Eurovision Song Contest - Lys Assia

EFSP salutes the Eurovision Song Contest! For Americans it must be a curious phenomenon, but for already, 57 years ESC is one of Europe's favourite TV events. The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 takes place in Malmö, Sweden, and the finals are tonight. The winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 was Swiss singer and actress Lys Assia (1924). We saw her last thursday during an intermezzo of the second semi-finals. The still sparkling and beautiful grande dame of the German schlager appeared as a singer in several films of the 1950s.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf.no. 2428. Photo: Teldec.


German card by LYSassia.de. Publicity card for the album Sehnsucht nach dir. Photo: Gerd Nolte.

Legendary Venues
Lys Assia was born as Rosa Mina Schärer in Rupperswil in the canton Aargau, Switzerland, in 1924 (some sources indicate she was born in Berne in 1926). She studied at a conservatory and at the art academy of Zurich. At 16, she started her career as a dancer at Zurich's Corso-Palast. In 1940, she appeared with the Riva-Ballett for the French army, and in Nice she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it so much that she decided for a career in front of the microphone. In 1942 she had her first record contract with His Master’s Voice. She had her breakthrough in Germany in 1950 with the hit song O mein Papa (O My Father) from the operetta Feuerwerk (Fire Works) by Paul Burkhard. Other well known songs of her were Moulin Rouge (1953), Schwedenmädel (Swedish Girl) (1954), Jolie Jacqueline (1955), Arrivederci Roma (1956), Was kann schöner sein (What Can Be More Beautiful?) (1956), Deine Liebe (Your Love) (1957) and Mi casa su casa (1957). She sang in such legendary venues as the Tivoli in Copenhagen, the Olympia in Paris, the Plaza in New York and the Tropicana in Cuba. On screen she appeared as a schlager singer in German films like Palace Hotel (Emil Berna, Leonard Steckel, 1952) with Paul Hubschmid, Illusion in Moll/Illusion in a Minor Key (Rudolf Jugert, 1952) starring Hildegard Knef, Schlagerparade/Hit Parade (Erik Ode, 1953), Ein Mann Vergißt die Liebe/A Man Forgets Love (Volker von Collande), 1955 and Die Beine von Dolores/Dolores' Legs (Géza von Cziffra, 1957) with Germaine Damar. In the Italian classic Le Notti Bianchi/White Nights (1957, Luchino Visconti - yes, we think every Visconti film is a classic) with Marcello Mastroianni she sang the song Scusami (Excuse Me).


German card by Telefunken Schallplatten. Photo: Teldec / Haenchen.


German card by Telefunken Schallplatten. Photo: Teldec / Haenchen.

Posing Nude
Lys Assia was the winner of the very first Grand Prix d'Eurovision de la chanson/Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. She sang the songs Das alte Karussell (The Old Carousel) and Refrain for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year. For Switzerland she returned to the contest in 1957, finishing eighth with L'enfant que j'étais (The Child I Was), and in 1958, finishing second with Giorgio. She was married twice, from 1953 till 1957 to the Swiss businessman Henry Kunz, and from 1963 till 1995 to the Danish general-consul and hotel mogul Oskar Pedersen. In 1964 she retired from show business and moved with her husband to Denmark. They opened hotels in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and South America. After her husband’s death, she returned to Germany and renewed her singing career. In 2007, at age 83, she appeared at the annual German-language television song contest Grand Prix der Volksmusik, performing Sag Mir Wo Wohnen die Engel (Tell Me Where the Angels Live) with her 18-year-old duet partner, Beatrice Egli. That same year, she also posed nude for the Swiss magazine Annabelle, for a feature titled Beauty with Age. Her most recent album is Refrain des Lebens (2008) on which she sings new songs and new versions of old hits like Oh mein Papa and Refrain. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow she handed Alexander Rybak the winner’s trophy. In September 2011, Assia entered her song C'était ma vie written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song, however, only came eighth in a closely fought national selection. She attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour. In 2012, Assia entered the Swiss National Final Die grosse Entscheidungs Show to represent Switzerland in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song All In Your Head featuring the hip-hop band New Jack. Lys Assia lives on her estates in Cannes, France and Switzerland. But today, she is in Malmö, however not as a participant but as a lifelong fan of the European Song Contest.


Lys Assia sings Refrain at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Source: EurovisionTurkey09 (YouTube).


Music video of a recent version of O Mein Papa by Lys Assia. Source: Bersoli (YouTube).

Sources: Dave Thompson (All Music Guide), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Collection: Tatiana

I was quite overwhelmed last week when the mail brought me a big envelope from the States. Inside were 39 film star postcards by Film-Foto-Verlag, the German publisher that was very active just during World War II. They were sent to me as a gift by Tatiana, who earlier has sent me scans of postcards of her relative Tamara Desni. Thank you so much, Tatiana!


Heinz Rühmann. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3852/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.


Gisela Uhlen. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3922/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


Margot Hielscher. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3854/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.

Glamorous And Perfectly Lit
In this post I show you twelve of Tatiana's Film-Foto-Verlag postcards. During the war years, these were distributed all over occupied Europe and thousands of people collected them. We have many of them in our collection. Of course at the time, you could not find any postcards of British or American actors here. And postcards of Jewish stars were also not longer available. So, it's a kind of a guilty pleasure to watch these Film-Foto-Verlag postcards, but still a real pleasure. The photos by studios like Star-Foto-Atelier, Baumann and Quick are glamorous and perfectly lit. Look how Mady Rahl lits her cigarette or how Iván Petrovich watches at us from the shadow under his hat...


Mady Rahl. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 212, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


Irene von Meyendorff. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 201, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Baumann.


Iván Petrovich. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 192, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.

Ross And Film-Foto-Verlag
Film-Foto-Verlag was a continuation of the famous Ross Verlag. This publishing house had been a Jewish run business. Heinrich Ross, the founder of Ross Verlag, had been forced out of business by the Nazi's, and his company had been taken over by non-Jews. Around 1937, Ross Verlag was a subsidiary of film company Tobis. During the war, all film companies in Germany were owned by the government. The Nazis changed the name of the firm to Film Foto Verlag after the US entered the war in 1941. The cards stopped being published around 1944.


Marika Rökk. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 221. Photo: Ufa.


Hans Söhnker. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. K 1434. Photo: Foto Binz, Berlin.


Elfie Mayerhofer. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 217, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

A or G or K
Film-Foto-Verlag produced different series, as you can see in this post. Regular were the A cards, mostly with a white border around the photos (sometimes with a small border like at the Olga Tschechova postcard below). This series ran from A 1000/1 to A 4096/1. Another group of cards were known as the G Series. These seemed to be strictly German performers. They measured 4 1/8 by 5 7/8. Another series were knows as the K cards (like the Hans Söhnker one above). They were advertised as 'Kunstblätter'(art sheets). These are not postcards, but larger size photo portraits, similar to studio publicity photos. They came in sizes 20 x 25 cm, 20 X 30 cm, 18 x 24 cm and 15 x 20 cm. They also came in black and white, or the sepia brown as well as gloss finish. The K photos are not as common as the other cards, probably because they were more expensive to purchase.


Olga Tschechova. German postcard by Film-Foro-Verlag, no. A 3837/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


Gustav Diessl. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3909/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.


Magda Schneider. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3826/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film.

Source: Ross Cards.

Sydne Rome

United States-born Sydne Rome (1951) was a gorgeous starlet, who lived in Italy since the early 1970’s. She worked in Europe with interesting directors like Roman Polanski, Duccio Tessari, Claude Chabrol and Sergei Bondarchuk, although the results were not always successful. In the 1980's she became Jane Fonda's rival in the aerobics craze.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

What?
Sydne Rome was born in Akron, U.S. in 1951. Her first name is often misspelled Sydney or Sidney. She grew up in a wealthy family in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Her father was president of a very successful Akron area plastics corporation. She started her career as a delectable double agent in the British spy comedy Some Girls Do (1969, Ralph Thomas) starring Richard Johnson and Daliah Lavi. It was the second of the revamped Jack ‘Bulldog’ Drummond films made in the wake of the success of 007. She then appeared in Italy in the spaghetti western Vivi o, preferibilmente, morti/Sundance and the Kid (1969, Duccio Tessari) starring Giuliano Gemma and Nino Benvenuti. Next she appeared opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the absurd comedy Che?/What? (1973, Roman Polanski). In this lesser known Polanski film, she played a young, seemingly innocent American girl, whose sexually charged adventure in a strange mansion are not unlike Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In Germany, Rome appeared in Reigen/Dance of Love (1973, Otto Schenk), an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's famous play, previously filmed as La Ronde by Max Ophüls in 1950 and Roger Vadim in 1964. In France, she starred with Alain Delon in the political drama La race des Seigneurs/Creezy (1974, Pierre Granier-Deferre) and in England with Roger Moore and Susannah York in the comedy That Lucky Touch (1975, Christopher Miles). Her films of the following years include the comedy fiasco Folies bourgeoisies/The Twist (1976, Claude Chabrol) starring Bruce Dern, Il mostro/The Monster (1977, Luigi Zampa) with Johnny Dorelli, and another debacle Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo/Just a Gigolo (1979, David Hemmings) starring David Bowie.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Aerobics Craze
In the early 1980’s, Sydne Rome became an icon of the aerobics craze and published several workout videos. She also recorded the album Aerobic Fitness Dancing, produced by Frank Farian and recorded in both German, Spanish and Italian. As a singer, she recorded the single Angelo prepotente (1980) for the Italian market and also released English (For You) and German (Wozu) versions of this song. She also recorded a cover version of Marty Balin's hit Hearts. Sporadically, she could be seen in films. She played journalist Louise Bryant in Krasnye kolokola/Red Bells (1982-1983, Sergei Bondarchuk), a two-parts film on the life and career of John Reed (played by Franco Nero), the well-known leftist journalist who first gained fame reporting on the Mexican Revolution and eventually wrote 10 Days that Shook the World on the 1917 Russian Revolution. The story already inspired Warren Beatty's Reds. Later, she mostly worked for television, such as a guest star for the American crime series In The Heat of the Night (1994, Larry Hagman) and in the TV Movie Callas e Onassis/Callas & Onassis: The Legendary Couple (2005, Giorgio Capitani) about Maria Callas and Aristoteles Onassis. In the cinema she regularly appeared in films by Pupi Avati; the mystery-thriller Il nascondiglio/The Hideout (2007, Pupi Avati), the comedy drama Il figlio più piccolo/The Youngest Son (2010, Pupi Avati) with Christian De Sica and Luca Zingaretti, and the drama Il cuore grande delle ragazze/The Big Heart of Girls (2011, Pupi Avati). Sydne Rome married twice. In 1973, she married Emilio Lari; subsequently, she married the noted gerontologist Roberto Bernabei. They live with their two adopted children in Rome.


Trailer Che?/What? (1973). Source: Zeroheadroom (YouTube).


Trailer Reigen/Dance of Love (1973). Source: VideoOnDemandDE (YouTube).

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

Iris Arlan

Beautiful actress Iris Arlan (? - ?) worked for Max Reinhardt’s theatre and appeared in several German and Austrian silent films. Around 1936, after roles in a handful of sound films, she disappeared into oblivion.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5678. Photo: Angelo.

The German answer to Nanook of the North
Very little is known about Iris Arlan, who was sometimes credited as Iris Aslan. We could not find any information about where or when she was born. IMDb indicates that she began her film career in 1927 in the film Die Lindenwirtin am Rhein/The Linden Hostess on the Rhine (1927, Rolf Randolf) with Maly Delschaft and Gerd Briese. That same year she also appeared in supporting parts in Die weiße Spinne/The White Spider (1927, Carl Boese) starring Maria Paudler, and Orientexpress/Orient Express (1927, Wilhelm Thiele) with Lil Dagover. These films were all produced by Phoebus-Film AG, a German company that had produced and distributed films since 1914. The UFA production Milak, der Grönlandjäger/Milak the Greenland Hunter (1928, Georg Asagaroff, Bernhard Villinger), which Filmportal.de calls ‘The German answer to Nanook of the North’, was a curious mix of a documentary about a Greenland expedition (directed by Villinger) and a feature film (directed by Asagaroff), starring Ruth Weyher. In 1927, Arlan also appeared in Austria in Die beiden Seehunde/The two seals (1928, Max Neufeld) with Hans Junkermann, and Glück bei Frauen/Lucky With Women (1928, Hans Otto.) She then appeared in the Hungarian production Mária növér/Sister Maria (1929, Antal Forgács) opposite Werner Pittschau. In 1929 she appeared in five more silent Austrian productions, including Vater Radetzky/Father Radetzky (1929, Karl Reiter).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5516.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5676. Photo: Residenz Atelier.

Max Reinhardt
After the arrival of sound film, there was an interval in Iris Arlan’s film career. A postcard in the collection of Virtual history indicates that she was at one time engaged by Max Reinhardt’s stage company. In 1932, she returned to the cinema in the German historical drama Die Tänzerin von Sans Souci/The Dancer of Sans Souci (1932, Friedrich Zelnik) starring Otto Gebühr as Frederick II. From 1934 on, she played supporting parts in five more films. These included the Austrian production Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten/Boards that mean the world (1935, Kurt Gerron) with Szöke Szakall, and the German comedy Kirschen in Nachbars Garten/ Fruit in the Neighbor's Garden (1935, Erich Engels) with Karl Valentin and Adele Sandrock. Possibly her last film was Arme kleine Inge/Poor Little Inge (1936, Robert Land) with Rolf Wanka. And then, what happened to Iris Aslan?


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5513. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Virtual History, Filmportal.de and IMDb.

Elsa Merlini

Elsa Merlini (1903-1983) was a star of the Italian cinema of the 1930's. She excelled in the 'telefoni bianchi', an Italian genre of sophisticated comedies which were wildly popular before WWII.


Italian postcard by N.M.M., Milano, 1941 - XIX. On the retro side: "Elsa Merlini - l'artista che sa accoppiare il brio più indiavolato, espressioni di languore e di malinconia" (Elsa Merlini - the artist who knows to pair the most devilish vivacity with expressions of languidness and melancholy). This card could be for the film Paprika (1933, Carl Boese) in which spicy Ilonka (Merlini) from Hungary becomes a housemaid in order to win the heart of her misogynist master (Renato Cialente).


With Vittorio De Sica. Italian postcard. The caption 'Ritorna Elsa Merlini tutto pepe' translates as:' Elsa Merlini returns, all pepper'. Photo: probably a publicity still for the film Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (1936, Nunzio Malasomma, Mario Bonnard). The pepper refers to the title of her previous film Paprika (1933, Carl Boese).

Excellent Comedian
Elsa Merlini, pseudonym of Elsa Tscheliesnig, was born in Trieste in 1903, when the city was still part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. She moved to Florence where she worked on her diction because of her German and Slavic influences. She changed her name into the more Italian Merlini, and at 17, she made her stage debut with Annibale Ninchi, the future leading actor of the film Scipione l'Africano/Scipio the African (1937, Carmine Gallone). In 1930 she entered the Nicodemi company and over the years she proved to be an excellent comedian, working with Sergio Tofano and Luigi Cimara . In 1934 she established a new company with her life partner Renato Cialente, Merlini-Cialente. They produced dramatic plays by Anton Chekhov and Luigi Pirandello. Merlini also started a career as a singer, recording several songs. She sometimes sang duets with Vittorio De Sica, such as the song Dammi un bacio e ti dico di si from the film Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (1936, Nunzio Malasomma, Mario Bonnard).


Italian postcard in the series Cines-Pittaluga by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2564. Card given as memory to a visit of La segretaria privata/The Private Secretary (1932, Goffredo Alessandrini) starring Merlini.


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Florence, no. 2858. Photo: S.A.P.F. production.

Private Secretary
Elsa Merlini is best remembered for her telefoni bianchi, the elegant film comedies of the 1930's. Her first film set the tone: it was the musical comedy La segretaria privata/The Private Secretary (1931, Goffredo Alessandrini), an Italian version of the German film operetta Die Privatsekretärin (1931, Wilhelm Thiele) starring Renate Müller. Getting a simple job as a dactylograph - remember we are right in the Depression years - is enough for Elsa to sing out loud: "Oh come son felice, felice, felice", the recurring motif of the soundtrack. Unknowingly, she bonds with the director of the company who regards her as a fling first, but who is finally won over. After this hit, Merlini continued appearing in films such as Paprika (1933, Carl Boese) - again an Italian version of a German picture with the same title, Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (1936, Nunzio Malasomma), and La dama bianca/The White Lady (1938, Mario Mattoli). She often co-starred with Nino Besozzi, who plays the director in La segretaria privata, Renato Cialente, and with Vittorio De Sica.


With Nino Besozzi. Italian postcard by B.F.F. edit., no. 2598. Photo: Produzione SAPF.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. edit., no. 2631. Photo: Produzione SAPF.

Tragic Death
In 1943, Elsa Merlini's lover, Renato Cialente, was killed by a bypassing German car while he was leaving the theater. After the war and her partner's tragic death, Merlini returned to the stage, and did not perform in films until 1951. Then she was relaunched in the cinema with the comedy Cameriera bella presenza offresi/Housemaid (1951, Giorgi Pastina). An all-star cast surrounded Merlini: Gino Cervi, Eduardo and Titina De Filippo, Giulietta Masina, Vittorio De Sica and Isa Miranda. Few other films followed, however. From the late 1950's on, she also performed on television and she also had a prolific career at the radio, first for EIAR, then for the RAI. In 1968 she had her own radio programme La maga Merlini (The Sorceress Merlini). In1983, Elsa Merlini died of a tumor at the age of 80. From 1934 until his death in 1943 she was the partner of Renato Cialente. From 1965 on she was married to Luciano Zuccolini.


Elsa Merlini and Vittorio De Sica sing Dammi un Bacio e ti Dico di Sì. Source: maxmenox60 (YouTube).

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Florelle

French music hall star Florelle (1898 – 1974) was one of the queens of Paris. The petite blonde appeared in 54 films between 1912 and 1956, and also toured around the world. Her most beautiful role was as Fantine in a classic version of Les Miserables (1934).


French postcard by EC (Editions Chantal), no. 53. Photo: Pathé-Natan.

The Mask of Horror
Florelle was born Odette Elisa Joséphine Marguerite Rousseau in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France in 1898. Her father was a modest commercial employee. In 1905 her parents moved to Paris and her mother Diadéma became the cashier of La Cigale, a café-concert in Montmartre. At 14, Florelle appeared on stage in a sketch with Raimu. That same year she made her film debut credited as Mlle Rousseau in the Pathé production Le masque d'horreur/The Mask of Horror (1912). This short silent French horror film was directed by legendary director Abel Gance and co-starred famous French actors such as Edouard de Max and Charles de Rochefort. A mad sculptor, searching for the perfect realization of ‘the mask of horror’, places himself in front of a mirror after smearing blood over himself with the glass of an oil lamp. He then swallows a virulent poison to observe the effects of pain. Florelle then played in another silent short for the production company Le Film d’art, La petite Fifi/The Crime on the Coast (1913, Henri Pouctal) with Marcel Vibert. Florelle showed a gift for singing, and started to perform, first at La Cigale and other Montmartre venues, later in Austria, Romania, Turkey. From 1918 on, she was back in the Montmartre music halls and became one of the queens of Paris. From 1923 on, she continued her film career with such silent films as the mystery L'affaire de la rue de Lourcine/e Case of the Rue de Lourcine (1923, Henri Diamant-Berger) with Maurice Chevalier. She was now credited as Odette Florelle. For director Henri Diamant-Berger, she also appeared in L'accordeur/The tuner (1923, Henri Diamant-Berger), starring Louis Pré Fils and Albert Préjean, Jim Bougne, boxeur/ Boxer Jim Bougne (1923, Henri Diamant-Berger), and in Gonzague (1923, Henri Diamant-Berger) both again with Maurice Chevalier. But then, she went on tour again and performed in Cuba, South-America, Greece and Turkey.


French postcard in the Collection Astra, Les Sables-d'Olonne, no. 59. Posted by mail in 1937. Photo: Combier Mâcon.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 928. Photo: Pathé-Natan.

The Threepenny Opera
After the introduction of sound film, Florelle played in several of alternate language versions of foreign films. In 1930, she appeared at the side of Jean-Max and Colette Darfeuil in the French drama Le procureur Hallers/The Prosecutor Hallers (1930, Robert Wiene). It was the French-language version of the German Tobis-production Der Andere/The Other, based on a play by Paul Lindau. The two films were made at the same studio in Berlin, with director Robert Wiene beginning work on the French version immediately after finishing the German film. In Berlin, Georg Wilhelm Pabst invited her for a screen-test for his film L'opéra de quat' sous/The Threepenny Opera (1930). James Travers at Films de France: “In 1928, Bertolt Brecht et Kurt Weill worked on one of their most successful collaborations, Die Dreigroschenoper, a stage play based on John Gay’s 1728 satire, The Beggar’s Opera. The success of the play soon led to a film adaptation by G.W. Pabst, then one of Germany’s most prominent directors. Three versions of the film were planned – one in English, one in German, and one in French. The English version was abandoned at an early stage, and the German and French versions were made in parallel, with two separate casts. The German version, Die Dreigroschenoper, is the one which is most widely available. L’Opéra de quat’ sous was the name given to the French version.” Florelle got the role of Polly Peachum and her interpretations of the Kurt Weil songs were a huge success. The operetta Nuits de Venise/Venetian Nights (1931, Pierre Billon, Robert Wiene) was an alternative-language version of the German comedy Der Liebesexpreß/The Love Express (1931, Robert Wiene), made at the Emelka Studios in Munich. Florelle also played in the classic fantasy L'Atlantide (1932, Georg Wilhelm Pabst), an alternate language version of Die Herrin von Atlantis/Queen of Atlantis (1932, Georg Wilhelm Pabst). In both versions Brigitte Helm starred as the Queen of Atlantis. Florelle performed an unforgettable Can-can in the film. She then played the lead role in the British French-language comedy La dame de chez Maxim's/The Girl from Maxim's (1933, Alexander Korda). It was the alternate language version of The Girl from Maxim's (1933, Alexander Korda) made by London Film Productions. Both films were based on the 1899 farce La Dame de chez Maxim by Georges Feydeau. Her lively, fresh and carefree performances made her a popular film star, while she also was the ’vedette’ at the Folies Bergère, at the Moulin Rouge, and at the Casino de Paris...


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 2009. Photo: Paramount.


French postcard by Editions Chantal (EC), Paris, no. 33. Photo: Utudjian.

Les Misérables
One of Florelle’s most important films was Les Misérables (1934), a film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel. It was written and directed by Raymond Bernard and starred Harry Baur as Jean Valjean and Charles Vanel as Javert. Florelle played Fantine, a woman forced into prostitution to help pay two cruel innkeepers. Wikipedia: “The film lasts four and a half hours and is considered by critics to be the greatest adaptation of the novel, due to its in-depth development of the themes and characters in comparison with most shorter adaptations.” It was released as three films that premiered over a period of three weeks. She had a small role in Liliom (1936, Fritz Lang) starring Charles Boyer. It is the only film Fritz Lang made in France, after he fled Nazi Germany and before moving to the States, and he brings all his skill and heart and humour to the wonderful Ferenc Molnar story. Another classic is Le Crime de Monsieur Lange/The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936, Jean Renoir) about a publishing cooperative. Wikipedia: “Imbued with the spirit of the left-wing political movement, Popular Front, which would have a major political victory that year, the film chronicles the story of M. Lange (René Lefèvre), a mild-mannered clerk at a publishing company who dreams of writing Western stories. He gets his chance when Batala (Jules Berry), the salacious head of the company, fakes his own death and the abandoned workers decide to form a cooperative. They have great success with Lange's stories about the cowboy, Arizona Jim — whose stories parallel the real-life experiences of the cooperative. At the same time, Lange and his neighbor, Valentine (Florelle), fall in love.” After 1940, the cinema seemed to have forgotten her, and she moved to North-Africa. Later, Florelle hosted a bar in Montmartre, and sang in cabarets and music halls. Incidentally, she appeared in small film parts. An example is the anthology film Trois femmes/Three Women (1952, André Michel), which was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Later she had a part in Gervaise (1956, René Clément) with Maria Schell, and her final film was Le sang à la tête/Blood to the Head (1956, Gilles Grangier) starring Jean Gabin. At 76, Florelle died in La Roche-sur-Yon, France.


Florelle sings Barbara in L'opéra de quat' sous/The Threepenny Opera (1930). Source: Planetraptor420 (YouTube).


Scene from Le Crime de Monsieur Lange/The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936). Source: The Leon Vitali (YouTube).

Sources: Paul Dubé & Jacques Marchioro (Du temps des cerises aux feuilles mortes) (French), James Travers (Films de France), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia (English and French), and IMDb.

Ingrid Ernest

Beautiful Ingrid Ernest (1933 - 1975) was a German stage actress who appeared incidentally in films and on TV. She was married to Arno Hanke, the managing director of the Ufa.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 152. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Ufa.

Television Host
Ingrid Ernest (sometimes written as Ernst) was born as Ingrid Isolde Friedegard Schultze in Leipzig, Germany, in 1933. She was a sister of film actress Jeanette Schultze. Ingrid went to the theatre academy in Berlin. Afterwards she acted on the stages of the German provinces. From 1954 on she was a television host in Köln (Cologne), especially for Eurovision broadcasts. She made her first film appearance in 1958 in the Ufa family comedy Ist Mama nicht fabelhaft?/Isn't Mama Fabulous? (1958, Peter Beauvais) with Luise Ullrich. In the same year, she married Arno Hanke, the managing director of the Ufa, then the biggest film company in Germany. After her marriage she semi-retired, because she didn’t want to misuse the position of her husband. For another company, Roxy-Film, she played the title role in Ingeborg (1960, Wolfgang Liebeneiner) opposite Dietmar Schönherr and Walter Giller. The romantic comedy was based on the comedy of the same name by scripter Curt Goetz. It was to be her last film.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-223. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Joe Niczky / Ufa.


Belgian collector's card, no. 60.

Jail
In the 1960’s, Ingrid Ernest worked mainly on stage for the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf and appeared incidentally on television. The TV film Vor Sonnenuntergang/Before Sundown (1962, Karl-Heinz Stroux) was based on a play by Gerhart Hauptmann. It performed by the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, also with Ernst Deutsch and Gerda Maurus, the legendary star of Fritz Lang’s silent classics Spione/Spies (1928) and Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929). Next Ingrid Ernst played the female leading role in the second season of a Krimi mini-series about a London detective, Tim Frazer - Der Fall Salinger/Tim Frazer - The Salinger Affair (1964, Hans Quest), based on a mystery novel by Francis Durbridge and starring Max Eckard. The following year she caused a car accident and had to go to jail for two weeks. Ingrid Ernest’s last TV appearance was in another registration of a play performed by the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, Das Käthchen von Heilbronn (1968), based on the famous play by Heinrich von Kleist. Ingrid Ernest died in 1975, only 42 years old.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (Dutch licency holder for Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 4169. Photo: Betzler / Ufa.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4130. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Weise / Ufa.

Sources: collector’s card, Filmportal.de, and IMDb.