European Film Star Postcards

English stage, film, and television actor Reginald Denny (1891-1967) was also an aviator and a pioneer in the field of radio controlled, pilotless aviation. He appeared in more than 200 films, both in Great-Britain and in the United States, first as a lead in silent films and later as a character actor in sound films and TV productions.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 295.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 334.

French postcard, no. 110.

Acting and Flying
Reginald Denny was born Reginald Leigh Dugmore in Richmond, England in 1891. He was the last in a long line of British actors. His father was the actor and singer W. H. Denny, a member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and his brother was actor Malcolm Denny. Reginald attended St. Francis Xavier College in Mayfield, Sussex, but at 16, he choose for the family trade and in 1908, he went to the US with his family to act in the play The Quaker Girl. Cutting a dashing figure with his athletic good looks, he joined a travelling company of The Merry Widow in 1912, that toured the US, India, and parts of the Far East. Later that year he returned to England and made his debut in a few early British films of which the titles are lost. With a fine baritone voice he also toured with the Bandmann Opera Company. In 1915 he appeared in his first American film, Niobe (Hugh Ford, Edwin S. Porter, 1915). In 1917, Denny joined the 112th squadron of the Royal British Flying Corps as a pilot and remained for a two-year hitch as a lieutenant, during which he also became the brigade heavyweight-boxing champion. Denny took his acting and flying experiences with him to settle in America in 1919 where his acting career took off in earnest. He appeared in the silent films Bringing Up Betty (Oscar Apfel, 1919) and The Oakdale Affair (Oscar Apfel, 1919) for the New Jersey based World Film Corporation. Reginald had earlier become friends with actor John Barrymore and appeared in Barrymore's acclaimed 1920 Broadway production of Richard III. From then on, he appeared in several more Broadway productions.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3202/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Universal-Matador.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5324. Photo: Universal-Film.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 492.

Fixture
Through the Silent Era, Reginald Denny became something of a fixture in American films – he played nearly 60 roles in comedy and drama. His leading roles covered everything from action hero to straight-laced English lord. On several films he worked as a stunt pilot and in the Universal action series The Leather Pushers (Edward Laemmle, 1922) he showed his boxing ability in the lead role. During the 1920s, Denny was one of Universal's most popular stars, headlining a series of light comedies, like Sporting Youth (Harry A. Pollard, 1924) and Skinner's Dress Suit (William A. Seiter, 1926), which both co-starred Laura LaPlante. Combining humor with his handsome physique and chiseled, matinee idol looks, gave him a romantic edge. Other notable silent films with him were Sherlock Holmes (Albert Parker, 1922) with John Barrymore, and On Your Toes (Fred C. Newmeyer, 1927). It was not until 1929 and his first role in a mono picture - silent but with limited sound effects and dialogue - that the public realized he was British. With a fine, modulated voice he easily entered the talking era of film and was in fact one of the early emcees for The Voice of Hollywood No. 3 (1930) series of filmed radio shows. Denny's British accent made it difficult for him to continue in the ´all-American´ roles he'd been playing at Universal, but he continued to flourish as a character actor in the sound era. He played the lead role in a number of his earlier sound films, generally as a comedic Englishman in such works as the Noel Coward adaptation Private Lives (Sidney Franklin, 1931) starring Norma Shearer. In the early 1930s, Denny became interested in radio controlled model planes. He and his business partners formed Reginald Denny Industries opened a model plane shop in 1934. In 1940, Denny and his partners won an Army contract for their radio-controlled target drone, the OQ-2 Radioplane. They manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the army during World War II. The company was purchased by Northrop in 1952. The hobby shop business closed in the 1960s.

British postcard.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag.

British postcard in the Picturegoer series, no. 74. Photo: Freulich.

B Leads and A Seconds
Meanwhile Reginald Denny had reasonably steady work as a supporting actor in dozens of films, including The Little Minister (Richard Wallace, 1934) with Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Karenina (Clarence Brown, 1935) with Greta Garbo. He also played the ´silly ass´ second lead of Algy in several Bulldog Drummond B pictures, such as Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937, Louis King). Though there was no lack of roles, his earlier B leads became A seconds and character parts as the 1930s progressed into the war years to follow. According to William McPeak at IMDb“Denny was a fine actor with depth. His fine physique and healthy face could fit all occasions from the earlier ensemble film The Lost Patrol (John Ford, 1934) with Victor McLaglen to a memorable second lead to Leslie Howard in the powerful Of Human Bondage (John Cromwell, 1934) featuring an incredible performance by Bette Davis. His theater experience showed well in the gorgeously filmed Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936) as a versatile Benvolio to Leslie Howard again as Romeo. Among other films into the next decade his range of subtle emotion was sensitively revealed in his portrayal of lawyer/friend Frank Crawley to Laurence Olivier as disturbed Maxim de Winter in Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)”. Although his film work continued into the late 1940s, by the 1950s he was no stranger to television, especially the progression of TV playhouse fare, where he could still do some serious acting. But he was also quite well known in episodic TV in many cameo roles in drama and light comedy. He returned to Broadway in 1958 to replace Robert Coote as Col. Pickering in My Fair Lady. His last film roles were in Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965), starring Lee Marvin, the Frank Sinatra crime caper film Assault on a Queen (Jack Donohue, 1966), and as Commodore Schmidlapp in Batman (Leslie Martinson, 1966). Although Reginald Denny adopted America and made his home in California, he passed away in Richmond, the town of his birth. He suffered a stroke while he and his wife were visiting his sister in 1967. He was already battling cancer. Denny married twice. He was married to British musical comedy star Irene Haisman from 1913 till 1927. They had one child, Barbara. In 1928 he married actress Isobel Steiffel (aka Betsy Lee), with whom he would have three children.

British postcard of a third series of '50 Cinema Stars' issued with Sarony Cigarettes, no. 48.

Dutch postcard, no. 164.

British postcard of a fifth series of '50 Cinema Stars' issued with Sarony Cigarettes, no. 19.

Reginald Denny with Kay Johnson in Madam Satan (1930). Source: Ray85Milan (YouTube).

Sources: William McPeak (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Tim Lussier (Silents are Golden), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Cuban-American actor Tomas Milian (1933) worked extensively in Italian films from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. He played neurotic and sadistic killers in several Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and lone-wolf anti-heroes in violent action and police thrillers of the 1970s. Very popular in Italy were his crime-comedies of the late 1970s and 1980s. Besides these genre films, he worked with such prolific directors as Mauro Bolognini, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, in the series Artisti di sempre, no. 118.

Eyewitness
Tomas Milian was born as Tomás Quintín Rodríguez in Havana, Cuba in 1933 (some sources say 1932). His name is also written as Tomás Milián and Thomas Milian. He is the son of Tomas Rodriguez, a general serving the dictatorship of Gerardo. His father was arrested and jailed after dictator Fulgencio Batista took power in Cuba in 1933. Rodriguez committed suicide in 1945 in his home, with Tomás as an eyewitness. In 1955, Milián decided to leave Cuba. Arriving in Miami he worked in several small jobs. He joined the navy for a few months to get his American citizenship. In New York he auditioned at the Actors Studio, where he was taught the seminal ‘Stanislavsky method’ of acting. He played on Broadway in Maidens and Mistresses at home at the Zoo. Author Meade Roberts had written the piece just for him. Milián also appeared on the short-lived television series Decoy in 1957. In 1958 he went to Italy for a part in the play The Poet and the Muse by Jean Cocteau, which was performed at a theatre festival in Spoleto. There he decided to relocate, and he stayed in Italy for 30 years. His Italian film debut was as a young Roman criminal in the social drama La notte brava/Bad Girls Don't Cry (Mauro Bolognini, 1959) with Rosanna Schiaffino and Elsa Martinelli. With Bolognini, he also worked on Il bell'Antonio/Handsome Antonio (Mauro Bolognini, 1960) with Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival. Milián appeared in other classic art house films such as I Delfini/The Dauphins (Francesco Maselli, 1960) starring Claudia Cardinale, and Luchino Visconti’s part of the anthology film Boccaccio '70 (1962). In most of his Italian films, his voice was dubbed due to his accent. Milián performed his lines in Italian. Gradually he became a very successful performer in the European cinema.

Thomas Milian & Romy Schneider in Boccaccio 70

Publicity still distributed by Rank in Germany (see the mark of the German censor FSK at the right). Thomas Milian and Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's episode Il Lavoro in the episode film Boccaccio 70 (1962). Milian plays a bored aristocrat, caught in a scandal with callgirls. Schneider plays his rich and equally bored Austrian wife, who tries to seduce her husband and make him pay for love just like he did with his callgirls. It works, but leaves the woman with bitterness. The set of the film was very costly because of all the authentic, valuable objects present.

An Unexpected Boost
After five years of making what he deemed ‘intellectual’ films, Tomas Milian was unhappy with his contract with producer Franco Cristaldi and thought of going back to the United States. Needing money to start over, he took the opportunity to star as a bandit in the Spaghetti Western El precio de un hombre/The Bounty Killer (Eugenio Martin, 1966). This Spanish-Italian production gave his career an unexpected boost, and ultimately resulted in his staying in Italy. His next Western was La resa dei conti/The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966) with Lee Van Cleef. According to Wikipedia it falls in to the subgenre called Zapata Westerns: spaghetti westerns with some political context usually concerning the Mexican revolution. Milian played Cuchillo, a charming rogue accused of rape and murder. He played the role again in Corri, uomo, corri/Run, Man, Run! (Sergio Sollima, 1968) with Gian Maria Volonté. Milián became a star of the Spaghetti Western genre. Among his films are the brutally violent Se sei vivo spara/Django Kill (Giulio Questi, 1967), Sentenza di morte/Death Sentence (Mario Lanfranchi, 1968) starring Richard Conte, and Vamos a matar, compañeros/Compañeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970) with Franco Nero. Milián often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. When the Spaghetti Western dwindled, Milián remained a star. He starred in the drama I cannibali/The Cannibals (Liliana Cavani, 1970), inspired by the Antigone of Sophocles. He had a supporting part in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie (1971), which won the Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, but failed financially and critically. More successful was the Giallo Non si sevizia un paperino/Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972) in which he starred with Barbara Bouchet. He also excelled in another genre, the Poliziotteschi (Italian police crime films). His first film in this genre Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare/Almost Human (1974) lead to five more films with the director, Umberto Lenzi.

East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2371, 1965. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.

Cult Performer
In the late 1970’s, Tomas Milian turned to comedy. In Il trucido e lo sbirro/Free Hand for a Tough Cop (Umberto Lenzi, 1976), Milian played for the first time the petty thief Sergio Marazzi aka ‘Er Monnezza’, a role that he later played two more times. Another recurring character was the Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi, which he played in 12 crime-comedies. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, Milián wrote his own lines in Roman slang. Milián's inventive use of romanesco (roman dialect) made him somewhat of a cult performer in Italy, even though his later films were critically panned. Wikipedia cites Bruno Corbucci, the director of many of these films: "At the cinemas as soon as Tomás Milián appeared on the screen, when he made a wisecrack and in the heaviest situations, then it was a pandemonium, it was like being at the stadium." As Milián used similar make-ups and accents in portraying both characters, Monnezza and Nico were occasionally confused by Italian audiences. In Italy, Milián is now still associated with these performances. Occasionally he appeared in non-genre pictures, such as Bernardo Bertolucci's La Luna/Luna (1979), for which he won a Nastro d'Argento for Best supporting Actor, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Identificazione di una donna/Identification of a Woman (1982). In the latter, Milián plays a divorced middle-aged filmmaker searching for a woman to play the leading role in his next film, and also in his life. The film was awarded the 35th Anniversary Prize at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. During his 30 years in Italy, Milian received two major awards for his contribution, the Antonio de Curtis Award for Comedy and the Coppa Del Consiglio Dei Ministri from the Italian government. In 1989, he decided to go back to the United States. He played character parts in Revenge (Tony Scott, 1990), Amistad (Steven Spielberg, 1997) and Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000). He also performed on stage. Most recently he appeared in Andy Garcia’s Cuban drama The Lost City (2005), and in the political thriller The Feast of the Goat (Luis Llosa, 2006), based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Tomas Milian lives in retirement in Miami, Florida. Since 1964, he is married to Rita Valletti. They have one son, Tommasso.

Trailer El precio de un hombre/The Bounty Killer (1966). Source: Zeroheadroom (YouTube).

Trailer Faccia a faccia/Face to Face (Sergio Solima, 1967). Source: Cultcinedotcom (YouTube).

Trailer Roma a mano armata/The Tough Ones (Umberto Lenzi, 1976). Source: Thomas Crommentuyn (YouTube).

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Tom B. (Westerns... All’ Italiana), The Spaghetti Western Database, Wikipedia and IMDb.

French actor and production manager Thomy Bourdelle (1891-1972) started his film career in the silent era and worked on in the cinema as a character actor for more than three decades.

French postcard by CE (Cinémagazine-Edition), no. 859. Photo: Paramount.

Sea Fever
Thomy Charles Bourdel was born in Paris in 1891. Not much is known about Bourdelle’s private life, but his filmography is interesting. In 1922, he made his film debut for Pathé Film in the silent war drama L'aiglonne (Émile Keppens, René Navarre, 1922), followed by the comedy Le Taxi 313 X 7 (Pierre Colombier, 1922). Other silent films in which he appeared were L'auberge rouge/The Red Inn (Jean Epstein, 1923), Les Fiancailles Rouges/Red Engagement (Roger Lion, 1926) with Dolly Davis, and the experimental drama En Rade/Sea Fever (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1927) with Catherine Hessling. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Although well photographed on genuine locations, Sea Fever proved confusing to many non-French filmgoers.” Bourdelle played a German officer in the war film Verdun, visions d’histoire (Léon Poirier, 1928) starring Albert Préjean. James Travers reviews the film at Films de France: “Verdun, visions d’histoire is markedly different from previous artistic endeavours made in France on the subject of WWI. For one thing, it doesn’t attempt to apportion blame for what happened, nor does it demonise the German people. Instead, what it delivers is an authentic reconstruction of the battle of Verdun, showing the obscene folly of war without over-dramatising it, to provide a stark plea to future generations never to go down the same path again.“

Thomy Bourdelle in Verdun, visions d'histoire

French postcard by Editions Cinemagazine, no. 556. Photo: Thomy Bourdelle as The German officer in Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928).

José Davert in Verdun, visions d'histoire

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 554. Photo: José Davert as The Old Farmer in Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928).

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 550. Photo: Pierre Nay as The Son in Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928).

Fantomas
Thomy Bourdelle had a fine start in the sound era with a supporting part in the relaxed melodrama Sous les toits de Paris/Under the Roofs of Paris (René Clair, 1930), one of the first French films shot in sound. Craig Butler at AllMovie: “From the moment Roofs opens, with a tracking shot that takes the audience from above the roofs of Paris and down into a working class district of the city, it's clear that the film is in the hands of a master, and Clair has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve to keep the viewer engaged.” Bourdelle also appeared in Clair’s romantic comedy Quatorze Juillet/14th of July (René Clair, 1932) about the festivities on this French holiday. He then played detective Juve who dedicates his life to bringing hooded, black-clad criminal Fantomas to justice in Fantomas (Paul Fejos, 1932), with Jean Galland stars as the elusive ‘hero’. Other popular films were the lavish costume adventure Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1932), Pecheur D'Islande/Iceland Fisherman (Pierre Guerlais, 1933), a rugged drama set in Iceland, and the romantic drama Maria Chapdelaine/The Naked Heart (Julien Duvivier, 1934), featuring Madeleine Renaud. In Great Britain, he appeared in the detective films Seven Sinners (Albert de Courville, 1936) and Doomed Cargo (Albert de Courville, 1936), both with Edmund Lowe and Constance Cummings. At the Ufa studios in Berlin, he played in the French-German biographical film Adrienne Lecouvreur (Marcel L'Herbier, 1938) starring Yvonne Printemps. The film was based on an 1849 play about the life of the eighteenth century actress Adrienne Lecouvreur. From then on Bourdelle’s films became less prolific . Among his later films are La Fête à Henriette/Henriette (Julien Duvivier, 1952) and Le Retour de Don Camillo/The Return of Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier, 1953). He finished his cinematic career with the psychological drama La Tête Contre les Murs/The Keepers (1958), director Georges Franju's first purely fictional film. Thomy Bourdelle died in Toulon, France in 1972. He was 79.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 636. Photo: Paramount.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Craig Butler (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Diana Karenne (1888-1940) was one of the divas of the silent Italian cinema. Between 1916 and 1920, Karenne fascinated European audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and with her primadonna behaviour.

Italian postcard by Photo Vettori, Bologna.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 448.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere.

Gypsy Passion
Diana Karenne was born as Leucadia Konstantia in former Prussia, either in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) or Szczeczin. In 1915 she landed in Turin and got acquainted with producer Ernesto Maria Pasquali. He launched her in Passione tzigana/Gypsy Passion (Umberto Paradisi, 1916). Immediately she became a star. Between 1916 and 1922 she starred in many successful films.

Italian postcard. Vettori, Bologna, no. 551.

Italian postcard by Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino. "Maud, don't play with my passion", her lover Giuliano implores her in Il romanzo di Maud (1917).

Italian postcard by Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino. "One step further and I throw myself from the window", Maud (Diana Karenne) says in Il romanzo di Maud (1917).

Maud, don't play with my passion
Quite soon, Diana Karenne managed to write and direct her own films, and she even designed her own film posters. An example was Il romanzo di Maud/Maud's Romance (1917). It was the second film Karenne directed herself, after Lea (1916). She also played the lead. The film, based on Les demi-vierges (1895) by Marcel Prévost, tells the tale of the free-spirited Maud de Vouvres. Maud's lover is an opportunistic and dubious gentleman, Giuliano di Suberceaux. Their relationship has an impasse, and Maud sees new perspectives in Massimo, a provincial enamored with her. Giuliano doesn't give up and forces her to see him in secret. When Maud en Massimo are married, Giuliano tells poor Massimo the truth, but Maud denies all and chases him away. When Giuliano menaces to kill himself, she coldly responds that she doesn't care. When Massimo forces her to tell, Maud admits her former love but states Massimo is now her only love. Massimo, though, abandons her, inable to forgive her. The film was heavily censored in Italy. After its first release, it always circulated as Les demi-vierges, in particular abroad.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: still of Diana Karenne in Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot (1917).

Italian postcard for Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot(1917).

Pierrot
Another film Diana Karenne directed herself was Pierrot/Histoire d'un Pierrot (1917). She also continued to play in films by other directors such as (Redenzione (Carmine Gallone, 1919), Zoya (Giulio Antamoro, 1920), Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920), and Smarrita (Giulio Antamoro, 1921). Inspired by Asta Nielsen, Karenne played women who opposed society. Critics didn't accept her transgressive characters but audiences flocked to see her films. Between 1916 and 1920 Karenne fascinated audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and her primadonna behaviour.

Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Diana Karenne in the Italian silent film Zoya or Zoja (Giulio Antamoro, 1920), a Tiber Film production. The man left might be Mario Parpagnoli.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/2. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still of Diana Karenne&Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927) by Alexandre Volkoff. This scene was shot near the Venice cemetery Isola di San Michele.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 928. Photo: Société des Cineromans / Micheluzzi-Verleih / Cine Alliance Film.

Casanova's Major Lover
When things went bad for the Italian film industry, Diana Karenne moved to Paris and later to Berlin. There she had major roles such as the title role in Marie Antoinette (Rudolf Meinert, 1922), and as one of Casanova's major lovers in the visually splendid Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1926) starring Ivan Mozzhukhin. Other directors of her films were Robert Wiene (Das Spiel mit dem Feuer/Playing With Fire (1921)), Richard Oswald (Die Frau von vierzig Jahren/A Forty Years Old Woman (1925)), Yakov Protazananov (L'ombre de péché/The Shadow of Sin (1923)), and Gaston Ravel (Le collier de la reine/The Queen's Necklace (1929)). When sound film arrived, Diana Karenne retired from the film business. She withdrew with her husband to the German city of Aachen, only reappearing once in a bit part in Manon Lescaut (1940, Carmine Gallone), an Italian production derived from the work of Abbé Prévost, starring Alida Valli and Vittorio de Sica. Karenne was also a painter, musician and poet. In July 1940 she was heavily injured by allied bombing of Aachen and she remained in coma for 3 months, never regaining consciousness. Diana Karenne died in October 1940.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

German Postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 531/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Marlène Pilaete (CinéArtistes.Com), Vittorio Martinelli, (Le dive del silenzio), Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1917), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

The new Flickr lay-out caused many users to abandon ship, so to say. And yes I miss the classic Flickr home page too, and indeed, our pictures get less views than before the makeover. But Truus, Jan and I have decided to stay. And happily, many of our contacts did so too. greta-g from Moscow even started a new Flickr group: Actrice: French actresses.We joined it asap, of course.

Greta-g's great passion is a certain Swedish actress who became a Hollywood legend. At gg's site you can find sets of her 1922 debut in Luffar-Petter, of her final film Two-Faced Woman, and of all her work in-between. But gg also made sets on Isabella Rossellini, Michèle Morgan, Vermeer and many others. Take a look! And we invited her for our series The Choice of... Here's her selection:

Greta Garbo "Wild Orchids"1928 by James Manatt

Greta Garbo in Wild Orchids (Sidney Franklin, 1929). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4255/2, 1929-1930. Photo: James Manatt (1928) / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: greta-g.
gg: "Garbo is Garbo."

Hedy Lamarr. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6530/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin. Collection: greta-g.
"Hedy is so young and beautiful on this card!"

Romy Schneider. German postcard by Rüdel Verlag. Photo: Erma / Herzog-Film / Czerwonski. Collection: greta-g.
"The destiny of Romy is so tragic, that it would be desirable though for a minute to forget about it."

La Jana. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. K 1138. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.
"Das indische Grabmal - unforgettable."

Brigitte Helm. French postcard in the Europe series, no. 66, ca. 1932. Photo: Studio Lorelle.
"An amazing type of beauty."

Henny Porten. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 114/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin.
"Such faces you will not see now."

Zarah Leander. German postcard by Das Programm von heute / Ross Verlag. Photo: Baumann / Ufa. Publicity still for Das Herz einer Königin/A Queen's Heart (Carl Froehlich, 1940) on the life of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart.
"The beauty and fine deep voice of Zarah cannot leave you indifferent."

Marina Vlady. Serbian postcard by ZK, no. 2183. Sent by mail in 1961.
"Vlady in La Sorcière."

Beata Tyszkiewicz. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 190/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.
"Beata Tyszkiewicz is one of Poland’s quintessentially cinematic beauties. Beata forever!"

Nastassja Kinski. Vintage postcard by Palm Pictures, no. C 32. Publicity still for Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984).
"Nastassja by Wenders - mysterious and beautiful."

"Greetings from Moscow!" Thanks gg!

The Choice of... is an irregular series. Earlier guests were Egbert Barten, Véronique3, Didier Hanson, Asa, Bunched Undies, Miss Mertens, Manuel Palomino Arjona, Meiter, Gill, Jan-Hein Bal and Marlène Pilaete.

Do you also want to share your choice? Write a comment and I'll contact you.

German actor Lutz Moik (1930 - 2002) became well known with the film adaptation of the fairy tale Das kalte Herz/The Cold Heart (Paul Verhoeven, 1950). The young and fresh-looking star appeared in several East and West German films and also worked for the stage and television.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, no. 1008. Photo: Bayer / Spörr / Europa. Publicity still for Christina (1953, Fritz Eichler).

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1316. Photo: Spörr.

A Military Orphanage In Potsdam
Lutz-Jürgen Moik was born in Berlin in 1930. He was the son of a chemist and a housewife. He and his two brothers had to overcome the early death of their father in 1938, after which the family fell apart. His mother was not able to take care of the family, so Moik spent a part of his childhood in a military orphanage in Potsdam. As a schoolboy he was discovered there by director Robert A. Stemmle who gave him a supporting role in the film Meine Herren Söhne/Gentlemen sons (1942) as the son of Werner Hinz. More film parts followed, such as in Frühlingsmelodie/Spring Melody (Hans Robert Bortfeld, 1944-1945) and Eine reizende Familie/A lovely family (Erich Waschneck, 1944-1948), both filmed during the last months of the war but completed after the liberation. After the war, the 15-year old Lutz worked for the radio. He started a study to become a set designer, and took private acting lessons from Leonore Ehn. In 1947, he got the offer to star in the post-war drama Und finden dereinst wir uns wieder .../And one day we find ourselves again ... (Hans Müller, 1947). After a new venture with director Müller, the DEFA circus film 1 - 2 - 3 Corona (Hans Müller, 1948), Moik stopped with his studies and focused on his acting career. He appeared in both East and West German production, such as the West German crime film Fünf unter Verdacht/City in the Fog (Kurt Hoffmann, 1950) starring Hans Nielsen.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1020. Photo: Zeyn / Herzog-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Hanna Amon (Veit Harlan, 1951) .

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 694. Photo: Magna Film / Deutsche London Film. Publicity still for Der fröhliche Weinberg/The Happy Vineyard (Erich Engel, 1952).

First German Post-war Color Film
At age 19, Lutz Moik was directed by Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch director) in the fairy tale Das kalte Herz/The Cold Heart (1950). It was the first German post-war color film, and was highly praised both nationally and internationally. In the early 1950s, Moik started an extensive theater, film and television career. Initially he worked both in the East and in West Berlin, but for political reasons he opted for a move to the West. Some of his best-known films there were made in the late 1950s, including Der eiserne Gustav/The Iron Gustav (George Hurdalek, 1958) with Heinz Rühmann, and Fabrik der Offiziere/Operation Terror (Frank Wisbar, 1960) with Helmut Griem. From then on he focused on the stage and worked for theatres in Aachen, Dortmund, Hannover, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf (all in Germany), Bern in Switzerland and Vienna in Austria. As a voice actor, he dubbed American actors like Mickey Rooney in The Bridges at Toko-Ri, George Peppard and Earl Holliman in The Sons of Katie Elder. In the successful family series Till, der Junge von nebenan/Till, the boy next door (Wolfgang Teichert, 1967-1968), he played the father of Till. He also starred alongside Grethe Weiser in the stage play Keine Leiche ohne Lilly (No body without Lilly) (1967). In 1978, he played a small part in the Dutch war drama Pastorale 1943 (Wim Verstappen, 1978) with Rutger Hauer and Sylvia Kristel. Moik played in two episodes of the popular krimi series Tatort (Fritz Umgelter, 1981/Claus Peter Witt, 1983). From the mid-1980s on, he became more and more limited in his profession because of multiple sclerosis. In a wheelchair, Moik played smaller parts and gave readings, often together with his wife, the Austrian actress Anna Moik-Stötzer. His first wife had been actress and cabaret artist Edith Hancke, who played in some DEFA films after the war. One of Lutz Moik’s last screen parts was a guest role in the soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten/Good Times, Bad Times (1992-1993). In 2002, the 71-years old died of his illness in Berlin. He had two sons with Anna Moik-Stötzer.

German postcard by Starfoto Hasemann, no. 57. Photo: Filipp.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 674. Photo: Magna Film / Deutsche London Film. Publicity still for Der fröhliche Weinberg/The Happy Vineyard (Erich Engel, 1952).

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line.de) (German), Film-Zeit.de (German), DEFA Filmsterne (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Handsome and talented Jacques Perrin (1941) started his career as the romantic hero in the films of Italian director Valerio Zurlini. Later he made powerful films with Costa-Gravas, and played the adult Salvatore in the international hit Cinema Paradiso (1988). With his own studio, he produced successful political films as Z (1969) and nature documentaries as Microcosmos (1996).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 512. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Prince Charming
Jacques Perrin was born Jacques André Simonet in Paris in 1941. Occasionally, he is credited as Jacques Simonet. Perrin was his mother's name. His father, Alexandre Simonet, was a theatre director. In 1946, the five years old made his uncredited film debut in Les Portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (Marcel Carné, 1946), starring Serge Reggiani and Yves Montand. Perrin was trained as an actor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique. On stage, he gave over 400 performances of L'Année du bac (Graduation Year) in a Paris theatre. In the cinema he played his first major juvenile parts in Italy for director Valerio Zurlini. He played Claudia Cardinale’s boyfriend in the romantic comedy La Ragazza con la valigia/Girl with a Suitcase (Valerio Zurlini, 1961) and Marcello Mastroianni’s younger brother in Cronaca familiar/Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini, 1962). In France he acted with Brigitte Bardot in La Vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), with Anna Karina in Le Soleil dans l'oeil/Sun in Your Eyes (Jacques Bourdon, 1962), and with Bruno Cremer in the war film La 317ème section/317th Platoon (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1965). He also worked on the thriller film Compartiment tueurs/The Sleeping Car Murders (Costa-Gravas, 1965). James Travers at Films de France: “Costa-Gavras made his directoral debut with this fast-moving, convoluted but magnificently assembled crime thriller. The film reflects the director’s interest for American film noir and, thanks largely to an impressive cast, is one of his most entertaining films.” It was the start of a long-time cooperation between actor and director. In 1966, Perrin won two Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival or the Italian film Un uomo a metà/Almost a Man (1966, Vittorio De Seta), and the Spanish film La busca/The Search (Angelino Fons, 1966). The next year he co-starred in the musical Les demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967) with Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorleac. He would cooperate again with Demy and Deneuve on the fairytale Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970) in which he played an appealing Prince Charming. Craig Butler at AllMovie: “Donkey Skin is a strange but utterly captivating little fantasy, and one that, despite its fairy tale origins, is really aimed more at adults than at children. Jacques Demy has directed with an eye toward whimsy, but whimsy mixed both with magic and subtle disorientation.”

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Debts
At 27, Jacques Perrin created his own studio. He produced and acted in Z (1969), directed by Costa Gavras and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Yves Montand, and Irene Papas. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Dan Pavlides at AllMovie: “Z is one of the most politically insightful films ever made, exposing government hypocrisy and cover-up in the wake of a political assassination.” The production had nearly 4 million admissions in France and was the 4th highest grossing film of the year. It was also the 10th highest grossing film of 1969 in the United States. Z is also one of the few films to be nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. Perrin worked with Costa-Gavras again on État de Siège/State of Siege (Costa-Gavras, 1972) and Section special/Special Section (Costa-Gavras, 1975). Both films had political themes, and Perrin continued this trend with La guerre d'Algérie/Algerian War (Yves Courrière, Philippe Monnier, 1975), a documentary on the Algerian uprising, and La Spirale/The Spiral (Armand Mattelart, Valérie Mayoux, Jacqueline Meppiel, 1976), a film on the Chilean presidency of Salvador Allende. In 1976, Perrin produced another Oscar-winning film in La Victoire en chantant/Black and White in Color (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1976). That year, he also embarked on Il deserto dei Tartari/Le Désert des Tartares/The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976), with a cast filled with such big-name actors as Jean-Louis Trintignant, Vittorio Gassman, Max von Sydow, Francisco Rabal, Helmut Griem, Giuliano Gemma, Philippe Noiret, Fernando Rey, and Laurent Terzieff. The film, based on the Dino Buzzati's novel The Tartar Steppe, tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo (Jacques Perrin), and the time that he spent guarding the Bastiani Fortress, an old, unmaintained border fortress. Although the film won the Grand Prix du Cinéma Français and three David di Donatello Awards 1977, it was not very successful and left Perrin with debts.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3143, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: publicity still for Rose rosse per Angelica/Red Roses for Angelica (Steno, 1968).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3144, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: publicity still for Rose rosse per Angelica/Red Roses for Angelica (Steno, 1968).

An Astoundingly Intimate Glimpse
Jacques Perrin had a huge success with the Italian drama Nuovo Cinema Paradiso/Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988). He played a famous film director remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist (Philippe Noiret), first brought about his love of films. Cinema Paradiso was a critical and box-office success and won many awards including the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Two years later, he also appeared in Tornatore’s Stanno tutti bene/Everybody’s Fine (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1990) starring Marcello Mastroianni. As a producer, Perrin changed direction when he decided that the natural life around us could tell stories as fascinating and varied as anything dreamt up by a scriptwriter. He produced nature documentaries that transformed the scope of wildlife films, from Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou, 1996), in which ants performed the starring role, to the austere travelogue Himalaya (Eric Valli, 1999), nominated for an Oscar, and Le Peuple Migrateur/Winged Migration (Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, Jacques Perrin, 2001), which followed some 50 species of birds across 30 countries. All were filmed by Perrin’s studio Galatée Films. Another successful production was Les choristes/The Chorus (Christophe Barratier, 2004). In this drama Perrin played the narrator, the old orchestra conductor Pierre Morhange, who reminisces about his childhood inspirations through the pages of a diary kept by his old music teacher. The young Pépinot was played by Perrin’s son Maxence. Other films in which he played were the historical horror film Le pacte des loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001), and the crime drama Le petit lieutenant/The Young Lieutenant (Xavier Beauvois, 2005) with Nathalie Baye. In 1985, Perrin was made Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite, in 1997 he was promoted to Officer and in 2003 to Commander. He was also made Knight of the Légion d'honneur in 1990 and promoted to Officer in 2007. Jacques Perrin has three sons, actor Mathieu Perrin (1975), actor Maxence Perrin (1995), and Lancelot Perrin (2000). His most recent film production is Océans/Oceans (Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, 2009). Tracie Cooper at AllMovie: “Narrated by Pierce Brosnan, Oceans is made up of a compilation of underwater photography from over 75 diving expeditions that took place over a period of four years, and captures an astoundingly intimate glimpse into the lives of a wide array of sea life”.

Trailer Z (1969). Source: VegetativeHorse (YouTube).

Trailer for Océans/Oceans (2009). Source: HopsScotchfilmsEnt (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Craig Butler (AllMovie), Dan Pavlides (AllMovie), Tracie Cooper (AllMovie), John Whitley (The Telegraph), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Chilean singer and actress Rosita Serrano (1914–1997) had her biggest success in Nazi Germany. Her nickname was the 'Chilenische Nachtigall' (Chilean Nightingale), although her most popular song was La Paloma (The Dove).

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 133. Photo: Quick.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 2245/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Quick / Ufa.

Bell-like Voice And Pitch-perfect Whistling
Rosita Serrano was born María Martha Esther Alduante (or Aldunate) del Campo in Viña del Mar, Chile in 1914. She was the daughter of diplomat Héctor Alduante (or Aldunate) and opera singer Sofía del Campo. In the early 1930s, she and her mother moved to Europe. Initially they lived in Portugal and France but by 1936 they moved to Berlin. Serrano had her first success at the Metropol Theater, where she performed a part in the operetta Maske in Blau (Blue Mask). Next she performed Chilean folk songs in another legendary Berlin theatre, Wintergarten. During that time she was discovered by German composer Peter Kreuder who managed that she got a contract at the German record company Telefunken. From then on she performed in the German language. Her hits included Roter Mohn (Red poppy), Schön die Musik (Beautiful Music), Küß mich, bitte, bitte, küß mich (Kiss me, please, please kiss me) and Und die Musik spielt dazu (And the Music plays to it). Because of her bell-like voice and pitch-perfect whistling the German public gave her the nickname Chilenische Nachtigall (Chilean Nightingale). By 1938 she received roles in the revue films Es leuchten die Sterne/The Stars Shine (Hans H, Zerlett, 1938), Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939), Der vierte kommt nicht/The fourth is not coming (Max W. Kimmich, 1939), and Die kluge Schwiegermutter /The Wise Mother in Law (Hans Deppe, 1939) featuring Ida Wüst. Serrano sang both in German and Spanish and her repertoire varied from folk to pop, including flamenco, rumba, tango and mambo. According to Wikipedia, “her voice style was mainly operatic coloratura soprano with a deep, fast vibrato. She added frequent embellishments such as soaring arpeggiation and melisma. Some songs were recorded with a few words whispered or spoken, and she occasionally emphasized words with a gritty, growling jazz style reminiscent of African-American blues singer Ethel Waters. She was a pitch-perfect whistler in the manner of Bing Crosby.”

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3564/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3521/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3521/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.

Accused Of Being A Spy
Between film shoots, Rosita Serrano went on tour with two dance orchestras - Kurt Hohenberger's and Teddy Stauffer's. Due to the intercession of Joseph Goebbels, she got gigs in the radio show Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht (the musical request programme for the Wehrmacht). In 1940 she recorded the very popular song La Paloma, heard throughout Germany. Years later it was used again on the soundtracks of the films Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) and The House of the Spirits (Bille August, 1993). She co-starred with Paul Hörbiger in the comedy Herzensfreud – Herzensleid/Heartfelt joy - heartbreak (Hubert Marischka, 1940). In 1943 while on tour in Sweden, Serrano was accused by Germany of being a spy — she had donated a benefit performance to Jewish refugees. She travelled to Chile to avoid the arrest. Her songs were subsequently blacklisted in Nazi Germany. Serrano toured in the United States, but her German repertoire was not popular. She appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1950, but little came of the publicity. In 1951, she went to West Germany to play a Cuban singer in the film Schwarze Augen/Dark Eyes (Géza von Bolváry, 1951) starring Cornell Borchers, and the next year she sang in the film Saison in Salzburg/Season in Saltzburg (Ernst Marischka, 1952). Her record contract with Telefunken was broken after she was whistled away during a Berlin performance. Another come-back attempt with Kurt Hohenberger in 1957 was only a mediocre success. In the following decades she had some appearances in German TV talk shows. In 1988 there was a German TV documentary on Serrano, Die chilenische Nachtigall (Dietmar Buchmann, Hilde Heim, 1988). In her native Chile, where she spent the last years of her life, the public never forgave her for performing in Nazi Germany. Rosita Serrano died forgotten and in poverty in Santiago in 1997.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3402/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Bergheimer.

German postcard by Telefunken. Photo: Ufa / Quick.

Trailer for documentary Die Chilenische Nachtigall (Dietmar Buchmann, Hilde Heim, 1988). Source: Catchil (YouTube).

Sources: May Ell (IMDb), Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Scottish superstar Sean Connery (1930) won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and also a BAFTA Award. He is best known as the original secret agent 007, starring in seven James Bond films between 1962 and 1983. His film career also includes such notable films as Marnie (1964), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Vintage Spanish postcard. Photo: United Artists.

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

Mr. Universe
Thomas Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, in 1930. He was the son of Euphemia 'Effie' Connery-Maclean, a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and truck driver. He has a younger brother, Neil. At 13, he left school and worked as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 1947 he joined the Royal Navy, but after three years he was discharged on medical grounds because of severe stomach ulcers. First, he returned to the co-op, then worked as a lorry driver, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and as a coffin polisher. Looking to pick up some extra money, he helped out backstage at the King's Theatrearound Christmas of 1951. He became interested in the proceedings, and got a job as a singing and dancing sailor in the chorus of South Pacific. More bit parts followed. He also took up bodybuilding as a hobby. His official website claims he was third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, other sources place him in the 1953 competition. He made his film debut as an extra in the musical Lilacs in the Spring (Herbert Wilcox, 1955) with Anna Neagleand Errol Flynn. No Road Back (Montgomery Tully, 1957) was Sean's first major film role, and it was followed by such films as Hell Drivers (Cy Endfield, 1957) starring Stanley Baker, Darby O'Gill and the Little People (Robert Stevenson, 1959), and The Frightened City (John Lemont, 1961) with Herbert Lom.

Dutch photo postcard.

Dutch card, no. AX 6263.

Dutch postcard.

Possessive Gangster Boyfriend
Sean Connery played another early film part in Another Time, Another Place (Lewis Allen, 1958) as Lana Turner's romantic interest. During filming, Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, believed she was having an affair with Connery. He stormed onto the set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm Stompanato and knock him flat on his back. Shortly thereafter, Stompanato met his end at the hands of the teenage daughter of Lana Turner, Cheryl Crane. The film was released four months ahead of schedule to capitalize on the murder. Meanwhile Connery also appeared regularly on television. He played the leads in an ITV Teleplay of Anna Christie (1957) with his later wife Diane Cilento, and in a Canadian TV adaptation of Macbeth (Paul Almond, 1961). He also had a prominent role in a BBC production of Anna Karenina (Rudolph Cartier, 1961), in which he co-starred with Claire Bloom.

British postcard by Klasik Kards, London, no. 1543. Photos: publicity stills for From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963) with Daniela Bianchi and Martine Beswick.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 356, Dep Legal B 17-165-VIII.

French postcard by PSG, no. 454, offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Lynx.

Suave and Sophisticated
Sean Connery's big breakthrough came in the role of the suave and sophisticared secret agent James Bond. He played the character in seven Bond films: Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962), From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963), Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964), Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965), You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967), Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971), and Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner, 1983). All seven films were big box-office hits, if not critically acclaimed as well. Among his many Bond girls were Ursula Andress, Daniela Bianchi, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Claudine Auger, Karin Dor, Lana Wood, Jill St. John, Barbara Carrera and Kim Basinger. At first, James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, doubted the casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks" and "I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man," adding that the muscular Connery was unrefined. However, Fleming's girlfriend told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma. Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No premiere; he was so impressed, he created a half-Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for the literary James Bond in the later novels.

German postcard. Photo: dpa. Publicity still for Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965).

Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Goldfinger

German postcard. Photo: P.A. Reuter. Publicity still for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

German postcard. Photo: P.A. Reuter. Sean Connery as James Bond.

Stylistic Tutelage
Sean Connery's portrayal of Bond owes much to stylistic tutelage from director Terence Young, polishing the actor while using his physical grace and presence for the action. While making the Bond films, Connery also starred in other acclaimed films such as The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962), the romantic melodrama Woman of Straw (Basil Dearden, 1964) with Gina Lollobrigida, Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964), the excellent war film The Hill (Sidney Lumet, 1965), and the western Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968) with Brigitte Bardot. Two of his most moving films were The Offence (Sidney Lumet, 1972) and in the wise and romantic version of the Robin Hood legend, Robin and Marian (Richard Lester, 1976) with Audrey Hepburn. Apart from these films and The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston, 1975) with Michael Caine, and The Wind and the Lion (John Milius, 1975) most of Connery's successes in the seventies were as part of ensemble casts in films such as the Agatha Christie mystery Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet, 1974) and the war epic A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977). Four years later, Sean Connery appeared in the Sci-Fi comedy Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981) as King Agamemnon. The casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, in which he describes the character as being 'Sean Connery — or someone of equal but cheaper stature'. However, when shown the script, Connery was happy to play the supporting role.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 119.

Belgian postcard.

Israelian postcard by Editions de Luxe, no. 104.

A Nightmarish Experience
After his experience with Never Say Never Again in 1983 (difficulties with the production staff made it a nightmarish experience for him) and the following court case, Sean Connery became unhappy with the major studios and for two years did not make any films. He returned to the screen in the successful European production Der Name der Rose/The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986), for which he won a BAFTA award. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander (Russell Mulcahy, 1986) with Christophe(r) Lambertalso showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which would become a recurring role in many of his later films.

German postcard by ISV, no. H 123.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Italian postcard by Vittorius, Roma (Rome), no. VR 503. Sent by mail in Germany in 1997. Photo: publicity still for Der Name der Rose/The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986).

Hard-nosed Veteran Cop
The following year, Sean Connery's acclaimed performance as a hard-nosed veteran cop in The Untouchables (Brian de Palma, 1987) earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his sole nomination throughout his career. Subsequent box-office hits included Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan, 1990), where he was reportedly called in at two weeks' notice, The Rock (Michael Bay, 1996), and Entrapment (Jon Amiel, 1999) with Catherine Zeta-Jones. The latter two he also produced. Both Last Crusade and The Rock alluded to his James Bond days. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted 'the father of Indiana Jones' to be Connery since Bond directly inspired the Indiana Jones series, while his character in The Rock, John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s.

Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

French postcard by Editions Nugeron, no. Star 206. Photo: Lucasfilm. Publicity still for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989).

French postcard by Editions Nugeron, no. 198. Photo: Lucasfilm. Publicity still for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989).

Sean Connery, Christophe Lambert, Highlander The Quickening

French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 160. Photo: publicity still for Highlander II: The Quickening (Russell Mulcahy, 1991).

Being A Scot
In recent years, Sean Connery's filmography has included several box office and critical disappointments such as First Knight (Jerry Zucker, 1995), The Avengers (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1998), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Stephen Norrington, 2003), but he also received positive reviews, including his performance in Finding Forrester (Gus Van Sant, 2000). In 2008, on his 78th birthday, Connery unveiled his autobiography Being a Scot, co-written with Murray Grigor. Sean Connery was married to actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1973. They have a son, actor Jason Connery. Since 1975 he has been married to French painter Micheline Roquebrune. In 2000, Sean Connery was knighted .

Bond, James Bond. Source: Zacatown (YouTube).

Trailer Dr. No (1962). Source: OldHollywoodTrailers (YouTube).

Trailer Der Name der Rose/The Name of the Rose (1986). Source: NeonDreams25 (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), SeanConnery.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.

A few days ago became known that German actor, cabaret artist and comedian Eddi Arent (1925-2013) has died on 28 May. Arent appeared in 104 films since 1956, and was best known as the comic sidekick in the Edgar Wallace and Karl May films of the 1960s. He was 88.

German postcard, no. R 28. Photo: publicity still for Winnetou 2. Teil/ Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964).

Edgar Wallace
Eddi Arent was born Gebhardt Georg Arendt in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland in 1925. His father was the head of the Danzig water plant. After high school, he had to serve in the army at the Eastern front. After the war he began to work as a cabaret artist. He acted in Jürgen Henckell’s literary cabaret Der Widerspiegel, which was the first cabaret in the French occupation zone. He worked briefly together with Werner Finck in his Mausefalle (Mousetrap) in Stuttgart and was a contributor to Der Zwiebel (the Onion) in Munich. The talented comedian was not attracted to the theatre, and only incidentally made stage appearances. In 1958, Arent had his first major film role in the war drama Der Arzt von Stalingrad/The Doctor of Stalingrad (Géza von Radványi, 1958) with O.E. Hasse. Arent became known as a mannered butler in the Edgar Wallace thriller Der Frosch mit der Maske/Faces of the Frog (Harald Reinl, 1959) starring Joachim Fuchsberger. Next he played a bumbling police photographer and an assistant detective in other Edgar Wallace films, produced by Horst Wendlandt. Later, he even was the villain in Der unheimliche Mönch/The Sinister Monk (Harald Reinl, 1965).

German postcard, no. R 24. Photo: still from Winnetou - 2. Teil/Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964) with Karin Dor as Ribanna and Pierre Brice as Winnetou.

Karl May
Eddi Arent appeared in three the Karl May Westerns, Der Schatz im Silbersee/The Treasure of Silver Lake (Harald Reinl, 1962), Winnetou 2. Teil/Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964) and Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten/ Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death (Harald Reinl, 1968). He became very popular as the quirky Lord Castlepool who travels with Winnetou (Pierre Brice) and Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker) through the Wild West. The easy-going Arents was an effective and loyal trooper and many directors liked to work with him. On his film resume are thrillers, comedies and Schlagerfilms. Arent worked in the cinema till the late 1970s. Then he moved over to television. He was very successful with the sketch series Es ist angerichtet/It is done. He had his last major success on the side of Harald Juhnke in the television series Harald und Eddi/Harald and Eddi (1987). In 1997 he was awarded with the Scharlih-Preis, the famous Karl May award. Until the beginning of the 21st Century, he was still active as an actor. Arents feature was especially his subtle humour. With almost immovable countenance, he could tear jokes - and let his audience laugh tears. Since 1993, he and his wife Franziska Ganslmeier ran a hotel in Titisee-Neustadt in the Black Forest, but their Neustadter Hof went bankrupt in 2005. His wife died in 2011. In recent years, Eddi Arent lived in a retirement home in the Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate) and finally with his only son in Munich. Arent was suffering from dementia and died in Munich at the age of 88.

Short scene from the Edgar Wallace thriller Der Zinker (1963). Source: Vandurkan (YouTube).

Harald Juhnke& Eddi Arent in the sketch Gast und Kellner (1987). Source: fritz51249 (YouTube),

Sources: T Online (German), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

Vaudeville star Anna Fougez (1894-1966) shone on the Italian stage from the First World War to the mid-1920s. She became internationally noted for her performance of the Neapoletan song. Fougez also played in various Italian films.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, no. 135.

Rhinestones And A Fake Fox
Anna Fougez was born as Maria Annina Laganà Pappacena in Taranto, Southern Italy, in 1894. Her parents were Angelo and Teresa Catalano Pappacena. Soon she became an orphan and she was adopted by Giuseppe Laganà and her aunt Giovannina Catalano. At the age of 8, she debuted on stage and when she was 15 she appeared as a couple with Petrolini. When she was 16, she mended her torn socks with rhinestones, bought two hare bellies and wore them like they were foxes, and thus sang Bambola at the Teatro Mastroieniin Messina. Soon she had her name on the billboards next to the big names of the variety and cafe-chantant of those years such as Gino Franzi, Gennaro Pasquariello, Elvira Donnarumma, Armando Gill, and Gabrè. Both in Italian theaters and all over Europe, she became noted for her performance of Neapoletan song.

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna.

The Epitome Of Luxury
Between 1919 and 1925, when Italian variety was at its peak, Anna Fougez reached the apex of her career. She gained 500 to 2000 lira a night. Fougez was the most elegant of the vaudeville stars: she got the first ostrich feathers, the first steps on stage, the first golden fountains. She wore priceless jewelry, regal hairdo, and had beautiful naked legs. She danced and sang after her own annoucement: Anna Fougez, signori, vi si presenta già per danzar... per cantar..., which became her trademark. Fougez was the epitome of luxury, elegance and richness. Her nom de plume was inspired by the famous international vedette of the Folies Bergère, Eugénie Fougère. Fougez was a talented artist to whose name songs are attached like: Abat-jour (Lamp-shades), Addio mia bella signora (Farewell my lovely lady), and A tazza 'e cafè (A Cup of Coffee). Vipera (Viper) was her best known song.

Anna Fougez sings Vipera. Source: Killyky (YouTube).

Imitations of Borelli and Menichelli
Anna Fougez also played in several films. In 1916 she made her cinema debut at the Cinès studio in the title role of Le avventure di Colette/The Adventures of Colette (R. Savarese, 1916), based on the comedy La gamine by Pierre Veber and Henri de Gorsse. Then in 1919 she starred in three films by Gustavo Serena, who also played the male lead: L'immagine dell'altra/The Image of the Other Woman (1919), L'ultima recita di Anna Parnell/The Last Performance of Anna Parnell (1919) with Rinaldo Rinaldi, based on a story by George Sand, and La vita e la leggenda/The Life and the Legend (1919), a modern version of the King Candaules story. In 1921-1922 she again performed in films by and with Gustavo Serena. The first was Fiore selvaggio/Wild Flower (1921) for which she wrote the script herself. It is the story of a poor shepherdess climbing up the social ladder, becoming a rich demi-mondaine. In the end she dies in the arms of her first love. Then followed Senza colpa/Without Guilt (1921) for which the press accused her of imitating Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli, who were by now considered passé. Finally, she appeared in Il fallo dell'istitutrice/The Mistake of the Teacher (1922), which received the same comments in the press.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 685.

Grande Diva
In 1928 Anna Fougez created a revue company together with her husband, the French dancer and tango specialist René Thano. Two years later she published her autobiography Il mondo parla e io passo (The world talks while I am passing). Actually the title was a line borrowed from Lyda Borelli who used it in French: La meute aboie, je passe. Fougez mingled memories about her career with her own poems. In the 1930s she continued to perform with her Fougez-Thano company. Young talents such as Nino Taranto and Carlo Dapporto started their careers in these revue shows. Both the political and theatrical milieu were enamored by her. In 1940 Anna Fougez retired in a villa full of souvenirs, in Santa Marinella, near Rome. There she kept living like a Grande Diva, together with René Thano, and her friends Amelia De Fazi and Annamaria De Fazi. In the postwar film Gran varietà (Domenico Paolella, 1954) Lea Padovani imitated 'la' Fougez. Anna Fougez died in 1966 at the age of 72.

Tribute to Anna Fougez. Source: allacincodelamagnana (YouTube).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli/Aldo Bernardini (Il cinema muto italiano), L'ora del Teatro (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

There are more amazing star postcards than I ever can show in this blog. More, many more untold stories to tell. Someone who keeps reminding me of that is Didier Hanson. Every week or so, he surprises me with scans of postcards I had never seen before. Or stars I had never heard of, but who were all working once in the European cinema. To give you an impression, here are eleven 'rares' from Didier's incredible collection.

Andrée Standard. French postcard by EC, no. 52. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Anita Berber. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series. Photo: Becker & Maass. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Bella Polini. German postcard by Ross verlag, Berlin, no. 795/2, no. 1925-1926. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Else Böttcher, Vilma Conti. German postcard by BNK, no. 33.583/1. Caption: "Fuss-Tanz-Duett. So ein Damesfüsschen zierlich und klein. Die Tanzhusaren." Collection: Didier Hanson.

Ernst Lubitsch. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 1926. Photo: Fritz Richard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Eta von Hajdu. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8260/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Angelo Photos / Phönix Film. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Hildegard Gajewska. German postcard by Hartungs Künstlerkarte, Berlin, no. 1206. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Himansu Rai. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 36/2. Photo: Emelka Konzern. Still from Prem Sanyas or Die Leuchte Asiens/The Light of Asia (Franz Osten, Himansu Rai, 1925). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Serge Lifar. French postcard no. 148. Photo: Studio Harcourt. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Valeska Gert. German card. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Veit Harlan. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7753/1, 1935. Photo: Robertson, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Thanks, Didier!

French actress Dany Saval (1942) was the lithe and lovely leading lady in both fluffy comedies and thrillers of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

French postcard by EDUG, no. 75. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/139. Photo: Sam Levin / Camera Press / Ufa.

Can-Can Girl
Dany Saval was born as Danielle Nadine Suzanne Savalle in 1942 in in a slum area of Paris, France. The Germans had just before released her father, a factory worker, from a prisoner-of-war camp. Dany started her career at 8, as a child-dancer. Later she became a Can-Can girl at the Moulin Rouge. Her first film appearance was a small part in L'eau vive/The Girl and the River (François Villiers, 1958) starring Pascale Audret. The film, based on a screenplay by pacifist writer Jean Giono, won a Golden Globe as Best Foreign-Language Film in 1959. She then appeared in the French answer to Rebel Without A Cause, Les Tricheurs/The Cheaters (Marcel Carné, 1958), as the fiancée of Pierre Brice. Les Tricheurs tells the story of disaffected Parisian youth who have lost their way in an atmosphere of existentialism, sexual liberation and disrespect for traditional and religious values. On the huge success of Les Tricheurs followed bigger roles in such films as Asphalte/Asphalt (Hervé Bromberger, 1959) with Francoise Arnoul,La verte moisson/Green Harvest (François Villiers, 1959) and the supernatural thriller Pleins feux sur l'assassin/Spotlight on a Murderer (Georges Franju, 1961) starring Pierre Brasseur.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 851. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1744.

Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 5355. Photo: City. Publicity still for Comment réussir en amour/How to Succeed in Love (Michel Boisrond, 1962).

Walt Disney
Suddenly one of Disney’s talent scouts saw Dany Saval on a magazine cover and after a screentest, Walt Disney signed her to a six-film contract. In her first film, Moon Pilot (James Neilson, 1962), she played a mysterious extraterrestrial opposite astronaut Tom Tryon. Hal Erickson of AllMovielikes the film: “Moon Pilot is an engaging Disney sci-fi comedy that manages to shoot off a few neat and surprisingly satirical barbs at the hypertense US/Russia ‘space race’ of the era.” On IMDb, reviewer San Diego comments: “Watch it for Dany Saval... (she) makes the film worth watching.” Despite these positive reviews, the film bombed and Saval would make only one more American film. Today she is probably best known as one of the lovely airline stewardesses being shuffled around by Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis in the slapstick comedy Boeing Boeing (John Rich, 1965). IMDb reviewer Moonspinner55 writes: “Perky Dany Saval (as ‘Air France’) is the stand-out amongst the lovely ladies, none of whom gets an actual character to play.” In between she appeared in several fluffy French comedies opposite such comedians as Louis de Funèsand Darry Cowl. She also appeared opposite Michele Morgan in the crime thriller Constance Aux Enfers/Web of Fear (François Villiers, 1964). In 1965 she married distinguished composer Maurice Jarre, with whom she had a daughter, Stéfanie Jarre. She then retired temporarily from the screen to raise her child.

French postcard. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 220.

French postcard by EDUG, no. 15. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Spaghetti Western
In 1970, Dany Saval made a come-back on TV in the popular comedy series Les saintes chéries/The Sweet Saints starring Micheline Presle. More TV work and films followed. She was the leading lady in the spaghetti western Si può fare... amigo/Saddle Tramps (Maurizio Lucidi, 1972) starring Bud Spencerand Jack Palance. In the popular action comedy L’Animal/The Animal (Claude Zidi, 1977), she appeared opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo and Raquel Welch. And she played a supporting part in the detective comedy Inspecteur la Bavure/Inspector Blunder (Claude Zidi, 1980) starring Coluche and Gérard Dépardieu. In 1979, she wrote with Serge Prisset the musical Penelope aired on television and recorded on two 33 rpm. In 1985, she wrote the screenplay for the animated adventure L'Empire sous la mer/The Empire under the sea, featuring her dog Zaza and designed by Jean Pierre Gibrat. Her last (TV) film was La baleine blanche/Children and the White Whale (Jean Kerchbron, 1987). Then, Dany Saval retired from the film and entertainment business. A real animal lover, she has campaigned for their protection for years. In 1995 she created the association Li-Za, of which she is the chairwoman. Dany Saval married three times. Her first marriage was with pr-man Roger Chaland in 1958. Her second marriage with Maurice Jarre ended in a divorce in 1967. Since 1973, she is married to host and journalist Michel Drucker, with whom she resides in Paris.

Musical scene from Les Parisiennes (Jacques Poitrenaud, 1962) with Darry Cowl and Les Chaussettes Noires featuring Eddy Mitchell. Source: FrancSix (YouTube).

DVD Trailer Moon Pilot (James Neilson, 1962). Source: DisneyMoviesOnDemand (YouTube)

Scopitone clip L'hotel particulier (1967). Source: Franck Guilpain (YouTube).

Sources: Christophe Avdjian (Teppaz and Co) (French), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Charles Le Bargy (1858-1936) was already a famous stage actor, performing at the Comedie-Française, when he debuted in the cinema. He played the perfidous King Henry III in the short silent film L'Assassinat du duc de Guise/The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908), which introduced a new kind of cinema.

French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leurs expressions by Paris sur Scène, no. 1020.

French postcard in the series Nos Artistes dans Leur Loge, no. 214. Photo: Comoedia.

Man of Fashion
Charles Gustave Auguste le Bargy was born at La Chapelle, France, in 1858. His talent both as a comedian and as a serious actor soon became evident. He became a sociétaire (company member) of the Comedie-Française. His wife, Simone le Bargy née Benda, an accomplished actress, made her debut at the Gymnase in 1902, and in later years had a great success in La Rafale and other plays. For years Le Bargy was an idol for the audiences of France's national playhouse. His chief successes were in such plays as Le Duel, L'Enigme, and Henri Laveden's play Le Marquis de Priola. The title role in the latter play and his aristocratic bearing gave him his nickname the 'Marquis de Priola'. According to a report in the New York Times in 1910, he was one of the leaders of 'the men of Fashion' of Paris. His perfect taste in dress, his exquisite cravats and his divorce from Simone gained him undying boulevard fame. In 1910, he had a quarrel with Jules Claretie, the administrator of the Comedie-Française, and Le Bargy ceased to be a sociétaire.

French postcard.

French postcard in the series Nos acteurs célèbres.

A New Kind of Cinema
Charles Le Bargy's cinema debut was as the perfidious King Henri III in the short silent film L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise/The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908). King Henri III lures the Duke of Guise (Albert Lambert), who has become too powerful, to his castle in Blois and has him murdered brutally. The film was directed by Charles Le Bargy himself, together with André Calmettes. It was a production by the new Societé du Film d'Art (1907), which introduced a new kind of cinema: historical films with stage actors and based on either historical events or famous stage plays and novels. The prominent designer Emile Bertin designed the sets, and the famous composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a score especially for the film, a new concept at the time. The script was explicitly written for the cinema by Henri Lavedan, though the setting and costumes were quite theatrical. On 17 November 1908, L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise had its premiere in Paris at the Theatre Charras, near the Paris Opera. For the first time, the press reported widely about a film. In contrary to historical myths, the acting of Charles Le Bargy and the other actors in L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise was quite restrained in comparison with previous films. It was such a success, that other companies and countries wanted to have their own film d'art subsidiaries, such as Pathé's SCAGL, and Eclair's ACAD. Film company Pathé Frères, who distributed L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise abroad, opened a separate company in Italy, Film d'Arte Italiana (1909), producing historical and theatrical films. Francesca Bertini, one of the Italian divas, would start her career here. In the US, Biograph and Vitagraph took good notice of Le Bargy's film. D.W. Griffith must have learned of the restrained action, the coherent narrative and the relative complex psychology of the film.

French postcard by PMM. Photo: Boyer, Paris.

French postcard by Editions Filma in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no. 23. Photo: Films Mercanton.

Tosca
Charles Le Bargy played baron Scarpia in the second film version of the Victorien Sardou play Tosca, La Tosca (André Calmettes, Charles Le Bargy, 1909) featuring Cécile Sorel as La Tosca. Though Le Bargy then left Film d'Art, his influence remained that crucial that the studio kept filming in the studio instead of on location. After the initial success, subsequent Film d'Art films such as La Tosca were far less popular and Film d'Art was in a crisis. In 1911, a new board by Charles Delac and Louis Nalpas took over and revived the company, producing such hits as La Dame aux camélias/Camille (1911) with Sarah Bernhardt and a 4000-meter version of Les Trois Mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Pouctal, 1913). Le Bargy appeared in some more silent films like L'appel du sang/The Call of the Blood (Louis Mercanton, 1919) with Ivor Novello, the Italian production Il colonnello Chabert/Out of the Depths (Carmine Gallone, 1920) and Madame Récamier (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1928) starring Marie Bell. His last film appearance was in the sound production Le rêve/The Dream (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1931) based om a novel by Émile Zola. Charles Le Bargy died in Nice, France, in 1938. His son was the actor Jean Debucourt.

L'Assassinat du duc de Guise/The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908). Source: Ruey Yen (YouTube).

Sources: Richard Abel (Encyclopedia of Early Cinema), New York Times, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gorgeous Italian actress Rosalba Neri (1939) began her film career at the age of 15 and worked steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s in nearly 100 films. In genres like the Peplum, the Spaghetti Western and the Giallo, she portrayed both heroins and sexy villainesses On her resume are many cult classics, for which she was sometimes credited as Rosalina Neri, Sara Bey or Sara Bay.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, no. 420.

Hercules
Rosalba Neri was born in Forlì, Italy in 1939. Still very young, she won a beauty pageant. She decided to persue an acting career, and attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia film school. She received an offer to attend the Actors Studio in the United States, but did not accept. A year earlier, the 15 years old had begun her film career in I Pinguini ci guardano/The Penguins Watch Us (Guido Leone, 1955). In the film animals in a zoo watch the people around them and reveal interesting, human thoughts. Some sources, however, list as her first film Mogli pericolose/Dangerous Wives (Luigi Comencini, 1958) starring Sylva Koscina. Neri is uncredited in this comedy. More roles followed in Italian and French productions, in which she was sometimes credited as Rosalina Neri. The most interesting was Roberto Rossellini’s war drama Era notte a Roma/It Was Night in Rome (1960) with Giovanna Ralli. That same year, she appeared in two films set in the Ancient world. The first was Il Sepolcro dei Re/The Tomb of the King (Fernando Cerchio, 1960) with Debra Paget. This film tells the story of Nemorat (Corrado Pani), an Egyptian pharaoh who was instrumental in the creation of the pyramids of Giza due to the intrigues surrounding his death and entombment. The second was Ester E o Rei/Esther and the King (Raoul Walsh, Mario Bava, 1960), starring Joan Collins as the Biblical Jewish Queen. Rosalba played Keresh and was assassinated by someone who mistook her for the Queen. She also played a harem girl in El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961). Because of her dark, sultry beauty, Rosalba was often a natural fit to play in Peplums - or Sword & Sandal epics. Her first Hercules Peplum was Ercole al centro della terra/Hercules in the Haunted World (Mario Bava, Franco Prosperi, 1961) featuring British muscleman Reg Park. Neri played also in Hercules adventures like Ercole contro Molock/Hercules vs. the Molloch (Giorgio Ferroni, 1963) with Gordon Scott, Ercole contro i figli del sole/Hercules against the Sons of the Sun (Osvaldo Civirani, 1964), and Il Leone de Thebe/The Lion of Thebes (Giorgio Ferroni, 1964), both starring Mark Forest. Neri also played Delilah, the Biblical beauty who was the downfall of the Old Testament hero, Samson (played by Dutch judoka Anton Geesink), in I Grandi Condottieri/Great Leaders of the Bible (Marcello Baldi, Francisco Pérez-Dolz, 1965).

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 201.

Sexy Villainess
Although her starring roles were few and far between, Rosalba Neri worked steadily throughout the 1960s in supporting and sometimes, nondescript roles. She took part in a couple of Angélique adventures, starting with Angélique, marquise des anges/Angélique (Bernard Borderie, 1964). The Angélique series about a fiery and beautiful heroine played by the stunning Michèle Mercier was set in Mid-17th century France under the young Sun King Louis XIV. These European co-productions were a big hit around the world. Neri’s career followed the popular trends of the times. She played a sexy villainess in some Euro Spy films, a genre that came up in the wake of the James Bond craze. In Il Superseven Chiama Cairo/Superseven Calls on Cairo (Umberto Lenzi, 1965), she played Faddja, one of the dangerous ‘women’ that the playboy-spy (Roger Browne) comes into contact with. Also in 1965, she appeared in Due Mafiosi contro Goldginger/Two Mafioso against Goldginger (Giorgio Simonelli, 1965). Here she was credited as Sara Bay and played a character called The Secretary. Next, she was Amalia in Password: Uccidete Agente Gordon/Password: Kill Agent Gordon (Sergio Grieco, 1966). Over the years, she also had roles in several Spaghetti Westerns. In Dinamite Jim (Alfonso Balcázar, 1966), she played Margaret, and in Wanted: Johnny Texas (Emimmo Salvi, 1967) she was Rosita. That year she also appeared opposite Mark Damon in Johnny Yuma (Romolo Guerrieri, 1967). As a bombshell, Neri was much in demand for erotic genre films. She was in one of the first Women In Prison exploitation films Der heiße Tod/99 Women (Jess Franco, 1969) starring Maria Schell. Another example was Top Sensation (Ottavio Alessi, 1969) opposite Edwige Fenech.

Michèle Mercier. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 937. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Cult Siren
A big fan of Rosalba Neri is the webmaster of Cult Sirens: “Rosalba Neri, Edwige Fenech and Barbara Bouchet are sometimes perceived as the ultimate sexy female triumvirate in Euro B-productions, as they are still amongst the most alluring film actresses of all time.” Neri’s best-known films are from the horror genre, in which she is often credited as Sara Bay (or Bey). She played Tania Frankenstein, the daughter of the monster’s creator (played by Joseph Cotten), in La figlia di Frankenstein/Lady Frankenstein (Mel Welles, 1972), now considered a B film classic. Cult Sirens: “Oddly, the ultimate Rosalba Neri film could very well be an over-the-top horror production mainly known as Lady Frankenstein, where our actress plays probably the sexiest Doctor Frankenstein ever filmed! Even with a ludicrous script, Ms. Neri gives an amazing performance, full of perverse sensuality and wicked evil. A truly amazing movie, mixing clumsy dubbing, some erratic special effects but still impressive in its willingness to shock.” In Il Plenilunio dell Vergini/The Devil’s Wedding Night (Luigi Batzella, 1972), she played Lady Dracula, a vampire who uses the ring of Dracula to lure young virgins to her home so she can murder them and bathe in their blood (à la the medieval Countess Elizabeth of Báthory). The Giallo thriller trend was in full swing so the next step was logical. She played Farley Granger’s wife in Alla Ricerca del piacere/Amuck (Silvio Amadio, 1972). Granger plays a wealthy author who hires a beautiful secretary (Barbara Bouchet) and engages her in kinky sex games with him and his wife. Bouchet and Neri would team up in another Giallo combining sex with horror, Casa d’appuntamento/French Sex Murders (Ferdinando Merighi, 1972) starring Anita Ekberg. A jewel thief is accused of murdering a prostitute but is decapitated in a motorcycle accident prior to the trial. When those involved in the trial start dying, everyone wonders if the dead man has come back to exact a little revenge. Neri would appear in a few more films, like the crime film Tony Arzenta/No Way Out (Duccio Tessari, 1973) featuring Alain Delon, Cugini carnali/Loving Cousins (Sergio Martino, 1974), and the Roger Corman production The Arena (Steve Carver, 1974), an amazing tale of female gladiators, starring Pam Grier. One of her more prestigious films was Libera, amore mio.../Libera, My Love (Mauro Bolognini, 1975) starring Claudia Cardinale. In 1976, she shot her last film, the comedy Il pomicione/Blood River (Roberto Bianchi Montero, 1977) with Joan Collins. Towards the end of her career, Rosalba Neri married and eventually decided it was time to retire from film work to do some traveling and take on new challenges. She returned once to the screen in the Italian TV miniseries Olga e I suoi figli/Olga and her children (Salvatore Nocita, 1985) with Annie Girardot, but that was it. In 2002, a German documentary with the title Rosalba Neri: The Italian Sphinx became available. Rosalba Neri has a daughter, actress Francesca Neri (1964), who also has an intriguing film career - and her mother’s good looks.

Trailer Der heiße Tod/99 Women (Jess Franco, 1969). Source: Surfink1963 (YouTube). Whisper to your friends that you saw it!

Trailer La figlia di Frankenstein/Lady Frankenstein (Mel Welles, 1972). Source: CinePublicoBrasil (YouTube).

Trailer The Arena (Steve Carver, 1974). Source: Surfink1963 (YouTube).

Sources: Tribute to Rosalba Neri, Pierre Talley (IMDb), Cult Sirens, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

German dancer Rita Sacchetto (1879-1959) was internationally successful with her Tanzbilder. In the 1910s she became a star of the Danish Nordisk Film Company.

French postcard by Serie VK, no. 2639/6.

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 8041.

Postcard by GCS, no. 1610/2.

Dance Pictures
Rita Sacchetto was born as Margherita Sacchetto in Munich, Germany, in 1879. She was the daughter of a respected Venetian painter and an Austrian woman. Two of her brothers also became painters. She decided to become a dancer after seeing a performance by Isadora Duncan in 1902. She attended dance classes and made her first appearance in the Münchner Künstlerhaus in 1905, performing sarabandes, gavottes, minuettes, tarantellas, and Oriental dances. In her dances, which she called Tanzbilder (Dance Pictures), she followed the tradition of the Tableaux Vivants of paintings of famous artists like Thomas Gainsborough or Joshua Reynolds. Her success led to an invitation to perform her odalisque dance in a production of Georges Bizet's opera Djamilah in Vienna, where such artists as Gustav Klimt, Kolo Moser, and Joseph Hoffmann liked her dances. In 1908 and 1909 she made a tour though North and South America. Loïe Fuller invited her to perform a solo at the New York Metropolitan Opera, and in 1910 she gave at the Met an entire dance concert featuring her Botticelli dances, Siamese dance, and a large-scale pantomime called The Intellectual Awakening of Woman, which used Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt suites and a group of thirty female dancers. Later that year she embarked on a tour of Russia, which led to a collaboration with fashion designer Paul Poiret at his private theatre in Paris, where she impersonated a famous painting of the Empress Eugenie wearing her original dress.

German Postcard by Verlag: Gastspieldirektion Rita Sacchetto, München (Munich), Serie E 3. Photo: F. Grainer, München. Photo: Rita Sacchetto in a costume of Empress Eugenie.

German Postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, and R. Wagner, München, Series Fürstliche Frauen, no. 1238. Portrait by Baron B. de Szankowski.

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilh., no. 3037. Photo: F. Grainer, München (Munich).

Nordisk
By 1912 Rita Sacchetto was back in Munich as Alexander Sacharoff's partner in a pair dance team. But the collaboration was brief. A concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, was apparently a 'fiasco,' but it brought Rita to the attention of the Nordisk film company, which never had enough female stars for the sensational erotic melodramas that made Danish films competitive on the European market. She appeared as the ballet dancer Odette in Ballettens Datter/Unjustly Accused (Holger-Madsen, 1913). Nordisk then hired Sacchetto to star in films for the astonishing salary of 7,000 kroner per picture, but she made many quite successful films including Fra Fryste til Knejpevaert/The Gambler's Wife (Holger-Madsen, 1913) and Den Skønne Evelyn/Evelyn the Beautiful (A.W. Sandberg, 1916) with a script by Carl Theodor Dreyer. According to Karl Toepfer in his study Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935 "Sacchetto exuded a dusky, melancholy beauty that seemed even more refined and aristocratic, a 'breeze of perfume,' when displayed in opulent historical costumes. Although she excluded modern paintings of women from her graceful productions, she was probably the first to use silent film as a model for composing dances."

German Postcard by Verl. Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 1756. Photo: F. Grainer, München.

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 1683.

German Postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 6990. Photo: Gerlach & Co. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Technical Defects and Long-faded Tastes
In 1914 Rita Sacchetto moved from Munich to Berlin und started a dance school in her villa. Anita Berber and Valeska Gert belonged to her most famous pupils. She also appeared in German films like Sabina (Louis Neher, 1918). In 1917 she married the Polish Count and sculptor Auguste Zamoyski. In 1918 she returned for a year to Munich. In 1924 one of the count's friends accidentally shot Sacchetto in the foot, and only this misfortune prevented her from continuing to dance in public, even though she was already forty-four years old. Apparently her beauty compensated for all her technical defects and long-faded tastes. She returned with her husband to Poland. In 1930 the couple moved to Italy and in the 1930s she worked occasionally in Italian film productions. Rita Sacchetto died in 1959 in Nervi near Genua. Karl Toepfer concludes: "It was easy to sneer at Sacchetto; critics obviously did after she entered the movies, and Berber and Gert made a point of desecrating her gaudy, pictorial historicism. But few dancers enjoyed such popular international acclaim, and the reason for her success lay in her attempts to historicize her beauty; like an old painting, the danced movement of the body suspended time itself and, indeed, turned the present into a luxurious cinematic image of the past."

German Postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7186. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German Postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 7185. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Verlag Gastspieldirektion Rita Sacchetto, München, Serie F. 3. Photo: F. Grainer, München (Munich).

German Postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 243. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Karl Toepfer (Empire of Ecstasy), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Sylvie (1883–1970) was a French actress, who played supporting parts in French and Italian films from 1912 till 1965. In her last film, she finally played the leading role.

French postcard by S.I.P. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by Photo N.D., no. 57. Dated 1-11-1909. Photo: H. Manuel.

French postcard. by S.I.P., no. 1282. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Pathé
Sylvie (sometimes Sylvie Louise) was born Louise Pauline Mainguené in Paris, France in 1883. From 1903, she acted on stage. She made her film debut in the silent Pathé short Britannicus/Nero and Britannicus (Camille de Morlhon, 1912) with Romuald Joubé. The following year she also appeared in a feature Pathé production, Germinal (1913), based on the novel by Émile Zola. She reunited with Romuald Joubé for Le coupable/The culprit (André Antoine, 1917). During the silent era, she also appeared in Roger la Honte/Roger the Menace (Jacques de Baronceli, 1924) with Rita Jolivet and Gabriel Signoret. By the 1930s she had become a highly regarded character player, and appeared in classic films like Crime et châtiment/Crime and Punishment (Pierre Chenal, 1935) starring Harry Baur and Pierre Blanchar, Un carnet de bal/Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 1937) with Marie Bell, the crime drama Entrée des artistes/The Curtain Rises (Marc Allégret, 1938) starring Louis Jouvet, and La fin du jour/The End of the Day (Julien Duvivier, 1939) starring Victor Francen and Michel Simon. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Most of her screen assignments were scene-stealing bits and cameos.” During the French occupation she could be seen in the Édith Piaf vehicle Montmartre sur Seine (Georges Lacombe, 1941), Bresson’s forceful feature debut Les anges du péché/Angels of sin (Robert Bresson, 1943) and the crime classic Le corbeau/The Raven (Henri-Georges Clouzeau, 1943).

French postcard by N.D., no. 22. Photo: H. Manuel.

French postcard. Photo: H. Manuel. The caption goes: Souvenir d'un bonne soirée (Memory of a nice night). On the verso lines from the play Vieil Heidelberg.

French postcard, no. 689. Sent by mail in 1908. Photo: H. Manuel.

The Shameless Old Lady
After the war, Sylvie continued her film career as a character actor. She played mother roles in popular films like Pour une nuit d'amour/Passionnelle (Edmond T. Gréville, 1947) with Odette Joyeux, and Pattes blanches/White Paws (Jean Grémillon, 1949). She also appeared as the village teacher in the comedy hit Don Camillo/The Little World of Don Camillo (Julien Duvier, 1952) about the fights of a village priest (Fernandel) and the communistic mayor (Gino Cervi). She played the paralyzed madame Raquin in Thérèse Raquin (Marcel Carné, 1953) featuring Simone Signoret. In the 1960s she played grandmothers in Cronaca familiar/Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini, 1962) starring Marcello Mastroianni, and Château en Suède/Nutty, Naughty Chateau (Roger Vadim, 1963) with Monica Vitti. Her last film gave her finally her first leading role, La vieille dame indigne/The Shameless Old Lady (René Allio, 1965) with Victor Lanoux and based on a short story by Bertold Brecht. TM at Time Out: “81-year-old Sylvie is magnificent in this adaptation of Brecht's fable about an old woman who suddenly starts a new life of delightful irresponsibility after the death of her husband, wonderfully wry and funny as she breaks out of a lifetime of devoted household drudgery to enjoy a round of whipped cream sundaes, movies and fast cars. (...) Witty, wise and gently funny, it is also, in its quiet way, a genuinely subversive film.” Sylvie won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for her role. From then on, she only did some more TV appearances. Sylvie died in 1970 in Compiègne, France. She was 87.

Scene from Les anges du péché/Angels of sin (1943). Source: SnowWhiteDreams86 (YouTube).

Scene from La vieille dame indigne/The Shameless Old Lady (1965). Source: Chrosko55 (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), TM (Time Out), Allociné (French), Wikipedia (French and German) and IMDb.

Dashing Austrian actor Robert Hoffmann (1939) was best known for his title role performance in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1964), his debut. He has since appeared in various parts in film and TV throughout Europe in Germany, Italy, France and occasionally the UK.

German postcard by Friedrich-W Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2844. Photo: Constantin / Vienna Film. Publicity still for Der Lügner und die Nonne/The Liar and the Nun (Rolf Thiele, 1967).

Robinson Crusoe
Robert Hoffmann was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1939. After graduating from the local high school, he joined a business school. After a short stay in Sweden, he traveled to Paris where he studied acting. He also modeled and appeared in commercials. His screen debut was the title role in the French-German TV series Les aventures de Robinson Crusoë/The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Jean Sacha, 1964). The series was based on the first of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe novels and was a huge success in several European countries. He also appeared as the handsome Chevalier de Lorraine in the first of the Angélique series, Angélique, marquise des anges/Angélique (Bernard Borderie, 1964), starring Michèle Mercier. He returned in the second part of the successful cycle, Merveilleuse Angélique/Angelique: The Road to Versailles (Bernard Borderie, 1965). He then appeared in the American-British war drama Up from the Beach (Robert Parrish, 1965) starring Cliff Robertson. The film was set in the aftermath of the Normandy Landings where a group of Allied soldiers attempt to shelter Frenchmen who faced execution by the Nazis. He then had a supporting part in the Edgar Wallace crime film Neues vom Hexer/Again the Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1965) with Heinz Drache. It was the direct sequel of the hit Der Hexer/The Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1964), shot 9 months later by the same director with mostly the same cast.

German postcard by Friedrich-W Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2843. Photo: Constantin / Vienna Film. Publicity still for Der Lügner und die Nonne/The Liar and the Nun (Rolf Thiele, 1967).

German postcard by Friedrich-W Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2893. Photo: Constantin / Vienna Film. Publicity still for Der Lügner und die Nonne/The Liar and the Nun (Rolf Thiele, 1967).

Playboy
Robert Hoffmann went to Italy to appear in Io la conoscevo bene/I Knew Her Well (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965) starring Stefania Sandrelli. There he also played the lead in the adventure Una ráfaga de plomo/Executor (Paolo Heusch, Antonio Santillán, 1965) and in the crime drama Svegliati e uccidi/Wake Up and Die (Carlo Lizzani, 1966) with Gian Maria Volonté. It was based on the real life of Luciano Lutring, an Italian criminal known as ‘the machine-gun soloist’. He was the main male actor in Come imparai ad amare le donne/How I Learned to Love Women (Luciano Salce, 1966) with such gorgeous actresses as Michèle Mercier, Elsa Martinelli and Anita Ekberg. In the heist film Ad ogni costo/Grand Slam (Giuliano Montaldo, 1967), he played a playboy whose job it is to seduce the only woman with a key to the building holding the diamonds, the lovely Mary Ann (Janet Leigh). It was Hoffmann's biggest international success. Other films were the German comedy Der Lügner und die Nonne/The Liar and the Nun (Rolf Thiele, 1967) and the Israeli drama Tuvia Vesheva Benotav/Tevye and His Seven Daughters (Menahem Golan, 1968), based on stories by Sholom Aleichem, later remade as the musical Fiddler on the Roof The two-part adventure drama Kampf um Rom/The Last Roman (Robert Siodmak, 1968) with Laurence Harvey and Orson Welles was a late installment of the sword-and-sandal genre. In 1968 and 1969 he was awarded twice the Otto statuette forn one of the three most popular artists of the year, granted by the readers of Germany's Bravo magazine.

German postcard by Friedrich-W Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2950. Photo: Constantin / Vienna Film. Publicity still for Der Lügner und die Nonne/The Liar and the Nun (Rolf Thiele, 1967).

German Guy Sexy!
During the 1970s, Robert Hoffmann often worked in Italy. He appeared in Un apprezzato professionista di sicuro avvenire/One Appreciated Professional of Sure Future (Giuseppe De Santis, 1971). Then a serious accident during filming of a comedy in Spain took two years of recovery. After that he participated in the Giallo Spasmo (Umberto Lenzi, 1974) with Suzy Kendall. In France he played a lieutenant in the war drama Le vieux fusil/Old Gun (Robert Enrico, 1975) starring Philippe Noiret and Romy Schneider. In 1975, he opened a music café in Salzburg but he also continued to act. He played a U-boat captain in another WWII drama The Sea Wolves (Andrew V. MacLaglen, 1980) starring Gregory Peck and Roger Moore. In the following decades he mainly worked for Austrian and German television. His later films include La 7ème cible/ The Seventh Target (Claude Pinoteau, 1984) with Lino Ventura, and Ilona und Kurti/German Guy Sexy! The Story of Ilona and Kurti (Reinhard Schwabenitzky, 1992). In 1997, he was interviewed by the BBC when the Robinson Crusoe series was first released on video. He was last seen in the TV film 21 Liebesbriefe/21 Love Letters (Nina grosse, 2004). Robert Hoffmann, who speaks speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish fluently, has performed in about 60 films and series.

Scene from Les aventures de Robinson Crusoë/The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1964). Source: ChunkyStab (YouTube).

Robert Hoffmann sings the Schlager Herbstwind (Autumn Wind) (1967). Source: Megayoyo1992 (YouTube).

Trailer Ad ogni costo/Grand Slam (1967). Source: DumbDistraction (YouTube).

Trailer Spasmo (1974). Source: xKronzx (YouTube).

Sources: Michaela Kroupová-Zatinka (Angelika) (Czech), AllMovie, Wikipedia (English, German and Italian) and IMDb.

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2013, the Italian festival dedicated to the rediscovery of rare and little-known films begins today. We're in Bologna, and for 8 days, European Film Star Postcards will post about stars and films of this wonderful festival of film restauration. We start the 27th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013) with the silent Italian epic Spartaco - Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (Enrico Vidali, 1913). It will be shown on Friday in the section One Hundred Years Ago: Glorious 1913.

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4228. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Il Senato vota solenni funerali a Silla (The Senate votes to hold a solemn funeral for Silla).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4233. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Catilina congiura coi gladiatori (Catilina conjures with the gladiators).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4234. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: I lorari tolgono dal Circo i cadaveri dei gladatori (The corpses of the gladiators are taken from the Circus by the lorari = taskmasters or slave drivers).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4231. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: I giovani patrizi si arruolano contro Spartaco (The Young patricians conspire against Spartacus (Mario Guaita-Ausonia)).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4229. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Valeria si intrattiene con Mirza parlando di Spartaco (Valeria sits with Mirza, talking about Spartacus). Spartaco's sister Mirza (Cristian Ruspoli) has become the slave of Crassus' sister Valeria (Maria Gandini). Valeria gets interested in Spartacus because of what Mirza tells about him.

Romantic Love Conquers Political Conflict
Spartaco - Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913, released early 1914) was a prestigious production by the pioneering Pasquali studio. Mario Guaita-Ausonia played Spartacus and this role was his international breakthrough. Director Enrico Vidali had co-acted with Ausonia in Sui gradini del trono/On the Steps of the Throne (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1912), and had already directed him in L’ultimo convegno/Under Suspicion (Giovanni Enrico Vidali, 1913). The Italian film journal Vita cinematografica praised Guaita for ‘the plastic beauty of his appearance, the attraction and at the same time the power and swiftness of his perfect body, his penetrating glance, and his perfect acting.’ And in American publicity he was described as ‘a celebrated Italian wrestler and fine actor, whose physique and finely chiseled face make him an extraordinary prototype [sic!] of the ancient gladiator.’ Actually in Spartaco the camera is often focusing on Ausonia’s naked chest, his muscular arms and his stern look into the camera. The film was strongly based on the novel by Raffaello Giovagnoli on Spartacus, but where the hero dies on the battlefield in the novel, Ausonia’s Spartacus reconciles with Crassus and marries his daughter. So romantic love conquers political conflict - at least in the American version of the film.

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4224. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: L'amore di Spartaco per Valeria - Metrobio all'agguato (The Love of Spartaco for Valeria - Metrobio plots a trap).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4232. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Il giuramento della Lega degli oppresi (The Oath of the League of the oppressed). The gladiators swear loyalty to Spartacus.

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4226. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Crasso muove contro Spartaco fra i saluti del popolo festante (Crassus moves against Spartacus amongst the celebrating people). Eventually Spartacus will beat Crassus (Enrico Bracci).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4235. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: I gladiatori discendono dall'accampamento del Vesuvio (The gladiators descend from their camps at Mount Vesuvius).

Italian postcard by V. Uff. Ref. St., Terni, no. 4227. Photo: Pasquali Film, Torino. Publicity still for Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia/Spartacus (1913). Caption: Spartaco condamnato a servire fra i gladiatori (Spartacus condemned to serve among the gladiators).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Maciste & Co), Thomas Späth, Margit Tröhler (Spartacus – Männermuskeln, Heldenbilder, oder: die Befreiung der Moral’, in: Antike im Kino), CinéRessources and IMDb.

Greetings from sunny Italy! We're enjoying Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013), the wonderful Bologna festival, dedicated to the rediscovery of rare and little-known films. 8 days long, European Film Star Postcards posts about stars of restored films, presented at the festival. One of the films I am really looking forward to is Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954), starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. The screening is in honour of the 100th anniversary of Lancaster's birth on 2 November 1913, and Lancaster's daughter Joanna will introduce the film.

But this post is about Vera Cruz' female lead, Denise Darcel (1924-2011). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the French singer and actress starred in a string of Hollywood films. Americans knew her as the sultry ‘French Bombshell’. Later she worked as a game show host, a striptease artiste and a casino dealer in Las Vegas. Indeed, ooh-la-la!

Italian postcard, no. 245.

The Most Beautiful Girl in France
Denise Darcel was born as Denise Billecard in Paris, in 1924. One of five daughters of a baker, she was educated at the University of Dijon. On VJ Day she was a passenger in an L-5 Stinson light observation aircraft to see the celebration from the air. According to Wikipedia, her friend at the time, US army pilot James Helinger Sr. was at the controls, while they flew under several bridges along the Seine and finally, under the Eiffel Tower, with the crowds below. After World War II, she was working as a shop assistant when she won a beauty contest that led to her being featured in the popular press as ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in France’. Determined to capitalise on this stroke of good fortune, she became a nightclub singer. She married a US Army captain who brought her to the United States. The marriage quickly dissolved, but Denise took the helmer Darcel and stayed in Hollywood. There she made her film debut in the war drama To the Victor (Delmer Daves, 1948), starring Dennis Morgan and Viveca Lindfors. Though her part as a bar singer was unbilled, she set male pulses racing with her rendition of Edith Piaf's signature song La vie en rose. Her breakthrough was in the Second World War film Battleground (William Wellman, 1949). The film tells the story of an infantry company trying to cope with the Siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Darcel played a Belgian girl with whom some American GI’s are billeted overnight. In a memorable scene she presses a baguette to her tight-fitting sweater, holds up a kitchen knife, and then slowly saws off pieces towards her bosom. Battleground won two Academy Awards: for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Paul C. Vogel) and for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (Robert Pirosh). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (William A. Wellman), Best Film Editing (John D. Dunning), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Whitmore). It was MGM's largest grossing film in five years, taking in a total of over $5 million in the US market alone. The film was also good for Darcel’s career. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “She proved herself more than a beautiful face and a Gallic accent with her dramatic performance in the otherwise all-male Battleground (1949). She was then promoted as a ‘discovery’ when she co-starred with Olsen and Johnson in the 1950 Broadway revue Pardon My French.”

French postcard, no. 752. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Fifi, Gigi and Lola
Denise Darcel played characters called Fifi, Gigi and Lola in her films. Ronald Bergan in his The Guardian obituary writes that she “profited from Hollywood's ‘ooh-la-la’ conception of young, shapely French womanhood, generally inviting the adjective ‘sultry’. She made quite an impression with her ‘leg art poses’ as a sarong-wearing nurse in Tarzan and the Slave Girl (Lee Sholem, 1950) opposite Lex Barker. She co-starred with Robert Taylor in the Western Westward the Women (William A. Wellman, 1952) as a prostitute looking for a new life in 1851 California, and with Glenn Ford in the romantic comedy Young Man with Ideas (Mitchell Leisen, 1952). In 1952, she also became an American citizen. The following year she proved she looked spectacular in a swimsuit in the Technicolor musical Dangerous When Wet (Charles Walters, 1953), with ‘American Mermaid’ Esther Williams. Darcel’s most important film is Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954) set in the Mexican War of Independence. She played Emperor Maximilian’s treacherous mistress who, along with a shipment of gold which she plans to divert, is escorted from Mexico City to Maximilian’s forces in Vera Cruz by two American soldiers of fortune – Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper. According to Wikipedia, “the film's amoral characters and cynical attitude toward violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) were considered shocking at the time and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and the films of Sergio Leone, which often featured supporting cast members from Vera Cruz in similar roles.”

British postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Banned in Boston
After Vera Cruz (1954), Denise Darcel only made one more film, Seven Women from Hell (Robert D. Webb, 1961), an undistinguished melodrama about a group of women prisoners in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines. What was the reason that Hollywood stopped calling? The Telegraph: “It was rumoured that she had sealed her own fate by refusing the casting couch advances of Howard Hughes and Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn.” Ronald Bergan gives a less sensational explanation: “Darcel left movies for six years after Vera Cruz, living off the maintenance from her second husband, the millionaire and Washington property dealer Peter Crosby, whom she divorced in 1951. In 1958, she recorded an album of songs, Banned in Boston, which included her versions of I'm in the Mood for Love, Love for Sale and My Man, during which she occasionally reverted to French lyrics.“ She worked occasionally for television, like hosting the TV quiz show Gamble on Love (1954). At the age of 41, Darcel even became an ecdysiast (stripper), appearing in West Coast theatres in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Oakland, and Los Angeles. She retired from stripping after a few years and returned to the cabaret circuit, making a few more appearances on television. In later years she worked as a casino dealer in Las Vegas. In 1991, she was cast as Solange La Fitte in the Los Angeles 20th anniversary revival of the musical Follies, produced by the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. She would later repeat the role of Solange in 1995 for revivals in Houston and Seattle. In 2009, she was honoured with the Cinecon Career Achievement Award, presented in Hollywood at a banquet held at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. Prior to the ceremony, a new 35mm colour print of her film Flame of Calcutta (Seymour Friedman, 1953) was screened at the Egyptian Theatre. After the screening, at the banquet, she cheerfully announced to the audience, "I'm back". iTunes made her album, Banned in Boston, available for purchase. At the age of 87, Denise Darcel died in Los Angeles in 2011, after emergency surgery to repair a ruptured aneurysm. She married four and divorced three times. Her fourth husband, George Simpson, died in 2003. Darcel had two sons, Chris and Craig.

Scene from Battleground (1949). Source: Carole Robinson (YouTube).

Trailer for Westward the Women (1952). Source: Warner Archive (YouTube).

Official trailer for Vera Cruz (1954). Source: Neondreams (YouTube).

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), The Telegraph, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Reginald Denny

Tomas Milian

Thomy Bourdelle

Diana Karenne

The Choice of greta-g

Lutz Moik

Jacques Perrin

Rosita Serrano

Sean Connery

Eddi Arent (1925-2013)

Anna Fougez

Rares from the collection of Didier Hanson

Dany Saval

Charles Le Bargy

Rosalba Neri

Rita Sacchetto

Sylvie

Robert Hoffmann

Spartaco - Il gladiatore della Tracia

Denise Darcel