Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 388

Postcards from Poland

Last week, Joanna from Warsaw sent me a series of scans of vintage postcards from Poland. These included three cards with film star Zbyszko Sawan, who was a popular heartthrob in Poland during the late 1920s and early 1930s. These included also one of the famous stage actor and director Aleksander Zelwerowicz in a silent film with Sawan, and there was one of Harry Cort, a mysterious prince from an old dynasty whose film career was cut short after a 'social scandal'. But besides the Polish cards, the collection of Joanna also contains beautiful Ross and Iris Verlag postcards of international stars of the late 1920s.


Lily Damita . Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 763. Photo: Manassé, Wien / Sascha. Collection: Joanna.


Lya de Putti . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3370/2, 1928-1929. Photo: (Roman) Freulich. Collection: Joanna.

Autographs
Joanna wrote me: "Some time ago my parents had liquidated the house of my grandfather's brother. He was already widowed and had no children. Among other stuff there were several old postcards and photos.

I think his wife was born and lived in Krakow or Lwow before their marriage and I guess the film star postcards belonged to her. I doubt whether my uncle would collect autographs of film stars..."

I asked Joanna which of the postcards her favourite is. Joanna: "I think I admire the card with... Vilma Banky . It is very nice and unique. She is here like a ballet dancer not like an actress."


Willy Fritsch . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3288/4, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Joanna.


Harry Cort. Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 923.Collection: Joanna.

Social Scandal
Polish actor Harry Cort (1905-?) came from a royal dynasty. He was born Prince Stanisław Józef Gedyminowicz-Bielski in Trzeszczany near Zamosc, Russia (now Poland). 'Staś' was born in the lineage of the Gediminids dynasty of monarchs in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, that reigned from the 14th to the 16th century.

As Harry Cort, he had a short film career with starring roles in three silent films. His film debut was in the adventure film 9:25. Przygoda jednej nocy/ 9:25. Adventure one night (Adam Augustynowicz, Ryszard Biske, 1929) in which he co-starred with Iza Norska. The film is now considered lost.

The following year he played the male lead in the drama Halka (Konstanty Meglicki, 1930). The title figure Halka was played by Zorika Szymanska. Cort’s third and final film was the romantic comedy Karuzela zycia/Carousel of life (Boleslaw Micinski, 1930) in which he co-starred again with Iza Norska. This film also seems to be lost.

With the advent of the sound films. Harry Cort began an intensive study to learn singing and diction. In the early days of the sound era, films were recorded in various languages. Cort prepared to play in films spoken in Polish, German and French.

With his knowledge of languages and contacts with Polish-born Hollywood star Pola Negri , he wanted to play in foreign films. But by the late 1930s he was involved in a ‘social scandal’ that shattered his plans for acting, according to the Polish website Nitrofilm .

He then probably went abroad. The fate of Harry Cort or Prince Gedyminowicz-Bielski is unknown.


Vilma Banky . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3482/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Collection: Joanna.


Polish postcard, no. 83. Photo: publicity still for Huragan/Hurricane (Joseph Lejtes, 1928) with Zbigniew or Zbyszko Sawan and Aleksander Zelwerowicz. Collection: Joanna.

One of the Polish Righteous among the Nations
Polish actor Zbigniew Sawan (1904–1984) starred both in silent and sound film. Sawan was a respected stage actor in his country. He also worked as a theatre director and manager.

Aleksander Zelwerowicz (1877-1955) was a Polish actor, director, theatre president and a teacher. He received the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest Orders. He is also one of the Polish 'Righteous among the Nations', recognized by Yad Vashem as non-Jews who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust.

Joanna: " Zbyszko Sawan was popular, but I think that nowadays only people from the cinema branch know his name. When you ask a contemporary Pole about him - no one will reply I think... Zelwerowicz is a well known name but mostly because he is a patron of one of the best theatre schools in Poland."

During World War II, Zelwerowicz was active for the Konrad Żegota Committee. This was a codename for the Council to Aid Jews (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland active from 1942 to 1945.

It is estimated that about half of the Jews who survived the Holocaust in Poland (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota.

In 1955, Aleksander Zelwerowicz died in Warsaw. He was 77. Since 1996, the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy, the National Higher School of Theatre in Warsaw, is named after him.


Marja Malicka and Zbyszko Sawan in Dzikuska (1928). Polish postcard by Edition Victoria. Photo: Lux. Publicity still for Dzikuska/Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928). Collection: Joanna.


Zbyszko Sawan . Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 559. Photo: Van Dyck. Signature from 1928. Collection: Joanna.

Film Amant
Joanna wrote me a funny little story about how she 'discovered' vintage film star postcards.

"Once, many years ago I received a card from my favourite uncle by mail - it was an old postcard with Zbyszko Sawan 's photo. My uncle had written several sentences for me on that 50-years old card and had sent it by post!

I was so surprised and it was funny that he had sent such an old 'film amant' photo to a girl like me.

Anyway, I can not find that one. But recently, when I was looking for something completely different among my father's old photos and letters I found my uncle's old postcards.

I wanted to share them. When I googled 'old postcards + cinema + film stars', your www page was most interesting to me. So I sent the postcards to you :)."

And we're so glad you did... Dzięki Joanna!


Liane Haid . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1825/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin. Collection: Joanna.


Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel in The Mysterious Lady (1928). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3787/4, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928). Collection: Joanna.

Sources: Nitrofilm (Polish), Queer (Polish), Film Polski (Polish), Filmweb (Polish), Wikipedia (English and Polish), and .

Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V.

We restart our series on postcard publishers today with Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This family firm already started in 1859, and became nationally known with their greeting cards and topographic postcards. After WW II, Spanjersberg, also known as 'Sparo', published many popular postcards with European film stars like Brigitte Bardot and Romy Schneider. With the rise of television, Spanjersberg followed the trend with postcards of popular TV heroes.


Brigitte Bardot . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam.


Romy Schneider . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1020. Photo: Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof.


Karlheinz Böhm . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam; licence holder of Ufa, Berlin, no. 1004. Photo: Ufa.


Marion Michael . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1009. Photo: Ufa.


Brigitte Bardot . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam.

British soldiers
Gebr. Spanjersberg (in English 'Spanjersberg Bros' started to sell papers and postcards in 1839 in Rotterdam. The company grew rapidly and soon became one of the biggest postcard firms in the Netherlands.

In 1913 the company moved to the Grote Kerkplein in the centre of Rotterdam. Spanjersberg was now known as both wholesaler and publisher.

During the First World War many postcards were sent by British soldiers, who were stationed in a camp near Rotterdam At 14, Ronald Spanjersberg Sr. began to work in the family business.

After the war, Agfa en Gevaert - the main suppliers of photo paper in the Netherlands - could only provide very little paper. But in the 1950s, millions of black and white photo cards were sold.


Gina Lollobrigida . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, no. 354. Photo: Herbert Fried / Ufa. Publicity still for Notre Dame de Paris (Jean Delannoy, 1956).


Walter Reyer and Romy Schneider . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1060. Dutch licency holder for Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof. Photo: Ufa.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. The photo was made during the shooting of Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin/Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957).


Alain Delon . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1383. Photo: Unifrance Film / Ufa.


Brigitte Bardot . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (licence holder for the Netherlands of Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 4640. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1956 / Ufa.


Christian Wolff . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 3846. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Bavaria / Schorcht Film.

Youth subculture
During the 1950s, youth subculture became a new phenomenon all over Europe with the film Rock around the clock and teen idol Elvis Presley. Young stars like Romy Schneider , Horst Buchholz and Brigitte Bardot were the new films idols and almost every teenager bought their postcards.

Gebr. Spanjersberg recognized the new trend and became the Dutch licence holder of the German film postcard publisher UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), located in Berlin-Tempelhof. Ufa also had licence holders in France, Belgium and other countries.

In the early 1960s, the new teen idols were Conny Froboess in Germany, Cliff Richard in Britain, The Blue Diamonds in the Netherlands and Johnny Hallyday in France. A few years later. They were all surpassed by The Beatles and such other pop acts as The Rolling Stones , The Beach Boys and Nancy Sinatra.

Another new phenomenon was television. In 1963 the British TV series Ivanhoe was very popular in the Netherlands. All Dutch children loved the brave knight, played by Roger Moore . The postcards of the series became bestsellers and offered Spanjersberg a new young public. Grandparents started to send children cards of other TV series like Bonanza, The Beverly Hillbillies, Pipo de Clown and De Fabeltjeskrant .


Johnny Hallyday . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, no. 5871. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962.


Cliff Richard . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam.


Conny Froboess . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Sent by mail in 1962.


The Beatles . Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg. Retail price: 20 cent.


The Beach Boys. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (SPARO).


Nancy Sinatra. Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V.), Rotterdam.

Cityscapes
Gebr. Spanjersberg had a big hit in 1966 with a series of 360 postcards with old cityscapes of Rotterdam, printed using the original pre-war glass negatives. The price of the postcard was 50 cents. Of each card 4,000 to 5,000 pieces were sold. In total more than a million postcards. 180 cards of the series were reprinted in 1978.

At that time, a new generation of the Spanjersberg family lead the firm. Ronald Spanjersberg Jr.  was the business director and his younger John Spanjersberg was the artistic director. Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V. was by now the biggest publisher of greeting cards in the Netherlands with 72 co-operators. The company had moved from Rotterdam to Capelle aan den IJssel, a town situated on the eastern edge of Rotterdam.

Today Spanjersberg is a part of Hallmark Cards Continental Europe BV, still situated in Capelle aan den IJssel. The head quarters of Hallmark are located in Kansas City.


Roger Moore in Ivanhoe. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Sent by Mail in 1963. Photo: still from the TV series Ivanhoe (1958-1959).


Bonanza with Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his sons Hoss (Dan Blocker), Adam (Pernell Roberts) and Little Joe (Michael Landon). Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Photo: National Broadcasting Company.


Destiny Angel in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 6. Photo: Century 21 Ltd., 1968.


Cor Witsche in Pipo de Clown. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam / Voka, Arnhem.


Herbert Joeks in Pipo de clown. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Sent by mail in 1969.


Ed en Willem Bever in De Fabeltjeskrant. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Photo: M.M. Chanowksi Productions, 1969.

This was the first post in a new series on film star postcard publishers. For earlier posts, see the links at right under the caption 'The Publishers'.

Sources: several old newspaper articles in Delpher (Dutch).

Luis Trenker

Luis Trenker (1892-1990) was an Austrian-Italian ski champion, mountain climber, architect, film director, and actor. He portrayed rugged, daring outdoorsmen in the 'Mountain Film'. This genre seemed to be created especially for him. Trenker's films glorified epic struggles such as colonization and wars for freedom, and were set against spectacular, usually mountainous landscapes.


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis / Rota.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7314/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Deutsche Universal.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 685. Photo: Atelier Yva, Berlin.


German promotion card by Deutscher Verlag for the new magazine Der Stern (now Stern) - founded in 1948. Photo: H. von Perckhammer.

The Holy Mountain
Trenker was born as Alois Franz Trenker in 1892 in St. Ulrich in Southern Tyrol, then part of the Austrian Empire, now a part of Italy. He studied architecture in Vienna from 1912 until the outbreak of World War I.

He fought on the Austrian side, serving mainly as an officer in the Dolomites. He wrote several books based upon his war experiences, such as Sperrfort Rocca Alta. Der Heldenkampf eines Panzerwerkes/Fort Rocca Alta (1937) and Berge in Flammen/Mountains in Flames (1931). The latter was also made into a film in 1931.

After the war, he resumed his studies, and worked in Bolzano as an architect. His first contact with film came when he worked as an Alpine consultant on Wunder des Schneeschuhs/Wonders of the snowshoe (Arnold Fanck, 1920), a documentary about skiing at the beginning of the century.

Trenker gradually assumed more roles on the sets of Arnold Fanck’s films. The main actor in Fancks feature film Der Berg des Schicksals/Mountain of Destiny (Arnold Fanck, 1923) could not perform the stunts required, and so Fanck engaged Trenker for the leading role.

Thereafter they shot the films Der heilige Berg/The Holy Mountain (Arnold Fanck, 1926), Der grosse Sprung/The Great Leap (Arnold Fanck, 1927) both co-starring Leni Riefenstahl , and Der Kampf ums Matterhorn/Struggle for the Matterhorn (Mario Bonnard, Nunzio Malasomm, 1928).

By then Trenker was also directing, writing and starring in his own films and had abandoned his job as an architect. He married Hilde Bleichert, with whom he would have four children.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6075/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3516/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tita Binz, Berlin.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3673/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tita Binz, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. G 50. Photo: Ufa / Tita Binz. Sadly the edges of this card were cut off by a former owner.

The Prodigal Son
Luis Trenker obtained the top of his film career with an impressive series of successful productions: Der Sohn der weissen Berge/The Son of the White Mountain (Mario Bonnard, Luis Trenker, 1930), Berge in Flammen/Mountains on Fire (Karl Hartl, Luis Trenker, 1931), Der Rebell/The Rebel (Kurt Bernhardt/Curtis Bernhardt, Edwin H. Knopf, Luis Trenker, 1932), Der verlorene Sohn/The Prodigal Son (Luis Trenker, 1934), Der Kaiser von Kalifornien/The Emperor of California (Luis Trenker, 1936), Condottieri/Giovanni de Medici: The Leader (Luis Trenker, 1937), Der Berg ruft!/The Mountain Calls (Luis Trenker, 1937) and Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin/Love Letters from the Engadin (Werner Klingler, Luis Trenker, 1938).

These film got him a unique place in the world of the Mountain Film. The main theme of Trenker's work was the idealization of people's connection with their homeland, and pointing out the decadence of city life. This is most clearly visible in his Der verlorene Sohn/The Prodigal Son about the trials and tribulations of a German who emigrates to the US during the Great Depression. In 1934 Trenker worked in Hollywood for this film, but soon he returned to Europe.

Immediately after WW2, Der verlorene Sohn/The Prodigal Son was banned in the western part of Germany by the US military government because it was considered to be 'anti-American'. In the eastern part of Germany the film was banned by the Soviet military government because it was considered to advertise for the US and the American way of life.

The Nazi propagandists seized upon the nationalistic elements of Trenker's work, but his film Der Feuerteufel/The Fire-Devil (Luis Trenker, 1940) displeased Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels. Trenker was barred from directing and he was allowed to act only in films by second-rate directors.

He eventually moved to Rome to avoid further governmental pressure. There he produced and co-directed a documentary about Pope Pius XII, Pastor Angelicus (Romolo Marcellini, Luis Trenker, 1942) and directed Monte Miracolo (Luis Trenker, 1945). After this film, he returned to Bolzano and quit film making.


German postcard. Photo: Verleih Muschak & Co. / Deutsche Universal Film. Publicity still for Der Rebell (1932) with Luise Ullrich .


Dutch postcard by H.W. Overeem. Photo: still from Der Rebell (1932).


German postcard. Sent by mail in Germany in 1939. Photo: Peter Ottl, Nauders, Tirol. Still for Der Rebell (1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Trenker / Tobis / Rota. Luis Trenker as Giovanni de' Medici in the Italian histroical film Condottieri (Luis Trenker, 1937).

Visual Expressiveness
The style Luis Trenker had developed in the 1930s was more than just nationalistic, folkloristic and heroic clichés. Many critics have praised the visual expressiveness of Trenker's films.

His impersonation of a hungry, down ridden immigrant in depression time New York was regarded as one of the seminal scenes for future Italian Neorealism by the likes of Roberto Rossellini.

After the war Trenker was accused of fascist opportunism, but eventually the charges were dropped. In this period he merely made short documentaries, but at the end of the 1950s he had a short comeback with his films Prigioniero della montagna/Flucht in die Dolomiten/Escape in the Dolomites (Luis Trenker, 1955), Von der Liebe besiegt/Defeated by love (Luis Trenker, 1956) with Marianne Hold , Wetterleuchten um Maria/Lightning around Maria (Luis Trenker, 1957) again starring Marianne Hold , and Sein bester Freund/His Best Friend (Luis Trenker, 1962).

By 1965 he had switched mainly to the documentary form, focusing upon the Austrian province of Tyrol. In 1966 he worked for TV with the ski champion Toni Sailer at the series Luftsprünge/Air jumps (1969-1970).

He published his memories, Alles gut gegangen (Everything Went Well). In 1990 Luis Trenker died at the age of 97.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3879/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Trenkerfilm.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag. Photo: Binder. Collection: Egbert Barten.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), (IMDb), Luistrenker.com (German), Wikipedia, and .

André Berger

Not all film careers are successful. Today, Belgian entertainer André Berger, who appeared in only one film.


Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Édition), no. 95. Photo: Studio Verhassel.

Single Luck
André Berger played the lead of Simon in the Belgian production Les Invités de huit heures/The 8 O'Clock Guests (Gaston Schoukens, 1944).

This is a crime film based on an early novel by Thomas Owen about two murders committed during a party.

The murder mystery featured local entertainers from Brussels like Charles Gontier, André Gevrey, Robert Murat, and Michèle Orley.

The Dutch website Cinema.nl calls the acting 'stiff' and the result 'disastrous'. That's probably why Berger stayed a case of single luck.

We could not find any more information on André Berger on the internet. If you know more about him, post a comment. We're curious what happened to him.


Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Édition), no. 95. Photo: Menestret.

Sources: Cinema.nl (Dutch) and .

Irène Tunc

Sexy French actress and model Irène Tunc (1935-1972) was crowned Miss France in 1954. Until her premature death in a car crash, she appeared in 35 films and television shows.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano (Milan), no. 1656. Photo: Cineriz.

Miss Côte d'Azur
Irène Pierrette Louise Tunc was born in Lyon (according to IMDb in Lille), France, in 1935. Her father was a furniture dealer.

In the summer of 1953, the beautiful teenager was chosen Miss Côte d'Azur in the beach town of Juan-les-Pins. At the time, she was already working as a mannequin, modelling for local papers and posing in beachwear for holiday postcards. The next year, she was crowned Miss France in 1954 at the age of 19.

One of her first film roles was opposite Franco Fabrizi and Gabriele Ferzetti in the Italian comedy-drama Camilla (Luciano Emmer, 1954). In Italy, she also appeared with Alberto Sordi in Bravissimo (Luigi Filippo D'Amico, 1955).

Back in France, she continued to model in Paris and studied acting at the school of Françoise Rosay . Tunc played a supporting part in the comedy Les Truands/The Gangsters (Carlo Rim, 1956) starring Eddie Constantine . She also had a small part in the American comedy Paris Holiday (Gerd Oswald, 1958) starring the ‘comedy team of the century’, Bob Hope and Fernandel . The film was shot in Technirama and Technicolor in Paris and in the French village of Gambais.

Just like many other beautiful French actresses of her generation, she returned to Italy for better roles. She played the lead role in the melodrama La sposa/The wife (Edmondo Lozzi, 1958), and a supporting part in the crime-comedy Noi siamo due evasi (Giorgio Simonelli, 1959).


Ne French trailer for the re-edition of Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent/Two English Girls (François Truffaut, 1971). Source: Vincent Domaslaw (YouTube).

New Wave
Irène Tunc found more rewarding roles in the French cinema with the raise of the Nouvelle Vague. She had a big supporting part in the classic Léon Morin, prêtre/Léon Morin, Priest/The Sin (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Emmanuelle Riva . The film was based on the 1952 Prix Goncourt-winning novel by Béatrix Beck.

Also memorable is Vivre pour vivre/Live for Life (Claude Lelouch, 1967), starring Yves Montand , Candice Bergen and Annie Girardot. The film won the Golden Globe and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Other interesting films in which she appeared are Les aventuriers/The Last Adventure (Robert Enrico, 1967) starring Alain Delon , the French science fiction film Je t'aime, je t'aime/I Love You, I Love You (Alain Resnais, 1968) and the romantic drama Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent/Two English Girls (François Truffaut, 1971) with Jean-Pierre Léaud, Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter.

Irène Tunc died in a car crash in 1972 in Versailles. She was only 36. Tunc was married twice. Her first marriage was to Belgian film maker Ivan Govar (1958-1964).

Since 1965 she was the wife of film director Alain Cavalier, for whom she appeared in the crime drama Mise à sac/Pillaged (Alain Cavalier, 1967) and the romance La chamade/Heartbeat (Alain Cavalier, 1968) starring Catherine Deneuve . In 2009, Alain Cavalier dedicated a film to her, Irène (Alain Cavalier, 2009), based on her diaries. In the French newspaper Liberation , Gérard Lefort called it “a beautiful declaration of love”.


French trailer for Irène (Alain Cavalier, 2009). Source: Cinema2000PT (YouTube).

Sources: Céline Colassin (CinéArtistes – French), Gérard Lefort (Liberation – French), Wikipedia (French and English) and .

Il fornaretto di Venezia (1923)

This week's film special is about the Italian silent film Il fornaretto di Venezia/The Baker Boy of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1923). This film, starring Amleto Novelli and Alberto Collo, was a raving success in Italy, even if censors suppressed the most macabre scenes. Critics praised it as the more restrained answer to the then outdated epics and diva films.


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 249. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Alberto Collo plays the lead role of Pietro Faciol, the baker boy of Venice.


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 250. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Amleto Novelli plays the nobleman Lorenzo Barbo.

A struggle between aristocracy and the people
Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923), aka Il povero fornaretto and Il povero fornaretto di Venezia was based on the novel Il Fornaretto (1846) by Francesco Dall'Ongaro. The title translates as The Baker Boy of Venice. Wikipedia also mentions the American TV title The Scapegoat.

The story of the film is situated around 1500, when Pietro Faciol ( Alberto Collo ), a poor baker boy, is unjustly sentenced to death by the Venetian Council of Ten. The boy is suspected of murder in a trial that becomes a struggle between aristocracy and the people.

The defender in court is Lorenzo Barbo ( Amleto Novelli ), who finds out the real culprit is a notorious womanizing count who killed the victim with the help of Barbo's wife Clemenza (Niní Dinelli).

The aristocratic court refuses to acknowledge Lorenzo's findings. Lorenzo is finally willing to accuse himself as being responsible. It is too late: the boy has been tortured and executed.


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 254. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). The caption translates: "In the bakery".


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 255. Photo: Alberto Collo and in Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). The caption translates: "The baker boy and Annella (Lia Miari), maid of the nobleman Barbo, love each other."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 256. Photo: Amleto Novelli and Nini Dinelli in Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). The caption translates: "The nobleman Lorenzo says farewell to his wife, pretending he is called outside of Venice."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 257. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "Nightly gatherings."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 259. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "Early meeting of the two bethrothed."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 260. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "My God! Blood... He is not drunk but dead!"


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 261. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "Though innocent, the baker boy is accused of murder and arrested."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 262. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The baker boy accused by Annella before the Council of Ten."

A raving success
Il fornaretto di Venezia was a raving success in Italy, even if censors suppressed the most macabre scenes. Critics praised it as the more restrained answer to the outdated epics and diva films.

Both the leading actors Amleto Novelli and Alberto Collo were lauded - although by 1923 Collo was no boy at all anymore. There was also praise for the Venetian scenery. The film continued to be screened in Italy until the end of the silent era.

A year after Il fornaretto di Venezia conquered the cinemas. Amleto Novelli suddenly died. It happened during the shooting of the film La casa dei pulcini in Turin (1924). Novelli was only 38. Post mortem two more historical films with him were released: La congiura di San Marco (1924) and Marco Visconti (1925). He had played in over a 100 Italian silent films.

Il Fornaretto di Venezia was filmed several times. The first film adaptation dates from 1907 and was directed by Mario Caserini. Seven years later, a second silent version followed, directed by Luigi Maggi. In 1939, there was a sound version, Il fornaretto di Venezia/The Fornaretto of Venice (Duilio Coletti, 1939) starring Roberto Villa , Elsa De Giorgi and Clara Calamai . It was made at the Cinecittà studios in Rome.

In 1963, Duccio Tessari directed a colour version, Il fornaretto di Venezia/The Scapegoat (1963). Jacques Perrin played the title role, and his co-stars were Michèle Morgan , Sylva Koscina and Stefania Sandrelli. Duccio Tessari co-wrote the screenplay with Marcello Fondato, based of course on the novel by Francesco Dall'Ongaro.


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 263. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The torture."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 264. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The poor baker boy, passed out after his torture, is comforted by his father."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 265. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The gala embarkation leads nobleman Barbo and his wife to Palazzo Contarini."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 266. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The feast."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 269. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The flight".


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 271. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The baker boy is returned to the Palace and led to the scaffold in the Piazzetta."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 272. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The baker boy led to the scaffold between the columns of the Piazzetta."


Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 273. Photo: publicity still for Il fornaretto di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: "The last prayer."

Sources: Wikipedia and .

Charlotte Thiele

Gorgeous Charlotte Thiele (1918-2004) played cool blondes in German films of the 1930s and 1940s. The Ufa star was side-lined by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, after she had rejected his advances.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2550/2, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Lesbian subtheme
Charlotte Thiele was born as Carlotta Margarita Teresa Thiele in Berlin in 1918. She trained at the Drama School of the Schauspielhaus Berlin.

Her debut as an actress was in the short film Wochenendfriede/Weekend peace (1938) with Hans Brausewetter , one of the first films of renowned director Kurt Hoffmann.

In 1939, she became an instant star with her first feature, the Revue film Wir tanzen um die Welt/We dance around the world (Karl Anton, 1939) with Irene von Meyendorff , Carola Höhn and Carl Raddatz . Thiele played the lead as the captain of the dance troupe.

Remarkable is the lesbian subtheme in the film. Hanns-Georg Rodek in Die Welt : “there is no other film from the Nazi era, where a woman so openly courted a woman: Charlotte Thiele dismissed Beau Carl Raddatz and charmed Irene von Meyendorff.”

According to Wikipedia , Thiele was offstage as extravagant as onstage. At premieres she used to wear a monocle, and she refused to fit in the cliché of the Ufa starlet. In her next film, the adventure comedy Ein Mann auf Abwegen/A man goes astray (Herbert Selpin, 1940), she was seen as the daughter of Hans Albers .

In 1941, she played a doctor in the controversial pro-euthanasia propaganda film Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) in which a successful doctor ( Paul Hartmann ) is forced to make a heart wrenching decision after his beautiful young wife ( Heidemarie Hatheyer ) is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This film was commissioned by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the suggestion of Karl Brandt to make the public more supportive of the Reich's T4 euthanasia program, and presented simultaneously with the practice of euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The actual victims of the Nazi euthanasia program Action T4 were in fact mainly killed without their consent, or that of their families.

In her next film, Titanic (Herbert Selpin, Werner Klingler, 1943), Thiele played Lady Astor, the wife of Karl Schönböck . The film used the sinking of the British luxury liner Titanic in 1912 as a setting for an attempt to discredit British and American capitalist dealings and glorify the bravery and selflessness of German men. Titanic was commissioned by Joseph Goebbels and enjoyed a brief theatrical run in German occupied Europe starting in November 1943—but not in Nazi Germany proper by order of Goebbels himself who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of raising it. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film, and it did not have a second run.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2550/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Quick / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3823/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien-Film.

Goebbels' powder box
Charlotte Thiele made with Ein Blick zurück/A look Back (Gerhard Menzel, 1944) starring Rudolph Forster, her final film.

Reportedly, Joseph Goebbels had side-lined her. Hanns-Georg Rodek: “’You do not meet the requirements of a German woman,’ the doctor would have told her in the face. He had tried to court her like so many other screen beauties, but she gave him the cold shoulder. She threw his powder box with an engraved dedication in the trash.”

Thiele was first married to the prominent physician Wolfgang Wohlgemuth, an assistant surgeon to Ferdinand Sauerbruch. With her second husband, the Croatian diplomat Branko Buzjak, she emigrated in 1944 to Argentina.

In 1954 she returned to Germany. That same year Thiele was suddenly back in the media spotlights due to the involvement of her ex-husband, Dr. Wohlgemuth, in a scandal around GDR politician Otto John. Thiele was not involved in the case, and the affair did not help her to build a new film career.

In 1956, she returned for once before the camera in an episode of the American television series Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents/Rheingold Theatre. The episode, The Last Tour (Derek N. Twist, 1956) was filmed in Germany. It did not lead to new role offers and Thiele retired.

Charlotte Thiele died in Berlin in 2004. She was 85.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2709/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tita Binz / Tobis.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3400/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Sources: Hanns-Georg Rodek (Die Welt), Wikipedia (German), and .

Hélène Rémy

French actress Hélène Rémy (1932) was active in the French and Italian cinema from the early 1950s till the late 1960s. She was also a popular pin-up and cover girl and worked for television and stage.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 514.

Miss Cinémonde
Hélène Rémy was born in 1932 in Paris, France, where her father was a butcher. She studied dance and at eight, she danced at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Only 15, Roland Petit committed her to the Ballets des Champs-Elysées to replace a failing dancer.

But her mother changed her direction when she sent a picture of her beautiful, blonde daughter to the magazine Cinémonde for a competition. Hélène perfectly personified the Parisian girl and was chosen as Miss Cinémonde by a jury including Orson Welles and director Julien Duvivier. Welles offered her a part in his stage production La langouste qui ne pense à rien (The Unthingking Lobster) at the Théâtre Edouard VII in 1950.

Hélène had already made her first uncredited film appearance in Jean Becker's Rendez-vous de juillet/Rendezvous in July (1949) about a group of young jazz-loving Parisians. Small roles followed in Au royaume des cieux/The Sinners (Julien Duvivier, 1949) starring Serge Reggiani , the drama La cage aux filles/The cage girls (Maurice Cloche, 1949), and Les enfants terribles/The Terrible Children (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950), based on the love story by Jean Cocteau.

She had supporting parts in the lesbian-themed Olivia/The Pit of Loneliness (Jacqueline Audry, 1951) starring Edwige Feuillère , and the Italian comedy Parigi è sempre Parigi/Paris Is Always Paris (Luciano Emmer, 1951) as a fresh and cute French newspaper seller who falls in love with Italian Franco Interlenghi . The film was a huge success in Italy.

Like several other French actresses - Catherine Spaak , Jacqueline Sassard , Lise Bourdin , Isabelle Corey and Myriam Bru - she moved to Rome where she found bigger and more rewarding film roles than in her home country.


German postcard by Ufa, no. FK 4166. Photo: Peter Bamberger Prod. / Ufa. Publicity still for Pezzo, capopezzo e capitano/Always Victorious (Wolfgang Staudte, 1958).


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 511.

A popular pin-up and cover girl
In Italy, Hélène Rémy played the female lead in the comedy Un ladro in paradise/A thief in paradise (Domenico Paolella, 1952) and she appeared with Eduardo de Filippo in the comedy-drama 5 poveri in automobile/The Lucky Five (Mario Mattoli, 1952).

Rémy had also become a popular pin-up and cover girl. She appeared opposite the handsome and athletic Pierre Cressoy in the costume drama Il sacco di Roma/The Barbarians (Ferruccio Cerio, 1953). The two also privately became engaged.

Her first leading role was in the romantic comedy Siamo ricchi e poveri/We are rich and poor (Siro Marcellini, 1953) with Gaby André . She often played in Italian costume dramas like Un giglio infranto/A lily broken (Giorgio Walter Chili, 1956) with Milly Vitale.

After a series of mediocre films in which she had leads, she played a supporting part in Dino Risi's great comedy A porte chiuse/Behind Closed Doors (1961) starring Anita Ekberg .

During the 1960s, she only incidentally appeared in films, such as in the Bourvil comedy Les cracks/The Hotshots (Alex Joffé, 1968). She worked often in the Italian theatre and starred in Italian stage versions of Mam'zelle Nitouche and The Lady from Maxim's.

She also appeared for French and Italian TV in such series as Les dossiers de l'agence O/The records of the agency O (1968). Her final film part was as Lydia, the madam of a brothel in the memorable crime drama Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970) with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon .


Yves Montand sings Les Feuilles Mortes in a scene from Parigi è sempre Parigi/Paris Is Always Paris (Luciano Emmer, 1951) while Hélène Remy dances with Franco Interlenghi . Source: paccaggicco (YouTube).


American trailer for L'amante del vampiro/The Vampire and the Ballerina (Renato Polselli, 1960). Source: Sleaze-O-Rama (YouTube).

Sources: Yvan Foucart (Les Gens du Cinéma - French), Wikipedia (Italian) and .

Frieda Riess

During the 1920s, Frieda Riess (1890-1957) was a highly successful German portrait photographer who ran a prestigious studio in the centre of Berlin. Many of her expressive star portraits found their way to newspapers, magazines and to postcards.


Liane Haid . German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 462/2, 1919 - 1924. Photo: Riess.


Maria Jacobini . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 569/2, 1919-1924. Atelier Riess, Berlin.


Liane Haid . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1023/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Riess, Berlin.

Soft-edged effects and subtle shades of grey
Red-haired Frieda Gertrud Riess was born in 1890 in the Western Prussian town of Czarnikau (now Czarnków in Poland) where her Jewish parents were shopkeepers. At the end of the 1890s, the family moved to Berlin.

There Frieda first studied sculpture under Hugo Lederer (c. 1907) and later photography at the Berlin Photographischen Lehranstalt. She received her diploma in the summer of 1915.

In 1917 or 1918, she opened a photo studio on the prestigious Kurfürstendamm in the centre of Berlin. It became one of the most popular photo studios in the city.

Partly as a result of her marriage to the poet and journalist Rudolf Leonhard in 1918, she extended her clientele to celebrities such as playwright Walter Hasenclever, novelist Gerhart Hauptmann, the painters Max Liebermann and Marc Chagall, the famous dancer Anna Pavlova, and actors and actresses including Tilla Durieux, Asta Nielsen , Mistinguett , Lil Dagover , Ernst Lubitsch and Emil Jannings .

After her divorce from Leonhard in 1922, her circle of illustrious clients extended to politicians, aristocrats, cardinals and bankers.

Hans-Peter Schwanke at Kunstmarkt.com : “In her portraits, Riess combined soft-edged effects and subtle shades of grey of the classical art photography with modern visual elements such as under- and top views, the near camera point of view, the emphasis of moods, or dynamic diagonals to the imagination of movement. Striking is her extremely keen sense of what was publicly allowed to disclose and what not. Among the most impressive examples of her erotic portraits is the one of [sculptor] Renée Sintenis with refined bare shoulders and her nude pictures of boxer Erich Brandl that comes near to the limit of the permissible.”


Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 478/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


Bartolomeo Pagano aka Maciste. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 478/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


Mia May . German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 450/6, 1919-1924. Photo: May Film / Riess.


Maria Jacobini . German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 569/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin.

Photography as art
In 1925, Alfred Flechtheim, the influential Berlin collector and dealer of Modern Art, asked Frieda Riess to do a solo exhibition in his gallery. “I have asked Rieß for an exhibition of her photographs, because she creates art using lenses and rubber balls”, Flechtheim wrote in the catalogue.

Kraftgenie at his blog Weimar : “At that time it was somewhat surprising for one of Berlin’s leading art dealers to show photographs, and the fact that he refers to photography as art invited particular attention.” The show with 177 portraits increased the already high appreciation of Riess further.

Between 1926 and 1930, she regularly presented her photographic work in her own salon, which became an exclusive meeting place. She invited international guests to her studio who raved about her work and recommended it in their literary and aristocratic circles abroad.

Writer Vita Sackville-West wrote to Virginia Woolf in London of the circle that gathered for tea in Riess’ studio: "Shifty figures between exquisite portraits". Riess herself also travelled to Paris, London and Rome, where she moved in upper social circles.

While on a trip to Italy in 1929, she was invited to photograph Benito Mussolini. In addition, she contributed to the journals and magazines of the day including Die Dame, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Der Weltspiegel, Querschnit and Koralle.

Her success in Berlin was however short-lived. In 1932, after falling in love with Pierre de Margerie, the elderly French ambassador in Berlin, she moved to Paris with him, disappearing from the public eye.

About Riess’ further life in France is little known. At the end of the 1930s, she became ill and paralyzed. She survived the German occupation of Paris in seclusion. According to Timm Starl at Fotokritik , she died alone and impoverished in 1957.

In 2008, a retrospective of Frieda Riess’ work was held in the Berlinische Galerie. Marc Peschke at Photo Scala : “300 rediscovered prints can be seen of her tens of thousands, that are now considered lost. Examples of subtle expressionism, a dynamic portrait art that combines realism with profundity. The poet Max Hermann-Neisse wrote about his portrait by Frieda Riess: ‘Who saw this picture, will recognize me. And so full of knowledge are almost all portrait photos by Riess.’"


Rudolf Klein-Rogge . Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag no. 780. Photo: Riess, Berlin.


Harry Liedtke . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 463/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.


Bernhard Goetzke . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1279/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Riess.

This was the last post - for now - in our series on film star photographers. For earlier posts, see the links at right under the caption 'The Photographers'.

Sources: Kraftgenie (Weimar), Timm Starl (Fotokritik), Hans-Peter Schwanke (Kunstmarkt.com - German), Marc Peschke (Photo Scala - German), and Wikipedia.

Alwin Neuss

German actor and director Alwin Neuss (1879-1935) started his film career at the pioneering Nordisk studio in Denmark. He was known for playing Sherlock Holmes in a series of silent films during the 1910s.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 1439. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1442. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1482. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Carl Alwin Heinrich Neuss was born in 1879 in Cologne, Germany. He was the son of a government official.

Neuss made his stage debut in 1895 in Cologne at the Sommerbühne Flora, followed by engagements in Bremen, Magdeburg, Innsbruck, Breslau and Dresden. From 1903 he was a member of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, with whom he undertook tours in several European countries.

He began his film career in the early Danish cinema. For the Nordisk studio, he played a spy in August Blom’s silent film Spionen fra Tokio/The Red Light (1910). He appeared in the double role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the horror film Den skæbnesvangre opfindelse/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (August Blom, 1910), one of the first adaptations of the famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

He also appeared as Sherlock Holmes in another Nordisk production, Den stjaalne millionobligation/The Stolen Legacy (1911). That year, he also featured in Hamlet (August Blom, 1911) based on the play by William Shakespeare.

He moved on to the new German film company Atlantic-Film Aarhus GmbH, for which he started to make films like Seine erste Liebe/His first Love (Alwin Neuss, 1911), and Alwin auf der Hochzeitsreise/Alwin on Honeymoon (Alwin Neuss, 1911), both with Dorrit Weixler .

He returned as Sherlock Holmes in Der Hund von Baskerville/Hound of the Baskervilles (Rudolf Meinert, 1914) with Hanni Weisse . It was the first film adaptation of the famed Arthur Conan Doyle novel.

Films based on mystery novels were very successful in German cinema at the time and Der Hund von Baskerville was so successful, it spawned five more films: Das einsame Haus/The Isolated House (Rudolf Meinert, 1914), Das unheimliche Zimmer/The eerie room (Richard Oswald, 1915), Die Sage vom Hund von Baskerville/The legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles (Richard Oswald, 1915), Dr. MacDonalds Sanatorium (Willy Zeyn, 1920), and Das Haus ohne Fenster/The house without windows (Willy Zeyn, 1920).

Ness played Holmes in the first three sequels, but was replaced in the last two by Erich Kaiser-Titz .


German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 823. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 502/3. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Die Faust des Schicksals/Fist of Doom (Alwin Neuss, 1917) with Ressel Orla .


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7126. Photo: Decla-Film. On the back a stamp of U.T.-Lichtspiele, Barmen [Wuppertal], Cleferstrasse.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Wolff, Berlin, no. F 128. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Fritz Lang
Alwin Neuss moved on to the Decla studio, where he directed himself in many films. These included Dynamit/Dynamite (Alwin Neuss, 1916) with Bruno Kastner , Die Spinne/The Spider (Alwin Neuss, 1917), and Das Spiel vom Tode/The game of death (Alwin Neuss, 1917) with Käthe Haack .

In several films, he played the detective Tom Shark like in Das Licht im Dunkeln/The light in the dark (Alwin Neuss, 1916).

After the war, Alwin Neuss directed the Leo Tolstoy adaptation Lebendig tot/Living dead (Alwin Neuss, 1918) starring Lil Dagover . With Dagover, he also appeared in Bettler GmbH/Beggars Ltd. (Alwin Neuss, 1919), which was written by Fritz Lang. Lang also wrote Die Rache ist mein/Vengeance is Mine (Alwin Neuss, 1919).

During the 1920s, his fame began to fade and Neuss only appeared in a few films, including Auf Befehl der Pompadour/On the command of Pompadour (Friedrich Zelnik, 1924) with Lya Mara .

His last films were two sound films. In Der Tanz ins Glück/Dance Into Happiness (Max Nosseck, 1930), he played a supporting part. In Das alte Lied/The Old Song (Erich Waschneck, 1930), starring Lil Dagover , he only had a small part.

His final film as a director had been the silent production Strassenbekanntschaften/Street acquaintances (Josef Medeotti-Bohác, Alwin Neuss, 1929). Then he returned to the theatre.

Alwin Neuss died in 1935 in Berlin, Germany. He was 56. Alwin Neuss was married to Anna Klara Warczok.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1507. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 83/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 83/4. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.

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