Laurence Olivier

Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to modern American and British drama. The Brit got fourteen Oscar nominations, with two wins for Best Actor and Best Picture for Hamlet (1948), and two honorary awards.


Belgian Postcard by Les Editions d’Art L.A.B., Brussels, no. 1533. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Fire Over England (William K. Howard, 1937).


British postcard by Publicity Photographs LTD., London, no. 373.


British postcard by Art Photo, no. 104. Photo: London Film / Erich Pommer Production. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in Fire Over England (William K. Howard, 1937).


British postcard by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), no. P236. Photo: Laszlo Willinger, 1940. Caption: Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton.


Swiss postcard by News Productions, Baulmes, no. 55833. Photo: W. Eugene Smith. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in a stage production of 'Romeo and Juliet' in 1940.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1266. Photo: J. Rank Org. Ltd. Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (Laurence Olivier, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 695b. Photo: London Films.

The next Ronald Colman

Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, England, in 1907. He was raised in a severe, strict, and religious household, ruled over by his father, Gerard Kerr Olivier, an Anglican minister. Larry took solace in the care of his mother, Agnes Louis née Crookenden, and was grief-stricken when she died when he was only 12. A year later, he went to St. Edward's School in Oxford and appeared in school drama productions. At 15, he played Katherine in 'The Taming of the Shrew' to rave reviews. Another success was his Puck in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

His father, who was an unabashed theatre lover, decided that Larry would become an actor. He entered the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Arts in London at the age of 17. One of his instructors was Claude Rains. Upon graduation in 1926, he joined The Birmingham Repertory Company, where he would play 'Hamlet' and 'Macbeth'. He married actress Jill Esmond in 1930, but the marriage was not happy.

At first, Olivier's athleticism and elegant features typecast him as a young innocent hero. Although he appeared in a spate of London successes, such as 'Journey's End', 'The Last Enemy' and 'Private Lives', he still struggled for serious recognition. The good-looking Olivier made his film debut opposite Lilian Harvey in The Temporary Widow (Gustav Ucicky, 1930). He went to Hollywood as the ‘next Ronald Colman’, but initially, he held the cinema in little regard.

He played a lead in The Yellow Ticket (Raoul Walsh, 1931) and was chosen to play Antonio in Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933), but was rejected by the star, Greta Garbo.

He returned to London and played opposite Gloria Swanson in Perfect Understanding (Cyril Gardner, 1933). In 1935, he had his stage breakthrough in 'Romeo and Juliet', alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with John Gielgud. This resulted in an invitation to be the star at the Old Vic in 1937/1938. His tenure had mixed artistic results, but by the season's end, he was one of the major Shakespearean actors in England. He made his first Shakespeare film adaptation, As You Like It (Paul Czinner, 1936), but he decided that Shakespeare did not work well on film.


Spanish card, no. 1074. Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier in The Divorce of Lady X (Tim Whelan, 1938).


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 291. Photo: Columbia. Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson in Q Planes / Clouds Over Europe (Tim Whelan, Arthur B. Woods, 1939).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 1518. Photo: MGM. Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940). The Wallonian title is Orgueil et Préjugés.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in That Hamilton Woman / Lady Hamilton (Alexander Korda, 1941).


Romanian collector card. Photo: Universal Film. Laurence Olivier and Renée Asherson in Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944).


Yugoslav postcard. Photo: Victory Rank. Publicity still for Hamlet (Laurence Olivier, 1948).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 214. Photo: Victory Rank. Publicity still for Hamlet (Laurence Olivier, 1948).


British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. F.S.5. Photo: Laurence Olivier directs a scene in Hamlet (1948).


Spanish card by F. Molina, Madrid. D.L.M. 7.803/59. Photo: still from Hamlet (1948).

Turning point

Laurence Olivier saw Vivien Leigh in 'The Mask of Virtue' in 1936, and a friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. They played lovers in the film Fire Over England (William K. Howard, 1937). In private, the (both married) actors also began an affair.

After the shooting of the film, Olivier travelled to Hollywood to play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939). Leigh followed soon to be with him ánd to pursue her dream of playing Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

The filming of Wuthering Heights proved to be a turning point for Olivier, both in his success in the USA, which had eluded him until then, but also in his attitude to film, which he had regarded as an inferior medium. He began to moderate his performance and began to appreciate the possibilities film offered.

Wuthering Heights was a hit, and Olivier was nominated for an Oscar. Leigh won the Oscar for Gone with the Wind, and the couple suddenly found themselves to be major celebrities. They were married in 1940.

Olivier's film career flourished with highly regarded performances in Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) and Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940). In That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda, 1941), he played Horatio Nelson, and Leigh played Emma Hamilton.


French postcard in the Collection 'Portraits de Cinema' by Editions Admira, Aix-en-Provence & Chapman Collection / SNAP Photos / Cosmos, no. PHN 661. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in William Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1951). In 1951, the play ran in repertory with G.B. Shaw's 'Caesar and Cleopatra' at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1099. Photo: publicity still for Richard III (Laurence Olivier, 1955) with Claire Bloom.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 438.


British postcard in the Royal Shakespeare Company series, no. 27. Photo: Angus McBean. Publicity still for the stage production of 'Macbeth' at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1955.


British postcard in the Royal Shakespeare Company series, no. 28. Photo: Angus McBean. Publicity still for the stage production of 'Twelfth Night' at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1955.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 228. Photo: Two Cities.


German postcard by Netter's Star Verlag, Berlin. Photo: London Film.

In character

When Britain engaged in World War II, the Oliviers returned to England. In 1944, Laurence Olivier made his film directing debut with an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V. James C. Robertson writes in Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors: "With a lavish budget for the time, Henry V is beautifully filmed in Technicolour, draws on an excellent cast, and benefits from William Walton's stirring but unobtrusive music. Olivier's central performance is impeccable, while the battle sequences provide a spectacular climax."

After being knighted in 1947, Olivier adapted Hamlet (Laurence Olivier, 1948), again for his own film company, Two Cities. James C. Robertson: "He drastically shortened Shakespeare's text, but with much less visual action, the film appealed less to audiences than the flamboyant Henry V. Even so, Desmond Dickinson's imaginative monochrome cinematography, which helps create a brooding atmosphere of suppressed tension, is impressive, and Olivier assembles a fine cast and gives a memorable performance himself as Hamlet." Hamlet is still the only Shakespeare adaptation to win the Best Picture Oscar. However, the failure of Olivier's Richard III (Laurence Olivier, 1955) to make back its money meant that he would never direct another Shakespearean film.

He was Oscar-nominated again for his lead as the seedy, pathetic vaudevillian Archie Rice in The Entertainer (Tony Richardson, 1960). The role of Rice's daughter - both in the play and in the film - was played by Joan Plowright. Soon after the release of The Entertainer, he divorced Vivien Leigh and married Plowright. Years later, after Olivier's death, biographer Donald Spoto claimed that Olivier was bisexual. Plowright confirmed this and said he was once attached to Danny Kaye. Biographer Terry Coleman suggested that he also had a relationship with Edwardian actor Henry Ainley.

During the 1960s, Olivier began appearing more frequently in films, usually in character parts, as in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960), Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965) and Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough, 1969). He received Oscar nominations for his reclusive mystery writer in Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972), the sadistic Nazi dentist in Marathon Man (John Schlesinger, 1976) and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978).

When he was forced out as director of the Royal National Theatre in 1973, he chose to do short film appearances on a ‘pay cheque’ basis. He later admitted that he particularly despised Inchon (Terence Young, 1982), in which he played General MacArthur. His final performance was a wheelchair-bound old soldier in War Requiem (Derek Jarman, 1989). Later that year, Laurence Olivier died of cancer in Steyning, England, aged 82. Fifteen years after his death, he returned to the cinema. Through the use of computer graphics, footage of him was integrated into Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, 2004), in which Olivier 'played' the villain.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 176. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for The Prince and the Showgirl (Laurence Olivier, 1957).


West German collector card by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. 57. Photo: Universal Film. Laurence Olivier in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).


French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 004/8. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov on the set of Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960). Caption: Contrast of eras between the clothing of Laurence Olivier and that of the director and actor Peter Ustinov.


British card. Photo: publicity still for the stage play 'Uncle Vanya' in 1963.


British postcard. Laurence Olivier in Othello (Stuart Burge, 1965).


Italian postcard. Photo: Dear Film. Publicity still for Khartoum (Basil Dearden, Eliot Elisofon, 1965) with Charlton Heston and Richard Johnson.


British postcard by Dixon-Lotus / Spitfire Productions Ltd, no. L6/8699, 1969. Photo: Robert Penn. Still for Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969).

Sources: James C. Robertson (Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Dale O'Connor (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Gösta Berling Saga (1924)

Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924) was an adaptation of the first novel by Selma Lagerlöf. Gösta was portrayed by Lars Hanson, and Greta Garbo appeared here for the first time under the name 'Garbo'. The cinematography was by Julius Jaenzon, and the art direction was by Vilhelm Bryde, with Edgar Ulmer collaborating on the set design.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1286. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Förlag, Stockholm, no. 379, 1924. Photo: Svenska-Film. Mona Mårtenson as Ebba Dolna in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 381. Lars Hanson as the title character in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller 1924).


British postcard by the National Film Theatre, London, no. 5. Greta Garbo in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1291. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Jenny Hasselqvist as Marianne Sinclair in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).

A novel out of the stories and people of her homeland

'Gösta Berlings Saga' is the first novel by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. The book was first published in 1891 by Albert Bonniers Förlag in Stockholm. In Gösta Berling, Selma Lagerlöf is a romantic; the book is a reaction to the realism that prevailed at the time. As a child, she had absorbed the folk tales of her surroundings, and in the autumn of 1881, while walking down the street in Stockholm, she suddenly had the idea of making a novel out of the stories and people of her homeland. Thus, the idea for 'Gösta Berlings Saga' was born.

In the summer of 1890, a Swedish magazine, Idun, organised a novella competition and offered a prize for the best novel of a certain length. Lagerlöf entered the contest with five chapters of 'Gösta Berlings Saga', a story that was then beginning to take shape in her mind. She won the competition.

In 1891, the complete novel was finally published. It is set in Värmland in the 1820s and is about the deposed Lutheran vicar Gösta Berling, who becomes the leader of the cavaliers at Ekeby. The adventurous lives of these cavaliers, former officers and impoverished noblemen who have found a freehold on the Ekeby estate and spend their days in love adventures, making music, playing cards and similar amusements, are presented in numerous quite independent chapters.

The story of Gösta Berling, who is purified into a better person after various experiences, forms the framework for a series of rather loosely connected episodes. The reviews were initially negative, with conservative and liberal critics united in their disapproval. Sales were also poor. It was not until 1893, when the well-known Danish literary critic Georg Brandes published an extraordinarily positive review of the Danish translation, that the assessment of the novel changed.

Over time, the success of Gösta Berling grew more and more, and today it is one of the best-known and most widely read Swedish books. 'Gösta Berlings Saga' has been called the epic prose of Swedish rural life. In 1924, the book was filmed, starring the then-unknown Greta Garbo, and the popular actors Lars Hanson and Gerda Lundquist.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1280. Photo: Goodwin, 1923. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924). Odd is that this photo is dated 1923, while it seems a cutout of a photo dated 1924 (see our other card).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1281. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1282. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Jenny Hasselqvist as Marianne Sinclair in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1283. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Jenny Hasselqvist as Marianne Sinclair in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1287. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1288. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1289. Photo: Goodwin, 1924. Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).

The last great masterpiece of Swedish silent cinema

The film adaptation, Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924), premiered in two parts in Stockholm on 10 and 17 March 1924. Lars Hanson played the young priest Gösta Berling, who suffers a crisis of meaning in the Swedish countryside around 1820. Emotionally unstable, at the beginning of the plot, Gösta Berling is completely a slave to his lusts and gives in to drunkenness and womanising. After a scandal, he leaves the parish in the dead of night to wander the countryside as a good-for-nothing. With a bunch of other drifters, he comes to Ekeby, the castle of the rich Major Samzelius and his wife (Gerda Lundequist). There, he meets the innocent Countess Elisabeth Dohna (Greta Garbo), who helps Gösta to find inner strength and strength of character. Before the two of them can begin a future together, they have to go through many adventures, such as the burning of Ekeby Castle, set by the mad Major Samzelius (Otto Elg-Lundberg).

Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling ended the Swedish creative period of director Mauritz Stiller. Stiller's forte was elegantly staged relationship comedies like Erotikon (1920), but his greatest commercial successes came with opulent literary adaptations. Among them were two works by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, Herr Arnes pengar / Sir Arne's Treasure from 1919 and Gunnar Hedes saga / Snowbound from 1923. The young Greta Gustafson was given the opportunity in the late spring of 1923 to participate in a casting for the upcoming of Stiller's film adaptation of Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling, together with her colleague Mona Mårtenson. Stiller discovered a performing quality in the girl, who was only seventeen at the time, that prompted him to give her the important role of Countess Elisabeth.

Shortly after the extensive filming began, Stiller also arranged for the young woman to adopt the stage name Greta Garbo. There are various versions of how the choice came about, the simplest being that the name Garbo was a development of the original suggestion, Mona Gabor, which was based on the phonetic sound of a former prince of Transylvania. The actress officially adopted the name Greta Garbo on 9 November 1923. The shooting, which lasted almost a whole year, was an ordeal for the completely inexperienced actress. Stiller, who as a director was equally a perfectionist and an autocratic ruler, forced Greta Garbo to unconditional obedience to his instructions. Through endless repetitions of individual scenes and targeted verbal attacks, he steered Greta Garbo in the direction he had intended from the beginning. Garbo gave herself completely into the hands of her mentor and finally accepted without complaint the sometimes violent insults when, in Stiller's opinion, she had not given her best performance.

After the film was shot, Mauritz Stiller went to Hollywood via Berlin together with his protégée Garbo. Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924) is today considered the last great masterpiece of Swedish silent cinema. The spectacular fire at Ekeby Castle was the most expensive sequence ever filmed in Sweden at the time. Stiller used the entire technical repertoire, such as rapid editing sequences and lighting effects, to bring the drama of the action to the screen. Another well-known shot showed Elisabeth Dohna fleeing in her horse-drawn sleigh in frantic flight across a frozen lake from a pack of wolves. However, Stiller used specially trained German shepherds for the sequence, hanging weights on their tails so that they would show the typical posture of wolves in the 'longshots'.

The film was originally released in two parts in Sweden, Gösta Berlings saga del I on 10 March 1924, and Gösta Berlings saga del II seven days later. The two-part version was also released in Finland and Norway, but for the rest of the world, a shorter, one-part export version was made. In 1927, the film was recut, almost halving its running time. This was the only version that was archived. In 1933, a sound version was released theatrically in Stockholm, with the intertitles removed, along with additional edits and some reordering of the scenes. Most of the missing material was discovered 20 years later, and a restored version with new intertitles was released in theatres. The Swedish Film Institute added newly found fragments throughout the years, but as of the 1975 restoration, about 450 metres of film from the original cut remained missing. In February 2018, the completion of a new, comprehensive restoration was announced. The 2018 version is 16 minutes longer than the previous restoration and brings the film close to its original running time. It also restores the film's tinting scheme for the first time since its original release.


German postcard by Trianon for the German premiere of the film on 20 August 1924, at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz. Photo: Svenska Film of the Trianon-Film-Konzern, Berlin (also in Leipzig, Frankfurt a.M., Düsseldorf and Hamburg). Lars Hanson in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


German postcard by Trianon for the German premiere of the film on 20 August 1924, at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz. Photo: Svenska Film of the Trianon-Film-Konzern, Berlin (also in Leipzig, Frankfurt a.M., Düsseldorf and Hamburg). Gerda Lundequist as the Major's Wife and Lady of the Estate Ekeby, Margaretha Samzelius, in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


German postcard by Trianon-Film, 1924. Photo: Svenska-Film. Karin Swanström, Sixten Malmerfelt and Jenny Hasselqvist in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gosta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).



German postcard by Trianon-Film, 1924. Photo: Svenska-Film. Mona Mårtenson in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gosta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


German postcard by Trianon for the German premiere of the film on 20 August 1924, at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz. Photo: Svenska Film of the Trianon-Film-Konzern, Berlin (also in Leipzig, Frankfurt a.M., Düsseldorf and Hamburg). Lars Hanson as Gösta Berling in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


German postcard by Trianon for the German premiere of the film on 20 August 1924, at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz. Photo: Svenska Film of the Trianon-Film-Konzern, Berlin (also in Leipzig, Frankfurt a.M., Düsseldorf and Hamburg). Lars Hanson in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Trianon. Lars Hanson in Gösta Berlings saga / The Atonement of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller 1924).

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Sara Montiel

Spanish singer and actress Sara Montiel (1928-2013), also known as Sarita and Saritísima, was a much-loved and internationally known name in the Spanish-speaking cinema. In the late 1950s, Montiel achieved the status of mega-star in Europe and Latin America with El Último Cuple / The Last Torch Song (1957). This film and La Violetera / The Violet Peddler (1958) netted the highest gross revenues ever recorded for films made in the Spanish-speaking film industry. Montiel was also the first woman to distill sex openly in Spanish cinema at a time when even a low-cut dress was not acceptable.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 738. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Spanish collector card by Cifesa.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 39. Photo: MGM. Gary Cooper, Sara Montiel, Denise Darcel and Burt Lancaster in Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 6981. Photo: Warner Bros. Sara Montiel in Serenade (Anthony Mann, 1956).


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 54. Photo: publicity still for Carmen de la Ronda / The Devil Made a Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1959).


Spanish postcard. Photo: Produccion Benito Perojo / Filmayer S.A. Sara Montiel in Carmen, la de Ronda / The Devil Made A Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1959).

Enormous potential

Sara Montiel was born as María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad Fernández in the village of Campo de Criptana in the province of Ciudad Real, Spain, in 1928. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant who later operated a bar, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician.

At 15, Montiel won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential film studio at that time in Spain. The next year, she made her film debut in Te Quiero Para Mí / I Want You for Myself (Ladislao Vajda, 1943), credited as Maria Alejandra, a shortened version of her real name. In spite of the small part, the young actress caught the attention of producers and directors who realised her enormous potential.

By the end of 1944, she was given the starring role in the film Empezó En Boda / It Started at the Wedding (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1944), which introduced her with a new image and a new name: she was now a sophisticated blonde named Sara Montiel. In the next four years, she appeared in 14 films. Soon her colleagues started calling her Sarita (Little Sara) due to her youth. The nickname caught on with the press and the public. Since then, both Sara and Sarita have been used in credits and publicity.

In 1947, she played the role of Antonia, the niece of Don Quixote in Don Quijote de la Mancha / Don Quixote (Rafael Gil, 1947), the Spanish film version of Cervantes' great novel. Her first international success was her role as an Islamic princess in Locura de Amor / The Mad Queen (Juan de Orduña, 1948) with Fernando Rey. Locura de Amor led to a contract in Mexico, where she established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. She made a total of 13 films between 1950 and 1954.

Due to her popularity in Mexico, Hollywood came calling, and she was introduced to American filmgoers in the Western Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954), co-starring with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. She was offered the standard seven-year contract at Columbia Pictures, but she refused, afraid of Hollywood's typecasting policies for Hispanics. Instead, she free-lanced at Warner Bros. in Serenade (Anthony Mann, 1956) with Mario Lanza and Joan Fontaine, and at RKO in Run of the Arrow (Samuel Fuller, 1957), opposite Rod Steiger and Charles Bronson. Director Anthony Mann became her first husband.


Spanish collector card by Gevaert Rollfilms. Photo: Ballesteros. Sara Montiel in Mariona Rebull (José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, 1947).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43. Photo: United Artists. Sara Montiel and Gary Cooper in Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954).


Spanish postcard by J.R.B.. Retail price: 2'50 Pesetas. Photo: Cifeso. Publicity still for El Último Cuplé / The Last Torch Song (Juan de Orduña, 1957).


Spanish card by Archivo Bermejo. Retail price: 2'50 Pesetas. Photo: Dipenfa. Publicity still for La violetera / The Violet Peddler (Luis César Amadori, 1958) with Raf Vallone.


Spanish postcard by F.A.G. Photo: Cosmofilm. Sara Montiel and Maurice Ronet in Carmen de la Ronda / The Devil Made a Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1959).


Spanish postcard by Edición Archivo Bermejos, no. 7028. Photo: Suevia Films. Sara Montiel and Maurice Ronet in Mi último tango / My Last Tango (Luis César Amadori, 1960).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 535. Sara Montiel in Pecado de Amor / Sin of Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1961).

The last torch song

Back in Europe, Sara Montiel became the most commercially successful Spanish actress during the mid-20th century. The film musical El Último Cuplé / The Last Torch Song (Juan de Orduña, 1957) was an unexpected success. It played for a year in the same theatres in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in the other European countries and in Latin America. El Último Cuplé turned Montiel into an overnight sensation both as an actor and a singer.

Then she achieved the status of mega-star with La Violetera / The Violet Peddler (Luis César Amadori, 1958) with Raf Vallone. It broke the box-office records set by El Último Cuplé. She won the Premio del Sindicato (at the time Spain's equivalent to the Oscar) for best actress two years in a row for her performances in El Último Cuplé and La Violetera.

From then on, she combined filming highly successful vehicles, recording songs in five languages and performing live all over the world. Among the films that continued her immense popularity were Carmen, la de Ronda / The Devil Made A Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1959) with Jorge Mistral, Mi Ultimo Tango / My Last Tango (Luis César Amadori, 1960), and Pecado de Amor / Sin of Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1961). By 1962, she had become a legend to millions worldwide, reaching markets that had previously been ‘uncharted territory for the Spanish cinema.

La Bella Lola (Tulio Demicheli, 1962), a new version of Camille with Antonio Cifariello and Maurice Ronet, La Reina del Chantecler / The Queen of Chantecler (1963), and Noches de Casablanca / Nights of Casablanca (Henri Decoin, 1963) with Maurice Ronet spread Sarita's popularity to Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Japan. Samba (Rafael Gil, 1964) with Italian actor Fosco Giachetti, La mujer perdida / The Lost Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1966) with Massimo Serato, Tuset Street (Jorge Grau, Luis Marquina, 1967) with Patrick Bauchau, and Esa Mujer / That Woman (Mario Camus, 1969) followed.

In 1973, her film Varietés (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1971) was banned in Beijing. By then, she had become a legend to her millions of fans, but she became dissatisfied with the film industry when producers started offering her roles in soft-core porno films.


Scan. Collection: Véronique3.


Postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 534. C.P.C.S. With Raphael Alonzo. Collection: Véronique3.


Scan. Collection: Véronique3.


Romanian collector card. Jorge Mistral and Sara Montiel in Carmen de la Ronda / A Girl Against Napoleon (Tulio Demicheli, 1959).


Romanian collector card. Sara Montiel in La reina del Chantecler / The Queen of Chantecler (Rafael Gil, 1962).

Small Romanian collector card. Sara Montiel in Samba (Rafael Gil, 1965).

Bad education

Sara Montiel has been married four times: to American film director Anthony Mann (1957-1963), industrial attorney José Vicente Ramírez Olalla (1964-1978), attorney-journalist José Tous Barberán (1979-1992), and Cuban videotape operator Antonio Hernández (2002-2005). With José Tous Barberán, she adopted two children: Thais (1979) and Zeus (1982). Before, during and after these marriages, she had countless affairs.

During the Franco dictatorship, Spanish stars were forbidden to behave in any way that could be perceived at odds with Christian principles and morality; consequently, they kept their private lives very private. Montiel was no exception. Pre-marital or out-of-wedlock relationships were never mentioned, and her civil marriage to Anthony Mann was underplayed, along with the divorce. After starring in the film Cinco Almohadas Para Una Noche / Five Pillows for a Night (Pedro Lazaga, 1974), Montiel announced her retirement from the cinema.

For a long time she concentrated on highly successful stage musicals: 'Sara en Persona' (1970-1973), 'Saritísima' (1974-1975), 'Increible Sara' (1977-1978), 'Super Sara Show' (1979-1980), 'Doña Sara de La Mancha' (1981-1982), 'Taxi Vamos Al Victoria' (1983-1984), 'Nostalgia' (1984-1985), 'Sara, Mes Que Mai !!' (1986), 'Sara, Siempre Sara' (1987-1988) and 'Saritízate' (1989-1990).

In the 1990s, Montiel surprised everyone by branching out into television: Sara y Punto (1990), a mini-series of seven one-hour episodes, included a serialised biography of the star, many popular guests, including Luciano Pavarotti and Charles Aznavour, and Montiel singing her greatest hits in addition to new songs written especially for her. Next came Ven al Paralelo / Come to Paralelo (1992), taped in a Barcelona theatre where Montiel hosted, sang and acted in comedy sketches in front of a live audience. In 2000, she published her autobiography 'Vivir es un placer' (Memories: To Live Is A Pleasure), an instant bestseller with ten editions to date. A sequel, 'Sara and Sex', followed in 2003. In these books, Montiel revealed other relationships in her past, including one-night stands with writer Ernest Hemingway as well as actor James Dean. She also claimed a long-term affair in the 1940s with playwright Miguel Mihura and mentioned that science wizard Severo Ochoa, a Nobel Prize winner, was the true love of her life.

She was portrayed in the Pedro Almodóvar film La mala educación / Bad Education (2004) by Gael García Bernal as the transsexual character Zahara, and a clip from one of her films was used as well. In 2009, the pop group Fangoria invited Montiel to record a track for the re-release of the band's album 'Absolutamente'. The title track, 'Absolutamente', became a Top 10 hit. After almost 40 years without making a film, she accepted a role in the comedy Abrázame / Hold (Óscar Parra de Carrizosa, 2011). The film was shot on location in Montiel's birthplace in La Mancha. According to the star, in this film, she dared to do "a parody of her old screen image, just for fun." Sara Montiel died in 2013 at home. She was survived by her children, Thais and Zeus.


Romanian collector card. Sara Montiel in Samba (Rafael Gill, 1965).


French poster card by BS, no. 24, 2005. French affiche by Pierre Okley for Sara Montiel in Carmen, la de Ronda / The Devil Made A Woman (Tulio Demicheli, 1959). The French title was Carmen de Granada.


French poster card by BS, no. 28, 2005. French affiche by Pierre Okley / Rialto Films for Sara Montiel in Pecado de Amor / Sin of Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1961). The French title was Ave Maria - Peche d'amour.


Trailer for El Último Cuplé / The Last Torch Song (1957). Source: Soryeye (YouTube).


Sara Montiel sings 'La Paloma' in La Bella Lola (1962). Source: Egor Savin (YouTube).


Sara Montiel sings 'Quizàs, Quizàs, Quizàs'. Source: AlexandreN57 (YouTube).

Sources: InfoMontiel, Raremar (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.