Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 437
November 24, 2013
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray (1928-2011) was a very elegant Italian actress in films by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. She was also sexy seductress in comedies with Totò. In 1965, Gray completely vanished from the public eye.
Italian postcard in the 'Hobby' series by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 1181/5310.
Seductive Sex Kitten
Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928.
Gray made her stage debut in 1950, and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema.
In 1951, she already had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala.
The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film Peppino De Filippo was awarded with a Silver Ribbon for best supporting actor.
She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy.
The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with starring Steve Cochran, Alida Valli and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim.
At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina . The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.
Giulietta Masina . Italian postcard by Casa Edite. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 3180. Photo: Titanus. Publicity still for Il Bidone/The Swindle (Federico Fellini, 1955).
Suicide By Gunshot
After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957.
She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960).
She also played in one of the Peplums of that era, La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this Italian sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor and bodybuilder Ed Fury.
She was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960).
She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter.
In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall.
That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired completely from acting. She never made another public appearance.
In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. IMDb and other media, however, report her age as 75, since she herself claimed to have been born in 1936.
Trailer Il Grido (1957). Source Danios 12345 (YouTube).
Trailer Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (1957). Source: TrailerItaliano (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and .
Italian postcard in the 'Hobby' series by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 1181/5310.
Seductive Sex Kitten
Dorian Gray was born as Maria Luisa Mangini in Bolzano, Italy in 1928.
Gray made her stage debut in 1950, and quickly became a known and acclaimed actress. However, after only five years she left the world of the theatre and devoted herself to the cinema.
In 1951, she already had made her film debut in the crime drama Amo un assassin/Appointment for Murder (Baccio Bandini, 1951) with Delia Scala.
The role she played most often in films was that of a seductive sex kitten in comedies like Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge/Totò, Peppino and the outlaws (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). For this film Peppino De Filippo was awarded with a Silver Ribbon for best supporting actor.
She played another titular ‘bad girl’ in Totò, Peppino e la malafemmina/Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956). It was the top grossing film of the year in Italy and is now considered as one of the classics of Italian comedy.
The following year, she had the chance to demonstrate her dramatic talents in Michelangelo Antonioni's Il grido/The Cry (1957). She co-starred with starring Steve Cochran, Alida Valli and Betsy Blair to great critical acclaim.
At the peak of her popularity, she also took part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) featuring Giulietta Masina . The film was loaded with awards, including an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.
Giulietta Masina . Italian postcard by Casa Edite. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 3180. Photo: Titanus. Publicity still for Il Bidone/The Swindle (Federico Fellini, 1955).
Suicide By Gunshot
After 1957, Dorian Gray made several more films, but none ever had the shine of her works of 1956 and 1957.
She starred with Vittorio Gassman in the comedy Il mattatore/Love and Larceny (Dino Risi, 1960).
She also played in one of the Peplums of that era, La regina delle Amazzoni/Colossus and the Amazons (Vittorio Sala, 1960) In this Italian sword and sandal satirical comedy she starred opposite two actors imported from America, Rod Taylor and bodybuilder Ed Fury.
She was among the all-star cast of the whodunit-comedy Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder! (Mario Camerini, 1960).
She played the love interest of Foreign Legion captain Stewart Granger in the action drama, Marcia o crepa/Commando (Frank Wisbar,1962), set during the Algerian War. Her career ended by choice soon thereafter.
In 1965, she made her final film, Fango sulla metropolis/City Criminals (Gino Mangini, 1965) with Tony Kendall.
That year, awaiting the birth of her son, she retired completely from acting. She never made another public appearance.
In 2011, Dorian Gray committed suicide by gunshot at her home in Torcegno. She was 83 years old. IMDb and other media, however, report her age as 75, since she herself claimed to have been born in 1936.
Trailer Il Grido (1957). Source Danios 12345 (YouTube).
Trailer Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (1957). Source: TrailerItaliano (YouTube).
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and .
November 23, 2013
Ingrid Schoeller
Tall, slim and blonde Ingrid Schoeller is best known for her roles as an action heroine in the 1960s. The gorgeous German actress played the lead role in such Italian spy films as 002 agenti segretissimi/Oh! Those Most Secret Agents (1964) and A008, operazione sterminio/Lightning Bolt (1965).
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano (Milan), no. 216.
Glamorous Eye Candy
Neither IMDb nor Wikipedia has information about when and where Ingrid Schoeller was born.
She was one of the starlets photographed by Peter Basch for the ‘The Girls from Germany’ spread featured in the November 1964 issue of Playboy magazine.
She had started her film career with a supporting part in the Italian-French coproduction Arrivano i titani/My Son the Hero (Ducio Tessari, 1962) starring Pedro Armendáriz and Giuliano Gemma .
The film had an interesting history. It started out as a straightforward Peplum (the Italian sword and sandal genre) about the quest for a magic helmet in ancient Thebes.
But according to Hal Erickson at AllMovie American audiences saw a comedy: “Well cast (Pedro Armendariz is the star) and extremely well photographed, the original film was still not sufficient different from all the other Italian strongman films glutting the American market in 1963. Thus the American distributors hit upon the notion of transforming the film into a satire, by redubbing all the actors and hoking up the sound effects. What resulted was a heady mixture of Yiddish accents, Borscht-belt one-liners and rippling pecs. The single joke wears out pretty quickly in My Son, the Hero, but the concept is a workable one, as Woody Allen proved two years later with What's Up, Tiger Lily?”.
IMDb reviewer John Seal denies that the film was transformed: “Incidentally, the rumours attributed to both the Maltin Guide and the Psychotronic Film Guide are wrong: there's no evidence that any of the dubbing was done to achieve comic effect (though there are some intentionally funny moments).”
John Seal adds about the film: ”it blends fantasy elements into the standard strong man vs evil king story. It even manages to foreshadow the 'stranger' themes of spaghetti westerns in its final scenes.”
Ingrid Schoeller stayed in Italy after this debut and appeared as glamorous eye candy in the costume action film Il vendicatore mascherato/Gentlemen of the Night (Pino Mercanti, 1964) starring Guy Madison.
Margaret Lee . German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/361. Photo: Georg Michalke.
The Year of the Italian Spy Thriller
Ingrid Schoeller’s next film was the anthology film I Maniaci/The Maniacs (1964) by director Lucio Fulci who went on to find cult fame for his thrillers and horror films in the 1970s and 1980s. This comedy gives an hilarious portrait of the Italian society of the sixties.
I Maniaci, starring Walter Chiari, Margaret Lee and Barbara Steele, is divided in several sketches. Each segment spotlights a particular mania, with a special attention to the sexual ones (nymphomania gets an extended treatment).
That year Ingrid Schoeller also played the female lead in 002 agenti segretissimi/Oh! Those Most Secret Agents (Lucio Fulci, 1964) opposite the comedy duo of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia as two simple-minded Italian guys, who are mistaken for KGB spies.
1964 was the year of the Italian spy thriller. In the Italian cinema operated colleagues of secret agent 007, who was himself busy making Thunderball at the time.
One of Ingrid Schoellers’ best films in the Euro-spy genre was the fast-paced thriller A008, operazione sterminio/Lightning Bolt (Umberto Lenzi aka Antonio Margheriti, 1965). The British Secret Service sends agent 606 (Alberto Lupo) to Cairo, to collaborate with an American colleague, MacDonald, in search for a stolen anti-radar device. Arriving in Egypt, he finds that agent A008 is actually an attractive woman, played of course by Ingrid. Their assignment proves to be no picnic, as a criminal mastermind named Kemp has sent his henchmen out to destroy them.
Cult director Umberto Lenzi’s thriller offers plenty of action, but also great locations and a wonderful 1960s score by Angelo Lavagnino.
Ingrid Schoeller also appeared on TV in episodes of two popular TV series about spies: The Saint (1964) with Roger Moore as Simon Templar, and I Spy (1966) with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.
Roger Moore and Dawn Addams in The Saint (1963-1966). Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 553.
Spaghetti Western
Ingrid Schoeller then appeared in another typical Euro-genre: the Spaghetti Western. She played the female lead in Il figlio di Django/The Son of Django (Osvaldo Civirani, 1967) with Gabriele Tinti and Guy Madison.
In 1968 she starred in the costume adventure Il figlio di Aquila Nera/The Son of the Black Eagle (Guido Malatesta, 1968) with Edwige Fenech.
In her next film, the violent Italian/Spanish gangster film Tiempos de Chicago/They Paid with Bullets: Chicago 1929 (Julio Diamante, 1969) a country bumpkin rises to the top of the mafia game when he pits two rival gangs against each other.
The film featured a mostly German cast lead by Peter Lee Lawrence, who after arriving in Chicago quickly becomes an influential criminal. The gang rivalry gives ample opportunity to show plenty of machinegun battles. Ingrid Schoeller plays a particularly sly and nasty woman in the film.
Her last film was the gangster film C'era una volta un gangster/Once Upon a Time a Gangster (Marco Masi, 1969) with Richard Harrison.
Then she disappeared, at least from internet. I could only find that Ingrid Schoeller also recorded a 45 in the 1960s: Ieri, Domani (Today, Tomorrow). That’s all.
Original Italian trailer for I Maniaci/The Maniacs (1964). Source: FreakyMidnightShow (YouTube).
The leader and first scene of 002 agenti segretissimi/Oh! Those Most Secret Agents (1964). Source: ItaliaMovies (YouTube).
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Chris Mayo (Severed Cinema), Wesley Alan Britton (Onscreen and undercover: the ultimate book of movie espionage), John Seal (IMDb), The Wild Eye, Wikipedia and .
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano (Milan), no. 216.
Glamorous Eye Candy
Neither IMDb nor Wikipedia has information about when and where Ingrid Schoeller was born.
She was one of the starlets photographed by Peter Basch for the ‘The Girls from Germany’ spread featured in the November 1964 issue of Playboy magazine.
She had started her film career with a supporting part in the Italian-French coproduction Arrivano i titani/My Son the Hero (Ducio Tessari, 1962) starring Pedro Armendáriz and Giuliano Gemma .
The film had an interesting history. It started out as a straightforward Peplum (the Italian sword and sandal genre) about the quest for a magic helmet in ancient Thebes.
But according to Hal Erickson at AllMovie American audiences saw a comedy: “Well cast (Pedro Armendariz is the star) and extremely well photographed, the original film was still not sufficient different from all the other Italian strongman films glutting the American market in 1963. Thus the American distributors hit upon the notion of transforming the film into a satire, by redubbing all the actors and hoking up the sound effects. What resulted was a heady mixture of Yiddish accents, Borscht-belt one-liners and rippling pecs. The single joke wears out pretty quickly in My Son, the Hero, but the concept is a workable one, as Woody Allen proved two years later with What's Up, Tiger Lily?”.
IMDb reviewer John Seal denies that the film was transformed: “Incidentally, the rumours attributed to both the Maltin Guide and the Psychotronic Film Guide are wrong: there's no evidence that any of the dubbing was done to achieve comic effect (though there are some intentionally funny moments).”
John Seal adds about the film: ”it blends fantasy elements into the standard strong man vs evil king story. It even manages to foreshadow the 'stranger' themes of spaghetti westerns in its final scenes.”
Ingrid Schoeller stayed in Italy after this debut and appeared as glamorous eye candy in the costume action film Il vendicatore mascherato/Gentlemen of the Night (Pino Mercanti, 1964) starring Guy Madison.
Margaret Lee . German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/361. Photo: Georg Michalke.
The Year of the Italian Spy Thriller
Ingrid Schoeller’s next film was the anthology film I Maniaci/The Maniacs (1964) by director Lucio Fulci who went on to find cult fame for his thrillers and horror films in the 1970s and 1980s. This comedy gives an hilarious portrait of the Italian society of the sixties.
I Maniaci, starring Walter Chiari, Margaret Lee and Barbara Steele, is divided in several sketches. Each segment spotlights a particular mania, with a special attention to the sexual ones (nymphomania gets an extended treatment).
That year Ingrid Schoeller also played the female lead in 002 agenti segretissimi/Oh! Those Most Secret Agents (Lucio Fulci, 1964) opposite the comedy duo of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia as two simple-minded Italian guys, who are mistaken for KGB spies.
1964 was the year of the Italian spy thriller. In the Italian cinema operated colleagues of secret agent 007, who was himself busy making Thunderball at the time.
One of Ingrid Schoellers’ best films in the Euro-spy genre was the fast-paced thriller A008, operazione sterminio/Lightning Bolt (Umberto Lenzi aka Antonio Margheriti, 1965). The British Secret Service sends agent 606 (Alberto Lupo) to Cairo, to collaborate with an American colleague, MacDonald, in search for a stolen anti-radar device. Arriving in Egypt, he finds that agent A008 is actually an attractive woman, played of course by Ingrid. Their assignment proves to be no picnic, as a criminal mastermind named Kemp has sent his henchmen out to destroy them.
Cult director Umberto Lenzi’s thriller offers plenty of action, but also great locations and a wonderful 1960s score by Angelo Lavagnino.
Ingrid Schoeller also appeared on TV in episodes of two popular TV series about spies: The Saint (1964) with Roger Moore as Simon Templar, and I Spy (1966) with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.
Roger Moore and Dawn Addams in The Saint (1963-1966). Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 553.
Spaghetti Western
Ingrid Schoeller then appeared in another typical Euro-genre: the Spaghetti Western. She played the female lead in Il figlio di Django/The Son of Django (Osvaldo Civirani, 1967) with Gabriele Tinti and Guy Madison.
In 1968 she starred in the costume adventure Il figlio di Aquila Nera/The Son of the Black Eagle (Guido Malatesta, 1968) with Edwige Fenech.
In her next film, the violent Italian/Spanish gangster film Tiempos de Chicago/They Paid with Bullets: Chicago 1929 (Julio Diamante, 1969) a country bumpkin rises to the top of the mafia game when he pits two rival gangs against each other.
The film featured a mostly German cast lead by Peter Lee Lawrence, who after arriving in Chicago quickly becomes an influential criminal. The gang rivalry gives ample opportunity to show plenty of machinegun battles. Ingrid Schoeller plays a particularly sly and nasty woman in the film.
Her last film was the gangster film C'era una volta un gangster/Once Upon a Time a Gangster (Marco Masi, 1969) with Richard Harrison.
Then she disappeared, at least from internet. I could only find that Ingrid Schoeller also recorded a 45 in the 1960s: Ieri, Domani (Today, Tomorrow). That’s all.
Original Italian trailer for I Maniaci/The Maniacs (1964). Source: FreakyMidnightShow (YouTube).
The leader and first scene of 002 agenti segretissimi/Oh! Those Most Secret Agents (1964). Source: ItaliaMovies (YouTube).
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Chris Mayo (Severed Cinema), Wesley Alan Britton (Onscreen and undercover: the ultimate book of movie espionage), John Seal (IMDb), The Wild Eye, Wikipedia and .
November 22, 2013
Wolf Albach-Retty
Austrian-German actor Wolf Albach-Retty (1906-1967) is nowadays best known as the father of Romy Schneider, but during the 1930s he was a popular leading man of the German cinema, full of charm, presence and wit. After the war his theatre career was more satisfactory, notably his acclaimed performances in plays by Arthur Schnitzler.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 30067/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2516/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Binz / Tobis.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3478/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
The Beautiful Adventure
Wolf Albach-Retty was born as Helmuth Walter Wolf Albach in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1906. He was the son of officer Karl Albach and actress Rosa Albach-Retty, a star of the Viennese stage.
He studied at the Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Academy for Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna. When he was 20 he debuted at the famous Burgtheater.
He made his first film appearance in the leading role in the silent production Das Grobe Hemd/The Coarse Shirt (Fritz Kaufmann, 1927).
More leading roles followed in silent and early sound films, including Ein Wiener Musikantenmädel/ A Vienna Music Girl (1928) and Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag/Two Hearts Beat as One (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932) opposite Lilian Harvey .
In 1932 the Ufa had invited him to come to Berlin. That year he was the male star of Das schöne Abenteuer/The Beautiful Adventure (1932), a romantic comedy by the great director Reinhold Schünzel .
Schünzel and Emmerich Preßburger based their script on the French stage play La belle aventure by Gaston Arman de Caillavet, Robert de Flers and Etienne Rey.
Käthe von Nagy stars as the lovely Helene engaged to a corpulent man of wealth ( Otto Wallburg ). On the wedding day she runs off with the man she really loves, her cousin André (Wolf Albach-Retty). They stay with her aged grandmother ( Adele Sandrock ) who assumes André (whom she doesn't know) to be the new husband and has prepared a bridal bed for them.
Schünzel also directed a French version with Roger Le Bon, La belle aventure (1932), starring Käthe von Nagy and Daniel Lecourtois in the role of Albach-Retty. Assistant director Kurt Hoffmann would later direct a remake, Das schöne Abenteuer (1959), with Liselotte Pulver and Robert Graf.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 142/2. Photo: Günther Pilz / Ufa. Publicity still for Das schöne Abenteuer/The Beautiful Adventure (1932) with Käthe von Nagy .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 142/3. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Das schöne Abenteuer/Beautiful Adventure (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932) with Adele Sandrock.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9055/1, 1934-1935. The photo is a still from Frühjahrsparade (Géza von Bolváry, 1934), also starring Franciska Gaál . The photo was cut out of the card by a former owner. Exception wise, we've photo shopped new edges.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7851/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
Romy
Despite his acting talents Wolf Albach-Retty was mainly seen in commercial entertainment films. During the Nazi years he mainly performed the romantic lead in superficial musicals and mediocre comedies which pleased the crowds but did not make film history.
Among his most popular films were Liebe muß verstanden sein/Love Must Be Understood (Hans Steinhoff, 1933), the operetta Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (E.W. Emo, 1935) and the comedy Sieben Jahre Pech/Seven Years of Bad Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1940) starring Hans Moser .
In 1940, two years after the 'Anschluss' of Austria to Nazi-Germany, Albach-Retty became a party member of the the NSDAP.
In 1936 he had married the German actress Magda Schneider . The so-called 'dream pair' co-starred in seven films including G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald/Tales from Vienna Woods (Georg Jacoby, 1934) and Winternachtstraum/Winter Night's Dream (Géza von Bolváry, 1935).
Temporarily Albach-Retty became a German citizen during his marriage. He and Schneider divorced in 1946 (some sources say 1945 or 1949). They had two children: Wolf-Dieter (1941) and Rosemarie, who would later become famous as Romy Schneider (1938-1982).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6884/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7202/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7974/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 6979/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.
Back to the Burgtheater
After the war Wolf Albach-Retty played with his cultivated charm the same kind of romantic roles as before in films like Der Mann, der sich selber sucht/The Man Who Searches For Himself (Géza von Cziffra, 1950) with Vera Molnar , Weh dem, der liebt!/Woe to Him Who Loves (Sándor Szlatinay, 1951) and a remake of Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1953) opposite Ilse Werner .
But the times had changed. In the late 1950's, his film career started to sour as his past successes were no longer remembered.
His parts became smaller and the films rarer, but he returned successfully to the stage of the Burgtheater in 1959. Till his death he starred in plays like Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler, which was also adapted for television in 1962 by Otto Schenk.
His last stage role was in Professor Bernhardi by Schnitzler.
His final TV-film was Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler/Fanny Elßler, the Dancer (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1966).
Wolfgang Albach-Retty died in 1967 in his hometown Vienna. He was survived by his second wife, actress Trude Marlen.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 227, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3769/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien film.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3821/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film. From Tatiana.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3585/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag. Photo: Berolina / Allianz-Film / Filip.
Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), (IMDb), AllMovie, and Wikipedia (German).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 30067/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2516/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Binz / Tobis.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3478/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
The Beautiful Adventure
Wolf Albach-Retty was born as Helmuth Walter Wolf Albach in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1906. He was the son of officer Karl Albach and actress Rosa Albach-Retty, a star of the Viennese stage.
He studied at the Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Academy for Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna. When he was 20 he debuted at the famous Burgtheater.
He made his first film appearance in the leading role in the silent production Das Grobe Hemd/The Coarse Shirt (Fritz Kaufmann, 1927).
More leading roles followed in silent and early sound films, including Ein Wiener Musikantenmädel/ A Vienna Music Girl (1928) and Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag/Two Hearts Beat as One (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932) opposite Lilian Harvey .
In 1932 the Ufa had invited him to come to Berlin. That year he was the male star of Das schöne Abenteuer/The Beautiful Adventure (1932), a romantic comedy by the great director Reinhold Schünzel .
Schünzel and Emmerich Preßburger based their script on the French stage play La belle aventure by Gaston Arman de Caillavet, Robert de Flers and Etienne Rey.
Käthe von Nagy stars as the lovely Helene engaged to a corpulent man of wealth ( Otto Wallburg ). On the wedding day she runs off with the man she really loves, her cousin André (Wolf Albach-Retty). They stay with her aged grandmother ( Adele Sandrock ) who assumes André (whom she doesn't know) to be the new husband and has prepared a bridal bed for them.
Schünzel also directed a French version with Roger Le Bon, La belle aventure (1932), starring Käthe von Nagy and Daniel Lecourtois in the role of Albach-Retty. Assistant director Kurt Hoffmann would later direct a remake, Das schöne Abenteuer (1959), with Liselotte Pulver and Robert Graf.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 142/2. Photo: Günther Pilz / Ufa. Publicity still for Das schöne Abenteuer/The Beautiful Adventure (1932) with Käthe von Nagy .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 142/3. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Das schöne Abenteuer/Beautiful Adventure (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932) with Adele Sandrock.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9055/1, 1934-1935. The photo is a still from Frühjahrsparade (Géza von Bolváry, 1934), also starring Franciska Gaál . The photo was cut out of the card by a former owner. Exception wise, we've photo shopped new edges.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7851/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
Romy
Despite his acting talents Wolf Albach-Retty was mainly seen in commercial entertainment films. During the Nazi years he mainly performed the romantic lead in superficial musicals and mediocre comedies which pleased the crowds but did not make film history.
Among his most popular films were Liebe muß verstanden sein/Love Must Be Understood (Hans Steinhoff, 1933), the operetta Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (E.W. Emo, 1935) and the comedy Sieben Jahre Pech/Seven Years of Bad Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1940) starring Hans Moser .
In 1940, two years after the 'Anschluss' of Austria to Nazi-Germany, Albach-Retty became a party member of the the NSDAP.
In 1936 he had married the German actress Magda Schneider . The so-called 'dream pair' co-starred in seven films including G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald/Tales from Vienna Woods (Georg Jacoby, 1934) and Winternachtstraum/Winter Night's Dream (Géza von Bolváry, 1935).
Temporarily Albach-Retty became a German citizen during his marriage. He and Schneider divorced in 1946 (some sources say 1945 or 1949). They had two children: Wolf-Dieter (1941) and Rosemarie, who would later become famous as Romy Schneider (1938-1982).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6884/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7202/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7974/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 6979/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.
Back to the Burgtheater
After the war Wolf Albach-Retty played with his cultivated charm the same kind of romantic roles as before in films like Der Mann, der sich selber sucht/The Man Who Searches For Himself (Géza von Cziffra, 1950) with Vera Molnar , Weh dem, der liebt!/Woe to Him Who Loves (Sándor Szlatinay, 1951) and a remake of Der Vogelhändler/The Bird Seller (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1953) opposite Ilse Werner .
But the times had changed. In the late 1950's, his film career started to sour as his past successes were no longer remembered.
His parts became smaller and the films rarer, but he returned successfully to the stage of the Burgtheater in 1959. Till his death he starred in plays like Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler, which was also adapted for television in 1962 by Otto Schenk.
His last stage role was in Professor Bernhardi by Schnitzler.
His final TV-film was Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler/Fanny Elßler, the Dancer (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1966).
Wolfgang Albach-Retty died in 1967 in his hometown Vienna. He was survived by his second wife, actress Trude Marlen.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 227, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3769/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien film.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3821/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film. From Tatiana.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3585/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag. Photo: Berolina / Allianz-Film / Filip.
Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), (IMDb), AllMovie, and Wikipedia (German).
November 21, 2013
Op hoop van zegen (1934)
Today, it's Postcard Friendship Friday on the net. A weekly event in which postcard blogs present themselves. Start at Beth's blog with the great title The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, and enjoy some rare vintage postcards that are preserved on the net by bloggers like me.
The early Dutch sound film Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) is the most famous film adaptation of the 1900 play by the same name. The film, starring senior actress Esther de Boer-van Rijk, won a special mention at the Venice Film Festival of 1935. There are four film adaptations of the play about a fishermen's tragedy, produced in 1918, 1924, 1934, and 1986.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection Egbert Barten.
Herman HeijermansThe play Op Hoop van Zegen (1900) is still staged in the Netherlands, and it remains the most popular play by Herman Heijermans (1864–1924).
Heijermans was the leading Dutch dramatist at the close of the 19th century. He was a writer of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies who single-handedly brought Dutch theatre into the modern time.
Op Hoop van Zegen takes place in a fishing village. A conflict between the fishermen and their employer ends in tragedy with the unsound boat setting out to sea and sinking with all hands and the owner pocketing the insurance money.
The third film version of 1934 was the first sound version and is also the first too survive intact. Of the two silent versions, only bits and pieces remain.
Alex Benno, the director of the 1934 version, worked as a gopher on the 1918 version and also appeared as an extra.
It was his dream to make a sound version of the film and to use the same lead actress, Esther de Boer-van Rijk, who had become synonymous with the part of Kniertje on stage. Willem van der Veer, who played the youngest son Barendje in the 1918 version, was cast as the unscrupulous Reder Bos this time around.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Esther de Boer-van Rijk The star of the 1934 film version was the 80-year-old Esther de Boer-van Rijk, the most popular Dutch actress ever. She had played the tragic fisherwoman Kniertje in the first performance of Op hoop van zegen on stage and the role had made a national icon of her. Through the years, she had played Kniertje again and again. Driven by poverty and honour, Kniertje sends the last of her kin to sea. Her two sons will work on the ship Op Hoop van Zegen, of which some people in town doubt it is seaworthy. She played Kniertje again in the first silent film version of 1918 directed by Maurits Binger and repeated the role in the 1934 sound version directed by Alex Benno. In the latter, the film actors Frits van Dongen and Jan van Ees played her two sons. De Boer-van Rijk also appeared in a dozen more Dutch silent films, but Kniertje would always be her biggest success.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
The early Dutch sound film Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934) is the most famous film adaptation of the 1900 play by the same name. The film, starring senior actress Esther de Boer-van Rijk, won a special mention at the Venice Film Festival of 1935. There are four film adaptations of the play about a fishermen's tragedy, produced in 1918, 1924, 1934, and 1986.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection Egbert Barten.
Herman HeijermansThe play Op Hoop van Zegen (1900) is still staged in the Netherlands, and it remains the most popular play by Herman Heijermans (1864–1924).
Heijermans was the leading Dutch dramatist at the close of the 19th century. He was a writer of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies who single-handedly brought Dutch theatre into the modern time.
Op Hoop van Zegen takes place in a fishing village. A conflict between the fishermen and their employer ends in tragedy with the unsound boat setting out to sea and sinking with all hands and the owner pocketing the insurance money.
The third film version of 1934 was the first sound version and is also the first too survive intact. Of the two silent versions, only bits and pieces remain.
Alex Benno, the director of the 1934 version, worked as a gopher on the 1918 version and also appeared as an extra.
It was his dream to make a sound version of the film and to use the same lead actress, Esther de Boer-van Rijk, who had become synonymous with the part of Kniertje on stage. Willem van der Veer, who played the youngest son Barendje in the 1918 version, was cast as the unscrupulous Reder Bos this time around.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Esther de Boer-van Rijk The star of the 1934 film version was the 80-year-old Esther de Boer-van Rijk, the most popular Dutch actress ever. She had played the tragic fisherwoman Kniertje in the first performance of Op hoop van zegen on stage and the role had made a national icon of her. Through the years, she had played Kniertje again and again. Driven by poverty and honour, Kniertje sends the last of her kin to sea. Her two sons will work on the ship Op Hoop van Zegen, of which some people in town doubt it is seaworthy. She played Kniertje again in the first silent film version of 1918 directed by Maurits Binger and repeated the role in the 1934 sound version directed by Alex Benno. In the latter, the film actors Frits van Dongen and Jan van Ees played her two sons. De Boer-van Rijk also appeared in a dozen more Dutch silent films, but Kniertje would always be her biggest success.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection Egbert Barten.
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z / M.H.D. Film. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag. Publicity still for Op hoop van zegen/The Good Hope (Alex Benno, 1934).
Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / M.H.D. Film. Publicity still for Op Hoop van Zegen (Alex Benno, 1934). Collection: Egbert Barten.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
November 20, 2013
Marisa Merlini
Italian character actress Marisa Merlini (1923–2008) was active in Italy's post-World War II cinema. She is best known for Pane, Amore e Fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953) in which she married Vittorio De Sica. From World War II to 2005, Merlini appeared in over 160 films and TV productions.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1483, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
Born-and-bred Roman
Marisa Merlini was born in Rome in 1923. She was well known for playing the ‘romana verace’ (born-and-bred Roman) characters.
In 1942, she played a small role in the drama Stasera niente di nuovo/Tonight nothing is new (Mario Mattoli, 1942) starring Alida Valli .
After the war, Merlini played with Vittorio De Sica in Roma, città libera (La notte porta consiglio)/Rome Free City (Marcello Pagliero, 1946).
She also appeared in seven Totò comedies. The first, Totò cerca casa/Totò Looks for an Apartment (Mario Monicelli, Steno, 1949) is stylistically related to Italian neorealism, though it can be seen as a parody.
Her best known role is Annarella, a village midwife and unwed mother who marries the middle-aged marshal of carabiniers ( Vittorio De Sica ) in a mountain village in the romantic comedy Pane, Amore e Fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953). At the 4th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Bear award. The film's popularity resulted in two sequels, but Merlini returned only in the second part of the trilogy, Pane, amore e gelosia/Bread, Love and Jealousy (Luigi Comencini, 1954), also with Gina Lollobrigida .
Gina Lollobrigida . French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 55.
Commedia All'Italiana
Marisa Merlini's awards included the 1957 Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) award for portraying a tourist in Tempo di Villeggiatura/Time of Vacation (Antonio Racioppi, 1956) with Vittorio De Sica and Giovanna Ralli .
She reunited with De Sica for Padri e figli/Fathers and Sons (Mario Monicelli, 1957) and Il medico e lo stregone/The Doctor and the Healer (Mario Monicelli, 1957), both also with Marcello Mastroianni .
In the comedy Il Vigile/The Traffic Policeman (Luigi Zampa, 1960), she co-starred as the girlfriend of Alberto Sordi .
She played the wife of Ugo Tognazzi in a segment of the anthology film I mostri/The Monsters (Dino Risi, 1963) and had a supporting part in the Spaghetti Western Il grande silenzio/The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968) starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski . Merlini also appeared in a number of films opposite her real life friend, Anna Magnani .
Later films included the Commedia all'italiana Dramma della gelosia (tutti i particolari in cronaca)/The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, 1970) with Marcello Mastroianni , Monica Vitti and Giancarlo Giannini, the comedy-drama Oh, Serafina! (Alberto Lattuada, 1976) with Dalila Di Lazzaro, and the comedy La mazzetta/The Payoff (Sergio Corbucci, 1978) with Nino Manfredi .
During the 1980s and 1990s she often worked for Italian TV. Her last screen appearance came in La Seconda Notte di Nozze/The Second Wedding Night (Pupi Avati, 2005).
In 2008, Marisa Merlini died at home in Rome. She was 83.
Director Pupi Avati paid tribute to Merlini saying, "Marisa brought to the set the experience of somebody who had taken part in the golden years of Italian cinema, but she was down-to-earth both in front of and behind the camera...Working with her was an honour and a fantastic experience."
East-German postcard by VEB Progess Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1373. Photo: Star Foto Atelier. Marisa Merlini in the film Il medico e lo stregone/Doctor and the Healer (Mario Monicelli, 1957).
Sources: Wikipedia and .
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1483, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
Born-and-bred Roman
Marisa Merlini was born in Rome in 1923. She was well known for playing the ‘romana verace’ (born-and-bred Roman) characters.
In 1942, she played a small role in the drama Stasera niente di nuovo/Tonight nothing is new (Mario Mattoli, 1942) starring Alida Valli .
After the war, Merlini played with Vittorio De Sica in Roma, città libera (La notte porta consiglio)/Rome Free City (Marcello Pagliero, 1946).
She also appeared in seven Totò comedies. The first, Totò cerca casa/Totò Looks for an Apartment (Mario Monicelli, Steno, 1949) is stylistically related to Italian neorealism, though it can be seen as a parody.
Her best known role is Annarella, a village midwife and unwed mother who marries the middle-aged marshal of carabiniers ( Vittorio De Sica ) in a mountain village in the romantic comedy Pane, Amore e Fantasia/Bread, Love and Dreams (Luigi Comencini, 1953). At the 4th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Bear award. The film's popularity resulted in two sequels, but Merlini returned only in the second part of the trilogy, Pane, amore e gelosia/Bread, Love and Jealousy (Luigi Comencini, 1954), also with Gina Lollobrigida .
Gina Lollobrigida . French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 55.
Commedia All'Italiana
Marisa Merlini's awards included the 1957 Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) award for portraying a tourist in Tempo di Villeggiatura/Time of Vacation (Antonio Racioppi, 1956) with Vittorio De Sica and Giovanna Ralli .
She reunited with De Sica for Padri e figli/Fathers and Sons (Mario Monicelli, 1957) and Il medico e lo stregone/The Doctor and the Healer (Mario Monicelli, 1957), both also with Marcello Mastroianni .
In the comedy Il Vigile/The Traffic Policeman (Luigi Zampa, 1960), she co-starred as the girlfriend of Alberto Sordi .
She played the wife of Ugo Tognazzi in a segment of the anthology film I mostri/The Monsters (Dino Risi, 1963) and had a supporting part in the Spaghetti Western Il grande silenzio/The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968) starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski . Merlini also appeared in a number of films opposite her real life friend, Anna Magnani .
Later films included the Commedia all'italiana Dramma della gelosia (tutti i particolari in cronaca)/The Pizza Triangle (Ettore Scola, 1970) with Marcello Mastroianni , Monica Vitti and Giancarlo Giannini, the comedy-drama Oh, Serafina! (Alberto Lattuada, 1976) with Dalila Di Lazzaro, and the comedy La mazzetta/The Payoff (Sergio Corbucci, 1978) with Nino Manfredi .
During the 1980s and 1990s she often worked for Italian TV. Her last screen appearance came in La Seconda Notte di Nozze/The Second Wedding Night (Pupi Avati, 2005).
In 2008, Marisa Merlini died at home in Rome. She was 83.
Director Pupi Avati paid tribute to Merlini saying, "Marisa brought to the set the experience of somebody who had taken part in the golden years of Italian cinema, but she was down-to-earth both in front of and behind the camera...Working with her was an honour and a fantastic experience."
East-German postcard by VEB Progess Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1373. Photo: Star Foto Atelier. Marisa Merlini in the film Il medico e lo stregone/Doctor and the Healer (Mario Monicelli, 1957).
Sources: Wikipedia and .
November 19, 2013
Édouard Mathé
Édouard Mathé (1886-1934) was an extremely popular French actor, in particular in the silent crime serials by Louis Feuillade.
French postcard. Sent by mail in 1922. Photo: Film Gaumont.
Les Vampires
Édouard Mathé was born in Australia (unknown where exactly), in 1886.
In 1914 he started his career as film actor at the French company Gaumont. He remained a fixed actor for Gaumont director Louis Feuillade, who already directed him in Mathé’s first film L'Hôtel de la gare (1914).
After some ten shorts in 1914-1915, Feuillade replaced his former leading actor René Navarre by Mathé and gave him the leading role of the journalist Philippe de Guérande, protagonist of the crime serial film Les Vampires (1915-1916).
Together with a reformed criminal, Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Guérande fights the gang of the Vampires including the fatal beauty Irma Vep, played by Musidora .
As the police was ridiculed in the series, the real police prefect of Paris forbade the screenings for a while.
Mathé also acted in Feuillade’s subsequents serials Judex (1916-1917), La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919), Vendémiaire (1918-1919), Barrabas (1919), Les deux gamines (1921), L’Orpheline (1921), and Parisette (1921-1922), the latter three starring Sandra Milowanoff .
In-between Feuillade continued to direct Mathé in several individual films, which though were less successful.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Judex
After the upheaval of Les Vampires (later on cherished by the Surrealists), Judex (Louis Feuillade (1916-1917) was less anti-establishment and closer to bourgeois morals.
The positive hero, played by René Cresté , is a black caped avenger who kidnaps the evil banker Favraux (Louis Leubas), who has caused his father's death.
Musidora is the banker's evil mistress and governess of his grandson, Marcel Lévesque the clumsy amateur detective Cocantin, Yvette Andreyor the banker's innocent daughter and widower Jacqueline, and Olinda Mano her little son Jean.
Mathé played Cresté’s brother, Roger de Tremeuse.
Henceforth Mathé often played a relative or buddy of René Cresté in subsequent Feuillade serials such as the sequel to Judex: La nouvelle mission de Judex/The New Mission of Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919) and Vendémiaire (1918-1919), until Cresté was fed up with Feuillade’s serials
Cresté started his own film company, with disastruous effects. He died of tuberculosis in 1922.
Mathé himself quitted filmmaking with Feuillade in 1922 after Parisette (Louis Feuillade, 1921).
After a handful of films in 1923-1924, including the two Mario Ausonia films Mes p’tits (1923) and La course à l’amour/The race to love (1924), both directed by Charles Keppens and Paul Barlatier, he quitted acting in film altogether.
Édouard Mathé died in Brussels in 1934.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 83. Photo: Studio Henri Lebrun.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918) with René Cresté .
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Italian), and
French postcard. Sent by mail in 1922. Photo: Film Gaumont.
Les Vampires
Édouard Mathé was born in Australia (unknown where exactly), in 1886.
In 1914 he started his career as film actor at the French company Gaumont. He remained a fixed actor for Gaumont director Louis Feuillade, who already directed him in Mathé’s first film L'Hôtel de la gare (1914).
After some ten shorts in 1914-1915, Feuillade replaced his former leading actor René Navarre by Mathé and gave him the leading role of the journalist Philippe de Guérande, protagonist of the crime serial film Les Vampires (1915-1916).
Together with a reformed criminal, Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Guérande fights the gang of the Vampires including the fatal beauty Irma Vep, played by Musidora .
As the police was ridiculed in the series, the real police prefect of Paris forbade the screenings for a while.
Mathé also acted in Feuillade’s subsequents serials Judex (1916-1917), La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919), Vendémiaire (1918-1919), Barrabas (1919), Les deux gamines (1921), L’Orpheline (1921), and Parisette (1921-1922), the latter three starring Sandra Milowanoff .
In-between Feuillade continued to direct Mathé in several individual films, which though were less successful.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Judex
After the upheaval of Les Vampires (later on cherished by the Surrealists), Judex (Louis Feuillade (1916-1917) was less anti-establishment and closer to bourgeois morals.
The positive hero, played by René Cresté , is a black caped avenger who kidnaps the evil banker Favraux (Louis Leubas), who has caused his father's death.
Musidora is the banker's evil mistress and governess of his grandson, Marcel Lévesque the clumsy amateur detective Cocantin, Yvette Andreyor the banker's innocent daughter and widower Jacqueline, and Olinda Mano her little son Jean.
Mathé played Cresté’s brother, Roger de Tremeuse.
Henceforth Mathé often played a relative or buddy of René Cresté in subsequent Feuillade serials such as the sequel to Judex: La nouvelle mission de Judex/The New Mission of Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919) and Vendémiaire (1918-1919), until Cresté was fed up with Feuillade’s serials
Cresté started his own film company, with disastruous effects. He died of tuberculosis in 1922.
Mathé himself quitted filmmaking with Feuillade in 1922 after Parisette (Louis Feuillade, 1921).
After a handful of films in 1923-1924, including the two Mario Ausonia films Mes p’tits (1923) and La course à l’amour/The race to love (1924), both directed by Charles Keppens and Paul Barlatier, he quitted acting in film altogether.
Édouard Mathé died in Brussels in 1934.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 83. Photo: Studio Henri Lebrun.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918) with René Cresté .
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Italian), and
November 18, 2013
Franco Fabrizi
Italian actor Franco Fabrizi (1926–1995) played in about 150 films, usually as the superficial opportunistic sidekick. He made his film debut under Michelangelo Antonioni and became known as a cynical but charming womanizer in Federico Fellini’s I Vitelloni (1953). In later life, he appeared in Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice (1971) and Fellini’s Ginger and Fred (1986).
Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 80.
Lady-killer
Franco Fabrizi was born in Cortemaggiore, Italy in 1926 (according to Wikipedia , IMDb says 1916). He was the son of a barber and of a cinema cashier.
In 1947, Fabrizi started his career as a model and an actor in fotoromanzi (the Italian fotonovelas). He also starred in several revues and stage plays. His film debut was a supporting role as a fashion show presenter in Michelangelo Antonioni's first feature film, the drama Cronaca di un amore/Story of a Love Affair (1950).
Despite some neorealist background, the film was not fully compliant with the contemporary Italian neorealist style both in its story and image, featuring upper-class characters portrayed by stars like Massimo Girotti and Lucia Bosè. The film won two Nastro d’Argento (Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon) awards in 1951.
It was followed by several bit parts and a bigger role in Carica Eroica/Heroic Charge (Francesco De Roberti, 1952).
The following year, Fabrizi played Fausto in Federico Fellini's I vitelloni/The Spivs (1953), a part that made him known. In this comedy-drama he co-starred with Alberto Sordi , and Franco Interlenghi in a story of five small-town youths at crucial turning points in their lives. Fausto is the leader of the pack, who marries his sweetheart, but finds himself constantly distracted by other women.
Fellini’s film, a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, has autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy. The film received both the 1953 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing.
Elbert Ventura at AllMovie : “essentially the template for all young-men-stuck-in-adolescence movies, I Vitelloni has inspired filmmakers as disparate as Martin Scorsese and Giuseppe Tornatore. Generous and ultimately heart-breaking, I Vitelloni may well be the most big-hearted of the Italian master's movies.”
From then on, Fabrizi was inextricably linked to the character of a full-time lady-killer, a young not-so-young philanderer who refuses to grow up. But outside the cinema, the gossip links also linked him to a long line of actresses and society doyennes.
Alberto Sordi . Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano (Milan), no. 325. Photo: Galfano, Roma.
Franco Interlenghi. Italian postcard by Casa Edite. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3155. Photo: Dear Film.
Opportunistic Philanderer
Franco Fabrizi reprised the character of the opportunistic philanderer in films like the comedy Schiava del peccato (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954), and the drama La romana/Woman of Rome (Luigi Zampa, 1954) featuring Gina Lollobrigida .
He reunited with Fellini for Il bidone/The Swindlers (Federico Fellini, 1955) with Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart and Giulietta Masina .
That same year, he also worked again with Antonioni at the drama Le Amiche/The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955), also starring Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gabriele Ferzetti .
Adapted from Cesare Pavese's 1949 novel Tra donne sole, the film is about a young woman who returns to her native Turin to set up a new fashion salon and becomes involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy women friends.
Le Amiche received the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Award in 1955, and the Nastro d’Argento awards for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress ( Valentina Cortese ) in 1956.
In the following years, he appeared in the comedy Calabuch/The Rocket From Calabuch (Luis García Berlanga, 1956), starring Edmund Gwenn in his last film role, the French-Italian drama Sait-on jamais.../No Sun in Venice (Roger Vadim, 1957) with Françoise Arnoul , the crime film Un maledetto imbroglio/The Facts of Murder (Pietro Germi, 1959) with Claudia Cardinale , and he had a small part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) starring Giulietta Masina .
Eleonora Rossi Drago. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 3329. Photo: ENIC.
Giulietta Masina . German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 236. Photo: Filmpress Zürich.
Poliziottesco Genre
During the 1960s, Franco Fabrizi was mainly relegated in character roles in Italian, French and Spanish minor productions, like the Peplum Orazi e Curiazi/Duel of Champions (Ferdinando Baldi, Terence Young, 1961), starring Alan Ladd, or the Totó comedy Il comandante/The Commandant (Paolo Heusch, 1963).
However, in between he still appeared in some major works of the Italian cinema, including the Italian-Cypriot drama Il relitto/The Wastrel (Michael Cacoyannis,1961), which was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, the Commedia all'italiana A Difficult Life/Una vita difficile (Dino Risi, 1961) with Alberto Sordi , and the sex comedy Signore & Signori/The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (Pietro Germi 1966). At the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, Signore & Signori shared the Palme d’or, the Grand Prix with Un homme et une femme/A Man and a Woman (Claude Lelouch, 1966).
Other interesting films were the comedy-drama Una questione d'onore/A Question of Honour (Luigi Zampa, 1965), Roma bene/Good Rome (Carlo Lizzani, 1971), and the classic Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) starring Dirk Bogarde and based on the novella Der Tod in Venedig by the German author Thomas Mann.
A huge popular success in Italy was the crime film La polizia ringrazia/Execution Squad (Steno, 1972). The film is considered as the initiator of the Poliziottesco genre, the Italian police crime film.
He played a supporting part in the French-Italian surreal farce Touche pas à la femme blanche/Don't Touch The White Woman! (Marco Ferreri, 1974) starring Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve .
Then he was the show host in Fellini’s Ginger e Fred/Ginger and Fred (Federico Fellini, 1986) starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina as the Italian impersonators of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who reunite after thirty years of retirement for a vulgar and bizarre television extravaganza.
It was followed by a part in the comedy Il piccolo diavolo/The Little Devil (Roberto Benigni, 1988) with Walther Matthau as a cynical, dry-humoured priest who is followed by a little demon (Benigni), whom he exorcised.
His final film was the comedy Ricky e Barabba/Ricky and Barrabas (Christian De Sica, 1992). In 1993 he had a serious car accident from which he recovered; immediately after, however, it manifested the illness that led him to death. Franco Fabrizi died of a bowel cancer in 1995 in his home village Cortemaggiore. He was 69.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1744. Photo: Cineriz.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1343, 1960.
Sources: Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and .
Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 80.
Lady-killer
Franco Fabrizi was born in Cortemaggiore, Italy in 1926 (according to Wikipedia , IMDb says 1916). He was the son of a barber and of a cinema cashier.
In 1947, Fabrizi started his career as a model and an actor in fotoromanzi (the Italian fotonovelas). He also starred in several revues and stage plays. His film debut was a supporting role as a fashion show presenter in Michelangelo Antonioni's first feature film, the drama Cronaca di un amore/Story of a Love Affair (1950).
Despite some neorealist background, the film was not fully compliant with the contemporary Italian neorealist style both in its story and image, featuring upper-class characters portrayed by stars like Massimo Girotti and Lucia Bosè. The film won two Nastro d’Argento (Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon) awards in 1951.
It was followed by several bit parts and a bigger role in Carica Eroica/Heroic Charge (Francesco De Roberti, 1952).
The following year, Fabrizi played Fausto in Federico Fellini's I vitelloni/The Spivs (1953), a part that made him known. In this comedy-drama he co-starred with Alberto Sordi , and Franco Interlenghi in a story of five small-town youths at crucial turning points in their lives. Fausto is the leader of the pack, who marries his sweetheart, but finds himself constantly distracted by other women.
Fellini’s film, a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, has autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy. The film received both the 1953 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing.
Elbert Ventura at AllMovie : “essentially the template for all young-men-stuck-in-adolescence movies, I Vitelloni has inspired filmmakers as disparate as Martin Scorsese and Giuseppe Tornatore. Generous and ultimately heart-breaking, I Vitelloni may well be the most big-hearted of the Italian master's movies.”
From then on, Fabrizi was inextricably linked to the character of a full-time lady-killer, a young not-so-young philanderer who refuses to grow up. But outside the cinema, the gossip links also linked him to a long line of actresses and society doyennes.
Alberto Sordi . Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano (Milan), no. 325. Photo: Galfano, Roma.
Franco Interlenghi. Italian postcard by Casa Edite. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3155. Photo: Dear Film.
Opportunistic Philanderer
Franco Fabrizi reprised the character of the opportunistic philanderer in films like the comedy Schiava del peccato (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954), and the drama La romana/Woman of Rome (Luigi Zampa, 1954) featuring Gina Lollobrigida .
He reunited with Fellini for Il bidone/The Swindlers (Federico Fellini, 1955) with Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart and Giulietta Masina .
That same year, he also worked again with Antonioni at the drama Le Amiche/The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955), also starring Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gabriele Ferzetti .
Adapted from Cesare Pavese's 1949 novel Tra donne sole, the film is about a young woman who returns to her native Turin to set up a new fashion salon and becomes involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy women friends.
Le Amiche received the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Award in 1955, and the Nastro d’Argento awards for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress ( Valentina Cortese ) in 1956.
In the following years, he appeared in the comedy Calabuch/The Rocket From Calabuch (Luis García Berlanga, 1956), starring Edmund Gwenn in his last film role, the French-Italian drama Sait-on jamais.../No Sun in Venice (Roger Vadim, 1957) with Françoise Arnoul , the crime film Un maledetto imbroglio/The Facts of Murder (Pietro Germi, 1959) with Claudia Cardinale , and he had a small part in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) starring Giulietta Masina .
Eleonora Rossi Drago. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 3329. Photo: ENIC.
Giulietta Masina . German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 236. Photo: Filmpress Zürich.
Poliziottesco Genre
During the 1960s, Franco Fabrizi was mainly relegated in character roles in Italian, French and Spanish minor productions, like the Peplum Orazi e Curiazi/Duel of Champions (Ferdinando Baldi, Terence Young, 1961), starring Alan Ladd, or the Totó comedy Il comandante/The Commandant (Paolo Heusch, 1963).
However, in between he still appeared in some major works of the Italian cinema, including the Italian-Cypriot drama Il relitto/The Wastrel (Michael Cacoyannis,1961), which was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, the Commedia all'italiana A Difficult Life/Una vita difficile (Dino Risi, 1961) with Alberto Sordi , and the sex comedy Signore & Signori/The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (Pietro Germi 1966). At the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, Signore & Signori shared the Palme d’or, the Grand Prix with Un homme et une femme/A Man and a Woman (Claude Lelouch, 1966).
Other interesting films were the comedy-drama Una questione d'onore/A Question of Honour (Luigi Zampa, 1965), Roma bene/Good Rome (Carlo Lizzani, 1971), and the classic Morte a Venezia/Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) starring Dirk Bogarde and based on the novella Der Tod in Venedig by the German author Thomas Mann.
A huge popular success in Italy was the crime film La polizia ringrazia/Execution Squad (Steno, 1972). The film is considered as the initiator of the Poliziottesco genre, the Italian police crime film.
He played a supporting part in the French-Italian surreal farce Touche pas à la femme blanche/Don't Touch The White Woman! (Marco Ferreri, 1974) starring Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve .
Then he was the show host in Fellini’s Ginger e Fred/Ginger and Fred (Federico Fellini, 1986) starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina as the Italian impersonators of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who reunite after thirty years of retirement for a vulgar and bizarre television extravaganza.
It was followed by a part in the comedy Il piccolo diavolo/The Little Devil (Roberto Benigni, 1988) with Walther Matthau as a cynical, dry-humoured priest who is followed by a little demon (Benigni), whom he exorcised.
His final film was the comedy Ricky e Barabba/Ricky and Barrabas (Christian De Sica, 1992). In 1993 he had a serious car accident from which he recovered; immediately after, however, it manifested the illness that led him to death. Franco Fabrizi died of a bowel cancer in 1995 in his home village Cortemaggiore. He was 69.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1744. Photo: Cineriz.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1343, 1960.
Sources: Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and .
November 17, 2013
Eta Hajdú
Eta Hajdú was a Hungarian singer, actress and producer. Between 1924 and 1943, she appeared in and produced a dozen Hungarian romantic comedies.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8260/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Angelo Photos / Phönix Film. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Film Industry In Ruins
There is not much information on the net about Eta Hajdú or Eta von Hajdu.
CITWF (Complete Index To World Film) indicates that Hajdú started her film career in the silent era with films like Orszem, az/The Kingdom (Bela Balogh, 1924) opposite matinee idol Ivan Petrovich , Mi Budapestunk, A/What is Budapest (József Daróczy, 1927) and Falu alu altatt folyik egy patak/Village with a stream flowing aluminium Anaesthetic (József Daróczy, 1927).
The aftermath of the First World War had left the sprouting Hungarian film industry in ruins. Directors like Michael Curtiz or Alexander Korda left the country.
In 1925 the government created the Hungarian Film Industry Fund, and a new law forced distributors to finance a Hungarian film after every 30 imported films.
In 1929 the government of István Bethlen began to tax imported films (enriching the Industry Fund), but the fee was significantly lowered for companies that produced Hungarian films.
German collectors card by Ross in the series Filmbilder, no. 326. Photo: Angelo . Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Performing Arts)@Flickr.
Rising To A Peak in 1937
As Eta von Hajdu, she appeared in the Hungarian sound comedy Az ellopott szerda/The stolen Wednesday (Viktor Gertler, 1933) as well in the alternate German language version Tokajerglut (Viktor Gertler, 1933) starring Szöke Szakall .
She played the leading female role in both versions. Four years later, she played in another Hungarian comedy Hotel Kikelet (Béla Gaál, 1937). She also played a supporting part in the comedy Az ember néha téved/Man Sometime Errs (Béla Gaál, 1938) with Anna Tõkés and Antal Páger. After the problems of the 1920s,
Hungarian film production boomed in the 1930s rising from 6 films in 1932 to a peak of 36 in 1937. In 1937, Eta Hajdú had started to produce films. The first production of Hajdu Film was the comedy Pesti mese/Tales of Budapest (Béla Gaál, 1937) with Ida Turay and Antal Páger.
Other films she produced were Tizenhárom kislány mosolyog az égre/13 Girls Smile at the Sky (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1938) with Imre Radáy , Igen vagy nem?/Yes or no? (Viktor Bánky, 1940) starring Lili Muráti , and the historical drama Rákóczi nótája/Song of Rákóczi (József Daróczy, 1943) with Klári Tolnay.
Her final production was Kásö/Late (József Daróczy, 1943) with Antal Páger.
Lili Muráti . German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3559/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
Sources: CITWF, Wikipedia and .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8260/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Angelo Photos / Phönix Film. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Film Industry In Ruins
There is not much information on the net about Eta Hajdú or Eta von Hajdu.
CITWF (Complete Index To World Film) indicates that Hajdú started her film career in the silent era with films like Orszem, az/The Kingdom (Bela Balogh, 1924) opposite matinee idol Ivan Petrovich , Mi Budapestunk, A/What is Budapest (József Daróczy, 1927) and Falu alu altatt folyik egy patak/Village with a stream flowing aluminium Anaesthetic (József Daróczy, 1927).
The aftermath of the First World War had left the sprouting Hungarian film industry in ruins. Directors like Michael Curtiz or Alexander Korda left the country.
In 1925 the government created the Hungarian Film Industry Fund, and a new law forced distributors to finance a Hungarian film after every 30 imported films.
In 1929 the government of István Bethlen began to tax imported films (enriching the Industry Fund), but the fee was significantly lowered for companies that produced Hungarian films.
German collectors card by Ross in the series Filmbilder, no. 326. Photo: Angelo . Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona (Performing Arts)@Flickr.
Rising To A Peak in 1937
As Eta von Hajdu, she appeared in the Hungarian sound comedy Az ellopott szerda/The stolen Wednesday (Viktor Gertler, 1933) as well in the alternate German language version Tokajerglut (Viktor Gertler, 1933) starring Szöke Szakall .
She played the leading female role in both versions. Four years later, she played in another Hungarian comedy Hotel Kikelet (Béla Gaál, 1937). She also played a supporting part in the comedy Az ember néha téved/Man Sometime Errs (Béla Gaál, 1938) with Anna Tõkés and Antal Páger. After the problems of the 1920s,
Hungarian film production boomed in the 1930s rising from 6 films in 1932 to a peak of 36 in 1937. In 1937, Eta Hajdú had started to produce films. The first production of Hajdu Film was the comedy Pesti mese/Tales of Budapest (Béla Gaál, 1937) with Ida Turay and Antal Páger.
Other films she produced were Tizenhárom kislány mosolyog az égre/13 Girls Smile at the Sky (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1938) with Imre Radáy , Igen vagy nem?/Yes or no? (Viktor Bánky, 1940) starring Lili Muráti , and the historical drama Rákóczi nótája/Song of Rákóczi (József Daróczy, 1943) with Klári Tolnay.
Her final production was Kásö/Late (József Daróczy, 1943) with Antal Páger.
Lili Muráti . German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3559/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
Sources: CITWF, Wikipedia and .
November 16, 2013
Monica Brugger
German starlet Monika Brugger started as a beauty queen at the Miss International Pageant. She had a short film career in Spaghetti Westerns and also appeared briefly on German TV.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/346. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood .
Miss International 1964
Monika Brugger was the German contestant at the 4th Miss International pageant in Long Beach, California, USA. She became a semi-finalist, but the crown of Miss International 1964 went to Gemma Cruz from the Philippines.
Around this time she must also have posed for the camera of legendary glamour photographer, Bruno Bernard aka Bernard of Hollywood.
Monika began her film career in Italy. She was the leading lady of the spaghetti western Wanted Johnny Texas (Emimmo Salvi, 1967) with James Newman in the title role and Spanish actor Fernando Sancho. A highlight of the film was a catfight Monika did with another beautiful woman in a dancehall.
But it was not enough. The Spaghetti Western Data Base comments: “Erminio Salvi (Seven Adventures of Ali Baba) directed this bloody, peculiar spaghetti western shot in Florence, Italy. The U.S. Cavalry hires Johnny Texas to shepherd a wagon train through hostile territory. The clever Johnny runs afoul of a band of outlaws, blows up a fort, and mixes it up with a spy (Monika Brugger) undercover as a dancehall girl.
Salvi fills the film with bizarre touches, like dressing the Cavalry in blue and red (blue and gold was the proper combination) and having Brugger travel 400 miles to deliver blasting caps which are never used. This is a genuinely strange failure which might almost pass for pseudo-surrealism if it wasn't so obviously based on poor planning and bad research.”
Turkish poster for Wanted Johnny Texas (1967). Source: Fantasien Movie Poster World.
The Red Elvis
That same year Monika Brugger also starred in a second Spaghetti Western, Buckaroo/The Winchester Does Not Forgive (Adelchi Bianchi, 1967) starring Marxist American singer-actor Dean Reed (nicknamed The Red Elvis), who was a huge star in South-America and Eastern Europe. This western was not a success either.
Sebastian Bierbach writes at DeanReed.de : “the film moves rather unoriginal and boring. Even the music composed by Lallo Gori gets right soporific. The film recalls in its mood more of a weaker Karl May western than of an innovative Italian western.”
The performance of Monika Brugger was never mentioned on internet. Clearly this was the end of her Italian film adventure. She returned to Germany.
There she appeared on television in six episodes of the comedy series Suchen Sie Dr. Suk!/Are You Looking for Dr. Suk! (Helmut Förnbacher, 1972) starring Margot Hielscher and Ferdy Mayne. This was Monika's last credited film or TV appearance and she must have retired from show business.
If you have more information about Monika Brugger, please let us know.
Dean Reed performing the song Buckaroo from Buckaroo/The Winchester Does Not Forgive (1967) in 1970. Source: Straccio (YouTube).
Trailer for the documentary The Red Elvis (Leopold Gruen, 2007) about Dean Reed. Source: tommyblank (YouTube).
Sources: Sebastian Haselbeck (Spaghetti Western Data Base), Sebastian Bierbach (Dean Reed.de) (German), Wikipedia and .
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/346. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood .
Miss International 1964
Monika Brugger was the German contestant at the 4th Miss International pageant in Long Beach, California, USA. She became a semi-finalist, but the crown of Miss International 1964 went to Gemma Cruz from the Philippines.
Around this time she must also have posed for the camera of legendary glamour photographer, Bruno Bernard aka Bernard of Hollywood.
Monika began her film career in Italy. She was the leading lady of the spaghetti western Wanted Johnny Texas (Emimmo Salvi, 1967) with James Newman in the title role and Spanish actor Fernando Sancho. A highlight of the film was a catfight Monika did with another beautiful woman in a dancehall.
But it was not enough. The Spaghetti Western Data Base comments: “Erminio Salvi (Seven Adventures of Ali Baba) directed this bloody, peculiar spaghetti western shot in Florence, Italy. The U.S. Cavalry hires Johnny Texas to shepherd a wagon train through hostile territory. The clever Johnny runs afoul of a band of outlaws, blows up a fort, and mixes it up with a spy (Monika Brugger) undercover as a dancehall girl.
Salvi fills the film with bizarre touches, like dressing the Cavalry in blue and red (blue and gold was the proper combination) and having Brugger travel 400 miles to deliver blasting caps which are never used. This is a genuinely strange failure which might almost pass for pseudo-surrealism if it wasn't so obviously based on poor planning and bad research.”
Turkish poster for Wanted Johnny Texas (1967). Source: Fantasien Movie Poster World.
The Red Elvis
That same year Monika Brugger also starred in a second Spaghetti Western, Buckaroo/The Winchester Does Not Forgive (Adelchi Bianchi, 1967) starring Marxist American singer-actor Dean Reed (nicknamed The Red Elvis), who was a huge star in South-America and Eastern Europe. This western was not a success either.
Sebastian Bierbach writes at DeanReed.de : “the film moves rather unoriginal and boring. Even the music composed by Lallo Gori gets right soporific. The film recalls in its mood more of a weaker Karl May western than of an innovative Italian western.”
The performance of Monika Brugger was never mentioned on internet. Clearly this was the end of her Italian film adventure. She returned to Germany.
There she appeared on television in six episodes of the comedy series Suchen Sie Dr. Suk!/Are You Looking for Dr. Suk! (Helmut Förnbacher, 1972) starring Margot Hielscher and Ferdy Mayne. This was Monika's last credited film or TV appearance and she must have retired from show business.
If you have more information about Monika Brugger, please let us know.
Dean Reed performing the song Buckaroo from Buckaroo/The Winchester Does Not Forgive (1967) in 1970. Source: Straccio (YouTube).
Trailer for the documentary The Red Elvis (Leopold Gruen, 2007) about Dean Reed. Source: tommyblank (YouTube).
Sources: Sebastian Haselbeck (Spaghetti Western Data Base), Sebastian Bierbach (Dean Reed.de) (German), Wikipedia and .
November 15, 2013
Der Kongress tanzt (1931)
Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) was an immensely popular German film operetta. It was the best film of the 'Dream Team' of the European Cinema of the 1930s, Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch.
Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 600. Photo: Ufa.
Lilian Harvey
The cast of Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) included many of the great stars of the Weimar Cinema: Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his doppelgänger, Uralsky, Otto Wallburg as Bibikoff, his Adjutant, Conrad Veidt as Prince Metternich, Carl-Heinz Schroth as his Secretary, Pepi, Lil Dagover as the Countess and Alfred Abel as the King of Saxony.
The female lead of Christel Weinzinger, the lovely glove seller, was played by British born, German actress and singer Lilian Harvey , Ufa's biggest star of the 1930's.
Der Kongress tanzt takes place during the 1814 Congress in Vienna, when the crowned heads of Europe gathered together to devise a strategy for dealing with Napoleon and decide the shape (and fate) of the continent. It would hold - with some serious cracks - for exactly 100 years.
The Russian Tsar Alexander I is traveling incognito among the people in the tradition of his ancestor Peter the Great, coming across a witty and charming Viennese glove seller, Christel Weinzinger. She announces her business by throwing flowers with a visiting card into each carriage that drives past. As the story unfolds, Christel is accused of an assassination attempt and finally condemned. The punishment is however waived and Christel is again free.
The Tsar, having fallen in love with Christel, uses the visiting card, in order to visit her in her business. A romance develops, with Austrian prince chancellor Metternich and his army of spies intending to use the situation to further his own agenda. This however clashes with Pepi, his secretary, who is also in love with Christel. Christel tells her friends about the romance, which is naturally not believed. Only as the Tsar arrives with a splendid carriage to fetch her, does astonishment set in.
The romance is terminated when Napoléon Bonaparte escapes from the island of Elba and marches upon Paris. The Tsar, as all other rulers, has to leave. Christel stays behind, miserable, but finds solace with Pepi.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/1. Lilian Harvey and Carl-Heinz Schroth in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/4. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey , Reginald Purdell, Robert Arnout and Carl-Heinz Schroth in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/6. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Willy Fritsch
Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch had played together for the first time in the silent films Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926) and Ihr dunkler Punkt/Her Skeleton in the Closet (Johannes Guter, 1928) with Harry Halm .
The two actors teamed up again for the seminal film operetta Liebeswalzer/The Love Waltz (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929), which established them as the immensely popular ‘Dream Couple of the German Cinema’.
They followed Liebeswalzer with a string of successful musical comedies, including Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Heinz Rühmann , the box-office hit Die drei von der Tankstelle/Three from the Gasoline Station (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930), Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) and Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932), also with Willi Forst .
Each of these films featured several Harvey/Fritsch songs, which became popular hits and were also released on records, and thereby further added to the popularity of the two stars.
After an intermezzo of Harvey in Hollywood, Willy Fritsch joined her in the propagandistic drama Schwarze Rosen/Black Roses (Paul Martin, 1935), as well as in the screwball comedy Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (Paul Martin, 1936).
Frau am Steuer/Woman at the Wheel (Paul Martin, 1939) was to be the last collaboration between Fritsch and Harvey, who had made twelve films together.
While Lilian Harvey left Nazi Germany and emigrated via France to the USA, Willy Fritsch continued his career throughout the 1940s with new partners like Marika Rökk and Marte Harell .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6738/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6059/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Dutch postcard, no. 204. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Erich Pommer
Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) was produced by Erich Pommer for the Ufa as one of the studio's first sound films.
Der Kongress tanzt is a particularly well achieved move in Ufa's attempt to challenge US supremacy in the European film arena, taking advantage of the introduction of sound.
As such, the studio released the film in three different language versions: in German, in French as Le congrès s'amuse, and English as The Congress dances. Lilian Harvey played in all three versions, as she spoke all languages with no accent; Henri Garat replaced Willy Fritsch for the French and English versions.
Ufa spared no efforts: the sets were lavish and top talent made up the entire technical cast.
Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "Der Kongress tanzt was one of the most ambitious and successful historical romances of its era, and marked one of the most serious attempts by Germany's Ufa Studios to compete with Hollywood on its own terms -- that it didn't make a lasting impact had more to do with political and cultural events in Germany than any shortcoming in this particular movie. "
Dutch postcard, no. 202, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Dutch postcard, no. 681. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Otto Wallburg .
Dutch postcard, nr. 688. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Lilian Harvey .
Dutch postcard, no. 675. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Erik Charell
Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931) was the first - and only - German film of director Erik Charell.
The film operetta is not only a classic of the early German sound cinema, showing all the capabilities of the Ufa, but also a promising start of a film career that was not to be realized. Charell had to leave Nazi-Germany and was unable to continue his career as a film director abroad.
It is curious that the film was banned by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels only but in October 1937.
Jan Onderwater at IMDb : "Der Kongress Tanzt may not be perfect technically, but this is a sensual, made with great fun, original, capricious and extravagant operetta. It has elegance, a great cast, brilliant music and songs, wit, great sets; some scenes are even a bit bizarre and fetishist. This is not a filmed operetta, but a real film-operetta. More than just direct, Erik Charell choreographed the film.
Although the film stands on its own feet, the influence of Ernst Lubitsch is evident. Many operetta films have been made, but none so innovative, brilliant as this one."
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/3. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Otto Wallburg and Willy Fritsch .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/7. Photo: Ufa. Still with Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/8. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Paul Hörbiger .
Sources: Jan Onderwater (IMDb), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931). German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 600. Photo: Ufa.
Lilian Harvey
The cast of Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) included many of the great stars of the Weimar Cinema: Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his doppelgänger, Uralsky, Otto Wallburg as Bibikoff, his Adjutant, Conrad Veidt as Prince Metternich, Carl-Heinz Schroth as his Secretary, Pepi, Lil Dagover as the Countess and Alfred Abel as the King of Saxony.
The female lead of Christel Weinzinger, the lovely glove seller, was played by British born, German actress and singer Lilian Harvey , Ufa's biggest star of the 1930's.
Der Kongress tanzt takes place during the 1814 Congress in Vienna, when the crowned heads of Europe gathered together to devise a strategy for dealing with Napoleon and decide the shape (and fate) of the continent. It would hold - with some serious cracks - for exactly 100 years.
The Russian Tsar Alexander I is traveling incognito among the people in the tradition of his ancestor Peter the Great, coming across a witty and charming Viennese glove seller, Christel Weinzinger. She announces her business by throwing flowers with a visiting card into each carriage that drives past. As the story unfolds, Christel is accused of an assassination attempt and finally condemned. The punishment is however waived and Christel is again free.
The Tsar, having fallen in love with Christel, uses the visiting card, in order to visit her in her business. A romance develops, with Austrian prince chancellor Metternich and his army of spies intending to use the situation to further his own agenda. This however clashes with Pepi, his secretary, who is also in love with Christel. Christel tells her friends about the romance, which is naturally not believed. Only as the Tsar arrives with a splendid carriage to fetch her, does astonishment set in.
The romance is terminated when Napoléon Bonaparte escapes from the island of Elba and marches upon Paris. The Tsar, as all other rulers, has to leave. Christel stays behind, miserable, but finds solace with Pepi.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/1. Lilian Harvey and Carl-Heinz Schroth in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/4. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey , Reginald Purdell, Robert Arnout and Carl-Heinz Schroth in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/6. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Willy Fritsch
Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch had played together for the first time in the silent films Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926) and Ihr dunkler Punkt/Her Skeleton in the Closet (Johannes Guter, 1928) with Harry Halm .
The two actors teamed up again for the seminal film operetta Liebeswalzer/The Love Waltz (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929), which established them as the immensely popular ‘Dream Couple of the German Cinema’.
They followed Liebeswalzer with a string of successful musical comedies, including Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Heinz Rühmann , the box-office hit Die drei von der Tankstelle/Three from the Gasoline Station (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930), Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) and Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932), also with Willi Forst .
Each of these films featured several Harvey/Fritsch songs, which became popular hits and were also released on records, and thereby further added to the popularity of the two stars.
After an intermezzo of Harvey in Hollywood, Willy Fritsch joined her in the propagandistic drama Schwarze Rosen/Black Roses (Paul Martin, 1935), as well as in the screwball comedy Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (Paul Martin, 1936).
Frau am Steuer/Woman at the Wheel (Paul Martin, 1939) was to be the last collaboration between Fritsch and Harvey, who had made twelve films together.
While Lilian Harvey left Nazi Germany and emigrated via France to the USA, Willy Fritsch continued his career throughout the 1940s with new partners like Marika Rökk and Marte Harell .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6738/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6059/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Dutch postcard, no. 204. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Erich Pommer
Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) was produced by Erich Pommer for the Ufa as one of the studio's first sound films.
Der Kongress tanzt is a particularly well achieved move in Ufa's attempt to challenge US supremacy in the European film arena, taking advantage of the introduction of sound.
As such, the studio released the film in three different language versions: in German, in French as Le congrès s'amuse, and English as The Congress dances. Lilian Harvey played in all three versions, as she spoke all languages with no accent; Henri Garat replaced Willy Fritsch for the French and English versions.
Ufa spared no efforts: the sets were lavish and top talent made up the entire technical cast.
Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "Der Kongress tanzt was one of the most ambitious and successful historical romances of its era, and marked one of the most serious attempts by Germany's Ufa Studios to compete with Hollywood on its own terms -- that it didn't make a lasting impact had more to do with political and cultural events in Germany than any shortcoming in this particular movie. "
Dutch postcard, no. 202, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Dutch postcard, no. 681. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Otto Wallburg .
Dutch postcard, nr. 688. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Lilian Harvey .
Dutch postcard, no. 675. Photo: Ufa. Still with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Erik Charell
Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931) was the first - and only - German film of director Erik Charell.
The film operetta is not only a classic of the early German sound cinema, showing all the capabilities of the Ufa, but also a promising start of a film career that was not to be realized. Charell had to leave Nazi-Germany and was unable to continue his career as a film director abroad.
It is curious that the film was banned by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels only but in October 1937.
Jan Onderwater at IMDb : "Der Kongress Tanzt may not be perfect technically, but this is a sensual, made with great fun, original, capricious and extravagant operetta. It has elegance, a great cast, brilliant music and songs, wit, great sets; some scenes are even a bit bizarre and fetishist. This is not a filmed operetta, but a real film-operetta. More than just direct, Erik Charell choreographed the film.
Although the film stands on its own feet, the influence of Ernst Lubitsch is evident. Many operetta films have been made, but none so innovative, brilliant as this one."
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/3. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Otto Wallburg and Willy Fritsch .
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/7. Photo: Ufa. Still with Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/8. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Paul Hörbiger .
Sources: Jan Onderwater (IMDb), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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