Valeska Gert

Jewish cabaret artist Valeska Gert (1892-1978) became famous in Berlin with her radical modern dances. With her dark, aquiline feature, she was also active as an artists' model and appeared in several classics of the Weimar Cinema. After a comeback in Fellini’s Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Gert worked with the film makers of the New German Cinema of the 1970s.


German card. Photo: Atelier Leopold, München (Munich). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Dadaist mixed media art nights

Valeska Gert was born as Gertrud Valesca Samosch in 1892 in Berlin to a Jewish family. She was the eldest daughter of manufacturer Theodor Samosch and Augusta Rosenthal. Exhibiting no interest in academics or office work, Gert began taking dance lessons at the age of nine. This, combined with her love of ornate fashion, was the basis for her career in dance and performance art.

In 1915, she studied acting with Maria Moissi. World War I hurt her father’s finances, forcing Gert to rely on herself far more than other bourgeois daughters typically might. As World War I raged on, Gert joined a Berliner dance group and created revolutionary satirical dance.

In 1916, Gert made her dance debut in a Berlin film house, performing between film reels. The same year, she began acting at the Munich Kammerspiele.

Following engagements at the Deutsches Theater and the Tribüne in Berlin, Gert was invited to perform in expressionist plays in Dadaist mixed media art nights. Her performances in Oskar Kokoschka’s 'Hiob' (1918), Ernst Toller’s 'Transformation' (1919), and Frank Wedekind’s 'Franziska' earned her popularity.

During this time, she also performed in the Schall und Rauch cabaret. Gert launched a tour of her own dances, with titles like 'Dance in Orange', 'Boxing', 'Circus', 'Japanese Grotesque', 'Death', and 'Whore'. With her highly athletic style of dance, she created a sensation. She also contributed articles for magazines like Die Weltbühne and the Berliner Tageszeitung.


German card. Collection: Didier Hanson.

A social conscience melodrama

By 1923, Valeska Gert focused her work more on film acting than live performance. She played Puck in the Ufa production Ein Sommernachtstraum/Wood Love (Hans Neumann, 1925). This adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' had an all-star cast including Werner Krauss, Alexander Granach en Hans Albers.

In 1925 she also appeared in the classic Die freudlose Gasse/Joyless Street (G. W. Pabst, 1925), starring Asta Nielsen and the young Greta Garbo in her second major role.

Craig Butler at AllMovie: "Street is not about any one person but about a time, a place and, above all, a society that was perilously divided into two very unequal parts. Director G.W. Pabst and scenarist Willy Haas have created a social conscience melodrama that is enormously powerful; it's manipulative at times, but there's such commitment behind it that most viewers won't mind. Pabst is excellent at exploring the bleakness and despair of the residents of the Street and contrasting it with the amorality and immorality of the upper classes, who think nothing of spreading false rumors that will destroy many but will increase their own already considerable wealth."

Gert also performed in G. W. Pabst’s Tagebuch einer Verlorenen/Diary of a Lost Girl (G. W. Pabst, 1929), and Die 3-Groschen-Oper/The Threepenny Opera (G. W. Pabst, 1931), loosely based on the 1928 musical theatre success 'The Threepenny Opera' by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Gert played Mrs. Peachum, and according to Hal Erickson at AllMovie the film version “is every bit as good as the stage original, and sometimes even better.”

In France, she appeared in Jean Renoir’s second film Nana (1926), a lavishly appointed adaptation of Emile Zola's novel. Other classic silent films with her were the Science-Fiction Horror film Alraune/Mandrake (Henrik Galeen, 1928) featuring Brigitte Helm, and Menschen am Sonntag/People on Sunday (Robert Siodmak, Rochus Gliese, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1930), based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder. In the late twenties, Gert returned to the stage with pieces emphasizing 'Tontänze' (sound dances), which explored the relationship between movement and sound.


German card. Photo: Atelier Leopold, München (Munich). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Exile

In 1933, Valeska Gert’s Jewish heritage resulted in her ban from the German stage. Her exile from performance in Germany sent her to London for some time, where she worked both in theatre and film.

In London, she worked on the experimental short film Pett and Pot (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1934), which would long stand as her last film. In 1936, Gert wed an English writer, Robin Hay Anderson. It was her second marriage and her first husband had been Helmuth von Krause.

In 1938, she emigrated to the United States, where it was difficult for her to continue her previous career. She lived on the welfare of a Jewish refugee community and found work washing dishes and sometimes posing as a nude model. This same year, she hired the 17-year-old Georg Kreisler as a rehearsal pianist to continue to focus on cabaret work.

By 1941, she had opened the Beggar Bar in New York, where Julian Beck, Judith Malina, and Jackson Pollock worked for her. Tennessee Williams also worked for her for a short time as a busboy but was fired for refusing to pool his tips.

By 1944, Gert had relocated to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she opened Valeska's. During this period, Gert was called to Provincetown court for throwing garbage out of her window and failing to pay a dance partner. She called upon Williams as a character witness, which he did with pleasure, although she fired him. He told incredulous friends that he "simply liked her".


Asta Nielsen. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1140/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


Brigitte Helm. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5501/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa. Distributed in Italy by Ballerini& Frattini, Florence.

Fellini and Fassbinder

In 1947 Valeska Gert returned to Europe. After staying in Paris and Zurich, she went to Blockaded Berlin in 1949, where she opened the cabaret Hexenküche (Witch's Kitchen) in the next year. Following Hexenküche, she opened Ziegenstall on the island of Sylt.

In the 1960s, she made her screen comeback. She was rediscovered by Federico Fellini who gave her a part in his film Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (1965), featuring Giulietta Masina. The film brought her to the attention of a new generation of German directors. During the 1970s, she played in an episode of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's serial Acht Stunden sind kein Tag/Eight Hours are Not a Day (1973), the experimental film Die Betörung der blauen Matrosen/The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors (Tabea Blumenschein, Ulrike Ottinger, 1975) and in Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuss/Coup de grâce (1976), with Matthias Habich.

Schlöndorff also made a documentary about her, Nur zum Spaß, nur zum/Just for fun, just for the game (1977). Gert told in this film about theatre in Berlin in the 1920s, and her dances were re-created by Pola Kinski. In 1978 Werner Herzog invited Gert to play the real estate broker Knock in his remake of F.W. Murnau's classic film Nosferatu, but she died just two weeks later before filming began.

On 18 March 1978 neighbours and friends in Kampen, Germany, reported she had not been seen for four days. When her door was forced in the presence of police she was found dead. She was 86 years old. In 1970, she was awarded with the Filmband in Gold for lifelong achievement in German film.

Valeska Gert’s art was for the first time exhibited in 2010 in the Berlin Museum for Contemporary Art Hamburger Bahnhof.


Valeska Gert - Die Frau im Taumel des Lasters. Short scene from the documentary Cabaret Berlin - Die wilde Bühne 1919 - 1933. Source: dict adtv (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Craig Butler (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 15 May 2024.

Vanda Hudson

Beautiful starlet Vanda Hudson (1933-2004) was one of the blond bombshells of British cinema in the post-war years. She appeared in supporting parts in a dozen B-films and TV series of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 288. Photo: Rank.

Too sexy for Blackpool

Vanda Hudson was born Wanda Maria Zaleska in Slaskie (Silesia), part of present-day Poland (some sources say Villefranche, France), in 1933 (some sources say 1937). She moved to Great Britain in 1948 and made her screen debut in 1955.

There is a 1958 press picture by Mirrorpix of her in a sexy dress in which she is presented as a cabaret singer. According to the subscript Vanda “joined the summer show on Blackpool's Central pier and brought along this gold Lame and sequin dress to wear in her act. But producer Peter Webster decided it was too sexy for the Blackpool holiday makers so he ruled that the dress was out. Instead, Vanda wears a less revealing simple styled dress to cover her 38-22-36 figure.” A publicity stunt for the Central Pier and for the blond bombshell?

Since the mid-1950s Vanda worked as an actress in films and TV series. According to IMDb, she made her TV debut in 1955 in an episode of the British Detective series The Vipe (Ernest Morris, 1955). That same year she also appeared in the TV film Miss Patterson (N.N., 1955) with Fay Compton.

Her first film appearance was an uncredited part in the World War II drama Seven Thunders (Hugo Fregonese, 1957) starring Stephen Boyd.

More small parts followed in the drama Innocent Sinners (Philip Leacock, 1958), the Frankie Vaughan vehicle The Heart of a Man (Herbert Wilcox, 1959) in which she played a character called Cha Cha, and the Oscar-nominated drama Libel (Anthony Asquith, 1959) starring Dirk Bogarde.


German postcard by ISV, no. 11/6.

Lurid and risqué

In 1960 Vanda Hudson played a supporting part in the comedy Bottoms Up (Mario Zampi, 1960), just credited as Vanda.

That year she also appeared in the horror film Circus of Horrors (Sydney Hayers, 1960) starring Anton Diffring and German star Erika Remberg.

IMDb reviewer Guanche called it “Lurid and risqué for its time, and still quite unsettling (…) This is a grim story of a doctor fleeing some botched plastic surgeries. He takes over a backwoods circus and populates it with beautiful, yet disfigured female performers whom he restores to beauty and rescues from lives of prostitution and rejection.

Of course, once the circus becomes successful, the ladies no longer feel like putting up with or putting out for him, so he devises elaborate circus ‘accidents’ to deal with their ingratitude.”

Vanda played one of his victims, who meets a particularly gruesome end. Anton Diffring sabotages the knife-thrower's act and sexy target girl Magda von Meck (Vanda) is stabbed in the throat.


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 288. Sent by mail in 1963. Photo: Rank.

Scandalous Luxemburg production

Vanda Hudson’s biggest film role came the following year with her part as Fina in the romance Ticket to Paradise (Francis Searle, 1961), for which she was billed third.

More supporting parts followed in the crime films Jungle Street (Charles Saunders, 1961) starring David McCallum and Jill Ireland, and Strip Tease Murder (Ernest Morris, 1961) with Ann Lynn.

She then appeared in Double Danger (Roger Jenkins, 1961), an episode of the first season of the legendary mystery TV series The Avengers (1961) starring Patrick Macnee as secret agent John Steed.

Vanda played a bit part in the comedy Father Came Too! (Peter Graham Scott, 1964) starring James Robertson Justice. In 1963 she retired to raise her family but in 1967 she was seen in the scandalous Luxemburg production Happening (Marc Boureau, 1967) with André Dumas.

Two years later she appeared topless in the sex comedy A Promise of Bed (Derek Ford, 1969) with Victor Spinetti. She played a fading sex symbol who attempts to win the lead in a film by seducing the son of a film producer only to make a fool of herself in a case of mistaken identity. It would be her final film. Subsequently, she ran the restaurant Turpin’s in Hampstead, north London. Vanda Hudson died in Hertfordshire, England in 2004, aged 70.


Trailer of Circus of Horrors (1960). Source: Scream Factory TV (YouTube).

Sources: The Stage, Cinemorgue, Screenweek (Page now defunct), Art. 247 (Now defunct), Media Storehouse, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 30 October 2024.

Else Bötticher

In the early 20th century, German actress Else Bötticher (1880-1966) performed with famous stage stars in international theatres. During the 1910s, she made several silent films. In the sound era, she returned to the cinema but then only played small roles as wives and mothers.


With Vilma Conti. German postcard by BNK, no. 33 583/1. Collection: Didier Hanson. Caption: "Fuss-Tanz-Duett. So ein Damesfüsschen zierlich und klein. Die Tanzhusaren" (Foot-dance duet. Such a dainty and small lady foot. The Dance Hussars).

Acting greats

Else Bötticher began her career at age 18 in the province. Then she played for two years Nora in theatres in the US.

Back in Germany, she was a partner of such acting greats as Josef Kainz and Max Pallenberg.

Max Reinhardt engaged her several times for his guest directions in Munich. Bötticher also repeatedly did guest performances in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and France.

However, she worked mainly in German theatres such as the Königlichen Hoftheater zu Stuttgart (Royal Court Theatre in Stuttgart) and especially, since shortly before the First World War, in Berlin theatres such as the Trianon-Theater.

In the later years of the Weimar Republic, she was seen at the Neues Theater am Zoo and other stages.


With Vilma Conti. German postcard by BNK, no. 33 583/2. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Caption: "Fuss-Tanz-Duett. Fährt man erst per Untergrund.... Die Tanzhusaren." (Foot-dance duet. You can learn only on the ground.... The Dance Hussars).

Forgotten silent productions

According to Wikipedia and other sources, for a long time, the cinema seemed to play only a minor role in the artistic work of Else Bötticher. However, The German Early Cinema Database shows that Bötticher appeared in several now-forgotten productions during the 1910s.

Her first film was the Messter production Fräulein Leutnant/Miss Lieutenant (Carl Wilhelm, 1914) in which she played the title role opposite Albert Paulig and Hans Mierendorff.

She also appeared in the sequel Fräulein Feldgrau/Miss Feldgrau (Carl Wilhelm, 1914) again with Albert Paulig.

Her other silent films included Die Nicht aus Amerika/The Niece from America (1917), Frau Hempels Tochter/Mrs. Hempel’s Daughter (Julius Dewald, Edmund Edel, 1919) and De Profundis (Georg Jacoby, 1919) starring Ellen Richter.


Ellen Richter. German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 911. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Mothers and wives

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists, Else Bötticher again regularly performed before the camera. She received mostly small roles – as mother and wife.

She played the Rectors wife and mother of Annemarie Sörensen in So ein Flegel/Such a Boor (Robert A. Stemmle, 1933) starring Heinz Rühmann in a double role, the earlier version of the hit film Die Feuerzangenbowle/The Punch Bowl (Helmut Weiss, 1943).

In 1933, she also returned to the Berlin stage and performed at the Metropolitan Theater.

With the outbreak of the war in 1939, she ended her film work for a long time. Her theatrical commitments were also limited. After the war, the elderly actress only played guest roles.

Her final film appearance was a bit part in Mein Vater, der Schauspieler/My Father the Actor (Robert Siodmak, 1956) starring O.W. Fischer. In 1966, Else Bötticher died in Berlin. She was 85.


Heinz Rühmann. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3774/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

Sources: The German Early Cinema Database, Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 23 July 2023.

Imported from the USA: Josephine Baker

Today, we continue our new series 'Imported from the USA'. Tall and dark Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an American singer and dancer who became a legend in Europe. In 1925 'the Bronze Venus' became an instant success in Paris with her coffee skin, ebony eyes, long legs, and 'smile to end all smiles'. She was the first African American female to become a world-famous entertainer, to integrate an American concert hall, and to star in a major film, the French production La Sirene des Tropiques/Siren of the Tropics (1927).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5293. Photo: Walery, Paris

Racial Discrimination

Josephine Baker was born Frida Josephine McDonald in 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, US. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a laundress, and her father, Eddie Carson, a vaudeville drummer.

Josephine dropped out of school at the age of 12, and first danced for the public on the streets of St. Louis for nickels and dimes.

At 15, she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show, and she married a Pullman porter named William Howard Baker. Two years later she left him and ran away from St. Louis, feeling there was too much racial discrimination in the city.

She headed to New York City and during the Harlem Renaissance, she performed at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) and The Chocolate Dandies (1924).

She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if they were unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point they would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity.

Josephine Baker was then billed as 'the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville.'


Albert Prejean. German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6201/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

Banana Dance

In 1925, Josephine Baker opened in Paris in La revue negre at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage.

After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts.

She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. She quickly became a favourite of the French, and her fame grew.

Baker performed in a handful of silent and early sound films, including La Sirene des Tropiques/Siren of the Tropics (Henri Étiévant, Mario Nalpas, 1927) at the side of Pierre Batcheff, Zouzou (Marc Allégret, 1934) opposite Jean Gabin, and La princesse Tam Tam/Princess Tam-Tam (Edmond T. Gréville, 1935) with Albert Préjean.

At this time she also scored her greatest song hit, J'ai deux amours (1931).

In 1937 she renounced her American citizenship and became a citizen of France.

During World War II she served in the French Resistance for which she would receive the highest French military honour, the Croix de Guerre.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 5293, 1970.

Communist Sympathizer?

Josephine Baker had many ups and downs during her career.

Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. In 1951 the Stork Club in New York City had refused to serve her because she was black. This led to a confrontation with columnist Walter Winchell.

Later, she was falsely accused of being a communist sympathizer, and the FBI started a file on her. During the McCarthy era, she was told that she was no longer welcome in the United States.

In France, she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, France's highest honour, in 1961.

In the late 1960's, she began having financial difficulties, and stopped performing in 1968. Princess Grace offered her a home in Monaco when she learned of Josephine's financial problems.

At the request of Princess Grace, she performed at Monaco's summer ball in 1974, and was a great success. That same year, she staged a week of performances in New York and called the show An Evening with Josephine Baker.

Baker had just begun a Paris revue celebrating her half-century on the stage, when on 10 April 1975 she was stricken and went into a coma. She died without regaining consciousness.

Her funeral was held in Paris, and she was buried in Monaco.

Josephine Baker was married six times: to foundry worker Willie Wells (1919), William Howard Baker (1920-1923), 'Count' Pepito di Abatino (1926), French sugar magnate Jean Lion (1937-1938), orchestra leader Joe Bouillon (1947-1957) and finally to American artist Robert Brady (1973 till her death in 1975).

She adopted 12 children, partly because she couldn't have any of her own and partly because she believed in equality for all, no matter what nationality, religion or race.


Josephine Baker performs the Danse sauvage at the Folies Bergères. Source: dsmrtgrl (YouTube).


Josephine Baker in Pathécolor, shot for the French silent film La Revue Des Revues (1927). Source:  stjn00 (YouTube).

The first episode of 'Imported from the USA' was dedicated to Jayne Mansfield.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Lea Giunchi

Lea Giunchi (1884-?) was the first comical actress in Italian cinema. She acted either in her own 'Lea' series or with male comedians such as Ferdinand Guillaume (Tontolini) and Raymond Frau (Kri Kri). She also played in the Italian silent epic Quo vadis? (1913), modern dramas and action films.


Italian postcard by Roseo & C., Napoli. Collection: Joseph North.


Dutch postcard by Eye Filmmuseum. Italian poster for Kri-Kri e Lea militari (Cines, 1913). Postcard of a poster in the Collection Desmet, issued in 2014 when Eye uploaded some 900 images of posters in the Desmet Collection to the European Film Gateway 1914 website. The original design of the poster was by Romeo Marchetti (1876-1940), who for several years designed all the Cines film posters on the comic characters of Kri-Kri (Raymond Frau) and Lea (Lea Giunchi).

Lea, Tontolini and Kri Kri

Despite Wikipedia indicating differently, Lea Giunchi was born Armanda Carolina Giunchi in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1889. She was the daughter of an Italian father and a German mother. In 1909 she moved to Rome. There her professional career took off when she became the companion of Natale Guillaume. With his elder – and more famous - brother Ferdinando Guillaume, Guillaume was the fourth generation of a French family who fled France in the late 18th century and led the life of wandering circus artists.

Natale left the family circus after his father Onorato remarried. His brother Ferdinando joined him, and they performed circus acts at various European circuses together. Around 1907 they started to perform in vaudeville at the Sala Umberto in Rome, under the name of 'Les Guill-Guill'. Wikipedia suggests that Giunchi was already a part of these performances. In 1909 the Guillaume brothers were hired by the Cines film company in Rome, to become comical actors and compete with the popular French comedian André Deed.

In 1910, a whole series was designed around the character of Tontolini, played by Ferdinando, and with Natale as his sidekick or antagonist. Then, Lea Giunchi started acting in films with the Guillaume brothers, firstly in Tontolini e Lea al mare/Tontolini and Lea at the Seaside (1910). Immediately she became the companion of Tontolini, using the name Lea (not Armanda and without her last name). Giunchi remained Ferdinando Guillaume’s sidekick in countless comedies until Guillaume moved over to the Turinese company Pasquali and became Polidor. Giunchi had become so popular that she got her own Lea series, in 1910, starting with Lea in convitto/Lea in Her Boarding School.

Until 1916 Giunchi acted in 34 Lea comedies distributed all over Europe and to the United States. Examples are Lea si diverte/Lea has fun (1912), Lea vuol morire/Lea wants to die1912), and Lea e il gomitolo/Lea and the ball (1913). Giunchi collaborated with several male comedians: the fat Giuseppe Gambardella, known as Checco, Lorenzo Soderini aka Cocò, also often in drag as the ugly female antagonist of Lea, and foremost Raymond Frau, who replaced Guillaume as the first comedian at Cines, when the latter left for Pasquali. Known as Kri Kri, Frau coupled with Giunchi in many comedies in the early 1910s, such as Kri Kri ama la tintora/Kri Kri Loves Tintora (1913) and Kri Kri e Lea militari/Kri Kri and Lea Military (1913).

Giunchi continued to play in the Kri Kri films until 1915. She also joined forces in comical shorts with her own little son Eraldo, born in Rome in 1910 (and not 1906 as Wikipedia and IMDb write), and known as Cinessino. In 1911 Giunchi and Guillaume had a daughter, Sylvia. In the meantime, Giunchi played in dramatic films. She was Marta in Enrico Guazzoni’s adaptation of Faust (1910), and (despite her pregnancy with Eraldo) she was the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (Giulio Antamoro, 1911), an early feature-length film with the whole Guillaume family acting.


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Cines Film. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Lygia (Lea Giunchi) saves Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) from the hands of Ursus (Bruto Castellani). Ursus, the protector of Lygia, has just killed a gladiator who had been charged by Vinicius to kill Ursus while he planned to abduct Lygia.


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Cines Film. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Helped by Acte, Nero's former mistress, Ursus (Bruto Castellani) subtracts Lygia (Lea Giunchi) from the orgy of the imperial banquet, where the drunken Roman Vinicius tries to rape her.

A worldwide sensation

Lea Giunchi had her breakthrough as a dramatic actress with the part of the Christian girl Lygia (Licia in Italian) in the epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1912). The film was a worldwide sensation. She also played dramatic roles in Fior d’amore e fior di morte/Flower of Love and Death (1912) and Immolazione/Immolation (Enrico Guazzoni, 1914).

Because of her special physical talents, Lea Giunchi acted in several types of action films, from Westerns like Due vite per un cuore/A Sister's Ordeal (1912) and Sulla via dell’oro/On the Golden Way (1913) to mystery and detective films, such as Le mani ignote/The Unknown Hands (1913) and La polizia moderna )1912). In her thesis on Giunchi, Marzia Ruta writes: “Giunchi’s acting peculiarity consisted in her ability to combine two different aspects in one single characterization: she made use of her body in a very free way, yet at the same time she also managed to be extremely charming and feminine.

This is a case on its own in the context of Italian cinema of the time, where no other comic actress presented both these aspects at once: either they were the big fat woman who hit and tyrannized her poor little comic partner, or, in reverse, the coquettish and funny girl with great ability in facial expressions (the best example of this type being the great Gigetta Morano). On the contrary, Lea used both the free and unprejudiced movements of her body and coquettish femininity: this was quite a revolutionary combination of elements for the time. Giunchi was the first, and probably the only actress to introduce it in Italian cinema. (...)

In Lea e il gomitolo (1913) Giunchi destroys her parents’ whole apartment by desperately searching for a lost ball of wool: her frenzy movement, quite like a demoniac possession, is a metaphor for Lea’s desperate search for the only female identity she knows and can imagine; by destroying the apartment, she conquers both her right to read in peace and the possibility of an alternative female identity.

At a time when Italian women were not allowed to vote because their husbands were held to also represent their will, Lea Giunchi persuades her boyfriend’s parents to let their son marry her by disguising herself as a doll: a big puppet who complies with all of its owner’s instructions (Lea bambola/Lea Doll, 1912).”


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Cines Film. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) finds Lygia (Lea Giunchi) in the catacombs of Ostriano. Left of Lygia is St. Peter (Giovanni Gizzi), and right of her protector Ursus (Bruto Castellani). Vinicius plots to abduct Lygia, with the help of the Greek Chilo (Augusto Mastripietri) and a gladiator.


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Cines Film. Publicity still for Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Ursus (Bruto Castellani) and Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) implore the audience and emperor Nero to grace the Christian Lygia (Lea Giunchi) after Ursus has killed the bull on which back Lygia had been bound. The audience raves because of Ursus' tour de force. Vinicius has stripped his clothes to show his war scars while Ursus holds up Lygia. All around Nero hold their thumbs up for grace, even if this sign seems to have been a 19th-century invention and historically incorrect.

A fatal blow

While Natale Guillaume acted in several Polidor-comedies in Turin in 1914-1916, Lea Giunchi seems to have stayed in Rome, continuing at Cines. In 1915 Giunchi also signed a contract with Caesar Film and acted for this company in La cieca di Sorrento/Blind Woman of Sorrento (Gustavo Serena, 1916) in which she had the lead as the blind girl.

Giunchi also appeared for Caesar in such films as Parigi misteriosa/Mysterious Paris (1917), an adaptation of Eugene Sue, and P.L.M., ossia l’assassinio della Paris-Lyon-Mediterranée/P.L.M. ie the murder of the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (Edoardo Bencivenga, 1918).

In the mid-1910s she also acted at companies like Celio in La maschera dell’amore (Ivo Illuminati, 1916), and Film d’Arte Italiana in La chiamavano Cosetta (Eugenio Perego, 1917). The big wave of Italian short comedy petered out during the mid-1910s, which meant less work for Giunchi. A fatal blow came after the First World War, when her companion – they apparently never married – Natale Guillaume was killed in an aerial accident, during the shooting in Naples of a film for Polidor Film, the company founded by his brother Ferdinando.

A few months later, Lea Giunchi married Anselmo Muto, a doctor from Gaeta fifteen years older than she. Giunchi withdrew from public life for good. Muto died in Rome in 1940. After the Second World War, in 1946, Lea and Sylvia left Rome and moved to Gaeta, probably to join Muto's family. In 1951 Lea emigrated with Sylvia and Eraldo, and their families to Rio De Janeiro, after which traces of her got lost.

While Lea Giunchi remains a rather enigmatic personality, several of her long and short films remain in archives inside and outside of Italy. Her brother-in-law Ferdinando Guillaume was rediscovered by Federico Fellini in the post-war era and would act in Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) and La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960). He died at the high age of 90.


Stage actress Mab Paul as Lygia. British postcard by Rotary in the Opalette Series, O.3077.A. Photo: E.C.

Sources: Marzia Ruta (Riavvolgendo il gomitolo: Lea Giunchi, storia di un corpo comico dimenticato (thesis, Bologna, 2008)), Marzia Ruta (Women and the Silent Screen conference 2010), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Thanks to Marzia Ruta and Marlène Pilaete for additional information and corrections.

This post was last updated on 31 May 2024.

Helmuth Schneider

Blond, handsome actor Helmuth Schneider (1920-1972) appeared in more than 50 films and also worked as an assistant director. He worked in Germany, but also in Latin America, Italy and France.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Wega / NF / Michaelis.

Star of the Heimat Film
Helmuth (often Helmut) Schneider was born in Munich, Germany in 1920. Her studied medicine in his hometown in 1938, and then attended the drama school of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1942 he made his stage debut in the comedy Sophienlund. He had to quit his engagement at the Deutsches Theater for the war effort, and he was wounded in France.

Schneider made his film debut for the Ufa with a small part in the musical drama Träumerei/Daydream (Harald Braun, 1944) about the love story of Clara Wieck Schumann (Hilde Krahl) and Robert Schumann (Mathias Wieman). In 1946, Schneider left Germany and stayed in Latin America where he worked in the film business under the name Alexandre Carlos. In 1952, he was back in Germany and and played at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen.

In the cinema, he co-starred with Edith Mill in the romantic drama Zwei Menschen/Two People (Paul May, 1952). It made both stars of the Heimat film. The following years he was the handsome hunter or forrester in several forgettable German rural romances, such as Der Fischer vom Heiligensee/The fisherman from Heiligensee (Hans H. König, 1955), Drei Birken auf der Heide/Three birch trees on the heath (Ulrich Erfurth, 1956) and Jägerblut/Blood of the hunter (Hans H. König, 1957). In 1959, he starred as Kara Ben Nemsi in the Karl May adventure Der Löwe von Babylon/The Lion of Babylon (Johannes Kai, Ramón Torrado, 1959) with Georg Thomalla and Theo Lingen.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 880. Photo: J. Arthur Rank-Film. Publicity still for Unter den Sternen von Capri/Under the stars of Capri (Otto Linnekogel, 1953).


German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 704.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild.

Unsympathetic Nazi Officer
In the 1960s, when the German film industry experienced a downturn, Helmuth Schneider worked for television, such as for the crime series Stahlnetz (1960-1963), the German version of Dragnet. He moved to Rome, which was the new centre of the European cinema. He had a supporting part in the adventure film Captain Sindbad (Byron Haskin, 1963) starring Guy Williams and Heidi Brühl, and the war film The Secret Invasion (Roger Corman, 1964) with Stewart Granger and Raf Vallone.

In France he appeared as an unsympathetic Nazi officer in war dramas like Le facteur s'en va-t-en guerre/The Postman Goes to War (Claude Bernard-Aubert, 1966) starring Charles Aznavour, and Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1966) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Charles Boyer. He played such a role again in the war comedy La grande vadrouille/Don't Look Now, We've Been Shot At (Gérard Oury, 1966) with Bourvil and Louis de Funès. He also had a part in the fifth and final episode of the Angélique series with Michèle Mercier, Angélique et le sultan/Angélique and the Sultan (Bernard Borderie, 1967).

In Italy he made a Spaghetti Western, Ciakmull - L'uomo della vendetta/The Unholy Four (Enzo Barboni, 1970). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “It's one of those Spaghetti Westerns in which the heroes and heavies are virtually indistinguishable. Though the outlaw leader (played by George Eastman credited by his birth name Luigi Montefiore) is evil incarnate, he isn't much worse than the four mercenaries hunting him down. Stalwart John Ford-regular Woody Strode is given plenty of screen time, and he makes the most of it. Director Enzo Barboni was billed as E. B. Clucher in the American prints.” Schneider also played in another war film Gott mit uns/The Fifth Day of Peace (Giuliano Montaldo, 1970) starring Franco Nero. His final film was À la guerre comme à la guerre/War is war (Bernard Borderie, 1972), a historical war comedy starring Leonard Whiting and Curd Jürgens.

Helmuth Schneider died in a traffic accident in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1972. He was 51.


German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 543. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Die Göttin vom Rio Beni/Strange World (Franz Eichhorn, 1951).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1268. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Central Europa Film / Prisma. Publicity still for Die Schützenliesel/Schützenliesel (Rudolf Schündler, 1954).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3546. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: König / Kopp-Film.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Peter Hoffmann (Biografie.de) (German), Tom B. (Westerns…all Italiana), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Andrée Standard

Andrée Standard (or Standart) appeared in silent French films of the late 1920s as well as in the first French sound production.


French postcard by EC, no. 52. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The Queen
This card of beautiful Andrée Standard is one of the 'rares' of Didier Hanson's collection. It's the only card of her on the net and the actress seems to be completely forgotten. We could not find more information about her than her filmography. But some of her films are very interesting. She appeared both in the greatest epic of the French silent cinema and in the first French sound film.

Andrée Standart started her film career probably in Le prince charmant/Prince Charming (Victor Tourjansky, 1925) with Claude France, Nathalie Kovanko and Jaque Catelain as the Prince. That year she had a bigger role in the comedy 600000 francs par mois/600,000 francs per month (Nicolas Koline, Robert Péguy, 1925) opposite Nicolas Koline and Charles Vanel.

Standart played a queen in the comedy Titi premier, roi des gosses/Titi the first, king of the kids (René Leprince, 1926). In the historical epic Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927), she played the minor part of Thérèse Tallien. Tallien admires beautiful Joséphine de Beauharnais (Gina Manès) at the Victim's Ball at Les Carmes, formerly the prison where Joséphine was held. She was credited now as Andrée Standard, and continued to be so in some of her following films.


Jaque Catelain. Yugoslavian postcard by Jos. Caklovic, Zagreb, no. 75. Photo: Moslinger Film, Zagreb.

The Shark
Andrée Standard had a bigger role again in Le duel/The Duel (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1928), starring Mady Christians and Gabriel Gabrio. In Spain she appeared in La condesa María/Countess Mary (Benito Perojo, 1928) with Sandra Milowanoff. It was a coproduction with the French Albatross Studio. She also appeared in the war film Andranik (Acho Chakatouny, 1929).

Her next production was the sound film Le requin/The Shark (Henri Chomette, 1930). A ruined ship-owner (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) deliberately sinks his ship so that he can claim the insurance money. He is acquitted by the court but his wife (Gina Manès), who only just survived the disaster, takes her revenge by killing him. Le Requin was the first full length French sound film. It included several songs and dialog in the end sequences as well as a synchronized soundtrack.

Andrée Standart’s second sound film was Le train des suicides/The Train of Suicides (Edmond Gréville, 1931). Locked in a train, several willing suicides are impatiently awaiting the death that has been promised them by an unscrupulous fraudster. Just when they have all been driven almost insane with anxiety, the door is opened and a detective unmasks the criminal. It was Andrée Standart's last screen appearance.


Sandra Milowanoff. French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 403.

Sources: Films de France, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ricardo Rodríguez

Spanish Actor Ricardo Rodríguez appeared in several Eurowesterns of the 1960s. In Der Letze Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (Harald Reinl, 1965) he played the evil Magua, leader of the Huron tribesmen.


German postcard, no. 63 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Lezte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965). Caption: "Magua weiss, dass auch sein Ende da ist. Der alte Häuptling spricht ihm die Stammesehre ab und gewährt ihm drei Trommelwirbel Vorsprung zur Flucht. Doch Magua rührt sich nicht. Nach dem dritten Trommelwirbel stricken ihn die Pfeile der Bogenschützen nieder. Neben Unkas findet er den Tod." (Magua knows that his end is here. The old chief speaks to him from the tribal honor and grants him three drum roll lead to flee. But Magua does not move. After the third drum roll the arrows of the archers knit him down. Besides Uncas he finds death.)

Indians
We did not find any private information about Ricardo Rodríguez (also Rodrigues). He made his first film appearance as ‘8th gendarme’ in The Ceremony (Laurence Harvey, 1963), a crime drama starring Laurence Harvey and Sarah Miles.

This debut was soon followed by small roles as an Indian in Eurowesterns like the excellent Spanish western Antes llega la muerte/Hour of Death (Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, 1964), and Aventuras del Oeste/Seven Hours of Gunfire (Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, 1965), starring Rik van Nutter as Buffalo Bill and Adrian Hoven as Wild Bill Hickok.

Rodríguez also appeared in Dos pistolas gemelas/Two Guns for Two Twins (Rafael Romero Marchent, 1966) starring the twin Pilar and Emilia Bayona (aka Pili y Mili) and Sean Flynn. Flynn, the son of Erroll Flynn and Lily Damita, disappeared a few years later, during the Vietnam war.


German postcard, no. 20 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Lezte Mohikaner with Joachim Fuchsberger.


German postcard, no. 26 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Lezte Mohikaner.

Eurospyfilm
Ricardo Rodriquez then portrayed Magua, the evil leader of the Huron tribesmen in the German-Italian-Spanish Western Der Letze Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (Harald Reinl, 1965), based on James Fenimore Cooper's famous novel The Last of the Mohicans. For the German version his voice was synchronized by Gerd Duwner.

Apart from the Eurowesterns, he also appeared in another popular European film genre of the 1960s, the Eurospyfilm. An example is Asso di picche operazione controspionaggio/Operation Counterspy (Nick Nostro, 1966). In the 1970s followed parts in films like La Leyenda del alcalde de Zalamea/The Legend of the Mayor of Zalamea (1973, Mario Camus) with Francisco Rabal.

Rodriquez last feature film was the hard boiled cop/jungle action pic from Sergio Leone collaborator Aldo Sambrell, La Última jugada/Last Chance (Aldo Sambrell, 1975) in which Ricardo Rodríguez was credited as Richard Roader. According to IMDb reviewer Sorsimus: "A strange mixture of euro crime cinema and jungle war... Short, fast paced and reasonably sleazy, viewed in the right frame of mind, this one should be good for a couple of laughs. The biggest shortcoming must be Sambrell's directing, which has so little regard for coherence, that the film becomes almost a surreal experience."

In 2004 Ricardo Rodríguez finally appeared in the short Historia de un destino/History of a Destiny (Diego Sanchidrián, 2004).


German postcard, no. 25 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Lezte Mohikaner with Karin Dor.


German postcard, no. 57 of 64. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Lezte Mohikaner/The Last Tomahawk (1965).


German trailer for Der Lezte Mohikaner (1965). Source: Hightower1979 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Bella Polini

Beautiful Bella Polini appeared in several German silent films of the 1920s.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 795/2, no. 1925-1926. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Visually Stunning
Bella Polini probably made her film debut opposite Harry Piel in his adventure film Der Verächter des Todes/The despiser of death (Harry Piel, 1920). She then played a dancer in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s horror film Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin/The Hunchback and the Dancer (1920), starring Sascha Gura. The film, written by Carl Mayer and photographed by Karl Freund, is considered lost now, but at the time it was praised as being visually stunning. Pollini appeared again with Harry Piel in Das Gefängnis auf dem Meeresgrund/The prison on the seabed (Harry Piel, 1920). The following year Polini played in the two-parter Die Brillantenmieze/The Diamond Kitty (Wolfgang Neff, 1921) featuring Ria Alldorf. The next year, she had a supporting part in Die Kartenlegerin/The Fortune Teller (Bruno Eichgrün, 1922) for Hegewald Film. She also appeared in another Hegewald production, Morast (Wolfgang Neff, 1922). For Elysium Film, she appeared in Die Rote Marianne/Red Marian (Friedrich Berger, 1922).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, nr. 5046/2 , 1930-1931. Photo: Ariel Film.

Aufklärungsfilm
Four years later, Bella Polini played again a dancer in her final film Dürfen wir schweigen?/Should We Be Silent? (Richard Oswald, 1926). This production had an all-star cast including Conrad Veidt, Walter Rilla and Mary Parker. It was a remake of the Aufklärungsfilm Es werde Licht/Let there be light! (1917) about venereal disease, which was also directed by Richard Oswald. An Aufklärungsfilm is a German educational film that treats taboo subjects - especially in the area of sexuality. Oswald had made Es Werde Licht on behalf of the German War Office during the First World War. It was a great commercial success and the Aufklärungsfilm became a popular genre in the German cinema of the 1910s and 1920s. The genre made a come-back during the 1960s and 1970s. Sadly, Dürfen wir schweigen? (1926) is considered as lost now. About Bella Polini, we could not find further information. If you know more about her, please let us know.


Conrad Veidt. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1426/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Vaida M. Pál, Budapest.

Sources: Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Ralph Arthur Roberts

With his monocle, German film actor Ralph Arthur Roberts (1884–1940) played high ranking gentlemen such as directors and entrepreneurs in German comedies of the 1920s and 1930s. He also worked as a film director, creative director and screenwriter for the German cinema, wrote stage plays and was the director of the Theater in der Behrenstrasse in Berlin. However, he is best known for a song he wrote, the evergreen Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (I May Never Go Home Anymore).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5673/1, 1930-1931. Photo: K. Lindner.

Unfitting Behaviour
Ralph Arthur Roberts was born Robert Arthur Schönherr in Meerane, Germany in 1884. He was the son of a baker, Carl Robert Schönherr and his wife Berta Elisabeth Schönherr-König. He grew up in Dresden, where he already worked as an extra at the Albert-Theater during his time at the Realgymnasium. His side-job promptly lead to his expulsion from school for ‘unfitting’ behaviour, but he decided to follow his passion and to take acting lessons with Adolf Winds at the Theaterakademie and composition lessons with Felix Draeseke at the Dresden Conservatory.

In 1903, Roberts debuted as an actor at the Residenz-Theater Wiesbaden. Guest performances followed at the Trianon-Theater in Berlin and at the Schauspielhaus in Breslau. From 1907 he worked in Hamburg, where he became a member of the Thalia-Theater in 1909. After war service as an officer, he continued to play at the Thalia Theater, where he also directed. Here he became a popular character comedian in productions of plays like Tartüff (Tartuffe), Die Fledermaus (The Bat), and other comedies.

Furthermore, Roberts directed the revue Bunt ist die Welt for which he wrote the song Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. It would become a classic and in 1954 it was used again in the film by the same name. In 1921 he became director of the Komödienhaus in Berlin, and in 1928 he opened his own Theater in der Behrenstrasse. Here, Roberts presented several boulevard comedies which he had written himself.


Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 287. Photo: Remaco. Publicity still for Eine Nacht im Paradies/One Night in Paradise (Carl Lamac, 1932) with Anny Ondra.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8256/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ideal-Film, Berlin. Publicity still for Keine Angst vor Liebe/Don't Be Afraid of Love (Hans Steinhoff, 1933) with Liane Haid.

High-class Gentleman Characters
In addition, Ralph Arthur Roberts played supporting roles as high-ranking directors and entrepreneurs in numerous films. He started after the First World War at the Hamburg film studio Vera-Filmwerke in films like Der Tod und die Liebe/Death and Love (Paul Otto, 1919) and Erdgift/Natural Posion (Paul Otto, 1919). Roberts made a convincing performance in the role of the gloomy character in Erdgift. He also appeared in the Thomas Mann adaptation Buddenbrooks (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1923) with Mady Christians and Alfred Abel. However, he was best known for his comedies. He often worked with the Dutch director Jaap Speijer, such as at Elegantes Pack/Elegant Pack (1925) with Eugen Klöpfer and Mary Odette. Very successful were Moral (Willi Wolff, 1928) with Ellen Richter, and Der Raub der Sabinerinnen/The robbery of the Sabine Women (Robert Land, 1928) with Ida Wüst.

In the sound film era, his monocle soon became a permanent asset of his high-class gentleman characters. In 1930 and 1931 he appeared in more than 20 films. He used his comic talent, for eccentric characters as the doll manufacturer in the operetta Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Lillian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, the prosecutor in Der Maulkorb/The Muzzle (Erich Engel, 1937) and King Charles X in Tanz auf dem Vulkan/Dance on the Volcano (Hans Steinhoff, 1938). Filmportal.de: “all of the performances were linked by Roberts’ eccentric way of acting and his tendency to make every character seem eccentric and quirky in some way.”

Roberts could not attend the premiere of his last film, Wie konntest Du, Veronika!/How could you, Veronica! (Milo Harbich, 1940) featuring Gusti Huber. Earlier in 1940, Ralph Arthur Roberts had died of an oyster poisoning in Berlin. He was 55. After the war, he soon was forgotten, but his song Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins proved to be an evergreen and was used again in the popular film Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins/Reeperbahn at half past midnight (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1954) with Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann.


German postcard by Margarinewerk Eidelstedt Gebr. Fauser GmbH, Holstein. Serie 1, Bild 58. Photo: Marcus.


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa.

Sources: Hansjoachim Schönherr (Neue Deutsche Biografie) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rudi Polt (Find A Grave), Filmportal.de, Film-Zeit.de (German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Lotte Lorring

German actress and singer Lotte Lorring (1893-1939) started as an operetta singer in provincial theatres. Between 1920 and 1935, she played both in support and leading roles in German silent and sound films. Incidentally she appeared in international productions.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4762/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 854. Photo: Sascha.

Interesting directors

Lotte Lorring was born in Berlin, Germany in 1893. First, she worked in provincial theatres and she made a name for herself as an operetta singer.

In 1919 she made her film debut in Sein letzter Trick/His Last Trick (Rolf Brunner, 1919) with Heinrich Peer and Ernst Pittschau. She then appeared in Der Meisterschuss/The Master Shot (Rolf Brunner, 1920) and Es bleibt in der Familie/It Runs in the Family (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1920), starring Paul Heidemann.

In France, she appeared in L’ouragan sur la montagne/The Hurricane on the Mountain (Julien Duvivier, 1921) and Le logis de l'horreur/The Sinister Guest (Julien Duvivier, 1921), in which she played the female lead.

During the second half of the 1920s, she worked with interesting directors in films like Das graue Haus/The Gray House (Friedrich Feher, 1926) with Magda Sonja, Eine Dubarry von heute/A Modern Dubarry (Alexander Korda, 1926) starring Maria Corda, and Königin Luise.1. Teil: Die jungend der königin Luise/Queen Louise (Karl Grune, 1927).

Lorring co-starred opposite Harry Piel in the comedy Sein größter Bluff/The Big Bluff (Henrik Galeen, Harry Piel, 1927), and opposite Mady Christians in Fräulein Chauffeur/Miss Chauffeur (Jaap Speyer, 1928). In Austria, she appeared for Sascha-Film in Wem gehört meine Frau?/Whom Belongs My Wife? (Hans Otto, 1929), starring Fritz Kampers.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3223/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Phoebus Film.

Paramount

Lotte Lorring played the lead in her first sound film, Karriere/Career (Adolf Trotz, 1930) with Walter Rilla.

For Paramount, she played in the German-language comedy Ich heirate meinen Mann/I'm Marrying My Husband (E.W. Emo, 1931), an alternate-language version of Her Wedding Night (Frank Tuttle, 1930).

In the first years of the sound era, she played in some ten films, but soon her roles became less frequent. She had substantial parts in Schwarzwaldmädel/Black Forest Girl (Georg Zoch,1933), and Johannisnacht/Midsummer Eve (Willy Reiber, 1934) starring Lil Dagover.

Her final film was Leichte Kavallerie/Light Cavalry (Werner Hochbaum, 1935), starring Marika Rökk.

Four years later, Lotte Lorring died in her hometown Berlin in 1939. She was only 45.


German postcard by Margarinewerk Eidelstedt Gebr. Fauser GmbH, Holstein, Serie 1, Bild 12. Photo: Marcus.

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

This post was last updated on 1 April 2025.

Mona Goya

Mona Goya (1909–1961) was a blonde Mexican-born French film actress who rose to fame in the 1930s. She acted in French but also in British and American films.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 151. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 43. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Lavish Production

Mona Goya was born Simone Isabelle Marchand in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico in 1909 and was fluent in both French and Spanish. She arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s and gave herself the stage name of Goya, as a tribute to her favourite painter.

She probably debuted in the cinema in Germaine Dulac's late silent film Princesse Mandane (1928) with Edmonde Guy and Edmond Van Duren. Feminist director Dulac shows a more commercial and populist approach here than the avant-garde and experimental style for which she is better known. The film reworks Pierre Benoit's novel, L'Oublié, but while Benoit's novel was a more straightforward tale of adventure and derring-do, Dulac transposes the film's opening scenes to the mundane urban setting of a factory and constructs a parable about the delights and dangers of fantasy and escapism.

In the same year, Mona Goya also acted in various other films, such as the period piece Madame Recamier (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1928) with Marie Bell, and she had a small part in Marcel L'Herbier's lavish production L'Argent/Money (1928), starring Marie Glory, Brigitte Helm, and Pierre Alcover.

Goya's career really set off with the arrival of sound film around 1930. She played an upper-class woman who falls in love with a fisherman in the British film The Lady from the Sea (Castleton Knight, 1930) with a young Ray Milland.

She also acted opposite Charles Boyer in Revolte en prison (Pál Fejös, George W. Hill, 1930) - the French version of the MGM drama The Big House (George W. Hill, 1930), and in the Georges Biscot comedy Hardi les gars!/Bold guys (Maurice Champreux, 1931).


French postcard for Campari. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 614. Photo: Ufa.

Brigitte Bardot

Mona Goya acted opposite Victor Boucher in La Banque Némo/Nemo's Bank (Marguerite Viel, 1934), and with Gabriel Gabrio in the French-German musical Cavalerie légère/Light Cavalry (Werner Hochbaum, 1935).

In the late 1930s she often acted opposite Fernandel such as in La porteuse de pain/The Bread Peddler (Renée Sti, 1934), François Ier/Francis the First (Christian-Jaque, 1937), Josette (Christian-Jaque, 1937), and Ernest le rebelle/Ernest the Rebel (Christian-Jaque, 1938).

In the immediate post-war years she was often paired with Bourvil such as in Pas si bête/Not so stupid (André Berthomieu, 1946) and Blanc comme neige/White Like Snow (André Berthomieu, 1948).

In the 1950s, she had supporting parts in Gibier de potence/Gigolo (Roger Richebé, 1951) and Les amants de Bras-Morts/The Lovers of Bras-Mort (Marcello Pagliero, 1951) both starring Nicole Courcel. Opposite Brigitte Bardot, she acted in Le portrait de son père/His father's portrait (André Berthomieu, 1953) and Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959)).

All in all, Goya acted in some 80 films, mostly French productions. Between the mid-1940s and late 1950s, she also acted on stage. Mona Goya died of cancer in 1961, at Clichy-la-Garenne. For a while, she was married to actor Fernand Fabre, but they divorced.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 68. Photo: Studio Piaz, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 190. Photo: Carlet.

Sources: Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 3 July 2024.