Independence Day (1996)

The American Science-Fiction film Independence Day, directed by Roland Emmerich, was a smash-hit blockbuster in the Summer of 1996. Emmerich also co-wrote the screenplay with the film's producer, Dean Devlin. Stars are Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. The film is about an alien attack on Earth and humanity’s defence against it. 20th Century Fox released the film with a marketing campaign on a scale never seen before. The campaign played a key role in the film becoming the year’s most successful film worldwide and, at the time, the second-highest-grossing film of all time, behind Jurassic Park (1993). Independence Day launched a wave of large-scale Disaster and Science-Fiction films.


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1001. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).


British poster postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1002. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Poster for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996). Caption: We've always believed we weren't alone. Very soon we'll wish we were.


British poster postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1003. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Poster for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).

A colossal alien spaceship approaches Earth

Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996) begins on 2 July, two days before US Independence Day, 4 July. A colossal alien spaceship, with a diameter of around 550 kilometres, approaches Earth and releases three dozen smaller saucer-shaped craft, each with a diameter of around 25 kilometres. The ships settle above the world’s major cities, including Moscow, Delhi, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Here they hover stationary without doing anything further.

Satellite reception is disrupted worldwide, and panic and uncertainty spread. All the world’s armies mobilise, but some believe the aliens are peaceful and organise parties to welcome them. David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an employee of a cable company in New York, discovers that the ships are communicating with one another and counting down to something. With the help of his ex-wife, Constance (Margaret Colin), who works at the White House, and his father, Julius (Judd Hirsch), he gains access to the White House to warn the president, Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman).

The president wants to evacuate the cities, but it is already too late. The ships open their hatches, behind which a powerful weapon is concealed, and simultaneously launch their attack, reducing all the cities to ashes. The president and his entourage manage to escape just in time on Air Force One as Washington, D.C., suffers the same fate. The following day, the US military attempts to launch a counterattack, but every assault is repelled because the larger ships possess a force field and command a fleet of small combat vessels, each with its own force field.

Only Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) survives the destruction of his squadron. He also manages to crash one of the aliens’ combat ships by luring it into a ravine, though it costs him his own plane in the process. He knocks the alien inside the ship unconscious and uses his parachute to carry the alien away. Hiller is picked up by Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), who is driving through the desert with a group of refugees. They take the captured alien to Area 51, where the President and his entourage are also present. It soon becomes clear that the scientists at Area 51 have known about these aliens for some time: during the Roswell incident, a warship carrying three aliens was found. The President orders the captured alien to be examined.

The alien awakens and takes control of one of the scientists’ minds. He reveals that his species has already destroyed dozens of planets after first plundering them of all their natural resources. The alien is shot dead. The President, shocked by this, orders the deployment of nuclear weapons. It proves futile; the force fields can even withstand nuclear explosions. On 4 July, Levinson has an idea. He wants to use the ship in Area 51 to infiltrate the aliens’ mothership and upload a computer virus that disables all their force fields. Hiller volunteers to be the pilot. The two are given the go-ahead to proceed with the plan and fly to the mothership.


British poster postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1004. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Poster for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996). Caption: The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered.


Dutch postcard by Boomerang Freecards. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996). Captions: Earth. Watch closely. It's maybe the last time. Independence Day. The day we fight back.

A truly brilliant marketing campaign

The idea for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996) came about when Emmerich and Dean Devlin were in Europe promoting their film Stargate (Roland Emmerich, 1994). A journalist asked Emmerich why he had made a film like Stargate when he didn’t believe in aliens. Emmerich replied that he was still fascinated by the possibility of an alien invasion and asked the journalist how he would react if he woke up one morning to find colossal spaceships hovering over every city on Earth.

The idea stuck, and Emmerich decided to turn it into a film together with Devlin. Emmerich and Devlin wrote their screenplay during a two-week holiday in Mexico. Just one day after they sent it out for consideration, 20th Century Fox chairman Peter Chernin greenlit the screenplay. Pre-production began just three days later in February 1995, and production started in August 1995.

The pair tried to use as many authentic pyrotechnics and as little computer animation as possible. Volker Engel and Douglas Smith created the special effects. Production designer Patrick Tatopoulos designed the film's aliens. The actual aliens in the film are diminutive and based on a design Tatopoulos drew when tasked by Emmerich to create an alien that was "both familiar and completely original". The film score, composed by David Arnold, was recorded with a 90-piece orchestra and a 46-member choir and won a Grammy in 1997.

While ID4 (as it was initially titled) was still in post-production, 20th Century Fox started a marketing campaign on a scale never seen before, costing $25 million. It was launched with a commercial that aired during Super Bowl XXX, for which Fox paid $ 1.3 million. The film was marketed with several taglines, including: "We've always believed we weren't alone. On July 4, we'll wish we were", "Earth. Take a good look. It could be your last", and "Don't make plans for August".

The weekend before the film's release, the Fox Network aired a half-hour special on the film, the first third of which was a spoof news report about the events in the film. Roger Ebert attributed most of the film's early success to its teaser trailers and marketing campaigns, acknowledging them as "truly brilliant". Although the film’s US release was scheduled for 3 July 1996, due to the enormous interest, it was shown in many cinemas a day earlier, on the day the film’s plot begins. Stephen Molstad wrote a novel based on the film to help promote it. The novel explores the characters and situations in greater depth.


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1005. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1006. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1007. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).

In the tradition of silly summer fun

Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996) received mixed reviews, with praise for the performances, musical score and visual effects, but criticism for its characters. Roger Ebert: "For all of its huge budget, Independence Day is a timid movie when it comes to imagination. The aliens, when we finally see them, are a serious disappointment; couldn’t they think of anything more interesting than octopus men? If an alien species ever visits Earth, I, for one, hope they have something interesting to share with us.

Or, if they must kill us, I hope they do it with something we haven’t seen before, instead of with cornball ray-beams that look designed by the same artists who painted the covers of Amazing Stories magazine in the 1940s. Still, Independence Day is in the tradition of silly summer fun, and on that level, I kind of liked it, as, indeed, I kind of like any movie with the courage to use the line, 'It’s the end of the world as we know it."

Independence Day grossed over $817.4 million worldwide. It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Sound. Following the film’s success, Stephen Molstad wrote a prequel novel titled 'Independence Day: Silent Zone.' This was followed in July 1999 by a third novel titled 'Independence Day: War in the Desert'.

The disaster elements portrayed in Independence Day (1996) marked a significant turning point for Hollywood blockbuster films. With advancements in CGI special effects, events depicting mass destruction became commonplace in films such as Twister (Jan de Bont, 1996), Dante's Peak (Roger Donaldson, 1997), Volcano (Mick Jackson, 1997), Deep Impact (Mimi Leder, 1998), and Armageddon (Michael Bay, 1998). The trend resumed from the mid-2000s to the 2010s, evident in three of Roland Emmerich's films, titled The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009), and White House Down (2013), as well as other blockbusters like Transformers (Michael Bay, 2007) and The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012).

In 2016, a sequel was released in cinemas under the title Independence Day: Resurgence (Roland Emmerich, 2016), set exactly 20 years later. It was significantly less successful, grossing $389.7 million worldwide against its $165 million budget. Christy Lemire at RogerEbert.com: "It’s not completely terrible, even though 20th Century Fox’s decision not to screen it for critics before opening day would suggest as much. It’s just dull and hollow—a massive waste of time and money. The characters are flimsy, the dialogue is stilted and the amount of destruction is ridiculous, even if that’s all pretty typical for the brand of blockbusters inspired by Emmerich’s 1996 hit."


Dutch poster postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 440. Poster: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Poster for Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. FX 1008. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox, 1996. Still from Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).


German poster postcard by Edgar, no. 1.954. Poster: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / PlayStation / Sega. Poster for the game version of Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996).

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Christy Lemire (RogerEbert.com), Wikipedia (German, Dutch, and English), and IMDb.

Les Editions GIL

French publisher Les Editions GIL produced several film star postcards of contemporary French and international stars during the 1970s and 1980s. Their 'Acteurs Français' series contained portraits in black and white. The Acteurs and the Chanteurs series were both in colour. GIL vanished later in DKlogue éditions, which publishes mainly books.


French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the 'Acteurs Français' series, no. 3. Alain Delon.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Alain Delon (1935-2024) was the breathtakingly good-looking James Dean of French cinema. The 'male Brigitte Bardot' soon proved to be a magnificent actor in masterpieces by Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni. In the late sixties, Delon came to epitomise the calm, psychopathic hoodlum in the 'Policiers' of Jean-Pierre Melville, staring into the camera like a cat assessing a mouse.


French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the 'Acteurs Français' series, no. 4. Alain Delon in Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970).


French postcard by Les Editions GIL in the 'Acteurs Français' series, no. 5.

French actor Bernard Giraudeau (1947-2010) was, with his bright blue eyes, one of the most attractive but also talented stars of French cinema. For his roles, he was twice nominated for the French Oscar, Le César. Giraudeau also worked as a film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer.


French postcard by Les Editions GIL in the 'Acteurs Français' series, no. 6.

Darkly handsome Gérard Lanvin (1950) is a César Award-winning French actor and screenwriter. He appeared in several popular French comedies and gangster films.


French postcard in the 'série acteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 5. Isabelle Adjani in L'Été Meurtrier / One Deadly Summer (Jean Becker, 1983).

Isabelle Adjani (1955) is a dark-haired beauty with porcelain skin and expressive blue eyes, who has appeared in nearly 50 films since 1970. The French film actress holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession (1981), L'Été Meurtrier / One Deadly Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), La Reine Margot / Queen Margot (1994) and La journée de la jupe / Skirt Day (2009). She also received two Oscar nominations for Best Actress.


French postcard in the 'série acteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 6.

French, American-born actor Christophe or Christopher Lambert (1957) is known for his good looks, gravelly, raspy voice and his unsettling eyes. His best-known roles are Tarzan, Lord of the Apes in Greystoke (1984) and the immortal Connor MacLeod in the Highlander film series (1986-2000). He was also the hero of countless futuristic action films that often went straight to video.


French postcard in the 'série acteurs' by Les Éditions GIL, no. 7. Louis de Funès in L'aile ou la cuisse / The Wing and the Thigh (Claude Zidi, 1976).

French actor of Spanish origin Louis de Funès (1914-1983) was one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel. In many of his over 130 films, he portrayed a humorously excitable, cranky man with a propensity to hyperactivity, bad faith, and uncontrolled fits of anger. Along with his short height (1.63 m) and his facial contortions, this hyperactivity produced a highly comic effect, especially opposite Bourvil, who always played calm, slightly naive, good-humoured men.


French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the série acteurs, no. 3. Gérard Lanvin and Bernard Giraudeau in Les Spécialistes / The Specialists (Patrice Leconte, 1985).


French postcard in the 'série acteurs' by Les éditions GIL, no. 11. Photo: Louis de Funès in L'avare / The Miser (Louis de Funès, Jean Girault, 1980).


French postcard by Les Editions Gil, no. 14. Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller, George Ogilvie, 1985). Caption: "You don't have a hundred quid!"

American-Australian actor Mel Gibson (1956) became known worldwide thanks to the small-budgeted action film Mad Max (1979). He went on to star in such acclaimed films as Gallipoli (1981) and The Bounty (1984). In 1987, he became a superstar with the buddy cop action-comedy film series Lethal Weapon (1987-1998). As director of Braveheart (1995), he won both the Academy Award for best director and best film. Gibson also produced and directed The Passion of the Christ (2004) about the last phase of Jesus Christ's life on earth.


French postcard in the 'série Acteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 17. Gérard Lanvin.


French postcard in the 'série Acteurs' by Les Editions Gil, no. 20. Photo: Isabelle Adjani in L'Été Meurtrier / One Deadly Summer (Jean Becker, 1983).


French postcard in the 'série chanteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 28.

British rock artist Sting (1951) is best known as the pop star with the high-pitched, raspy voice and blonde, spiky hair. Sting (Gordon Summers) made his breakthrough as the singer and bass player for The Police and then launched a successful solo career. He also acted in film and television, and was memorable as the Mod leader in Quadrophenia (1979) and as Eddie’s father in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).


French postcard in the 'série chanteurs' by Les Éditions GIL, no. 47. David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1983).

English musician and actor David Bowie (1947-2016) was a major pop star for over four decades. During the 1970s, he was a magnificent innovator. We love his album 'Changes'. With various stage and film roles, he also proved to be a fine actor.


French postcard in the 'série chanteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 76. David Bowie in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1983).


French postcard in the 'série chanteurs' by Les Editions GIL, no. 125. Madonna in Who's That Girl (James Foley, 1987).

Madonna or Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the MTV craze in the 1980s, Madonna pushed boundaries with her song texts and her provocative performances. She frequently reinvented herself and her music and stayed the 'Queen of Pop' for decades. Her global bestsellers were hits such as 'Like a Virgin' (1984) and 'True Blue' (1986), but for us she became more interesting with songs like' Like a Prayer' (1989), 'Vogue' (1991) and 'Frozen' (1998). And we're still fans, even of some of her films, including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Truth or Dare (1991), and Evita (1996). The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops reinventing herself, Madonna is a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide.

Sources: DK Logue Editions.

Bobby Breen

Bobby Breen (1925-2016) was a Canadian-born American actor and singer. He was a popular male child singer in the 1930s and achieved major success through film and radio appearances. Breen appeared in nine films between 1936 and 1942.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1118. Photo: Radio.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1118b. Photo: Radio. Bobby Breen in Rainbow on the River (Kurt Neumann, 1936).

Boy soprano

Bobby Breen was born Isadore Borsuk in Montréal, Canada, in 1925 (though some sources claim 1927 or 1928). He was the son of Hyman (Chaim) and Rebecca Borsuk. His parents were poor Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. They, along with Breen's three older siblings (Gertrude, Sally, and Michael), migrated from Kyiv to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1927. Soon after, they relocated to Toronto.

His singing talent as a boy soprano was discovered at the age of three by his sister, Sally, herself an aspiring musical student several years his senior. Although their parents showed no particular interest, Sally decided to help him achieve stardom.

With the help of her music teacher, Breen had the chance to perform in front of an audience at a nightclub. Soon, he began winning prizes in theatre competitions, which provided a significant amount of income for the poor family.

Because of his newfound popularity, the two siblings decided to seek work and recognition in the United States. Financed by Sally, they travelled to Chicago by bus in 1934, where he began working with people such as Gloria Swanson and Milton Berle in local theatre productions.

Bobby and Sally Breen later relocated to New York City. The foreign-sounding last name Borsuk had been Anglicised to Breen before they arrived in the United States.


Vintage postcard. Photo: R.K.O.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no. 112. Sent by mail in 1941. Photo: R.K.O. Radio Pictures.

A deal with RKO

Bobby Breen went to Hollywood in 1935, where he received singing lessons from a vocal coach. Film producer Sol Lesser, who had discovered Jackie Coogan, signed Breen to RKO Radio Pictures. In 1936, he became a regular performer on Eddie Cantor's weekly CBS radio show, Texaco Town. Before the release of his first film, Let's Sing Again, he was compared to other child stars of the era, such as Freddie Bartholomew and Shirley Temple. In terms of his vocal abilities, he was described as a combination of Allan Jones, Nelson Eddy and Al Jolson.

His debut, Let's Sing Again (Kurt Neumann, 1936), saw him being top-billed with Henry Armetta as his co-star. He sang 'La donna è mobile' and other songs in the film. He also signed a contract with Decca Records and had moderate success with a series of 78 rpm records in the late 1930s. The title song from 'Let's Sing Again' would become a success in the summer of 1936. Satisfied with his debut for the studio, RKO signed a deal with him for three additional films.

He was cast in another musical, Rainbow on the River (Kurt Neumann, 1936), co-starring May Robson and Alan Mowbray. He sang 'Ave Maria' and the film's title song 'Rainbow on the River'. The film is about a boy from the Southern States who is raised by a former slave after the Civil War. Kurt Neumann, who had directed Breen in his first two pictures, worked with him for the last time in Make a Wish (Kurt Neumann, 1937) with Basil Rathbone.

By the time he had completed his eighth film, Escape to Paradise (Erle C. Kenton, 1939), his voice was gradually changing due to puberty. As a result, he retired from the film industry, despite having been contracted for two additional films, and instead focused on his education at Beverly Hills High School. He had earned so much money that his family was able to buy a house in California.He described the sudden voice change in a 1977 article: "When you've been a child star and suddenly find yourself with a husky voice, it's hard to convince agents that you're not over the hill. I stopped singing at 16 because of the huskiness and took up the piano. I had the knack for it, but never wanted to be a concert pianist. I just wanted to be back in the world I'd known all my life."

His popularity did not wane immediately during his hiatus. Breen received mail from numerous fans across the United States and the United Kingdom. He briefly returned to the screen in 1942 to appear as himself in Johnny Doughboy (John H. Auer, 1942), starring Jane Withers. The film did not afford him the chance to sing solo but only gave him one number, shared with Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer and George 'Spanky' McFarland of Our Gang. The plot revolved around has-been child stars trying to put together a USO show.
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Sheet music by Leo Feist for Rainbow on the River (Kurt Neumann, 1936). Collection: Rossano aka Bud Care @ Flickr. Rossano: Paul Francis Webster wrote lyrics for many title songs in the 1950s. Louis Alter was an American pianist, songwriter and composer. He was 13 when he began playing piano in theaters showing silent films. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. Best known for 'Manhattan Serenade' and 'Nina Never Knew'.


British postcard by K Ltd.

The comeback story

Bobby Breen enlisted in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II. He and fellow Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney were soon assigned to entertain the troops, even though he had retired from show business. Breen was hospitalised in France in 1945, towards the end of the war. For his war efforts, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1946, he initially struggled to find work as he returned to show business. He did some theatre work and radio appearances in New York during this period. Because his voice had changed since becoming an adult, he took singing lessons to reinvent himself by adopting a new tenor style.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he worked as a singer in nightclubs and as a musical performer in stock theatre, later serving as a guest pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio, and hosting a local TV show in New York. He also recorded briefly for the Motown label, singing on two singles and on an unreleased album titled 'Better Late Than Never' in 1964. Berry Gordy had hoped for Breen to become his first white contracted artist, but ultimately changed his mind because the singer did not suit the type of music Motown produced.

In 1953, Breen appeared on ABC's reality show, The Comeback Story, to explain how his career nose-dived as he entered his teen years and how he fought to recover. Since the 1970s, he and his wife, Audrey, had been working in Florida as entrepreneurs, booking agents, and producers arranging musical shows performed by various entertainers at smaller, affordable venues. In later years, it focused on hiring ageing stars, including Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, and Ann Blyth.

Bobby Breen married fashion model Jocelyn Lesh in 1952. The couple had a son, Hunter Keith Breen, in 1954. Four years later, the marriage became unsustainable, with Jocelyn claiming that he had physically injured her. They went their separate ways, but the divorce was not finalised until 1961. He married Audrey Howard in 1962.

He lived with his family in Tamarac, Florida, and worked as the owner/operator of Bobby Breen Enterprises, a local talent agency. Starting in 2002, he made occasional concert appearances. His sister Sally died in 1999. That same year, Bobby Breen underwent bypass surgery due to blocked arteries in his heart. He died of natural causes in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 2016, three days following the death of his wife, Audrey, to whom he had been married for 54 years. He was 90.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no. 20. Photo: R.K.O. Radio Pictures.


Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 3526. Photo: RKO Radio Films / Archief Film en Toneel.

Source: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

Luciana Paluzzi

Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi (1937) is best known as SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in Thunderball (1965). Before and after her brush with James Bond, the red-haired beauty appeared in many Italian films, but also in several Hollywood productions.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 618.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 47.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Luciana Paluzzi and Sean Connery in Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965).

Whirlwind courtship

Luciana Paluzzi (sometimes credited as Luciana Paoluzzi) was born in Rome, Italy, in 1937 as the daughter of an Italian army officer. She studied in Milan to become a naval engineer and modelled for Italian fashion magazines.

At the age of 16, she met a film director and began her screen career with a bit part in the comedy Sua altezza ha detto no! / Her Highness Said No! (Maria Basaglia, 1953) with Jacques Sernas, followed by an uncredited bit part in the American romance Three Coins in the Fountain (Jean Negulesco, 1954), which was filmed in Rome. Her following films included the French comedy J'avais sept filles /I Had Seven Daughters (Jean Boyer, 1954) as one of the daughters of Maurice Chevalier, and La châtelaine du Liban / The Lebanese Mission (Richard Pottier, 1956) as an attractive, mysterious woman in the Arabian desert.

She played various small roles and occasionally the female lead, such as in the British adventure Sea Fury (Cy Endfield, 1958) starring Stanley Baker and Victor McLaglen in his very last film. The gorgeous redhead showed a strong command of the English language. In England, she also costarred with Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers in the comedy Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (Roy Boulting, Jeffrey Dell, 1959).

In Germany, she appeared in Fritz Lang’s adventure epic Der Tiger von Eschnapur / The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959) as the servant of Debra Paget. In the 1959-1960 season, Paluzzi appeared on the American TV network NBC in the short-lived espionage series Five Fingers, with David Hedison. At the set, she met actor Brett Halsey. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple married in Las Vegas in January 1960. They appeared together in the potboiler Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), but a year later, the couple divorced, shortly after the birth of their son.

In Hollywood, Paluzzi guest-starred in popular TV series like Bonanza (1962) and Burke's Law (1964), and was also the second female lead in the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello comedy vehicle Muscle Beach Party (William Asher, 1964). That year, she also played the villainess in the Spy series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. As the seductive THRUSH agent Angela, she appeared in the first season episode The Four Steps Affair and in the movie version of the show's pilot episode, To Trap a Spy. She later also appeared in an episode of the spin-off, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966–1967).


British postcard in the Celebrity Series by Celebrity Publishers, London, no. 227. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Luciana Paluzzi in Sea Fury (Cy Endfield, 1958).


Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 483.

Fiery, red-haired villainess

Audiences worldwide still remember Luciana Paluzzi best as the fiery, red-haired villainess in the James Bond film Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965). Paluzzi originally auditioned for the part of the lead Bond girl, Dominetta ‘Domino’ Palazzi. In an interview with Ciaran Brown, she remembered: “Two months went by, and I didn't hear anything from anybody. Then I got a call one day from the director, Terence Young, who said, 'I have good news, and I have bad news....the bad news is that you can't play the role of Domino, but the good news is that you're going to play the role of Fiona'. The 'bad girl' part was more fun to play."

The producers had cast Claudine Auger, changing the Domino character from an Italian to a Frenchwoman and renaming her Dominique Derval. In his fourth film, James Bond (Sean Connery) aims to recover two stolen warheads. They have been taken by the evil SPECTRE organisation, headed by mastermind Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi). (SPECTRE stands for Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion).

SPECTRE hides the bombs under the ocean depths and threatens to detonate the weapons unless a ransom of 100,000,000 pounds is paid, so Bond heads to Nassau. There he is seduced by the voluptuous, bouffant-haired Fiona Volpe (Paluzzi). She is a deadly assassin working for SPECTRE, but when she plots to execute Bond, she falls foul of her own scheme.

In the Kiss Kiss Club, she is shot in the back with a bullet meant for 007. Connery then deposits her body at a nearby table and says to a couple sitting there, "Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She's just dead."

Years later, in the documentary Bond Girls Are Forever (2002), Paluzzi said that she was amazed at the level of fame, publicity and recognition she received from Thunderball. However, when she returned to the Italian film industry, she felt she was taken less seriously as an actress.


Sean Connery. German postcard by ISV, no. H 123.


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 462. Sean Connery, Luciana Paluzzi, Martine Beswick, Claudine Auger and Molly Peters in Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965).

Femme fatale

In the same year as Thunderball, Luciana Paluzzi played the female lead in the Italian comedy Questa volta parliamo di uomini / Let's Talk About Men (Lina Wertmüller, 1965) opposite Nino Manfredi.

In the US, she was the love interest in the Western Chuka (Gordon Douglas, 1967), and the female lead in the American/Japanese Sci-Fi film, The Green Slime (Kinji Fukasaku, 1968). In Europe, Paluzzi appeared in B-films as the thriller Femmine insaziabili /Beverly Hills (Alberto De Martino, 1969) starring Dorothy Malone, the Spaghetti Western Il pistolero dell'Ave Maria / Forgotten Pistolero (Ferdinando Baldi, 1969), and the thriller Coartada en disco rojo / Two Faces of Fear (Tulio Demicheli, 1972) with Fernando Rey.

She was generally cast as a femme fatale. She reunited with Thunderball co-star Adolfo Celi for the crime drama La mala ordina / The Italian Connection (Fernando Di Leo, 1972), with Thunderball director Terence Young for the thriller Klansman (1974) starring Lee Marvin, and acted alongside another former Bond girl, Ursula Andress, in the sex comedy L'infermiera / The Sensuous Nurse (Nello Rossati, 1975). For the latter, she even did a nude scene.

She also continued working in television on such shows as Search (1973) and Hawaii Five-O (1978). One of her last film appearances was a supporting part in The Greek Tycoon (J. Lee Thompson, 1978), starring Anthony Quinn and Jacqueline Bisset.

In 1980, she married Michael Solomon, CEO of a communication company. Luciana Paluzzi and her husband reside in Los Angeles, USA. She has one son with Brett Halsey, film producer Christian Halsey Solomon (1961).


Official Trailer of Thunderball (1965). Source: The Cult Box (YouTube).


Trailer The Green Slime (1968). Source: SideShowCarny (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Brian J. Walker (Brian’s Drive-in Theater), Ciaran Brown (Ciaran Meets the Stars), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, James Bond Multimedia (Now defunct), Les James Bond Girls (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Ivy Duke

Ivy Duke (1896-1937) was a British actress. In the late 1910s, she appeared in several silent films with Guy Newall. During the 1920s, he also became her director and husband.


British postcard in the Cinema Stars Series by Lilywhite LTD, no. CM 434D. Photo: George Clark Productions.


British postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Claude Harris.

Star couple with Guy Newall

Ivy Elsie Duke was born in Kensington, London, in 1896. As a stage actress, Duke appeared regularly in the light musical confections associated with George Edwardes’ Gaiety Theatre.

She began her film career in 1919. She appeared in the films The March Hare (Frank Miller, 1919) and The Double Life of Mr Alfred Burton (Arthur Rooke, 1919), produced by George Clark for Lucky Cat Productions and distributed by Ideal Films.

Already in her third film, I Will (Kenelm Foss, 1919), she was paired with Guy Newall, who earlier on had co-written her first film, The March Hare. In late 1919, Lucky Cat Productions became George Clark Productions, and Stoll Pictures - the biggest renter in the 1920s - became the distributor. The company founded its own studio complex at Beaconsfield.

After a period of being the star couple directed by others, Guy Newall also became Ivy Duke's director. In the 1920s, Duke reached the apex of her film career, taking part in productions like Testimony (Guy Newall, 1920), The Bigamist (Guy Newall, 1921), Beauty and the Beast (Guy Newall, 1922) and Fox Farm (Guy Newall, 1922).

In 1922, Ivy Duke married Guy Newall, but seven years later, the marriage ended in divorce. Their last film together was The Starlit Garden (Guy Newall, 1923).


Vintage postcard. Photo: Yevonde / George Clark Production.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 40. Photo: Vaughan & Freeman.

Lilian Harvey's mother

In her last films, Ivy Duke worked with other directors and male leads: The Great Prince Shan (A.E. Coleby, 1924) with Sessue Hayakawa, and Decameron Nights (Herbert Wilcox, 1924) with an international cast including Lionel Barrymore and Werner Krauss.

After an interval of several years, she made her final film, the Anglo-German co-production A Knight in London (Lupu Pick, 1928) with Lilian Harvey and Ivy Duke as her mother. The cinematography was by Karl Freund, and the film was edited by Michael Powell. It's all about a woman who accidentally awakens in a man's hotel bed. With the rise of the sound film, Ivy Duke retired from the film business. A few years later, she died at the age of only 41.

As the site At the Pictures writes: "A reasonable number of their films survive in the BFI National Archive, and several have been screened at the British Silent Film Festival over the years, including Fox Farm from the novel by Warwick Deeping about the romance between a gypsy girl and a blinded farmer, Boy Woodburn from the novel by Alfred Oliphant about a lady horse trainer and her romance with a penniless banker, and Maid of the Silver Sea from the novel by John Oxenham about romance and murder in a Breton fishing community (actually filmed on Sark).

Perhaps the most widely seen is The Lure of Crooning Water [...] Ivy Duke plays a London stage actress who, suffering from nervous collapse, goes into the countryside for a ‘rest cure’ and amuses herself while there by seducing the married farmer (played by Newall) who has been acting as her host. (This reminds a bit of Murnau's Sunrise).

The Garden of Resurrection, from the novel by E. Temple Thurston, reverses this pattern – this time it is Newall who is suffering from extreme depression brought on by his sense of his own ugliness. He goes for a ‘rest cure’, visiting some friends who live in an idyllic garden in rural Ireland (although the film was shot in Cornwall). There he meets Ivy Duke….


British postcard. Photo: George Clark Production. Ivy Duke and her dog, Sammy, a sleigh courier.


British postcard in the Cinema Stars series by Lilywhite LTD, no. CM 434B. Photo: George Clark Productions, no. 9.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), At the Pictures, Wikipedia (English), and IMDb.

Photo by Gneme

Emilio Gneme was an Italian set and portrait photographer who worked at the Pisorno film studios in Tirrenia. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he portrayed many stars and character actors of the Italian cinema. His portraits were used for postcards by such publishers as ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze) and Unione Fotoincisori in Firenze for a special series on the actors of the Pisorno film studios.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 217. Photo: Gneme / Incine, Tirrenia.

María Mercader (1918-2011) was a Spanish actress who acted in Spanish and Italian films, largely between 1939 and 1952. She was the second wife of Vittorio De Sica and the mother of Christian and Manuel De Sica.


Italian postcard by Stab. Angeli, Terni. Esclusiva di Ditta Terzoli, Roma, no. 70. Photo: Gneme.

Paola Barbara (1912-1989) was an Italian actress who acted in over 60 films but also worked on stage and for television. She is best known for the film La peccatrice (1940) by Amleto Palermi.


Italian postcard by Stab. Angeli, Terni, Ditta Terzoli, Roma, no. 333. Photo: Gneme.

Elsa De Giorgi (1914-1997) was an Italian writer, director, art director and Italian stage and screen actress.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed. Roma), no. 145. Photo: Gneme / Pisorno studios, Tirrenia. In 1941, Oretta Fiume was the protagonist of Ragazza che dorme / Sleeping Girl (Giovacchino Forzano, 1941), shot at the Tirrenia studios.

Oretta Fiume (1919-1994) was an Italian actress who starred in many films between the late 1930s and the late 1940s. In the early 1940s, she often worked at the Tirrenia studios in Pisorno.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 2254. Photo: Gneme / E.N.I.C. The postcard may refer to the film Il cavaliere di Kruja / The Knight of Kruja (Carlo Campogalliani, 1941).

Leda Gloria (1912-1997) was one of Federico Fellini’s favourite film actresses, having a prolific career in the 1930s and 1940s, but she is also remembered as the wife of Peppone in the Don Camillo films.

The new city of cinema

Photographer Emilio Gneme is not a famous name, but his pictures illuminate an important chapter in the history of Italian cinema. He was the main photographer of the Pisorno film studios in the Italian coastal town of Tirrenia in Tuscany. In 1934, the studios were built at the behest of Giovacchino Forzano, a successful writer, theatre director, author of comedies, historical dramas and opera librettos, and of entrepreneurs such as Agnelli and Borletti. The modern studio complex was located in the pine forest of Mezzapiaggia, in Tirrenia, and the nickname 'Pisorno' ideally united the nearby cities of Pisa and Livorno.

Like Latina, Littoria and Pontinia, Tirrenia was a new town which had grown with the support of Italy's Fascist regime. The Tirrenia Studios were constructed between 1933-1934 and intended, along with the Fert Studios in Turin, to provide northern competition to the increasingly dominant Cines Studios in Rome. The new studio complex was a state-of-the-art facility, designed by Antonio Valente, one of the first in Italy to be adequately equipped to meet the greatest challenge of the time: the production of sound films. The Pisorno studios became known in Italy as 'the city of cinema'.

The first film shot at Pisorno was released in 1935, entitled Campo di maggio / 100 Days of Napoleon and directed by Giovacchino Forzano himself. In the following years, the sets, streets and beaches of Tirrenia were populated by actors, crew members and screen stars: from Maria Mercader to Antonio Centa, from Amedeo Nazzari to Alida Valli. In the new modern studios, 'veterans' of silent cinema alternated with young people destined to shape the future of cinema, such as Mario Monicelli, in directing and technical roles. Italian film production was booming, and the Pisorno Studios fared well, particularly after the Cines studio burned down in 1935.

However, the dream of expanding to create a real Hollywood on the Tyrrhenian Sea was shattered by financial difficulties and competition from Cinecittà, founded in Rome in 1937. Still, more than seventy films were shot in Tirrenia before the reality of war broke out on the sets. During the later stages of the Second World War, Pisa was bombed, and the studios were requisitioned for other use first by the Germans and later by the Allies. When production resumed at the end of the conflict, Forzano attempted a relaunch by calling director Joseph Losey to Tirrenia to shoot Imbarco a mezzanotte / Stranger on the Prowl (1952), but the film was not successful.

To celebrate the desire for rebirth and light-heartedness, the focus then shifted mainly to musical films, in many cases starring beloved singers such as Claudio Villa and Luciano Tajoli. Mauro Bolognini's L'assoluto naturale / He and She (1969) was the last film shot in the studios while they were still in full operation. Despite attempts to turn it into TV studios of the RAI, a tourist resort or a sports centre, nothing came of it. The structure slowly fell into ruin. Years later, the Taviani brothers remembered it and rebuilt the Hollywood of their film Good Morning Babilonia / Goor Morning Babylon (Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, 1987) there. A beautiful homage to the history of cinema and to cinema as a storyteller. All in all, some 160 films were made at the Tirrenia studios.


Italian postcard by Unione Fotoincisori Firenze. Photo: Gneme / Prod. INCINE. Caption: The actors of the Tirrenia film studio, no. 2. Umberto Melnati in the film Brivido / Thrill (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1941).

Though he also had various parts in dramas and pre-Giallos, Umberto Melnati (1897-1979) is mostly known for his screen comedies. He often acted in the 'Telefoni Bianchi' comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, with Vittorio De Sica (Due cuori felici, Il signor Max, etc.), and Alida Valli (Mille lire al mese). Before, he had long acted on stage with De Sica and Checco Rissone. After the war, Melnati played the lead in La valigia dei sogni (Luigi Comencini, 1953).


Italian postcard by Unione Fotoincisori Firenze. Photo: Gneme / Prod. INCINE. Caption: Gli attori della Tirrenia Cinematografica (The actors of the Tirrenia film studio), no. 3. Andrea Checchi in the film Brivido / Thrill (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1941).

Andrea Checchi (1916-1974) was a prolific Italian film and television actor who peaked in the early 1940s as a leading actor, while he had important supporting parts in post-war Neorealism and beyond.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini e Fratini, Firenze), no. 2353. Photo: Gneme / ENIC.

Between the mid-1930s and 1943, bright and gentle Antonio Centa (1907-1979) was among the most active actors of the Italian cinema. Among female audiences, he was a popular heartthrob in the White Telephone films. The critics praised his performances in Renato Castellani's Un colpo di pistola / A Pistol Shot (1942) and Zazà (1944).


Italian postcard by Stabilimento Angeli, Terni. Ed. A. Terzoli, Roma, no. 490. Photo: Gneme.

Italian actor Mario Siletti (1897-1977) devoted himself exclusively to cinema from 1932 on. He was a comical actor in great demand by the production companies of the time. Always in supporting parts, Siletti was the jealous husband of Laura Nucci in Eravamo sette vedove (Mario Mattoli, 1939), the viceroy in the Macario comedy Il pirata sono io! (Mario Mattoli, 1940), Seneca in O.K. Nerone (Mario Soldati, 1951) and the lawyer Stiletti in Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier, 1952) and Don Camillo e l'onorevole Peppone (Carmine Gallone, 1955).


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed. Roma), no. 35. Photo: Gneme.

Italian character actor Enzo Biliotti (1887-1976) specialised in masterfully designing kings, emperors, nobles and fathers of high lineage. Among his tastiest characterisations is that of the Viceroy in Un'avventura di Salvator Rosa / An Adventure by Salvator Rosa (Alessandro Blasetti, 1939) and King Philip IV in Don Cesare di Bazan (Riccardo Freda, 1942).


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 144. Photo: Gneme / Tirrenia.

Enrico Viarisio (1897-1967) was an Italian stage and screen actor and cabaretier. Famous were Viarisio's words in Prima comunione (Alessandro Blasetti, 1950). When he, the man from the trolleybus, was told: 'Aren't you ashamed to travel with that bowler hat?', he responded: 'And you, aren't you ashamed to travel with that face?'!


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma). Photo: Gneme.

Though he also had various parts in dramas and pre-Giallos, Umberto Melnati (1897-1979) is mostly known for his screen comedies. He often acted in the 'Telefoni Bianchi' comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, with Vittorio De Sica (Due cuori felici, Il signor Max, etc.), and Alida Valli (Mille lire al mese). Before, he had long acted on stage with De Sica and Checco Rissone. After the war, Melnati played the lead in La valigia dei sogni (1953) by Luigi Comencini.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Editori, Roma), no. 181. Photo: Gneme, Rome.

Italian actor Egisto Olivieri (1880-1962) was active in theatre and cinema. On the big screen, he mostly played character roles. From 1926 to 1950, he acted in around forty films.


Italian postcard by ASER (Aldo Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 315. Photo: Gneme.

Sandro Ruffini (1889–1954) had a prolific career in Italian cinema from 1913 to 1954. From the late 1930s, Ruffini mostly appeared in supporting parts like the father of leading actor Mario Ferrari in Il cavaliere di San Marco (Gennaro Righeli, 1939). He starred in Forse eri tu l'amore (Gennaro Righelli, 1939), as an engineer who is asked the bring the niece of his boss back to Italy. The 'baby' (Loretta Vinci) proves to be a strong-willed young woman. He also had a major part opposite Vivi Gioi in the comedy La canzone rubata (Max Neufeld, 1940).

Sources: Franco Baccarini (Il cinema tra Pisa e Livorno - Italian), Turismo Pisa, Wikipedia and IMDb.