Karl Schönbock

Austrian gentleman-actor Karl Schönböck (1909–2001) with his always meticulously trimmed moustache had a major film and stage career of 70 years. He was a star of the Munich cabarets, performed in many sophisticated boulevard plays and also played more than 100 elegant roles in German films and TV series.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 114, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Binz, Berlin.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3572/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Binz, Berlin.

Bon Vivant Or Grand Seigneur
Karl Ludwig Josef Maria Schönböck was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1909. He was the son of Emanuel Schönböck, a Danube steamboat ship captain, and his wife Louise Schönböck-Bogner. He grew up in Vienna and already performed on stage with an amateur theatre group while he still went to school. He seemed to go on with a career as a successful athlete. He was second in the heavyweight category at the boxing championship for newcomers in 1926. Later he also won the West German championship in fencing. After studying one year at the University of Vienna, he enrolled at Vienna’s Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst (Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) and also took singing lessons from Professor Jekelius in Berlin. He worked for the radio station Ravag. In 1930 he had his stage debut in the Stadttheater in Meissen as Ashley in Vater sein dagegen sehr (To be a father on the other hand very much). In the following 70 years he had engagements and guest appearances in theaters in Hannover, Salzburg, Königsberg, Bonn, Berlin and Munich. At the beginning of his career he played dramatic roles, but his focus later moved to the boulevard theater where he usually was cast as the bon vivant or grand seigneur. In 1936 he made his film debut in was also his film debut in Das Mädchen Irene/The Girl Irene directed by Reinhold Schünzel and starring Lil Dagover and Sabine Peters. Filmportal.de: “At just 27 years old, he already played a graying British aristocrat in this melodrama – a role type that he increasingly specialized on during the following years. Thus, the tall Schönböck who always wore a meticulously trimmed moustache convincingly portrayed gallant bon vivants, aristocrats, and distinguished socialites”. His charming womanizing characters were often a bit vain and therefore not quite taken seriously. Many roles followed in films such as Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (1937, Robert A. Stemmle) with Karin Hardt, the comedy Der Blaufuchs/The Blue Fox (1938, Viktor Tourjansky) starring Zarah Leander, Casanova heiratet (1940, Viktor de Kowa) with Lizzi Waldmüller, the operetta Frau Luna/Lady Moon (1941, Theo Lingen) and Titanic (1942, Herbert Selpin), a film about the most known ship disaster of the 20th century.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3437, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2808/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Sophisticated Boulevard Theater
After the Second World War, Karl Schönböck made his first appearance at Munich’s Kammerspiele. In Munich he also appeared in the revue theater Die Schaubude (the show tent) and was one of the founders of the cabaret Der Kleinen Freiheit (the little freedom). In both cabarets he appeared with his then wife, actress Herta Saal. Besides, Schönböck performed at theatres in Stuttgart, Vienna, and Berlin, in sophisticated boulevard theater plays, like Private Lives by Noel Coward and Somerset Maugham’s Lady Frederick. He also appeared in many film and TV roles, mostly as the nonchalant grand seigneur or the suave gentleman.Successes were Berliner Ballade (1948, Robert A. Stemmle) starring Gert Fröbe, the musical comedy Feuerwerk/Fireworks (1954, Kurt Hoffmann) with Lili Palmer and Romy Schneider, the remake of Der Kongreß tanz/The Congress Dances (1955, Franz Antel) starring Johanna Matz, and Der Traum von Lieschen Müller/The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (1961, Helmut Käutner) featuring Sonja Ziemann. Late highlights of his self-mocking, caricaturing style were his impersonations as a professor in the satire Schtonk! (1992, Helmut Dietl) about the affair of the forged Hitler diaries, and Halali oder der Schuss ins Brötchen/Halali or the Shot in the Buns (1994, Joachiem Roering), in which Schönböck played an old landowner and hunter, who’s last will is to shoot his final deer. His last major role was as the father of hobby-detective Friedrich von Thun in several episodes of the German Krimi series Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari/The crimes of Professor Capellari (1998-2001). Schönbock was honored with major awards: the Bundesverdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland I. Klasse (Germany’s cross of merit) in 1979, the Filmband in Gold in 1985 and Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Austria’s cross of merit) in 1989. In 1988 he published his memoirs, Wie es war durch achtzig Jahr (How it was through 80 years). Schönböck was married twice. First to actress Herta Saal, who passed away in 1964. They had a daughter, Christine (1942). From 1965 on he was married to actress Corinna Genest. Karl Schönbock died of a stroke in 2001 in Munich, Germany. He was 92.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 2931/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 483, 1957. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: NDF / Schorcht. Publicity still for Feuerwerk/Fireworks (1954, Kurt Hoffmann).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line) (German), Filmportal.de, (German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Silvia Sorente

French starlet Silvia Sorente (1941) appeared as a sensual leading lady in a dozen French, Spanish and Italian B-films of the 1960’s.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/232. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Magnificent Body
Silvia Sorente was born in 1941 in Paris, France. She is sometimes credited as Sylvia Sor(r)ent(e) or Jane Fleming. She made her first film appearances in French films like the actioner Hold-up à Saint-Trop' (1960, Louis Félix) and the rather sordid drama L'Eternite Pour Nous/Sin on the Beach (1961, Jose Benazeraf). According to the IMDb reviewer “the main raison d'etre of this minor films is to show off the magnificent body of Sylvia Sorrente, which it does to great effect in teasing states of semi-undress and wetness. The film reflects the zeitgeist of the early 60's before outright nudity, panting and grappling took charge.” More interesting is her next film, Taras Bulba, il cosacco/Plains of Battle (1963, Ferdinando Baldi). This Italian production had the same title, plot and release date as the famous Hollywood treatment Taras Bulba (1962), but no stars nor budget. However, in the opinion of the IMDb reviewer, it is a superior film to the Hollywood version. Sorente then appeared as the dancer-informant Lolita in the Euro-western El Llanero/Jaguar (1963, Jess Franco) starring Jose Suarez and Roberto Camardiel. This was cult director Franco’s only foray into the genre of the Western. It tells the story of the civil war in Venezuela in the 1860’s. Robert Monell calls it on his blog I’m in a Jess Franco State of Mind “a beautifully composed (by Emilio Foriscot) period adventure/melodrama which looks and plays like a classical US western with its Fordian images of silhouetted riders seen on distance ridges, while also providing a glimpse of the coming Sergio Leone Eurowestern style”. And according to Robert Firsching at AllMovie “Sylvia Sorente's steamy performance is the highlight of this entertaining curio”. Sorente created a stir by going topless in the Italian haunted house production Danza Macabra/Castle of Blood (1964) from genre director Antonio Margheriti aka Anthony M. Dawson. In Danza Macabra  a cast including horror icon Barbara Steele is terrorized in a haunted castle. According to Robert Girsching it is “one of the best Italian horror films of the decade” and “one of the handful of definitive Italian gothics”. Later Margheriti would remake the film in widescreen color as Nella Stretta Morsa del Ragno/Web of the Spider (1971). In the British sex comedy Mission to Paradise/Bikini Paradise (1965, Gregg G. Tallas) two military officers are shipwrecked on an island. The island is populated by beautiful young and nearly naked girls who want to use them for marriage and mating purposes. Silvia is of course one of these virgins.

Clip from L'Eternite Pour Nous (1961). Source: Arnoux Stéphane (Daily Motion).

Opium and Heroin
Silvia Sorrente then worked in France and appeared in Ne nous fachons pas/Let's Not Get Angry (1966, Georges Lautner). Lino Ventura stars in this crime comedy as a former gangster who comes out of retirement to help a petty thief. Silvia played Ventura’s girlfriend. She played a small part in The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966, Terence Young). This spy adventure provides a look into the manufacture and trafficking of opium and heroin. The original story, set in Iran, was written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming who died shortly before he was to pen the screenplay. The film was originally made for TV and starred Senta Berger and Yul Brynner. Funded in part by a grant from Xerox, it was the last of four television films commissioned by the United Nations, to publicise its missions and roles in world peace and diplomacy. The film was narrated by Grace Kelly (as Princess Grace of Monaco) and also contains several cameos from stars like Angie Dickinson, Rita Hayworth and Marcello Mastroianni. The stars worked for a salary of $1 to support the anti-drug message. In 1967 a theatrical version was released into American theaters. One of Silvia Sorente's last films was the espionage thriller Le vicomte règle ses comptes/The Viscount (1967, Maurice Cloche). She starred opposite Hollywood star Kerwin Mathews, who plays a smooth-talking insurance investigator who looks into a bank robbery and ends up breaking up two famous gangs involved in a drug war. The story was based on one of the popular OSS 117 spy books by Jean Bruce. When The Viscount was shown in the US in May 1967 Silvia’s name was dubbed into Jane Fleming. The American distributors felt that her alliterative name was not appealing enough to American audiences, while alliterative names used to be so popular (Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale, Diana Dors, Marilyn Monroe …). And then her career stopped. Where did Silvia Sorente go? I could not find more information on the web about her.


Trailer for Danza Macabra/Castle of Blood (1964). Source: Synapse Films (YouTube).

Sources: Robert Monell (I’m in a Jess Franco State of Mind), Robert Firsching (AllMovie), Answers.com, Boxoffice, Wikipedia, and IMDb. See for more pictures of Silvia Sorente and a re-use of this text: Retrorambling.

Andrea Checchi

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


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit (Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini Firenze), no. 4359 A. Photo: Lux Film / Foto Vaselli. Publicity still for Malombra (Mario Soldati, 1942), in which Checchi played Corrado Silla, opposite Isa Miranda as Marina di Malombra.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scararamaglia Edizioni Roma).


Italian postcard by ASER, no. 201.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4347. Lux Film. Photo: Vaselli. Made for the period piece Malombra (Mario Soldati, 1942), an adaptation of the classical novel by Antonio Fogazzaro.

Breakthrough

Andrea Checchi was born in Florence in 1916. He was the son of painter Amedeo Checchi. At a very young age, he moved to Rome, where he frequented the film academy Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

At age 18, he debuted in the historical film 1860 (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934), and less than one year after he had a secondary role in Blasetti’s Vecchia guardia/Old Guard (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934).

Many secondary parts in film followed until he had his breakthrough in the war propaganda film L'assedio dell'Alcazar/Alcazar (Augusto Genina, 1940) starring Fosco Giachetti, and even more in the comedy Ore 9 lezione di chimica/Schoolgirl Diary (Mario Mattòli, 1941), in which he had the male lead opposite Alida Valli, Irasema Dilian and Bianca Della Corte.

Then came the realist romantic comedy Avanti c'è posto/Before the Postman (Mario Bonnard, 1941), in which he rivalled with Aldo Fabrizi for the hand of the young Adriana Benetti. The film was written by the young Federico Fellini.

Other memorable parts were his leads in Via delle cinque lune/Street of the Five Moons (Luigi Chiarini, 1942), Malombra (Mario Soldati, 1942) starring Isa Miranda, and La contessa Castiglioni/The Countess of Castiglione (Flavio Calzavara, 1942) with Doris Duranti.

By the mid-1940s, Checchi was one of the most wanted young Italian actors, both in dramatic as in comical parts. Checchi was considered a modern antihero, impersonating loss, resignation, and insecurity, and contrasting with the exuberance of young male actors like Rossano Brazzi, Roberto Villa, Massimo Serato, Leonardo Cortese, or the male star of the era, Amedeo Nazzari.

His characters wore wrinkled clothes and his ties askew, rivalled with Massimo Girotti, even if less handsome, in the part of the tormented and fragile protagonist. Checchi was the natural heir of Fosco Giachetti (whom he had seconded in films like L’assedio dell’Alcazar), but he was less harsh and more flexible. Moreover, he gifted his characters with a vulnerability that was unusual for the cinema of the 1930s and early 1940s.

It was because of actors like Checchi, Girotti, Anna Magnani, and up to a point Gino Cervi and Ignatio Lupi as well, that Italian cinema knew how to move more and more towards neorealism. Checchi had a raw but sensual voice, which considerably contributed to his image of a man with weaknesses but essentially good. He surely was a star in the Italian cinema of the 1940s, and thus he was photographed by the famous studio photographer Luxardo in Rome: with a cigarette between his lips and his face partly covered by his own smoke.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Italbore, Milano, no. 4. Photo Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity card for the Italian film Ore 9: lezione di chimica/ Schoolgirl Diary (Mario Mattoli, 1941), with Alida Valli and Andrea Checchi.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 20580. Photo: Venturini.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini Firenze (B.F.F. Edit), no. 21950. Photo: Bragaglia.


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

Losing, Conquered Persons

In the postwar era, things changed for Andrea Checchi. Though he won his first Nastro d'Argento for best actor in Due lettere anonime/Two Anonymous Letters  (Mario Camerini, 1946), he received fewer opportunities to play leads. His face, which wore its signs at an early stage, was soon borrowed to represent losing, conquered persons, who don’t lose their dignity despite all.

His sober and restrained acting resulted in memorable secondary parts that adorned films like Caccia tragica/Tragic Hunt (Giuseppe De Santis, 1947) – in which he played the bad guy as the leader of a gang that terrorises the local farmers Carla del Poggio and Massimo Girotti.

Other important parts were Isa Miranda’s husband in Le mura di Malapaga/The Walls of Malapaga (René Clement, 1949), the antifascist in Achtung! Banditi!/Attention! Bandits (Carlo Lizzani, 1950), the film producing husband of Lucia Bosè in La signora senza camelie/Camille Without Camelias

(1953) by Michelangelo Antonioni (which earned him a Grolla d'oro for best actor), and a part in L'assassino/The Assassin (1961) by Elio Petri, in which Marcello Mastroianni’s character is innocently accused of murder.

In this new attire of supporting actor Checchi repeated his 1946 success in 1958, winning a second Nastro d'Argento for best-supporting actor in Parola di ladro/Honor Among Thieves (Gianni Puccini, Nanni Loy, 1957). Within this second phase of his film career, Checchi played countless supporting parts, which enabled him to work with the great directors of the post-war era and act in several neorealist films.

Often he played military characters, and while he played fascist characters under Mussolini, he often played partisans and antifascists in the post-war Italian cinema. From the 1960s Checchi had an active career in television as well, in particular under the direction of Anton Giulio Majano. In 1962 he was Father McMillan in his series Una tragedia Americana/An American tragedy (after Theodore Dreiser). Later he played captain Ivan Mironov in La figlia del capitano/The Captain's Daughter (Leonardo Cortese, 1965), and that same year he acted as Valkov in Leo Tolstoi’s Resurrezione/Resurrection (Franco Enriquez, 1965).

In 1967 he was John Sedley in Majano's mini-series La fiera della vanità/Vanity Fair. He played the lead of Robert Fenwick in Majano's E le stelle stanno a guardare/The Stars Look Down (1971) opposite Giancarlo Giannini, and Head of Police Bonsanti in the popular Mini-series Il segno del commando/The sign of the commando (Daniele D'Anza, 1971), where he reunited with Massimo Girotti nearly 25 years after Caccia tragica.

Checchi also played in two episodes of the detective series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret/The investigations of Inspector Maigret (Mario Landi, 1965-1968), starring Gino Cervi.

Andrea Checchi was married to the Hungarian Erika Schwarze with whom he had a son - Enrico Roberto Checchi – a television playwright. Like his father he also painted, exhibiting his work in various solo exhibitions. Afflicted by an auto-immune disease – knotty polyarteritis. After a treatment in a specialised clinic in Geneva Checchi returned to Rome, where died in the Salvator Mundi hospital in 1974. He was 57.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4390. Photo: Vaselli / I.C.I.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4288-A. Photo: Vaselli / Italcine.


Romanian postcard.


Italian postcard by Ferrania.

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian, French, German, and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 14 January 2021.

Carole Lesley

Sexy Carole Lesley (1935-1974) or Leslie Carol(e) rivalled Diana Dors in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The glamorous starlet could always be seen at film premieres and her photograph was constantly in the British film magazines and annuals of the day. She emphasized her physical structure in some comedies, but she never lived up to her early potential. Her lack of acting skills meant that as the 1960s wore on she was soon forgotten.


Yugoslavian postcard by Izrada Ifis-Glas Smederevo, no. 207.

Showgirl and pin-up model

Carole Lesley was born Maureen Lesley Carole Rippingale in Chelmsford, England, in 1935. At the age of 12, she made her film debut in the British drama Silver Darlings (Clarence Elder, 1947).

Four years later, the naive and starry-eyed but gorgeous sixteen-year-old ran away from home to break into show business. According to Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, she was wearing her father's shirt and had only two and fourpence in her pocket.

She got a job as a showgirl at London's Cabaret Club and became a good dancer. She went to Paris to try modelling and worked as a pin-up model under the name Leslie Carol(e). In the mid-1950s she signed a 7-year contract with Associated British Pictures and as Carole Lesley, she appeared in their productions.

She was seen in films like Woman in a Dressing Gown (J. Lee Thompson, 1957), These Dangerous Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1957) with teenage idol Frankie Vaughan, and No Trees in the Street (J. Lee Thompson, 1959) starring Sylvia Syms. She was often seen at film premieres and her photograph was constantly in the British film magazines and newspapers.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "She was one of a few starlets who briefly rivalled notorious blonde bombshell Diana Dors as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The stunning actress, whose slim face was slightly reminiscent of comedic actress Kay Kendall and the more contemporary Sean Young, willingly exploited her obvious physical endowments in an elusive attempt to drum up public attention."


Italian postcard. On this postcard, Colleen Miller is mistakenly credited as Leslie Carol.

Suicide or accident?

In 1960 Carole Lesley starred on television as legendary temptress Helen of Troy in the ITV Play of the Week Tiger at the Gates (Paul Almond, 1960). That year she was also seen in the comedy Doctor in Love (Ralph Thomas, 1960) opposite handsome doctor Michael Craig.

In the following years, she appeared in more light slapstick comedies like Three on a Spree (Sidney J. Furie, 1961), What a Whopper (Gilbert Gunn, 1961) with Adam Faith, and The Pot Carriers (Peter Graham Scott, 1962).

In these films, she always emphasized her curves, but nothing out of the ordinary came out of her appearances and Associated decided to release her from her contract.

Gary Brumburgh comments on IMDb: "The devastated actress pulled a virtual disappearing act following the unhappy news, retreating completely from the limelight.". In 1964 she married Michael Dalling and would have two sons with him.

In 1974 Carole Lesley died from an overdose of pills at age 38 in New Barnet, England. Although some sources state it was a suicide, her relatives felt that it was an accident. She is still an inspiration to British artist Paul Harvey.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/186. Photo: Farabola. On this postcard, Carole Lesley is credited as Leslie Carole.


Tribute Carole Lesley Movie Star by blondebombshell59 (YouTube).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Whirligig Message Board, Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 19 March 2025. Thanks to Marlene Pilaete.

Mireille Granelli

Little-known French actress Mireille Granelli (1936) played in both French and Italian films of the 1950s and the 1960s.


French postcard by St. Anne, Marseille. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Moving between French and Italian film sets

Mireille Granelli was born in 1936 in Paris, France. She made her film debut in a small part as one of the aspiring starlets in Futures vedettes/Joy of Living (Marc Allégret, 1955) starring Jean Marais and the ultimate starlet Brigitte Bardot.

Her next part was in an Italian film, Noi siamo le colonne/We are the Columns (Luigi Filippo D'Amico, 1956) starring Vittorio De Sica. In the following decade, she would continue to move between French and Italian film sets.

In France, she played supporting parts in the comedy-drama Pardonnez nos offenses/Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Robert Hossein, 1956) starring Marina Vlady, and the comedy Les truands/Lock Up Your Spoons (Carlo Rim, 1957) with two-fisted action star Eddie Constantine. In Italy, she had the title role in Beatrice Cenci/Castle of the Banned Lovers (Riccardo Freda, 1956) as the daughter of Micheline Presle and Gino Cervi.

Often, these films were European co-productions. Slowly her parts became bigger and in the comedy Croquemitoufle (Claude Barma, 1959), she played the female lead opposite singer Gilbert Bécaud. Eleanor Mannikka at AllMovie: "This lively comedy by Claude Barma is well-acted and original enough to charm most audiences. The story revolves around a man who finds out that his friend's wife has left him. He decides to go out looking for her but there is only one slight problem - he has never met her and so he does not know what she looks like. Naturally, his quest leads him up several blind alleys, one of which has a lovely woman - is she the wife or is she not?"

Besides her work in the cinema, Mireille Granelli also appeared on stage. In 1960, she played with Marie Bell in the first production of Jean Genet's famous play Le Balcon (The Balcony), directed by Peter Brook.

 
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1020. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 858. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Love interest in peplums

During the 1960s, Mireille Granelli mostly worked in Italy. She appeared in the war comedy Il federale/The Fascist (Luciano Salce, 1961) in which dedicated fascist Ugo Tognazzi is sent to capture anti-Mussolini professor Georges Wilson in 1944 Italy.

The beautiful blonde also appeared as love interest in two Peplums, Ursus nella terra di fuoco/Ursus in the Land of Fire (Giorgio Simonelli, 1963) starring American muscleman Ed Fury, and Ursus, il terrore dei kirghisi/Hercules and the Captive Women (Antonio Margheriti a.k.a. Anthony Dawson, 1964) featuring the British bodybuilder Reg Parks.

About the latter, Sandra Brennan notes at AllMovie: "Bulging muscles abound in this Italian sword and sandal adventure. Originally, the hero was Ursus, but distributors changed it to Hercules when they redubbed it in English and brought it to the States. This time Hercules must take on a powerful witch and her army of spellbound werewolves."

The following year, Mireille Granelli was one of the beautiful women in the Eurospyfilm Mission spéciale à Caracas/Mission to Caracas (Raoul André, 1965).

Her final film premiered three years later, Quanto costa morire/Cost of Dying (Sergio Merolle, 1968). In this Spaghetti Western, starring John Ireland and Raymond Pellegrin, she only had a minor supporting part. Mireille Granelli was married to Ferdinand Béghin.


Big French postcard. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no.65. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sources: Eleanor Mannikka (AllMovie - page now defunct), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie - page now defunct), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 6 July 2024.

Scilla Gabel

Italian starlet Scilla Gabel (1938) often played the damsel in distress in peplums, the Italian sand and sandal epics of the late 1950s and 1960s. With her perfect body and face, she was a look-a-like for Sophia Loren. Between 1954 and 1982, the blue-eyed redhead appeared in 50 European and Hollywood films.


West German postcard by Ufa, no. FK 4000. Photo: Prisma-Film. Publicity still for Filles de nuit/Girls of the Night (Maurice Cloche, 1958).


Italian postcard by SAG, Trieste, Serie 27/1. Sent by mail in 1975.


Italian postcard, no. 609.

A Princess Between Musclemen

Scilla Gabel was born as Gianfranca Gabellini in Rimini, Italy in 1938. She studied acting at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica in Rome.

In 1954 she made her film debut in the drama Tua per la vita/For Your Life (Sergio Grieco, 1954) starring Gaby André. The press compared her to Sophia Loren, and she even worked as La Loren’s double on Boy on a Dolphin (Jean Negulesco, 1957). Gabel had two cosmetic operations that left her face distinctly different from her famous look-a-like.

Her breakthrough came with the Italian TV film Capitan Fracassa/Captain Fracasse (Anton Giulio Majano, 1958) with Lea Massari. She had a supporting part in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (John Guillermin, 1958), featuring muscleman Gordon Scott in his fourth screen appearance as Edgar Rice Burrough's lord of the jungle. The cast also included Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “While perhaps not as great as the title proclaims, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure is one of the most consistently exciting entries in the Tarzan series, and worth a second glance today due to its top-drawer supporting cast.” She next appeared as a princess opposite another muscleman, Steve Reeves, in the spectacle Agi Murad, il diavolo bianco/The White Warrior (Riccardo Freda, 1959), an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 19th-century-set novel, a courageous mountain warrior leads his band in a battle against the Czar.

In the French-Italian Gothic Horror Il mulino delle donne di pietra/Mill of the Stone Women (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960), she played the beautiful daughter of a mad professor, who suffers from a rare blood disease and is not allowed to leave her house. The international cast included Pierre Brice, Dany Carrel and Herbert A.E. Böhme.


Yugoslavian postcard by Ifis - Glas Smederevo, Serie 27/5.


Italian postcard by SAG, Trieste, Serie 29.


Italian postcard by SAG, Trieste, Serie 29.

Sand And Sandal Spectacles

During the early 1960s, Scilla Gabel starred in many Peplums, the popular Italian Sand and Sandal Spectacles. She played a princess opposite bodybuilder Mark Forrest in the Peplum Maciste, il gladiatore più forte del mondo/Colossus of the Arena (Michele Lupo, 1960). Then she starred opposite Roger Moore in Il ratto delle Sabine/The Rape of the Sabine Women (Richard Pottier, 1961).

One of Gabel’s best-known films is the biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah (Robert Aldrich, 1962), starring Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli and Anouk Aimée. Mike Cummings at AllMovie: “The sets, costumes, and action scenes are more Hollywood than history - a veritable glitzkrieg of images - and modern viewers may balk at the chintzy special effects (…). The quality of the acting ranges from masterly to moronic.”

She then played another damsel in distress in the Peplum La Vendetta di Spartacus/The Revenge of Spartacus (Michele Lupo, 1962) featuring ‘beefsteak’ Roger Browne. Hal Erickson about the director: “He of the ‘Shout 'action', close your eyes and hope for the best’ school of filmmaking. If you don't like the action highlights, you'll get a thrill out of watching the actors flap their mouths in a Babel of foreign languages while the English soundtrack tries to keep pace.”

Gabel had a supporting role in the psychedelic spy spoof Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, 1966) featuring Monica Vitti. Production designers Richard Macdonald and Jack Shampan and costume designers Beatrice Dawson and Douglas Hayward created a masterpiece of 1960s ‘mod,’ but the screenplay was a muddle. Her career dwindled off after that.

One of her last great roles was Helen of Troy in the miniseries L'Odissea/The Odyssey (Franco Rossi, Piero Schivazappa, Mario Bava, 1968) starring Bekim Fehmiu and Irene Papas. During the 1970s, Gabel only played in a handful of feature films. On TV she appeared in the miniseries Dov'è Anna?/Where is Anna? (Piero Schivazappa, 1986). She retired after another TV mini-Series Festa di Capodanno/New Year's Eve (Piero Schivazappa, 1988). In the 1950s, Scilla Gabel had a brief affair with singer Fred Buscaglione, but since 1968 Scilla Gabel has been married to Piero Schivazappa, the director of her final TV productions. They have one son, Emiliano (1974).


German cigarette card. Photo: Jiano.


Italian postcard, no. 622.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1653.

Source: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Mike Cummings (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Italian, German and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 26 April 2024.

Lilia Silvi

Lilia Silvi (1921) was a diva of the Italian Telefoni Bianchi comedies of the 1930's and 1940's, often paired with Amedeo Nazzari. Recently she made a come-back in Gianni e le donne (2011) and the documentary In arte, Lilia Silvi (2011).

 
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2112. Photo: Bragaglia.


Italian postcard, no. 62/2. Photo: Lilia Silvi and Roberto Villa in Violette nei capelli/Violets in the hair (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1942).

Faking a Marriage
Lilia Silvi, originally Silvana Musitelli, was born in Rome, in 1921. After visiting ballet class at the Roman Opera, she had her film debut in Il cantico della terra/La capanna dell'amore/The love shack (1935, Salvatore Fernando Ramponi). She used the pseudonym Alice D'Artena at the time. In Mario Camerini’s famous comedy Il signor Max/Mister Max (1937) she had s small part as an orchid seller, but in the comedy Assenza ingiustificata/Absence Without Leave (1939, Max Neufeld) she had her first major role as the earthquake-like schoolmate of Alida Valli. Soon she became one of the stars of the Italian cinema of the early 1940's. In her subsequent film, the sentimental comedy Scarpe grosse/Big Shoes (1940, Dino Falconi) she had the female lead opposite Amedeo Nazzari, with whom she would be a pair in various films. In Dopo divorzieremo/Later We Will Divorce (1940, Nunzio Malasomma), set in the US, she played a cashier who fakes a marriage with the lover (Nazzari) of her roommate (Vivi Gioi) to help the other two out, but in the end Silvi and Nazzari become a pair. She also played in the Spanish version of this multilingual, now with Maria Mercader and Roberto Rey, and again with Malasomma directing. In 1941 Silvi and Nazzari were paired again in one of the many adaptations of Dario Niccodemi’s Scampolo (1941, Nunzio Malasomma) and in Gianni Franciolini’s comedy Giorni felici/Happy Days (1942).


Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still of Lilia Silvi and Amedeo Nazzari in La bisbetica domata/The Taming of the Shrew (1942).


Italian postcard. Lilia Silvi and Amedeo Nazzarri in Giorni felici/Happy Days (Gianni Franciolini, 1942).

Volcanic
Lilia Skala and Amedeo Nazzari then co-starred in La bisbetica domata/The Taming of the Shrew (1942, Ferdinando Maria Poggioli) a modern version of the classic Shakespearian comedy, situated in a Roman suburb. Nazzari plays the emigrant outsider returning to Italy who tames the volcanic Silvi, whom nobody can control. The film was a hit for both stars. Silvi also sang the title song, La bisbetica domata, which became very popular. She also played opposite Elli Parvo in Arditi civili/Civil Forces (1940, Domenico Gambino), and opposite Sergio Tofano and Andrea Checchi in Giù il sipario/Close the Curtain (1940, Raffaello Matarazzo). Other films were Barbablù/Bluebeard (1941, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia), and Violette nei capelli/Violets in her hair (1941, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) with Roberto Villa. In La vispa Teresa/The sprightly Teresa (1943, Mario Mattoli), Silvi sang Senti il cuore che batte (e come batte!)/Feel How my heart beats (and how it beats). She plays a manicure who substitutes for a colleague (Vera Carmi) who is a ruthless golddigger, hunting for Roberto Villa. Of course Villa prefers Silvi in the end. After Il diavolo in collegio (1944, Jean Boyer) with Leonardo Cortese, Silvi’s career slowed down in the postwar era. She concentrated on theatre and revue instead, playing with Franco Scandurra Franco and Carlo Campanini. She did three more films: Biraghin (1946, Carmine Gallone) with Andrea Checchi, Napoleone/Napoleon (1950, Carlo Borghesio) with Renato Rascel as the French Emperor, and Viva la rivista!/Long live the magazine! (1953, Enzo Trapani). Then she retired from the cinema and dedicated herself to her family. In 1940 Silvi had met and married soccer player Luigi Scarabello, who appeared in her films Violette nei capelli and Barbablù under the pseudonym of Sergio Landi. Scarabello and Silvi had three children, two girls and one boy, and their union lasted a good 67 years until the death of Scarabello in 2007. In 2011 Lilia Silvi made a comeback to the set. After an absence of nearly 50 years, she acted in Gianni Di Gregorio’s comedy Gianni e le donne/The Salt of Life (2011). That same year Mimmo Verdesca made a documentary on her: In arte, Lilia Silvi/In art, Lilia Silvi (2011).


Trailer for In arte, Lilia Silvi (2011). Source: Flabes8 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Fritz Schulz

Austrian born comic actor/director Fritz Schulz (1896 - 1972) appeared in more than one hundred films between 1917 and 1970. When the sound film arrived, he was one of the most popular stars of the Ufa. The rise of the Nazis broke his blooming career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6159/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Mac Glass-Filmprod.

Different from the Others
Fritz Schulz was born in Karlsbad, Austria-Hungary (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), in 1896. He began his film career in the 1910's with German silent films like the short comedy Fräulein Puppe - meine Frau/Miss Puppet – My Wife (1914, Danny Kaden) with Gudrun Hildebrandt, the Joe Deebs adventure Das Geheimnis der leeren Wasserflasche/The Secret of the Empty Water Bottle (1917, Joe May) starring Harry Liedtke, another Joe Deebs mystery Der Onyxknopf/The Onyx Button (1917, Joe May) starring Max Landa, the great comedy Wenn vier dasselbe tun/ When Four Do the Same (1917, Ernst Lubitsch) starring Emil Jannings and Ossi Oswalda, the Dostoevsky adaptation Anna Karenina (1919, Friedrich Zelnik aka Frederic Zelnik) starring Lya Mara and the controversial Anders als die Anderen/Different from the Others (1919, Richard Oswald), one of the first films to depict homosexuality. In the 1920's followed supporting roles in a whole string of other well-known films like the Krimi Whitechapel (1920, Ewald André Dupont), the drama Miss Beryll... die Laune eines Millionärs/Miss Beryll… the Whims of a Millionair (1921, Friedrich Zelnik aka Frederic Zelnik) with Lya Mara, Sie und die Drei/She and the Three (1922, Ewald André Dupont) starring Henny Porten, Der rote Reiter/The Red Rider (1923, Franz W. Koebner) starring Fern Andra, Die Frau mit dem Etwas/The Woman with It (1925, Erich Schönfelder) with Lee Parry, and Gesetze der Liebe/Laws of Love (1927, Magnus Hirschfeld, Richard Oswald), which contained newly edited material from Anders als die andern (1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8086/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7199/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Esterhazy.

The Emigrant Cinema
In contrast to many of his colleagues of the silent cinema, Fritz Schulz was offered more extensive roles with the rise of the sound film era. During the first years of the 1930's he starred in a great number of comedies and operettas, among them Mein Herz gehört Dir..../My Heart is Yours (1930. Max Reichmann) with Camilla Horn, Nur Du/Only You (1930, Hermann Feiner, Willi Wolff), Drei Tage Mittelarrest/Three Days in Jail (1930, Carl Boese), Pension Schöller/Guesthouse Schöller (1930, Georg Jacoby), Kasernenzauber/Magic of the Barracks (1930, Carl Boese) with Lucie Englisch, Der Bettelstudent/The Beggar Student (1931, Victor Janson) with Truus van Aalten, Die schwebende Jungfrau/The Soaring Maiden (1931, Carl Boese) with Lissi Arna, Der verjüngte Adolar/Adolar Rejuvenated (1931, Georg Jacoby) starring Hans Moser, and Das Lied einer Nacht/The Song of Night (1932, Anatole Litvak) with Jan Kiepura. Before Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Fritz Schulze returned to Austria. There he made more comedies and musicals like Sehnsucht 202/Yearning 202 (1932, Max Neufeld) with Magda Schneider, Sag' mir, wer Du bist/Say me Who You Are (1933, Georg Jacoby) starring Liane Haid and the British film version of Die Fledermaus, Waltz Time (1933, Wilhelm Thiele) with Evelyn Laye. In Great Britain he also appeared in The Constant Nymph (1933, Basil Dean) with Brian Aherne. The National Socialist regime began to infiltrate Austria's film industry in order to force it to conform to Nazi ideology and provoke the destabilization of the country for an eventual Nazi coup or invasion. Only eight films a year were allowed into Germany, which had been Austria's greatest export market. No Jewish or anti-Nazi talent was to be present in these films. Many Jewish film workers began to produce their own German-language films. Fritz Schulz, Rudi Loewenthal and Erich Morawsky founded the first independent production company in 1934. Their film was called Salto in die Seligkeit/Sommersault in Bliss (1934, Fritz Schulz) with Rose Barsony. But only one year later, after Fritz Schulz had directed Ende schlecht, alles gut/All's Well That Ends Badly (1934) with Szöke Szakáll aka S.Z. Sakall, and Letzte Liebe/Last Love (1935) with Albert Bassermann, the founders had to shut down their production company.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no 6076. Photo: Lux Film.


Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 407. Photo: Filma.

Switzerland
During the second half of the 1930’s and the 1940’s, Fritz Schulz lived in Switzerland and appeared in only one film. The once celebrated Ufa star appeared in a supporting part in Dilemma (1940, Edmund Heuberger, Paul Besson) with Leopold Biberti. After the war, it lasted five years till he returned to the cinema. He directed the musical Gruss und Kuss aus der Wachau/Greetings and Kiss from the Wachau (1950) starring Rolf Wanka. He later appeared in supporting parts in such Austrian films as the entertaining comedy Ich und meine Frau/I and My Wife (1953, Eduard von Borsody) with Attila Hörbiger and Paula Wessely, Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (1954, Willi Forst) starring Paul Henreid, the comedy Die Wirtin zur Goldenen Krone/The Landlady of the Golden Crown (1955, Theo Lingen) and another comedy Die unvollkommene Ehe/The Defective Marriage (1959, Robert A. Stemmle) starring Paula Wessely. On German and Austrian TV he was seen in Moral (1958, Rainer Wolffhardt), the great comedy Der Hauptmann von Köpenick/The Captain from Koepenick (1960, Rainer Wolffhardt) with Rudolph Platte, Der Apoll von Bellac/The Apollo of Bellac (1964, Ulrich Erfurth) based on the play by Jean Giraudoux, the comedy 'S Wiesenhendl (1968, Kurt Wilhelm) and Einladung ins Schloss/Ring Round the Moon (1970, Helmut Käutner). He also starred in the comedy series Zimmer 13/Room 13 (1968). In 1970 he retired from show business. Fritz Schulz died in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1972.


Scene from Einer Frau muss man alles verzeih'n/You Should Forgive a Woman Everything (1931, Eugen Thiele). Source: Plattensammler88 (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Green Cine, Wikipedia (German), AllMovie and IMDb.

James Mason

Gifted English actor James Mason (1909-1984) played in 150 British and American films and was three times nominated for an Oscar. His distinctive voice enabled him to play a menacing villain as greatly as his good looks assisted him as a matinee idol with a dark side.


Belgian photocard by Kwatta, no. C 265. Photo by Metro Goldwyn Mayer for East Side, West Side (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D. 249. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. James Mason and Jane Greer in The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Thorpe, 1952).


German postcard by ISV, no. A 69. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Island in the Sun (Robert Rossen, 1957).


Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 29.

Quota quickies

James Neville Mason was born in the mill town of Huddersfield, England, in 1909. His parents were John and Mabel Mason; his father was a wealthy wool merchant. James attended schools in Marlborough and Cambridge, where he discovered acting on a lark and abandoned a planned career as an architect.

Mason won his first professional role in The Rascal and made his debut in London's West End theatre world in 1933 with 'Gallows Glorious'. In 1934, he joined the Old Vic under the guidance of Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Alexander Korda.

Korda gave Mason his first small film role in 1933, but fired him three days into shooting. Mason remained in the theatre, becoming a prominent stage actor.

From 1935 on, he also starred in Late Extra (Albert Parker, 1935) and many other 'Quota Quickies', the minor films to accommodate laws mandating a certain percentage of films shown in Britain to be British-made.

Lucia Bozzola writes at AllMovie that Mason "made a career and personal breakthrough, however, with I Met a Murderer (1939). Along with co-writing, co-producing, and starring in the film, he also wound up marrying his leading lady, Pamela Kellino, in 1940." Only a few years later, Mason became Britain's biggest screen star.


Dutch postcard by REB.


East-German postcard by Th. Haasemann / Degro Phot. Photo: Rank.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 151. Photo: Gainsborough.


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 258.

Brooding anti-heroes

As an avowed pacifist, James Mason refused to perform military service during World War II. This stance caused his family to break with him for many years.

In 1943, he caused a sensation in the cinema as a handsome, sadistic aristocrat in the Gainsborough costume drama The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943). He went on to become a popular star by playing brooding anti-heroes in films like They Met in the Dark (Carl Lamac, 1943), Candlelight in Algeria (George King, 1944), The Seventh Veil (Compton Bennett, 1945) and The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss, 1945) opposite Margaret Lockwood.

He also starred with Deborah Kerr and Robert Newton in Hatter's Castle (Lance Comfort, 1942) and played a mortally wounded Irish revolutionary in the suspense thriller Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947). In 1949, he went to America, where he starred in Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949). In Hollywood, he played somewhat more glamorous or heroic roles than in Britain in films like Madame Bovary (Vincente Minnelli, 1949) and The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949).

In 1952, while remodelling his home, he discovered several reels of Buster Keaton's ‘lost’ films (Mason had purchased Keaton's Hollywood mansion) and immediately recognised their historical significance and was responsible for their preservation. As an actor, he had international success in the remake of A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954), playing a complex, Barrymore-style declining actor who marries a rising showgirl played by Judy Garland.

His other roles included General Erwin Rommel twice - in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (Henry Hathaway, 1951) and in The Desert Rats (Robert Wise, 1953), a Nazi spy in 5 Fingers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952), Brutus in Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953), a world weary, complex hero-villain in The Man Between (Carol Reed, 1953), the obsessed Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954), a small town school teacher driven insane by the effects of Cortisone in Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956), and a determined explorer in the Jules Verne adaptation Journey to the Center of the Earth (Henry Levin, 1959).


Vintage photo. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Stewart Granger and James Mason (left) in The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Thorpe, 1952).


French postcard, no. 851. Photo: M.G.M.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D. 250. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. James Mason, Robert Douglas and Jane Greer in The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Thorpe, 1952).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 499. Phot. Photo: 20th Century Fox / International Press.

His lasciviously clipped vowels

James Mason's most famous roles are probably suave master spy Philip Vandamm in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) and Prof. Humbert Humbert in Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962). Andrew Pulver in The Guardian: "Nabokov's professorial paedophile terrified the life out of Hollywood's star names, but Mason stepped up to play Humbert Humbert for Stanley Kubrick. (Both Laurence Olivier and David Niven turned it down.) Mason's stuffed-shirt reticence, allied to his lasciviously clipped vowels, made him ideal for the role."

His later films include the Harold Pinter-scripted The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton, 1964); the John Le Carré thriller The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966), the mystery The Last of Sheila (Herbert Ross, 1973), the war drama Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977), the TV series Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977), Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty, Buck Henry, 1978), the TV mini-series Salem's Lot (Tobe Hooper, 1979), and Yellowbeard (Mel Damski, 1983), in which he played a surreal pirate captain.

Jim Beaver comments at IMDb: "His tendency to take any job offered led him to have many unworthy credits on his resume, but throughout his career, he remained a respected and powerful figure in the industry. His mellifluous voice and an uncanny ability to suggest rampant emotion beneath a face of absolute calm made him a fascinating performer to watch."

Late in life, he played a corrupt lawyer in The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982) opposite Paul Newman. It earned him his third and final Oscar nomination. He served as narrator for a British television series on the films of Charlie Chaplin, Unknown Chaplin.

James Mason died of a heart attack at his home in Switzerland in 1984. He was married twice. From 1941 till their divorce in 1964, his wife was actress (and later columnist and TV host) Pamela Mason. They had two children, actress-author Portland Mason and producer Morgan Mason. In 1971, he married actress Clarissa Kaye-Mason.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A.. Photo: M.P.E.A.


Belgian card by Cox, no. 29.


Yugoslav postcard by ZK, no. 2063.


Trailer North by Northwest (1959). Source: The Justv (YouTube).

Sources: David Thomson (The Guardian), Lucia Bozzola (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia, Reel Classics, Jim Beaver (IMDb - Page now defunct) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 4 June 2025.