Ross Verlag, Part 29: Bunte Filmbilder

Ross Verlag published several series of cigarette cards, which were much smaller than the famous Ross postcards. These cards (app. 7 x 5,5 cm or 28 x 22, 5 inches) were sold in packs or cartons of cigarettes in Germany and a few other countries. One of the series was called Bunte Filmbilder (Colourful Film Pictures) of which we know two series with both Hollywood and European stars. The cards have numbers on the back and were meant to be pasted into a book. The book for the second series was published in 1936. Some pictures were duplicates of photos seen on postcards, but others were designed just for the cigarette cards, which were printed for different tobacco brands.With twenty of these wonderful and indeed colourful film pictures, EFSP finishes our Ross Verlag Tribute.


Theo Lingen. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Martin Brinkmann A.G., Bremen, no. 53. Photo: Projektograph-Film. Theo Lingen in Wer zuletzt küßt… / Who Kisses Last... (E.W. Emo, 1936).


Hans Albers. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for G. Zuban, München, no. 115. Photo: Ufa.


Weiss Ferdl. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling AG, no. 152. Photo: Majestic-Syndikat-Film.


Heinrich George. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for G. Zuban, München, no. 190. Photo: Badal / Terra. Heinrich George in Stjenka Rasin/Stenka Rasin (Alexandre Volkoff, 1936).


Fredric March. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Lloyd Zigaretten, no. 212. Photo: Paramount. Fredric March in The Eagle and the Hawk (Stuart Walker, 1933).


Carole Lombard. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greilingen-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 259. Photo: Paramount.


Else Elster. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Caid Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 323. Photo: Schulz and Wuellner.


Genia Nikolaieva. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 358. Photo: Ufa.


Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Drama Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 360. Photo: Projectograph-Film.


Rochelle Hudson. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Lloyd Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 374. Photo: Fox-Film.


Geraldine Katt. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 383. Photo: Bavaria. Geraldine Katt in Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Karl Heinz Martin, 1937).


Annabella. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 384. Photo: New World Pictures.


Hilde von Stolz. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Caid, Series 2, no. 394. Photo: Bavaria.


Camilla Horn. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Cigarettenfabrik Caid, Series 2, no. 402. Photo: Bavaria. Camilla Horn in Sein letztes Modell/His Last Model (Rudolf van der Noss, 1937).


Luis Trenker. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 403. Photo: Trenker / Tobis / Rota.


Hans Richter. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Drama Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 459. Photo: Cando-Film.


Albrecht Schoenhals. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greilingen Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 465. Photo: Deka-Syndikat-Film.


Elizabeth Allan. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Greiling-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 484. Photo: Styria-Film.


Hans Holt. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Caid, Series no. 2, no. 491. Photo: Styria-Film. Hans Holt in Lumpacivagabundus/Lumpaci the Vagabond (Géza von Bolváry, 1936).


Shirley Temple. German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series for Caid, Series no. 2, no. 496. Photo: Fox-Film.

Source: Mark Goffee (Ross Verlag Movie Star Postcards). This was the last post in our Ross Verlag Tribute!

Richard Chamberlain (1934-2025)

On 29 March 2025, American actor Richard Chamberlain (1934) passed away. The impeccably handsome Chamberlain was TV's leading heartthrob because of his title role in Dr. Kildare (1961-1966). He turned his back on Hollywood, devoting himself to the stage and a new European film career. Later he became the 'King of the Miniseries'. He was 90.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/240.


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C. 174, 1964. Richard Chamberlain in the TV series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966).


Vintage Spanish photo. Glenda Jackson and Richard Chamberlain in The Music Lovers (Ken Russell, 1971), a biopic on composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.


British postcard Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. FN 147. Richard Chamberlain in Shōgun (1980).

The leading heartthrob of early 1960s television

George Richard Chamberlain was born in 1934 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. He was the second son of Elsa Winnifred (von Benzon) and Charles Axiom Chamberlain, who was a salesman. He had a profoundly unhappy childhood and did not enjoy school, making up for it somewhat by excelling in track and developing a strong interest in acting. In 1952, Chamberlain graduated from Beverly Hills High School and in 1956, he graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California. In December 1956, he was drafted into the United States Army for 16 months, serving in Korea.

Soon after his discharge from the army, Chamberlain headed for Hollywood. In 1959, he co-founded the theatre company the Company of Angels (CoA), now the oldest not-for-profit repertory theatre in Los Angeles. In just a couple of years, Chamberlain worked up a decent resumé with several visible guest spots on such popular series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959), Gunsmoke (1960) and Mr. Lucky (1960). As the star of the medical series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966), he became the leading heartthrob of early 1960s television. As the impeccably handsome Dr. James Kildare, the slim, butter-haired hunk with the near-perfect Ivy-League charm and smooth, intelligent demeanour, had the distaff fans fawning unwavering over him through the series' run.

While this would appear to be a dream situation for any new star, it brought Chamberlain a significant, unsettling identity crisis. More interested in a reputation as a serious actor, Chamberlain took a considerable risk and turned his back on Hollywood, devoting himself to the stage. An important dramatic role opposite Julie Christie in Petulia (Richard Lester, 1968) led him to England. He played a recently divorced doctor who finds solace in the company of an unhappily married socialite.

In the 1970s, Chamberlain enjoyed success as a leading man in European films. He played composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in The Music Lovers (Ken Russell, 1970) opposite Glenda Jackson, Lord Byron alongside Sarah Miles in Lady Caroline Lamb (Robert Bolt, 1972), and Aramis in The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) with Michael York as D'Artagnan. The sequel, The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1974), was released the following year.

Then he was the villain in the disaster film The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin, 1974) opposite Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, and Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo (David Greene, 1975). In The Slipper and the Rose (Bryan Forbes, 1976), a musical version of the Cinderella story, co-starring Gemma Craven as Cinderella, he displayed his vocal talents as the Prince. In 1977, he earned cult status for the Australian thriller The Last Wave (Peter Weir, 1977). He played a Sydney lawyer who defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.


British postcard in the Star Pics series, no. SP459.


American Arcade card.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. S-1679.

Outed at the age of 55

Since then, Richard Chamberlain has appeared in several miniseries such as Shōgun (Jerry London, 1980) opposite Toshirô Mifune and The Thorn Birds (Daryl Duke, 1983). He was the first to play Jason Bourne in the miniseries The Bourne Identity Roger Young, (1988). It earned him the title 'King of the Miniseries'.

He also performed classical stage roles and worked in the musical theatre. He was awarded the 1973 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Performance for his role as Cyrano in 'Cyrano de Bergerac' (1973). On stage, he was also Henry Higgins in 'My Fair Lady' (1993-1994), Captain Von Trapp in 'The Sound of Music' (1999) and Ebenezer Scrooge in 'Scrooge: The Musical' (2005).

Chamberlain was romantically involved with television actor Wesley Eure in the early 1970s. In 1977, he met actor-writer-producer Martin Rabbett, with whom he began a long-term relationship. This led to a civil union in Hawaii, where the couple resided from 1986 to 2010 when Chamberlain legally adopted Rabbett to protect his future estate. Rabbett and Chamberlain starred together in, among others, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (Gary Nelson, 1986), in which they played brothers Allan and Robeson Quatermain.

Chamberlain was outed, at the age of 55, by the French women's magazine Nous Deux in December 1989, but it was not until 2003 that he confirmed his homosexuality, in his autobiography, 'Shattered Love'. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Married now to his longtime partner of over 40 years, writer/producer Martin Rabbett, he has accepted himself and shown to be quite a good sport in the process, appearing as gay characters in the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (Dennis Dugan, 2007), and in TV episodes of Will & Grace (1998), Desperate Housewives (2004) and Brothers & Sisters (2006)."

In the spring of 2010, Richard Chamberlain returned to Los Angeles to pursue career opportunities, leaving Rabbett in Hawaii. Recently, Richard Chamberlain could be seen in the films, Nightmare Cinema (Joe Dante, 2018) and Finding Julia (Igor Sunara, 2019) and in an episode of the TV series Twin Peaks (David Lynch, 2017) starring Kyle MacLachlan. Chamberlain died of complications from a stroke in Waimānalo, Hawaii, on 29 March 2025 at the age of 90.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 37.


American press photo by Helen Ferguson Public Relations, El Camino / Beverly Hills, no. DR 155. Photo: MGM-TV. Dina Merrill and Richard Chamberlain in the episode Oh, My Daughter (Buzz Kulik, 1962) of the TV series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966).


American Arcade card.


Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 55, 1964.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Rudy Hirigoyen

Rudy Hirigoyen (1919-2000) was a handsome French, Bask tenor, who was a famous Operetta singer in the 1940s and 1950s and a competitor of Luis Mariano. He starred in three French films, the musical comedy Musique en tête (1951), and the comedies Le collège en folie (1954) and L'auberge en folie (1956).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 209. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1. Photo: Hélène Hapaille.

A miracle happened

Rudy Hirigoyen was born Émile Jean Baptiste Hirigoyen in 1919 in Mendionde in the heart of the French Pyrenees, in the Basque Country. Hirigoyen followed his parents to Paris in 1927. His family was of modest means, and he worked from an early age. He began his career as a hunter at the Hotel Georges V, then worked as a hairdresser for four years.

In his spare time, he sang for pleasure. Rudy was a dashing young man, small but robust, with a bright smile. Without any musical training, he won two radio talent shows in 1938. The following year, he came first in the Opéra and Opéra-Comique competitions with an aria from Giacomo Puccini's 'La Bohème', 'Que cette main est froide', ahead of 110 competitors. This success encouraged him to say goodbye to hairbrushes and curlers and to embark on a singing career.

He entered the Paris Conservatoire but was mobilised in 1939, taken prisoner and released in 1941. He was hired as a chorister at the Théâtre du Châtelet and as Maurice Vidal's ‘triplure’. A miracle happened: he sang Johann Strauss's 'Valses de Vienne' several times in 1941 and soon made a name for himself as a soloist. He was noticed by Henri Varna, who offered him a role in a tableau in one of his revues at the Casino de Paris. In 1944, he had his first successes: 'Ma belle au bois dormant', 'Au jardin de mon cœur', and 'Pastourelle à Nina'. Varna engaged him for the ‘verse comedy’ 'La Concierge est dans l'escalier' (1946) at the Palace, where he was the partner of Jane Sourza and Raymond Souplex.

As an Operetta singer, he was facing stiff competition from Luis Mariano. In 1947, Rudy took over from Mariano and performed Francis Lopez's 'La Belle de Cadix', first at the Casino-Montparnasse and then in the provinces. Rudy was later often Mariano's unofficial replacement, notably in 'Andalousie' (1954), 'Le Chanteur de Mexico' and 'Le Secret de Marco-Polo'. Rudy Hirigoyen reached his zenith in 1949 when he performed the first post-war Parisian revival of Franz Lehár's masterpiece, the operetta 'Le Pays du sourire' at the Gaîté-Lyrique.

With elegance and a rare warmth, the young singer proved himself a worthy successor to his elders, Louis Izar, Willy Thunis and José Janson. His tenor voice rose to the top with great ease, and he could hold it for a long time. This lightness combined with suppleness compensated for a lack of power in his delivery (light voices are rarely powerful) and allowed the singer never to be ‘shrill’.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. Rudy Hirigoyen in 'Le Pays du Sourire', the French version of the operetta 'Das Land des Lächelns' by Franz Lehár. It was performed in 1949 at the Paris' Gaité Lyrique.

Lacking a big hit

During the 1950s, Rudy Hirigoyen went on to recreate the such operettas as 'Le Brigand d'amour' (1951), 'Les Caprices de Vichnou (1951) at the Théâtre de l'Étoile and also created new works like 'Pour toi' (music by Georges Dherain), and 'Maria-Flora' (music by Henri Betti, 1957).

He also acted in three films. The first was the musical comedy Musique en tête / Music on Your Mind (Georges Combret, Claude Orval, 1951) with Jacques Hélian and his orchestra. Three years later followed the comedy Le collège en folie / College on the Run (Henri Lepage, 1954) in which he had the lead opposite Nicole Courcel. His third and last film was the sequel, L'auberge en folie / The Crazy Hostel (Pierre Chevalier, 1956), again with Hirigoyen in the lead and now with Geneviève Kervine as his co-star.

In 1959, Francis Lopez wrote his first operetta, especially for the tenor: in 'Viva Napoli!', Rudy played a very credible Bonaparte. Viva Napoli! was performed 100 times by its creator the following year at the Théâtre Mogador. After that, productions with Hirigoyen in the French capital were few and far between. He appeared on stage in 'Méditerranée' (1964) at the Théâtre du Châtelet, and again in 'Viva Napoli' (music by Francis Lopez, 1970) at the Mogador.

Until 1987, he toured France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and North Africa performing works by Francis Lopez including 'La Toison d'Or', 'La Route fleurie', 'Le Prince de Madrid', and 'Gipsy'. His last creation was an operetta by Francis Lopez, 'Fandango', presented in 1987 at the Élysée-Montmartre. What Rudy Hirigoyen seems to have lacked to have the same reputation as Luis Mariano, Georges Guétary or André Dassary, is a big hit to which his name could have been attached. He made some fine creations, but not a ‘hit’.

In the 1980s, he gave singing lessons at the Cité des Artistes in Paris. Later he moved to Lyon. As the honorary president of the Friends of the Lyon Operetta Theatre, he supported the continued existence of the art of Operetta. Rudy Hirigoyen died in 2000 in Lyon, at the age of 81. He was married to Christiane Lamielle (1954-1969; divorce), Denise Bienvenu (1975-?) and Sylviane Ohanessian (1996-2000; his death). He had a daughter, Valérie. After his death, the 'Association des Amis de Rudy Hirigoyen' was set up to publish his memoirs: 'Ma vie d'opérette'.


French postcard, offered by Les Carbones Korès, 'Carboplane', no. 372.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 29. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

Sources: Jean-Claude Fournier (Théâtre Musical - Opérette - French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

Sparrows (1926)

Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926) is one of Mary Pickford's most unexpected films and her only Gothic melodrama. As Molly, the eldest child at a baby farm hidden deep in a swamp, she must rescue the others when their cruel master decides that one of them will be disposed of. Pickford, who was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at the time, also produced the film. It was the last time she portrayed a child.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 697. Photo: United Artists. Mary Pickford in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926). The Italian release title was Passerotti.


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 776. Photo: United Artists. Monty O'Grady and Mary Pickford in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926). The Italian release title was Passerotti.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 497. Mary Pickford and Mary Louise Miller in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926).

A horror baby farm

Sparrows (1926) is situated in the American South where the mean Mr Grimes (Gustav von Seyffertitz) runs a farm with his wife (Charlotte Mineau) and their mentally retarded son Ambrose (Spec O'Donnell), surrounded by barely accessible swamps and alligators. The Grimes family admits abandoned children and babies - mainly orphans - so they can work on their land. The children have hard-working hours and are mistreated, almost starved, and practically kept in prison by their wicked guardians. They have to hide when strangers turn up to conceal these conditions from the outside world.

The eldest orphan, Molly (Mary Pickford), mainly looks after the small children and occasionally steals food for them. She is motivated by charity and her faith in God, which she also tries to pass on to the boys and girls. God, says Molly, would watch over everyone here and protect them just as he does for the sparrows... When a cattle dealer appears on the farm one day, Ambrose Grimes sells him one of the children for profit: Splutters, the little ‘stutterer’. Meanwhile, Molly keeps the increasingly desperate children happy by repeating the Bible quote about God's sparrows so that the little ones never completely lose hope.

Ambrose catches Molly embezzling potatoes because the children are starving. Despite Molly's insistent pleas, old Grimes makes all the children suffer and tortures them even more cruelly. The youngest of the children is already so ill that he dies the next night in the face of this latest affliction. Like a vision, Jesus Christ enters the barn and takes the baby to himself. When Molly wakes up, the little one is dead.

The Grimes clan is becoming increasingly brutal and ruthless. They kidnap the infant Doris Wayne (Mary Louise Miller) to extort a ransom from her father, a millionaire. Molly is overjoyed with the new baby. When Mr Grimes reads about the kidnapping in the newspaper a few days later, he tells his son to throw the baby into the swamp so as not to lead the police onto Grimes' trail. At the last moment, the courageous Molly can prevent this crime and takes Doris. The young woman realises that she and her ‘sparrows of God’ must finally stand up to their murderous tormentors. First, she tries to fend off the Grimes threat with a pitchfork. Then they all finally dare to escape. The little trek of minors sets off to cross the dangerous swamp, where hungry alligators are just waiting for fresh meat. Grimes is not worried about this; he firmly believes that either the swamp or the alligators will do the dirty work for him and devour the fugitives. In fact, all the children escape unharmed and hide in a motorboat that belongs to the kidnappers.

Splutters, the ‘stutterer’ (Monty O'Grady) has escaped from his ‘buyer’ and is recognised as one of the missing children. He tells the Police about Mr Grimes' horror farm and his family. Mr Wayne (Roy Stewart) is also present and hopes to get his little daughter back soon. Finally, the police set out to carry out a large-scale raid in the swamps. Molly's hiding place in the boat proves to be too dangerous. Old Grimes is chased by the police during the raid, flees into the marshes and sinks there. Mrs Grimes and her wayward son reach the motorboat where Molly and her ‘sparrows’ had just been and flee. As they are unable to shake off a police boat patrol, they switch to a more manoeuvrable rubber dinghy, but are immediately run over by the police boat and also die in the muddy water. Molly and the others, including the kidnapped Wayne baby Doris, are rescued, and as an act of gratitude, the rich Mr Wayne promises to look after all the rescued children from now on.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 906. Photo: United Artists / Projectograph-Film. Mary Pickford and Mary Louise Miller in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926).


Italian postcard in the Archivio series by Diesse F. Lli de Siena / S. Girogrio A. Cremano, Napoli, no. 41. Mary Pickford in Through the Back Door (1921). The Italian postcard refers to Passerotti, the Italian title for Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926). EFSP collaborator Marlene Pilaete writes us: 'Through the Back Door is available on YouTube. I've watched the beginning and after approximately 13min43 of running time, you see Pickford in the same dress, with the same furniture and you can also see the doll, By the way, did you notice that the doll is a traditional little Dutch boy. As Pickford plays a Belgian girl in Through the Back Door, it makes sense. The Archivio postcards were issued in the 1970s or 1980s and I think the mistake comes from that they were made much later after the Pickford movies were made.


Italian postcard in the Archivio series by Diesse F. Lli de Siena / S. Girogrio A. Cremano, Napoli, no. 42. Marlene Pilaete: "I think that the Archivio Series postcard nr 42 also comes from another movie than Sparrows, maybe also from Through the Back Door. On this postcard, Mary Pickford sports her famous curls and she is well-dressed. In Sparrows, she sports her hair with braids and wears plain and worn-out dresses."

There wasn't an alligator within ten miles of Miss Pickford

According to a then-well-established theatrical and cinematic convention, the role of Molly was given to an adult actress, while child actors were given supporting parts. Mary Pickford, already 33 years old at the time of filming, had specialised during her career in such little girl parts, and Sparrows (1926) was the final one in a long successful row. Sparrows was Pickford's next-to-last silent role, followed by My Best Girl (1927) in which she played a young woman of indeterminate age. After that, Pickford made some talking pictures before retiring to Pickfair, her estate, with her husband Douglas Fairbanks.

Sparrows was produced by the Pickford Corporation with an estimated budget of $463,455 and shot in July 1925 in West Hollywood. It was directed by William Beaudine and (uncredited) Tom McNamara. Winifred Dunn wrote the story. Art director Harry Oliver designed the magnificent film set. He went to great lengths to transform 4 acres (16,000 m2) of the back lot between Willoughby Avenue and Alta Vista Street into a stylized Gothic swamp. The ground was scraped bare in places, 600 trees were transplanted, and pits were dug and filled with a mixture of burned cork, sawdust and muddy water.

Sparrows is a full-blooded Gothic melodrama. The subject matter is dark, and some of the horrors are reminiscent of Charles Dickens, but the darkness is interspersed with plenty of laughs. Mary Pickford plays naturally and her little co-stars are of unprecedented ease. The film also presents Gustav von Seyffertitz with the best role of his career. Distributed by United Artists, the film premiered in Hollywood on 14 May 1926 and in New York on 19 September. Some critics expected that Sparrows would be too strong for audiences, but it did well. In the United States, the film grossed $966,878. In later years, Pickford repeatedly recounted the story that she was concerned that director William Beaudine was jeopardizing the actors, particularly when he insisted she carry a real baby, rather than a doll as she wanted, across some water teeming with alligators (albeit with their jaws bound shut). However, Hal Mohr, the film's director of photography, debunked this tale, saying "There wasn't an alligator within ten miles of Miss Pickford," and revealing in precise detail how the effect was done.

An incomplete six-reel copy of the film - a 35 mm nitrate tinted positive - is preserved in the archives of the Library of Congress (American Film Institute / Mary Pickford collection). A 35 mm positive is in the archives of the Cinémathèque Française; negatives and positives are in those of the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education film collection. The film was presented in 2008 at the Giornate del Cinema Muto (the Pordenone Silent Film Festival) in Italy.

Film historian Jeffrey Vance considers Sparrows to be Pickford's masterpiece. In his program notes for the Giornate del Cinema Muto, Vance wrote: "Sparrows is her most fully realized and timeless work of art. The film’s superb performances, gothic production design, and cinematography all serve a suspenseful, emotionally compelling story anchored by a central performance by Pickford herself imbued with pathos, humour, and charm." In 2012, Milestone Film & Video released the Library of Congress restoration of Sparrows to DVD and Blu-ray, as part of the box set 'Rags and Riches: Mary Pickford Collection". It contains an audio commentary track by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta.


Italian postcard by Edit. B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 473. Photo: United Artists. Mary Pickford in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926). The Italian release title was Passerotti.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1852/2, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 700. Photo: United Artists. Mary Pickford in Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926). The Italian release title was Passerotti.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, French, German, Italian and English) and IMDb. With special thanks to Marlene Pilaete!

Hubert von Meyerinck

Complete with a waxed moustache and monocle, bald, straight-backed German actor Hubert von Meyerinck (1896-1971) looked every inch a poster boy for Prussian militarism. After his debut in Berlin in 1917, he became a prominent stage actor as Marlene Dietrich's partner in the 1927 revue 'Es liegt was in der Luft', as Mephisto in 'Faust' and as Mack the Knife in Brecht's 'Threepenny Opera'. From 1929, he appeared in 294 films, normally in supporting roles. Audiences loved him as oily swindlers, impoverished aristocrats out to marry for money, bigamists, effete movie folk or obtuse officials.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 64, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Georg Alexander, Harry Liedtke and Hubert von Meyerinck in Der Mann ohne Nahmen/The Man Without a Name (Georg Jacoby, 1921).


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 1322/1, 1937-1938. Photo: K.J. Fritzsche Prod. / Tobis / Magna. Hubert von Meyerinck in Der Unwiderstehliche / The Irresistible Man (Géza von Bolváry, 1937).

Men with an airy-fairy demeanour who often turned out to be impostors or criminals

Hubert(us) Georg Werner Harald von Meyerinck was born in 1896 in Potsdam, Germany. He was the only son of Friedrich von Meyerinck, a Captain in the Prussian Army and landowner, and his first wife Caroline née von Hoppenstedt. The actress Gudrun Genest was his niece. As a young child, von Meyerinck already started taking acting lessons, much to the disdain of his parents who wanted him to become a priest.

After the divorce of his parents in 1909, he grew up with his mother on the family estate in Posen. He then attended a grammar school in Godesberg and was called up for military service during World War I. He served for a short time as an ensign in Karlsruhe but was discharged due to a lung disease that led to several stays in a sanatorium.

After acting lessons with Rudolf Lettinger, he made his theatre debut in 1917 at the Berliner Schauspielhaus as Leutnant von Hagen in Paul Heyse's 'Kolberg'. From 1918 to 1920, he had an engagement at the Hamburg Kammerspiele and then returned to Berlin, where he appeared successfully in Carl Sternheim's avant-garde plays. He appeared in various revues and cabarets, including the famous Tingeltangel. He later played at the Deutsches Theater, the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm (for example in the musical revue 'Es liegt was in der Luft' (There's Something in the Air) with Marlene Dietrich) and the Lessingtheater in roles such as Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife) in Bertolt Brecht's 'Die Dreigroschenoper' (The Threepenny Opera), and as the title figure in Carl Zuckmayer's satire 'Der Hauptmann von Köpenick' (The Captain of Köpenick).

In 1920, von Meyerinck was discovered for silent film. Bald, with a moustache and often wearing a monocle, he became a well-known figure in German film. After his first significant role in the serial Der Mann ohne Namen/Peter Voss, Thief of Millions (Georg Jacoby, 1921), he played supporting roles in silent films like Manon Lescaut (Arthur Robison, 1926) starring Lya de Putti or Wilhelm Dieterle's Ich lebe für Dich/Triumph of Love (1929). Initially, von Meyerinck emphasised the femininity of his appearance. In a Paul Wegener film, he danced on a table dressed in pink ballet flats, his mother's ermine cape and a blue silk cap as a headdress.

His distinctive homoerotic nuances were later used by his directors for negative characterisation. In the later emerging sound film, he brought his characteristic voice and rasping articulation to bear. He played men with an airy-fairy demeanour who often turned out to be impostors or criminals. Among his most popular works in the early sound days were Max Ophüls' Die verliebte Firma/The Company's in Love (1932), Wenn die Liebe Mode macht/When Love Sets the Fashion (Franz Wenzler, 1932) with Renate Müller and Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) starring Hans Albers, Gerda Maurus and Peter Lorre. He became the most popular film villain in German cinema.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3809/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.

Bizarre officials, aristocrats, generals and devious con artists

During the National Socialist era, Hubert von Meyerinck appeared in numerous films. Between 1933 and 1945, he appeared in over 90 productions, ranging from the comedy Ein falscher Fuffziger (1935) and Willi Forst's adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami (1939) to Helmut Käutner's Kitty und die Weltkonferenz/Kitty and the World Conference (1939), starring Hannelore Schroth.

He also played smaller parts in propagandistic productions like Ein Volksfeind/An Enemy of the People (Hans Steinhoff, 1937) starring Heinrich George or Trenck, der Pandur/Trenck, Officer of the Pandurs (Herbert Selpin, 1940). In 1944, von Meyerinck was on the 'Gottbegnadeten-Liste' (the list of godsent) by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. In the theatre, he was repeatedly seen in classical roles, for example as Mephisto in Goethe's 'Faust' or as Malvolio in William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'.

Although it was known that von Meyerinck was homosexual, he was not prosecuted by the Nazis. His friend and colleague Kurt von Ruffin, who was also homosexual, was imprisoned in a concentration camp for nine months. According to Von Ruffin, Von Meyerink did not exercise any great restraint about his orientation at the time and stood by friends who were at risk. The Jewish director Billy Wilder spoke about Meyernick in a 1997 interview with Der Spiegel: "I remember a gay actor, we called him Hubsi, Hubert von Meyerinck. He never vaunted himself for that, but during the Kristallnacht, he went along the Kurfürstendamm and called: 'If somebody among you is Jewish, follow me!' He cached the people in his apartment. Yes, there were decent people, whose words you could believe, that it was hard to do resistance during that time. People like Meyerinck were marvellous, wonderful." Von Meyerinck moved to Munich in 1950 but also performed at the theatres in Göttingen and Wuppertal. In 1966, he received a permanent engagement at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, where he gave his last performance as Agamemnon in 'Die schöne Helena' in 1971.

In the post-war cinema, he was cast in film comedies as bizarre officials, aristocrats, generals and devious con artists. In 1957 alone, "Hubsi" – as he was endearingly called by his fans – appeared in 13 films, including the box office hits Der tolle Blomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Rolf Thiele, 1957) and Das Wirtshaus im Spessart/The Spessart Inn (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957). One of von Meyerinck's most famous roles was in Billy Wilder's classic comedy One, Two, Three (1961). There he played the impoverished yet pompous Count von Droste-Schattenburg, who worked as a toilet attendant and who adopted Horst Buchholz for financial reasons. Hubert von Meyerinck's last film successes were in the Edgar Wallace films Im Banne des Unheimlichen/The Zombie Walks (Alfred Vohrer, 1968) starring Joachim Fuchsberger, Der Gorilla von Soho/The Gorilla of Soho (Harald Philipp, 1968) with Horst Tappert, and Der Mann mit dem Glasauge/The Man With the Glass Eye (Alfred Vohrer, 1969), in which he played Sir Arthur, the quirky head of Scotland Yard. He appeared in a total of five Wallace films between 1965 and 1969.

By the end of his life, he had appeared in more than 275 films. Von Meyerinck knew how to shield his private life from the media. He was called ‘Hubsi’ or ‘Knurpsi’ by friends, family and colleagues. His memoirs were published in 1967 under the title 'Meine berühmten Freundinnen' (My Famous Girlfriends), in which he wrote about prominent colleagues like Marlene Dietrich and Adele Sandrock, but also about his beloved mother, with whom he had lived at Giesebrechtstraße 18 until her death. In 1971, Hubert von Meyerinck died of heart failure in Hamburg's Bethanien Hospital. He was 71. His grave is located in the Protestant cemetery in the parish of Schladen near Goslar. Berlin honoured him in August 1994 with the naming of Meyerinckplatz in Charlottenburg.


West German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1467. Photo: CCC / Gloria / Arthur Grimm. Hubert von Meyerinck in Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager / Love, Dance, and 1000 Songs (Paul Martin, 1955).


West German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf. Photo: DFH / CCC / Arthur Grimm / Krau. Vico Torriani, Gerlinde Locker, Wolfgang Müller, Wolfgang Neuss, Hubert von Meyerinck and Ruth Stephan in Der Stern von Santa Clara / The Star of Santa Clara (Werner Jacobs, 1958).

Sources: I.S.Mowis (IMDb), Filmportal, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.