Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 325
December 7, 2016
Carlo Romano
Carlo Romano (1908-1975) was an Italian actor in film, vaudeville, radio and television. He was also a highly active voice actor, and was the Italian voice of Fernandel in all the Don Camillo comedies.
Italian photo card by A. Scarmiglia Editore (Aser), Roma (Rome), no. 87. Photo: Aser.
Comical Sidekick
Carlo Romano was born in Livorno in 1908. He was the son of actress Dina Romano and the younger brother of Felice Romano, who was an actor as well. He started at the Teatro Minimo in Trieste when he was only five.
In 1929 Romano entered the Compagnia Talli-Capodaglio, and later he was active in vaudeville. Because of his young age and his style, which was theatrical and personal, expressing sympathy and warmth, he was nicknamed Carletto (little Carlo), a name that stuck on him. In 1933 Romano married actress Jone Bolghero but the couple divorced later.
In the cinema Romano started in 1934 with an uncredited part as a taxi driver in La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) starring Isa Miranda . After years of small parts, his roles slowly became bigger towards the end of the decade.
He played mostly in comedies by Guido Brignone, and Mario Bonnard. In dramas he was still often the comical sidekick. Romano played the protagonist of the comedies Il socio invisibile/The invisible partner (Roberto Roberti, 1939) co-starring Clara Calamai , and Un marito per il mese di aprile/A husband for the month of April (Giorgio Simonelli, 1941).
Between 1939 and 1943 he played in some 35 films. From these very active years, Romano is best remembered for Cavalleria rusticana (Amleto Palermi, 1939) - in which his mother also performed, for Quattro passi fra le nuvole/Four Steps in the Clouds (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942) in which he was the reckless bus driver Antonio, and for the Beniamino Gigli vehicle I pagliacci/Laugh Pagliacci (Giuseppe Fatigati, 1942) in which Romano played composer Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Clara Calamai . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3171/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / DIFU.
Beniamino Gigli . Italian postcard. Photo: Nova Film.
Fellini
In the postwar era Carlo Romano would play in some 55 films more. Highlights are Campane a martello/Bells to hammer (Luigi Zampa, 1949) with Gina Lollobrigida , Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (Léonide Péguy, 1950) starring Pier Angeli , Il cardinale Lambertini/Cardinal Lambertini (Giorgio Pastina, 1954) starring Gino Cervi , and the Aldo Fabrizi drama Accadde al penitenziario/It happened at the penitentiary (Giorgio Bianchi, 1955).
One of Romano’s best parts was as the lawyer Enzo La Rosa in the tragicomedy Luci del varietà/Variety Lights (Alberto Lattuada, Federico Fellini, 1950), about a young golddigger ( Carla Del Poggio ), who uses the head of a second-rate theatrical group ( Peppino de Filippo ) to launch her career.
With Alberto Lattuada, Romano continued to work in La spiaggia/Riviera, and with Federico Fellini in I vitelloni, both from 1953.
I Vitelloni follows the lives of five young vitelloni, or layabouts, who while away their listless days in their small seaside village. Romano plays Michele Curti, the owner of a shop in religious articles. He takes on one of the vitelloni, skirt chaser Fausto ( Franco Fabrizi ) whose father-in-law is his friend. Curti fires him when Fausto tries to seduce Curti’s wife ( Lida Baarova ) during the carnival. Later on Fausto steals a statue from Curti and tries to sell it to a monk. A hit in Italy upon its release, I Vitelloni secured Fellini's reputation as an up-and-coming talent, and it was his first international success.
Lattuada's La spiaggia was one of the first films shot in Ferraniacolor. It was a drama about a woman ( Martine Carol ) who is celebrated and then rejected by the local high society of a fashionable seaside village, when it is discovered she was a prostitute.
Gina Lollobrigida . Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 17.
Martine Carol . German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-2. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa.
Caricature-like Airs and Dialects
In addition to acting, Carlo Romano was even more active in dubbing. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he gave his voice to numerous foreign and Italian actors, enriching them with caricature-like airs and when necessary with dialects. Among those whose Italian voice he was, were Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Fernandel (Romano was his voice in the Italian versions of all the Don Camillo films), Lou Costello (known in Italy as Pinotto) and Peter Lorre.
In later decades he was the Italian voice of Eli Wallach, Rod Steiger and Jason Robards in their Spaghetti Westerns.
For Disney he dubbed Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, 1940), the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951), the Secretary Bird in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
From the mid-1950s on, Romano also often worked for TV, and he had an even bigger career on the radio, playing in various radio dramas such as La domenica della buona gente/The Sunday of the Good People (1952), directed by Anton Giulio Majano, who also directed him in the 1953 film adaptation.
For years Romano joined the Compagnia del Teatro Comico Musicale of Radio Roma, often directed by Riccardo Mantoni.
His last films were the Spaghetti Western Lo sceriffo di Rockspring/Sheriff of Rock Springs (Mario Sabatini, 1971) with Richard Harrison, and the drama Il venditore di palloncini/The Balloon Vendor (Mario Gariazzo, 1974) with Lee J. Cobb.
Carlo Romano died in Bracciano, Italy in 1975.
Trailer La domenica della buona gente (1953). Source: DiFilm (YouTube).
Trailer I Vitelloni (1953). Source: Argent Films (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (English and Italian) and .
Italian photo card by A. Scarmiglia Editore (Aser), Roma (Rome), no. 87. Photo: Aser.
Comical Sidekick
Carlo Romano was born in Livorno in 1908. He was the son of actress Dina Romano and the younger brother of Felice Romano, who was an actor as well. He started at the Teatro Minimo in Trieste when he was only five.
In 1929 Romano entered the Compagnia Talli-Capodaglio, and later he was active in vaudeville. Because of his young age and his style, which was theatrical and personal, expressing sympathy and warmth, he was nicknamed Carletto (little Carlo), a name that stuck on him. In 1933 Romano married actress Jone Bolghero but the couple divorced later.
In the cinema Romano started in 1934 with an uncredited part as a taxi driver in La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934) starring Isa Miranda . After years of small parts, his roles slowly became bigger towards the end of the decade.
He played mostly in comedies by Guido Brignone, and Mario Bonnard. In dramas he was still often the comical sidekick. Romano played the protagonist of the comedies Il socio invisibile/The invisible partner (Roberto Roberti, 1939) co-starring Clara Calamai , and Un marito per il mese di aprile/A husband for the month of April (Giorgio Simonelli, 1941).
Between 1939 and 1943 he played in some 35 films. From these very active years, Romano is best remembered for Cavalleria rusticana (Amleto Palermi, 1939) - in which his mother also performed, for Quattro passi fra le nuvole/Four Steps in the Clouds (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942) in which he was the reckless bus driver Antonio, and for the Beniamino Gigli vehicle I pagliacci/Laugh Pagliacci (Giuseppe Fatigati, 1942) in which Romano played composer Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Clara Calamai . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3171/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / DIFU.
Beniamino Gigli . Italian postcard. Photo: Nova Film.
Fellini
In the postwar era Carlo Romano would play in some 55 films more. Highlights are Campane a martello/Bells to hammer (Luigi Zampa, 1949) with Gina Lollobrigida , Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (Léonide Péguy, 1950) starring Pier Angeli , Il cardinale Lambertini/Cardinal Lambertini (Giorgio Pastina, 1954) starring Gino Cervi , and the Aldo Fabrizi drama Accadde al penitenziario/It happened at the penitentiary (Giorgio Bianchi, 1955).
One of Romano’s best parts was as the lawyer Enzo La Rosa in the tragicomedy Luci del varietà/Variety Lights (Alberto Lattuada, Federico Fellini, 1950), about a young golddigger ( Carla Del Poggio ), who uses the head of a second-rate theatrical group ( Peppino de Filippo ) to launch her career.
With Alberto Lattuada, Romano continued to work in La spiaggia/Riviera, and with Federico Fellini in I vitelloni, both from 1953.
I Vitelloni follows the lives of five young vitelloni, or layabouts, who while away their listless days in their small seaside village. Romano plays Michele Curti, the owner of a shop in religious articles. He takes on one of the vitelloni, skirt chaser Fausto ( Franco Fabrizi ) whose father-in-law is his friend. Curti fires him when Fausto tries to seduce Curti’s wife ( Lida Baarova ) during the carnival. Later on Fausto steals a statue from Curti and tries to sell it to a monk. A hit in Italy upon its release, I Vitelloni secured Fellini's reputation as an up-and-coming talent, and it was his first international success.
Lattuada's La spiaggia was one of the first films shot in Ferraniacolor. It was a drama about a woman ( Martine Carol ) who is celebrated and then rejected by the local high society of a fashionable seaside village, when it is discovered she was a prostitute.
Gina Lollobrigida . Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 17.
Martine Carol . German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-2. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa.
Caricature-like Airs and Dialects
In addition to acting, Carlo Romano was even more active in dubbing. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he gave his voice to numerous foreign and Italian actors, enriching them with caricature-like airs and when necessary with dialects. Among those whose Italian voice he was, were Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Fernandel (Romano was his voice in the Italian versions of all the Don Camillo films), Lou Costello (known in Italy as Pinotto) and Peter Lorre.
In later decades he was the Italian voice of Eli Wallach, Rod Steiger and Jason Robards in their Spaghetti Westerns.
For Disney he dubbed Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, 1940), the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951), the Secretary Bird in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
From the mid-1950s on, Romano also often worked for TV, and he had an even bigger career on the radio, playing in various radio dramas such as La domenica della buona gente/The Sunday of the Good People (1952), directed by Anton Giulio Majano, who also directed him in the 1953 film adaptation.
For years Romano joined the Compagnia del Teatro Comico Musicale of Radio Roma, often directed by Riccardo Mantoni.
His last films were the Spaghetti Western Lo sceriffo di Rockspring/Sheriff of Rock Springs (Mario Sabatini, 1971) with Richard Harrison, and the drama Il venditore di palloncini/The Balloon Vendor (Mario Gariazzo, 1974) with Lee J. Cobb.
Carlo Romano died in Bracciano, Italy in 1975.
Trailer La domenica della buona gente (1953). Source: DiFilm (YouTube).
Trailer I Vitelloni (1953). Source: Argent Films (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (English and Italian) and .
December 6, 2016
I promessi sposi (1922)
Alessandro Manzoni's historical novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), first published in 1817, is one of the most famous and widely read novels of the Italian language. It was many times adapted for the cinema in Italy. In the fifth silent film version, I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922), Emilia Vidali played the female lead of Lucia, Domenico Serra played her beloved Renzo and Mario Parpagnoli was the evil don Rodrigo.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 181. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).
A love story jeapordised
I promessi sposi is set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule. The two betrothed are Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella. Their love story is jeopardised by Don Rodrigo, the lord of the domain, who is infatuated with Lucia. His 'bravi' menace the local priest Don Abbondio to refuse Renzo and Luciana to marry, with some legal excuse.
On behalf of the couple, the monk Father Cristoforo visits Don Rodrigo to mediate in the affair but is brutally kicked out. When Rodrigo plots to assault the young couple, they flee over Lake Como. Lucia hides in a convent where, however, the scheming nun of Monza plots with Don Rodrigo.
Renzo searches for Lucia and while in Milan visits the fraudulent lawyer doctor Azzeccagarbugli to get his papers right. The police try to arrest him but he manages to flee again. Meanwhile Father Cristoforo is banned from the convent and the village on instigation of don Rodrigo.
A robber baron called l'Innominato or 'the unnamed' is sent by Don Rodrigo to abduct the girl and give her once and for all to Don Rodrigo. Yet, in a startling change of heart, inspired by a visit of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, the Innominato undergoes a religious conversion and does the right thing by liberating Lucia.
This starts the downfall of the culprits. The Great Plague of Milan (1630) breaks out, imported by German mercenaries during the Thirty Years War. In Milan Renzo meets again Don Cristoforo who helps the dying masses and discovers Don Rodrigo is one of the victims. Renzo forgives him, Rodrigo dies, the Plague stops.
Father Cristoforo frees Lucia also from her vow of chastity she had made in the hope of being relinquished from the clutches of the Innominato. Renzo and Lucia return to their village, where they can finally marry, blessed by don Abbondio, who has bettered his life.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Don Abbondio (Umberto Scalpellini) is afraid Don Rodrigo's bravi may kill him, so he prevents the mariage between Renzo and Lucia. Right of the men stands Perpetua (Olga Capri), don Abbondio's maid. Caption: Do you want me dead?
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, here also Umberto Scalpellini as don Abbondio. Caption: Curate, in presence of these two witnesses, this is my wife...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Domenico Serra as Renzo, Emilia Vidali as Lucia, and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Lucia's mother. Caption: Rascal! Damned one! Murderer!, Renzo shouted.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father Cristoforo left his convent in Pescarenico, to ascend to the little house.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, on this card also with Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese and Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father, what do you say of such a rascal?
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Emilia Vidali , here with Ida Carloni Talli as her mother Agnese.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra , Emilia Vidali and with Enzo Biliotti as father Cristoforo and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Luciana's mother. Caption: Listen, my dear children, father Cristoforo said, today I will visit that man.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Here we see father Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti). Caption: The warden shows him to be obedient. It is a fierce blow to the poor monk.
Grand spectacle and richness of details
Italian filmmakers have many times adapted Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi. The first film version was already made in 1908 by the company Comerio. In 1911 followed another short silent film adaptation by Film d'Arte Italiana.
In 1913, even two silent versions were directed by Eleuterio Rodolfi and by Eugenio Perego. About Rodolfi's version, which he filmed for the Ambrosio studio, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1913). For the 1941 sound version, which was made by Mario Camerini, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1941) .
In 1922 former actor turned director Mario Bonnard shot his version of I promessi sposi. Bonnard had been Lyda Borelli 's film partner in her sensational debut Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini, 1913). Since that huge success he had spread his wings in the Italian silent cinema, both as an actor and a director.
Bonnard's film was produced by his own company Bonnard Film but distributed by the trust UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana) which company is credited for the photos at the postcards. Sets were by the renowned Italian painter Camillo Innocenti, who had specialised in set design for historical films. Cinematography was by Giuseppe-Paolo Vitrotti, the younger brother of the better known Italian cinematographer Giovanni Vitrotti. He already worked for Ambrosio since 1908 as a camera operator, but became director of cinematography around the time of I promessi sposi.
Star of the film is Italian silent film actress and opera singer Emilia Vidali . As an opera singer, she performed in international opera houses all over the world and was very popular in South America. Her co-star Domenico Serra was an Italian actor who starred in the Italian silent cinema and continued to play in Italian films for well over four decades. At the set of I promessi sposi, Vidali met her future husband Mario Parpagnoli , who played the evil Don Rodrigo. After one more film, Amore e destino (1923), directed by Parpagnoli, she left the Italian screen. Because of the crisis in the Italian cinema, the couple moved to Argentine.
I promessi sposi was censured in November 1922 but the film only had its first night in Rome more than a year after, on 27 December 1923, so just after Christmas. While Italian film critics complained about the lack of fidelity to the concept and the historical details in the novel, they also had to admit that the cinema audiences loved it, and took the deviations and historically incorrect details for granted. La vita cinematografica wrote that the cinema audience wanted to be emotionally involved by dramatic and comic scenes, grand spectacle, and the richness of details, and got it all. The film was awarded a golden medal at a film festival in Turin in 1923. I promessi sposi remained so popular in the following decade that a sound version of the film was released in 1934.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia ( Emilia Vidali ) and fra Canziano. Caption: Lucia reappeared with her apron full of nuts (Ch. III).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo has no clue a police spy is sitting next to him, dealing with the innkeeper to have him arrested. Caption: What shall I do?, the innkeeper asks, looking at that stranger who was not really one to him...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo at the lying and cheating lawyer Azzeccagarbugli. Caption: To the lawyer we need to set things straight, so that we can mess them up.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo ( Domenico Serra ) is sent away by the corrupt lawyer Azzeccagarbugli (actor unknown). On the left stands Luciana's mother Agnese ( Ida Carloni Talli ). Caption: Go, go; you don't know what you are talking about: I don't mess with children...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Rodolfo Badaloni as L'Innominato kisses the hand of the Cardinal Federico Borromeo (actor unknown). Caption: As soon as the Innominato was introduced, Federico came forward to him.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia's kidnapping by Nibbio, the bravo of the Innominato, with the help of Gertrude, the nun of Monza (Niní Dinelli). Caption: Come, my child, come with me, as I have orders to treat you well and give you courage.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). L'Innominato (Rodolfo Badaloni) and his aid Nibbio (actor unknown), who repents his kidnapping of Lucia. Caption: Compassion! What do you know of compassion? What is compassion? (Ch. XXI).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). During the Milan plague corpses are collected. Caption: She descended from the threshold of one of those exits and came towards the convoy.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo in the plague ridden Milan. Caption: He did a step back, lifting a knotty stick.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: "Let me kill that infamous traitor!" Milan is in the grip of the plague. After Don Rodrigo ( Mario Parpagnoli ) has confessed his aid Griso ( Raimondo Van Riel ) he is ill, the latter betrays him, He calls for the 'monatti' who will carry his master away to the 'Lazzaretto' and robs the wealth of Don Rodrigo. He won't enjoy his riches for long, as he too will be struck by the plague.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo ( Domenico Serra ) and padre Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti) in plague ridden Milan. Caption: You ask for a living person at a lazaret!...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: If you want me to marry you, I'm here. The scene depicts the final scene of the story with Ida Carloni Talli (Agnese), Domenico Serra (Renzo), Emilia Vidali (Lucia) and Umberto Scalpellini (Don Abbondio).
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1921-1922), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 181. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).
A love story jeapordised
I promessi sposi is set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule. The two betrothed are Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella. Their love story is jeopardised by Don Rodrigo, the lord of the domain, who is infatuated with Lucia. His 'bravi' menace the local priest Don Abbondio to refuse Renzo and Luciana to marry, with some legal excuse.
On behalf of the couple, the monk Father Cristoforo visits Don Rodrigo to mediate in the affair but is brutally kicked out. When Rodrigo plots to assault the young couple, they flee over Lake Como. Lucia hides in a convent where, however, the scheming nun of Monza plots with Don Rodrigo.
Renzo searches for Lucia and while in Milan visits the fraudulent lawyer doctor Azzeccagarbugli to get his papers right. The police try to arrest him but he manages to flee again. Meanwhile Father Cristoforo is banned from the convent and the village on instigation of don Rodrigo.
A robber baron called l'Innominato or 'the unnamed' is sent by Don Rodrigo to abduct the girl and give her once and for all to Don Rodrigo. Yet, in a startling change of heart, inspired by a visit of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, the Innominato undergoes a religious conversion and does the right thing by liberating Lucia.
This starts the downfall of the culprits. The Great Plague of Milan (1630) breaks out, imported by German mercenaries during the Thirty Years War. In Milan Renzo meets again Don Cristoforo who helps the dying masses and discovers Don Rodrigo is one of the victims. Renzo forgives him, Rodrigo dies, the Plague stops.
Father Cristoforo frees Lucia also from her vow of chastity she had made in the hope of being relinquished from the clutches of the Innominato. Renzo and Lucia return to their village, where they can finally marry, blessed by don Abbondio, who has bettered his life.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Don Abbondio (Umberto Scalpellini) is afraid Don Rodrigo's bravi may kill him, so he prevents the mariage between Renzo and Lucia. Right of the men stands Perpetua (Olga Capri), don Abbondio's maid. Caption: Do you want me dead?
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, here also Umberto Scalpellini as don Abbondio. Caption: Curate, in presence of these two witnesses, this is my wife...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Domenico Serra as Renzo, Emilia Vidali as Lucia, and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Lucia's mother. Caption: Rascal! Damned one! Murderer!, Renzo shouted.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father Cristoforo left his convent in Pescarenico, to ascend to the little house.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, on this card also with Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese and Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father, what do you say of such a rascal?
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Emilia Vidali , here with Ida Carloni Talli as her mother Agnese.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra , Emilia Vidali and with Enzo Biliotti as father Cristoforo and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Luciana's mother. Caption: Listen, my dear children, father Cristoforo said, today I will visit that man.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Here we see father Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti). Caption: The warden shows him to be obedient. It is a fierce blow to the poor monk.
Grand spectacle and richness of details
Italian filmmakers have many times adapted Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi. The first film version was already made in 1908 by the company Comerio. In 1911 followed another short silent film adaptation by Film d'Arte Italiana.
In 1913, even two silent versions were directed by Eleuterio Rodolfi and by Eugenio Perego. About Rodolfi's version, which he filmed for the Ambrosio studio, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1913). For the 1941 sound version, which was made by Mario Camerini, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1941) .
In 1922 former actor turned director Mario Bonnard shot his version of I promessi sposi. Bonnard had been Lyda Borelli 's film partner in her sensational debut Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini, 1913). Since that huge success he had spread his wings in the Italian silent cinema, both as an actor and a director.
Bonnard's film was produced by his own company Bonnard Film but distributed by the trust UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana) which company is credited for the photos at the postcards. Sets were by the renowned Italian painter Camillo Innocenti, who had specialised in set design for historical films. Cinematography was by Giuseppe-Paolo Vitrotti, the younger brother of the better known Italian cinematographer Giovanni Vitrotti. He already worked for Ambrosio since 1908 as a camera operator, but became director of cinematography around the time of I promessi sposi.
Star of the film is Italian silent film actress and opera singer Emilia Vidali . As an opera singer, she performed in international opera houses all over the world and was very popular in South America. Her co-star Domenico Serra was an Italian actor who starred in the Italian silent cinema and continued to play in Italian films for well over four decades. At the set of I promessi sposi, Vidali met her future husband Mario Parpagnoli , who played the evil Don Rodrigo. After one more film, Amore e destino (1923), directed by Parpagnoli, she left the Italian screen. Because of the crisis in the Italian cinema, the couple moved to Argentine.
I promessi sposi was censured in November 1922 but the film only had its first night in Rome more than a year after, on 27 December 1923, so just after Christmas. While Italian film critics complained about the lack of fidelity to the concept and the historical details in the novel, they also had to admit that the cinema audiences loved it, and took the deviations and historically incorrect details for granted. La vita cinematografica wrote that the cinema audience wanted to be emotionally involved by dramatic and comic scenes, grand spectacle, and the richness of details, and got it all. The film was awarded a golden medal at a film festival in Turin in 1923. I promessi sposi remained so popular in the following decade that a sound version of the film was released in 1934.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia ( Emilia Vidali ) and fra Canziano. Caption: Lucia reappeared with her apron full of nuts (Ch. III).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo has no clue a police spy is sitting next to him, dealing with the innkeeper to have him arrested. Caption: What shall I do?, the innkeeper asks, looking at that stranger who was not really one to him...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo at the lying and cheating lawyer Azzeccagarbugli. Caption: To the lawyer we need to set things straight, so that we can mess them up.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo ( Domenico Serra ) is sent away by the corrupt lawyer Azzeccagarbugli (actor unknown). On the left stands Luciana's mother Agnese ( Ida Carloni Talli ). Caption: Go, go; you don't know what you are talking about: I don't mess with children...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Rodolfo Badaloni as L'Innominato kisses the hand of the Cardinal Federico Borromeo (actor unknown). Caption: As soon as the Innominato was introduced, Federico came forward to him.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia's kidnapping by Nibbio, the bravo of the Innominato, with the help of Gertrude, the nun of Monza (Niní Dinelli). Caption: Come, my child, come with me, as I have orders to treat you well and give you courage.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). L'Innominato (Rodolfo Badaloni) and his aid Nibbio (actor unknown), who repents his kidnapping of Lucia. Caption: Compassion! What do you know of compassion? What is compassion? (Ch. XXI).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). During the Milan plague corpses are collected. Caption: She descended from the threshold of one of those exits and came towards the convoy.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo in the plague ridden Milan. Caption: He did a step back, lifting a knotty stick.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: "Let me kill that infamous traitor!" Milan is in the grip of the plague. After Don Rodrigo ( Mario Parpagnoli ) has confessed his aid Griso ( Raimondo Van Riel ) he is ill, the latter betrays him, He calls for the 'monatti' who will carry his master away to the 'Lazzaretto' and robs the wealth of Don Rodrigo. He won't enjoy his riches for long, as he too will be struck by the plague.
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo ( Domenico Serra ) and padre Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti) in plague ridden Milan. Caption: You ask for a living person at a lazaret!...
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: If you want me to marry you, I'm here. The scene depicts the final scene of the story with Ida Carloni Talli (Agnese), Domenico Serra (Renzo), Emilia Vidali (Lucia) and Umberto Scalpellini (Don Abbondio).
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1921-1922), Wikipedia and IMDb.
December 5, 2016
Lucy Doraine
In spite of her French name, Lucy Doraine (1898-1989) was a Hungarian actress and a major star of the Austrian and German cinema in the 1920s. When she moved to Hollywood, the revolution of the sound film finished her career.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 572/2, 1919-1924. Publicity still for Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Michael Curtiz a.k.a. Mihály Kertész, 1922).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 572/1, 1919-1924. Publicity still for Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Michael Curtiz a.k.a. Mihály Kertész, 1922).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 542/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / Foreign Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 720/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Manassé, Wien / Lucy Doraine Film Ges. m.b.H.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1546/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1548/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
Double Name
Lucy Doraine was born Ilonka Kovacs Perenyi in Budapest, Hungary in 1898.
Italian film historian Vittorio Martinelli wrote in Le dive del silenzio (2001) that she was the daughter of a highly placed civil servant, baron Perenyi, but IMDb and Wikipedia state that she had the more common name of Kovacs. Filmportal.de indicates her double name.
In her teens, Ilonka showed her skills as a piano player, and she attended the actors school Association of Hungarian Actors.
When she was 18, Ilonka started to play small roles in films like A napraforgós hölgy/The Sunflower Woman (Mihaly Kertesz, 1918).
Like most of her early films it was directed by her future husband, Mihaly Kertesz. Eventually he would become the famous Hollywood director Michael Curtiz, the maker of such classics as Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 503/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Adèle, Wien / Foreign Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 853/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Attelier Balasz, Berlin / Lucie Doraine Film Gmbh.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1391/1, 1927-1928. Photo H. Gärtner / Eichberg-Film. Doraine only made one film for Eichberg Film, Der Prinz und die Tänzerin (1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1391/2, 1927-1928. Photo: H. Gärtner / Eichberg Film GmbH. Doraine only made one film for Eichberg Film, so this card must be for Der Prinz und die Tänzerin (1926). Her name and the name of her film company are often misspelled as Dorraine.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1391/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Gärtner / Eichberg Film GmbH.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1397/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.
Austrian postcard. Photo: Franz Löwy, Wien (Vienna), 1921. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Risque Image
After the fall of Bela Kun’s Republic and because of the turmoils of 1918-1919, Mihaly and Ilonka Kertesz fled Hungary and took up refuge in Vienna. There they both got a contract by count Kolowrat, the owner of Sascha Film.
Their first film in Vienna was Der Dame mit den schwarzen Handschuh/The Lady with the Black Gloves (Mihaly Kertesz, 1919). This was a fruitful period for the Austrian cinema, enforced by the contributions of another Hungarian refugee, Alexander Korda.
Ilonka took the stage name of Lucy Doraine and played in witty comedies by her husband, one even more brilliant than the other. These comedies include Miss Tutti Frutti (Mihaly Kertesz, 1921) and Herzogin Satanella/Cherchez la femme! (Mihaly Kertesz, 1921), in which she always starred opposite the Austrian actor Alphons Fryland .
Kertesz excelled in demonstrating his wife’s comic talents, but she also showed she was able to play serious, dramatic roles in Der Stern von Damaskus/The Star of Damascus (Mihaly Kertesz, 1920) and in particular in his monumental super-production Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Mihaly Kertesz, 1922).
In Der Stern von Damaskus, Doraine played opposite the Hungarian star Iván Petrovich . In Sodom und Gomorrah she played a triple role: Mary Conway, Lot's wife and the Queen of Syria. Her co-stars were Richard Berczeller, Victor Varconi and Walter Slezak .
Lucy Doraine made 10 films with her husband between 1918 and 1923. She became known for her enticing, ‘risqué’ image. Though in the early 1920s Austria had a hard time exporting to the countries that had won the First World War, Vittorio Martinelli indicates that Doraine’s films were ‘Frenched’ to avoid Italian boycots: film titles were made French, if they did not already sound so, like Cherchez la femme!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 592/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Lucy Doraine Film Ges. m.b.H.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1677/1, 1927-1928.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1129/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1212/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3165/1, 1928-1929. Photo: C.O. Hoppé, London.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3295/1, 1928-1929. Photo: C.O. Hoppé, London.
From Munich to Hollywood
After Lucy Doraine divorced Kertesz in 1923, she moved to Munich. There she worked for the Emelka studio in Opfer der Liebe/Sacrifice for Love (Martin Hartwig, 1923) and for Messter-Ostermayr in Um ein Weibes Ehre/A Wife's Honour (Rudolf Biebrach, 1923) and Gehetzte Menschen/Hunted Men (Erich Schönfelder, 1924) with Johannes Riemann .
Around 1923 she founded in Munich her own company, Lucy Doraine-Film GmbH, for which she produced one film by Rudolf Biebrach, Die suchende Seele/The Searching Soul (1923) and three films directed by Felix Basch: Schicksal/Fate (1924), Finale der Liebe/Love's Finale (1925), Der Mann seiner Frau/His Wife's Husband (1925).
In the meantime, she continued to play in films by other companies such as Messter-Ostermayr, or Eichberg-Film in Der Prinz und die Tänzerin/The Prince and the Dancer (Richard Eichberg, 1926) opposite Hans Albers .
Like so many European actors, Doraine was invited to come to Hollywood, in this case by First National in 1927. German First National had been the distributor of her last two German films Eheskandal im Hause Fromont jun. und Risler sen./Mariage Scandal in the Fromont jr. and Risler Sr. Homes (A.W. Sandberg, 1927) and Alpentragödie/Alp Tragedy (Robert Land, 1927).
However, her American career dwindled down soon when sound film arrived. After supporting roles in the Billy Dove vehicle Adoration (Frank Lloyd, 1928) and the Janet Gaynor vehicle Christina (William K. Howard, 1929), Lucy only was allowed a bit part in Hell’s Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930).
Her last part was a supporting role in Mordprozeß Mary Dugan (Arthur Robison, 1931), the German version of The Trial of Mary Dugan (1931). Hereafter she withdrew from the film business, at the age of 33.
Lucy Doraine died at the high age of 91 in Los Angeles, in 1989.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 853/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Lucy Doraine Film GmbH. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 994/3, 1925-1926. Photo: d'Ora, Vienna.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1212/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1546/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3054/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3438/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3438/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4168/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), , Wikipedia and Filmportal.de.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 572/2, 1919-1924. Publicity still for Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Michael Curtiz a.k.a. Mihály Kertész, 1922).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 572/1, 1919-1924. Publicity still for Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Michael Curtiz a.k.a. Mihály Kertész, 1922).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 542/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / Foreign Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 720/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Manassé, Wien / Lucy Doraine Film Ges. m.b.H.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1546/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1548/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
Double Name
Lucy Doraine was born Ilonka Kovacs Perenyi in Budapest, Hungary in 1898.
Italian film historian Vittorio Martinelli wrote in Le dive del silenzio (2001) that she was the daughter of a highly placed civil servant, baron Perenyi, but IMDb and Wikipedia state that she had the more common name of Kovacs. Filmportal.de indicates her double name.
In her teens, Ilonka showed her skills as a piano player, and she attended the actors school Association of Hungarian Actors.
When she was 18, Ilonka started to play small roles in films like A napraforgós hölgy/The Sunflower Woman (Mihaly Kertesz, 1918).
Like most of her early films it was directed by her future husband, Mihaly Kertesz. Eventually he would become the famous Hollywood director Michael Curtiz, the maker of such classics as Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 503/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Adèle, Wien / Foreign Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 853/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Attelier Balasz, Berlin / Lucie Doraine Film Gmbh.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1391/1, 1927-1928. Photo H. Gärtner / Eichberg-Film. Doraine only made one film for Eichberg Film, Der Prinz und die Tänzerin (1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1391/2, 1927-1928. Photo: H. Gärtner / Eichberg Film GmbH. Doraine only made one film for Eichberg Film, so this card must be for Der Prinz und die Tänzerin (1926). Her name and the name of her film company are often misspelled as Dorraine.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1391/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Gärtner / Eichberg Film GmbH.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1397/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.
Austrian postcard. Photo: Franz Löwy, Wien (Vienna), 1921. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Risque Image
After the fall of Bela Kun’s Republic and because of the turmoils of 1918-1919, Mihaly and Ilonka Kertesz fled Hungary and took up refuge in Vienna. There they both got a contract by count Kolowrat, the owner of Sascha Film.
Their first film in Vienna was Der Dame mit den schwarzen Handschuh/The Lady with the Black Gloves (Mihaly Kertesz, 1919). This was a fruitful period for the Austrian cinema, enforced by the contributions of another Hungarian refugee, Alexander Korda.
Ilonka took the stage name of Lucy Doraine and played in witty comedies by her husband, one even more brilliant than the other. These comedies include Miss Tutti Frutti (Mihaly Kertesz, 1921) and Herzogin Satanella/Cherchez la femme! (Mihaly Kertesz, 1921), in which she always starred opposite the Austrian actor Alphons Fryland .
Kertesz excelled in demonstrating his wife’s comic talents, but she also showed she was able to play serious, dramatic roles in Der Stern von Damaskus/The Star of Damascus (Mihaly Kertesz, 1920) and in particular in his monumental super-production Sodom und Gomorrha/Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah (Mihaly Kertesz, 1922).
In Der Stern von Damaskus, Doraine played opposite the Hungarian star Iván Petrovich . In Sodom und Gomorrah she played a triple role: Mary Conway, Lot's wife and the Queen of Syria. Her co-stars were Richard Berczeller, Victor Varconi and Walter Slezak .
Lucy Doraine made 10 films with her husband between 1918 and 1923. She became known for her enticing, ‘risqué’ image. Though in the early 1920s Austria had a hard time exporting to the countries that had won the First World War, Vittorio Martinelli indicates that Doraine’s films were ‘Frenched’ to avoid Italian boycots: film titles were made French, if they did not already sound so, like Cherchez la femme!
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 592/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Lucy Doraine Film Ges. m.b.H.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1677/1, 1927-1928.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1129/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1212/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3165/1, 1928-1929. Photo: C.O. Hoppé, London.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3295/1, 1928-1929. Photo: C.O. Hoppé, London.
From Munich to Hollywood
After Lucy Doraine divorced Kertesz in 1923, she moved to Munich. There she worked for the Emelka studio in Opfer der Liebe/Sacrifice for Love (Martin Hartwig, 1923) and for Messter-Ostermayr in Um ein Weibes Ehre/A Wife's Honour (Rudolf Biebrach, 1923) and Gehetzte Menschen/Hunted Men (Erich Schönfelder, 1924) with Johannes Riemann .
Around 1923 she founded in Munich her own company, Lucy Doraine-Film GmbH, for which she produced one film by Rudolf Biebrach, Die suchende Seele/The Searching Soul (1923) and three films directed by Felix Basch: Schicksal/Fate (1924), Finale der Liebe/Love's Finale (1925), Der Mann seiner Frau/His Wife's Husband (1925).
In the meantime, she continued to play in films by other companies such as Messter-Ostermayr, or Eichberg-Film in Der Prinz und die Tänzerin/The Prince and the Dancer (Richard Eichberg, 1926) opposite Hans Albers .
Like so many European actors, Doraine was invited to come to Hollywood, in this case by First National in 1927. German First National had been the distributor of her last two German films Eheskandal im Hause Fromont jun. und Risler sen./Mariage Scandal in the Fromont jr. and Risler Sr. Homes (A.W. Sandberg, 1927) and Alpentragödie/Alp Tragedy (Robert Land, 1927).
However, her American career dwindled down soon when sound film arrived. After supporting roles in the Billy Dove vehicle Adoration (Frank Lloyd, 1928) and the Janet Gaynor vehicle Christina (William K. Howard, 1929), Lucy only was allowed a bit part in Hell’s Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930).
Her last part was a supporting role in Mordprozeß Mary Dugan (Arthur Robison, 1931), the German version of The Trial of Mary Dugan (1931). Hereafter she withdrew from the film business, at the age of 33.
Lucy Doraine died at the high age of 91 in Los Angeles, in 1989.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 853/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin / Lucy Doraine Film GmbH. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 994/3, 1925-1926. Photo: d'Ora, Vienna.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1212/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1546/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3054/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Balazs, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3438/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3438/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4168/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), , Wikipedia and Filmportal.de.
Gisela May (1924-2016)
Last weekend, German actress and singer Gisela May (1924) passed away. May was the first lady of the political song and a German national treasure, famous for her work at Bertolt Brecht's theatre group, the Berliner Ensemble. She was a diseuse (singing actress) in the tradition established by Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich, and expert interpreter of the work of Brecht, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Kurt Tucholsky, and Jacques Brel. She appeared in several DEFA productions and a few international films. Gisela May was 92.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1684 1962. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3318, 1968. Photo: Winkler.
A Hidden Gem
Gisela May was born, in Wetzlar, Germany, in 1924. She was the daughter of author Ferdinand May and actress Käte May. Between 1942 and 1944, May studied at the drama school in Leipzig.
She was employed for nine years at various theatres, including the State Theatre of Schwerin and the State Theatre in Halle. Starting in 1951, she performed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Max Reinhardt's former workplace, where she played a variety of roles.
In 1962, May moved to Bertolt Brecht's theatre group, the Berliner Ensemble, and stayed for 30 years. While there she played a variety of roles in Brecht’s plays, including Madame Cabet in Die Tage der Commune/The Days of the Commune, Mrs Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera, Mrs Kopecka in Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg/Schweik in the Second World War, and as Mother Courage in Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children, her most famous role, which she played for 13 years.
She also worked as a ‘diseuse’ with Austrian composer Hanns Eisler on a programme with chansons, political songs and poems. Later she appeared on the Berlin stage in the musicals Hallo Dolly!/Hello Dolly and Cabaret.
Since 1951, Gisela May appeared in dozens of East-German films and TV productions. She made her film debut in the drama Das Beil von Wandsbek/The Axe of Wandsbek (Falk Harnack, 1951), starring Erwin Geschonneck and Käthe Braun. At IMDb , all the reviewers consider this film as a hidden gem. Reviewer Hasosch: “I consider Dr. Falk Harnack's "Das Beil Von Wandsbek", together with "Obchod Na Korze/The Shop On Main Street" by Jan Kadar, and "Der Verlorene" by and with Peter Lorre as a Triptychon of the best World War II movies. (...) This movie belongs without doubt to the greatest rediscoveries in film history. After having watched it, you will not be the same anymore.”
Other interesting DEFA productions with May are the crime film Treffpunkt Aimée/Meeting Point Aimée (Horst Reinecke, 1956), the forbidden film Die Schönste/The Most Beautiful (Walter Beck, 1957/2002) with Manfred Krug, and Eine alte Liebe/An Old Love (Frank Beyer, 1959), in which she played her first leading part in the cinema.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 329/182, 1956. Photo: DEFA / Kroiss.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 214/56, 1956. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
The times are changing
During the 1960s and and 1970s, Gisela May mostly worked for television and the stage. Among her few film appearances was Fleur Lafontaine (Horst Seemann, 1978), in which she played the mother of the title figure played by Angelica Domröse . She also appeared in the Hungarian film Csak egy mozi/Just a movie (Pal Sandor, 1985) with Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Gisela May won many awards for her work during the GDR period, but also afterwards. In 1991 she got the Deutscher Filmpreis in Gold (major German Film Award) for her role as Maika in the film Die Hallo-Sisters (Ottokar Runze, 1990). She shared the award with her co-stars in the film, Harald Juhnke and Ilse Werner . They play a run-down former radio producer and two quarrelsome 1950s stars who try their comeback on nationwide television.
Later films include the Greek production O Tzonys Keln, kyria mou/Johnny Keln, Madam (Thanassis Scroubelos, 1991) and the French-German drama Le silence du Coeur/The silence of the heart (Pierre Aknine, 1994) with Claude Piéplu.
Since 1992, May has free-lanced, often working at Berlin's Renaissance Theatre. May was able to pursue her career as a diseuse on an international basis, touring through Europe, Australia and the United States. She also appeared in 65 episodes of the TV Krimi-comedy Adelheid und ihre Mörder (1993-2007) featuring Evelyn Hamman. Since 2000, she regularly performs the show Gisela May singt und spricht Kurt Weill at the Berliner Ensemble.
In 2002 she was awarded with the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit), the only federal decoration of Germany. That year, she also published her memoir Es wechseln die Zeiten (The times are changing). She also held master classes and workshops in German on Brechtian theatre and cabaret performance. From 1956 till 1965 Gisela May was married to journalist Georg Honigmann and later she lived together with Wolfgang Harich. She passed away on 2 December 2016 in her hometown Berlin.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1777, 1962. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
Gisela May sings Seeräuberjenny/Pirate Jenny from Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera. Source: Vaimusic (YouTube).
Sources: Uncle Dave Lewis (AllMusic), Gisela May homepage (German), Akademie der Künste (German), Marian Buijs (De Volkskrant - Dutch), Wikipedia (German and English), and .
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1684 1962. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 3318, 1968. Photo: Winkler.
A Hidden Gem
Gisela May was born, in Wetzlar, Germany, in 1924. She was the daughter of author Ferdinand May and actress Käte May. Between 1942 and 1944, May studied at the drama school in Leipzig.
She was employed for nine years at various theatres, including the State Theatre of Schwerin and the State Theatre in Halle. Starting in 1951, she performed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Max Reinhardt's former workplace, where she played a variety of roles.
In 1962, May moved to Bertolt Brecht's theatre group, the Berliner Ensemble, and stayed for 30 years. While there she played a variety of roles in Brecht’s plays, including Madame Cabet in Die Tage der Commune/The Days of the Commune, Mrs Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera, Mrs Kopecka in Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg/Schweik in the Second World War, and as Mother Courage in Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children, her most famous role, which she played for 13 years.
She also worked as a ‘diseuse’ with Austrian composer Hanns Eisler on a programme with chansons, political songs and poems. Later she appeared on the Berlin stage in the musicals Hallo Dolly!/Hello Dolly and Cabaret.
Since 1951, Gisela May appeared in dozens of East-German films and TV productions. She made her film debut in the drama Das Beil von Wandsbek/The Axe of Wandsbek (Falk Harnack, 1951), starring Erwin Geschonneck and Käthe Braun. At IMDb , all the reviewers consider this film as a hidden gem. Reviewer Hasosch: “I consider Dr. Falk Harnack's "Das Beil Von Wandsbek", together with "Obchod Na Korze/The Shop On Main Street" by Jan Kadar, and "Der Verlorene" by and with Peter Lorre as a Triptychon of the best World War II movies. (...) This movie belongs without doubt to the greatest rediscoveries in film history. After having watched it, you will not be the same anymore.”
Other interesting DEFA productions with May are the crime film Treffpunkt Aimée/Meeting Point Aimée (Horst Reinecke, 1956), the forbidden film Die Schönste/The Most Beautiful (Walter Beck, 1957/2002) with Manfred Krug, and Eine alte Liebe/An Old Love (Frank Beyer, 1959), in which she played her first leading part in the cinema.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 329/182, 1956. Photo: DEFA / Kroiss.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 214/56, 1956. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
The times are changing
During the 1960s and and 1970s, Gisela May mostly worked for television and the stage. Among her few film appearances was Fleur Lafontaine (Horst Seemann, 1978), in which she played the mother of the title figure played by Angelica Domröse . She also appeared in the Hungarian film Csak egy mozi/Just a movie (Pal Sandor, 1985) with Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Gisela May won many awards for her work during the GDR period, but also afterwards. In 1991 she got the Deutscher Filmpreis in Gold (major German Film Award) for her role as Maika in the film Die Hallo-Sisters (Ottokar Runze, 1990). She shared the award with her co-stars in the film, Harald Juhnke and Ilse Werner . They play a run-down former radio producer and two quarrelsome 1950s stars who try their comeback on nationwide television.
Later films include the Greek production O Tzonys Keln, kyria mou/Johnny Keln, Madam (Thanassis Scroubelos, 1991) and the French-German drama Le silence du Coeur/The silence of the heart (Pierre Aknine, 1994) with Claude Piéplu.
Since 1992, May has free-lanced, often working at Berlin's Renaissance Theatre. May was able to pursue her career as a diseuse on an international basis, touring through Europe, Australia and the United States. She also appeared in 65 episodes of the TV Krimi-comedy Adelheid und ihre Mörder (1993-2007) featuring Evelyn Hamman. Since 2000, she regularly performs the show Gisela May singt und spricht Kurt Weill at the Berliner Ensemble.
In 2002 she was awarded with the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit), the only federal decoration of Germany. That year, she also published her memoir Es wechseln die Zeiten (The times are changing). She also held master classes and workshops in German on Brechtian theatre and cabaret performance. From 1956 till 1965 Gisela May was married to journalist Georg Honigmann and later she lived together with Wolfgang Harich. She passed away on 2 December 2016 in her hometown Berlin.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1777, 1962. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.
Gisela May sings Seeräuberjenny/Pirate Jenny from Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera. Source: Vaimusic (YouTube).
Sources: Uncle Dave Lewis (AllMusic), Gisela May homepage (German), Akademie der Künste (German), Marian Buijs (De Volkskrant - Dutch), Wikipedia (German and English), and .
December 4, 2016
Jean Angelo
Distinguished, attractive, athletic Jean Angelo (1875-1933) was a superstar of the French silent cinema. He was the ultimate leading man of several adventure films of the 1920s. Jean Renoir and Jacques Feyder are among the noted directors that Angelo has worked with.
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series by Editions La Fayette, Paris, no. 110. Photo: Comoedia.
French postcard by Editions Film, in Les Vedettes de l'Ecran series, no. 107. Publicity still for L’Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (Jacques Feyder, 1922).
French postcard by Editions Filma, no. 106. Caption: Les Vedettes de l'Ecran: Jean Angelo. Looks like Angelo's colonial outfit in L'Atlantide (Jacques Feyder, 1921).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 297. Photo: publicity still for Surcouf (Luitz-Morat, 1925).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 229. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for La Ronde Infernale (1928).
A Respectable and Commercially Viable Industry
Jean Angelo was born Jean Jacques Barthelemy in Paris, France in 1875. IMDb notes 1875; according to Ciné-Artistes it is 1888.
In 1903, he made his stage debut in Lucrèce Borgia under the guidance of the great stage actress Sarah Bernhardt . He made his film debut in 1908.
That year he appeared in the short film L'Assassinat de Duc de Guise/The assassination of the Duke de Guise (André Calmettes, Charles Le Bargy, 1908). This prestigious Film d’Art production reunited several leading figures of the French theatre, such as Charles Le Bargy , Albert Lambert and Gabrielle Robinne of the Comédie-Française. The acting, the photography and the set design are impressive for the period, as is the music by Camille Saint-Saëns, which was written especially for the film.
James Travers at Films de France writes: “L’Assassinat du duc de Guise is a film of immense historic importance. One of the first films to use the narrative form, it proved to be an immense international success for its production company, Film d’Art, and, by dint of its popularity, helped to propel cinema from its early pioneering endeavors into a respectable and commercially viable industry.”
Angelo was discovered by director Albert Capellani. Together they made several films, including the Victor Hugo adaptation Notre Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Albert Capellani, 1911) starring Henry Krauss as Quasimodo, and the four-part serial Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913) with Henry Krauss as Jean Valjean and Mistinguett as Éponine Thénardier.
Angelo also played a supporting part in the serial Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Albert Capellani, 1911) starring Paul Capellani . The First World War interrupted his career. In 1914 he abandoned the film sets for the battlefield, and went to fight. He returned with combat injuries.
In 1917 he contributed to the war propaganda film Mères françaises/Mothers of France (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917), starring Sarah Bernhardt . That year Angelo also went to the US to perform at Fort Lee, New Jersey, in the World Film production The Divine Sacrifice (George Archainbaud, 1918). It was Angelo’s first major role, and also his only American performance.
He returned to France before the war was over, to play in the Pathé production L’expiation/The Expiation (Camille de Morlhon, 1918), adapted from Guy de Maupassant and starring Gabrielle Robinne . In 1920 he starred in Les chères images/The expensive images (André Hugon, 1920) costarring Maxa.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 64, Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
French postcard in the Les vedettes de Cinema series by A.N., Paris, no. 162. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard in the Les vedettes de Cinema series by A.N., Paris, no. 163. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 164. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 611, Photo: Braunberger / Richebé.
Superstar the of Silent Film
In the 1920s, Jean Angelo became a superstar the of silent film. He was the ultimate leading man: distinguished, attractive, athletic, virile and powerful. He was a brilliant fencer, and he became the hero of several successful adventure films. He played Captain Morhange in L'Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (Jacques Feyder, 1921) with Georges Melchior and Stacia Napierkowska as the ageless queen Antinéa.
James Travers reviews: “Jacques Feyder’s first notable film was this grand adaptation of Pierre Benoît’s controversial and popular novel of the same title. What is most striking about this film is its truly epic scale. With most of the film shot on location in the Sahara desert – an extraordinary achievement for the time – L’Atlantide has a breathtaking realist feel that is almost unique in silent cinema.”
In 1924, Angelo played the legendary corsair Surcouf, the intrepid sailor who fought the British marines, in the historical adventure serial Surcouf (Luitz-Morat, 1924). That same year he also played the role of the crook Robert Macaire in Les Aventures de Robert Macaire/The Adventures of Robert Macaire (Jean Epstein, 1925) opposite Suzanne Bianchetti .
Jean Renoir then called on him for his second film, the silent masterpiece Nana (Jean Renoir, 1926). In this lavish and fairly faithful adaptation of Emile Zola’s classic novel, Angelo played one of the love-struck admirers of Nana (Catherine Hessling - Renoir’s wife at the time). Angelo was very at ease in these period films, and quickly he became very popular, despite his very stylized acting style, which may seem old-fashioned and theatrical today.
Another success was his role as Edmond Dantes, a naval officer betrayed by his friends and falsely imprisoned at the Chateau d'If, in Monte Cristo (Henri Fescourt, 1928). At Cineartistes , Simon Benattar-Bourgeay writes: “This superb adaptation, benefited from a huge budget, and still strikes today by the sumptuousness of its staging and the refinement of its images. Again, Jean Angelo made a strong impression and the actor fills the screen. More than his co-stars Lil Dagover and Gaston Modot , he here confirms his status of great romantic actor. His fame was at its height.”
French postcard by Sélections Cinégraphiques Maurice Rouhier, no. 227. Photo: Europe Film. Jean Angelo and Francesca Bertini in the late silent film La fin de Monte-Carlo (Henri Etievant, Mario Nalpas, 1927).
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 120.
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 415. Photo: Sartony.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3612/1, 1928-1929. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.
British postcard. Photo: Alban, Bruxelles.
A Compelling Film With a Strong Visual Style
The arrival of sound, somewhat hampered Jean Angelo’s film career. France shifted to sound around 1929-1930.
Angelo's first sound film was Mon coeur incognito/My heart incognito (Manfred Noa, André-Paul Antoine, 1930), a Franco-German production co-starring Florelle , Tréville , and Mady Christians . The film, shot at the Aafa studios in Berlin, had its premiere at the Paris Moulin Rouge in 1930.
Angelo was one of the numerous actors who was not comfortable with sound film. His acting became less powerful. This did not prevent him from continuing to make films. In 1932, he played for the second time Captain Morhange in L'Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (G.W. Pabst, 1932).
James Travers: “Although considerably less polished and memorable than some of Pabst’s other works, L’Atlantide is a compelling film with a strong visual style throughout. The film is a remake of Jacques Feyder’s 1921 adaptation of Pierre Benoît’s novel, with some striking differences, particularly in the portrayal of the queen Antinea ( Brigitte Helm ). As was the case with Feyder’s film, this film uses extensive location photography and cost a fortune to make, even though its runtime is much shorter.”
The film was made in three versions, one in French, one in German, Die Herrin von Atlantis, and another in English, The Mistress of Atlantis. In the German and English version, Angelo’s role was played by Gustav Diessl .
This was one of Angelo’s last roles. The following year, he contracted pneumonia during the filming of the Prosper Mérimée adaptation Colomba (Jacques Séverac, 1933) with Josette Day .
Jean Angelo died in 1933, in Paris. He was 58.
French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 613. Photo: Braunberger / Richebé. Publicity still for L'homme qui assassina/The Man who killed (Kurt Bernhardt, Jean Tarride, 1931).
L'Assassinat de Duc de Guise/The assassination of the Duke de Guise (1908). Source: A cinema history (YouTube).
Scene from L'Atlantide (1921). Source: Astique 333 (YouTube).
Scenes from Nana (1926). Music: Bando da Lua (1938). Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).
Sources: Simon Benattar-Bourgeay (Ciné-Artistes - French), James Travers (Le Film Guide), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia (French), and .
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series by Editions La Fayette, Paris, no. 110. Photo: Comoedia.
French postcard by Editions Film, in Les Vedettes de l'Ecran series, no. 107. Publicity still for L’Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (Jacques Feyder, 1922).
French postcard by Editions Filma, no. 106. Caption: Les Vedettes de l'Ecran: Jean Angelo. Looks like Angelo's colonial outfit in L'Atlantide (Jacques Feyder, 1921).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 297. Photo: publicity still for Surcouf (Luitz-Morat, 1925).
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 229. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for La Ronde Infernale (1928).
A Respectable and Commercially Viable Industry
Jean Angelo was born Jean Jacques Barthelemy in Paris, France in 1875. IMDb notes 1875; according to Ciné-Artistes it is 1888.
In 1903, he made his stage debut in Lucrèce Borgia under the guidance of the great stage actress Sarah Bernhardt . He made his film debut in 1908.
That year he appeared in the short film L'Assassinat de Duc de Guise/The assassination of the Duke de Guise (André Calmettes, Charles Le Bargy, 1908). This prestigious Film d’Art production reunited several leading figures of the French theatre, such as Charles Le Bargy , Albert Lambert and Gabrielle Robinne of the Comédie-Française. The acting, the photography and the set design are impressive for the period, as is the music by Camille Saint-Saëns, which was written especially for the film.
James Travers at Films de France writes: “L’Assassinat du duc de Guise is a film of immense historic importance. One of the first films to use the narrative form, it proved to be an immense international success for its production company, Film d’Art, and, by dint of its popularity, helped to propel cinema from its early pioneering endeavors into a respectable and commercially viable industry.”
Angelo was discovered by director Albert Capellani. Together they made several films, including the Victor Hugo adaptation Notre Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Albert Capellani, 1911) starring Henry Krauss as Quasimodo, and the four-part serial Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913) with Henry Krauss as Jean Valjean and Mistinguett as Éponine Thénardier.
Angelo also played a supporting part in the serial Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Albert Capellani, 1911) starring Paul Capellani . The First World War interrupted his career. In 1914 he abandoned the film sets for the battlefield, and went to fight. He returned with combat injuries.
In 1917 he contributed to the war propaganda film Mères françaises/Mothers of France (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917), starring Sarah Bernhardt . That year Angelo also went to the US to perform at Fort Lee, New Jersey, in the World Film production The Divine Sacrifice (George Archainbaud, 1918). It was Angelo’s first major role, and also his only American performance.
He returned to France before the war was over, to play in the Pathé production L’expiation/The Expiation (Camille de Morlhon, 1918), adapted from Guy de Maupassant and starring Gabrielle Robinne . In 1920 he starred in Les chères images/The expensive images (André Hugon, 1920) costarring Maxa.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 64, Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
French postcard in the Les vedettes de Cinema series by A.N., Paris, no. 162. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard in the Les vedettes de Cinema series by A.N., Paris, no. 163. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 164. Photo: Sartony.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 611, Photo: Braunberger / Richebé.
Superstar the of Silent Film
In the 1920s, Jean Angelo became a superstar the of silent film. He was the ultimate leading man: distinguished, attractive, athletic, virile and powerful. He was a brilliant fencer, and he became the hero of several successful adventure films. He played Captain Morhange in L'Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (Jacques Feyder, 1921) with Georges Melchior and Stacia Napierkowska as the ageless queen Antinéa.
James Travers reviews: “Jacques Feyder’s first notable film was this grand adaptation of Pierre Benoît’s controversial and popular novel of the same title. What is most striking about this film is its truly epic scale. With most of the film shot on location in the Sahara desert – an extraordinary achievement for the time – L’Atlantide has a breathtaking realist feel that is almost unique in silent cinema.”
In 1924, Angelo played the legendary corsair Surcouf, the intrepid sailor who fought the British marines, in the historical adventure serial Surcouf (Luitz-Morat, 1924). That same year he also played the role of the crook Robert Macaire in Les Aventures de Robert Macaire/The Adventures of Robert Macaire (Jean Epstein, 1925) opposite Suzanne Bianchetti .
Jean Renoir then called on him for his second film, the silent masterpiece Nana (Jean Renoir, 1926). In this lavish and fairly faithful adaptation of Emile Zola’s classic novel, Angelo played one of the love-struck admirers of Nana (Catherine Hessling - Renoir’s wife at the time). Angelo was very at ease in these period films, and quickly he became very popular, despite his very stylized acting style, which may seem old-fashioned and theatrical today.
Another success was his role as Edmond Dantes, a naval officer betrayed by his friends and falsely imprisoned at the Chateau d'If, in Monte Cristo (Henri Fescourt, 1928). At Cineartistes , Simon Benattar-Bourgeay writes: “This superb adaptation, benefited from a huge budget, and still strikes today by the sumptuousness of its staging and the refinement of its images. Again, Jean Angelo made a strong impression and the actor fills the screen. More than his co-stars Lil Dagover and Gaston Modot , he here confirms his status of great romantic actor. His fame was at its height.”
French postcard by Sélections Cinégraphiques Maurice Rouhier, no. 227. Photo: Europe Film. Jean Angelo and Francesca Bertini in the late silent film La fin de Monte-Carlo (Henri Etievant, Mario Nalpas, 1927).
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 120.
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 415. Photo: Sartony.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3612/1, 1928-1929. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.
British postcard. Photo: Alban, Bruxelles.
A Compelling Film With a Strong Visual Style
The arrival of sound, somewhat hampered Jean Angelo’s film career. France shifted to sound around 1929-1930.
Angelo's first sound film was Mon coeur incognito/My heart incognito (Manfred Noa, André-Paul Antoine, 1930), a Franco-German production co-starring Florelle , Tréville , and Mady Christians . The film, shot at the Aafa studios in Berlin, had its premiere at the Paris Moulin Rouge in 1930.
Angelo was one of the numerous actors who was not comfortable with sound film. His acting became less powerful. This did not prevent him from continuing to make films. In 1932, he played for the second time Captain Morhange in L'Atlantide/Lost Atlantis (G.W. Pabst, 1932).
James Travers: “Although considerably less polished and memorable than some of Pabst’s other works, L’Atlantide is a compelling film with a strong visual style throughout. The film is a remake of Jacques Feyder’s 1921 adaptation of Pierre Benoît’s novel, with some striking differences, particularly in the portrayal of the queen Antinea ( Brigitte Helm ). As was the case with Feyder’s film, this film uses extensive location photography and cost a fortune to make, even though its runtime is much shorter.”
The film was made in three versions, one in French, one in German, Die Herrin von Atlantis, and another in English, The Mistress of Atlantis. In the German and English version, Angelo’s role was played by Gustav Diessl .
This was one of Angelo’s last roles. The following year, he contracted pneumonia during the filming of the Prosper Mérimée adaptation Colomba (Jacques Séverac, 1933) with Josette Day .
Jean Angelo died in 1933, in Paris. He was 58.
French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 613. Photo: Braunberger / Richebé. Publicity still for L'homme qui assassina/The Man who killed (Kurt Bernhardt, Jean Tarride, 1931).
L'Assassinat de Duc de Guise/The assassination of the Duke de Guise (1908). Source: A cinema history (YouTube).
Scene from L'Atlantide (1921). Source: Astique 333 (YouTube).
Scenes from Nana (1926). Music: Bando da Lua (1938). Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).
Sources: Simon Benattar-Bourgeay (Ciné-Artistes - French), James Travers (Le Film Guide), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia (French), and .
December 3, 2016
Riccardo Scamarcio
Blue-eyed dreamboat Riccardo Scamarcio (1979) is one of the leading stars of the contemporary Italian cinema. He is known for successful Italian films as Romanzo criminale/Kings of Crime (2005), Mio fratello è figlio unico/My Brother Is an Only Child (2007) and Mine vaganti/Loose Cannons (2010) but also works abroad. He is also a film producer.
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
Fodder for the gossip magazines
Ricardo Scamarcio was born in 1979 in Andria, Puglia, Italy. His mother Irene is a painter.
At the age of 16, he left school and went to Rome to train as an actor at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema. His acting debut was in the TV series Compagni di scuola/Classmates (Tiziana Aristarco, Claudio Norza, 2001).
In 2003 followed a part in La meglio gioventù/The Best of Youth (2003), a four-part mini-series directed by Marco Tullio Giordana that covers expansive times of Italian history through the story of one family. The series was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Un Certain Regard award, and was then given an international theatrical release.
Scamarcio’s first lead role in a feature film was in the teen romance Tre metri sopra il cielo/Three Steps Over Heaven (Luca Lucini, 2004). His role as a handsome bad boy made him immediately a sex symbol in Italy. He co-starred with Italian-Greek actress Valeria Golina in Texas (Fausto Paravidino, 2005). He fell in love with his 14-years older costar and their affair was fodder for the gossip magazines and made him well-known.
He then starred in the criminal drama Romanzo criminale/Kings of Crime (Michele Placido, 2005), with Kim Rossi Stuart. In this highly acclaimed portrait of a Mafiosi community in the 1970s, he played a monosyllabic, enigmatic thug. In 2006 he acted in the TV Mini-series La freccia nera/The Black Arrow (Fabrizio Costa, 2006), adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
He played one of two brothers coming of age in a small Italian town in the 1960s and 1970s in Mio fratello è figlio unico/My Brother Is an Only Child (Daniele Luchetti, 2007), based on the novel Il Fasciocomunista by Antonio Pennacchi. Brothers Accio (Elio Germano) and Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) embody and celebrate opposing political stances, but share an impassioned love of the same woman that threatens to drive them to blows. Luchetti's political comedy observes the brothers over the course of 15 years, against the ever-shifting backdrop of tumultuous Italian sociopolitical history.
Scamarcio played in the local box-office hit Manuale d'amore - Capitoli successivi/Manual of Love 2 (Giovanni Veronesi, 2007), a romantic comedy with Monica Bellucci . Then followed Ho voglia di te/I want you (Luis Prieto, 2007), a sequel to his breakthrough film, Tre metri sopra il cielo/Three Steps Over Heaven (2004), and Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara, 2007), starring Willem Dafoe.
In the following years, he made the thriller Colpo d'occhio/At a Glance (Sergio Rubini, 2008), the comedy Italians (Giovanni Veronesi, 2009) with Carlo Verdone, and with Luca Argentero Il grande sogno/The Big Dream (Michele Placido, 2009), set at a Roman university in 1968. Scamarcio played an illegal immigrant-cum-innocent abroad in Eden à l'Ouest/Eden Is West (2009), directed by celebrated filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Scamarcio's partner, Valeria Golino, played his sister in the comedy-drama L'uomo nero/The Cézanne Affair (Sergio Rubini, 2009).
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
A gay son of a conservative bourgeois family
Riccardo Scamarcio was very successful as a gay son of a conservative bourgeois family in the comedy Mine vaganti/Loose Cannons (Ferzan Özpetek, 2010). The film was highly praised by film critics and got nominated for thirteen David di Donatello Awards, the Italian Oscars.
In France, Scamarcio appeared in the drama Polisse (2011), written, directed by and starring Maïwenn. The film centres on the Child Protection Unit (Brigade de Protection des Mineurs) of the Paris Police.
Woody Allen directed him in the magical realist romantic comedy To Rome with Love (2012), set in Rome. He had small parts in the British biographical drama Effie Gray (Richard Laxton, 2014), featuring Dakota Fanning, and the British-German-American romance Third Person (Paul Haggis, 2013), starring Liam Neeson.
Back in Italy, he starred in the comedy Una piccola impresa meridionale/A Small Southern Enterprise (2013), written, directed and starred by Rocco Papaleo. He reunited with Willem Dafoe and director Abel Ferrara for Pasolini (2014) about the final days of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Scamarcio starred opposite Sharon Stone in the comedy-drama Un ragazzo d'oro/A Golden Boy (2014), written and directed by Pupi Avati. Then followed Maraviglioso Boccaccio/Wondrous Boccaccio (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 2015) loosely based on stories from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
He got a David di Donatello Award nomination for best actor for the romantic drama Nessuno si salva da solo/You Can't Save Yourself Alone (Sergio Castellitto, 2015). Other recent films in which he appeared are the Italian drama La prima luce/The First Light (Vincenzo Marra, 2015), the American drama Burnt (John Wells, 2015), starring Bradley Cooper, the romantic comedy-drama Io che amo solo te/I only Love You (Marco Ponti, 2015) – a box office hit in Italy, the Italian crime-drama Pericle il nero/Pericle (Stefano Mordini, 2016) and the upcoming American action thriller John Wick: Chapter Two (Chad Stahelski, 2017) in which Keanu Reeves returns as hitman John Wick.
Since 2006, Riccardo Scamarcio is engaged to Valeria Golino. In 2010 they set up the film production company, Buena Onda, with Viola Prestieri. Scamarcio produced Golina’s euthanasia-themed directorial debut Miele/Honey (Valeria Golina, 2013). Scamarcio and Golina live in Rome.
Trailer My Brother Is an Only Child (2007). Source: MovieTrailerNetwork (YouTube).
Trailer Mine vaganti/Loose Cannons (2010). Source: peccadillopictures (YouTube).
Official Trailer Burnt (2015). Source: Movieweb (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (Italian and English), and .
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
Fodder for the gossip magazines
Ricardo Scamarcio was born in 1979 in Andria, Puglia, Italy. His mother Irene is a painter.
At the age of 16, he left school and went to Rome to train as an actor at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema. His acting debut was in the TV series Compagni di scuola/Classmates (Tiziana Aristarco, Claudio Norza, 2001).
In 2003 followed a part in La meglio gioventù/The Best of Youth (2003), a four-part mini-series directed by Marco Tullio Giordana that covers expansive times of Italian history through the story of one family. The series was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Un Certain Regard award, and was then given an international theatrical release.
Scamarcio’s first lead role in a feature film was in the teen romance Tre metri sopra il cielo/Three Steps Over Heaven (Luca Lucini, 2004). His role as a handsome bad boy made him immediately a sex symbol in Italy. He co-starred with Italian-Greek actress Valeria Golina in Texas (Fausto Paravidino, 2005). He fell in love with his 14-years older costar and their affair was fodder for the gossip magazines and made him well-known.
He then starred in the criminal drama Romanzo criminale/Kings of Crime (Michele Placido, 2005), with Kim Rossi Stuart. In this highly acclaimed portrait of a Mafiosi community in the 1970s, he played a monosyllabic, enigmatic thug. In 2006 he acted in the TV Mini-series La freccia nera/The Black Arrow (Fabrizio Costa, 2006), adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
He played one of two brothers coming of age in a small Italian town in the 1960s and 1970s in Mio fratello è figlio unico/My Brother Is an Only Child (Daniele Luchetti, 2007), based on the novel Il Fasciocomunista by Antonio Pennacchi. Brothers Accio (Elio Germano) and Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) embody and celebrate opposing political stances, but share an impassioned love of the same woman that threatens to drive them to blows. Luchetti's political comedy observes the brothers over the course of 15 years, against the ever-shifting backdrop of tumultuous Italian sociopolitical history.
Scamarcio played in the local box-office hit Manuale d'amore - Capitoli successivi/Manual of Love 2 (Giovanni Veronesi, 2007), a romantic comedy with Monica Bellucci . Then followed Ho voglia di te/I want you (Luis Prieto, 2007), a sequel to his breakthrough film, Tre metri sopra il cielo/Three Steps Over Heaven (2004), and Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara, 2007), starring Willem Dafoe.
In the following years, he made the thriller Colpo d'occhio/At a Glance (Sergio Rubini, 2008), the comedy Italians (Giovanni Veronesi, 2009) with Carlo Verdone, and with Luca Argentero Il grande sogno/The Big Dream (Michele Placido, 2009), set at a Roman university in 1968. Scamarcio played an illegal immigrant-cum-innocent abroad in Eden à l'Ouest/Eden Is West (2009), directed by celebrated filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Scamarcio's partner, Valeria Golino, played his sister in the comedy-drama L'uomo nero/The Cézanne Affair (Sergio Rubini, 2009).
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
Italian postcard in the Collection Cards series, a supplement to the weekly Cioè.
A gay son of a conservative bourgeois family
Riccardo Scamarcio was very successful as a gay son of a conservative bourgeois family in the comedy Mine vaganti/Loose Cannons (Ferzan Özpetek, 2010). The film was highly praised by film critics and got nominated for thirteen David di Donatello Awards, the Italian Oscars.
In France, Scamarcio appeared in the drama Polisse (2011), written, directed by and starring Maïwenn. The film centres on the Child Protection Unit (Brigade de Protection des Mineurs) of the Paris Police.
Woody Allen directed him in the magical realist romantic comedy To Rome with Love (2012), set in Rome. He had small parts in the British biographical drama Effie Gray (Richard Laxton, 2014), featuring Dakota Fanning, and the British-German-American romance Third Person (Paul Haggis, 2013), starring Liam Neeson.
Back in Italy, he starred in the comedy Una piccola impresa meridionale/A Small Southern Enterprise (2013), written, directed and starred by Rocco Papaleo. He reunited with Willem Dafoe and director Abel Ferrara for Pasolini (2014) about the final days of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Scamarcio starred opposite Sharon Stone in the comedy-drama Un ragazzo d'oro/A Golden Boy (2014), written and directed by Pupi Avati. Then followed Maraviglioso Boccaccio/Wondrous Boccaccio (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 2015) loosely based on stories from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
He got a David di Donatello Award nomination for best actor for the romantic drama Nessuno si salva da solo/You Can't Save Yourself Alone (Sergio Castellitto, 2015). Other recent films in which he appeared are the Italian drama La prima luce/The First Light (Vincenzo Marra, 2015), the American drama Burnt (John Wells, 2015), starring Bradley Cooper, the romantic comedy-drama Io che amo solo te/I only Love You (Marco Ponti, 2015) – a box office hit in Italy, the Italian crime-drama Pericle il nero/Pericle (Stefano Mordini, 2016) and the upcoming American action thriller John Wick: Chapter Two (Chad Stahelski, 2017) in which Keanu Reeves returns as hitman John Wick.
Since 2006, Riccardo Scamarcio is engaged to Valeria Golino. In 2010 they set up the film production company, Buena Onda, with Viola Prestieri. Scamarcio produced Golina’s euthanasia-themed directorial debut Miele/Honey (Valeria Golina, 2013). Scamarcio and Golina live in Rome.
Trailer My Brother Is an Only Child (2007). Source: MovieTrailerNetwork (YouTube).
Trailer Mine vaganti/Loose Cannons (2010). Source: peccadillopictures (YouTube).
Official Trailer Burnt (2015). Source: Movieweb (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (Italian and English), and .
December 2, 2016
Imported from the USA: Joseph Cotten
American film, stage and television actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994) achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He first gained worldwide fame in the Orson Welles films Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay. He went on to become one of the leading Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films such as Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946) and the British classic The Third Man (1949).
Dutch postcard, no. 3067. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
Dutch postcard by Foto Archief Film en Toneel, no. 3335. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
Dutch postcard, no. 2419. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
A brilliant comic actor
Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1905 to a prosperous Southern family. He was the first of three sons of Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster, and Sally Willson Cotten. At an early age, Joseph already showed a passion for story-telling, reciting, and performing acts for his family.
In 1923, when Cotten was 18, he went to Washington D.C. to study at the Hickman School of Expression and then moved to New York City in 1924 to make his way in the theatre world. This was tougher than Cotten had hoped. He ended up working as a shipping clerk for a year before heading south to Miami with friends. In Florida, Cotten supported himself with an odd assortment of jobs, including lifeguard, potato salad merchandiser and as a drama critic for the Miami Herald. That evidently led to appearance in plays at the Miami Civic Theater.
Through a connection at the Miami Herald he managed to land an assistant stage manager job in New York. In 1929 he was engaged for a season at the Copley Theatre in Boston, and there he was able to expand his acting experience, appearing in 30 plays. Cotten made his Broadway debut in 1930 and he began working on radio shows soon after. He also married pianist Lenore La Mont in 1931 and they remained together until her 1960 death.
On the cast of CBS Radio's The American School of the Air, Cotten met in 1934 Orson Welles and the two became friends. Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor, and gave him the starring role in his Federal Theatre Project farce, Horse Eats Hats (1936). In 1937, Cotten joined Orson Welles ' Mercury Theatre company, where he took the lead in such plays as Shoemaker’s Holiday and Julius Caesar.
Cotten made his film debut in the short, Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles, 1938), a comedy based on William Gillette's 1890 play. The short was occasionally screened before or after Mercury productions, but never received an official release. It was considered lost until it surfaced in 2013.
Cotten appeared in the original Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story (1939–1940) as C. K. Dexter Haven opposite Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord. Cotten jumped off the radio and stage and onto the big screen in 1941, making his Hollywood feature debut in Welles’ film debut, Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). The epic, portrayed the life of a press magnate (played by Welles) who starts out as an idealist but eventually turns into a corrupt, lonely old man. Cotten played the role of Kane's best friend Jedediah Leland, eventually a drama critic for one of Kane's papers.
Cotten would find his finest roles in Welles’ films, and the pair followed Citizen Kane with another masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942), and the Nazi-related thriller Journey Into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943), which was co-written by Cotten and Welles.
Belgian collectors card by De Beukelaer, Antwerp, no A 45. Photo: Warner Bros.
Small German collectors card by Greiling Sammelbilder, Serie E, no. 103. Photo: Paramount.
Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 83.
A very popular romantic leading man
Joseph Cotten had a remarkable film career during the 1940s. He starred as a serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He then played an eager police detective in the mystery thriller Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) opposite Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
Producer David O. Selznick then launched him successfully as a romantic leading man. Cotten starred with Jennifer Jones in four films for Selznick International Pictures: the wartime domestic drama Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), the romantic drama Love Letters (William Dieterle, 1945), the box office hit Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), and the critically acclaimed Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948), in which he played a melancholy artist who becomes obsessed with a girl who may have died many years before.
He reunited with Hitchcock in the British historical thriller Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) as an Australian landowner with a shady past. Another British classic is The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), in which Orson Welles also plays a pivotal role. Cotten portrays a writer of pulp fiction who travels to postwar Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime (Welles). When he arrives, he discovers that Lime has died, and is determined to prove to the police that it was murder, but uncovers an even darker secret.
Coten then made a string of less high-profile roles in films such as the dark Civil War Western Two Flags West (Robert Wise, 1950), the Joan Fontaine romance September Affair (William Dieterle, 1950), and the Film Noir Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953) in which he played Marilyn Monroe ’s jealous husband. He also had a brief role as a member of the Roman Senate in Orson Welles ’ The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1951). On Broadway, Cotten created the role of Linus Larrabee, Jr., in the original 1953 production of Sabrina Fair, opposite Margaret Sullavan.
His film career floundered and Cotten found a new home on TV. He appeared on such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and hosting The 20th Century-Fox Hour and The Joseph Cotten Show. In the cinema, Cotten had an uncredited cameo in Welles’ Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) and a starring role in the film adaptation of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (Byron Haskin, 1958).
During the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in a long array of TV and film projects. His most memorable films include the horror classic Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964), with Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965), the war film Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, 1970), the British horror film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971) featuring Vincent Price, the Italian horror film La Figlia di Frankenstein/Lady Frankenstein (Mel Welles, 1971) starring Rosalba Neri, The Science Fiction thriller Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973) and the all-star disaster film Airport '77 (Jerry Jameson, 1977).
One of Cotten's last films was the epic flop Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino. 1980). An on-and-off writer, Cotten published his autobiography, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere (1987), just a few years after suffering a stroke and heart attack. Joseph Cotten died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 1994. He was survived by his second wife, British actress Patricia Medina .
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 343, 1953. Photo: Warner Bros.
Dutch postcard by J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 31 HL. Photo: Nederland Film. Publicity still for I'll Be Seeing You (William Dieterle, 1944) with Shirley Temple.
Publicity still of Alida Valli and Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (1949). Collection: Doctor Macro's.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and .
Dutch postcard, no. 3067. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
Dutch postcard by Foto Archief Film en Toneel, no. 3335. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
Dutch postcard, no. 2419. Photo: RKO Radio Films.
A brilliant comic actor
Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1905 to a prosperous Southern family. He was the first of three sons of Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster, and Sally Willson Cotten. At an early age, Joseph already showed a passion for story-telling, reciting, and performing acts for his family.
In 1923, when Cotten was 18, he went to Washington D.C. to study at the Hickman School of Expression and then moved to New York City in 1924 to make his way in the theatre world. This was tougher than Cotten had hoped. He ended up working as a shipping clerk for a year before heading south to Miami with friends. In Florida, Cotten supported himself with an odd assortment of jobs, including lifeguard, potato salad merchandiser and as a drama critic for the Miami Herald. That evidently led to appearance in plays at the Miami Civic Theater.
Through a connection at the Miami Herald he managed to land an assistant stage manager job in New York. In 1929 he was engaged for a season at the Copley Theatre in Boston, and there he was able to expand his acting experience, appearing in 30 plays. Cotten made his Broadway debut in 1930 and he began working on radio shows soon after. He also married pianist Lenore La Mont in 1931 and they remained together until her 1960 death.
On the cast of CBS Radio's The American School of the Air, Cotten met in 1934 Orson Welles and the two became friends. Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor, and gave him the starring role in his Federal Theatre Project farce, Horse Eats Hats (1936). In 1937, Cotten joined Orson Welles ' Mercury Theatre company, where he took the lead in such plays as Shoemaker’s Holiday and Julius Caesar.
Cotten made his film debut in the short, Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles, 1938), a comedy based on William Gillette's 1890 play. The short was occasionally screened before or after Mercury productions, but never received an official release. It was considered lost until it surfaced in 2013.
Cotten appeared in the original Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story (1939–1940) as C. K. Dexter Haven opposite Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord. Cotten jumped off the radio and stage and onto the big screen in 1941, making his Hollywood feature debut in Welles’ film debut, Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). The epic, portrayed the life of a press magnate (played by Welles) who starts out as an idealist but eventually turns into a corrupt, lonely old man. Cotten played the role of Kane's best friend Jedediah Leland, eventually a drama critic for one of Kane's papers.
Cotten would find his finest roles in Welles’ films, and the pair followed Citizen Kane with another masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942), and the Nazi-related thriller Journey Into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943), which was co-written by Cotten and Welles.
Belgian collectors card by De Beukelaer, Antwerp, no A 45. Photo: Warner Bros.
Small German collectors card by Greiling Sammelbilder, Serie E, no. 103. Photo: Paramount.
Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 83.
A very popular romantic leading man
Joseph Cotten had a remarkable film career during the 1940s. He starred as a serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He then played an eager police detective in the mystery thriller Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) opposite Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
Producer David O. Selznick then launched him successfully as a romantic leading man. Cotten starred with Jennifer Jones in four films for Selznick International Pictures: the wartime domestic drama Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), the romantic drama Love Letters (William Dieterle, 1945), the box office hit Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), and the critically acclaimed Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948), in which he played a melancholy artist who becomes obsessed with a girl who may have died many years before.
He reunited with Hitchcock in the British historical thriller Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) as an Australian landowner with a shady past. Another British classic is The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), in which Orson Welles also plays a pivotal role. Cotten portrays a writer of pulp fiction who travels to postwar Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime (Welles). When he arrives, he discovers that Lime has died, and is determined to prove to the police that it was murder, but uncovers an even darker secret.
Coten then made a string of less high-profile roles in films such as the dark Civil War Western Two Flags West (Robert Wise, 1950), the Joan Fontaine romance September Affair (William Dieterle, 1950), and the Film Noir Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953) in which he played Marilyn Monroe ’s jealous husband. He also had a brief role as a member of the Roman Senate in Orson Welles ’ The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1951). On Broadway, Cotten created the role of Linus Larrabee, Jr., in the original 1953 production of Sabrina Fair, opposite Margaret Sullavan.
His film career floundered and Cotten found a new home on TV. He appeared on such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and hosting The 20th Century-Fox Hour and The Joseph Cotten Show. In the cinema, Cotten had an uncredited cameo in Welles’ Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) and a starring role in the film adaptation of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (Byron Haskin, 1958).
During the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in a long array of TV and film projects. His most memorable films include the horror classic Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964), with Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965), the war film Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, 1970), the British horror film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971) featuring Vincent Price, the Italian horror film La Figlia di Frankenstein/Lady Frankenstein (Mel Welles, 1971) starring Rosalba Neri, The Science Fiction thriller Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973) and the all-star disaster film Airport '77 (Jerry Jameson, 1977).
One of Cotten's last films was the epic flop Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino. 1980). An on-and-off writer, Cotten published his autobiography, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere (1987), just a few years after suffering a stroke and heart attack. Joseph Cotten died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 1994. He was survived by his second wife, British actress Patricia Medina .
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 343, 1953. Photo: Warner Bros.
Dutch postcard by J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 31 HL. Photo: Nederland Film. Publicity still for I'll Be Seeing You (William Dieterle, 1944) with Shirley Temple.
Publicity still of Alida Valli and Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (1949). Collection: Doctor Macro's.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and .
December 1, 2016
EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: photos by Atelier Schenker
This Dazzling Dozen post is inspired by Marlene Pilaete. Recently she did a 'La chambre obscure' post at La Collectionneuse on Atelier Schenker. This was one of the most famous German photo studios between the early 1910s and early 1930s. The two main photographers of the studio, Karl Schenker and Mario von Bucovich had many German film stars of the era for their cameras. The exhibition 'Master of Beauty' on the work of Karl Schenker can be seen at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne till 8 January 2017. And here at EFSP, 12 dazzling film star postcards with pictures by Atelier Schenker.
Gunnar Tolnaes . German postcard by Verlag W.J. Mörlins, Berlin / Vertrieb Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 9001/3. Photo: Karl Schenker.
Mia May . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 70/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / May Film.
Alwin Neuss . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 83/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Lotte Neumann . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 94/2. Photo: Karl Schenker / NBFMB.
Rosa Porten . German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 97/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Treumann- Larsson Film, Berlin.
Alfred Abel is not listed as playing Voltaire in any of the Frederick the Great films, but the back of this postcard states this is for the Fridericus Rex series (1922-1923) by Arzén von Cserépy for his Cserepy Film Co.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 647/9. Photo: Karl Schenker. Caption: Alfred Abel as 'Voltaire, the genial friend of Frederick [the Great]'.
Who was Karl Schenker?
Karl Schenker was born in Bukovina in Romania in 1886. He moved to Berlin via Lviv and Munich around 1912 and opened an 'atelier', a photo studio, in the German capital. Atelier Schenker quickly became a great success and everybody who was anybody had their portrait taken in his studio on the famous Kurfürstendamm. He also did fashion photography for magazines like Die Dame.
Curator Miriam Halwani of the Museum Ludwig: "After all, no one made their subjects look better, and there was no greater master of retouching. He wrapped actresses, dancers, and society ladies in tulle and furs before taking their picture—or he painted the fur into the picture afterwards."
In 1925, Schenker left for the US, where he stayed for five years. In New York, he mainly illustrated and painted portraits under the name Karol Schenker. His atelier in Berlin was then taken over by Mario von Bucovich. Von Bucovich was born in 1884 in Pula in Istria.
Schenker returned to Berlin in 1930, but when the Nazis took the power in 1933 the Jewish Schenker could not stay in Berlin. He emigrated to England in 1938. There he opened a studio in London on Regent Street and he died in the British capital in 1954.
Mario von Bucovich worked during the 1930s in Wiesbaden, London, Paris and the US, before settling at the end of the decade in Mexico. There he died in a car accident in 1947.
The Museum Ludwig recently acquired around 100 portraits and took this as an occasion to trace Schenker’s life and work for the first time and to rediscover an unjustly forgotten artist. Around 250 works are presented in Cologne, including international loans: photographic portraits of once-famous women and men, fashion and wax figure photographs, magazine covers designed by Schenker, an original drawing, a painting, and yes, even film star postcards.
Ossi Oswalda . German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3310. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Leni Riefenstahl . German postcard. Photo: Karl Schenker. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Aud Egede Nissen . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1144/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Elisabeth Bergner . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3228/2, 1928-1929. Photo: M. v. Bucovich (Atelier K. Schenker). Publicity still for Doña Juana (Paul Czinner, 1928).
Gustav Fröhlich. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3018/1, 1928-1929. Photo: M. v. Bucovich (Atelier K. Schenker).
Renate Müller . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8751/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin.
This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.
Sources: Marlene Pilaete (La Collectionneuse - French), Museum Ludwig and Wikipedia (French).
Gunnar Tolnaes . German postcard by Verlag W.J. Mörlins, Berlin / Vertrieb Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 9001/3. Photo: Karl Schenker.
Mia May . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 70/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / May Film.
Alwin Neuss . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 83/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Lotte Neumann . German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 94/2. Photo: Karl Schenker / NBFMB.
Rosa Porten . German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 97/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Treumann- Larsson Film, Berlin.
Alfred Abel is not listed as playing Voltaire in any of the Frederick the Great films, but the back of this postcard states this is for the Fridericus Rex series (1922-1923) by Arzén von Cserépy for his Cserepy Film Co.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 647/9. Photo: Karl Schenker. Caption: Alfred Abel as 'Voltaire, the genial friend of Frederick [the Great]'.
Who was Karl Schenker?
Karl Schenker was born in Bukovina in Romania in 1886. He moved to Berlin via Lviv and Munich around 1912 and opened an 'atelier', a photo studio, in the German capital. Atelier Schenker quickly became a great success and everybody who was anybody had their portrait taken in his studio on the famous Kurfürstendamm. He also did fashion photography for magazines like Die Dame.
Curator Miriam Halwani of the Museum Ludwig: "After all, no one made their subjects look better, and there was no greater master of retouching. He wrapped actresses, dancers, and society ladies in tulle and furs before taking their picture—or he painted the fur into the picture afterwards."
In 1925, Schenker left for the US, where he stayed for five years. In New York, he mainly illustrated and painted portraits under the name Karol Schenker. His atelier in Berlin was then taken over by Mario von Bucovich. Von Bucovich was born in 1884 in Pula in Istria.
Schenker returned to Berlin in 1930, but when the Nazis took the power in 1933 the Jewish Schenker could not stay in Berlin. He emigrated to England in 1938. There he opened a studio in London on Regent Street and he died in the British capital in 1954.
Mario von Bucovich worked during the 1930s in Wiesbaden, London, Paris and the US, before settling at the end of the decade in Mexico. There he died in a car accident in 1947.
The Museum Ludwig recently acquired around 100 portraits and took this as an occasion to trace Schenker’s life and work for the first time and to rediscover an unjustly forgotten artist. Around 250 works are presented in Cologne, including international loans: photographic portraits of once-famous women and men, fashion and wax figure photographs, magazine covers designed by Schenker, an original drawing, a painting, and yes, even film star postcards.
Ossi Oswalda . German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3310. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Leni Riefenstahl . German postcard. Photo: Karl Schenker. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Aud Egede Nissen . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1144/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.
Elisabeth Bergner . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3228/2, 1928-1929. Photo: M. v. Bucovich (Atelier K. Schenker). Publicity still for Doña Juana (Paul Czinner, 1928).
Gustav Fröhlich. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3018/1, 1928-1929. Photo: M. v. Bucovich (Atelier K. Schenker).
Renate Müller . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8751/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin.
This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.
Sources: Marlene Pilaete (La Collectionneuse - French), Museum Ludwig and Wikipedia (French).
November 30, 2016
Renzo Ricci
Renzo Ricci (1899-1978) was an Italian stage and screen actor and also stage director. The modern theater, focused so strongly at the introspection of the characters, found in Ricci one of its most careful forerunners. At he end of his career he worked with the great film directors Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rosselini and Luchino Visconti.
Italian postcard by SIF, no. 49. Photo: Vettori Bologna.
Italian postcard, no. 3067. Photo: Vettori, Bologna.
Always looking for new experiences
Renzo Ricci was born in Firenze (Florence), Italy in 1899. He was trained at the Accademia dei Fidenti. Ricci started working as a professional in 1915 at the famous Gramatica-Carini-Piperno company with actress Emma Gramatica.
He married the stage actress Margherita Bagni, daughter of Ambrogio Bagni and Ines Cristina. Their daughter, Nora Ricci, would also become an important prose actress and first wife of Vittorio Gassman . Ricci later remarried with actress Eva Magni, with whom he formed a stage company after World War II.
He worked with some the great innovating directors of the Italian theatre. Guido Salvini directed him in La Nave by Gabriele d'Annunzio, which in 1928 opened the season of the Italian director's renewal. Renato Simoni directed him in Adelchi by Alessandro Manzoni in 1940. He also worked with Luchino Visconti on his famous production of Troilus and Cressida staged in the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1949.
In 1946 Ricci proposed to the young Giorgio Strehler to re-stage Caligula by Albert Camus for which he had presented the world premiere in Geneva, at the Théâtre de la Comédie. For Strehler, Ricci would also play Richard III, at the Piccolo Teatro in 1950, Firs in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (1972) and the Plenipotentiary in Jean Genet's Balcony (1976), which would also be his last performance.
Always looking for new and current experiences, he created a vast and committed repertory, which included the major classic an modern authors from Italy and from abroad. He directed himself the Italian premiere of Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill, for which he also did the direction, in collaboration with Virginio Puecher in 1957. For his performance, he won the San Genesio Prize, an Italian stage award between 1954 and 1968.
From the mid-1930s till the 1960s, Ricci also was active as a voice actor. He also did performances of stages plays on RAI radio in the 1950s, including The Fourposter by Jan de Hartog, directed by Ricci himself.
Italian postcard by SIF, no. 979. Photo: Vettori, Bologna.
Italian postcard by Fotostampa Angeli, Terni. Photo: A. Terzoli, Roma. Ricci played a mature Otello (Othello) under direction of Maner Lualdi in 1964, at the Teatro San'Erasmo in Milan.
Italian postcard. Photo: Produzione Cines-Pittaluga. From left to right: Lya Franca, Renzo Ricci, Marcella Albani , Mercedes Brignone , and far right Elio Steiner, in the courtcase melodrama Corte d'Assise (Guido Brignone, 1931).
The great modern actor
When sound cinema set in in Italy, Renzo Ricci started his career as film actor. His first part was in the court case drama Corte d’Assise/Before the Jury (Guido Brignone, 1930), starring Elio Steiner, Lya Franca, Marcella Albani and Carlo Ninchi . It was the second Italian sound feature after La canzone dell’amore/The Song of Love (1930) directed by Gennaro Righelli. The film is now seen as a precursor to the later genre of Giallo films.
Ricci reunited with Ninchi in the mountain drama La Wally (Guido Brignone, 1932), starring Germana Paolieri , and with Ricci as her jealous suitor. After two more films in the early 1930s, the comedy Ninì Falpalà (Amleto Palermi, 1933) with Dina Galli and Ricci in the lead, and Aurora sul mare (Giorgio SImonelli, 1934), Ricci stopped acting in film.
In 1940, he returned to play ‘the great modern actor’ next to Ermete Zacconi , Irma Grammatica, Memo Benassi and other ‘monstres sacrés’ of the Italian stage in L’Orizzonte dipinto/The Painted Horizon (Guido Salvini, 1940). Valentina Cortese had her debut in this film. After another film, Turbamento/Perturbation (Guido Brignone, 1941), Ricci stayed off the film set for more than a decade.
In 1953, he returned to the screen as Petronius in the historical epic Nerone e Messalina/Nero and the Burning of Rome (Primo Zeglio, 1953), with Gino Cervi and Yvonne Sanson in the title roles. In the Italian-French biopic Casta Diva (Carmine Gallone, 1954) on the life of composer Vincenzo Bellini (played by Maurice Ronet ), Ricci was the judge Fumaroli, with whose daughter Maddalena ( Antonella Lualdi ) Bellini falls in love.
Perhaps most famous Ricci is for his supporting parts in a series of films of the early 1960s made by famous directors. In L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) he was the father of Anna (Lea Massari), the girl who mysteriously disappears at the start of the film. In Viva l’Italia/Garibaldi (Roberto Rossellini, 1961), Ricci played the legendary Giuseppe Garibaldi, leading his military campaign of volunteers, the Thousand (I Mille), who embarked for Sicily to free Southern Italy from the Bourbon rule. This was the film director Rossellini stated he was proudest of.
After the peplum Io, Semiramide/I am Semiramis (Primo Zeglio, 1962), starring Yvonne Furneaux, Ricci played in Luchino Visconti’s Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa/Sandra (1965) the family lawyer Gilardini, stepfather of the protagonists Sandra ( Claudia Cardinale ) and Gianni ( Jean Sorel ). Particularly Sandra hates Gilardini, as she suspects that her mother ( Marie Bell ) and he are responsible for the death of her father, the Jewish scientist Wald-Luzzati, killed in a concentration camp. Instead Gilardini accuses Sandra and Gianni of incest. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
After this, Ricci quitted the film set again, but he returned for one last performance, a small part in Patrice Chéreau’s excellent thriller La chair de l’orchidée/The Flesh of the Orchid (1975), starring Charlotte Rampling . Renzo Ricci died in Milan, Italy in 1978. He was 79.
Italian postcard, no. 70. Photo: Cines-Pittalugafor. Publicity still for La Wally (Guido Brignone 1932), starring Germana Paolieri as Wally and with Renzo Ricci as her jealous lover.
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Fiat, La nuova Balilla. The actors Renzo Ricci and Laura Adani in a Fiat car.
Italian postcard by A. Terzeli, Roma, no. 59. Photo: Foto Luxardo.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and .
Italian postcard by SIF, no. 49. Photo: Vettori Bologna.
Italian postcard, no. 3067. Photo: Vettori, Bologna.
Always looking for new experiences
Renzo Ricci was born in Firenze (Florence), Italy in 1899. He was trained at the Accademia dei Fidenti. Ricci started working as a professional in 1915 at the famous Gramatica-Carini-Piperno company with actress Emma Gramatica.
He married the stage actress Margherita Bagni, daughter of Ambrogio Bagni and Ines Cristina. Their daughter, Nora Ricci, would also become an important prose actress and first wife of Vittorio Gassman . Ricci later remarried with actress Eva Magni, with whom he formed a stage company after World War II.
He worked with some the great innovating directors of the Italian theatre. Guido Salvini directed him in La Nave by Gabriele d'Annunzio, which in 1928 opened the season of the Italian director's renewal. Renato Simoni directed him in Adelchi by Alessandro Manzoni in 1940. He also worked with Luchino Visconti on his famous production of Troilus and Cressida staged in the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1949.
In 1946 Ricci proposed to the young Giorgio Strehler to re-stage Caligula by Albert Camus for which he had presented the world premiere in Geneva, at the Théâtre de la Comédie. For Strehler, Ricci would also play Richard III, at the Piccolo Teatro in 1950, Firs in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (1972) and the Plenipotentiary in Jean Genet's Balcony (1976), which would also be his last performance.
Always looking for new and current experiences, he created a vast and committed repertory, which included the major classic an modern authors from Italy and from abroad. He directed himself the Italian premiere of Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill, for which he also did the direction, in collaboration with Virginio Puecher in 1957. For his performance, he won the San Genesio Prize, an Italian stage award between 1954 and 1968.
From the mid-1930s till the 1960s, Ricci also was active as a voice actor. He also did performances of stages plays on RAI radio in the 1950s, including The Fourposter by Jan de Hartog, directed by Ricci himself.
Italian postcard by SIF, no. 979. Photo: Vettori, Bologna.
Italian postcard by Fotostampa Angeli, Terni. Photo: A. Terzoli, Roma. Ricci played a mature Otello (Othello) under direction of Maner Lualdi in 1964, at the Teatro San'Erasmo in Milan.
Italian postcard. Photo: Produzione Cines-Pittaluga. From left to right: Lya Franca, Renzo Ricci, Marcella Albani , Mercedes Brignone , and far right Elio Steiner, in the courtcase melodrama Corte d'Assise (Guido Brignone, 1931).
The great modern actor
When sound cinema set in in Italy, Renzo Ricci started his career as film actor. His first part was in the court case drama Corte d’Assise/Before the Jury (Guido Brignone, 1930), starring Elio Steiner, Lya Franca, Marcella Albani and Carlo Ninchi . It was the second Italian sound feature after La canzone dell’amore/The Song of Love (1930) directed by Gennaro Righelli. The film is now seen as a precursor to the later genre of Giallo films.
Ricci reunited with Ninchi in the mountain drama La Wally (Guido Brignone, 1932), starring Germana Paolieri , and with Ricci as her jealous suitor. After two more films in the early 1930s, the comedy Ninì Falpalà (Amleto Palermi, 1933) with Dina Galli and Ricci in the lead, and Aurora sul mare (Giorgio SImonelli, 1934), Ricci stopped acting in film.
In 1940, he returned to play ‘the great modern actor’ next to Ermete Zacconi , Irma Grammatica, Memo Benassi and other ‘monstres sacrés’ of the Italian stage in L’Orizzonte dipinto/The Painted Horizon (Guido Salvini, 1940). Valentina Cortese had her debut in this film. After another film, Turbamento/Perturbation (Guido Brignone, 1941), Ricci stayed off the film set for more than a decade.
In 1953, he returned to the screen as Petronius in the historical epic Nerone e Messalina/Nero and the Burning of Rome (Primo Zeglio, 1953), with Gino Cervi and Yvonne Sanson in the title roles. In the Italian-French biopic Casta Diva (Carmine Gallone, 1954) on the life of composer Vincenzo Bellini (played by Maurice Ronet ), Ricci was the judge Fumaroli, with whose daughter Maddalena ( Antonella Lualdi ) Bellini falls in love.
Perhaps most famous Ricci is for his supporting parts in a series of films of the early 1960s made by famous directors. In L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) he was the father of Anna (Lea Massari), the girl who mysteriously disappears at the start of the film. In Viva l’Italia/Garibaldi (Roberto Rossellini, 1961), Ricci played the legendary Giuseppe Garibaldi, leading his military campaign of volunteers, the Thousand (I Mille), who embarked for Sicily to free Southern Italy from the Bourbon rule. This was the film director Rossellini stated he was proudest of.
After the peplum Io, Semiramide/I am Semiramis (Primo Zeglio, 1962), starring Yvonne Furneaux, Ricci played in Luchino Visconti’s Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa/Sandra (1965) the family lawyer Gilardini, stepfather of the protagonists Sandra ( Claudia Cardinale ) and Gianni ( Jean Sorel ). Particularly Sandra hates Gilardini, as she suspects that her mother ( Marie Bell ) and he are responsible for the death of her father, the Jewish scientist Wald-Luzzati, killed in a concentration camp. Instead Gilardini accuses Sandra and Gianni of incest. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
After this, Ricci quitted the film set again, but he returned for one last performance, a small part in Patrice Chéreau’s excellent thriller La chair de l’orchidée/The Flesh of the Orchid (1975), starring Charlotte Rampling . Renzo Ricci died in Milan, Italy in 1978. He was 79.
Italian postcard, no. 70. Photo: Cines-Pittalugafor. Publicity still for La Wally (Guido Brignone 1932), starring Germana Paolieri as Wally and with Renzo Ricci as her jealous lover.
Italian postcard. Publicity card for Fiat, La nuova Balilla. The actors Renzo Ricci and Laura Adani in a Fiat car.
Italian postcard by A. Terzeli, Roma, no. 59. Photo: Foto Luxardo.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and .
November 29, 2016
La preda (1921)
La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was an Italian silent melodrama starring diva Maria Jacobini, Amleto Novelli and the young Carmen Boni.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 33. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 34. Photo: Maria Jacobini , Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 46. Photo: Fotominio. Publicity still for La preda (1921) with Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli .
She doesn't hesitate and kills him
In La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921), the explorer Cesare Colleoni ( Amleto Novelli ) returns to Italy after a long stay in Africa.
At his father's place he meets his three cousins Anna (Mara Cassano), Maria ( Maria Jacobini ) and Gioietta (Carmela Bonicatti aka Carmen Boni ), whom he all courts at the same time.
He gets engaged with Anna, but right on the day before his wedding he tries to seduce Maria. She resists, though.
Afterwards, when Cesare has married Anna, Maria discovers he has managed her youngest sister Gioietta to hopefully fall in love with him and wanting to elope with him. She doesn't hesitate and kills him. The script of La Preda was written by Camille de Morlhon.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 51. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 153. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Alfonso Cassini in La preda (1921).
The interior dilemma of the female protagonist
La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was produced by the Roman company Fert, and premiered in Rome on 10 January 1922.
The Naples journal La Cine-fono praised Maria Jacobini 's acting but the critic thought the characters were not individualized enough and the script had better be used for a stage play, where the interior dilemma of the female protagonist would have been expressed better.
Instead, the Turin journal La vita cinematografica praised both director and actors - Maria Jacobini in the first place - and thought only the cinematography could have been better.
NB While film historian Vittorio Martinelli mentions Mara Cassano playing Anna, one postcard suggests this could have been Maria Moreno. And although both English Wikipedia and IMDb claim that La Preda is a French-Italian coproduction, the production company, Fert Film, was an Italian studio. Italian Wikipedia and Vittorio Martinelli write that it's an Italian production.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 154. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 191. Photo: Amleto Novelli and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 315. Photo: Maria Jacobini in La preda (1921).
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano: I film degli anni venti, 1921 - Italian), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 33. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 34. Photo: Maria Jacobini , Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 46. Photo: Fotominio. Publicity still for La preda (1921) with Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli .
She doesn't hesitate and kills him
In La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921), the explorer Cesare Colleoni ( Amleto Novelli ) returns to Italy after a long stay in Africa.
At his father's place he meets his three cousins Anna (Mara Cassano), Maria ( Maria Jacobini ) and Gioietta (Carmela Bonicatti aka Carmen Boni ), whom he all courts at the same time.
He gets engaged with Anna, but right on the day before his wedding he tries to seduce Maria. She resists, though.
Afterwards, when Cesare has married Anna, Maria discovers he has managed her youngest sister Gioietta to hopefully fall in love with him and wanting to elope with him. She doesn't hesitate and kills him. The script of La Preda was written by Camille de Morlhon.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 51. Photo: Fotominio. Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 153. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Alfonso Cassini in La preda (1921).
The interior dilemma of the female protagonist
La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) was produced by the Roman company Fert, and premiered in Rome on 10 January 1922.
The Naples journal La Cine-fono praised Maria Jacobini 's acting but the critic thought the characters were not individualized enough and the script had better be used for a stage play, where the interior dilemma of the female protagonist would have been expressed better.
Instead, the Turin journal La vita cinematografica praised both director and actors - Maria Jacobini in the first place - and thought only the cinematography could have been better.
NB While film historian Vittorio Martinelli mentions Mara Cassano playing Anna, one postcard suggests this could have been Maria Moreno. And although both English Wikipedia and IMDb claim that La Preda is a French-Italian coproduction, the production company, Fert Film, was an Italian studio. Italian Wikipedia and Vittorio Martinelli write that it's an Italian production.
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 154. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Carmela Bonicatti ( Carmen Boni ) in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 191. Photo: Amleto Novelli and Maria Moreno in La preda (1921).
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 315. Photo: Maria Jacobini in La preda (1921).
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano: I film degli anni venti, 1921 - Italian), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
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