European Film Star Postcards

There were a number of films produced in Europe and the US in 1938-1939 which tangibly transmitted the feeling of menacing madness that was about to unfold. Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013) chose for its series War Is Near: 1938-1939 not so much those films most clearly foreshadowing the imminent conflict, as those that evoked an atmosphere of fears and fragile hopes, films made of subtle suggestion, shades and shadows and unspoken dialogue.

One of the screened films in Bologna is the Nazi propaganda film Pour le Mérite (Karl Ritter, 1938), which chronicles the rise of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from World War I until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Star is the German stage actor Paul Hartmann (1889-1977). During his long career, Hartmann made over 100 films, both in the silent and the sound period. Despite his commitment to the Nazi regime, he could continue his career quite smoothly into the 1950s and 1960s.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 9303. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Publicity still for Volk in Not/People in Need (Wolfgang Neff, 1925).

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 161/2. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 161/3. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

German postcard by Verl. Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3068. Photo: Atelier Oertel, Berlin.

Burgtheater
Paul Wilhelm Constantin Hartmann was born in Fürth, Germany in 1889. He was the son of Wilhelm Hartmann, the manager of a toy-export company, and his wife Maria Hartmann-Betz. From 1907 on, he studied acting with Adalbert Czokke, and in 1908 he had his first engagement at the Stadtheater Zwickau. In the following years he played at the Bellevue-Theater in Stettin, the Stadttheater Zürich, and from November 1913 at the Deutsche Theater in Berlin under direction of the legendary Max Reinhardt. He also started to work for the cinema. He made his film debut as a jeune premier in 1915 in Zofia - Kriegs-Irrfahrten eines Kindes/Zofia – the War Odysseys of a Child (Hubert Moest, 1915) with Ernst Pittschau and Hedda Vernon. Soon followed more films like Der Trick/The Trick (Fred Sauer, 1915) with Aud Egede Nissen, Die verschleierte Dame/The Veiled Lady (Richard Oswald, 1915), Ein Blatt Papier/A Page of Paper (Joe May, 1916), Feenhände/Hands of a Fairy (Rudolf Biebrach, 1916) with Henny Porten, the Harry Deebs detective Das Geheimnis der leeren Wasserflasche/The Secret of the Empty Water Bottle (Joe May, 1917) starring Harry Liedtke, Christa Hartungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917), and Es werde Licht!/Let There Be Light! (Richard Oswald, 1918). That same year, he appeared in Der Trompetter von Säkkingen/The Trumpeter of Säckingen (Franz Porten, 1918), based on a popular opera (1884) by Viktor Nessler, which in turn was based on a romantic book by Joseph Victor von Scheffel, published in 1854. The story is set in Heidelberg and Säckingen during the 17th century, after the Thirty Years War. Law student, later trumpeter Werner Kirchhof falls in love with Margareta, a baron's daughter, but her mother wants to marry her to the cowardly Damian. Werner proves to be a hero and a compassionate pope makes him marquis of Camposanto. Then, after five years of separation nothing can prevent a happy ending. Hartmann's stage and film career suffered a short break when he was called into the military service in 1917. After that he continued his film career smoothly. In the 1920s he played romantic and melancholic characters in films like Katharina die Grosse/Catherine the Great (Reinhold Schünzel, 1920) with Lucie Höflich, Anna Boleyn/Anne Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Emil Jannings and Henny Porten, Schloss Vogelöd/The Haunted Castle (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1921) with Olga Tschechova, Der Roman der Christine von Herre (Ludwig Berger, 1921) with Heinrich George, Luise Millerin (Carl Froelich, 1922) with Lil Dagover, Alt-Heidelberg/The Student Prince (Hans Behrendt, 1923) with Eva May, Zur Chronik von Grieshuus/The Chronicles of the Gray House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925) and the silent film operetta Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight Of The Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925) with Jaque Catelain. In 1924 he worked at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Wien (Vienna), and in 1925 he moved over to the Burgtheater. From 1927 he turned away from the film business and devoted his career exclusively to the Burgtheater.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 534/5. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918), starring Paul Hartmann. The outdoor scenes of the film were shot by Porten at Säckingen, using some 200 local extras.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 534/3. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918), starring Paul Hartmann.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 535/5. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918), starring Paul Hartmann.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3069. Photo: Atelier Oertel, Berlin.

Tough and Adamant Heroes
With the introduction of the sound film Paul Hartmann returned to the cinema. He played tough and adamant heroes, like the constructor and captain next to Hans Albers in the deluxe German/British production F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932), or as the self sacrificing engineer in Der Tunnel/The Tunnel (Kurt aka Curtis Bernhardt, 1933). Other popular films were Der Läufer von Marathon/The Marathon Runner (Ewald André Dupont, 1933), Salon Dora Green/The House of Dora Green (Henrik Galeen, 1933) with Alfred Abel, and Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935) with Pola Negri. From 1935 on he was a company member of the Preußischen Staatstheater in Berlin, where he stayed till the end of WW II. In 1934 he was named Staatsschauspieler (Stage Artist of the State), and from May 1937 he was part of the UFA Art Committee. He also appeared in such propaganda films as Pour le mérite (Karl Ritter, 1938), the biography Bismarck (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1940) and Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941). In April 1942 he became the president of the Reichstheaterkammer. His commitment to the Nazi regime did not really harm his career or his popularity after the war. After being banned from the theatre in 1945 Hartmann could only return to the stage in 1948 as Faust in a production of the Goethe play in Bonn. During the 1950s he was engaged by the Schauspielhaus in Düsseldorf, the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, and the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also returned to the cinema. The ageing star now mainly worked as a character actor in supporting roles, such as in Die Dame in Schwarz/The Lady in Black (Erich Engels, 1951) with Mady Rahl, Der grosse Zapfenstreich/The Sergeant's Daughter (George Hurdalek, 1953) with Johanna Matz, Regina Amstetten (Kurt Neumann, 1954), Die Barrings/The Barrings (Rolf Thiele, 1955) with Dieter Borsche and Nadja Tiller, Der Fuchs von Paris/The Fox of Paris (Paul May, 1957), Buddenbrooks (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959), and Rosen für den Staatsanwalt/Roses for the Prosecutor (Wolfgang Staudte, 1959). He finished his film career in the 1960s with productions like the TV-film Hermann und Dorothea (Ludwig Berger, 1961), the Heimatfilm Waldrausch (Paul May, 1962), and the international war film The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962), an all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Hartmanns last appearance was in the TV-film Demetrius (Ludwig Berger, Heribert Wenk, 1969). In 1964 he was awarded the Filmband in Gold for his continuing and outstanding contributions to the German Film. Paul Hartmann died in 1977 in München (Munich). He was married twice. During WWI he had married a Slavic ballet dancer, who died in 1952. In 1955 he married the painter Elfriede Lieberun.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8766. Photo: Becker & Maass.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 689. Photo: Hugo Engel Filmproduktion. Publicity still for Die Familie ohne Moral/The family with no morals (Max Neufeld, 1927).

German postcard by Cozy Verlag, Salzburg. Photo: Friedrich Franz Bauer. Publicity still for the stage production Jedermann, performed at the Salzburger Festspiele.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3255/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Foto Dähn.

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Tobis / Klagemann.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

At Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013), one of the sections is Letters from Chris Marker. His essay film came to light after a gestation period which happened to be a very special one, the golden age of the French short film in the 1950s. Bologna's tribute to Marker will focus on his early works, like Un dimanche à Pekin, Description d'un combat (which, according the festival organisation, has disappeared from the face of the earth for almost 50 years), La jeté and Le joli mai. Narrator of Le joli mai/The Beautiful May (1963) is French film actor Yves Montand (1921-1991). Italian-born but thoroughly French Montand was a charismatic singer and also a great actor - or was he an actor who also was a great singer? He represented the ideal of the working class hero with a strong social conscience. Montand starred in numerous successful films and his crooner songs, especially those about Paris, became instant classics. But his life was filled with controversy.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 423. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 455. Photo: Lucienne Chevert or Sam Lévin?. The credits for this photo differ. See the other cards below.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 913, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Studio Bernard et Vauclair.

Ivo! Monta!
Yves Montand was born Ivo Livi in 1921 in the village of Monsummano Alto, near Florence, Italy. He was the youngest of three children and his parents, Giovanni Livi and Giuseppina (later: Josephine) Livi-Simoni, were poor peasants. Giovanni was a militant communist and, to escape persecution from the new fascist regime of Mussolini in Italy, the family was forced to flee in 1923. They settled in Marseilles, and were granted French nationality in 1929 (one source says 1932). Ivo left school at 11 and, with the aid of a forged identity card, found a job in a food processing factory. At 14, he started working as a hairdresser at his sister's barber shop and obtained his qualification in hairdressing. When he was 17, he worked for a metal production company. By chance, the shy 17 year old agreed to do a stint as warm-up act in a music hall in 1938, for which he adopted the name Yves Montand. Legend has it that this stage name was inspired by his mother Giuseppina who used to yell at him when he was a boy when it was time to come upstairs: “Ivo! Monta!”. This first performance was a success - the audience applauded him for several minutes and shouted for an encore. That night in Marseilles a new French star was born. He performed at many small local venues, and at communist events. His father Giovanni was then a locally important figure in the French Communist Party in Marseille. Montand himself also had a strong social conscience. In 1950, he signed the 'Stockholm Appeal', the Soviet Union’s petition against the use of atomic weapons, and he became a prominent member of the French communist party. In 1956 and in 1963, he would tour as a jazz singer in the Soviet Union, and meet with Nikita Khrushchev. This caused a hail of criticism at home. In 1956, Soviet troops had just invaded Hungary, and Montand’s conscience was torn in two. He did not support the action of the Soviet government, but nor was he ready to make a political break from the Communist party and his own family. In the end Montand reluctantly agreed to go ahead with his Russian tour. He remained a Party member until 1968, when he broke with the Party in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

French postcard. Photo Roger Carlet.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 176. Photo: Roger Carlet.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 135. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 11. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Love Affairs
Yves Montand gave his first major concert in Marseilles on 21 June 1939, headlining at the famous Alcazar. It was here that Montand made a decisive step away from performing covers of other singers’ hits, singing his own original song Dans les plaines du Far West (In the plains of the Wild West). In 1944, Montand won a coveted spot at the Moulin Rouge, where he appeared as the support act of Édith Piaf. The legendary singer fell for his good looks and natural charisma, and she would soon become his mentor and lover. Their affair would last two years, and Piaf landed Montand his first film role, appearing along side her in Étoile sans lumière/Star Without Light (Marcel Blistène, 1945). Montand’s remarkable success from 1945 onwards is attributable to Piaf’s influence. Hits like Battling Joe and Les Grands Boulevards made Montand a national sensation almost overnight. In 1946, he appeared in his second film, Les Portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (Marcel Carné, 1946) starring Pierre Brasseur. Despite being recognised now as a masterpiece, Carné's film was a commercial failure at the time. Further film appearances similarly failed to advance Montand's acting career. So he concentrated on his singing, which appeared to bring him far more success. In 1951, he staged his first one man show, which included 22 songs and two poems. It was a phenomenal success. In 1949, Montand had met rising young actress Simone Signoret, and the two fell in love. Having divorced her then husband, director Yves Allegrét, Signoret set up home with Montand in Paris in 1950 and the two married the following year. The marriage would last up until Signoret’s death in 1985, although Montand had a number of well-publicised love affairs, including one with Marilyn Monroe.

German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 636. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.

German postcard by Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 658. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris. Publicity still for Le salaire de la peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953).

French postcard by Editions d'art Yvon, Paris, no. 189. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Prime Target for Hollywood
Despite his growing success as a singer, Yves Montand longed for a similar success in the cinema. In 1953, he took the starring role in the suspense thriller Le salaire de la peur/The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953), co-starring Charles Vanel. The film was hailed as a masterpiece by the international critics who also praised Montand’s performance. In 1953, Le salaire de la peur was awarded the coveted Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1954, Montand and Signoret starred in a French stage production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Its success led to a film version a few years later, Les sorcières de Salem/The Witches of Salem (Raymond Rouleau, 1956) with Mylène Demongeot. By 1959, Yves Montand was an international celebrity. Montand appeared on Broadway, New York. and returned in 1961 at the Golden Theatre for an eight-week run. This was followed by a tour of Japan and England. He was by now a prime target for Hollywood and was cast alongside Marilyn Monroe in the romantic comedy Let’s Make Love (George Cukor, 1960). Montand’s much-publicised affair with Monroe threatened to tear his marriage apart at one point but he finally chose to remain with Simone, flying back to France to be near his wife. Although Let's Make Love was a flop, Montand would act in a number of American films, including Goodbye Again (Anatole Litvak, 1961) with Ingrid Bergman, My Geisha (Jack Cardiff, 1962) with Shirley MacLaine, and the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Vincente Minnelli, 1970) with Barbra Streisand.

German postcard by VEB-Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 672. Photo: Gerhard Puhlmann,

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 807, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.558, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.

A Pure, Unadulterated Mediterranean
Despite having appeared in over a dozen films since Le Salaire de la peur, Yves Montand was still unsatisfied with his film career. This changed abruptly in the mid-1960's, when Montand’s success as a film actor began to rival his success as a singer. This began with Compartiment tueurs/The Sleeping Car Murders (1964), which was the first of four collaborations with the politically motivated Greek-born director Costa-Gavras. It was followed by high-profile films by some of France’s most acclaimed directors, including La guerre est finie/The War Is Over (Alain Resnais, 1966) with Ingrid Thulin, Paris brûle t’il ?/Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1967) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the political thriller Z (Costa-Gavras, 1968). In September 1968, Montand gave a series of concerts at the Paris Olympia, which ran for six weeks. He had arrived, as a singer ánd as a film star. In the early 1970's, Montand appeared in a wide range of roles, alternating between tragic and comic: the thriller L’Aveu/The Confession (Costa-Gavras, 1970), the comedy La Folie des grandeurs/Delusions of Grandeur (Gérard Oury, 1971) co-starring with Louis de Funès, and the acclaimed romance César et Rosalie/César and Rosalie (Claude Sautet, 1972) opposite Romy Schneider. This latter film painted the truest picture of him: a pure, unadulterated Mediterranean - the big guy who never knew when to stop, as the anonymous author of the biographer at RFI Musique writes.

French postcard by Philips. Photo: H. Meister.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/394. Photo: Gerard Decaux.

French card by Editions Vianelly, Paris, no. 7, 1968.

Romy Schneider & Yves Montand in Clair de femme

French postcard by Editions Nugeron in the Star Series, no. 58. Photo: publicity still for Clair de femme/Womanlight (Costa Gravas, 1979).

Spectacular Come-Back
Yves Montand was nominated for a Cesar Award for Best Actor for I comme Icare/I as in Icarus (Henri Verneuil, 1979) and again for Garçon!/Waiter! (Claude Sautet, 1983) with Nicole Garcia. In 1986, more than a decade after his international box-office draw power had diminished, the 65-year-old Montand came back spectacularly and gave one of his most memorable performances, as the scheming uncle in the two-part film: Jean de Florette (Claude Berri, 1986), co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources/Manon of the Spring (1986, Claude Berri), co-starring Emmanuelle Béart. The film, adapted from the famous novel by the French author Marcel Pagnol, was a worldwide critical hit. In his later years he maintained a home in St Paul de Vence, Provence. On the last day of filming his final film, IP5:L'île aux pachydermes/IP5: The Island of Pachyderms (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1992) with Olivier Martinez, he suffered a heart attack. (The film tells the story of an old man who dies from a heart attack.) Montand died a few hours later in a hospital in Senlis, France, on 9 November 1991. Like Simone Signoret, he is buried in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise (the Père Lachaisse Cemetery in Paris). Montand's only child, Valentin, his son by his second wife, his former personal assistant Carole Amiel, was born in 1988. His first marriage to Simone Signoret had been childless. Catherine Allégret, Signoret's daughter from her first marriage was Montand's adopted daughter. In 2004, Catherine Allégret published a book titled Un monde à l'envers/World Upside Down in which she contended that Montand had abused her sexually since she was five years old. There was more controversy after Montand's death. In a paternity suit that rocked France, a woman had accused Montand of being the father of her daughter and went to court to obtain a DNA sample from him. Montand had refused, but the woman persisted after his death. In a court ruling that made international headlines, the woman won the right to have Montand exhumed and a sample taken. On 11 March 1998, a paternity test showed that he wasn't the girl's father. Film critic James Travers concludes at Films de France: “Yves Montand, the myth and the man – the two are inextricably linked and one can never be sure where the one ends and the other begins”.

Yves Montand sings Les Feuilles Mortes (written by Jacques Prevert and Joseph Cosma) in the film Parigi è sempre Parigi/Paris is Always Paris (1951, Luciano Emmer) with Hélène Remy and Franco Interlenghi. Source: paccaggicco (YouTube).

Trailer of Let’s Make Love (1960). Source: Adore Marilyn (YouTube).

Scene from César et Rosalie/César and Rosalie (1972) with Yves Montand and Sami Frey. Source: Torteille (YouTube).

French trailer of Jean de Florette (1986). Source: Danios12345 (YouTube).

Yves Montand sings A Paris. Source: bpsconcept (YouTube).

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

We're still in Italy and enjoy Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013). In the section Silent Hitch, Alfred Hitchcock's nine surviving silent films are screened. The collection starts with his debut, the sensational The Pleasure Garden (1925), a newly born film which was believed to be lost for many years. Male star of The Pleasure Garden is the Scottish actor John Stuart (1898-1979), a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s.

British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C. 237. Photo: Mannell.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54c.

Instant Star
John Stuart was born John Alfred Louden Croall in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1898. He began his stage and screen career directly after World War I service in The Black Watch. He made his film debut in the drama The Lights of Home (Fred Paul, 1920). Other silent films were the drama If Four Walls Told (Fred Paul, 1922) starring Lillian Hall-Davis, the comedy The School for Scandal (Bertram Phillips, 1923) with Queenie Thomas, and the comedy We Women (W.P. Kellino, 1925). Stuart was a very popular leading man in British silent films, though it's hard to gauge that popularity since many of his best films of the 1920s, such as A Sporting Double (Arthur Rooke, 1923), Constant Hot Water (George A. Cooper, 1924) and The Tower of London (Maurice Elvey, 1926) with Isobel Elsom, are either inaccessible or non-existent. He appeared in a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Pleasure Garden (1925) was Hitchcock’s directorial debut. Based on a novel by Oliver Sandys, the film is about two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. Glamorous American star Virginia Valli played the lead. The film was shot in Italy and Germany in 1925 and shown to the British press in March 1926. But it was not officially released in the UK until 1927, after Hitchcock's film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog became a massive hit in February 1927. Stuart worked several times with director Maurice Elvey. Very popular was their World War I drama Mademoiselle from Armentieres (Maurice Elvey, 1926), featuring Estelle Brody. The film opened in London in September 1926 and was still playing in cinemas around the country until well into 1927. It was reportedly the most profitable British film of 1926 and made an instant star of Brody. The two stars were reunited in the drama Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey, 1927), which skilful use of location is considered to give the film a documentary realism feel very unusual in British films of the period. Brody and Stuart co-starred again in Mademoiselle Parley Voo (Maurice Elvey, 1928), a sequel to Mademoiselle from Armentieres, and equally successful. By the way, both films refer to the popular First World War song Mademoiselle from Armentières.

Lillian Hall-Davis German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1479/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.

Queenie Thomas. British postcard in the series Screen Plays. Photo: Bertram Phillips.

Number Seventeen
John Stuart’s first sound film, Kitty (Victor Saville, 1929) was another successful production. Kitty was initially planned and filmed as a silent, but on its original completion director Saville decided to reshoot the latter part with sound. As no suitable facilities were yet available in Britain, Saville, Estelle Brody and Stuart travelled to New York to shoot the new sequences at RKO Studios. The film was released in the form of a silent which switched to sound after the half-way point. Stuart’s next film, Atlantic (1929) was one of the first British films made with the soundtrack optically recorded on the film (sound-on-film). Atlantic was directed and produced by Ewald André Dupont. Three versions were made, an English and a German language version, Atlantik, which were shot simultaneously, and later a French version was made. In England, Atlantic was released in both sound and silent prints. The film was originally made as Titanic but after lawsuits it was renamed Atlantic. The White Star Line, which owned the RMS Titanic, was still in operation at the time. The final scene of the film was filmed as a shot of the liner sinking but it was cut at the last minute as it was feared it would upset Titanic survivors. Then Stuart worked for a second time with Alfred Hitchcock, although indirectly. Elstree Calling (1930) is a lavish musical film revue directed by Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, and Hitchcock at Elstree Studios. It was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues, such as Paramount on Parade (Dorothy Arzner et al, 1930) and The Hollywood Review of 1929 (Charles Reisner, 1929). Stuart was not appearing in the segments directed by Hitchcock. They really worked together again on Number Seventeen (Alfred Hitchcock, 1932), in which Stuart played the lead. The film is about a group of criminals who committed a jewel robbery and put their money in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel, the film's title being derived from the house's street number. An outsider stumbles onto this plot and intervenes with the help of a neighbour, a police officer's daughter. On its initial release, audiences reacted to Number Seventeen with confusion and disappointment. Stuart then played Sir Henry Baskerville in the mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1932), based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle and scripted by Edgar Wallace. He was the co-star of Brigitte Helm in The Mistress of Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932), the English language version of the German-French adventure and fantasy film L'Atlantide/Die Herrin von Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932) based on the novel L'Atlantide by Pierre Benoît.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54e.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54e.

Quota Quickie
John Stuart starred with Benita Hume in the drama Men of Steel (George King, 1932). It was made at Nettlefold Studios under the so-called quota quickie system for distribution by United Artists. In 1927, The Cinematograph Films Act was designed to stimulate the declining British film industry. It introduced a requirement for British cinemas to show a quota of British films, for a duration of 10 years. The result of the act was the 'quota quickie', a low-cost, poor-quality film commissioned by American distributors operating in the UK purely to satisfy the quota requirements. During the 1930s Stuart appeared in a lot of these films. memorable are the drama The Lost Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) with Elizabeth Allan and Jack Hawkins, the comedy This Week of Grace Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) starring Gracie Fields and Henry Kendall, and Anglo-Italian aviation drama The Blue Squadron (George King, 1934) with Esmond Knight. Stuart co-starred with Fritz Kortner and Nils Asther in Abdul the Damned (Karl Grune, 1935), set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War where the Sultan and the Young Turks battle for power. He also worked often with director George Pearson, like in the thriller The Secret Voice (1936), and appeared in several parts of the long-running Old Mother Riley series. During the war years, Stuart’s parts became smaller or better said, he matured into character parts. He played a supporting part in the thriller Headline (John Harlow, 1944) with David Farrar as a crime reporter who searches for a mystery woman (Anne Crawford) who has witnessed a murder. Another example is the Gainsborough melodrama Madonna of the Seven Moons (Arthur Crabtree, 1945) starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. In 1946 readers of the Daily Mail voted the film their third most popular British movie from 1939 to 1945. During the following decades he played government officials and police inspectors in B-films like the mystery The Ringer (Guy Hamilton, 1952) starring Herbert Lom, and the Science-fiction film Four Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher, 1953). Memorable are the war film Sink the Bismarck! (Lewis Gilbert, 1960) with Kenneth More, the Science-fiction film Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960), and the suspense film Paranoiac (Freddie Francis, 1963) from Hammer Films and starring Janette Scott and Oliver Reed. Stuart now only played bit roles. His last part was a cameo in Superman (Richard Donner, 1978). In 1979, John Stuart died in London at the age of 81. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. An accomplished writer, John Stuart penned his autobiography, Caught in the Act, in 1971. His son Jonathan Croall is writing a book about the screen idols of the 1920s, including John Stuart.

Trailer The Pleasure Garden (1925). Source: BFIfilms (YouTube).

Scene from Number Seventeen (1932). Source: TheLadyPhantom (YouTube).

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

In the past Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013) had many CinemaScope screenings at the Arlecchino theatre, which we really enjoyed. This year we can look at the magic of the European Scope (the festival organisation defined it so to take into account all of the variations the widescreen systems adopted in our continent). The section Bigger than Life: a journey through European CinemaScope will include Mario Monicelli's La grande guerra/The Great War (1959), starring Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, and in the female lead, beautiful Silvana Mangano (1930-1989). The Italian film star will forever be remembered as the sexy rice picker in Riso amaro/Bitter Rice (1949), and as Tadzio's elegant mother in Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (1971). She worked four times with maestro Luchino Visconti, and three times with another major director, Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Dutch postcard by Filmverhuurkantoor Centrafilm, Dordrecht.

Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 196. Photo: Lux Film.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 159.

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano (Milan), no. 37. Photo: still from Ulisse/Ulysses (Mario Camerini, 1954), produced by Silvana's husband, Dino De Laurentiis.

Shocking Hotpants
Silvana Mangano was born in Rome in 1930 to an Italian father, a Sicilian train conductor, and an English mother. Her brother is sound technician Roy Mangano and her sisters are one-time actresses Patrizia Mangano and Natascia Mangano. Silvana grew up in poverty caused by the Second World War. Trained for seven years as a dancer, she was supporting herself as a model. At 16, she won the Miss Rome beauty contestin 1946 and got a small role in the opera adaptation L'Elisir d'amore/Elixir of Love (Mario Costa, 1948) with Tito Gobbi. She was also nominated for the Miss Italia contest in 1947, which Lucia Bosé won. Mangano started to play small roles in films like Il delitto di Giovanni Episcopo/Flesh Will Surrender (Alberto Lattuada, 1947), Gli uomini sono nemici/Crossroads of Passion (1948, Ettore Giannini) with French diva Viviane Romance, and Black Magic (Gregory Ratoff, 1949) starring Orson Welles. She had her breakthrough with the neo-realistic crime story Riso amaro/Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949), situated in the rice fields along the Po river in Northern Italy. Managano played the voluptuous rice picker Silvana, who falls for the criminal Walter (Vittorio Gassman) and his presumed wealth. The thousands of female rice workers, up to their ankles in the water, breaking their backs in the burning sun to earn a few bucks, make an impressive decor. To the standards of 1949s Roman Catholic Italy Mangano's performance in hotpants was shocking. This earned Riso Amaro a lot of publicity, and earned Mangano a contract with the Lux company.

French postcard, no. 850. Photo: Lux Film.

German collectors card. Photo: Lux / Schorchtfilm.

Belgian postcard by Nieuwe Merksemsche Chocolaterie, Merksem. Photo: Lux Film Rome. Publicity still for Riso Amaro/Bitter Rice (1949).

German postcard by Netter's Star Verlag, Berlin. Publicity still for Riso Amaro/Bitter Rice (1949).

Pig-fancying Enchantress
Though Silvana Mangano never scaled the heights of her competitors Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, she was a popular European film star in the 1950s and 1960s. Lux produced her subsequent films such as Anna (Alberto Lattuada, 1951) with Raf Vallone, and Ulisse/Ulysses (Mario Camerini, 1954), an adaptation of Homer's second epic featuring Kirk Douglas. Mangano played both Ulysses' faithful wife Penelope and the pig-fancying enchantress Circe. In 1949, she had married producer Dino De Laurentiis who controlled her career and launched her as the leading lady of international co-productions such as Mambo (Robert Rossen, 1954) with Michael Rennie, This Angry Age/Le barrage sur le Pacifique (René Clément, 1958) with Anthony Perkins, and 5 Branded Woman/Jovanka e le altre (Martin Ritt, 1960) with Jeanne Moreau.

Dutch postcard, nr. 34. Photo: Standard-Films. Still from Ulisse/Ulysses (1954) in which Mangano played Circe/Penelope.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano (Milan), no. 230.

Dutch postcard, no. 857. Photo: Luxardo.

Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano in the series 'Hobby'.

Visconti and Pasolini
In 1967, Silvana Mangano starred in the anthology film Le streghe/The Witches (1967) with five episodes directed by Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi and Luchino Visconti. Visconti shot the quite cynical and biographical episode La strega bruciata viva/The Witch Burned Alive, and he later cast her again as Tadzio's (Björn Andrésen) aristocratic mother in Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971), modeled on Visconti's own mother. She also played the cunning Cosima von Bülow in Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1972), and the hysterical marchesa Brumonti in Gruppo di famiglia in un interno/Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, 1974) opposite Burt Lancaster. Mangano also performed in three films by Pasolini: as Jocaste in Edipo re/Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967), an updated version of the Greek tragedy by Sophocles; as Lucia, the mother in Teorema/Theorem (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968) with Terence Stamp, and as the Holy Virgin - a small, uncredited role - in Il Decameron/The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971).

Vintage postcard, no. 2067.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 618.

French postcard. Editions P.I., Paris, no. 743.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano. Photo: Lux Film. Mangano holds up a kitschy copy of a man's portrait (ca. 1635) by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, now at the Mauritshuis at the Hague.

Italian postcard by Ferrania. Photo: Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica.

Tapestries
In the 1980s, Silvana Mangano's life took a bad turn. In 1981 her son, Federico De Laurentiis, was killed in an Alaskan air crash. In 1983 she separated from Dino De Laurentiis , though they did not divorce. She did not perform in films anymore, except for Dune (David Lynch, 1984) and Oci ciornie/Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987), in which she played Romano's (Marcello Mastroianni) wife. She dedicated her time to making tapestries, alternating her domicile between Madrid and Paris. Silvana Mangano, who had always been a strong smoker, died of lung cancer in 1989, in a hospital in Madrid. She was only 59. Silvana Mangano had four children with Dino De Laurentiis: Veronica, Raffaella, Francesca, and the deceased Federico. Veronica's daughter Giada De Laurentiis is host of Everyday Italian on the Food Network. Raffaella coproduced with her father on Mangano's penultimate film, Dune.

Scene from Riso amaro/Bitter Rice (1949). Source: boct2007 (YouTube).

Scene from Anna (1951). Silvana sings El negro zumbon. Source: jack11anbar (YouTube).

Trailer of Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (1971). Source: enneme (YouTube).

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

This year, one of the major sections of Il Cinema Ritrovato (29 June - 6 July 2013) is War is near: 1938-1939. The festival organisation did not make the most obvious choices for the section, but selected "films which captivate fear and frail hopes, random shadows, inconclusive dialogues, everything that the greatest films around that period, such as Renoir's La Règle du jeu, did so miraculously". One of these films is Paradis perdu/Paradise Lost (1939), directed by Abel Gance and starring Elvire Popesco (1894-1993), a French actress of Romanian origin. In the twenties she went to Paris, where she conquered the stages with her comic talent and heavy accent. In the thirties she became a popular film star, who worked with such great directors as Julien Duvivier, Sacha Guitry, Marc Allégret, and of course Abel Gance.

French postcard by EC, no. 41.

French postcard by CE (Cinemagazine-Selection), Paris, no. 2042. Photo: Pathé Natan.

French postcard by EC, no. 41. Photo: Studio Piaz, Paris.

Artistic Director
Elvire Popesco was born Elvira Popescu in Bucharest, Romania in 1894. She started to perform at the Teatrul Naţional (Bucharest national theatre) after a training at the Conservatorul de Artă Dramatică din Bucureşti (Bucharest Conservatory for Drama). She played a small part in the Romanian silent film Independenta Romaniei/The War for Independence (Aristide Demetriade, 1912), inspired by the war between Romania and the Ottoman Empire. It was the first Romanian feature film to last for nearly two hours (from which are about 20 minutes lost now). Seven years later Elvira became the artistic director of the Excelsior Theatre(1919) and subsequently of the Teatrul Mic (1921). Then she played in the film Tigancusa de la iatac/The girl of the garret (Alfred Halm, 1923). French playwright Louis Verneuil convinced her to go to Paris. Around 1924 she rose to stardom at the Parisian stages because of her comic talent and her heavy accent. She was Verneuil's favourite actress in the later 1920s and early 1930s. He first cast her in Ma cousine de Varsovie (1923). In 1931 she would also play in the film version of this play, directed by the Italian director Carmine Gallone. Actually, from the start of sound cinema in France, Popesco had a growing prolific career there, culminating in nine film parts in 1938-1939. She worked with a wide range of directors, a.o. four times with Pierre Colombier (including Tricoche et Cacolet/Tricoche and Cacolet, 1938), but also with Julien Duvivier (L'Homme du jour/The Man of the Hour, 1936), Abel Gance (Paradis perdu/Paradise Lost, 1939), Sacha Guitry (Ils étaient neuf célibataires/Nine Bachelors, 1939), and Marc Allégret (Parade en sept nuits/Parade in 7 Nights, 1940). Her co-stars in those years were men like Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jouvet, Erich von Stroheim, Fernandel, and Henri Garat.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 64.

French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinématographiques, no. 138.

French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 541. Photo: Paramount.

A Big Stage Come-back
In the first war years Elvire Popesco continued to play in films like Mademoiselle Swing (Richard Pottier, 1941) with Jean Murat and Irène de Trebert. Presumably this affected her career because only in 1948 she could make a big stage come-back with Tovaritch by Jacques Deval, which was retaken with Popesco in 1960. After that Popesco had again an active stage career, playing for instance in three pieces by André Roussin: Nina (1949), La voyante (1963-1964), and La Mamma (1957-1958, 1974); the latter was purposefully written for her by Roussin. She also performed in La machine infernale by Jean Cocteau (1953). From 1953 to 1965 she was director of the Théàtre de Paris and subsequently of the Théàtre de Marigny (1965-1978). In 1959 Popesco returned to the cinema and played her last film parts in Plein soleil/Purple Noon (René Clement, 1960) starring Alain Delon, and as Napoleon's mother in Austerlitz/The Battle of Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960). After she had married the count Maximilien Sebastien Foy (her third husband), Popesco kept a well-frequented salon in Mézy-sur-Seine (Yvelines). From 1930 to 1985 she lived there in a modernist-style villa, owned before by fashion designer Paul Poiret, and remodelled in 1932 by architect Paul Boyer. Together with Anna de Noailles, Marthe Bibesco and Elena Vacarescu, Popesco seems to have been Henri Matisse's inspiration for his La blouse roumaine (1940). In 1987 Popesco was awarded a Molière d’honneur for her entire career, and in 1989 president François Mitterrand made her a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Elvire Popesco died in 1993 in Paris at the age of 99. She lies buried at the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris. She was married to comedian Aurel Athanasescu with whom she had a daughter, Tatiana; to politician Ion Manolescu-Stronga (Minister of Industry and Commerce), and to count Maximilien Sebastien Foy.

French card by Massilia. Collection: Amit Benyovits.

French postcard. Photo: Filmsonor.

French postcard by S.E.R.P., no. 14. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Today it's the eighth and final day of Il Cinema Ritrovato 2013 in Bologna, Italy. Our last festival post is about Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974). Bologna presents a retrospective about the Italian maestro: Tenderly Ironic: Vittorio De Sica, Actor and Director. Citing the festival newsletter: "A Maestro, a father, a beacon of Italian cinema. Vittorio De Sica is Italy's first modern superstar and a pivotal figure in our country's collective memory."

Italian postcard by Rizzoli S.C., Milano, 1936.

Mexican card, no. 314.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. V 377. Photo: Gloria Film. Publicity still for Racconti Romani/Roman Tales (Gianni Franciolini, 1955).

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 37 G, presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Successful Matinee Idol
Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica was born in Sora, Italy in 1901 (or 1902 - sources are divided). He grew up in Naples. His father, Umberto De Sica, a bank clerk with a penchant for show business, encouraged his good-looking son to pursue a stage career. Vittorio made his screen debut at 16 in the film Il processo Clémenceau/The Clemenceau Affair (Alfredo De Antoni, 1917) starring the legendary diva Francesca Bertini. He began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee idol of the Italian stage, and also appeared in such silent films as La bellezza del mondo/Beauty of the World (Mario Almirante, 1927) starring another silent film diva, Italia Almirante-Manzini. In 1933 De Sica founded his own theatre company with his wife, actress Giuditta Rissone, and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies. His good looks and breezy manner made him an overnight matinee idol of the Italian cinema with the release of his first sound picture, La Vecchia Signora/The Old Lady (Amleto Palermi, 1932). Light comedies as Gli uomini che mascalzoni!/What Scoundrels Men Are! (Mario Camerini, 1932) and Il signor Max/Mister Max (Mario Camerini, 1937) made him immensely popular with female audiences. During the Second World War De Sica turned to directing with Rose Scarlatte/Red Roses (Vittorio De Sica, Giuseppe Amato, 1940), and Maddelena, Zero in Condotta/Maddelena, Zero For Conduct (Vittorio De Sica, 1940). Both films were attempts to bring theatre pieces to the screen with suitable roles for himself. In the comedy of errors Teresa Venerdi (Vittorio De Sica, 1941) his girlfriend was played by a young Anna Magnani.

Spanish postcard by Editorial Brujuero, Barcelona, no. 481. Photo: Infonal, Archivo Bermeja.

Italian postcard. The caption reads: Elsa Merlini returns, all pepper. Probably for the film Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (Nunzio Malasomma, Mario Bonnard, 1936). The pepper refers to the title of her previous film Paprika (Carl Boese, 1933).

German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Ufa / Schulte.

Italian postcard by Aser, Roma (Rome), no. 333. Photo: Vaselli.

Real Locations and Non-professional Actors
A turning point in Vittorio De Sica’s career was his meeting with the writer Cesare Zavattini. They worked together on De Sica’s fifth film, I bambini ci guardano/The Children Are Watching Us (Vittorio De Sica, 1943). In this film, the director began to use non-professional actors and socially conscious subject matter. He revealed hitherto unsuspected depths and an extraordinarily sensitive touch with actors, especially with children. It is a mature, perceptive, and deeply human work about the impact of adult folly on a child's innocent mind. Zavattini became as a scenarist his major collaborator for the next three decades. Together they created two of the most significant films of the Italian neorealism movement: Sciuscià/Shoeshine (Vittorio de Sica, 1946) and Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948). Sciuscià/Shoeshine is the story of how the lasting friendship of two homeless boys, who make their living shining shoes for the American G.I.'s, is betrayed by their contact with adults. At the end of the film one boy inadvertently causes the other's death. In Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves, workman Ricci's desperate search for his bicycle is an odyssey that enables us to witness a varied collection of characters and situations among the poor and working class of Rome. At Sony Pictures Classics an anonymous critic writes: “With no money available to produce his films, De Sica initiated the use of real locations and non-professional actors. Using available light and documentary effects, he explored the relationship between working and lower-class characters in an indifferent, and often hostile social and political environment. The result was gritty and searing storytelling that not only bared the truth about the harsh conditions inflicted on Italy's poor, but also represented a radical break from filmmaking conventions.” Both films are heartbreaking studies of poverty in postwar Italy and both won special Oscarsbefore the foreign film category was officially established. De Sica's next collaboration with Zavattini was the satirical fantasy, Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan (Vittorio de Sica, 1951), which wavered between optimism and despair in its allegorical treatment of the plight of the poor in an industrial society. Their next film, Umberto D. (Vittorio de Sica, 1952), was a relentlessly bleak study of the problems of old age and loneliness, but it was a box-office disaster. Continually wooed by Hollywood, De Sica finally acquiesced to make Stazioni Termini (Vittorio de Sica, 1952), clumsily renamed Indiscretion of an American Wife in the US It was produced by David O. Selznick and filmed in Rome with in the leading roles Selznick's wife, Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. Unfortunately, neorealist representation formed only an insignificant background to this typically American star vehicle.

East-German postcard by Progress-Filmvertrieb.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden. Photo: Bavaria Filmkunst-Eichberg-Marszalos. Publicity still for the Franco-Italian-German film Casino de Paris (André Hunebelle, 1957).

Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 1679.

East-German postcard, no. III/18/211, 1955. Photo: Per la Stampa. De Sica wears the uniform of the marshall from the film Pane, amore e fantasia (and its sequels).

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 610. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Bread Love and Dreams
During his lifetime, Vittorio De Sica acted in over one hundred films in Italy and abroad, in order to finance his own directorial projects. He turned almost exclusively to acting in the late 1950s, enjoying great popularity in the role of the rural police officer Carotenuto in Pane, amore e fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1954) opposite Gina Lollobrigida. He returned in a subsequent comedy series of the same name co-starring Lollobrigida or Sophia Loren. He was at his best playing breezy comic heroes, men of great self-assurance or confidence - such as in Rossellini's General Della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini, 1959). On TV he became well known in the British Series The Four Just Men (1959) produced by Sapphire Films. With the notable exception of Il Tetto/The Roof (Vittorio de Sica, 1956) and La Ciociara/Two Women (Vittorio de Sica, 1960), for which Sophia Loren won an Oscar for Best Actress, his subsequent output as a director was for a long while markedly less inspired and significant. He had two box-office hits with Matrimonio All'Italiana/Marriage Italian Style (Vittorio de Sica, 1964) starring Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, and with Ieri, oggi, domain/Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Vittorio de Sica, 1964) which won him another Oscar. However, critics and audiences alike had concluded that the aging director had lost his touch, but, just before he died he made a dramatic comeback with Il giardino dei Finzi Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio de Sica, 1970). The film was based on a Bassani novel about the incarceration of Italian Jews during the war. According to Joel Kanoff at Film Reference it shows “a strong Viscontian influence in its lavish setting and thematics (the film deals with the dissolution of the bourgeois family).” It won him yet another Oscar. The director's next film was Una breve vacanza/A Brief Vacation (Vittorio de Sica, 1973), about a working-class Italian woman's first taste of freedom in a society dominated by males. His last film, Il Viaggio/The Voyage (Vittorio de Sica, 1974), was based on a novella by Luigi Pirandello. That year, he passed away following the removal of a cyst from his lungs. He had been married to Giuditta Rissone (1937-1968) and to Spanish actress María Mercader (1968-1974) with whom he had two sons, composer-director Manuel De Sica and actor-singer Christian De Sica. De Sica lived with Mercader from 1942 on, but couldn't marry her until 1968 after acquiring French citizenship, which allowed him to finally divorce Rissone. In 1974, Vittorio De Sica died near Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, at the age of 72. Active to the end, he appeared as himself in Scola's melancholic comedy-drama C'eravamo tanto amati/We All Loved Each Other So Much (Ettore Scola, 1974), which was released after his death.

A young Vittorio De Sica sings Parlami d'amore Mariu' in Gli uomini che mascalzoni!/What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932). Source: Matteoeoeo (YouTube).

Scene from Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan (1953). Source: Arcilsota (YouTube).

Sophia Loren and Vittorio De Sica dance the mambo in Pane, amore e.../Bread, Love and ... (1955). Source: Il Romanziere (YouTube).

Sources: Joel Kanoff (Film Reference), Dan Harper (Senses of Cinema), Michael Brooke (IMDb), TCM, Sony Pictures Classics, Wikipedia and IMDb.

German-Belgian actress Lotte Koch (1913) appeared in anti-British propaganda films of the Ufa, but she also starred in Morituri (1948), the first German film about concentration camps and the Holocaust. At 100, she is now with Marta Eggerth the longest living Ufa star.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 156, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3733/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

Die Pfeffermühle
Lotte Koch was born as Luise Charlotte Koch in Brussels, Belgium in 1913. After finishing school, she visited the Hochschule für Bühnenkunst (School of Performing Arts) in Dusseldorf, where she studied under Louise Dumont. She received her first theatre engagement in 1931 in Heidelberg. She was then engaged by the noted Schauspielhaus Zurich (1935-1937), where she played classical heroines as Luise in Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) by Friedrich Schiller and Helena in Jean Giraudoux's Der trojanische Krieg findet nicht statt (The Trojan war will not take place), both under the direction of Leopold Lindtberg. In Zürich, she also performed in Klaus and Erika Mann’s cabaret Die Pfeffermühle. In 1936 she made her film debut in the Johann Nepomuk Nestroy adaptation Lumpacivagabundus/Lumpaci the Vagabond (1936, Géza von Bolváry) with Paul Hörbiger and Heinz Rühmann. Then followed a pause in her film career of four years. In the meantime, she played on stage at the Volkstheater Wien (National Theatre Vienna) (1938-1939) and the Hamburger Kammerspiele (Hamburg Kammerspiele).

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3325/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3568/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3204/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

MorituriDuring the Second World War, Lotte Koch regularly appeared in UFA productions, both in leading and supporting roles. She played in the historical melodrama, Das Herz der Königin/The Heart of the Queen (1940, Carl Froelich) starring Zarah Leander. The film made selective use of the tragic life story of Mary, Queen of Scots and her execution by Queen Elizabeth I for anti-British propaganda purposes. Her other films included the drama Friedemann Bach (1941, Traugott Müller, Gustaf Gründgens) with Gustaf Gründgens as the son of Sebastian Johann Bach, and the anti-British thriller Anschlag auf Baku/Attack on Baku (1942, Fritz Kirchhoff) starring Willy Fritsch and René Deltgen. In these films she was often cast as the assistant, a typical cliché role for women in the films of the Third Reich. After the war, Koch co-starred in the drama … und über uns der Himmel/City of Torment (1947, Josef von Báky). She played a young war widow opposite Hans Albers as a returning war veteran who has trouble finding work. A special film was Morituri (1948, Eugen York) in which she played the lead. The story was based in part on the life of producer Artur Brauner. It tells of the escape of Nazi concentration camp prisoners and how they manage to hide and evade recapture, though faced with constant danger and starvation. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival 1948. In Germany, Morituri was a commercial disaster, with audiences hissing and booing. A theatre in Hamburg was vandalized, after which other theater owners, fearful of reprisal by Nazi sympathizers, refused to show the film. In her last film, the comedy Käpt'n Bay-Bay (1953, Helmut Käutner) she was again the partner of Hans Albers. In 1953 Lotte Koch finished her film career almost entirely. She worked for television and theatre. In 1971, she did her last screen role in the TV series Motiv Liebe/Motive Love (1971, Hermann Leitner). Lotte Koch was married to actor Ernst von Klipstein, who had been her co-star in Das Schwarze Schaf/The Black Sheep (1944, Miroslav Cikán) and three other films. Later, she married his brother, Dieter von Klipstein. She now lives in an elderly home in Unterhaching in the south of Germany. There, Lotte Koch had her 100th birthday on 9 March this year.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3847/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3462/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

German postcard by Das Illustrierte Blatt. Photo: Ufa/Lindner. Publicity still for Das Herz der Königin/Mary Queen of Scots (1940, Carl Froelich) with Willy Birgel.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hanns-Georg Rodek (Die Welt- German), AllMovie, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

One of our favorite French stars is Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933). Bébel was a big comedy and action star in Europe from the mid-1960s till the mid-1980s, but he was initially associated with the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave of the 1960s. Despite his unconventional looks, including a broken nose, he was often polled as one of the sexiest men in the world. For some 50 years he now remains one of the most popular and best-loved personalities in France.

Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, Barcelona, no. 83, 1964. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 160. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Italian postcard in the series Artisti di sempre by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 355.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 77. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1065, presented by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Bébel
Jean-Paul Belmondo was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in 1933. He is the son of Paul Belmondo, a sculptor of Sicilian descent. Young Jean-Paul did not perform well at school, but developed a passion for boxing before he decided that his future lay in acting. After a number of attempts, he finally gained admittance to the Paris Conservatoirein 1952, although his tutors were not overly optimistic about his prospects. It was here that he acquired the nickname 'Bébel'. In the mid-1950s, he appeared in a few theatrical productions, often to great acclaim, before beginning a film career in 1956 with Les Copains du dimanche/The Sunday Friends (Henry Aisner, 1956-1958). The film was never played in public cinemas though and his episodes in À pied, à cheval et en voiture/On Foot, on Horse, and on Wheels (Maurice Delbez, 1957) were even cut before release, but soon bigger roles followed in the spoof thriller Sois Belle et Tais-Toi/Be Beautiful But Shut Up (Marc Allégret, 1957) - his first co-starring role with Alain Delon, the hit Les Tricheurs/The Cheaters (Marcel Carné, 1958) and À double tour/Web of Passion (Claude Chabrol, 1959) with Madeleine Robinson. It was in 1958 that the 25-year-old Belmondo attracted the attention of a former critic turned filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The latter was impressed by the actor’s spontaneity and cast him first in a quirky short, Charlotte et son Jules (1959).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., nr. 233. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., nr. 78. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Belgian collector's card, nr. 30.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1136. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Breathless
Stardom came in 1959 when Jean-Paul Belmondo took the lead role of a sympathetic gangster in Godard’s landmark feature debut A Bout de souffle/Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard,1960). At AllMovie, Lucia Bozzola writes: "Belmondo perfectly embodied the cool youthful rebellion guiding Godard's trailblazing cinematic style, rendering Belmondo the Gallic James Dean and heir apparent to Michel Simon and Jean Gabin." This film launched not just Belmondo’s film career but also the Nouvelle Vague , the New Wave of the French cinema. Belmondo would play a major part in the Nouvelle Vague during the early 1960s with roles in e.g. Une femme est une femme/A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961) and Pierrot le fou/Pierrot Goes Wild (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965). Besides these classics he also acted in a stream of other excellent films: Classe tous risques/The Big Risk (Claude Sautet, 1960) with Lino Ventura, Moderato cantabile/Seven Days... Seven Nights (Peter Brook, 1960), La Ciociara/Two Women (Vittorio De Sica, 1960) with Sophia Loren, and La Viaccia/The Lovemakers (Mauro Bolognini, 1961) with Claudia Cardinale. He played a priest in the dark World War II drama Léon Morin, prêtre/Leon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961). Very popular was the swashbuckler Cartouche (Philippe de Broca, 1962) again with Cardinale. In Un singe en hiver/A Monkey in Winter (Henri Verneuil, 1962) he appeared with Jean Gabin. All that and the two films he made with Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Doulos/The Fingerman (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) and L’Aîné des Ferchaux/An Honorable Young Man (1963), which became modern classics of the film noir.

German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. 1133. Photo: Sam Lévin / Ufa.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 1133. Photo: Vallois.

French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 1034. Photo: Studio Vallois.

Dutch postcard by SYBA, no. 44/364.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 559.

Mainstream
With L’homme de Rio/That Man from Rio (Philippe de Broca, 1964), Jean-Paul Belmondo switched to commercial, mainstream productions and became a big comedy and action star in France. During the production of their next hit comedy Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine/Chinese Adventures in China (Philippe de Broca, 1965), Belmondo fell in love with his co-star Ursula Andress. Following the example of Alain Delonhe founded his own production company, Cerito Films, which produced around a dozen of his films over the next decade. Until the mid-1980s, his typical characters were either dashing adventurers or more cynical heroes in such films as Cent mille dollars au soleil/Greed in the Sun (Henri Verneuil, 1964) with Lino Ventura, Le Voleur/The Thief (Louis Malle, 1967), La Sirène du Mississipi/Mississippi Mermaid (Francois Truffaut, 1969) with Catherine Deneuve, Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970) opposite Alain Delon, and Stavisky... (Alain Resnais, 1974). Returning to his athletic roots, Belmondo became renowned for doing his own stunts as well as for his charming screen presence in such action films as the James Bond parody Le Magnifique/The Magnificent One (Philippe de Broca, 1973) with Jacqueline Bisset, L'Animal/The Beast (Claude Zidi, 1977) with Raquel Welch, and Le Professionnel/The Professional (Georges Lautner, 1981). Belmondo was one of France's biggest box-office stars of his time. He ceased to perform all the stunts himself after an accident during the filming of Hold-Up (Alexandre Arcady, 1985) with Kim Cattrall. He made a spectacular return to the theatre in 1987, appearing in Kean. Since then he has continued to perform on stage to great acclaim, whilst simultaneously pursuing his film career.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/345. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Italian postcard. Photo: Dear Film. Publicity still for Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine/Chinese Adventures in China (Philippe de Broca, 1965).

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 1334.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2325.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, lei 2.

No César
Jean-Paul Belmondo now prefers mostly dramatic roles. In 1989 he was awarded the César for his performance in Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté/The Lion (Claude Lelouch, 1988). He refused to take the trophy because César, the sculptor who designed the award and gave it his name, had once expressed bad opinions about the work of his father. Another popular dramatic film was Les Misérables (Claude Lelouch, 1995). Jean-Paul Belmondo married twice. In 1953, he married dancer Élodie Constantin, with whom he had three children: Patricia (1958), Florence (1960) and Paul (1963). Paul became a Formula One driver; his eldest daughter Patricia was killed in a fire in 1994. In 1966, due to the well-publicized affair between Belmondo and actress Ursula Andress, Belmondo and his wife divorced. Later he had a long relationship with Italian actress Laura Antonelli. In 1989, he met Nathalie Tardivel who was 24 years old at the time. Belmondo married her in 2002. In 2001, he suffered a stroke and for years he was absent from stage and screen. In 2003, at the age of 70, his fourth child Stella was born. In 2008, Belmondo and Tardivel divorced. Since 2007 he has been 'Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur' (Commander of the Legion of Honour), France’s highest accolade. Recently he returned performing in the Theatre Marignyin Paris. His most recent film production is Un homme et son chien/A Man and His Dog (Francis Huster, 2009), a remake of the classic Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952). The film was not well-received. In 2011, the Cannes Film Festival paid tribute to him by giving him a special Palme d’Or to commemorate his exceptional body of work. But Jean-Paul Belmondo is not dead yet. In production now is his new collaboration with director Claude Lelouch, Les Bandits manchots(2013) .

Scene from Bébel's film debut Les Copains du dimanche (1956-1958). Source: ROBAGGIO10 (YouTube).

Scene from Borsalino (1970) with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. Source: myytsent (YouTube).

Trailer of Le Magnifique (1973). Source: vivadjango (YouTube).

Sources: Lucia Bozzola (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Wikipedia, Films de France, and IMDb.

Tall and handsome John Loder (1898-1988) was best known for wearing tweeds and smoking a pipe in his roles. The British-American actor started his film career as an extra in the German silent cinema, and later worked as a leading man both in Great Britain and in Hollywood.

British postcard by Real Photograph, no. B 21. Photo: Assoc. British Films.

British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 158. Photo: Assoc. British Films.

Popular Heartthrob
John Loder was born William John Muir Lowe in London in 1898. His father was General W. H. M. Lowe, the British officer to whom Patrick Pearse, the lead rebel of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, surrendered. John was educated at the prestigious Eton college and at the Royal Military College. He followed his father into the army, being commissioned into 15th Hussars as a second lieutenant in 1915, and then served in the Gallipoli Campaign. In France, he was engaged in the Battle of the Somme and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1918 and brought to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. After leaving the cavalry he established a pickle factory in Potsdam. Loder also began to develop an interest in acting. He appeared in bit-parts in a few silent German films at the Tempelhof Film Studios, employed by Alexander Korda. Examples are the comedy Der Tänzer meiner Frau/Dancing Mad (Alexander Korda, 1925) starring Victor Varconi and María Corda, and Madame wünscht keine Kinder/Madame Wants No Children (Alexander Korda, 1926) starring María Corda and Harry Liedtke. He had bigger roles in Die weiße Spinne/The White Spider (Carl Boese, 1927) with Maria Paudler, and the horror fantasy Alraune/Mandrake (Henrik Galeen, 1928) starring Brigitte Helm. Loder returned to England, where he played a big role in the silent drama The First Born (Miles Mander, 1928) starring Madeleine Carroll. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures at their Elstree Studios. Talkies had become the new rage and Loder tried his luck in Hollywood. He appeared in The Doctor's Secret (William C. De Mille, 1929), which was Paramount's first talking picture. He was also in Rin-Tin-Tin's first sound picture, in 1930. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: “although the ‘veddy British’ actor seemed to show promise, his persona was a bit too cut and dried for American tastes. Gaining little ground as a leading man there, Loder eventually returned to England“. He played a supporting part in Hitchcock’s second sound film, Juno and the Paycock (Alfred Hitchcock, 1930) and another in the historical comedy The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933) starring Charles Laughton as Henry VIII, King of England. He became a popular heartthrob with such plush musicals as Love Life and Laughter (Maurice Elvey, 1934) with Gracie Fields. He co-starred with Sylvia Sidney and Oscar Homolka in Hitchcock’s thriller Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936), based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent. Loder was also the male romantic interest in the original King Solomon's Mines (Robert Stevenson, 1937), the first film adaptation of the novel by Henry Rider Haggard.

British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.

British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. 158 A. Photo: Gaumont-British.

A Career in B Movies
When World War II started, John Loder returned to America. In Hollywood he seamlessly coasted into a career in B movies, usually playing aristocrats. Occasionally he played supporting parts in major A films such as How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941), Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942) with Bette Davis, and Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944) starring Humphrey Bogart. In Hollywood, Loder never attained the star status he had enjoyed in Britain during the 1930s. He was married five times. His first wife was Sophie Kabel, with whom he had a son. Two of his wives were actresses: French actress Micheline Cheirel (1936–1941), with whom he had a daughter, and Hollywood love goddess Hedy Lamarr (1943–1947). With Lamarr, he had two children, Denise (1945) and Anthony (1947), and adopted Lamarr's son James Markey from her previous marriage to screenwriter Gene Markey. He co-starred with her in the American crime drama Dishonored Lady (Robert Stevenson, 1947), which Lamarr produced. He also appeared on Broadway in 1947 and 1950. In 1947 he became an American citizen, and two years later, he married wife no. four, Evelyn Auff Mordt (1949-1955). Incidentally he appeared in films, like Gideon's Day (John Ford, 1958) featuring Jack Hawkins. In 1958, he also wed his final wife, Argentine heiress Alba Julia Lagomarsino, and Loder semi-retired. He lived on her 25,000 acre cattle ranch, and spent much time at the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires. In 1959 he became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom as he had been of ‘uncertain nationality’. His last screen appearance was in the British crime film The Firechasers (Sidney Hayers, 1971) starring Chad Everett. After divorcing his fifth wife in 1972, Loder returned to London and resided for some years in a house opposite Harrods. His general health deteriorated in his eighties and he was admitted in 1982 to the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association's Nursing Home in Kensington, where he was well looked after, venturing out by taxi once a week to his Club for luncheons. John Loder eventually died in London, aged 90 in 1988. His autobiography, Hollywood Hussar was published in 1977.

British postcard by Real Photograph in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 419c. Photo: Gaumont-British.

French postcard by Algazy, no. 634. Photo: Voinquel. Probably a card for Maurice Tourneur's period piece Katia (1938), in which the Russian Czar Alexander II (Loder) turns his mistress Katia (Danielle Darrieux) into a princess, which eventually leads to his assassination.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), C. Gerald Fraser (The New York Times), AllMovie, BritMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Italian silent production Amleto/Hamlet (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917) is one of two hundred or more Shakespeare films that were made in the silent period of cinema. Film historian Luke McKernan introduced a screening of the film at the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival in 2004: "it is a good and interesting film. Not a great film, but arguably the best silent Shakespeare film that exists."

Italian postcard, no. 8067. Photo: Ruggero Ruggeri as Hamlet/Amleto, either on stage or in the film Amleto (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917).

Italian postcard. Editor unknown.

Italian postcard. Ruggero Ruggeri as Hamlet and Mercedes Brignone as Queen Gertrude in Amleto/Hamlet (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917). Caption: "Disgusted Hamlet assists to the wedding of his mother. Hamlet: 'That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.'" (Though these are Shakespeare's words, in the play however, Gertrude is already remarried.)

Triumph
The title role of Amleto/Hamlet was played by Ruggero Ruggeri, one the most important Italian actors of the first half of the twentieth century. Before making the film, he had already triumphed in a stage production of Hamlet. Amleto was his third film. Helena Makowska played Ophelia, and Mercedes Brignone, who is particularly good in the film, played Gertude. Armand Pouget was the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Gerardo Pena played Laertes, and Martelli played Claudius. The film was released in Italy, and after the war also in France, Britain and the US. Luke McKernan: "Amleto made under economic circumstances very different to the pre-war period when Italian epics conquered the world cinema market. It is an altogether more modest production; though not an impoverished one as such. It is certainly a film that needs to be much better known."

Italian postcard. Ruggero Ruggeri as Hamlet in Amleto/Hamlet (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917). Translation caption: "Horatio and Marcellus tell Hamlet of their vision of the ghost. Hamlet responds (Shakespeare's words): 'Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I'll visit you.'"

Italian postcard. Ruggero Ruggeri as Hamlet in Amleto/Hamlet (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917). Caption: "Hamlet's meditation: 'There's another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?'"

Italian postcard. Mercedes Brignone as Queen Gertrude and Armand Pouget as King Claudius in Amleto/Hamlet (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1917). Caption: "Polonius: 'Your noble son is mad. Mad call I it.'"

Sources: Luke McKernan, and IMDb.

In the late 1950s, sweet and sexy French actress Pascale Petit (1938) formed serious competition for Brigitte Bardot as The Sex Symbol of the French cinema.

Vintage postcard.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/65.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/90. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Seductive Femme Fatale
Pascale Petit was born as Anne-Marie Petit in Paris, France in 1938. Before becoming an actress, she worked as a beautician. Her cinema debut was in Les Sorcières de Salem/The Crucible (Raymond Rouleau, 1957) starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret. Famous author Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the screenplay, based on the play by Arthur Miller. The following year, Pascale Petit's role as a rich, existentialist kid in Les tricheurs/The Cheaters (Marcel Carné, 1958) made her a star. A scene in which one of her breasts was shown caused a sensation. Hal Erickson notes at AllMovie: "Of the cast, Pascale Petit stands out as a trendy young girl whose willingness to follow the crowd leads to tragedy." She won the prestigious Prix Suzanne Bianchettiin 1958 as the most promising French actress, and soon more roles as a seductive femme fatale followed.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/89. Photo: Sam Levin.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/88. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/160. Photo: Fried Agency / Ufa.

French postcard by PSG, no. 33, offered by Corvisart. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1067, offered by Corvisart, Epinal. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by PSG, no. 70, offered by Corvisart. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German and Italian B pictures
Pascale Petit played in such comedies as Faibles femmes/Three Murderesses (Michel Boisrond, 1959) with Alain Delon and Mylène Demongeot, and Une fille pour l'été/A girl for the Summer (Edouard Molinaro, 1960) opposite Micheline Presle. For a while the media compared her to Brigitte Bardot. In 1959 PP married poet and actor Giani Esposito and followed him to Italy. In the 1960s she was mainly seen in German and Italian B pictures, such as the Spaghetti Western Joe... cercati un posto per morire!/Find a Place to Die (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1968) with Jeffrey Hunter. In 1969 she divorced Esposito and married actor Ray Denton, her co-star of the spy thriller Corrida pour un espion/Code Name: Jaguar (Maurice Labro, 1965).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1239. Photo: Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. FK 29. Photo: Unifrance / Ufa.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1295.

Dutch postcard, ca. 1961.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 807. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 5543.

Delicious Dutch Gem
In the early 1970s Pascale Petit tried to make a comeback in France, as well in the cinema with Chronique d'un Couple.../Chronicle of a Couple (Roger Coggio, 1971) as in the music scene with Il ne reste que moi.../What's Left is Me (1973). The success was lukewarm and in the following decades she worked as a character actress in unremarkable international films and TV productions. Interesting were a small, delicious Dutch gem, A Strange Love Affair (Eric De Kuyper, Paul Verstraten, 1984), and two TV films by Brigitte Bardot'sSvengali - Roger Vadim, the mini-series La nouvelle tribu/The new tribe (1996), and Un coup de baguette magique/A magic wand (1997), both featuring Marie-Christine Barrault. Pascale Petit has a daughter, Douchka, from her marriage with Giani Esposito.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 64. Photo: Sam Lévin.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/44.

German postcard by Krüger, ca. 1961.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/134. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 341. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gérard Decaux / Ufa.

Scene from Les Tricheurs with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Pascale Petit.

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

Pretty Lisette Lanvin (1913-2004) had a nice career in the French cinema of the 1930s. She appeared in the debut of Marcel Carné and in two films by Sacha Guitry.

French postcard by Erpé, Paris, no. 61. Photo: Star.

Full of Surprises
Lisette Lanvin was born Elisabeth Etiennette Marie Caremil in Grasse, France in 1913. She was the daughter of Auguste Caremil, a cook, and Marie Ricorda. Less than two years later her father died in the war. With dreams of becoming an actress, Lanvin went to Paris. There she became a receptionist in a fashion house. In 1931, she landed a small role in the film operetta La Chauve-souris/Die Fledermaus/The Bat (Carl Lamac, 1931), based on the operetta by Johan Strauss jr. The film was co-produced with the German company Ondra-Lamac-Film created by director Lamas and his wife actress Anny Ondra. Ondra played the lead alongside Iván Petrovich. Her next film was Rouletabille aviateur/Rouletabille Aviator (1932). Caroline Hanotte at CinéArtistes: “Director was the Hungarian István Székely, better known under his Anglo-Saxon name Steve Sekely. He shot the film in his homeland where Roland Toutain, aka journalist Rouletabille spends his holidays. There he meets Lisette, daughter of Police Commissioner Bathory. The couple soon goes in search of gold bars stolen by gangsters. Far from being a masterpiece, the film is full of surprises. One can see the planes and Budapest in the thirties. The energy and bright smiles of the young heroes do the rest.” In 1932, Lanvin made five more films, including the thriller Le Chien jaune/The Yellow Dog (Jean Tarride, 1932) with Abel Tarride as Commissioner Maigret, Mon curé chez les riches/My pastor among the rich (Donatien, 1932) with Pauline Carton, and Je vous aimerai toujours/I Will Love You Always (Mario Camerini, Henri Decoin, 1932), again a leading role.

French postcard, no. 662. Photo: Raymond Voinquel.

French postcard by Editions P.O., Paris, no. 83. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 17. Photo: Studio Piaz.

The Love Of Her Life
In the following years, Lisette Lanvin pursued a successful career with many comedies. Notable was Nitchevo (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1935), the name of a smuggling ship on which two naval officers (Harry Baur and Georges Rigaud) fall in love with the same woman. Then she played the daughter of the unsavoury Françoise Rosay in Jenny (Marcel Carné, 1936), who competes with her mother for the love of gangster Albert Prejean. By now, Lanvin had made a name for herself and Sacha Guitry gave her parts in Perles de la couronne/Pearls of the Crown (1937) and Remontons les Champs-Élysées/Go back to the Champs Elysées (1938). Lanvin also appeared in unpretentious comedies like Les Rois du sport/Kings of Sport (Pierre Colombier, 1937) alongside Raimu, Fernandel and Jules Berry, and she played the wife of Charles Boyer in Orage/Storm (Marc Allégret, 1938). In 1939, she played only in one film, La Brigade sauvage/Savage Brigade (Jean Dréville, Marcel L’Herbier, 1939). She played the daughter of Charles Vanel and Véra Korène in the Parisian milieu of Russian emigrants. In real life she became that year Mrs Guy Mortier. Her husband, a lieutenant with no connection to the film business, then mobilized. Guy Mortier would be the love of her life. During the war, Lanvin completely disappeared from the film scene. After the war she returned to make two more films. Her thirtieth and last feature was La Route inconnue/The Unknown Road (Léon Poirier, 1948) about life among the Tuareg of Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), the future Catholic martyr and saint, played by Robert Darène. At 35, Lisette Lanvin decided to finish her career. In 2004, she died in Suresnes, France. She was 90.

French postcard, Paris, no. 85. Photo: Ufa.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1080. Photo: Raymond Voinquel.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 175. Photo: Star.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (CinéArtistes) (French), Philippe (CinéMémorial) (French), Films de France, AllMovie, Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

German character actor Rudolf Platte (1904-1984) played both cheerfully talkative and reserved and shy, but loving people in more than 200 films. After his death, the media hailed him as Berlin’s ‘last true folk actor’.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin. Photo: Rolf Lantin / Constantin-Film.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3555/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.

Servants, Postmen and Small-time Crooks
Rudolf Antonius Heinrich Platte was born in Hörde in northern Germany in 1904. He was the son of the merchant Josef Platte and his wife Karoline. When he was three years old, his family moved to Hildesheim. Before his graduation, the 16-years old left school and took acting classes. Despite his young age, he made his stage debut in 1925 as Shylock in Der Kaufmann von Venedig (The Merchant of Venice) by William Shakespeare at the Freilichtbühne Düsseldorf. He gained more experience during engagements in Bad Harzburg, Hildesheim, Hagen, Wuppertal and at the Residenz Theater Hannover. He spent some time at the Lobe-Theater in Breslau (now Wroclaw), where he also directed several productions himself. In 1927 he came to Berlin, where he set up the cabaret 'Die Katakombe' (the catacomb) together with the political satirist, writer, and actor Werner Finck and the actor and director Hans Deppe. Die Katakombe was banned by the Nazis in 1935. His film debut was the youth drama Revolte im Erziehungshaus/Revolt in the Borstal (Georg Asagaroff, 1929) with Carl Balhaus. It was the start of a cinema career with more than 200 films. He often played roles of servants, postmen and small-time crooks: ordinary, reserved and shy, but loving people. German Wikipedia describes his character as ‘Mann von der Strasse’ (man of the street).

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag. Photo: CCC / Gloria.

Rattling, Clumsy, Or Gloomy And Buffoonish
In the 1930s, Rudolf Platte also appeared in music revues in Berlin. His breakthrough was his performance in the revue Ein Kuß reist um die Welt (A kiss travels around the world) with Hilde Seipp and Aribert Mog. He played minor parts in a range of prestigious films, including F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932), the cross dressing comedy Viktor und Viktoria/Viktor and Viktoria (Reinhold Schünzel, 1933) featuring Renate Müller, and the Science-fiction film Gold (Karl Hartl, 1934) starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. He also appeared in one of the first Nazi propaganda films, Hitlerjunge Quex/Hitler Youth Quex (Hans Steinhoff, 1933). He was given the title role in Schützenkönig wird der Felix/Bashful Felix (Carl Boese, 1934). Another leading part was his final film role during the Nazi period, the criminologist Bruch in Der Meisterdetektiv/The Master Detective (Ernst Marischka, 1943). Between 1940 and 1944 he was director of the Theater in der Behrenstrasse, and from 1945 to 1947, he headed the Theater an Schiffbauerdamm. As an actor he could play both tragic and comic characters. During the 1950s he showed up in many entertainment films. These include the comedy Pension Schoeller (Georg Jacoby, 1952) starring Camilla Spira, the operetta Die Blume von Hawaii/Flower of Hawaii (Géza von Cziffra, 1953) with Maria Litto, and the comedy Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel/Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel (Ulrich Erfurth and Alexander Paal, 1954) starring Eva Kerbler and Charles Chaplin Jr. Filmportal.de: “Platte rarely starred in serious character roles like, for instance, in the role of the Czech refugee in Rolf Thiele’s film Mamitschka (1955) or in the role of 'Herr Wenzel' in Alfred Weidenmann’s film version of Die Buddenbrooks (The Buddenbrooks, 1959). Instead, Platte mainly played rattling, clumsy, or gloomy and buffoonish domestics, vagabonds, or petty crooks in entertainment films like Der Haustyrann (1959). Although these roles were well received by the audience, they did rarely meet his acting talents.”

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 37/332, 1957. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Real-Film. Publicity still for Die tolle Lola/The great Lola (Hans Deppe, 1954).

Hippie Comedy
In 1964, Rudolf Platte co-starred with Götz George and Hans Nielsen in the war film Herrenpartie/Destination Death (Wolfgang Staudte, 1964) as a book dealer with a Nazi past. It was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival. A curiosity was his leading part in the Dutch-German ‘hippie' comedy Professor Columbus (Rainer Erler, 1968) with Jeroen Krabbé. He rejoined with director Wolfgang Staudte for Die Herren mit der weißen Weste/Gentlemen in White Vests (1970) starring Martin Held. From the 1970s on, he often appeared on TV, both in popular Krimi shows like Der Kommisar/The Commissioner (1972-1975) and Derrick (1975-1977) as in demanding literary adaptations. On stage, Platte became one of Berlin’s most popular folk actors with the play Das Fenster zum Flur (Window to the corridor) by Curt Flatow and Horst Pillau. 278 times, he played his role as a gradually going blind streetcar driver at the Hebbel Theater. In 1982 he played his last film role in Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982). He played a melancholy Jewish pensioner who commits suicide alongside his wife (Johanna Hofer).Rudolf Platte married four times. His first wife was Vally Hager. Then he was briefly married to actress Georgia Lind. From 1942 till 1953, actress Marina Ried was his third wife. Then he remarried Georgia Lind. Thomas Staedeli at Cyranos: “After the death of Georgia Lind he lost his life courage and died only some days after his wife's death. The newspapers hailed him in 1984 as the ‘last true folk actor’. The childless Plattes bequeathed their combined assets of about two million Mark to the Hermann Gmeiner Fund to promote the SOS Children's Villages.

Sinalco Spot wit Platte. Source: SinalcoDeutschland (YouTube).

Trailer Das Fenster zum Flur Erik Ode, 1960) with Inge Meysel. Source: See Arr (YouTube).

Trailer Ihr schönster Tag (Paul Verhoeven, 1962. Source: See Arr (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Stephanie d’Heil (Steffi-line) (German), The Concise Cinegraph / Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade (1955) is internationally best known for his sensual and ambiguous roles in the cult films 37°2 le matin/Betty Blue (1986) and Nikita/La Femme Nikita (1990).

French postcard by Humour a la Carte, Paris, no. ST-164. Photo: J. Casano / Stills.

Revelation
Jean-Hugues Anglade was born in Thouars, France in 1955. His father was a veterinary and his mother a social worker. He studied five years at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris. After some TV performances, he made his film debut with a supporting part in the crime film L'indiscrétion/The indiscretion (Pierre Lary, 1982) starring Jean Rochefort. He was a revelation as a young man discovering his homosexuality in l'Homme blessé/The Wounded Man (Patrice Chéreau, 1983), written by Chéreau and Hervé Guibert. James Travers at Films de France: “The film stars Jean-Hugues Anglade in what remains his most courageous and striking screen role, playing the taciturn mixed-up adolescent Henri with so much conviction that it is hard to believe he is enacting a fictional piece of drama. Anglade pours everything he has into this performance and the film’s impact rests mainly on his sympathetic portrayal of Henri as a vulnerable victim of his own tragic humanity.“ The dark and quite raw film won the César Award for Best Writing and was also entered into the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Anglade played a supporting part in La diagonale du fou/Dangerous Moves (Richard Dembo, 1984), starring Michel Piccoli. The film about two very different men competing in the final match of the World Chess Championship won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Prix Louis Delluc, and the César Award for Best Debut. Anglade then had a part as a roller skating bag snatcher in Luc Besson’s Subway (1985) starring Isabelle Adjani and Christophe Lambert. The film is now regarded as part of the Cinema du look movement and was the third most popular French film in France in 1986. Anglade’s definitive breakthrough came with 37°2 le matin/Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986). Betty (Béatrice Dalle in her debut role) and Zorg (Anglade) are passionate lovers who live in a shack on the beach. Betty's free-spirited nature and devotion to handyman Zorg develop into alarming obsession, aggression and destructiveness, and the film alternates between comedy and tragedy. Betty Blue received both a BAFTA and Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1986. Four years later Anglade played Anne Parillaud’s boyfriend in another international hit, Nikita/La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990). This action thriller centres around a punkish, psychotic, and drug-ridden girl who is recruited to work as an assassin for the French government. Brendon Hanley at AllMovie: “writer/director Luc Besson's rhythmic, ultra-stylish, and gleefully ridiculous 1990 hit movie. A mixture of Pygmalion, Diva, and one of John Woo's choreographed action pictures, the film was one of a subgenre of action pictures to emerge in the 1990s, characterized by tongue-in-cheek stylistics and a hip, film noir-ish sensibility.”

French postcard by Ebulittions, no. 16. Photo: publicity still for 37°2 le matin/Betty Blue (1986) with Béatrice Dalle.

Vintage postcard.

Remarkable Turn
Jean-Hugues Anglade reunited with Patrice Chéreau for the lavish historical epic La Reine Margot/Queen Margot (1994), based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. The film starring Isabelle Adjani was an international box office success, and won the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, as well as five César Awards in 1995. For his part as the doomed King Charles IX, Anglade was awarded the César for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He co-starred with Eric Stoltz and Julie Delpy in Killing Zoe (Roger Avary, 1994) about a doomed bank heist. Despite being set in Paris, the film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles. Killing Zoe was at the time a box-office disaster but is now regarded as a cult film. In the following years Anglade made films in both Europe and the US, including Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud/Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (Claude Sautet, 1995) with Michel Serrault and Emmanuelle Béart, the action film Maximum Risk (Ringo Lam, 1996), starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Natasha Henstridge, and the Italian-French comedy Le affinità elettive/The Elective Affinities (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 1996) with Isabelle Huppert. Anglade wrote and directed himself the film Tonka (1996), with his partner Pamela Soo in the lead. The film was not a success. In the following decade his films were less prominent. Beineix’ Franco-German comedy-thriller Mortel Transfert (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 2001) was an artistic disappointment and a major commercial failure. He had supporting parts in the Italian drama Il più bel giorno della mia vita/The Best Day of My Life (Cristina Comencini, 2002) with Virna Lisi, the Hollywood thriller Taking Lives (D. J. Caruso, 2004) starring Angelina Jolie, and the war drama Shake Hands with the Devil (Roger Spottiswoode, 2007). Then he came back with leading roles in a series of interesting films. He played the lead in the drama Il prossimo tuo/Thy Neighbour (Anne Riitta Ciccone, 2008). In another good drama, Villa Amalia (Benoît Jacquot, 2009) he co-starred again with Isabelle Huppert. In Persécution (Patrice Chéreau, 2009) he played a madman who spies on and haunts Romain Duris. For his role, Anglade won the César Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also made a remarkable turn on French television in an instalment of Collection Fred Vargas titled Sous les vents de Neptune (2009). Recently, he appeared in the comedy Amitiés sincères/Kind regards (Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, 2012) with Gérard Lanvin, and the crime film L'autre vie de Richard Kemp/Back in Crime (Germinal Alvarez, 2013). Jean-Hugues Anglade has two sons, Pierre-Louis and Emile, with ex-companion Mali Lecomte.

Trailer 37°2 le matin/Betty Blue (Director's Cut)(1986/2009). Source: Watchculturetainment (YouTube).

French trailer Nikita/La Femme Nikita (1990). Source: Putois blogueur (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Brendon Hanley (AllMovie), Yuri German (AllMovie), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Victor Boucher (1877–1942) was a French stage and screen actor, who was popular as a comedian of the early French sound ccinema.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 22. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

French postcard for Campari. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: "Un homme averti qui boit du Campari en vaut trois!!!" (A man forewarned who drinks Campari equals three).

Talent as a Comedian
Victor Louis Armand Boucher was born 24 August 1877 in Rouen in a house in the Rue Saint-Étienne-des-Tonneliers. His parents ran a café-restaurant at Bihorel. After attending school at Rouen, he debuted on stage at the Cercle de jeunesse. After working as a bookkeeper in Rouen and doing his military service, he moved to Paris. Probably his first part he got was in the play Thermidor at the Comédie Française in 1891. He married Mariotta Claire at Neufchâtel-en-Bray in 1902. In 1905 he was lucky to replace an ill actor at the Théâtre des Mathurins with the play Nono and soon he became known for his talent as a comedian, performing from 1905 till 1907 at the Theatre de Vaudeville, from 1907 till 1908 at the Theatre de la Renaissance and so on.

Mona Goya. French postcard for Campari. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: "J'ai deux amours Paris et Campari." (I have two loves, Paris and Campari).

Prolific Film Actor
In 1913 Victor Boucher also started to act in film. he appeared first in La Petite Chocolatière (1913) by André Liabel, followed by L'Idée de Françoise by Emile Chautard. However, in the 1920s he was foremost a stage actor, first mostly at the Théâtre du Gymnase, later at the Théâtre de la Michodière. In 1927 Boucher became the manager of Théâtre de la Michodière, which became his fixed theatre between the late 1920s and 1940. Boucher also became chair of the Association des artistes dramatiques. When sound film arrived in France, Boucher became a prolific film actor there as well. Between 1930 and 1941, he mostly played in light comedies that are now all forgotten. They didn't make it into he canon of French film history, such as Robert Siodmak's comedy Le sexe faible (1933). Here Boucher is a stylish butler who is involved in the intrigues of his patrons. He acted oppositie Mona Goya in La Banque Némo (Marguerite Viel, 1934). In the late 1930s Boucher was often paired with Elvire Popesco. Victor Boucher died in 1942 in Ville-d'Avray, France.

Elvire Popesco. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 64.

Sources: Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.

Gisèle Pascal (1921-2007) was an attractive French film actress and a lover of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.

French postcard by O.P., Paris, no. 34. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Beautiful Ingénue
Gisèle (sometimes Giselle) Pascal was born Gisèle Marie Madeleine Tallone in Cannes, France in 1921. She studied shorthand and typing and intended to become a secretary, but she also attended dance classes. She was spotted by the film director Marc Allégret, who recommended her to actor-director Claude Dauphin, with whom she made her stage début. Allégret also cast her in L'Arlésienne/The Girl from Arles (Marc Allégret, 1942), based on Alphonse Daudet's play of the same name. Her co-stars were the popular comedian Raimu and the young Louis Jourdan. Raimu reportedly loved the Provençal accent of the beautiful ingénue. She also appeared in Allégret’s La belle aventure/Twilight (Marc Allégret, 1942) starring Claude Dauphin and Micheline Presle. She also appeared with María Denis and Louis Jourdan in La vie de bohème/ Bohemian life (Marcel L’Herbier, 1945). After the war, she played lead parts in such melodramas as Tombé du ciel/Dropped From Heaven (Emil E. Reinert, 1946) and Dernier refuge/Last Refuge (Alex Joffé, 1947). The latter, based on Le Locataire (The Lodger) by Georges Simenon, wasn't successful. She also starred in such musical comedies as Mademoiselle s'amuse/Mademoiselle has Fun (Jean Boyer, 1948) and La Petite chocolatière/The Chocolate Girl (André Berthomieu, 1950), with Claude Dauphin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 146, La Garenne Colombes, offered by Les Carbones Korés Carboplane, no. 55. Photo: Roger Carlet.

French postcard by O.P., Paris, no. 241. Photo: Studio Harcourt, Paris.

A Royal Affair
For ten years, Gisèle Pascal had a royal affair with Prince Rainier. Pierre Perrone in The Independent: “Pascal had caught the eye of Rainier when he was a student at Montpellier University during the Second World War and she was treading the boards in boulevard plays. For a time, the couple openly shared a villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera when she wasn't away in Paris filming. There was even talk of marriage but, when Rainier ascended to the throne of the tiny principality in 1949 after the death of his father, Prince Louis II, his relationship with Pascal came under increasing pressure and eventually floundered.” Meddlesome Princess Antoinette, Rainier's older sister, seeking to obtain the throne of Monaco for her own son, spread malicious rumours that Pascal was incapable of bearing children. A contemplated marriage was called off when a medical examination claimed that she was infertile. Perrone: “Snobbery certainly also played a part in Rainier's wavering and eventual decision, since Pascal came from humble Italian stock and had worked in her parents' grocery as a child.” After her break-up with Rainier, she made one of her best films, Horizons sans fin/Endless Horizons (Jean Dreville, 1953) with Jean Chevrier. She portrayed the French pilot Hélène Boucher, who held seven world records and died in a plane crash in 1934. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Though the world of aviation was still essentially an all-male one (despite England's Amy Johnson and America's Amelia Earhart), Boucher perseveres, eventually breaking all existing male and female speed and height records. A bit slow on the uptake in the dramatic scenes, the film soars (no pun intended) during the aerial sequences. Horizons san Fin was the winner of the Catholic Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.” Pascal took flying lessons to add credibility to her performance as Boucher. While promoting Horizons sans fin in Cannes, she met Hollywood star Gary Cooper. The couple became the talk of the festival but their affair ended when the actor's wife and daughter joined him in Paris a few weeks later.

French postcard by P.I., Paris, no. 165, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Ch. Vandamme, Paris.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 797. Photo: Studio Harcourt, Paris.

Social Realism
In 1954, Gisèle Pascal winked to her affair with the Prince with her appearances in the historical drama Si Versailles m'était conté/Royal Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1954) which portrayed the personalities who lived in the Royal Palace, the Chateau of Versailles. She also appeared in the sequel, Si Paris nous était conté/If Paris Were Told to Us (Sacha Guitry, 1956). In 1955, she married actor Raymond Pellegrin. They had worked together on the ‘social realism’ dramas Le Feu dans la peau/Fire Under the Skin (Marcel Blistène, 1953) and Marchandes d'illusions/Women Without Shame (Raoul André, 1954) . Previously she had had a crush on Pellegrin when they had both appeared in the same play, but he was married to actress Dora Doll. However, their friendship blossomed into a relationship, and after his divorce they married. In 1962, they would have a daughter, actress Pascale Pellegrin. She returned to the screen in Le Masque de fer/The Iron Mask (Henri Decoin, 1962) inspired by the novels by Alexandre Dumas. Jean Marais played the aging d’Artagnan on his mission to rescue the imprisoned brother of Louis XIV. After taking a break from radio, theatre and film work in the 1970s, she played character parts in En haut des marches/At the Top of the Stairs (Paul Vecchiali, 1983) starring Danielle Darrieux, the comedy Les Compères/The fellows (Francis Veber, 1983) featuring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu and remade in the US as Fathers' Day (1997), the drama La Femme publique/The Public Woman (Andrzej Zulawski, 1983), and Juillet en septembre/July in September (Sébastien Japrisot, 1988). She also acted in several television series in France and Germany. Gisèle Pascal died in 2007 in Nîmes, France. She was 85.

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by P.I., Paris, no. 461. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Sources: Pierre Perrone (The Independent), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), CinéMémorial (French), AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

In the 1930s, Paul Hubschmid (1917-2002) was the first Swiss film star. Then he became a popular leading man in the cinema of Nazi-Germany. During the late 1940s and early 1950s he worked in Hollywood as Paul Christian. Later on he was dubbed 'the most beautiful man in post-war German cinema', and he was still playing romantic leads in the early 1960s.

German postcard by ISV, no. M 18. Photo: Gabriele / Real / Europa-Film.

Postcard by Cox, no. 4.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 94. Photo: Ringpress.

Virile Good Looks
Paul Hugo Hubschmid was born in Schönenwerd in Switzerland in 1917. He was the son of an accountant. In 1937 he graduated from the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna and made his stage debut at the local Deutschen Volkstheater (German People's Theatre). The following year he played his first film role in the Swiss production Füsilier Wipf/Infanterist Wipf (Hermann Haller, Leopold Lindtberg, 1938). This film made him famous overnight, and he became very popular in both Switzerland and Germany. Another Swiss production, Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe/The Abused Love Letters (Leopold Lindtberg, 1940) followed, but later he worked mainly in Nazi-Germany. Till the end of the war he appeared in such films as Meine Freundin Josefine/My Friend Josephine (Hans H. Zerlett, 1942), Liebesbriefe/Love Letters (Hans H. Zerlett, 1944), and Der gebieterische Ruf/The Commanding Call (Gustav Ucicky, 1944). After the war Hubschmid became a popular leading man in films like Gottes Engel sind überall/Angels of God Are Everywhere (Hans Thimig, 1948) and Geheimnisvolle Tiefe/The Mysterious Deep (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1949). Universal brought him to Hollywood despite his film work in the Nazi period. Renamed as Paul Christian he played the dashing hero of the adventure movies Bagdad (Charles Lamont, 1949) with Maureen O'Hara and Vincent Price, and Il ladro di Venezia/The Thief of Venice (John Brahm, 1950) next to Maria Montez. His virile good looks compensated for a stiff acting style, according to American critics. He also starred in the classic monster movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953). In his obituary about Hubschmid in the The Independent, Tom Vallance wrote: "Based on Ray Bradbury's haunting short story The Foghorn, the film spawned so many cheap imitations that it is surprising now to realise that it was the first film to deal with a prehistoric monster unearthed by an atomic explosion and going on a rampage through a major city. Christian was effective enough as the scientist who first realises the truth but is not believed, but it was Eugène Lourié's atmospheric direction and in particular the splendid special effects of Ray Harryhausen that turned the $250,000 film into a hit that grossed $5m."

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 110, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3442/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3752/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3576/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Beautiful Man, What Now?
In 1953 Paul Hubschmid returned to Germany to play leads in Maske in Blau/Mask in Blue (Georg Jacoby, 1953) with Marika Rökk, Musik bei Nacht/Music by Night (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953) with Curd Jürgens, Salzburger Geschichten/Chronicles of Salzburg (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957) with Marianne Koch, and Die Zürcher Verlobung/The Zurich Engagement (Helmut Käutner, 1957) with Liselotte Pulver. He usually appeared as a handsome charmer or a swashbuckling action hero. Very popular was the romantic comedy Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958) starring Romy Schneider. Successful were also the remakes of the exotic adventure epic Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959) and its sequel Das Indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (1959), both directed by Fritz Lang. Later Paul Hubschmid won praise as a fine character player in such international productions as the spy thriller Funeral in Berlin (Guy Hamilton, 1966) as a former black-market crony of spy Harry Palmer (Michael Caine), and A Taste of Excitement (Don Sharp, 1969). He appeared more than 2000 times on the German and Austrian stages as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked mainly for TV. The Swiss production Klassäzämekunft (Walter Deuber, Peter Stierlin, 1988) brought together many popular Swiss stars and was a kind of homage to former heydays. His last film was the comedy Linda (Ottokar Runze, 1992). He used to say that he wondered if his looks had not been detrimental to his acting career, and he entitled his 1994 autobiography Schöner Mann, was nun? (Beautiful Man, What Now?). From 1942 till her death in 1963 he was married with actress Ursula von Teubern. In 1967 he married film actress Eva Renzi. Their marriage was dissolved in 1980. In 1985 he married Irene Schiesser. When Paul Hubschmid died in 2001 in Berlin at the age of 84, he had made over 120 films.

Austrian postcard by Verlag Hubmann (HDH Verlag), Wien, no. 166. Photo: Afex. Publicity still for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953).

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, no. 2616. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / Gloria. Publicity still for Der Tiger von Eschnapur/The Tiger of Eschnapur (Fritz Lang, 1959).

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, no. I 465. Photo: Czerwonski / Herzog-Film.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. P 83/504, 1957. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Real-Film / Michaelis.

Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), and Wikipedia and IMDb.

Pouty-lipped, blonde Annette Vadim (1936-2005) was a Danish-born starlet and socialite. She was the second wife of Svengali-like French film director Roger Vadim, who tried unsuccessfully to turn her into another Brigitte Bardot. Yet, her brief film career included interesting films like Vadim's Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959) and Et mourir de plaisir (1960), and Roberto Rossellini’s Anima near (1962).

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 138. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by M.D., Paris, no. 14. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 142. Sent by mail in 1961. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Laroche and Chanel
Annette Vadim was born as Annette Susanne Strøyberg in 1936 on Funen (Fyn Island), Denmark, also the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. She grew up under the Nazi occupation. Her father was a doctor, and after his death she and her sister moved to Copenhagen. As a schoolgirl, she was a fine athlete and a champion water skier, but it was her full-lipped beauty which attracted the attention of a passing photographer in the street. Until then, she had harboured hopes of medical school, but the photos launched her on a career as a model. In her late teens she went to Paris to become a mannequin for Guy Laroche, who had just opened his couture house, and she later worked for Chanel, amongst others. At the age of 21, she met director Roger Vadim during the production of Les bijoutiers du clair de lune/The Night Heaven Fell (Roger Vadim, 1958) who was then at the height of his notoriety following the release of Et Dieu... créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956) starring Brigitte Bardot. (Some sources like The Guardian claim they met during the production of Et Dieu... créa la femme). Vadim fell in love with the sexy young blonde from Denmark. Les bijoutiers du clair de lune starred Bardot, who Vadim divorced in December 1957. One day later his daughter with Stroyberg, Nadine, was born. Vadim and Stroyberg married in June 1958.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 15 L. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 828. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 68. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Not The New BB
According to the obituary writer at the The Times“of the five wives of Roger Vadim, Annette Stroyberg had perhaps to labour hardest to escape his shadow. Although her ingénue’s sensuality and blonde mane led the press to hail her as the ‘new BB’ when she replaced Brigitte Bardot in the director’s affections in the late 1950s, she was at that time neither a natural creature of the limelight like her predecessor, nor a full-blown star like Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve, nor an heiress like Catherine Schneider.” She made two films with her husband. Les liaisons dangereuses/Dangerous Love Affairs (1959, Roger Vadim) was an ironic updated version of Choderlos de Laclos'1782 novel of the same name. She played Marianne de Tourvel, the virtuous prey of the evil Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philipe. According to Gary Brumburgh at IMDb Annette looked "stunning of course" in her debut, but she “found herself quite outclassed by her cast, hardly ready for such a demanding role.” More successful was her work in the vampire film Et mourir de plaisir/Blood and Roses (1960), based on the classic Sheridan Le Fanu tale Carmilla, cast as the society girl-cum-lesbian blood-sucking seductress. In her 2007 review of the film at Cinebeats, Kimberly Lindbergs writes: “I personally find Blood and Roses to be one of the most influential and important horror films ever made, and possibly Roger Vadim’s best movie. (…) Vadim infused Blood and Roses with a high-level of eroticism that had rarely, if ever, been present in previous horror films made earlier and his personal retelling of Le Fanu’s Carmilla would go on to spawn a legion of similar films.” About Annette Vadim, Lindbergs comments: “She brings a vulnerability and sadness to her role of Carmilla that is hard to forget. She also shares a fascinating chemistry with her lovely co-star Elsa Martinelli.”

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 111. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1026. Photo: Sam Lévin.

French postcard by E.D.U.G., Paris, no. 387. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sorbonne
By the time of the release of Et mourir de plaisir, the marriage of Annette and Roger Vadim was already over and they divorced in 1960. He moved on to Catherine Deneuve, she initially to singer-actor Sacha Distel. Subsequently she packed her bags and moved to Italy. As Annette Stroyberg, she made a handful of films under contract to Dino de Laurentiis, most notably the comedy Il carabiniere a cavallo/The Mounted Police (Carlo Lizzani, 1961) with Nino Manfredi, and Anima near/Black Soul (Roberto Rossellini, 1962). In the latter starred Vittorio Gassman as the black soul of the title, a wealthy bourgeois married to Stroyberg. However, when his past catches up with him - he had survived the war by seducing an SS officer - she walks out in disgust. Privately she was also linked for a couple of years to Gassman and she also had affairs with Alain Delon, Omar Sharif, and Warren Beatty. By the mid-1960‘s, however, she had had more than enough of the film world and its values. Her last film was Lo scippo/The Motorcycle Theft (Nando Cicero, 1965) with Gabriele Ferzetti and Margaret Lee. She married a French Moroccan, and enrolled at the Sorbonne university. She divided her time between Paris and North Africa. When this marriage also came to an end, she moved to America, where she later married a Greek shipping magnate, Gregory Callimanopulos. According to The Times: “after the break-up of her third marriage, Stroyberg returned to Europe in the early 1990‘s, living in Paris and Copenhagen, where she was part of the circle around Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik. She was also close to Bardot, whom she visited often in the South of France, a certain difference in their political outlook notwithstanding.” All Vadim’s wives attended his funeral in 2000. Three years later Annette Stroyberg published a memoir which sold well in Denmark and France. At age 69, she died of cancer in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2005. Her three children (one from each of her marriages) survived her. Her daughter by Vadim, Nathalie Vadim, became an assistant director of films and worked on her father's remake of And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1988) starring Rebecca De Mornay.

Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Barcelona, no. 106, 1964. Photo: Sirman Press.

American trailer of Et mourir de plaisir/Blood and Roses (1960). Source: TrailerFood (YouTube).

Scene from Et mourir de plaisir/Blood and Roses (1960). Source: Guy Conrad (YouTube).

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Kimberly Lindbergs (Cinebeats), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), The Times, Wikipedia and IMDb.

The German silent film Der Trompetter von Säkkingen/The Trumpeter of Säkkingen (1918) was directed by Franz Porten and produced by Eiko Film. Star of the film was Paul Hartmann.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 535/5. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918).

Five Years of Separation
Der Trompetter von Säkkingen was based on a popular German opera of the same name by Viktor Nessler. In turn, this opera was based on an extremely popular and widely released romantic epic poem by Joseph Victor von Scheffel, published in 1854. Sometimes book and opera are also written as Der Trompeter von Säckingen (sic). The story is set in Heidelberg and Säckingen during the 17th century, after the Thirty Years War. Law student, later trumpeter Werner Kirchhof (in the film played by Paul Hartmann) falls in love with Margareta, a baron's daughter (Leonore Oppermann), but her mother wants to marry her to the cowardly Damian. Werner proves to be a hero, and a compassionate pope makes him marquis of Camposanto. Then, after five years of separation, nothing prevents a happy ending.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 534/5. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918).

International Success
Rudolf Bunge wrote the libretto for the opera by Viktor Nessler. Der Trompetter von Säkkingen was first performed under Arthur Nikisch at the Carola Theater (or Stadttheater) in Leipzig, on 4 May 1884. It was Nessler's greatest success, albeit in part because of the popularity of Joseph Victor von Scheffel's work. It was subsequently given at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 23 November 1887, and at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 8 July 1892. A new chapter of the Trumpeter's Story began in 1918 when director Franz Porten made a silent film version for the Eiko studio. Porten wrote the story with Julius Urgiss and his daughter Rosa Porten. His other daughter, the film diva Henny Porten is said to have played a small part in the film (IMDb and Filmportal.de both write that this is unconfirmed). Franz Porten moved from Berlin to Säckingen for the outdoor scenes, for which he used some 200 locals as extras. The images on the picture postcards that were produced for the film are very atmospheric.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Series Film-Sterne, no. 534/3. Photo: Eiko-Film. Publicity still for Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (Franz Porten, 1918).

Sources: Official Der Trompeter von Säckingen site, Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Austrian-born Swiss actor Maximilian Schell (1930) won an Oscar for his role as a defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Many international films and awards would follow. Schell is also a respected writer, director and producer of several films, including intimate portraits of Marlene Dietrich and of his sister Maria Schell.

Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 7.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden-Westf., no. 2445. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC / Constantin. Publicity still for Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein/The Last Ones Shall Be First (Rolf Hansen, 1957).

An Accidental Hollywood Career
Maximilian Schell was born in Vienna, Austria in 1930. He was the son of Margarethe Schell née Noe von Nordberg, an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and owner of a pharmacy. Schell's late elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an actress; as are their two other siblings, Carl and Immy (Immaculata) Schell. When Austria became part of Nazi-Germany after the ‘anschluss’ of 1938, the Schell family moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Maximilian's interest in acting began at early age. When 11, he appeared in a professional production of William Tell and in the same year he wrote a play which was produced by his school. Later he served in the Swiss Army, achieving the rank of corporal. In 1952, he began acting at the Basel Theatre. He played a small role as a desperate deserter in the war film Kinder, Mütter und ein General/Children, Mother, and the General (László Benedek, 1955) starring Hilde Krahl. That year he also played parts in Der 20. Juli/The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (Falk Harnack, 1955), Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Ulrich Erfurth, 1955) and Ein Mädchen aus Flandern/The Girl from Flanders (Helmut Käutner, 1956) with Nicole Berger. His breakthrough in the cinema was the German crime film Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein/The Last Ones Shall Be First (Rolf Hansen, 1957). The film, which starred O.E. Hasse and Ulla Jacobsson, was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. Schell made his Hollywood debut as a Nazi officer in the World War II film The Young Lions (Edward Dmytryk, 1958) starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. According to Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb“quite by accident, as the producers had wanted to hire his sister Maria Schell, but lines of communication got crossed, and he was the one hired.” He stayed in America and in 1959, he appeared as Hans Rolfe, an enigmatic defense attorney, in a live Playhouse 90 television production of Judgment at Nuremberg (George Roy Hill, 1959). In 1961, Schell reprised the role for the big screen remake Judgement at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961) with an all star cast including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, and Marlene Dietrich. As the first German speaking actor after World War II, Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won a Golden Globe and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for the role. In the following years, Schell starred in international productions like the Italian-French drama I sequestrati di Altona/The Condemned of Altona (Vittorio De Sica, 1962) opposite Sophia Loren, the heist film Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964) with Melina Mercouri, the British drama Return from the Ashes (J. Lee Thompson, 1965) with Ingrid Thulin, and the British espionage–thriller The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966) based on John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead. In Hollywood, he was often top billed in Third Reich themed films, such as Counterpoint (Ralph Nelson, 1968), The Man in the Glass Booth (Arthur Hiller, 1975) – a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977), Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977) – for which he got another Oscar nomination, and A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977). However, he also played in various films with different subjects, including the historical disaster film Krakatoa, East of Java (Bernard L. Kowalski, 1969), the science fiction film The Black Hole (Gary Nelson, 1979), and the crime comedy The Freshman (Andrew Bergman, 1990) starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick.

German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf., no. 1868. Photo: Gabriele / Real / Europa. Publicity still for Ein Herz kehrt heim/A Heart Goes Home (Eugen York, 1956).

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 128. Photo: CCC / Constantin / Arthur Grimm. Publicity still for Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein/The Last Ones Shall Be First (Rolf Hansen, 1957).

German postcard by Friedr. W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Kolbri-Karte, no. 2005. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961).

Marlene and Maria
Maximilian Schell has also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films. In 1968, Schell produced and starred in the adaptation of Kafka's novel Das Schloss/The Castle. Two years later, Erste Liebe/First Love (1970) - written, directed, produced, and starred in by Schell - was hailed by the critics. His Der Fußgänger/The Pedestrian (1974), in which he also starred, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and won a Golden Globe. His documentary on Marlene Dietrich, Marlene (1984) was based on the audio tape recordings of his 17-hours-long interview session with Dietrich. Using original footage, documentary material and interview passages, he managed to present an intimate portrait of her, which won also several awards. 18 years later, he made a documentary about his late sister Maria Schell, Meine Schwester Maria/My Sister Maria (2002). Connor McMadden at AllMovie: "Using excerpts of her feature films along with home movie footage, Schell explores the high points his sister's career throughout the 1950s, as well as the personal problems that cast her into obscurity only a decade later. The film offers quite a few emotional peaks, especially when an elderly Maria Schell goes before her brother's camera to speak candidly about her life, and a suicide attempt which she refers to as her 'first death.'" In addition to his film career, Maximilian Schell has also been active as director, writer and actor in the European theatre. In 1958, he made his Broadway debut in Ira Levin’s Interlock. In 1965, he starred in John Osborne’s groundbreaking A Patriot for Me, first at London’s Royal Court Theatre and later on Broadway. He has twice played Hamlet on stage, originally under the direction of the legendary Gustaf Grundgens and later under his own direction. In 1972 he starred in Peter Hall's German language première of Harold Pinter's Old Times at the Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1977 he directed Tales from the Vienna Woods at the National Theatre in London. In later life he also began directing operatic productions, starting with Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. This passion was triggered when he was performing in the play Jedermann (Everyman) in Salzburg, Austria from 1978-1982, and he came into contact with several musical conductors including Leonard Bernstein, James Levine and Claudio Abbado. In 2006 he appeared in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues directed by Robert Altman at the Old Vic in London. He also often appeared on television, such as in the miniseries Peter the Great (Marvin J. Chomsky, Lawrence Schiller, 1986), with Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier. He was twice been nominated for an Emmy for his TV work, and in 1993, he won a Golden Globe for his part as Vladimir Lenin in the HBO miniseries Stalin (Ivan Passer, 1992). In 1990, he had refused to receive the Honorary German Film Award because he felt too young to be awarded with an award for lifetime achievement. For German television, he played in the television miniseries The Return of the Dancing Master (Urs Egger, 2004), which was based on Henning Mankell's crime novel. Through the decades he continued to star in international film productions, such as The Rose Garden (Fons Rademakers, 1986), Left Luggage (Jeroen Krabbé, 1998), Deep Impact (Mimi Leder, 1998), Vampires (John Carpenter, 1998), and the American comedy The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2008) with Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo. At IMDb, Jon C. Hopwood writes: “with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and Marcello Mastroianni, Schell is undoubtedly the most successful non-Anglophone foreign actor in the history of American cinema.” Maximilian Schell was married to actress Natalya Andreychenko (1985-2005). Their daughter is actress Nastassja Schell (born in 1989). He is also the godfather of actress Angelina Jolie. This year, Maximilian Schell can be seen in two new films, Les brigands (Pol Cruchten, Frank Hoffmann, 2013) opposite Tchéky Karyo, and An Artist's Emblem (Michael J. Narvaez, 2013) with Harry Dean Stanton.

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 241. Photo: Real-Film.

German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf.no. 2275. Photo: Real / Europa / Gabriele. Publicity still for Ein Herz kehrt heim/A Heart returns home (Eugen York, 1956).

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Connor McMadden (AllMovie), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia, and IMDb.