European Film Star Postcards

Austrian film actor Alphons Fryland (1888-1953) appeared in 47 Austrian and German films between 1921 and 1933. Sound film finished his career.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1771/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1221/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Lambeck, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1603/1,1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Comet-like Career

Alphons (or Alfons) Fryland was born as Alphons Fritsch in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), in 1888.

He attended the Exportakademie Wien. From 1914 on he studied music in Graz, München and Paris. He then followed acting classes from Karl Peppler, but during World War I he had to serve in the army.

In 1919, he was engaged by director Fritz Freisler as the leading actor of the film Jagd nach dem Glück/Hunt For Happiness (Fritz Freisler, 1920), produced by Sascha-Film.

He then made a comet-like career in the Austrian and German cinema. In 1921 Fryland starred in four films opposite Hungarian star Lucy Doraine. All four were directed by Doraine's husband Mihály Kertész later better known as Michael Curtiz: Labyrinth des Grauens/Labyrinth of Horror (1921) in which he played a serial killer, Frau Dorothys Bekenntnis/Mrs. Dane's Confession (1921), Herzogin Satanella/Good and Evil (1921) and Mrs. Tutti Frutti (1921).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1564/1, 1927-1928.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 616. Photo: Verleih B. Weil & Co.

Italian postcard by Ed. Romeo Biagi, Bologna, no. 666. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1925).

Alphons Fryland and Lilian Hall-Davis in Quo vadis? (1924)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 699/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Filmhaus Bruckmann. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1925) with Alphons Fryland and Lilian Hall-Davis.

Super Production

Alphons Fryland played both leads and supporting roles in many German and Austrian films of the 1920s and he became quite popular.

His co-star in these silent films was often Liane Haid in such films as the blockbuster Lucrezia Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (Richard Oswald, 1922), and Ich liebe dich/I Love You (Paul L. Stein, 1925).

Among his other popular films were Kean (Rudolf Biebrach, 1921) starring Alexander Moissi, Zwischen Abend und Morgen/Between Evening and Morning (Arthur Robison, 1923) with Werner Krauss, and Arabella (Karl Grune, 1924) with Mae Marsh.

A super production was the German-Italian epic Quo Vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1925) based on the novel by Nobel prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz. Fryland played the rather fey hero Vinicius, and he was completely overwhelmed by the other star, the great Emil Jannings as the infamous emperor Nero.

Another big production was Das schicksal derer von Habsburg/The Desiny of the Habsburgs (1928) a dramatic account of the Austrian royal family at the turn of the 20th century. Fryland starred as Sissi's son, Crown Prince Rudolf who committed suicide toggether with his young - and pregnant - mistress, the beautiful baroness Marie Vetsera. He was surrounded by an all-star cast including Erna Morena as empress Sissi, Maly Delschaft as Rudolph's wife, the Belgium's princess Stéphanie and Leni Riefenstahl as Vetsera.

Towards the end of the 1920s his career slowly went into decline. The sound revolution finished his career.

He appeared only in a few sound films: the mountain drama Der Bergführer von Zakopane/The Mountain Guide of Zakopane (Domenico Gambino, Adolf Trotz, 1931), and Die Nacht der Entscheidung/The Night of the Decision (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1931) with Conrad Veidt.

In 1932 he became a NSDAP party member, and he claimed to be discriminated for film parts by the Jewish producer Alfred Zeisler. It didn't help to further his career. He made one last film, Johannisnacht/Midsummer Night (Willy Reiber, 1933) starring Lil Dagover.

After these uninteresting roles, he retired and returned to Graz. There he called himself Alphons Fritsch again. He worked as a consultant at the administrative district office.

Forgotten, Alphons Fryland died in Graz, Austria in 1953, aged 65.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1771/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 751/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Roma.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos - German), Philippe Pelletier (CinéArtistes - French), Nicole Gagne (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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

German promotion card by Polydor, no. 49.

German promotion card by Polydor.

Eyes Covered by Snow

Karel Gott was born in 1939 in Pilsen, at that time Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now Plzeň, Czech Republic, and has lived in Prague since age 6. He initially wanted to study art, but failed the exams at the School of Industrial Art, upon which he began training as an electrician.

On completing his studies, he began working as an electrician, but was soon fascinated by the new types of music flooding the city, and became interested in jazz. He experimented with playing the bass and the guitar, but eventually decided to focus on singing, studying it privately.

In 1958, he participated in the amateur singing contest Looking for New Talent in the Prague Slavonic House. He utterly failed to impress the judges, but soon made a name for himself in Prague jazz circles, finally getting his first engagement at the Vltava Prague Cafe that same year.

In 1960, he decided to undertake singing professionally. He studied opera at the Prague Conservatory under Konstantin Karenin, a student of the brilliant Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin. Knowing of Gott's interest in current musical trends, Karenin instructed him not only in classical Italian pieces, but also in the hits of the day. It was at this time that Gott travelled abroad (to Poland) for the first time with the Jazz Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Broadcast, conducted by Karel Krautgartner.

In 1962 or 1963 (the sources differ), Gott released his first single, Až nám bude dvakrát tolik (When we are twice as old), a duet with jazz singer Vlasta Průchová. Gott was voted into the Zlatý slavík (Golden Nightingale) viewer's survey, placing 49th and receiving a total of three votes.

His first solo single, Mesicni reka, the Czech version of Moon River became his breakthrough hit in 1962. In 1963 Gott was offered a place at the recently founded Prague Semafor theatre, which was then at the forefront of the emerging Czechoslovakian pop music scene. He released Oči sněhem zaváté (Eyes Covered by Snow), which became the year's best-selling record. Shortly afterwards, Gott received the first of his Zlatý slavík awards, given to the most popular artist of the year.

German promotion card by Polydor.

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg, no. 4909. Photo: Polydor / Hoffmann.

Maya the Honey Bee

In 1965, Karel Gott was a major star, appearing in the programs Pilgrimage for Two and Evening Prayer while building his own repertoire with his own orchestra. That year, he made his first film appearance in the musical Kdyby tisíc klarinetu/If a Thousand Clarinets (Ján Rohác, Vladimír Svitácek, 1965) with Jana Brejchová.

He also established the Apollo theatre, along with two brothers who were with him in Semafor: Jiří and Ladislav Štaidl. He began composing his own songs, and toured Czechoslovakia and abroad with the Apollo theatre.

His first album, Karel Gott Sings got great acclaim. This first album was followed by an English export album titled The Golden Voice of Prague. In 1967, Gott performed at MIDEM, the International Fair of Record Companies and Music Producers in Cannes, France, where the applause was measured during every concert. He surprised everyone by achieving a level of 54 to Tom Jones' 58.

Following this event, Gott signed a contract with the Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft record company, renewing it several times until it became a life contract in 1997. Between 1967 and 2000, Polydor released over 125 albums and 72 singles for Karel Gott in German speaking countries in Europe.

Films in which he appeared were Mucedníci lásky/Martyrs of Love (Jan Nemec, 1967) with British director Lindsay Anderson, and the German comedy Charley's Onkel/Charley’s Uncle (Werner Jacobs, 1969) featuring Gustav Knuth.

Gott represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song Tausend Fenster, written by Udo Jürgens. He finished in 13th place. In the same year, Gott spent six months performing daily at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In the 1970s, domestic success was marked by Gott's presence on television, including the filming of a ten-part serial entitled Karel Gott in Slany. In 1971, after deciding not to return from a concert tour in West Germany to his home country, he was addressed a personal letter from the Czechoslovak party leader Gustav Husak persuading him to change his mind.

One of his most best-known pop hits was the title music to the Japanese anime series Maya the Honey Bee (1975). The original theme was composed by Karel Svoboda and sung by Karel Gott in the German, Czech and Slovak versions. In 1975 he also played the lead in the film musical Hvezda pada vzhuru/A Star Is Falling Upwards (Ladislav Rychman, 1975).

Karel Gott recorded a cover version of the song All by Myself called Kam tenkrát šel můj bratr Jan (Where Did My Brother Jan Go This Time). The song was dedicated to Jan Palach who set himself on fire and burned to death as a protest against Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in January 1969. According to Wikipedia, the song was recorded in 1977 while Soviet troops were still present in the country. In order to continue in his career, he had to sign in 1977 the so-called ‘Anti-charter’, a petition organized by the Communist government against the Charter 77 signed by Václav Havel and other dissidents, protesting the government's violations of the Helsinki Accords.

East-German postcard by Bild und Heimat, Reichenbach, no. G 6776, 1976. Photo: Leher, Berlin.

East-German postcard by Progress, Berlin, no. 33/76, 1976. Photo: publicity still for Hvezda pada vzhuru/A Star Is Falling Upwards (Ladislav Rychman, 1975) with Zuzana Kocúrlková.

East-German postcard by Progress, Berlin, no. 41/76, 1976. Photo: publicity still for Hvezda pada vzhuru/A Star Is Falling Upwards (Ladislav Rychman, 1975) with Zuzana Kocúrlková.

His second great love

The 1980s were marked for Karel Gott by international success, including the filming in Italy of the musical In the Track of Bel Canto (1981), with a corresponding German-Italian album and duet performance with Sofia Rotaru in the Soviet Union. The following years, Gott received many awards, including The Supraphon Diamond Record Award, given him in 1992, for having sold 13 million records.

In 1990, he decided to end his career and arranged a huge farewell tour. However, the tour was so successful that he re-evaluated his decision. The 1990s were influenced by fundamental changes in the political system of the country, which were reflected in popular music, but it did not threaten his permanent position in the limelight of the domestic music scene. In 1991 a new television survey was created called TýTý. Karel Gott gained the first victory and at the same time became the outright winner of the survey.

In 1993, he established his own artistic agency, GOJA, with František Janeček. It is this agency that currently produces Gott's records and organizes his artistic activities. In 1996, following renewed public interest in his career, Gott again won 'The Golden Nightingale Award' with a huge lead over his rivals, and has retained the accolade many times since then.

Gott remains popular in a number of countries, including those of the former Soviet Union, where his first record, produced by Melodiya in 1977, sold a staggering 4.5 million copies. In 2000, he had his first concert in Carnegie Hall, New York.

During the 1990s, Gott began to focus increasingly on painting, his second great love. The first exhibition of his paintings took place in 1992, at the Prague Christ Child Gallery. He has since exhibited his work successfully in Berlin, Moscow, Munich, Cologne, Vienna, and Bratislava.

In 2001, he played the double role of Lucifer and God in the family comedy Z pekla stestí 2/Goblins and Good Luck 2 (Zdenek Troska, 2001). He also acts regularly in TV series.

Gott has two adult daughters (Dominika and Lucie) from former relationships (they have different mothers). He is also the father to Charlotte Ella with Ivana Macháčková whom he married on in 2008 in Las Vegas, the city where he started his international career. Their second daughter, Nelly Sofie, was born in summer 2008.

Compilation of early TV performances by Karel Gott. Source: Hit That Button (YouTube).

Karel Gott sings Kam tenkrát šel můj bratr Jan. Source: Benetomm (YouTube).

Sources: Jan Adam (KarelGott.com), Zuzana Drotárová (Gott.cz), Steve Leggett (AllMusic), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Long-necked, doe-eyed Geneviève Page (1927) starred in French, Italian, British and American films during a career spanning fifty years. The French actress often played glamorous roles in costume pictures as a delectable heroine who meets an untimely demise.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 281. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 330. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Fanfan la Tulipe

Geneviève Page was born Geneviève Bonjean in Paris, France in 1927. Her father was Jacques Paul Bonjean, a well known French art-collector.

Her film début was in the murder mystery Pas de pitié pour les femmes/No Pity for Women (Christian Stengel, 1951) starring Simone Renant (AllMovie mentions the documentary Ce Siecle A Cinquante Ans/This Is the Half Century (Denise Tua, 1949) as her first film appearance).

It was followed by the comedy adventure film Fanfan la Tulipe (Christian-Jaque, 1952) in which she played Madame de Pompadour, alongside Gérard Philipe and Gina Lollobrigida. This swashbuckler was an enormous popular success and in 1952, it won both the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Since then, Page has appeared in French, Italian, British and American films. In Great-Britain, she appeared opposite David Niven in the romantic comedy The Silken Affair (Roy Kellino, 1956). Opposite Robert Mitchum she played in the American thriller Foreign Intrigue (Sheldon Reynolds, 1956).

In France she co-starred with Jean Marais in the comic fantasy Amour de poche/Girl in His Pocket (Pierre Kast, 1957) and in the spy parody L'honorable Stanislas, agent secret/How to Be a Spy Without Even Trying (Jean-Charles Dudrumet, 1963).

In Hollywood, she co-starred in the biographical film romance Song Without End a.k.a. The Story of Franz Liszt (1960) produced by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and he was replaced by George Cukor. The film starred Dirk Bogarde as Franz Liszt, Capucine as Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, and Page as Marie d'Agoult. The film won the Best Music score Academy Award for Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Musical).

Next, she appeared for Samuel Bronston Productions in the historical epic El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961), a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight ‘El Cid’ (Charlton Heston), who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 129/69. Photo: publicity still for El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961).

Jean Marais & Geneviève Page in L'honorable Stanislas, l'agent secret

German postcard by Progress-Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2416.Photo: publicity still of Jean Marais and Geneviève Page in the film Der ehrenwerte Stanislas/L'honorable Stanislas, l'agent secret (Jean-Charles Dudrumet, 1963).

Belle de Jour

Geneviève Page was a member of the international cast of the American action film Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966) with James Garner, Eva Marie Saint and Yves Montand. One of the ten highest grossing films of 1966, Grand Prix won three Academy Awards for its technical achievements.

One of her most famous films is Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967). She played Madame Anais, who runs the high-class brothel, where Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) goes to work.

Page appeared with Deneuve again when she played Countess Larisch in the romantic tragedy Mayerling (Terence Young, 1968). Billy Wilder cast her as the mysterious villain in his The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) with Robert Stephens as Sherlock Holmes.

In France, she had a small part in the black comedy Buffet Froid (Bertrand Blier, 1979) with Gérard Dépardieu, and a bigger part in the thriller Mortelle Randonnée/Deadly Circuit (Claude Miller, 1983) with Isabelle Adjani as a serial killer and Michel Serrault as the detective who is on her trail. The film had a total of 916,868 admissions in France.

In the US, she appeared in Robert Altman's Beyond Therapy (1987) with Jeff Goldblum and in Altman’s segment of the anthology film Aria (1987). In Italy she starred in the drama Cartoline italiane/Italian Postcards (Memè Perlini, 1987).

Besides her film career, Geneviève Page had a long and distinguished career on stage. She was the winner of the 1980 Prix de la meilleure comédienne du syndicat de la critique (Best Actress award of the critics association) for her role in Les Larmes amères de Petra von Kant (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) at the Théâtre national de Chaillot in Paris, and in 1996, she was nominated for the Molière Award (the French equivalent of the Tony Award) for her role in Colombe. She continued to act until 2003.

Geneviève Page has been married to Jean-Claude Bujard, a corporate director, since 1959 and they have two children.

Yugoslavian postcard by ZK, no. 2190. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Yugoslavian postcard by IOM, Beograd. Photo: Sedmo Silo.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

German actor Walter Rilla (1894-1980) began his career in silent films, and appeared in over 130 films between 1922 and 1977. In 1933 he took his family and fled the Nazi regime. In London he played vile, foreign-tongued villains in spy films. He returned to Germany in the 1950s and wrote and directed for TV.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5107.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 967, 1927-1928. Photo: Mondial / National.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1241/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Rischke & Marby.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1750/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

One of the Most Important German Character Actors

Walter Rilla was born Walter Wilhelm Karl Ernst Rilla in Neunkirchen (near Saarbrücken), Germany, in 1894. He was the son of railway engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Rilla and his wife Caroline, née Gründer.

Rilla visited the Fridericianum school in Königsberg and the University of Königsberg. He studied literature, art history and philosophy in Königsberg, Breslau, Lausanne and Berlin. He worked as a journalist for the Neuesten Breslauer Nachrichten (the Latest Breslau News).

In 1919 he founded the literary journal Erde (Earth). At the time, he was involved with the Communist Party and, when established with the leftish KAPD party. From 1920 on, he worked as a story editor for the Berliner Theater.

He made his film debut with a small role as the death angel in the Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation Hanneles Himmelfahrt/Hannele's Ascension (Urban Gad, 1922). Soon Rilla became one of the most important German character actors and worked with such other prominent directors as Victor Janson, Max Mack, and Reinhold Schünzel.

In 1924 he appeared in one of F. W. Murnau's rare attempts at comedy, the hilarious Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs/The Finances of the Grand Duke (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1924) starring Alfred Abel. A year later he starred opposite Jane Novak in the German-British coproduction Die Prinzessin und der Geiger/The Blackguard (Graham Cutts, 1925) written by the then 26 years-old Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1926 Rilla starred opposite Elisabeth Bergner and Conrad Veidt in Der Geigenspieler von Florenz/Impetuous Youth (Paul Czinner, 1926), and two years later he costarred with Carmen Boni and Marlene Dietrich in Prinzessin Olala/Art of Love (Robert Land, 1928).

He made an easy transition into sound film. He played for example Baron Hans von Velten in Namensheirat/Marriage in Name Only (Heinz Paul, 1930), Robert in Männer um Lucie/Men Around Lucie (Alexander Korda, 1931) with Liane Haid, and Lord Windermere in Lady Windermeres Fächer/Lady Windermere's Fan (Heinz Hilpert, 1935).

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5351. Photo: Gaumont-Film. With Carmen Boni.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1520/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Aafa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3083/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Phoebus Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3083/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Wulson, Berlin.

Escaping the Rising Power of Hitler

In 1933 Walter Rilla moved with his family to London to escape the rising power of Adolph Hitler. His wife was Jewish and he refused to separate from her.

He had no trouble establishing himself in British films after 1933. He started out in the hits The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1934) featuring Leslie Howard, and Abdul the Damned (Karl Grune, 1935) with Fritz Kortner.

Rilla only appeared in character parts, but he did work with respected directors like Robert Siodmak and Herbert Wilcox on successful British and French productions. He was seen for example as Prince Ernst in the Wilcox staged historical drama Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937) with Anna Neagle, and a year later, again in that role in the sequel, Sixty Glorious Years/Queen of Destiny (Herbert Wilcox, 1938). Other films were the adventure Hell's Cargo/Dangerous Cargo (Harold Huth, 1939), and the romance Black Eyes/False Rapture (Herbert Brenon, 1939).

In 1940 he became a British citizen. During the war years Rilla specialized in sinister foreigners — and, of course, Nazis - in such war films as The Adventures of Tartu/Sabotage Agent (Harold S. Buquet, 1943) starring Robert Donat and Valerie Hobson, and Candlelight in Algeria (George King, 1944) starring James Mason.

Aside from acting, Walter Rilla worked in the UK as a producer and screenwriter, and as an author of radio plays for the BBC. He also published some novels. After the war, Rilla continued his evil film ways in a progression of appearances as sultans, megalomaniacs and corporate villains. Probably the most interesting of these films is the thriller Desperate Moment (Compton Bennett, 1953) starring Dirk Bogarde as a man who tries to clear himself of murder in post-war Germany. Rilla directed one film himself, Behold the Man! (1951).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3714/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5761/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard. Photo: Cicero Film / Distribution Deutsche Tonfilme.
The 'fine fleur' of late silent German cinema stars, united for a photo for an early sound film company. Standing left to right: Francis/Franz Lederer, Walter Rilla, Theodor Loos, Camilla Horn, Fritz Rasp and Walter Janssen, Sitting left to right: Paul Heidemann, Charlotte Susa, Betty Amann, Olga Tschechowa, Maria Paudler and Jack Trevor. The postcard was possibly promotion for the early sound comedy Die grosse Sehnsucht/The Great Longing (Stefan Szekely/Steve Sekely, 1930), in which all acted, mostly as themselves - only Loos and Horn played characters. The plot was an excuse for 35 stars to debut in a talking picture.

Back in Germany

In 1957 Walter Rilla returned to Germany. There he had his first role in the Thomas Mann adaptation Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull/Confessions of Felix Krull (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957) alongside Horst Buchholz.

He followed this hit with a role in an equally popular film, Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958) starring Romy Schneider. He then played in the last Mario Lanza vehicle, For the First Time (Rudolph Maté, 1959).

Rilla appeared in the Edgar Wallace film adaptations Der Fälscher von London/The Forger Of London (Harald Reinl, 1960) and Zimmer 13/Room 13 (Harald Reinl, 1964) with Karin Dor. He also appeared as Dr. Mabuse in Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse/The Terror of Doctor Mabuse (1962) opposite Gert Fröbe, and Dr. Mabuse and Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard (Paul May, 1963) opposite Peter van Eyck.

In addition, Rilla was a writer, screenwriter, producer, and director of several stage and TV productions, and he worked as a television actor. From 1957 on he had an engagement at the Kleine Komödie in München (Munich). In 1966 he was awarded the Filmband in Gold for his work in German cinema.

Later films include the spaghetti western I giorni dell'ira/Gunlaw (Tonino Valerii, 1967) starring Lee van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, the cult thriller Der Teufel kam aus Akasava/The Devil Came from Akasava (Jesus Franco, 1971) with Fred Williams and Soledad Miranda, and the interesting surrealistic horror film Malpertuis/The Legend of Doom House (Harry Kümel, 1971) with Mathieu Carrière and Orson Welles.

He made his last screen appearance in the Thomas Mann adaptation Unordnung und frühes Leid/Disorder and Early Torment (Frans Seitz, 1977) with Ruth Leuwerik and Martin Held.

Walter Rilla died in 1980 in Rosenheim, Germany. He had been married twice. First he married Theresa Klausner, who died in 1948. They had a son, prominent British-based film screenwriter and director Wolf Rilla (1920-2005). Since 1959, Walter Rilla was married to the French writer Alix Degrelle-Hirth du Frênes.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6857/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8378/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin. Publicity still for Der Springer von Pontresina/The Champion of Pontresina (Herbert Selpin, 1934).

Trailer of Zimmer 13/Room 13 (1964). Source: R6dw6C (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Today's film special is about one of the biggest box office successes of the Weimar Republic, the witty and enjoyable musical comedy Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932). It featured the German dream couple of the 1930s, Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, and Viennese actor-director Willi Forst.

Willi Forst, Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6983/1. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey, Willi Forst and Willy Fritsch in the musical comedy Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6980/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6980/2. Photo: Ufa. Photo Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6982/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Willi Forst and Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6984/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Blitz-Blank

Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After is situated in Berlin, during the Depression of the early 1930s. Two window cleaners of the Blitz-Blank company, Willy I and Willy II (Willi Forst and Willy Fritsch), pedal with ladder and washing utensils crisscross through the city, from job to job, from house to house.

One day the blonde Jou-Jou (Lilian Harvey) enters their lives. They see her through the window of the American Consulate General. When Jou-Jou is about to be thrown out of the house by the rough porter, the two friends show their chivalrous side.

Jou-Jou, who earned her living as a projectile in a traveling circus, dreams of a film career in America. A certain Mr. Merryman, allegedly a major Hollywood mogul, has once promised her a career in the movies - against payment of a fee of $ 25.

The two Willy's want to help the girl. They decide to take care of her and help her achieve success.

The two lifelong friends take her home with them, so she and her shaggy mutt, called Buffalo, get a roof over their heads. Both window cleaners live poor but happily in cranky railway wagons in the middle of the meadow, far from the gates of the city.

Inevitably, both Willy I and Willy II fall in love with 'the blonde dream' and their friendship will be tested.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7029/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7029/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7030/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7032/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7035/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Evergreens

Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After was directed by the Hungarian-born Paul Martin. It was his first sole directorial effort. Lilian Harvey, who was his partner, had promoted the quite inexperienced young director at the Ufa offices. The screenplay was written by Walter Reisch and the young Billy Wilder.

Werner Richard Heymann composed with music by Gérard Jacobson the songs Wir zahlen keine Miete mehr, wir sind im Grünen zuhaus (We no longer pay rent, we are at home in the countryside) and Irgendwo auf der Welt gibt's ein kleines bißchen Gluck (Somewhere in the world there's a little bit of luck). Both songs became evergreens. Heymann went on to have a career composing film scores in Hollywood after the Nazi takeover in Germany.

When the film went in premiere in Berlin, on 23 September 1932, the censors banned it for the youth, but a month later, on 27 October 1932, the ban was lifted again and the film was released for the youth. Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After became one of the biggest box office successes in the late phase of the Weimar Republic.

Simultaneously with the German version, there were two alternate language versions in French and English produced. In both versions Harvey repeated her part. The French version was called Un Rêve blond and had Henri Garat in the Fritsch role and Pierre Brasseur in the Forst role. The British version was entitled Happy Ever After, the two Willys were played by Jack Hulbertand Sonnie Hale.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7036/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7050/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7135/1. Photo: Ufa. Photo Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7141/1. Photo: Ufa. Photo Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7191/1. Photo: Ufa. Photo Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Lilian Harvey in Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932).

An amusing and innovative daydream

One of the highlights in the film is an amusing and innovative daydream sequence in which Jou-Jou (Lilian Harvey) dreams that she and her two gallants run in a train out of the city of Berlin under the Atlantic Ocean to NYC and across to Hollywood.

Upon their arrival in New York City, even the Statue of Liberty beckons them. In Hollywood, however, everybody only makes fun of her. Then Jou-Jou wakes up with the words 'Now I have dreamed'.

Six months later, in January 1933, Lilian Harvey actually arrived in Hollywood. Though she starred in a few films for Fox, Harvey was unable to make it in the USA and she returned to Germany.

Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/1. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/3. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, Willi Forst, Ein blonder Traum

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/5. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey and Paul Hörbiger in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum (1932)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/6 Photo: Ufa. Willi Forst, Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Slim and handsome singer Rudolf Schock (1915–1986) was a lyrical tenor with a wide repertory from operetta to Lieder to Richard Wagner’s romantic opera Lohengrin. He sold over 3 million records and his German films made him almost a superstar of his day.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf. no. 2080. Photo: Wega / Herzog-Film / Marszalek.

Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3409.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3803. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Astra / Herzog Film.

That Italian 'Tear’ In His Voice

Rudolf Johann Schock was born in 1915 in Duisburg, Germany. In his hometown he made his first stage appearance in 1934 in the Opernchor (Opera Choir). In the 1930s he sang in opera choirs in Duisburg, Bayreuth, and Braunschweig.

Schock had his breakthough in 1944 in Don Pasquale at the Staatsoper in Berlin. In the following years he appeared in a.o. Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La Traviata, Der Rosenkavalier, and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

Blessed with a mezza-voice that rivaled Beniamino Gigli in sweetness, he had that Italian ‘tear’ in his voice. His voice had an unique recognizable sound. He was one of the first Germans to sing at Covent Garden in 1949. He also made records and performed on the radio.

His first film appearance was in the comedy Es geht nicht ohne Gisela/Without Gisela it does not work (Hans Deppe, 1951).

In 1952 he was offered the lead in the Richard Tauberbiography Du bist die Welt für mich/You Are the World for Me (Ernst Marischka, 1953). It made him an instant film star.

A dozen film operettas followed, including Der Fröhliche Wanderer/The Happy Wanderer (Hans Quest, 1955) with Elma Karlowa, Der Czardas-König/The Csardas Princess (Harald Philipp, 1958), and Das Dreimäderlhaus/Lilac Time (Ernst Marischka, 1958) with Karlheinz Böhm.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1858. Photo: Wesel / Berolina / Herzog Film.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (Dutch licency holder of Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 1174. Photo: Ufa / Film-Foto.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf. no. 1638. Photo: Berolina / Herzog-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Der fröhliche Wanderer/The Happy Wanderer (Hans Quest, 1955).

Heldentenor or Spinto Tenor?

Rudolf Schock's most impressive stage performances include the roles of Paul in Die Tote Stadt (Korngold), and multiple Puccini principles.

Wikipedia mentions that his voice fell almost ideally into the heldentenor fach, but Schock explored roles slanted more towards a spinto tenor with effectiveness. Colored distinctly with a rich baritonal quality, Schock's instrument demonstrates impressive flexibility in range and a heroic ring even in its upper reaches.

Schock appeared in many TV adaptations of operettas. A highlight was Der Zigeunerbaron, under the musical direction of Robert Stolz.

Schock also appeared in many shows that were designed especially for him.

Rudolf Schock died in 1986 in Düren-Gürzenich by a heart failure. He was married to ballet dancer Gisela Behrends with whom he had two daughters, Isolde and Dagmar.

German card by Eurodisc. Photo: Grimm.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 267. Photo: Melodie-Film / Herzog-Film / Grimm (Arthur Grimm).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3656. Photo: Ufa.

Rudolf Schock sings Schenk mir dein Herz, Lucia (Give Me Your Heart, Lucia) in the film Stimme der Sehsucht/Voice of Longing (Thomas Engel, 1956). Source: fritz51289 (YouTube).

Sources: Fred Bredschneyder (Dutch), Rudolf Schock tribute site (Dutch/German), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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

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

The Man without a Body

Nadja Regin was born as Nadezda Poderegin in Niš, Serbia in 1931. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and also the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy.

Her acting career began during her student years with small parts in Yugoslavian films like Prica o fabrici/The Factory Story (Vladimir Pogacic, 1949). She also appeared in the first film ever made in Macedonia, Frosina (Vojislav Nanovic, 1952) with Meri Boskova.

Her career expanded through such Yugoslav-German co-productions as Das Haus an der Küste/The House on the Coast (Bosko Kosanovic, 1954) with René Deltgen, to Germany.

There she played supporting parts in films like the drama Roman eines Frauenarztes/Novel of a woman doctor (Falk Harnack, 1954) with Rudolf Prack, and the romance Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska!/Goodbye, Franziska (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1957) starring Ruth Leuwerik and Carlos Thompson.

Later, she moved to England, where she appeared in the horror film The Man without a Body (Charles Saunders, W. Lee Wilder, 1957). A scientist resuscitates the head of 16th-century seer Nostradamus by transplanting it onto the body of a man suffering from a brain tumour. He does it for the benefit of an avaricious financier who wants the prophet to give him the power of prediction in business...

In Don't Panic Chaps! (George Pollock, 1959), a British comedy set in WW II, she played an attractive young woman who set some forgotten soldiers on an Adriatic island back into a competitive, hostile attitude.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2588. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Constantin. Publicity stll for Die Unschuld vom Lande/The babe in the woods (Rudolf Schündler, 1957).

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1262. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Gloria.

Two James Bond films

Nadja Regin played the female lead in the thriller The Fur Collar (Lawrence Huntington, 1962) about an espionage ring.

She then acted in two James Bond films featuring Sean Connery. In the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963), she was the lonely mistress of Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz).

She also appeared in a smaller but still notable appearance in the pre-credit sequence of the next James Bond film, Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

Her TV roles included The Invisible man (Peter Maxwell, 1959), Danger Man (1961-1964) featuring Patrick McGoohan, Maigret (1961) starring Rupert Davies, The Avengers (1961), The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1962-1964), The Third Man (1965), and The Saint (1967) with Roger Moore.

Notable was also her role in the New Zealand thriller Runaway/Runaway Killer (John O’Shea, 1964) with Colin Broadley and Kiri Te Kanawa. It was the first locally produced New Zealand film in 12 years.

In Austria she appeared in the TV series Donaug'schichten/Stories of the Danube (1966) with Willy Millowitsch and Christiane Hörbiger.

At the end of the 1960s her film acting career halted. In the 1970s she moved to Australia. Her work included reading and selecting film scripts for production by film companies including Rank Films and Hammer Films.

In 1980, she and her sister Jelena formed Honeyglen Publishing Ltd, a small publishing company, specializing in philosophy of history, belles lettres, biography and some fiction.

Nadja Regin now devotes her time to writing and has written a novel, The Victims and the Fools, a children's story, The Puppet Planet, and has begun working on her memoirs.

Trailer From Russia with Love (1963). Source: 86BillieJean (YouTube).

Official trailer Goldfinger (1964). Source: MOVIECLIPS Classic Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Austrian actress Inge Egger (1923–1976) starred as the simple, modest and charming girl in dozens of West-German entertainment films of the 1950s. She is best known as the singer of the all-girl band in the comedy Fanfaren der Liebe/Fanfares of Love (Kurt Hoffmann, 1951), which became the basis for Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959). Only a few years later, illness, personal problems and negative media coverage caused Egger to retire from show business.

German collectors card. Photo: Struve-Film / Constantin / Lantin.

German autograph card.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 530. Photo: Struwe-Film / Constantin / Lantin.

The Alpine Violets

Ingeborg Gertrud Josefine Egger was born in Linz, Austria, in 1923, as the daughter of a merchant. She studied acting at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna.

Her film debut was in the German-Austrian production Schrammeln (Géza von Bolváry, 1944). The film about a 19th century Vienna folk music quartet starred Marte Harell, Hans Holt, Paul Hörbiger and Hans Moser.

After that she signed a contract for six years with the Theater in der Josefstadt, where she acted in plays by Marcel Pagnol, and Friedrich Schiller. In 1949, she went on an extensive tour through Germany with Paula Wessely in the drama The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen.

A glandular disease caused her to be thick, so she could not work on screen for some years.

Her breakthrough in the cinema came with her leading role in the box office hit Fanfaren der Liebe/Fanfares of Love (Kurt Hoffmann, 1951). In this comedy Dieter Borsche and Georg Thomalla co-starred as two desperate out-of-work musicians who join in drag the Alpine Violets, an all-girl orchestra. The lovely and fresh Egger is the singer of the band.

Timothy Damon at IMDb: “Billy Wilder may have said that he only used the premise of this film and one scene in Some like it hot, but aside from the absence of gangsters in the original and women who seem to catch on a lot quicker to what's going on, I didn't see many dissimilarities.”

Next, Egger and Dieter Borsche also co-starred in Sündige Grenze/Illegal Border (Robert A. Stemmle, 1951), a socio-critical drama about smugglers.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 804. Photo: Central-Europa / Prisma / A. Grimm. Publicity still for Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stambul (Karl Anton, 1953).

German postcard by Schneider Junior, Neunkirchen/Saar, no. 12. Photo: Central-Europa / Prisma / Grimm. Publicity still for Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stambul (Karl Anton, 1953).

Illness, personal problems and a negative media coverage

In the following years, Inge Egger played leads in more than 20 films, including the musical Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stamboul (Karl Anton, 1953) with Albert Lieven, the sequel Fanfaren der Ehe/Fanfares of marriage (Hans Grimm, 1953) again opposite Dieter Borsche and Georg Thomalla, and the drama Die Toteninsel/Isle of the Dead (Viktor Tourjansky, 1955) opposite Willy Birgel.

In the comedy Der Mustergatte/The Model Husband (Erik Ode, 1956), she appeared opposite Harald Juhnke and Theo Lingen. It was a remake of Der Mustergatte/The Model Husband (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937) with Heinz Rühmann, which was itself based on the American play Fair and Warmer by Avery Hopwood.

Egger also starred in musical comedies like Ein Mann muß nicht immer schön sein/A Man Doesn't Always Need to Be Handsome (Hans Quest, 1956) with Peter Alexander and Der Fremdenführer von Lissabon/The guide of Lisbon (Hans Deppe, 1956) starring Vico Torriani.

However, illness, personal problems and a negative media coverage caused her to retire from the film business. Egger went to Berlin in 1956 and there she appeared in stage roles.

In the cinema, she later played only a few supporting parts, such as in the comedy-drama Das kunstseidene Mädchen/The High Life (Julien Duvivier, 1960) featuring Giulietta Masina, and the satire Wir Kellerkinder/We Cellar Children (Hans-Joachim Wiedermann, 1960) starring Wolfgang Neuss and Karin Baal.

From 1960 to 1973 she worked as a medical technician at the Berliner Bundesgesundheitsamt (the Berlin Federal Health Office). Soon the public forgot her.

In 1976, Inge Egger died of cancer in Berlin. She was only 53.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 872. Photo: Grimm.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. H 477. Photo: NDF / Schorcht Film.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2088. Photo: Michaelis / Unicorn Film / NF.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line – German), Rudi Polt (Find A Grave), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

Russian actor Nicolas Rimsky (1886-1941) is most famous for his silent films of the 1920s produced in France. Rimsky also performed in several Russian films in the late 1910s and he also had parts in the French sound cinema of the 1930s.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 318.

Protazanov

Nicolas Rimsky was born in Moscow in 1886.

He started out in Russian cinema in 1916, not only as actor but also as scriptwriter. His first film acting role was in Yastrebinoe gnedzo/The Cloven Tongue (Cheslav Sabinsky, 1916).

This debut was followed by Ledyanoy dom/The House of Ice (Konstantin Eggert, 1916), while he wrote the script for Yakov Protazanov's Zhenschina s kinzhalom/The Woman with the Dagger (Yakov Protazanov, 1916) with Ivan Mozzhukhin.

The next year he played in three films by Protazanov: Otyets Sergei/Father Sergius (Yakov Protazanov, Alexandre Volkoff, 1917), Proktalie millioni/Damned Millions (Yakov Protazanov, 1917), and Andrei Kozhukov (Yakov Protazanov, 1917), again with Ivan Mozzhukhin.

In 1918 he appeared in Khamka (Aleksandr Ivanovsky, 1918), Dnevnik Nelli/The Diary of Nellie (Aleksandr Ivanovsky, 1918), Kaliostro/Cagliostro (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1918), and Taine korolevy/The Secret of a Queen (Yakov Protazanov, 1918) with Nathalie Lissenko.

His last film in Russia was Protazanov's To nadezhda, to revnost spelaya/Jealousy is Blind (Yakov Protazanov, 1919).

With the troupe of Ermoliev, including Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nathalie Lissenko, Nicolas Koline and Yakov Protazanov, Rimsky first moved to Crimea and then to France, where he would have an excellent career during the 1920s.

At Ermoliev's studio in Montreuil, he played roles in L'écheance fatale/The fatal Term (Alexandre Volkov, 1921) and La tourmente/The Storm (Serge Nadejdine, 1921).

1921 was mainly dedicated to the 12-episode serial La fille sauvage/The Wild Girl (Henri Etievant, 1921), opposite Romuald Joubé and Nathalie Lissenko.

Then followed three films by Viktor Tourjansky: Nuit de carnaval/Carnival Night (1922) with Nicolas Koline, Calvaire d'amour/Love Ordeal (1923) with Nathalie Lissenko and Charles Vanel, and the successful comedy Ce cochon de Morin/This Pig of Morin (1923).

For these films Rimsky also wrote the script and the adaptation of the stage play. Also for the next two films in which he acted, Rimsky did the adaptation and scenario as well: L'heureuse mort/Happy Death (Serge Nadejdine, 1924) and La cible/The Target (Serge Nadejdine, 1924).

After his role in La dame masquée/The Masked Lady (Viktor Tourjansky, 1924), Rimsky was ready to become a film director as well. While his roles had been quite diversified in the early 1920s, he would specialize in comedy henceforth because of the success of the comedy Ce cochon de Morin.

French postcard by Cinémagazine Editions, no. 223.

Double Life

Nicolas Rimsky's first direction was the funny comedy Paris en cinq jours/Paris in Five Days (1925), co-directed with Pierre Colombier. Dolly Davis and Rimsky himself played the leading roles, and again he did the adaptation and the script as well.

His next direction, together with Serge Nadejdine and Henry Wulschleger was La nègre blanc/The White Negro (1925), for which he also did adaptation and scenario.

His third and fourth direction were the romantic comedy Jim la Houlette, roi des voleurs/Jim the Cracksman, the King of Thieves (co-directed with Roger Lion, 1926) and Le chasseur de chez Maxim's/Maxim's Porter (1927). In Jim la Houlette, Rimsky is a timid secretary who pretends to be a notorious thief, just to impress the daughter of his employer, a thriller writer. Of course things go wrong.

In Le chasseur de chez Maxim's Rimsky again leads a double life, this time of an ordinary man with a second life in the night time. The story was co-written by Max Linder.

After that, Rimsky returned to acting. He appeared in the French films Minuit... Place Pigalle/Midnight at Place Pigalle (René Hervil, 1928), a rare tragic film, and Parce que je t'aime/Because I Love You (Hewitt Claypoole Grantham-Hayes, 1928).

He also made two German films: Unmoral/Immorality (Willi Wolf, 1928) with Ellen Richter, and the horror film Cagliostro/ (Richard Oswald, 1928) starring Hans Stüwe.

After his last silent role in Trois jeunes filles nues/Three Naked Flappers (Robert Boudrioz, 1929) starring Annabella, Rimsky co-directed with Nicolas Evreinoff his first sound film: the comedy Pas sur la bouche/Not On the Lips (1930). It was also his last film direction.

Until 1939 he would continue to play supporting parts in French films. These films include La voit qui meurt/The Dying Voice (Gennaro Dini, 1932), Nostalgie/The Postmaster's Daughter (Viktor Tourjansky, 1937) starring Harry Baur, Le patriote/The Patriot (Maurice Tourneur, 1938) with Harry Baur and Suzy Prim, and Menaces/Threats (Edmond T. Gréville, 1939) starring Mireille Balin.

Nicolas Rimsky died in 1941 in Marseille, France.

French postcard. Nicolas Rimsky probably in the Albatros producton Calvaire d'amour (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).

Nathalie Lissenko, Nicolas Koline & Nicolas Rimsky in Calvaire d'amour

French postcard, with names written in Russian. The Russian actors Nathalie Lissenko, Nicolas Koline and Nicolas Koline in the Albatros producton Calvaire d'amour (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923).

Sources: François Albéra (Albatros. Des Russes à Paris, 1919-1929 - French), CineArtistes (French) and IMDb.

Beautiful French actress Nathalie Delon (1941) is a former wife of Alain Delon and the mother of Anthony Delon. Her film debut in the classic thriller Le Samouraï (1967) proved also to be the peak of her career.

Spanish postcard by Bergas Industrias Graficas, no. 1081, 1974. Photo: Photo Vedettes ENR, Charlesbourg (Canada).

One of the most beautiful women in the world

Nathalie Delon was born as Francine Canovas in Oujda, French Morocco in 1941. She was the daughter of a French officer. Her young mother moved with her to France, first to Nice and later to Paris.

In 1959 Francine married Guy Barthelemy in French Marocco with whom she had a daughter, Nathalie. She soon returned to France and they divorced in 1963.

Francine started her career as a model and at the time, she was reputedly one of the most beautiful women in the world. In 1962 she had met Alain Delonand in 1964 they married. Their son Anthony Delon, born a month later, would become a well-known film star.

Nathalie’s own cinema career started when French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville asked her to play in his French-Italian crime film Le Samouraï/The Samurai (1967) in which her husband Alain Delon featured as professional hit man Jef Costello.

James Travers at French Films: “Perhaps the most highly regarded and best-known of all French gangster movies is Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï, a stylish noir thriller which gave actor Alain Delon his most iconic screen role and helped to establish the policier as one of the most important genres in French cinema for over a decade.”

Melville's insistence on casting Nathalie as Jef's prostitute mistress resulted in serious ructions between the director and his lead actor - at the time, the couple were in the process of separating and would divorce before the film was released. The film became a box office hit in France, where it attracted over two million spectators and was also a comparable success abroad.

Lucia Bozzola at AllMovie: “Originally released in the U.S. in an edited, dubbed version [as The Godson] meant to capitalize on the popularity of The Godfather (1972), Le samouraï was restored to its original form in the 1990s, although its visual flourishes, procedural flair, and Delon's existential sangfroid had long since infiltrated the international neo-noir lexicon. It directly inspired John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000), among others.“

Two years later Nathalie Delon also had a small part in Melville’s L'armée des ombres/Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969), a film adaptation of a novel by Joseph Kessel. It follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate.

While portraying its characters as heroic, the film presents a bleak, unromantic view of the Resistance. At the time of its initial release in France, Army of Shadows was not well received or widely seen. In the mid-1990s, Cahiers du cinéma published a reappraisal of the film and Melville's work in general, leading to its restoration and re-release in 2006.

In between the two famous Melville classics, Delon also appeared in other interesting films including the dramas La leçon particulière/Tender Moment (Michel Boisrond, 1968) with Renaud Verley, and Le sorelle/The sisters (Roberto Malenotti, 1969) starring Susan Strasberg.

At the time, Nathalie Delon was caught up in a scandal. With husband Alain Delon, she was questioned by the police over the murder of their former Yugoslav bodyguard, Stevan Markovic, with whom she also had had a brief affair. Markovic’s corpse was found in a wood, wrapped in a mattress. Investigators found a letter from Markovic linking the Delons and a Corsican fighter named François Marcantoni. The Markovic affair began to absorb France’s political elite when connections were made with former president Georges Pompidou. In the end, only Marcantoni was convicted. Nathalie and Alain Delon divorced in 1968, but she kept his name. The affair did not hurt their careers.

Small Romanian collectors card. Photo: publicity still for Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

I've Seen That Face Before

Nathalie Delon made her English language debut opposite Anthony Hopkins in the espionage thriller When Eight Bells Toll (Etienne Perier, 1971), set in Scotland and scripted by Alistair MacLean based on his own novel. Producer Elliott Kastner hoped that the film would be the first of a series of spy adventures films featuring MacLean's Philip Calvert character by capturing James Bond series fans after the anticipated demise of that series (Sean Connery was said to quit the Bond series).

When Eight Bells Tolls attracted limited viewers, although it was the 11th most popular film at the British box office in 1971 and Connery returned as Bond n the successful Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971). So the projected Phillip Calvert series was cancelled.

Delon then was one of Bluebeard’s wives in the thriller Bluebeard (Edward Dmytryk, 1972) featuring Richard Burton as a wealthy Austrian Baron and World War I pilot, who murders his wives. During the shooting, she dated Richard Burton then the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. She also had dated Eddie Fisher, Taylor’s former husband.

Delon had a supporting part in the British film The Romantic Englishwoman (Joseph Losey, 1975), starring Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson and Helmut Berger. Also noteworthy is her lead in Peter Whitehead’s final film Fire in the Water (1977) with David Hockney and John Lennon. But her other European films of the 1970s are mediocre.

On TV she did a guest star appearance in an episode of the series Madame le juge/Madame, the judge (Édouard Molinaro, 1978) featuring Simone Signoret.

In 1982, she co-directed and starred in the drama Ils appellent ça un accident/They Call It an Accident (Nathalie Delon, Yves Deschamps, 1982), but it was not a success. The following year, she appeared in the short film Pair-impair (Carole Marquand, 1983). She directed one more film, the French-American romantic comedy Sweet Lies (1988), starring Treat Williams, Joanna Pacula and Julianne Phillips. Again it was not a success. She then retired.

About her later personal life is known that she had a relationship with actor Marc Porel and both suffered a drug addiction. She conquered the habit and went to the US.

There she lived with Chris Blackwell, founder of the Island label and manager of Bob Marley. Delon wrote the French text for Grace Jones megahit I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) (1981), which features on the soundtrack of Frantic (Roman Polanski, 1988).

In 2006, she published the book Pleure pas, c'est pas grave (Do not cry, it does not matter), and twenty years after directing Sweet Lies, she returned to the cinema in the drama Nuit de chien/This Night (Werner Schroeter, 2008) about a group of people try to flee from a dictatorship government.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no 112.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 431.

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Lucia Bozzola (AllMovie), Luc Le Vaillant (Liberation – French), Celine Colassin (D’autres étoiles filantes - French), Connexxion France, Prisma.de (German), Wikipedia (English) and IMDb.

Versatile German actress Marianne Koch (1931) played in more than 65 films between 1950 and 1971. Internationally she is best known as the tormented Marisol, who is saved by Clint Eastwood in the legendary spaghetti-western A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964).

German postcard by ISV, no. G 1.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/187. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-36.

Best Supporting Actress of 1955

Marianne Koch was born in Munich, Germany, in 1931. She was the daughter of a businessman and a pianist. As a 10-year old she already played theatre and she was a guest student at the opera school.

In 1949 she started a medical studies at the university of Munich. As a student she made her film debut next to Rudolf Forster and Olga Tschechova in the drama Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte/The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice (Viktor Tourjansky, 1950).

The following year she made a spontaneous appearance in Dr. Holl/Affairs of Dr. Holl (Rolf Hansen, 1951) with Maria Schell and Dieter Borsche, and in Mein Freund, der Dieb/My Friend, the Thief (Helmut Weiss, 1951) with Hans Söhnker and Hardy Krüger.

She broke off her studies to become an actress full-time. She played her first leading role in the melodrama Wetterleuchten am Dachstein/Storm Clouds over Dachstein (Anton Kutter, 1953). In the American cold war drama Night People (Nunnally Johnson, 1954) she played a supporting part alongside Gregory Peck.

She stayed in Germany and appeared withO. W. Fischer in Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs/Mad Emperor: Ludwig II (Helmut Käutner, 1955). For her portrayal of Diddo Geiss in Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955), she received the Filmband in Silber (Film Strip in Silver) for the Best Supporting Actress of 1955.

As Marianne Cook she appeared in the Hollywood productions Four Girls in Town (Jack Sher, 1957) opposite George Nader, and Interlude (Douglas Sirk, 1957) with June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi.

In Germany she played in the comedy Salzburger Geschichten/Salzburg Stories (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957) based on a book by Erich Kästner, and in the war films Der Stern von Afrika/The Star of Africa (Alfred Weidenmann, 1957) with Joachim Hansen, and Der Fuchs von Paris/The Paris Fox (Paul May, 1957) with Hardy Krüger.

In the comedy Vater sein dagegen/To Be A Father On the Contrary (Kurt Meisel, 1957) she appeared as the bride of the almost 30 years older Heinz Rühmann. She also had success as a patent country doctor in Die Landärztin vom Tegernsee/The Country Doctor of Tegernsee (Paul May, 1958).

In Italy she appeared in the comedy Gli italiani sono matti/The Italians They Are Crazy (Duilio Coletti, Luis María Delgado, 1958) starring Hollywood veteran Victor McLaglen.

With Dieter Borsche. German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 79. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / Bavaria.

With Joachim Hansen. German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhoff, no. FK 3658. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Brünjes / Neue Emelka / Herzog Film.

Dutch-Belgian postcard by Ufa. Photo: Wesel / Berolina Film.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. D 17. Photo: Constantin / Bokelberg. Publicity still for Salzburger Geschichten/Salzburg Stories (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957).

A Fistful of Dollars

In the early 1960s the decline of the German film industry increased and Marianne Koch worked more often abroad. In France she appeared in the thriller Pleins feux sur l'assassin/Spotlight on a Murderer (Georges Franju, 1961). It was based on a screenplay by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac on whose work film classics like Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) and Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) were based.

Another French production was the drama Napoléon II, l'aiglon/Napoleon II, the Eaglet (Claude Boissol, 1961) with Bernard Verley and Jean Marais. In the German-British-Irish spy thriller The Devil's Agent (1962, John Paddy Carstairs), she appeared opposite Peter van Eyckand Christopher Lee.

In 1963 Marianne Koch played the female lead in the popular TV mini-series Tim Frazer (Hans Quest, 1963) written by Francis Durbridge.

Then, Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Western Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) showcased her alongside Clint Eastwoodas Marisol, a woman tormented by ruthless local gangsters, torn between her husband and child and the villains.

After this career highlight followed many mediocre Edgar Wallace crime films and Spaghetti Westerns. One of the more interesting ones was the German-Israeli action film Einer spielt falsch/Trunk to Cairo (Menahem Golan, Raphael Nussbaum, 1966), which recycled Hollywood hero Audie Murphy as a James Bond-type action hero assigned to destroy a Neo-Nazi weapons factory headed by nemesis George Sanders.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers Ltd., London, no. 287. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for Interlude (Douglas Sirk, 1957), in which she was credited as Marianne Cook.

German collectors card by Luxor.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 10. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / Bavaria.

What Am I?

In Germany Marianne Koch was probably best-loved for her many years of participation in the highly popular TV game show Was bin ich? (What Am I?) which ran from the 1950s until 1988. The show achieved ratings of up to 75% at its peak.

On television she also played a journalist in the popular TV series Die Journalistin/The Journalist (1970-1971) with Bruce Low.

By then her film career was clearly over. In 1971, she resumed her medical studies which she had broken off in 1953 to become a full-time actress. She earned her doctorate in 1978 and practiced as an internist in Munich until 1997.

In the meantime, she hosted television shows and had a medical advice program on the radio. In 1976, she was one of the initial hosts of Germany's pioneering talk show 3 nach 9/Three After Nine, for which she was awarded one of the most prestigious awards of the German television industry, the Grimme Preis.

Since 1997 she is the president of the Deutschen Schmerzliga (German Pain League). She has published medical books as Mein Gesundheitsbuch (My health book) (1999) and Die Gesundheit unserer Kinder (The health of our children) (2007).

In 2002, Koch was honoured for her life's work with the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Germany‘s Cross of Merit award).

In 1953, she had married the physician Gerhard Freund, with whom she has two sons. The marriage ended in 1973 after Freund began an affair with Miss World 1956, Petra Schürmann, whom he later wed.

Marianne Koch is in a relationship with the publicist Peter Hamm since the mid 1980s. They live in Tutzing, Germany.

Probably Belgian postcard.

German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg, no. F-72. Photo: G.M. Rozhek, München.

Marianne Koch and Heinz Rühmann sing Oh Bello in ...Vater sein dagegen sehr (1957). Source: Filmkiste (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie d’Heil (Steffi-line - German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Maciste all’Inferno/Maciste in Hell (Guido Brignone, 1926) once inspired the young Federico Fellini to become a film director. He loved the silent film because of its weird, fairy-tale-like atmosphere. Italian actor Bartolomeo Pagano played the strong man Maciste for the first time in Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). The enormous success of that film classic launched a series of Maciste films, produced in Italy and Germany.

Bartolomeo Pagano alias Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Bartolomeo Pagano alias Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 478/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926). Caption: "Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) called before king Pluto (Umberto Guarracino)". At the right, seen on the back, Pluto's daughter Luciferina (Lucia Zanussi) is standing. The bold guy on the left must be Gerione (Mario Saio).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste. Caption: "The Tomb of the Heresiarchs [heretics]."

A call for Maciste

In 1913, film director and producer Giovanni Pastrone, manager of the Itala company of Turin, released a call for the interpreter of the character of the Nubic slave Maciste (a character created together with Gabriele D’Annunzio) for Pastrone’s super-production Cabiria (1914).

Out of 50 candidates from all over Italy, Pastrone selected Bartolomeo Pagano. According to another version, it was actor Domenico Gambino who noticed Pagano and signalled him to Pastrone, who, impressed by his physique, hired him for his epic film.

Overnight Pagano became an international success because of his physique and his image of courageous, humorous and no-nonsensical defender of the weak. In Cabiria he uses his power to rescue a Roman girl out of the hands of the Carthaginian priests who want to offer her to Moloch.

Pastrone immediately saw opportunities and launched a series of films just around his character, starting with a film just called Maciste (1915). Deliberately, Maciste’s part in Cabiria, the splendour of the Itala studio, and Maciste’s work there, were shown to impress audiences and tie them to the previous box office hit.

Of course the plot deals with a damsel in distress, whom Maciste saves with his muscles and his wit. During the First World War Pastrone used Maciste for war propaganda in Maciste alpino (1916), in which Maciste fiercely opposes the Austrian soldiers when he and his colleagues are captured during a film shoot on location.

The success of the film made Pastrone exploit Maciste in all kinds of situations and genres, but mostly in the adventure and crime genre: Maciste medium, Maciste atleta, Maciste poliziotto (all 1918), Maciste innamorato (1919), La trilogia di Maciste (1920), Maciste salvato dalle acque, Maciste in vacanza (both 1921).

By now Pastrone did not direct the films anymore but left this task to skilled directors like Luigi Romano Borgnetto. While not all of these were good productions, a better example was La Trilogia di Maciste by Carlo Campogalliani.

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

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Franz Sala as the devil Barbariccia in Maciste all’inferno (Guido Brigone, 1926). Franz Sala aka Francesco Sala (1886-1952) was a prolific actor of the Italian silent cinema, mostly playing the evil antagonist. In the 1930s he was active as makeup artist.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 714. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Elena Sangro as Proserpina, wife of Pluto, king of the underworld, in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Domenico Serra as Giorgio in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1925).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 715. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Pauline Polaire in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Publicity still for Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste and Pauline Polaire as Graziella.

The outside world didn’t know

In Italy a strong man or forzuti genre in film sprang up, creating space for characters such as Ausonia, Galaor, Ajax, and Sansone, and attracting competing strong men and physical culture champions such as Giovanni Raicevich.

Pagano’s Maciste was also simply pirated abroad, such as by the French actor Michel Bonnet with his character Magiste, and another rip-off in Mexico. French critic Louis Delluc called him the Guitry of biceps, while newcomers Ultus (Aurele Sydney) and Douglas Fairbanks were launched as the British and the American Maciste.

In the late 1910s and early 1920s Maciste’s popularity was biggest in Austria and Germania, despite the preceding anti-Austrian Maciste alpino. At home in Italy, Maciste’s image of superman coincided with the new fascist ideology. In the 1920s Pagano was one of the best paid actors of his times, sometimes gaining 600.000 lire a year.

The Maciste-films continued until the early-1920s, when, not so much because of the collapse of the Italian film production but rather because of a fabulous contract, Pagano went to Berlin, the mecca of the European film industry. Here he stayed between 1921 and 1923, but according to the film press he wasn’t as successful there as in Italy.

He played in Maciste und die Javanerin (Uwe Jenss Kraft, 1921), Maciste und die Tochter des Silberkönig (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1921), Maciste und der Sträfling Nr. 51 (Luigi Romano Borgnetto 1921), and Maciste und die Chinesische Truhe (Carl Boese, 1923).

Dissatisfied Pagano returned to Italy, where producer Stefano Pittaluga immediately put him on a transatlantic for the film Maciste e il nipote d’America (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1924), which included scenes shot in New York.

Among less convincing titles such as Maciste imperatore (Guido Brignone), the same Brignone directed Pagano in Maciste all’Inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926), a witty and artful pastiche on Dante, Doré, Méliès, Expressionism and medieval illustrations. It also contains ingenious special effects by ‘magician’ Segundo de Chomon.

The devil takes Maciste down to hell in an attempt to corrupt and ruin his morality.

When entering Hades, Maciste is being seduced by Proserpina, played by Italian diva Elena Sangro, and he turns into a hairy devil himself. The film was dear to Federico Fellini, because of its weird, fairy-tale-like atmosphere; the film supposedly inspired him to become film director.

Bored with his Maciste films, Pagano asked and got different roles: Il vetturale del Moncenisio (Baldassarre Negroni, 1927), Giuditta e Oloferne (1928) starring Jia Ruskaja, and his last part (a secondary one by now) in L’ultimo Zar (Baldassarre Negroni, 1928).

Afflicted by diabetes, though, Pagano withdrew to his Villa Maciste in Sant’Ilario Ligure near Genua. Physical mishap destroyed his forces, typhoid reduced his weight in drastic ways, while arthritis even obliged him to spend his last years in a wheelchair. The outside world didn’t know.

Bartolomeo Pagano died in Genua on 24 June 1947, because of a heart attack. According to Italian film historian Vittorio Martinelli, Pagano never was a real actor, but rather the lively personification of a character from popular literature.

His character’s name though remains as synonym for power and courage. In 1960-1965 Maciste was revived in the sword and sandal films with Mark Forrest, Gordon Scott, Kirk Morris, Ed Fury and other bodybuilders, while in the early 1970s Jesus Franco made two low-budget Maciste-films for French producers.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 9. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Elena Sangro as Cinzia and René [Raoul] Mayllard as prince Otis [Ortis]in the Fert production Maciste imperatore (Guido Brignone, 1924). In the kingdom of Sindagna, the prince regent Stanos tries with all means to dispose of the legitimate heir to the throne, prince Ortis. When Maciste and Saetta happen to be in the chaotic empire, they set things straight for the poor, weak prince. Maciste is proclaimed emperor of Sindagna after getting rid of the regent and his puppet ruler, restores peace, and arranges that the prince can also be united with his beloved one. The plot line comes close Mussolini's take over of Italy, 'helping' the weak king Victor Emmanuel III and 'restoring order'.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 368. Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste in Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Italian postcard. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926).

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 76. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Italian postcard. Photo: Pittaluga Film, Turin. Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni/Maciste in the Lion's cage (Guido Brignone, 1926).

Cecyl Tryan in Maciste contro lo sceicco

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 787. Photo: Dist. Società Anonima Stefano Pittaluga. Cecyl Tryan in the Fert production Maciste contro lo sceicco/Maciste against the Sheik (Mario Camerini, 1926). Cecyl Tryan is the young girl whose tutor (Franz Sala) and his spendthrift mistress (Rita d'Harcourt) want to steal her inheritance, and sell her to a sheik. Aboard the ship she is menaced by the crew but a young sailor (Lido Manetti) and Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) rescue her. In the harbour the sheik manages to abduct the girl and place her in his harem, but Maciste and the young man use power and wits to liberate her, defeat the sheik and sail back to Italy to set things straight there too.

Spanish version of Italian postcard. Retro announcing Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone, 1926) at the Cine Moderno. Tipografia de Antonio Homar. Pont d'Inca. Thursday 2 September refers to the year 1926.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Maciste & Co. I giganti buoni del cinema italiano - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Patricia Kaas (1966) is one of France's most successful singers with an International following. Her music updates the French chanson tradition with elements of pop, blues and jazz. In 2009, Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow. Occasionally, she also acts in film and on TV, but with mixed success.

British postcard by New Line, no. 115.

Throaty, smoky voice

Patricia Kaas was born in Forbach, France, in 1966, near the border of Germany. She was the youngest of seven children of miner Joseph Kaas and his wife Irmgard Kaas. Her father was a French Germanophone citizen, and her mother a West German citizen from Saar.

Until the age of six Patricia spoke only Lorraine Franconian. Her mother encouraged Kaas to become a singer at a very young age. At the age of eight Kaas already sang at various small events; among others the marriage of her brother.

Her first great success came when she received first place at a pop song contest. At her first appearances Kaas was already displaying the throaty, smoky voice that would lead to comparisons with Édith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. Kaas took her first step into the professional music business at the age of 13, when, with the help of her brother Egon, she signed a contract with the Saarbrücken Club Rumpelkammer. Kaas took the name Pady Pax, after the brass band Pax Majorettes, of which she and her sister Carine were members, and for seven years appeared with the band Dob's Lady Killers.

At 16 she took a placement with a model agency in Metz. Kaas' first attempts to break into the music business once and for all initially failed, however; a producer rejected her on the grounds that the world did not need a second Mireille Mathieu. Architect Bernard Schwartz introduced the 19-years-old to the songwriter François Bernheim who worked with her and convinced Gérard Depardieu to produce her music.

In 1985, Depardieu produced Kaas' first single Jalouse (Jealous), written by Bernheim and Depardieu's wife Elisabeth. The single was published by EMI, but was a flop. Nonetheless, her encounter with Depardieu was an important event in the beginning of Kaas' artistic career.

French songwriter Didier Barbelivien became aware of Kaas. His song Mademoiselle chante le blues (Lady sings the blues) was the singer's first big hit. The single was published in 1987 by Polydor, and reached 7th place in the French singles chart.

The next year Kaas' second single D'Allemagne (From Germany) was recorded, written by Barbelivien and Bernheim. Shortly afterwards Kaas' first album Mademoiselle chante... was produced. It reached 2nd place in the French album charts and stayed there for two months, remaining in the Top 10 for 64 weeks and 118 weeks in the top 100. Shortly after its appearance the album went gold in France (over 100,000 sold) and after three months it went platinum (over 350,000 sold). The album also went platinum in Belgium and Switzerland, and gold in Canada.

In the same year Kaas won one of the most important French music awards, the Victoires de la Musique in the category of Discovery of the Year. In 1989, Kaas suffered a traumatic personal experience when her mother fell ill from cancer and died. The teddy bear Kaas sent to support her mother's convalescence today accompanies Kaas everywhere as a mascot.

French postcard, no. 134.

I address thee as you

In 1990, Patricia Kaas began her first world tour which lasted 16 months in total. She sang in front of about 750,000 fans in over 196 concerts in 12 countries. Kaas sang daily for a week at the Olympia in Paris, and gave successful concerts in New York and Washington D.C. At the end of the tour, Mademoiselle chante... had sold 1 million copies in France alone.

In 1990, Kaas moved from her former record company Polydor to CBS/Sony. Cyril Prieur and Richard Walter of the firm Talent Sorcier from Paris replaced Bernard Schwartz to become her managers in 1987. Prieur and Walter contributed significantly to the singer's success, in return for which Kaas referred to them as her ‘family’.

She produced Scène de vie (The Stage of Life) in 1990. It reached the top of the French charts and stayed there for 10 weeks. With the song Kennedy Rose, Kaas again worked with Elisabeth Depardieu and François Bernheim. The song was dedicated to Rose Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy clan and mother of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

While on the Scène de vie tour, the singer performed 210 concerts before 650,000 spectators in 13 countries, among them Japan, Canada and the USSR, where she sang in Moscow and Leningrad. At the end of 1991 her first live album Carnets de scène (Stage Notebooks) appeared.

Kaas' 1993 album Je te dis vous (I address thee as you, also named Tour de Charme) was her definitive breakthrough in the international music scene, selling 3 million copies in 47 countries. It was produced in Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studio in London, England by Robin Millar, who had already worked for Sade and the Fine Young Cannibals.

On the album Kaas sang her first song in German: Ganz und gar (Absolutely), by Marius Müller-Westernhagen. The album also featured three tracks in English, including a cover of the James Brown number It's A Man's World. The British rock musician Chris Rea accompanied Kaas on the tracks Out Of The Rain and Ceux qui n'ont rien (Those who have nothing) on guitar.

Je te dis vous was a successful album in the German-speaking world, and with the single Il me dit que je suis belle (He tells me I'm beautiful) by Sam Brewski (aka Jean-Jacques Goldman) Kaas achieved her second top five single in France. The song was used by director Bertrand Tavernier in his film L'appât/The bait (1995). The Je te dis vous world tour covered 19 countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

Kaas sang the title song to the film Les Misérables (Claude Lelouch, 1995), based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. In the middle of the 1990s the album Black Coffee was produced, an enigma in Kaas' career. The title track of the album is a cover version of the Billie Holiday song and other cover versions on the album include classics such as Bill Withers'Ain't No Sunshine and If You Leave Me Now by Chicago.

In 1997 Dans ma chair (In my flesh) was made. It was produced in New York by Kaas and Phil Ramone, who had previously worked with Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon. The album marked the second time the singer officially worked with the French songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman. The collaboration with Goldman, which continues to this day, was one of the most important of Kaas' career. Further contributors were Lyle Lovett and James Taylor.

In 1999 Le mot de passe (The password) was produced by Pascal Obispo, on which Kaas was accompanied by an orchestra on several tracks. Jean-Jacques Goldman again contributed songs for the studio album. In 2000, Kaas decided to live in Zürich, Switzerland from then on. This also had consequences for her management, which likewise moved from Paris to Zürich and renamed itself International Talent Consulting. Cyril Prieur and Richard Walter remained by Kaas' side.

French postcard, no. C 139.

Strong gender

In 2001, Patricia Kaas began her acting career with And now... Ladies and Gentlemen (Claude Lelouch, 2001). She played the burned-out jazz singer Jane beside Jeremy Irons. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but fared poorly at the box office.

Todd Kristel at AllMovie: “there isn't a lot of heat between the two leads, the supporting characters are underdeveloped (and their story lines are distracting), the film's tone fluctuates unevenly from one scene to the next, and there's not much narrative drive to this movie. The end result is an attractive-looking motion picture that isn't fully satisfying emotionally.”

To accompany the film, the concept album Piano Bar By Patricia Kaas was released in 2002. While not a soundtrack to the film, some songs performed from the film were included on the album in slightly different versions. Piano Bar... was Kaas' first album mainly in English, and is a homage to the great French chanson artists, including an English version of Jacques Brel's Ne me quitte pas, If You Go Away. The album in France reached 10th place in the charts, but it was the second most successful of Kaas' albums in Germany.

In 2003, the album Sexe fort (Strong gender), reached the 9th place in France. Again Jean-Jacques Goldman and Pascal Obispo contributed songs. At the end of that year, she received the First Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her contribution to friendship between France and Germany.

Until the end of 2005 Kaas was on what was now her seventh world tour for which she gave 175 concerts before more than 500,000 spectators. Despite the relative failure of Sexe fort, the tour was a huge success.

After a long break, Kaas released in 2008 the song Ne pozvonish' (You Will Not Call) with the Russian rock group Uma2rman, which was a big hit in Russia. The new double album, Kabaret was released in 2009, and to support the album she went on a lengthy international tour.

In 2009, Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. Her song was Et s'il fallait le faire (And if it had to be done) and she finished in 8th place. In 2011, Kaas’ autobiography L’Ombre de ma Voix (The Shadow of My Voice) was published, and has since then been translated into more than 6 languages.

Her next album Kaas chante Piaf (Kaas Sings Piaf, 2012) with 21 Édith Piaf’ songs, arranged by Abel Korzeniowski, who also composed the music for Madonna’s W.E..

Patricia Kaas played a woman whose daughter is murdered in the TV film Assassinée/Murdered (Thierry Binisti, 2012). The film was highly popular in France when it made its TV debut and Kaas got good reviews for her role. Documentary maker portrayed her for the German TV documentary Patricia Kaas – my life/ma vie.

Since 1988, Kaas has sold over 16 million records worldwide. About her private life, there is no information at the web.

Clip of Patricia Kaas'Il Me Dit Que Je Suis Belle. Source: PKaasOfficiel (YouTube).

Official US trailer And now... Ladies and Gentlemen (Claude Lelouch, 2001). Source: Movieclips (YouTube).

Clip of Paricia Kaas' song Kabaret. Source: PKaasOfficiel (YouTube).

Sources: Johanna Ouwerling (Patricia Kaas Forever), Jason Ankeny (AllMusic), Todd Kristel (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ukrainian actor Vladimir Gajdarov (1893-1976) (on Germany known as Wladimir Gaidarow) began his film career in Russia before the October Revolution. Later he became a popular star of the German and French silent cinema. Sound film made his return to his home country, but in the Soviet Union he had a hard time getting work.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 977/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1412/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3401/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

Stanislavski

Vladimir Georgiyevich Gajdarov was born in Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), in 1893. He supposedly was the son of a noble family.

He studied history, philosophy and German language before he became a pupil of the famous stage director Konstantin Stanislavski. Soon he became a very popular actor on the Russian stage.

He began his film career in Russia before the October Revolution. His first appearance was opposite his wife-to-be, the famous Stanislavki actress Olga Gzovskaya, in Yeyo zhertva/Her Sacrifice (Cheslav Sabinsky, 1917) based on a play by Henrik Ibsen.

Next he played with Ivan Mozzhukhin in Ne nado krovi/Blood Need Not Be Spilled (Yakov Protazanov, Alexandre Volkoff, 1917). The two actors were also featured in Otyets Sergei/Father Sergei (Yakov Protazanov, Alexandre Volkoff, 1917-1918), based on a Leo Tolstoy story. This popular film tells the tale of an officer who becomes a monk after hearing of his fiancée's affair with the Tsar.

Another film was Iola (1920) by animation filmmaker Wladyslaw Starewicz. In 1920 Gajdarov and Olga Gzovskaya left Russia. They eventually arrived in Turkey, and in Constantinople he directed two films to raise money to aid the many stranded Russian refugees who had fled the Bolsheviks.

Latvian (?) postcard by KLTD.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 883/1, 1925-1926.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 893/4, 1925-1926. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 937/2, 1925-1926. Vladimir Gajdarov and Olga Gzovskaya in Schuld und Sühne, an adaptation of Dostojevski's Crime and Punishment (Raskolnikov). Unclear which film this is, as a 1922/1923 German version, called Raskolnikow (directed by Robert Wiene), starred Grigori Chmara and not Gajdarov.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 977/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

French postcard by Europe no. 291. Photo: Cinéromans Films de France.

Haunted, pale face

In the following years Vladimir Gajdarov worked in various European countries. Especially in Germany he found rewarding roles in films.

With his haunted, pale face he acted in Der brennende Acker/The Burning Earth (F.W. Murnau, 1922) opposite Lya de Putti, and in Die Gezeichneten/Love One Another (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1922).

Other popular German films were the Alexandre Dumas père adaptation Der Mann mit der eisernen Maske/The Man in the Iron Mask (Max Glass, 1923) starring Albert Bassermann, the serial Tragödie der Liebe/The Tragedy of Love (Joe May, 1923) with Marlene Dietrich, and in Manon Lescaut (Arthur Robison, 1926), again opposite Lya de Putti.

In France he appeared as Vladimir Gaidaroff in Le roman d'un jeune homme pauvre/The Novel of a Poor Young Man (Gaston Ravel, 1926) with Maly Delschaft, and in La Madone des sleepings/Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (Marco de Gastyne, Maurice Gleize, 1927).

He starred as an exotic lady-killer in Die Weisse Sklavin/The White Slave (Augusto Genina, 1927) opposite Liane Haid, and in Frauenraub in Marokko (Gennaro Righelli, 1928) with Dolly Davis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1412/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1412/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard. Ross Verlag, no. 1602/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1602/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1673/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1675/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Siberia

When the sound film arrived Vladimir Gajdarov's possibilities on the international film scene were seriously reduced. In 1930 he took on the position of film director and producer and made Kire lained/Wells of Passion (1930) with Ita Rina, but soon he had to return to acting again.

He appeared in a few German productions like Nachtkolonne/Night Convoy (James Bauer, 1931), and Luise, Königin von Preussen/Luise, Queen of Prussia (Carl Froelich, 1931), starring Henny Porten.

In 1932 he and Olga Gzovskaya returned to the Soviet Union. As former émigrés, they were unable to find employment until 1937.

During the Stalinist repression, with hundreds of people arrested every day, Gzovskaya wrote to Stanislavski twice, begging for his help. Stanislavski responded with a letter, which helped them both to find professional work in theatres in Leningrad.

Later Gajdarov appeared in the propaganda film Stalingradskaya bitva/The Battle of Stalingrad (Vladimir Petrov, 1949-1950), Geroite na Shipka/Heroes of Shipka (Sergei Vasilyev, 1954), and the Norwegian-Russian coproduction Bare et liv/The History of Fridtjof Nansen (Sergei Mikalyen, 1968).

Vladimir Gajdarov published his memoirs in 1966. He died in Poltava, Siberia in 1976.

German postcard by Ross, Berlin, no. 1978/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.

German postcard by Ross, Berlin, no. 1974/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag no. 3619/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Kipho Production.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3830/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Hanni Schwarz, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4155/1, 1929-1930. Photo: FPS.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4448/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Tonka, Zagreb.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Silents are Golden, The Silent Cinema Reader, Wikipedia and IMDb.

British actor Jack Hulbert (1892-1978) was a popular comedian of the 1930s with a trademark chiselled chin. In his musicals he often appeared with his wife Cicely Courtneidge.

British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons 'Real Photograph', no. 15. Photo: Gaumont-British.

British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons 'Real Photograph', no. 16-8. Photo: Gaumont-British.

British postcard by Henry Good & Son. Promotion card for the stage musical Clowns in Clover (1927) in the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Famous Alumni of the Comedy Club

John Norman ‘Jack’ Hulbert was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in 1892. He was the elder and more successful brother of Claude Hulbert.

Jack was educated at Cambridge and appeared in many shows and revues, mainly with the Cambridge Footlights. He was one of the earliest famous alumni of the comedy club.

After Cambridge, he earned recognition and fame performing in musicals and light comedies. He made his film debut in Elstree Calling (André Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, ánd Alfred Hitchcock (who directed some sketches), 1930); appearing opposite his wife and frequent stage and screen co-star Cicely Courtneidge whom he had married in 1916.

His career went through a successful period during the 1930s when he appeared in several films including The Ghost Train (Walter Forde, 1931) with Cicely Courtneidge, Love on Wheels (Victor Saville, 1932) with Edmund Gwenn, and Bulldog Jack (Walter Forde, 1935), a tongue-in-cheek homage to the popular Bulldog Drummond films in which Jack was supported by his brother Claude and King Kong’s mate Fay Wray.

He also wrote and directed some films such as Falling for You (Jack Hulbert, Robert Stevenson, 1933) with Cicely Courtneidge and Tamara Desni, the daughter of silent star Xenia Desni.

British collectors card by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 30. Photo: Gaumont-British.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 782. Photo: Gainsborough.

British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 156. Photo: Gaumont-British Pictures.

British card.

The Little Woman's Always Right

Jack Hulbert's popularity waned as the 1930s came to an end. Some of his later films were Jack of All Trades (Jack Hulbert, Robert Stevenson, 1936) and Paradise for Two (Thornton Freeland, 1938) with Patricia Ellis and Googie Withers.

During the 1940s, he was a Commandant in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary, stationed at Vine Street police station in London's West End.

After the war he and his wife continued to entertain chiefly on stage. Among his later films were Into the Blue (Herbert Wilcox, 1950) starring Michael Wilding, and the crime film Miss Tulip Stays the Night (Leslie Arliss, 1955) starring Diana Dors.

On TV he was seen in episodes of Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), Compact (1964), Theatre 625 (1968), and Father Dear Father (1972).

In 1962 he, along with his wife, Cicely Courtneidge, plus Vic Oliver, appeared in the BBC radio sitcom Discord in Three Flats. His final film was The Cherry Picker (Peter Curran, 1974) starring Lulu.

In 1975, Hulbert's autobiography, The Little Woman's Always Right, was published. His marriage to Cicely Courtneidge lasted for 62 years until his death. Their relationship is mentioned in the British television series Dad's Army in the episode Ring Dem Bells when Hulbert pulls out of shooting a Home Guard training film to spend time with his wife.

Jack Hulbert died, aged 85, at his home in Westminster, London, in 1978.

With Cicely Courtneidge. British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 11673 A. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield.

Jack Hulbert and Patricia Ellis in Paradise for Two

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 241. Photo: London Films. Publicity still for Paradise for Two/Gaiety Girls (Thornton Freeland, 1937) with Jack Hulbert and Patricia Ellis.

With Cicely Courtneidge. British postcard in the Film Partners Series, no. P 42. Photo: Gainsborough Pictures.

Sources: Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Franco-Belgian stage and film actress Madeleine Ozeray (1908-1989) appeared in many films between 1932 and 1980.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, no. 632. Photo: Ufa.

French postcard, no. 35. Photo: Ufa.

Louis Jouvet's Muse

Magdeleine Marie Catherine Elisabeth Ozeray was born in Bouillon in Wallonia in Belgium in 1908 (some sources say 1905). Her parents were Camille Ozeray, a lawyer and Liberal member of the province of Luxembourg, and Marie Deymann.

She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she won first prize for comedy. She joined the cast of the Brussels Theatre Marais, directed by Raymond Rouleau, and made her stage debut in April 1931 in The evil of Youth by Ferdinand Bruckner.

Madeleine Ozeray and Raymond Rouleau fell in love. The play was a great success and was presented a few months later in Paris.

Her film debut was a small part in the British French-language comedy La dame de chez Maxim's/The Girl from Maxim's (Alexander Korda, 1932) starring Florelle. It was the French-language version of The Girl from Maxim's (1932) made by London Film Productions. Both films were directed by Korda, and were based on the farce La Dame de chez Maxim (1899) by Georges Feydeau.

She met the famous actor-director Louis Jouvet who offered her the role of Mariette in his film adaptation of the play Knock (1933) by Jules Romains. Soon the two became lovers and Madeleine left Raymond Rouleau.

For the next ten years, she would be Jouvet’s muse and official mistress. She played the female lead of Rosalie in the romantic crime drama Dans les rues/In the streets (Victor Trivas, 1933) opposite Jean-Pierre Aumont.

She also appeared in the fantasy Liliom (Fritz Lang, 1934), based on the Hungarian stage play of the same name by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom, a carousel barker who is fired from his job after defending the chambermaid Julie (Madeleine Ozeray) from the jealousy of Mme. Muscat, the carousel owner who is infatuated with Liliom. Liliom was one of the two first French productions by producer Erich Pommer for Fox-Europa and director Fritz Lang's only French film.

Ozeray also worked on stage and was part of Charles Boyer's stage company. At twenty-seven she joined the theatre company of Louis Jouvet where she played the role of Helen in The Trojan War Will Not Take Place by Jean Giraudoux at the Théâtre de l'Athénée.

In 1939 she appeared opposite Jouvet in the film La Fin du jour/The End of the day (Julien Duvivier, 1938), in the role of young Jeannette. She played her role with a characteristic delicate grace, both fragile and fierce.

In April 1939 Jean Giraudoux's play Ondine opened at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris with Ozeray in the title role. Louis Jouvet was once again the director and her co-star.

Italian postcard by Ricordi RC, Milano, no. XVIII, 1940. Photo: Ufa.

French postcard by Erpé, no. 10. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

Philippe Noiret’s mother

During the war Madeleine Ozeray refused to work under the Nazis who occupied France and she joined Louis Jouvet on a Latin-American tour, where they performed in plays by Molière, Jean Giraudoux, Alfred de Musset and Jules Romains.

In 1943 in Chile, she left Jouvet for the conductor Cesar Mendoza. After the war her film career halted.

In the 1970s, she returned to the screen. First she appeared on television in episodes of such series as Le tribunal de l'impossible/The court of the impossible (Pierre Badel, 1970) and Tang (André Michel, 1971).

Later followed roles in films like the crime drama Les Anges/The Angels (Jean Desvilles, 1973) and the drama La race des 'seigneurs'/Creezy (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1974) starring Alain Delon.

She played Philippe Noiret’s mother in the war drama Le vieux fusil/The Old Gun (Robert Enrico, 1975) with Romy Schneider.

Another interesting film was Chère inconnue/I Sent a Letter to My Love (Moshe Mizrahi, 1980), starring Simone Signoret and Jean Rochefort. Her final screen appearance was in the series Les dossiers éclatés/The broken records (1980).

In 1989, Madeleine Ozeray died in Paris at the age of 80 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease (some sources say cancer). She is buried in the cemetery of her hometown of Bouillon. She was the godmother of theatre actor, dancer and singer Frédéric Norbert.

In 2008, in celebration of the centenary of her birth, Belgian journalist Dominique Zachary devoted an entire book, now the standard reference work, tracing the life and career of this celebrated actress.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1047. Photo: Lux / Cie. Ciné de France.

French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinematographiques, no. 36. Photo: Ciné-Magazine.

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

Prominent Russian actor Oleg Strizhenov (1929) was both People's Artist of the Soviet Union and a heartthrob, ‘a Russian Gérard Philipe’. He played in more than 31 major films between 1951 and 2000.

Russian postcard, no. M-40561, 1967. This postcard was printed in an edition of 300.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

The Queen of Spades

Oleg Aleksandrovich Strizhenov (Олег Александрович Стриженов) was born in Blagoveshchensk in the Far East of the Soviet Union (now Amur Oblast, Russia) in 1929. His brother Gleb and sister Marina would also become actors.

In 1945 Oleg won the Medal ‘For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945’. He completed the B. V. Shukin Higher Theatre School in 1953 and started as an actor in the Russian Theatre of Drama in Tallinn (in Estonia).

From 1954-1955, he acted at the Pushkin Theatre in Leningrad, and in 1957 he was at the Screen Actors Theatre and Studio in Moscow.

In 1951, he had already started his film career with an uncredited bit part in Sportivnaya chest/Sporting Honour (Vladimir Petrov 1951).

In 1955 he played the lead in the drama Ovod/The Gadfly (Aleksandr Fajntsimmer, Iosif Shapiro, 1955), based on the novel The Gadfly by Irish author Ethel Lilian Voynich.

It was followed by the war drama Sorok pervyy/The Forty-First (Grigori Chukhrai, 1956) based on the eponymous novel by Boris Lavrenyev. Set during the Russian Civil War the film tells the story of a tragic romance between a female sniper of the Red Army (Izolda Izvitskaya) and an officer of the White Army (Oleg Strizhenov). For his role, Strizhenov got a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1957, he starred in the popular Indian-Soviet film Khozhdenie za tri moray/Journey Beyond Three Seas (Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Vasili Pronin, 1957). It was based on the travelogues of 15th-century Russian traveller Afanasy Nikitin, which is now considered a Russian literary monument. The film was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

Another highlight in his film career is the film opera Pikovaya dama/The Queen of Spades (Roman Tikhomirov, 1960), based on the Aleksandr Pushkin short story of the same name. For his performance as Hermann opposite Olga Krasina as Lisa, Strizhenov received Aleksandr Pushkin's Big Gold Medal and the prize of the Russian Musical Fund of Irina Arkhipova.

Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. M 17562 18/II, 1965. This postcard was printed in an edition of 15.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

Russian postcard, no. M-19577, 165, 1958. This postcard was printed in an edition of 50.000 cards. Retail price: 70 Kop.

Optimistic Tragedy

In 1963, Oleg Strizhenov appeared in Optimisticheskaya tragediya/Optimistic Tragedy (Samson Samsonov, 1963), which was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. During Russian Revolution of 1917, the Marine squad, led by anarchist leader Vozhak (Boris Andreyev) starts the revolt. The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party sends a woman Commissar (Margarita Volodina) to form Red Army battalion from the marines to take part in the Russian Civil War.

The film was shot in Sovscope 70 on black and white film stock. The prints were split into three films for exhibition in Kinopanorama 70 in some theatres. Optimisticheskaya tragediya was the blockbuster in the Soviet cinemas of 1963 with 46 million tickets sold. The film was named Best Film of the Year and Margarita Volodina was named Best Actress of the Year by readers of the Soviet film magazine Sovetsky Ekran.

In 1966 Strizhenov played Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the French-Russian Tretya molodost/Nights of Farewell (Jean Dréville, Isaak Menaker, 1966) with Gilles Ségal as Marius Petipa.

From 1966 to 1976 he acted at the Moscow Artists' and Actors' Theatre. In 1970, he was voted best actor of the year for his role as the pilot Egorov in Nepodsuden/Not Under the Jurisdiction (Vladimir Krasnopolskiy, Valeriy Uskov, 1970).

He also appeared in the costume drama Zvezda plenitelnogo schastya/The Captivating Star of Happiness (Vladimir Motyl, 1975). The story is set in the aftermath of the December revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825. The revolt is repressed, and the military officers involved confess one by one. They are sentenced to exile in Siberia and their wives face the decision as to whether or not to follow them. His wife in the film was played by Natalya Bondarchuk.

Other interesting films are the romantic drama Poslednyaya zhertva/The Last Victim (Pyotr Todorovskiy, 1977) with Margarita Volodina, the biographical drama Yunost Petra/The Youth of Peter the Great (Sergei Gerasimov, 1981) and Moy lyubimyy kloun (Yuriy Kushneryov, 1986).

Between 1987 and 2000 he made no films. Oleg Strizhenov was named a People's Artist of the Soviet Union (Народный артист СССР) in 1988.

In 2000 made a come-back with the lead role in Vmesto menya/Instead of me (Vladimir Basov Ml., Olga Basova, 2000). It was to be his final role.

In 2004 he was honoured with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland; 2nd class - For outstanding achievements in the field of cinema and many years of creative activity. During his career he won many more awards and other honours.

Oleg Strizhenov is the father of the Russian actor, writer, producer, and director Aleksandr Strizhenov.

Russian postcard, no. M-55858, 1963. This postcard was printed in an edition of 150.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

Sources: Voice of Russia, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Swiss character actress Annemarie Düringer passed away on 26 November 2014. She starred in several German war dramas and comedies of the 1950s, and also worked with directors like Claude Goretta and Rainer Werner Fassbinder during the 1970s and 1980s. She was 89.

German postcard by Ufa, no. FK 1708. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Algefa / Allianz-Film.

Numerous awards

Annemarie Düringer was born in Arlesheim, Basel-Landschaft in 1925. In 1946, she graduated from the Cours Simon in Paris and the following year, she graduated from the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.

Her film debut, she made as the star in the romantic comedy Der Feldherrnhügel (Ernst Marischka, 1953) with Adrienne Gessner as her mother and Hans Holt as her handsome lieutenant.

In 1955, she starred opposite Wolfgang Preiss in Der 20. Juli/The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (Falk Harnack, 1955). It was followed by the British war drama Count Five and Die (Victor Vicas, 1957). She also played in the Heinz Rühmann comedy Der Lügner/The Liar (Ladislao Vajda, 1961).

Annemarie Düringer's later films include the Swiss crime drama Schatten der Engel/Shadow of Angels (Daniel Schmid, 1976), the French drama La Dentellière/The Lacemaker (Claude Goretta, 1977) as the mother of Pomme, played by Isabelle Huppert, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982) in which she played a sinister doctor who addicts a former Ufa star (Rosa Zech) to morphine in order to gain control of the actress's money and property.

Düringer also appeared in Fassbinder's monumental TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980) starring Günther Lamprecht. Decades later she played the mother of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (John Malkovich) in Klimt (Raúl Ruiz, 2006) and a nun in Vision (Margarethe von Trotta, 2009), a screen biography of 12th century Renaissance woman Hildegard von Bingen (Barbara Sukowa).

She received numerous awards, including the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria. Her final film was Lovely Louise (Bettina Oberli, 2013) in which she played an elderly diva who lives together with her taxi driver son (Stefan Kurt).

On 26 November 2014, Annemarie Düringer died on her 89th birthday at Baden bei Wien, Lower Austria.

Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. 1992. Photo: Filmex N.V.

German postcard by WS-Drück, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Apollo / Deutsche London / Grimm.

Source: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Today's film special is about the Italian silent melodrama Il carnevale di Venezia/The Carnival of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1928). Star is the diva Maria Jacobini. Her co-star is the British actor Malcolm Tod. The melodrama was a great success, but nationalists took the film out of circulation.

Maria Jacobini and Josyane in Il carnevale di Venezia

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 89. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Josyane in the late silent film Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 92. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 95. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 100. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Josyane in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Cheated by a ruthless, game addicted and vengeful lover

In Il carnevale di Venezia/The Carnival of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1928) a young American (Malcolm Tod) makes a generous gesture towards a Venetian nobleman, Duca Morosin (Bonaventura Ibanez). He not only saves him from ruin but also marries his granddaughter (Maria Jacobini). She has been cheated by a ruthless, game addicted and vengeful lover (Manlio Mannozzi).

Leading lady of the film was Maria Jacobini. Among the Italian divas, she was an 'island of serenity', as film historian Vittorio Martinelli expressed it. She was the personification of goodness, of simple love. Her weapon was her sweet and gracious smile.

The other stars were French actress Josyane who starred in French cinema of the 1920s and early 1930s, and British actor Malcolm Tod (1897-?) who was a star of British and European silent cinema of the 1920s.

The film was a success with Italian audiences when it was released in early February 1928 (partly because of the scarcely clad bathers at the Lido in the film). Despite this success, nationalist Italian critics didn't like the fact that the villain was Italian and the hero American.

So the film was taken from circulation and when Il carnevale di Venezia (1928) was re-released the roles were reversed. The American hero had become an Italian and the villain a foreigner with an English name.

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 102. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 103. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Josyane in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 106. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 107. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano: I film degli anni venti, 1921 - Italian) and IMDb.

Vera Malinovskaya (1900-1988) played in several Soviet films of the 1920s. Later she also starred in a few silent films in Germany and Austria.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4386/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The Station Master

Vera Stepanovna Malinovskaya, also written as Malinowskaya, Malinovskaja or Malinovskaia, was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), in 1900. As a girl, she was trained as a ballet dancer by the great Olga Preobrazenskaya.

Malinovskaya made her film debut in Vsem na radost'/To Everyone for Luck (Aleksandr Anoshchenko, 1924). From 1925 on, she had leading roles in films by the Mezhrabpom film company, often playing innocent girls.

In 1925 she played Dunia opposite Ivan Moskvin in Kollezhskiy registrator/The Station Master (Ivan Moskvin, Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1925), scripted by Fyodor Otsep (Fedor Ozep), after a novel by Alexander Pushkin. An aging village station master (Moskvin) leaves his post to trudge through the snow after his daughter Dunia (Malinovskaya), who is seduced and abducted by an aristocratic army officer. When he finally finds her after many hardships, he dies of heart failure.

Mary Pickford, who visited the Soviet Union with Douglas Fairbanks in 1926, later recalled she was impressed by Malinovskaya's performance in The Station Master. She also described meeting Malinovskaya: "In Russia I met a charming young, Russian 'star' - a tall girl with fair hair. She played the principal role in the best movie I saw there - The Station Keeper. By the way, this 'star' was among those who met us in Minsk. She wore a plain chiffon dress that looked as if it were four years old, but was neatly mended and washed. Probably with the assistance of Douglas and I, she will come to America."

It never happened. Footage of Pickford kissing a local actor was used - unknown to Pickford and Fairbanks - to make the comedy Potseluy Meri Pikford/A Kiss from Mary Pickford (Sergei Komarov, 1927), in which Malinovskaya played a part too.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford on a European tour. British postcard.

Russian postcard.

Melodramas and Historical Horror

In 1925 Vera Malinovskaya played in the historical horror film Medvezhya svadba/The Marriage of the Bear (Konstantin Eggert, Vladimir Gardin, 1925), based on a play by Anatoli Lunacharsky.

Konstantin Eggert specialized in melodramatic films and Malinovskaya, also appeared in his Chuzhaya/Someone Else (Konstantin Eggert, 1927), starring Peter Baksheev.

Malinovskaya had the female lead in Chelovek iz restorana/The Man from the Restaurant (Yakov Protazanov, 1927). Her male counterpart was the famous stage actor Michael Chekhov, a nephew of writer Anton Chekhov. He plays an older waiter who silently witnesses and endures the fattening rich and war profiteers, while his son is killed in the war and his wife dies as well. His chance comes when he saves his innocent daughter (Malinovskaya) from the clutches of a fat factory owner.

Peter Bagrov at KinoKultura lists a title that IMDb ignores: Takaya zhenshchina/Such a woman (Konstantin Eggert, 1927). In this melodrama, Malinovskaya had a smaller part as the peasant wife of a soldier who had previously been cheated by his aristocratic first wife.

Next followed another Eggert melodrama, Ledyanoy dom/Ice House (Konstantin Eggert, 1928) with again Peter Baksheev in the lead and based on a story by Ivan Lazjechnikov. The film is set in the 18th century: a gypsy girl is brought to the Russian court. There a prince falls in love with her, but the envious heiress of the throne tries to poison her.

Malinovskaya's last film in the Soviet Union was Khromoy barin/The Lame Gentleman (Konstantin Eggert, 1928), based on a story by Aleksey Tolstoy (not to be confused with the famous novelist).

Russian postcard by Roznak, Moscow, series no. 4, no. A 2400, 1927. Published in an edition of 25,000 cards.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5712. Photo: Lux-Film-Verleih / Greenbaum-Film.

Emigrated

In 1928 Vera Malinovskaya, desperate about the low wages in spite of her success, emigrated to Western Europe to play in Austrian and German historical films of the late silent era.

In Berlin, she played in the Aco-Film production Der Zigeunerprimas/Sari and The Gypsy Virtuoso (Carl Wilhelm, 1928), in which she played gypsy king Racz Pali's (Raimondo van Riel) daughter Sari.

She also went to Vienna where she played in the Sascha production Kaiserjäger (Hans Otto, 1928), opposite Mary Kid, Igo Sym and Werner Pittschau.

Also in 1928, she moved to Munich to play countess Tarnowska in the Emelka production Waterloo (Karl Grune, 1928), conceiving history from the Prussian perspective and starring Otto Gebühr as general Blücher.

Her last role was in the Greenbaum production Der Günstling von Schönbrunn/Favorite of Schonbrunn (Erich Waschneck, Max Reichmann, 1929), based on a story by Ladislaus Vajda. This historical comedy starred Lil Dagover as Empress Theresia and Iván Petrovich as Oberst Trenck, Malinovskaya was the empress' rival countess Nostiz.

After Der Günstling von Schönbrunn, Malinovskaya stopped playing in films. The reason was probably the arrival of the sound cinema. Reportedly she lived in Italy for a while, but according to the filmographies of Vittorio Martinelli and IMDb she did not perform in a film there.

Vera Malinovskaya died in Monaco in 1988. She was 88.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5784. Photo: Lux Film. Still for Der Günstling von Schönbrunn/Favorite of Schonbrunn (1929) with Iván Petrovich.

Sources: Peter Bagrov (Kino Kultura), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Sergei Bertensson (In Hollywood with Nemirovich-Danchenko, 1926-1927) and IMDb.