Winifred Shotter

British film actress Winifred Shotter (1904–1996) was the pretty young thing in a number of the popular Aldwych farces, which were staged in London before and during the Second World War. During the 1930s, she also performed in early British sound films with great success.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 146.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.


British postcard by W & K, no. 917/5. Caption:
With Loving Birthday Wishes.
Happy birthdays, may you find.
Always waiting you,
So keep ahead, don't lag behind
And dreams will all come true.

Aldwych farces

Winifred Florence Shotter was born in London in 1904. She was the daughter of Frederick Ernest Shotter and Harriet Payne Shotter. Her father worked as a tie cutter. She was the sister of the actress Constance Shotter.

Winifred got her big break in the early 1920s when she was pulled from a chorus line to play Rhoda Marley in the farce comedy 'Rookery Nook' by Ben Travers. She would go on to appear in several of what became known as the Aldwych farces popular at London’s Aldwych Theatre.

These plays, written by Travers, usually revolved around misunderstandings, borrowed clothes and dropped trousers. The first was in 1925. Shotter appeared in 'Rookery Nook' (1926), 'Thark' (1927), 'Plunder' (1928), 'A Cup of Kindness' (1929) and 'Turkey Time' (1931).

Molly Weir wrote in an obituary in The Independent in 1996: “Shotter was appearing at the Aldwych Theatre as an enchanting ‘flapper’ who had to be hidden for fear of discovery by prim visiting relatives, and she sent the house into screams of warning appreciative laughter as she raced downstairs from the bedroom and across the stage clad only in exquisitely revealing pink crepe-de-Chine camiknickers. Her ladylike terror as she reacted to Robertson Hare's horrified cries of ‘Oh calamity!’ enchanted the audience; Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls aided and abetted the chase. Winifred Shotter was classy, frightened femininity at its best.”

In 1929, she made her film debut in Peace and Quiet (Sinclair Hill, 1929), a short film produced in Phonofilm. It was an excerpt of a Ronald Jeans revue, in which she played with Ralph Lynn. Several of the Aldwych plays were also made into films. The following year, she played again opposite Lynn in the comedy Rookery Nook (Tom Walls, 1930), produced by Herbert Wilcox. She also acted in the comedy On Approval (Tom Walls, 1930), in which Walls was also her co-star.


British postcard in the Real Photograph Series. Photo: Mannell, London.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 541. Photo: Mannell, London.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 541A. Photo: Mannell, London.

Elegance and charm

The farces filled the Aldwych throughout the 1930s and the war years. In 1931, Winifred Shotter married Michael Green, a union that did not last. Shotter was kept very busy with a series of films during the early thirties. These films include Plunder (Tom Walls, 1931), The Chance of a Night Time (Ralph Lynn, Herbert Wilcox, 1931), and A Night Like This (Tom Walls, 1932).

In 1932, she played with Jack Hulbert and his wife Cicely Courtneidge in the successful comedy Jack's the Boy (Walter Forde, 1932) for Gainsborough Pictures. She continued to make filmed Aldwych farces starring Ralph Lynn and appeared in Up to the Neck (Jack Raymond, 1933), Just My Luck (Jack Raymond, 1933) and Summer Lightning (Maclean Rogers, 1933).

She also appeared in more serious films such as the dramas Sorrell and Son (Jack Raymond, 1933) with H.B. Warner and Hugh Williams, and the crime film The Rocks of Valpre (Henry Edwards, 1935) starring John Garrick. She did make it to Hollywood, where she performed in one film, Petticoat Fever (George Fitzmaurice, 1936), opposite Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery. Reportedly, she found life in Tinseltown distasteful and returned home.

In 1946, Shotter became an announcer for BBC television, but she also occasionally returned to the stage and screen. In 1951, she married actor Gilbert Davis, one of the band of English actors who found fame in Hollywood because of his impeccable manners and excellent speaking voice. She retired from the stage, and for tax reasons, the couple moved to Montreux, Switzerland.

Her final film was the family comedy John and Julie (William Fairchild, 1957). After his death, she returned to England and lived for some years in Surrey. Winifred Shotter would pass away in 1996 at Redhill in Surrey. She was 91. Molly Weir in The Independent: “I think Winifred Shotter must be one of the last actresses who never lost her elegance or her perfect manners, or her charm. She adorned every occasion she attended.”


British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Twickenham. Winifred Shotter as Christine Wyndham in The Rocks of Valpre (Henry Edwards, 1935).

Sources: Molly Weir (The Independent), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

La dolce vita (1960)

La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (1960) is an Italian-French satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who, over seven days and nights, journeys through the 'sweet life' of Rome in a fruitless search for love and happiness. La dolce vita was both a scandal, a critical success and A worldwide commercial hit. The filmwon the Palme d'Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Costumes. It was nominated for three more Oscars, including Best Director for Federico Fellini and Best Original Screenplay. Today, La dolce vita is considered one of Fellini's masterpieces and one of the most famous films in cinema history.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 159. Anouk Aimée and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1703. Photo: Cineriz. Magali Noël in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Editions Hazan, Paris, no. 6323. Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Swiss postcard by News Productions. Photo: Cinémathèque Suisse. Yvonne Furneaux as Emma and Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello at the Via Colombo outside Rome, after Emma's suicide attempt, in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Swept away by the sweet life of high society.

La dolce vita marks the first of several acclaimed collaborations between director Federico Fellini and actor Marcello Mastroianni, who came to represent Fellini’s alter ego. Mastroianni plays Marcello Rubini, a reporter in Rome during the late 1950s who is always on the lookout for a scoop. He covers the gossip news of foreign movie stars, religious visions and the decadent aristocracy. That's why he spends his evenings among Rome's upper class. He tends to get quite close to his subjects, especially when they're beautiful women like the local heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée), and Swedish film star Sylvia (Anita Ekberg). He has affairs with both, although he is engaged to Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), a clingy, insecure woman. Rubini dreams of becoming a literary author, but he abandons those ideals for a career in the lucrative tabloid press. Although he recognises its superficiality and immorality, he allows himself to be swept away by the sweet life of high society. Fellini follows the handsome, weary, desperate Marcello during a week and reveals the emptiness, boredom and destructiveness of 'la dolce vita' while at the same time making it highly glamorous and seductive.

Dino De Laurentiis was the film's original producer. He wanted a famous American or French actor, such as Paul Newman or Gérard Philipe, to play Rubini to guarantee international marketability. According to rumours, Newman was keen to take part, but Fellini wanted an Italian actor. The rift between Fellini and De Laurentiis occurred precisely over the name of Marcello Mastroianni: unlike Fellini, De Laurentiis did not consider him suitable for the part. Another reason for the rift between De Laurentiis and Fellini was the screenplay, which the producer considered too chaotic. The screenplay was written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi.

The script was provisional, as was often the case with Fellini's productions. He stated that the film would only find its true form on the screen. During filming, the script underwent considerable changes. Two scenes, absent from the original screenplay, were completely 'improvised': the party of the nobles at the castle, filmed in the Giustiniani-Odescalchi palace in Bassano Romano in the province of Viterbo, and the 'miracle' that the two children claim to have witnessed, with the participation of a crowd of faithful, law enforcement officers and military personnel. The episode was inspired by a report by the Roman reporter Tazio Secchiaroli in June 1958: the subject of the report was the apparition of the Virgin Mary to two children in a farm at Maratta Alta, near Terni. Secchiaroli participated in the filming of the fake miracle scene and said that the atmosphere of the episode in the film was similar to what the photographer saw when he arrived in the small Umbrian town. The character of Paparazzo in the film was inspired by Tazio Secchiaroli.

Another choice made by Fellini was to hire Anita Ekberg for the part of Sylvia. The various changes in dates led to the withdrawal of many actors. Among them was Maurice Chevalier, who was to play the father of Marcello, a travelling salesman who joins Marcello on a tour of the night. After considering many names, Fellini eventually gave the part to Annibale Ninchi. The impressed Mastroianni found him very credible in the role of his father. The character of Steiner was given to Alain Cuny after about fifty actors were considered for the part. Steiner was to be played by Henry Fonda, but the actor dropped out, much to the disappointment of Fellini. Many names were mentioned, and auditions were held for Emma's part. Gina Lollobrigida stated that she was offered the part and that she would have gladly accepted, but that her husband, out of jealousy, hid the script that the production sent her, and so the offer fell through due to Lollobrigida's failure to respond, who in turn thought that the production had changed its mind. The director then opted for Yvonne Furneaux. The film also features young artists like Laura Betti in a vaguely autobiographical role, model and singer Nico (Christa Päffgen) and a very young Adriano Celentano performing Little Richard's 'Ready Teddy.

La dolce vita was shot between spring and summer 1959. Most of the film was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Set designer Piero Gherardi created over eighty locations, including the Via Veneto, the dome of Saint Peter's with the staircase leading up to it, and various nightclubs. The structure of the film consists of a prologue, followed by seven chapters interrupted once by an intermezzo, and an epilogue. Throughout, seven dawn sequences, seven day sequences, and eight night sequences are interwoven. The relationship between Fellini and the new producers, Angelo Rizzoli and Giuseppe Amato, was relaxed and cordial, despite the budget being exceeded. One of the most substantial costs incurred in the production was that of reconstructing Via Veneto, the Roman street of nightclubs, sidewalk cafes and the parade of the night, in the studio. According to official sources, the film cost no more than 540 million lire, which was not an excessive amount for an ambitious production such as La dolce vita.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint-Dié, no. CI 4. Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Vintage photo. Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Small Czechoslovakian card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 83/7, 1965. Retail price: 0,50 Kcs. Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Small Romanian collector card. Photo: Marcello Mastroianni and Anouk Aimée in La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 099. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Boos, insults and applause

Dino De Laurentiis described La dolce vita as ’incoherent, false and pessimistic' and predicted that it would prove to be a disaster. Four hours were edited and then reduced to three with cuts. On 5 February 1960, the national premiere took place at the Capitol cinema in Milan. The film was booed. Fellini was stopped by a woman who accused him of handing the country over to the Bolsheviks and was spat on for being a detractor of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Mastroianni was also insulted. It was reported that the film had been seized for reasons of public order. Fellini received 400 telegrams in a single day in Milan, accusing him of being a communist, a traitor and an atheist. The aristocracy had allowed Fellini to film in their homes and castles and then felt exposed.

Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti, cousin of Luchino Visconti, was present at the Milan premiere and states that 'The boos and insults that evening made more news than the applause. In the event of the seizure, the next morning at the Capitol, there was already a queue at the box office. The appeal of the forbidden.‘ The Vatican saw the scene in which a statue of Christ is transported through the air by helicopter as a parody of the return of Christ. In Spain, La dolce vita was banned until the death of General Franco in 1975. However, after fifteen days of screening, the film had already covered the producer's expenses. Despite the claims of De Laurentiis, La dolce vita managed to recoup the budget in just the first fifteen days of screening. The film's commercial success was aided by an intense advertising campaign and the heated climate of criticism.

After three or four weeks, La dolce vita was on track to reach one billion lire, and after two months of screening, the box office takings exceeded one and a half billion. IMDb reports box office takings in the United States of $19,571,000 at the time, plus another $8,000,000 from rentals. At the end of the 1959-1960 film season, La dolce vita was the highest-grossing film of the year in Italy, with takings of 2,271,000,000 lire at the time. Currently, it ranks thirteenth in the list of the most watched Italian films of all time, with 13,617,148 paying viewers. Worldwide, the film has grossed over $82.5 million.

La dolce vita influenced customs and language. The scene at the Trevi Fountain with Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni has become a symbolic scene of 20th-century cinema. The title of the film itself has become a common expression used to describe a rich and luxurious lifestyle, often with excesses such as those shown in the film. The film also gave its name to an item of clothing, namely the high-necked jumper, known as the 'dolce vita' jumper, as worn by Mastroianni in the film. Thanks to this film, the term 'paparazzi' entered general usage. The word refers to the surname of the intrusive press photographer Paparazzo. The character of Paparazzo, the news photographer, is portrayed by Walter Santesso. Philip French writes in The Guardian that today the film has lost its ability to shock, but not its ability to fascinate, stimulate and provoke, and remains a work of great moral and visual impact. Bosley Crowther, in his review for The New York Times, writes that the modern lifestyle represented by Fellini, hallucinatory and almost circus-like in style, is the first to have earned the adjective 'Fellinian'.

Roger Ebert stated that if asked, 'What is your favourite film?', he would answer 'La dolce vita', adding that it is a film that never ages. In his 1961 review, he stated that the technical excellence with which the film was made surpassed any production he had seen before, except for a few classics by Ingmar Bergman, and that the cinematography and soundtrack are as important as the dialogue in bringing the attack on 'La dolce vita' to life. This attack is also created by the frequent symbolism, although it becomes too obvious to fit into the fluidity of the plot. Ebert surmised that it was precisely the film's very understandable symbolism that contributed to its success. "The movie is made with boundless energy. Fellini stood here at the dividing point between the neorealism of his earlier films (like La Strada) and the carnival visuals of his extravagant later ones (Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord). His autobiographical 8 1/2, made three years after La dolce vita, is a companion-piece, but more knowing: There the hero is already a filmmaker, but here he is a young newspaperman on the make." In 2010, a new restoration of La dolce vita was carried out with the collaboration of Ennio Guarneri, assistant to Otello Martelli, director of photography at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 103. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Italian postcard by Modric, Editoria d'arte, Ancona, no. MX 104. Photo: Pierluigi Praturlon. Marcello Mastroianni during the filming of La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960).


Vintage poster postcard, no. XX 900 / 34. Italian poster by Cineriz for La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960), starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. Design: Giorgio Olivetti.


Italian poster postcard in the Federico Fellini series by Gruppo Prospettive. Italian poster by Cineriz for La dolce vita / The Sweet Life (Federico Fellini, 1960), starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. Design: Sandro Simeoni.


French postcard. Caption: Cannes 2014. 67e Festival de Cannes 14-25 Mai. Photo: Marcello Mastroianni in La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).

Sources: Roger Ebert (Rogerebert.com), Philip French (The Guardian), Bosley Crowther (The New York Times), Wikipedia (Italian, Dutch and English), Britannica and IMDb.

Celeste Holm

American actress Celeste Holm (1917-2012) won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1948 for her role in Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement. She was also nominated for Oscars for her roles in the films Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 726. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard presented by Kores 'Carboplan', no. 950. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Loretta Young and Celeste Holm in Come to the Stable (Henry Koster, 1949).

She loved the stage, so she left Hollywood

Celeste Holm was born in New York, N.Y., in 1917. She was an only child, born into a home where her mother was a painter and her father worked in insurance. She studied acting at the University of Chicago.

Her professional theatrical debut was at 19 in a production of 'Hamlet', with Leslie Howard. Her major Broadway debut followed in 'The Time of Your Life' (1940). She appeared in many successful plays, including 'The Women', 'Oklahoma!' and 'Bloomer Girl'. In the premiere production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!' (1943), Celeste sang as Ado Annie the showstopper, 'I Cain't Say No'. The demand for tickets was unprecedented as the show became more popular in the months that followed the opening. 'Oklahoma!' ran for over five years, a Broadway record.

Celeste Holm was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1946 and appeared in her first film, the musical Three Little Girls in Blue (John Brahm, H. Bruce Humberstone, 1946) opposite June Haver and Vivian Blaine.

With her third film, Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), starring Gregory Peck and John Garfield, she would win the Supporting Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe. Celeste Holm was nominated twice more for Academy Awards for Come to the Stable (Henry Koster, 1949) with Loretta Young, and All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), starring Bette Davis.

She also appeared in the Best Picture nominee The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948), starring Olivia De Havilland and had an uncredited voice-only role in another Best Picture nominee, A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949). However, she loved the stage, so she left Hollywood.


Vintage postcard, no. 950. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Belgian postcard, no. 980. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

A professor-turned-reporter in New York City

In the 1950s, Celeste Holm only returned to Hollywood for two MGM musicals, The Tender Trap (Charles Walters, 1955) starring Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds and High Society (Charles Walters, 1956) with Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby.

In addition to her stage career, Celeste appeared on television in her own series, Honestly, Celeste! (1954) as a professor-turned-reporter in New York City. She was also a panellist on Who Pays? (1959). In 1970, Holm returned to television as the chaperone to the president's daughter in Nancy (1970).

For the next two decades, she regularly appeared on television in series such as the Soap Opera Loving (1986, 1991-1992). She last appeared on television in the CBS series Promised Land (1996–1999). She also had roles in films such as Tom Sawyer (Don Taylor, 1973), starring a very young Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher and the comedy Three Men and a Baby (Leonard Nimoy, 1987), starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson.

Celeste Holm was married five times. Her first marriage was to director Ralph Nelson from 1936 until their divorce in 1939. Together, they had one son, the internet pioneer Ted Nelson, who introduced the terms hypertext and hypermedia in the 1960s. Her second marriage was to Francis Emerson Harding Davies from 1940 until their divorce in 1945. Her third marriage was to A. Schuyler Dunning from 1946 until their divorce in 1953. Together, they had one child. Her fourth marriage was to actor Wesley Addy, from 1966 until he died in 1996. Her last marriage was to opera singer Frank Basile, from 2004 until she died in 2012.

In 2002, Celeste Holm was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In July 2012, she suffered a heart attack and, at her request, was taken to her own home in Manhattan, New York, where she spent her last moments with her husband and family and died at the age of 95.


Vintage postcard. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

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

Andréa Parisy

Brunette French film actress Andréa Parisy (1935-2014) was best known as the leading lady opposite Louis de Funès in such comedies as Bébés à gogo / Babes a GoGo (Paul Mesnier, 1956), La grande vadrouille / Don't Look Now, We've Been Shot At (Gérard Oury, 1966), and Le Petit Baigneur / The Little Bather (Robert Dhéry, 1968), but she also appeared in the historical drama Mayerling (Terence Young, 1968), in which she played Princess Stéphanie of Belgium.


French postcard by Editions P.I., presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 961. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 736. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Capturing the spirit of the times

Andréa Parisy was born Andrée Marcelle Henriette Parisy in 1935 in Levallois-Perre on the right bank of the Seine, some 6 km (3.7 miles) from the centre of Paris. However, some sources mention that she was born in 1930. Her father was a furrier.

She began her career in 1953, initially playing minor roles in small films directed by Raph Habib, Yves Ciampi, and Carlo Rim. Parisy was overshadowed by Simone Signoret in Escalier de service / Service Entrance (Carlo Rim, 1954) and by Brigitte Bardot in Futures vedettes / Joy of Loving (Marc Allégret, 1955).

Then the elegant brunette had her breakthrough as the daughter of Jane Sourza and Raymond Souplex in the comedy Bébés à gogo / Babes a GoGo (Paul Mesnier, 1956), starring Louis de Funès. She then played a free-spirited young woman from a good family in the massive box office hit Les Tricheurs / Young Sinners (Marcel Carné, 1958), starring Jacques Charrier and Pascale Petit. The film captured the spirit of the times.

She then played the leading lady in the French-Australian film L'Ambitieuse / The Restless and the Damned (Yves Allégret, 1959), opposite Edmond O'Brien and Richard Basehart. The film was shot on location in Tahiti and the Tuamotu Islands in French and English-language versions, but was a financial failure. It was the last of three co-productions Australians Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty did with French companies in the late 1950s and marked the end of Robinson's involvement in the film industry.

Parisy was the leading lady in the crime drama 125 Rue Montmartre (Gilles Grangier, 1959) starring Lino Ventura, and co-starred in the West German romantic comedy Stefanie in Rio (Curtis Bernhardt, 1960) starring Carlos Thompson and Sabine Sinjen. In these years, Andréa Parisy also had a brief singing career.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 114/70. Photo: Unifrance.


Romanian collector card.

The bourgeois wife of Louis de Funès

The Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) missed out on Andréa Parisy. She was the star of B-movies or a prominent supporting actress in commercial productions. Then she was the leading lady in the French-Italian adventure film Cent mille dollars au soleil / Greed in the Sun (Henri Verneuil, 1964) with Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film was entered into the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for the Palme d'Or, and became a box-office hit in France.

She had another success when she played the resistance nun Marie-Odile at the Hospices de Beaune in the French-British comedy La Grande Vadrouille / Don't Look Now, We've Been Shot At (Gérard Oury, 1966), starring Bourvil, Louis de Funès and Terry-Thomas. She again co-starred with De Funès in Le Petit Baigneur / The Little Bather (Robert Dhéry, 1968) as his bourgeois wife.

She also played Archduchess Stéphanie in Mayerling (Terence Young, 1968), starring Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve. Then her career seemed to halt.

She played a supporting part in the satirical romantic comedy-drama Slogan (Pierre Grimblat, 1969), with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in their first film together, but from then on, her films appeared with long interludes. In 1979, she co-starred with Michel Serrault in the political satire La Gueule de l'autre (Pierre Tchernia, 1979). Ten years later, she had a supporting part in the Swiss-American historical drama The Favorite / Intimate Power (Jack Smight, 1989), based on a novel by Prince Michael of Greece.

Again, ten years later, she acted in the French drama Pas de scandale / No Scandal (Benoît Jacquot, 1999) as the mother of Fabrice Luchini. Her last screen appearance was in an episode of the TV series Navarro (2001) with Roger Hanin. Andréa Parisy died in 2014, at the age of 78, after a long illness. She is buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 801. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verlag. Photo: publicity still for Le Petit Baigneur / The Little Bather (Robert Dhéry, 1968) with Louis de Funès.

Sources: aVoir-aLire (French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Dennis Morgan

During the 1940s, for six consecutive years, Dennis Morgan (1908-1994) received more fan mail than any other star at Warner Brothers.


American card.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. B. 4. Photo: Warner.

A holiday favourite

Dennis Morgan was born Earl Stanley Morner in the small town of Prentice, Wisconsin, in 1908. His parents were Frank Edward Morner and Grace June Van Dusen. Earl attended Carroll College in Wisconsin and belonged to the college football team. Later, he studied voice at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee and the American Conservatory in Chicago.

He joined a troupe of performers at the State Lake Theatre in Chicago and toured the Midwest. He sang in productions of 'Faust' and 'Carmen'. In 1936, after relocating to Los Angeles, Morgan began appearing in films. He signed a contract with MGM as Stanley Morner.

His first jobs were mostly bit parts. He received his first musical film break singing 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' in The Great Ziegfeld (Robert Z. Leonard, 1936). His voice, however, was dubbed by Allan Jones. Subsequently, he moved to Paramount and then Warner Bros., where he was billed as 'Dennis Morgan'.

He scored big after playing opposite Ginger Rogers in the big hit Kitty Foyle (Sam Wood, 1940) for RKO. He starred in films such as the war romance The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944) with Eleanor Parker and Dane Clark, the action film God Is My Co-Pilot (Robert Florey, 1945), and the musical My Wild Irish Rose (David Butler, 1947).

His engaging performance as seaman Jefferson Jones, with Barbara Stanwyck and a wonderful supporting cast, including Sydney Greenstraat, S.Z. Szakall and Una O'Connor have made Christmas in Connecticut (Peter Godfrey, 1945) a holiday favourite.


Spanish postcard by Sobe, Barcelona, no. 222.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 315. Photo: Warner.

The easy-going singer who always got the girl

Dennis Morgan teamed up with fellow Wisconsinite Jack Carson in One More Tomorrow (1946). Warners liked them as a combination, seeing them as similar to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at Paramount. Morgan was the easy-going singer who always got the girl, and Carson was the loud-mouthed but cowardly braggart-comic who was given the air.

The two buddies did 11 films together. These included Two Guys from Milwaukee (David Butler, 1946) with Joan Leslie, Two Guys from Texas (David Butler, Frank Tashlin, 1948) with Dorothy Malone, and It's a Great Feeling (David Butler, 1949), starring Doris Day. He made a Western Raton Pass (Edwin L. Marin, 1950) with Patricia Neal and Eddy Cochran, and a musical Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (David Butler, 1951) with Virginia Mayo.

He supported Joan Crawford in the Film Noir This Woman Is Dangerous (Felix E. Feist, 1952). Wikipedia: "Jack L. Warner wanted to terminate Dennis Morgan's expensive contract with Warner Bros., and assigned Morgan to Cattle Town (1952), a quickie western to be produced by B-movie specialist Bryan Foy. The director was silent-era veteran Noel M. Smith, known as a fast-and-cheap director who staged reckless action scenes.

Jack Warner was certain that Morgan would refuse the strenuous assignment and break the contract, but Morgan refused to forfeit his salary. He reported for work as scheduled, made the film for Smith, and collected his customary salary. After that, his contract with Warners ended. Morgan later said, 'My mistake was that I stayed at one studio too long. Another mistake: I turned down early television, believing then... that people should pay to see us.'

Dennis Morgan died in 1994 in Fresno, California, of respiratory failure. He and his wife, Lillian Mae Vedder, were married for 61 years. They had three children, Stanley Jr., Kristin and James. Kristin Morgan appeared with her father in My Wild Irish Rose (1947). She was 8 years old at the time. In 1983, Morgan, along with his film pal, Jack Carson, who had died in 1963, was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. A.X. 405. Photo: Warner Bros.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

Sources: Kay Peracca with James Turner (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Nils Chrisander

Swedish actor and film director Nils Chrisander (1884-1947) made his first screen appearances in German and Swedish silent films in the mid-1910s. In 1916, he was the first Phantom of the Opera on the screen. Later, he moved to Hollywood, where he also directed a few films.


German postcard by NPG, no. G 1056.


German postcard by NPG, no. 427. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3125.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7159.

The first phantom of the opera

Nils Chrisander or Nils Olaf Chrisander was born Nils Olaf Waldemar Chrisander in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1884. According to Chrisander himself, his uncle was the composer Nils Chrisander, and his great-aunt was the opera singer Jenny Lind. He claimed to have attended various secondary schools in Stockholm, Vienna, Paris and London. After graduating from school, he is said to have begun studying art history and philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century. He then tried his hand at painting. Chrisander took acting lessons at the Dramaten theatre school in Stockholm and then began acting in plays such as August Strindberg's 'Karl XII'. Through the actor and director Bjørn Bjørnson, Chrisander came into contact with cinematography in 1913.

Chrisander probably made his film debut in a supporting role in the Danish production Et Gensyn / A Reunion (N.N., 1914) for the Dania Biofilm Kompagni. He then moved to the film capital Berlin, where he mainly played leading roles. His first German film was probably the silent drama Die Flammentänzerin / The Flame Dancer (Georg Jacoby, 1914) opposite Norwegian actress Aud Egede-Nissen. In the following years, he played in the films Die Wellen schweigen / The Silent Waves (Rudolf Biebrach, 1915) with Henny Porten, and Um ein Weib / Because of a Woman (Carl Schönfeld, 1915) again opposite Aud Egede-Nissen.

As an actor, Chrisander is possibly best recalled for starring as Erik the Phantom in Das Phantom der Oper (Ernst Matray, 1916), the now-lost German adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Matray's version is the first film adaptation of Leroux's 1909-1910 serialised novel. Aud Egede-Nissen co-starred as Christine, and director Ernst Matray played The Persian.

That same year, Chrisander also appeared in such Swedish silent films as Svärmor på vift / Mother-in-law on the Loose (Georg af Klercker, 1916), Fången på Karlstens fästning / Prisoner of Karl's Fortress (Georg af Klercker, 1916) and Revelj / Reveille (Georg af Klercker, 1917) with Mary Johnson.

Back in Germany, Chrisander appeared in Nicht lange täuschte mich das Glück / Happiness did not deceive me for long (Kurt Matull, 1917) opposite Olga Engl and the popular Polish film actress Pola Negri in her first role in a German production. He also played leading roles in the melodramas Die Vergangenheit rächt sich / The Past Takes Revenge (Urban Gad, 1917) with Albert Paulig, Küsse, die man im Dunkeln stiehlt / Kisses That You Steal In The Dark (Kurt Matull, 1918) with Pola Negri and Ernst Hofmann, and Die neue Daliah / The New Daliah (Urban Gad, 1918) featuring Maria Widal.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7460. Photo: Gerlach, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7642. Photo: Gerlach.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1641. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1642. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

The Golem

Nils Chrisander repeatedly returned to his native Stockholm for film engagements. In 1918, he made his last Swedish appearance there in the leading role of surgeon Dr Henry Arel in Nobelpristagaren / Nobel Prize winners (1918). Like most of his Swedish films, the film was directed by Georg af Klercker. Chrisander played Dr. Henry Arel, who with his fiancee, Violet Starford (Mary Johnson), joins the war as paramedics. During a flight attack, Violet is badly hurt. The doctor makes a very bold intervention in the hope that Violet will survive.

In 1919, Nils Chrisander started to direct silent films for the Deutsche Bioscop GmbH. His first films were Olaf Bernadotte (1918) with Carl de Vogt, and Chrysanthéme / Chrysanthemum (1918) featuring Carola Toelle.

He co-directed the German silent film Alraune und der Golem / Alraune and the Golem with actor and director Paul Wegener. J Zsalsberg at IMDb: “No prints of the film are known to have survived. Nor have they any photographs, reviews, or even a decent credit listing. Poster artwork does exist, but German censorship/release records do not. Consequently, it is, indeed, possible that the film was never made at all, with the poster artwork having been created to advertise a 'possible' production. In any event, the story is alleged to be based on the novel 'Isabella of Egypt' by Ludwig Achim von Arnim, in which the 'Alraune' character is male, and the golem is female!”

That year, he played his favourite role in Germany, that of Prince Hochwald in his own production Die weißen Rosen von Ravensberg / The White Roses of Ravensberg (Nils Chrisander, 1919) with Uschi Elleot, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. After performing in the film serial Die Jagd nach dem Tode / The Hunt for the Death (Karl Gerhardt, 1920) opposite actress Lil Dagover, Nils Chrisander continued his career in Germany as a director. In total, he directed ten films in Germany. At the beginning of the 1920s, Chrisander temporarily left the film business and went travelling, including to ‘secret studies in Egypt and Asia’, as he wrote vaguely. Back in Germany, he was documented as residing in Berlin-Friedenau until 1926, then in the same year Chrisander followed a call to Hollywood.

In Hollywood, he directed two dramatic, little-noticed films: Fighting Love (1927), starring Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Henry B. Walthall for Cecil B. DeMille Pictures, and that same year, The Heart Thief (1927), starring Joseph Schildkraut and Lya De Putti. Although no further offers followed, Chrisander remained in Los Angeles. By 1930, he was living at S. Gramercy Place in Los Angeles, California. He later returned to his native Sweden, where he settled in Skivarp, a village near Skurup in the far south of the country. Nils Chrisander died there in 1947. He was 63.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 274/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Deutsche Bioscop.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 274/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Deutsche Bioscop.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 274/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin / Deutsche Bioscop.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3495/1, 1928-1929. Photo: LPG. Lya de Putti and Joseph Schildkraut in The Heart Thief (Nils Olaf Chrisander, 1927).

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.