Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 87

Alwin Neuss

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


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


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


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


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


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.1709. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Carl Alwin Heinrich Neuss was born in 1879 in Cologne, Germany. He was the son of a government official. Neuss made his stage debut in 1895 in Cologne at the Sommerbühne Flora, followed by engagements in Bremen, Magdeburg, Innsbruck, Breslau and Dresden. From 1903 he was a member of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, with whom he undertook tours in several European countries.

He began his film career in early Danish cinema. For the Nordisk studio, he played a spy in August Blom’s silent film Spionen fra Tokio/The Red Light (1910). He appeared in the double role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the horror film Den skæbnesvangre opfindelse/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (August Blom, 1910), one of the first adaptations of the famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. He also appeared as Sherlock Holmes in another Nordisk production, Den stjaalne millionobligation/The Stolen Legacy (1911). That year, he also featured in Hamlet (August Blom, 1911) based on the play by William Shakespeare .

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

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

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


German postcard by NPG, no. 822. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


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


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


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 502/4. Photo: Decla. Alwin Neuss in Das Deficit aka Das Defizit (Alwin Neuss, 1917).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3232.


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


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

Fritz Lang
Alwin Neuss moved on to the Decla studio, where he directed himself in many films. These included Dynamit/Dynamite (Alwin Neuss, 1916) with Bruno Kastner , Die Spinne/The Spider (Alwin Neuss, 1917), and Das Spiel vom Tode/The game of death (Alwin Neuss, 1917) with Käthe Haack . In several films, he played the detective Tom Shark like in Das Licht im Dunkeln/The light in the dark (Alwin Neuss, 1916).

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

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

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

His final film as a director had been the silent production Strassenbekanntschaften/Street acquaintances (Josef Medeotti-Bohác, Alwin Neuss, 1929). Then he returned to the theatre. Alwin Neuss died in 1935 in Berlin, Germany. He was 56. Alwin Neuss was married to Anna Klara Warczok.


German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 83/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Decla-Film.


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


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 83/3. Photo: Karl Schenker / Decla.


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


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 83/5. Photo: Ostermayr, München / Decla.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 916/4, 1925-1926. Photo: Phoebus-Film AG / Zelnik-Mara Film.

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

Dominique Wilms

Belgian actress Dominique Wilms (1930) was the glamorous and sexy femme fatale of many French action films of the 1950s and 1960s, often opposite Eddie Constantine. Many of these ‘Euro Noirs’ are B-films with a strong cult and trash factor.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 233. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 28G. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 396. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

Ruthless vamp and calculating luxury bitch
Dominique Wilms was born Claudine Maria Célina Wilmes in Montignies-sur-Sambre, Belgium, in 1930. Wilms studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and subsequently, she became a model. Director Edmond T. Gréville discovered her and recommended her to his younger colleague Bernard Borderie for the femme fatale role in the action film La môme vert de gris/Poison Ivy (Bernard Borderie, 1953), based on a novel by Peter Cheney. It became a sensational success and her breakthrough.

La môme vert de gris would be the first of a popular series of French action films starring Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution, the two-fisted FBI agent created by novelist Peter Cheney. Lemmy Caution can be seen as the precursor of James Bond.

On IMDb , reviewer Kuciak writes: “The book was written in 1937, this movie made in 1953, the birth of James Bond in Casino Royale. Like Bond, he flirts with the secretary before going to see his boss, and he drinks whiskey, were as Bond drinks Martinis. He does not bed women, but he finds any way he can kiss a woman. Even the ending, where he is with a woman, will remind one of James Bond Films, as they are in no hurry to meet up with the police. What was more striking was that this film almost appeared to be a rehearsal for Thunderball.”

Eddie Constantine and Wilms were reunited in the third Lemmy Caution adventure, Les Femmes s'en balancent/Dames Don’t Care (Bernard Borderie, 1954). In this outing, Lemmy is on the trail of a counterfeiting gang and somehow or other, the mission requires him to dally with such beauties as Wilms and Nadia Gray , who may or may not be mixed up in a blackmail scheme.

Dominique Wilms became the French equivalent of Veronica Lake , the blonde star of the American Film Noir. She would play the ruthless vamp and calculating luxury bitch in Euro Noirs again and again.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 21G. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 394. Photo: Sam Lévin.

A potential death trap
A big hit on the European film festival circuit was the thriller Les Assassins Du Dimanche/Every Second Counts (Alex Joffe, 1957). A garage mechanic ( Jean-Marc Thibault ) returns a car to its owner on a Sunday morning, but unbeknownst to him the steering mechanism has not been properly tightened. When the mechanic realises that the car is a potential death trap, he desperately tries to contact the owner.

Wilms appeared again opposite Constantine in Le Grand Bluff/The Big Bluff (Patrice Dally, 1957). In La rivière des 3 jonques/The River of Three Junks (André Pergament, 1957), Jean Gaven was her leading man. The two co-stars would marry later that same year. The next year they starred together again in Les aventuriers du Mékong/Adventures in Indochina (Jean Bastia, 1958).

Suggested by author Françoise Sagan, Otto Preminger chose Wilms for the part of Elsa in the film adaptation of Sagan’s bestseller Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1957), but she refused because she had to stay for six months in the USA to perfect her English. The role was ultimately played by Mylène Demongeot . Thus Wilms continued to appear in French action films and comedies. In the 1960s, when the roles in French detective films dried up, she appeared also in German and Italian films. Again opposite Eddie Constantine, she starred in the German-French production Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs on Monte Carlo (Georg Jacoby, 1960).

Wilms played a showgirl who marries a farmer ( Antonio Cifariello ) in the Argentinian-Italian western Questo Amore Ai Confini Del Mondo/This Love at the End of the World (Giuseppe Maria Scotese, 1960). In 1963 she was Queen Astrid in the Peplum (epic Italian costume drama) Giulio Cesare, il conquistatore delle Gallie/Caesar the Conqueror (Amerigo Anton, Tanio Boccia, 1963) with Rik Battaglia and Cameron Mitchell as Julius Caesar.

In the French-Italian spy film Banco à Bangkok (pour OSS 117)/Shadow of Evil (André Hunebelle, 1964) she co-starred with Kerwin Matthews and Pier Angeli . She also played in television films and series. Finally, she left the cinema and devoted herself to her first love: painting. She studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre for four years. Another hobby is the restoration of art objects. Her husband, Jean Gaven passed away in 2014.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 395. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French collectors card by Biscottes Corvisart, Epinal.


West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4133. Photo: Dieter E. Schmidt / Ufa.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Kuciak (IMDb), Wikipedia (English, German, French) and .

Three films starring Alexander Moissi

Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi (1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films, in particular in Germany. Here are three silent examples, Pique-Dame (1918), based on the classic novella by Alexander Pushkin, Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (1918) and Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (1919) with Käthe Dorsch. All three films were directed by Arthur Wellin.

Pique-Dame (1918)

German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 522/2. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi in Pique-Dame (Arthur Wellin, 1918). The actress may be Hertha Ruß.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 522/3. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi in Pique-Dame (Arthur Wellin, 1918). The actress may be Hertha Ruß.

His impressive and punchy performance
Pique-Dame (Arthur Wellin, 1918) was based on the eponymous novella by Alexander Pushkin and is situated in Russia, during the time of the Tsars in the 19th century. The young engineer lieutenant Stanislaus Kovolski ( Alexander Moissi ) is in constant need of money. One day he meets a fortune-teller who prophesies that a great windfall awaits him after he meets an old lady. His friend Prince Domsky ( Eduard von Winterstein ) tells him en passant in the club about his old aunt, Countess Balinski (Johanna Terwin). Stanislaus learns from his friend Paul that she acquired her great fortune through a mysterious card game. Now Kovolski is determined to meet the old lady. One of his first attempts to approach the countess leads to an acquaintance with Lisaveta (Hertha Ruß), an impoverished relative of the stony-rich noblewoman, with whom he quickly falls in love. The next time Stanislaus tries to secretly look over the old lady's shoulder in order to elicit the card game secret from her. Countess Balinski is so frightened that she suddenly drops dead.

From then on Count Stanislaus is haunted by nocturnal demons. Plagued by a guilty conscience, he constantly sees the dead old woman in his mind's eye as an eternal reminder. But Madame does not reproach him in any way. Rather, she tells Kovolski her secret: to achieve his goal, he must win the first three games on his next visit to the club. To do this, he must first bet on the three, then on the seven and finally on the ace. He succeeds on the first night. He bets on the three. The second night also brings him luck, this time with the announced seven. Confident of victory, he bets on his ace on the third night, which indeed also wins. Stanislaus now believes he has a future with Lisaveta, but when he wants to show his Ace, to his greatest surprise it is the Queen of Spades.

Count Kovolski is totally shocked, he cannot believe it. After all, he had seen the ace with his own eyes, and now this? He is deeply convinced that the dead countess wants to take revenge on him, who is to blame for the death of her heart, with this sign of fate from the beyond. He has bet everything in his confidence of victory, and now everything is gone. Count Kovolski's entire fortune is lost with a playing card. The shock is so deep that Stanislaus Kovolski gradually falls into mental derangement and finally ends his life in an insane asylum.

Pique Dame was produced at the beginning of 1918, passed the censors in March of the same year with a ban on young people and premiered on 17 May 1918 in Berlin's Tauentzienpalast. The length of the four-act play was 1521 metres. Producer Rudolf Dworsky also designed the film buildings. The scriptwriters were Rudolf Strauss and Carl Singer. His co-star Johanna Terwin also became Moissi's wife in 1919. Supporting parts were for Johannes Riemann , Ernst Pittschau and Ernst Deutsch .

The Kinematographische Rundschau, 31 August 1918 "It was a lucky move to get the best actor of Ibsen's and Tolstoy's characters, Alexander Moissi, for the film. (...) His impressive and punchy performance, with which he portrays the engineer lieutenant who has become a criminal out of his addiction to wealth, makes us forget that we only see Moissi on the screen. At the climax of the plot, when the lieutenant goes mad as a result of losing his game, the great artist's performance is almost overwhelming. Moissi's task is made easier by the other artists, especially Johanna Tenvin [sic] and Herta Russ, who do their best in combination with good direction. This film work gains a lot from the good photography, through which we can follow even the finest nuance in Moissi's play."


German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 522/4. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi in Pique-Dame (Arthur Wellin, 1918). The actress may be Johanna Terwin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 522/6. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi in Pique-Dame (Arthur Wellin, 1918).

Der Ring der drei Wünsche (1918)

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 537/1. Photo: Amboss-Film / Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi in Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 537/2. Photo: Amboss-Film / Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi (left) in Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 537/3. Photo: Amboss-Film / Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi and Ria Jende in Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918).

He wishes for youth, beauty and health
Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918) was also produced by Rudolf Dworsky and scripted by Hans Land, a pseudonym of Hugo Landsberger, and Emil Rameau.

Alexander Moissi plays in this film a hunchback named Henrik who obtains a wishing ring. He wishes for youth, beauty and health. Moissi's co-actors were Belgian-German actress Ria Jende , Eduard von Winterstein and Paul Passarge.

The sculptor Henrik has had a hard time in life. Although blessed with great talent, he finds no affection from the opposite sex because of his conspicuous hump, but mostly only scorn and ridicule. His heart belongs to the enchanting circus performer Eva, but even she only has pity for the poor devil. One day, a dying Indian bequeaths a magic ring to the starving starving artist, which is supposed to grant him three wishes, and the recently world-weary sculptor believes he can finally turn his life around.

Henrik does not think twice and wishes for youth, beauty and wealth. But he has forgotten the most important thing in view of his passion for this woman: to wish himself happiness. And so the ring only brings him to curse and ruin, for although now rich, young and beautiful, he is only lied to and betrayed by everyone, even his friends and his beloved. Desperate and beside himself with anger, Henrik throws the ring far away from him and loses the last bit of happiness in his life.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 537/4. Photo: Amboss-Film / Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi and Ria Jende in Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 537/5. Photo: Amboss-Film / Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi and Ria Jende in Der Ring der drei Wünsche/The Ring of Three Wishes (Arthur Wellin, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne Series, no. 537/8. Photo: Amboss-Film, Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi , Ria Jende and Eduard von Winterstein in Der Ring der drei Wünsche (Arthur Wellin, 1918).

Erborgtes Glück (1919)

German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 538/1. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi and Käthe Dorsch in Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (Arthur Wellin, 1919).


German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 538/2. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi as the baron, Eduard von Winterstein as the banker and Käthe Dorsch as the mistress in Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (Arthur Wellin, 1919).

The tragic fate of a director
Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (Arthur Wellin, 1919) was already shot in 1918, but the film was first screened in January 1919 at the Berlin cinema Tauentzienpalast. It was one of a series of five films with Alexander Moissi directed by Arthur Wellin and produced by Rudolf Dworsky. This series also included Der Ring der drei Wünsche (1918) and Pique Dame (1918).

In Erborgtes Glück, a banker ( Eduard von Winterstein ) arranges an insurance policy for a baron ( Alexander Moissi ), but he is the man who has committed adultery with the banker's own wife ( Käthe Dorsch ). After three years, the banker demands the man to kill himself, but instead the other shoots him.

Arthur Wellin (1880-prob. 1941) was a Jewish film director, originally Arthur Lewin. He had been a prolific stage director before shifting to film, the reason why  Alexander Moissi  engaged him as a film director for 5 films between 1918 and 1920.

Wellin was also co-owner of Amboss-Film, with Rudolf Dworsky. All in all, he directed some 27 silent films, and at times Wellin also acted. In 1933 he was expelled from acting by the Nazis when Adolf Hitler took over power in Germany.

In 1941 Arthur Dwellin was deported from Prague to the Lodz ghetto in Poland, and from there, he was probably sent to one of the extermination camps.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series, no. 538/3. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi as the baron, Eduard von Winterstein as the banker and Käthe Dorsch as the mistress in Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (Arthur Wellin, 1919).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 538/4. Photo: Amboss Film. Alexander Moissi in Erborgtes Glück/Borrowed Happiness (Arthur Wellin, 1919).

Sources: Filmportal, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Charlotte Rampling

English actress Charlotte Rampling (1946) became a legend with her ice-blue eyes, diamond-cut diction and much-remarked-upon cheekbones in such controversial classics like La Caduta degli dei/The Damned (1969) and Il Portiere di notte/The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974). In Hollywood, she worked successfully with Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet, and this century she returned spectacularly to the A-list of the cinema in François Ozon’s Sous le sable/Under the Sand (2000), and Swimming Pool (2003).


French postcard by Editions Admira & Bettina Rheims, no. PHN 139, 1987. Photo: Bettina Rheims, 1985.


French postcard in the Les Douze de Schirmer series, no 2, by Schirmer / Mosel, 1990. Charlotte Rampling and Robert Mitchum in Farewell My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975).


French postcard by Cart a Pub / Festival du Film de Paris, in the series Les plus belles jambes du cinéma, 2001. Photo: André Rau.

A traumatic event
Charlotte Rampling was born Tessa Charlotte Rampling in Sturmer, Great Britain, in 1946. She is the daughter of Anne Isabelle Rampling-Gurteen, a painter, and Godfrey Rampling, an army officer. Her father had won silver in the athletics track event 4x400m relay at the 1932 Olympics, and gold in the 4x400m relay at the 1936 Olympics.

Charlotte attended the Jeanne d'Arc Académie in Versailles, France and the exclusive St. Hilda's School, Bushey, England. At 17 she was spotted on the street and asked to appear in a Cadbury television commercial. She enjoyed a successful modelling career before she made her first, uncredited screen appearance as a water skier in the comedy The Knack ...and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 1965). The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival.

Later that year she played the female lead in the comedy Rotten to the Core (John Boulting, 1965) with Anton Rodgers and Eric Sykes. At the time London was swinging and the 20-year-old Rampling was one of the city’s ‘it’ girls. She played Meredith, the bitchy but beautiful roommate of Georgy (Lynn Redgrave) in the successful comedy-drama Georgy Girl (Silvio Narizzano, 1966).

But that year, a traumatic event occurred, when her elder sister Sarah shot herself in Argentina after giving birth prematurely and losing her child. Charlotte was devastated by this loss, which she experienced as an abandonment by her sister. She and her father lied to her mother, telling her that Sarah had died of a stroke. Charlotte seemingly overcame this trauma and was able to continue acting.

In 1967 she played the gunfighter Hana Wilde in The Superlative Seven, an episode of the hit series The Avengers with Patrick Macnee. After this, her acting career blossomed in both English and French cinema. Among the early roles were the female lead in the British adventure film The Long Duel (Ken Annakin, 1967) starring Yul Brynner and Trevor Howard , and the thriller Target: Harry (Roger Corman, 1969).


French postcard by Travelling Editions, Paris, no. CP 116.


French postcard by L'aventure carto, 2003, in the series Portraits de Stars - Acteurs étrangères, no. 15. Photo: Marcel Thomas.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 520.

Mysterious, sensitive and ultimately tragic
Charlotte Rampling has performed controversial roles. In Luchino Visconti's classic, she played a young wife sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Critics praised her performance, and it cast her in a whole new image: mysterious, sensitive and ultimately tragic. ‘The Look’ as co-star Dirk Bogarde called it, became her trademark.

She played Anne Boleyn in the film adaptation of Henry VIII and His Six Wives (Waris Hussein, 1972), with Keith Michell as Henry VIII. In the US, she played the wife of Robert Blake in the drama Corky (Leonard Horn, 1972). In 1972, Rampling also married the actor and publicist Bryan Southcombe and had one child, Barnaby Southcombe (1972), now a television and film director. They were widely reported to be living in a ménage à trois with a male model, Randall Laurence, although Rampling always denied there was ever any sexual relationship.

She co-starred with Sean Connery in the Science-Fiction/fantasy film Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974). In Il Portiere di notte/The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974), she portrayed a concentration camp survivor who is reunited with the Nazi guard ( Dirk Bogarde ) who tortured her and resumes their ambiguous relationship.

In France, she offered a passionate rendering of a violent heiress confined to a mental institution in La Chair de l'orchidée/The Flesh of the Orchid (1975), an adaptation of the pulp novel 'The Flesh of the Orchid' (1948) by James Hadley Chase. The film was the directorial debut of French author and stage director Patrice Chéreau and also stars Simone Signoret , Bruno Cremer and Edwige Feuillère . Other interesting European films were Un taxi mauve/The Purple Taxi (Yves Boisset, 1977) with Peter Ustinov, Philippe Noiret and Fred Astaire , and Max mon amour/Max, My Love (Nagisa Oshima, 1986), in which she played a woman who fell in love with a chimpanzee.

Rampling gained recognition from American audiences in a remake of Raymond Chandler's detective story Farewell, My Lovely (Dirk Richards, 1975) with Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe. Later she stole the show with her part in Stardust Memories (Woody Allen, 1980) as a beautiful but emotionally fragile depressive. She had again success in Hollywood as the deceitful Laura in the acclaimed courtroom drama The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982), starring Paul Newman . Five years later she appeared with Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro . in the American voodoo-themed thriller Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987), as an ill-fated woman whose heart is irrevocably extracted from her body.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43079. Photo: publicity still for The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982) with Paul Newman .


French postcard by Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. A-C 1261. Photo: Gaumont. Charlotte Rampling and Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987).


Spanish postcard by Productas Compactos S.A. Sent by mail in 1993.

A commanding, devastating, and nuanced performance
In the following decade, Charlotte Rampling mainly worked for TV, such as in Great Expectations (Julian Jarrold, 1999), BBC's BAFTA award-winning adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. She played the decayed spinster Miss Havisham opposite Ioan Gruffudd as Pip. Charlotte Rampling credits François Ozon with drawing her back to film in the 2000s, a period when she came to terms with the death of her eldest sister Sarah. Ozon gave her the lead role in his French drama Sous le sable/Under the Sand (François Ozon, 2000), which was nominated for three César Awards and was critically well received. Bob Mastrangelo at AllMovie : “Sous le Sable belongs to Charlotte Rampling. Delivering a commanding, devastating, and nuanced performance, Rampling portrays Marie Drillon, a middle-aged professor who goes through an emotional roller coaster after the sudden disappearance of her husband. Rampling beautifully handles Marie's various transformations, making it appear outwardly as if she is coping with reality, while inwardly she is collapsing.”

The character she played in Ozon's Swimming Pool (François Ozon, 2003), Sarah Morton, was named in her sister's honour. For most of Rampling's life, she would say only that her sister had died of a brain haemorrhage; when she and her father heard the news, they agreed they would never let her mother know the truth. They kept their secret until Rampling's mother died in 2001. A year later, Rampling became a Dame of France's Legion. At 59, Rampling appeared in Vers le Sud/Heading South (Laurent Cantet, 2005), a film about sexual tourism. She plays Ellen, a professor of French literature and single Englishwoman, who holidays in 1970s Haiti to get the sexual attention she does not get at home. Ozon directed her also in the costume drama Angel (François Ozon, 2007). Furthermore, she portrayed the mother of Keira Knightley 's character in The Duchess (Saul Dibb, 2008), and she appeared in the terrorist thriller Cleanskin (Hadi Hajaig, 2010), starring Sean Bean and James Fox. Very interesting is the Polish-Swedish co-production The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski, 2011) starring Rutger Hauer as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, on whose 1564 painting 'The Procession to Calvary' the film is inspired. She was also among the cast of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011) starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg .

Charlotte Rampling played the title role in the noir thriller I, Anna (2012) written and directed by her son, Barnaby Southcombe. Rampling married twice. In 1976, she met French composer Jean Michel Jarre at a dinner party; and left her first husband Bryan Southcombe the next day. Two years later she married Jarre and had a second son, magician and singer David Jarre. During 20 years, she accompanied Jarre on his worldwide music and light shows. She also brought up stepdaughter Émilie Jarre, now a fashion designer. Then the marriage was publicly dissolved in 1997 when she learned from tabloid newspaper stories about Jarre's affairs with other women and had a nervous breakdown. Since 1998, she has been engaged to Jean-Noël Tassez, a French communications tycoon.

In 2013 she played Dr. Evelyn Vogel in the American hit series Dexter, had a small part in Night Train to Lisbon (Bille August, 2013) and she appeared in Francois Ozon’s Jeune & jolie/Young & Beautiful (2013). In 2012 she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, both for her performance in the miniseries Restless (Edward Hall, 2012). For her performance in the film 45 Years (Edward Haigh, 2015), she won the Berlin Film Festival Award for Best Actress, the European Film Award for Best Actress, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2017, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 74th Venice International Film Festival for Hannah (Andrea Pallaoror, 2017).

Rampling received an Honorary César in 2001 and France's Legion of Honour in 2002. She was made an OBE in 2000 for her services to the arts and received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Awards. In 2015, she released her autobiography, which she wrote in French, titled 'Qui Je Suis'. She later worked on an English translation, 'Who I Am', which was published in 2017. Charlotte Rampling stays very active on the screen. Recently, she appeared in the films Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021), Dune (Denis Villeneuve film, 2021) and Juniper (Matthew J. Saville, 2021).


Small German collectors card. Charlotte Rampling in Hammers Over The Anvil (Ann Turner, 1993).


French postcard by Équilibres et populations, Paris, in the series "Stars en Perles de Tahiti", 2003. Photo: Jean-Daniel Lorieux.


Belgian postcard by Boomerang.be, 2006. Photo: Cinélibre. Charlotte Rampling in Vers le Sud/Heading South (Laurent Cantet, 2005).


Charlotte Rampling is interviewed by Gian Luca Farinelli before the screening of The Damned in Cinema Jolly at the Cinema Ritrovato 2011 festival in Bologna, Italy. 27 June 2011.

Sources: Tracie Cooper (AllMovie), Bob Mastrangelo (AllMovie), Sholto Byrnes (The Independent), Pete Stampede, David K. Smith and Alan Hayes (The Avengers Forever), Wikipedia, and .

Bob Hope

British-born, American Comedian Bob Hope (1903-2003) started his career which spanned nearly 80 years, onstage as a dancer and comedian. He made his film debut in Paramount follies (1938) singing 'Thanks for the Memory', which became his signature song. With Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he appeared in the highly successful Road to ... comedies (1940-1952), and in many other films until the early 1970s. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars he spent much time entertaining the troops in the field. For these activities, he received five honorary Academy Awards.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 309. Photo: Paramount, 1953. Bob Hope in Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin, 1952).


American postcard by W.J. Gray, L.A.


American postcard "created and protected by Godfrey Herbert, the world explorer, 1941". Photo: Paramount. Bob Hope in Caught in the Draft (David Butler, 1941).

A rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating
Leslie Townes 'Bob' Hope was born in 1903 in Eltham, a district in southeast London (now part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich), Great Britain. He was the fifth of seven sons of William Henry Hope, a stonemason, and Avis née Townes, a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaner. In 1907, his family moved to Cleveland in the US state of Ohio. In 1915, Hope won a Charlie Chaplin impersonation contest.

After high school, he took dance lessons with King Rastus Brown and Johnny Root. He turned out to be a natural. Hope had a brief career as a boxer in 1919, fighting under the name Packy East. The following year, Hope became a US citizen. After deciding on a show business career at eighteen, he gave dance performances with his then-girlfriend Mildred Rosequist in Cleveland and the surrounding areas.

Then he performed with a pal named Lloyd Durbin. Hal Erickson at AllMovie : "Comedian Fatty Arbuckle , headlining a touring revue, caught Hope and Durbin's comedy/dancing act and helped the boys get better bookings. Following the accidental death of Durbin, Hope found another partner, George Byrne, with whom he developed a blackface act. After several career reversals, Hope and Byrne were about to pack it in when they were hired to emcee Marshall Walker's Whiz Bang review in New Castle, PA. As the more loquacious member of the team, Hope went out on-stage as a single and got excellent response for his seemingly ad-libbed wisecracks."

A short time later, he found his way to theatres in New York. In 1927, he made his debut on Broadway in the musical 'The Sidewalks of New York'. With material from legendary gagster Al Boasberg, Hope appeared as a single in 'The Antics of 1931', which led to a better theatrical gig with 'Ballyhoo of 1932' in which he was encouraged to ad-lib to his heart's content. He was praised for his comedic timing, specialising in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating.

Hope broke through in 1933 as the joking Huckleberry Haines, the second lead in the Jerome Kern musical, 'Roberta'. During this show, he met the singer Dolores Reade, whom he married in 1934. That year, Hope signed a contract with Educational Pictures of New York for six short films. The first was a comedy, Going Spanish (Al Christie, 1934). He was not happy with it, and told newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell, "When they catch [bank robber] Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Although Educational Pictures dropped his contract, he soon signed with Warner Brothers, making films during the day and performing in Broadway shows in the evenings.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1326. Photo: Paramount.


Dutch postcard, no. 249. Photo: Paramount Pictures / M.P.E.A. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in Road to Morocco (David Butler, 1942).

Everything from in-jokes about Bob and Bing's private lives to talking camels
Due to the success of his satirical radio monologues, Paramount gave Bob Hope a role in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938 (Mitchell Leisen, 1938) starring W.C. Fields , which was an instant success. In this film, he sang 'Thanks for the Memory', which would become his anthem.

With The Cat and the Canary (Elliott Nugent, 1939), he solidified his screen persona as the would-be great lover opposite Paulette Goddard and a "brave coward" who hides his insecurities with constant wisecracking.

In 1940, Bob Hope was teamed with Bing Crosby and  Dorothy Lamour  for Road to Singapore (Victor Schertzinger, 1940). It led to long queues for cinemas. It was followed by Road to Zanzibar (Victor Schertzinger, 1941), ... Morocco (David Butler, 1942), ... Utopia (Hal Walker, 1946), ... Rio (Norman Z. MacLeod, 1947), ... Bali (Hal Walker, 1948) and ... Hong Kong (Norman Panama, 1952).

The series featured everything from in-jokes about Bob and Bing's private lives to talking camels. Dorothy Lamour sometimes arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely rewritten scripts or ad-lib dialogue between Hope and Crosby. Opposite Lamour, Hope also had a hit with My favorite Brunette (Elliott Nugent, 1947). Hope performed for the first time for US soldiers in 1941. He continued to entertain soldiers throughout the rest of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and even as late as 1991 during the Gulf War.

During his performances for these soldiers, he was very involved and almost always wore army clothes as a sign of support and admiration for his audience. In cinema, Hope played other comic roles in Caught in the Draft (David Butler, 1941), Let's Face It (Sidney Lanfield, 1943) with Betty Hutton , the Western spoof The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod, 1948) with Jane Russell , the musical Fancy Pants (George Marshall, 1950) with Lucille Ball , and My Favorite Spy (George Marshall, 1951) with Hedy Lamarr .


American postcard by Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, Calif., no. 816. Caption: Residence of Bob Hope, North Hollywood, California. Star of NBC and motion pictures. Sent by mail in 1948.


Spanish postcard by JDP, Valencia, no. 1149.

Packing a relatively maudlin script with humanity and humour
In 1944, Bob Hope's radio programme was the highest-rated in the US and in 1950 he made his debut on television. He started hosting regular TV specials in 1954 and hosted the Academy Awards nineteen times from 1939 through 1977.

Hal Erickson: "With his film box-office receipts flagging in the early '50s (audiences didn't quite buy the idea of a 50-year-old man playing a 30-ish girl chaser), Hope took the advice of writer/directors Norman Panama and Melvin Frank and attempted a dramatic film role as Eddie Foy Sr. in The Seven Little Foys (Melville Shavelson, 1955). He succeeded in both pulling off the character and in packing a relatively maudlin script with humanity and humour. Hope's last "straight" film part was as New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker in Beau James (Melville Shavelson, 1957), in which he again acquitted himself quite nicely."

Hope played lead roles in more than 50 films and appeared in supporting roles in 15 others. His last film was Spies Like US (John Landis, 1985), a spoof of the "road" pictures with Crosby and Hope. The film features a cameo by Hope as his golf-playing self. The comedian amassed a fortune, which he invested in real estate. Forbes magazine once estimated his wealth at more than $500 million. Hope received many awards including five honorary Oscars for his outstanding humanitarian achievements in 1940, 1944, 1952, 1959 and 1965. However, the Academy Award for "Best Actor" was never awarded to him.

Hope retired from public life in 1998 and celebrated his centenary on 29 May 2003, He spent the day at his home in Toluca Lake, where he had lived since 1937. Even at that age, his sense of humour did not let him down when he said "I'm so old they abolished my blood type". He died of pneumonia two months later. Hope was briefly married to vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell, from 1933 to 1934. His lifelong partner was Dolores Reade who had been one of Hope's co-stars on Broadway in 'Roberta'. The couple adopted four children: Linda (in 1939), Tony (1940), Kelly (1946), and Eleanora, known as Nora (1946).

Biographer Richard Zoglin, quoted at Wikipedia: "Bob and Dolores always claimed that they married in February 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania. But at that time, he was secretly married to his vaudeville partner Louise Troxell, after three years together on and off. I found divorce papers for Bob and Louise dated November 1934, so either Bob Hope was a bigamist, or he lied about marrying Dolores in February of that year. He had actually married Louise in January 1933 in Erie when they were travelling on the vaudeville circuit. When he claimed he had married Dolores in Erie he was miles away in New York, on Broadway. More intriguing, there is no record anywhere of his marriage to Dolores, if it happened. And there are no wedding photos, either. But he never forgot Louise and quietly sent her money in her later years."


Italian postcard. Photo: Dear Film. Bob Hope in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (George Marshall, 1966).


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 252. Photo: Paramount.


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, Personality no. 16. Photo: Douglas Kirkland / 1978 Contact. Caption: Bob Hope - Sardonic, fast talking TV and Screen genius Bob Hope is not only Mr. Show Business but is probably the all-time world master of a great humor form, the topical one-liner"/ May, 1976.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and .

Maria Corvin

Maria Corvin aka Mary Corwyn aka Mary Corwin and Maria Corvin (1895-?) was a Polish actress, active in Italian silent film.


Italian postcard by Ed. Società Anonima, Bettini, Roma, no. 265. Photo: Bettini, Roma.


Italian postcard by Ed. Società Anonima, Bettini, Roma, no. 267. Photo: Bettini, Roma.


Italian postcard by Ed. Società Anonima, Bettini, Roma, no. 268. Photo: Bettini, Roma.

Her blue eyes and photogenic qualities
Maria Corvin aka Mary Corwyn aka Mary Corwin was born Maria Breninski or Breninki in 1895 in Warsaw, Poland. Maria was widowed when she was a young girl. She arrived in Italy on a British ship and soon she was noted in Neapolitan literary circles.

In 1916 she was hired by the Neapolitan film company Polifilms, where she acted in seven films directed by Giulio Antamoro, and distributed by Lombardo Film. She became the 'first actress' at Polifilm, thanks to her blue eyes and photogenic qualities.

In 1918 journalist Edoardo Scarfoglio brought her to writer-producer-actor Lucio D'Ambra, who hired her for his Roman film company Do-Re-Mi. She debuted there in Napoleoncina/Napoleonette (Lucio D'Ambra, 1918), about a young girl smitten with Napoleon and his modern lookalike Dr. Toccasana. When she discovers her sister is in love with the doctor's nephew ( Luigi Serventi ), but the latter only has eyes for an affected American woman, she energetically chases the rival.

After four more films with Lucio D'Ambra, Corwyn returned to Naples for one more film, the Balzac adaptation Vautrin (Alexandre Devarennes, 1919), starring Giovanni Grasso and produced by Lombardo Film. She then returned to act in Il girotondo degli undici lancieri (Lucio d'Ambra, 1919), produced by the new company D'Ambra Films.

After two more films at Cines and Rosa Films, Maria Corvin left Italy in 1920. Nothing more is known of her, not even when and where she died.


Spanish cromos by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, Card no. 1 of 6. Photo: Do-Re-Mi Film / Dist. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Maria Corvin in NapoleoncinaNapoleonette (Lucio D'Ambra, 1918). The Spanish title of the film was Napoleoncilla.


Spanish cromos by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, Card no. 1 of 6. Photo: Do-Re-Mi Film / Dist. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Maria Corvin in Napoleoncina (Lucio D'Ambra, 1918). The Spanish title of the film was Napoleoncilla.


Spanish cromos by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, Card no. 1 of 6. Photo: Do-Re-Mi Film / Dist. J. Verdaguer, Barcelona. Maria Corvin in Napoleoncina (Lucio D'Ambra, 1918). The Spanish title of the film was Napoleoncilla.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano - Italian), Wikipedia (Italian) and .

Pocahontas (1995)

Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995) was the 33rd Disney animated feature film and is loosely based on the life of the Native American woman of the same name. The American animated musical historical drama tells the romance between the Powhatan daughter of an Algonquin chief and Capt. John Smith, an English soldier. The film was produced by Jim Pentecost, from a screenplay written by Philip LaZebnik, Carl Binder, and Susannah Grant.


French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 582. Image: Disney. Pocahontas in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Italian postcard by Nuova Arti Grafiche Ricordi, Milano, no. 1722. Image: Disney. John Smith and Pocahontas in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Beascoa SA, Barcelona, no. 69. Image: Disney. John Smith and Pocahontas in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Beascoa SA, Barcelona, no. 74. Image: Disney. Flit, John Smith, Pocahontas and Meeko in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Beascoa SA, Barcelona, no. 75. Image: Disney. John Smith, Pocahontas, Flit and Meeko in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).

The two immediately click and fall in love
In the year 1607, an English ship prepares to set sail for North America to found a colony and search for gold. One of the ship's crew is the adventurer John Smith. During the voyage, he saves the life of young sailor Thomas when he falls overboard.

Meanwhile, in North America, Indian chief Powhatan and his warriors return from a war they won. Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas is told that the warrior Kocoum has asked for her hand. However, she herself does not see him. She asks Grandmother Willow, a talking tree, for advice. The latter tells Pocahontas to listen to her heart.

Shortly afterwards, the British colonists arrived. Pocahontas becomes curious and she decides to take a look with her raccoon Meeko and the hummingbird Flit. John Smith explores the area and Pocahontas follows him. When she is discovered by Smith, the two immediately click and fall in love. Pocahontas makes John realise that Indians are not at all such savages as people in John's country think. She also tells him to see the earth as more than just something he can own.

Between the other Indians and the settlers, however, clashes soon arise. In the first encounter, a warrior from Pocahontas' tribe is shot. Powhatan decides to declare war on the British and enlists the help of other Indian tribes. The situation does not improve when the leader of the settlers, Governor John Ratcliffe, discovers that there may be no gold in the area. Indeed, he had wanted to use this expedition to finally make his name at the British court. In his obsession, he concludes that the Indians naturally have the gold and he must take it from them by force.

One evening, Pocahontas and John meet again. However, they are followed by Kocoum and Thomas. Kocoum attacks John, after which Thomas intervenes and shoots Kocoum dead. John takes the blame for killing Kocuom and he is captured. He will be executed the next day before the battle between the Indians and settlers breaks loose...


Vintage postcard by European Greetings, no. 535615. Image: Disney. Meeko and Percy in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd, no. 9368. Image: Disney. Meeko and John Smith in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd, no. 9372. Image: Disney. Meeko and Flit in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd, no. 9375. Image: Disney. Percy in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Dutch postcard by Interstat, Amsterdam. Image: Disney. Meeko in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).

A historical Indian princess who warmly welcomed the European settlers
During the famed "Disney Renaissance", a period that started with the release of The Little Mermaid (1989), the studio was creating modern classics with every film they released. Many at Disney had high hopes for Pocahontas (1995) upon its initial release. Then-studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg regarded it even as a more prestigious project than The Lion King (1994), and believed that it had a chance of earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, following in the steps of Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Despite the obvious presence of fantasy elements, Pocahontas was the first full-length Disney animated film based at its core on a true story. In Peter Pan (1953), Disney's 14th animated film, the Indians were elaborated according to the stereotypical Western image, with elements such as the peace pipe and the standard cry "ugh". In Pocahontas, the Indians were depicted more realistically. As such, most of the film's main characters are based on actual historical figures.

Pocahontas is based on the historical princess of that name, who was indeed one of the few Indians who warmly welcomed the European settlers. In reality, however, in 1607, the year in which the film is set, she was only 13 years old. She also never had a romantic relationship with John Smith. She did eventually marry another Briton, John Rolfe. The figure of John Smith is based on the historical person of the same name. However, this John Smith was still in England in 1607. Governor Ratcliffe is a combination of several historical characters. His name comes from John Ratcliffe, who was once governor of the colony of Jamestown. However, he was not, as the film suggests, the first governor, nor was he present on the ship on which John Smith travelled to the colony.

Pocahontas was released to mixed reactions from reviewers, who praised its animation and music but criticised its story; the film's racial overtones and historical inaccuracy also garnered a mix of condemnation and praise. However, everybody liked Meeko, Pocahontas's pet raccoon with a love of food, especially John Smith's biscuits. The design for the film is sumptuous, with mostly blues and a seamless style that never gets in the way and illustrates the action and the feminine nature of the film beautifully.

Pocahontas was the first Disney film without a happy ending. It dealt with more adult themes and tones and did not appeal to younger children, as much as the earlier Disney hits had. The film was less successful commercially than was hoped. However, Pocahontas did succeed at the box office, earning $346 million, and it received two Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Alan Menken and Best Original Song for 'Colors of the Wind'.


Italian postcard by Nuovi Arti Grafiche Ricordi S.r.L, Milano, no. 1717. Meeko and Pocahontas in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


French postcard by MD Chromovogue, no. D 920-3. Pocahontas, Meeko, John Smith and Governor Ratcliffe in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Vintage postcard by European Greetings, no 535615. Image: Disney. Meeko, Pocahontas and Flit in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).


Vintage postcard by European Greetings, no. 535615. Image: Disney. Pocahontas and John Smith in Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, 1995).

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

Eleonora Duse

Italian diva Eleonora Duse (1858-1924) was one of the greatest stage actresses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. She mostly embodied suffering but strong-willed female characters. Her acting was subtle and not very theatrical and is considered groundbreaking for modern theatre. 


Vintage postcard, no. 7402. Sent by mail in Sweden.


French collectors card by Collection Félix Potin, series 1 (c. 1900).


Austrian postcard by Hanfstaengl Künstlerkarte. Eleonora Duse with Marion Lenbach, painted by Franz von Lenbach.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 400.


Vintage postcard by B.K.W.I.

A clear Italian twist
Eleonora Duse, also called simply 'Duse' or 'la Duse', was the daughter of wandering artists. At the age of four, she already played Cosette in Victor Hugo 's 'Les Misérables' and at the age of 15, she played the lead in 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Arena of Verona. In 1878 she joined the Blanes/Ciotti company.

Her breakthrough as an actress came with the lead in the stage adaptation of Emile Zola 's 'Thérèse Raquin'. In 1879 she joined the Turinese Compagnia Semistabile led by Cesare de Rossi, where she clearly broke with the tradition of acting in the grand style.

She selected a repertory that was partly that of her rival Sarah Bernhardt  but gave it a clear Italian twist and social critique. Thus, she commented upon the hypocrisy of late 19th century Italian society where money ruled; a world in which real expression of emotions was impossible.

In 1881 Eleonora Duse married actor Tebaldo Cecchi, and had a daughter with him: Enrichetta, but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1884 she had a secret affair with Arrigo Boito, best known for his libretti for Giuseppe Verdi's operas.

Boito adapted William Shakespeare 's 'Anthony and Cleopatra' and 'Macbeth' for her. The affair did not last but they remained friends for life. After that, she had a relationship with lesbian feminist Lina Poletti, and her friendship with dancer Isadora Duncan was also suspected to be more than just that.


Vintage postcard by RPA, no. 7399.


Italian postcard, no. 127. Photo: Sciutto, Genova. The postcard was mailed in Bologna on 20 November 1911. Photo: still from the play 'La città morta' (The Dead City) by Gabriele D'Annnunzio, starring Eleonora Duse. The photo was made for the performance of Duse in Genoa, Teatro Paganini, in April 1901. The blind Anna holds Bianca Maria onto her lap. She understands that the girl is in love with her own husband Alessandro.


Italian postcard, no. 128. Photo: Sciutto, Genova. Publicity still for the play 'La città morta'. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by G.G. (Georg Gerlach) & Co., Berlin, no. 693.


French postcard.

A Tempestuous Affair
In the 1880s, Eleonora Duse became an international star. First, she had Italian acclaim in 1884 with the theatrical adaptation of Giovanni Verga's 'Cavalleria rusticana', which later became a famous opera by Pietro Mascagni. Then she did a tour through South America in 1885, followed by tours to Egypt, Spain, North America, the UK, Austria and Germany. In Russia, Anton Chekhov was amazed by her acting. In 1891 she did her first performance of 'Nora' by Henrik Ibsen, the first of her many interpretations of the new Scandinavian theatre.

​In 1894 she met author Gabriele D'Annunzio again, after having encountered him twice before. In 1882, at their first meeting, D'Annunzio bluntly asked her to make love with him; she declined but was still aroused. In 1888, while she was retreating to her dressing room and still in tears after her performance in 'La Signora delle Camelie' (Camille), he startled her by declaring his admiration. At their third meeting in Venice in 1894, they started a tempestuous affair.

Duse performed in several plays by D'Annunzio: 'Il sogno di un mattino di primavera' (The Dream of a Spring Morning), 'La Gioconda', 'Francesca da Rimini', 'La città morta' (The Dead City), and 'La figlia di Jorio' (The Daughter of Jorio). D'Annunzio gravely offended her though by giving the lead in the French premiere of 'La città morta' to her arch rival Sarah Bernhardt .

After that, collaborations and crises alternated. D'Annunzio was unfaithful and openly gossiped about his private affairs. In 1900, he published the novel 'Il fuoco' (The Fire) about an older actress having affairs with younger men, obviously inspired by his relationship with Duse. Her fans were not amused. Duse became more and more depressed about the hopeless affair, and in 1904, after the premiere of 'La figlia di Jorio', she broke up with him.

Instead, Eleonora Duse concentrated on her acting, in particular in plays by Henrik Ibsen, and she did a Scandinavian tour in 1906. In 1909 she abruptly halted her stage career and retired to her villa in Asolo, Italy.


German postcard by Kunstanstalt Voremberg, Berlin (K.V.i.B.), in the Serie Monna Vanna, sent by mail in 1903. Eleonora Duse in the play 'Monna Vanna' (1902) by Maurice Maeterlinck. The actor is probably her co-star in the play, Ciro Galvani.


Italian postcard by Edizioni Zane, Venezia, no. 6276. Caption: Eleonora Duse e il suo tempo (1858-1924) Mostra al Museo Civico di Asolo: 14 sett. 31 ott. 74. (Eleonora Duse and her time (1858-1924) Exhibition at the Museo Civico di Asolo: 14 Sept. 31 Oct. 74).


German postcard.


German postcard by ALBS.


German postcard in the Collection Das grosse Jahrhundert by Vereinigte Papierwaaren Fabriken S. Krotoschin, Görlitz, Serie B, no. 24. Caption: Eleanora Duse, born 3 October 1859 in Vigerano (Italy). The famous and much-admired actress guest performed in nearly every country of the civilised world.

Divine before GarboDuring the First World War, Eleonora Duse played in her sole film, Cenere/Ashes (Febo Mari, 1916), an adaptation of Grazia Deledda's novel, situated in Sardinia. A mother of humble descent cannot face the son she once gave away and who has now tracked her down. She eventually kills herself.

In spite of Duse's presence and the location shooting in Sardinia, the film was not a huge success - actor-director Febo Mari 's overacting might have had to do something with it. Afterwards, Duse had the perspicacity to recognise that film is a modern medium which requires a different acting style. She liked D.W. Griffith 's direction of actors and his predilection to play with shadows, but in spite of their professional correspondence, the two could have collaborated better.

Copies of Cenere still survive, and even a tinted version was restored by the Cineteca del Friuli in Gemona, Italy. Forced by financial problems, Duse returned to the stage in 1921 with the play 'La donna del lago' (The Lady of the Lake). The young Luchino Visconti , the future stage and film director, was surprised by her restrained acting. The play was a massive success and after performances in Vienna and London, the already worn-out Duse started a five-week tour through the US in 1923.

The strain of the tour contributed to her death. In Pittsburgh, she died due to a severe pulmonary on 21 April 1923. Eleonora Duse was 65. She is buried in Asolo, Italy. Today, she is considered one of the major precursors of Method Acting, of eliminating yourself to get into the character; purely using your body to express emotions, without unnecessary props.

George Bernhard Shaw ranked her higher than Sarah Bernhardt , artists such as John Singer Sargent painted her portrait, and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Hugo Von Hofmannsthal adored her. Duse was the first actress to be received at a tea at the White House (1896) and she was also the first woman gracing the cover of the new Time Magazine (1923). Way before Greta Garbo , Eleonora Duse was already entitled 'divine'.


Italian postcard by G. Modiano & Co., Milano, no. 30666.


Italian postcard by GB.


Vintage postcard.


Scene from Cenere/Ashes (1916). Source: Giovanni Ceccarelli (YouTube).


Scene from Cenere/Ashes (1916). Source: Madola56 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (English, German and Italian) and .

Felix Bressart

German stage and screen actor Felix Bressart (1892–1949) had to flee Germany after the Nazis seized power in 1933. He continued his film career in Austria and later in the US, where he became a popular character actor for MGM.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6114/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6065/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ondra Lamac Film. Publicity still for Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du/A cute girlfriend like you (Carl Lamac, 1930) with Anny Ondra .


Dutch postcard by Remaco-Film, no. 229. Hermann Thimig and Felix Bressart in Die Privatsekretärin (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931).


Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no. 60. Photo: Universal Felix Bressart and Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6023/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Character comedian
Felix Bressart (pronounced Bress-ert) was born in Eydtkuhnen in East Prussia, Germany (now Chernyshevskoe, Russia) in 1892. He got acting lessons from Maria Moissi in Berlin and made his stage debut at the Stadttheater Würzburg in the autumn of 1914. After World War I, he made a stage tour through Bavaria. From 1922 on he worked at the Deutsche Theater Hannover, at the Albert-Theater in Dresden, and from 1925 on at the Theater in der Josefstadt under Max Reinhardt .

In 1927 the character comedian moved to Berlin to appear in theatres and cabarets. There he also made his film debut in the comedy Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in Kuhstall (Carl Froelich, 1928) with Henny Porten . He started off in the cinema as a supporting actor in films like Es gibt eine Frau, die dich niemals vergißt (Lero Mittler, 1930) starring Lil Dagover , and the mountain film Der Sohn der weißen Berge/The Son of the White Mountain (Mario Bonnard, Luis Trenker, 1930).

For the Ufa, he played the Bailiff in the box-office hit Die Drei von der Tankstelle/The Three from the Filling Station (1930), directed by Wilhelm Thiele and starring Willy Fritsch , Lilian Harvey and Heinz Rühmann . He also co-starred in Thiele’s musical Die Privatsekretärin/The Private Secretary (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931) with Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig .

He co-starred with Anny Ondra in Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du/A cute girlfriend like you (Carl Lamac, 1930). Soon he established himself in leading roles of minor films, including Der Schrecken der Garnison/Terror of the Garrison (Carl Boese, 1931), Holzapfel weiß alles/Holzapfel knows everything (Victor Janson, 1932), and Goldblondes Mädchen, ich schenk Dir mein Herz/Gold Blonde Girl, I give you my heart (Rudolph Bernauer, 1932) with Charlotte Ander .

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Jewish-born Bressart had to leave Germany and continued his career in German-speaking films in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. In Switzerland, he appeared in Wie d'Warret würkt/How the truth works (Walter Lesch, 1933), in France in C'était un musicien/Once there was a musician (Maurice Gleize, Frederic Zelnik, 1933) starring Fernand Gravey , and in Austria in Salto in die Seligkeit/Somersault into bliss (Fritz Schulz, 1934). He worked at Peter (1934) starring Franciska Gaál for the European division of Universal with émigré director Hermann Kösterlitz (aka Henry Koster) and producer Joe Pasternak. Bressart made 30 European films in eight years.


Dutch postcard, no. 38. Photo: Remaco Film. Hermann Thimig and Felix Bressart in Die Privatsekretärin/Private Secretary (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931).


Dutch postcard, no. 238. Photo: Remaco-Film. At the top right is a censorship stamp, necessary in the Netherlands for all film photos at the time.


Dutch postcard, no. 519. Photo: Ufa.


Small German collectors card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ondra Lamac Film. Felix Bressart and Anny Ondra in Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du/A cute girlfriend like you (Carl Lamac, 1930).

Kindly, friendly characters
Producer Joe Pasternak invited Felix Bressart to come to Hollywood. Bressart's first American film was Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939), a vehicle for Universal Pictures' top attraction, Deanna Durbin . Pasternak also selected the reliable Bressart to perform in a screen test opposite Pasternak's newest discovery, Gloria Jean.

The influential German community in Hollywood helped to establish Bressart in America. Bressart scored great success in Ernst Lubitsch 's Ninotchka (1939), produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM signed Bressart to a studio contract in 1939. Lubitsch also directed Bressart to a similar effect in the romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart .

Most of his MGM work consisted of featured roles in major films like Edison, the Man (Clarence Brown, 1940) and Blossoms in the Dust (Mervyn LeRoy, 1941) starring Greer Garson . He combined his mildly inflected East European accent with a soft-spoken delivery to create kindly, friendly characters, as in Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942), in which he sensitively recites Shylock's famous ‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’ speech from The Merchant of Venice.

Bressart soon became a popular character actor in films like The Seventh Cross (Fred Zinnemann, 1944), and Without Love (Harold S. Buquet, 1945), starring Spencer Tracy. Perhaps his largest role was in RKO Radio Pictures' B musical comedy Ding Dong Williams (1945). Bressart who was billed third played the bemused supervisor of a movie studio's music department, and appeared in formal wear to conduct Chopin's 'Fantasie Impromptu'.

After almost 40 Hollywood pictures, Felix Bressart suddenly died of leukaemia at the age of 57. His last film was My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), the movie version of a popular radio show. Bressart died during production, forcing the producers to finish the film with Hans Conried. In the final film, Conried speaks throughout, but Bressart is still seen in the long shots. Felix Bressart was married to Frieda Lehner.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 669. Photo: Walter Lichtenstein.


German postcard by Margarinewerk Eidelstedt Gebr. Fauser G.m.b.H., Holstein, Serie 1, no. Bild 1 (of 80). Photo: Marcus. Caption: Die trustfreie Eidelsan (The trustfree Eidelsan).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6330/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6474/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and .

Cinerama

Cinerama is the brand name for a widescreen film system operating through three synchronised 35mm projectors in front of a large, curved projection screen. It is also the name of the company founded to market the system. The system was one of the film industry's first attempts in the 1950s to compete with television.


American postcard by Shorecolor New York, circa 1952. Caption: "The biggest new entertainment event of the year."- LIFE. Collection: Amsterdam Eye Filmmuseum.


American postcard by Mitock & Sons, North Hollywood, California. Color by Bert Kaltman / Plastichrome, Boston. The picture was taken at the premiere of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963, Stanley Kramer). This postcard was sent from Mexico to Italy (We bought it in the USA and it's now in our collection in the Netherlands). Pacific's Cinerama Theatre is "The Only Theatre Of Its Kind In The World", boasts the card's publisher at the backside of the card. "Located in Cinerama Center, Sunset and Ivar, Hollywood, it's the first geodesic dome in concrete anywhere in the world. It is the first major theatre built in Hollywood in 35 years. It is an endless network of electronic marvels. Gold is the dominant color in the richly fabricated carpeting and drapes. Striking innovations in lightning and luxurious seating provide unbelievable comfort and beauty."


Canadian postcard by Desbarats Printing Co. LTD., Montréal. Caption: I'm having a wonderful "Cinerama Holiday".

You are in the middle of it
Cinerama was designed to give the viewer the sensation of physically experiencing the film by surrounding him with images and sound. "You are in the middle of it," was the slogan. Looking at the centre of the colossal screen, the spectator's entire field of vision was filled with images. The 7-channel stereo sound of unprecedented quality at the time heightened the suggestion of reality experience even more.

Cinerama films were shown like plays, with reserved seats in the cinema and paper programmes handed out, and audience members often dressed in their best attire for the evening. The Cinerama concept was originally intended to let the viewer take a trip around the world in their armchair, experiencing adventures that most of them would never experience in reality, especially in the 1950s, when world travel and flying holidays were still far off in the future.

The first seven Cinerama films were therefore not feature films, but sequences of fascinating shots of exotic places, shots from an aeroplane over mountain landscapes, from the trolley in a roller coaster, from a rubber boat over a rapid in a wildly swirling river, or from a gondola in Venice, as well as from a lodge at the Scala in Milan during a performance of the opera 'Aida'. This original Cinerama 3-panel, as the trade term goes, was used for 11 years, from 1952 to 1963, and was initially very successful.

The first Cinerama film, This Is Cinerama (Mike Todd, Michael Todd, Jr., Walter A. Thompson, Fred Rickey, 1952), premiered on 30 September 1952 at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The New York Times judged it to be front-page news. Certainly, the first films attracted packed theatres for years. This diminished when the novelty wore off a bit, but months of prolongations were still common.

Seven official Cinerama 3 panel films were made, the last two of which were feature films. Consecutively, This is Cinerama (Mike Todd, Michael Todd, Jr., Walter A. Thompson, Fred Rickey, 1952), Cinerama Holiday (Robert L. Bendick, Philippe De Lacy, 1955), Seven Wonders of the World (Tay Garnett, Paul Mantz, Andrew Marton, Ted Tetzlaff, Walter Thompson, 1956), Search for Paradise (Otto Lang, 1957), South Seas Adventure (Carl Dudley (final segment), Richard Goldstone, Francis D. Lyon (first segment), Walter Thompson (second segment) and Basil Wrangell, 1958) and the feature films How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, 1962) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Henry Levin, Geortge Pal, 1962). Although this film system is difficult to lend itself to feature films, the epic Western How The West Was Won (1962) was still quite successful.


American postcard by Capitol Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio, to promote Cinerama and the film Seven Wonders of the World (Tay Garnett, Paul Mantz, Andrew Marton, Ted Tetzlaff, Walter Thompson, 1956). Caption: Capitol Theatre, Exclusive Cincinnati Home of Cinerama.


American postcard by Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C., to promote Cinerama and the film Search for Paradise (Otto Lang, 1957). Caption: Warner Theatre, Exclusive Washington, D.C. Home of Cinerama.

Five operators simultaneously
Cinerama 3-panel had considerable disadvantages. First of all, it was only usable in very large, hence costly movie theatres, which were hardly suitable for normal cinema films because of the auditorium construction. Moreover, Cinerama cinemas were dependent on only one supplier for their films, and the latter was unable to constantly supply enough new films. Shooting with the leaden and bulky Cinerama camera was complicated, and operating Cinerama theatres was extremely complicated and costly. A film screening in a normal cinema at the time required two projectionists working simultaneously, but a Cinerama screening required as many as five operators simultaneously.

Moreover, in its heyday, there were very few Cinerama theatres, only in a few major world cities. And Cinerama films could only be shown there and generate revenue. With rising labour costs, gradually declining attendance, and a lack of suitable films, the Cinerama 3-panel became too complicated and expensive to operate in the early 1960s. In 1963, Cinerama, therefore, switched to a surrogate, somewhat bombastically called Super-Cinerama, which required only a single 70mm camera, and a 70mm projector, with the 70mm system for large projection screens existing at the time. The existing, highly curved and enormously large, louvred Cinerama screen remained in use. An additional advantage of Super-Cinerama was the absence of the two image separations of the 3-panel Cinerama.

Because 70mm projection was originally made for only slightly-curved projection screens, and far left and far right image distortion would occur on a highly curved Cinerama screen, the first five Super-Cinerama films were released on special optically corrected 70mm film copies. The Super-Cinerama corrected projection system included five films: the comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (George Stevens, 1965), the Western mockumentary spoof The Hallelujah Trail (John Sturges, 1965), the war epic Battle of the Bulge (Ken Annakin, 1965) and the British war epic Khartoum (Basil Dearden, 1966).

On Cinerama screens, this corrected Cinerama projection system performed relatively well. The big disadvantage, however, was that such corrected films were unsuitable for normal 70mm cinemas. There, the audience saw a corrected image on the slightly curved screen that showed disturbing compressed image distortion at the left and right picture edges. So with good reason, Super-Cinerama films could only be shown in the relatively few Cinerama theatres, and not in the larger numbers of normal 70mm cinemas. Although the latter happened anyway, of course, by omitting the distorted picture edges on the left and right (which is also done when a widescreen film is broadcast on the old 3-by-4 TV screen).

Forced by this circumstance, the Cinerama company, therefore, decided after a few years to release all subsequent Cinerama films on uncorrected normal 70mm film copies. The image distortion in Cinerama theatres was of necessity taken for granted, but these films could henceforth be shown in all 70mm cinemas without any problems. Cinerama films thus produced are Circus World (Henry Hathaway, 1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966), Ice Station Zebra (John Sturges, 1968), Custer of the West (Robert Siodmak, 1967) and Krakatoa, East of Java (Bernard L. Kowalski, 1968). 70mm films originally intended for Cinerama such as MacKenna's Gold (J. Lee Thompson, 1969), Song of Norway (Andrew L. Stone, 1970) and The Last Valley (James Clavell, 1971) were even released without the Cinerama label. In desperation, the Cinerama company continued producing regular 35mm films for several more years. Nowadays, two Cinerama 3-panel theatres are still in operation as far as we know: Cinerama in Seattle, USA, and Pictureville Cinema, part of the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK.


American postcard by Warner Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood, Calif., to promote Cinerama and the film South Seas Adventure (Carl Dudley (final segment), Richard Goldstone, Francis D. Lyon (first segment), Walter Thompson (second segment), Basil Wrangell, 1958). Captions: The story of 6 who surrendered to the lure of the South Seas. Warner Hollywood Theatre, Exclusive Southern California Home of Cinerama.


American postcard by Martin Cinerama, St. Louis, Missouri, to promote Cinerama and the film Circus World (Henry Hathaway, 1964).


Vintage Dutch postcard. Publicity for the opening (1960) of the Rotterdam Cinerama theatre at Westblaak 18, announced as '...een machtig schouwspel' [ a might spectacle]. The cinema was operated by Cinerama Exhibitors Nederland BV and Holland Exhibitors between 1960 and 1993. In the later 1990s, it was exploited by Pathé, who still owns the building. Today, it is still functioning as cinema and is exploited by the Kinepolis Group. The Rotterdam Cinerama was the first in the Netherlands. In 1965 a second Cinerama theatre opened in Amsterdam as Bellevue Cinerama, which closed in 2005.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch), IMDb and postcards.