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Yevgeni Urbansky

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The creative life of prominent Soviet actor Yevgeni Urbansky (1932-1965) was short but very bright. In 1958 he rushed into the Russian cinema bursting with an irrepressible temperament and a craving for life. With his tragic death at the age of 33, a whole cinema epoch with peculiar aesthetics disappeared with him.

Yevgeni Urbansky
Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 00034, 1962. This postcard was printed in an edition of 125.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

Yevgeni Urbansky
Romanian collectors card.

The Communist


Yevgeni Yakovlevich Urbansky (Russian: Евгений Яковлевич Урбанский) or Evgeniy Urbanskiy was born in 1932 in Moscow, into the family of a Communist party worker. In 1957 he finished the Drama School Studio attached to MXAT and was admitted to the company of the Stanislavsky Moscow Drama Theatre.

His starring debut in the film Kommunist/The Communist (Yuli Raizman, 1958) brought him the adoration of the public, film critics and authorities as well. At AllMovie, Hal Erickson writes: "Yevgeny Urbansky plays Vassili, a dedicated communist who assumes control of a strategically important warehouse during the 1917 revolution. Almost single-handedly, Vassili fends off the counterattacks of the loyalist White Russians, here depicted as double-dyed villains. He finds time to romance the beautiful Aniuta (Sofya Pavlova) before he meets a spectacular death at the hands of 20 of his enemies. Even those unsympathetic to the film's politics will be swept up by the excitement and grandeur of Rasskaz Moei Materi (Stories of My Mother - the alternative title of Kommunist)."

The film won awards at the festivals in Venice and Kiev in 1958. In 1959 Kommunist was named among the three best films of the year according to the readers of the magazine Sovetsky Ekran (Soviet Screen). Urbansky next took his time to enrich his acting experience on stage, playing in around 22 to 25 plays every month.

Only in the middle of 1958 he finally turned to the cinema again. In the war drama Ballada o soldate/Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Chukhrai, 1959), he played a nameless disabled soldier whom the main character Alesha Skvortsov comes across at a railway station.

At Senses of Cinema, Julia Levin writes: "A guy he meets at a train station, Vasya, lost his leg in the war and is contemplating not returning to his wife. An invalid, he is fearful of her disdain. Yevgeni Urbansky, a wonderful actor whose cinematic fame was as sudden as it was short-lived, plays the role. (...) Persuaded by Alexei, Vasya returns to his hometown. The suspense becomes almost unbearable while the two of them wait for Vasya’s wife (Elza Lezhdey) at a train station. It looks like she will never come – yet she does, and the two reunite nervously in a sweet embrace, walking down the platform without being able to hold each other’s hands. Moments like this fill the screen with an indelible power – a simple and poetic legacy that has given Ballad of a Soldier its historic longevity."

Yevgeni Urbansky
Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. A 11456, 1965. Photo: Ter-Ovanesova. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

Life Collisions


In 1960 Yevgeni Urbansky again worked with film director Grigori Chukhrai, who was admired by the actor. He played the main character, the pilot Alexei Astakhov, a hero of the Soviet Union in the drama Chistoe nebo/Clear Skies (1961).

This film turned to be one of the most complicated ones in the career of Urbansky. He again acted masterfully as a soviet pilot who was shut down by anti-air Nazi fire, caught alive and put in prison until the war finished. Once back home, hurt but alive, he was suspected of betrayal and collaboration with Nazis with the only evidence of his survival. Because of the suspects he was expelled out from the communist party to which he used to be a member.

Chistoe nebo/Clear Skies was an accusation of Stalin's injustice with many of the Soviet citizens who heroically fought against the Nazi army. The film won acclaim, was acknowledged as the best film of the year by Russian viewers, and gathered awards at film festivals in Moscow, Mexico and San Francisco.

At AllMovie, Mark Deming explains: "This film was produced during a brief time in the Khrushchev administration when criticism of the abuse of power under Stalin's leadership was accepted; within two years, Brezhnev had risen to power and this sort of commentary would once again be forbidden."

Other films Urbansky appeared in were Neotpravlennoye pismo/The Unmailed Letter (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1959) opposite Tatyana Samoylova, Ispytatelnyy srok/Probation Term (Vladimir Gerasimov, 1960) starring Oleg Tabakov, Bolshaya ruda/The Big Red One (Vasili Ordynsky, 1964), and Tsar i general/Tsar and General (Vulo Radev, 1966) with Naum Shopov.

Yevgeni Urbansky
Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 124, 1961. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. The price was 8 kop.

The Director


Yevgeni Urbansky tragically died in November 1965 during the filming of Direktor/The Director. It happened during the shooting of a scene in which a transport column was driving over sands.

According to the scenario the car of Urbansky’s character was supposed to whirl through the sand dunes, overtake the column and head it. One of the most difficult shots in the scene was a bounce of the car from one of the dunes. The first take went fine, yet the second film director wanted the car to jump higher and asked for one more take.

During the next take the car suddenly turned upside down. The actor died immediately, only 33 years old.

In 1969 Direktor was re-filmed with Nikolai Gubenko playing the main role. The film was a success in the cinemas. In 1968 the documentary Yevgeni Urbansky, directed by Yekaterina Stashevskaya-Naroditskaya, was released. For Russian cinemagoers Yevgeni Urbanksky will forever remain 33.


DVD trailer for Neotpravlennoye pismo/Letter Never Sent (1959). Source: Spectacle Theater (YouTube).


Trailer for Ballada o soldate/Ballad of a Soldier (1959). Source: Lehren TV (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Mark Deming (AllMovie), Julia Levin (Senses of Cinema), Russia-InfoCentre, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Emma Gramatica

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Emma Gramatica (1874-1965) was a ‘monstre sacré’ of the Italian stage, but she also played many old ladies in Italian films of the 1930s to the 1950s.

Emma Gramatica
Italian postcard, no. 664. Photo: Sciutto, Genoa.

Emma Gramatica
German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 6. Card dated 11 September 1903. Back is Italian: ASC Diffida.

Far from flashy


Emma Gramatica, originally Aida Laura Argia Gramatica, was born in 1974 in Borgo San Donnino, Italy (now Fidenza). She was the sister of the equally famous Irma Gramatica and the less known Anna Adele Alberta Gramatica a.k.a. Anna Capodaglio.

She made her stage debut as a teenager next to Eleonora Duse in La Gioconda by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Emma's physical appearance was far from flashy, but she showed an elegantly incisive interpretive charge.

Emma was the first actress at the stage companies of some of the most prestigious names in the Italian theatre of the late 19th and the early 20th century, such as Ermete Zacconi, Flavio Andò, Enrico Reinach and Ermete Novelli.

In the 1910s she formed the famous company Gramatica-Carini-Piperno, in which many great actors had their formation such as Renzo Ricci and Lola Braccini.

In 1916 she debuted on the silver screen as a marriage wrecker in Quando il canto si spegne/When the hand goes out (Emilio Graziani-Walter, 1916), opposite Luigi Serventi and produced by the Milanese company General Film. Even if praising her stage qualities, the press condemned her for her looks and theatricality, and didn’t accept her as the mistress for which a man breaks up his marriage. Gramatica got the message and stayed away from the screen until the arrival of sound cinema in Italy.

Emma Gramatica
Italian postcard by Ed. Stab. Capecchi, Livorno, no. 118. Photo: Capecchi, Livorno.

Emma Gramatica
Italian postcard by Leonar, no. 2131. August 1922.

Emma Gramatica
Italian postcard, no. 655. Photo: Sciutto, Genoa.

Acute and pathetic tones


From the early 1930s, Emma Gramatica did prose on radio, first with EIAR and later also with RAI. Gramatica was an actress of the old naturalist school, of acute and pathetic tones.

At a high age she started a successful film and television career, probably debuting in La vecchia signora/The Old Lady (Amleto Palermi, 1931) as an impoverished lady who sells chestnuts on the streets to support her niece.

Gramatica was memorable in Napoli d’altri tempi/Naples of Former Days (Amleto Palermi, 1938) starring Vittorio De Sica, in Mamma/Mother (Guido Brignone, 1941) as the mother of Beniamino Gigli, and in Sissignora/Yes, Madam (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1941).

In Sorelle Materassi/The Materassi Sisters (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1944), she and her sister Irma played two old spinsters, and in Miracolo in Milano/Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica, 1951) she played old Lolotta who finds baby Totò (Francesco Golisano) among the cauliflowers in her garden and raises him with an optimist and kind outlook. She also appeared in Don Camillo Monsignore ... ma non troppo/Don Camillo: Monsignor (Carmine Gallone, 1961).

Emma Gramatica received awards and honors in Italy and also the Legion of Honor in France. She died in 1965 in Ostia, near Rome, and rests in the family tomb in the cemetery of Signa, with her sister Irma and their parents.

Emma Gramatica
Italian postcard by Ed. A. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Badodi, Milano.

Emma Gramatica
Italian/German postcard by NPG, no. 7. Back: ASC Diffida.

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Tom Jones

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Welsh singer Tom Jones (1940) is particularly noted for his powerful voice. Since the mid 1960s, this ‘vocal powerhouse’ has sold over 100 million records. Many of his songs can be heard on film soundtracks, and he also regularly appeared as a singer and an actor in films and TV-series. In his time Tom Jones has tried his hand at styles including pop, rock, R&B, country, big band, dance, techno, gospel and jazz, and he's still going strong today. Despite his many well publicised infidelities, womaniser Jones was married to the same woman since 1957.  Last Sunday, his wife Linda has died from cancer.

Tom Jones
Italian postcard by Silvercart, Milano (Milan), no. 532/8.

Tom Jones
French postcard by ps, no. 1399.

Too Raucous and Raunchy


Tom Jones was born Thomas John Woodward in Pontypridd, South Wales, in 1940. His parents were Freda Jones and Thomas Woodward, a coal miner.

Jones began singing at an early age: he'd regularly perform at family gatherings, weddings and his mother's Women's Guild meetings. At 16, he left school. He married his high school girlfriend, Linda Trenchard the following year, one month before their son Mark was born. To support his young family, Jones took a job working in a glove factory and was later employed in construction.

At night, he sang in pubs. Jones' bluesy singing style developed out of the sound of American soul music. His early influences included blues and R & B greats like Little Richard, Solomon Burke, and Jackie Wilson. Jones became the front man for Tommy Scott and the Senators, a Welsh beat group, in 1963. They soon gained a local following and reputation in South Wales.

Gordon Mills, a performer who had branched out into songwriting and management went to see him. He became his manager and contrived the stage name, Tom Jones, which not only linked the singer to the image of the title character in Tony Richardson's hit film Tom Jones (1963) starring Albert Finney, but also emphasised Jones' Welsh nationality. Many record companies found Jones' stage presence, act, and vocal delivery too raucous and raunchy. Eventually, Mills got Jones a recording contract with Decca.

His first single, Chills and Fever, was released in late 1964. It didn't chart, but the follow-up, It's Not Unusual became an international hit. The BBC initially refused to play it, but the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline promoted it. The heavily orchestrated pop arrangement perfectly meshed with Jones' swinging, sexy image, and in early 1965, It's Not Unusual reached number one in the United Kingdom and the top ten in the United States.

Tom Jones
Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 7048.

Tom Jones
Dutch postcard, no. 968.

Tom Jones
Dutch postcard by Muziek Parade, no. AX 6249.

A More Respectable and Mature Crooner


During 1965, Gordon Mills secured a number of film themes for Tom Jones to record, including the themes for the comedy What's New Pussycat? (Clive Donner, Richard Talmadge, 1965), written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and for the James Bond film Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965) starring Sean Connery.

Jones was also awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for 1965. In 1966, Jones' popularity began to slip somewhat, causing Mills to redesign the singer's image into a more respectable and mature crooner. Jones also began to sing material that appealed to a wider audience, such as the big country hit Green, Green Grass of Home. The strategy worked and Jones returned to the top of the charts in the UK and began hitting the Top 40 again in the USA.

For the remainder of the decade, he scored a consistent string of hits on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1967, Jones performed for the first time in Las Vegas at the Flamingo. His charismatic performances and style of dress (increasingly featuring his open half unbuttoned shirts and tight pants) became part of his stage act. Women would swoon and scream, and some would throw their knickers on stage.

Soon after he began to play Las Vegas, he chose to record less, instead concentrating on his lucrative club performances. However, one of Tom's best-loved singles was released in 1968. Delilah was a dark tale of murder and infidelity, but people were entranced by the melody and Jones' unforgettable delivery. It became a big hit.

Jones had an internationally successful television variety show from 1969 to 1971, titled This Is Tom Jones. The show, which was worth a reported $9m to Jones over three years, was broadcast by ITV in the UK and by ABC in America. From 1980 to 1981, he had a second television variety show, The Tom Jones Show, which lasted for a series of 24 episodes.

Tom Jones
Italian postcard. Photo: Decca.

Tom Jones
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 31262. Photo: Decca / Teldec.

Tom Jones
French postcard by PSG, no. 1453.

Kiss


In the early 1970s, Tom Jones had a number of hit singles, including She's A Lady, Till, and The Young New Mexican Puppeteer, but in the mid 1970s his popularity declined, although he did have a big hit in 1976 with Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow, which went to #1 on the US country chart and #15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

He appeared in such TV films as Showdown at O.K. Corral (Nicholas Webster, 1972) and Pleasure Cove (Bruce Bilson, 1979). In 1974, Tom finally moved to America, buying the mansion formerly belonging to Dean Martin in Los Angeles' Bel Air. In the early 1980s, Jones started to record country music. From 1980 to 1986, Jones had nine songs hit the top 40 on the US country chart, yet he failed to crack the top 100 in the UK or chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

After Jones' long-time manager Gordon Mills died of cancer in 1986, Jones' son Mark became his new manager. Mark recognised that Jones was incorporating modern music in his live shows and suggested that he should start to record songs from a fresh genre and leave country music behind. In 1987, Jones re-entered the singles chart with A Boy From Nowhere, which went to #2 in The UK. The following year, he covered Prince's Kiss with The Art of Noise. The song was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching #5 in the UK and #31 in the US. The video for Kiss won the MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video.

Jones received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989. He played a leading part in the British TV film The Ghosts of Oxford Street (Malcolm McLaren, 1991). In 1993, he appeared as himself on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and in animated form for an episode of The Simpsons.

Jones signed with Interscope Records in 1993 and released the album The Lead And How To Swing It. He played a photographer in the romantic comedy Silk n' Sabotage (Joe Cauley, 1994), did a cameo in the comedy The Jerky Boys (James Melkonian, 1995), and was himself between the Martians in the hilarious Mars Attacks (Tim Burton, 1996).

In 1999, Jones released the album Reload, a collection of cover duets with artists such as The Cardigans, Van Morrison, Portishead, The Stereophonics, and Robbie Williams. The album went to #1 in the UK and sold over 4 million copies worldwide. The next year he lent his voice to Walt Disney’s animation film The Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000).

In 2002, Jones released the album Mr. Jones, which was produced by Wyclef Jean. The album and the first single, Tom Jones International, were top 40 hits in the UK. Jones received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2003. The following year, he teamed up with pianist Jools Holland and released Tom Jones & Jools Holland, a roots rock 'n' roll album. It peaked at #5 in the UK.

In 2005, the BBC reported that Jones was Wales' wealthiest entertainer, having amassed a fortune of £175 million. Jones, who was awarded an OBE in 1999, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 at Buckingham Palace for his services to music. In 2010, his latest album Praise & Blame debuted at number 2 on the UK album chart.

In October 2015 Tom Jones' autobiography entitled Over the Top and Back: The Autobiography was published by Michael Joseph. A new musical, Tom Jones the Musical, based on the singer's life and recordings, opened at the Wales Millennium Centre in March 2016. Tom Jones has remained married to his wife Melinda Rose Woodward, known as Linda since 1957, despite his many well publicised infidelities. Linda passed away on 9 April 2016. The couple lived in Los Angeles and London. Their two grandchildren are Alexander born (1983) and Emma (1987).


Tom Jones sings Chills and Fever in The Beat Room (1964). Source: projecth112 (YouTube).


Tom Jones sings Delilah. Source: Videos Destacados (YouTube).


Clip of Tom Jones singing Sex Bomb. Source: Music Entertainment (YouTube).


Clip of The Cardigans ft. Tom Jones singing Burning Down The House. Source: DEK DOGBOLTER (YouTube). (reversed video)

Sources: BBC, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Der blaue Engel (1930)

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Today, EFSP starts a new series of film specials. We begin with a classic of the Ufa studios, Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930). It was the last of the classic films of Emil Jannings and the first of Marlene Dietrich.

Emil Jannings in Der blaue Engel
Emil Jannings. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4746/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930).

Under the spell of Lola Lola


Der blaue Engel was written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Liebmann– with uncredited contributions by director Josef von Sternberg. It is based on Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat (Professor Garbage).

Weimar Germany, 1924. Middle aged Dr. Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a respectable literature professor at the local Gymnasium – a college preparatory high school. Most of his students don't like him, and nickname him "Unrat" - German for garbage.

Dr. Rath learns that many of his boys often frequent a cabaret called Der blaue Engel - the Blue Angel - which he believes is corrupting their impressionable young minds. He heads to the Blue Angel himself to catch the boys in the act and shame them into not going again.

Rath is able to catch the boys, but in the process he also understands what attracts the boys, namely the beautiful headlining performer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich). Consumed with desire for Lola, Rath returns to the cabaret the following evening, to return a pair of panties that were smuggled into his coat by one of his students, and stays the night with her.

Lola seemingly also falls in love with him. Rath subsequently resigns from his position at the academy to marry Lola and travels with her from cabaret to cabaret. He becomes a clown in Lola's cabaret troupe to pay the bills.

Their relationship ends up not being what either envisioned. His growing insecurities about Lola's profession as a "shared woman" eventually consume him with lust and jealousy. As Rath performs his last act, he witnesses his wife embrace and kiss the strongman Mazeppa (Hans Albers), her new love interest, and is enraged to the point of insanity. He attempts to strangle Lola, but is beaten down by the other members of the troupe and locked in a straitjacket.

Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel (1930)
Small German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Marlene Dietrich.

Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel (1930)
Small German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.

Kurt Gerron and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel (1930)
Small German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Kurt Gerron and Marlene Dietrich.

Emil Jannings in Der blaue Engel (1930)
Small German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Emil Jannings.

Hans Albers and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel (1930)
German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Hans Albers and Marlene Dietrich.

Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel (1930)
German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.

Dietrich's bored, world-weary attitude


Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930) was Emil Jannings's first film back in Germany after his trip to Hollywood, where he had won two Oscars with silent films. It was also his final English-language film. Der blaue Engel was released in both German and English versions, although the latter version was thought lost for many years. The German version is considered to be superior, it is longer and not marred by actors struggling with their English pronunciation.

Many actresses from the stage and screen were considered for the role of Lola Lola. Among the early contenders were Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks, Brigitte Helm, Lya De Putti, Käthe Haack and Lotte Lenya.

There are various accounts of why Marlene Dietrich was cast as Lola Lola, but the one given by director Josef von Sternberg in his autobiography is that Dietrich came to test for the film with a bored, world-weary attitude because she was convinced she wasn't going to get the role and was merely going through the motions - and Sternberg hired her because that world-weary attitude was precisely what he wanted for the character.

Dietrich's screen test for has survived. In it, she pretends to upbraid her pianist, Friedrich Hollaender, the film's composer. She then sings the chorus of You're the Cream In My Coffee, after which she climbs on the piano, hitches up her skirt to show her legs and sings, in German, a torch song called Why Cry by Peter Kreuder, a well-known song-writer who became the film's orchestrator. As the test ends, Dietrich breaks character and apologizes to Hollander.

Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5582/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.


Original trailer for Der blaue Engel (1930). Source: Eurekaentertainment (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

André van Duin

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Funny-looking, reddish André van Duin (1947) is a famous comedian and actor in the Dutch-speaking countries. He is also a singer, writer, and creator of television programs, and he starred in three Dutch film comedies.

André van Duin
Dutch promotion card by CNR, Weesp.

The talent of amusing people


André van Duin was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1947. His birthname was Adrianus Marinus Kloot, which he legally changed to Adrianus Marinus Kyvon in 1966, a few years after taking the pseudonym André van Duin.

As a kid he developed the talent of amusing people, imitating celebrities and singing. At the age of 15 he sent letters to several TV networks, requesting an audition. In 1964 he was discovered when he won the TV talent contest show Nieuwe Oogst (New Harvest), and started appearing as a guest in a few shows, including that of singing father and daughter Willy Alberti andWilleke Alberti.

In 1965 he got the opportunity to do a television programme of his own, Een avondje TV met André/A TV evening with André. From 1967 onwards, he took apprenticeship at comedians Willy Walden and Piet Muyselaar's Snip & Snap theatre shows.

In the 1970s André van Duin set up his own Revue with Frans van Dusschoten as the straight man and Corrie van Gorp. These shows were televised on TROS and in 1975 Van Duin won an award for Dag dag heerlijke lach/Hello hello delicious laugh (1974-1975). During this decade Van Duin recorded several hit songs such as Het bananenlied (1972), a parody of The Banana Boat Song.

In 1972, André van Duin began the radio program Dik Voormekaar Show. First with broadcasting company Radio Noordzee Internationaal, later with the NCRV and TROS. He involved his then technician, Ferry de Groot, in the show, becoming the character Meneer de Groot (Mister de Groot). The show continued to air on radio (and for a period also on TV) as recently as 2009.

André van Duin debuted as an actor in the TV series Het meisje met de blauwe hoed/The Girl With The Blue Hat (Dick van 't Sant, 1972), playing an army recruit opposite Jenny Arean. It was a TV version of the film musical Het meisje met den blauwe hoed/The Girl With The Blue Hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934), with Truus van Aalten and Lou Bandy in the Van Duin part.

In 1976, Van Duin had a massive hit with the song Willempie. Parents of mentally challenged children considered his performance offensive. Van Duin escaped legal actions by apologising on television. Later that year, Van Duin released And're Andre (The Other Andre), an album stripped of wackiness that became the first of five volumes.

André van Duin
Dutch postcard by Postcheque en Girodienst, 's-Gravenhage. Illustration: n.n.

André van Duin
Dutch postcard by Nederlands Artisten Management, Rotterdam.

Both serious and wacky


André van Duin made his film debut with Pretfilm/Fun Film (Robert Kaesen, 1976) in which he played various characters with his croonies from his stage and TV comedies, Frans van Dusschoten and Corrie van Gorp. In 1981 he starred with the same team in another comedy, Ik Ben Joep Meloen/I am Joep Melon (Guus Verstraete, 1981), which was another reasonable success.

In 1982 followed his most ambitious film, De Boezemvriend/The Bosom Buddy (Dimitri Frenkel Frank, 1982), partly an adaptation of the Danny Kaye film The Inspector General (Henry Koster, 1949). Van Duin portrayed charlatan dentist Fred van der Zee who is mistaken for Napoleon's delegate. De Boezemvriend was considered a failure and Van Duin hasn't returned to the big screen since.

Cartoonist Toon van Driel created André's own comic book series in 1987. Very popular was the WWF-promoting TV series Animal Crackers (1988). Van Duin and his new stable-mate Ron Brandsteder were team-captains in the TV show Wie ben ik?/Who am I? (1989), hosted by Caroline Tensen.

Between 1993 and 1999 Van Duin made television shows for RTL. In 2007 the André's Nieuwe Revue-tour was launched; Belgium was visited in November 2008 for five shows in Antwerp. In 2009 he made a new series of Dik Voormekaar Shows. In 2010, Van Duin released the cd Dubbel, made up of both serious and wacky songs.

During his career, André van Duin had 41 singles in the Dutch Top 40, 22 of those reached the Top 10 of which 3 singles became number one. André van Duin was in a relationship with Wim van der Pluym from 1974 until 1995, when Van der Pluym died. Van Duin married Martin Elferink in 2006. In 2013, he returned to TV as Petrus in the hit series 't Schaep met de 5 pooten/The Sheep with five legs. On stage, he impressed with his role in The Sunshine Boys (2015).

De Dik Voormekaar Show

De Dik Voormekaar Show
Dutch postcards by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen, 1979. Photos: NAM / Direct Promotion. Publicity stills for the TV series De Dik Voormekaar Show (Guus Verstraete, 1977-1979). TV version of the popular radio program with André van Duin and Ferry de Groot in which the various characters were portrayed on screen by hand puppets in the first season (1977-1978) and full body costumes in the second (1978-1979).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: The World of Colette

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One of our favourite authors is Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) or simply Colette. The French novelist, journalist and performer is now best known for her sexy, courageous novels Chéri and Gigi, which were adapted into classic films. But many other films were based on her work; or she wrote dialogues for them. Today 12 dazzling postcards of Colette and of the stars of the films based on her novels.

Colette
French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 22. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Georges Wague and Colette Willy in La Chair (1907)
As Colette Willy with Georges Wague in La Chair (1907). French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Publicity still for the mime drama La Chair/The Flesh (1907) written by Georges Wague and Leon Lambert, with music by Albert Chantrier. It was Colette's greatest stage success.

Claudine


Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in 1873, to war hero and tax collector Jules-Joseph Colette and his wife Adèle Eugénie Sidonie (Sido), nėe Landoy, in the French village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye. The family was initially well off, but by the time she was of school age poor financial management had substantially reduced her father's income and she attended a public school from the ages of 6 to 17.

In 1893, at age 20, Colette married Henry Gauthier-Villars He was a famous writer, music critic known as 'Willy'. He was 15 years her senior and described as a "literary charlatan and degenerate". He introduced Colette into avant-garde intellectual and artistic circles while engaging in sexual affairs and encouraging her own lesbian dalliances. Her first books, the titillating Claudine series, were published under her husband's pen name Willy.

The Claudine series contained the four novels Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1900), Claudine à Paris/Claudine in Paris (1901), Claudine en menage/Claudine Married (1902), and Claudine s'en va/Claudine and Annie (1903). They chart the coming of age of their heroine, Claudine, from an unconventional fifteen year old in a Burgundian village to the literary salons of turn-of-the-century Paris. The story they tell is semi-autobiographical, but not entirely — most strikingly, Claudine, unlike Colette, is motherless. Today, especially Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1900) still has the power to charm; in belle époque France it was downright shocking, much to Willy's satisfaction and profit.

Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although it was not until 1910 that the divorce became final. She had no access to the sizable earnings of the Claudine books — the copyright belonged to Willy. Colette went to work in the music halls of Paris, under the wing of Mathilde de Morny, Marquise de Belbeuf, known as 'Missy', with whom she became romantically involved. In 1907, the two performed together in Rêve d'Égypte, a pantomime at the Moulin Rouge. Their onstage kiss nearly caused a riot, which the police were called in to suppress. As a result of this scandal, further performances were banned, and Colette and de Morny were no longer able to live together openly, though their relationship continued for five years.

Until 1912 Colette followed a stage career in music halls across France, sometimes playing Claudine in sketches from her own novels, earning barely enough to survive and often hungry and unwell. This period of her life is recalled in the novel La Vagabonde/The Vagabond (1910), which deals with women's independence in a male society — a theme to which she would regularly return in future works. La Vagabonde received three votes for the prestigious Prix Goncourt.

In 1912, Colette married Henri de Jouvenel, the editor of the newspaper Le Matin. The couple had one daughter, Colette de Jouvenel. Marriage allowed her the time to writing and she devoted herself to journalism. During the war, she converted her husband's Saint-Malo estate into a hospital for the wounded. In 1920, she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

Maud Loty
Maud Loty. French postcard. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: "A midi la vie en rose dans un verre de Campari." Maud Loty starred in four silent Claudine films, Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1917), Claudine à Paris/Claudine in Paris (1917), Claudine en menage/Claudine Married (1917), and Claudine s'en va/Claudine and Annie (1917). Her co-star was Loulou Hégoburu.

MUSIDORA_Sid. Photo G. L. Manuel
Musidora. French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona. Musidora was the star of La Vagabonda/The Vagabond (Musidora, Eugenio Perego, 1918), based on Colette's novel La Vagabonde (1910).

Dorothea Wieck in Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Ellen Schwannecke and Dorothea Wieck in Mädchen in Uniform (1931). British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931), for which Colette wrote additional dialogues.

Lac aux Dames
Simone Simon and Jean-Pierre Aumont in Lac aux dames (1934). French postcard. Photo: Belleville-Pathé. Publicity still for Lac aux dames/Ladies Lake (Marc Allégret, 1934), for which Colette wrote the dialogues. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.

Danièle Delorme (1926-2015)
Danièle Delorme. French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 108. Photo: Studio Harcourt. Delorme is probably best remembered for her starring roles in the original French production of Gigi (1948) and in Minne (1950), both based on novels by Colette.

Nicole Berger and Pierre Michel Beck in Le Blé en herbe (1954)
Pierre Michel Beck and Nicole Berger in Le Blé en herbe (1954). German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1463. Photo: Franco London Film, Paris / Prisma. Publicity still for Le Blé en herbe/The Game of Love (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).

Chéri and Gigi


Post-World War I, her writing career bloomed following the publication of Chéri (1920). Chéri tells a story of the end of a six-year affair between an ageing retired courtesan, Léa, and a pampered young man, Chéri. Léa is devastated when Chéri marries a girl his own age, and delighted when he returns to her, but after one final night together she sends him away again.

After Chéri, Colette entered the world of modern poetry and painting revolving around Jean Cocteau. She divorced Henri de Jouvenel partly due to Jouvenel's infidelities and partly to Colette's own much talked-about affair with her sixteen year old stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel. In 1935, Colette married Maurice Goudeket, an uncle of Juliet Goudeket alias Hollywood legend Jetta Goudal. The couple stayed together until her death.

Her novel Le Blé en herbe (1923) dealed again with love between an ageing woman and a very young man, a situation reflecting her relationship with Bertrand de Jouvenel. The decades of the 1920s and 1930s were Colette's most productive and innovative period. Set mostly in Burgundy or Paris during the Belle Époque, her work treated married life, sexuality, and the problems of a woman's struggle for independence.

During the German occupation of France during World War II, her husband Maurice Goudeket, a Jew, was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1941. Although he was released after a few months through the intervention of the French wife of the German ambassador, Colette lived through the rest of the war years with the anxiety of a possible second arrest. She aided her Jewish friends, and hided her husband in her attic.

Her best known work, the novella Gigi (1944), was the basis for several films. It tells the story of sixteen year old Gilberte (Gigi) Alvar. Born into a family of demimondaines, Gigi is being trained as a courtesan to captivate a wealthy lover, but breaks with tradition by marrying him instead. In 1949 Gigi was made into a French film starring Danièle Delorme and Gaby Morlay. In 1951 Gigi was adapted for the stage ny Lerner and Loewe with the then-unknown Audrey Hepburn in the title role, picked by Colette personally. The Hollywood musical Gigi (Vinccente Minelli, 1958), starring Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan, with a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and a score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, won the Oscar for Best Picture.

In 1948, Colette was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. On her death in 1954, she was refused a religious funeral by the Catholic Church on account of her divorces. Instead she was given a state funeral, the first French woman of letters to be granted this honour, and interred in Père-Lachaise cemetery. She was 81.

Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958)
Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 662. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minelli, 1958).

Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/34. Photo: Sam Levin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).

Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/35. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).

Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by ISV, Amsterdam, no. B 17. Photo: publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).

Sources: Amis de Colette (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

Dany Robin

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French actress Dany Robin (1927-1995) was the pert, delicate-looking star in comedies and melodramas of the late 1940s till the late 1960s. The blonde dish with the piled-high hairdo was a one-time threat to the sexy, kittenish Brigitte Bardot.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 462. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1117. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Robin and Adrian Hoven in Bonsoir Paris (1956)
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 2315. Photo: Melodie / Deutsche London / Heil. Publicity still for Bonsoir Paris/Good Evening Paris (Ralph Baum, 1956).

Dany Robin
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1885. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.

Sensual But Virginal Heroine


Danielle Robin was born in Clamart near Paris, France, in 1927. As a child, Robin trained as a ballerina and eventually made her way to the Opera de Paris under Roland Petit.

At age 19, however, she opted for a film career. Studying at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Paris, she made her screen debut in the melodrama Lunegarde (Marc Allégret, 1946) with Gaby Morlay.

She worked for such legendary directors as Marcel Carné in Les portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (1946), and René Clair in Le silence est d'or/Man About Town (1947) opposite French sensation Maurice Chevalier. The latter film was her first real break.

She grew quickly in popularity as a sensual but virginal heroine of light, fluffy comedies as Six heures à perdre/Six Hours to Lose (Alex Joffé, Jean Lévitte, 1946), L'éventail/Naughty Martine (Emil E. Reinert, 1947), and the melodrama Les amoureux sont seuls au monde/Monelle (Henri Decoin, 1948) with Louis Jouvet.

The romance Six heures à perdre also featured the young Louis de Funés, and he and Robin would team up again in the comedies Elle et moi/She and Me (Guy Lefranc, 1952), and Frou-Frou/The Toy Wife (Augusto Genina, 1955).

Other popular films were La fête à Henriette/Henriette (Julien Duvivier, 1952), a Pirandellian comedy about the art of film making, and Les dragueurs/The Chasers (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1959). Although she was a popular star, journalists awarded her twice (in 1953 and 1954) the Lemon Prize, as the nastiest French actress.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 27. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 8. Photo: Pathé Cinema.

Dany Robin
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1149. Photo: Thibault / P.A.C.-Film, Paris. Publicity still for Cadet Rousselle (André Hunebelle, 1954).

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 305. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. S-1513. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Lithe and Luscious


Though most of her films were produced in France, Dany Robin also worked internationally. The lithe and luscious actress was the female lead opposite Kirk Douglas in the Hollywood production Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953), a bittersweet love story about the star-crossed relationship between a World War II GI and a young Parisian during the Allied liberation of Paris.

She performed with Peter Sellers in the British sex comedy Waltz of the Toreadors (John Guillermin, 1962), and she co-starred with Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss in Follow the Boys (Richard Thorpe, 1963).

In Great Britain she appeared in the thirteenth Carry On film, Don't Lose Your Head (often called Carry On Don't Lose Your Head) (Gerald Thomas, 1966). Set in France and England in 1789 during the French revolution, it is a parody of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel. Carry on-regular Sid James is the Black Fingernail, a rip-off Scarlet Pimpernel using double entendres and a wide variety of disguises.

Robin’s last leading role was Nicole Devereaux, the wife a French secret agent (Frederick Stafford) in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Topaz (1969). Dany Robin was married to fellow actor Georges Marchal from 1951 till 1969. They had two children: Frédérique and Robin.

In 1969. she married the Irish producer/agent Michael Sullivan and retired. Both died tragically during a fire in their apartment in Paris in 1995. Dany Robin was 68.

Dany Robin
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.302, 1965.

Dany Robin
French postcard by Imp. De Marchi Frères, Marseille.

Dany Robin
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-53. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa.

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

Dany Robin
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3212. Refers to Robin's Film Liebe an der Seine/ Conduite à gauche (Guy Lefranc, 1961).


Dany Robin, Serge Reggiani and a very young Brigitte Bardotin Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953). Source: Filmographie de Brigitte Bardot (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes – French), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Twelve New acquisitions

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Yesterday, we were at the International Collector's Fair in the city of Utrecht. The enormous halls of the Jaarbeurs, full of vintage memorabilia (see the picture below), are the hunting grounds where Bob & Jan hunt for their vintage postcards. In this post six new trophies of Jan and six of Bob.

Int. Collector's Fair (Utrecht, April 2016)
Int. Collector's Fair (Utrecht, April 2016).

Baby Peggy
Baby Peggy. French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 235.

Au nom de l'honneur
French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3672. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Un drame à Venise/Venetian Tragedy (Lucien Nonguet, 1906). Sent by mail in 1917.

Polaire
Polaire. French postcard by B.J.C., Paris. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Bouffes-Parisiens.

Alexander Moissi and Luis Rainer in Jedermann (1926)
Austrian postcard. Photo: Willinger, Wien. Publicity still for the stage production Jedermann with Alexander Moissi as Jedermann and Luis Rainer as Death, staged at the Salzburger Festspiele 1926.

Dita Parlo and Willy Fritsch in Ungarische Rhapsodie
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/4. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo.

Pola Negri in The Way of Lost Souls (Son dernier tango)
Pola Negri. Belgian postcard issued by the Splendid-Cinéma in Brussels for The Way of Los Souls aka The Woman He Scorned (in French: Son dernier tango, dir. Paul Czinner 1929). It was produced by Gaumont-British as early sound film (some say it was instead a late silent film, so maybe it was shot in both a silent and a sound version). Pola Negri plays a prostitute who marries lighthouse keeper (Hans Rehmann), but her past and her old lover (Warwick Ward) haunt her. It was Czinner's first British film. he would eventually settle in Britain with his wife, actress Elisabeth Bergner, pursued by the Nazis. Location shooting was done in Cornwall.

Marlene Dietrich and Clive Brook in Shanghai Express (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6379/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily and Clive Brook as 'Doc' Harvey in Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

Hans Albers
Hans Albers. German postcard. by Ross Verlag, no. 7039/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932).

Armand Mestral
Armand Mestral. French postcard by Studio Star, Paris. Photo: Star, Paris.

Antonella Lualdi
Antonella Lualdi. German postcard by Ufa. Photo: Angelo Frontoni / Ufa.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963)
German postcard by ISV, no. A.104. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Elizabeth Taylor in the epic Cleopatra (Joseph Manckiewcz, 1963).

Jean-Marc Barr in The Scarlet Tunic (1998)
Jean-Marc Barr. British postcard by ABC, London. Photo: publicity still for The Scarlet Tunic (Stuart St. Paul, 1998).

Simone Vaudry

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Simone Vaudry (1906-1993) was a popular French actress of the silent era and the early sound era. She appeared both in many French and several German films and starred in several popular serials.

Simone Vaudry in Vingt ans après (1922)
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 61. Photo: Pathé Consortium. Vaudry as Henriette d'Angleterre in Vingt ans après/Twenty Years After (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922).

Serial Queen


Simone Vaudry was born Simone Hélène Georgette Vaurigaud in Paris. At the age of four she was already acting in silent films, debuting in the Gaumont production Le crime du grand-père/The crime of the grandfather (Léonce Perret, Jacques Roullet, 1910) written by Abel Gance, in which Suzy Prim co-acted.

In 1913, after various productions at Gaumont by Perret and others, Vaudry started to play in films by Éclair as well, directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset. During the First World War, Vaudry did not act in film, but in 1918 she reappeared in Le Noël d’Yveline/The Christmas of Yveline (Georges-André Lacroix, 1918), Vaudry’s first feature, and again a Gaumont film with Prim.

In the early 1920s followed Les élus de la mer/The Elected of the Sea (Marcel Dumont, Gaston Roudès, 1921) with Gaston Modot, L’épingle rouge/The red pin (Edouard-Emile Violet, 1921), Le double/The Double (Alexandre Ryder, 1921), Mimi Pinson (Théo Bergerat, 1922), the drama Le mouton noir/The Black Sheep (Chalux, 1922), and the fairy tale La belle au bois dormant/Sleeping Beauty (Stéphane Passet, 1922).

In 1922 Vaudry also played Henriette d’Angleterre in the Alexandre Dumas adaptation Vingts ans après/Five Years After (1922) by Henri Diamant-Berger. This serial in ten chapters was the sequel to Diamant-Berger’s adaptation of Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1921).

She also had an important part in the Spanish drama Para toda la vida/For the whole life (Benito Perojo, 1923), in Les Rantzau/The Rantzaus (Gaston Roudès, 1923) starring France Dhélia,La bouquetière des innocents/The Innocent Flower Girl (Jacques Robert, 1923), Les cinquante ans de Don Juan/The Fifty years of Don Juan (Henri Etievant, 1924) starring Charles Vanel, and L’enfant des halles/The Child of Les Halles (René Leprince, 1924) with Suzanne Bianchetti.

In 1924 Vaudry had her first lead in a German film: Das lockende Gefahr/The luring danger (Josef Stein, 1924) and also had small part in the 12 episodes serial Les mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1924), starring Huguette Duflos. Vaudry had a much bigger part as Nina in the 8 episodes long Mylord l’Arsouille (René Leprince, 1924), starring Aimé Simon-Girard, and immediately after she had the female lead as Perrette in Fanfan-la-Tulipe (René Leprince, 1925), with again Simon-Girard in the male lead. All these films by Leprince were made for the Société des Cinéromans.

Simone Vaudry
French postcard by G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris, no. 254.

Beatified and Canonized


After a minor part in Les petits/The Little Ones (Marcel Dumont, Gaston Roudès, 1925), Simone Vaudry had the female lead again in La rose effeuillée/The Rose Without Leaves (Georges Pallu, 1925), on the life of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925. A complete, tinted copy of this previously considered lost film was traced back at the Roman film archive in the mid-1990s, but the film is yet to be represented. In 1936 Pallu would shoot a sound version of the film.

After a small part in another religious film, Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926), Vaudry went to Berlin to play in Die Kreuzzug des Weibes/The Wife's Crusade (Martin Berger, 1926), a film which criticized abortion laws, starring Conrad Veidt and Maly Delschaft.

Vaudry subsequently alternated performances in French films with German productions: Titi, le roi des gosses/Titi, King of the Kids (René Leprince, 1926), La nuit de la revanche/The Night of the Revenge (Henri Etievant, 1926), Pardonnée/Forgiven (Jean Cassagne, 1927), in which Vaudry had the female lead, and Le chasseur de chez Maxim’s/Maxim's Porter (Roger Lion, Nicolas Rimsky, 1927) in France, and Der Herr des Todes/The Master of Death (Hans Steinhoff, 1927), Das Meer/The Sea (Peter Paul Felner, 1927) starring Heinrich George, and Heimweh/Homesick (Gennaro Righelli, 1927) starring Mady Christians in Germany.

In the late silent era Vaudry played the daughter of Francesca Bertini and Warwick Ward in Mein Leben für das Deine/Odette (Luitz-Morat, 1928), based on Victorien Sardou’s melodrama Odette, and had small parts in the operetta film Der fidele Bauer/The Jolly Farmer (Franz Seitz, 1929) with Carmen Boni, and Les Fourchambault/Fourchambault (Georges Monca, 1929) with Charles Vanel.

Simone Vaudry
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 69. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.

Phony Fortune Teller


When sound arrived in France, Simone Vaudry immediately had female leads in La maison des hommes-vivants/The House of the Living Men (Marcel Dumont, Gaston Roudès, 1929), starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Le mystère de la villa rose/The Mystery of the Pink Villa (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1930), starring Léon Mathot. In the latter film she was a phony fortune teller, who witnesses the killing of a rich woman by a band of murderous thieves and is herself suspected of the murder.

After a major part in the comedy Quand te tues-tu?/When Do You Kill Yourself? (Roger Capellani, 1931), shot at the Paris Paramount studios, Vaudry had the female lead in the period piece L’aiglon/The Eagle (Viktor Tourjansky, 1931), starring Jean Weber and based on the famous play by Edmond Rostand.

Next followed the female lead in the Georges Milton comedy Le roi du cirage/The King of Shoe Polish (Pierre Colombier, 1931), the Franco-Italian co-production Les amours de Pergolèse/The Loves of Pergolèse (Guido Brignone, 1932), with Pierre-Richard Willm in the title role and Vaudry in the female lead, Georges Pallu’s film on Saint Bernadette of Lourdes: La vierge du rocher/The virgin of the rock (1933), the Franco-Italian musical comedy Trois hommes en habit/Three men in Dress (Mario Bonnard, 1933), starring singer Tito Schipa, and the comedy Je te confie ma femme/I entrust to you my wife (René Guissart, 1933), starring Arletty.

Vaudry’s last part was in the René Lefèvre comedy Le coup de trois/The blow of three (Jean de Limur, 1936), partly shot in Prague, then Czechoslovachia.

On internet there is no information about what Simone Vaudry did after this film. We only know that she died in Puteaux, France in 1993. She was 86.

Vingt ans après
French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still for Vingt ans après/The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vingt ans après
French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still for Vingt ans après/The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Encyclocine.com, CinéArtistes and IMDb.

Camilla von Hollay

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Camilla von Hollay (1899–1967) was a Hungarian film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1916 and 1930, first in Hungary and later in Germany.

Camilla von Hollay
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1943/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.

Count Dracula


Camilla von Hollay was born as Kamillá Hollai in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary).

Her father, the industrialist Adalbert Hollay, wanted her to study medicine after finishing school. Against her parents' will she visited an acting school in 1915. For two years she played in Budapest theatres in plays like Liliom and Pygmalion.

According to German Wikipedia her film debut was already in 1913 in an unknown Hungarian silent film. From 1916 on she started to appear regularly in the cinema billed as Kamilla Hollai. Her second film was Mire megvénülünk/What is Shallow (Ödön Uher jr., 1916).

In the films A régiséggyütjö/The Antiquarian (Alfréd Deésy, 1917), Casanova (Alfréd Deésy, 1918) and the Oscar Wilde adaptation Az élet kiralya/The Picture of Dorian Gray (Alfréd Deésy, 1918), she appeared at the side of Arisztid Olt.

Olt would soon become known as Béla Lugosi and he became a Hollywood icon in his legendary role as Count Dracula.

Camilla von Hollay
Bulgarian postcard by gr Paskob, Sofia, 1929. Photo: publicity still for Überflüssige Menschen/Superfluous People (Aleksandr Razumnyj, 1926).

Berlin


In 1922, Kamillá Hollai went to Berlin to take over the lead in Das Feuerschiff/The Fire Ship (Richard Löwenbein, 1922). In Germany she changed her name into Camilla von Hollay.

During the 1920s she starred in such German films as Ein Traum vom Glück/A Dream of Happiness (Paul L. Stein, 1924) with Harry Liedtke, Die Wiskottens (Arthur Bergen, 1926), Madame wünscht keine Kinder/Madame Doesn't Want Children (Alexander Korda, 1927), the Asta Nielsen vehicle Gehetzte Frauen/Agitated Women (Richard Oswald, 1927), Die Weber/The Weavers (Friedrich Zelnik, 1927) with Paul Wegener, and Waterloo (Karl Grune, 1928) starring Charles Vanel.

The sound film didn't offer her demanding roles - probably because of her Hungarian accent. She only acted in minor roles in films like Die zärtlichen Verwandten/Beloved Family (Richard Oswald, 1930) and Tingel-Tangel (Jaap Speyer, 1931) featuring Ernö Verebes.

In 1931 she married a journalist and retired. Camilla von Hollay died in Budapest in 1967. She was 67.

Camilla von Hollay
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3644/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Schrecker, Berlin.

Camilla von Hollay
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5015.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hungarian movie database (Hungarian), Wikipedia (Engels and German), and IMDb.

Cox Habbema

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Last Monday, Cox Habbema (1944-2016) passed away. She was a Dutch actress, stage director, writer and former managing director of the Municipal Theatre in Amsterdam. From 1969 till 1984 she mainly lived and worked in East-Berlin, where she appeared in several films. Among her Dutch films is the controversial thriller De stilte rond Christine M./A Question of Silence (1982). Cox Habbema was 72.

Cox Habbema
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3307, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Reinke/Defa. Publicity still for Wie heiratet man einen König/How to marry a king (1968).

Heart Beat Fresco


Cornelia ‘Cox’ Habbema was born in Amsterdam in 1944. Her brothers are Diederik Habbema and TV and stage director Eddy Habbema. She studied history and for a short while law and then went to the Toneelschool Amsterdam (the Amsterdam Theatre School), where she studied acting and directing.

In 1963, the then 19-year-old Habbema made headlines with a brief affair with the 39-year-old singer Charles Aznavour. Habbema attended his Dutch concerts where she came into contact with Aznavour. He invited her to go with him to his villa on the Riviera, but at Schiphol the military police became suspicious and contacted the family. They commanded the plane, which was on its way to the runway, to return. Cox - at that time still legally a minor - was met by two military policemen on board and handed over to her uncle.

In 1967, Habbema made her stage debut at Toneelgroep Centrum (Theatre Group Centre). Her first film appearance was in the Dutch New Wave production Heart Beat Fresco (Pim de la Parra, 1966), two years later followed by To Grab the Ring (Nikolai van der Heijde, 1968) with Ben Carruthers and Françoise Brion. It was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival.

Meanwhile she was a stage intern of theatre companies in London, Paris, Italy, and Berlin. In Germany she was offered the leading role in the Defa production Wie heiratet man einen König?/How To Marry a King (Rainer Simons, 1968) opposite the German actor Eberhard Esche. He also became her husband.

From 1969 till 1984 she mainly lived and worked in East-Berlin. During this period she was an actress and director for the legendary Deutsches Theater (German Theatre). With Eberhard Esche she also made a series of productions with classical ballads and Heinrich Heine poems. She was both director and singer-performer for these productions.

Cox Habbema and Eberhard Esche in Wie heiratet man einen König (1968)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 19/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Weidt / Defa. Publicity still for Wie heiratet man einen König/How to marry a king (1968) with Eberhard Esche.

Cox Habbema
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 26/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Weidt / Defa. Publicity still for Wie heiratet man einen König/How to marry a king (1968).


Revival of the Dutch Cinema


During the 1970s, Cox Habbema played in Dutch and Belgian films and TV series as well as in (East-)German productions. Among her German productions are the crime film Der Mörder sitzt im Wembley-Stadion/The Murder is sitting in Wembley Stadium (Gerhard Respondek, 1970), the Sci-Fi film Eolomea (Herrmann Zschoche, 1972) opposite Bulgarian actor Ivan Andonov, and the medieval adventure tale Till Eulenspiegel (Rainer Simon, 1974).

On TV she appeared in the popular Krimi series Polizeiruf 110/Police Call 110 (1973). She also worked regularly in Belgium, where she played in films like Ieder van ons/Everyone of us (Frans Buyens, 1971) and the TV Series Centraal Station/Central Station (Paul Cammermans, 1974).

In the 1970s there was a revival of the Dutch cinema and Cox Habbema starred in such productions as the thriller Rufus (Samuel Meyering, 1975) between Rijk de Gooyer and John van Dreelen, the drama Kind van de Zon/Child of the sun (René van Nie, 1975), De komst van Joachim Stiller/The Arrival of Joachim Stiller (Harry Kumel, 1976), and Dokter Vlimmen/Doctor Vlimmen (Guido Pieters, 1977).

Henk van Gelder in his necrology for the Dutch newspaper NRC: "At that time, she was known primarily as a 'voyant' blonde with a vamp-like appearance and a subtle ironic tone in the way she, somewhat veiled, expressed her lines."

Habbema appeared opposite husband Eberhard Esche in the Defa productions Leben mit Uwe/Life with Uwe (Lothar Warneke, 1974), Die unverbesserliche Barbara/The Incorrigible Barbara (Lothar Warneke, 1977), also with Hertha Thiele, and the fantasy Der Spiegel des großen Magus/The Mirror of the Great Magus (Dieter Scharfenberg, 1980).

Her best known film is the thriller De stilte rond Christine M./A Question of Silence (Marleen Gorris, 1982). It was highly controversial but also highly acclaimed at the time of its release, and is now hailed as a feminist classic. At IMDb, Adam Fischer reviews the film: “I find this film to be an amazing critique of patriarchy. While murder may not be the solution, this film shows the extraordinary way in which 3 women who have been beaten down their whole lives (and have nothing to lose) attempt to fight back against an enemy that is unbeatable. The laughter at the end of this film proves just who gets it and who doesn't.”

Cox Habbema (1944-2016)
Big East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 181/21, 1971. Photo: Defa.

Cox Habbema, Ivan Adonov
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 17/72, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Defa. Publicity still for the East German/Soviet/Bulgarian coproduction Eolomea (1971) with Cox Habbema and Ivan Adonov.

Café Cox


In 1984 Cox Habbema returned to the Netherlands. Her film career, both in Germany and in the Netherlands, was over. She worked for the Dutch television as a presenter, producer and editor.

Between 1986 and 1996 she was the director of the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam (Municipal Theatre Amsterdam). Café Cox, a popular theatre hang-out in the Stadsschouwburg building, was named after her. It was a tumultuous period in which she regularly collided with the stage company Toneelgroep Amsterdam (TGA) about the playing of the theatre.

In 1991 and 1992 Habbema played in the popular Dutch TV series Medisch Centrum West/Medical Centre West. In Germany she had a guest role in an episode of the series Unser Charly/Our Charly (Dieter Kehler, 1998). Other television series in which she appeared were Oog in oog/Eye to Eye (1992), Eindeloos leven/Living Endlessly (1995), and the soap series Het Glazen Huis/The Glass House (2004) starring Willeke van Ammelrooy.

Habbema’s most recent TV appearance was in the drama Kilkenny Cross (Eric Oosthoek, 2006). Since her departure from the Stadsschouwburg, she operated in many managerial functions and as a chairwoman for several Dutch cultural institutes, she lectured at the Tilburg School of Humanities and worked as a trainer and consultant.

In 2002 Habbema published her memoirs, Mijn koffer in Berlijn (My Suitcase in Berlin). In October and November 2004 she went on tour with her monologue Een vrouw in Berlijn (A woman in Berlin), based on a anonymous diary of a young woman in Berlin at the end of the second world war. In 2006 Cox Habbema was honoured for her special merits for the Dutch society and named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

After her marriage to Eberhard Esche had ended in a divorce, Cox Habbema married lawyer Robert van de Vijver in 1994. He died in 1997.


Trailer for Wie heiratet man einen König?/How To Marry a King (1968). Source: DEFA Stiftung (YouTube).


Trailer for Eolomea (1972). Source: Michael Zschoche (YouTube).

Sources: Henk van Gelder (Nrc.nl - Dutch), Nu.nl (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch and German), and IMDb.

La piccola vedetta lombarda (1915)

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La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy is one of the stories from Edmondo De Amicis's 1886 book Cuore (Heart), which were adapted to film by the Italian production company Film Artistica Gloria in 1915 and 1916. Director was Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli who was more famous as an actor. The main actors in the film were Luigino (Luigi) Petrungaro as the boy, and Antonio Monti as the officer.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy (1915). Caption: What are you doing here? the officer asked. Why didn't you flee with your family? I don't have family, the boy answered.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy (1915). Caption: The house was very low; from the roof you could only see a little part of the countryside.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy (1915).  Caption: And can you tell me what you can see from above there, if there are Austrian soldiers there, clouds of dust, rifles that light up, horses? Sure I can.

The Little Lookout


The story of La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy takes place during the Risorgimento, after the battle of Solferino in 1859. Italian soldiers ask an orphan boy from Lombardy (Luigino Petrangaro) to spy on the Austrian enemy troops. First he climbs on a roof and when that is too low, he spies from a high tree.

Despite the officer (Antonio Monti) asking him to come down, the boy stays too long in the tree and he is shot down by enemy fire. The soldiers pay their respects to his patriotic death, each passing his corps draped in the flag to honor him. And there he slept in the grass, draped in his flag, his face white, smiling, as if he was happy to have given his life for Lombardy, reads the caption of the postcard below.

A year after his role in this film, little Luigino Petrangaro starred in another Gloria production based on a story from Cuore (Heart), Sangue Romagnolo/Blood from the Romagna (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916).

Gloria adapted several stories from Edmondo De Amicis' popular book Cuore about the life of nine boys in a school class in the city of Turin. Earlier, we did also a post on Dagli Appennini alle Ande/From the Apennines to the Andes (Umberto Paradisi, 1916).

For a long time the story of La piccola vedetta lombarda was considered as fiction. But author Edmondo de Amicis based in 1886 his story on a historical incident with the orphan Giovanni Minoli (1947-1859). In 2009 historians Fabrizio Bernini and Daniele Salerno have completed and published a meticulous reconstruction of the facts, based on archival documents of the time, which confirms the real existence of Giovanni Minoli and his tragic end.

There are some variations between fact and fiction. In the novel and the film, the boy dies almost immediately while in reality he died after a few months suffering in a hospital. The tree in which he climbed is in the story an ash tree while in reality it was a poplar. This poplar still exists.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy (1915). Caption:  A rabid, third whistle passed high up, and almost instantly one saw the boy falling down, holding on to the branches and the stem.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Look-out from Lombardy (1915). Caption: But while he told him to be brave and pressed a handkerchief on the wound, the boy's eyes broke and he bent his head: he was dead.

La piccola vedetta lombarda
Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La piccola vedetta lombarda/The Little Lookout from Lombardy (1915). Caption: And there he slept in the grass, draped in his flag, his face white, smiling, as if he was happy to have given his life for Lombardy.

For the full film, see Vimeo. Sources: Vimeo, Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Goldfinger (1964)

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Film director Guy Hamilton, born 16 September 1922; died 20 April 2016. He was one of Britain’s most bankable film-makers with four James Bond films – Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) – among his credits. Today a post on our favourite. Goldfinger is the quintessential episode in the James Bond series, filled with thrills, girls and danger. It was the third episode and the third to star suave and ultra-cool Sean Connery as agent 007. Everything seemed to be right, the stunts, the sets, the score, the gadgets, and a wonderful cast. The film co-stars Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger, and Shirley Eaton as the iconic Bond girl Jill Masterson.

Sean Connery and Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger (1964)
British postcard by Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. Photo: publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964). Caption: James Bond (Sean Connery) discovers Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) dead and covered in gold paint in Goldfinger (1964).

Sean Connery
Dutch card, no. AX 6263. Publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

Gert Fröbe and Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964)
Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in 1966. Publicity still for Goldfinger (1964) with Sean Connery and Gert Fröbe. "Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?" Bond asks as the laser beam slowly makes its way towards his groin. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" Goldfinger answers.

Not inside Fort Knox


Goldfinger was based again on a novel by Ian Fleming. There isn't much of a plot, really. James Bond is investigating gold smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger and eventually uncovering Goldfinger's plans to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.

Producers were Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Goldfinger had what was then considered a large budget of $3 million (US$22,812,232 in 2015 dollars), the equivalent of the budgets of Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962) and From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963) combined, and was the first James Bond film classified as a box-office blockbuster.

Goldfinger saw the return of two crew members who were not involved with From Russia With Love: stunt coordinator Bob Simmons and production designer Ken Adam. Both played crucial roles in the development of Goldfinger. Simmons choreographed the fight sequence between Bond and Oddjob (Harold Sakata) in the vault of Fort Knox, one of the best Bond fights.

For security reasons, the filmmakers were not allowed to film inside Fort Knox, although exterior photography was permitted. All sets for the interiors were designed and built from scratch at Pinewood Studios. The filmmakers had no clue as to what the interior of the depository looked like, so Ken Adam's imagination provided the idea of gold stacked upon gold behind iron bars. Harry Saltzman disliked the design's resemblance to a prison, but Guy Hamilton liked it enough that it was built. The comptroller of Fort Knox later sent a letter to Adam and the production team, complimenting them on their imaginative depiction of the vault.

Principal photography took place from January to July 1964 in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the U.S. states of Kentucky and Florida. The opening credit sequence was designed by graphic artist Robert Brownjohn, featuring clips of all James Bond films thus far projected on actress Margaret Nolan's body. Its design was inspired by seeing light projecting on people's bodies as they got up and left a cinema. Brownjohn was also responsible for the posters for the advertising campaign, which also used Nolan.

Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Goldfinger
German postcard. Photo: P.A. Reuter. Publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964) with Sean Connery and Honor Blackman.

Honor Blackman and Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964)
Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 355. Photo: publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964) with Sean Connery and Honor Blackman.

Pussy Galore


Honor Blackman played Pussy Galore, Goldfinger's personal pilot and leader of an all-female team of pilots known as Pussy Galore's Flying Circus. Blackman was selected for the role of Pussy Galore because of her role as Cathy Gale in the classic British TV series The Avengers (1962-1964) and the script was rewritten to show Blackman's judo abilities. The character's name follows in the tradition of other Bond girls names that are double entendres. During promotion, Blackman took delight in embarrassing interviewers by repeatedly mentioning the character's name.

Gert Fröbe was excellent as Bond villain Auric Goldfinger, the 'international cheat, international menace' obsessed with gold. Orson Welles was considered as Goldfinger, but his financial demands were too high. Fröbe was cast because the producers saw his performance as a child molester in the German film Es geschah am hellichten Tag/It Happened in Broad Daylight (Ladislao Vajda, 1958). Fröbe, who spoke little English, said his lines phonetically.

British actress Shirley Eaton played Jill Masterson, Bond Girl and Goldfinger's aide-de-camp. Bond catches her helping the villain cheat at a game of cards. He seduces her, but for her betrayal, she is completely painted in gold paint and dies from "skin suffocation". Although only a small part in the film, the image of her painted gold was renowned and Eaton graced the cover of Life magazine of 6 November 1964.

And Goldfinger was also the first of the Bond films to feature Q (Desmond Llewelyn). In From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963) Llewelyn had played the role of Major Boothroyd. Q became the beloved comic relief figure of the series and Llewellyn appeared in 17 James Bond films until his death in 1999. He was absent in Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton, 1973), because producers felt too much attention was being paid on the gadgetry so they downplayed it by cutting his role. However, audiences enjoyed Q so much that Llewelyn was brought back indefinitely.

Sean Connery
German postcard by ISV, no. H 119. Publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

Sean Connery
German postcard by ISV, no. H 123. Publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

Goldfinger began to up the ante


Shirley Bassey sang the theme song Goldfinger, and she would go on to sing the theme songs for two other Bond films, Diamonds are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971) and Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979). The song was composed by John Barry, with lyrics by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Goldfinger was the first of the series to feature the famous line, "Bond, James Bond," as a 007 catchphrase. It also featured the most famous James Bond car, the 1964 silver birch Aston Martin DB5, was introduced in Goldfinger. To promote the film, the two Aston Martin DB5s were showcased at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was dubbed 'the most famous car in the world', and sales of the car rose.

Corgi Toys began a decades-long relationship with the Bond franchise, producing a toy of the car, which became the biggest selling toy of 1964. The film's success also led to licensed tie-in clothing, dress shoes, action figures, board games, jigsaw puzzles, lunch boxes, toys, record albums, slot cars, and postcards.

Lucia Bozzola at AllMovie: "Goldfinger set the gold standard (naturally) for future James Bond adventures. With the films' signature elements firmly entrenched - including globe-trotting story, salacious credits sequence, Q's exasperation, and 007's phenomenal abilities with women and antagonists - Goldfinger began to up the ante. Bond's well-equipped Aston-Martin and Goldfinger's elaborate Fort Knox model presaged future technical extravagance, while Bond's near castration via a giant laser was one more sign of the series' humorous self-awareness."

Goldfinger became the first Bond film to win an Academy Award. At the 1965 Academy Awards, Norman Wanstall won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing for his work. Ken Adam was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for Best British Art Direction (Colour). The film opened to largely favourable critical reception and was a financial success. Goldfinger‍ '​s $3 million budget was recouped in two weeks, and it broke box office records in multiple countries around the world.


Official trailer Goldfinger (1964). Source: MoviesHistory (YouTube).


The title sequence by Robert Brownjohn. Source: juanmurs (YouTube).

Sources: Lucia Bozzola (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

Madeleine Renaud

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Madeleine Renaud (1900-1994) was an acclaimed French stage actress, who also had a career in film. One of her best known films was La Maternelle (1933) about a Montmartre kindergarten. With her second husband, actor Jean-Louis Barrault, she formed the celebrated Compagnie Renaud-Barrault theatrical troupe in 1948.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by EC, no. 75. Photo: J. Manuel, Paris.

Madeleine Renaud
Vintage postcard, no. 75.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by CE (Cinémagazine-Édition), Paris, no. 1085. Photo: Paramount.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by EC, no. 75. Photo: Pathé Natan.

Madeleine Renaud
German postcard by Ross Verlag / Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater. Photo: d'Ora. Paris.

Allure and Liveliness


Lucie Madeleine Renaud was born in 1900 as the daughter of a university professor, in the elegant seizieme arrondissement of Paris. She attended the Conservatoire Nationale d'Art Dramatique, having previously studied at the Lycee Racine, where she won first prize for comedy and obtained her baccalaureate.

At age 21, she entered the prestigious Comédie-Française as a junior actress, shedding her bourgeois background and starting an independent career. She remained there under contract until 1947.

In his obituary for The Independent, John Calder wrote: "Madeleine Renaud was the last of the great school of French classical actresses. She was trained just after the First World War, and had the flexibility to perform in the grand manner the established French repertoire, from Racine to Giraudoux, while still being totally convincing in the different schools of international theatre that have emerged since 1950.

Her early career overlapped with the last years of Sarah Bernhardt's and she was already a star in the 1920s - before Edwige Feuillère, Maria Casares, Suzanne Flon and Arletty dominated the boards in Paris. By the time her juniors by a decade Michèle Morgan and Simone Signoret emerged, Renaud had established herself as one of the finest French actresses."

She incidentally played parts in silent films, such as the female leads in the films Vent debout/Midship (René Leprince, 1923) with Léon Mathot, and La terre qui meurt/The Land That Dies (Jean Choux, 1926), but her film performances intensified when sound cinema came along. She became an active and popular film actress of the 1930s.

Her first sound film was Jean de la Lune/Moon-Struck Jean (Jean Choux, 1930). This was an adaptation of a stage play by Marcel Achard, in which Renaud played with René Lefèvre and Michel Simon. During the 1930s Renaud played in some twenty films, often adaptations of novels and stage plays, contributing with her allure and liveliness.

One of her best known parts was the lead in the endearing film La Maternelle/Children of Montmartre (Jean-Benoit Lévy, Marie Epstein, 1933), a good example of French social realism of the 1930s. Renaud played Rose, a girl who becomes world wise when her father goes bankrupt and dies, and her lover dumps her. Rose becomes the caring maid in a Montmartre kindergarten and is soon the darling of the children, especially a prostitute’s daughter named Marie (Paulette Elambert), whose mother has dumped her as well. Marie, though, becomes jealous of other people caring about Rose.

Madeleine Renaud in La Maternelle
Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen). Photo: Muntfilm, Amsterdam. Publicity still for La Maternelle (1933). The card bears the stamp of the Dutch National Board of Film Censors.

Madeleine Renaud, Paulette Elambert, La Maternelle
Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen). Photo: Muntfilm, Amsterdam.Publicity still for La Maternelle (1933).

Madeleine Renaud in La Maternelle
Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen). Photo: Muntfilm, Amsterdam. Publicity still for La Maternelle (1933). The card bears the stamp of the Dutch National Board of Film Censors.

Madeleine Renaud and Paulette Elambert in La Maternelle (1933)
Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z., no. 75. Photo: Muntfilm, Amsterdam. Publicity still for La Maternelle/Children of Montmartre (Jean Benoît-Lévy, Marie Epstein, 1933).

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by Editions PC, Paris, no. 77. Photo: Rosekardos.


Fighting Elements and Suitors


Other memorable film titles of the 1930s in which Madeleine Renaud played leads were Le tunnel/The Tunnel (Curtis Bernhardt, 1933) with Jean Gabin working on a tunnel between the US and Europe (!); Maria Chapdelaine (Julien Duvivier, 1934) with Renaud as a young woman fighting both the elements and suitors in Canada.

She starred in the French-Italian comedy La marche nuptiale/The Wedding march (Mario Bonnard, 1935) after Henry Bataille’s play. Renaud played the role performed earlier by silent stars like Lyda Borelli; and the multilingual Cœur de gueux/Cuore di vagabondo/A Beggar's Heart (Jean Epstein, 1936) with Italian stage veteran Ermete Zacconi.

From the late 1930s on, Renaud played less in film and almost exclusively under the direction of Jean Grémillon. She was the understanding wife of Raimu in L’étrange Monsieur Victor/The Odd Mr. Victor (Jean Grémillon, 1938), the abandoned and murdered wife of Jean Gabin in Remorques/Stormy Waters (Jean Grémillon, 1941), the perverse companion in Lumière d’été/Summer light (Jean Grémillon, 1943), and the aviation struck petite bourgeoise in Le ciel est à vous/The Woman Who Dared (Jean Grémillon, 1944).

After the war she concentrated on theatre, though she occasionally returned for roles as the savoury Mme Tellier in Le plaisir/House of Pleasure (Max Ophüls, 1952) based on three stories by Guy de Maupassant, and the malicious noblewoman in Le diable par la queue/The Devil by the Tail (Philippe de Broca, 1969) opposite Yves Montand.

Along with several other noted French actors, Madeleine Renaud appeared in a cameo role in the mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962), playing a fearless Mother Superior. One of her final film roles was the possessive mother of Jean-Pierre Aumont in Des journées entières dans les arbres/Entire Days Among the Trees (Marguerite Duras, 1976).

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 62. Photo: Film Discina.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 15. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 75. Photo: Darlo.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 80. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Madeleine Renaud
French postcard by Editions P.I.., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 123. Photo: Charles Vandamme / Les Mirages.

Jean-Louis Barrault


In 1936 Madeleine Renaud had met her future husband, actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault, a brilliant young actor from a working-class background, full of new theatrical ideas and aflame with ambition. In 1940, he joined the Comédie-Francaise and in a very short time he was playing major roles and directing productions. They fell in love and married the same year.

In 1943 the couple worked together in raising the play Soulier de satin (Satin Shoe) by Paul Claudel, directed by Barrault. After having played 127 parts at the Comédie-Française, Renaud left the company in 1946 to form her own company with Barrault, which was based at the Théâtre Marigny.

There she created the part of Winnie in Oh! Les beaux jours (Happy Days) by Samuel Beckett in 1963; it was a part she would continue to perform until the end of her career. Renaud also played in plays by Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Eugène Ionesco.

In the mean time, her husband Barrault rose to the position of managing director of the Théâtre de l'Odéon-Théâtre de France. After the student revolt of 1968, Barrault, having shown sympathy for the students was evicted from the Odéon by President de Gaulle. The company rented an old skating rink and continued to perform there, mainly in the round, improvising and making virtues out of necessity. The public supported the new theatre massively.

For a while Madeleine Renaud went away from the company to play next to Claude Régy in L'Amante anglaise (The English Lover) by Marguerite Duras. Afterwards she played Maud in Harold et Maud (Harold and Maude) written by Colin Higgins, a role to which she stuck for a long time, also when the company moved to the Musée d'Orsay, and afterwards to the Théâtre du Rond-Point.

Incidentally their plays were filmed for TV. In 1978, Jean-Paul Carrère directed his own script for a TV version of Harold et Maud/Harold and Maude, and a TV-film was also made of Oh! Les beaux jours/Happy Days (Alexandre Tarta, 1990) starring Renaud and Barrault in their acclaimed roles of Winnie and Willy. It was her last 'film' role.

Madeleine Renaud died in Paris in 1994, seven months after the decease of her husband. She was married three times, to director Charles Gribouval (Charles Grandval), secondly to actor Pierre Bertin (some sources say she was only 'romantically involved' with him), and thirdly to Jean-Louis Barrault. She had a son, Jean-Pierre Granval (1923-1998), by her first marriage, and she was the aunt of actress Marie-Christine Barrault. Madeleine Renaud received many honours, was a Commander of the Legion of Honour, a Grand Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and was awarded the Medal of the City of Paris and the Grand Prix du Theatre.


Long scene from La Maternelle/Children of Montmartre (1933). Source: Lost Classic Films (YouTube).


Scene from Le Plaisir (1952). Source: luc lebelgo26 (YouTube).


Trailer of The Longest Day (1962). Source: Humanoidity (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), John Calder (The Independent), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Paul Capellani

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With his brooding good looks, stage and film actor Paul Capellani (1877-1960) became a successful star of some 100 French and American films between 1908 and 1930. He was the younger brother of noted film director Albert Capellani and he appeared in many of his brother’s silent historical films.

Paul Capellani
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Écran series by Editions Filma, no. 110.

Paul Capellani
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinema series by A.N., Paris, no. 52.

Jeune Premier


Born in Paris in 1877 (some sources say 1873), Paul Henri Capellani studied at the Conservatoire (the Paris Conservatory). With his good looks and small moustache he soon became one of the most popular jeunes premiers of the French theatre of the Belle Epoque.

At the zenith of his theatrical success, his older brother Albert Capellani called him in 1908 to act in his films for the Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres (SCAGL), a subsection of Pathé Frèreswhich focused on adaptations of famous French stage plays.

Capellani thus played in short silent film adaptations like L’Arlésienne (Albert Capellani. 1908) by Alphonse Daudet, L’Assommoir/Drink (Albert Capellani, 1908) by Émile Zola, La tour de Nesle/The Tower of Nesle (Albert Capellani, 1909) by Alexandre Dumas pére, La peau de chagrin/The Wild Ass's Skin (Albert Capellani, 1909) by Honoré de Balzac, and Hernani (Albert Capellani, 1910) by Victor Hugo.

He played opposite such stars of the new medium as Stacia Napierkowska, Francesca Bertini and Gabrielle Rosny. From 1910 on, Paul continued to work with his brother but alternated with films by other French film directors of the 1910s, such as George Denola, Ferdinand Zecca, Georges Monca, André Calmettes and Camille de Morlhon.

In 1911 Paul Capellani also worked as scriptwriter, adapting Hugo’s Les Misérables. The four-part serial Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913) starred Henry Krauss as Jean Valjean, and Mistinguett as Eponine Thénardier. It was probably the first feature on which Paul collaborated, but it also marked the passage from onereelers to feature-length films in French cinema at large.

He played more memorable leading acting roles in Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Albert Capellani, 1912), La maison du baigneur/The House of the Swimmer (Adrien Caillard, Albert Capellani, 1913) with Gabriel de Gravone, La Glu/The Birdlime (Albert Capellani, 1913) starring Mistinguett, Germinal (Albert Capellani, 1913), and Patrie/Homeland (Albert Capellani, 1914).

Paul Capellani
French postcard. Photo: Pathé.

Paul Capellani
French postcard by Platinogravure. Photo: Pathé.

To the United States


When the First World War broke out, the French film industry slowed down and the two Capellani brothers went to the United States. When Clara Kimball Young formed her own company, she hired Paul Capellani to co-star in several films of European inspiration, often directed by Albert.

Paul’s first role was that of Armand Duval in the adaptation of Alexandre Dumas fils’ play La dame aux camellias/Camille (Albert Capellani, 1915), with Kimball Young as the unfortunate title character. Scriptwriter was the later famous Frances Marion. Kimball Young and Capellani were again paired in The Feast of Life (1916), The Dark Silence (1916), The Foolish Virgin (1916), and The Common Law (1916); all directed by Albert Capellani.

During his stay in the US, Paul Capellani also played opposite Alice Brady in La vie de Bohème/La Bohème (Albert Capellani, 1916), Frances Marion’s adaptation of Henry Murger’s novel; opposite Rita Jolivet in One Law for Both (Ivan Abramson, 1916); and opposite Anna Murdock in The Richest Girl (Albert Capellani, 1918).

After the war, Capellani returned to France, where he played in Marcel L’Herbier’s Le bercail (1919) starring Jaque Catelain, in L’étau/The vice (Maurice Mariaud, 1920), Le carnaval des vérités/The carnival of the truths (Marcel L’Herbier, 1920), André Antoine’s Hugo adaptation Quatre-vingt-treize (1921), and Suzanne et les brigands/Suzanne and the Bandits (Charles Burguet), 1921 with Suzanne Grandais.

In 1922 Capellani played in Phroso (Louis Mercanton, 1922), about an Englishman (Reginald Owen) who purchases an island where a mysterious woman (Malvina Longfellow) rules. Other actors were Capellani’s wife Jeanne Desclos and a youngCharles Vanel.

After 1922, Paul Capellani hardly did films anymore, and focused on sculpting. His last roles were parts in two early French Paramount sound films: La lettre/The letter (Louis Mercanton, 1930) based on a play by Somerset Maugham and scripted by Monta Bell, and the male lead in Une femme a menti/A Woman has lied (Charles de Rochefort, 1930).

After the death of his brother Albert in 1931, Paul quitted acting altogether and withdrew to the Cote d’Azur. There he died in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1960, at the age of 83. At the time of his death Paul Capellani was completely forgotten, despite his brilliant film career. His former co-star Clara Kimball-Young remembered him fondly: "of all the screen lovers I have had, I really believe I prefer Paul Capellani, who played Armand to my Camille. Of course, Mr. Capellani had all the advantages in the world, for Armand is a wonderful role, and should inspire any man who has the least germ of talent for lovemaking. But in addition to that he has the foreign--perhaps I should say the latin technique."

Paul Capellani
French postcard. Photo: Félix, Paris. Signed in 1913.

Paul Capellani, publicity for Vins Désiles
French postcard. Publicity for Vins Désiles. Photo: Henri Manuel.Photo: Henri Manuel. NB Capellani's name is mispelled on the card. Caption: "Je voudrais être poète pour chanter le vin Désiles, comme acteur, je me contente d'en boire." [I wish I was a poet so I could hymn Désiles wine, as actor I am content to just drink it.]

Sources: Clara Kimball Young (Photoplay, March, 1920), Eric Le Roy (Encyclopedia of Early Cinema), Philippe Pelletier (CinéArtistes, French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Daniel Guichard

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Charming Daniel Guichard (1948) is a popular French singer known for chansons like La Tendresse, Mon Vieux and Le Gitan. He also acted in two films.

Daniel Guichard
French collectors card by Figurine Panini in the Hit Collection Series, no. 61. Photo: Barclay.

Daniel Guichard
French postcard by Editions Lyna, Paris, no. 2046. Photo: Laurent Maous / Production KUKLOS.

The Tenderness


Daniel Guichard was born in Sauvian, France, in 1948. He grew up in the Halles district of Paris. His father died when Daniel was 15 and to support the family income he went to work in the Halles unloading vegetables and cheeses.

In the evenings, he started to pursue a musical career. He performed in the cabarets of Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, interpreting, songs of Aristide Bruant accompanied by an accordionist. In 1967, he recorded some of these songs for Barclay.

His real success started in 1972 with the song La Tendresse (The Tenderness), written by Patricia Carli, which became one of the classics of the French Chanson. The song was first proposed to Mireille Mathieu, but was denied by her agent Johnny Stark.

In 1972, Guichard also made his debut at the Olympia, the main French Music Hall. There followed more hits like Faut pas pleurer comme (Don’t cry like that) composed by Christophe, and the inevitable Mon Vieux (My old, 1974), dedicated to his late father, and composed by Jean Ferrat.

In 1974, Daniel Guichard recorded the songs of Edith Piaf, in which he showed his Parisian identity. In 1975 and 1976, he performed again at the Olympia. He also launched his own Kuklos label in 1975. In 1983, he was very successful with the chansons Le Gitan (The gypsy), Doucement (Softly) and Le Nez au mur (The Nose to the Wall). In his garden, he started a pirate radio station, Radio Bocal (Fishbowl), which broadcasted French chansons round the clock with a largely volunteer team.

From the late 1980s on, his records were not successful and times got tough for Guichard. In the new century, many Golden Oldies of the 1970s had a revival and Guichard returned. He went on tour again and in 2012, after 20 years of absence, he released a new album, Notre Histoire (Our Story). The album was a success. That year, he also returned to the stage of the Olympia.

Daniel Guichard
French postcard by La Roue Tourne, Paris.

Daniel Guichard
French postcard by Club Daniel Guichard, Nanterre / Imp. IP, Paris. Photo: Studio Inter-Flash.

What a Flash!


Daniel Guichard had a minor but interesting film career.

During his heydays he appeared in What a Flash! (Jean-Michel Barjol, 1972), a French alternative ‘documentary’ on the post-1968- flower-power generation. About 40 people, including well-known actors like Bernadette Lafont and Maria Schneider, enter a big hall, presumably a film studio. The doors are closed and they are to remain here for 50 hours to interact, discuss, eat, drink, sleep, ‘create’ – whatever they feel like.

Thorsten B at IMDb: “There is never a second of doubt that each of the ‘acting’ sequences included in the film are something different than the uncontrolled and spontaneous reactions and interactions before and afterward. Some of the guys and gals want to use the setting to display revolt, some play games, some try to rule, some want to obey; but in the end, the hall door opens, all step outside and everyone is happy. But subjective descriptions don't work well with this oddity. It's many things at once: interesting, yet sometimes boring; disappointing, yet sometimes suspenseful; unsurprising, yet sometimes awesome. In short, annoying, but at the same time fascinating.”

In 2014 he returned to the big screen in a supporting part in the French film Bon rétablissement!/Get Well Soon (Jean Becker, 2014) about a misanthropic and lonely grouch (Gérard Lanvin) who finds himself in hospital after a car accident. James Travers at Films de France: “The film is as predictable as it is anodyne but, thanks to some superb casting choices, Becker deftly avoids an outright disaster and the film is as pleasant a timewaster as you could ask for.”

Daniel Guichard has seven children from three relationships. With his former girlfriend Claudine, he has two daughters Ganaëlle (1969) and Armelle (1974) and a son, Anaël (1976) were born. From his relationship with his second girlfriend Michèle comes his daughter Emmanuelle (1984). Since 1986, he lives with Christine, with whom he has three children, Gabriël (1989), Joël (1993) and Raphaël (1996).


Daniel Guichard sings La Tendresse. Source: celib13015's channel (YouTube).


Daniel Guichard sings Mon Vieux. Source: Daniel Guichard (YouTube).


French trailer for Bon rétablissement!/Get Well Soon (2014). Source: michael cellier (YouTube). Guichard does not appear in the trailer.

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Thorsten B (IMDb), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Nicole Berger

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Fair-haired Nicole Berger (1934-1967) was a French leading lady of the 1950s and 1960s, who appeared in several Nouvelle Vague films. Her promising career was cut short by a car crash near Rouen.

Nicole Berger
Belgian collectors card by Merbotex, Bruxelles / Palace Izegem, no. 41. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Sidewalk café Cokes and Tuileries park benches


Nicole Berger was born Nicole Gouspeyre in Paris in 1934. She had a brief theatrical career, particularly in the Compagnie Barrault-Renaud, before she started to work in the cinema.

She made her film debut in a small part in Jocelyn (Jacques de Casembroot, 1952) as the sister of Jean Desailly and then played a supporting part in the French comedy Julietta (Marc Allégret, 1953|), starring Dany Robin and Jean Marais.

The following year, director Claude Autant-Lara gave her her first real chance. He offered her one of the three leading roles opposite Edwige Feuillère and Pierre-Michel Beck in Le Blé en herbe/The Game of Love (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954), based on the novel by Colette.

She then played in several international films. In Germany she starred in Ein Mädchen aus Flandern/The Girl from Flanders (Helmut Käutner, 1956) and in the Swedish-Argentinean film Livets vår/Spring of Life (Arne Mattsson, 1958) with Folke Sundquist. She also played a supporting part in the French film Celui qui doit mourir/He Who Must Die (Jules Dassin, 1957), starring Jean Servais and Carl Möhner. The film, based on the novel O Hristos Xanastavronetai (Christ Recrucified) by Nikos Kazantzakis, was entered into the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

She reunited with Claude Autant-Lara for the crime film En cas de malheur/Love Is My Profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958), after a novel by Georges Simenon. She played the maid of femme fatale Brigitte Bardot. That year she also starred in Véronique et son cancre/Veronique and Her Dunce (1958), a short comedy film by Éric Rohmer, which he directed before his series of Contes moraux/Six Moral Tales.

She also appeared in the short Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick/All Boys Are Called Patrick (1959) written by Éric Rohmer and directed by Jean-Luc Godard.Michael Buening at AllMovie: “a slight, but charming, story about two girlfriends (Nicole Berger and Anne Collette) who are seduced by Lothario Patrick (Jean-Claude Brialy) over sidewalk café Cokes and on Tuileries park benches. When both Charlotte and Véronique arrive for the date, Patrick brings another woman. The story is told in a fairly straightforward style. Godard's early love of youthful frivolity, pop culture, and referential film geekery are in abundant evidence (the girls' apartment walls are decorated with film posters, they mimic their idols) and there are some tentative steps taken with visual and audio jump cuts.”

In the following years Rohmer and Godard would achieve fame as directors of the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave. She also worked with François Truffaut and appeared in his feature film Tirez sur le pianist/Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960) starring Charles Aznavour as a small time piano player in a bar who has a secret past that he keeps hidden.

Nicole Berger and Pierre Michel Beck in Le Blé en herbe (1954)
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1463. Photo: Franco London Film, Paris / Prisma. Publicity still for Le Blé en herbe/The Game of Love (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954) with Pierre-Michel Beck.

Nicole Berger
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 663. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

The father of the Blaxploitation


Nicole Berger appeared in the British historical drama The Siege of Sidney Street (Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman, 1960 with Donald Sinden and Kieron Moore. The film depicts the 1911 Siege of Sidney Street in which armed police surrounded a house occupied by a gang in the East End of London.

In France she appeared in the crime dramas La denunciation/The Denunciation (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, 1962) opposite Maurice Ronet, and Chair de poule/Highway Pickup (Julien Duvivier, 1963) starring Robert Hossein and Catherine Rouvel. The screenplay of the latter is based on the novel Come Easy, Go Easy by James Hadley Chase.

James Travers at Films de France: “Chair de poule is among the most overlooked and underrated of Julien Duvivier's films and yet, whilst clearly not the director's greatest work, it has many commendable features and serves as a highly respectable homage to the American film noir thrillers of the 1950s.”

During the 1960s Nicole Berger turned to television, and played in several TV-films. She was also the protagonist of the popular soap Cécilia, médecin de campagne/Cecilia country doctor (André Michel, 1966).

Her final film was the experimental feature La Permission/The Story of a Three-Day Pass (Melvin Van Peebles, 1967). Wikipedia: "In the early 1960s, young filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles was unable to establish himself as a film director in Hollywood because the concept of a black director was unheard of in America at that time. Consequently, he went to France, learned the language, and wrote La Permission in French. Learning he could adapt one of his novels into film with a $60,000 grant from the French Cinema Center, so long as his film was 'artistically valuable, but not necessarily commercially viable,' he sought a film producer, and shot La Permission in 36 days for a cost of $200,000."

Harry Baird plays a black American GI, Turner, who falls in love with a French girl (Nicole Berger). Upon his return from an idyllic weekend, Turner is demoted by his bigoted captain for fraternising with a white girl. In the following years, Van Peebles became the father of the ‘blaxploitation’ film.

In 1967, Nicole Berger was killed in a car crash not far from the French town of Rouen. She was thrown from a car driven by actress Dany Dauberson. Berger was only 32.

Nicole Berger
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 424. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Sources: Michael Buening (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)

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The British-French-German-American coproduction Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007) is the sequel to Elizabeth (Shekhar Kapur, 1998), both produced by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. Australian actress Cate Blanchett stars as Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)
Cate Blanchett. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)
Cate Blanchett. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

The Trap for Elisabeth


Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a fairly fictionalised portrayal of events during the latter part of her reign. It's 1595 and Spain is the most powerful empire in the world.

King Philip II of Spain (Jordi Mollà), a devout Catholic, wants to bring down the protestant Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett). He is building an armada but needs a rationale to attack.

With covert intrigue, Spain sets a trap for the Queen and her principal secretary, Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), using as a pawn Elizabeth's cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), who's under house arrest in the North.

The trap springs, and the armada sets sail, to rendezvous with French ground forces and to attack. During these months, the Virgin Queen falls in love with Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), keeping him close to court and away from the sea and America. Is treachery or heroism at his heart?

Elizabeth: The Golden Age premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007. The film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and Blanchett received a nomination for Best Actress, becoming the first female actor to receive another Academy Award nomination for the reprisal of the same role.

Geoffrey Rush in Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)
Geoffrey Rush. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

Clive Owen in Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)
Clive Owen. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

Los Angeles' newest cause célèbre


In 1998, Elizabeth (Shekhar Kapur, 1998) had drawn swift and unequivocal praise, and Blanchett's portrayal of the queen had turned her into Los Angeles' newest cause célèbre.

A plethora of awards greeted Kapur's feature and Blanchett's performance, including a Best Actress Academy Award nomination and eight additional Oscar nods. The actress won a Golden Globe and British Academy Award, in addition to a host of critics' circle awards.

However, critics did not like the sequel. Cammila Collar at AllMovie: "As it stands on its own, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a delightfully bombastic period melodrama, full of sex and war and beautiful dresses. Unfortunately, as a sequel to 1998's Elizabeth (which dealt with earlier events in the 16th century monarch's reign) it's a pale imitator to the throne.

The original Elizabeth grandly showcased the epic nature of a historical turning point, while simultaneously succeeding as both a political thriller and a passionately doomed romance. Add to that themes about God, power, and the manifestations of masculinity and femininity, and you had something so incredible that simply calling it a 'period film' would be like calling The Godfather just another gangster movie. This gave The Golden Age a lot to live up to as a sequel, and unfortunately, it would appear that director Shekhar Kapur just didn't attempt to do so on all fronts."

At IMDb, D. Bruce Brown writes: "It is dazzling and Blanchett can't be denied, but Elizabeth: The Golden Age is like a chick-flick with explosions plus costumes, super hair, and loud, intrusive music. The result is faux epic."

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007)
Cate Blanchett. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).

Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen in Elizabeth The Golden Age (2007)
Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen. German postcard by Universal Pictures.de for the DVD release. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur, 2007).


Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Official Trailer #1. Source: Movieclips (YouTube).

Sources: Cammila Collar (AllMovie), D. Bruce Brown (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Cathia Caro

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Former French actress Cathia Caro (1943) was a young, delicate beauty. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, she starred in French and especially Italian films, opposite such stars as Totò, Peppino De Filippo and Aldo Fabrizi.

Cathia Caro
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 735. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


Isabelle Is Afraid of Men


Cathia Caro was born in Rouen, France, in 1943. Caro first appeared on the big screen in the title role of the film Isabelle a peur des homes/Isabelle Is Afraid of Men (Jean Gourguet, 1957). At the time she was only 14 years old.

She then played the daughter of Arletty and the girlfriend of Jean-Paul Belmondo in the comedy Un drôle de dimanche/What a Sunday (Marc Allégret, 1958). Mario Gauci at IMDb: “A pleasant enough effort, then, if strictly minor (and, ultimately, pretty forgettable) fare.”

In the following years she was particularly active in Italy. She played in well known films such as the comedy Arrangiatevi!/You're on Your Own (Mauro Bolognini, 1959) with Peppino De Filippo, Estate violent/Violent Summer (Valerio Zurlini, 1959) with Eleonora Rossi Drago, and especially the entertaining satire Tartassati/The Over-taxed (Steno, 1959) with Totò and Aldo Fabrizi.

Cathia Caro
French postcard by Editions P.I, Paris, no. 938, offered by "Les Carbones Korès Çarboplane". Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Cathia Caro
French postcard by Editions P.I, Paris, no. 916, offered by "Les Carbones Korès Çarboplane". Photo: Bernard & Vauclair.

Static and Hokey


In 1959 Cathia Caro made headlines when she attempted suicide. She had a troubled relationship with the boxer Tiberio Mitri.

At the beginning of the 1960s, her career had a boost with the peplum I giganti della Tessaglia/The Giants of Thessaly (Riccardo Freda, 1960). Mario Gauci at IMDb: “Riccardo Freda's involvement here ensures that this is one of the better peplums, even if the result is rather static and hokey overall.”

That year she also co-starred with Peppino De Filippo and Ugo Tognazzi in Genitori in blue-jeans/Parents in blue jeans (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1960).

In the following year she made her final film, the mediocre peplum Il trionfo di Maciste/Triumph of Maciste (Tanio Boccia, 1961) with bodybuilder Kirk Morris. She was only 18 when she retired from the film industry.

Maurizio Arena and Cathia Caro
Italian postcard for Piaggio by Ed. Pontedera. Maurizio Arena and Cathia Caro on a scooter, c. 1960. Caro and Rena played together in e.g. Simpatico mascalzone/Likeable rascal (Mario Amendola, 1959), and Il principe fusto/The Stem Prince (1960), directed by Arena himself.

Tomorrow, twelve more postcards with stars on a Vespa in EFSP's Dazzling Dozen.

Sources: Geoffroy Caillet (Les Gens du Cinéma – French), Mario Gauci (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia (Italian and French) and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: Stars on Vespas

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In the bathroom of our home hangs a hilarious picture of Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd in their Ben Hur outfits. On their sandals, they are pushing a Vespa scooter through the sand of the arena. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy to a full line of scooters and one of seven companies today owned by Piaggio. The picture of Heston and Boyd was made for an advertisement series by Piaggio in the late 1950s. We found a series of postcards with several other stars on Vespas. For this post we chose our twelve favourites. Andiamo! Vroom, vroom.

Vespa: Sylva Koscina
Sylva Koscina. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio.

Vespa: Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. Dickinson was in Italy for at least two films: Jessica (Jean Negulesco, Oreste Palella, 1962), shot in Sicily but also at the Roman DEAR studios, and Rome Adventure (Delmer Daves 1962), starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue.

Vespa: Mamie Van Doren
Mamie van Doren. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. In 1958 Van Doren acted in Rome in Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina/The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1958).

Vespa: Lorella De Luca
Lorella De Luca. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. Lorella De Luca had her debut in Il bidone (Federico Fellini, 1955) and from then on had a steady career in films like Poveri ma belli (Dino Risi, 1957) and Padri e figli (Mario Monicelli, 1957).

Vespa: John Saxon and Luisa Rivelli
John Saxon and Luisa Rivelli. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio.

Vespa: Jacques Sernas
Jacques Sernasat the premises of Cinecittà. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. Sernas already debuted in Italian cinema in 1948 and acted in countless Italian films, of which La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) is the most famous one.

Vespa: Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. German actress Elke Sommer did various films in Italy in 1959-1960. She returned occassionally, e.g. for Luigi Comencini's episode in Le bambole (1965).

Vespa: Edmund Purdom and Genevieve Page
Edmund Purdomand Genevieve Page. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. In 1957 the couple acted in Rome in Agguato a Tangeri/Trapped in Tangiers by Riccardo Freda and Jorge Grau.

Vespa: Luis Dominguin and Lucia Bosè
Luis Dominguin and Lucia Bosè. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. The photo is taken at Trinità dei Monti, in the back Villa Medici, Rome.

Vespa: Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. Heston at the Cinecittà backlot during the shooting of Ben-Hur (Wiliam Wyler, 1959).

Vespa: Broderick Crawford and Giulietta Masina
Broderick Crawford and Giulietta Masina. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. The couple played together in Federico Fellini's Il bidone (1955).

Vespa: Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo. Italian postcard by Ed Graphicarta, Pontedera in the Kit Postcards Vespa series of Piaggio. In 1960-1962 Belmondo acted in various films shot in and around Rome: Lettere di una novizia (Alberto Lattuada, 1960), La ciociara (Vittorio De Sica, 1960), La viaccia (Mauro Bolognini, 1961). In 1963 he returned for a few bit parts and a lead in Mare matto (Renato Castellani, 1963).

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

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