European Film Star Postcards

Elegant French actor Pierre Richard-Willm (1895-1983) starred in 40 films during the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s. The good-looking jeune premier excelled in the foreign legion melodrama Le Grand Jeu/The Great Game (1934) and as Edmond Dantèsin Le Comte de Monte-Cristo/The Count of Monte-Christo (1943).

French postcard, no. 31. Photo: publicity still for Stradivarius (Albert Valentin, Géza von Bolváry, 1935).

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 609. Photo: Studio Lorelle.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, no. 31. Photo: R. Voinquel / Flora Films / Productions Max Glas.

French postcard by EC, no. 43.

French postcard, no. 43.

Charming Spectators Of All Ages

Pierre Richard-Willm was born as Alexander Pierre Richard in south-western France in the city of Bayonne in 1895. His mother, Elisabeth-Fanny Willm, died at the age of thirty-one, and from 1905 on he was raised by his maternal grandmother in Bordeaux.

He attended the école des Beaux-Arts in Nantes. Theatre was his passion and in 1911 he started as an amateur at the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang.

In 1916 he joined the army and fought during World War I at Verdun. After the war he became a sculptor, and in 1921 he started playing bit roles on the professional stage.

From 1925 on he worked at the Odeon in Paris in plays like La dame aux camélias under the pseudonym Richard Willm, the combined name of his father and mother.

His film debut as a jeune premier came in the Paramount production Toute sa vie/Sarah and Son (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1930), followed by another film by Alberto Cavalcanti for Paramount, Les Vacances du diable/The Devil's Holiday (1931).

With his elegance and good looks he charmed spectators of all ages. The next years he made dozens of films, including French versions of Ufa productions including Autour d'une enquête/Preliminary Investigation (Pierre Chomette, Robert Siodmak, 1931) starring Annabella, and La fille du régiment/The Daughter of the Regiment (Pierre Billon, Carl Lamac, 1933) starring Anny Ondra.

French postcard by EC, no. 985. Photo: Studio Rudolph, Paris.

French postcard by Editions et Publications cinematographiques, no. 29. Photo: Forster.

French postcard by Viny, no. 81. Photo: Studio Rudolph.

French postcard by Viny, no. 84. Photo: Studio Rudolph.

French postcard, no. 134. Photo Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 134. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Count of Monte Christo

Pierre Richard-Willm’s breakthrough was the foreign legion melodrama Le Grand Jeu/The Great Game (Jacques Feyder, 1934), in which he starred opposite Charles Vaneland Marie Bell.

In the following years he often played the partner of diva Edwige Feuillèrein such films as Stradivarius (Albert Valentin, Géza von Bolváry, 1935), Barcarolle (Gerhard Lamprecht, Roger Le Bon, 1935), La Dame de Malacca/Woman of Malacca (Marc Allégret, 1937) and La Duchesse de Langeais/Wicked Dutchess (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1942).

Famous director Max Ophüls directed him in Yoshiwara (1937) and Werther (1938).

A big hit was Un Carnet de bal/Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 193) in which Marie Bellstars as a woman who decides to find out about the men (including Pierre Richard-Willm) who once danced with her during a ball that was a turning point in her life.

His most famous role was Edmond Dantès in two episodes of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo/The Count of Monte-Christo (Robert Vernay, 1943) based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père.

He starred as composer Franz Liszt in Rêves d'Amour/Dreams of Love (Christian Stengel, 1942-1947), for which film he also designed the sets.

In 1946 he decided to retire from the cinema and to dedicate himself completely to his beloved Theatre Vosgien.

In 1975 he wrote his memoires, Loin des Étoiles (Far from the stars), in which he wrote that the cinema had only been a nice intermission for him.

Pierre Richard-Willm died in 1983 in Paris.

French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 43B. Photo: Roger Richebé.

French postcard, no. 633. Photo: Chromos Film.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 20. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

French postcard by O.P., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Studio Piaz.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 22. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by EPC, no. 246. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Édition), no. 152. Photo: Studio Cayet.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (Cineartistes.com), Franck Richard, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Dutch cabaret artist and singer Wim Sonneveld (1917-1974) was one of the 'Legendary Three' of the Dutch post-war cabaret; the others were Toon Hermans and Wim Kan. He starred in a few films and had a brief Hollywood career.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Philips grammofoonplaten. Collection: Gé Joosten.

Rim Ram

Willem Benedictus Augustinus Sonneveld was born in 1917 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to Gerrit Sonneveld and Geertruida van den Berg. In 1922, at a very young age, Wim lost his mother.

In 1932 he started singing in an amateur choir, the Keep Smiling Singers, after which he teamed up in 1934 with Fons Goossens to form a duo and perform at anniversaries of associations and institutions.

Later that year he met reviewer Huub Janssen and after a journey through France in 1936 they started living together in Amsterdam. In the same year he made his stage debut with Louis Davids in the Hollandse Schouwburg in Amsterdam. He worked during the day as administrator and at evenings he played small roles and sang chansons.

In 1937 he went to France and sang in cabarets of Suzy Solidor and Agnes Capri. After the declaration of war of 1940 he returned to the Netherlands, where he acted in plays and in the revue of Loekie Bouwmeester.

In 1940 he performed in the Theater der Prominenten and at Abraham van der Vies'De Sprookjesspelers. Here he met singer Conny Stuart.

In 1943 he formed his own cabaret group Rim Ram, consisting among others of Conny Stuart, Lia Dorana, Albert Mol, Joop Doderer, Hetty Blok and Emmy Arbous. Between 1943 and 1959 he staged a great number of shows with Rim Ram.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Philips grammofoonplaten. Collection: Gé Joosten.

Silk Stockings

A famous creation of Wim Sonneveld was Willem Parel, son and grandson of a Dutch street organ grinder as well as chairman of the En-pé-gé, the Nederlands Parel Genootschap (the Dutch Parel Association). This character brought him great success first on stage and later on the VARA-radio.

Willem Parel would expose movingly about ‘organ grinding in general and the psychology of the penny cup in particular’. Over time Wim Sonneveld came to hate his creation, but he knew that Willem Parel drew a large audience and he couldn't live from just singing chansons.

In 1955 a film was shot called Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel/The Wondrous life of Willem Parel (Gerard Rutten, 1955). Sonneveld appeared as himself and narrated the film, until his 'Willem Parel' steps down from a poster on the dressing room wall and starts scolding his creator for trying to get rid of him.

The film didn't become the enormous success it was expected to be, but American casting agent Mitchell Gertz, saw it and offered Wim a contract in Hollywood. There he played in the TV thriller The Pink Hippopotamus (1956), the musical Silk stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957) as a Russian opposite Fred Astaire, and Wasp End (1957).

Still, Sonneveld soon got homesick and returned to Europe. He admitted to prefer his homegrown audience instead of having to build a whole new one abroad.

Wim Sonneveld as Frater Venantius. Dutch postcard. Photo: Philips grammofoonplaten.

Friar Venantius

In 1958 Wim Sonneveld made eight TV shows in Great Britain for the BBC and in 1960 he starred as Dr. Higgins in the Dutch stage version of the musical My Fair Lady. With 702 performances, the musical was one of the most successful Dutch stage shows ever.

He then went solo with television shows like Doe es wat, meneer Sonneveld/Do Something, mr. Sonneveld (1962) and Blijf in Holland/Stay in Holland (1963). Wim Sonneveld again took the stage in 1964 with Een avond met Wim Sonneveld/An Evening With Wim Sonneveld.

For the Grand Gala Du Dische created one of his famous characters, Frater Venantius(Friar Venantius). His record about the friar became a top 10 hit in 1965.

Remarkable were also his guest roles in the legendary TV series Ja zuster, nee zuster/Yes Nurse, No Nurse (1967), written by Annie M.G. Schmidt.

Two of his songs from the series became hit records: De kat van Ome Willem/Uncle Willem’s Cat (1968) and In een rijtuigje/In a Small Carriage (1968) which he sang with Leen Jongewaard.

Dutch postcard. Photo: Philips grammofoonplaten.

Going Dutch

He did two more successful theatre shows: the first in 1967 with Ina van Faassen and the last one in 1971 with Willem Nijholt and Corrie van Gorp.

He also made another film, Op de Hollandse toer/Going Dutch (Harry Booth, 1973). Critics were quite harsh in their reviews of this picture and the public stayed away as well. The film was a financial catastrophe and later was even thought lost (but the original negative has survived).

In 1974 Wim Sonneveld died from a heart attack in the VU hospital in Amsterdam. He was only 56.

Even though Wim Sonneveld never publicly stated that he was homosexual, he shared his life only with men, first with Huub Janssen, later with prop designer, text writer and painter Friso Wiegersma whom he had met in 1947 and who created the famous character Nikkelen Nelis for him.

Scene from Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel/The Wondrous life of Willem Parel (1955). Wim Sonneveld sings Poen (Dough). Source: Crescendo1950 (YouTube).

Another scene from Het wonderlijke leven van Willem Parel (1955). Wim Sonneveld sings De wonderen zijn de wereld nog niet uit/There Are Still Wonders on Earth. Source: Crescendo 1950 (YouTube).

Wim Sonneveld as Nikkelen Nelis. Source: Kim Lempereur (YouTube).

Sources: Hilde Scholten (Een Leven Lang Theater) (Dutch), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Italian heartthrob Amedeo Nazzari (1907-1979) was the athletic, fearless hero and impeccable gentleman of dozens of popular films during the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Because of his reckless, adventure-seeking film characters he was compared to Errol Flynn. After the war he made a come-back opposite Yvonne Sanson in a series of popular crime-melodramas, directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. And he showed an admirable sense of irony in his portrayal of a film star in decline in Fellini’s Le notti di Cabiria (1957).

Vintage postcard.

French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, Paris, no. 383.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. 113. Photo: Ponti-De Laurentiis. Probably a still for Il brigante Musolino (1950), costarring Dino De Laurentiis' wife Silvana Mangano.

Difficult and Rebellious

Amedeo Nazzari was born as Salvatore Amedeo Buffa in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia in 1907. His father Salvatore Buffa was a factory owner and his mother was the daughter of Argenide Amedeo Nazzari, former President of the Court of Appeal of Vicenza. His father died when Amedeo was six and his mother moved with him and his sisters to Rome.

There he appeared in school plays. Later he abandoned his engineering studies for a career in the theatre. He made his professional debut at the company of Dillo Lombardi in 1927. In later years he worked for major companies like those of Annibale Ninchi, Memo Benassi and Marta Abba.

In 1935 he was noticed by Elsa Merlini, who offered him a part in her next film. This film, Almieri of Geneva (1936), was not a success, and Nazzari returned to the theatre.

Once again an actress noticed him: the young Anna Magnani, who insisted that her husband, director Goffredo Alessandrini, would give Amedeo a part in his new film Cavalleria/Cavalry (1936).

Amedeo's athletic figure and fascinating presence became the main attraction of the film, which was presented at the Venezia alla Mostra del Cinema (the Venice Film Festival) and then became one of the greatest box office hits in the Italian cinemas that year.

Another film role in uniform, in Luciano Serra pilota/Luciano Serra, pilot (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1938), gave him his second popular success. Although the film was made under the Fascist regime, it is terse and not at all bogged down by rhetoric, according to F.T. at the Italica website of Rai Internazionale.

Nazzari was now a familiar face and received many film offers. His continuing discussions with film makers about how to interpret dialogues and his suggestions to change scripts gave him the reputation of being difficult and rebellious.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Frattini Firenze Ed., no. 2408. Photo Vaselli / Radio RKO Generalcine.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni Roma), 1941.

Italian postcard. With Lilia Silvi.

Italian postcard. Lilia Silvi and Amedeo Nazzari in La bisbetica domata/The Taming of the Shrew (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942).

Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini (B.F.F. Edit.), Firenze, no. 42020. Photo: Voselli / E.N.I.C.

The First Topless Nude Scene

In 1941, Amedeo Nazzari received the Volpi cup for Best Actor at at the ninth Venice Film Festival. He was awarded for his role in Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto/Caravaggio, the cursed painter (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1941) opposite Clara Calami.

A huge success was the costume drama La cena della beffa/The dinner of the practical jokes (Allessandro Blasetti, 1941). This celebrated adaptation of the Sem Benelli play definitively confirmed his status as a film star. In this historical drama he had a striking resemblance to Errol Flynn.

The film created a sensation with the first topless nude scene in a mainstream Italian film. In a brief but startling scene luminous leading lady Clara Calami's blouse is ripped off by the lusty Nazzari.

On IMDb, Mario Gauci writes: “the film is stylish and handsomely mounted - though its stage origins are betrayed by being mostly filmed in interiors. Still, the highly intriguing plot - with its many twists and turns (particularly towards the ironic, even Shakespearean, finale) - keeps one compelled to watch and the performances are all quite good”.

After some smaller films and a difficult period after the war he returned in grand style in the war drama Un giorno nella vita/A Day in the Life (Allessandro Blasetti, 1946), the crime drama Il bandito/The Bandit (Alberto Lattuada, 1946) opposite Anna Magnani, and the Alexander Pushkin adaptation La figlia del capitano/The Captain's Daughter (Mario Camerini, 1946) with Vittorio Gassman.

Internationally, he was also in high demand. He first went to Spain to appear in three films by Ricardo Gascón, and then moved to Argentina. When he refused to play a criminal and corrupt Italian and so to defame his country, even Evita Peron came to his defence.

He returned to Italy in 1949, and appeared with Silvana Mangano in the compelling melodrama Il lupo della Sila/The Lure of the Sila (Duilio Coletti, 1949), and with Greek actress Yvonne Sanson in Catene/Chains (1949, Raffaello Matarazzo).

Catene was the start of a second period of film successes for Nazzari. With Sanson and director Raffaello Matarazzo he made s series of ‘strappalacrime’, crime-melodramas which were despised by the film critics but loved by the public. Among this series were also Tormento/Torment (1950), I figli di nessuno/Nobody’s Children (1951), and Torna!/Go! (1954). In Italy these films became a camp phenomenon among B-film fans in the 1970s.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., Firenze, no. 2263. Photo: E.N.I.C.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 10. Photo: Lux Film / Vaselli, Roma.

German postcard by Kolobri-Verlag. Photo: Lux / Schorchtfilm. Publicity still for Il brigante Musolino/Fugitive (Mario Camerini, 1950).

Amedeo Nazzari and Myriam Bru in ...ti ho sempre amato!

Italian promotion card by D.E.A.R. Film. Photo: Rizzoli / Royal Film / D.E.A.R. Film. Publicity still for ...ti ho sempre amato!/I Always Loved You (Mario Costa, 1953) with Myriam Bru.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 461. Photo Sam Lévin.

Impeccable Professionalism

During the 1950s, Amedeo Nazarri appeared also in more serious films. In Processo alla città/The City Stands Trial (Luigi Zampa, 1952) he played a judge who opposes the Neapolitan Camorra, and in Proibito/Forbidden (Mario Monicelli, 1955) starring Mel Ferrer, he had for the first time the opportunity to play a character in a Sardinian history of family feuds.

In 1957 he gently chided his virile, romantic screen image as the self-absorbed film-star-in-decline opposite Giulietta Masina in the Oscar winning Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957). Here he cocked an eye at himself with an admirable sense of irony.

Also in 1957 Nazzari married Greek-Italian actress Irene Genna, and a year later Maria Evelina Nazzari was born, who is now also a theatre actress.

The 1960s began with two disappointments: the role of Prince Salina in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1960), which was offered to him by director Luchino Visconti then went to Burt Lancaster to raise money from the American producers.

Earlier his role in La tempesta/The Tempest (Alberto Lattuada, 1958), a remake of his La figlia del capitano, was assigned to Van Heflin. From Hollywood came a proposal to make a film with Marilyn Monroe, but this time it was Nazzari himself who refused because of his difficulties with speaking and singing English (the film, Let's Make Love, would be made with Yves Montand).

In 1968 he did obtain a part in the Romanian production Columna/The Column (Mircea Dragan, 1968) with Antonella Lualdi and Franco Interlenghi.

In Italy started the golden age of the Italian comedy, but except for some sporadic appearances, Nazzari refused the offers. According to Wikipedia, he explained that it was “a matter of taste and respect for himself and the public”.

He only did cameo appearances in international productions like the crime dramas The Poppy Is Also a Flower (Terence Young, 1966) with Senta Berger, Le clan des Siciliens/The Sicilian Clan (Henri Verneuil, 1969) with Jean Gabin, and The Valachi Papers (Terence Young, 1972) starring Charles Bronson.

He worked more satisfyingly for television. He made a TV remake of La Figlia del capitano/The Captain's Daughter (Leonardo Cortese, 1965), and appeared as a guest on such shows as Il Musichiere (The Musician), Studio Uno and Settevoci.

During the 1970s, kidney problems force him to several hospital admissions. In 1976 he played a guest part in the German krimi series Derrick.

His last film appearances were small roles in A Matter of Time/Nina (Vincente Minnelli, 1976) with Ingrid Bergman, and Melodrammore (Maurizio Costanzo, 1977).

Amedeo Nazzari died in 1979 in a Roman hospital.

During his career he won several awards. He won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival twice, in 1941 and 1947. He was also awarded the Special David di Donatello prize, for a life dedicated to cinema with passionate professionalism and extraordinary success.

At Italica, F.T. writes: “Ever faithful to his embodiments of fearless heroes and incorruptible gentleman, Nazzari was an icon of a naïve, provincial Italy that was autarkic at all costs, even in its dreams: but he displayed an ability to shift from ‘Magyar’ comedy to mature roles with impeccable professionalism, the ultimate defining trait of his outstanding career.”

Final scene from La cena delle beffe (1941) with Amedeo Nazzari and Osvaldo Valenti. Source: fusiota73 (YouTube).

Original trailer of Le Notti di Cabiria (1957). Source: TrailerItaliano (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), F.T. (Italica), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Ukrainian actress Vera Voronina (1905-?) had a short but shining career in the late silent era, in Berlin as well as in Hollywood.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5586. Photo: Lux-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3503/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.

Russia, Sweden, Austria, Germany

Vera Voronina aka Wera Woronina was born in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire (now Ukrain) in 1905.

During the Russian revolution her family fled to Sweden.

There she made her film debut in the silent production Hon den enda/Never Say... Never! (Gustav Molander, 1926). She played the female lead opposite Austrian silent film star Alphons Fryland.

The film was probably an adaptation of Alfred de Musset's play Il ne faut jurer rien (You should swear nothing), about a spendthrift young man.

Vera then moved to Austria to play in Haifische der Nachkriegszeit/Sharks of the post-war period (Eugen Preiss, Louis Seeman, 1926).

Probably her first German film was Das deutsche Mutterherz/The Heart of a German Mother (Geza von Bolvary, 1926), starring Margarete Kupfer and a young Heinz Ruhmann in his film debut as her bad son.

Then Voronina played a part in the Austrian production Schwiegersöhne/The Sons-in-law (Hanns Steinhoff, 1926) starring the Danish comic duo Fy og By (aka Pat and Patachon).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1587/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5624. Photo: D'Ora (Dora Kallmus), Arthur Benda. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Hollywood, London, Hollywood, Berlin

Vera Voronina crossed the Atlantic to play for Paramount in two Hollywood movies: the romantic drama The Whirlwind of Youth (Rowland Lee, 1927) starring Lois Moran, and the comedy Time to Love (Frank Tuttle, 1927), in which Vera had the female lead opposite Raymond Griffith and William Powell.

Subsequently she went to Britain to star in George Pearson's silent adventure film Huntingtower (1928), starring Harry Lauder and Patrick Aherne.Voronina played Russian princess Saskia who is imprisoned in a deserted castle and is saved by a modern day grocer.

She then returned to Hollywood to play Mademoiselle Lapoukhine in Ernst Lubitsch' famous film The Patriot (1928), starring Emil Jannings. It was oone of the first films that won an Academy Award.

The Patriot was nominated for five Oscars. It won the Academy Award for Best Writing Achievement and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Lewis Stone), Best Art Direction, Best Director and Best Picture. It is said to contain one of Jannings' best performances as Mad Czar Paul I, but we can't check it, because it is now one of the most sought after of all 'lost' films. Only pieces of the film are left.

Sound film finished off the Hollywood careers of both Jannings and Voronina. Their accents were too heavy and both returned to Germany.

Vera played supporting parts in Jaap Speijer's G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald/Tales from the Viennese forest (1928), Vererbte Triebe: Der Kampf ums neue Geschlecht/Inherited desires (Gustav Ucicky, 1929) starring Walter Rilla, and Wer wird dann weinen, wenn man aus einander geht/No Use Crying If Your Sweetheart Goes Away (Richard Eichberg, 1929) with Dina Gralla.

Finally, she played the lead role in the German-Czech production Aufruhr des Blutes/Rebellion of the blood (Victor Trivas, 1929) with Oscar Marion.

Vera Voronina retired when the sound film was introduced and nothing more was heard of her. If you have more information about her, please let us know.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3654/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Vienna.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1587/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.

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

George Formby (1904–1961) was Britain's most popular film comedian between 1934 and 1945, and one of the highest-paid stars. He appeared in 21 hit films, cut over 230 records, and entertained an estimated three million Allied Servicemen during World War II. His trademark was the banjo ukulele - along with his buck-toothed grin.

Dutch postcard. Image: N.V. Habé Film.

Dutch postcard by P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-62 kk. Photo: HABÉ Film.

Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z., no. 1080, 1940. Photo: N.V. Habé Film. Publicity still for Keep Your Seats, Please (Monty Banks, 1936).

Accident-prone Innocent

George Formby was born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1905, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven children. He was born blind due to an obstructive caul; his sight was restored during a violent coughing fit or sneeze when he was a few months old.

His father, George Formby Senior (real name James Booth), was a famous stage actor and comedian. He never wanted any of his family to enter show business and so George Jr., was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race at ten.

On the death of his father in 1921, Formby jr. abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material. In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career until her death in 1960.

He allegedly took up the ukulele, for which he was later famous, as a hobby; he first played it on stage for a bet. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of the Cheekie-Chappy, an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line; "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble; and a timid "Never touched me!" after losing a fistfight.

What made him stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of double entendre, to his own accompaniment on the ukelele-banjo. He played it in a highly syncopated style, referred to as the 'Formby style'.

Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, With my little stick of Blackpool Rock was banned by the BBC because of the lyrics, but Formby's cheerful, innocent demeanor and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent neutralized the shock value of the lyrics.

British card.

Dutch postcard by Hemo. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Gormless Incompetents

George Formby appeared in a sole silent film, By the Shortest of Heads (Bert Haldane, 1915), and in 1934 he made his first sound film Boots! Boots! (Bert Tracy, 1934).

The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further eleven with Associated Talking Pictures, which earned him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year.

In his films he played essentially gormless incompetents, aspiring to various kinds of professional success (as cyclist or jockey) and even more improbably to a middle-class girlfriend, usually in the clutches of some caddish type with a moustache.

Invariably he scored on both counts, in such films as No Limit (Monty Banks, 1935), Keep Fit (Anthony Kimmins, 1937), and Trouble Brewing (Anthony Kimmins, 1939).

Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema, and at the height of his film popularity, Let George Do It (Marcel Varnel, 1940) with Phyllis Calvert, was exported to America. This espionage comedy is still regarded as probably his best.

George is a member of a concert party, who takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway (mistaking Bergen for Blackpool) as a secret agent. A dream sequence in which he punches Adolph Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a 'windbag' is one of the most enduring moments in film comedy.

In the post-war years, the Formbys toured Australia and New Zealand, Scandinavia and Canada, and in 1951 George took the West End by storm in the new musical Zip Goes A Million.

A weak heart led to his official retirement in 1952 although he had since occasionally appeared on the stage and in pantomimes.

His final heart attack occurred at the home of his fiancée, Patricia Howson, 36. The announcement of their engagement was a surprise to many, coming as it did just two months after the death of Beryl. An estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as George Formby's coffin was driven to the cemetery.

George Formby sings When i'm cleaning windows in Keep Your Seats, Please (1936). Source: Petey1308 (YouTube).

George Formby sings Our Sergeant Major in It's in the Air (1938). Source: Petey1308 (YouTube).

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Film), BBC, The George Formby Society, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Czech stage and film actress Lyda Salmonova (1889–1968) was married to German actor Paul Wegener and appeared with him in silent horror classics like Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (1913) and Der Golem (1915 and 1920).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 403/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Rembrandt phot. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Silent Horror

Lyda Salmonova (in Germany written as Salmonowa) was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1889. As a girl she took dance classes.

In 1909, she moved to Berlin where she studied acting at the school of the Deutschen Theater. Soon manager-director Max Reinhardt offered her a role. She played a supporting part in the pantomime Sumurun and also played in Der Totentanz by August Strindberg.

One of her first parts in the cinema was the flower girl Lyduschka in the German silent horror film Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Stellan Rye, Paul Wegener, 1913) generally deemed to be the first independent film in history.

Balduin, a poor student (Paul Wegener) rescues a beautiful countess (Grete Berger) and soon becomes obsessed with her. A sorcerer makes a deal with the young man to give him fabulous wealth and anything he wants, if he will sign his name to a contract. The student hurriedly signs the contract, but doesn't know what he's in for.

The film was remade in 1926, under the same title Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague. Other remakes were produced in 1935 and 2004.

Salmonova and Wegener married in 1913 and would costar in 15 films.

In 1915, she appeared with Wegener in the silent horror film Der Golem/The Monster of Fate, written and directed by Paul Wegenerand Henrik Galeen.

The film is inspired by ancient Jewish legend about the golem, a clay statue brought to life by Rabbi Loew in 16th century Prague to save the Jews from the on-going brutal persecution by the city's rulers.

Der Golem is the first of a trilogy by Wegener, followed by the short comedy Der Golem und die Tänzerin/The Golem and the Dancing Girl (Paul Wegener, Rochus Gliese, 1917) and Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam/The Golem: How He Came into the World (Carl Boese, Paul Wegener, 1920). In all three films Salmonova played the female lead.

She probably was also in the cast of the horror film Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin/The Hunchback and the Dancer (1920) directed by F. W. Murnau, but the film is considered to be lost.

Paul Wegener. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilh., no. 278.

Wandering Souls

During the early 1920s, Lyda Salmonova appeared in silent films like the adventure film Brennendes Land/Burning Country (Heinz Herald, 1921) starring Marie Wismar, Ernst Deutsch and Kurt Vespermann. She also played a supporting part in the drama Irrende Seelen/Wandering Souls (Carl Froelich, 1921) starring Asta Nielsen, and based on the novel The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

She also appeared in the historical epic Das Weib des Pharao/The Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922) starring Emil Jannings. A complete version of the film had been considered lost for years, but in 2011 a digitally restored and reconstructed version premièred including the original music by composer Eduard Künneke that had been commissioned for the film by Lubitsch. The Loves of Pharaoh was Lubitsch last German feature before he migrated to Hollywood in 1923.

Salmonova also had a part in the silent historic film Lucrezia Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (Richard Oswald, 1922) featuring Liane Haid.

Her biggest roles were in the films by her husband Paul Wegener. One of their last collaborations was Herzog Ferrantes Ende/Duke Ferrantes End (Paul Wegener, Rochus Gliese, 1922). Her last film was S.O S. Die Insel der Tränen/S.O.S. The island of tears (Lothar Mendes, 1923), as the wife of Paul Wegener.

In 1923 the two divorced and Lyda Salmonova’s film career stopped. She only performed on stage till the early 1930s. She started to work as an acting teacher. She worked at the Ufa film school in Potsdam-Babelsberg and under the name of Lyda Wegener she started her own theatre school.

During the war years she lived in Berlin and was bombed there several times. After the war, she returned to her birthplace Prague. Lyda Salmonova died in 1968 in Prague. She was 79.

133 Paul Wegener & Lyda Salmonova_Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film; 133)

Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova. German collectors card by Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld, no. 133 (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film). Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.

009 Paul Wegener & Lyda Salmonova_Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film; 9)

Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova. German collectors card by Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld, no. 9 (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film). Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.

086 Paul Wegener & Lyda Salmonova_Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film; 86)

Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova. German collectors card by Cigaretten Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld, no. 86 (Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Der Stümme Film). Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.

Sources: Film Zeit.de (German), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

French film star Marie Versini (1940) is best known of the Karl May Westerns as Winnetou’s sister. The lovely, beguiling, dark-haired actress had an international film career in the late 1950s and 1960s.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 899. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

German postcard by ISV, no. E 35. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for The Brides of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1966).

The Love Interest of Sean Flynn

Marie Versini was born in Paris, France, in 1940. She was the daughter of a grammar school teacher.

In 1954 she started to follow classes at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. Her film career started at the age of 16 with a bit role in Mitsou (Jacqueline Audry, 1956), based on the novel by Colette.

In 1957 she became the youngest company member of the Comédie Française in Paris. She would play roles in the plays of Moliére, Jean Racine, Beaumarchais, Victor Hugo, and William Shakespeare.

Her film debut was followed by parts in the British Charles Dickens adaptation A Tale of Two Cities (Ralph Thomas, 1958) with Dirk Bogarde, and the French TV-film Britannicus (Jean Kerchbron, 1959) based on the play by Jean Racine.

She played at Eddie Constantine's side in the gangster film Chien de pique/Jack of Spades (Yves Allégret, 1960).

She also appeared in the American productions Paris Blues (Martin Ritt, 1961) with Paul Newman, and in Roger Corman's actioner The Young Racers (1963) with Mark Damon.

In Italy, she was the love interest of Sean Flynn, the son of Errol Flynn and Lily Damita, in the adventure film Sandokan, la Tigre di Mompracem/Temple of the White Elephant (Umberto Lenzi, 1963).

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 892. Retail price: 10 Pfg. Photo: Rialto / Constantin / Kran. Still from one of the Winnetou films with Marie Versini and Pierre Brice.

German postcard, no. E 30. Photo: still from one of the Winnetou films with Marie Versini and Lex Barker.

German card by Marie-Versini-Club. Photo: publicity still for Ferien mit Piroschka/Piroschka (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1965).

Winnetou’s sister

Marie Versini's breakthrough came in the German/French/Yugoslav coproduction Winnetou I. Teil/Apache Gold (Harald Reinl, 1963). This was a film in a series of European Technicolor Westerns based on the Winnetou-stories of German author Karl May.

As in most of these films, French actor Pierre Bricestarred as the brave Indian Winnetou, and former Hollywood Tarzan Lex Barker co-starred as his loyal friend Old Shatterhand.

Marie Versini played Winnetou’s sister Nscho-tschi, who also became friends with Old Shatterhand. With this role she became – overnight - tremendously popular in Germany.

She would appear in four more Karl May adventures: Der Schut/The Shoot (Robert Siodmak, 1964), Durchs wilde Kurdistan/Wild Kurdistan (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1965), Im Reich des silbernen Löwen/Attack of the Kurds (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1965) and Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Thunder at the Border (Alfred Vohrer, 1966).

Besides the Karl May films she also took part in the popular German productions Kennwort...Reiher/The River Line (Rudolf Jugert, 1964) and Liebesnächte in der Taiga/Code Name Kill (Harald Philipp, 1967), and in the French war film Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1966) with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 921. Retail price: 10 Pfg. Photo: Gloria / Schnelle. Publicity still for Der Schut/The Shoot (Robert Siodmak, 1964).

German postcard by Ernst Freihoff, Essen. Photo: Lothar Winkler.

East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Winnetou May Not Die

In the 1970s her activity in front of the film cameras diminished, but she was regularly seen in TV productions.

To her later work belong an episode of the serial Paul Temple: Antique Death (1970), Der Lift/The Elevator (Georg Tressler, 1972), Pour une poignée d'herbes sauages (1973), an episode of the serial Arsène Lupin: Le film révélateur (1974), the serial Die Pawlaks/The Pawlaks (Wolfgang Staudte, 1982) and the serial Die schöne Wilhelmine/The Beautiful Wilhelmine (1984).

In 2007 she returned to the screen in the documentary Winnetou darf nicht sterben/Winnetou May Not Die (Oliver Schwehm, 2007), a portrait of Pierre Brice.

Marie Versini published two books: her memoirs Ich war Winnetous Schwester/I Was Winnetou’s Sister (2003), and the Western novel Rätsel um N.T/ Mysteries Around N.T. (2008).

In 1974 Marie Versini married author and director Pierre Viallet, with whom she often cooperated. He passed away in 2013.

Trailer of Winnetou I. Teil/Apache Gold (1963). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).

Jean-Paul Belmondo fights the Nazi invasion of Paris with the help of Marie Versini in Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris Burning? (1966). Source: Mondobelmondo (YouTube).

Source: marie-versini.de, Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), AllMovie, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Happy Easter! Today, a post on the French film Golgotha/Ecce Homo (Julien Duvivier, 1935), an ambitious and expensive retelling of the Last Days of Jesus Christ.

French postcard.

The Son Of God

In Golgotha Robert Le Vigan plays the Son of God. His performance marks the first direct portrayal of Christ in a sound film.

The film covers Palm Sunday, the Passion, and the Resurrection. All of Jesus' dialogue is taken directly from the Scriptures, with no film-style adornments. Hal Erickson notes at AllMovie that Le Vigan delivers these lines with sincerity and quiet grace.

Hal Erickson: "Considering the anti-Semitism prevalent in Europe during the 1930s, the question of the Jews' responsibility for Jesus' death is handled with restraint; blame is squarely laid on the shoulders of a handful of conspirators, rather than an entire race.

For the most part, Jesus is shown from a respectful distance as was also the case in Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, or The Robe, but there are also a few closer shots and even close-ups.

French postcard.

Almost Lost in the Shuffle

Kevin C. Neece at Jesus Films 101: "Le Vigan holds his own in the role, presenting a more stoic Christ, unmoved by the circumstances around him. But, in a film of passionate performances and engaging cinematography, Le Vigan’s performance almost gets lost in the shuffle."

Golgotha also stars Harry Bauras Herod, Jean Gabin as Pontius Pilate and Edwige Feuillère as Claudia Procula. The cast list in the opening credits is read out by an off-screen voice.

Golgotha was directed by Julien Duvivier, who had made several religious films during the silent era. The score was composed by French composer Jacques Ibert.

Golgotha played throughout Europe, but the British Board of Film Censors "would not allow British eyes to see it." The film opened in the US in 1937. The National Board of Review named the film the sixth best foreign film of 1937.

dbdumonteil at IMDb: "the cinematography is wonderful; two examples: the three crosses, climbing up the Golgotha, or Judas's death, seen from a distance. Aerial pictures of Jerusalem already display Duvivier's sense of space which will be used to even better effects in his celebrated Pepe le Moko. The movements in the crowd compare favourably with the best of the epics of those ancient times such as Fred Niblo's Ben Hur (1925). The forty lashes scene, which the populace intently watches behind the bars, is not out of place in a Duvivier movie: nobody in France depicted human wickedness like he did."

And finally Kevin C. Neece: "Golgotha is an intelligent, engaging and excellently executed film. Though Le Vigan’s Christ is perhaps too distant, too lacking in humanity and dimension, the film overall teems with sweaty, complex humanity and seems to set the tone for many Jesus films that would follow."

French postcard.

French postcard. From Friday 18 to Thursday 24 October 1935 at the Palace-Cinéma, Avenue Thiers 104, Le Mans, France. 'Shown with the consent of the religious authorities.'

Sources: Kevin C. Neece (Jesus Films 101), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), dbdumonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Seductive daredevil Roland Toutain (1905-1977) was a French actor, songwriter and stuntman. He is best known for playing the aviator André Jurieux in Jean Renoir's film La Règle du jeu (1939).

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Selection, Paris, no. 1000. Photo: Studio Rudolph.

Daredevil Air Stunts

Roland Toutain was born in Paris in 1905. He was the son of a horse breeder from Normandy, and a fearless artist from Corsica. When he was two, his father liked to throw him in lake Vésinet, thinking he would learn to swim naturally that way.

As a teenager Toutain climbed the Eiffel Tower and loved to do acrobatics on cars and trains. He spent a lot of time on airports, so it was logical he was going to do aerial stunts.

The cinema attracted the young stuntman, who was an admirer of American film star Douglas Fairbanks. After meeting director Marcel L’Herbier, he played some small parts in the silent films La Galerie des monstres/Gallery of Monsters (Jaque Catelain, 1923) and L'Inhumaine (Marcel L'Herbier, 1924).

He first gained fame in the crime film Le mystère de la chambre jaune/The Mystery of the Yellow Room (Marcel L’Herbier, 1930) based on one of the first locked room mystery crime fiction novels, written by Gaston Leroux. Toutain was perfectly cast as the youthful journalist Joseph Rouletabille, Leroux's equivalent of Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes.

Toutain returned in the sequel Le parfum de la dame en noir/The Perfume of the Lady in Black Room (Marcel L’Herbier, 1930), in fact one long story divided into two episodes. Later he reprised the role in Rouletabille aviateur/Flying Gold (Steve Sekely, 1932).

Toutain had a supporting role in Fritz Lang’s only French film, the fantasy Liliom (1934) starring Charles Boyer and Madeleine Ozeray.

He served as a foil to romantic young leads like Jean-Pierre Aumontin L'équipage/Flight Into Darkness (Anatole Litvak, 1935) and La porte du large/The Great Temptation (Marcel L'Herbier, 1936).

In 1937, he appeared in the French drama Yoshiwara (Max Ophüls, 1937) starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Sessue Hayakawa and Michiko Tanaka. The film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century.

His best known role is the aviator André Jurieux in the a satire of the upper-middle classes La Règle du jeu/The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939). The film capitalized on stories in fan magazines about Toutain’s daredevil air stunts and his reckless personality.

In the film, the French aviation hero has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio). Renoir’s classic comedy of manners contrasts the romantic entanglements of rich and poor during a a weekend hunting party at the country estate.

In the 1930s Toutain was befriended with boxer Al Brown and together they would often hit the nightclubs of Montmartre.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 722. Photo R. Tomarif [?], Nice / Osso. Could be a publicity still for the film Le mystère de la chambre jaune (Marcel L'Herbier, 1930).

French postcard by EPC, no. 193.

Les quatre cents coups

During the 1940s, Roland Toutain played the seductive charmer in several interesting adventure films. He appeared as Scapin in Le capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Abel Gance, 1942) with Fernand Gravey, and played a garage owner in the box office hit L'Éternel retour/The Eternal Return (Jean Delannoy, 1943), written by Jean Cocteau, and starring Madeleine Sologne and Jean Marais.

Then he was Cabrion, in Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1943). He reunited with Marcel L’Herbier for La vie de bohème (Marcel L’Herbier, 1945) starring María Dénis and Louis Jourdan.

In his films he jumped off a moving train into a river and did trapeze stunts under a flying airplane. In 1949, he founded the Club des Casse-cou (Club Daredevil), bringing together the famous stuntmen of the time, including specialist Gil Delamare who died in 1966 during the filming of Le Saint prend l'Affût.

In 1951, Toutain had an accident for the umpteenth time and one of his legs had to be amputated. Still in his final film, L'inspecteur aime la bagarre/The inspector likes to fight (Jean-Devaivre, 1956), he did some amazing stunts.

After his retirement he spent his time generously for La roue tourne, an association dedicated to needy actors. He lived with his mother in Argenteuil, where he died in poverty in 1977, at the age of 71.

His good friend Jean Marais organized his funeral. Toutain lies buried in Argentueil, with a miniature of a stuntman on top of a plane on his grave.

Roland Toutain married and divorced three times. With his girlfriend Odette Calais, he had a son: actor Jacques Maire, whom he never recognized, despite mediation by Jean Marais.

In 1951 he published his souvenirs as Les quatre cents coups, with prefaces by Jean Cocteau and Joseph Kessel. In French 'faire les 400 coups' means committing all the possible stupidities. Les quatre cents coups/The 400 blows 1959) is also the title of a famous film by François Truffaut.

French postcard by Editions EC, no. 36. Photo: Discina.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 805. Photo: Osso Films. Publicity still for Rouletabille aviateur (Steve Szekely, 1932).

Sources: Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Glamorous French actress Lise Bourdin (1925) is known for her roles in international films during the 1950s. Among her best known films are La donna del fiume/The River Girl (1954) and the Billy Wilder classic Love in the Afternoon (1957).

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 279. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Miss Arch of Triumph

Lise Bourdin was born as Louise Marie Odette Bourdin-Perrier in 1925 in Néris-les-Bains, Allier, France. She was the sister of radio maker and orchestra leader Roland Bourtin.

Lise began her career as a model and 1948 she toured the United States on behalf of American Aid to France, Inc., and the American Overseas Aid-United Nations Appeal for Children as well as to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the rededication of L’Arc de Triomphe.

As 'Miss Arch of Triumph', she promoted the American film Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948) with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

She made her first film appearance uncredited in the crime film Scandale aux Champs-Élysées/Scandal at the Champs-Elusées (Roger Blanc, 1949) starring Pierre Renoir. A small part followed in Les mémoires de la vache Yolande/The memoirs of the cow Yolande (Ernst Neubach, 1951) starring Rellys.

Then followed her breakthrough with a co-starring part in a ‘shocking’ drama about unwed mothers, Les enfants de l'amour/Children of Love (Léonide Moguy, 1953) starring Etchika Choureau. The now completely forgotten film was an international success, promoted in the US with taglines like “Unwed Mothers! They Come From Everywhere, From Every Class” and “Startling! Shocking! Rips the Veil of Secrecy From Love's Most Shameful Sin!” The beautiful starlet soon appeared in films outside of France.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 317. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Hot Pants

In Italy Lise Bourdin appeared in Scuola elementare/Elementary School (Alberto Lattuada, 1954) and with Sophia Loren, both in hot pants, in the rice picker drama La donna del fiume/ The River Girl (Mario Soldati, 1954).

She also appeared in the American TV series Sherlock Holmes (1955), which was filmed in France. One of her best known roles is Madame X, seduced by Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957).

That year she also played a princess in the French adventure film La rivière des trois jonques/The River of Three Junks (André Pergament, 1957) and was one of the beautiful ladies around two-fisted Eddie Constantine in the crime film Ces dames préfèrent le mambo/Dishonorable Discharge (Bernard Borderie, 1957).

In Germany she appeared in the Caterina Valente vehicle ...und abends in die Scala/And that evening in the Scala (Erik Ode, 1958) and back in France in Quai des illusions/Avenue of illusions (Émile Couzinet 1959) starring Gaby Morlay.

Her final appearance was in the American war film The Last Blitzkrieg (Arthur Dreifuss, 1960) starring Van Johnson.

In 1963, she married Roberto Seabra, a wealthy Brazilian, whom she divorced again in 1965. In 1974 she became the partner of Raymond Marcellin, Interior minister of France.

Lise Bourdin lives in Paris.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 282. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, AllMovie, Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Hungarian actor and film director Julius von Szöreghy (1883-1943) was one of the busiest supporting actors of the German and Austrian cinema in the second half of the 1920s.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 592. Photo: Verleih E. Weill & Co. / National. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The Largest And Most Expensive Austrian Film Production

Julius von Szöreghy was born Gyula Szöreghy in 1883 in Budapest. He debuted as an actor in 1902 and played at various theatres, for example, in Temesvár and Buda.

His film appearances began in 1913. Among his silent Hungarian films are Mary Ann (Alexander Korda, 1918) starring Ica von Lenkeffy, and the drama Fehér rózsa/White Rose (Alexander Korda, 1919) starring María Corda. Fehér rózsa/White Rose was released by the state-owned Hungarian film industry during the Hungarian Soviet Republic, although production had begun before the regime came to power.

He also played Sikes in Twist Olivér/Oliver Twist (Márton Garas, 1919), a Hungarian adaptation of the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

In 1920, he moved to Vienna in Austria. There he changed his name to Julius von Szöreghy. Alexander Korda worked there for the Sascha-Film company.

Korda gave him a part in the silent adventure film Herren der Meere/Masters of the Sea (Alexander Korda, 1922) starring Victor Varconi. Several other Hungarian exiles also worked on the film, including the producer Arnold Pressburger and scriptwriter Ernest Vajda. The film's storyline offered a romantic view of modern-day pirates and their pursuit of treasure.

It was followed by another adventure epic Eine versunkene Welt/A Vanished World (Alexander Korda, 1922). Von Szöreghy was also among the gigantic cast of the silent epic Sodom und Gomorrha/Sodom and Gomorrah (Mihály Kertész a.k.a. Michael Curtiz, 1922), the largest and most expensive production in Austrian film history. In the creation of the film between 3,000 and 14,000 performers, extras and crew were employed.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 592. Photo: Allianz Film.

Strange Relatives, Servants, Petty Bourgeois And Officials

Since 1925, Julius von Szöreghy participated in German productions as the war film Die dritte Eskadron/The Third Squadron (Carl Wilhelm, 1926), the comedy Der Fürst von Pappenheim/The Masked Mannequin (Richard Eichberg, 1927) and Das tanzende Wien/Dancing Vienna (Friedrich Zelnik a.k.a. Frederic Zelnik, 1927) starring Lya Mara.

During the second half of the 1920s, he became one of the busiest supporting actor in the German-Austrian silent cinema. The burly Szöreghy embodied usually comic characters, including strange relatives, servants, petty bourgeois and officials.

Among his best known films were also Eine Dubarry von heute/A Dubarry of today (Alexander Korda, 1927) featuring María Corda, and Luther (Hans Kyser, 1928), about the life of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation. The silent film starred Eugen Klöpfer as Luther and Theodor Loos as Philipp Melanchthon, and was written by Berlin Cathedral chaplain Bruno Doehring.

Von Szöreghy also participated in the German-British romance Der fesche Husar/The Gallant Hussar (Géza von Bolváry, 1928) starring Ivor Novello. The film was a co-production made under an agreement between Gainsborough Pictures and the German studio Felsom-Film and was shot in Berlin.

Von Szöreghy seldom received starring roles. An exception was Mikosch rückt ein/Mickosch engages (Rolf Randolf, 1928) in which he played a factory owner. He also occasionally directed himself, such as in Der Onkel aus Sumatra/The uncle from Sumatra (1930) with Wolf Albach-Retty.

The transition to the sound film was no problem for him and he continued his career in Germany seamlessly during the early 1930s. When the National Socialists seized the power in Germany he returned to Budapest in 1934.

In Hungary, he continued his film career in such productions as Szervusz Péter!/Hello Peter! (Sándor Szlatinay, 1939), the musical Háry János (Frigyes Bán, 1941), and Régi keringö/Old Waltz (Viktor Bánky, 1941), all starring Antal Páger.

Julius von Szöreghy died in 1943 in Budapest. His final film was the German revue film Karneval der Liebe/Carnival of Love (Paul Martin, 1943), which had been partly filmed in Budapest. He was married to actress René Sello.

María Corda. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 640-1. Photo: D'Ora (Dora Kallmus).

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

Since 1972, French actress Emmanuelle Béart (1963) has appeared in over 50 film and television productions. Initially cast for her extraordinary beauty, Béart has emerged over the years as one of France's best actresses. The sapphire-eyed Béart has been nominated eight times for a César Award and she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film Manon des Sources (1986).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no 43033.

A Beautiful Blonde Shepherd

Emmanuelle Béart was born Emmanuelle Béhart-Hasson in St. Tropez (some sources say Gassin), on the French Riviera, in 1963. She was the daughter of Geneviève Galéa, a former model, and Guy Béart, a singer and poet. Following her parents' divorce, Emmanuelle was raised by her mother in Gassin, a remote mountain village in Provence.

In her teens she appeared in bit parts on television and in the offbeat crime drama La course du lièvre à travers les champs/And Hope To Die (René Clément, 1972) starring Jean-Louis Trintignant.

In her late teens she spent her summer vacation with the English speaking family of a close friend of her father in Montreal. At the end of the summer the family invited her to stay with them and complete her baccalauréat at Collège international Marie de France. In Montreal, she met director Robert Altman, who encouraged her to become an actress. She took a screen test for him, but nothing came of it.

Upon graduating she returned to France to attend drama school in Paris. She appeared in the last erotic film of photographer David Hamilton, Premier Desirs/First Desires (1984).

For both her roles in Un amour interdit/A Strange Passion (Jean-Pierre Dougnac, 1985) and the comedy L'amour en douce/Love on the Quiet (Édouard Molinaro, 1986), she was nominated for a César as Most Promising Actress.

In 1986 she achieved fame with as a beautiful blonde shepherd and also vengeful daughter of the late Jean de Florette in Manon des Sources/Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri, 1986) opposite Yves Montand. Manon des Sources is the critically acclaimed and commercially successful sequel to Jean de Florette, adapted from the 1966 two-volume novel by Marcel Pagnol, who wrote it based on his own earlier film of the same title. For her performance, she won the 1987 César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Less successful was her Hollywood stint as an angel in the fantasy comedy Date with an Angel (Tom McLoughlin, 1987) starring Phoebe Cates and Michael E. Knight.

In the following years, she was five times nominated for César the Award for Best Actress: Les Enfants du désordre/Children of Chaos (Yannick Bellon, 1990), La Belle Noiseuse/The Beautiful Troublemaker (Jacques Rivette, 1990), Un cœur en hiver/A Heart in Winter (Claude Sautet, 1993), Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud/Nelly and Mr Arnaud (Claude Sautet, 1996) and Les Destinées Sentimentales/Sentimental Destinies (Olivier Assayas, 2001).

Other interesting films were Il viaggio di Capitan Fracassa/Captain Fracassa's Journey (Ettore Scola, 1990) with Vincent Perez, the drama J'embrasse pas/I Don't Kiss (André Téchiné, 1991), starring Manuel Blanc and Philippe Noiret, and L'Enfer/Hell (Claude Chabrol, 1994), adapted from the screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot for the unfinished film L'Enfer (1964).

French postcard by Ediions F. Nugeron, no. 3. Photo: Collection de l'Ecole de Cinéma Camiris. Publicity still for Manon des Sources/Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri, 1986).

Mission: Impossible

In the mid-1980s, Emmanuelle Béart began a relationship with Daniel Auteuil, her co-star in L'amour en douce/Love on the Quiet, Manon des Sources/Manon of the Spring, Un cœur en hiver/A Heart in Winter and Une femme française/A French Woman. They married in 1993 but divorced in 1998.

For her starring role in Une femme française/A French Woman (Régis Wargnier, 1995), she won the Silver St. George for Best Actress award at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.

She did another role in a Hollywood production, Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996), produced by and starring Tom Cruise. The film was the third-highest-grossing of the year and received positive reviews from film critics, but her window-dressing role did not lead to more American films.

In France, she found more interesting parts in the period drama Le Temps retrouvé/Time Regained (Raúl Ruiz, 1999), an adaptation of the final volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, and in the dark comedy musical 8 Femmes/8 Women (François Ozon, 2002), in which she parodied the erotic French maid stereotype.

In the 5 May 2003 issue of the French edition of Elle magazine, Béart, aged 39, appeared nude with a younger man. The entire print-run of 550,000 copies sold out in just three days, making it the biggest-selling issue in the fashion glossy's long history.

In 2007, she participated in Les témoins/The Witnesses (André Téchiné, 2007) about the first outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.

In addition to her screen work, Béart is also known for her social activism. She is an ambassador for UNICEF, and is known for her opposition to France's anti-immigration legislation. In 1996, she made headlines when, defending the rights of the ‘sans-papiers’ (black illegal immigrants), she was forcibly removed from a siege in a Paris church.

She married twice and has two children. Her first husband was frequent co-star Daniel Auteuil (1993-1995), with whom she has a daughter, Nelly Auteuil (1993). Later, Béart was romantically linked to music producer David Moreau, with whom she has a son Johan Moreau (1996), and to film producer Vincent Meyer for two years until his suicide in May 2003. In 2008, she married actor Michaël Cohen.

Trailer for Manon des Sources/Manon of the Spring (1986). Source: Ageless Trailers (YouTube).

Trailer for Le Temps retrouvé/Time Regained (1999). Source: Boudward (YouTube).

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Wladimir van Heemst (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Indian-born British actress Merle Oberon (1911-1979) had her breakthrough as Anna Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She played leading roles in such British films as The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), before she travelled to Hollywood to star in classics as The Dark Angel (1935) and Wuthering Heights (1939).

French postcard by Viny, no. 53. Photo: United Artists.

French card by Massilia. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

Queenie

From the early days of her career, Merle Oberon succeeded in establishing a fabricated history of her origins in which she said that she had been born in Tasmania, Australia. According to her birth certificate though, Oberon was born in Bombay, British India in 1911 as Estelle Merle Thompson.

Merle was given ´Queenie´ as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary who visited India along with King George V in 1911. Her parentage has remained deliberately obscure over the years. Some sources claim Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian from Ceylon with partial Māori heritage, and Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a British mechanical engineer from Darlington, who worked in Indian Railways, as Merle's parents.

At the age of fourteen years, Charlotte had given birth to her first child Constance, in Ceylon, from a relationship with Henry Alfred Selby, an Irish foreman of a tea planter. Some sources claim that Constance was the biological mother of Merle, even though Charlotte raised Merle as her own child.

Merle believed the truth about her parentage would have destroyed her career prospects due to societal expectations and restrictions at that time. In 1914, Arthur Thompson joined the British Army and later died of pneumonia on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme. Merle, with her mother (or grandmother) led an impoverished existence in shabby Bombay flats for a few years.

Then, in 1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta. Oberon received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere Calcutta for Girls, a well-known Calcutta private school. There, she was constantly taunted for her unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and had her lessons at home.

Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also completely enamored of the cinema and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. As she entered her teen years, she dated increasingly older, urbane men.

In 1928, she dated a former actor named Colonel Ben Finney. He promised to introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios, if she could come to France. Oberon jumped at the offer and decided to follow the man to the studios in France.

There, Oberon and her mother found that their supposed benefactor had dodged them, but he had left a good word for her with Rex Ingram who liked Oberon's exotic appearance. He hired her as an extra in a party scene in The Three Passions (Rex Ingram, 1928) starring Alice Terry and Iván Petrovich.

British 'Real Photograph' postcard, no. 102B. Photo: London Films.

British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. 102. Photo: London Films.

Anne Boleyn

Merle Oberon moved to England in 1928. Initially she worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played as an extra in various films.

Finally she landed a part with substance: the role of Ysobel d'Aunay in Men of Tomorrow (Zoltan Korda, Leontine Sagan, 1933) with Robert Donat.

She combined a slightly frosty reserve and a distinctive British accent with a somewhat exotic beauty which suggested a passionate nature.

Her career went on to greater heights, thanks to director-producer Alexander Korda, who persuaded her to take the name under which she became famous.

Korda gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton.

The film became a major success and Korda gave her leading roles, such as the temperamental dancer Antonita in The Private Life of Don Juan (Alexander Korda, 1934) opposite Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Lady Blakeney in the The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1934) with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while.

Oberon went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background and when her dark-skinned mother moved in with her, she masqueraded as Oberon's maid.

British postcard in the Film-Kurier series, no. 43. Photo: London Film Production.

British postcard by Real Photograph, London, in the Picturegoer series, no. 820c. Photo: United Artists.

Cathy

Alexander Korda sold 'shares' of Merle Oberon´s contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her good vehicles in Hollywood. Her 'mother' stayed behind in England.

Oberon received her only Oscar nomination as Best Actress for The Dark Angel (Sidney Franklin, 1935) opposite Fredric March.

Her work in that film resulted in offers for more quality pictures, and she appeared in several well received films, such as These Three (William Wyler, 1936), a worthy but altered adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour in which a scandalous lesbian romance was rewritten as a heterosexual triangle;.

Next she appeared in Over the Moon (Thornton Freeland, 1936) with Rex Harrison, and The Divorce of Lady X (Tim Whelan, 1938).

She was selected to star in Korda's epic film I, Claudius (Josef von Sternberg, 1937) as Messalina, but unfortunately the film was abandoned in mid-production after Oberon was seriously injured in a 1937 car crash. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.

She went on to appear as Cathy in Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939) opposite Laurence Olivieras Heathcliff. It would become her best remembered performance.

French postcard by Viny, no. 53. Photo: United Artists.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 46. Photo: Columbia / CEIAD.

George Sand

The 1940s proved to be a very busy decade for Merle Oberon, as she appeared in no less than 15 films, including That Uncertain Feeling (Ernst Lubitsch, 1941), The Lodger (John Brahm, 1944) about Jack the Ripper, and A Song to Remember (Charles Vidor, 1945) as the tempestuous and unconventional author George Sand.

Oberon became Lady Korda upon her husband's knighthood in 1942. She divorced him in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film. The light became known as the Obie.

After her role in Berlin Express (Jacques Tourneur, 1948) she would not be seen on the screen again until four years later, as Elizabeth Rockwell in Pardon My French (Bernard Vorhaus, 1951). She then appeared as Empress Josephine in Désirée (Henry Koster, 1954) with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons.

Unfortunately, she began appearing in fewer and fewer films over the ensuing years. After her divorce from Ballard in 1949, she married Italian-born industrialist Bruno Pagliai (from 1957 till 1973). They adopted two children, Francesca Pagliai and Bruno Pagliai Jr.

Her final film was Interval (Daniel Mann, 1973) which she also produced, and co-edited. According to Bruce Eder of AllMovie it is “a strange romantic drama that costarred her future husband Robert Wolders, that failed to find good reviews or an audience”.

After that she retired and lived in Malibu, California. In 1975 she married Robert Wolders, a Dutch actor, who would later become Audrey Hepburn's and Leslie Caron's companion.

In 1979 she died in Malibu after suffering a stroke at the age of 68. Her will left most of her money to be divided between her children. She left $1 million to the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital. Her husband, Robert Wolders, got nothing, at his own request.

Merle Oberon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures. Her strange and affecting true life story was the subject of Michael (nephew of Alexander) Korda's best-seller, Queenie (1985). This book was made into a TV miniseries, Queenie (1987) starring Mia Sara.

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

Dutch postcard.

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Film), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Turner Classic Movies, Wikipedia and IMDb.

German actor and writer Gerd Briese (1897-1957) experienced a brief film career in the silent cinema of the 1920s.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3203/1, 1928-1929.

Rose Monday

Gerd Briese was born in Thorn, West Prussia (now Torun, Poland) in 1897.

He started acting, as many did, on the stage. He made his film debut featuring in Rosenmontag/Rose Monday (Rudolf Meinert, 1924).

After that, he would play mostly supporting characters in many popular German films such as Reveille, das grosse Wecken/Reveille (Fritz Kaufmann, 1925) with Werner Krauss, which Briese also co-wrote, and Funkzauber/Radio Charm (Richard Oswald, 1927) starring Werner Krauss and Fern Andra.

As a writer he also worked on Die vom Niederrhein (Rudolf Walther-Fein, Rudolf Dworsky, 1925) starring Mady Christians, Die vom Niederrhein, 2. Teil (Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1925) and Das Gasthaus zur Ehe (Georg Jacoby, 1926).

In the next years he appeared in well-known films like the war drama U 9 Weddigen/U-boat 9 (Heinz Paul, 1927) opposite Ernst Hoffmann as two brothers who are both submarine officers, Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd/Lützow's Game Hunt (Richard Oswald, 1927), Walpurgisnacht/Walpurgis Night (James Bauer, 1927) with Vivian Gibson, and as a police officer in Meineid/Perjury (Georg Jacoby, 1929) featuring La Jana.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4844/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin

Sex in Chains

In 1928, Gerd Briese would play in a melodrama with a gay subtext, Geschlecht in Fesseln: die Sexualnot der Gefangenen/Sex in Chains (Wilhelm Dieterle aka William Dieterle, 1928) starring Wilhelm Dieterle himself.

It’s the story of a young man who is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term in prison, where he forms a close relationship with his cellmate and upon his release his wife is concerned as to how prison has changed the man she married.

After the introduction of the sound film Gerd Briese made only one talkie, Der Sittenrichter/The Customs Judge (Carl Heinz Wolff, 1929) with Erna Morena.

After that he returned to the theatre. From 1948 to 1954 he was the director of the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater.

His only film after the war was the thriller Es geschah am 20. Juli/It Happened on the 20th of July (G. W. Pabst, 1955), about the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Gerd Briese then retired and died in 1957, in Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7448/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Alice Domker, Berlin.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), and IMDb.

Italian singer, stage and film actress and television personality Milva (1939) is also known as 'La Rossa' (The Red). She has triumphed on stages all over the world, but she is particularly popular in France, Germany and of course in Italy, where she received the highest honours.

Italian promotion card by Dischi Cetra, Torino / Milano, 1964. Photo: Pietro Pascuttini, Roma.

The Panther of Goro

Milva was born as Maria Ilva Biolcati in Goro in the province of Ferrara in 1939.

In 1959, she won a contest for new voices, and was named the overall winner from more than seven thousand six hundred participants. In 1960 she recorded her first 7" single with Cetra Records: Édith Piaf's song Milord.

Her real debut was on the stage of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1961, where she took third place. She has competed at the Festival a total of 15 times, the last time in 2007. The highest position she reached was second place in 1962. That year Milva was the first singer to perform Édith Piaf's repertoire at the prestigious Olympia theatre in Paris.

In 1965, a fortunate meeting led to a definitive change in her career: Italian director Giorgio Strehler helped to develop her skills in staging and singing in Italian theatres (especially the Piccolo Teatro in Milan) and she began to perform a more committed repertoire (songs of the Italian resistance movement, songs from Bertolt Brecht's pieces, etc.).

In the following years she starred in Giorgio Strehler's production of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera which was performed in several cities of Western Europe. The press nicknamed her the ' La Pantera di Goro’ (The Panther of Goro), and she is also known as 'La Rossa', (The Red), due to the colour of her hair.

Occasionally, she appeared in Italian films of the 1960s. Her film debut was the Musicarello Canzoni a tempo di twist (Stefano Canzio, 1962) with Tiberio Murgia.

In the comedy La bellezza di Ippolita/The Beautiful Ippolita (Giancarlo Zagni, 1963), she co-starred with Gina Lollobrigida. Later she appeared in the drama D'amore si muore/For Love One Dies (Carlo Carunchio, 1972) starring Silvana Mangano.

Italian promotion card by Dischi Cetra, Torino / Milano, no. 22, 1964. Photo: Pietro Pascuttini, Roma.

Italian promotion card by Dischi Cetra, Torino / Milano, no. 289, 1964.

Eclectic Artist

Milva is a highly eclectic artist. She performs both pop music and opera (in duet with Luciano Berio), but also plays in comedy, drama and musicals.

From 1973 to 1980, Milva was on tour with the band I Milvi. They toured though Italy, USA, Greece, France, Germany, Canada, Russia and Japan. She collaborated with such European composers and musicians as Ennio Morricone in 1965, Francis Lai in 1973, Mikis Theodorakis in 1978 (their Was ich denke became a bestselling album in Germany), Enzo Jannacci in 1980, Vangelis in 1981 and 1986, and Franco Battiato in 1982 and 1986.

Her stage productions of Bertolt Brecht's recitals and Luciano Berio's operas have toured the world's theatres. She has performed at La Scala in Milan, at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, at the Paris Opera, in the Royal Albert Hall in London, at the 1984 Summer Olympics, at the Edinburgh Festival, and others.

She also returned to the big screen in the Italian drama Via degli specchi/Street of Mirrors (Giovanna Gagliardo, 1982) opposite Nicole Garcia. It was entered into the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1983 she performed Édith Piaf's repertoire again at the Olympia in Paris and again she received an ovation from the audience. The French press was very surprised how a non-French artist could interpret with such a feeling and energy the songs of Piaf.

She also hosted the TV show Al Paradise (Antonello Falqui, 1983-1985), which won the Rose d'Or (Golden Rose) of the Montreux Festival 1983. In 1984 she performed with Ástor Piazzolla the show El tango in the Les Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris. This was the beginning of a collaboration with Ástor Piazzolla, interpreting the nuevo tango.

She continued to play in films, including Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur/My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister (Jacques Rouffio, 1987) with Michel Serrault and Michel Piccoli, Wherever You Are... (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1988) with Julian Sands, and Prisonnières/Women in Prison (Charlotte Silvera, 1988).

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 1067.

Italian postcard. Photo: Ricordi.

In 1997 Milva’s mentor Giorgio Strehler died. She temporarily reduced her theatre activities and focused on music only.

She received new inspiration collaborating with Thanos Mikroutsikos, James Last and Shinji Tanimura. Then she performed her fourteenth tour in Japan.

In 1998, she sang with Alexia Vassiliou on Alexia's album, Alexia - Mikis Theodorakis, a double album with new approaches to 26 Mikis Theodorakis compositions.

Milva remains to this day one of the most popular Italian personalities in the fields of music and theatre. But she still appears regularly in films too, such as Celluloide/Celluloid (Carlo Lizzani, 1995) with Giancarlo Giannini and Massimo Ghini, and Tod für fünf Stimmen/Death for Five Voices (Werner Herzog, 1996).

Later, she was also seen in the German TV series Liebesau - die andere Heimat/Liebesau - The other home (Wolfgang Panzer, 2001).

Her artistic stature has been officially recognised by the Italian, German and French republics, each of which have bestowed her with the highest honours. She is the only Italian artist in contemporary times, in fact, who is simultaneously: Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic (2009), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2007), Officer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Berlin, 2006 and Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1995).

Milva has a daughter, Martina, born during her marriage to Maurizio Corgnati in the early 1960s.

Milva sings Canzone (1968). Source: (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Charismatic multitalent Toni Sailer (1935-2009) was a legendary Austrian alpine ski racer, one of the best the sport has ever produced. The ‘Black Blitz from Kitz’ appeared as an actor and singer in several films and TV series. He was a national hero and matinee idol rolled into one.

Austrian postcard by Kellner-Fotokarten, Wien, no 1335. Photo: Bavaria / Schorcht / Ringpress / Vogelmann.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-314. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Ufa.

Handsome and dashing

Anton Engelbert ‘Toni’ Sailer (pronounced SIGH-ler) was born in Kitzbühel, in the Tyrolean Alps, in 1935. He was skiing since he was 2 years old. The son of a glass shop owner, he became a licensed glazier and plumber and worked in the shop except in winter, when he trained four hours a day.

His first skiing victory came when he was 11. The prize was two sausages. Skiing ran through Sailer’s family. His younger brother, Rudi, later ran Sailer’s ski school. Their uncle Sepp was a ski instructor for 55 years.

Barely out of his teens, he became the first skier at the Winter Olympics to win all three alpine skiing events at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. He took gold in the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom, and won them all by large margins. He was just the fifth athlete to win three gold medals in the same Olympic games.

Handsome and dashing, he was quickly nicknamed the ‘Black Blitz from Kitz’ (because of his hometown and the black suits he often wore). Sailer was a multitalent and a thinker, who always tried to improve his skiing technique. He was a huge youth idol and Sailer’s Olympic fame was credited with bringing publicity and tourism to Kitzbühel.

In gratitude, town officials gave him land. He built a hotel there. Two years later, he won three gold medals and one silver at the four-event 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein, Austria. Sailer was named Austrian Sportspersonality of the year in 1956, 1957, and 1958, and Austrian Sportspersonality of the Century in 1999.

German photo by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 290. Photo: Bavaria-Filmverl. Still from Der Schwarze Blitz (1958).

German postcard by Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4200. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Bavaria. Still from Der schwarze Blitz/The Black Blitz (1958).

German postcard by Franz Josef Rudel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. D 2441. Photo: Bavaria. Still from Der schwarze Blitz/The Black Blitz (1958).

The Black Blitz

Toni Sailer retired from competition in 1959, because he couldn’t combine his commercial activities with his amateur status as a ski-champion.

From 1958 till 1971, he appeared in some 20 dozen of films. He followed acting classes at the film school in Berlin. His film debut was the romance Ein Stück vom Himmel/A Piece of Heaven (Rudolf Jugert, 1958) with Ingrid Andree.

In the Heimatfilm Der schwarze Blitz/The Black Blitz (Hans Grimm, 1958) he played a skier who is accused of stealing his rival's wax and causing his rival's training injuries by moving one of the gates on the downhill race course.

In the following years he played in a series of shallow comedies at least partly set in alpine regions, including Tausend Sterne leuchten/A Thousand Stars Aglitter (Harald Philipp, 1959) with Germaine Damar, and Ein Stern fällt vom Himmel/A Star Falls from Heaven (Géza von Cziffra, 1961) with Ina Bauer.

On stage he played the lead in Death of a Salesman, the classic play by Arthur Miller. He also performed as a Schlager singer and he released 18 popular records. Some of his songs were even hits in Japan, where he also made a film.

In Italy he appeared in the western Sansone e il tesoro degli Incas/Lost Treasure of the Incas (Piero Pierotti, 1964). In the TV film Das Blaue vom Himmel/The Blue from the Sky (Wolfgang Schleif, 1964) he co-starred with the legendary Ufa star Zarah Leander.

Most of his films were mere showcases for his ski talent, but Ski Fever (Curt Siodmak, 1966), co-starring Claudia Martin, daughter of Dean Martin, was miraculously nominated for a Golden Globe.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. B 1548. Photo: Centfox.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanna-Eickel, no. F 102. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. S 765. Photo: Bavaria/Schorcht/Vogelmann. Still from Ein Stück vom Himmel/A Piece of Heaven (1958).

German postcard by Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4716. Retail price 25 Pfg. Photo: Grimm.

There Where the Hills Are

In 1965, Toni Sailer retired from the film and show business and moved to Canada.

Some years later he returned to Austria and started the clothing firm Sailer Sports. He ran a well-known ski school for children and served as an international skiing official.

From 1972 till 1976, he was chief trainer and technical director of the Austrian Skiing Association (ÖSV), which produced champion skiers like Franz Klammer and Annemarie Moser-Pröll. For his contribution to the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee awarded him the Olympic Order in 1985.

Occasionally, he was noted for appearing in TV series like Die Leute von St. Benedikt/The People of Saint Benedikt (1992) or such made for TV films as Da wo die Berge sind/There Where the Hills Are (Kurt Ockermueller, 2000).

His last appearance for the camera was in the popular TV series SOKO Kitzbühel (2003). In 2004, he announced this candidacy for Mayor of his hometown Kitzbühel, but he withdrew some weeks later, claiming he had not expected it to be a fulltime job.

Toni Sailer married Gaby Rummeny in 1976 in Vancouver; she died of cancer in 2000. His second marriage, to Hedwig Fischer, lasted from 2006 until his death.

It was announced in January 2008 that Toni Sailer had laryngeal cancer, for which he had been undergoing chemotheraphy in the preceding months. He died of cancer in Innsbruck in 2009, aged 73. He had a son, Florian with Gaby Rummeny. His death was front page news for all Austrian newspapers. They named their national hero an example for many generations.

Slalom by Toni Sailer at the 1956 Winter Olympicsin Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Source: Thofyrv (YouTube).

Strange, surrealistic musical clip from Tausend Sterne leuchten/A Thousand Stars Aglitter (1959) with Toni Sailer, Chris Howland (the bartender), the Washboard Rhythm Gang and the Patricia-Ballett. Source: Fritz52621 (YouTube).

Toni Sailer with Zarah Leander in the TV film Das Blaue vom Himmel/The Blue from the Sky (1964). Zarah Leander sings Das Elektische Klavier (The Electric Piano) by Friedrich Hollaender. Source: Rudi Polt (YouTube).

Sources: Richard Williams (The Guardian), Frank Litsky (New York Times), Guus van Holland (NRC) (Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

German stage and screen actor Paul Heidemann (1884-1968) was also a film director and producer. In the silent period, he was famous for his character Teddy and his other comical parts. He also played many supporting roles in sound comedies.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 5233. Photo: R. Dührkoop.

German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 157. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2547. Photo: Atelier Mac Walten, Berlin.

Talented Comedian

Paul Heidemann was born in Cologne, Germany in 1884. After an initial career in the tobacco branch, he took acting lessons from the Meiningen based court actor Leopold Teller.

In 1906 he debuted in Hanau as Prince Karl-Heinz in the operetta Alt-Heidelberg (Old Heidelberg). In 1909, he joined the theatre of Breslau, where he sang in Bruno Granichstaedten’s operetta Bub oder Mädel (Boy or Girl). Here Heidemann created his reputation as talented comedian.

On the recommendation of composer Jean Gilbert, he moved to Berlin in 1911, where he debuted in Gilbert’s play Die keusche Susanne (The chaste Susanne).

Franz Porten discovered Heidemann for the cinema, where he played his first lead in Das Brandmal ihrer Vergangenheit/The stigma of her past (1912). It was followed by films such as Das Teufelsloch/The Devil's Hole (Rudolf Del Zopp, 1913), and Vater und Sohn/Father and Son (Afred Halm, 1914) with Leopoldine Konstantin.

From 1913 to 1915 he also played the character Teddy in countless comical shorts, such as Teddy ist herzkrank/Teddy has a heart condition (1914), Teddys Geburtstagsgeschenk/Teddy's Birthday Present (1915) and Teddy züchtet Notkartoffeln/teddy breeds emergency potatoes (1915). Sometimes he directed these films as well.

Between 1919 and 1923 Heidemann had his own production company, Paul Heidemann-Film GmbH in Berlin, where he played the lead in films initially mostly directed by Erich Schönefelder and later on rather by Georg Schubert or by Heidemann himself. A late example is Eine kleine Freundin braucht ein jeder Mann/Every man Needs A little Friend (Paul Heidemann, 1927), starring Heidemann but also Julius Falkenstein, Hans Albers, Siegfried Arno and Charlotte Ander.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 124/1. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2550. Photo: Atelier Mac Walten, Berlin.

Military Comedies

In the 1920s, Paul Heidemann became an important supporting actor and sometimes leading man in all kinds of films.
He had a supporting part in the silent comedy classic Die Bergkatze/The Wild Cat (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921) featuring Pola Negri as a wild mountain girl and bandit’s daughter.

Heidemann played the lead in the silent historical comedy Der kleine Napoleon/The Little Napoleon (Georg Jacoby, 1923). It depicts the life and amorous adventures of Jérôme Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon (Egon von Hagen), who installed him as King of Westphalia. The film also marked Marlene Dietrich's film debut and was made by the European Film Alliance, a failed attempt by the American studio Paramount to establish a production base in the lucrative German market. The EFA was wound up shortly after the film's completion, which delayed its release. It finally premièred on 29 November 1923 at the legendary Berlin movie palace Marmorhaus.

He often played in comedies, such Der Sprung ins Leben/Leap Into Life (Johannes Guter, 1923) with Xenia Desni, Das süsse Mädel/The Sweet Girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Mary Nolan and Mary Parker, Die dritte Eskadron/The Third Squadron (Carl Wilhelm, 1926) with Claire Rommer,Flucht aus der Hölle/Escape from Hell (Georg Asagaroff, 1928) with Heidemann, Jean Murat and Agnes Esterhazy, and Flucht vor der Liebe/The flight from love (Hans Behrendt, 1930) with Jenny Jugo and Enrico Benfer.

Heidemann acted often as sidekick of the popular actor Hans Albers, such as in Der lachende Ehemann/The Laughing Husband (Rudolf Walther-Fein, Rudolf Dworsky, 1926) and the crime drama Hans in allen Gassen/Hans of all trades (Carl Froelich, 1930).

Other silent films, in which Heidemann played supporting parts were the drama Die Geliebte/The Mistress (Robert Wiene, 1927) with Harry Liedtke, and Unter der Laterne/Under the Lantern (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1928) starring Lissi Arna. And he played the lead in the silent drama Der Zigeunerprimas/The Gypsy Chief (Carl Wilhelm, 1929).

Simultaneously Heidemann acted on the Berlin stages, mainly in operettas.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1142/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ernst Sandau, Berlin.

With Hans Albers Austrian Postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6699. Photo: Lux Film Verleih.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4181/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Sidekick

After the introduction of sound film, Paul Heidemann continued to appear in supporting parts in many German films. An example is the comedy Pension Schöller (Georg Jacoby, 1930) starring Paul Henckels and Elga Brink. It is an adaptation of the 1890 play Pension Schöller by Wilhelm Jacoby and Carl Laufs. Georg Jacoby was Wilhelm's son, and made three film adaptation of his father's best known play in 1930, 1952 and 1960.

Heidemann played the following year in the romantic comedy Ihre Hoheit befiehlt/Her Grace Commands (Hanns Schwarz, 1931) about a hairdresser (Käthe von Nagy) and a greengrocer (Willy Fritsch) who fall in love and conceal from each other the truth that they are really a Princess and an army officer in disguise.

When in the early 1930s military comedies were popular, Heidemann acted in various military farces such as Wenn die Soldaten.../When the soldiers... (Luise & Jakob Fleck, 1931) with Otto Walburg, Schön ist die Manöverzeit/Manoeuver Time Is Fine (Erich Schönfelder, 1931) with Ida Wüst, Die Mutter der Kompanie/The Company's Mother (Franz Seitz senior, 1931), Drei von der Kavallerie/Number Three Cavalryman (Carl Boese, 1932) with Paul Hörbiger and Fritz Kampers, and Liebe in Uniform/Love in Uniform (Georg Jacoby, 1932).

Among his most well-known productions are Der tolle Bomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Georg Asagaroff, 1932) with Heidemann in the lead, Ganovenehre/Crook's Honour (Richard Oswald, 1932) with Fritz Kampers, Paprika (1932, Carl Boese) with Franciska Gaál, Narren im Schnee/Fools in the snow (Hans Deppe, 1939) with Anny Ondra, and Schneider Wibbel/Tailor Wibbel (Viktor de Kowa, 1939) with Erich Ponto.

During the Second World War, Heidemann worked again as film director. He staged film comedies, such as Mein Mann darf es nicht wissen/My husband must not know (1940) with Mady Rahl, Krach im Vorderhaus/Noise in the front house (1941) again with Rahl, Weisse Wäsche/White laundry (1942) with Harald Paulsen, and Floh im Ohr/Flea in Her Ear (1943), even if the films were not huge hits.

In the 1950s, he acted both in BRD and DDR films. In East-Germany he played Presskopp in the old Berlin farce Ein Polterabend/A stag night (Curt Bois, 1955) and the mayor in Bärenburger Schnurre/Bärenburg Farce (Ralf Kirsten, 1957).

He also acted in West-German films like Torreani (Gustav Fröhlich, 1951), Der keusche Josef/The chaste Joseph (Carl Boese, 1953), Rittmeister Wronski/Cavalry Captain Wronski (Ulrich Erfurth, 1954), Der Mustergatte/The Model Husband (Erik Ode, 1956) and Jede Nacht in einem anderen Bett/Every night in a different bed (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).

Paul Heidemann died in Berlin in 1968. He was 83.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8154/1, 1933-1934.

East-German postcard by VEB-Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 176-59. Photo: Defa-Neufeld. Publicity still for Junges Gemüse/Young Vegetables (Günter Reisch, 1956).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Volker Wachter (Defa Sternstunden) (German), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

German-Baltic theatre and film actress Marina von Ditmar (1914) was a popular film star of the Third Reich.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 145, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Star-Foto-Atelier.

Münchhausen

Marina von Ditmar was born in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), Russia, in 1914. She came from Baltic nobility.

In the mid-1930s Marina started to work as an actress in the theatre and from 1937 till 1939 she performed e.g. at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

Simultaneously she began to work for the Ufa studio. There she appeared in films like the operetta Das Czardasfürstin/The Csardas Princess (Georg Jacoby, 1934) with Márta Eggerth and Hans Söhnker, the Molière adaptation Der eingebildete Kranke/The Imaginary Invalid (Detlef Sierck (later: Douglas Sirk), 1935) and the drama Stadt Anatol/The City of Anatol (Viktor Tourjansky, 1936) with Brigitte Horney.

During the Third Reich she played in several Nazi propaganda films, such as Legion Condor (Karl Ritter, 1939) with Paul Hartmann, and Stukas (Karl Ritter, 1941) as a French girl alongside Carl Raddatz.

A highlight was het part as the enchanting Sophie von Riedesel in the lavish, adult fairy tale Münchhausen/The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Josef von Báky, 1943) featuring popular film star Hans Albers.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 2984/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3825/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Prag-Film.

Private Sanatorium

After the Second World War, Marina von Ditmar played only in a few more films. Her last films roles were supporting roles in the crime film Kronjuwelen/Crown Jewels (Frantisek Cáp, 1950) with Sybille Schmitz, and the comedy Mutter sein dagegen sehr (Viktor Tourjansky, 1951) featuring Ilse Werner.

In 1952 she finished her career, and completely withdrew from the spotlights.

She married doctor Hans-Georg Dehnhardt, chief doctor and owner of sanatorium Kurländer Haus in Bad Kissingen. Thanks to their personal contacts in the Beau Monde, the couple could receive in the following decades, many prominent guests in his private sanatorium.

Guests included the Thai royal couple Bhumibol and Sirikit Adulyadej and Federal President Heinrich Lübke and his wife.

Hans-Georg Dehnhardt died in 2001, but Marina Dehnhardt still lives in Bad Kissingen.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3622/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

Source: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Popular actress and singer Renate Müller (1906-1937) was the toast of late 1920s Berlin. She had a comet-like career in the early German sound cinema, which was abruptly ended by her mysterious death at the age of 31.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7867/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7868/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8751/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin.

Well-Trained Voice

Renate Müller was born in Munich, Germany, in 1906. Her father was one of Munich's leading newspaper publishers.
She was trained as a singer and a stage actress at the Max Reinhardt theatre school. Famous director G.W. Pabst reportedly gave her lessons there.

She started acting on stage in the second half of the 1920's, at the Berlin Lessing Theater, and played opposite famous actor Alexander Moissi on-stage in Zweimal Oliver/Oliver Twice.

A blue-eyed blonde, she was considered to be one of the great beauties of her day. Director Reinhold Schünzellet her make her film debut with the comedy Peter, der Matrose/Peter the Sailor (1929).

That was still a silent film, but Müller would soon flourish in the German sound film, for which her well-trained voice came in handy. She played in the German version of Italy's first sound film, Gennaro Righelli's La canzone dell'amore, Liebeslied/Love Song (Constantin J. David, 1931) with Gustav Fröhlich.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 745. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6450/1, 1931-1932.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7278/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8113/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag / Amag, no. 6497. Photo: Felsom-Film / Kiba-Verleih.

Natural and Self-conscious Woman

Renate Müller played often the natural, self-conscious young woman who knows what she wants, opposing the sweet girls and vamps of the 1920s. And thus we see her in films such as the singing secretary in Die Privatsekretärin/Private Secretary (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931), of which her song Ich bin ja heut' so glücklich became a smash hit.

In the simultaneously made English version, Sunshine Susie (Victor Saville, 1932), Müller also starred, and now she sang Today I am so happy.

There were also a French version, Dactylo, with Marie Glory, and an Italian version, La segretaria privata, with Elsa Merliniwho sang Oh come son' felice, felice, felice.

At AllMovie, Hans J. Wollstein writes: "The ultimately tragic Renate Müller blazed onto international screens in Die Privatesekretärin (The Private Secretary, 1931), a sort of Germanic Joan Crawford getting by in a man's world on her wits and a pair of shapely legs. The comedy was so popular that Müller also made an English-language version featuring popular U.K. star Owen Nares."

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 457. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no. 247. Photo: Lux-Film Verleih. Still from Die Privatsekretärin/Private Secretary (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931).

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 336. Photo: City Film. Publicity still from Die Privatsekretärin/The Private Secretary (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931) with Hermann Thimig.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 165/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wie sag' ich's meinem Mann?/How Shall I Tell My Husband? (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932) with Ida Wüst.

Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig in Viktor und Viktoria

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 195/1. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Viktor und Viktoria/Viktor and Viktoria (Reinhold Schünzel, 1933) with Hermann Thimig.

Reinhold Schünzel

Reinhold Schünzel directed Renate Müller in 8 of her 26 films. He is one of the most badly neglected directors of the German pre-war cinema. This is probably caused by the fact that he received the status of an 'Ehrenarier' during the Third Reich.

Schünzel gave valuable impulses for the German cinema. He was successful as an actor as well as a director, writer and producer. Already in 1918 he directed his first film.

Schünzel developed into a crowd-puller in the sound film era with comedies like Saison in Kairo/Cairo Season (1933), Viktor und Viktoria (1933) and Die englische Heirat/The English Marriage (1934), all starring Renate Müller.

Viktor und Viktoria (1933) with Müller as a female vaudeville artist dressing up as a man, was the highlight. It is even wittier than the famous Julie Andrewsversion, Victor Victoria (Blake Andrews, 1981).

But work became more and more difficult for Schünzel because of the Third Reich, and as a half-Jew he depended on a work permit for each further film. His success protected him, and in 1935 he shot the most successful film of the year - Amphytrion starring Willy Fritsch.

But already in 1937 there were so many interventions in his films that he left the country for the USA directly after finishing Land der Liebe/Land of Love (1937).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7874/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Saison in Kairo/Cairo Season (Reinhold Schünze, 1933l), starring Renate Müller and Willy Fritsch.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/3. Photo: Ufa. Still from Saison in Kairo/Cairo Season (1933).

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 455. Photo: publicity still for the musical comedy Saison in Cairo/Season in Cairo (Reinhold Schünzel, 1933).

Willy Fritsch, Renate Müller in Walzerkrieg

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 192/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Walzerkrieg/Waltz Time in Vienna (Ludwig Berger, 1933) with Willy Fritsch. Collection: Egbert Barten.

The True Circumstances

With the rise of the Nazi Party, Renate Müller came to be regarded as an ideal Aryan woman and particularly in the light of Marlene Dietrich's move to Hollywood, she was courted and promoted as Germany's leading film actress.

According to Wikipedia, a meeting with Adolf Hitler resulted in Müller being offered parts in films that promoted Nazi ideals.

After a breakdown in 1933, she had to stop filming in 1934 because of a serious disease, probably epilepsy. Afterwards she only did sporadic performances. Wikipedia notes that she was also known to have been pressured to end a relationship with her Jewish lover, but had refused.

Hans J. Wollstein writes at AllMovie that she finally gave in to the pressure of the Nazis, starring in the blatantly anti-Semitic Togger (1937). The situation made her a nervous wreck and in October 1937 she checked into a clinic, ostensibly for treatment of a knee injury. She never returned.

When she suddenly died on 10 October 1937, the German press stated the cause as epilepsy, but witnesses recalled seeing several Gestapo officers entering her building shortly before she died.

Her death proved a public relations disaster for the regime in general and for propaganda minister Goebbels in particular. To counteract the public's negative reactions, the ministry of propaganda spread rumors that she had become addicted to morphine, that she was an alcoholic and mentally disturbed.

Her life story later was filmed as Liebling der Götter/Darling of the Gods (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1960), with Ruth Leuwerikplaying Renate.

According to the British TV documentary Sex and the Swastika (2009), Renate jumped from a window in the Berlin mental home. Wikipedia states that it has been asserted she was either murdered by Gestapo officers who threw her from a window, or that she panicked when she saw them arrive and jumped. The true circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear.

Dutch postcard, for the Dutch release of Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Walzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933). Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8112/3, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8113/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

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

Renate Müller sings Today I Feel so happy in Sunshine Susie (1932). Source: Alparfan (YouTube).

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Brunette French film actress Andréa Parisy (1935-2014) died on 27 April 2014. She was best known as the leading lady opposite Louis de Funès in such comedies as Bébés à gogo/Babes a GoGo (Paul Mesnier, 1956), La grande vadrouille/Don't Look Now, We've Been Shot At (Gérard Oury, 1966) and Le Petit Baigneur/The Little Bather (Robert Dhéry, 1968), but she also appeared in the historical drama Mayerling (Terence Young, 1968), in which she played Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. Andréa Parisy was 78.

French postcard by Editions P.I., presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 961. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 736. Photo: Sam Lévin.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 114/70. Photo: Unifrance.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verlag. Photo: publicity still for Le Petit Baigneur/The Little Bather (Robert Dhéry, 1968) with Louis de Funès.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.