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Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was an Italian director, poet, and writer. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. He is best known for directing Il Vangelo secondo Matteo / The Gospel according to Matthew (1964), the Trilogy of Life - Il Decameron / The Decameron (1971), I Racconti di Canterbury / The Canterbury Tales (1972) and Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte / Arabian Nights (1974) - and the controversial Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò or the 120 days of Sodom (1975).

Pier Paolo Pasolini in Il Decameron (1971)

French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint -Dié, no. MC 12. Pier Paolo Pasolini in Il Decameron / The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971).

Swiss postcard by Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne / News Productions, Baulmes, no. 56409. Photo: John Philips. Caption: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rome, 1962.

Pier Paolo Pasolini and Orson Welles ayt the set of La Ricotta (1963)

Big programme card by Cineteca Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato, XXXVI edizione, Selezione Cinema Ritrovato Young, 30 June 2022. Pierr Paolo Pasolini and Orson Welles on the set of La Ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1963).La Ricotta was an episode of the anthology film Ep.di.Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963).

Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas (1969)

Italian postcard by Cineteca di Bologna. Photo: Mario Tursi. Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini during the shooting of Pasolini's Medea (1969).

American postcard by Fotofolio. Photo: Jerry Bauer, 1969.

Poetry in the old language of ‘Friulan’

Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in 1922 in Bologna. His parents were Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant of the Italian army, and his wife Susanna Colussi, an elementary school teacher. He had a younger brother, Guidalberto. During the first years of his life, the family moved several times because Pasolini's father was sent to different barracks as a soldier. Carlo became famous for saving Benito Mussolini's life.

Pasolini began writing poetry at the age of 7, inspired by the natural beauty of the small town of Casarsa. From age ten, he wrote poetry in the old language of ‘Friulan’, which was spoken by peasants and his mother, Susanna. In 1939, Pier Paolo went to study at the University of Bologna. He also frequented the local cinema club. Pasolini always showed his friends a virile and strong exterior, hiding his inner turmoil. He published at his own expense his first collection of poems in Friulan, ‘Poesia a Casarsa’, in 1941.

Two years later, during the Second World War, he was drafted into the Italian army, at that time allied with the Germans. A few days after Italy's capitulation, Pasolini's regiment was captured by two Germans in a tank, but he managed to escape. He fled to Casarsa where he remained for several years. After the war, he joined the Italian Communist Party in 1947, but he was expelled after a scandal. After studying in Bologna, he settled permanently in Rome with his mother in the early 1950s.

He was acquitted of two indecency charges in 1950 and 1952. His father, an officer in the Fascist army, had died by then. His younger brother had been killed as a partisan during the war. Mother and son initially struggled to make ends meet. They lived in an impoverished suburb of Rome, the subject of his controversial novella ‘Ragazzi di vita’ (1955), and later of the film Accattone (1961). Another examination of life in the slums was ‘Una vita violenta’ (1959), translated as ‘A Violent Life’. In addition to literary praise, he received criticism for the 'obscene nature' of his novellas.

Later, Pasolini also wrote about Semiotics in a paper called 'Il cinema di poesia' (1965). In it he says that cinema is "a non-conventional and non-symbolic language", that expresses reality through reality itself. In 1957, together with Sergio Citti, Pasolini collaborated on Fellini's film Le notti di Cabiria / Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957), writing dialogue for the Roman dialect sections. Federico Fellini also asked him to work on dialogue for some episodes of La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960). He also co-wrote La Lunga Notte del '43 /Long Night in '43 (Florestano Vancini, 1960) starring Gino Cervi and Belinda Lee. Pasolini made his debut as an actor in the crime drama Il Gobbo / The Hunchback of Rome (Carlo Lizzani, 1960) starring Gérard Blain.

Chinese postcard. Scene from Accattone (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961).

Chinese postcard. Ettore Garofolo in Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2823, 1967. Sent by mail in East Germany in 1974. Anna Magnani in Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962).

Enrique Irazoqui in Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)

French postcard by L'étoile graphique for the retrospective 'Pasolini 100 ans!', 2022. Photo: SND (GroupeM6). Enrique Irazoqui in Il vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964). Caption: "Pasolini is like a meteorite". Bertrand Bonello.

Ninetto Davoli and Totò in Uccellacci e uccellini (1966)

French postcard by L'étoile graphique for the retrospective 'Pasolini 100 ans!', 2022. Photo: SND (GroupeM6). Ninetto Davoli and Totò in Uccellacci e uccellini / The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966).

One of the few honest portrayals of Christ on screen

After making some strides in film in the late 1950s, Pier Paolo Pasolini debuted in 1961 with Accattone, starring Franco Citti. Its violent depiction of the life of a pimp in the slums of Rome caused a sensation. His second film was Mamma Roma (1962). Anna Magnani stars as an ex-prostitute who reunites with her son (Ettore Garofolo), but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.

Pasolini was arrested in 1962 when La Ricotta, his segment of the portmanteau film Ro.Go.Pa.G. (Jean-Luc Godard, Ugo Gregoretti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini, 1963) was considered blasphemous. In La Ricotta / Curd Cheese, Orson Welles plays a director who makes a lavish film about the life of Jesus Christ in a poor area. The central character is hoisted up on a cross for filming and dies there. Pasolini was given a suspended sentence.

Many expected that his next film, Il Vangelo secondo Matteo / The Gospel according to Matthew (1964), which presented the Biblical story in a realistic, stripped-down style, would cause a similar fuss. However, it was rapturously acclaimed as one of the few honest portrayals of Christ on screen and was praised even from within the Church. Jesus, a barefoot peasant, is played by a Spanish student, Enrique Irazoqui.

His next film was another surprise, the allegory Uccellacci e Uccellini / The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) with Totò and Ninetto Davoli, who was Pasolini’s lover at the time. In the following years, Pasolini alternated between distinctly personal films and adaptations of classic literary texts, such as Edipo re / Oedipus Rex (1967), with Silvana Mangano as Jocasta and Franco Citti as Oedipus, and Medea (1969) starring Maria Callas.

In his more personal films, like Teorema / Theorem (1968) with Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano and Massimo Girotti, and Porcile / Pigsty (1969) with Pierre Clémenti, he expressed his views on Marxism, atheism, fascism and homosexuality. His Trilogy of Life, based on medieval story collections, Il Decameron / The Decameron (1971) after Boccaccio, I Racconti di Canterbury / The Canterbury Tales (1972) after Geoffrey Chaucer, and Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte / Arabian Nights (1974) created confusion but was popular at the box office.

French postcard by L'étoile graphique for the retrospective 'Pasolini 100 ans!', 2022. Photo: SND (GroupeM6). Franco Citti in Edipo Re / Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967). Caption: Six astonishingly rich films to (re)discover.

French postcard by L'étoile graphique for the retrospective 'Pasolini 100 ans!', 2022. Photo: SND (GroupeM6). Maria Callas in Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970).

Dutch postcard. Photo: Contact Film. Publicity for Il Decameron / The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971).

Vintage postcard by Moviestar, no. F113. Publicity still for Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò or the 120 days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975).

Chinese postcard. Publicity still for Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò or the 120 days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975).

His final and most notorious film

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final and most notorious film was Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975). The film is a relentlessly grim fusion of Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy with the novel '120 Days of Sodom' by Marquis de Sade.

In Nazi-Fascist Northern Italy in 1943-44, four senior members of government, aided by henchmen and Nazi soldiers, kidnap a group of young men and women. They hold them for 120 days, subjecting them to all manner of torture, perversion, and degradation. The controversial and obscene film was banned in Italy and many other countries for several years.

On 2 November 1975, shortly after completing the film and before its release, Pasolini was found murdered on a beach in Ostia, near Rome. He was 53. The murder was gruesome, his heart had been burst, his face torn apart and he had been run over several times by a car. 17-year-old hustler Giuseppe Pelosi was arrested after being caught in Pasolini's car and confessing to the murder.

Although Pelosi was convicted, the circumstances of the murder were never sufficiently clarified. In 2005, Pelosi declared that Pasolini was killed by three men linked to political groups opposed to the director's films and politics. The police reopened the case in 2005 and 2009, but the court ruled in both cases that there were insufficient new facts to continue the investigation.

In 2014, American director Abel Ferrara made a biographical film about Pasolini starring Willem Dafoe. Giuseppe Pelosi died in 2017 in a hospital in Rome of lung cancer. Pier Paolo Pasolini is buried at the cemetery of Casarsa.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. DM21. Photo: Duane Michals. Caption: Pasolini with anonymous boy, 1969.

Pier Paolo Pasolini on the set of Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)

Italian postcard by Cineteca Bologna. Photo: Angelo Novi / Cineteca Bologna. Caption: Pier Paolo Pasolini on the set of Il Vangelo secondo Matteo / The Gospel according to Matthew (1964).

Cover of the East German leaflet 'Film für Sie' by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 44/67. Photo: Anna Magnani and Ettore Garofolo in Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962). Their voices were dubbed in East Germany by Gisela May and Rainer Gerlach.

French postcard. Photo: Carlotta Films. Studio Canal. Poster for the film Il Vangelo secondo Matteo / The Gospel According to Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964). Enrique Irazoqui played Jesus. Published on the occasion of the newly restored version of the film which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.

Spanish postcard by Editorial Filkasol. Japanese poster for Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968), with Silvana Mangano and Terence Stamp.

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron. Poster by Jouineau Bourduge. Ninetto Davoli in I racconti di Canterbury / The Canterbury Tales (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1972) based on Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. The film won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1972.

Italian postcard by Cineteca Bologna. Photo: Mario Tursi / Archivo Fotografico Cineteca di Bologna. Pier Paolo Pasolini in Il Decameron / The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971).

Pier Paolo Pasolini on the set of Salo' o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975)

Italian postcard by Cineteca Bologna. Photo: Deborah Beer / Cinemazero / Archivo Fotografica Cineteca di Bologna. Pier Paolo Pasolini on the set of Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò or the 120 days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975).

Italian postcard by Il piùlibri. Caption: Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975). Poet, essayist and film director. He was killed by that barbarity which, unheard, he had painfully denounced.

Sources: Michael Brooke (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

During the 1960s, handsome and elegant actor George Peppard (1928-1994) displayed considerable talent in such films as Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), How the West Was Won (1962), The Carpetbaggers (1964) and The Blue Max (1966). But he is probably best known as Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad in the action series The A-Team (1983-1987).

Italian postcard by Rotalcolor / Rotalfoto, no. N 228.

George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Chinese postcard. George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen. Photo: Stephen J. Cannell Productions, 1984. Dirk Benedict as Templeton 'Faceman' Peck, George Peppard as Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith, Dwight Schultz as 'Howling Mad' Murdock, and Mr. T as Sergeant First Class Bosco Baracus in The A-Team (1983-1987).

Good looks, elegant manner and acting skills

George Peppard Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1928. He was the son of contractor George Peppard and opera singer Vernelle Rohrer. Before his acting career began, he was a newsreader for a local radio station in Pittsburgh for a short time. After radio and television experience (with guest roles in The United States Steel Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alcoa Hour), Peppard made his Broadway debut in 1956, in the play 'Girls of Summer'.

He made his feature film debut in the drama The Strange One (Jack Garfein, 1957). In 1958-1959, he played Roger Henderson in the play 'The Pleasure of His Company'. In the late 1950s, Peppard continued to make guest appearances in then-famous television shows and series, like Studio One, Hallmark Hall of Fame and Matinee Theatre. He also had a role in the war film Pork Chop Hill (Lewis Milestone, 1959), starring Gregory Peck.

Peppard began to stand out after his role as Robert Mitchum's illegitimate son in Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960). He began to emerge more and more as the leading man, but the Beatnik film The Subterraneans (Ranald MacDougall, 1960) flopped and he returned to television. His good looks, elegant manner and acting skills landed Peppard his most famous film role as struggling writer Paul ‘Fred’ Varjak in the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961), alongside Audrey Hepburn.

Now considered a promising young star by the studios, Peppard was cast in the epic Western How the West Was Won (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, George Marshall, 1962), the British-American war film The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963) and the Harold Robbins adaptation The Carpetbaggers (Edward Dmytryk, 1964) in which he portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes. His future second wife Helen Davies also had a role in the latter film. In the mid-1960s, Peppard starred in major productions such as the British Spy thriller Operation Crossbow (Michael Anderson, 1965) with Sophia Loren and the thriller The Third Day (Jack Smight, 1965) with Elizabeth Ashley, who had become his third wife.

He reached the peak of his popularity in the grim war film The Blue Max (John Guillermin, 1966) with Peppard as an obsessively competitive German pilot during World War I. In the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, Peppard seemed to lower the bar and appeared in films of a more average level, except for the war film Tobruk (Arthur Hiller, 1967) in which he co-starred with Rock Hudson. He also appeared in the Westerns Rough Night in Jericho (Arnold Laven, 1967) with Dean Martin and One More Train To Rob (Andrew McLaglen, 1971). Peppard co-starred with Joan Collins in the British Cold War thriller The Executioner (Sam Wanamaker, 1970).

George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers (1964)

West German Kolibri postcard by Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 2329. Photo: Paramount. George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers (Edward Dmytryk, 1964).

Vintage postcard. Photo: M.G.M.

Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Swiss postcard by CVB Publishers / News Productions, no. 57244. Photo: Collection Cinemathèque Suisse Lausanne. Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

The number-one-rated television show of 1983

In the 1970s, the film roles George Peppard took on became increasingly uninteresting and he played almost exclusively in television films. Between 1972 and 1974, Peppard starred in the seventeen-episode television series Banacek. He played a wealthy Boston playboy who solves thefts for insurance companies for a finder's fee in 90-minute whodunits. The series briefly revived Peppard's waning popularity. In 1975-1976, he starred in the television series Doctor's Hospital, but towards the end of the season, Peppard indicated he wanted to quit his role in the series.

In 1977, Peppard appeared in the post-apocalypse film Damnation Alley (Jack Smight, 1977) with Jan-Michael Vincent and Dominique Sanda. Poorly received by critics and audiences, it has since achieved a cult following. With fewer interesting roles coming his way, he acted in, directed and produced the drama Five Days from Home (1979). The film, about a father escaping from prison to visit his sick son, did not become a success.

He plunged back into television films like Torn Between Two Lovers (Delbert Mann, 1979) with Lee Remick and Crisis in Mid-Air (Walter Grauman, 1979). The Euro War film Contro 4 Bandiere/From Hell to Victory (Umberto Lenzi, 1979) and the Space Opera Battle Beyond the Stars (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980), produced by Roger Corman, also did not become box office hits. He landed the role of Blake Carrington in the TV soap Dynasty but was fired after a week of filming due to creative differences with the producers.

He managed to get the role of Hannibal Smith in The A-Team, alongside Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz. In the series, the A-Team was a team of renegade commandos on the run from the military for "a crime they did not commit" while serving in the Vietnam War. The A-Team members made their collective living as soldiers of fortune, but they helped only people who came to them with justified grievances. The A-Team became the number-one-rated television show in its first season. 98 episodes of the series were made and aired between 1983 and 1987. Peppard was back in the saddle, but after the series ended, he reportedly was glad it was over.

He starred in a few more films and television movies, including two films in the Man Against the Mob series, for which a third was also planned. Due to Peppard's death, it remained only two parts. Furthermore, he played a role in the War film Night of the Fox (Charles Jarrott, 1990) with Michael York. Peppard's last television appearance was a guest role in the television series Matlock. The episode aired eight days before Peppard's death. It was intended as a pilot for a new series. In 1992, Peppard had a small, malignant lung tumour removed. Two years later, George Peppard was again under treatment for lung cancer. Complications from this left him with pneumonia, from which he eventually died in 1994. He was 65. His fifth wife Laura, a West Palm Beach banker, cared for him for the last 18 months of his life. He is buried alongside his parents in Northview Cemetery in Dearborn, Michigan.

George Peppard and Mr. T in The A-team (1983-1987)

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen. Photo: Stephen J. Cannell Productions, 1984. George Peppard as Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith and Mr. T as Sergeant First Class Bosco Baracus in The A-Team (1983-1987).

Dirk Benedict and George Peppard in The A-team (1983-1987)

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen. Photo: Stephen J. Cannell Productions, 1984. Dirk Benedict as Templeton 'Faceman' Peck and George Peppard as Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith in The A-Team (1983-1987).

Dwight Schulz, Mr. T and George Peppard in The A-Team (1983-1987)

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen. Photo: Stephen J. Cannell Productions, 1984. Dwight Schulz, Mr. T and George Peppard in The A-Team (1983-1987).

Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Antwerpen. Photo: Stephen J. Cannell Productions, 1984. Dwight Schulz, Mr. T and George Peppard in The A-Team (1983-1987).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

German stage and film actor Max Adalbert (1874-1933) was one of the great names of the German theatre at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was famous for his roles in comedies. His greatest success was the title role in the comedy Der Hauptmann von Köpenick / The Captain from Köpenick (1931) which he played on stage and in the cinema.

Max Adalbert and Harald Paulsen in Mein Leopold (1931)

German collectors card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 131. Photo: Messtro-Film / Ross Verlag. Max Adalbert and Harald Paulsen in Mein Leopold / My Leopold (Hans Steinhoff, 1931).

German cigarette card for Hänsom cigarettes by Jasmatzi Cigarettenfabrik G.M.b.H, Dresden/Ross Verlag, Film Series 4 'Aus tönenden Filmen' (From sound films), no. 572. Photo: Ufa. Max Adalbert in Das Ekel / The Scoundrel (Eugen Schüfftan, Franz Wenzler, 1931).

Missing the possibility of using words

Max Adalbert was born Maximilian Adalbert Krampf in 1874 in Danzig in Imperial Germany, now Gdansk in Poland. He was the son of a Prussian Officer.

Using his first two names as his stage name, he debuted at 19 at the theatre of Lübeck and in 1894 at the municipal theatre of Barmen. Adalbert also appeared in St. Gallen (Switzerland), Nuremberg and Vienna (Austria). He moved to Berlin in 1899 to work at the Residenztheater.

In 1915, Adalbert joined the film business. In the following years, he took part in silent productions like Wie werde ich Amanda los? / How do I get rid of Amanda? (Danny Kaden, 1915), Die Buchhalterin / The Accountant (Paul von Woringen, 1918) with Lotte Neumann, König Nicolo / King Nicolo (Paul Legband, 1919) starring Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, and the crime drama Die Verführten / The Seduced (Carl Froelich, 1919) in which he played the seducer.

When Adalbert came in contact with Curt Bois, he turned into a comedian. During the 1920s, Max Adalbert appeared in several silent films, including Der Dummkopf / The Blockhead (Lupu Pick, 1921), Lady Hamilton (Richard Oswald, 1921) starring Liane Haid, and Die Flamme / The Flame (Ernst Lubitsch, 1923) starring Pola Negri. The highlights are two masterpieces by Fritz Lang, Der müde Tod / Destiny (Fritz Lang, 1921) and Dr. Mabuse der Spieler / Mabuse the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922), the first film in the Dr. Mabuse series about the master criminal who featured in the novels of Norbert Jacques.

In 1923, Max Adalbert retired temporarily from the cinema because he missed the possibility of using words. Together with the actors Paul Morgan and Kurt Robitschek, he founded the 'Kabarett der Komiker' in 1924 which soon became established in Berlin and enjoyed great popularity.

German postcard by Kunstverlag Juno, Charlottenburg, no. 123. Photo: Alice Matzdorf.

German postcard for 'Die trustfreie Eidelsan' by Margarinewerk Eidelstedt Gebr. Fauser G.m.b.H., Holstein, Serie 1, no. 22. Photo: Marcus.

An enormous increase in his popularity

After a few years solely devoted to the stage, Max Adalbert successfully returned to the cinema when sound film was introduced in Germany. Both on stage and in films, he experienced an enormous increase in his popularity. He was very good in the film comedy Mein Leopold / My Leopold (Hans Steinhoff, 1931) opposite Harald Paulsen as Leopold.

In 1931 he also made his debut at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin as the lead character of Carl Zuckmayer's 'Der Hauptmann von Köpenick'. He took the role over from Werner Krauss and it became his greatest triumph on stage.

Because of this huge success, he was also engaged in the film adaptation, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick / The Captain from Köpenick (Richard Oswald, 1931). The story centres on the Hauptmann von Köpenick affair in 1906. With this role, he set a cinematic monument for himself.

He also appeared in the comedy Das Ekel / The Scoundrel (Eugen Schüfftan. Franz Wenzler, 1931) with Evelyn Holt, musical romance Mein Herz sehnt sich nach Liebe / My Heart Longs for Love (Eugen Thiele, 1931) starring Trude Berliner, and the comedy Lachende Erben / Laughing Heirs (Max Ophüls, 1933) starring Heinz Rühmann.

In 1933, Max Adalbert suddenly died - of pneumonia or a heart attack (the sources differ) - while in Munich for a guest performance. He was 58. The actor was buried at the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery near Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5665/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.

Max Adalbert in Die Schlacht von Bademünde (1931)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6140/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Max Adalbert in Die Schlacht von Bademünde / The Battle of Bademuende (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1931).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6349/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

Robert Pattinson (1986) is a British actor and musician. He began his career in theatre and made his film debut in 2004. The young Patterson gained attention as Carlo Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and became a teen idol as Edward Cullen in the Twilight films (2008-2012). Since then he starred in both major studio productions and independent films and has been ranked among the world's highest-paid actors.

Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008).

Robert Pattinson and Katie Leung in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Robert Pattinson and Katie Leung in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005).

British star of tomorrow

Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson was born in a private hospital in Barnes, southwest London, England in 1986. His mother Clare worked as a booker at a modelling agency and his father Richard imported vintage cars from the United States. He has two older sisters, Lizzy and Victoria Pattinson.Lizzy is a singer with the band Aurora and Victoria works in an advertising department.

As a teenager, Robert joined the local amateur theatre club, the Barnes Theatre Company, after his father convinced him to attend because he was quite shy. After two years of working backstage, the 15-year-old Pattinson auditioned for the play 'Guys and Dolls' and he got his first role as a Cuban dancer with no lines. He got the lead part in the next play 'Our Town'. A talent agent in the audience spotted him and he began looking for professional roles.

Pattinson appeared in stage productions such as 'Macbeth', 'Anything Goes' and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. He had supporting roles in the German television film Die Nibelungen – Der Fluch des Drachen / Ring of the Nibelungs (Uli Edel, 2004) with Benno Fürmann and Alicia Witt, and in the costume drama Vanity Fair (Mira Nair, 2004) as Reese Witherspoon's son. His scenes were cut out of the final film. Pattinson didn't know about it until he attended the premiere. The casting director felt so guilty for not telling him, that she got him an audition for the new Harry Potter film.

In 2005, he was due to appear in 'The Woman Before' at the Royal Court Theatre but was fired shortly before and replaced by Tom Riley. Later that year, he played Carlo Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005). It brought him to a wider audience at the age of 19 and soon after, he was even named 'British Star of Tomorrow' by Times Online. He continued to star in mostly smaller British TV productions. As a model, Pattinson appeared in the ad campaign for Hackett's 2007 autumn collection. Pattinson appeared in Little Ashes (Paul Morrison, 2008), in which he played Salvador Dalí, the British comedy How to Be (Oliver Irving, 2008), and the short film The Summer House (Daisy Gili, 2009).

Occasionally, he sent audition tapes for roles in America. One, for a rom-com, led to the opportunity for an in-person audition in Los Angeles. That audition did not pan out, but while in town he went in for another, with director Catherine Hardwicke, for a part in an adaptation of a low-profile book about a vampire. His role as vampire Edward Cullen opposite Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008), suddenly turned him into a worldwide star and a teen idol.

Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: Fascination.

Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: When you can live forever, What do you live for?

Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson in The Twilight Saga - New Moon (2009).

Sexiest man in the world at 22

At age 22, Robert Pattinson was voted ‘sexiest man in the world’ by Glamour magazine, before Brad Pitt. Hugh Jackman and Johnny Depp. Between 2008 and 2012, the five film adaptations of the Twilight novels written by Stephenie Meyer grossed over $3.3 billion in worldwide receipts. Between the Twilight Saga films, he also starred in Remember Me (Allen Coulter, 2010), Water for Elephants (Francis Lawrence, 2011) with Reese Witherspoon, and Bel Ami (Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod, 2012) alongside Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Pattinson's Twilight era was surreal. He had been catapulted onto Hollywood's A-list as a heartthrob, but also experienced certain preconceptions about what he wanted - or was capable of doing - as an actor. That changed with an unexpected straight offer from auteur director David Cronenberg to star in Cosmopolis (2012), which he described as an eye-opening experience. It reminded him of his love for cinema, why he wanted to become an actor in the first place and solidified his foremost desire for the coming years to work with great filmmakers.

With Pattinson being a big cinephile, he then starred in mostly independent films from auteur directors, such as The Rover (David Michôd, 2014) opposite Guy Pearce, Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014) starring Julianne Moore, Life (Anton Corbijn, 2015), Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015) with Nicole Kidman and The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015). He also became the face of Dior Homme fragrance in 2013 and the face of Dior Homme menswear in 2016. His unrecognisable role as an explorer in the Amazon jungle in Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2016) brought him critical acclaim. His transformation to a sleazy, manic conman in the gritty crime thriller Good Time (Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, 2017) earned him a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. His role was written specifically for him after sending a spontaneous email to the directors, the Safdie Brothers, without knowing them and seeing only a movie still on the internet from their previous film Heaven Knows What (2014).

Next, he starred in the Western comedy Damsel (David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, 2018) as a cowboy with sociopathic characteristics and played a convict sent to space for sexual experimentation in the psychological mystery drama High Life (2018) from acclaimed French auteur director Claire Denis. He returned to work with director David Michôd in The King (David Michôd, 2019) and starred with Willem Dafoe in the Fantasy-Horror film The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019), set on a remote New England island in the 1890s. The film earned good reviews for both its storytelling and Pattinson's performance. In Netflix's The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos, 2020), Pattinson played a corrupt preacher preying on young girls.

Robert Pattinson returned to mainstream films with a leading role in Christopher Nolan's time-bending Spy film Tenet (2020) and starred as the superhero and his secret alter ego Bruce Wayne in The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022). Next followed Bong Joon-ho's Science Fiction film Mickey 17 (2025), in which Pattinson played the lead role. He portrayed Mickey Barnes, a disposable crew member on a space mission who is assigned perilous tasks, as he can be regenerated upon death while retaining most of his memories. The film received mostly positive reviews, with most of the focus on Pattinson's performance as dual versions of the same character. Robert Pattinson was in a relationship with Kristen Stewart from mid-2009 until May 2013 and with British singer FKA Twigs, from 2014 to 2017. Since 2018, he has been dating British actress and singer Suki Waterhouse. In 2024, the couple became parents to a daughter.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight (2008)

Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: When you van live forever, What do you live for?

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in Twilight (2008)

English postcard by Cinema. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: Nothing will be the same.

Robert Pattinson and Kirstin Stewart in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)

Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (Bill Condon, 2011).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

In our monthly post on the postcard collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI), we again chose 15 postcards from a big album from the estate of film historians Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul. It's an album which they probably started somewhere in the 1970s with interesting postcards from several periods and several countries. For this post, we selected 15 Dutch postcards from the late 1940s with Hollywood stars. After years of hardship and watching merely Nazi films, the Netherlands could watch a reservoir of American films from previous years. Filmgoers revelled in the beauty and glamour of Tinseltown.

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Laszlo Willinger / M.G.M. / M.P.E.

Glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000) was born in Austria. The notorious Czechoslovak film Ekstase/Ecstasy (1933) made her an international sensation, and Louis Mayer invited her to Hollywood, where she became ‘the most beautiful woman in films’.

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

American film star Bette Davis (1908-1989) was one of the greatest actors in world cinema history. She dared to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies. Her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.

Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: F.B.O. / M.P.E. Abbott and Costello in Ride 'Em Cowboy (Arthur Lubin, 1942).

William 'Bud' Abbott (1895–1974) and Lou Costello (1906–1959) were an American comedy duo that first worked together in 1935. Their work in vaudeville and on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Dutch postcard by S. & v.H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

American actress Paulette Goddard (1905-1990) started her career as a fashion model and as a Ziegfeld Girl in several Broadway shows. In the 1940s, she became a major star at Paramount Pictures. She was Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator. Goddard was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

American actress Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) was the younger sister of Hollywood star Olivia de Havilland, but Joan made a name for herself with two classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Rebecca (1941) and Suspicion (1942). For the first she was nominated for the Oscar and for the second she won the award.

Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (1945)

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (William A. Seiter, 1945).

Petite and glamorous Sonja Henie (1912-1969) was one of the greatest figure skaters in history, the ‘Pavlova of the ice’. She won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. At the height of her acting career, the Norwegian figure skater and film star was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. She had a shrewd business sense and was immensely successful next with a series of ice revues.

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

Donna Reed (1921-1986) was an American film and television actress and producer. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her role as Mary Hatch Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). She received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lorene Burke in the war drama From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953). Reed is also known as Donna Stone, a middle-class American mother and housewife in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966).

Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was an American singer, actor, and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.

Dutch postcard by Sparo. Photo: Fox.

British actress Madeleine Carroll (1906-1987) was a blonde beauty of ladylike demeanour. The first of Alfred Hitchcock's ‘ice-cool blondes’ was immensely popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was nicknamed 'The Queen of British Cinema'.

Dutch postcard by Sparo.

Andrea Leeds (1914–1984) was an American film actress who was a popular supporting player of the late 1930s. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Stage Door (1937). She did two films with Joel McCrea in which she had the female lead, Youth Takes a Fling (1938) and They Shall Have Music (1939). More leads followed in The Real Glory (1939) with Gary Cooper and Swanee River (1939) with Don Ameche. In 1939, she quit film acting.

Vintage postcard. Photo: MGM.

Judy Garland (1922-1969) was an American singer, actress, and vaudevillian. During a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for A Star is Born (1954) and received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Dutch postcard by HEMO.

Well-coiffed and well-dressed American actress Barbara Britton (1920-1980) co-starred opposite some of Hollywood's most durable leading men, including Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Gene Autry, Jeff Chandler and John Hodiak. Later, she became known as TV's Revlon Girl.

Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 2. Photo: Columbia / MPEA.

American singer and actress Janet Blair (1921-2007) was at Columbia, usually overlooked for the roles that might have tested her dramatic skills. Nevertheless, she pleased audiences as a pert and perky co-star to several bigger stars, ranging from George Raft and Cary Grant to Red Skelton and The Dorsey Brothers.

Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 24. Photo: R.K.O. / MPEA.

American actress Audrey Long (1922-2014) was a leading lady in Hollywood low-budget films of the 1940s and early 1950s. From 1944, she starred in B-movies at RKO, Monogram, Republic, and Columbia. She left the film industry in 1952.

Dutch postcard. Photo: United Artists / M.P.E.A.

And once more, glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000). In Hollywood, she was usually cast as glamorous and seductive. Her American debut was in Algiers (John Cromwell, 1938). Hedy Lamarr made 18 films between 1940 and 1949, including Boom Town (Jack Conway, 1940), White Cargo (Richard Thorpe, 1942), and Tortilla Flat (Victor Fleming, 1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. White Cargo, one of Lamarr's biggest hits at MGM, contains arguably her most famous film quote, "I am Tondelayo". She left MGM in 1945. For Paramount, she appeared as Delilah opposite Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Samson and Delilah (1949). This proved to be Paramount's most profitable movie to date, bringing in $12 million in rental from theaters. However, following her comedic turn opposite Bob Hope in My Favorite Spy (Norman Z. MacLeod, 1951), her career went into decline.

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. Will be continued on the 15th of next month.

Lizzie Caswall Smith (1870–1958) was an early 20th-century British photographer who specialised in society and celebrity studio portraits. She was associated with the Women's Suffrage movement and photographed many suffragettes. She also photographed prominent British actors including Henry Ainley, Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Basil Gill, Billie Burke, and Gertrude Elliott, which were often used for postcards. We chose 15 of these postcards for this post.

British postcard by Rapid Photo Co., London, no. 2961. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith, 1911. John Martin Harvey as Pelleas in Maurice Maeterlinck's stage play 'Pelleas and Melisande' (1893, Pelléas et Mélisande).

British postcard in the Real Photographic Series by Davidson Brothers, London, no. 2216. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as 'Shylock'. Sent by mail in 1908.

British postcard by Beagles & Co, London, no. 400A. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Basil Gill as Ferdinand in 'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare.

British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 1113 M. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Henry Ainley.

British postcard in the Philco Series, no. 3044 A. Photos: Bassano (left) and Lizzie Caswall Smith (right). Left: Lily Brayton. Right: Oscar Asche as Bolingbroke in 'Richard II' by William Shakespeare.

The last photo of Florence Nightingale

Lizzie Caswall Smith was born in 1870. She first exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in 1902 and then again in 1913.

She had a photographer brother, John Caswall Smith. Lizzie probably learned photography from him. When he died in 1902, she inherited his photo studio at 305 Oxford Street. She operated the Gainsborough Studio at 309 Oxford Street from 1907 until 1920. Then she moved to 90 Great Russell Street where she stayed until her retirement in 1930, aged 60.

Smith was a supporter of the suffrage movement and photographed many suffragettes including Christabel Pankhurst, Millicent Fawcett and Flora Drummond, images that were then made into postcards. Many Edwardian stage performers such as Lily Elsie, Billie Burke, Gertrude Elliott and the renowned 'Gibson Girl'Camille Clifford were photographed by Smith.

Her sepia-toned platinotype copies of photographs of Peter Llewelyn Davies and J. M. Barrie are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. On 19 November 2008, a rare black-and-white photograph of Florence Nightingale taken in 1910 by Lizzie Caswall Smith was auctioned by Dreweatts auction house in Newbury, Berkshire, England, for £5,500. On the back of the photograph Caswall Smith had noted in pencil "Florence Nightingale taken just before she died, House nr Park Lane (London). The only photograph I ever took out of studio – I shall never forget the experience."

Lizzie Caswall Smith died in Ealing, London, in 1958. She was 88.

British postcard by Beagles Photocards, no. 781. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as Hamlet. Sent by mail in 1913.

British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 179 G. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Caption: Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet.

British postcard by Beagles Photocards, no. 179 J. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Mr. Forbes Robertson. Publicity still for a stage production of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

British postcard by H. Dunn & Co, London, no. A. 511. Photo: Caswall Smith. Basil Gill.

British postcard in the Stageland Series by Davidson Bros.' Pictorial Post Cards, no. 6077. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Henry Ainley.

British postcard in the My Queen & Romance Series. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Henry Ainley.

British postcard in the Real Photo series by Davidson Bros, no. 1090. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. George Alexander. Sent by mail in 1907.

Forbes-Robertson as Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra

British postcard b J. Beagles & Co., London, 179 V. Photo Lizzie Caswall Smith. Mr. Forbes-Robertson as Julius Caesar in G.B. Shaw's play 'Caesar and Cleopatra' (1899).

Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott in Caesar and Cleopatra

British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 105 M. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott in the title roles of G.B. Shaw's play 'Caesar and Cleopatra' (1899).

Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Getrude Elliott in The Light That Failed (1903)

British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 1632 A. Photo: Lizzie Caswall-Smith. Publicity still for a stage production of 'The Light That Failed' (1903). Caption: Mr. Forbes Robertson as Dick Helder (sic), Gertrude Elliott as Maisie, "Maisie, my Maisie".

Sources: Truth in Photography, Wikipedia (English and French) and National Portrait Gallery.

Elegant Vladimir Maksimov (1880-1937) was one of the most popular film stars of the Russian empire. After the revolution he became known known for the Soviet films Skorb beskonechnaya / Infinite Sorrow (Aleksandr Panteleyev, 1922), Katsi katsistvis mgelia / Man Is Enemy (Ivane Perestiani, 1923) and Dekabristy / The Decembrists (Aleksandr Ivanovsky, 1927).

Russian postcard. Sent by mail in Estonia in 1922.

Russian postcard, no. 93, Moscow, 1917. Design by K.F. Shvachunova.

Russian postcard. Design by K.F. Shvachunova.

Vladimir Maksimov and Yablochkina in A vast country

Russian postcard. Vladimir Maksimov and Yablochkina in the stage play 'Общирная страна' (A vast country). 'Обширная страна' was staged in the Imperial Moscow Theatre (Malyi Theatre) in the season of 1912-1913. It was based on Arthur Schnitzler's play 'Das weite Land'. Maksimov played the role of Otto.

Vladimir Maksimov and Vera Kholodnaya in Na altar krasoty (1917)

Russian postcard. Vladimir Maksimov and Vera Kholodnaya in Na altar krasoty / To the Altar of Beauty (Pyotr Chardynin, 1917).

At midnight in the graveyard

Vladimir Vasilievich Maksimov (Russian: Владимир Васильевич Максимов) was born in Moscow in the Russian Empire in 1880. His mother was a singing teacher.

Maksimov started his stage career in 1904 at the Moscow Art Theatre under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko. Among his roles was Konstantin in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. From 1906 to 1918, he performed at the famous Maly Theatre.

In 1910, he made his film debut opposite Ivan Mozzhukin for the Khanzhonkov production company in V polnoch na kladbishche/At Midnight in the Graveyard (Vasily Goncharov, 1910). In this short silent horror film, two men are betting about who is to visit a Paris cemetery at midnight. The visit turns out to be fatal.

Next, he played for Khanzhonkov in Oborona Sevastopolya / Defence of Sebastopol (Vasili Goncharov, Aleksandr Khanzhonkov, 1911), the first film ever shot by two cameras. Set in 1854-1855, in Sebastopol and Yalta during the Crimean War. Admirals Kornilov (Ivan Mozzhukin) and Nakhimov (Andrej Gromov) organise the defence during the siege of Sebastopol. Both admirals are killed during the battle, and the city of Sebastopol is taken by the alliance of British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops.

The legendary feat of Sailor Koshka (N. Semyonov) was staged at the original location. Veterans of the Crimean War of 1854-1855 took part in the film production. With 100 minutes, it was Russia's first full-length feature film. Oborona Sevastopolya/Defence of Sebastopol premiered in 1911 at the Livadia in Yalta, a palace for Tsar Nicholas II, who was the main sponsor of this production.

Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Russian postcard, no. 78. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Russian postcard, no. 144. Collection: Didier Hanson. Vera Kholodnaya and Vladimir Maksimov in Kak oni lgut/How they lie (Vyacheslav Viskovsky, 1917).

Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson. This is probably the final scene of Molchi, grust'... molchi / Still, Sadness... Still... (Pyotr Chardynin, Kharitonov, 1917). The card depicts the final scene where Paola (Vera Kholodnaya) dies - which the Russian press compared to the death of Trilby. She is surrounded on the right by her partner, the musical clown Lorio (Pyotr Chardynin), and by her lover, the painter Volyntsev (Vladimir Maksimov), on the left. In the back the painter's mother (Olga Rakhmanova). The statues refer to the artist's studio. Only the first part of this film survives. At the time it was a huge success in Russia.

The elegantly dressed, romantic lover

Till the end of World War I, Vladimir Maksimov starred in many silent films, including the drama Anfisa (Yakov Protazanov, 1912), the German film Das Haus ohne Tür / The House without a Door (Stellan Rye, 1914) with Theodoor Loos, and Peterburgskiye trushchobi / Petersburg Slums (Petr Cardynin a.k.a. Pyotr Chardynin, Vladimir Gardin, Yakov Protazanov, 1915).

Often playing the elegantly dressed, romantic lover, Maksimov became one of the most popular Russian actors of his era. In 1915 and 1917 he also directed some films.

Maksimov was one of the stars in the cast of the silent drama Molchi, grust... molchi/Молчи, грусть...молчи / Be silent, sorrow ... be silent (Petr Cardynin a.k.a. Pyotr Chardynin, 1918) as Volyntsev, an artist, opposite Vera Kholodnaya, Ossip Runitsch and Vitold Polonsky. This film consisted of two parts, but only the first part (44 minutes in length) survives.

After the Russian Revolution, Maksimov appeared in Soviet films like Skorb beskonechnaya / Infinite Sorrow (Aleksandr Panteleyev, 1922), Katsi katsistvis mgelia / Man Is Enemy (Ivane Perestiani, 1923) as Kraev, Slesar i kantsler / Locksmith and Chancellor (Vladimir Gardin, 1923) as the lawyer Frank Frey. His last part was as Alexander in Dekabristy / The Decembrists (Aleksandr Ivanovsky, 1927). From 1919 to 1924, he was also one of the organizers of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre.

Since 1924, he taught at the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts. In 1925, the Soviet Union honoured him as 'Artist of the State'. Vladimir Maksimov died in 1937 in Moscow, Soviet Union. He was 56.

Vladimir Maksimov, Vera Kholodnaya in Be Silent, My Sorrow, be SIlent

Russian-Polish postcard by K Ltd, dated 5-11-1918. Vladimir Maksimov and Vera Kholodnaya in Сказка любви дорогой/Молчи, грусть... молчи / Be Silent, My Sorrow, Be Silent (Piotr Chardynin, 1918).

Vladimir Maksimov, Vera Kholodnaya, Vitold Polonsky, Ivan Khudoleyev, Ossip Runitsch, Petr Cardynin, Ivan Mozzhukin

Russian postcard, no. 108. Collection: Didier Hanson. A Who is Who of the Russian silent cinema. In a circle from left: actor Vladimir Maksimov (with bear), actress Vera Kholodnaya, actor Vitold Polonsky, actor Ivan Khudoleyev, actor Ivan Mozzhukin, actor-director Pyotr Cardynin and actor Ossip Runitsch.

Vera Kholodnaya, Ivan Mozzhukhin and other actors of the Russian silent cinema

Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson. A Who is Who of the Russian silent cinema. From left to right: Vitold Polonsky, Vladimir Maksimov, Vera Kholodnaya, Ossip Runitsch (in the back), Pyotr Cardynin, Ivan Khudoleyev, and Ivan Mozzhukin.

Russian postcard, no. 8, 1916. Design possibly by K.F. Shvachunova.

Source: Yuri Tsivian (Silent Witnesses: Russian Films 1908-1919), Wikipedia (French, Russian and English), and IMDb.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard", Winnie the Pooh.

On 10 June, my youngest son, Lucas (30), passed away after an epileptic fit and cardiac arrest. Lucas was my angel and my worry child. He was mentally disabled and could not talk, but was, above all, beautiful, cheerful, sweet and left a deep impression on everyone who cared for him. Lucas and I loved watching films together, first a lot of animation films and later nature films. One of the films he loved and wanted to watch over and over again was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We watched that brilliant film more than 100 times. As a result, his brother Simon could retell entire dialogues from the film. Even when Lucas's interest in Walt Disney films waned, we continued to sing the Winnie the Pooh theme song during our walks. We also let the song be heard today at the service where we say goodbye to Lucas. Bye-bye, dear Pooh bear of mine.

Paul van Yperen

Dutch postcard by Interstat, Amsterdam. Image: A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard / Disney.

British postcard by Reflex Marketing, Wellingborough, no. PC 107. Illustration: Ernest H. Shepard / Methuen Children's Books, 1983. Postcard sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1989.

The anthology film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977) is Disney's 22nd animated feature, based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. The film is comprised of three previously released animated Disney featurettes: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Extra material was used to link the three featurettes together to allow the stories to merge into each other. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves in 1977.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977

Finnish postcard. Image: Disney. Publicity still for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: Greetings from the Hundred Acre Wood!

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)

French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: The honey thief.

The magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood

In Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), Winnie the Pooh and his friends have adventures in the magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood. The short film is based on the first two chapters of 'Winnie-the-Pooh' by A.A. Milne.

Winnie, Christopher Robin's silly old bear, attempts to get honey from a bee tree. After climbing the tree didn't work, Winnie borrows Christopher Robin's balloon, dunks himself in mud, and floats to the top of the honey tree incognito as a little black rain cloud.

After escaping the angry bees, Pooh decides to get honey the old-fashioned way: getting some from Rabbit, so after stuffing his face with all of Rabbit's honey, Pooh attempts to climb out of Rabbit's front door but becomes stuck!

No matter how hard everyone tries, they can't get him out, so Pooh is stuck for a week until he can lose the excess baggage. Then along comes Gopher, who agrees to help get Pooh out and almost feeds him more honey! But then one morning, Pooh is finally freed from the doorway and ends up in another sticky situation-quite literally!

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was the last short film produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on 15 December 1966, ten months after the film's release.

French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966).

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)

British postcard by J. Arthur Dixon Ltd / Lotus Production, no. PCD/21286. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1968), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: For deeds well done, Christopher Robin throws a party for heroes Pooh Bear and Piglet and their Hundred Acre Wood friends.

Rumbly in my tumbly

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966) is the first of the four Winnie the Pooh short films by the Disney studio, based on the A. A. Milne stories. Each character is introduced nicely in this charming short classic. The animation is excellent and the Sherman Brothers composed great songs such as 'Little Black Rain Cloud', 'Up, Down and Touch the Ground', 'Rumbly in My Tumbly' and 'Winnie the Pooh'.

Pooh's determination to get some honey remains amusing. Although he is a bear with very little brain, he's not the sort of bear to give up easily. The honey-loving bear tries various schemes to get his golden delight. It's funny how he often thinks of something, but no matter how hard he tries to think, the only thing that comes to his simple mind is honey.

And it's funny that he does physical exercises, but not for the reasons you could think. Do you think he does physical exercises to get thinner? You'd better think again! He does physical exercises to get hungry, as an excuse to eat honey. Each different character in the film has a unique trait. The donkey Eeyore shows the depressing side of human nature, always finding the downside of anything.

The other characters succeed in cheering him up. The owl is the 'educated' one who loves to hear himself talk. Tigger, happy-go-lucky tiger, bounces around exuberantly on his coil-spring tail, greeting everyone, and sometimes accidentally knocking them over. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) immediately became a popular phenomenon and led to more Pooh shorts, which later made up the feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977).

A fourth, shorter scene was added to bring the film to a close, originally made during the production of Blustery Day. The sequence was based on the final chapter of 'The House at Pooh Corner', where Christopher Robin must leave the Hundred Acre Wood behind as he is starting school. In it, Christopher Robin and Pooh discuss what they liked doing together, and the boy asks his bear to promise to remember him and to keep some of the memories of their time together alive. Pooh agrees to do so, and the film closes with The Narrator (Sebastian Cabot) saying that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting for him whenever he returns.

Dutch postcard. Caption: Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

French postcard by Cartoon Collection, Paris, Réf. 26289. Image: Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Caption: Party.

French postcard by Cartoon Collection, Paris, Réf. 24225. Image: Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Caption: Party.

French postcard by MD, Paris, no. D 460. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Caption: Winnie the Pooh, Tiger and Eeyore.

Hungarian postcard. Image: Disney. Caption: Merry Christmas!

French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 1716. Image: Disney, based on the Winnie the Pooh works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.

Italian lenticular postcard by Dedit srl, no. 2803474. Image: Disney, based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or as for this postcard move as the image is viewed from different angles. Like today, the weather changes on the card from rain to sunshine and back. Sadly, we can't scan the effect.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Sissy Spacek (1949) is an American actress and singer with an enduring and award-winning career in film and television. She became a star with her Oscar-nominated performance in Carrie (1976), in which she played a humiliated prom queen who goes postal with her telekinesis. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as country singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, C.P.C.S. Cda 33132.

Sissy Spacek and William Katt in Carrie (1976),

Press photo. Sissy Spacek and William Katt in Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976).

A young woman sold as a sex slave

Mary Elizabeth ‘Sissy’ Spacek was born in Quitman, Texas, in 1949. She was the daughter of Virginia Frances and Edwin Arnold Spacek Sr., a county agricultural agent. Spacek was nicknamed ‘Sissy’ by her older brothers. She attended Quitman High School and was the homecoming queen.

During her senior year in 1967, she was violently shaken by the death of her 18-year-old brother Robbie from leukaemia. She decided life was way too short to waste it in four years of college and she moved to New York. Spacek began her career as a country singer. Under the name ‘Rainbo’, she recorded the single, ‘John, You Went Too Far This Time’, about John Lennon.

When sales of her music sputtered, Spacek was dropped by her record label. She switched her focus to acting. Spacek worked as a photographic model represented by Ford Models and as an extra at Andy Warhol's Factory. With the help of her cousin, actor Rip Torn, she was able to enrol at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.

In her early career, she often played girls younger than her age. Her first film role was in Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972), starring Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman in which she played a young woman sold as a sex slave. The film led to a guest role in the television series The Waltons (1973), which she played twice.

The first role in which she was noticed was in Terrence Malick's Neo Noir Badlands (1973). She played Holly, the film's narrator and 15-year-old girlfriend of serial killer Kit (Martin Sheen). Her performance earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. On the set, she met art director Jack Fisk, whom she would later marry. She worked as the set dresser for Brian De Palma's film Phantom of the Paradise (1974), to assist Fisk, who was the film's production designer.

Chinese postcard. Sissy Spacek in Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973).

Vintage card with the remains of an autograph.

An unpopular and emotionally confused teenager with telekinetic abilities

Sissy Spacek broke through with the lead role in the supernatural Horror film Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976). She played an unpopular and emotionally confused teenager with telekinetic abilities. For this role, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which, however, was not cashed.

She then starred in Robert Altman's psychological drama 3 Women (1977). Spacek helped finance Eraserhead (1977), David Lynch's directorial debut and is thanked in the film's credits.

She received the Oscar in 1980 for Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980), in which she played country star Loretta Lynn from the age of about 13 to near middle age and did her own singing. The soundtrack peaked at no. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and garnered her a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Spacek subsequently released her debut studio album, 'Hangin' Up My Heart' (1983).

She received four more Academy Award nominations for her roles in Costa-Gavras's biographical thriller drama Missing (1982) opposite Jack Lemmon, the drama The River (Mark Rydell, 1984) with Mel Gibson, Crimes of the Heart (Bruce Beresford, 1986), and In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001). Spacek won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of the grieving Ruth Fowler in In the Bedroom. Her other notable films include Raggedy Man (Jack Fisk, 1981), 'Night, Mother (Tom Moore, 1986) opposite Anne Bancroft, JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997), The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999), North Country (Niki Caro, 2005) starring Charlize Theron, and the period drama The Help (Tate Taylor, 2011).

In 2011, Sissy Spacek received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2012, she published her memoir, 'My Extraordinary Ordinary Life', with co-author Maryanne Vollers. Spacek married Jack Fisk in 1974 and they had two daughters, Schuyler Elizabeth and Madison Fisk. Schuyler Fisk also acts in films. Spacek lives with her family on a horse ranch near Charlottesville, Virginia. She is an activist for women's rights. Her recent films include The Old Man & the Gun (David Lowery, 2018) starring Robert Redford, and Sam & Kate (Darren Le Gallo, 2022) with Dustin Hoffman.

Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft in 'Night, Mother (1986)

German poster collector card by Cinema. Image: Universal Film. German poster for 'Night, Mother (Tom Moore, 1986), starring Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft.

Sissy Spacek in A Place for Annie (1994)

Dutch Press photo by Kippa to promote the TV screening by EO in 1996. Sissy Spacek in A Place for Annie (John Gray, 1994).

Sources: KD Haisch (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Richard Conte (1910-1975) was an American actor, who often appeared in Film Noirs and crime dramas of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Two decades later, he returned to the screen as gangster boss Don Barzini in The Godfather (1972).

Richard Conte and Barbara Lawrence in Thieves' Highway (1949)

Spanish postcard, no. 4025. Richard Conte and Barbara Lawrence in Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949).

Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte in Thieves' Highway (1949)

Spanish postcard by Sobe, no. 638. Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte in Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949).

The 'New John Garfield'

Nicholas Peter Conte was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1910. He was the son of Pasquale Conte, an Italian-American barber and his wife, Giulia Fina, a seamstress. Before becoming an actor, he held a series of jobs, from truck driver to shoe salesman to messenger on Wall Street.

In 1935, he was discovered by Elia Kazan and John Garfield, director and actor respectively of New York City's Group Theatre Company, at a resort in Connecticut, where Conte had a job as a singing waiter. Through them, he gained access to the theatre world. With Kazan's help, he earned a scholarship to study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York, where he became a standout student. He made his Broadway debut in 'My Heart's in the Highlands' (1939) for the Group Theatre. Also for the Group, he was in Clifford Odets''Night Music' (1940). He also performed in the road company of 'Golden Boy'. On Broadway, he was in 'Heavenly Express' (1941) and 'Walk Into My Parlor' (1941). He was a hit in 'Jason' (1942) and then was in 'The Family' (1943).

In 1939, he also made his film debut in Heaven with a Barbed Fence (Ricardo Cortez, 1939), written by Dalton Trumbo. He played Tony, a hobo who meets up with Joe (Glenn Ford who was also making his film debut) and Anita (Jean Rogers). The three of them make their way west hopping trains. During World War II, Conte served in the United States Army, but he was discharged because of eye trouble.

Conte's film career took off during the war period. Many actors had been recruited and were serving in the military. In 1943, Conte signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox and changed his name from Nicholas Conte to Richard Conte. Ironically, he was promoted as the 'New John Garfield', the man who helped discover him. His first Fox film was the War film Guadalcanal Diary (Lewis Seiler, 1943), where he was billed fourth.

He followed it with another war drama, The Purple Heart (Lewis Milestone, 1944) in which he was billed second, beneath Dana Andrews. Conte had a smaller part in Captain Eddie (Lloyd Bacon, 1945), a biopic about Eddie Rickenbacker (Fred MacMurray), and played an Italian POW in A Bell for Adano (Henry King, 1945) starring Gene Tierney. Conte had the starring role in another war film for Lewis Milestone, A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone, 1945), again with Dana Andrews.

Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F.), no. 2784. Photo: Universal International.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 621. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 3138. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Centre stage in Film Noir

After the war, Richard Conte alternated roles in minor films with major productions. Fox promoted Conte to top billing with the Film Noir The Spider (Robert D. Webb, 1945). Although a B film for the studio, it was successful enough to establish Conte in Film Noir. Soon followed supporting roles in Somewhere in the Night (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1946) and the Spy film 13 Rue Madeleine (1946), directed by Henry Hathaway.

In Film Noir and gangster roles his stern face and powerful physique put him centre stage, even in supporting roles. His best work includes the innocently captured man in Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1947) with James Stewart and the lead role as a truck driver in Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949). He also co-starred with Gene Tierney in Otto Preminger's Film Noir Whirlpool (1950).

In the 1950s, his contract at Fox was terminated. He then starred mainly in B-movies such as The Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang, 1953) and Highway Dragnet (Nathan Juran, 1954) with Joan Bennett. He then went to England to make Mask of Dust (Terence Fisher, 1954) for Hammer Films. Back in the U.S., Conte played a vicious but philosophical gangster in the Film Noir classic The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) and had the second lead in I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955), an MGM biopic about Lillian Roth starring Susan Hayward.

Conte also appeared frequently on television, in such series as The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It culminated in a starring role in the series The Four Just Men (1959-1960). As interest in Film Noir waned in the 1960s, Richard Conte's career seemed to stall. He appeared with Frank Sinatra in the Heist film Ocean's Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960). Sinatra gave him the role of Lt. Dave Santini in his crime film Tony Rome (Gordon Douglas, 1967) and its sequel Lady in Cement (Gordon Douglas, 1968). Eventually, Conte left for Europe, where he starred in the Spaghetti Western Sentenza di more / Death Sentence (Mario Lanfranchi, 1968) and directed Operation Cross Eagles (Richard Conte, 1969), filmed entirely in Yugoslavia.

He returned to the US in the early 1970s to play the role of Don Emilio Barzini, Don Vito Corleone's chief rival in The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972). Conte himself was briefly in the running to play the role of Don Corleone, but that role eventually went to Marlon Brando. After The Godfather, he returned to Europe, appearing in several Italian films, including Anastasia mio fratello / My Brother Anastasia (Steno, 1973) with Alberto Sordi and the Poliziottesco Roma violenta / Violent Rome (Marino Girolami, 1975). The second was a huge box office hit in Italy and launched the career of actor Maurizio Merli. In 1975, Conte died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 65 years old. Richard Conte was married twice, to actress Ruth Storey from 1943 to 1962 and to Shirlee Garner from 1973 until he died in 1975. Together with Storey, he had an adopted son, Mark Conte, who would later become an editor. Richard Conte is buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Spanish postcard by Sobe, no. 691. Valentina Cortese and Richard Conte in Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Spanish postcard. Anne Baxter and Richard Conte in The Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang, 1953). Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, Italian and English) and IMDb.

We continue a yearly tradition, EFSP follows Il Cinema Ritrovato from 21 - 29 June. We love the festival dedicated to cinematic masterpieces, timeless classics, and hidden gems. For nine days, films will be screened across seven theatres and two open-air venues — Piazza Maggiore and the steamy and carbon-lit Piazzetta Pasolini. Molly Haskell curated 'Katharine Hepburn: Feminist, Acrobat and Lover' for this year's edition. Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) was a spirited performer with a touch of eccentricity. The actress introduced into her roles a strength of character previously considered to be undesirable in Hollywood leading ladies. She was also noted for her brisk upper-class New England accent and tomboyish beauty. Haskell: "She was bold and 'out there' in a way few women were - exhilarating, physically nimble, androgyne and lady rolled into one. There was a reason her career spanned 67 years and boasted a still-record number of Best Actress Oscar nominations (12) and wins (4). Her career was more varied than she’s given credit for, but it’s especially her screwball comedies (of which there’s a touch in all her best work) that she shines. Unique and irreplaceable, we are able to appreciate in our own time this woman who was so ahead of hers."

French postcard by Viny, no. 31. Photo: R.K.O.

Belgian postcard by N.V. Victoria, Brussels, no. 12. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 34. Photo: Radio (RKO).

British postcard. Photo: RKO / Radio Pictures. Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933).

Katharine Hepburn and Franchot Tone in Quality Street (1937)

Italian postcard by Generalcine, Roma / Off. Graf. 'La Lito', Milano. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures. Publicity still for Quality Street (George Stevens, 1937) with Franchot Tone.

British Art Photo postcard, no. 38-1.

American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, no. CL/Personality # 130. Photo: Douglas Kirkland.

An unlikely Hollywood star

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born in 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. Her father was a wealthy and prominent Connecticut surgeon, and her mother was a leader in the women's suffrage movement.

From early childhood, Hepburn was continually encouraged to expand her intellectual horizons, speak nothing but the truth, and keep herself in top physical condition at all times. She would apply all of these ingrained values to her acting career, which began in earnest after she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1928.

That year, she made her Broadway debut in 'Night Hostess', appearing under the alias Katharine Burns. Hepburn scored her first major Broadway success in 'The Warrior’s Husband' (1932), a comedy set in the land of the Amazons. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to Hollywood by RKO Radio Pictures.

Hepburn was an unlikely Hollywood star. Possessing a distinctive speech pattern and an abundance of quirky mannerisms, she earned unqualified praise from her admirers and unmerciful criticism from her detractors. Unabashedly outspoken and iconoclastic, she did as she pleased, refusing to grant interviews, wearing casual clothes at a time when actresses were expected to exude glamour 24 hours a day, and openly clashing with her more experienced coworkers whenever they failed to meet her standards.

She nonetheless made an impressive film debut in George Cukor’s A Bill of Divorcement (1932), a drama that also starred John Barrymore. Hepburn was then cast as an aviator in Dorothy Arzner’s Christopher Strong (1933). For her third film, Morning Glory (Lowell Sherman, 1933), Hepburn won an Academy Award for her portrayal of an aspiring actress.

British Real Photograph postcard, no. 40. A. Photo: Radio Pictures.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini Firenze) Edit., no. 2737.

Colin Clive and Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong

British postcard in the Filmshots series by British Weekly. Photo: Radio. Publicity still for Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933) with Colin Clive.

Merry Christmas! Katharine Hepburn in Little Women

Dutch postcard by the Rialto Theatre, Amsterdam, 1934. Photo: Remaco Radio Picture. Publicity still for Little Women (George Cukor, 1933). In the picture are Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, Jean Parker and Spring Byington. The Dutch title of the film and the book by Louise M. Alcott is Onder moeders vleugels.

Fred MacMurray and Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935)

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, no. P. 183. Photo: RKO / Radio Pictures. Fred MacMurray and Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (George Stevens, 1935).

Katharine Hepburn on the set of Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. P101. Photo: Photoworld. Katharine Hepburn on the set of Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 1045a. Photo: R.K.O. Radio.

Box office poison

However, Katharine Hepburn’s much-publicised return to Broadway, in 'The Lake' (1933), proved to be a flop. And while filmgoers enjoyed her performances in homespun entertainments such as Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) and Alice Adams (George Stevens, 1935), they were largely resistant to historical vehicles such as Mary of Scotland (John Ford, 1936), A Woman Rebels (Mark Sandrich, 1936), and Quality Street (George Stevens, 1937).

Hepburn recovered some lost ground with her sparkling performances in the screwball comedies Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) and Holiday (George Cukor, 1938), both of which also starred Cary Grant. However, it was too late: a group of leading film exhibitors had already written off Hepburn as “box office poison.”

Undaunted, Hepburn accepted a role written specifically for her in Philip Barry’s 1938 Broadway comedy The Philadelphia Story, about a socialite whose ex-husband tries to win her back. Howard Hughes, Hepburn's partner at the time, sensed that the play could be her ticket back to Hollywood stardom and bought her the film rights before it even debuted on stage. It was a huge hit.

She chose to sell the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hollywood's number one studio, on the condition that she be the star. As part of the deal, she also received the director of her choice, George Cukor, and picked James Stewartand Cary Grant as co-stars. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) was a critical and commercial success, and it jump-started her Hollywood career. She continued to make periodic returns to the stage (notably as the title character in the 1969 Broadway musical Coco), but Hepburn remained essentially a film actor for the remainder of her career.

Hepburn was also responsible for the development of her next project, the romantic comedy Woman of the Year (George Stevens, 1942), about a political columnist and a sports reporter whose relationship is threatened by her self-centred independence. The idea for the film was proposed to her by Garson Kanin in 1941, who recalled how Hepburn contributed to the script. She presented the finished product to MGM and demanded $250,000—half for her, and half for the authors. Her terms accepted, Hepburn was also given the director and co-star of her choice, George Stevens and Spencer Tracy. Woman of the Year was another success. Critics praised the chemistry between the stars.

Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street (1937)

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2544. Photo: RKO / Generalcine. Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street (George Stevens, 1937). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938)

French postcard in the Collection 'Portraits de Cinema' (4th series, no. 2) by Editions Admira & Chapman Collection / SNAP Photos / Cosmos, no. PHN 662, 1989. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938).

French postcard by A.N., Paris, Paris, no. 996.

French postcard by Edition Chantal, Paris, no. 77. Photo: R.K.O.

French postcard by Viny, no. 2131. Photo: R.K.O.

Dutch postcard by S & v. H., Amsterdam.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 206. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950. Although the postcard was produced in 1950, the photo was taken much earlier, probably for The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940).

An unprecedented fourth Oscar

Katharine Hepburn's stature increased in the following decades as she chalked up such cinematic triumphs as John Huston’s The African Queen (1951), in which she played a missionary who escapes German troops with the aid of a riverboat captain (Humphrey Bogart), and David Lean’s Summertime (1955), a love story set in Venice. Hepburn received an Academy Award nomination for the second year running for her work opposite Burt Lancaster in The Rainmaker (Joseph Anthony, 1956). Again she played a lonely woman empowered by a love affair, and it became apparent that Hepburn had found a niche in playing 'love-starved spinsters' that critics and audiences enjoyed.

After two years away from the screen, Hepburn starred in a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' controversial play Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. She clashed with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz during filming, which culminated with her spitting at him in disgust. The picture was a financial success, and her work as creepy aunt Violet Venable gave Hepburn her eighth Oscar nomination. In Long Day’s Journey into Night (Sidney Lumet, 1962), an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s acclaimed play, Hepburn was cast as a drug-addicted mother, opposite Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards and Dean Stockwell. Long Day's Journey Into Night earned Hepburn an Oscar nomination and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It remains one of her most praised performances.

Katharine Hepburn won a second Academy Award for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967), a dramedy about interracial marriage; a third for The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968), in which she played Eleanor of Aquitaine opposite Peter O'Toole as King Henry II; and an unprecedented fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981), about long-married New Englanders (Hepburn and Henry Fonda). Her 12 Academy Award nominations also set a record, which stood until 2003, when broken by Meryl Streep. In addition, Hepburn appeared frequently on television in the 1970s and 1980s. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her memorable portrayal of Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (Anthony Harvey, 1973), and she won the award for her performance opposite Laurence Olivier in Love Among the Ruins (1975), which reunited her with her favourite director, George Cukor.

Though hampered by a progressive neurological disease, Hepburn was nonetheless still active in the early 1990s, appearing prominently in films such as Love Affair (Glenn Gordon Caron, 1994), which was her last film. At 87 years old, she played a supporting role, alongside Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. It was the only film of Hepburn's career, other than the cameo appearance in Stage Door Canteen (Frank Borzage, 1943), in which she did not play a leading role. Hepburn was married once. In 1928, she wed Philadelphia broker Ludlow Ogden Smith, but the union was dissolved in 1934. While filming Woman of the Year in 1942, she began an enduring intimate relationship with her costar, Spencer Tracy, with whom she would appear in films such as Adam’s Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952); both were directed by George Cukor.

Tracy and Hepburn never married — he was Roman Catholic and would not divorce his wife — but they remained close both personally and professionally until his death in 1967, just days after completing the filming of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Hepburn had suspended her own career for nearly five years to nurse Tracy through what turned out to be his final illness. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Hepburn the top female American screen legend of all time. She wrote several memoirs, including 'Me: Stories of My Life' (1991). Katharine Hepburn died in 2003 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96.

Belgian postcard by Editions L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 1035. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Katharine Hepburn, as Chinese character Jade Tan, in Dragon Seed (Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway, 1944). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Turhan Bey and Katharine Hepburn in Dragon Seed (1944)

Belgian Collectors Card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 159. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Dragon Seed (Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway, 1944) with Turhan Bey.

Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits. Katharine Hepburn in Song of Love (Clarence Brown, 1947).

Paul Henreid and Katharine Hepburn in Song of Love (1947)

Belgian collector card by Kwatta. Photo: M.G.M. Paul Henreid and Katharine Hepburn in Song of Love (Clarence Brown, 1947).

Belgian Collectors Card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Belgian Collectors Card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 110. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 206. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (Miraculously, the card has the same credits as this card).

Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951)

American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 136-208. Photo: The Ludlow Collection. Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (John Huston, 1951).

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

From 21 to 29 June, we're in Italy for Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025, as the festival's website boasts 'the world’s premiere festival dedicated to cinematic masterpieces, timeless classics, and hidden gems'. In other words, pure cinema. This year’s selection promises a wealth of treasures. Among the strands is a small programme called '1905'. For this post, Ivo Blom selected postcards with a link to cinema and to 1905.

Happy New Year! Bonne année! Frohes neues Jahr! Buon anno! 新年快乐! С Новым годом!

French postcard by Edition Bergeret.

Pathé and Gaumont in 1905

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3573. Photo: Film Pathé. This is the final scene from La poule aux oeufs d'or / The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs (Gaston Velle, 1905). Caption: The gold fairy.

La poule aux oeufs d'or /The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs (Gaston Velle, 1905) was adapted from the fable of Jean de la Fontaine. The cinematography and special effects were done by Segundo de Chomón. A poor farmer wins a chicken in the lottery at the fairground. The chicken is an enchanted animal (doing a chicken dance with the other chicken girls), laying big eggs full of money. Thieves whom we already saw 'working' at the fairground, steal rabbits from the farmer. The farmer turns into a rich man, but his wealth is short-lived. The thieves steal an egg, but a bat flies out of it. Another egg contains a devil spitting gold, and it explodes. At night, the thieves witness how the farmer takes an egg to a secret cellar where he cherishes all his gold, despite nightmare visions of staring eyes and grabbing arms. After the thieves have stolen the money, the creditors appear. Desperately, and inspired by a devil, the man slaughters the chicken. He finds a last egg, but an evil witch comes out of it, who sends him to a fairyland. There, the man is led away, after which an apotheosis follows with a dance of chicken girls and fairies, emptying eggs with gold coins.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3662. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from Le Petit Poucet / Hop o'my Thumb (1905). Caption: Here's a game that comes in handy.

Le Petit Poucet / Hop o'my Thumb (1905) was an adaptation of Charles Perrault's famous story of 1697. The film by Pathé was worldwide released, in Spanish-speaking countries as Pulgarito, and in the US as Hop o'my Thumb. The director and actors are unknown. The Spanish film scholar Juan-Gabriel Tharrats claimed the Spanish trick filmmaker Segundo De Chomón (1871-1929), who worked for Pathé in those years, made Le Petit Poucet. French Wikipedia claims the director was Vincent Lorant-Heilbronn. The Fondation Jerôme Seydoux-Pathé, keeper of the Pathé heritage, lists no director at all. The doubt about De Chomón as director is confirmed in the recent volume 'Les mille et un visages de Segundo De Chomón' (2019).

French postcard by Croissant, Paris. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from Au pays noir / Tragedy in a Coal Mine (Ferdinand Zecca or Lucien Nonguet, 1905). Caption: In the mine galleries. This refers to the 5th scene of the film.

Au pays noir / Tragedy in a Coal Mine (Ferdinand Zecca or Lucien Nonguet, 1905) narrates the life of the miner: his life at home, going to work, gathering at the pit and descending, having a break. But then an explosion takes place and water crushes the beams that uphold the galleries, killing the miners. A few manage to escape and withdraw to a higher gallery where the water can reach them only to their middle. They hear their liberators, who finally free them. Outside, gendarmes try to hold the crowd, who, frightened, see the rescuers bringing dead bodies one by one to the ground. When the foreman's dead son is brought to earth, his father explodes with grief and clenches his fist against the murderous mine. The film was partly inspired by Emile Zola's novel, the popular workman's drama 'Germinal' (1885). Ferdinand Zecca had already filmed Germinal in 1903. It is unclear whether Zecca or Lucien Nonguet directed Au pays noir. In 1906, a year after the film, the worst mine disaster of Europe occurred in Courrières, France, when on 10 May 1906, a coal dust explosion killed almost 1100 mine workers.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3664. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from Le chemineau / The Tramp (Albert Capellani, 1905). Caption: Give me some charity.

Le chemineau / The Tramp (Albert Capellani, 1905) is based on the first part of Victor Hugo's novel 'Les misérables'. An exhausted tramp in vain asks for alimony from passers-by. He presents himself at the presbyterium and is hosted by the pastor, who lets him dine at his table and sleep in his bed, sleeping himself in his chair. At night, the tramp sees golden objects that serve as a mass in a cupboard in the bedroom. He sticks them in his bag and secretly sneaks away, trying not to awaken the pastor. Arrested at a jeweller, to whom he tries to sell his loot, the gendarmes bring him back to the pastor. Despite all, the pastor wants to exonerate the miserable man's soul and tells a lie to the gendarmes: I gave the objects myself to him. The thief repents. Unclear is who the actors are, but the sets were designed by Hugues Laurent. The film appeared in the 'Scènes dramatiques et réalistes (8ème Série)' by Pathé.

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3680. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Faust (Alice Guy, ca. 1905). Caption: Remember the past.

Postcard for the phonoscène Gaumont Faust by Alice Guy. The earliest proof of a showing of the film dates from 1905, so the film was produced that year or just before. The captions on the cards refer to lines from the opera libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré for the opera 'Faust' (1859) by Charles Gounod. This card refers to no. 21 of the Fourth Act. The film is not to be confused with Faust et Méphistophéles (1903), also made by Alice Guy, which is another film.

French postcard by Pathé Frères for Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from Rêve des marmitons / The Dream of the Kitchen Staff (Segundo de Chomón, 1905).

In the kitchen of a medieval castle, cooks and kitchen hands fall asleep. In Rêve des marmitons / The Dream of the Kitchen Staff (Segundo de Chomón, 1905), we see mysterious hands which, with the help of big knives, are separated from arms, start to cut the cabbages, carrots and other vegetables. Other hands chalk the menu on a blackboard. Director Segundo de Chomón also created the special effects in this short fantasy.

French postcard by Pathé Frères for Eden Cinema Pathé, Nice. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from Les petits vagabonds / Young Tramps (Lucien Nonguet, 1905).

French postcard by Pathé Frères for Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Film Pathé. Scene from L'inspection du capitaine / The Captain's Inspection (N.N., 1905).

After inspection, the soldiers lie down for a well-earned nap. A drunkard enters the room and disturbs the soldiers, who throw him out. He keeps coming back, and they finally decide to throw water on him, but the captain gets the shower.

5 stage postcards from 1905

French postcard by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey in Paris, where the stage production 'L'Assommoir' was presented from 24 February - 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Caption: The death of Gervaise (Hélène Petit).

In 1879, two years after its publication, Emile Zola's novel 'L'Assommoir'(The Assumption) was adapted for the stage by William Busnach and Octave Gastineau, with the help of Zola. The premiere took place on 18 January 1879 and was a great success. Afterwards, the play was often re-staged, in and outside of France. From 24 February 1905, the play was staged at the Parisian Théâtre Moncey, 50, Avenue de Clichy. The journal La Presse of 26 February 1905 lauded the play and the performances, in the first place by M. Pouctal as Coupeau and Gabrielle Fleury as Gervaise. Yet, this card and all the other ones in the Helmlinger series show a photo from the original 1879 stage adaptation, starring Hélène Petit as Gervaise and Gil Naza as Coupeau. The original photos were made by Nadar.

Danish postcard by Alex. Vincent's Kunstforlag, Neret, no. 1022. Ellen Aggerholm as Käthi in the stage play 'Hans Højhed / His Highness', mailed Flensburg, 10-11-1905. Her partner in the play, playing the Highness of the title, was her husband Svend Aggerholm.

Ellen Aggerholm (1882-1963) was a Danish stage and screen actress, who had many leading parts at the Danish film company Nordisk in the 1910s.

French postcard by Ed Etoile, Paris (G. Piprot), Series N. 867 - Th. 119. Posted 1905.

French dancer and actress Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) was an internationally celebrated - and notorious - star of the early 20th Century. She was famous for her extravagant clothes, jewels and millinery. She had many admirers, most notably King Manuel II of Portugal, and during World War I she reportedly worked as a spy for the French government. Before her tragic early death she also made a series of silent films.

French postcard by S.I.P., no. 854-14. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: (Théâtre de l') Athénée. Sent by mail in Besançon in 1905.
Marthe Marie Aglaé Wary, known as Marcelle Yrven or simply Yrven (1877-1954), was a French stage and screen actress and operetta singer.

French postcard by S.I.P., no. 910, series 8. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. The card was mailed in 1905.

Amélie Diéterle (1871-1941) was one the most beloved actresses and singers of the Belle Epoque, who inspired poets and painters such as Mallarmé and Rodin. Between 1909 and 1913 she acted in some 25 shorts films at Pathé Frères, mostly Rigadin comedies directed by Georges Monca.

Exposition Universelle Liege (1905)

Finally, Ivo selected 3 cards from the 1905 Liege World Fair in Belgium, which took place between 27 April and 6 November 1905. On one of the cards, you can see Wagons-Lits wagons. Film pioneer Jean Desmet is said to have exhibited his fancy new saloon car at the Liege Exhibition at the time. On another card, you can see the Panorama Building, where, among other things, a panorama of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 was displayed. Very topical, then. Pathé and other firms re-enacted the war in their films. The Liège World Fair occupied a territory of 70 square meters, offered room for 29 countries, and had 7 million visitors. People could travel with a specially arranged railway along the pavilions and stands. Typical for its time, part of the French pavilion was a reconstructed Senegalese village, where Africans would dive for pennies thrown in by visitors. As was common at these fairs in the early 20th century, part of the old city centre of Liège was rebuilt, with the cathedral and a model of a coal mine. The Palais des Beaux-Arts, built in the Parc de Boverie for the art exhibition at the World Fair, became an art museum after the Fair, and reopened in 2016 as La Boverie. The Fair also marked the 75 years of Belgium's independence and the 40-year reign of King Leopold II.

Belgian postcard for the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) at Liège/Luik, no. 27. Caption: Intérieur du Palais de la Femme. Local women dressed in folkloristic costumes show old handicrafts like lacemaking. The exhibition of humans at World Fairs was quite common in the early 1900s.

Exposition Universelle Liege (1905). Les Aéroplanes Maxim

Belgian postcard for the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) at Liège/Luik, no 37. Vaption: Les aéroplanes Maxim. Fairs often had fairground attractions too, such as the airplanes here. To the right, the large Panorama building is visible, as well as the Moresque minaret. The name Wijnand / Wynand Fockink refers to one of the oldest - and still running - Amsterdam jenever distillers. The Liège World Fair also had a water chute, an attraction often included in World Fairs.

Exposition Universelle Liege (1905), Wagons-Lits

Belgian postcard for the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) at Liège/Luik, no. 59a. Stand of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens. The coaches also include so-called Wagons-Salons. To receive all the international and national visitors, a new train station was built in Liège, la Gare du Palais, which was destroyed in 1979 to make way for a new underground train station.

We're in Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato from 21 - 29 June. One of the highlights for us is a tribute to Austrian actor-turned-director Willi Forst curated by Lukas Foerster. A consummate craftsman, Forst was a versatile filmmaker who excelled in both dramas and comedies. The Festival website: "His films from the 1930s and 1940s, constituting the most accomplished body of work by any director active in Germany during the Nazi era, reveal a profound, almost obsessive love for music. Far from serving as mere background, music permeates every aspect of his work, shaping the plot, influencing the mise-en-scène, and driving the editing. In a Forst film, a single melody can lead to happiness, despair, or even both simultaneously. Remarkably, Forst largely avoided contamination by National Socialist ideology, preserving in his cinema the urbane and sophisticated spirit of the late Weimar Republic while cultivating a darker, more melancholic worldview uniquely his own."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3149/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis. Willi Forstin Bel Ami (Will Forst, 1939).

Willi Forst (1903-1980) was a darling of the German-speaking public. He was also one of the most significant directors, producers, writers and stars of the Wiener Filme, the light Viennese musical comedies of the 1930s. Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939), loosely based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant, would be his best-known film. He also played the title role, which would be his alter ego from then on. Forst was much courted by the Nazis but succeeded in avoiding overt political statements, concentrating on the light entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war.

Hans Jaray in Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933)

Spanish leaflet by Films Selectos, Suplemento Artistico, no. 176, 24.2.1934. Photo: Cine-Allianz. Hans Jaray in the Biopic Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat (Willi Forst, 1933).

Leise flehen meine Lieder (Willi Forst, 1933 was Forst's first film direction, a Biopic about the life of composer and musician Franz Schubert. Leise flehen meine Lieder was so popular throughout Europe that it was reshot in a British version for the English language market as The Unfinished Symphony (Willi Forst, Anthony Asquith, 1934), also with Austrian actor Hans Jaray in the lead. Forst also wrote the scenario. The co-author of the original was Walter Reisch, who in later Hollywood exile would script Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939) and Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944), and work with Billy Wilder.

Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) in the Rembrandt Theater

Dutch photo. Front of the Rembrandt Theatre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On show was Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat (Willi Forst, 1933). A gift from Roloff de Jeu.

Leise flehen meine Lieder / Gently My Songs Entreat took on the love affair between composer Franz Schubert and the Countess Esterhazy. In Lieder, Hans Jaray starred as Schubert, Luise Ullrich, fresh from Max Ophüls’s Liebelei, was Schubert’s innocent love, future comedic superstar Hans Moser was her father, and Marta Eggerth was the seductive Czardas-dancing countess who disrupts the composer’s life. Robert von Dassamowsky in Senses of Cinema: "The orchestration of image, lighting, music and performance in Lieder suggests a unique personal style that had not been previously seen in the new musical film. The style-cum-genre genre was certainly Viennese from its very roots: theatrical and visual values of the Baroque, the near operatic equality of dialogue and music, and the balanced blending of all aspects of the film into a seamless Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art."

German collector card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 103. Photo: Tobis-Sascha-Film / Ross Verlag. Paula Wessely in Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934).

Distinguished stage actress Paula Wessely played her first major film role as Leopoldine Dur in Forst's second film, the Operetta Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934) alongside Adolf Wohlbrück. Maskerade, set in the Viennese high society of about 1900, was a hit that launched Forst's fame as a significant director and made an instant star of Wessely. The exceptional script of this classic example of the Wiener Film was written by Walter Reisch and directed by Willi Forst. Essential to the visual success of the film was the contribution of director of photography Franz Planer, with his lively and beautifully lit compositions. Maskerade received an award for best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and ultimately proved to be so successful internationally that Hollywood 'borrowed' the story for a new, but less welcomed version entitled Escapade (Robert Z. Leonard, 1935) with Luise Rainer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag / Das Programm von Heute für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Cine-Allianz. Pola Negri in Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935).

Willi Forst rapidly developed himself into a four-way talent, as producer, director, writer and actor in German films. For Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935), he lured Pola Negri back from Hollywood. She played a woman who was put on trial for murdering a predatory musician. The title refers to the Polish folk dance. Mazurka gained much popularity in Germany and became one of Adolf Hitler's favourite films. Warner Bros. acquired the U.S. distribution rights but shelved the film in favour of its own scene-by-scene English language remake, Confession (Joe May, 1937), which starred Kay Francis.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1523/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Willi Forst-Film. Igo Sym in Serenade (Willi Forst, 1937).

In 1937, Will Forst founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film. His first production was the drama Serenade (Willi Forst, 1937), starring Hilde Krahl, Albert Matterstock and Igo Sym. Forst considered a move to Hollywood the same year, but stayed in Vienna. Following Austria’s annexation to Germany in March 1938, Vienna’s film industry was wholly integrated into the structure and ideology of the Third Reich and given a specific cultural mission – the production of lavish musicals, costume dramas and other 'Vienna style' entertainment films for the Reich and its Axis partners. With strong control from Berlin, the new Viennese mega-studio Wien-Film echoed the concept of the Hollywood studio system more closely than had been normal in previous Austrian cinema development. Many Austrian talents at Ufa in Berlin, including Forst, returned home to participate in this new phase of Vienna’s industry.

Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam), no. 1215. Photo: Godfried de Groot.

Austrian actress and singer Lizzi Waldmüller (1904-1945) had her breakthrough to stardom through her role as Rachel in Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939). Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Willi Forst was much courted by the National Socialists but succeeded in avoiding overt political statement, concentrating entirely on the opulent period musical entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand. He changed the brash and ambitious ex-military man of Guy De Maupassant's novel into a likeable bon vivant and charmer in a dress suit. Bel Ami was made on the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War, at a time when Germany's going to war against France was already a very likely prospect. In Nazi Germany, the film industry was closely controlled by the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. While Bel Ami was not conceived as an outright propaganda film, the theme of corruption in the French society and politics - prominently present in the Maupassant original - was well suited to the thrust of Nazi propaganda at the time the film was made.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3169/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wien-Film / Tobis. Trude Marlen in Operette / Operetta (Willi Forst, Karl Hartl, 1940).

Unlike the other directors of Wien-Film, Forst preferred to use relatively untested talent as co-stars, and thus managed to create stardom for several leading ladies: Lizzi Waldmüller, Ilse Werner, and Trude Marlen. Willi Forst directed curly-locked Trude Marlen in Operette / Operetta (Willi Forst, Karl Hartl, 1940), also starring Forst, Maria Holst and Dora Komar. The film was made by Wien-Film. It is the first film in Forst's 'Viennese Trilogy', followed by Wiener Blut / Vienna Blood (1942) and Wiener Mädel / Viennese Girls (1945). The film, a mix of an operetta film and a Wiener Film, portrays the life of Franz Jauner (1832–1900), a leading musical figure in Vienna.

Marte Harell in Frauen sind keine Engel (1943)

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3765/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien-Film. Marte Harell in Frauen sind keine Engel / Women aren't Angels (Willi Forst, 1943).

Forst was an extremely versatile genre filmmaker, who could as easily make a crime film, a contemporary melodrama or a sophisticated comedy. An example is the comedy Frauen sind keine Engel / Women aren't Angels (Willi Forst, 1943) starring Marte Harell, Axel von Ambesser and Margot Hielscher, which was also produced by Wien Film. During the seven-year Nazi rule in Austria, Willi Forst only made six films, none of them political.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 482. Photo: Wesel / Styria / Junge Film Union / Herzog Film. Hildegard Knef in Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950).

Willi Forst had comparatively little success after the war except for the film Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950) starring Hildegard Knef, which became a scandal because of the protests of the Roman Catholic church against its nudity, rare in contemporary German-speaking cinema, but which subsequently attracted an audience of seven million people. The film represented a major shift for Forst, who had previously been known for escapist films, which avoided controversial themes and embraced romanticised settings. Die Sünderin / The Sinner adopted instead a realist perspective, addressing taboo subjects like prostitution and euthanasia, which challenged the moral sensitivities of post-war West German society.

Hildegard Knef in Es geschehen noch Wunder (1951)

German postcard by F.J. Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 81/2. Photo: Junge Film Union / Herzog / Foto Wesel. Hildegard Knef in Es geschehen noch Wunder / Miracles Still Happen (Willi Forst, 1951).

Rebellious, gravel-voiced actress, chanteuse and author Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) was one of the most important film stars of post-war Germany. Despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, Die Sünderin / The Sinner marked a turning point in Knef’s career, after which she appeared in notable Hollywood films such as the War film Decision Before Dawn (Anatole Litvak, 1951) and the romantic adventure film The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Henry King, 1952). Es geschehen noch Wunder / Miracles Still Happen (Willi Forst, 1951) was intended by Forst as a less risqué follow-up to his controversial Die Sünderin / The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1950).

West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden-Westf, no. 2337. Photo: Sascha / Herzog / Michaelis. Günther Philipp in Kaiserjäger / Emperor Hunter (Willi Forst, 1956).

Austrian film actor Gunther Philipp (1918-2003) appeared in 147 mostly German films and TV productions, mainly in comic roles, like as Leutnant der Reserve Otto Schatz in Kaiserjäger / Emperor Hunter (Willi Forst, 1956). The film didn't revitalise Willi Forst's career. The following year, Forst directed his final film, after which he retired from the industry. IMDb cites him saying: "My style is no longer in demand: I go off, a little bit battered, but in proud greatness à la [Greta Garbo]. It is better to go than to be asked to go." Forst is today considered one of Europe's important early sound directors. In his study, Willi Forst. Ein filmkritisches Porträt', Italian film historian Francesco Bono notes that Forst's last film, Wien, die Stadt meiner Träume (1957), is more than a superficial narrative. It is a film that exposes the superficial, fictional image of Vienna promoted by Austrian cinema of the 1950s precisely as an illusion. That Vienna of your dreams exists only in film.'

Sources: Robert von Dassanowsky (Senses of Cinema), Ivo Blom (review 'Willi Forst. Ein filmkritisches Porträt' in TMG Online, 2011), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

A milestone of visual flair and virtuosity in American cinema, the career of Lewis Milestone – a Russian Jewish émigré – bridged silent cinema and the 70mm spectacles of the 1960s. Milestone is the subject of one of the programmes of Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht. Renowned for having one of the most distinctive and eclectic styles of his generation, his popular and dazzlingly original work ranged from the anti-war magnum opus All Quiet on the Western Front to the popular-front musical Hallelujah, I’m a Bum. As dense, dark, and daunting as his films could get, they were often laced with wit, camaraderie, and bravery amid mass atrocities. Yet, he barely survived the Hollywood blacklist, which forced him to drift into mediocre assignments. This programme, covering his silent films up until the blacklist, features new restorations and archive prints, aiming to recover the artistry of a man who fought many battles of humanity in the 20th Century with a sense of wisdom and poetry that can still shake us.

Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 65. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis Jr. in the American WWI, anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.

Emil Jannings and Esther Ralston in Betrayal (1929)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4323/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings and Esther Ralston in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929).

Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (1931)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5909/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (1948)

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).

Taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches

Lewis Milestone was born Lev Milstein in 1895 in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire, now Chisinau, Moldova. ‘Milly’ was the son of a wealthy, distinguished clothing manufacturer. He was raised in Odessa in Ukraine. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early age. Milstein's family discouraged his desire to follow the dramatic arts, and dispatched him to Germany to study engineering.

However, he started his career as a prop man and background artist. To escape being drafted into the Russian army during World War I, he travelled to the US in 1913 with $6.00 in his pocket. He had a succession of odd jobs, such as a dishwasher and a photographer's assistant. Shortly after the US entered World War I in 1917, he joined the Army Signal Corps to make educational short films for U.S. troops. After the war, he acquired American citizenship and legally changed his surname to Milestone.

An acquaintance from the Signal Corps, Jesse D. Hampton, now an independent film producer, secured Milestone an entry-level position as an assistant editor in Hollywood. Milestone quickly worked his way up the ranks to become editor, assistant director and writer. In 1920, he was chosen as general assistant to director Henry King at Pathé Exchange. Milestone's first credited work was as assistant on King's film Dice of Destiny (Henry King, 1920). He worked as editor for director-producer Thomas Ince, was general assistant and co-author on film scripts by William A. Seiter and worked as a gag writer for comedian Harold Lloyd.

These experiences would greatly influence his directing style in the years to come. Milestone directed his first film, Seven Sinners (1925), with Marie Prevost, for Howard Hughes. Two years later, he won his first of two Academy Awards for the comedy Two Arabian Knights (1927) starring William Boyd, Mary Astor, and Louis Wolheim. He received his second Oscar for his masterpiece, the anti-war picture All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

I.S. Mowis at IMDb: “The film, universally praised by reviewers for its eloquence and integrity, also won the Best Picture Academy Award that year. A noted Milestone innovation was the use of cameras mounted on wooden tracks, giving his films a more realistic and fluid, rather than static, look. Other trademarks associated with his pictures were taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches.” Milestone must be credited with a quirky sense of humour: when the producer of All Quiet on the Western Front, Carl Laemmle Jr., demanded a 'happy ending' for the picture, Milestone telephoned, "I've got your happy ending. We'll let the Germans win the war".

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4324/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929). Jannings' final Hollywood film is thought to be lost.

Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 66. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930).

Owen Davis jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Owen Davis Jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930). Owen Davis Jr. played Peter in the film. Croeze-Bosman was a Dutch film distribution company, founded in 1926 as a continuation of the Dutch American Film Co., a subsidiary of Universal.

A history of being ‘difficult’

In the 1930s, Lewis Milestone directed the Screwball comedy The Front Page (1931) with Adolphe Menjou, the melodrama Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford, based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham, the bravura adventure-melodrama The General Died at Dawn (1936), and an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1939) with Lon Chaney Jr. as the childlike Lennie Small and Burgess Meredith as his keeper George Milton.

Milestone was troubled by film directors' declining control within the studio system and supported King Vidor's proposal to organise a filmmakers' cooperative. Supporters for a Screen Directors Guild included Frank Borzage, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian and William Wellman, among others. By 1938, the guild was incorporated, representing 600 directors and assistant directors.

Milestone had a history of being ‘difficult’. He clashed with Howard Hughes, Warner Brothers and a host of studio executives over various contractual and artistic issues. Nonetheless, he remained constantly employed and worked for most of the major studios at one time or another, though never on long-term contracts. In 1949, he was blacklisted for a year because of left-wing affiliations dating back to the 1930s. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was desperately trying to find ‘Communist subversion’ in Hollywood films. Milestone was not required to testify before the HUAC because he began making films abroad, in both Britain and Italy, but these films were not successful.

Milestone's final years as a filmmaker correspond to the decline of the Hollywood movie empire. His last three films were Hollywood productions with large budgets, but he had a bad time on all of them. Gregory Peck re-edited Pork Chop Hill (1959), which he co-produced. Frank Sinatra and his 'Rat Pack' seem to have largely ignored him on the set of Ocean's Eleven (1960). His career ended with the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). He replaced Carol Reed as director after Reed quit because he could not cope with the massive ego of the film's star, Marlon Brando. Milestone didn't find Brando any easier to work with and in the end let him do as he pleased. The result was a hugely expensive box-office failure.

Milestone was then scheduled to direct PT 109 (1963) starring Cliff Robertson and Robert Culp, a film about President John F. Kennedy's wartime adventures, but he was replaced by TV director Leslie H. Martinson. After that, Milestone seems to have given up on films, although he directed a few television series episodes, an experience he did not enjoy. Having suffered a stroke, Lewis Milestone spent the last ten years of his life confined to a wheelchair. He died in 1980, after surgery at the University of California Medical Centre in Los Angeles. He died five days before his 85th birthday. Milestone was married to actress Kendall Lee from 1936 till her death in 1978.

Tullio Carminati in Paris in Spring (1935)

British postcard. Photo: Paramount. Tullio Carminati in Paris in Spring / Paris Love Song (Lewis Milestone, 1935).

Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper in The General Died at Dawn (1936)

British postcard in the Film Partners series, no. P 214. Photo: Paramount. Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper in The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936).

Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 176. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).

Belgian postcard, no. 152. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Peter Lawford in Kangaroo (Lewis Milestone, 1952).

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025 is much more than countless film screenings. Today, there are two workshops which include presentations on the British Film Institute (BFI)’s silent antiquity prints with screenings of substantial clips. The workshops have been organised by the members of the University College London research project Museum of Dreamworlds: Prof. Maria Wyke (UCL), Dr. Ivo Blom (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), Dr. Aylin Atacan (UCL) and Bryony Dixon (silent film curator, BFI), in collaboration with Eye Filmmuseum and other partner archives. The project (2023-2027) focuses on the paradoxically close relationship between the modern medium of silent cinema and the distant worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. Film prints and film-related materials from the collection of the British Film Institute are used as a point of departure, and the researchers compare them with relevant films and film-related objects surviving in other archives. The first workshop focuses on martyrs in early silent films with themes like Martyrdom Italian style, Martyrdom American style, and Martyrdom: gender & irreligion. For this post at EFSP, Ivo Blom selected his favourite postcards of silent film martyrs.

Italian postcard by Ed. E. Sborgi, Firenze. Art work by A. Del Senno. 'Çristiani al martirio'.The composition is a mirrored version of Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting 'The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer'.

Still from Quo vadis (1913), used to promote the 1924 version

Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, La Fotominio, no. 166. Phoyo: Cines. Still from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), used to promote the 1924 version directed by Gabriellino D'Annunzio and Georg Jacoby for U.C.I. Caption: The spectacles at the Circus Maximus. Depicted are the lions about to attack the Christian martyrs, to the sensation of the Roman public. The arena scenes from the 1913 version were so spectacular that they were re-inserted in various later films on Roman Antiquity. This particular image cites a well-known 19th-century painting: 'The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer' (1883, Walters Art Museum) by the French 'archaeologist' painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Scene from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), adapted from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Caption: The Christians were exposed to the beasts at the circus.

Livio Pavanelli in Fabiola, Sebastian hosting a Christian refugee

Spanish postcard for Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 8, no. 14. Photo: Palatino Film. Livio Pavanelli as St. Sebastiano in Fabiola(Enrico Guazzoni, 1918), hosting the blind Cecilia (Valeria Sanfilippo) on the request of the young Pancrazio (unknown).

Livio Pavanelli and Amleto Novelli in Fabiola (1918)

Spanish postcard for Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 8, no. 16. Photo: Palatino Film. Livio Pavanelli as St. Sebastiano and Amleto Novelli as Fulvio in Fabiola (Enrico Guazzoni, 1918).

The ultimate Antichrist

In the early history of Christianity, Christian martyrs were tortured or killed by stoning, decapitation, crucifixion, death at the stake, or massacre by wild animals in the arena. Initially, martyrdom in Christianity denoted the endurance of sacrifice, hardship and physical privation to honour God, but later the term was applied to refer almost exclusively to Christians who were killed for their faith.

The first Christian martyrs ever were the apostles of Jesus, except for John, who died in exile. The period of early Christianity before the reign of Constantine is considered the ‘era of the martyrs’. The conventional setting of their stories is that of places of secret Eucharistic celebrations mostly at the Roman catacombs and conventionally they would wave palm branches, while early Christians would make secret signs to each other such as an emblem of a fish, even if 19th c. literature and early 20th c. films already indicate these signs were quickly picked up by their persecutors too.

Often in 19th c. literature featuring Christian martyrs such as 'Quo vadis?' by Henryk Sienkiewicz and 'Fabiola by Cardinal Wiseman, personal dealings like rejection and revenge lead to persecution of either the Christian protagonist, as in the martyrdom of saints like Cecilia or Sebastian, or even all Christians in Rome, as in 'Quo vadis?' and 'Fabiola'.

While in novels like 'Quo vadis?', Nero is presented as the ultimate Antichrist and debauched persecutor of the Christians, history has made clear that persecution of the Christians has been much more drastic under later emperors like Diocletian. Yet, in Arrigo Boito’s opera 'Nerone' of 1924, posthumously premiered as Boito already died in 1918, the reputation of Nero as persecutor of the Christians still prevails, and this of course also goes for the 1924 remake of the film Quo vadis/, in which Emil Jannings stars as the ultimate evil emperor, reminding us of the Nero’s of our own times.

According to the Catholic Catechism, the figure of the martyr is antithetical to that of the apostate, that is, the one who has betrayed the faith. Martyrs are honoured as saints or blessed, and through prayers, services and Eucharistic celebrations, their day of death is commemorated. This cult of martyrs is one of the forms of private and public expression of the Christian faith, rooted already in the first communities that had to confront their new doctrines first with the Jewish tradition and then with the Roman imperial tradition. Yet, it is in particular in more recent centuries that martyrdom in Roman Antiquity was presented to show good examples of strength, virtue, persistence, faith and self-denial, to inspire contemporary audiences to behave in the same way.

French postcard by RA, no. 109. Photo: A. Bert. Ida Rubinstein in 'Le Martyr de St. Sebastien' (1911). Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960) was a Russian-Ukrainian ballerina of the Ballets Russes, choreographer, actress and Maecenas from the Belle Epoque. After Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes, she founded her own dance company, the Ballet Ida Rubinstein, and had immediate success with 'Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien' (1911), with music by Claude Debussy, text by Gabriele D'Annunzio, and choreography by Michel Fokine and sets and costumes by Léon Bakst.

British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 3208 A. Photo: W. & D. Downey, London. Publicity for the stage play 'The Sign of the Cross' (Wilson Barrett, 1895), starring Wilson Barrett as Marcus Superbus and Maud Jeffries as Mercia. The Rotary cards on 'The Sign of the Cross' are probably early 1900s. Caption: Mercia: A sign the master has spoken: you cannot harm me now. The play was a huge success in the US and UK and elsewhere and would be turned into two major films in 1914 and in 1932.

Mounet-Sully and others in Polyeucte (Cauterets)

French postcard. Mounet-Sully, Albert Lambert, Louis Delaunay, Louis Ravet and Mlle Lucie Brille in the stage play 'Polyeucte' by Pierre Corneille, staged at the Théâtre de la Nature in Cauterets on 11 or 12 August 1906. Mounet-Sully played Polyeucte, Lambert Severus, and Brille Pauline. The play is based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus.

French postcard by Mazet-Pons, Béziers. A performance in the Arènes de Béziers, France, a theatre in summertime of 'Héliogabale' (1910). The Prayer of the Christians.

French postcard. 'L'Aube Chrétienne', by L'Avant-garde Caennaise. This was a local play, performed at Caen, France, in April 1912. Caption: Combat de Gladiateurs. NB The helmets look more like 16th-century Spanish helmets, while the shirts and shoes don't look very Roman either. This goes to confirm that every century, every decade and every region makes its own vision of Antiquity.

L'orto cristiano, Act III of the opera Nerone by Boito)

Italian postcard by Ed. G. Zoboli, Bologna. Scene from the opera 'Nerone' (1924) by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918). 'Nerone' premiered posthumously at La Scala on May 1, 1924, conducted by Arturo Toscanini in a version of the score completed by Toscanini, Vincenzo Tommasini, and Antonio Smareglia. The role of Nero, originally intended for Francesco Tamagno, was first performed by Aureliano Pertile. Act III: The Christian garden.

Recycling sets and props like ‘Roman’ furniture or fake statuettes

Sometimes these early martyrdoms were presented in art in more chaste versions, as happened during the Counter-Reformation in still Baroque, opulent versions, towards the late 18th century, in more austere versions. Yet, also in more explicit, shocking versions as in late 19th c. academic art, such as Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 'The Return of the Felines', showing the remains of the slaughtered martyrs, or Léon Bonnat’s 'Martyrdom of St. Denis', with the saint looking for his head after his decapitation.

Particularly active in the field of representing early martyrdom was the organisation Maison de la Bonne Presse in Paris, which, in addition to many written texts like its own books and journals, around 1900 released several lantern slides on the martyrdom of saints like Cecilia and Tarcisius. Selections were afterwards also turned into a postcard series. Bonne Presse also made a few films within this genre. Yet, the mainstay of martyrdom in early cinema was produced by French and Italian cinema, in particular by the companies Pathé Frères in Paris and Cines in Rome.

Remarkable in this respect is what today we would indicate as ‘sustainable’, as these early companies often recycled parts of sets as well as props like ‘Roman’ furniture or fake statuettes copied from classical museum objects in various films, or even within multiple sets within the same film. Like in literature, in early cinema too, early martyrdom is often provoked by jealous and vengeful suitors, rejected by the Christian hero or heroin.

In some cases, such as the two leads in 'Quo vadis?', they manage to escape persecution by fleeing from Rome, but both protagonists and secondary characters often perish because of the ‘pagan’ hatred against them and the cold, indifferent attitude of the mob and the elite. Yet, as in the play and later film adaptations of 'The Sign of the Cross', some non-Christian protagonists have a love for their Christian beloved that is stronger than fear of death, and voluntarily select to die with their beloved in the arena.

Such was the urge to insert Christian messages in sources previously not connected with it, that in 1910 the opera/ drama 'Héliogabale' by Emile Sicard had an important element of Christian martyrdom as well.

French postcard in the Collection Artistique de la Maison de la Bonne Presse, Paris. The martyrdom of St. Cecilia, set in Roman Antiquity, was a beloved subject in late 19th and early 20th-century Catholic visuals, including a film by the Roman Cines company, Cines: Santa Cecilia (Enrique Santos, 1911), starring Fernanda Negri Pouget.

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Gloria Film. Scene from Nerone e Agrippina (Mario Caserini, 1914), starring Vittorio Rossi Pianelli as Nerone and Maria Caserini as Agrippina. Caption: Persecution of the Christians in the arena.

Italian postcard by Argentografica. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924), based on the classic novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Nero's human torches in his gardens.

Ramon Novarro, Claire McDowell, May McAvoy and Kathleen Key in Ben-Hur (1925)

French postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Ramon Novarro, Claire McDowell, May McAvoy and Kathleen Key in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 176/12. Photo: Paramount. Elissa Landi in the American epic The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932), based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett.

Workshops 'Silent Antiquity Prints Unique to the British National Film Archive', Wednesday 25 June 2025, 15:00 – 16:30 & 17:00 – 18:30, Aula Seminari, DAMsLab, Piazzetta P. P. Pasolini 5/b, 40122 Bologna.

Once again, Il Cinema Ritrovato offers a selection of classics and rarities made or released in 1925, the year that marked the 30th anniversary of the birth of cinema. The year saw the emergence of future big-name auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, and Josef von Sternberg, whose 1925 debut features will all be showcased in the programme, curated by Oliver Hanley. Alongside undisputed masterpieces such as Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike or Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Master of the House, the programme will feature comparatively lesser-known gems, all with live musical accompaniment. For EFSP, Ivo Blom made a selection of 25 postcards of international films that premiered in 1925.

French postcard, no. 3.59. Andrée Rolane as Cosette in Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925).

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 49. Photo: Ruth Harriet Louise / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tom O'Brien,John Gilbert, and Karl Dane in The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925), released in Italy as Grande Parata / La grande parata.

Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in La cavalcata ardente

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Westi. SAIC. Soava Gallone and Emilio Ghione in the Italian historical film La cavalcata ardente / The Fiery Cavalcade (Carmine Gallone 1925).

German postcard with Dutch imprint by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 36/10. Photo: Emelka Konzern. Himansu Rai in Prem Sanyas / Die Leuchte Asiens / The Light of Asia (Franz Osten, Himansu Rai, 1925).

Sergei Eisenstein at the set of Stachka (1925)

Soviet postcard by Izdatelʹstvo 'Planeta' Fabrika Fotopečati, Moscow, no. 32, 1978. This postcard was printed in an edition of 25.000 cards. The price was 8 kop. Caption: Sergei Eisenstein on the set of Stachka / Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925). Scenes from Stachka / Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 133/3. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Messala (Francis X. Bushman) and Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) during the famous chariot race in the American silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925). Mark how the tribunes are empty and the upper part of the circus is missing (it was projected into the film using a hanging model).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3677/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Rudolph Valentino and Louise Dresser in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925).

British postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3658/4, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks is wearing the outfit from Don Q, Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp, 1925).

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 440. Photo: Sascha. Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925).

Dutch poster by Frans Bosen for The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) with Lon Chaney.

Mary Pickford in Little Annie Rooney (1925)

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, no. 680. Photo: United Artists. Mary Pickford in Little Annie Rooney (William Beaudine, 1925), released in Italy as Piccola Anna.

Mae Murray and John Gilbert in The Merry Widow

French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma Series, by A.N., Paris, no. 369. Mae Murray (the trema is a mistake) and John Gilbert as the romantic couple, Sally O'Hara and Prince Danilo, inThe Merry Widow (Erich von Stroheim, 1925). The film was a huge success.

Werner Krauss in Die Freudlose Gasse (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Sofar-Film-Produktion. Werner Krauss in Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925).

Lil Dagover in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 25/4. Photo: Ufa. Lil Dagover in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus / The Chronicle of the Gray House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925).

Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Kosar (1925)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar / Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 48/2. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in the German silent film Ein Walzertraum / The Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), based on the Oscar Straus operetta.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 700/1. Photo: Kulturabteilung der UFA. Publicity still for Kampf um die Scholle / Struggle for the Soil (Erich Waschneck, 1925) here probably with Gustav Oberg as Freiherr von Wulfshagen.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 24/9. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit / Ways to Strength and Beauty (Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Caption: Alt-Griechisches Gymnasion (Old Greek Gymnasium). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1006/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Stein. Asta Nielsen in Hedda Gabler (Franz Eckstein, 1925), based on the play by Henrik Ibsen.

French postcard by Editions Jacques Haïk. Photo Combier Mâcon. Gaston Jacquet in Le Bossu / The Duke's Motto (Jean Kemm, 1925).

French postcard. Publicity still for the French rural drama La Brière (Léon Poirier, 1924). Caption: The home of Aoustin (José Davert). In the back are his wife (Jeanne Marie-Laurent) and daughter Théotiste (Laurence Myrga).

Yugoslav postcard by Jos. Caklovic, Zagreb, no. 75. Photo: Mosinger Film, Zagreb. Jaque Catelain in Le prince charmant / Prince Charming (Viktor Tourjansky, 1925).

British Postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 39A. Photo: Ivor Novello in The Rat (Graham Cutts, 1925).

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in La bocca chiusa (1925)

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, 397. Photo: SAIC. Lido Manetti and Maria Jacobini in the Italian silent drama La bocca chiusa / The Closed Mouth (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

Bartolomeo Pagano in Maciste all'inferno (1926)

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

We're still in Italy and enjoy Il Cinema Ritrovato (21 June-29 June 2025). In the section One Hundred Years Ago: 1925, Alfred Hitchcock's debut film will be showcased in the programme. The sensational The Pleasure Garden (1925) tells the story of two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. Glamorous American star Virginia Valli played the lead. The male star was 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. 54b.

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

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. 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.

Virginia Valli. British postcard. The frame is similar to those of Beagles and Lilywhite. The name is scratched away but this could be a photo by Autrey.

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 halfway 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. 54. Photo: Mills.

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

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 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 starring Janette Scott and Oliver Reed. Stuart only played bit roles in these films. 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, author and journalist Jonathan Croall published 'Forgotten Stars: My Father and the British Silent Film World' (2013) a book about the English screen idols of the 1920s.

British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London, no. 2.

Trailer The Pleasure Garden (1925). Source: BFI films (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

In Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025's tribute to Willi Forst, one of the highlights is the musical Frauen sind keine Engel / Women Are No Angels (1943) starring Marte Harell. Her co-star in this film was Axel von Ambesser (1910-1988) who became one of the best-known actors, directors and writers of post-war Germany.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3688/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wesel / Berlin Film.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3251/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick / Ufa.

Two men with identical names and a shared fate

Axel von Ambesser was born Axel Eugen Alexander von Oesterreich in Hamburg, Germany in 1910. Following the advice of his father, a merchant originally hailing from St. Petersburg, he changed his name to 'Axel von Ambesser'.

Although, not classically trained as an actor, the theatre-crazy Ambesser was given parts at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. He worked from 1930 on as a stage actor in Germany and Austria, often cast as the young hero, charming suitor and comic relief. From 1936 to 1941 he was a company member of the prestigious Deutsche Theater in Berlin.

He made his film debut with a small part in Der Gefangene des Königs/The King's Prisoner (Carl Boese, 1935). In the next years followed successful productions like Salonwagen E 417 / Lounge Car E 417 (Paul Verhoeven, 1939), Das Herz der Königin / The Heart of a Queen (Carl Froelich, 1940) starring Zarah Leander, and Frauen sind keine Engel / Women Are No Angels (Willi Forst, 1943) with Marte Harell.

Das Mädchen Juanita / The Girl Juanita (Wolfgang Staudte, 1945) could not be finished because of the end of World War II. It was edited with material from the archives and released in West Germany in 1952. In 1944 Wolfgang Staudte shot another film with Von Ambesser called Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl / The Man Whose Name Was Stolen. This satire was finished, but didn't pass the censorship and parts of it seemed to be lost in the war.

After the war, Staudte once again undertook to film the story. As he used Von Ambesser again, it is believed that parts of the 1944 film were used, and other sequences were re-shot three years later. Die seltsamen Abenteuer des Herrn Fridolin B. / The Adventures of Fridolin was finally released in March 1948. It is a witty dry comedy about two men with identical names, who for some strange reason have been listed by the official bureaucracy as one. So they obviously have to share each other's fate to some extent. According to Filmportal.de, Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl / The Man Whose Name Was Stolen has been rediscovered, almost 70 years after the film was made.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3820/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Hämmerer / Wien Film.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. 874. Photo: N.W.-luse / Herzog-Film / Sandmann. Axel von Ambesser in Drei, von denen man spricht / Three of which we speak (Axel von Ambesser, 1953).

The German voice of Charlie Chaplin

After the war, Axel von Ambesser was an ensemble member at the Münchner Kammerspiele before he became a freelancing actor in the late 1940s. He also started writing and directing, and in some cases, he directed himself as the lead of his own plays.

In the cinema, he acted in Tanzende Sterne / Dancing Stars (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) and Gustav Adolfs Page / Gustav Adolph's Page (Rolf Hansen, 1960), or was a commentator in Kommen Sie am Ersten / Come on First (Erich Engel, 1951) and Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein / Operation Caviar (Géza von Radványi, 1961) starring O.W. Fischer.

His voice was the ‘German voice’ of Charlie Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947). Von Ambesser also wrote the German translation for this film. In the 1950s he often worked as a writer for stage, cabaret, film and television and was even the ‘most played of the living authors of the German language’. In 1953, he made his debut as a film director with the comedy Drei, von denen man spricht / Three of Which We Speak. He directed hits like Der Pauker / The Crammer (1958) and Der brave Soldat Schwejk / The Good Soldier Schweik (1960) based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek, both starring Heinz Rühmann.

Schwejk won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Other popular films were his Der Gauner und der liebe Gott / The Crook and the Cross (1960) starring Gert Fröbe, Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (1962) starring Liselotte Pulver and the Father-Brown-detective Er kanns nicht lassen / He Can't Stop (1962) again starring Heinz Rühmann. His last work for the cinema was Die fromme Helene / The Pious Helene (1965), for which he worked as a director, writer as well as an actor. From the mid-1960s on, he worked for television.

In the early 1980s, Axel von Ambesser mostly retired from TV but continued to work in the theatre. In 1985, he published his memoirs, and was awarded the Filmband in Gold, for his 'continued outstanding individual contributions to the German film over the years'. Axel von Ambesser died in 1988. He was married to actress Inge von Oesterreich-Ambesser from 1935 till his death. His daughter Gwendolyn von Ambesser works like her father both as a director, author and actress.

Bruni Löbel in Drei, von denen man spricht (1953)

West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 834. Photo: Neue Wiener Filmproduktion / Lux Film / Herzog Film / Lothar Sandmann. Bruni Löbel in Drei, von denen man spricht / Three To Talk About (Axel von Ambesser, 1953).

Gert Fröbe in Der Gauner und der Lieber Gott (1960)

German collector card in the Unsere Bambi-Lieblinge Series by Penny-Bildbände, no. 41. Photo: Gert Fröbe in Der Gauner und der Lieber Gott / The Crook and the Cross (Axel von Ambesser, 1960).

Letícia Román in Heirate mich, Chérie (1964)

German postcard by Kolibri, no. 2264. Photo: Sascha Film / Gloria Film / Gruber. Letícia Román in Heirate mich, Chérie / Marry Me, Cherie (Axel von Ambesser, 1964).

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

We're following the world’s premier festival dedicated to cinematic masterpieces, timeless classics, and hidden gems: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025 in Bologna. As every edition, the programme includes such strands as Documents and Documentaries, Cinemalibero, 1905, Il Cinema Ritrovato Kids and Young, and Recovered and Restored. One of the recovered and restored films is the Italian silent drama La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (1915), starring Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard. Director Mario Caserini adapted a script by Amleto Palermi for his own company, Films Caserini. Cinematography was by Angelo Scalenghe. The film was discovered and restored in the silent film collection of the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Films Caserini. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (Mario Caserini, 1915).

Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte (1915)

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 5. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

The last show of the famous Amazon of the Circus Continental

The Marchioness Servent (Maria Caserini-Gasperini) has two sons, the man of the world and globetrotter Roberto (Mario Bonnard) and Gualtiero (Gian Paolo Rosmino), who has always lived with his mother.

To finish his studies, Gualtiero moves to Rome, where he meets Sarah (Leda Gys), the famous amazon of the Circus Continental. He falls in love with her.

Roberto is sent by his mother to fetch Gualtiero. In Rome, he casually meets Sarah and spends an evening with her, not knowing that the woman is his brother's lover. Gualtiero surprises them and makes a scene. Their mother convinces Gualtiero to leave the city with her.

Roberto, who has stayed in Rome, begins to see Sarah. He also falls in love with her and goes on tour with the circus. Yet, Sarah is soon bored with him and forgets him in the arms of a new conquest. Roberto duels with the new lover but is seriously wounded. Sarah visits him in the hospital with a 'court' of admirers. Roberto, trying to get up, reopens the wound and bleeds to death.

At the Circus Continental, the last show of Sarah's Pantomime of Death takes place. In the act, Sarah is shot with a blank by an assistant during a beast hunt. The shot that goes off is not a blank, and Sarah doesn't rise anymore. Gualtiero has replaced the assistant and killed her for real. The circus audience does not realise the tragedy that has unfolded before their eye and applauds frantically.

Leda Gys and Mario Bonard in La pantomima della morte (1915)

French postcard, no. 7467. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (Mario Caserini, 1915).

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 1. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Burned by the flame of sensuality

La pantomima della morte / The pantomime of death (1915) was praised by the critic Guêpe in the Neapolitan film journal La Cine-Fono in 1916.

Guêpe also hads some critical comments: "With just the fascination of her beauty, without any of those terrible dramatic switches in which a vulgar adventuress changes into a person of tragedy, Sarah destroys the two young men and the beautiful lives of the marquis of Servent, bringing them only death and destruction, while she is burned by the flame of sensuality with which she imprisons the other two.

It is the destiny of these rather fantasy-like women to die by the hand of those whom they have transformed into their own instruments of lust."

The critic thought Bonnard and Gys, even if well performing, could have done better, but at the same time admits that this conforms to the taste of the audience, which otherwise would be deluded. What starts as a real artwork thus becomes popular drama, in which the close-ups are all for the wonderful shapes of the protagonist, Leda Gys.

Leda Gys (1892-1957) starred in ca. 60 dramas, comedies, action thrillers and even Westerns of the Italian and Spanish silent cinema. Her claim to fame came with the film Christus (1916), shot in Egypt and Palestine, where Gys performed the Madonna. Mario Bonnard, a.k.a. Mario Bonard (1889-1965) was an Italian actor and director, whose rich career spanned from 1909 to the early 1960s.

Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomime della morte (1915)

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 2. Leda Gys and Mario Bonnard in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Spanish collector card by Edics. y Publics. de Arte L. Planas, Barcelona, no. 3. Leda Gys in La pantomima della morte / The Pantomime of Death (Mario Caserini, 1915). The Spanish release title was La pantomima de la muerte.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, Vol. 1917, II - Italian) Wikipedia (Italian and IMDb. With thanks to Elif Rongen-Kaynakci.

Paula Raymond (1924-2003) was an American model and actress who played the leading lady in numerous films and television series. In 1950, she was put under contract by MGM, where she acted opposite leading men such as Cary Grant and Dick Powell. She is probably best remembered for one of the first atomic monster movies, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she appeared in countless episodes of TV series.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 946. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Paula Raymond and Paul Hubschmid in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Spanish postcard. Paula Raymond and Paul Hubschmid as Paul Christian in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953).

B Film Noirs at Columbia

Paula Raymond was born Paula Ramona Wright in 1924 in San Francisco, California. Her father was a corporate lawyer. She was the niece of Farnsworth Wright, the editor of pulp magazine 'Weird Tales'. After her parents divorced, Raymond and her mother moved to Los Angeles. As a child, Raymond studied ballet, piano, and singing. She was a member of both the San Francisco Opera Company and the San Francisco Children's Opera Company.

By chance, she made her film debut at age 14 during a visit to Los Angeles. She was credited as Paula Rae Wright in the comedy Keep Smiling (Herbert I. Leeds, 1938), starring Jane Withers. Four years later, she graduated from Hollywood High School in 1942. Following graduation, she returned to San Francisco to attend college to study pre-law. Her attorney father wanted his only child to follow in his footsteps.

She also worked with two theatre groups there. Before she became an actress, Raymond was a photographer's model. Her work included posing for the cover of True Confessions magazine. In 1944, she gave up her acting ambitions when she hastily married Marine Captain Floyd Patterson, while he was on leave from the war in the Pacific.

Two years later, they divorced and, to support her young daughter Raeme, Raymond returned to Hollywood to take bit parts under the name of Rae Patterson. Although contracted to Paramount in 1947, she was released without working there. She appeared in films like the musical comedy Variety Girl (George Marshall, 1947) starring Mary Hatcher.

In 1947, she was signed by Columbia, where, as Paula Raymond, she spent two years appearing in B-movies, including the Film Noir Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948), starring Edward G. Robinson, and several Westerns such as Challenge Of The Range (Ray Nazarro, 1949), starring Charles Starrett. She was discovered by George Cukor when she played a guest role on the early TV drama The Million Pound Bank Note (1949). Cukor gave her a minor role in the Spencer Tracy / Katharine Hepburn vehicle Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949).

Vintage postcard, no. 731. Photo: M.G.M.

One of the first atomic monster movies

In 1950, Paula Raymond was put under contract by MGM, where she played opposite Cary Grant in the drama Crisis (Richard Brooks, 1950), and with Robert Taylor in the Western Devil's Doorway (Anthony Mann, 1950).

Ronald Bergan in his obituary of Raymond in The Guardian: "It looked as though Raymond, a striking brunette, might break into real stardom. Certainly in the former, the first feature by Richard Brooks, she is delightfully cool as she accompanies her brain surgeon husband (Grant) to a South American country, where the dictator (José Ferrer) needs an operation. Caught up in a revolution, the couple want to return to New York, where the chic Raymond would rather do some shopping."

After leaving MGM, Raymond appeared in the film for which she is probably best remembered, one of the first atomic monster movies, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953) with Paul Christian aka Paul Hubschmid. In this Science-Fiction cult classic, she appeared as a palaeontologist who links several sea and beach disasters to a prehistoric creature on the loose as a result of an atomic test. She provided a little glamour and romance in a picture where the actors were secondary to Ray Harryhausen's special effects.

Raymond acted in Film Noirs such as City That Never Sleeps (John H. Auer, 1953) with Gig Young, Mala Powers and Marie Windsor. In 1954, she starred as Queen Berengaria in King Richard and the Crusaders (David Butler, 1954), starring Rex Harrison. She also starred in the Western The Gun That Won the West (William Castle, 1955).

Raymond also did some work for Paramount Pictures using the screen name Rae Patterson. By 1955, she had become a 'has-been' by Hollywood standards and Raymond left the industry and worked in several jobs under a variation of her married name. But in 1958, she returned to acting and became part of the television renaissance. In the late 1950s, Raymond appeared in such television shows as Perry Mason (1959-1964, five episodes), Hawaiian Eye (1959-1962, five episodes), M Squad (1958-1960, three episodes) with Lee Marvin, 77 Sunset Strip (1959-1964, four episodes), Peter Gunn (1958) and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1959).

Vintage card. Photo: M.G.M.

A car crash on Sunset Boulevard

During the early 1960s, Paula Raymond played opposite Jack Kelly in an episode from the Western comedy television series Maverick (1961), and opposite Clint Eastwood in an episode of Rawhide (1962).

In 1962, Raymond was driven by her friend, Gloria Beutel in a car on Sunset Boulevard, when Gloria lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. The car overturned several times, and Raymond was pulled just before it exploded. Raymond's nose was severed by the rearview mirror and had to be reconstructed by a plastic surgeon. After a little more than a year of extensive plastic surgery and recovery, she returned to acting.

Raymond was cast in episodes of series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Death Valley Days (1964). In the cinema, she could be seen in the low-budget Horror film Blood of Dracula's Castle (Al Adamson, 1967), and the lurid Western Five Bloody Graves (Al Adamson, 1969), where she was the madame of a travelling brothel.

In 1977, after retiring for some years, she got a role in the daytime soap opera, Days Of Our Lives. After only three appearances, she accidentally tripped on a telephone cord and broke her ankle. She was written out of the show. She moved into business interests, though remaining an actor at heart. Her final film appearance was in the straight-to-video erotic thriller Mind Twister (Fred Olen Ray, 1994) with Telly Savalas.

In 1944, Raymond had married Floyd Leroy Patterson. In 1946, they divorced shortly after the birth of their daughter, Raeme Dorene Patterson. In 1965, she married aircraft executive Harry Leslie Williams, who was 20 years her elder. They divorced a year later. In 1993, Raymond's daughter died. Paula Raymond passed away in 2003, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from a series of respiratory ailments. She was 79 and survived by a granddaughter. Raymond is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. In 1999 she started working on her autobiography 'I Was Born Right, Where Did I Go Wrong or The Misadventures of a Dumb Dame' but she died before it was finished.

Vintage postcard, no. 631. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 315. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Duchess of Idaho (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950).

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) was a two-time Academy Award-winning film actor, director, writer, journalist, and raconteur. He played Batiatus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and had also roles in films like Quo vadis? (1951), Topkapi (1964) and Death on the Nile (1978). Ustinov wrote and directed many acclaimed stage plays and staged operas such as 'The Magic Flute' and 'Don Giovanni'. The Brit became also a Swiss citizen in 1961.

German postcard by L.M. Kartenvertrieb, no. L.M.P. 01915. Photo: Wilhelm W. Reinke.

Peter Ustinov as Nero in Quo Vadis (1951)

American still by MGM. Peter Ustinov as Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951), shot at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, and based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov at the set of Spartacus (1960)

French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 004/8. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov on the set of Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960). Caption: Contrast of eras between the clothing of Laurence Olivier and that of the director and actor Peter Ustinov.

Emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution

Peter Ustinov was born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinow in 1921 in Swiss Cottage, London. He was the son of Nadezhda Leontievna (née Benois) and Jona Freiherr von Ustinow. His father was of one-quarter Polish Jewish, one-half Russian, one-eighth Ethiopian, and one-eighth German descent, while his mother was of one-half Russian, one-quarter Italian, one-eighth French, and one-eighth German ancestry. Ustinov had ancestral connections to Russian nobility as well as to the Ethiopian Royal Family.

His father, also known as "Klop Ustinov", was a pilot in the German Air Force during World War I. In 1919, Jona Freiherr von Ustinow joined his mother and sister in St Petersburg, Russia, where he met his future wife, artist Nadia Benois, who worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet and Opera House in St Petersburg. In 1920, in a modest and discreet ceremony at a Russian-German church in St Petersburg, Ustinov's father married Nadia.

In February 1921, when she was seven months pregnant with Peter, the couple emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution. Young Peter was brought up in a multilingual family. He was fluent in Russian, French, Italian and German, as well as English. He attended Westminster College (1934-1937), took the drama and acting class under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio (1937-1939), and made his stage debut in 1938 at the Stage Theatre Club in Surrey.

He wrote his first play at the age of 19. In 1939, he made his London stage debut in a revue sketch, then had regular performances with the Aylesbury Repertory Company. The following year, he made his film debut in Hullo, Fame! (Andrew Buchanan, 1940) starring Jean Kent. From 1942 to 1946, Ustinov served with the British Army's Royal Sussex Regiment. As a private, he was 'batman' (a personal servant) for lieutenant-colonel David Niven, and the two became lifelong friends.

Peter Ustinov spent most of his service working with the Army Cinema Unit, where he was involved in making recruitment films, wrote plays and appeared in three films as an actor, including a small role as a priest in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1942). He also co-wrote and acted in The Way Ahead / The Immortal Battalion (Carol Reed, 1944), starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 890. Photo: Pilgrim Pictures. Publicity still for Private Angelo (Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov, 1949).

Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov and Leo G. Carroll in We're No Angels (1955)

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 117. Photo: Snark International. Aldo Ray, Leo G. Carroll, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Ustinov in We're No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955).

An autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor

From the 1950s on, Peter Ustinov had a stellar film career as an actor, director, and writer. Producer Sam Zimbalist initially thought that the 30-year-old actor was too young to play Roman emperor Nero in the epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, 1951), based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel. After a whole year of hesitation, Zimbalist received a telegraphic message from Ustinov that he would soon be too old for the role if they waited any longer, as Nero himself had already died at the age of 31.

Ustinov was then finally hired. His portrayal of the autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor was honoured with a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar. Another screen acting gem is his role as the polyglot stable master in Max Ophüls's masterpiece Lola Montès (1955), starring Martine Carol. His other films include Beau Brummell (Curtis Bernhardt, 1954) and We Are No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955) with Humphrey Bogart.

In 1957, he played the leading role of Soviet secret agent Michel Kaminsky in Henri-Georges Clouzot's political thriller Spies at Work. He also wrote and directed theatre plays, in which he also acted. In 1958 he received two Tony Award nominations, for Best Actor (Dramatic) and Best Play Author, for 'Romanoff and Juliet', which parodied the East-West conflict. Ustinov later adapted the play for a 1961 film. In the late 1950s, he also made a comedy record, 'Mock Mozart' and 'Phoney Folk Lor'". He had been performing these as party pieces. Overdubbing allowed Ustinov to sing multiple parts. His producer was George Martin, the future producer of The Beatles.

During the 1960s, Ustinov was awarded two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, one for his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) and one for his role as Arthur Simon Simpson in the Heist film Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964) opposite Melina Mercouri. He received two more Oscar nominations as an actor and writer. In January 1963, the Mirisch Company sued him for damages after he pulled out at the 11th hour to play Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963), which was in production in Rome with his replacement, Peter Sellers. He acted in such films as The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and the comedy Hot Millions (Eric Till, 1968) with Maggie Smith, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which he co-wrote with author Ira Wallach.

He also wrote and directed the brilliant Billy Budd (Peter Ustinov, 1962) in which he played the role of the captain himself oppositeTerence Stamp. It was followed by Lady L (Peter Ustinov, 1965) with Sophia Loren and David Niven. During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi', Ravel's 'L'heure espagnole', Schoenberg's 'Erwartung', and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. In the following decade, he acted in films like Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976) starring Michael York. He played an old man surviving a totalitarian future. He was also the voice of Prince John in Disney's animated film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). He appeared in television plays and shows and won three Emmys: in 1958 for Omnibus: The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1967 for Barefoot in Athens and in 1970 for A Storm in Summer.

Kirk Douglas and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (1960)

Romanian collectors card. Photo: Kirk Douglas and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).

British postcard in the Cinema series. French affiche for Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).

Hercule Poirot

Peter Ustinov's career slowed down a bit in the 1970s, but he made a comeback as Hercule Poirot in the star-studded Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978), based on Agatha Christie's novel. In the 1980s, Ustinov recreated Poirot in several subsequent television movies and theatrical films, including Evil Under the Sun (Guy Hamilton, 1982) and Appointment with Death (Michael Winner, 1988). Ustinov's performance, increasingly based on his own persona, enjoyed great popularity.

He also wrote and directed the British-Yugoslav drama Memed My Hawk (Peter Ustinov, 1984) with Herbert Lom. It is an adaptation of the 1955 Turkish novel 'Memed, My Hawk', the debut novel of Yaşar Kemal, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Memed, My Hawk was produced in Yugoslavia following the Turkish government's refusal of permission to film. Ustinov's cinema work in the 1990s includes his superb performance as Professor Gus Nikolais in the film drama Lorenzo's Oil (George Miller, 1992) opposite Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. This character was partially inspired by Hugo Wolfgang Moser, a research scientist who had been director of the Neurogenetics Research Center at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University.

Ustinov's expertise in dialectic and physical comedy made him a regular guest on talk shows. His witty and multidimensional humour was legendary, and he later published a collection of his jokes and quotations summarizing his wide popularity as a raconteur. He was also an internationally acclaimed TV journalist. In 1984, he unwittingly witnessed the assassination of India's prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was to be interviewed by Ustinov for his three-part BBC series Ustinov's People, but on the way she was murdered by her two bodyguards. Ustinov covered over 100,000 miles and visited more than 30 Russian cities during the making of his well-received BBC television series Russia (1986).

In his autobiographies, 'Dear Me' (1977) and 'My Russia' (1996), Ustinov revealed his observations on his life, career, and his multicultural and multi-ethnic background. He wrote and directed numerous stage plays, successfully presenting them in several countries. His drama, 'Photo Finish', was staged in New York, London and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Ustinov also directed the acclaimed production. The cosmopolitan multi-talent was a UNICEF Special Ambassador from 1968, Chairman of the World Federalist Movement from 1990 and founder of the Peter Ustinov Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions for Children and Young People in 1999. Ustinov served as Rector of Dundee University for six years. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1957 and was knighted in 1990.

From 1971 until he died in 2004, Peter Ustinov's permanent residence was a château in Bursins, Vaud, Switzerland. He died of heart failure in 2004, in a clinic in Genolier, also in Vaud. His funeral service was held at Geneva's historic Cathedral of St. Pierre, and he was laid to rest in the village cemetery of Bursins. Ustinov's first wife was Angela Lansbury's half-sister, Isolde Denham. They were married from 1940 to 1950 when the union ended in divorce. Ustinov and Denham had one child together, Tamara Ustinov. Ustinov and his second wife, Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, had three children: two daughters (Andrea and Pavla Ustinov) and a son, Igor Ustinov. His third wife was French journalist Hélène du Lau d'Allemans, to whom he was married from 1972 until his death. Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb: "His epitaph may be gleaned from his comment, 'I am an international citizen conceived in Russia, born in England, working in Hollywood, living in Switzerland, and touring the World'."

Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in The Comedians (1967)

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967).

French postcard in the series Le Monde merveilleux de Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 233. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).

British postcard by Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. PN 98.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

On 23 June 2025, Lea Massari (1933) passed away. The Italian actress and singer worked in both Italian and French cinema. She is best remembered for such film classics as Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960) as the missing girl Anna, and Louis Malle's Le Souffle au Coeur (1971) as Clara, the mother of a sexually precocious 14-year-old boy.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 154.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 694.

A sweet girl in love

Lea Massari was born in 1933 in Rome, in the district of Monteverde Vecchio, as Anna Maria Massatani. She was the daughter of a Roman engineer and also of Umbrian descent on her mother's side.

During her childhood, she lived in Spain, France, and Switzerland. Back in Rome, she enrolled at university and attended architecture courses in the early 1950s. In the meantime, she worked as a model and collaborated with the set and costume designer Piero Gherardi, a family friend, who soon introduced her to the world of cinema.

On the set of the film Proibito / Forbidden (1954), where Gherardi worked, director Mario Monicelli noticed her aristocratic and refined features, underlined by her feline gaze and hoarse voice. He convinced her to play a passionate Sardinian girl, alongside Amedeo Nazzari and Mel Ferrer.

On the occasion of her debut on the big screen, at the age of 21, she assumed a stage name in memory of her fiancé Leo, with whom she was supposed to be married, but who died in a tragic accident a few days before the wedding.

The role of the sweet girl in love was repeated in I sogni nel cassetto / Dreams in a Drawer (Renato Castellani, 1957), where she was dubbed by Adriana Asti.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmverleih Starfoto no. 1101. Photo: Rizzoli Film. Lea Massari in I sogni nel cassetto (Renato Castellani, 1957), in East-Germany titled Träume in der Schublade.

A dreamy young woman who suddenly disappears

In the 1960s, Lea Massari acted in several Italian and French productions, playing increasingly challenging roles, mostly as a middle-class woman. She began to gain international notoriety alongside Gabriele Ferzetti and Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's film L'avventura / The Adventure (1960). She played perhaps the most iconic role of the first phase of her career, that of Anna, a dreamy young woman who suddenly disappears during a boating trip in the Mediterranean. L'Avventura was nominated for numerous awards and was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

In the same period, she was in the cast of other important films such as La giornata balorda / From a Roman Balcony (Mauro Bolognini, 1960), Il colosso di Rodi / The Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 1960) alongside Rory Calhoun, and especially Una vita difficile / A Difficult Life (Dino Risi,1961) opposite Alberto Sordi and Franco Fabrizi.

Although uncredited, she is notable in Le quattro giornate di Napoli/The Four Days of Naples (Nanni Loy, 1962), based on a subject by Vasco Pratolini, followed by participation in another war-themed film, La città prigioniera/The Captive City (Joseph Anthony, 1962) with David Niven, Ben Gazzara, and Martin Balsam.

In that period, she received a special David di Donatello award for her performance in I sogni muoiono all'alba / Dreams Die at Dawn (Mario Craveri, Enrico Gras, 1961). The film is set during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and is based on a play by Indro Montanelli.

In 1963, she was proposed for the role of Marcello Mastroianni's wife in 8½ by Federico Fellini, later assigned to Anouk Aimée. It seems that during the audition for this part, the director was not convinced because of inadequate make-up by Gherardi. In the same year she starred with Francisco Rabal in the drama Llanto por un bandido / I cavalieri della vendetta / Weeping for a Bandit (Carlos Saura, 1963).

West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2251. Photo: Unitalia Film, Roma.

A sensational accusation of corruption of minors

Since the early years of her career, Lea Massari was often paired with well-known French actors, such as Jean Sorel in the aforementioned La giornata balorda (Mauro Bolognini, 1960), Alain Delon in the Film Noir L'insoumis / The Unvanquished (Alain Cavalier, 1964), and La prima notte di quiete (Valerio Zurlini, 1972) for which she won the first of her two Nastri d'argento, and Maurice Ronet in Il giardino delle delizie / The Garden of Delights (1967), a debut film by Silvano Agosti which was heavily censored in Italy.

She also appeared with Jean-Louis Trintignant in La course du lièvre à travers les champs / And Hope to Die (René Clément, 1972), Yves Montand in Le fils / The Son (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1973), Philippe Leroy in La linea del fiume / The River Line (Aldo Scavarda, 1976) and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Chi dice donna dice donna / Whoever Days Woman Says Woman (Tonino Cervi, 1976). In 1970, she teamed up with Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider in the controversial Les Choses de la vie / The Things of Life, the first success of director Claude Sautet, for which the Roman actress won the Louis-Delluc award. She would return to work with Piccoli in Le divorcement (Pierre Barouh, 1979).

Much appreciated especially in France, after having dealt with the scabrous theme of incest in Louis Malle's French comedy-drama Le Souffle au Coeur / Murmur of the Heart (1971), where she played probably the most important role of her maturity. It also cost her a sensational accusation in Italy for corruption of minors, which was closed with a full acquittal. The film was screened at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and was a box office success in France. In the United States, it received positive reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1973, she received an Étoile de Cristal as the Best Foreign Actress.

In 1969, she had also starred with Gérard Blain and debutant Teo Teocoli in Gianni Vernuccio's film Paolo e Francesca, released two years later. She appeared in John Frankenheimer's Story of a Love Story (1973), opposite Alan Bates and Dominique Sanda, and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's historical drama Allonsanfàn (1974), opposite Marcello Mastroianni. In 1975, she was called to participate as a juror at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1977, she appeared in the film Antonio Gramsci - I giorni del carcere / Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison (Lino Del Fra, 1977) with Riccardo Cucciolla. It won the Pardo d'oro at the Locarno Festival. In 1979, she received her second Nastro d'argento for the role of Luisa Levi in Cristo si è fermato a Eboli / Christ Stopped at Eboli (Francesco Rosi, 1978), where she played alongside Gian Maria Volonté, whom she herself considered the best colleague she had ever worked with.

Small Romanian collector card.

An actress notoriously disinclined to be a star

Lea Massari has also worked successfully in the theatre, including in William Gibson's 'Due sull'altalena' (Two for the Seesaw) (1960), directed by Arnoldo Foà, and on television, as in Capitan Fracassa / Captain Fracasse (1958), I promessi sposi / The Betrothed (1967), in the role of the Monaca di Monza (the nun of Monza), I fratelli Karamazov / The Brothers Karamazov (1969) and Quaderno proibito / Forbidden notebook (1980).

She was particularly appreciated by audiences and critics was her performance in Anna Karenina (Sandro Bolchi, 1974), which was repeated several times by the RAI. Her last appearance on the small screen was opposite Erland Josephson in Una donna spezzata / A Broken Woman (Marco Leto, 1988), based on the novel 'La femme rompue' by Simone de Beauvoir and scripted by Massari herself.

Passionate about hunting from a young age, following the example and encouragement of her father, she reduced her artistic activity from the early 1980s onward to devote herself decisively to ecological and animal rights campaigns. She appeared again in Giuseppe Bertolucci's film Segreti Segreti / Secrets Secrets (1985) in which she played the painful role of Lina Sastri's suicidal mother.

An actress notoriously disinclined to be a star, shy and reserved, and often forced to live and work abroad partly because of her husband's work, she retired for good in 1990, at the age of 57. After that, she rarely appeared in public and gave few interviews, refusing various invitations to return to the set, such as the one received by Ferzan Özpetek, who wanted her in Cuore sacro / Sacred Heart (2005), in a role then assigned to Lisa Gaston.

Her last film, which had little success, was Viaggio d'amore / Journey of Love (Ottavio Fabbri, 1990), based on a subject by Tonino Guerra, in which she starred alongside Omar Sharif. After retiring from the stage, she moved to Sardinia with her husband, the former Alitalia pilot Carlo Bianchini, whom she had married in 1963. Following a financial crisis, she put her important collection of antique jewellery up for auction in 1994. In addition to her campaigns in defence of animals and against vivisection, which also led her to support various dog pounds, her passion for the guitar and Brazilian music is well known. Lea Massari died on 23 June 2025 at her home in the Parioli district of Rome at the age of 91. She was buried in the Sutri cemetery.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 1066.

Lea Massari in La giornata balorda (1960)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1743, 1962. Lea Massari in La giornata balord a/ A Crazy Day (Mauro Bolognini, 1960).

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Handsome American leading man Guy Madison (1922-1996) appeared in 85 films, on radio, and on television. In the 1940s, he started as a fresh-faced dreamboat. He became a hero to the Baby Boom generation as James Butler Hickock in the television series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958). After the Hickok series ended, Madison became a star of European cinema.

Dutch postcard by PEB.

Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano. no. N. 17. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures.

Guy Madison in Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958)

American Arcade postcard. Guy Madison in the TV series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-1958).

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 359. Guy Madison in Red Snow (Harry S. Franklin, Boris Petroff, 1952).

German postcard, no. 8 (1-56). Photo: CCC Produktion / Constantin. Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (Hugo Fregonese, 1964). Caption: "Captain Bradley ist der Anführer eines Siedlertrecks, der nach Westen will." (Captain Bradley leads a group of settlers, who want to go west).

Major heartthrob material

Guy Madison was born in 1922 as Robert Ozell Moseley in Pumpkin Center, California, and was reared in nearby Bakersfield. His father was a machinist on the Santa Fe Railroad. His younger brother, Wayne Mallory, would later become a Western actor too.

As a young man, Robert worked as a telephone lineman but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood in 1944, he reportedly attended a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast and was spotted in the audience by Helen Ainsworth, an assistant to Henry Willson.

Willson was the talent agent for producer David O. Selznick at the time. Selznick wanted an unknown sailor to play a small but prominent part in the Home Front morale-booster Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), and promptly signed Robert Moseley to a contract. Selznick and Willson saw major heartthrob material in the blond, boyishly handsome sailor. They concocted the screen name Guy Madison (the 'guy' girls would like to meet, and Madison from a passing Dolly Madison cake wagon). Later, Willson would do the same for such other handsome film hunks as Rock Hudson (born Roy Scherer), Tab Hunter (Arthur Kelm), and Troy Donahue (Merle Johnson).

Madison filmed his three-minute bowling alley sequence with Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker in Since You Went Away on a weekend pass and returned to duty. The film's release brought an avalanche of fan letters (43,000 pieces) for Madison's lonely, strikingly handsome young sailor, and at war's end, he returned to find himself a star in the making.

Madison was signed by RKO Pictures in 1946 and began appearing in romantic comedies and such dramas as Till the End of Time (Edward Dmytryk, 1946), starring Dorothy McGuire as a war widow, uncertain whether she should or could make a second start with Madison. Despite an initial woodenness to his acting, Madison grew as a performer, studying and working in theatre. However, his career seemed to evaporate by the end of the 1940s.

Dutch postcard. Guy Madison and Shirley Temple on a date, 1944. While on leave from the US Coast Guard, Guy Madison was discovered and got a bit part in Shirley Temple's film Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944). MGM received so much fan mail about Madison they decided to make him a star, including sending him on 'dates' with Temple.

Italian postcard by Picturegoer, London, no. W. 233. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Publicity still for Till the End of Time (Edward Dmytryk, 1946).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 815. Photo: R.K.O. Radio.

American postcard by Vanguard Film, Inc., Culver City, California. Sent by mail in 1946.

Guy Madison in The Charge at Feather River (1953)

West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1092. Photo: Warner Bros. Guy Madison in The Charge at Feather River (Gordon Douglas, 1953).

Numerous beefcake photographs

Guy Madison was the subject of numerous beefcake photographs while building a film persona.

He played leads in a series of programmers, such as the American Civil War film Drums in the Deep South (William Cameron Menzies, 1951), before being cast as legendary U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok in Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, with Andy Devine as the trusty and funny sidekick Jingles.

The show ran on television from 1951 to 1958 and on the radio from 1951 to 1956. Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok made Guy Madison a household name and earned him a new crop of fans, especially among children. Soon, Madison's face appeared on cereal boxes, toys, and other merchandise. Sixteen feature films were released by Monogram Pictures between 1952 and 1955 that consisted of combined episodes of the series.

His popularity as Hickok led to a starring role in the 3-D film The Charge at Feather River (Gordon Douglas, 1953). The film's success gave him a new lease on life in Hollywood. He was cast as a tight-lipped action hero in Westerns like The Command (David Butler, 1954) and The Last Frontier (Anthony Mann, 1955) with Victor Mature.

Guy Madison was also the executive producer of the Western Reprisal! (George Sherman, 1956) in which he played a half-Indian who posed as white.

German postcard by ISV, no. A 46. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 684. Photo: Warner Bros.

Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 689. Photo: Warner Bros.

West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin., no. A 1280. Photo: Warner Bros.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 424. Photo: Warner Bros.

Karl May

After the Hickok series ended, Guy Madison found work scarce in the USA and travelled to Europe. There he made around 90 films. He first found work in Rome in Peplums like La Schiava di Roma / Slave of Rome (Sergio Grieco, Franco Prosperi, 1961) with Rosanna Podestà, and Rosmunda e Alboino (Carlo Campogalliani, 1961) opposite Jack Palance.

He became a popular star of European cinema after successes as the Karl May Western Old Shatterhand / Apaches' Last Battle (Hugo Fregonese, 1964) opposite Lex Barker. He made a surprising number of popular Spaghetti Westerns in the mid to late 1960s. These included 7 winchester per un massacre / Payment in Blood (Enzo G. Castellari, 1967) with Edd Byrnes, and I lunghi giorni dell'odio / This Man Can't Die (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1968), with Rik Battaglia.

He left Italy in 1970 and temporarily settled in Texas, later returning to Los Angeles. In Hollywood, he appeared mainly in cameo roles, such as in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (Michael Winner, 1976). His last film appearance was in Red River (Richard Michaels, 1988) with James Arness and Ty Hardin. But this TV movie didn't compare with the 1948 classic by Howard Hawks on which it was based.

Later that year, Madison was in a serious auto accident that damaged his lungs. A variety of health problems limited his work in later years, and he died from emphysema in 1996. He was 74.

Guy Madison married his first wife, beautiful and haunted actress Gail Russell, in 1949. Russell's alcoholism helped bring an end to the marriage in 1954. From 1954 to 1964, he was married to model and actress Sheila Connolly, with whom he had four children, Bridget, Dolly, Erin, and Robert. His best friend was actor Rory Calhoun who was later named 'godfather' to Madison's eldest daughter Bridget.

British postcard in "The People' series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P 1124. Photo: Allied Arts.

Italian postcard by S.A. Poligrafica Sammarinese, no. 009u.

Lisa Gastoni and Guy Madison in Il vendicatore mascherato (1964)

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 258/69. Photo: Lisa Gastoni and Guy Madison in Il vendicatore mascherato / Gentlemen of the Night (Pino Mercanti, 1964).

German postcard, no. 23 (1-36). Photo: CCC Produktion / Constantin. Guy Madison in Old Shatterhand (Hugo Fregonese, 1964). Caption: "Captain Bradley ist der neue Kommandant von Fort Grant." (Captain Bradley is the new commander of Fort Grant).

Trailer Old Shatterhand/Apaches' Last Battle (1964). Source: Cronosmantas (YouTube).

Sources: David Shipman (The Independent), William Grimes (The New York Times), Bridget Madison (Guy Madison Offical Site - now defunct), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Brian J. Walker (Brian's Drive-in Theater), Terry (Gay Influence), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American operatic singer and actor Kenneth Spencer (1911-1964) starred in a few Broadway musicals and musical films in the United States during the 1940s. Frustrated with the racial prejudice he experienced in the United States as a black man, Spencer moved to West Germany in 1950, where he had a successful singing career. He also appeared in several German films. His career was cut short when he died in the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 304 in 1964.

West German postcard by Agfa, no. 527.

West German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 410. Photo: Columbia.

Only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance

Kenneth Lee Spencer was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1911 (according to some sources 1913). He was the son of a steelworker and initially trained as a gardener. Against his father's wishes, he took private vocal lessons while working as a gardener. Eventually, he caught the attention of the tenor Roland Hayes who helped him to get a scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.

After completing his four-year vocal studies in 1938, Spencer tried to get a performing career going but met many obstacles due to racial prejudice in the United States. In 1938 he sang in the Federal Music Project NBC Blue radio opera 'Gettysburg', first at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, then at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1940 he was the understudy for Paul Robeson in the short-lived Broadway musical 'John Henry'. His professional recital debut in 1941 at New York City's Town Hall followed this.

During the early 1940s, Spencer made his first major successes in California as a Hollywood Bowl concert artist and radio performer. This led to his being cast in significant parts in two MGM films in 1943, the musical Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) where he shared the screen with Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, and Louis Armstrong, and the War film Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943) starring Robert Taylor.

Spencer also sang offscreen the commenting ballad in A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone, 1945). He returned to Broadway to portray Joe in the critically acclaimed 1946 revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's 'Show Boat', where he sang 'Ol' Man River'. The revival was highly successful, running almost exactly a year, and this was remarkable at the time for a revival of a play or musical. This was the first American production of 'Show Boat' to receive a full-fledged Broadway cast album, rather than just a studio cast recording.

Despite his popularity, Kenneth Spencer was repeatedly discriminated against as a black man in the USA and was only allowed to enter hotels through the back entrance, for example. Through his performances, Spencer supported organisations that worked to improve the legal and social situation of the African-American population, for example in 1941 for the ‘Harlem Committee of the Community Service Society’ and in 1946, already as an established artist, at an event organised by the National Negro Congress.

West German promotion card by Columbia, no. DrW 2886 c.

West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag, no. 2226. Photo: H.D. / Europa / Czerwonski. Kenneth Spencer in Mein Bruder Josua / My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956).

Popularity in France and Germany

In 1949 Kenneth Spencer's life changed after performing in Europe for the first time at the International Music Festival in Nice. The European public responded with enthusiasm to his performance and he was soon getting offers to perform all over Europe. It was the first time Spencer experienced a working environment and culture not hindered by racial prejudice.

In Paris, he met the white American journalist Josephine Clarke. However, the two did not marry until they were living in Europe, as marriage between a white woman and a man of colour was a criminal offence in more than half of the US states at the time. In 1953, Spencer became the father of a son. In 1950 he returned to Europe to sing in several radio broadcasts with the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française and perform in several highly lauded concerts in Berlin, including performances with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Spencer was so enamoured with the German public and frustrated with the meagre opportunities he found as a black artist in America that he moved his family to Wuppertal, West Germany in late 1950. Spencer spent the next 14 years in Germany performing in concerts, operas and plays. In 1951, he performed in the French film Les joyeux pélerins/The Merry Pilgrims (Fred Pasquali, 1951) starring Aimé Barelli and his orchestra. He also appeared in a few German films such as Tanzende Sterne/Dancing Stars (Géza von Cziffra, 1952) starring Germaine Damar, An jedem Finger zehn/Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954) and Mein Bruder Josua/My Brother Joshua (Hans Deppe, 1956) starring Willy A. Kleinau and Ingrid Andree. His final film role was in the West German adventure film Unser Haus in Kamerun/Our House in Cameroon (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) starring Johanna von Koczian and Götz George.

His ability to perform not only Spirituals and classical music but also folk songs in their original languages (French, German, Italian, Russian, Hebrew) won him much popularity in France and post-war Germany. He made many recordings with Columbia Masterworks Records during the 1950s and 1960s which consisted of classical music, spirituals, and folk songs. In 1964, Kenneth Spencer travelled to the United States without his family to support the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with a concert tour.

On the return flight, the Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-8 crashed over Lake Pontchartrain in the Mississippi estuary after a stopover in New Orleans. It happened shortly after take-off on 25 February 1964 at 02:06 local time. All 58 occupants of the aircraft, including Spencer and the French women's rights activist Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux, were killed. The passengers were only recovered from the water weeks later. The final findings of the CAB/NTSB were issued in 1966, indicating that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence from which there was insufficient altitude to recover. Kenneth Spencer was 52.

Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn (1954)

West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1255. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).

West German postcard by Kolibri Verlag G.m.b. H., Minden/Westf., no. 1333. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Kenneth Spencer in An Jedem Finger Zehn / Ten on Every Finger (Erik Ode, 1954).

Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Elegant dark-haired beauty Gail Patrick was no conventional heroine and never hesitated to play unsympathetic, scheming, nasty, calculating or haughty characters during her career. But she never really took to a liking to acting. After she left movies, she went into the business world and was notably one of the first women to become a television producer. Raymond Burr, star of the Perry Mason series, once said of her: "Gail is the most fantastic woman I know. She is the closest thing to a dream I’ve met in this business." About her new career as a producer, Gail Patrick allegedly declared: "I’ve never felt self-conscious as a woman dealing with men. I think it’s because the men are concerned, as I am, only with the business at hand. I guess you’d say we meet on a mental level."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9326/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9590/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

The Panther Woman contest

Gail Patrick was born as Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick on the 20th of June 1911 in Birmingham, U.S.A.

After graduating from Howard College, she entered the University of Alabama to become a lawyer. The time she spent there would serve her later in her business career.

While still at school, she entered on a lark a contest sponsored in 1932 by Paramount to find the ideal actress to play the Panther Woman in the movie Island of Lost Souls (1932). She was among the four finalists, but it was eventually Kathleen Burke who was chosen for the part.

However, Gail Patrick was awarded a Paramount contract. A determined woman, she succeeded in convincing the company not to ask her to pose for cheesecake pictures.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1317/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 840.

Cornelia Bullock and Linda Shaw: two defining characters

Gail Patrick made her film debut in a bit part in If I Had a Million (1932) and, gradually, got more important roles.

After having notably played opposite Randolph Scott in Wagon Wheels (1934) or Melvyn Douglas in The Lone Wolf Returns (1935), she got a big break as Cornelia Bullock, Carole Lombard’s frosty and condescending sister, in My Man Godfrey (1936) at Universal.

Another important role was that of cynical and bitchy would-be actress Linda Shaw in R.K.O.’s Stage Door (1937).

Her other films from the end of the 1930s include Her Husband Lies (1937), Mad About Music (1938), as Deanna Durbin’s mother, Dangerous to Know (1938), Wives Under Suspicion (1938) and Disbarred (1939). Her stay at Paramount ended with Grand Jury Secrets (1939).

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2539. Photo: Paramount.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2269/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.

Her career in the 1940s

Gail Patrick then freelanced and appeared in such films as Gallant Sons (1940), Quiet Please, Murder (1942), Women in Bondage (1943), Up in Mabel’s Room (1944), and Brewster’s Millions (1945).

Her most famous film from this period is probably the brilliant Screwball comedy My Favourite Wife (1940), opposite Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.

Patrick ended her movie career at Republic in run-of-the-mill pictures such as The Madonna’s Secret (1946), Rendezvous with Annie (1946), Plainsman at the Lady (1946), and Calendar Girl (1947).

The Inside Story (1948) marked her last appearance on the screen.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2473/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2497. Photo: Paramount.

Perry Mason

Gail Patrick had never been that passionate about acting, so she decided to turn into a businesswoman. In Beverly Hills, she opened a children’s clothing shop called 'The Enchanted Cottage' and ran it for several years. For this achievement, she was named 'Woman of the Year' in 1950 by Woodbury Business College.

From 1957 to 1966, she was executive producer of the successful television series Perry Mason. It was not a facade job: she handled contract negotiation with CBS, was instrumental in the casting of the leading players, reviewed scripts and supervised other aspects of the production.

She was executive consultant on the new Perry Mason series (September 1973 - January 1974), which failed to catch on. Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, who were strongly identified with the Perry Mason and Della Street characters, had been replaced by other actors, and audiences never took to the new casting.

Gail Patrick then retired and concentrated on charitable duties.

Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 74. Photo: Paramount.

Promotional card issued by Ross Verlag for Turkish chocolate brand Liomel Cikolatasi. Photo: Paramount.

Her four marriages

In 1936, Gail Patrick married Robert Cobb, the owner of the famous Brown Derby restaurant. They divorced in 1940.

Her next husband was Arnold Dean White, a U.S. Navy lieutenant. They married in 1944 but, after she had lost twins at birth in 1945, they divorced in 1946.

In 1947, she remarried to advertising executive Cornwall Jackson, with whom she would form in the 1950s the Paisano production company, alongside Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the Perry Mason character. The couple adopted two children, Thomas and Jennifer, and divorced in 1969.

Her last marriage, to businessman John Velde Jr., occurred in 1974. They stayed married until her death from leukaemia on the 6th of July 1980.

Spanish postcard, Serie 4021, no. 126.

Latvian postcard by Upitis, Riga, no. 389. Photo: Paramount.

Several of Gail Patrick’s achievements

From 1960 to 1962, Gail Patrick was Vice-President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and President of its Hollywood chapter. It was the first time that a woman was given such a leadership position by the Academy.

In 1970, she was named National Honorary Chairman of the American Lung Association’s Christmas Seals campaign. In 1973, she became the first National Chairman of the American Diabetes Association board of directors.

Upon her death, a $1 million bequest from the Gail Patrick Velde trust was given to her sorority, Delta Zeta, at Howard College (now Samford University).

In 2008, in her honour, the fully equipped Gail Patrick Soundstage opened at the Columbia College Hollywood (now California College of ASU), where she once had been a member of the Board of Trustees.

Deanna Durbin, Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall in Mad About Music (1938)

Postcard from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Deanna Durbin, Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall in Mad About Music (Norman Taurog, 1938).

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.