, 1938).

During the war years, Barsony lived in Budapest and because of an Auftrittsverbot she couldn't perform. New Hungarian stars like Marika Rökk followed in her footsteps and now personified the idealised image of the spirited, happily dancing Hungarian in German and Austrian films.

After the war her work was concentrated on the stage, and she worked in Romania and Italy. In 1956 she moved to Vienna to appear in several stage plays and operettas. She only returned on the screen once with Scherben bringen Glück/Seven Years Hard Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1957) starring Adrian Hoven. In 1959 she played at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Austria, and later she worked in Paris for French television.

Rose Barsony died in 1977 in Wien (Vienna), Austria. She was 67.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7106/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Yva, Berlin / Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7654/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Angelo Photos.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7834/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8005/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8005/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8235/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rudi Polt (IMDb), Allure, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

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The AristoCats (1970)

January 2, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: New acquisitions: Kwatta collectors cards from Belgium

≪ Previous: Rose Barsony

The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970) was the 20th animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a Parisian family of aristocratic cats.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard by MD, no. D 870-1. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, no. 117/4. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 117. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard by Editions Kroma. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Pianist Berlioz, painter Toulouse and sanctimonious Marie

The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970) is set in Paris 1910. Mother cat Duchess and her three kittens, Berlioz, Marie and Toulouse live with retired opera diva Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, and her English butler, Edgar.

The kittens are pianist Berlioz, painter Toulouse and sanctimonious Marie. The family is set to inherit a fortune from their owner. While preparing her will with lawyer Georges Hautecourt, madame Adelaide Bonfamille declares her fortune to be left to her cats until their deaths, and thereafter to Edgar.

Edgar hears this through a speaking tube, and plots to eliminate the cats. The jealous butler drugs tem by putting sleeping pills in a milk mixture intended for them, and kidnaps the cats. He leaves them in the country, so he can gain his mistress's fortune.

In the morning, Duchess meets an alley cat named Thomas O'Malley, who offers to guide her and the kittens to Paris. , the family of felines tries to make it back home.

Edgar tries to cover his tracks and catch them at return, but more animals turn on him, from the cart horse Frou-Frou to the tame mouse Roquefort and O'Malley's jazz friends.

French postcard by MD, Paris, no. D 870-4. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 117/2. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 3119. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Everybody wants to be a cat

In 1962, The AristoCats began as an original script for a two-part live-action episode for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, developed by writers Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe and producer Harry Tytle.

Following two years of re-writes, Walt Disney suggested the project would be more suitable for an animated film, and placed the project in turnaround as The Jungle Book advanced into production.

When The Jungle Book was nearly complete, Disney appointed Ken Anderson to develop preliminary work on The Aristocats, which would mark the last film project to be approved by Disney before his death in December 1966.

The result is charming with great songs like 'Everybody wants to be a cat'. The visual style is deliberately similar to what was used in 101 Dalmatians with the characters having a deliberately sketchy look - an art style used to great effect.

The colour is superb, the humour is constant and the mere fact that the storyline bears a resemblance to the 101 Dalmatians plot does nothing to weaken the film. The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970) was released in December 1970, to positive reception, and was a box office success.

French postcard by MD, Paris, no. D 870-3. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, no. 117. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard by MD, Paris, no. D 870-2. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

French postcard by Chromovogue, no. D 850 - 3. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Italian postcard by GTR, no. 3317. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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New acquisitions: Kwatta collectors cards from Belgium

January 3, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Milan Beli (1931-2019)

≪ Previous: The AristoCats (1970)

Recently I found a series of Belgian collectors cards at Delcampe, which were published in or around 1950 by the chocolate factory Kwatta in Bois-d'Haine. During the late 1940s, Kwatta had produced sets of Film Star trading cards in black and white, which were issued with the Kwatta chocolates. These cards in colour were part of the C-series. At your local shop you could buy an album with the format 12 X 17,5 cm for 100 cards. The album was named Ciné Stars. On the cover was a lion, which referred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. And indeed, most stars were under contract with MGM. Check out the posts on Kwatta, EFSP did earlier in 2015 and in 2018.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 209. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Lana Turner(1921-1995) was one of the most glamorous superstars of Hollywood's golden era.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 215. Photo: M.G.M. Robert Mitchum in Desire Me (George Cukor, Jack Conway, 1947).

American film star Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) is one of the icons of Hollywood thanks to his roles as tough guys, loners and drifters in many War films, Westerns and such classic Film Noirs as Out of the Past (1947) and His Kind of Woman (1952). His facade of cool, sleepy-eyed indifference proved highly attractive to both men and women. Mitchum portrayed two of the scariest screen villains ever: the psychotic evangelist Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter (1955) and cruel rapist Max Cady in the original Cape Fear (1962). During his notable 55-year acting career, he appeared in more than 125 films.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 221. Photo: MGM.

Tall, rugged American actor James Craig (1912-1985) is best known for appearances in films like Kitty Foyle (1940) and All That Money Can Buy (1941), and his stint as a leading man at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s where he appeared in films like The Human Comedy (1943).

Deborah Kerr and Clark Gable in The Hucksters (1947)

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 223. Photo: MGM. Deborah Kerr and Clark Gable in The Hucksters (Jack Conway, 1947).

British film star Deborah Kerr (1921-2007) was nicknamed 'The English Rose' for her fresh natural beauty. In many films the stage, television and film actress played 'classic' English ladies, but during the 1950s she became known for her versatile roles in major Hollywood productions.

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in New Moon (1940)

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 224. Photo: MGM. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in New Moon (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940).

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).

Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride (1950)

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 232. Photo: MGM. Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli, 1950).

American actor Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. He was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous (1937) with Freddie Bartholomew, and for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938) with Mickey Rooney. Considered by his peers as one of the best Hollywood actors, Tracy was noted for his natural performing style and versatility.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 243. Photo: MGM. Valentina Cortese in Malaya (Richard Thorpe, 1949).

Italian film and stage actress Valentina Cortese (1923-2019) appeared in more than 100 Italian, French, British and American films and TV series. Cortese was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in François Truffaut’s La nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973). She also worked with such titans of cinema as Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 248. Photo: MGM. Robert Taylor in Ambush (Sam Wood, 1950).

Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was called "The Man with the Perfect Profile". He won his first leading role in Magnificent Obsession (1935). His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). He was the quintessential MGM company man until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 253. Photo: MGM. Betty Garrett in On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949).

Betty Garrett (1919-2011) was a sunny American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared successfully in several classic musicals like On the Town (1949) when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series. Garrett later became known for the roles she played in two prominent 1970s sitcoms: Archie Bunker's liberal neighbour Irene Lorenzo in All in the Family (1973-1975) and landlady Edna Babish in Laverne & Shirley (1976-1981).

Ann Sothern in Shadow on the Wall (1950)

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 283. Photo: MGM. Ann Sothern in Shadow on the Wall (Pat Jackson, 1950).

American actress Ann Sothern (1909-2001) had a career on stage, radio, film, and television, that spanned nearly six decades. In 1939, MGM cast her as Maisie Ravier, a brash yet lovable Brooklyn showgirl, which lead to a successful film series. In 1953, Sothern moved into television as the star of her own sitcom Private Secretary. In 1987, Sothern appeared in her final film The Whales of August, and earned her only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 288. Photo: MGM. Jane Powell in Nancy Goes to Rio (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950).

Jane Powell (1929) was the singing and dancing star of MGM musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. She is best known for her role as Milly in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 306. Photo: MGM. Ann Miller in On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949).

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).

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 315. Photo: MGM. Paula Raymond in Duchess of Idaho (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950).

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 played 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.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 317. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Handsome Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009) was the epitome of elegance, charm and grace on film, stage and television. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he reinvigorated the Latin Lover style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. He fought to upscale the Latin image in Hollywood and this may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a solid reputation and provided wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors. Montalban is probably best remembered for his starring role as the mysterious Mr. Roarke on the TV series Fantasy Island (1977–1984), with Hervé Villechaize as his partner Tatto, and as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 321. Photo: MGM. John Lund in Duchess of Idaho (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950).

American actor John Lund (1911-1992) was a handsome blond, blue-eyed leading man who came to Hollywood after a major Broadway success. He started out promisingly in engaging romantic leads in the late 40s, but settled quickly into playing stuffed shirts and the third wheel in love triangles.

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Milan Beli (1931-2019)

January 4, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Richard Dix

≪ Previous: New acquisitions: Kwatta collectors cards from Belgium

Serbian actor Milan Beli or Milan Bosiljcic has passed away last Tuesday, 31 December 2019, at the age of 88. He was best known as the villain in such East-German films as the Eastern Tecumseh (1972), Das Licht auf dem Galgen (1976) and Das Ding im Schloß (1979). He appeared in more than 50 European films.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 42/72. Photo: Schütz / DEFA. Milan Beli in Tecumseh (Hans Kratzert, 1972).

Villain in Red Westerns

Milan Beli was born Milan Bosiljciv-Berli in 1931 in Konjane near Uzice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

After finishing school, Bosiljcic began to study sports in Belgrade. During his studies, he made his first contacts with the cinema. At the time, many international adventure films and Westerns were produced in Yugoslavia, and the extras were often students from the Belgrade Sport University, such as Gojko Mitić.

In 1957 Milan obtained his first small film role in the French-Yugoslav adventure film Burlak. He also appeared in such films as the Yugoslavian-Italian historical action film Dubrowsky/Il vendicatore (William Dieterle, 1958), based on the novel 'Dubrovsky' by Alexander Pushkin, starring John Forsythe and Rosanna Schiaffino, La tempesta/Tempest (Alberto Lattuada, 1958) starring Silvana Mangano and Van Heflin, and La Steppa/The Steppe (Alberto Lattuada, 1962).

The Italian director Alberto Lattuada recommended that he would attend an acting school in Rome, which he did for two years. Bosiljcic, who spoke English, German, Italian and French in addition to his mother tongue, then accepted offers in the Karl May film Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Winnetou and his friend Old Firehand (Alfred Vohrer, 1966) starring Pierre Brice and Rod Cameron, and in Die Nibelungen Teil 1: Siegfried von Xanten/Siegfried (Harald Reinl, 1966) and Die Nibelungen Teil 2: Kriemhilds Rache/Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy 2 (Harald Reinl, 1967).

From 1968 on, Bosiljciv received offers from the DEFA, the state-owned East German studio. He worked as a choreographer for the dance scenes in Konrad Wolf's epic Goya – oder der arge Weg der Erkenntnis/Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971) featuring Donatas Banionis.

For the DEFA he would often appear in the Easterns (or Red Westerns), the East-European Indian films. DEFA officials changed his surname for simplicity into 'Milan Beli', and his role as villain in the Eastern Tecumseh (Hans Kratzert, 1972), starring Gojko Mitić and Annekathrin Bürger, lead to his breakthrough. The film depicts the life of the Native American leader Tecumseh (1768–1813). |n line with the policies of Communist East Germany, the film attempted to present a more critical, but also more realistic view of American expansion to the West than it was represented by Hollywood.

Next, Beli appeared in a leading role opposite Mitić in the Eastern Apachen/Apaches (Gottfried Kolditz, 1973), loosely based on the legend of heroic Apache warrior Ulzana. It was another success. In Yugoslavia he played a part in the trashy Nazi-sexploitation comedy Eine Armee Gretchen/She Devils of the SS (Erwin C. Dietrich, 1973), a Swiss production with Karin Heske and Carl Möhner.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 107/76. Photo: Blasig.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 17/79. Photo: Klaunick.

The Last Eastern

Back in East-Germany, Milan Beli played in the action film Das Licht auf dem Galgen/The Light on the Gallows (Helmut Nitzschke, 1976) about slavery. The film, filmed in Cuba and Bulgaria, was a flop. That year, he appeared in his 50th film, the East-German Sci-Fi film Im Staub der Sterne/In the Dust of the Stars (Gottfried Kolditz, 1976) starring Czech actress Jana Brejchová. Martin Hafer at IMDb: "In many ways, the movie really is bad but most of these ways actually make it rather fun to watch. And, in a few ways, the film actually was pretty good--the plot, after a while, actually turned out to be pretty good."

Beli remained working in the East-German cinema. In 1978, he appeared in the East-German-Soviet coproduction Ich will euch sehen/I Want to See You (János Veiczi, 1978), starring Walter Plathe. Next, he appeared in another Sci-Fi-film Das Ding im Schloß/The Thing in the Castle (Gottfried Kolditz, 1979) starring Erwin Geschonneck and Vlastimil Brodský. He had a small part in the GDR Krimi Für Mord kein Beweis/No evidence of murder (Konrad Petzold, 1979), starring Winfried Glatzeder.

His final film was once more an Eastern starring Gojko Mitić, Der Scout/The Scout (Dshamjangijn Buntar, Konrad Petzold, 1983). The film is based on real events. At the end of the 1870s the fights against the Sioux were over, and the US-Army started putting the Indian tribes living to the West of the Rocky Mountains into reservations. The horses of the Nez Perce Indians are taken away by the US army, hoping the Indians will stay in a reservation. White Feather (Gojko Mitić) pretends he wants to serve the soldiers as a scout, but he intends to bring the horses back to his people.

This excellent film was the last of the series of Easterns by the DEFA. Milan Beli returned to Serbia, where he continued his career in films and on TV as Milan Bosiljcic(-Beli). Most recently, he played a Hungarian king in an episode of the television series Nemanjici-radjanje kraljevine/The Nemanjic Dynasty: The Birth of the Kingdom (Marko Marinkovic, 2018), about one of the most influential Serbian dynasties of the middle ages.

Milan Bosiljcic died in 2019 of natural causes in Belgrade, Serbia at the age of 88. His son Milan Bosiljcic (1982) is also an actor and dancer and is well known in Serbia.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 50/72. Photo: DEFA / Zilmmer. Mieczyslaw Kalenik, Annekathrin Bürger and Milan Beli in Tecumseh (Hans Kratzert, 1972).

Sources: Les gens du Cinema (French), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb, which has two lemmas with different info on him: Milan Beli and Milan Bosiljcic-Beli.

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Richard Dix

January 5, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Robin Hood (1973)

≪ Previous: Milan Beli (1931-2019)

American film actor Richard Dix (1893–1949) achieved popularity in both silent and sound film, first as the rugged and stalwart hero in countless Westerns, then dramatic features such as the Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923). After his years of silent film at Paramount, and thanks to his deep voice and commanding presence, he became a well-known star at RKO in the 1930s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his lead role in the Best Picture-winning epic, Cimarron (1931).

Vintage photo. Signature: Sincerely Richard Dix.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 220.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 331.

French postcard by Europe, no. 21.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Foreign, no. 1244/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount.

Rugged good looks and dark features

Richard Dix was born Ernest Carlton Brimmer in 1893, in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he was educated, and at the desires of his father, studied to be a surgeon.

His obvious acting talent in his school dramatic club led him to leading roles in most of the school plays. Dix excelled in sports, especially football and baseball. These skills would serve him well in the vigorous film roles he would go on to play.

After a year at the University of Minnesota he took a position at a bank, spending his evenings training for the stage. His professional start was with a local stock company, and this led to similar work in New York.

The death of his father left him with a mother and sister to support. He went to Los Angeles, and changed his name to Dix. He became leading man for the Morosco Stock Company and his success there got him a contract with Paramount Pictures. His rugged good looks and dark features made him a popular player in Westerns.

Dix's best-remembered early role was in Cecil B. DeMille's silent version of the religious epic film The Ten Commandments (1923). Lauded for its immense and stupendous scenes, use of Technicolor process, and parting of the Red Sea sequence, the expensive film proved to be a box-office hit upon release.

His athletic ability led to his starring role opposite Jean Arthur in Paramount's Warming Up (Fred C. Newmeyer, 1928), a baseball story and also the studio's first feature with synchronised score and sound effects. His deep voice and commanding presence were perfectly suited for the talkies, and he was signed by RKO Radio Pictures in 1929.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1685/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Fanamet. Richard Dix in Womanhandled (Gregory La Cava, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1880/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount / Fanamet.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 875/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Paramount.

Richard Dix in Moran of the Marines (1928)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2027/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount / Fanamet. Richard Dix in Moran of the Marines (Frank R. Strayer, 1928).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3206/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Parufamet / Paramount. Richard Dix in The Wheel of Life (Victor Schertzinger, 1929).

A big box-office draw at RKO

Richard Dix was a major leading man at RKO Radio Pictures from 1929 through 1943. Dix scored an early triumph in the all-talking mystery drama, Seven Keys to Baldpate (Reginald Barker, 1929) with Margaret Livingston.

In 1931 he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his masterful performance in Cimarron (Wesley Ruggles, 1931) opposite Irene Dunne. Cimarron, based on the popular novel by Edna Ferber, took the Best Picture award. Epic in scope, spanning forty years from 1889 to 1929, it was a critical success, although it did not recoup its production costs during its initial run in 1931.

Throughout the 1930s Dix would be a big box-office draw at RKO, appearing in mystery thrillers, potboilers, Westerns and programmers. A memorable role for Dix was in the British futuristic film The Tunnel (Maurice Elvey, 1935) opposite Leslie Banks. The film, produced at a time when the threat of war loomed in Europe, emphasised international cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1941, Dix played Wild Bill Hickok in the Western Badlands of Dakota (Alfred E. Green, 1941) opposite Robert Stack, and portrayed former gunslinger Wyatt Earp the following year in another Western, Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (William C. McGann, 1942), featuring Edgar Buchanan as Curly Bill Brocious. Dix also starred as the homicidal Captain Stone in the Val Lewton production of The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, 1943).

In 1944, Dix starred in the mystery Film Noir The Whistler (William Castle, 1944), co- starring Gloria Stuart and J. Carrol Naish. Based on the radio drama 'The Whistler', it was the first of Columbia Pictures' eight 'Whistler' films in which Dix played a different character each time. (He did not play the 'Whistler', who was an unseen narrator.) By the time Dix started the series, he was a heavy drinker and subject to hiccups. He retired from films in 1947.

He first married Winifred Coe in 1931. They had a daughter, Martha Mary Ellen, and then divorced in 1933. He then married Virginia Webster in 1934. They had twin boys, Richard Jr. and Robert Dix and an adopted daughter, Sara Sue.

After years of fighting alcoholism, Richard Dix suffered a serious heart attack in 1949, while on a train from New York to Los Angeles. He died a week later in Los Angeles at the age of 56. Dix was interred at Forest Lawn (Glendale), Glendale, California, in the Whispering Pines section, lot #2387. Dix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Motion Pictures section at 1610 Vine Street. It was dedicated in 1960.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3386/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3502/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. Richard Dix in The Gay Defender (Gregory La Cava, 1927).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3808/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.

June Collyer and Richard Dix in The Love Doctor (1929)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4796/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. June Collyer and Richard Dix in The Love Doctor (Melville W. Brown, 1929).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4979/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Card mailed in Rotterdam, 1931.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5299. Photo: Paramount.

British postcard in the Film Picture Stories Star Series, no. 4. Photo: Radio Pictures.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1343. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures.

Sources: Richard Unger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Robin Hood (1973)

January 6, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Geraldine Katt

≪ Previous: Richard Dix

The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy prince John.

Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Bruxelles (Brussels), no. 3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

Outlaw

The idea to adapt 'Robin Hood' into an animated feature dated back to Walt Disney's interest in the tale of Reynard the Fox during his first full-length feature production, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand a.o., 1937).

The idea was repeatedly shelved until writer and production designer Ken Anderson incorporated ideas from it in a pitch of the legend of Robin Hood using anthropomorphic animals rather than people during Disney's previous production of The Aristocats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970).

Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is narrated by the rooster Alan-a-Dale, who explains that Robin Hood and Little John live in Sherwood Forest, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor townsfolk of Nottingham. Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counsellor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there.

Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation.

In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children, but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. Since Robin is an outlaw he waits for marriage. Marian is mistaken when she thinks he has forgotten her: Robin can't stop thinking about her.

Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...

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).

French postcard by G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 1/6. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

Great characters with witty and smart dialogues

Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I totally disagree.

Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices.

But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide the delicious humour to the film.

Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humour with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterwards. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours.

Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues, the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight.

Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humour, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.

Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Bruxelles (Brussels), no. 3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

French postcard in the Les Dessins de Walt Disney series by MD, no. D 430. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

French postcard in the series Le Monde merveilleux de Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 235. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Geraldine Katt

January 7, 2020, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent

≪ Previous: Robin Hood (1973)

Geraldine Katt (1920-1995) was an Austrian actress, who was seen in romantic comedies and melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. She appeared in more than ten films from 1936 to 1951.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1379/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Donau-Film. Geraldine Katt in Florentine (Karel Lamac, 1937).

Geraldine Katt in Die Stimme des Herzens (1937)

German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Greiling-Zigaretten / Ross Verlag, no. 383. Photo: Bavaria. Geraldine Katt in Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Karl Heinz Martin, 1937).

Geraldine Katt in Wenn der junge Wein blüht (1943)

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3773/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick / Terra. Geraldine Katt in Wenn der junge Wein blüht/When the young wine blooms (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1943).

A film debut at 15

Geraldine Katt was born Geraldine Kattnig in 1920 in Vienna, Austria. She was of Slovenian-Austrian parentage.

Katt trained as an actress at the prestigious Max Reinhardt Seminar. At the Ufa, the only 15-year-old made her film debut in the German drama Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936) starring Lil Dagover and Sabine Peters.

Then she played the female lead as a mischievous-cheeky princess in Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Karl Heinz Martin, 1937) opposite star tenor Beniamino Gigli, and the title role in Florentine (Karel Lamac, 1937) with Paul Hörbiger.

She appeared opposite Willy Birgel in the German crime film Der Fall Deruga/The Deruga Case (Fritz Peter Buch, 1938).

Between the various film appearances, Katt was able to establish herself as a theatre actress. She made her stage debut in Vienna in the musical comedy 'Das Frauenparadies' based on the operetta by Robert Stolz.

During the war, she could be seen in the comedy Wenn der junge Wein blüht/When the young wine blooms (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1943) with Henny Porten and Otto Gebühr.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9854/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Hämmerer / Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9883/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Bavaria. Geraldine Katt in Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Karl Heinz Martin, 1937).

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Bavaria. Geraldine Katt in Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Karlheinz Martin, 1937).

A teacher of theology

After World War II, Geraldine Katt concentrated on stage acting. She played supporting parts in a few Austrian films including the comedies Alles Lüge/All lies (E.W. Emo, 1948) starring Wolf Albach-Retty, and Es lebe das Leben/Long live life! (E.W. Emo, 1949).

Between 1949 and 1951, she performed at the Vienna Volksoper in the operetta 'The beggar student' by Carl Millöcker and in Millöckers 'Gasparone', staged by Oscar Fritz Schuh.

One of her last screen appearances was in the Swiss drama Die Vier im Jeep/Four in a Jeep (Leopold Lindtberg, 1951), a 'Trümer film' (rubble film) starring Ralph Meeker and Viveca Lindfors. The film won the Golden Bear at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival.

Katt had married the theatre critic Anatol in 1940 in Berlin, but she separated again in 1949 from him. In 1952, after marrying the Swiss Hermann Juch, director of the Vienna Volksoper and lawyer, she retired from acting.

In 1964, the couple moved to Switzerland where Juch took over the management of the Zurich Opera House. Katt became a teacher of theology.

Geraldine Katt passed away in 1995. She was 74. A few months earlier Hermann Juch had died in 1995 at the age of 86.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1823/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Hämmerer / Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2338/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2445/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Quick / Bavaria.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2861/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Märkische / Panorama / Schneider / Südost.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2999/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Quick / Bavaria.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3061/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick / Ufa.

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

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Rex and His Queen

The only Mrs. Rex Ingram

James Bond

The Grandfather of the Modern Slasher Film

Modern Noir

A classic fairy-tale from 1697

The last product of Disney's 'golden age'

Full of inventive comic touches

Fregoli Syndrome

Fregoligraph

When a baby moves in, a dog moves out

Bow-Wow-Wow! - And - Arf! Arf! Arf!

Love Interest

103rd Birthday

The idol of the bobby soxers

Las Vegas

A colourful personal life

Living in the jungle is the best life there is

The first thing I want you to do is not read it

Becoming Antoine Doinel

An exciting comeback

21 December 2018: Laya Raki (1927-2018)

19 January: Muriel Pavlow (1921-2019)

3 February: Julie Adams (1926-2019)

7 February: Albert Finney (1936–2019)

15 February: Bruno Ganz (1941-2019)

20 February: Chelo Alonso (1933-2019)

21 February: Gus Backus (1937-2019)

4 March: Luke Perry (1966-2019)

7 April: Nadja Regin (1931-2019)

14 April: Bibi Andersson (1935-2019)

21 April: Hannelore Elsner (1942-2019)

26 April: Ellen Schwiers (1930-2019)

26 April: Elina Bystritskaya (1928-2019)

1 May: Alessandra Panaro (1939-2019)

13 May: Doris Day (1922-2019)

10 July: Valentina Cortese (1923-2019)

19 July: Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

28 August: Nancy Holloway (1932-2019)

3 September: Carol Lynley (1942-2019)

1 October: Karel Gott (1939-2019)

4 October: Diahann Carroll (1935-2019)

10 October: Marie-José Nat (1940-2019)

26 October: Pascale Roberts (1933-2019)

2 November: Marie Laforêt (1939-2019)

28 November: Stefan Danailov (1942-2019)

14 December: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

18 December: Claudine Auger

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Soubrette

Fascist Authorities

Pianist Berlioz, painter Toulouse and sanctimonious Marie

Everybody wants to be a cat

Villain in Red Westerns

The Last Eastern

Rugged good looks and dark features

A big box-office draw at RKO

Outlaw

Great characters with witty and smart dialogues

A film debut at 15

A teacher of theology

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